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lovemidnighteclipse12 · 1 year ago

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First Impressions - First Meeting

Lilac eyes opened to an unfamiliar room as she looked about to notice she was in a room filled with demons, she remembers vaguely that Maddi mentioned something about demons, she just can't remember what right now, right now Lilac is a bit pissed off being summoned to another realm by strangers after she opened a letter that she didn't even get chance to read.

"Welcome to Devildom Lilac" a red head spoke as he sat in the chief judge seat in this council, court roomish place, Lilac could not care, she would like to go back to the human realm please and thank you. "oh pardon me. Feeling a bit shocked are we?" the red head continues "well that's understandable. You've only just arrived, after all as a human, it will take you awhile to adjust to things down here"

Could he shut up? Lilac thought as her back ached, great just great it just had to start up didn't it?

"The Devildom..?" Lilac questioned, so she was right she's in the realm of demons "Why am I here?" the tone in her voice was agitation, she wants to go home please, please to anyone out there ensure her father gives her mother the right medicine to numb the pain please, well as much as it can, it isn't the most effective but it's the best option

"Yes exactly, the Devildom, I see that you catch on quickly, excellent" the red head continued "I suppose I should start by introducing myself"

That would be the obvious choice Lilac thought

"My name is Diavolo" Diavolo introduces himself "I am ruler of all demons and all here knows me and someday soon I will be crowned King of Devildom, this is the royal academy of Diavolo though we just call it RAD, your standing in the assembly hall, the very heart of RAD. This is where we officers of the student council hold our meetings and conduct our business, I'm the president of said council"

Oh he's the one Maddi tried to marry, I remember hearing about that but why do I need to know this?

"Why am I here? what does this have to do with me?" Lilac questioned, she is pissed off but she wants answers first then she'll start shouting

"I will explain everything to you" another spoke

"Wait even better question can I go home? Because whatever is going on I don't want to do it" Lilac spoke "because all I did was open an letter that I didn't even get a chance to read and appeared here"

"You won't be going home yet, you are here to part take in an exchange program of the three realms for peace, you'll be staying here for a year" the other spoke

"Okay what the fuck?!" Lilac exclaims "so you kidnap me and then expect me to take part in this exchange program, no your forcing me to just because oh yay peace everyone wants that" she started to rant "I don't care who the fuck you are future king or who the rest of you are, I'd like to go home and focus on my job, I don't have time for this bullshit"

"Cal-" Diavolo spoke before being interrupted

"Because it's fucking arrogant for starters because I'm a healer for the Sorcerer's Society and quiet a few witches and those without powers, you have just caused a bunch of patients to loose their healer for a year how do you plan to rectify that, will I still be able to go to the human realm for my work or are you going to allow people to die because they couldn't get to a healer or a doctor's in the time they needed to because their healer had been forcefully made absent and to reside in another realm" Lilac spoke "and I have my own matters as well in the human realm how do you plan to rectify that it's very arrogant to force someone to take part and it only shows because you plan on forcing me to stay here you don't see humanity as equals as you believe you have the right to force us to do this stuff without thinking of consequences if you want peace you have to see humanity as equals and have seen humanity? we have short lifespans and you think it would be peaceful nope, we have wars with one another and sometimes over the most stupid things and most of humanity doesn't even know Devildom or Celestial realm exists so why are you trying to make peace between the three realms without making your existence known in the human realm? Is it to gain more influence on humans as a whole because if it is I will make your lives miserable because humans are just as much of equals to you demons and the Celestial realm even if we aren't like either species" Lilac's rant went on and by the mere tone alone you could tell she was serious and pissed off by the prospect "and do I even need to cover the matter of you guys by definition and legal view in the human realm kidnapped me and now are keeping me here by force, that's a big legal problem, so unless your willing to compromise with me, I'll be heading home now"

Silence filled the room as she noticed a demon glaring at her, the demon appeared to be a demon of sorts, one of the demons seemed to have recorded it all, and most of them looked gobsmacked that she did what she did, though she could tell that one of them looked amused in the matter.

When Diavolo started to chuckle, it pissed her off even more as he smirked

"Well we'll need to sort out those details won't we Lilac?" Diavolo spoke

What did I just get into? Lilac thought as she agreed "Yes we will then, I do expect your open to compromises if this is to work"

Link to Masterlist

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me mc #obey me mc oc #obey me diavolo #obey me lucifer #obey me asmodeus #obey me female mc #omswd #obey me barbatos #first meetings

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mina-van1104 · 4 months ago

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🩵2000-2001 when I was in 2nd grade I was 7-8 years old; my older sister Catherine Van-Schwartz (Catt) & I auditioned at Edward C. Reed High School and made it in the musical The King and I.

We've known the best choir teacher ever named Mr.Lorentzen (Rentz) & their talented, beautiful family since My sister & I were in elementary school. He was also the best choir teacher ever in high school. ❤️Anyways my top favorite musicals are called Wicked, Hairspray, & too many musicals I love that my older sister was in.

Anyways, my sister's so cool😍-I still listen to her singing album from when she was at Gonzaga University their Elite Singing Group called "Big Bing Theory" She graduated Summa Cum Laude highest in her college division degree in 2012. (Former Kolo 8 New Reporter; 7 years news reporter including in Oregon-now a true lobbyist in her state somewhere near Nevada).

Anyways her Gonzaga singing group came to revisit my high school (Reed HS) in 2010 & 2011 when I was a junior and then a Senior. I remember being so excited after taking our Advanced Placement exams at the Mormon Church around May 2010 & 2011 across Reed, that afternoon my sister & her Gonzaga singing group sang & danced for everyone at my high school. ❤️Then most everyone from their Gonzaga singing group came over to our house after their performance including my close cousins who are half white.

I'm so grateful to have a popular, well liked, smart, athletic sister who in 2008 when she graduated high school, about 70-80 friends of my older sister's came to our house to celebrate her graduation. Also more than 200+ friends family came to my older sister's wedding in Oregon in 2019. When we were kids, her cool friends called me "it's little Catherine!" 😂 I always felt so cool when I was with my sister's friends hahaha! 💁🏻‍♀️❤️My older sister will always be my role model and I'll always be her copy cat, little sister hahaha!

I was so shy around her popular friends back then who were majority all white people who were high achieving, good looking peoples who were older than me. 🩵Times have changed because I'm not so shy anymore haha! 🙌Also people who never knew her, Catherine was captain of the tennis team 2008 at Reed HS, President of Intermezzo (show choir) 2008 Reed HS, Elected Treasurer of Student Council, National Honors Society, with many different scholarships, etc. So many good times at our same yellow house.

Song is called "For Good" by Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel from WICKED! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️I can't wait until the new Wicked movie comes out in November-my birthday month!

••••••••

Always needing some prayers again.🙏 I, Mina Van 文风英 Woon Foong Yin (in Hakka Chinese).Nevada born & raised.Proud nurse, coach. Family living in Nevada for 45 (forty-five) years.Spread kindness.❤️

In the name of the Guan Yin, Ong Lee (meaning Buddha in Hakka Chinese langauge), Yay-Su (Jesus Christ), Ty-uh- ma (Mother Mary Virgin Mother Mary)

In the name of Jesus, Amen!🙏

Then my other successful blood-related family of doctors in my family,🇺🇸veterans,doctors,nurses,coaches,news reporter,lobbyist,good singers,dancers,good photographers, good writers,artists,a cop,a dentist,teachers, etc.Mixed family of Asians & white people.Spread Kindness.

Again, half of our family is Asian half our family is white. Even-though my parents look Asian we have some Chinese, Vietnamese, Native American, small portions of French, German descent, Ashkenazi Jewish descent DNA Ancestry

✞♡ # Selfie # Nurse # Coach # NativeNevadan # StopAsianHate # Biden2024💙 # JesusChrist 🦂 # Buddha # GuanYin # MotherMary # NevadaBornAndRaised # HakkaChineseRaised # ProChoice (though, in politics) # Equality # Justice # Healthcare # Running 🏃🏻‍♀️ # NevadaNative # athletic # HomeMeansNevada # Nevada # UNRnevadaAlumnaMay2016 # 3collegeDegrees # 3MedicalLicenses

•2019:OlderSisterCatherineVan&Adam Schwartz’sWedding&TheirWebsiteOn: https://www.theknot.com/us/catherine-van-and-adam-schwartz-aug-2019•ReminiscingMoreThan200PeopleCame.

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mxvladdy · 4 years ago

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Diavolo- True Form

Whoooooooo weeeee! ‘Pologies for the wait on these longer posts. I’ve been hit with a one two punch of house emergencies and sudden costly ass repairs, so my creative juices have been rightly squashed as of late.

Plus side I got my drawing tablet and drafting table back so I can neaten up my blog lay out now (yay!)

Anyway this one was a challenge in the best possible ways. I really like Diavolo because of how little we know about him so it gave me some wiggle room. Or at least what I know of him- im only on like chapter 23 of the stories. Idk if I did him justice as this is angsty af but I sure had a blast writing it!

Hope ya like! Next up: Beelzebub

Trigger warning: Mention of blood, and swearing.

Diavolo-

He'll never show you, so don't ask. His true form is god-like in its own right and such knowledge, such truly raw demonic power in its natural form is not for your mortal eyes.

No matter what your lineage, it would break you. And despite his roles and being the literal devil, he doesn’t want you suffering.

Sometimes when he thinks you wouldn't notice he relaxes his hold on reality, just a fraction. He wants to relieve some of the tension that is always building just below the surface. Like closing your eyes when you have a tension headache. The mental energy he has to exert to keep face is enormous. Regular glamour doesn’t work nearly as well as his own, or Barbato’s magic.

But you see hints during your downtime spent in his company. A ripple in his reflection on the window pane. Unexplainable shadows dancing across his exposed skin. Too many teeth in his mouth when he laughs. Sometimes when you stare into his eyes you see something indescribable staring back behind them. His usually warm and inviting gaze darkening. A barest flicker, a hulking bestial thing kept locked behind in his golden gaze. It's enough to freeze the blood in your veins.

On certain nights when you can slip away from the brothers you stay in his room. Lying awake, you watch his magic wane and shift as he slumbers. Sometimes you see runes, or at times letters. You are tempted to write them down and ask Solomon. But something stops you each time.

The worst images are the faces. Unknown souls trapped beneath his flesh clawing to be freed. Silent screams fading back into his body as he dreams. Your fragile fingers trace the patterns they leave as you wait for the next day wrapped in his embrace.

Only once have you seen more of his form then he would ever wish. The depths of his strength and mental fortitude were unknown to you so the slip up took you both by surprise. He masks the error well, but the sudden shift in energy in the room couldn’t be suppressed .

You are suddenly so aware of the oppressive weight of gravity on your frame. Your bones grinding together under the force of his aura. You panic, desperate by the need to breathe, but are unable to draw even the smallest bit of oxygen as it is robbed from the room. Time and reality wrapped too, distorting in ways only you thought only Barbatos could do. You knew in that moment the sudden dread of death, how mortally was but a rusty shackle tethering you down.

He collects himself, dispelling the energy and locking his glamour down tight to protect you. But that split second of fury felt like an eternity to you as you sink to the floor. You hiccup a shaky sob and shiver. Your fragile human mind bowing under the strain of what it cannot comprehend. Scolding hot tears fall from your cheeks, before splashing crimson the stone below you.

You didn't approach him again for over a month. No matter how strong you are, some things were better off unseen.

Mini Fic

He didn’t know. For once in his ancient pitiful existence, he had been unaware of his surroundings. It had been for just a moment, one tiny crack in his veneer. The foolishness of Mammon and Belphegor’s actions finally poked the right nerve. He wouldn’t hurt them, for Lucifer’s sake. That prideful demon would never forgive him if he did. But he could scare them. A quick look at his true self; a flash of the deepest bowels of hell. Enough to give them a reminder of their positions and standing in his court. He had expected their whimpers of fear, could taste the acidic tinge of it exuding from their pores. What he didn’t expect though was your blood curdling screams alongside.

Ironically, he would have to thank the second eldest later. His fast thinking is the only thing that saved you from complete damnation. His body shielded yours, taking the brunt of the stronger daemons hellish might for you. What little magic Mammon still had left used to protect you. Though, while your vision was blocked, you could still feel his oppressive presence. It racked your mortal flesh. Diavolo knew what affects his power had on humans. He spent years breaking and consuming damned souls with zeal after all.

The brothers had run from him after that, screaming for Simone. Barbatos following close behind, a look of consternation on his usually impassive face. You had been so limp in Mammon's arms. Diavolo could do nothing, shocked by his own weak will and realization that he might have ruined everything. You had been whisked away so quickly by his faithful servant and the brothers that he hadn’t had a chance to look you over himself. But the brief moment he saw will haunt him for years to come. Your eyes red from the sudden haemolacria, the blood staining your clothes and face. Your fingers digging away at your soft skin, black and purple blotches staining what he could see. Mouth opened wide on a silent scream. He knew what you must have seen. The souls of the damned trapped under his glamour breaking free to latch on to your unmarred soul trying to drag you back with them.

Against his butler's advice he stands at your door now days later trying to see you. He couldn’t sit around and just hear updates second hand. The brothers had been keeping guard most days in a valiant attempt to keep him away. But he could only be waylaid for so long before he used his rank against them.

He had arranged a full council meeting. Every one of the brothers knowing full well it was to get them out of his way. Yet, the order was absolute. This time none of the brothers could reject it. Barbatos would keep them in that room for eternity if he so wished for it. He hated using his age and power against them, but he saw no other way to get to you.

It was foolish now, standing as he was in front of your door. A part of him hoping you would turn the knob and let him in. Let him comfort you for once, instead of the asinine distractions the brothers offered. He could help too. Hells, he wanted to. He wanted to be closer to you. Power discrepancy be damned. The other part of him knowing it was for the best that you didn’t. Your guardian and tormentor all in one. He listens to your muffled sobs for a moment fighting with his feet to stay cemented to the floor instead of heading back in defeat.

"When my father was still around he took me down to the deepest depths of the kingdom. Where the worst of the traitors and sinners are imprisoned." His deep baritone rumbles through your door during a break in your crying. "It’s a place few seldom go; even now I have yet to return. Back then he told me ‘there will never be a human soul that is undeserving of punishment. Even the ones destined for the celestial realm are tethered to sin.’ At that time I believed him. The things I saw in your realm... " The prince chuckles wearily.

He remembers the ever present scowl on the old King's face. His dark eyes looking out at the sea of damned souls he controlled. Even as a young daemon, fresh into his wings and still sharpening his horns to impress others he could tell how much his father detested his position. How it had warped him, turning him bitter and cold, even to his mate and only child.

Diavolo never wanted to be like that. Not to the ones he supposedly cared for at the very least. "I think that is why he hated the other realms so much.” He continued. “Humans, for their ability to choose which realm they would eventually end up in after they pass. That even the worst sinners could find redemption enough at the last moment to get to the pearly gates. While daemons, no matter how well they served, or the duties they did for the good of their own would never be seen as equals to our celestial counterparts or yours. That this existence is all we'll ever be destined to have. Nightmares and monsters, stories to tell little human children to keep them in line.” He pauses, collecting himself. “I believed wholeheartedly that every human deserved the punishments only my kind could dowel out. But, in this past year I have spent with you, I find myself changing. You are so undeserving of such torment. Somehow you are understanding and forgiving beyond measure to us. You handle our ill tempers with such grace. For daemons such as us, it is staggering, and humbling. I regret that I have hurt you so deeply and have broken your trust. I swear it as the head of this realm I would never intentionally do so." He looks at the door handle willing it to open. " I am so sorry."

Your crying picks up again. Huge heaving sobs that rattle your chest. Great Father, he just keeps making it worse. Clearing his head Diavolo turns.

Rejection of this nature was new to him. No one had ever dared to ignore him, especially such as this. The royal in him- his father's blood- seethed that he would even stoop so low as to grovel to a short lived thing like yourself. Even deeper yet, it demanded another taste of your essences. You little soul kept safe behind your rib cage. He wanted it added to his collection, kept tucked away deep within his maws.

It was sick; it was wrong. He chokes on the idea. The intrusive thought burrowing deep. How deplorable was he? Perhaps the angels were right to keep him out of heaven.

You didn't show to class the following day, or the days after. Unsurprising to him and the seven of the inner council. He figured the other day wouldn’t change anything. But it was utter agony to him. These days trapped in his office only getting short and curt updates on your health from Lucifer. It had been a special kind of torment.

Today he sat once again at his desk staring at some godforsaken bitching of a royal cousin. He knew this whelp. Some backwater thrice removed eons ago. Yet he was demanding an audience? The gall. The ink of their eligible handwriting makes him cross eyed. Would this day ever cease? He looks to his hourglass, the sands within seemingly frozen in time.

"My Lord, perhaps you should take a moment to stretch your legs?" Barbatos moved from his corner. Gloved hand coming to rest on top of the same three lines he had been reading for the past two hours. "This work could wait another evening I’m certain ."

"Did I do the right thing my friend?" Diavolo doesn't even bother answering the question his servant posed. They both knew he wouldn't. "This program. Our human exchange students. Solomon is one thing, but-"

"Your will and path is absolute." Barbatos states. "There are no mistakes within you, merely stumblings onto different paths."

With a gentle push Barbatos moves the hulking demon out of his way to collect and organize the scrolls and letters scattered about the large desk. "You made the right choice bringing them here. Look at what they have done. They are entertainment to you are they not?"

The prince rose knocking his desk aside and descended on his butler. His true form out in all its unholy glory now. His highly condensed magic distorting the study as if he was a black hole. The axis of the room shifts. His priceless collection of books and toys disintegrating from the cold radiation he emits.

It was all for show really. There was nothing he could do to an ancient being such as Barbatos. So he lashed out, throwing a tantrum in the security of his office. The hopeless agitation he felt fueling the flames of his rage. His butler had only added holy water to his already festering wounds.

Barbatos had been by his side for time in memoriam. The crafty bastard had helped raise him. Had shaped him into the ruler he was today. If anyone could break and remold him it would be his oldest companion.

The dark haired daemon waited for the waves of agitation to dry up. Moving only when the prince was in his more presentable demonic form. Large barrel chest heaving as he reined himself in. “Are you back to your senses?” He asks coolly, already categorizing the items to replace and furniture to be mended.

"I had not meant for it to go like this." Diavolo croaks into his hands collapsing back on what remained of his desk. Building a bridge between realms, yes. That noble idea was the greater purpose of this program, but the rest of it. The classes, and dances. The parties where he threw his newest toys about to see how they would react to things other mortals worshiped? That had been for his own curiosity and amusement. Lesser beings navigating a foreign world blind to the dangers that were right under their very nose. Bring a mortal with no magic into his realm? Deep down he knew this was an inevitability. Especially with the freedoms he granted them. He just didn’t think he would get so attached.

“No one believes that you would hurt them on purpose.” His butler cuts off his downward spiral. “It would ruin the program. That is what you are so stressed about, right?” Barbatos eyes him skeptically. Diavolo, himself, and Lucifer had spent many sleepless weeks constructing and negotiating this program. If the Arch Angels heard a mortal was hurt down here it could very well end this little escapade. But the look in the prince’s eyes told a different story.

A warm glow emanated from his cheeks and he was unable to meet the old daemon’s gaze. Ah. "Or perhaps things have changed?" Barbatos smiles coyly up from beneath his bangs. "You are your mother's son after all. Neither of you were ever able to stem your bleeding hearts for long." Diavolo squawked indignantly but didn’t argue. Instead he merely turns a darker shade of red and curses under his breath.

He skipped out on court that evening. Not that he cared much. The other nobles would no doubt use the time to gossip about his whereabouts and uncouth behavior of late. Truth be told, he was avoiding the brothers more than anything else. They had made it expressly clear (some more then others) how they felt about him currently. He wouldn't doubt that Belphegor had a few more brothers on his side now.

Instead he stood at your door once more with a tea tray in hand. He had bumped into Simone on the way. The angel had come to bring you dinner and to check up on the last of your wounds. Celestial magic worked miracles on those who have been touched by the darker arts. Diavolo was grateful for his talents. And, by some miracle, Simone had made it abundantly clear he was not going to bring this to the higher ups on his end either.

Upon seeing the prince slinking up the house's stairwell the other man had simply smiled and offered him the tray. “I suddenly got a message from Luke. Could you perhaps drop this by our friend’s door?” Diavolo had accepted without preamble, large hands dwarfing the platter of little tea cakes and sandwiches. The young cherubs work no doubt. His cooking was a fine treat, and a great incentive to at least open the door.

“Hello again.” He knocks twice. “I just wanted to check in on you. I know I am the last person you wish to see but I was hoping to talk?” Silence greets him. Were you awake? He breathes deeply and focuses on picking up your vitals. You were up, your heart thumping steady somewhere in the room. That was good. “I also have dinner for you. Simone had an urgent matter to attend to so he- for better or worse- entrusted this to me.”

Diavolo searches hopelessly for something else to say. He couldn’t just leave the food and go. He needed to see you. “I don’t plan on staying long today. I understand when I am not wanted, but I cannot help myself but be worried for you. Perhaps this is just me contritioning, because I know I caused this. The amount of times I have been called a ‘ass’ by Solomon over this have been staggering.” He rambles. After another bout of silence from your end he coincides. “I see- I will leave the food by the door and let you rest.” Defeated he puts the food down and turns to leave.

The door clicks open slowly. One bloodshot eye peeking through the crack. “Oh mio piccolo mortale.” He loses his grip on your shared tongue at a loss. You looked- you must have been in the hall longer then he or the brothers had known. Such damage couldn’t be done in a few moments. Your skin was healing as nicely as Lucifer had said, but the deep purple scarring still remained on the surface. The burn pattern of it all was random. Twisting wounds that reflected an oily sheen from the light of the hallway. “I-.”

“I know-” You cut him off with a raised hand. “and I feel as though I owe you an apology too.” Your voice was so weak and shaky. A mockery of your normally strong and jovial tone. Hearing you laugh at school had brightened the dreary halls. He hadn’t realized it until you weren't there.

“You owe me nothing.” Diavolo says in earnest. He watches you contemplate your next words before throwing whatever you were going to say away.

“Would you like to come in?” Your eyes drop to the tray. “Luke always makes more than I can eat.”

“I don’t think that would be wise.” He backs out. All his plans crashing and burning around his feet. His actions had been irreparable.

“Perhaps not,” You open the door wider taking the tray and heading to your side table, leaving him no room to argue. “But then again, being a lamb among such wolves as yourself and the brothers isn’t smart either.” You meant it as a joke but he couldn’t even muster a chuckle. It was true. Gods. “Dia-” You approach him again but falter at the last second.

As much as you wanted to be close to him again the memories were still so fresh in your mind. The cold hell fire of his magic ensnaring you, searing your skin. The whispered words of sinners long since past still echoing in your head, all in languages you’ve never heard before. The worst though had to be the screaming. Lost souls begging for help. Some sounded so familiar…You shutter involuntarily.

You wanted to hate him for this. Curse him for putting you through this pain. But how much could you blame him? Or any of them? They were daemons. Whether he meant to hurt you or not, it truly had only been a matter of time before it happened. It would be hypocritical of you to fear or hate him forever over this. Six of the seven brothers have threatened your life before, and you have forgiven them. Hell, one of them actually killed you. What’s more was that Diavolo’s wrath hadn’t even been directed at you.

Wrong place at the right time; seemed to be your forte. “Please, come in.” You repeat again firmer than before mustering up either courage or sheer human stupidity to order him in. You couldn’t tell the difference anymore. “We need to talk.”

He enters, following at your heel like a lost puppy. All air of princedom gone as you clicked the door shut. Diavolo fiddles with his hands, old habits from childhood coming with his nerves. He didn’t know what to expect anymore. Yelling? Some kind of beratement? A plea to go home and never look back? He would let you.

You pass by him, giving him a large berth of space to get to your seat. “Tea?”

Diavolo jerks his head to you. He had forgotten momentarily the plate of food he had used to get access to you. You smile sheepishly pushing it and a plate of sweets towards him with your unbandaged knuckles. He doesn’t move till your hand retracts back to your lap. You jerk your head to the open seat waiting for him. You weren’t going to take no for an answer.

“I- thank you.” The daemon sits making himself as small as possible in the straight back chair. He takes the porcelain and drinks mindlessly. The scalding hot tea doing little to help the tightness of his throat, but it did thaw some of the ice in his mind.

“Are-how…” He fumbles so unsure of what to do next. “I see you’ve been keeping up with your school work.” Diavolo closes his eyes, wincing internally at his words. That’s what he comes up with? Idiotic.

You smile anyway, eyeing the massive pile of books and paperwork spewn about your bed. “Yeah. I’ve taken to doing my school work with Levi in his room. Mammon and Beel are nice enough to drop it off to the teachers when they are due.” He nods. He knew this of course. But it was nice to hear it from you. But yet, you don’t meet his eyes. Far too afraid to see what hid behind them.

The thought of being dragged back into those dark depths again makes your pulse quicken. You instead stare at your nail beds, finding them more interesting. They were purple now. The nails stained black by the contact with his magic. “Will- will that go away?” He asks. Demonic curses or taints were nigh impossible to remove fully. Disgustingly, he hoped they didn’t. Then your nails would match his. The darker depths of his soul coo at the idea, happy that in a small way every daemon would know your his. Not as good as a pact, but as close as he could get to being a part of your little mortal life.

“I’m not sure.” You reply honestly bringing your hands up to place them on the table. “Simone and Solomon have done what they could. But, it is as good as it’s going to get for now. They say it could fade with time.” You look up at him, eyes gazing to the left of his face. “Luke thinks I should see a stronger angel.” Diavolo winces, the thought stung, and terrified him. “I told him no.”

That surprised him. This was your chance. The celestial realm had been skeptical from the beginning. If they knew, it would be a perfect caveat for them to step in. “Why?” Finally you look at him. The fear was still there. Hesitation evident in your eyes. Yet you forced yourself to look at him, fighting through your trepidation.

“Did you mean what you said earlier? About your father and what you think of me?”

“Of course.” He replies without hesitation reaching for your cold hands. You flinch but don’t move away. It felt-nice. His warmth chasing away the perpetual chill that covered your fingertips. Idly you stroke his strong hands with your thumbs.

“Then, I think we can work on this privately.” Slowly but surely you felt like you could fix this. Not for the program, but for yourself.

#obey me #obey me diavolo #obey me headcanons #gods have mercy I wanna smooch him so bad

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barbariccia · 4 years ago

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X57: Bring Down The Sky

ok, i lied. there’s one last thing for me to get through in mass effect 1 - the BDtS dlc, which i’ve never played through before. it’s relatively short and available for free if you play on pc - included with the base game on origin, and can be downloaded on ea’s website for steam.

who wants some Additional Plot all crammed into one long post?!

in true ME style, you’re thrown directly into the action. once you enter the area this mission takes place on via the galaxy map, you’re shown a familiar looking world... and an asteroid slowly approaching.

and we’re dumped onto the asteroid itself in the mako.

it’s pretty easy to see the objective even if you weren’t paying attention to the distress call.

three giant fusion torches are propelling the asteroid at great speed toward a looming planet that looks rather earth-like, though we’re not in the local cluster at all. this is terra nova of the exodus cluster, one of the first planets colonised by humans after they discovered the mass relays and what lay beyond, and the second “extrasolar colony”, the first being no other than elysium, which we’ve heard about before.

there’re bases around the three tourches, all armed with heavy turrets, easy enough to dispatch of via the mako’s own gun, and once we make it inside the first base, we’re treated with a... rather unusual sight.

these charming fellows are batarians, outlaws and pirates for the most part, and while not seen in the base game, they go on to be the face of space-orcs, in a sense. vicious and seemingly war-hungry, they’re directly responsible for a ruthless shepard’s background, who was stationed on torfan and lived through their assault, the only person of their troop to do so.

we clear them and their varren out easily enough, and disable the first torch at a panel upstairs.

read the subtitles, shepard.

the communication line she’s using goes dead. on our way out...

we meet a man, who shoots and immediately panics when he sees the chest he attacked belongs to a human. eh, i’ve had worse.

this is simon, the chief engineer. he’s worried, of course - we’re heading right toward terra nova, where there are four million people living. not ideal.

well, that’s just fucking dandy, then.

Simon: It would be like millions of fusion bombs striking at once. Millions. The heat of the blast... a thousand kilmoeters away, clothes will ignite. There’ll be global wildfires. Air shock will flatten everything for hundreds of kilometers. Terra Nova will die, Shepard. Not just our colony - the planet. There’ll be a climate shift. Mass extinctions. The ecosystem won’t recover for thousands of years. Millions, maybe.

Shepard: Any chance it’ll land in the oceans?

Simon: That would be even worse! Tsunamis would sweep inland at hundreds of kilometers per hour. Millions of tonnes of water would be vaporized at the point of impact. Global cloud coverage. The plants could all die. And if they go, the whole ecosystem rolls over. I-- I’d have to run the numbers, but take my word for it: it’d be bad.

traditional mol nerd notes, since i was a dinosaur kid: the idea of the asteroid that decimated the dinosaurs (and began one of the 5th largest mass extinction events in eath’s history) was only first proposed in 1980, which is way more recent than i thought it was. the asteroid itself is thought to have landed in the area of chicxulub, mexico, and the collision itself is considered to have released around 100 teratonnes of TNT -equivalent in energy. so big boom. as of 2019, dr sean gulick has done research ⁽¹⁾, ⁽²⁾ on the crater itself and the rock record of the impact, and doctorial student robert depalma (and coauthor professor phillip manning) has excavated the Tanis area of Hell Creek ⁽³⁾ amd published a paper on the findings of deposits in the area ⁽⁴⁾, though the latter has been criticised for being potentially sensationalist, having been published by media outlets before it was accepted at PNAS.

either way, it’s commonly accepted that the impact would have thrown enough dust into the atmosphere to have caused an impact winter for up to a year, which was likely exacerbated by vaporised rocks in the atmosphere that helped to reduce sunlight reaching the surface, and causing acid rain. this in turn likely led to the oceans cooling and becoming more acidic. if wildfires were also on the menu, it would have contributed to a greenhouse effect.

whatever happened, the impact led to about 75% of all species on earth becoming completely extinct, so terra nova’s not looking especially peachy with twice the damage incoming.

tl;dr yeah seems pretty spot on

this comes out when you select the renegade’s “damn aliens” response, which is pretty incredible. even as shepard you have the option to be xenophobic... but batarians really haven’t proven themselves to be much more than as aggressive as krogans, honestly, if not worse, somehow. for a non-ruthless shepard to think this way... yeesh. goes to show just how much the attack on elysium affected the human psyche, even if you’re happy enough to bring aboard most other kinds of aliens aboard your stealth cruiser.

well, let’s get on our merry way. simon tells us that one of the torches is surrounded by proximity mines, which were going to be used as excavation tools once the asteroid was brought to terra nova - where it was en route toward anyway, by design - so we have to be extra careful going over them. yay.

never change, shep.

he also tells us that he had a crew working on the asteroid when the batarians hit. it’s easy enough to find them... or what’s left of them, once the batarians were through with them.

they’re, naturally, spread around the asteroid.

the message is cut off by the sound of an explosion.

and as for the third...

all three are very, very dead. but hey, on the way we at least got to turn on the transmission tower once again.

party on, dudes.

after you turn off the second torch, kate contacts you again.

we get the chance to see what’s going on with kate. there’s a man with her, and a small group of batarians that have them cornered.

spoiler: he doesn’t make it.

no time like the present to go turn that third and final torch off. after we do, there’s a small group of aliens waiting for us.

we have a little chat with our new friend, who tells us that he knows he’s in way over his head. another batarian by the name of balak is running the show, and “what balak wants, balak gets”.

[Renegade choice: Don’t be stupid.]

Shepard: Spoken like a true lackey. You get me out of here and I’ll take care of Balak. Or you can take your chances with me.

Charn: An, uh, interesting proposal. It certainly has benefits over the current situation. (to another batarian) Shut it down. This is Balak’s problem now.

he gives us a keycard, tells us where to find the boss, and scarpers. balak’s elsewhere, in a different facility, also guarded by turrets.

in case you don’t want to look at your map, the red gives it away. why’s it red? who cares!

there’s a hell of a shootout waiting for us in the final facility, but once we’ve cleared the area of what feels like every batarian ever conceived, balak himself deigns to come show his face.

Balak: I’m leaving this asteroid. If you try to stop me, I’ll detonate these charges and your helper and her friends are all going to die.

Shepard: You don’t get to leave, Balak. Not after what you’ve done.

Balak: What I’ve done? This is nothing compared to what’s been done to the batarians. We’ve been forced into exile. Forced to survive on what we can scrounge up. It’s been like that for decades.

Shepard: Why take it out on these people? They didn’t do anything to you or your race.

Balak: Didn’t do anything? Aside from colonizing a world that could have been ours? Aside from using resources that should have been ours? We were left to defend ourselves. But the humans were stronger than us. We knew that. The Council knew that. But it didn’t matter.

Balak: It was you. You and your kind are the only reason we’re in this position.

Shepard: How does killing innocent people make up for that?

Balak: We had no other options. Sometimes you need to get someone’s attention before they’ll listen.

Shepard: Is that was Elysium was? A way to get our attention? Well, you got it. And when we responded you ran like cowards. Now you want to start it all over again.

Balak: You couldn’t possibly understand... Actually, you just don’t want to understand. And I’m done wasting my breath.

the choice is, once again, in your hands. that’s a very interesting dialogue they have before this... and one i can understand both sides of. it’s worth noting that originally the batarians were welcomed into citadel space, but their aggression provoked more than one crisis intergalactically. their exile from the council is recent- they weren’t happy with humans colonising in areas that batarians already considered claimed (this is the skyllian verge and elysium, for those keeping track), and when they were told no by the council, they closed their embassy, severed all relations, and became a rogue state, retreating back to their own systems and becoming known primarily as pirates and slavers within the terminus systems, outside of citadel space. those in the terminus systems are actively rebelling against their own government, too, who prefer to stay in their space.

i don’t want to use the word self-imposed exile, but from the human’s point of view it’s very much a throwing your toys out of the pram because you can’t get what you want act. then again, from the batarian point of view, why should they stick with a council that doesn’t seem to consider them as on equal footing enough to grant them rights to colonise the land as they claim it?

i chose to let balak go, and save the hostages. we’re stopping the asteroid either way, and death for death is... well. not ideal. if we’re throwing away our ideals and doing the whole eye for an eye thing we should have started a long time ago.

worth noting here that the base game offers a sidemission i remember me to colonist shepards, where you meet a survivor of mindoir, a colony that was raided by batarians ~13 years before game’s start, and is the colonist equivalent of the sole survivor mission dead scientists. after the colony was attacked, the surviving girl was taken by slavers, and the sidemission deals with you taking her down from a suicidal response to systems alliance soldiers finding and killing her batarian slavers. provided you talk her down, she resurfaces in a minor way in the next game, with an email thanking you for helping her. i think it’s a damn shame that this sidemission is only available to colonist shepard, because in no way is this an isolated view of the batarians and the things they’ve done and would have been a nice bit of additional flavour text for the rest of the game, considering batarians are only mentioned in passing once or twice (and in basegame only get a concept art picture by their codex entry, even).

(laughs in virmire)

you tell simon about the dead engineers you found, and let the hostages go.

she explains that the man the batarians killed was her brother, who convinced her to join the team in the first place. you get the chance to ask her a couple of questions, mostly about herself, but also...

Kate: I don’t even think they knew. When they first arrived, they were talking about getting us back to their ship. They wanted to sell us as slaved. When Balak showed up, everything changed. It was his idea to redirect the asteroid. Said it was the will of the batarian rebellion, whatever that is.

considering balak and his contingency are the outliers of their society... well, buddy, i hate to say it, but you don’t speak for the rest of your people. sure, tensions are high with humans... but they are with the turians, as well, and the turians didn’t throw a hissy and exile themselves and have their people considered the worst of the worst by even their government for the practises of a few.

eghhh. this is one of those surprisingly complicated situations. this isn’t the first time bioware discusses this concept - dragon age 2 comes to mind, and i’m sure i’ll get around to that as well sometime - but we’re not really given any way of viewing the batarians as anything other than an enemy in BDtS. we do see more batarians in the future, and that’s its own thing. we’ll revisit this later.

Bring Down The Sky, complete in around an hour. not bad for a (now) free dlc mission, but the stuff i’ve done here today won’t carry over to mass effect 2. turns out the last save i had on the normandy was actually just after feros; all my other save states were in the middle of something of on the citadel at the end of the game where there’s no way to get out and do something else. thankfully, not having completed the dlc doesn’t affect anything in the future too much, though i think i won’t be getting some me2 background commentary. not that i’d know what it was, having never done this content before.

ah well. upwards and onwards, crew!

#mol plays mass effect

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gascon-en-exil · 5 years ago

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Joining the Game Late: S1E3 “Lord Snow”

Synopsis

The Night’s Watch are for the most part pathetically incompetent but they and Tyrion continue to put Jon in his place. Jon’s older male relatives are all the proverbial two days away from retirement, sucks for all that exposition he’ll miss out on. Lots of quick intros for the king’s council that have assembled because Robert can’t manage money, no surprise there. Jaime plays the twisted knightly loyalty card for all it’s worth. Robert is a very visceral king in every way imaginable - no surprise too that his war stories include defecation. Two of King’s Landing’s biggest schemers head off Catelyn and reveal the former owner of the dagger used by Bran’s would-be assassin, which they do in a brothel because it’s funny secret. Cersei and Ned are both kind of bad at parenting but at least they’re trying. Viserys engineered his own impotence and only now realizes it, and also Dany is pregnant but that won’t last. Bran’s old nurse explains Westeros’s abnormal seasons, but not very well.

Commentary

As expected now that the bulk of the action in the Westeros storyline has moved to King’s Landing I’m getting more invested, as there’s a much wider range of characters and plot threads to take interest in. Granted some of the intros in this episode go by a bit too quickly to really appreciate them; of the king’s council I just had time to register the two schemers (one with balls, one without), the gay otter (yay!), and an old guy whose name I can’t even place after the fact. Of these only the schemer with balls, a.k.a. Petyr Baelish, a.k.a. Littlefinger shows some real early development through the crush on Catelyn he doesn’t bother hiding and his admittedly funny decision to bring her to meet him in a brothel - that he owns, no less - because it’s a safe location. Ned’s just a killjoy about it, and it’s hard to tell how much of that is basic prudery and how much of it is fear of being cuckolded. Ned strikes out with Sansa too, but he does get some good bonding in with Arya leading up to the episode’s ending scene where she’s allowed to learn from a sword instructor offering both development for father and daughter and combat-based worldbuilding.

Cersei’s own attempts at parenting are equally hit-or-miss, and you can get a feeling for why Joffrey turned out the way he did. Half her advice boils down to “when you’re king you can do what you want,” so when she follows this by trying to temper her son’s inability to understand any tactic other than adolescent aggression it doesn’t quite work as well as might have otherwise. I enjoyed more her scene with Jaime, as well as Jaime in general this episode. He reveals himself to be more than just an evil knight in shining armor, via an amoral opportunistic streak and a violent love (like that) for his sister. That last bit is especially noteworthy looking back on the show when one knows how it ends. Of the two of them Jaime is the one who undergoes a redemption arc only foiled at the eleventh hour, while Cersei becomes more solidly evil as the series progresses. Based on these early scenes though you’d be forgiven for expecting the reverse.

Taking a break from King’s Landing, Dany’s storyline fleshes out for the first time the Dothraki beyond abstractly racist stereotypes, with speaking roles for more of them and what looks to have been a real effort to craft a Dothraki language and use it realistically alongside the language rendered as English to convey a sense of the language barrier and where Dany and others are breaking through it. That’s more than can be said for the significant scene leading up to Dany’s confrontation with her brother, because the setup feels artificial. Dany asks about the slaves kept by the Dothraki, and this bothers her which introduces the hatred of slavery that becomes one of her defining traits and really muddles the message when she eventually becomes a Mad Queen. She then orders the horde to stop, dismounts, and wanders off the path alone for no apparent reason only to be assaulted by Viserys moments later. Granted the subsequent scene is pretty awesome (but for the fact that Viserys has never been much of a threatening antagonist), but what was Dany doing?

The Night’s Watch recruits got some screentime as well, appropriately since this episode is titled after the protagonist in their ranks. Tyrion and Benjen keep Jon from getting a big head though, and the two of them do some verbal sparring of their own that reminds us that while Tyrion is playing tourist up at the Wall he’s being implicated in Bran’s attempted assassination back in King’s Landing. Ooh, mysterious. At least Tyrion does follow through with his plan to piss off the edge of the Wall - priorities, you know.

Some bits of necessary exposition from the bedraggled men of the Night’s Watch and from Bran’s old nurse provide the first explanation for Westeros’s abnormal seasons, although at this point I’ve still got more questions than answers. It seems as though there are only two seasons in their world, and it’s universally assumed that summer = good and winter = bad which I’m calling foul on as someone who’s suffered a lifetime in the subtropics. Of course it must be awful for the temperate parts of the continent when the Night King is “Let It Go”ing all over the land for years on end, but what about climates where the winters are short and mild but the summers are a scorching, sweltering hell hostile to human life without the central AC that these people definitely do not have? That old woman ought to feel a Louisiana summer before she “oh my sweet summer child”s anyone. That line used to be a meme, right?

#Game of Thrones #GoT

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kazashiniwielder · 7 years ago

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One piece chapter 906! So first we get to Marygeois or however they are spelling it now. Shirahoshi finally gets to see a forest! We see the moving side walks and Fukaboshi is uneasy by it while most of the nobles enjoy it. It was run by slave labor. No surprize since that is how the Celestial Dragons operate. I really did like the reminder that while we are seeing all the beautiful and happy side of it, this place is just like Goa Kingdom and Dressrosa; pretty on the outside with a horrible dark underside. Also that pig Celestial Dragon that Luffy socked is back. Oh yay.

Shirahoshi gets surrounded by a bunch of men asking her to marry them or marry their sons. Shirahoshi turns them all down flat to everyone's horror. Her brothers try to ease the situation, Fukaboshi saying she didn’t mean to say that and her other brother scolding her and telling her at least pretend.

Like excuse me brothers! I get that your trying not to start a war, but did you conveniently forget why your sister was locked in a tower for a decade? If I was her I’d be turning them all down real quick too! Give her a break there.

So Vivi and Karou meet Rebecca and Leo (was that Mansherry hanging off Rebecca’s dress?) Vivi thinks they are so cute to which Leo is not amused by. Leo mentions he only came out of hiding because he heard Vivi mention Luffy. Since Vivi had read the paper she must have sought out those from Dressrosa! Vivi and Rebecca talk about how Luffy and the crew are still helping others and how they are indebted to the Strawhats. (also I appreciate the mini Zoro! I missed my boy!)

So hearing Luffy mentioned, Shirahoshi goes to the princesses, asking them if they were talking about ‘Luffy-sama’. Her brother freaks out, realizing what can happen if these girls are not friends of Luffy’s. Vivi is a little more cautious about answering, but Rebecca, bless her soul, throws caution to the wind and flat out asks. Realizing all three are friends of Luffy they all become friends! Even Viola, Igaram, and Fukaboshi are happy by their new friendship

Sai shows up to see Rebecca and Leo jumps out to talk to them. So we have established now that this is the two’s last official job together before they leave their countries to become pirate crews to be of assistance to Luffy. I love them so much!

Them Wampol shows up. He taunts Vivi, or tries to, but Dalton and Kureha arrive. Vivi is happy to see them and Kureha even says had she known Vivi was a princess she would have given them a bigger medical bill. Wampol tries to yell at Dalton, but Dalton reminds them they are of equal status now. Dalton then talks to Vivi about Luffy in the paper and Rebecca overhears. She asks if Dalton likes Luffy, which he quietly confirms, much to the Princesses joy.

I gotta say their interactions are everything I wanted! I’m so happy with them!

Then we go see Doflamingo who is in Impel Down. He is asking if assassins have been sent yet to shut him up about the secrets of the Holy Land, and wonders if he can talk about them yet. He remarks things loose their power over time.

We see a strange figure in the Holy land holding two wanted posters, one of which is Luffy’s. They walk into a huge underground chamber with a frozen straw hat.

My only guess is that this has something to do with the Will of D. since Celestial Dragons fear those with that name and Gol D. Roger, the first person we know to wear the straw hat in Luffy’s possession, is the only person besides Luffy with a connection to both straw hats and the letter D. I am really curious where this is going to go. So this council will be seven days long? I’m ready for it!

#one piece 906

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lady-alayne · 7 years ago

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Game of Thrones: An Angry Recap

Season 7 Episode 6: Beyond the Wall

Winterfell:

Sigh. Okay. Let's do this.

Arya and Sansa's relationship is all over the place. After a heartfelt reunion where it seems the old tension between the sisters had been set aside, Arya became more and more paranoid of everyone and everything, resulting in the lurking bonanza last episode where it seems Arya got royally littlefingered.

Because just as Petyr planned (presumably), Arya jumped to all the wrong conclusions about the letter Sansa was forced to write to her brother, urging him to bend the knee to Joffrey. “Why didn't you just murder everyone instead, like I would have?” she snaps at her sister. “This is what this show is about! Violence begets violence, and it's awesome! No wonder everyone on reddit hates you.” Ah, sisterly love.

It breaks my heart that GRRM wrote the Stark sisters as polar opposites, but equally strong. Arya is the more traditional Strong Female Character(TM), portraying stereotypically male traits: She wants to learn how to fight, she has a temper, is reckless, and she solves her problems with violence rather than words. Sansa, on the other hand, embraces her femininity. And that's wonderful. She navigates through the snake pit of King's Landing because she is polite, well-trained, and knows when to shut up and swallow her anger and then attack later out of a position of power. Although different, the sisters are both strong, resilient, and grow more and more powerful over the course of the series. GRRM has done a beautiful job portraying women as real people with unique characters.

Enter D&D! While doing some pseudo-research for their characters, biding their time until they ran out of books so they can make up their own shit, they decided to A) dumb Arya and Sansa down to have “invincible killer robot whose trauma made her want to murder everyone” and “stupid girl who is stupid and everyone takes advantage of” and then to B) PIT THESE CHARACTERS AGAINST EACH OTHER IN THE MOST FORCED CONFLICT IN THE HISTORY OF TELEVISION.

Are we really supposed to believe that single letter poses such a threat??? To make this conflict work, Arya had to be:

stupid enough to think Sansa meant what she wrote

evil enough to blackmail Sansa with it

paranoid enough to think Sansa has ulterior motives and wants to usurp Jon or whatever (can you usurp something that is RIGHTFULLY YOURS?)

Sansa had to be

stupid enough to believe that letter poses a threat—as if the Northern lords wouldn't immediately know Sansa wrote what Cersei told her to write

evil enough to send Brienne away, a woman in the perfect position to mediate and de-escalate

paranoid enough to break into Arya's chambers and try to steal the letter back

And all just so D&D can create random conflict out of thin air because, uh, good television.

Also at Winterfell, we get out weekly dose of two minutes Petyr Baelish screentime. (And it's not enough. It's never enough.) It looks like Sansa and Petyr are friends again and she asks him for his council (after telling him to go away, telling him she's smarter than him, and gloomily talking about what he wants, but who cares about characterization in this show? The plot demands that Sansa and Petyr speak.) Petyr helpfully suggests to have Brienne talk to the girls, as she has an invested interest in those two being on the same side, which makes Sansa send Brienne away. Logic(TM)!

As mentioned above, Sansa then sneaks into Arya's chambers to steal the letter back from her, and finds Arya's work clothes under the bed. To dial up the creepy, Arya then appears and... threatens to kill Sansa so she can know how it feels to wear beautiful dresses??? Arya, YOU COULD HAVE WORN ALL THE BEAUTIFUL DRESSES, but you WANTED TO BE A KNIGHT INSTEAD. Before stabbing her sister, Arya changes her mind/reveals she was bluffing (who can tell with this demon child), and gives Sansa Littlefinger's dagger because... reasons. Oh boy, that dagger is going places! Tune in next week to see Sansa give the dagger to Gilly's four year old baby when Sam and family turn up in Winterfell on their way back to castle black! And stay tuned for season 8, where we find out THE DAGGER IS AZOR AHAI!

Beyond the Wall:

Jon, Tormund, Jorah, Gendry, the Brotherhood Without Banners, and a few nameless extras to be killed off as needed hike through a blizzard during Operation Catch a Wight, and we are immediately treated to a rape joke! This time Tormund jokes about raping Jon because “fucking is best to stay warm.” It's funny, because it's two men! Haha, gay! Like Loras! Lol!

But Jon is not just the butt of the joke (I couldn't resist), we are also reminded once again that he's super nice and honorable, much like his “father,” and so he offers Jorah Longclaw back. But Jorah declines, because he's also super honorable and a good guy(TM). I was rooting for him to take the sword and stab Jon with it while yelling “I'm getting rid of the competition! Khaleesi, here I come!!!” But, oh well, when D&D fanservice they somehow never take my wishes into account. Wait while I send them a raven and complain.

My raven seems to have reach them, because a little later the Hound insists he does not like gingers, and all the SanSan shippers break into crisis mode while I laugh. Heehee. Then we have the incredible honor and privilege to witness a dialogue that includes the words “dick,” “cock,” and “pussy” within what feels like 0.000001 seconds. Finally, proof of GoT's level of sophistication that everyone is talking about. But... Tormund x Brienne, so yay!

The shipping does not last long, because out of nowhere ZOMBIE ICE BEAR ATTACK!!! Run for your lives!!! We watch with bated breath while the bear threatens to kill our beloved heroes and hope he will kill one of the suspiciously random background extras instead, but then we realize we are already dead inside when it comes to this show, so we would not care either way. By the way, is anyone else reminded of Star Wars whenever the Brotherhood Without Banners switch on their fire swords?

But killer zombie bears are not the only threat beyond the wall, and soon the men meet a white walker taking his pack of wights out for a walk. Now I feel safe enough to scream again. THE WIGHTS ARE WEARING HOODS WHILE THE MEN ARE NOT. THE UNDEAD PEOPLE ARE WEARING PROTECTIVE HEADWEAR WHILE THE LIVING PERSONS ARE NOT. THIS SHOW MAKES NO SENSE. NO SENSE. UGH!!!!

Because this is Operation Catch a Wight, the men decide to, you know, catch a wight, and set a trap for some reason. I guess just attacking their enemy without the enemy knowing they were even there would not be sneaky enough! Luckily, the dragonglass proves potent, and Jon successfully makes the white walker burst into a billion pieces AND re-deads the un-dead! DOUBLE KILL! …... except for one wight, who is still undead for practicality and thus immediately captured. Lucky!

The team soon realizes their chances are dire at best, and decide to send Gendry back to Eastwatch so he can send a raven to Daenerys. GENDRY. WITHOUT ANY WEAPONS. ALONE. THROUGH A BLIZZARD. While Gendry runs of to his certain death—who would survive a marathon through a snowstorm?— Jon & Friends also run to their certain death, as they are suddenly attacked by an army of thousands of wights. But—oh joy!—there's a lake there! And the ice on the lake is super special and only breaks AFTER ALL THE IMPORTANT CHARACTERS have already passed! But then it drags all the wights, plus one nameless extra for supposed shock value, down to their icy (re-)deaths, and our heroes manage to escape on a strategically placed isle in the middle of the lake to wait for their rescue.

Dragonstone:

Meanwhile, Dany and Tyrion are having some girl talk because Missandei seems to be MIA. After establishing that Jon is, like, super in love with Dany, you guys, and of course Tyrion knows that because he's SO SMART!!!, Tyrion broaches the topic of succession and SUGGESTS IMPLEMENTING A DEMOCRACY. I mean... yeah, Democracies are nice like 94% of the time, unless you elect someone like Donald Trump Euron Greyjoy. But it just gets SO FUCKING BORING how Tyion is always so super duper good and even his mistakes just make him more human and more lovable, isn't Tyrion just the awesomest, hooray hooray, all hail the best character in the history of the universe.

After what seems like 2 minute flight time, the raven from Eastwatch arrives and delivers Jon's cry for help. The men are trapped in the wilderness, under attack, and in dire need of immediate rescue! Daenerys wastes no time leaping into action. “I have to fly North immediately to rescue the guy I have a lady boner for, the guy who has a sad boner for me, the guy who knows how to turn dragon glass into weapons, the grumpy fan favorite, and their friends... As soon as my seamstress has finished my new winter coat! What fur should I use? This one matches my eyes, but this one goes better with my skin tone!”

Back beyond the wall:

It seems as if Dany's seamstress is really fast, because Dany makes it to the little isle at the perfect moment—Thoros has just died for shock value (and let's face it, nobody cared about Thoros anyway), and the wights have just discovered that the lake has frozen again, and are about to attack, when—DRAGONS!!! Dany swoops in and saves the day. Everyone climbs aboard Drogon, EXCEPT FOR JON, who runs off on a one man “Fighting my way through thousands of wights to kill the Night's King while he's surrounded by his four friends who are all expecting me” mission. Naturally, he does not get far and soon joins nameless extra in the icy depths below. RIP Jon, RIP.

To make matters worse, the Night's King turns out to be an insanely accurate spear thrower, and pierces Viserion's heart. Now that was a death for shock value! The mighty dragon plunges out of the sky, and Dany watches him motionless. I suppose she was just shocked, but maybe that was also Emilia Clarke's inability to act.

Drogon and his human load then get the hell out of there, and—OH GOD!!! JON IS NOT DEAD!!! WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT???? HE'S ALIVE!!!!

And then IT'S BENJEN EX MACHINA!!! AND HE SAVES JON!!! AND HE PUTS HIM ON A HORSE!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!! AND JON SNOW IS SAVED!!!

Dany, it turns out, is very relieved about that, and immediately rushes to his side while he's lying in bed naked, recovering from almost freezing to death. Because that's how you get warm—you go to a somewhat warmer room and take off all your clothes. Then, when you freeze, you realize the cold outside was not so bad in comparison, so your body heals itself. Science(TM)!

#game of thrones recap #got an angry recap #got season 7

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akashiakaashi · 8 years ago

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Starmyu Season 2 Episode 9 Highlights Part 1

This is a HUGE spoiler post. If you haven’t watched Episode 9, I encouraged you to do so before reading this. BUT BEWARE this episode will make your heart racing towards the end and it will leave you in shock! (And in need of the next episode more desperately than ever) My comments will be after the cut.

THIS WILL BE RANKED FROM WHICH ONE IS THE BEST SCENES (in my opinion) OF THE EPISODE

1. THE ANNOUNCEMENTS! THE ABSOLUTELY SHOCKING ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

Some might think that I am being overly dramatic but seriously, the announcement scene made me hold my breath. Allow me to describe my reaction as I post some photos of the scene below.

When they said this, I was like OMG FINALLYYYY

And then it continued with this

And in my mind, who was it again? Lol. I completely forgot. But then, when they announced who.....

I literally fist pumped the air. Not that I didn’t believe that Tengeji would get the role but the anime have been trying to shove in our minds that Inumine is a genius that it made me worried for a sec there. But I am incredibly happy that Tengeji got it (Shout out to Hosoyan because I miss him so much and hearing him in here made me so glad that Hosoyan managed to finish Tengeji’s lines before he went for a break.)

And here is a photo of the proud and smiling Tengeji for you guys. (Plus the open-mouthed random characters lol)

Now, on to the next one...

I’m embarassed to say this but I honestly cannot remember who was in the running for this role.

And then, he said it and I was like, “YASSSSSSS” (literally I fangirled in my room at 1 am. No shame lol) I gotta admit though, this was somewhat predicatable and unpredictable because at one part, we all had a feeling that Team Ootori will win the roles but for this specific role, Kuga, Toraishi and the other guy (I’m sorry I forgot his name while writing this lol) were equally good and they somewhat became close? No clue. But yay to Kuga!

Now, I give you a happy and cool Kuga. Look at that determined smile!

Next one is.....

Okay. If you have watched the episode, the beginning part focused on Ugawa and Nayuki’s worries (which I will mention later on) and this one made me so nervous for both Nayuki and Ugawa. And when they said, ...

My heart ached. I was really hoping that Nayuki would get but I can only hope. But Nayuki being the angel that he is, congratulated Ugawa. But when he said this,

I can hear my heart breaking. IT’S OKAY NAYUKI-KUN YOU’RE STILL THE SWEETEST CHARACTER TO ME.

(though deep in my heart and my mind, I had thought for a moment that maybe the anime will make that Ugawa will not be performing for unknown reasons and Nayuki will replace him.) I know. I’m horrible. Anyways, on to the next one!

But yeah nope. it went to the ending song. THE FREAKING ENDING SONG LIKE WHAAAA (I love the song but why nowwww). And as we all know, after the song, they usually continue by showing scenes of the ancient or senpais. So I was frustrated. And the song ended (yes, I could have skipped the song but I love it too much so I just listened through lol) Then, the scene continued! YASSSS THANK YOU STARMYU STAFF YOU’RE THE BEST FOR NOT MAKING ME WAIT ANOTHER WEEK TO KNOW WHO GOT THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT ROLES.

And so, it continues with...

HOORAYYYYYY!!! HE GOT IT! HE GOT THE ROLE. I am glad he did. Getting rejected for his chosen role and having to switch with another one can be disappointing but he managed to pull through! Good job Kaito-kun!

His shocked and relieved reaction is priceless and endearing. I was emotional for a sec there. Ugh. I adore him so much! Look at their happiness!

Next one is the most nerve-wrecking of all.

While I was happy, my heart ached when Sawatari sighed in sadness. What is this roller coaster of emotions? T_T

The Alexis’ shadow role is certainly the most important and scary one out of all the roles. We have Tatsumi, Hoshitani, Ageha and Nanjo fighting to get it and this role has been the focused since the start of this season. So, it was undecided who woould get it. Although I think that most of us will assume that Hoshitani will be chosen just because he’s the main character and this season has been highlighting Hoshitani’s talent and uniqueness more than ever.

But nope. They went with this. I love Tatsumi (Yay Nobu) but I wanted Hoshitani to perform. So, again my heart had been broken to tiny pieces. WHY JUST WHY? WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? THAT WAS TOTALLY UNEXPECTED AND SHOCKING

EVEN THEIR FACES SAID SO. Everyone was shocked because it is the most controversial role ever. Poor Hoshitani.

But then....

I’m like, “There’s more?! Haven’t you had enough of breaking all of our hearts already?” But still, I watched despite being somewhat uninterested because I couldn’t move on with what happen. And they gave us this...

Although we all knew this would happen sooner or later but congrats Hiragi-senpai! And it made me think about whether the suspicious thing that Haruto and the ancients discussed about was maybe about Hiragi instead of Hoshitani.

Oh okay.... wait, what? I already had a feeling where this is going. So I unconsciously held my breath.

Go on. Go on. Let my hope be a reality.

OMG OMG OMG OMGGGG WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY UOZUMI???????

Those were the only words I could mutter after I held my breath throughout this whole scene. Although I had a feeling it will turn out like this but when it became real, it is not less shocking.

All these reactions are priceless!Who wouldn’t be shocked? These people were training for small roles but then, one of them got the main role. THE FREAKING MAIN ROLE THAT IS MEANT FOR THE LEADER OF KAO COUNCIL but instead a second year student, who was initially rejected in the audition of the Musical class and had to work hard to be as good as his over-achiever teammates, managed to get the most important role of all. And alongside his admired senpai and all the other talented Kao council members. LIKE WHAT THE HECKKKK

YOU ARE CERTAINLY A MIRACLE HOSHITANI YUTA

but what’s with that contradicting smile (are you not shocked at all????)

p/s: the other highlights will continue in another post because this went too long lol. You can’t blame me though. They threw a sudden curveball at us and brought us along the roller coaster ride of emotions. Now, until then....

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asflowersfade · 8 years ago

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Scribble-Doodle: Blind!Alec #10

A future fic set in my Blind!Alec AU. This is basically mixing the show and the books. Alec’s around 30 here, I would say. It’s written for @only-1-a who kept feeding this bunny! Yay for the parabatai! (Look ma, I’m rhyming!)

Previous ficlets:

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9

“Alec, stop!” Jace snaps when Alec hits his shin against the low coffee table for the third time because he’s too distracted to pay attention to his surroundings.

Alec freezes in place, grimacing both in pain and in embarrassment, and twists his cane in his hands anxiously. “Sorry. I’m just... “

“Nervous?” Jace finishes for him, amused, while he moves the coffee table out of the way. Then he informs Alec, “It’s now three steps to your right.”

Nodding in thanks, Alec taps his cane against the floor in agitation. “Terrified!” he admits as he would to no one but his parabatai. “What if I’m wrong? What if I forgot something? What if--”

“Alec,” Jace says firmly, making sure that Alec hears him step in front of him. “Do you believe that this Treaty will help the Downworlders?”

Alec frowns behind his wraparound sunglasses. “Yeah, it’ll ensure their equal rights and--”

Jace interrupts him again, “Do you believe that this Treaty will help the Shadowhunters?”

Now Alec looks downright offended, as if Jace’s being purposefully obtuse. “Of course it will! We won’t be left battling demons all by ourselves anymore. Ever since we started working together with the various Downworlder factions, our survival rate went up--”

“Then why are you so worried?” Jace cuts him off once more. “You, Magnus, Maia and Lily have been hammering out the Shadow Treaty for months now. You discussed every damn line of that thing in such detail that even I could recite it backwards! You even got the Seelies to respond! So - I’m going to touch you now” --he squeezes Alec’s shoulders-- “I promise you, it’ll be fine.”

Alec takes a deep breath, holds it for a heartbeat or two, then lets it out again and nods. “Okay, okay,” he mutters, then he smiles gratefully. “Thanks!”

Jace grins up at him. “Hey, that’s what I’m here for, right?”

Alec’s smile falters. He taps his cane against the floor again in a nervous habit. “Do you…” He stops and clears his throat, then tries again. “Do you ever regret it?”

Frowning, Jace asks, “Regret what?”

More tapping. “You know, staying with me. After the war with Valentine, after Sebastian and the Endarkened, you were hailed a hero, you and Clary, both. You could’ve been anything, done anything! But you turned all the offers down, you even left the New York Institute to Izzy--”

“And she’s doing an amazing job!” Jace states.

Alec nods. “She really is. But mom offered the position to you. And you turned it down. To stay with me.”

“Well, of course I stayed with you, you are my parabatai,” Jace tells him in a “duh” voice. “Where else would I be? And as we established, you do need me. How many times did they try to kill you over the last five years?”

“Three times,” Alec allows grudgingly. Then he sighs. “Still. I can’t help but feel that I’m holding you back. It couldn’t have been your dream to become some glorified clerk’s bodyguard one day. You must be bored silly…”

“Alec…” Jace says softly, shaking his head. “I fought in two wars before I was twenty-five. I killed more people that you’ve shaken hands with. I was tortured, I died…” He swallows hard. “I don’t ever want to have to go through that again. Even if you weren’t my parabatai, I would be honored to guard you. You’re helping make this world a better place so that what we’ve been through never happens again. And I get to be there and see it. Don’t you understand that it is a dream come true for me?”

Alec blushes a little and taps his cane against the floor again.

Grinning again, Jace adds mischievously, “And I get to brag, too! My parabatai, the founding member of the Shadow Council! All the idiots who’ve ever looked down on you because of your blindness can now kiss your--”

Alec raises his hand sharply. “I get it! No need to be crude!”

Jace laughs which makes Alec smile, too.

“I’m going to hug you now,” Jace warns after he finally calms down and when Alec moves his cane aside, Jace wraps his arms around his parabatai who returns the hug just as fiercely. “Besides, I’m happy to be by your side. That alone would be enough.”

“‘If aught by death,’ huh?” Alec whispers.

“Not even death,” Jace responds fiercely.

The door opens and Lydia Branwell, the Consul herself, sticks her head inside. “Here you are!” she exclaims exasperatedly. “I was about to call Magnus a liar - he swore to me up and down that you did arrive together - which would’ve gotten me turned into a toad and it would’ve been all your fault! The signature ceremony’s about to start and the others are already seated! Come on!” And with a harried air she slips away again.

They let go of each other and Jace reaches up to straighten Alec’s tie. “Ready to change the world, Councilor?”

Alec grips his cane tightly and gives Jace a firm, determined nod. “Yes.”

“Then let’s go!”

#scribbledoodle #parabatai #jace wayland #alec lightwood #blind!alec au #my fics #my shadowhunters fics #my parabatai fics

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survivorcordillerablanca · 7 years ago

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Episode 8 Confessionals

This is long overdue but I've been busy because my brother got married woooo! Okay so FINALLY WE MERGED! Jordan and I survived the hell tribe and we made it here. We had to lose Jay which absolutely sucks, I feel terrible for voting him out but I did what I think was the right thing. The biggest piece of news is that I was literally on the merge tribe for like 10 minutes and ended up FINDING THE IMMUNITY IDOL!! I WAS SO SHOCKED I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!! I haven't told anybody about it but I might....MIGHT....tell Jordan about it to show that I do trust him after wavering so much on my decision about potentially voting him out. We have an auction coming up, I hope I get something really cool from it! Bryce told me that he was the one that gave me the idol but Zach told me that he was the one that pushed for him to give it to me so I'm thankful to the both of them for that. I think I could get good with Carson, Zach, Bryce and Charlotte. Katie and I have bonded over our love of true crime, she's super nice and her connection to Jordan Pines is incredibly strong so we can do this. I believe that Copa isn't dead just yet.

finally got into an alliance with charlotte and chris

i bid well at the auction and got a nifty apple that lets me sit out for a round #blessed

Finding out someone I want to work with is an Amy Schumer fan.... maybe shouldn't work with them :/. Jk!! But am I even DKSFJSD

zack just sent me this message "and im in kuang si (it’s a main season, if you know what those are) asdjfk" I dont know how to respond to that

Merge sweet merge! Okay so I'm officiallly in an alliance with Katie and Charlotte. We're the Senior Citizens. Katie is playing up to Jordan that she doesn't have any allies in hopes of him telling her any potential people from Ulta who might flip. Meanwhile I have to PUBLICLY pick 3 people to go to the wishing well with me. Obviously taking the Senior Citizens, but I then decided on Bryce because he was the only person not mention by Jordan as someone he thinks he's working with. Immunity just happened and as of right now I feel content with my score but some people are insane and will destroy me. I really hope I win because I feel like I'll get cut as soon as the opportunity arises.

me two days ago: I should probably try to be less hostile towards JP. me today: DISADVANTAGE GOES TO JP. i'd say i'm sorry but that would be a lie.

am i up to date on confessionals

hope i dont go home probably should have used my advantage

We merged!!! and im stressed as hell. i have NO idea what im doing. chris won this wishing well thing in the auction and took katie, charlotte, and bryce. so it set off alarms to me and zach so we're working on the me/willow/zach thing we were planning on before, we just have mroe of a reason now. the plan is: vote jordan pines this first round (even though hes trying to talk strategy with me and if eel bad bc i told charlotte to use the disadvantage on him) recruit luke and katie and vote chris out at final 8 and thats our plan so far bc... its hard to plan things in survivor! yeah i have no idea i hate the merge especialyl when i know where NO ONE sits

Whose got two thumbs and flopped at immunity? THIS GUY. But it's all good. We have two clear outsiders in the form of luke and Jordan. I feel bad because I genuinely like luke. I'm hoping we can get rid of Jordan and then I can swoop up precious baby luke to use him to get some of the ulta's I'm not close with out. For now, me, Katie, Carson, and charlotte are going for Jordan unless something drastic happens.

I'm tired and I've been essentially goating myself this game yikes

So at this point, it's the morning of the first merge tribal. Exciting? Yes! Nerve-wracking? Yes! Willow won immunity. I lowkey was going to force a tie because I know any intellectual could get 5 at most (Willow's smart, so I just expected it) then her comp adv. of -2 would ensure her a win since 3 is theoretically impossible. SHE GOT TWO! Good on her though! I overall chose not to snatch her score because I felt really bad, and it was with someone whom I potentially was going to work it or would work with. Speaking of, Willow, Carson and I formed a trio alliance. We both comprehend that the two Copa need to go soon. I think it'll be Jordan Pines this vote. However, a) I don't want Luke to go JUST yet, as we can utilize him, and b) the votes might flip and ADIOS me! I also have worrying speculation of an alliance including the newbies. This is purely because of whom Chris decided to take on his little... trip to the wishing well. It's just a little suspicious, considering Carson admitted to me he talks to Chris relatively every other day, so it was shocking. Nonetheless, it's a game decision, doesn't matter much.. My game plan from this point forward is to just try to be fairly more social. I've been talking to Chris and Katie a lil more. I'm on relatively good terms with Luke. Carson and I are best buddies. Willow is a LEGEND! - then we have Bryce, a king who I don't talk to much but is iconic. Charlotte, a literal icon. Jordan Pines! (that name along speaks for itself). It's going, I guess. We'll see ^-^

So I finally found the wishing well thing and I completed my task yay!! I can now see who votes who for one tribal but idk when im gonna use it tbh. I think I'll tell carson about it b/c hes my number 1. But for this vote i'm hoping itll be easy and be one of jordan/luke just gotta talk to the other ulta people.

Okay so I think its just gonna be the easy vote of Jordan? Hope its not too easy and im not too complacent

Here's the thing. Anyone who has ever played with me before, or knows me, knows that I pretty much play the same game. I stick with my alliance and only turn on them when I need to ... I'm not one for cannibalizing the alliance too early. But ... I'm bored. Everyone's quiet, no one's exciting me, and I really just want to watch the world burn. Do I like Jordan? Eh. Will he make the season more exciting? Absolutely. If I can convince Katie and Carson, or maybe Zach, to vote for Jordan ... the game will flip upside down. I'm here for a little Chaos.

is Jordan gonna die tonight? the answer probs wont surprise you as YES. AHHHHH. IM GOING HOME FUCK FUCK FUCK ME, FUCK YOU RYAN TEDDY PALMER. I am trying to save myself but i may be all out of lives.

I'm watching Shookstralian Survivor and writing a confessional, I hear this episode is iconic so I'm preparing! Michelle is winning btw! Okay so back to Cordillera Blanca...I didn't win immunity...Jordan didn't win immunity which means that both of us are vulnerable at tribal and one of us could potentially be going home tonight which is worst case scenario. As of now I think the votes are going to Jordan and I would be open to playing my idol on him but I would need to be 100% certain that I'm not getting votes because I DO NOT want to idol myself out. If I lose Jordan this round I do still have my Golden Monkey Idol to fall back on at the next tribal council so hopefully that work out in my favour. Right now Jordan and I are trying to pull in Charlotte, Katie and Zach to make a majority of 5 so that we can take over this tribe. Stay tuned...;)

Did Jordan just save himself? MAYBE?????? If all goes according to plan, me zach luke, charlotte and carson will vote for chris and blindside him 5-4. So #letsnotkilljordanpines

Omg so I have a randomized vote this round which really sucks but I sent in a fake vote so if people ask I can hopefully trick them also I'm shook I won immunity with4 guesses

So... charlotte wants to flip and zach does too which.. i gues?? djksd we with jordan andl uke.. a VERY tight duo pretty much, and its gonna be hard to break that, so we cant let them get far. but getting chris out right now?? idk if its right. im still a bit bitter over him not taking me to the wishing well [3:59:22 PM] Jordan Pines: same here <3 [4:00:34 PM] carson: (y) if i hear anything i tell u but just know I'm down with u lukle charlotte and zach [4:00:46 PM] Jordan Pines: same here <3 also jordan sent the same message to me twice which.. kinda shady but like i hope its not anything bad?? if he rats us out i dont think im the biggest target but like.. ya never know in this game. also idk if my social game is good bad or whatever, buti m hoping its good and it can propel me to a victory?? zach keeps saying hes my lapdog andj ust.. uh i dont want that i want to be equal allies. whatevs?? idk. also willow's vote is apparently randomized from what zach said and charrlote found where the iodl was hidden but it waas found so someone else has it... so idk. IDK i feel like flipping on the entire tribe and doing 5-4 the first vote is soooo risky. im thinking that me/zach can tell willow we're voting chris even though her vote is randomzied so she cant rlly do anything?? she doesnt talk a lot of strategy because she takes awhile to respond but she's cool and id definitely say i trust her more than most people here. like bryce, i cant read him or chris. katie's cool but i feel like shes a bit fake to me like saying how much she trusts me when we dont talk that much?? and charlotte/jordan/luke just give weird vibes idk. only person i trust 100% is zach ig uess because we talk 24/7 and hes cool. hope this vote can go as planned, and im still kinda having cold feet, but like... i dont wanna lose jury votes so i either commit or go home.

hi can i have an episode title i came up with someone very clever here it goes: Why are all my tribe mates children like hey whats up welcome to lord of the fucking flies.

So this vote for the longest time was going to be Jordan. I was going to stick with it, but knowing me, I don't like boring games and it'd be predictable to do that. Charlotte came to me about voting out Chris. Not that directly, I guess, but mentioned flipping. I was down for it, but I wanted to talk to Carson. LUCKILY, she wanted to include Carson to, so we made an alliance ^-^ I believe right now the vote is sailing for Chris. I feel bad but it's the game, and you gotta do what you gotta do. No hard feelings. The game is tough. WHY DO I PUT MYSELF THROUGH THIS ALL THE TIME ARGHGH

#NotAGameForLapdogs

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ericjuneau · 8 years ago

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Reprise (Epilogue) [Frozen/Tangled/The Little Mermaid]

EPILOGUE

Elsa's return to Arendelle met with great celebration. Kristoff, Anna, and Olaf had organized it. They knew something good had happened when the clouds folded and crinkled from the sun's gentle burn.

Elsa met them at the dock, where the Barefoot Maiden lay in repose. Anna couldn't stop hugging her sister.

The royal guards cleared a path for the carriage to take them to the castle. Without it, the citizens would have mobbed their queen in celebration. Instead, they traveled behind the cart, singing songs of victory.

Elsa looked out the window at Arendelle. The sky was still a bleak and dismal slate, though that was typical for the time of year. The grass remained woody and the misty air smelled stagnant. There should have been crocuses and tulips blooming by now. Anyone visiting Arendelle would find a depressing place to be sure.

The podium Ansel had once used to address the citizens remained in front of the castle doors. Elsa took her place behind it, with Kristoff, Anna, and Olaf at her side. She waited for the citizens to finish gathering before she spoke.

"Citizens of Arendelle. I'm happy to announce that our nightmare appears to be over. The magic that brought forth this terrible climate has been destroyed."

The crowd roared in applause.

"Unfortunately, there is no magic to aid our recovery. It will take hard work, but we will bring back summer. This means there are hard times ahead. Our farmland is devastated. Our crops are in blight. I'm afraid we must prepare to suffer through another year of hardship."

Elsa had never felt the mood of a crowd before. When people talked about sensing energy from a massive group of people, she thought it was nonsense. But for the first time, some sixth sense recognized the dismay in the atmosphere.

"However we will have help. We have new alliances. Corona has pledged to give its support--in a non-military fashion," she added as an aside. "We will get through this. And I will be behind you all the way."

Now the crowd seemed confused. Kristoff twisted his face quizzically.

"Someone once told me that... there are some people worth melting for," she said to the throngs. "I think there are some people worth freezing for too. I give this pledge to you now: I am not going anywhere. Though I don't always show it, I love being your queen. I love this kingdom. I love the people in it, no matter what they say. Whisper and gossip in taverns if you want, I won't leave you. Not ever."

And Elsa kept her word. She was behind every citizen's back. Shoveling, carting, cobbling, smithing, farming, harvesting, ranching, even baking. She renovated the plumbing system, all pipes having been destroyed from freezing. She created oxplows from ice, taking time to craft the blade to utmost sharpness. She created a thin coating of snow all around the pastures--the meltwater would encourage sprouting.

In fall, the grass was green again, the livestock was healthy and back on their ranches. The white duck in the courtyard pond even had a fresh batch of fuzzy yellow chicks dashing after it. Elsa noticed this in the garden, during Arendelle Castle's First Annual Children's Tea Party.

When she announced the event, she told Anna "this is the hardest thing I'll ever have to do." It was one thing to be Arendelle's queen. But if she spent all her time holed up in the council chambers, she would never be Arendelle's leader.

"Mmm," Elsa said, sipping from a teacup. She was sitting on the grass, dress spread out, addressing a five-year-old with braided pigtails. The party was wrapping up, but Elsa wanted to make sure she met all the guests she could. "Are you having fun?"

"I don't like tea. It tastes like dirty water," the little girl said.

"I didn't like tea until I was older," Elsa said.

"I like the cookies though. When I play tea party at home, I have to use rocks for cookies. This is different than my tea parties. I have to do friendly smiling here. And my mom said not to run around like a maniac."

Elsa glanced at two squealing boys chasing each other by the pond. "I think if you wanted to run around, no one would mind."

"Is your army run by a giant snow monster?"

"Er... what?"

"I know you got Olaf. But do you have a giant snowman too? In your ice castle? Is he, like, the head of your guards? Do you send people you don't like up there and the snowman eats them?"

Elsa searched her mind for a wise response. "No. He stays up there. Guards it, keeps it tidy. He's not really mean. In fact," she leaned in. "His name's Marshmallow."

The little girl giggled, rolling back on her rump. "That's a funny name."

"Hey, Elsa." Anna stepped up to them, wearing the green and black velvet dress that matched the courtyard garden.

"Excuse me one minute. Princess business," Elsa said to the girl as she stood up.

"I understand," the little girl said.

The two sisters stepped to the side. "Is everything going okay? Everyone's having a good time?" Elsa asked.

"They're having a great time," Anna said, surprised she asked. "This was a great idea. No one can stop talking about it. Just look at Olaf."

She pointed to the other side of the grove. Three boys were juggling the snowman's body parts between them. Olaf yipped in delight. "Whoa... wahoo... yippee... the world is spinning..."

"I've got to say, I never expected this from you," Anna said. "And you were the one to suggest it."

"There's not much point to opening up the gates if people don't want to go inside. The castle doors could be wide open. It doesn't matter unless I keep my heart open too."

Anna smiled. "Anyway, you wanted me to tell you when it was five o'clock. And... it's five o'clock."

"Oh!" Elsa squealed. The tea party was scheduled to end half an hour ago, but she'd been having so much fun. She turned to the little girl. "I'm sorry, but I have to go."

"Aw, but we just started," she whined. "I wanted to have tea with a queen."

Anna stepped forward. "I can take her place. I'm her sister, Princess Anna."

"Yay! A princess. That's even better!"

Anna gave Elsa a sly smile. Elsa rolled her eyes, then walked away.

"Oh, Elsa," Anna called out. "You will tell me who you're seeing one of these days, right?"

"Who said I'm seeing anyone?" Elsa shrugged. Before Anna could ask anything else, she dashed out of earshot.

"Right," Anna said. She clinked her cup with the little girl.

Elsa ran behind the trees through the grove, peeling away her garrish decorations--the tiara, the bracelets, earrings, necklace. The courtyard's back wall abutted the shoals Arendelle Castle was built on. In its center was a postern--a back way. It was usually locked, but Elsa, being the queen, had asked for and received the key. She slipped through the gate at the same time slipping out of her fancy shoes.

Salty sea-spray kissed her face from the waves striking the rocks. She took a moment to breathe it in, then let out her tight hair bun. The soothing wind played with French braid like an animal's tail.

She stepped gingerly down the rough rocks to the water's edge. A man's head broke the surface.

"Hi," Gil said. He smoothed back his slick wet hair.

"Hi," Elsa said dreamily. She sat on a flattish rock close to him, hugging her knees. "Sorry I'm late. I just got done with the tea party."

"You're not late," Gil said. "How was it?"

"Good. The kids loved it. I might do it again next month too."

Gil pulled out a box from beneath the surface. "Here. I made you a birthday present."

Elsa accepted it, saying "But it's not my birthday."

"I know. But you didn't tell me when it was, so I guessed. Looks like I guessed wrong."

Elsa laughed. "At least you were bold enough to try."

"I only had a chance of one out of three hundred and sixty-five after all."

Elsa undid the seaweed ribbon. Inside the box was a necklace made of tropical cerith and horn shells. "Oh, it's beautiful. There's nothing like this in Arendelle seas." She attached it around her neck. "I'm quite sure I'll be the only one around with this kind of necklace."

"What if they ask you where you got it?"

"I'll tell the truth," Elsa said. "A handsome man gave it to me."

Gil smirked. "Well, half a man."

Elsa smiled. Twice the man of many. "I have a gift for you too."

"It's not my birthday, either," Gil said.

"No, it's not a birthday gift. It's something I meant to give you before."

She leaned down, placed her hand on his cheek, and kissed him. Gil rose out of the water and kissed her back.

"You couldn't find a way to cut it?" the King Frederic asked, equal parts resigned and disappointed.

"No... Well," Rapunzel reconsidered. "I did, but... no. I think it's better this way. Better than the alternatives were."

Rapunzel waited for her parents or Flynn to respond. They had made their greetings and hugs down at the docks. Then again in the village, again at the castle entrance, and several times more just now in the conference room.

"Better this way?" the Queen asked. "What do you mean?"

"I think it sends a message to the people of Corona. A message of hope. That even if the past may be inescapable, there is always hope for the future."

The king and queen didn't know how to respond to that. But Flynn did. "What about all the low-lifes and thugs? People from miles around are going to want that hair. Everyone from warring kingdoms to kidnappers. How are you going to stay safe?"

"I thought you already knew. You got my message, right?" Rapunzel said. "I can't remember when I sent it. The past week's just been a blur."

"Yes, of course. We did everything you said. He's waiting in the dungeon. It was no easy task to get-"

Rapunzel stood up. "What? You put him in the dungeon?"

The King held up his hands. "He asked to be put there. He said it was the only place he felt comfortable."

"Oh." Rapunzel looked down.

"Should we send a page to go and fetch him?" Queen Arianna asked.

"No. I'll do it," Rapunzel said.

"We'll be here," the king said, cradling his arm around the queen.

Rapunzel and Flynn left the conference room and descended a spiral staircase. The castle lay on a foundation of sand-colored bricks, not gray. That, plus the east-facing windows, helped the dungeon from seeming too gloomy.

Each cell had a barred door, but all the ones Rapunzel could see were empty. Which meant he was in the last one, at the darkest part of the hall.

"Can you wait here for me?" she whispered to Flynn, grasping his hand. "He's probably scared enough as it is."

Flynn nodded.

Rapunzel walked all the way to the last cell. There he sat on the bench. The door was unlocked.

"Hello, princess," Omis Ravir said. "How are you?"

"Me? I'm fine. How are you?" Rapunzel asked.

"I'm fine." Ravir's gaze fixed on the floor. "Nervous."

"No one gave you any trouble, did they?"

"No. But I'm still not sure this is a good idea. My appearance..."

"I don't care about your appearance. And neither will anyone else. I promise. It's going to take some time to ease back into the world. I know. I had to do it myself."

"But you must understand my terms. I won't be seen."

"If you don't want to, you don't have to be. In fact, it's better if you're not. But..." Rapunzel held up a finger. "You'll still be considered a member of the royal guard. Keeping the princess protected is a tough duty. You're the only one for miles around that could do it. That's a high honor. In fact, we already prepared a welcome feast for you."

"A feast?" Ravir asked.

"Mm-hm. Roast pork and cinnamon sauce. Chicken pie with turnip and carrots. Cucumber salad and spiced squash. And chef makes these apple tarts with whipped cream that are delicious."

"I don't remember the last time I ate," Ravir said. "It's been decades."

"Oh. Then maybe we'll just start with some bread."

Rapunzel held out her hand through the door. Ravir looked at it with his yellow eyes. He reached out and put his clawed hand in her soft pink one.

The first thing that Ariel did was hug Eric. Then she hugged him again. And again. And again.

They took it slow. Five days passed before the couple left the castle. It was like a second honeymoon. And with the war over, they had the time to spend.

They shared parts of each other. Parts as ugly as groupers and beautiful as angelfish. Parts they had hidden too long. When they emerged, they emerged holding hands, gazing into each other's eyes.

When Eric returned to the kingdom, he was immediately arrested. The royal guard sent him to trial, charged with treason. He was led in handcuffs to the parliamentary court. Seven lords and three sub-judges from the surrounding villages assembled on a high platform semi-circle. Eric stood in the lonely booth for the accused. On a podium sat the book of law for him to consult, but he did not need it.

Eric's explanation of what happened took an entire day with the council's interruptions for questions and clarifications. Each evening, they sent him back to the gaols while other witnesses and lawyers made their case. But by the end of Eric's deposition, their patience grew short. They began waving off sidebars and arbitrarily sustaining objections.

When the trial was over, the councilors returned their verdict. There could be no doubt in what Eric's actions were--half the kingdom was a witness. And both Eric's account and the evidence proved that he acted with free will, without any coercion. Guilty. No doubt about it, reasonable or otherwise.

His punishment? Tell everyone that he was sorry.

The captain of the guards roiled. He demanded exile, capital punishment, or something equally severe. He disavowed the judge's authority, tried bargaining with council. But the verdict had been made--the verdict the prosecution wanted. And the sentence had already been carried out.

In their final statement, the judges declared that Eric's actions were most definitely treacherous. But once Eric explained his motivation, they were justifiable. The head judge declared that any man or woman worth his character should have done the same thing. When the royal guard heard that, he rescinded his challenge, although he still grumbled about it.

Eric's first act, once he was back in power, was to withdraw from the war. He recalled his ships and support, ignoring any messages or questions from fellow countries, be they ally or enemy. The people backed his decisions, especially when word of Arendelle's situation reached them.

When Ariel returned, the town was still jubilating the end to the war. Each day a new ship returned, bringing someone's father or brother back home.

One of the last things she told Eric before they came out was "I want to make an announcement to the people. Can you arrange that?"

Eric was surprised. She'd never wanted to do that before. "Sure. The official celebration ends next week, when we sign the formal declaration of departure. You could do it then."

"Good," Ariel nodded.

"Can you tell me what it's about?" Eric asked.

Ariel sighed. "I'm not even sure myself."

Days later, the kingdom gathered on the streets. Streamers and confetti flew from windows. Husbands in woolen outfits embraced their wives on the docks as inert warships patrolled the harbor.

Eric stood on the balcony of his castle, overlooking the kingdom. Down below, the crowd was so large it flowed beyond the gates. After he signed the document held up by the minister of war (and the crowd had finished cheering), Ariel came out.

She wore the most formal gown Eric had ever seen--a conservative black dress with tight bodice and paisley trim. After Eric finished goggling, he stepped aside to let her take his place. The crowd whispered to each other, unsure of what was to next. They'd never seen the prince's wife so prim and droll.

"Good people," she declared. "I am not much of a speech-maker. I'm not good with my words. So I'll keep this brief. I know... that I haven't been the best of rulers. I've made some decisions... or influenced others to make decisions that weakened the kingdom. Selfish decisions, careless decisions. That's because I have been living a dual life."

Eric's eyes shot open. Now he knew exactly what her speech was about. And he was frightened.

"As some of you might know, I came to this kingdom under mysterious circumstances. No country, no family background, no dowry. Well, there is reason for that. Up until a year ago, I was a mermaid."

The crowd burbled with surprise, disbelief, laughter, and dubiety.

"More than just a mermaid," Ariel continued. "I was princess of a kingdom called Atlantica, the greatest in all the ocean. I fell in love with a human and, through magic, became what I am today." She paused to let the crowd absorb this. "But that is part of my past. The past is part of who I am and what I will be. And what I will be is queen. Queen of both this land and ocean."

Ariel reached behind her and pulled out her trident. Eric hadn't even seen her carrying it. The gold partisan gleamed.

"This is the trident. It's a weapon forged by the first gods and proof of my birthright. It can only be wielded by the true ruler of the seven seas."

She held it aloft. It began to make a harmonic magical thrum.

"With it, and my coronation, I declare this kingdom part of Atlantica. And Atlantica part of this kingdom. You are all now citizens under both. I will make my decisions and actions in the best interest of both. And any I made in the past that weren't, I will take back."

Now the crowd, unsure of where all this was going, began to come around. The once angrily-toned chatter began to lighten with acceptance.

Ariel looked back at Eric, who had a smile on his face. He approved. They'd work out all the logistics later, but for now, he saw the kingdom becoming stronger. Just like they were stronger.

She turned back to the crowd. "I can't ignore my people any longer. Either of them. Because I belong to both. As do all of you. And I hope... no, I am pleased that you are all now part of my world."

#END#

#Elsa #Rapunzel #Ariel #Frozen #Tangled #The Little Mermaid #fan fic #fanfic #fanfiction #fan fiction #Disney #Princess #Disney Princess #crossover #Reprise

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wilwywaylan · 8 years ago

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Belladone x Elric (50 questions) :D

Yay :D

Big steps in the relationship !

0. But, how did they meet ? It’s a fairytale, really ! When Belladone came to Elric’s castle, ready to fight for what she wanted, little did he know that he already met her once ! And felt the bite of her battle axes in his flesh, but he didn’t know at the time. For him, it was his first time seeing the famous princess of the West, that fateful day when she barged into his castle, with a ground of misfits, and demanded that he go at war at the moment, to give her back her throne and her kingdom. Of course, he refused, not wanting to wage war again for a petty reason that didn’t concern him. And of course, Belladone swore that she would either get revenge against him, or wear him down. And thus, it began.

1. Who made the first move / who kissed who first ? Belladone needed advice, and the only one she could ask is Raïane (because everyone else would make endless fun of her). So she came to her, talking about her friend" who might be in love with “an idiot”. Of course Raïane saw through her immediatly, but she humored her, listened to her woes, and adviced her that, if she felt that this idiot had so many qualities and was so nice for an enemy, maybe that road wouldn’t be that awful, wasn’t it ? Belladone was stunned to realize that. After a long moment of thinking, she finally decided that, yes, maybe Elric was an idiot, but not that much, and maybe it could be fun. So she marched to Elric's office, where he luckily was alone, planted herself in front of the desk (startling the poor king), and announced that she had thought about it, and that maybe, some kind of alliance could help the situation. Elric, confused, asked her what kind of alliance she was thinking of. "A romantic one" was the answer, and she added that she would allow Elric to court her, if that was his will.To say that Elric was confused would be an understatement. He just blurted that it would be something he would have to think about, but he needed a little time. If she was disappointed, Belladone didn't show it. She just left his office and went to swing a few axes around. That's where Elric found her a few hours later. He had taken the time to discuss things with Myrrdin (who almost physically pushed him towards her). His councelor's advice was mostly that she was perfect, it would make everything better, including his whole life, and he would never find anyone better suited for him.That's how Elric found himself face to face with an out-of-breath princess, and declares awkwardly that a romantic alliance would be good, and that, if Belladone still agrees, they could start with the courtship as soon as possible.And then Belladone tackled-kissed him.

2. Who tells their family/friends about their relationship first ? They tell it at the same time, when they just… announce it one evening. They get Belladone’s team and Malikaï in the same room, and just… drop the bomb. Let’s just say a lot of profainities were uttered that night (a lot by Belladone).

3. What do their family/friends think of their relationship ? Do they really dare say anything to the Queen of Destruction ? Why yes. Yes, they do. Luckily, it’s almost only positive things, because beside saying that maybe she didn’t choose the sharpest sword in the weaponry, Belladone’s friends support her decision, because Elric is a good man, and above all, PATIENT. And that’s for the best. On the other side, Elric’s counselors are a bit wary of that strange woman who came to start a war with them, then wreck havoc in their castle. But since their king is totally smitten (and she’s terrifying), they don’t say anything and only glare at her when they are sure she can’t see them.Malikaï kinda likes Belladone. Okay, she’s noisy, scary and bossy, but she’s not a bad person. And she makes Elric happy, that’s the most important part. That she can’t get along more than 10 minutes with Pervenche is only a sad side-effect.Belladone’s family is less enthusiastic. Probably because of that vague story of a war between their two countries, and the fact that Wolfsbane and Dogmaël both think Elric is a young idiot. And not that impressive, at that. Wolfsbane always insinuates that his sister’s whip is put to good use with that spineless husband of hers… until she threatens to use it on him. Dogmaël slowly grows some respect for his fellow king, because he’s a good and fair leader, but it’s veeery slow. And Oleander just doesn’t care, because Elric is fun and he has lots of good books to lend him.

4. Which couple/family are they closest to ? As much as they grit their teeth over it, Pervenche and Malikaï. Because Malikaï is Elric’s almost brother, and they almost live together, and they are very, very close. More even than Belladone and her brothers. Which means that Belladone often has to sped time around Pervenche, and sooner or later, they start teasing each other and bickering. Luckily, it only takes a few words from Malikaï for Pervenche to stop (but he doesn’t have any effect on Belladone). They are very, very close to Ronnan and Delnan too, and that’s good because Belladone likes them way more, and Elric gets along with them well.

5. When do they move together ? Where and how ? They move together quite fast after declairing their feelings. Since they are in Elric’s castle, Belladone just moves her stuff into the royal suite. It’s a big step, especially at the beginning of the relationship, but at least, moving out if it doesn’t work won’t be a too big problem.

6. Who proposes and how ? Elric does propose, as is fit for the King courting princess... in front of Dogmaël and everyone else. To say his future father-in-law is surprised would be an understatement. But it makes for great stories at parties, at least.

7. Where do they go on their honeymoon ? OF COURSE they are going to visit the West once they are married. First, because Elric needs to visit his wife’s country at least once in his life, and she won’t relent until he does. Second, because she wants to parade her new husband before everyone, from her brothers to the people in the Seventh Crescent of Landskrona. Because her husband is nice and good-looking and a king, and she wants to BRAG, godammit !

Let’s talk about sex~

8. Who initiates sex more often ? You might think it’s Belladone, but in fact, they’re equally matched. Why, when you’re as crazy about your spouse as those two, you want to enjoy them as much as you can. It’s just sometimes difficult to find time when you have king and queen duties to attend, but they manage to find themselves some alone time.

9. Who has the biggest kink (and what is it) ? Belladone just has a thing for bootblacking. Something about her husband at her feet, cleaning her riding boots… Elric is very happy to learn how to do it and to service his wonderful wife.

10. What kink/kinks turn(s) one (or both) of them off ? Elric is totally opposed to pain / blood play. Those things don’t have a place in the bedroom ! Belladone isn’t very bothered by this, as long as her husband keeps blacking her boots.

11. What’s the craziest place they’d have sex ? The council room, on the large wooden table. Fortunately, they weren't caught by Elric's council (but it was a close call).

12. Who is more aggressive in bed ? Belladone. That’s in her temperament. She’ll never submit, in a fight, in a conversation, or in bed. Luckily, Elric is *very* aroused by his wife taking the lead.

13. How does the other person react when their partner wears something special (boots, lingerie, etc.) ? Belladone stays calm and collected, but always makes a point to compliment Elric when he does something special. But she loves making him turn aaaaaaall red all over !

14. Lights on or off ?

When your room is lit by candles, you better snuff them out before you start having fun. Unless you want to deal with a blanket on fire in the middle of festivities.

Quirks and habits

15. What are their quirks while sleeping ? Elric tends to starfish. On his stomach, arms and legs outstretched as far as he can. That’s what’s good when you are king, you have a giant bed to strech into. And he snores. But that doesn’t seem to disturb Belladone. She tends to sleep on her side, all curled up. One hand under the pillow, not for comfort, but because she hides a knife there, you never know. Oh, and she snores too, but she’ll kill you if you tell anyone.

16. Who is the morning person/night person ? They are both morning persons. Belladone maybe more than Elric, but not by much. Most of the time, she’s up before the sun, and he with it. By the time she’s done getting dressed and combing her hair, he’s awake and eating, his crown as usual askew on his hair, all ruffled and still sleepy. It’s adorable (but “adorable” will never cross Belladone’s lips. EVER.).They WOULD LIKE to be able to go to bed early. But when you’re king and queen, you… don’t really get the option. They often go to bed rather late, because of meetings and councils and receptions and whatnot. At least, Elric sometimes says as he burrows under the covers, they get to sleep in the bed, because they could be caught in a military campaign and lost in the wilderness. Belladone punishes the attack against her father, country and pride by sticking her icy feet against her husband’s legs.

17. Who wakes the other one up with kisses ? And who brings breakfast to bed ? Most of the time, probably no one. They get up at the same time, really early, so no kisses as a wake-up call. They may kiss once they awake, though. Very rarely, when the state doesn’t demand their attention,

18. Who is the romantic one (Valentine’s Day or other) ? Elric is a bit of a sap. Not much, but he likes to commemorate sometimes by grand gestures. Belladone plays the unimpressed party, but she’s not used to those seemingly superfluous attentions, and it moves her greatly.

19. Who would lead in ballroom dancing ? Come on, Elric is the king, let him lead ! And he’s a good dancer at that, so Belladone is okay with that. The only problem is that he hates it, so when they have a reception, one waltz, and he’s off ! Belladone then has to find someone else to dance with her.

20. Who drinks all of the coffee ? Pervenche. No, really. She once managed to get inside the council room and downed all of Belladone’s coffee. And learnt the hard way that you don’t. do. that. It ended with a Very Angry queen running after her and threatening to cut her damn head off. Pervenche only escaped by jumping from a window right into a bush, and running away. She didn’t come back to the castle for weeks, and Belladone’s coffee was left alone.

21. Who is the one who would pay for dates ? Both. After all, Elric's money is Belladone's money (and, technically, the kingdom's money too). So when they decide to go out, they just take some in the special box that holds everything put aside for their enjoyement during budget sessions (the longer those sessions are, the more Elric puts in the box).

22. Who takes over the beauty/style department ? Rynn. At least, he tries. But Belladone will have none of it. She didn’t become queen to dress as a ditzy mage ! Said ditzy mage promptly asked her what she was dressed as, then, and earned a kick in the ass. Truth is, neither does really take care of that department. They dress correctly, of course, as is expected from royalty, but that’s all. They don’t go out of their way to have the most elegant tunics, the prettiest dresses and the most expensive jewelry. Those are nice, but don’t matter in the long run. The only exception is for important evenings, but they know to dress grandly for those times, and don’t need help for that, not even from each other.

23. What would they get each other for gifts ? Give Belladone a weapon, and she will, if not love you, at least tolerate you better. But it has to be a good weapon, like the ones from the West at least. She likes dresses and jewelry and books too. But you know. Weapons.Elric kinda likes weapons too, but Belladone rather decides on non-physical things, instead taking her husband away from his duties for a day or half a day, drag him in town, to do fun and stupid things together, even if it’s just a drink in a tavern, or a walk in the woods. Relaxing without having to care about a thousand things do him way more good than a new crown (but she buys him books too. Books are always good.)

24. Who cusses more ? Don’t even try to tell Belladone that swearing is not ladylike, or you’re in great danger to get a mouthful of steel. And then she’ll punch you. Swearing all the way.

25. Who is more tech-savvy ? Belladone. Not to say Elric is a tech-idiot, but when you live in a country who put all its efforts into developping new war machines and weapons, and when you LOVE weapons, you tend to be well-versed into machineries and

26. Who remembers things ? And who forgets the birthdays and anniversaries (and has to be forgiven) ? Elric tends to forget some things. But, let's be honest, he really has a lot on his mind, what with a country to rule and everything. But Belladone doesn't fare way better than him, so really, they are quite assorted.

27. Who is the bigger cuddler ? No one, and certainly not Belladone who, once she discovers that cuddles with a boyfriend / husband feel good, will hug him as soon as they are alone and she can preserve her reputation of being heartless. Nope. Not at all.

28. Nicknames for each other ? Starting with “idiot king” and “pest from the west”, and became “my love”, “my queen”, “my king”. Elric is the only one abe to call her Bella without immediatly getting his ass kicked. But she still growls, of course.

29. Who kills the bugs ? Both, but more because they are aggravating than by malice. Flies buzzing around while you’re trying to work are ANNOYING !! (and mosquitoes even more)

30. Who initiates duets ? NO ONE !! And maybe that’s better for everyone’s ears, because Belladone ain’t a Disney princess, and her singing would probably attract all kinds of crows and wolves around. Or break glass.

31. What do they do to cheer each other up ? Elric uses cuddles. It's super effective ! Even if his wife looks as grumpy as a wyvern and probably bites as much, she loves being cuddled, and it helps greatly. If cuddles don't do the trick, he uses Belladone's own method. When Elric is down, she just gives him his sword, and takes him to the training room for a good fencing session. They hit each other hard enough to leave bruises, but it helps them progressing, and it's good for getting rid of tensions.

Daily life

32. Who decorates the apartment ? The basis is Elric’s tastes, especially since he’s been living in the royal suite for three years now, and he’s made it his with lots of things and furnitures he likes. When Belladone came to live with him, she insisted that she be allowed to redecorate, because she didn’t want to be surrounded by things of the East, especially because, quote her, “they are ugly anyway”. They had a huge fight about this, bad enough that their friends and family thought that it was definitly over. But they finally calmed down enough to discuss it, and come to an arrangement. They would use a mix of furniture from their two countries, and try to find some balance. And to be fair, it looks really lovely.

33. Who is the one to most likely pick the movie they watch ? And who has sole posession of the T.V. remote ? If they had movies, they would probably alternate. But Belladone wouldn’t let anyone lend a hand on the remote. Hers.

34. Who does what chores ? Elric is in charge of all military questions concerning the country, and everything that has to do with diplomacy and budget. Belladone has tasked herself with everything that has to do with intendance, and all social questions, because she has more experience working with them. Elric stays as the army commander, but Belladone is now his second (and everyone fears them).As for domestic chores, let’s be real, they have more than enough servants for that.

35. Who makes the bed in the mornings ? The servants. No, seriously, have you ever seen royalty do their beds ? I’m not even sure Elric knows what goes where.

36. Who starts getting into holidays way before they should ? No one because they already have enough on their plate. Sometimes, holidays pass without them even noticing. They don't miss them too much. When they need to celebrate, they just go out and do it.

37. Who initiates the couple selfies ? If they had selfies, that would probably be Elric. Because his wife is gorgeous and he wants to brag. Belladone would do some, from time to time, for the same reasons, but it would be Elric most of the time.

38. Who always ends up with too much junk food after grocery shopping ? Believe it or not, Belladone. She’s a stress eater, and when facing difficult tasks, or too much to do at once, she tends to gorge on junk food. She compensates by being very active and exercizing a lot. Elric sometimes eats chips or things like that, but he’s more of a sucker for candy.

39. Who asks to keep the abandoned kitten/puppy they find in the rain ? Belladone may be a hardass iron queen who doesn’t fear anyone. But show her a puppy and she’s a goner (kitties get sent to Rynn’s and Elvy’s home, they love kittens). Elric has stopped trying to lead her away from the puppies. It didn’t work.

40. So how many pets, and who rememebers to feed them ? A pack of dogs that Belladone loves. Elric gifted her with them (more like entrusted to her). They were his father’s hunting dogs, and he likes them, but he just doesn’t know what to do with them or how to take care of them. It wasn’t easy at first, because they saw her as an intruder and an enemy. Belladone didn’t hesitate to assert her dominance, but she did it with care (and food) (and introduced herself too). They pretty much adopted her after that. She sometimes hunts with them, but most of the time, she just walks them around the castle and town. There’s something extremely empowering about walking with ten full-size hunting dogs on a leash. They obey to her slightest whim, and are very well behaved. They love her, and she loves them.

41. Who gets babied when they’re sick ? Belladone is more of a "tough love" person, but roughing her husband up when he's sick only makes things worse, she realized. So she lets the healers and the servants taking care of him, only checking on him from time to time, bringing him hot drinks, and trying to cheer him up by talking, because you can't really fight when you're sick.Elric knows how you take care of someone sick ; he had some training growing up with Malikaï. You bring them warm drinks and soft foods, you hold their hand, you talk softly or sing songs, or you keep their head on your lap. Of course, Belladone looked at him weirdly the first time he started singing. But she let him, because it's still enjoyable.

42. Who comes home drunk at 3am ? Belladone. Sometimes, after a long day of being a queen, you just want to unwind with your weird friends, get drunk, and act all stupid. Not befitting for the queen, of course, but she couldn’t care less about it. She’s the queen and she does whatever she wants. Including faceplanting on the bed after. And on the husband too (who may be nice, take off her shoes and put her nicely under the covers).

43. What do they do when they’re away from each other ? They are quite often away from each other. Elric has king duties, which often means getting locked into a council room and listen to endless reports for hours. Belladone too has duties, and sometimes comes with him to give advice, to the greatest dismay of the counselors. But most of the time, she goes and takes care of her own business. Mainly, she takes care of some problems and questions Elric doesn’t have the time to take care of, or doesn’t know how to. Social questions fall now under her care, and they both like it like that.

44. What are they afraid of ? Breaking up, mostly. They now rely a lot on each other, and they need each other in their lives. They would be quite lost without the other. Beside that, Belladone is scared of something happening to her country again. She wouldn’t be able to bear it if the land she loves fell under dire times again. She’s scared of something happening to her father, too. Dogmaël is a strong man, but she once saw him surrender to madness, and that’s not something she’s ready to face again.Elric is mostly afraid for his country too. For now, he was able to protect it from harm, but life won’t be that easy all the time, and wars won’t be solved with a battle and a bunch of crazy mercenaries sent in the mountains. He’s a bit afraid of something happening to Malikaï, but for now, Pervenche has revealed herself to be quite the good girlfriend for him.

45. How often do they fight ? Sadly, they fight and bicker more often than other couples, because their personnalities clash, and they are both very opinionnated people who don’t like to admit they'e wrong. It makes for… interesting conversations, especially when cultural differences come into play, and often keep on after the meeting, sometimes until late at night. But they try to resolve it like adults, by talking and trying to see things from another point of view. So lots of fights, but lots of reconciliations too.

46. What would they do if the other one was hurt ? Belladone would go on a total rampage against the one who dared laying a hand on her husband. Until Elric hurt himself during his training or something, then she would just call him an idiot to worry her like that, and take care of him in her way.Elric would probably skip the rampage part. Maybe order hissoldiers to capture the culprit, and judge him very severly, but that's all. He doesn't believe in insane violence, even in the name of revenge.

And once they have kids…

47. How many kids ? A son, Prince Romaric of Altea AND Landskrona because fuck you, even if Belladone doesn’t really have any claim on the West city anymore. But Dogmaël is totally crazy about his grandson anyway so who knows. Romaric has his mother’s looks and his father’s personnality, which means that, really, he took the best from each. He has a taste for older women (Elric swears it’s Fumée’s fault), and sometimes lets Fleur push him a bit, but overall, he’s shaping up to be a great king, once he stops daydreaming so much (fuck off, Elric, he’s only five).

48. Who is the stricter parent ? Belladone. Raised by a stern father and a formerly assassin mother (and a bunch of nurses too, but they were as stern as Dogmaël), it’s not a suprise that she’s stricter than Elric, who’s been quite coddled while young. He’s not really a pushover, of course, but he tends to be way more lenient. With Belladone, you won’t get away until your chore is done, and well done !

49. Who stays up late helping with homework ? It’s hard to find some time for your child when you’re king and queen and very invested in your kingdom’s life. But they make time. They find moments here and there to spend with Romaric, teach him little magic tricks or sword play. And as her father before her, Belladone doesn't hesitate to stop a meeting in order to admire her son's drawings or calligraphy, and give him tips and encouragements.

50. Who likes to take the family out and for what ? Belladone loves to take the family to the West, to visit the other part of the family : brothers, father, and that weird swordmaster she sometimes calls "mom" just to anger him. Elric likes to take them on long or short journeys to visit their country in all the little nooks and creeks and villages and everything, so they learn to love it as much as he does.

#lumeha #my OCs #elric of altea #belladone #a match made in heaven #really #I love those two idiots

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merlinficreview · 8 years ago

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The Student Prince: Chapter 1-5 Review!

Sorry it’s been 84 years since Romeo or I have posted anything. Romeo is back to school for the semester so her time is limited and work has been really draining on me recently. Never fear, we are still here though and I’ve got a review!

The Student Prince by FayJay

Word Count: 145222

Ok guys, this is it. The infamous Student Prince fic. I have read this one before and I liked it because it seems to be the closest fic I’ve found to a modernized version of the BBC show. Plus, as I’ve already said before, I am a sucker for Modern Royalty AUs. This fic also takes place at the University of St. Andrews, which I know nothing about. So google will be my trusty friend throughout this review.

Here we go!

Chapter 1

We begin with Merlin getting hit in the face with some luggage and falling onto some poor elderly lady. Merlin has to maintain an extra sense of control when objects are flying towards his face because he has magic and doesn’t want to out himself. Yay Modern Day Magic Fic!

So it turns out the luggage situation was someone else’s fault. “She glanced from Merlin to the lady and then back again, her face the picture of mortification, and Merlin – who had been feeling a little disgruntled about the whole unexpected-rain-of-luggage scenario – took one look at her huge brown eyes and immediately wanted to reassure her that he had thoroughly enjoyed being knocked half unconscious.” Haha, aww.

The luggage canon introduces herself as Gwen. Yay, Gwen! She is studying engineering at St. Andrews. I think it’s weird that Gwen already has all her textbooks. Have they already signed up for their classes? How would she know what to buy?

Gwen tells Merlin she also has a hammer in her bag. "’Of course there is,’ nodded Merlin, gravely. ‘Who travels without a hammer in their luggage these days? One never knows when a spot of joinery might be in order.’ The corner of his mouth twitched. ‘Stop!’ he said, raising one hand in front of him. Gwen blinked, and after a beat Merlin added: ‘Hammer Time! Dooo doodoodoo! Doodoo! Doo! Hammer Time!’ as he improvised a quick, and truly terrible, attempt at the Hammer Dance in the cramped confines of the aisle.’”

Oh my God. How embarrassing. Stop it, Merlin. Then Gwen tells Merlin that she makes her own jewelry and Merlin is super impressed. Merlin even does the dance a second time and I want to crawl in a hole and die from secondhand embarrassment. Merlin, you JUST met Gwen. Calm yourself.

“’Hey, it's not really Merlin, is it?’ Gwen asked, looking at him sidelong. ‘I mean – really really? You're pulling my leg, right? I mean – nobody's called Merlin. Why would any woman name her baby after an old man with a long white beard and a pointy hat? It's like calling your baby Gandalf.’” This is the second time Gwen has awkwardly expressed disbelief about Merlin’s name. Stop being weirdly obsessed with his name, Gwen. How fucking rude. Poor Merlin. Getting assaulted by luggage and then getting his name made fun of. Good start to college, Merlin. Good start.

Then Gwen points out that Prince Arthur is also going to be attending St. Andrews and she says Merlin and Arthur will become besties. Merlin points out that her name is Guinevere and that she’ll be future queen.

"’That isn't why I applied there,’ she insisted. ‘I mean, I know that there must be thousands of girls who filled in their UCAS forms with St Andrews just because they're living some kind of stupid “Princess Diaries” fantasy and they think they're going to meet him and he'll fall for them and they'll end up with a tiara and a load of corgis, but I'm serious about my career. St Andrews has an excellent engineering department. I was going to apply there long before I heard that's where Arthur was going.’”

But that’s not the plot of The Princess Diaries at all?

I also have the St. Andrews website pulled up because like I said, I know nothing about it, or going to school in the UK, to be honest, and it doesn’t even look like St. Andrews has an engineering department. Man, Gwen is going to be pissed when she finds out she spent all her money on textbooks for a degree her school doesn’t offer.

Then Gwen tells us how King Uther met his wife while they were at Oxford once upon a time. "It's such a beautiful story, isn't it? The way they met at Oxford when she borrowed his jar of Gold Blend, not even realising he was the Prince of Wales at first because he was in the middle of shaving and she was distracted by her friend's dog...oh, they were so in love!" Gold Blend is coffee, by the way. I had to google it too. In what situation would a man be shaving his face next to a container of instant coffee while a random dog is nearby? That’s such an odd scene to imagine. Maybe she knocked in his door to borrow the coffee and she had the dog with her? Were there co-ed dormitories back then?

Merlin is just as suspicious about this story as I am and pops Gwen’s bubble, telling her it was most likely PR. I agree.

"Merlin shook his head mutely, and carefully didn't mention any of the books or magazines he might possibly have read about Prince Arthur and his family. Especially not the outrageously hot photoshoot in GQ magazine that he'd been hiding under his bed for the past three months, and frantically jerking off to most nights. Nope, definitely not mentioning that. Gwen rolled her eyes. ‘Uther and Igraine – it's like a modern day Romeo and Juliet!’" First of all, 100% do not mention that to Gwen. Good decision. Second of all, Gwen has a really hard time grasping plots, doesn’t she? No wonder she decided to major in a non-existent department at her university. She’s not a very bright girl.

We then learn that Merlin is planning to major in physics. That is a department at St. Andrews, good job, Merlin! Then Gwen compares their journey to Hogwarts. “He found himself wishing he could explain about Professor Gaius and Doctor Nimueh, and about the kind of text books he had stuffed into the bottom of his rucksack – but that wasn't going to happen. Magic was secret, and secret it should stay. Nobody wanted to go back to the days of witchburnings.” Poor Merlin. It’s always so sad that he has to hide himself. I will also give him a pass for already having magic books because that’s different.

Gwen and Merlin talk a little more about Harry Potter and then go right back to talking about Arthur and how they’ll probably never meet him. Well…

Then Merlin gets real depressing real fast. "Whatever. All those posh interbred types with more rooms than they know what to do with and flocks of sheep wandering around on their enormous ancient estates - that's who he'll be hanging out with. Not with a physics student from a grotty little council estate in Cardiff, or an engineering student – however lovely – who lives above her dad's garage in Wembley. Face it – we don't have our own flocks of sheep." Brutal Honesty Hour! It’s my favorite time of day!

Merlin then shares some chocolate with Gwen and they enjoy the rest of their train ride.

Chapter 2

“The door was open a crack when Merlin reached his room in St Salvator's Hall, and he could hear voices inside, and what sounded rather a lot like The Rolling Stones.” I looked up St. Salvator’s Hall and holy crap those rooms are nice. According to the photos, the rooms are like twice as big as the dorm rooms of the university I went to. I also decided to compare prices, for funsies, and also to sit and cry about how much more ridiculously expensive it is to go to university here than in other countries. The fee for a shared room at St. Salvator’s Hall is £5,837 which includes a meal plan. That’s 6292.55 USD for comparison. At the University that I went to, a shared room with communal bath is 6,795 USD. This does not include a meal plan which could add up to around 800 USD if you pick the one with the most meals. Those rates are also per semester and not for the entire academic year. Now, St. Salvator’s rate does not state whether the fee is per semester or for the whole year but either way, it’s still way more expensive here in the US. It also looks like St. Salvator Hall doesn’t have communal bathrooms like the one located here that I looked up. Yay not affordable education here in the US!

Anyways, Merlin enters the room and his roommate is none other than the Prince of Wales himself, Arthur. Oh my god. I NEVER saw that one coming!

“’Only – I thought – well, I pretty much assumed that you'd be staying over at New Hall. Where they have single rooms. And ensuites with all the mod cons,’ blurted Merlin. ‘Not sharing a room in Sally's. Why are you sharing a room in Sally's?’ Arthur frowned. ‘Because I lost a bet, if you must know. With my father.’ He stared at Merlin, looking puzzled and a touch irritated. ‘You weren't expecting this, then? They didn't get you to sign things – Official Secrets Act, all that?’” I think that’s a fair question Merlin is asking and I also want to know what sort of bet Arthur lost. How fucking awkward that no one alerted Merlin to who his roommate was supposed to be. Don’t they give out roommate names before the semester starts?

So then Arthur gets bitchy that Merlin hasn’t signed a non-disclosure agreement. “Well – sorry if this sounds, you know, rude, but basically if you touch any of my stuff, or take photos of me or my friends, or tape conversations, or sell your story to the press, or – basically, if you act like a dick, right? Well, we're talking Tower of London, pretty much. That's the Cliff Notes version.”

Calm the fuck down, Arthur. Throwing Merlin in the tower for borrowing your history book is way too excessive. So then Merlin asks if he can make a citizen’s arrest if Arthur does any the aforementioned things to Merlin. Good job, Merlin. Arthur is a complete asshole about that, acting like Merlin’s stuff is grosser than the stuff on the bottom on Arthur’s shoes and tells Merlin he will replace anything he ruins with something of “equal value.” "’Like a stick of gum,’ murmured Kay, sniggering.” Yeah, be prepared to really really fucking hate Kay in this. "’I can see why you have to swear people to secrecy, if this is how you act when you're not around a reporter,’ blurted out Merlin, feeling cheated. ‘You really are a massive prat, aren't you? A smug, self-entitled, patronising git.’” Yassssss. You tell him, Merlin.

Arthur and his friends leave and then Merlin goes to find Gaius. We learn a little about the School of Sorcery. This School can be found in every single building on campus, one just has to find the special door with a dragon on it. Merlin finds the door located in his residence hall. Of course the dragon on the door talks to Merlin, "’Young Merlin!’ it said, in a voice like a rusty gate, blinking sulphurous eyes impossibly as it writhed through the wood like an eel in water. ‘Back so soon?’ ‘What?’ Merlin stared at it. ‘I haven't – this is my first time here, Master Dragon.’” So we get a little hint of reincarnation.

Merlin finds Gaius who tries to shoo him away until Merlin gives him his name. Gaius changes his tune after that and tells Merlin he knew his father. The first thing Merlin does is complain about sharing a room with Prince Arthur. He says it will make it too hard to hide his magic. “Gaius blinked at him owlishly. ‘Then I suggest that you learn some discretion, young man, and quickly,’ he said.’” That is such an annoying adult thing to say. What a non-answer. Poor Merlin. Gaius tells Merlin he is supposed to be rooming with Arthur so he can protect him and that wizards have always protected kings and queens. Merlin is unhappy with this news.

Chapter 3

This chapter opens with:

“Hey, Gwen – how's McIntosh Hall?

Brilliant! How's Sallies?

View good, mattress soft, roommate total plonker. Yours?

She seems OK. Sorry you got plonker. Want to meet later & go to Union together?

God, yes please!” It’s written just like that (italics represent direct quotes and bold represents italics within the fic. You know the drill). I assume they are texting.

Anyways: “It was the tail-end of summer, but apparently that meant something rather different on the East coast of Scotland than it did in Wales, and by the time Merlin got to Gwen's Hall of Residence he was wishing he'd brought a coat, rather than just pulling on a black v-neck jumper.” Does Merlin not know how to read a map, or?

Like… I know the UK is small compared to the US but he can’t really be that surprised that the Northern part of the UK is colder than the Southern part. There’s almost 500 miles in between Cardiff and St. Andrews. I’m glad Merlin isn’t majoring in geography.

So Merlin meets up with Gwen outside her residence hall where she has acquired a gentleman caller. It’s probably Lance. Merlin and Gwen hug. “’Hey, you,’ he said into her hair, feeling something in his chest tighten unexpectedly. ‘I missed you.’”

Calm down, Merlin. You’ve known her for thirty seconds and only been away for her for three of those.

Lance is not happy with Merlin’s presence. “’Hi, Lance,’ he said, ducking his head in Lance's general direction. Lance smiled back – or at least, he bared his teeth, which was almost the same thing. Merlin had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. ‘Hi,’ said Lance reaching out a hand that Merlin rather suspected was going to be bone-crushing. He let go of Gwen and accepted the handshake, and managed not to buckle under the pressure of Lance's Very Manly Indeed deathgrip of macho posturing.” LOL HOW HILARIOUS. Men treating women like objects and prizes to be won. Real knee slapper, that joke.

Gwen tells Merlin that Lance is going to be her Academic Dad and then informs us that there’s only 8 weeks until Raisin Weekend. Thanks, Exposition Gwen! So I also googled this Academic Family business since that’s not a thing we have here. So, basically an Academic Mum and Academic Dad are like mentors for first year students and freshmen are allowed to ask for someone to be their Academic Mother but the Academic Dad has to do the asking to the freshmen. So it makes no sense that Gwen was so shocked about Lance asking her. Whatever. Raisin Weekend is basically just an excuse to drink excessively with your Academic Parents and dress up in costumes that Monday and have shaving cream fights. Typical college nonsense.

“’Well, if I'd known they were giving away hot blokes with every room, I'd definitely have put my name down for McIntosh Hall.’ Lance made a startled noise, and his territorial expression shifted rather quickly into something entirely different and almost maiden auntish as Gwen punched Merlin's arm.” Get it, because Gay Merlin is no longer a threat to Lance chasing after Gwen. No one tell Lance bisexual people exist. I think his head would explode. No, you know what? Someone should tell him. He’s an asshole.

“Lance gave her a slightly sheepish grin. ‘It's okay,’ he said. ‘I'll be your designated driver – I'm not big on the alcohol.’ ‘I don't need a designated driver,’ said Gwen, looking at him sidelong. ‘It's a three minute walk! It would take longer to get a car started than it would to get there!’ ‘Right – well, designated guard dog, then. Or knight in shining armour, or guardian angel, or overprotective Dad – whatever you want to call it. I don't drink, so, you know – I'll make sure you're okay. Promise.’”

Oh my God. Slow your fucking roll and let her do what she wants. She’s not some poor defenseless damsel in distress.

Lance gives off an extreme sense of superiority in this fic. He’s a Buddhist, doesn’t drink, volunteers all over the fucking place as Professional Knight in Shining armor and he’s vegan. “’My Dad disapproves of the veganism,’ he admitted, sheepishly. ‘But it's not so hard, really. It feels good, knowing who I am, and what I want out of life. Being mindful in all things.’” Be more pretentious, Lance. Really, I want to see if you can top all of that.

“Merlin studied Lance, trying not to be too damned obvious about it. He wasn't at all sure if this guy was for real, or if he was playing some kind of elaborate joke, with all this holier-than-thou schtick. There was a disconcerting intensity to the man. Merlin wanted to like him, but he wasn't at all sure what to make of him. He did seem a bit too good to be true.” See, Merlin knows.

Oh and Lance is going to teach Gwen kickboxing. He has classes on Wednesday. Of course he does. Merlin is not into it, especially after meeting one of Lance’s students, Elaine. “Merlin looked at her biceps and swallowed. ‘Yeah – no thanks,’ he said, with a watery grin. ‘I've got a suspicion she'd crush me like a bug.’” Mostly I just included this because I wanted to talk about the phrase, “watery grin.” I see this ALL THE TIME in fanfic and it drives me crazy. What the fuck is a “watery grin?” If your smile is “watery,” swallow your fucking spit. That’s disgusting.

“Gwen bit her lip and glanced up at them. ‘Would you hate me forever if I left you for five minutes?’ she asked. ‘I need the ladies' room. I know I should have gone before we left, but I was caught up talking, and I didn't get around to it. Can you wait for me?’ ‘Until the stars fall from the sky,’ said Lance, bowing with an elaborate flourish that made Gwen roll her eyes.”

I don’t even have a response to this bullshit.

So Gwen goes to the bathroom and Merlin does his, “hurt her and I’ll kill you,” speech to Lance and afterwards they become friends and Lance offers to be Merlin’s Academic Dad.

When Gwen comes back she is absolutely flipping her shit because she saw Arthur. “’ComeOnComeOnComeOnComeOn!’ she said in a singsong voice. ‘You should see him! He's sitting at a table! Drinking a beer!’” Yes, let’s all go and gawk at him like an animal in the zoo. Gwen and Lance are being really annoying so far.

So Merlin tells Gwen that Arthur is his roommate and that he’s an asshole. He then requests that they not go stare at him like total creepers. Gwen is not happy. “He looked at Gwen and sighed. ‘Look, I promise that you'll get to see him again. In fact I'll text you when he's in the room, so you'll know when's a good time to swing by and visit me in Sally's and meet him properly. I'm sure he'd love to pose for a photo with you, and give you his signature, and all that kind of meet'n'greet thing.’” Ok, Merlin. This shit is why Arthur already doesn’t like you. No inviting people over to stalk your roommate and make promises on his behalf. Stop it.

They all go dance and Merlin makes a fool of himself doing the hammer dance, covered in glitter, wearing DIY hammer dance pants (I don’t know) that he got from… somewhere. Arthur stares at him and Merlin falls off the stage.

Chapter 4

Merlin wonders how many other sorcerers are at St. Andrews and we learn that he is there on scholarship. Must be nice. My poor loan debt ass is going to be paying for the two years I spent in nursing school for like ten years. Cheers.

Merlin hears Gwen laughing, “He spotted her over on the other side of the room, in front of a table advertising the St Andrews Fencing Society.” Gwen? Fencing? I mean, I guess. Why not? She’ll have a lot of time on her hands when she realizes the major she’s chosen doesn’t exist at that school. Gwen is with her roommate, Sophia.

“With that thought in mind, he marched purposefully over to the rainbow-festooned table advertising the St Andrews LGBT Society in cheery glittering letters. ‘Sign me up,’ he said, firmly, grinning at a bald girl with enough silver in her various cavities to sink a small ship. ‘I'm a card-carrying friend of Dorothy, and I'm gagging for a shag.’” What a colorful way to introduce yourself, Merlin.

Merlin stops in the middle of registering for his LGBT club to fantasize about Arthur. As you do. “’Oh, marvellous,’ said a faintly familiar voice behind him, rippling with laughter. ‘Oh, that's just perfect. Does Arthur know yet?’” The person is Morgana, “’Er...?’ he said, trying to think where he knew her from. ‘Sorry, are you talking to me?’ ‘He doesn't, does he? There'd have been even more bitching and whining if he did,’ she said, decisively. ‘Oh, this is going to be good.’” Get it? Because Arthur’s homophobia is such a hilarious joke and it’s going to be SO LAUGHABLE when he finds out his roommate is gay.

Merlin goes out for coffee with Morgana, who I do like in this fic minus her laughing at Merlin’s sexual orientation in the previous scene. Morgana asks Merlin if he is in to Arthur. “He's an insufferable, rude, arrogant, overprivileged berk, and I wouldn't suck his cock if he was the last man on earth and he was paying me, so there!” Me thinks the man doth protest too much.

“Fine. We won't talk about how much you want to get into my cousin's royal boxer shorts. So – magic!” Morgana gives no fucks. I like that about her. Merlin freaks out because you can’t just go talking about magic all willy nilly like that. Merlin insists on calling magic “macramé,” but Morgana is having none of it. They decided that their cover story for being so familiar with one another is that they have played World of Warcraft for years and are finally meeting in person. Sure. We also learn that Morgana is studying Art History. Good job, Morgana. That is also a subject that St. Andrews provides.

“’Now then – word on the street is that you might actually be worthy of that remarkable name.’ She took a long, thoughtful drag, and Merlin watched blue curls of smoke snake out of her nostrils like she was some kind of very small, elegant dragon. ‘Is it true that you changed the seasons?’ she asked. ‘No!’ Merlin said. ‘Or at least – well, not on purpose.’” Yikes, Merlin. I guess Merlin was 10 and throwing a tantrum about cherries not being in season so he changed the season from winter to summer. He also summoned a kracken when he was 12 years old on a school field trip. Poor Hunith having to deal with Merlin. He sounds like an insufferable child.

They then proceed to get drunk and Morgana becomes Merlin’s Academic Mother thingy. Merlin gets Morgana to be Gwen’s as well.

Chapter 5

Merlin gets back to his dorm and Arthur is there. Arthur apologizes to Merlin and suggests they start over. Arthur then realizes that Merlin is drunk. Merlin drunkenly tells Arthur that he is friends with Morgana and they were drinking together and that she is now Merlin’s Academic Mother. Turns out she is also Arthur’s. Who didn’t see that one coming? Arthur admits that he looked Merlin up and knows a lot of stuff about him. Merlin says stuff he shouldn’t say, basically admitting he is a sorcerer and he finds Arthur hot and Arthur doesn’t pick up on any of it. Arthur is stupid.

Merlin starts to fall asleep on the floor and Arthur can’t have that, for platonic friend reasons, and so he gets Merlin into bed and decides to help him drink water and take some pain killers. “There was an uncertain space of time, and then Merlin was being manhandled upright by someone warm and shirtless, who smelled good. Merlin knew he smelled good because he was slumped bonelessly with his nose pressed into the hollow of a freshly-washed collarbone. Because it seemed like a good idea, he licked it, and made a small appreciative sound, and then tried a gentle bite. The owner of the collarbone gave a startled hiss, and flinched away, but didn't drop him; and the voice, when it came again, was decidedly hoarse.”

See, Arthur is fucking stupid. If a friend/someone I wasn’t into randomly bit and licked my chest, drunk or not, I would be like, “yo, that’s not cool.” Because that’s not something someone does with their platonic friend.

When Merlin wakes up, “Another thought wandered idly through his brain, and he was faintly aware that it was significant: he wasn't alone. He was, in fact, wrapped around somebody else in the manner of an affectionate baby octopus, one leg tangled between theirs, one arm hooked firmly around a neat naked waist and his mouth pressed damply into the warm, soft-sharp curve of a shoulder blade.” Arthur is awake too, “Do you have any idea of how much fun and frivolity I could have been having last night, while you were busy cutting off the circulation in my limbs? I'll have you know I was going to have a fantastic evening.”

Umm… you made the choice to stay behind and spend the night cuddling your roommate, Arthur. You could have shoved him over if you wanted to.

Merlin and Arthur go get breakfast together. Merlin texts Gwen to tell her about Morgana being their Academic Mother and that she is also Arthur’s. Gwen freaks the fuck out.

That’s it for this review. It’s a decent set-up to the fic. We get to know a little bit about Merlin and how powerful he is. We also have a rough start to the Arthur/Merlin friendship but then it’s nice to see Arthur actually own up to his shit and apologize to Merlin. Arthur is stupid for not realizing how into him Merlin is. Gwen and Lance have been pretty annoying so far and if I remember correctly, they continue to be insufferable for the majority of this fic because their “will they won’t they” cliché set-up is stupid.

Until next time

#merlin #bbc merlin #merlin fic #review #the student prince #modern royalty au #Merlin has magic #arthur is dumb #gwen and lance are annoying

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