#simple good sense for a duke's daughter

[average-transdalorian]

Oh god I’ve hit Characters with my analysis beam again

(Aka, my thoughts on Turn A’s “the world isn’t quite ready for me to begin an Industrial Revolution in a skirt” scene, by way of analyzing Lily Borjarno and Guin Sard Rhineford*)

*Yes I understand that Lineford is technically the canon transliteration, I just find Rhineford to be a more evocative name

So! This is the interaction in question

Seems simple enough; Guin wants to be a titan of progress, thinks violating the social norms around clothing would get in the way of that, and Lily tells him “fuck social norms, I, a woman, will lead as I am,” right?

Well. Mostly.

The thing is, Guin’s missing half of the conversation. Lord Guin Sard Rhineford is the ruler of the region of Inglessia, and seems to have inherited both that title and a strong industrial base from his father, or perhaps his grandfather. How the family obtained such rulership is left to the imagination, but, given their apparent closeness with the Heim family, their industrial strength, and Guin’s habit of personally tinkering with and repairing his car (a hobby unfit for a well-bred gentleman, given the dirtiness involved in it), it seems likely to me that they are new money. Guin himself is incredibly ambitious, with a stated motivation of wanting to become president of Ameria, which at this point seems to be several disparate regions, each presided over by their local nobility. He has a keen mind, and changes his plans on several occasions so that events will shake out with him having more power than before (confounding the negotiations with the Moonrace in the 2 years before they land so that he can gain more by negotiating in person, claiming ownership of the Willgem, the Earthers’ only spacecraft, striking an alliance with Gym Ghingham in order to obtain technological blueprints from the Moon, and a military force with which to conquer the Earth), and is rather straightforward, only using the slightest bit of deception in his tactics, for things like getting Loran and the Turn A on the Willgem as he ditches Kihel, Dianna, Lily, Sochie, and assorted others. That straightforwardness is half of what makes the above conversation more complex than the surface reading would indicate.

Enter Lily Borjarno. Daughter of Lord Borjarno, and heir to the region of Luzianna (well, as far as I can tell. The wiki insists that she is the youngest of 13, but I also recall the show suggesting that she’s heir apparent, so perhaps she’s his favorite as well), Lily initially seems to be an effusive young woman, who is good-natured, although maybe a bit petty. And that’s not necessarily incorrect; that rather does seem to be her own personality more than a mask she wears! However, that impression belies the keen mind underneath, one easily capable of subtle political maneuvering, and also noticing (and double checking) that the Zacktraegar seemed to have some semblance of gravity. Lily is very clever, and easy enough to dismiss as a silly and spoiled noblewoman, which gives her the potential to be delightfully dangerous. Take, for instance, one of her earlier interactions with “Kihel” (Dianna in disguise); in what seems to be a fit of whimsy, perhaps prettily driven by “Kihel”’s apparent closeness with Guin, Lily pushes “Kihel” into working as a nurse in one of Luzianna’s field hospitals. This seemed to be a little bit mean-spirited when I first watch it, but looking back, it’s more clearly Lily testing “Kihel,” finding out where this potential-ally’s limits, moral sense, and work ethic all lie. “Kihel” passes the test with flying colors, and the two (three, technically) seem to be friends from there on out. The point is, Lily was subtle. This matches with the way the Borjarno family seems to be old money, in contrast with the Rhinefords; their mobile suits are named after the family, the Duke is thank god I double checked, I was combining two entirely separate characters in my head. That would’ve been embarrassing. Erizona has a Duke, not Luzianna, and the military dress uniform I was about to go on a tangent about belongs to some other guy.

Cough. Anyways. The way Lord Borjarno interacts with his people compared to the way Guin interacts with his suggests to me that the Borjarno family are well-bred and can be considered old money, which matches with the land they have too. Luzianna has plentiful fertile farmland, while Inglessia contains much rockier soil, and likely would’ve struggled to find economic importance as anything beyond the ports within until the Rhinefords’ industrial power came to be. As old money, the Borjarnos would be more used to the subtleties of noble politics, and Lily truly grasps subtlety well. This is the other half of that conversation’s complexity.

Let’s take a look at it again, shall we?

Here, Lily starts by asking a question in a rather sideways manner. While the words are about a skirt, she’s really asking Guin “if you love Loran as much as you claim to, why are you trying to force him to conform to your wants in a partner?” Guin’s answer reveals three things.

1. He values gathering power (in this case, being the sole leader of industrial development) over his other desires, something which is entirely consistent with his characterization thus far

2. He places Loran’s wants and needs in a relationship below his own (something which Lily likely already gleaned from his continuing to call Loran “Laura,” despite that persona having been retired at this point, but which she probably appreciated confirmation of)

3. Guin missed the metaphor entirely. Guin’s response is almost entirely a non-sequitur when taken as a response to Lily’s real question, and of course it would be! Guin, while capable of deception, is a rather straightforward man, of course he misses Lily’s subtly hidden question!

And knowing this, Lily decides to drive home a point that Guin will also miss. “I’ll govern Ameria in a skirt!” She says, and while this is a proclamation of how she plans to break the status quo and take a position of great power as a woman in the equivalent of the 1920s, it’s also a declaration that she won’t abandon the things she loves at the altar of political gain. She won’t leave behind her skirts, her hats, her parasols, or her friends, and will instead bring them forward with her, because she well and truly loved them.

And Guin misses that point.

And Guin ends Turn A Gundam with none of his resources, influence, or allies, save for an odd girl whom he doesn’t particularly like, while Lily ends Turn A Gundam with the influence they both had at its beginning, and new friends, allies, and technology besides.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

In words laden with affection and warmth, Prince Philip told the then Princess Elizabeth how he had fallen in love with her 'unreservedly.'

The letter, written in 1946 — a year before their wedding — was among several revealed in Philip Eade's 2011 book Young Prince Philip: His Turbulent Early Life.

The Duke of Edinburgh, who has died aged 99, told the Princess how falling in love with her so 'completely' had made his personal troubles and even those of the world 'seem small and petty.'

He also found it difficult to put his feelings into words, describing in another message after they had spent time together how he felt incapable of 'showing you the gratitude that I feel.'

And he told the Queen Mother in the year of her daughter's wedding to him how 'Lilibet was the only thing in this world, which is absolutely real to me.'

Love letters

Philip served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War and saw active service against German, Italian, and Japanese forces.

The Greek prince's early life was also marked by upheaval — he escaped his home country as a baby by being hidden in a makeshift cot made from an orange box.

So his words were filled with meaning when he told Princess Elizabeth in 1946 how his love for her made all his past struggle — and the horrors the world had just been through — seem trivial by comparison.

He wrote:

'To have been spared in the war and seen victory, to have been given the chance to rest and to re-adjust myself, to have fallen in love completely and unreservedly, makes all one's personal and even the world's troubles seem small and petty.'

Three years earlier, Philip had spent Christmas at Windsor Castle.

Princess Elizabeth was said to be animated in a way 'none of us had ever seen before,' her governess, Marion Crawford, wrote.

Writing to her after seeing her again in July, Philip wrote of the 'simple enjoyment of family pleasures and amusements and the feeling that I am welcome to share them.'

'I am afraid I am not capable of putting all this into the right words and I am certainly incapable of showing you the gratitude that I feel.'

The same year, he apologised for the 'monumental cheek' of turning up to Buckingham Palace uninvited.

'Yet however contrite I feel, there is always a small voice that keeps saying "Nothing ventured, nothing gained,"' he wrote.

'Well did I venture, and I gained a wonderful time.'

And in a letter to the Queen Mother two weeks after his wedding to Princess Elizabeth in November 1947, Philip expressed his vision for their time together.

He said:

'Lilibet is the only thing in this world, which is absolutely real to me, and my ambition is to wield the two of us into a new combined existence that will not only be able to withstand the shocks directed at us but will also have a positive existence for the good... Cherish Lilibet?'

'I wonder if that word is enough to express what is in me. Does one cherish one's sense of humour or one's musical ear or one's eyes?

'I am not sure, but I know that I thank God for them and so, very humbly, I thank God for Lilibet and us.'

Public speeches

The pair's wedding, attended by an array of foreign kings and queens, captured the public imagination in the austere post-war days of November 1947.

The newly-weds were called the Fairy Princess and Prince Charming.

After honeymooning at Broadlands, Hampshire, home of Lord Mountbatten, and at Birkhall on the Balmoral estate in Scotland, Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh stayed at Buckingham Palace until renovation of their new home, nearby Clarence House, was completed in 1949.

And in the years since then, both Philip and the Queen have spoken of each other with affection in public.

In a 1997 toast during the couple's 50th wedding anniversary, he said:

'I think the main lesson that we have learned is that tolerance is the one essential ingredient of any happy marriage.

It may not be quite so important when things are going well, but it is absolutely vital when the going gets difficult.

You can take it from me that the Queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance.'

She said on the same evening that Philip had been her 'strength and stay all these years.'

'I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know,' she added.

In 2002, at her Golden Jubilee Speech, the monarch said of her consort:

'The Duke of Edinburgh has made an invaluable contribution to my life over these past fifty years, as he has to so many charities and organisations with which he has been involved.'

And, during her Diamond Jubilee address to Parliament in 2012, the Queen said to her husband:

'During these years as your Queen, the support of my family has, across the generations, been beyond measure.

Prince Philip is, I believe, well-known for declining compliments of any kind. But throughout he has been a constant strength and guide.'

Private moments

Philip was there for the Queen when her father, King George VI, died in February 1952.

Only six days before her father's death, the then Princess and Philip had embarked on their tour of Australia via Kenya.

According to Eade in his book, Philip said of the days following the King's death that 'there were plenty of people telling me what not to do.'

He added:

'I had to try to support the Queen as best I could without getting in the way. The difficulty was to find things that might be useful.'

And according to an anecdote told by Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia, Philip is said to have told the Queen when recalling their first meeting in 1934 that — 'you were so shy. I could not get a word out of you.'

Mischievous Philip is also said to have joked to his wife on the day of her coronation in 1953 — when she was wearing the 17th-century St Edward's Crown — 'where did you get that hat.'

Elizabeth II (21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022)

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021)

[wixxid]

IVORY  · PART V

Fandom: Dune

Pairings: Feyd-Rautha x Atreides!Female OC

Words: 2,238

Warnings: dark themes, violence, death and mention of cannibalism

Summary: Your pride and loneliness gets the better, as you choose to pry in what you should avoid.

Desecrated.

It's tender to the touch. Bruised. The simple trace of your finger is enough to draw a frown. The mottled skin of your throat is obvious. A terrible site to bare witness, but there's more; a scattered mess mares your body.

The powders have no affect in hiding their existence, and so you resorted to covering them with fabric. It's better the people don't see. It's better your father and kin don't realise the damage of only one night. If they did, they might not leave you here, and the point of all this would be for nothing.

A waste.

You've come this far and you've survived. It's not for anyone else but for you to decide when it ends. It could be weeks, years or even decades, but you know this marriage is worth more than your life. It means a future for thousands of others, if not millions.

Turning from the mirror, you nod for the servants to continue dressing you. The early morning marks the hour of your fathers return to Caladan. He and the others are set to leave this planet, and you want them to leave with hope and pride.

Honour.

You aren't going to dress like your new people, nor will you ever behave like them. The void of their culture won't ever touch your soul. Instead, the servants prepare you in one of the gowns bought from home. A statement both daring and bold.

"Is it time?" you question, to which the servant nods. She's the very same to whom had once adorned the bruises you do now. For reasons unknown, you had taken a liking to the woman. "Good."

Taking a deep breath as you left your chamber, you couldn't help but yearn for what freedom you might find outside these walls; if for only a short time. If only to see your father depart this abysmal world. Gathering yourself, it was only your lone servant who guided you through the palace and up to the hithe.

The dark star that cloaks this planet bore light, and you wince as it floods your gentle eyes; having been weeks since you'd taken in anything other than the artificial. Even the air is harder to breath despite being outside; far too poisoned with fumes.

In the distance you see the great ship to which you'd arrived in, still gleaming unlike anything you'd ever seen. A beacon. There's very few in the galaxy who have or ever will travel the vastness of space. In fact, the first time you'd ever done so was to bring yourself here.

"I didn't think you would come," spoke your father. Standing in uniform, he greets you well kept but with a face of despair. The loom that surrounds him is heartbreaking. "I didn't think you would want to see me."

"Then you think too much," you replied with a faint smile. "You're my father - my duke. You're an honorable man who deserves to be farewelled."

"An honorable man wouldn't trade his daughter to the enemy."

His words hit you like a bullet. Painful. The surrounding noise grows overwhelming to the senses. Hypersensitive. You can hear the ships, the soldiers and even the planet itself resonating from all-round. Even the wind across your face feels strange.

But as you look at your fathers rugged face, see his familiar eyes and features, you feel the noise fade away. You can see the burden he's carrying. You know this was as difficult for him as it is for you. It isn't fair or right for him to keep carrying it.

"There is no call we do not answer," you repeat in mantra. "We do what we must for the good of the people." Resting a hand on his shoulder, you give a light squeeze. "We do what we must to survive."

"You're strong, just like your mother," he nods with a chuff. "You always have been."

Stepping forward, he places a soft kiss on your forehead and your eyes close amidst the threat of tears. You want to remember him as he is and as the kind-heartedness that he represents. Steadily breathing, you absorb his gentle touch and scent; to which you won't soon forget.

"We'll see each other again," he promises with a touch of your cheek. "I'll make sure of it."

Nodding your head with a mustered smile, the duke straightens himself before taking a step back. There are no other exchanges as he moves to make way for the ship. It's a quick farewell, anything more would be too difficult; too emotional.

"My lady," utters Gurney. Stepping forward, he takes your hand to lay a quick peck. "As a man of your fathers council, loyal friend and protector, it pains me that my only power now is to wish you well."

"Fate is a complexity, is it not?" you jest upon looking at your retreating fathers form. In all seriousness you added, "You'll protect him, won't you - and Paul?"

He pauses, "With my life."

"Then there's nothing to fear," you mutter beneath your breath. A rush of relief washes your bones, perhaps a premonition. "Thank you, Gurney."

Giving a curt nod, he bid himself goodbye before following suit to board the ship; along with the rest. Watching alongside what few soldiers and groundmen there are, you waited by until the doors ceiled. The tender strings in your heart tug at the site.

Loneliness is cruel.

Yet, a shadow looms on the metal floor of the platform. Piter. The mentat appeared from seemingly nowhere, and to your irritably, is the only one of any importance to see your father and people off on their long voyage.

"Where are they?" you question bluntly, not bothering so much as to look at him. Your eyes are still sharply focused on the starship. "Why didn't they come?"

In truth, it doesn't matter that your new family by law had not shown for the occasion. They hadn't done you the courtesy of it upon arrival, and so what little there is to have changed in their humiliation. You only ask in leu of the open wound it now salts.

"Pressing matters," spoke Piter. "The Baron's time is precious. It's best not to waste what isn't so clearly desired."

"And what of Feyd-Rautha?" you queried whilst turning to face the mentat; heated eyes meeting cold ones. "Is his time as coveted?"

"The answer isn't pleasant."

"I didn't ask if it were pleasant."

"Take the day," retorts Piter as he looks out towards the horizon. "This is your home now - you should see it."

The anger within your veins begins to boil. It vexes you that this twisted man won't simply answer what should be the simplest question. It causes your mind to tick, wondering what it could possibly be to make him so reluctant; secretive.

"Do I have to pry it out of you?"

The threat did nothing to change his monotone demeanor, but you can tell he'd heard you well and clear. A break of silence fills the void between you, until finally there is no more effort for him to conceal the truth. He confesses with a neutral tone.

"Prying only leads you to places you shouldn't be," he states before glancing at your servant. "But this one can show you the way."

Glancing over your shoulder, you eye the woman; head bowed low. Piter stays while you take your leave of the hithe. You'd expected him to be stronger, but his words of warning begin ring. Perhaps he's right to stave you from the trail you now follow.

"This way," utters your servant.

Following her lead, she moves at a slow pace; an evident lack of urgency. The reason is an evident one. Venturing into the palace walls and traversing the halls, the farther you travel, the more you studied the lithe and pale woman.

The muscles in her neck twitch and strain ever so subtly. A sign of distress. The way she grips her hands together, so tightly, as if she were trying to cling on, only makes you all the more intrigued yet disturbed.

"Where are we going?"

Keeping her head bowed she responds, "We're almost there."

The answer is hardly clear enough to process. Empty. The abundance of riddling and vague responses you've received only adds to your tart aggravation. It's baneful, with how the Harkonnen's have polluted this place with such fear and secrets.

A terrible infestation.

Eventually, the servant stops outside that of a chamber door; similar to your own but far removed. This place is located deeper within the palace, if at all possible. You can see her milky skin prickle and shiver beneath her thin dress.

You order, "Stay close."

Swiping a hand over the console, the door opens wide; revealing a bright illumination as it beams down from the ceiling. As you step forward, your shoes click against the glossy ground whilst the door close from behind; entrapping the two of you.

The channel of light strikes down upon the epicenter of the room, clearly irradiating the psychotic man you'd been seeking; although he's far from alone. As criminal and dangerous as he may be, his blood still belongs to great wealth.

Feyd stands within the down cast of light, muscular arms outreached while servants attend to his requisite. In a warped sense, his marbled pose and aura makes you think of an something akin to ancient; like a god from the old world.

A god of death.

The other servants are quick to stop and turn heads at your unexpected arrival, but Feyd remains unbothered. Evidently, there's not a soul on this planet for him to fear. However, his attendants have paused far too long for his liking.

Feyd turns slowly, clearly agitated at whomever had decided to enter his domain. His sharpened features don't soften upon realising your presence. Instead, he looks you up and down rather analytically.

He rumbles, "What do you want?"

"Respect," you answer simple and low. "Honour."

Feyd's lip twitches in a slight grimace and snarl. It's enough to show blackened teeth, to which you still find utterly unsettling. Feyd waves off a servant, before turning his undivided attention towards you; malicious.

"Honour," he repeats as he stalks towards you; one step at a time. "For who? For you?"

"For us both," you respond as he circles behind you. "The empire watches - waiting to see what will happen next. Now all they see is you - absent from the honour my house was due this morning."

"You Atreides," he drawls with a grumble. A flutter of feminine giggles echo from the far corner of the room. "You're all the same."

Feyd moves from behind you, instead leading himself to a table. It gave you a chance to take in the room. The servants stand predictably petrified, while three others sat lounged on a booth; the strange women are intermingled with one another.

"Would you like some fresh meat my darlings?" he boasted, whilst lifting a knife from the counter. It took you all of a moment to realise he's no longer speaking to you, but to the women on the lounge. "What would you like? A lung? A liver?"

Their own blackened mouths show in a mixture of smiles and grins. Deranged. Their giggles and moans visibly shift the tension. The other servants seem to faulter on the spot; their heads tucking lower and bodies tremoring.

"You," he leers at your own servant. "Come."

"No," you quip without hesitation. The last thing that'll happen in this room will be his hands touching the woman who stands so vulnerably behind your body of protection. "She isn't yours to torment."

"Everything's mine," he replies while approaching his nearest attendant.

You watch the girls lips quiver and eyes widen as his blade thrusts into her abdomen; once, then twice and again. She groans and splutters whilst falling to the ground in a matter of seconds. Butcher.

A pool of blood seeps as he turns to add, "Even you, Atreides."

The violent execution shocks you deep within, and control is hard to fight for as your emotions take hold like a vice. You're trying not to scream. You're trying not to react as to give him satisfaction. Instead, you watch as the girl continues to die, his victim twitching and suffering on the floor; dying then dead.

"There," he gestures matter-of-factly. "My honour."

His reasoning makes no sense. It's all madness to you. Murder. Lifting the dagger, he observes the blood which coats the blade. Transfixed. The gleam in his wicked eyes is unmistakable, but the gravity of it even more so, when his tongue licks a line of blood.

"Because of me," he elaborates. "My darlings are satisfied. Because of me, they're to live another day. There is honour in being master."

Your gaze flickers from him to the three women who sit intertwined on the lounge. It sounds as exactly as he'd announced, but you simply don't want to fathom the truth. These are fowl notions, even for the likes of his kind.

It sickens you more than the memory of his touch.

Listening to the women revel amongst themselves, they seem clearly pleased with their masters slaughter and offering. Feyd gestures and the others are swift to drag the fresh corpse from site; leaving a trail of smeared blood.

Concubines and cannibals.

[deke-rivers-1957]

ECU Film Ranking Part 2

This is the 2nd part of a 3 part series where after 10 or so movies, I’ll rank them in reverse order with 10 being the worst and 1 being the best. My ranks are based on how much I liked the movie, how much I liked Elvis’ character, and how well it was executed. Each entry will have an explanation so I hope my opinions make sense. If you have any disagreements feel free to share them. Enjoy!

This is going to shock everyone since I just posted a scathing review on Harum Scarum. However, after looking back at the last 10 movies, Change of Habit having a wishy washy political standing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. How am I supposed to enjoy this movie when you have rage reduction therapy being used on an 8 year girl, very harmful portrayals of minorities and the gratuitous usage of slurs? The gritty nature of this movie doesn't work when you have the rage reduction scene be immediately followed by the characters having a jolly good time at the park. It doesn't allow you to emotionally recover from the horrifying sight that was at the time a "groundbreaking treatment". It also doesn't help that Dr. John Carpenter was such a boring character to the point where Sister Michelle overshadowed him. Where would he be if he never met the Sisters? Absolutely fine. Sure he would still be in want of help, but it isn't as if his clinic was in danger of closing. Elvis might have top billing but this is not an Elvis movie which makes it even more sad that this was his final acting role. Instead of being the proverbial last hurrah, this was the final nail in the coffin for his Hollywood career.

This is unmistakably an Elvis movie. The problem is that it's just bad. You immediately question the movie's logic from minute one of actual movie time and it doesn't get better from there. It at the very least has the benefit of taking place in a fictional country. Despite being heavily inspired by the Middle East and actual Islamic beliefs, Lunarkand is not a real place. So when I criticize the cultural representation, it's because I pick up on the similarities with what's true in the real world. That still doesn't save the world building from being super confusing. Especially when you consider the in universe possibility that Johnny will one day be King of Lunarkand. The fact that something that significant isn't even acknowledged in the movie is baffling. It's also bizarre how Johnny was portrayed as this overpowered action hero yet by the end of the movie Johnny doesn't even beat Sinan or Prince Dragna. While it was his idea to protect the King while they stormed the palace, Sinan was taken out in the most nonsense way possible, and Prince Dragna was defeated offscreen by the King in a fight scene we only saw the beginning of. This makes Johnny's ending unsatisfying as he got such a huge "prize" when he didn't really do that much. The world that was created for this story feels broken and I have no idea how you could fix it. Especially when you consider that all of what happens in this movie takes place over Johnny's week long vacation. Anything longer would create even more plot holes on how he could be gone without anyone including the United States government immediately try contacting the King.

Story wise this movie has a clear direction. Do I agree with all decisions that were made? No but I can at least understand why they had to keep things simple. It was an Elvis movie in the early 1960s, so emphasizing Mike's PTSD more than they did wouldn't match the otherwise light hearted tone. That being said, the romance is very boring to watch. How does Margarita being an ousted Duchess impact anything? It doesn't. Her and the former Duke are working at a luxurious resort in Acapulco. Sure it isn't glamorous nobility life, but it's better than what a lot of people in the Mexican working class had. Therefore, I just have no reason to care about the Duke wanting his daughter to get an American VISA. If Mike had never come to Acapulco, they would've continued to live a comfortable life without any foreseeable threat of poverty. It only comes off as forced so Mike and Margarita end up together when they don't have that much chemistry. Mike has more chemistry with Raoul who is a 10 year old boy that acts as his manager. There are so many good ideas in this movie that should work on paper that were simply never fleshed out. I would've loved to see Mike meet up with his parents in Acapulco. That would've been a nice call back to the telegram he received and would give Moreno finding out the truth more weight. Unfortunately that simply didn't happen.

This movie's plot was a mess. How do you balance Mike and Danny trying to find a job to buy their plane, Sue-Lin wanting to see the sites at the fair and needing to be cared for, Mike wanting to date Nurse Warren, and Mr. Ling going missing? The answer is that you can't without one of those plots suffering. In this case, the romance is what suffered. I have nothing to say about Mike and Nurse Warren because I got nothing from the movie to suggest that womanizing Mike would realistically fall for her. Mike being rejected isn't this magically bizarre concept so Nurse Warren doing so doesn't make her that special. I don't think it's worse than the other three movies though since there was a very specific reason behind the movie being rushed. The 1962 World's Fair in Seattle was only open for 6 months. Production wise, it was doomed from the start and the writing unfortunately suffered because of it. But for what they were attempting to do, I appreciate the effort as Sue-Lin is an amazing showcase of young talent. She isn't an obnoxious brat, or a kid that talks in an over the top cutesy way. The scene where Mr. Ling had to leave for an important job especially showcases this. She doesn't throw a massive temper tantrum that he couldn't take her, but she still cries at how something out of anyone's control would've ruined something she was looking forward to. That takes a good amount of maturity to recognize Mr. Ling had no control over this and that if he didn't work hard, she wouldn't have been able to go at all. Just incredible character writing when dealing with a child character.

This movie had so much promise but man it fell off a cliff once Ms. Prentice and the girls arrive. I found myself feeling more uncomfortable with the Ellie situation than Sarah Lee being outright racist towards Hawaiian people. Ellie's bad mood didn't belong in this lighthearted story and I have no idea why it was added. Sarah Lee's racism/classism at least has a point because it's the main source of conflict. The movie would've been just fine if it was about Chad trying to reconcile his wants with his parents wants since that's drama inducing as it is. Maile thinking Chad was cheating on her with Ms. Prentice wasn't entertaining at all and makes the Ellie situation worse as she actually was trying to flirt with Chad. There's also the very obvious issue that we had 3 songs in the span of 10 minutes that add nothing to the movie yet they cut Chad's confrontation song towards Ellie. If her situation was addressed earlier in the movie, I wouldn't have had a problem with it. That time cut from the horrible "running gag" of her failing to seduce Chad could've been spent on a scene where Chad finally puts his foot down with his mother about Maile. I hate that the main conflict of the movie ends with a joke about Sarah Lee fainting over the news that her son is marrying a half Hawaiian girl. It's a lot more satisfying for Chad's happy ending to come from him actually stepping up and telling his mother that the things she says isn't acceptable and that he no longer feels comfortable being around her. I understand it's a real conversation people have with their parents, but I value character driven stories as opposed to something that major occurring only because the script says so.

Allied Artists didn't know how to make an Elvis vehicle and it showed with fully recycled music of varying quality. The romance was bad since Pam comes off as being so judgmental when Lonnie's relationship with their guests isn't her business. I never understood how they went from "strictly business" to getting married since Lonnie seemed very annoyed with Pam. Her playing hard to get attitude I guess was what they were going with, but it didn't work for me. I also wish that the deputy sheriff being the perpetrator wasn't revealed until later because then it would make Lonnie beating him all the more satisfying since we would be just as surprised as the characters would. That being said, this is a guilty pleasure as I very much enjoyed the humor. Lonnie being a straight man who essentially stays the same actually works because you have him bounce off of Stanley who's very neurotic and high strung. You have that reasonable amount of skepticism that makes it all the more funny when he realizes Stanley isn't seeing things. For a very low budget movie, we surprisingly get a lot of different sets which probably cost a pretty penny to set up including the historical townhouse. There's a whole town that had to be made, the ranch itself had to be made and it's incredible how they made such a big setting when most of the budget went to Elvis' salary. It doesn't blow you away by any means but there's a quaint charm to it.

This is how you make a static Elvis character not boring. We don't know the full extent of Jess' criminal nature, but having it be stated that he broke off with Vince indicates his character arc was off screen. Since his reputation is already established he has to prove that he's changed which makes for some natural drama. I have criticized the townsfolk's unbelievably irrational behavior in my review but looking back, I was a bit too harsh. Evacuating the town wouldn't have been as easy as I made it seem either since there's nothing to suggest the nearest town is within walking distance. Given the fragile nature of Sheriff Ramsey's condition and their lack of loyalty to Jess, I better understand the town's reluctancy. Does that excuse the choice to let Vince roam freely when everyone knows he's a villain too, absolutely not. The plot holes involving their lack of pushback still stand since they spent more time putting the pressure on Jess to do something as opposed to using the guns Jess gave them. However, Jess having this rare display of helplessness and guilt over Billy Roy's death stuck with me. The look in his eyes as he sees that cannon rolling down the rocky terrain knowing he can't stop it goes against every criticism that Elvis was a flat actor here. Jess is supposed to be the "boys don't cry" type so his display of emotion sticks out in a humanizing way. Him showing mercy by refusing to kill Vince proves that he's a good person as he chose to let justice be served in a court of law instead of the vigilantism Vince upheld. It has that right amount of subtlety that proves Jess was honest in his heel/face turn. A different kind of man indeed.

This movie was pretty good in that it actually gave Elvis connections with other people. He isn't just rolling up to the movie's setting from parts unknown and no known family. Here he's established to have had parents only to unfortunately lose both of them. Despite the horrific tragedy that creates for a 20 something, Ross doesn't get bitter about it and walks around with a chip on his shoulder. Instead, he does his best to find his own family. That to me is very important. While I don't really care for how Robin was handled, she clearly isn't the focus. Laurel is. She has an actual personality where she's a girl-boss without being a Mary Sue. She has flaws, gets called out on said flaws and tries to improve. Ross having beef with Mr. Johnson throughout the movie had some clever writing as he wasn't a typical rival Ross had to beat. Even when Ross thought that Laurel was in danger, his line of thinking isn't rewarded by having Mr. Johnson be an absolute pig. Sure he was flirty towards Laurel, but it never crossed a line that made him completely irredeemable. He was simply a human being that as a business owner would have goals Ross didn't align with. While I do think he could go too far in expressing his distain, Ross doesn't cross the line of being an unlikeable jerk either. His concern for Laurel's wellbeing regardless of his reasoning was still sweet. It showed how despite their disagreement, Ross didn't let that destroy their relationship. The amount of maturity between the two is very refreshing and I do think their eventual marriage makes sense. Even though I can skip some of the songs as they felt unnecessary, the story more than makes up for it.

(My number 1 and 2 are interchangeable. Both movies show great promise for making my ultimate top 10 list).

This is isn't a case of recency bias. I still had criticisms about the unnecessary drama involving the Flaming Star, Rosalyn being very unsupportive of Clint despite being his fiancee, and the downer ending that didn't even give Pacer a moral victory. But that's the thing about this movie. I wouldn't be so upset about those things if I didn't care about Mrs. Burton and Pacer. That holds a lot of weight in my reviews. Pacer isn't a flat character for coming full circle in realizing his loyalty isn't based on race. If anything, we see what he's willing to put up with so he can continue to uphold a moral fiber that he was brought up with. He easily could've continued the path with the Kiowa and used his pain as fuel for the fire that would've come down on the town. But he didn't do that. He instead turned on the Kiowa for not only killing Mr. Burton but also critically injuring Clint. He didn't really need to do that, but he chose to do so because he genuinely thought that they would've killed Clint regardless of what he said. Pacer sacrificed himself just to give Clint even the slightest chance of surviving. How poetic is that when he blamed the doctor for refusing to do the same with Mrs. Burton. It really showcases that morality isn't determined by race but what you do to others even in the face of cruelty. A great display of writing all around despite its flaws. But for all the praise I've given, what could possibly be better than this?

Man oh man this movie is amazing. The plot might be typical for a boxing movie, but there's a reason why Rocky is the success that it is: great character writing. Kid Galahad has great writing, an appropriate amount of tension and a good selection of songs that highlight the camaraderie that exists in this small town. Walter is a great example of how a character can be of a high moral standing without being annoyingly pious or a complete doormat. I don't care that he doesn't have a character arc because his status does change. Seeing him make those friends and fall in love with Rose was done so well. I don't know if it was the writing that allowed for the characters to exist in a slice of life environment or if the actors had that great of relationship with each other, but all of the character interactions worked so well. The amount of subtlety that exists in this movie is a refreshing vibe because it shows that the writers don't believe in spoon feeding the audience every single piece of information. There's that perfect balance between showing and telling here that demonstrates what Elvis working on an actual movie would look like. My only criticism was the last five minutes where Otto wasn't properly dealt with. Sure his lackeys were arrested, but Otto is still out there. Given what I've stated about Sugar Boy being in that system of exploitation, I actually felt scared for him as we have no idea as to what will happen to him since he lost. But something like that is such an easy fix that I still gave it my highest rating yet. Definitely an underrated gem that I highly recommend watching.

AN: For those on my tag list that I didn't get to, I'm sorry. Tumblr wouldn't post anymore names. I promise that in my New Year's post you will be tagged. Thank you all for reading my reviews and providing your own input/opinions on the movies I've watched. Expect my New Year's post to come out on New Year's Eve.

Tagging: @bluesuedesouls, @searchingforgravity, @velvetelvis, @vampireego, @blueinhawaii,

@alienelvisobsession, @eapep, @peaceloveelvis, @i-r-i-n-a-a, @tacozebra051,

@vintagepresley, @atleastpleasetelephone, @ahundredlifetime, @thelonelyheart, @arrolyn1114,

@ssinnerplazahotel, @lilmisspeaches, @an-americcan-trilogy, @xanatenshi, @smokeymountainboy,

@iuv0ana, @lustnhim, @ladelinee, @pebbles403, @jhoneybees,

@somethingaboutelvis, @tupelomiss, @elvis-presleys-stuff, @elvispresley1956, @elvispresley1935,

@hooked-on-elvis, @everythingelvispresley, @elvispresleywife, @lett-them-eatt-cake, @sillybookmarks,

@yourapple56-blog, @iloveelvis2, @mercsandmonsters, @50sexyshadesfashionista, @blighted-star,

@arianatheangel-girl, @littlejoecartwright1842, @cutie46, @elvisvideos, @almightybigbrain,

@whositmcwhatsit, @theelvisprincess, @theelvispres-blog, @freudianslumber, and @cccayliexx.

[kaiserrreich]

October 22 1858: The Birth of Kaiserin Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein

Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein was the eldest daughter of Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Lagenburg. Tragedy struck only a week after her birth when her elder brother died from illness. In 1860, her younger sister, Caroline Mathilda, was born. Who was regarded as prettier and a brighter personality than the chubby, serious, submissive Augusta Victoria. Soon Augusta’s mother would give birth to another boy, Gerhard, who died in infancy. Their next male heir and fifth child, Ernst Gunther, was a perfectly healthy baby boy. Augusta would have two other sisters, Louise Sophie in April 1866 and Feodora Adelaide in July 1874.

In her family, she was known affectionately as “Dona.” Augusta’s obedient nature was noted on early in her youth, even by her future mother-in-law Crown Princess Frederick. ‘It is strange how good some children are – and how little trouble they give,’ she wrote to her mother, Queen Victoria, when Augusta Victoria was nine years old.  ‘Ada’s children are patterns of obedience, gentleness – the best of dispositions’. (1)

The thought of a match between Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein and Prince Wilhelm of Prussia was contemplated ever since they were children, as noted by the prince (future Kaiser, ex-Kaiser) later in the future. But was never taken seriously until after the prince was rejected by Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine. Perhaps, Wilhelm was seeking for a rebound in Dona and it was a success. As the couple married on the 27th of February 1881. The marriage has been regarded to be happy but not without struggle. As Wilhelm quickly grew bored at his new wife’s longing for a simple domestic lifestyle, having multiple affairs throughout the years. And in the beginning only saw Dona as a broodmare. It was only after an ear infection gone bad, where Augusta stayed by Wilhelm’s side throughout the duration of it did he start to see her in an adjusted light, but continued to be unfaithful to her.

She bore him seven children:

Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, Crown Prince of Prussia (1882-1951)

Prince Eitel Friedrich (1883-1942)

Prince Adalbert (1884-1948)

Prince August Wilhelm (1887-1949)

Prince Oskar (1888-1958)

Prince Joachim (1890-1920)

Princess Viktoria Louise of Prussia (1892-1980)

Her days as Empress, she was regarded by the court as a prudish, a stickler for rules who punished anyone for the simplest gesture she deemed to be “immoral.” She was deemed by many as unremarkable and plain with a gaudy and tacky sense of fashion. With Nicholas II remarking to his mother, the Dowager Empress. That she ‘did her best to be pleasant but looked awful in sumptuous gowns completely lacking in taste; in particular the hats she wore in the evening were frightful.’

Though as overbearing and a nuisance as she was in public life and a part of her private life, by some family members, such as Empress Frederick (with whom she had a very heated feud with and who Augusta enjoyed snubbing frequently) who wrote to her daughter, Sophie, she was characterized as: ‘very grand and stiff and cold and condescending at first, but became much nicer afterwards.  Perhaps it was also partly shyness.’ and by her younger sister, Louise Sophie that when she was ‘not bowing to the will of her autocratic husband she was easy and indulgent’. “Her cousin Alice of Albany, who was sometimes mildly critical of her older relations, found her ‘most affable and kind’.”(1)

She was her husband’s biggest supporter throughout everything (for better and for worse) and was crushed when she was stripped of her titles as German Empress and Queen of Prussia after the war. Her health, which was already declining ever since the 1890s (causing her to miscarry twice) went down a rapid decline in the 1920s. And it had worsened when she had heard of the news of the death of her youngest son, Prince Joachim. She passed away on the 11th April 1921, in spite of her personal flaws, she was a beloved Empress by the German people and her popularity outshined her husband’s. Thousands lined up to see her off, where she would be buried at the Temple of Antiquities in the gardens near the New Palais in Postdam. Her husband, the ex Kaiser Wilhelm II was forbidden to cross into Germany to see his wife off for the final time.

Her room in Huis Doorn was soon turned into a shrine dedicated to the late Empress. With Wilhelm ordering for the room to regularly be cleaned with flowers and a cross draped over the bed. “Once a week, for the rest of his twenty years, he would retire there on his own, to go and mourn her memory.“ (1)

Wilhelm adhered to his late wife’s wishes for him to marry someone else when she was gone. When only a year later he would marry Princess Hermine of Reuss. He passed away in June of 1941, at age 82, 20 years after her passing.

Source : The Last German Empress

[stesierra]

WIP INTRO- MUD-CHILD

Title: Mud-Child

Genre: Adult fantasy

Setting: Rebora, which everyone calls a kingdom even though the kings are long gone

Tropes: magical child, sad old lesbian, menopause, curses, monsters, motherhood, using magic kills you slow, soul-eaters, generations of war, religious conflicts, many gods, three main characters

Story:

For Rebeka, menopause isn't the end of motherhood, but the beginning. Her new daughter is perfect down to every cotton-thread hair and river-stone eye. Rebeka sculpted her that way. The townsfolk are mad to think Mud-Child will murder them all during the next thunderstorm. Rebeka will not give her up. But the rest of the world doesn't care what an old woman wants. Mud-Child is snatched and sold into military slavery. Mud-Child is the first person Rebeka's cared about since her twin died and her beloved left her for a man. Now she'll do anything to get her child back.

For Mud-Child, waking up was simple. One minute, she was clay. The next, she could feel, move and love. She doesn't want to be a soldier, especially since they treat her like furniture. She wants to go home. Or she did, before she found it out it could mean a death-sentence for Rebeka. Now she's on the run from everybody. Even her mother.

For Bren, it was just a job. Monster-tender. Sounded simple. He didn't count on a strange man offering Bren his heart's desire—the removal of his life-long curse. All Bren has to do is take a new master and turn a blind eye. But Bren has always prided himself on doing his job. On being a good man. If he accepts the offer, a little clay girl and her mother will die. A nation will fall. And if that happens, Bren might as well admit he's nothing more than his curse.

The Characters:

Rebeka- a sad old lesbian

Mud-Child- a pile of clay with a soul

Bren- a cursed but ethical man

The duke- worthless ruler of Rebora

Quade Verity- a handsome former paladin. Surely he must be a good man

Worst Comment from a Beta Reader: There should be attempted rape in this book. It makes sense and it'd be totally better that way. (Paraphrased.) This was with Critters. I don't really recommend them.

Credit for (modified) WIP intro format @sleepyowlwrites

Status Check: Third draft. 109k. Available for beta reading for interested mutuals.

Chapter One here.

Chapter Two here.

No more will be posted but you can volunteer to beta read.

The sculpture in the mood board? I made that when I was seventeen.

@anonymousfoz

@moremysteriesthantragedies

@elizababie

@sm-writes-chaos

@bellascarousel

@palebdot

@hyba

@da-na-hae

@macabremoons

@the-dragon-chronicler

@teacupsandstarlight

@vorskra

@wrenofthewords

@amostdelectablescribbler

[anonymouslylovesyou]

Alright boys I'm back, ep 5 time

Also @whoblewboobear should I @ you for these? If not lmk and I won't do it in the future ones

Uh oh what's got you in a tizzy Daphne

Oh to get back to bed after the duel so nobody notices

Her mom was so much happier to hear the Duke proposed than the Prince

Their mom thinks they've already fucked

Also he did not propose you did girlie

Uh oh, ripp queen still thinks the Prince is marrying Daphne

Oh the Prince is so nice actually, I'd be so mad if he was evil

Her youngest sister is so cute

They both look like they've been crying

NO she tried to hold his hand for appearances no less and he's pulled his hand away

Siena left town and good for her

Colin is calling her Pen already hm

Yellow really does do Penelope dirty

Cressida is such a bitch

Oh noww you apologize for your lateness huh Simon

WHEEZE

Ooo why did the archbishop say no to the license

OH the queen

WHEEZE. "Tell her you are in love plain and simple and true. You can do that?" Daphne and Simon glancing at each other 😶

Benedict the art boy is back and Sienas friend is not happy oh and now they are fucking, wildin

OH GAY SEX DAMN DUNY KNOW IF THEY WERE BRAVE ENOUGH FOR THAT

Simon is drunk off his ass holy shit

Simon 'Feelings are irrelevant' Basset is feeling guilt for trapping his wife and expressing it incredibly badly

It's killing her to say "You are right" to Penelope's mom(still don't have her name she's always referred to as her last name)

Oo seeing the king for the first time

Do not like the queen but sympathy for her here

Daphne put some shoes on you're outside

Damn Daphne is out here thinking she won't have love or children

Alice and Will are so so good I love then, every moment they're on screen is a blessing

Lady Danbury is so funny I love her <3

Daphne lying to the queen was so terrible

SIMON COMING IN WITH THE FULL REAL TRUTH CRAZY BEHAVIOR

Girl why are you hesitating now in front of the queen

And cut to their wedding!

In 4 and a half episodes they have gone from meet ugly to besties to married and yet I sense even more miscommunication in the coming days

Penelope is trying to invoke the bro code and Marina is not having it

Ah man not awkwardness between Penelope and Eloise

Colin there's no chaperone, he can't hear me he has airpods in

Oh he's an gentlemen *remembers he fingerbangs Penelope in a carriage* wait a fucking minute

But Marina does get the proposal, my current theory is George shows back up

Ooo the queen is interested in Eloise investigation this is huge for her

Now is the guy wife or bisexul and cheating or does he and his wife have an agreement

Oh shit Daphne really wants kids

THE SEX TALK

OH MY GOD THIS IS AWFUL SED EX MA'AM YOU’VE EXPLAINED NOTHING TO YOUR DAUGHTER

Damn giving your room to you little sister...

Oooo yikes marriage off to a bad start, wedding night at an inn

HE REQUESTED A SEPARATE ROOM oh my goddd sir please shape up

They are both Pacing and a meet up at the door

"I knew" neither of you know anything

Simon King of enthusiastic consent we love to see it but also guys your dinner is getting cold

Once again so mad he's hot I'm so bisexual

She still does not know how sex works

Checking in on how she feels, Simon King of aftercare

[darkwolf76]

Day 1: The Blade

Catching up on the Baldur’s Gate Wyllvember prompt challenge. Day 1: The Blade!

Wyll would always remember both the day he became The Blade of Frontiers, and the day he gave the Blade up, and how vividly the color red played in both memories.

The day Wyll made the vows to himself that would earn him the name of the Blade of Frontiers, had involved a child, when Wyll was little more than a child himself. Seventeen and newly banished from the city by his father for his coerced pack with Mizora, Wyll had been wandering with what little coin his late mother’s parents, the noble Eltans, had managed to give him, in the lands not too far from Baldur’s Gate. His grandparents, Lord Raynell and Lady Cosima, had been furious at the news that their son by law, Ulder, had banished their daughter’s only child from the city. As Wyll packed his things in the modest Ravengard estate under the eye of Flaming Fist officers his father had appointed to escort him from the city, his grandparents had burst into the house in a flurry. His grandmother had shed tears, begging Wyll to come stay at their manor while his grandfather talked sense into his father. His grandfather’s voice had echoed through the halls of Wyll’s childhood home, bellowing at his father in his study as Duke Ulder roared back.

Clinging to what honor and dignity he had left, Wyll had been too stubborn to disobey, not just his father’s, but a Grand Duke of the city's, command. Yet he did love his grandparents still, and he was just scared boy, never having ventured much farther than the city walls without guide or protection. So, he had lingered within a few days journey of Baldur’s Gate, as his grandparents had bade him, waiting to hear from messengers that they’d convinced his father to allow for some less harsh arrangement.

He'd heard the war horns, loud and ugly, right after the smell of sulfur and Mizora’s laughing whisper had woken him up. “Best grab your little blade, pet, and make for the road! I’ll not have my newest trinket tarnished so soon by something as pathetic as goblins!” So Wyll had gathered up what little he’d had in his pack, picked up his rapier, and ran out of the village inn he’d taken lodging in, to greet the ugly maws of goblins and bugbears with the end of his blade as he and other denizens of the small hamlet fled for the safety of the nearby forest. Wyll assisted other folk as he ran from the goblin war band but hadn’t helped as many as he could have, had he turned and faced the threat.

The wails of the child caught his attention first, made his steps falter in their flight towards the wilderness. Among trampled burning crops of a farmstead right outside the village, a young boy cried over his mother’s corpse, dirty and covered in her blood, red and fresh, smeared all over his tiny fingers and flushed cheeks and pooled on the ground around the woman, from her wound where she had bled out. Wyll turned back to scoop the boy up, to carry him to safety, but the little lad had fought against him, not wanting to leave his ma. After getting the boy to some of the villagers hiding nearby, Wyll had backtracked to bury the woman’s remains. Wyll’s stomach had turned at the goblins sniffing around her body and looting her corpse. He’d taken pleasure in bringing forth their deaths, with a blast of the dark magic that now swirled at his fingertips and slice of his rapier. After he twisted his blade for good measure into one of the ugly creature’s guts, he’d found a silver locket clutched in its clawed hand. Inside the simple heart-shaped charm, a tiny portrait of little boy Wyll had saved, his dead mother, and his father.

When Wyll had returned to the group of villagers huddled in the woods with the little boy, one of the older matriarchs had told him of the little lad, “Poor little poppet will have to be sent to an orphanage in the city after this. His papa was killed when ‘e was a babe in another goblin raid. And now his mammy too…” Wyll did not sleep that night, huddled with the village folk around a fire. He couldn’t take his eyes off the sleeping little boy, clutching his mother’s silver locket that Wyll had placed around his neck, now destined to be alone, because no one had tried to do something, anything to protect his small village and parents. Well, Wyll would do something to ensure that no other child of the Sword Coast befell that fate again.

Wyll vowed to strike out into the wilds the next day, to venture forth to into the Sword Coast’s Frontiers to protect those that no one else protected, who could not protect themselves, from the monsters and villains of the coast. He could no longer call Baldur’s Gate his home, and he’d been cursed with infernal power, but he still carried the four pillars his father taught him, and his father’s training with his blade. Wyll would become a blade of frontiers to protect the innocent.

The day Wyll finally put The Blade of Frontiers to rest came over seven long years later. He had been welcomed back into the city as a hero and by his father back to his childhood home, proclaimed by the Grand Duke as the Pride of Ravengard and Pride of the Gate, having played a part in the demise of the Absolute, along his brave companions that he had met along the way.

“The city has lost much these past few months, including half of its dukes, and I intend to put you forth to the Parliament of Peers as a candidate to replace them,” Ulder Ravengard had declared. Wyll had wanted to tell his father no, that that life wasn’t for him anymore. He’d been cursed with a fiendish form, forked tongue, horns, claws and all, for his disobedience to Mizora, though his lover had helped him find freedom from the she devil’s pact. Wyll also just felt he now belonged to the life a hero in the wilderness, protecting one small village and child at a time.

But that could only affect small change, Wyll’s betrothed had reminded him as they discussed it in camp. Other heroes would arise to take up the mantle of the Blade of Frontiers, but few Dukes that might sit of the Council of Four of Baldur’s Gate would care so selflessly for her people or be able to affect so great changes, as he might as Duke Wyll Ravengard, partnered with his father, the Grand Duke. So Wyll had reluctantly accepted his father’s will for him once again.

He still had a mind to reject it though, as he stood in the grand marble corridor leading up to the meeting chamber of the Parliament of Peers in the High Hall of the upper city. Wyll fidgeted in the fancy surcoat he wore, embodied with dragons of gold, its stiff collar scratching at his neck, as he listened to his father’s booming voice, Grand Duke Ulder Ravengard making his case to the patriar parliament of why they should elect his son to one of the two now vacant dukedoms on the council.

“When they call me in to speak before the vote, I have the urge to declare my intent to leave the city again.”

“Why?” Seraphina, the closest of Wyll’s companions that fought by his side to defeat the Absolute, his first love and now betrothed, stared at him with hard green eyes. “Baldur’s Gate needs you, Wyll.”

Wyll sighed, a rare crack in his heroism showing to his beloved. “I’ve been away for too long. I love the city, but I can just as easily defend it from threats before they even reach the walls as the Blade of Frontiers.” He smiled a bit at the red headed half elf next to him. “And would that not be a better life for us, out defending the innocent and killing monsters in the wilds? You’re a druid, and I prefer the roads. We could even visit your mother’s druid circle in the High Forest if you wish.”

Seraphina shook her head, smiling. “That sounds lovely, my hero, but my father calls this city home, as does yours, and so do you and I.” She frowned as she took Wyll’s hand and squeezed it. “We have done our part defending it from threats outside its walls, but some of the greatest dangers grow from within, and some you can’t always fight with a claw or blade, until it’s too late.”

Like Gortash. Wyll thought of city’s recently deceased former Arch Duke. The man had met his end on the edge of Karlach’s axe, a small comfort to his Barbarian friend before she’d perished in the fire of her infernal engine. An engine that would not have been placed in her chest had Gortash been prevented from exploiting her and many others like her in his corrupt climb of power to the top of Baldur’s Gate’s elite. Even Wyll’s father hadn’t seen the threat Gortash had posed until it was too late, and lives had been lost or torn asunder. Seraphina guiding their joined hands to her abdomen brought Wyll out of his thoughts.

“And a life of constant adventuring would not well suit a new born little Ravengard,” She murmured.

Wyll’s eyes widened in disbelief, then his face creased in joy, as he shared a smiled with the mother of his unborn child, her brilliant red hair catching in the sunlight of the high hall's windows like a shining star. When the door opened to the Parliament’s chamber and Wyll was called in, he vowed to himself again, this time to venture forth to into the Baldur’s Gate’s finest manors and darkest allies alike and do whatever was needed to protect those that no one else protected, from the villains and Monstes that lurked in the shadows of the Gate. Wyll would do something among the politicians of this city, to make sure the corrupt like Gortash never rose unchecked again, and another innocent like Karlach, like his litte Ravengard to be, wouldn’t suffer a similar cruel fate at their hand. So the Blade of Frontiers lade down his balde to became Duke Wyll Ravengard, to do as he has always had, and protect the innocent of Baldur’s Gate and Beyond.

[fandomrave]

I had this awesome dream last night and just wanted to share it

So it was a video game, right? And it’s set in this kinda modern looking kingdom. The building structures are all simple default fantasy stuff, but the color scheme is normal neutral colors as a default, but there are also bright colors like you’d see in a kids play pen. The kinds with the rubbery flooring where you have to wear socks. And the characters have proportions similar to those in Celeste 64 but they’re HD so they have smoother lines like funko pops. They do have mouths though. And noses and ears. But they have the proportions more like Celeste 64.  You get what I’m saying?

Anyway, you play as this sorcerer hero. And you have to save the kingdom from the hordes of summons that this evil Wizard made. He wants to destroy the kingdom. He took over the Duke’s estate years ago when that family mysteriously disappeared. And no one got near him cause they were afraid and stuff, and he left them alone. But now he’s sending waves of conjured monsters to destroy the kingdom. He’s got like a whole army. And you, the hero, are enlisted by the king to fight these monsters and defeat the wizard. The gameplay battle screen is like an RPG, but I don’t remember much about how the battles work. I don’t know the menu set up or if they’re real time or not. I don’t know if you collect party members or anything, but I do know that the king is a pretty chill dude and helps you out somehow in your play through. But it’s a pretty simple premise. I loved the graphics and art especially. Story and dialogue was a bit typical, but it was a cute game.

Anyway, at the very beginning of the game, you get to create your character. Like, customization, abilities, etc. There’s this really cool character creator screen. The screen looks like a Celeste level, all pixel art and side scrolling. The blocks also looked very similar to Celeste. You move this little butler guy to the right and to each step of creating your character consecutively, and you can go back. I had a lot of fun with that screen. 

But there’s this secret route in the game that you unlock on that screen. So by using this glitch with the platforming stuff, you proceed with the butler that is on the menu as your custom character. He’s not really in the story of the main game at all, so this is just a random character. And once you start playing as him, things get really interesting. This butler is the butler of the Duke’s family, so the story is starting many years ago. The Duke and Duchess were actually evil. They were trying to summon a powerful monster to take over the kingdom. Monster summoning was considered black magic and very illegal. The summoning failed, and instead they summoned a baby wizard. They panicked because the plan had failed, and they were worried about getting caught, so they fled the country secretly, “mysteriously disappearing” to everyone else. The loyal family butler, however, was built different. While all the other servants fled with the family, he stayed behind to raise the baby wizard. He was a good man, with a sense of responsibility. He was still evil, of course, but a good father. So he raised the wizard. He raised him to be evil. Could he have ended up not evil if he was raised differently? I don’t think so. It was in his DNA. He wasn’t human. (Unless specified, everyone is human.) So, many years later, the Wizard (who we’ll name Simon) has a daughter. And we’re playing as this wizard. I don’t know much about Simon’s daughter (Who I’ll call Audrey) but I do know she’s half human. I don’t know anything about her mother. I don’t think Simon had a wife or girlfriend. Maybe it was just a one night stand, when he was younger. You know, young man exploring the town. Anyway, Simon is an Immortal Wizard, so he doesn’t age, but he looks like he’s in his late 30s to early 40s. Audrey is somewhere in her 20s, and lives with her father in his mansion. She calls him Father, and they aren’t super close. They have more of a coworker vibe than anything. Maybe manager and employee, but the chill manager who is also your coworker. She probably started living with him after her mother’s passing, and was already like 18 or 19. She could get a job, but she didn’t really want to. And she wasn’t interested in anyone romantically. She kinda doesn’t care about a lot, and is pretty apathetic and lazy. By the time we pick up from Simon’s perspective, the butler isn’t in the picture anymore. But no one mentions him, so I guess he died a while ago. 

Anyway, this time the game plays out differently. First of all, the visuals are more like watching a show. Just dream perspective change. Anyway, Audrey is helping Simon build up his army to destroy the kingdom. She really does not care as long as she gets a place to stay. She also kinda hates people. It’s not because of her Wizard blood, she’s just kinda a jerk. Her wizard blood affects her slightly, and it is harder for her to be good, but she’s not forced to be evil. More like neutral. Simon can create monsters instead of summoning. Simon took a while to figure out the mechanics, cause he was never taught by the butler who didn’t know how Wizard powers worked. So Simon can create monsters, but he uses this contraption and ingredients, kinda like alchemy.

Anyway, he’s trying to create this especially powerful one, one with sentience. Most aren’t, and are like golems. For sentient monsters, a special process is needed. That’s what we’re trying to figure out as we play as Simon. We’re trying to get the ratios and ingredients mixing right. The last step in the ritual is cutting Audrey into pieces in the correct ratio. She’s fine with this, and since Simon learned first aid from the butler, he can just stitch her back together.  This won’t really kill her or hurt her much. Anyway, I fail to remember all the steps of the multi step process, but I do remember the Audrey ratio was 70/30 for the final step. After this, we get a cutscene. Audrey’s unconscious (getting cut in pieces does that to a girl) and Simon has created a baby girl. She ain’t human, but she’s not a wizard. This was not his intention. He meant to create a general of some sort, not have a baby. Yeah, he’s this baby’s mother. 

The game goes dark again and picks up many years later. Not quite as many as last time. Maybe like….6 years instead of decades. I can’t remember if Maddie (the baby) ages differently from humans, or the dream just made her look that way. Anyway, Audrey has moved out. She didn’t want to deal with a baby. She was out of the picture like a couple days after Maddie was born. So the story picks up, and we’re still playing as Simon. She’s a woman now, since she is Maddie’s mother and not father. She even has boobs and looks different. Like a genderbend. She’s not a super hot mom or anything, and she’s mellowed out a lot. She’s a great mom, actually. She takes Maddie to daycare, and they love each other. Maddie calls her Mom, and Simon calls Maddie sweetheart or Maddie. Just typical mom stuff. Simon is still evil, of course, and wants to destroy the kingdom, but her plans kind of take a back burner when it comes to taking care of Maddie. I think she ages normally, but is very mature for her age. She was also born as a 1 year old instead of a newborn (Simon was summoned as a newborn, or a couple months old) so now she’s like 7. She goes to daycare (I don’t know why she doesn’t go to school. I think it doesn’t start till middle school, or even high school. That’s awesome.) in the town. The town is connected to the kingdom, but isn’t necessarily what would be destroyed. Simon is more interested in the kingdom within the walls than the town outside the walls. They would be affected by the attack, sure, but more indirectly than anything. No real danger, though things might be tight for a while. 

Anyway, about Maddie. She isn’t human, but doesn’t really tell her friends about that. She doesn’t really talk about how she was born or how she’s different from humans. Oh, yeah, and she has friends! They play together. Maddie isn’t evil, and she doesn’t have anything in her DNA influencing her morals at all. But she’s not the same species as humans, and she knows that. She doesn’t oppose her Mom’s evil plan. She doesn’t really care because it wouldn’t really affect her and her friends much. She’s attached to her friends, but how she feels about humans is like how we feel about cats or pets. She’s attached to them, and wants them to be happy. She likes spending time with them, and thinks they’re funny and interesting. But she’s not really going to empathize with them on a deep level. Unless she knows the specific human and cares about them, she doesn’t really care what happens to them. She doesn’t really have the “empathy for her fellow man” because she’s not one of them. If her mom wants to kill someone, she’s fine with it. Just like people punishing pets. The death of them doesn’t bother her very much, unless she’s close to them. As for her powers? Well, she’s sturdier than a human, and doesn’t need a lot of their basic necessities. Other than that, she’s human passing. She just doesn’t bring up she’s not a human. She doesn’t worry about people finding out, or feel secretive about it. She still young, so she doesn’t really have access to her full powers yet. She doesn’t know what she is. Neither does Simon. All she knows is that she loves her baby girl very much. 

So, we’re Simon. A mother who is also evil. She’s a sweet mom. I think the plot is mostly chill slice of life stuff. But the invasion has some other stuff happening. First of all, the king and the hero confront Simon in the kingdom, inside the city walls. Not sure what led up to that point, but Simon isn’t really murder happy fighting in the front lines. She’s just kinda chilling. She’s retired from the frontline fighting, cause she has a kid now. Audrey is also there. Not sure what she did, but she’s talking to the King or something. She either snitched to the king, let the monsters in, or is helping with the invasion. No clue. I don’t remember what the King said, but it had something to do with Maddie, and that made Simon go like “Okay, you know what? Leave my kid out of this.” And turned into a guy and started attacking. I don’t remember if he went after the king or hero, but eventually Maddie showed up and he stopped. He was like shifting between a man and woman, and kind of just walked away from it. Maddie wasn’t scared or mad at him or anything. She just called out for her mom (I don’t know why, I think she wanted something, maybe to go somewhere) and they left. The shifting wasn’t intentional or anything, it just kinda happened naturally. Maddie didn’t really mind. She still called her mom, even when she was a he. Same with Audrey calling him Father. I think Audrey came with them, so I don’t think she was a traitor. The king was kinda just floating there, and the hero too. Don’t know how they could do that, but I know Simon could fly when he was a guy doing wizardry stuff. I’m pretty sure they ended up stopping the invasion, but they didn’t really kill Simon and just let the man be. Or woman. The king probably wanted to protect his kingdom in the future, but he respected the hero’s preferences, and they let it slide. Considering the hero was the player character before, having them be chill with a character that the player would probably like checked out. They were also just a nice and cheerful character.

Anyway it was a good dream. I especially liked how Simon just became a woman with no explanation and just rolled with it, and her awesome mom priorities. Maddie was also super cute, too. Upbeat and cheerful and playful. I loved the whole dream. 

Also I remember doing a roleplay thing as myself role playing as Maddie later on. It was like a fan thing. Apparently Maddie got her period at 3 years of existence. (I don’t know why I included that in my role play, but there was a whole scene about it. Maybe it was to explain the fact that I, a young adult, was playing a 7 year old.) Mom was really good with the whole thing. Loved Simon’s performance. Anyway, the real roleplay was with this guy who was supposedly Maddie’s friend or classmate in daycare. The way the roleplaying thing worked, is we were in the daycare, a massive daycare, indie horror game massive, but we didn’t know anything about the characters we were role playing. Like, (let’s call him Mark) Mark didn’t know about who I was roleplaying as. He wasn’t part of that fandom. And I wasn’t part of whatever fandom he was a part of. It was a cross fandom thing. We were chasing down some sort of shadow thing, and there was this section with a department store and diapers, which was probably something from his fandom, and at some point he found out I wasn’t human. (Like, my character.) This roleplay session was also live action. I didn’t know it was supposed to be a roleplay segment (my real consciousness didn’t know) until that point. I thought I was just acting as Maddie, and that no one else was pretending to be anyone else. Because holy crap that Simon roleplayer was amazing. I thought that was the real Simon, and I was just making a fan work. But when Mark started asking if I was human, (discreetly and indirectly, of course) I realized that he was also a role player. Real people wouldn’t ask questions like that. I asked him if I could break character for a little bit and squeal from excitement because I love playing non-human characters and having people figure them out. Anyway, he was cool with it and I did. We kept role playing for a bit longer before I woke up. Anyway that was really fun, so thanks, Mark. 

I’m calling it Playkingdom vs the Evil Wizard. Yes, the name is cheesy and cute, but I’m going with it. And I AM making an entire fake fandom around it, thank you very much. Idk what Mark was from though. I think it was some sort of simulator, but I could be wrong on that.

[kanisema-blog]

Not Your Typical Reincarnation Story

Chapter 1: Awakening

"Xai! We need those designs finalized by the end of the day!" shouted my boss from across the bustling atelier.

I was knee-deep in fabric swatches, beaded chains, and sketches of our latest accessory line. Being an accessory designer was not just my job; it was my passion. Every piece I crafted held a story, an essence of the person it was meant for. My workspace was a colorful chaos, much like my life, but I thrived in it.

"On it!" I called back, pushing my glasses up my nose and diving back into my work. The nickname "Xai" had stuck since my college days, and it felt more like me than my full name, Xaiana.

Hours flew by as I lost myself in the rhythm of creation. Before I knew it, the clock struck seven. I packed up my things and bid my colleagues goodnight, eager to head home and unwind.

My apartment was a cozy sanctuary, a place where I could relax and be myself. After a quick dinner of pasta and salad, I filled the bathtub and sank into the warm water, letting the stress of the day melt away. I washed my hair, enjoying the simple pleasure of the routine. After drying off, I brushed my teeth and meticulously followed my skincare regimen.

Finally, I slipped into my bed, eager to finish the book I had been reading. It was a captivating story about a young woman who found herself reincarnated in a fantasy world as the antagonist. The irony was not lost on me, and I smiled as I opened the book to where I had left off. My eyelids grew heavy, and soon, I was drifting off to sleep, the book still clutched in my hands.

When I opened my eyes again, something was off. The ceiling above me was not the familiar one of my apartment. I sat up abruptly, my heart pounding in my chest. The room was opulent, adorned with rich tapestries and antique furniture. This was definitely not my bedroom.

Panic began to set in as I tried to make sense of my surroundings. Just then, a girl in a maid's uniform entered the room. She had a kind face and a warm smile, but her appearance only added to my confusion.

"Good morning, miss! I'm glad to see you're awake," she said cheerfully. "I've prepared breakfast for you."

I stared at her, bewildered. "Where am I? Who are you?" My voice trembled as I spoke.

The maid's smile faltered slightly, and she looked at me with concern. "Miss, are you feeling alright? I'm Mich, your maid. You are Xaiana Elsher, a princess of the Elsher family."

Her words hit me like a ton of bricks. Princess? Elsher family? This had to be some sort of elaborate prank. "How do you know my name? And what do you mean, princess?" I demanded, my voice rising in pitch.

Mich's confusion mirrored my own. "Miss, this is your home. You've always been Xaiana Elsher, daughter of the Duke Elsher. Are you sure you're feeling alright? Should I call for a physician?"

I shook my head, trying to clear the fog of disbelief. "No, no physician. Just... give me a moment."

Mich nodded and quietly left the room, leaving me to grapple with the impossible situation. I got out of bed and walked to the mirror. The reflection that stared back at me was unmistakably my own, yet everything else felt foreign. My thoughts raced as I tried to piece together what was happening.

Was this a dream? Some kind of strange illusion? I pinched myself hard, wincing at the pain. No, this was real. Somehow, I had woken up in the world of the book I had been reading, and not just any character—I was the antagonist, the very one I had been reading about.

As I sat back down on the luxurious bed, my mind whirled with questions. How had this happened? And more importantly, how was I going to navigate this new reality? My life as a designer felt a million miles away, and I had no idea how to be a princess, let alone an antagonist in a story I thought I knew.

Determined to find some answers, I resolved to play along for now. If I was going to survive in this strange new world, I needed to learn everything I could about it—and about my new role within it.

[somegirlsnerdywords2]

Updated Manga: January 2023

19 Days: Ch. 413 & 414 added since January 2nd

Simply Good Sense for a Duke’s Daughter: Ch. 63 added January 6th

Jujutsu Kaisen: Ch. 209, 210 & 211 added since January 6th

Mahou Tsukai no Yome: Ch. 93 added January 6th

Boku no Hero Academia: Ch. 377, 378 & 379 added since January 6th

Akatsuki no Yona: Ch. 236 & 237 added since January 9th

Karneval: Ch. 137-160 added January 17th

Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun: Ch. 98 added January 18th

Owari no Seraph: Ch. 122 added January 27th

[gurugirl]

Tales From the Modern Incubus Part IV

Summary: Harry has a meeting with his legion leader and realizes that perhaps you're going to be a bit more of a challenge than he bargained for, while you are still feeling the effects of your "dream" with Harry and questioning your sanity.

A/N: For supernatural characters, the first time their name is brought up I'll be linking to my new characters list for TFMI where you can find info on the type of demon/angel and see their face claim. I get my info from The Demonic Paradise Wiki which will be linked in the characters list if you’d like to get more info on demonology and spell/incantations.

Warnings: ⚠️ Read all warnings in the TFMI masterlist before continuing ⛔️ Introduction to a duke of hell (legion leader), mention of abortion, mentions of spells/charms/incantations, religious blasphemy, very very light smut (a small masturbation scene) but not enough to mark this part with a * in my opinion

*you are not obligated to follow any of the links to make the story makes sense. It's only supplemental.

Part III

Part IV

Harry didn’t want to climb out of your bed and leave you but he had to. There were things to do and he’d wasted almost two full days next to you, watching you, breathing you in, and finding himself enchanted by you. He had to move away slowly so as not to wake you. He was wrapped around your frame tightly and so he did a simple sleep spell but as soon as he slipped his arm from under you, you moved and began to rouse.

He whispered the spell again, moved his limbs from yours slowly, and still, you were aware of movement. He couldn’t figure out why you seemed resistant to his incantation. So he used what had worked before, creating a veil of invisibility as he moved himself away from you in case you did open your eyes. You stirred and rolled over but never quite fully woke as far as Harry could tell.

Harry had a meeting with Aim, who was a political leader of sorts for Lucifer and The Almighty, known as the Duke of Hell, and Harry’s legion leader. Aim was of the original angels who joined ranks with the "evil" side.

Today was a required meeting. All of the meetings were almost like therapy for Harry. Aim was sort of like Harry’s advisor and friend all in one. It wasn’t a meeting he could skip this time, though. It normally wasn’t a requirement but given Harry’s timeline for creating a new heir was shrinking by the day, this meeting was obligatory. Aim needed an update so he could relay back to Lucifer and The Almighty of Harry’s progress.

When Harry arrived, Aim was seated at his favorite spot at the little cafe where they always met.

“You smell like a woman. Have you found your mistress?” He stood to greet Harry, giving him a tight hug.

Harry laughed and wiped at his nose, one of a small handful of nervous ticks he picked up from humankind.

“Yeah, I did actually. But it’s a bit complicated. Working on her still.” Harry and Aim stood before one another, grins on their expressions, “How have you been, Aim?”

Aim and Harry took a seat as Aim responded, “Fine. Have been busy the last couple weeks but nothing unusual. My legions all seem to be in line. The Almighty and Lucifer feel things are well in balance these days. But that’s what brings us together today. Your progress. Tell me about the woman. Why is it complicated?” Aim leans back into his chair and crosses his arms over his chest.

Harry keeps eye contact with his old friend, “Because she’s a virgin. The daughter of a Christian pastor, and is a devout believer in the Bible. Has never even kissed anyone, well, technically I kissed her last night… but I’ve only just met her and my charm seems to already be working. She’s got a bit of a crush on me.”

“Well, you still have time. But there’s no need to wait for her to come around if that’s why you’re hesitant to move forward. If she’s a good Christian girl who gets pregnant miraculously,” he puts his fingers up in air quotes as he says miraculously, “she’ll certainly keep the child, so abortion won’t be an issue. Just make her believe she’s in a dream. You’ve done this before, Harry.” Aim picks up his mug of tea and takes a sip.

Harry shakes his head at the duke as the waitress arrives to take his order, “Just an Americano, black, extra hot, and a piece of lemon cake. Please.”

Aim lifts an eyebrow, “Lemon cake? Literally the first time in thousands of years that I’ve ever known you to order a lemon dessert.”

Harry realized this was probably true. After eating you out he was really craving to taste you again and there was the faintest taste of lemon and sugar on his tongue when he had his face dug into your wet pussy. And based on the one time he watched you eat, you ordered a lemon shake with your French fries and Harry could almost bet you liked lemon sweets so much and that was why you tasted of them.

“Mmm… just sounded good.” Harry shrugged, not willing to let Aim know how obsessed he was with you so soon.

Aim sighed and leaned in toward Harry, elbows spread on the table, “So, tell me what you’re waiting for with her. Why you don’t just make her feel she’s dreaming? It’d be easy.”

“Because I think I’ve already got her. It’ll happen soon. I just want the challenge of her giving herself to me. And also…” Harry paused to consider how he’d say this, “I don’t know how effective my spells are on her. I don’t know for sure that they don’t work but something seems different with her.”

Aim squinted and tilted his head, “More details about that, please. That’s concerning.”

Harry inhaled a deep breath and leaned his own elbows onto the table, “I first saw her as I was hidden, invisible to her and that was fine. She had no idea I was there. But then last night I came to her again, unseen, and then cast an illusion spell over her, for deception to make her feel in a dream. But she was a little more surprised by my presence than I have been used to in the past.”

Harry was interrupted briefly when the waitress arrived with his extra hot coffee and slice of lemon cake. Both demons nodded at the human as she walked away.

Harry leaned his elbows back onto the table to continue, “She questioned my sudden appearance at first, but she did let me fool around with her and she liked it. At one point I said I would get her pregnant, you know, just in the heat of the moment, and she was lucid enough to tell me she’d prefer being married before having sex. I mean, that all could still come from her dream mind but it’s unusual. Then when I was leaving her this morning…”

Aim scoffed before interrupting, “You stayed with her the night and you didn’t even have intercourse with her? How long have you gone, Harry?”

Harry blinked and sat straight in his chair, he knew this was coming, “Only last night without intercourse but I did release. The night before was when I met her and just before I’d been with someone I met at a club.”

Aim nodded, “Okay, don’t go too long. It’s detrimental to your health. If she doesn’t give in before the end of the week you will need to seek out another body for intercourse. Anyway, tell me about what happened this morning.” Aim was concerned for his friend. Incubi and succubi needed very regular intercourse, a simple self-assisted orgasm wouldn’t do.

Harry sighed and pursed his lips, “I tried leaving but my movement made her kind of wake up, so I cast a sleep spell but it didn’t work. She kept responding to my movements so I did it again and it was the same. She seemed unaffected by it.”

Harry took a sip of his hot coffee and felt the burn on his tongue as he watched Aim take it all in.

Aim scrunched his brows with a look of contemplation, “Be very careful, Harry. She could be a prophet, or a seer that is resistant to most mind control incantations. She could even be an angel or demon. Hmm…” Aim purses his lips to the side in thought, “I’ll send out some watchers to find out about her. Learn who she is, who her mother is, and who her father is, this pastor.”

Harry felt he would know if she were any of those things, and if she were wouldn’t she herself know? She hadn’t indicated any type of knowledge of a power beyond normal abilities.

“That’s fine but I doubt greatly that she is supernatural. She doesn’t display any powers or understanding of abilities if she is. What would the chances be that she wouldn’t be aware herself?”

Aim finished his tea as Harry plunged his fork into the cake for the first time, his mouth watering for a bite of the lemon sweet.

“It’s possible. I’ve seen it. With enough suppression and brain washing those abilities can lie dormant when not being confronted.”

Harry swallowed the soft delight and closed his eyes for just a moment. He nodded at the Duke and smiled, “Understood. When is the soonest you can find out anything?”

“Soon. Maybe by the end of this week. We will find what we need to unless there’s a higher power purposely hiding her true nature. In that case, we’ll have to do some real sleuthing that could take more time.”

Harry continued to eat the cake as he listened to Aim, “I hate to suggest this, but it might be in your best interest to find a different mistress. This one seems to be more than just a little complicated if my hunch is correct.”

Harry sat his fork down with a frown. You would be his mistress, even if he had to go through heaven and hell to have you.

You spent your Monday lazy and lounging at home since you didn’t have a job. Your dad didn’t want you to work while you were still in college, even during the summer break. Your mom and dad had gone to the church for a few hours in the middle of the day which you promptly used to masturbate. You couldn’t stop thinking about your dream. It felt so real. Part of you wondered if you should let Miguel take things to the next level, find out if it really feels like that. But another part of you didn’t want Miguel to be the one doing it. You wanted Harry. But of course that wasn’t realistic. You’d only just met him and might never see him again.

With your fingers drenched and rubbing your clit you imagined Harry’s mouth was on you. His lips working you, and the way his long fingers entered inside of you and pushed into something never touched before.

“Mmm… yes… Hh… Haaarryy…” you panted into your bedroom.

You’d never masturbated so many days in a row before but it was like a switch had been turned on inside of you and it just felt so good, so natural in your body.

Suddenly you smelled him. His scent, just like the night before, lingered somehow, even after your shower.

You stopped what you were doing and sat up. There was no way you were really smelling him. It had to be in your mind. You got up from your bed and walked to the window, covering your naked frame in case anyone might see you from outside. You turned back toward your bed and laughed at yourself, feeling like you were losing your mind.

You gently placed your palms over the swell of each breast and squeezed, still hot and ready to get back to it. You kneed up to your bed and jumped when you felt something solid at your mid thigh. You stepped away from your bed quickly and looked around the room, then lifted your blanket to find nothing.

“Am I going mad?” You said to yourself in disbelief. You slowly moved back to the bed in silence, your senses in overdrive and fear beginning to leak into your skin.

Harry watched as you walked around your bed, holding your tits in your hands, with worry on your face. He had been close to the bed and leaned in at the moment you put your knee up and your thigh brushed against his arm. He didn’t expect it. Mostly because he wasn’t sure why you’d gotten up in the first place. He was moving out of the way and failed to move opposite you. It also didn’t help that his cock was out at the sight of what you were doing just moments prior, so he couldn’t move about as quickly as normal without making too much noise.

Had you sensed him somehow? You were masturbating one moment and the next you were sitting up then you moved to the window and laughed. Now you seemed very on edge, acutely aware.

You pulled your t-shirt over your head and slipped your panties back on. When you were a teenager you heard, from your youth leader John, that masturbating might invite demons into your bed and they could play with you during. You shuddered at the thought. Had you invited a demon in and now you were dealing with something evil?

You looked around your room and realized it still smelled heavy of the tall man with dark hair. It also felt like there was a presence. Like you weren’t alone but no one was there.

"Hh... Harry? Uhhh... I know you're not here." You shook your head as you spoke into the empty room.

You had his attention. He was surprised by you speaking his name into the room while you weren't masturbating. Did he appear to you on accident? He stood very still near your bed and watched you.

"This is so weird. I don't know what's going on. Is there something here? I can, like smell it. It smells like... Harry. What is going on?" You really felt like you were losing it. You were speaking to no one and smelling Harry very clearly. You didn't think you'd ever forget the way he smelled. And then whatever your thigh ran into on your bed?

You hugged your arms around yourself and walked to the other side of your bed again, closer to Harry and the smell grew. You closed your eyes and inhaled, "Yeah. That smells like, him. Huh..." and when you opened your eyes again you sighed at the empty room.

Harry was amazed. You could smell him? He wondered if you had enhanced senses somehow. Where you could smell things that others couldn't. Kind of like how Harry could. However, Harry couldn't just fuck around and stare at you while you were literally sniffing him out. He had to create a distraction of some kind to remove the the chance of this backfiring on him.

So, Harry used nature for his first distraction by shifting the pattern of weather and made the sunny bright day turn into a dark stormy one. At the sudden crash of lightening you turned to the window and gasped. It had just been warm and sunny, blue skies, no cloud to be seen. With the quick distraction, Harry removed himself from your room to gather his thoughts. He didn’t know if you were onto him or not. But you smelled him and that was a concern. Everything was a concern now. He knew Aim gave him good advice, to choose another vessel. But he didn’t want to. That wasn’t going to happen. He was going to find a way to make you his, no matter what you were.

Harry wanted to start getting to know you so he could earn your trust and then win you over for the final task. He conjured a small series of events to get you to leave your home so he could “coincidentally” run into you.

First, the power went out at your house because of the storm. You were already quite creeped out by everything going on so you slid on your jeans and put on your sneakers, feeling a bit vulnerable in just a t-shirt and panties.

Next, your doorbell rang so you went to the front door and peeked outside to find out who it was that could be coming over during a storm. No one was outside. Not a soul. You turned back into the dark living room and felt a chill over your body.

Finally, you heard something moving from within the attic above. The storm had quieted just enough that you could hear something being dragged over the floor slowly, like a chair or something wooden being moved across the floor.

And that was all it took for you to grab your purse and get out of the house. Climbing into your old Hyundai Accent, you backed out of the driveway and drove off down the street. There was no way you were staying inside that house anymore. Something was going on in there. You were sure of it now.

You considered going to the church but in truth you weren’t ready to speak to your parents about what was happening in the house. You didn’t know if they’d take you seriously. And it’s not like you could tell them everything about what you’d experienced, and what had you concerned.

So you pulled into the small café near your house that clearly still had power and looked especially warm and inviting today. With the sudden storm and the way you were feeling a bit on edge, a café with a small handful of strangers seemed like a good place to stop and calm down for a while.

You ordered a mint and lemon green tea with honey, and a lemon bar. You sat next to the window and pulled out your phone. Miguel had just texted you to ask what you were doing tonight and you were considering texting him to meet you at the café when the café door opened and the bell overhead rang to announce the new guest. You looked up with your phone still in your hands and it was him. It was Harry. He was wearing a knee length jacket with vertical strips and he looked very expensive. His grey trousers were crisp and ironed perfectly and he wore a black button up shirt underneath his jacket. He didn’t look like he’d just walked in from the rain, but then you saw him holding an umbrella in his hand.

He didn’t notice you when he first walked in. He went to the counter and ordered something. The girl taking his order nearly fainting at his presence. You couldn’t believe it was really him, here, now. You turned yourself to get out of your seat at the very same time your name was called to pick up your order.

When you stood to make your way to the counter it was then that Harry spotted you. You both smiled at one another you waved at him. You watched as he finished up paying, while he kept glancing back to you.

“Look who it is. My little lemon lover. How’re you doing?” Harry looked down at your treat in hand and then brought his gaze back to your eyes.

You breathed out a sweet laugh at Harry’s words and for the fact that he even remembered that you had a lemon shake just the day before, “I’m well. Electricity went out in my house so I came here. How are you? Uh… do you want to sit with me?” You gestured toward the spot you’d been sitting near the window.

Harry watched your adorable face as you spoke and he smiled at you in a way that had you feeling butterflies in your tummy and in your brain.

“Of course, that would be nice. If you don’t mind.” Harry followed you to the window and you both sat across from one another in the café chairs at the tiny table you’d been occupying moments before. “And I’m well. Just getting settled into the town here. Thought I’d stop into this cafe to see what the place is like. Find out if they have a good black coffee.”

You grinned at the handsome man. His lips were quite pink and his hair looked so soft… You took a sip of your tea to ground yourself a bit. You needed to not let your thoughts get away from you because you were already on that path as you looked at him across from you, in the flesh, his seafoam green eyes looking at yours.

You were trying to think of anything to say when the cashier came to your table with a mug of coffee for Harry, “Here, thought I’d deliver this myself so you don’t have to get up from your conversation.” The girl looked at Harry with a hopeful smile.

“Why thank you. How nice. Cheers.” Harry lifted his mug as he took a sip and then looked back at you.

You couldn’t wipe the smile off your face. Harry was charming and more attractive than you think you’d ever found anyone. Ever. And you could smell him again. Even in the café with the baked goods and brewing coffee, his scent was exactly as you remembered, from yesterday, from the evening before, from today…

“Looks like you have an admirer.” You tipped your chin toward the where the cashier was and chuckled at the look on Harry’s face.

He raised his brow and grinned cheekily, baring his dimples to you, “Ya think? Hmm… Guess I’m not used to having admirers.” Harry lied, of course he was used to it, “Think I should I ask her out?” He wanted to know what your response would be to that.

The question caught you off guard. You didn’t think he’d want to ask her out. And by the way your smile dropped for a flash of a second, only to be replaced by a tighter one, Harry knew you didn’t like the sound of that, which pleased him.

“Oh! Uh… yeah! If you think you like her or something. I mean… I was just kidding, but you know…” you try to laugh off your disappointment and you want to kick yourself for feeling jealous because you had a boyfriend. Harry wasn’t yours to be jealous over.

Harry kept his eyes on yours, still wearing his cheeky grin, “I was just kidding as well. Not really my type. But I’m sure she’s great.”

You let out a breath and smiled as you looked down at your lemon bar then back up to Harry. You put your hands flat on the table, “I see. Well…” you laugh again. Not really knowing what to say. You were starting to feel flustered. You took a bite of your lemon square, Harry’s eyes still on your face.

“Yeah. I wouldn’t ask her out. I’d much prefer to go out with you if I were honest.” Harry spoke slowly and watched you for a reaction. Your eyes widened and you stopped chewing your dessert at his words, “But judging by what I saw yesterday, looks like you’re already taken. Shame.”

You gulped down your mouthful and wiped at your mouth. You couldn’t believe he just said it so casually. But you weren’t terribly surprised that he was attracted to you based on his behavior the day before.

You laugh and fiddle with your mug of tea, “Yeah right.” You rolled your eyes, trying to hide how nervous and excited you felt. You knew your face was growing red as blood rushed to the apples of your cheeks.

“You don’t believe me?” Harry leaned toward you a couple of inches, scooting his chair a little closer to yours. “You don’t think I’d find you to be pretty?”

You looked from Harry’s eyes, down to his hands as he cupped them around his mug, his fingers covered in rings. You breathed out a laugh, “I don’t know. Miguel is the only guy I’ve ever dated so…”

Harry softly spoke over you, “So… you think other guys wouldn’t want to date you too? Miguel is a lucky guy as far as I can tell.”

You dare to look back at his eyes and he’s already got his on you. He licks his lips and his smile is a bit sure, cocky, relaxed… but you really find him attractive. Even the cockiness.

You open your mouth to speak but you find your brain empty in that moment and the only thing you can think to say is, “I like your cologne. What do you wear?”

Harry’s smile spreads over his face and he laughs, looking down to his mug of coffee before pulling his gaze back up to you, “Thank you. Tom Ford. Surprised you can smell me at all in this café.”

“Oh yeah. I’ve got this incredible sense of smell. Always have. I can smell all kinds of things. I know it sounds weird but, like sometimes I can even tell when my boyfriend doesn’t floss. Isn’t that gross?” You laugh and look down at your tea to pick the mug up. It’s such a ridiculous thing, your sense of smell. Your mom and dad have always been amazed by the things you could smell. Once, your mom misplaced her purse. She couldn’t find it for nearly a whole day, but when you came home for the weekend from school, you found it because you could smell the leather. It was in the garage under her car, where she placed it when she arrived home the day before. But it was things like that which happened all the time. Your sense of smell was useful in some ways, but terrible in others.

“Wow. Interesting. Just makes you even cuter. What about me? Does it smell like I haven’t flossed?”

You were fully blushing at this point. Harry’s comments were sending you into an internal freak out, “No. You smell really good. Clean, and fresh, and good.” You smiled at Harry as he sipped his coffee.

“Ahh, good to hear. I certainly try. Better than smelling of unflossed teeth.” He laughed and leaned back in his chair with his gaze pinned to you.

Shaking your head and smiling you spoke, “That’s true. Unflossed teeth are pretty nasty.”

“Do you ever tell him? When you know he hasn’t flossed?” Harry raises his brows in question.

“Nah. I don’t want to hurt his feelings. He’d probably not take it well.” You shook your head, imagining how Miguel would react.

“Hmm… So far, the guy doesn’t like it when you’re offered healthy food, doesn’t floss, and reacts poorly to your helpful suggestions. I think you could do better. But I’m not here to tell you what to do.”

You scoffed and laughed. Harry was unlike anyone you’d ever met.

Before you knew it, an hour had passed. Harry made you feel interesting and pretty with all his compliments and the way he’d bite his lip and watch you as you spoke. He even touched you a couple of times, innocently of course. Well, mostly innocently. When he moved your hair off your shoulder so he could lean in to get a good look at your earing and then proceeded to gently nudge at your lobe you realized he was flirting with you very subtly. And you liked it.

Somehow the two of you had gotten onto the subject of dreams and Harry had just listened to you telling him about a dream you used to have as a child when he decided to share a dream he’d had with you, even though he was just going to make something up, “I had a dream last night. Mmm… probably shouldn’t tell you about it. Might scare you off.” He chuckled lowly as he tilted his head, still looking directly into your eyes.

“You won’t scare me! It’s just a dream, right? Tell me!” You truly were curious, and you really enjoyed Harry’s company. But mostly you wanted to keep him as long as you could so you could be on the receiving end of his touches and his subtle flirtations.

Harry took a deep breath and looked around the café before returning his gaze to yours. He leaned in closer to you, moving his chair even closer to yours so that now his knee was pressed against the side of yours, “It was about you.” He paused, to get a read before continuing, “It was quite… naughty. I don’t want to tell you the details. It’s inappropriate.” He shook his head and you swear he was blushing. He looked almost embarrassed! But now you had to know.

“Oh, come on, Harry! If I was in your dream, you’re obligated to tell me about it. We’re not leaving here until you tell me.”

Harry gave you a lazy smile and licked his lips, looking down at your lips for the briefest second, “I have all night, Y/N. That’s no threat to me. I’d stay here with you talking all night long, no problem. Not gonna tell you my dream. You’d think I was pervert.” He smirked and rolled his lips into his mouth.

You sighed and leaned in toward him a little, feeling quite a lot more comfortable with him, “Okay. I had a dream about you last night and it was naughty. So…” you laugh and look down at your empty mug, not quite believing you were about to suggest this, “If you tell me your dream, I’ll tell you mine.”

Now this was what Harry was looking for, “Fine. I’ll tell you. But swear you won’t think any differently of me.”

You nodded and put your pinky out, “Pinky swear, but you have to swear the same for me for when I tell you mine.”

You linked pinkies and Harry pulled you in toward him, keeping his eyes on yours, “I swear,” he spoke in a whisper. God you really liked this man.

Harry proceeded to tell you about his inappropriate dream, which he totally made up because Harry doesn’t really dream because he doesn’t really sleep, “You and I were together at the church and you were sitting next to me, and slowly running your hand up my thigh, got in real close to my zipper and when you realized I was hard you just tore my pants down and gave me head while your father was giving his sermon. Right in front of everyone.” Harry laughed a little and shook his head as he looked down at his lap, pretending to feel embarrassed.

You covered your mouth and laughed with wide eyes, “Oh my god! Wow! That is…” you both laughed for a moment at the absurdity.

“Your turn, Y/N. Tell me.” Harry was so seductive. He didn’t need to do much. Just the way he was looking at you made your panties wet, which was a little embarrassing. You knew no one else could smell you (which you were wrong about), but you could smell how aroused you were and the scent coming from between your thighs.

“Okay… so, you were in my bedroom and on my bed with me, like out of nowhere. And you like… went down on me.” You pushed out a laugh through your nostrils as you got hot with embarrassment, “Um… anyway, and then you showed me your penis and you came on me. Oh god.” You put your face in your hands and leaned over the table.

Harry thought you were adorable. He waited for you to sit back up and he draped an arm over your shoulder and pulled you in to him, speaking into your ear, “S’okay. You don’t need to be embarrassed. S’just a dream. We both had naughty dreams about one another the first day we met. What does that say about us? Hmm? We’re both quite depraved for that. What would Miguel think?”

You shook your head and melted into the feeling of Harry’s arm over your shoulders, “He’d hate it. He’s never even kissed me before. Well, because I won’t let him.”

“Of course not. The fucker doesn’t even floss his teeth. I can tell you who does floss, though…” Harry paused waiting for you to react to his comment. You laughed and sucked at your teeth. Harry was a little crude. He liked to use fowl language and say things that made you feel embarrassed and hot. But, once again, you liked it. You liked everything about Harry.

“Let me guess. You floss, Harry.” You spoke and turned to look at him. Your close proximity could easily be mistaken as intimate from anyone watching.

“That’s right. I floss. I smell good. I’ll give you healthy things to eat and fill your tummy with,” he was speaking quietly and slowly into your ear and your goosebumps were unstoppable, “… and I would beg for your helpful suggestions. Unlike Miguel.”

You swallowed at his words and imagined being with him again, like you were in your dream last night. Then you thought of his dream and that even seemed exciting to you, having him in your mouth. In church.

Harry noticed your breathing getting heavier. He smiled at the effect he had on you. He smiled at the fact that you didn’t try and move from him when he put his arm over your shoulder. He smiled at your honesty with him about your dream. He was getting somewhere with you. He just needed to keep chipping away at your innocence.

“Am I not correct? I mean, you probably don’t know about the begging part, but I’d beg you for suggestions. I’d beg you for a lot of things. And I mean I’d beg. I have no shame.”

You softly laughed and turned to look at him again, it was difficult to keep your eyes on his with how near he was, you feared you’d press your lips onto his if you looked too long, “You’d beg for a lot of things? What do you mean?”

Harry moved his arm that was over your shoulder, sliding his hand to the back of your neck, and pushing your hair away so he could run his fingers over your neck into your hair at the back of your head, “Do you really want to know?”

You nodded and smiled at the man who was already smirking down at you.

“If you were mine, I’d beg you for kisses, for your attention, for all your time. I’d beg you to hold my hand, to talk to me, to look at me with your beautiful eyes. But since you’re not mine I can’t beg for those kinds of things from you. I could beg you to go out with me, though. But you’d probably find that insufferable. You love your boyfriend, right? So you wouldn’t waste your time with a boy from London you’d just met. You wouldn’t want me to beg you for that would you?”

You lost the air in your lungs somehow. Harry’s own scent became stronger by the moment and it was more of a natural scent. Something you smelled under his cologne and his soap. How should you answer the man? If it’s with truth, then you’d tell him you did want that. Wanted to just swap Miguel for Harry. If it’s with ego and stubbornness, then you’d tell him that you do love Miguel (even though you definitely didn't) and that you wouldn’t want that.

Instead, you just laugh and look down, unable to handle the moment fully. Harry noted your hesitance to answer and he figured this would be your reaction. It was more of a rhetorical question anyway. Something to get you thinking about things.

You reluctantly lifted your head and spoke, “I should probably go. It’s getting late and I think my parents are probably back home now. They don’t like me out too late.” You would stay with Harry all night if you could, but your dad could be quite the deterrent for you when it came to doing things most 23 year old normally did.

“I understand. It is getting late. Before you go, could I give you my number? Is that okay?”

You were relieved that he was the one who asked. You really wanted to ask for his number or give him yours but how would that look being that you had a boyfriend and all?

“Oh yeah! Here...” You turned to pluck your phone out of your purse and opened up your messages app, adding Harry as a new contact, “Okay, what’s your last name?” You looked up at him with your sweet round eyes and flushed cheeks. Harry wanted to eat you whole. You were the gentlest, sweetest, and most intriguing human he’d ever met. But he half doubted you were a normal human. There was something about you that was well hidden, and deeply suppressed that he couldn’t pinpoint. Something that drew him to you. Something that seems to be drawing you to him.

“My last name is Styles.”

Part V*

If you liked it show me some love, please! Tip $1?

Check out my masterlist if you enjoyed this 💕

Xoxo

Tags: @scorpiongirl1 @harrysbigspoon @matildasatellite @fuckoffstyles777777777 @sadeslovechild @michellekstyles @ssaama @angelqueen99 @sombrioinvernoemveneza @golden-hoax

[glitter-pastel-scales]

aahhh i’ve been working on this for a while, and now it’s finally done!!😭🎉

this is a new helluva boss oc i made, her name is Spectra and she’s a unicorn demon.

she’s the daughter of Amdusias, who is a duke of hell.

i was originally going to make her Amdusias, but i decided not to cause her story makes more sense this way lol

Spectra is a very powerful demon, and heir to the throne of Amdusias, but she wants nothing to do with any of it.

after a traumatic incident while trying to preform a spell as a child, she turned against her title and her father, becoming bitter.

said incident is also the cause for the scars on her face/horn/arm.

ever since then she has never tried to use her magic at full power again, for fear of what will happen.

and just like Amdusias, she is good with music.

she is the lead singer in a death metal band, but she can also use her incredibly loud death metal scream as a weapon if need be.

her scream is loud enough to cause a sonic boom.

she prefers to do this over using her magic.

she does occasionally use her magic at very low power for simple tasks like levitation.

she hardly ever transforms into her full demon form, only in emergencies or if she’s extremely angry.

when she is in her full demon form, she can spit toxic black ichor from her mouth.

it causes burns, and if ingested, will kill.

she’s also very emotionally reserved and rarely is vulnerable with anyone, for fear of being hurt.

so she puts up a front of being very tough and intimidating to scare people off.

it’s mostly because of her father who just wants her as an heir, and to continue with her magic studies, rather than as a daughter.

he thinks she’s overreacting about her incident as a kid while preforming a spell, and doesn’t believe she was traumatized.

so she cut him off and went into hiding to escape her role as his heir.

he’s still searching for her, so she changed her name and appearance to try to avoid being found.

so spectra isn’t her original name, i’ll reveal her demon name and her royal demon look at some point lol

and also make a reference for Amdusias.

i think that’s it for now, i really hope yall like her!!😄

[camillyb]

‘Pahele’-“Trapped”

Part One.

Pairing: Danny Williams x Reader.

Steve McGarrett x Reader (Unrequited love).

Requested by @pumpkinfriend : “Hi! I would LOVE a Danny x reader story :) Maybe Steve and Danny rescue reader from a dangerous situation. Both take a liking to her, kinda competing for her attention/feelings... Reader likes them both, is lighty flirty with both... Does that makes sense? Thank you!”

Characters that may appear or be mentioned: Steve McGarrett, Danny Williams, Kono Kalakaua, Chin Ho Kelly, Kamekona, Wo Fat, Duke Lukela, Grace Williams, Capt. Lou Grover, Joe White, Catherine Rollins.

Warnings: Kidnapping, knife wounds, torture, blood, fractured rib, strangulation, angst.

Words: 625

A/N: ok, i already had one started drafting a while ago, i loved writing this request. sorry for the delay to post, i’m full of tests... anyway, i hope you like it, and let me know what you think! remember, requests are still open!

Sista = Sister.

Brah = Bro/Brother.

It was midnight when you woke up when you heard a noise downstairs in your house. You always went to sleep with your gun tucked away in the top drawer of the desk beside your bed, you learned from your father’s friend Joe White. How did your father and Joe meet? Simple. Both served in the Navy, however, Y/N’s father died in combat.

You left the room trying to make as little noise as possible, with your gun pointed straight ahead and started down the stairs, watching a male figure going through the closets.

“Hey. You there. Five-zero, raise your hands where I can see it!” - Her face softened when she saw Kamekona.

“Easy there sista!” - He raised his hands. The question is, why was Kamekona at her house? Well, you got hurt a while ago and he volunteered to cook, so sometimes he showed up at your house.

“Kamekona! How many times have I said that when you’re coming, it’s to let you know brah? And it’s half past midnight! What are you doing here?” - You approached lowering the gun while rubbing your free hand over your face.

“So sista, you know what it is...” - He started to try to explain himself until he was interrupted.

“No, you know what? Don’t even tell me what you came here for. We had a big gang case that resulted in murder today and now I just want to sleep, so whatever you do and if you want the guest room is free... Good night, Kame!” - You turned your back and started to climb the steps, however, stopped halfway turning around again. - “And give me back my keys, you can put in the first drawer on the right of the desk that has in the office...” - You smiled and continued up the stairs.

“Thanks sister! Night!”

Little did she know the day would be long...

• • ────────────── • •

6:30 am... Time to get up!

When your father passed away, the only father figure you had was Joe. Your mother died a while later too, she had cancer, it was in an advanced stage, little chance of cure. When she passed away, you only had Joe, he promised he would take care of you.

As a good soldier’s daughter and later raised by a soldier, you learned to get up early and go for a run.

“Morning brah!” - You said when you entered the kitchen and saw that he was also awake.

“Good morning!”

“Kame, I’m going out for a run ok.” - You started moving away from the kitchen.

“Done!”

“Oh, I almost forgot...” - You turned around - “When I leave, lock the door, don’t let anyone in.”

“Everything’s ok?” - He asked as he approached.

“Yeah, of course. Just in case. See you later, I’ll show up in the truck.” - You turned and ran out the door.

• • ────────────── • •

As you ran, you always paid attention to your surroundings, being a target of Wo Fat was a problem.

Wo Fat was behind Shelburne, in his view, Wo Fat acts out of impulsiveness. If he catches someone, he insists and insists on getting the victim to talk, even if he keeps denying it. Torture is not very cool...

When you were younger, you had already been kidnapped, but as you were trained by Joe, you managed to escape from the place where you were taken.

Even being observant, felt that someone was following you, but you didn’t give that much importance. There were times when u received letters at your house, with no sender only the recipient, you.

• • ────────────── • •

“Steve?” - Danny called him worried.

“What” - Steve stopped doing what he was doing

“It’s Y/N. We have a problem”

• • ────────────── • •

Hey! I’ll finish writing and I’ll post when I’m ready. I don’t know how many parts there will be, probably 3 at most.

I’m sorry for the delay!

[usergreenpixel]

MALMAISON MEDIA SALON SOIRÉE 12: THE DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT (1840)

1. The Introduction

Hello, dear Neighbors! Welcome back to Malmaison Media Salon. Sorry for all the delays but mental health and exams are bitches to deal with so I need to prioritize and I might need to delay my other review… Okay, I’m getting sidetracked.

Anyway, today we are going to review an opera! That’s right, one of the Napoleonic operas (of which I found several) and a rare beast, because it’s a comedy.

Definitely new territory for me, because I’m used to operas being all about tragedy, doom and gloom (which is partially why I dislike most of them). But hey, it’s Napoleonic, it doesn’t seem to encourage propaganda and it’s a comedy so why not review that and (hopefully) have a good laugh?

This opera premiered in France so, fortunately, no Anglophone bullshit ™️ here! It’s in French, but can easily be found on YouTube with English subtitles so it’s not a pain in the ass in that department either!

Also, before we begin, this review is dedicated to @mamelukeraza , @pobodleru and @michel-feuilly (the latter two users kind of remind me of the main character so there’s that).

Okay, let’s fucking go!

2. The Story

The opera tells the story of a vivandière, Marie, who was found as a baby by the 21st regiment of the French Army and raised by the soldiers, which leads her to refer to everyone in the regiment as her father, and this concept is one of the things I like the most!

See, I’m big on tropes concerning found families and the idea that family isn’t always about biological relatives, so I find Marie’s story extremely sweet. Unfortunately, there’s a romance in the story (between Marie and a peasant called Tonio) and I usually don’t care about romantic stuff in media all that much.

However, the story was still fun to watch due to the wholesome interactions between Marie and The Dads ™️ (that’s what I’m calling the regiment because they raised her), a family conflict involved in the story that doesn’t paint anyone as evil and some genuinely funny moments.

Also this opera only has 2 acts so it’s pretty short, simple and gets straight to the point. Perfect for people who aren’t fans of slower pacing.

3. The Characters

I like Marie. I really do.

Raised by soldiers, she definitely is more of a tomboy and loves the life she has with her fathers, which makes sense because that’s the only life she has ever known and by all accounts she is loved and cared for.

Marie definitely can be rough with her manners and she talks like the soldiers who raised her but she does have a kind and gentle side, comforting the wounded as the vivandière and doing everything to help the regiment and make them proud. She is also ready to put her happiness aside for the sake of others, even if that makes her miserable.

Tonio, Marie’s love interest, is also surprisingly likeable. He is a regular peasant who fell in love with Marie and enlisted in the regiment to be with her. He is loyal, wants what’s best for her and is kind of a jokester during at least one of his interactions with The Dad Regiment.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t have that much narrative time but he is a pretty good character when he is on stage.

I didn’t like the character of the Marquise, who is the closest thing to an antagonist in the opera, even though she isn’t actually malicious. Spoiler warning for my reasons for disliking her.

When the Marquise recognizes Marie as her illegitimate daughter, she whisks her away from her fathers to try and teach her to become a proper lady, basically ripping her daughter away from the life she knows without even considering that said daughter is actually completely fine with her life as it is and doesn’t need some aristocrat swooping in!

Not only that, but this Marquise also tries to marry off Marie to a Duke who Marie doesn’t even know. Of course, we later find out that she is doing this in an effort to try to ensure a good future for Marie, but her “mom knows best” attitude, her lack of consideration for Marie’s opinion and her stubbornness leave a really bad taste in my mouth.

Luckily, the old bitch does change her tune in the end but I really don’t like her regardless, mostly because I have adoptees in my family and I know that being the biological parent doesn’t give ANYONE the right to just whisk their kid away from the people they actually think of as family.

Sulpice, the regiment’s sergeant, is pretty likeable. He does sympathize with the Marquise, but also sees that Marie is miserable and unsuited for noble life, so he tries to cheer up Marie as much as possible and ultimately allows her to marry Tonio because her happiness is what matters most for him.

Sulpice is also really proud of Marie and it shows. He is protective too, especially when Tonio first shows up, but not overly so and his protectiveness is justified because Tonio could be a spy and/or take advantage of Marie. So no overprotective dad trope either.

4. The Setting

The story is set in Tyrol, in the beginning of Napoleonic wars, but the costumes of some characters aren’t really accurate. For example, some productions add pants to Marie’s uniform whereas an actual vivandière would wear a skirt.

Uniforms of soldiers seem accurate, but some nobles still wear wigs so accuracy is hit or miss, but it’s a comedy that doesn’t take itself seriously all the time, so I don’t mind it that much.

The sets are really good though, especially in scenes that represent landscapes.

5. The Music

I said before that I don’t like opera, but the music here is actually beautiful and there is some talking involved, so the opera borders on the operetta territory, it seems.

I think I liked the regiment songs the best, but all music was excellent.

7. The Conclusion

It was a great experience and this opera might just be the only one I actually liked. I definitely recommend it for fans of comedy and shorter, simpler stories.

Also the fact that the French aren’t portrayed as evil and that there’s no villain is refreshing in my opinion, so it’s an additional reason to check this opera out.

With that out of the way, let’s finish our soirée and, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll tune out and do some studying.

Love,

- Citizen Green Pixel

[anxious-allie-ren]

Hey everyone! I’d like to introduce the new story I am writing! You can find it on both my AO3 and Wattpad. Both of which are linked in my bio. But I’ll also be posting the chapters here for you all. Be easy on me as I haven’t quite figured out how to post chapters on here and create a master list. That is something I will be working on. Alright, now in to the good stuff.

Erota

As the only daughter from a high society family, the pressure is on you to impress the ton and find a suitable match. You hope to find love, but your fate is decided for you. Your marriage is arranged to King Kylo of Chandrila. Pain and tough decisions are soon to follow.

This story is inspired by Bridgerton and regency era.

Hello everyone! I have been dreaming of writing this fic for a bit now and finally gathered the courage to do it! Like I said in the description, this story is heavily influenced by the regency era and the Netflix show Bridgerton. I've done my best to keep it accurate to both the era and the Star Wars world. I hope you enjoy!

The Ton.

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The season has finally arrived. You have officially joined the ton and are coming out into society. The debutantes of higher society are to be presented in court. This now includes you and your family.

You were the only child of the Duke of Selonia. A small territory southeast of Drall within the kingdom of Corellia. It's a quaint little area, nothing to brag about. It was cozy and calm. Many of the families had lived in the area for generations. Neighbors all knew each other. But despite its comfort and kindness it was lacking funds.

Since you had been able to remember, life was very simple. You helped in the gardens, the kitchens, and even with the laundry work. Your family took trips to town often, visiting with the people. Your mother loved to stop at the bakery and buy pastries to bring back to the estate. She told you stories from her childhood as bedtime stories. Coming from a common family and marrying into high society. Your parents married for love and not statues. Many scolded your father for marrying "below his station" but he let their words roll off his shoulders. He was attracted to your mother for her beauty, kindness, and capabilities. Your mother was no stranger to hard work, and she assured you weren't as well.

As you matured, you watched as your home aged as well. Bricks began to weather with time and vegetation started to take over. Farmers had less success each year and businesses were closing. The help your father was once so quick to provide had now dwindled into nothing. There was no help to give. The funding was nearly gone. After your mother's death, the strong and reliable man you had once called your father was gone. What replaced him was a shell of a man. He gave up on his duties as a duke and instead threw his time and money into bad habits. Gambling and drinking had become his crutch.

You lost your mother in your adolescence. Still a young girl so in need of a mother and her guidance. Her death left you confused and in desperate need of comfort. You tried to lean on your father. But in his own grief, he seemed to forget about you. Instead, you turned to your community. The maids and butlers became your family. They ensured your schooling would continue. The men even went as far as to teach you math and science. When you entered your teens, you attempted to take on the dukedom in secret. You went over all the documents and finances, trying to find a way to help your people and restore your estate. It was to no avail. Nothing could be done without your fathers signature. So you were left with no choice but to let it go. You focused on your studies and lessons with the maids. They helped bring you to maturity. Now, it was time to join society as an eligible woman.

Marriage has been heavy on your mind for many years now. The idea of meeting a man and marrying just for statues or titles didn't interest you. Neither of those things mattered to you. A marriage had become something with such a negative connotation. But love, now that was very different. You yearned for a true love match. You craved a deep connection unlike any you'd ever experienced. As a child, you'd developed small crushes on some of the neighborhood children. The butterflies and blushed looks were something you understood. But you'd never felt love before. You loved your family of course. You even loved your townspeople. But that was so different from what you hoped to find.

Becoming a debutante was not something you were looking forward to. Joining the ladies of high society was only asking for drama. But as the daughter of a Duke, it was your duty to join the ton and find a suitable husband. This had become increasingly important as your territory lost more and more money to your father's lifestyle. These thoughts scrambled around your mind as you got ready. You would be heading to the first ball of the season, your entrance into society, in moments. You were dressed in your nicest items. A deep red ball gown embroidered with golden florals along the bottom of the skirt and corset. Your hair was pinned back, allowing your face to stand out. Your maid, Jillian, was helping you put on your shoes as you looked at yourself in the mirror. Jillian had been with your family before your mother passed. She had watched you grow from a pained child to a strong young woman. She was with you every step of the way. Jillian became a motherly figure and your most trusted confidant.

Jillian pats your calf as she begins to stand, finished with clasping your heels. Her touch pulls you from your thoughts. You give her a polite smile and thank her, turning back to the mirror. Your anxiety is growing with each tick of the clock and in typical Jillian fashion, she can sense your discomfort. She comes to stand behind you, adjusting the pins in your hair.

"You know you're prepared for this. There's no need to sit and worry."

You meet her gaze in the mirror, her gentle blue eyes giving you a wave of comfort. You let out a sigh and play with your fingers.

"I felt prepared, but now that it's upon me, I'm not so sure. So much is at stake here, Jillian. The people of Selonia are relying on me to find someone who can help. What if I'm not up to standards?"

Jillian only chuckles at your words and places her hands on either of your shoulders.

"Standards? Now you're just being silly. You are a kind, intelligent, and strong young lady. Any suitor would be lucky to have you as his wife."

You turn to look at her, face scrunched in concentration.

"That's exactly the issue! It can't just be any suitor. They need to be able to fix dukedom and be the love I've been waiting for. What if that's unrealistic? How can I ever find someone to do both?"

Jillian places a comforting hand on your cheek, her thumb slowly stroking your cheekbone. She gives you a small smile before she speaks.

"Is that what you're so worried about? Dear, you're placing too much stress on yourself. Don't worry about the dukedom or Selonia. Go and find your love, everything else will fall in place."

You lean into her hand and smile, her words bringing you peace and a newfound sense of confidence. She pulls her hand away and turns towards your bedroom door. She calls back to you, "Now let's get you going! It's time."

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The carriage stopped in front of the King's summer estate. Many of the guests were already walking up the grand entrance and making their way inside. Your father hurried around and opened the door for you, holding his hand out and helping you down. Tonight he was doing his best to look and act presentable. You place your hand in his bent arm and let him lead you into the ball. Neither of you had spoken more than a few words to each other in years. You were surprised he even accompanied you tonight. His presence only made you nervous again. You weren't sure what his intent was by coming. Was he finally stepping back into his positions as father and Duke? Or was there some ulterior motive?

You found out quickly as he leaned in to speak to you, just as you were arriving at the entrance of the ballroom.

"I am expecting you to perform well tonight. I want to see gentlemen callers of high status calling on you tomorrow."

You look up at him and furrow your brows in confusion. So this is what he came for? To ensure you schmoozed with the highest titles with the most money? If so, he's going to be very disappointed.

"I'm here to find a reasonable suitor for myself, father. Not a suitor for you and Selonia."

He stops walking at your words, his head turning to look down at you. You can see his clenched jaw and anger in his eyes. His distaste for your words is written all over his face.

"Stop with your foolish girly fantasy of a love match. You're here to do as I say, and I'll be damned if you disobey me."

His words sting your heart. Your father had never spoken to you this way. When you were young, he was always so gentle and loving towards you. Now it seems you're just another pawn to be thrown around his chessboard as he pleased. You swallow the lump in your throat and move your gaze back down. Now was not the time to worry about this. You had more pressing matters.

You allowed your father to lead you to the entrance, stopping to allow the announcer to get your names. You took a deep breath as you prepared to face the ton. First impressions were everything, and you did not want to screw this up. The announcer clears his throat and stands at attention. Everyone in the room stops what they're doing to await the next debutante.

"Presented by her father, the Duke of Selonia, Miss Y/F/N."

You stare forward as your father leads you into the ballroom and towards the King and Queen of Corellia. You both stopped before them, your father unlinking your arms and bowing. You fall into a curtsy, bowing your head in respect. Your father stands back up and looks to the king. You stay still, awaiting the command to move. The king of Corellia rises from his throne and moves to stand in front of you. Everyone holds their breath, watching closely to see what unfolds. He places a gentle finger under your chin, raising your head to meet his gaze.

"Stand up for me, dear. You can relax."

You do as he says and stand quickly, giving him a polite smile as you return his intense eye contact. His finger never leaves your chin. He smiles back at you and begins to speak again.

"You are a true beauty, my dear. You know, they say the eyes are a window to the soul. I can see the love and strength living within yours. Hold onto that, they will be your biggest asset."

Your eyes widen at his words. You can't help the smile that spreads across your face.

"Thank you, your majesty."

With that, he removes his finger from your chin and climbs back to his throne. He turns his attention back to the room and declares, "Let the festivities continue."

Your father grabs ahold of your arm again and leads you away from the thrones. You can feel the crowd staring at you, but you can't find it in you to care. King Luke of Corellia spoke to you! Not only that, but he complimented you. This was a great honor bestowed on very few. You would take his advice to heart.

It seems your father had a different perspective. He leads you to a table with dance cards placed neatly in rows. You begin to search for your name as he smirks and begins talking.

"Compliments from the king will help greatly in gaining potential suitors. You'll be the most desired lady in the ton. Seems finding you a husband of high title will be easier than I thought."

You finish tying the card to your wrist and turn to look at the room. Your father continues to talk as you observe your surroundings. You look up at the elegant chandelier. It shines beautifully in the light, casting sparkles all over the room. You watch as they dance across the guests, creating an angelic and light atmosphere. A waiter comes by and offers you and your father glasses of champagne. You take a small sip and return your attention to the crowd. Many of the ladies are giving you glares or speaking with the eligible men in attendance. You take notice of their attire. Many have much more elegant gowns and jewels on. Their appearance shows how much they have to offer. Your feelings of inadequacy begin to creep back in. You don't even notice a man approaching.

Your gaze stops on a young man across the room. His dark brown curls and bright smile grabbed your attention. He was speaking to another man, seeming to be in deep conversation. His face was so expressive as he spoke, hands moving about to help prove whatever point he was trying to make. You couldn't help but be captivated by him. If there was anyone you were hoping to get a moment with this evening, it was him.

You snap from your thoughts as your father greets him and motions towards you. This man must have been reaching his thirties. Much older than any of the debutantes here. His bright ginger hair stands out like a sore thumb. He makes eye contact with you as your father talks. An uneasy feeling sweeps over you. For some reason, something about this man doesn't sit right with you.

"Y/N, I'd like you to meet the Earl of Drall, Lord Armitage Hux" your father says as he motions towards the man. Lord Hux takes your hand and raises it to his lips, kissing your knuckles. The contact makes you cringe internally. Your father looks at you expectantly and you quickly pull yourself together.

"Hello Lord Hux, it is so nice to meet you."

Your father smiles at both of you and claps a hand on Lord Hux's shoulder.

"Lord Hux here is a good friend of mine. I was hoping to introduce you both tonight."

The uneasy feeling now makes sense. Any friend of your fathers is likely a crook. Not at all the type of man you want to be speaking to. You nod politely, biting your tongue from speaking your mind freely. The men then turn away from you and begin a discussion of their own, leaving you out. You lift your glass of champagne back to your lips and turn your gaze back to the direction of the man you had spotted before.

Instead of finding the curly haired man again, you met eyes with someone else. Standing with his hands clasped behind his back was a raven haired man. He stood tall and broad, much larger than any other man in the room. His gaze pierced through you, making the hairs on the back of your neck stand. You wanted to approach him, but to do so would make you look indecent.

Your eye contact is cut off by Lord Hux coming in front of you. He holds out his arm to you in invitation.

"Would you do me the honor of a dance, Lady Y/N?"

You wanted nothing more than to say no and go speak to the mystery man. Or even go find the curly haired man from before. But you know you had no choice in the matter. To deny him would make you look bad to the ton. Plus, your father would never stand for it. So you placed your hand in his arm and nod.

"Of course, Lord Hux."

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I really hope you enjoyed this! Let me know what you think!

Love,

Allie