#the dragon and the rural princess

[fantasygerard2000]

🐉💪🏻

[evasive-anon]

Superman meeting Santa is actually the cutest thing I've ever seen.

[ID: Pages from the Batman- Santa Claus: Silent Knight comic series. Superman has his laser vision activated and looks furious as he says, "You never said-- that you knew." His laser eyes disappear as he says with a stunned, almost stricken expression: "Santa."

A dragon can be seen in the background as he begins to float down and says, "Hi, sir, I'm--" Santa Claus says, "Kent. Rural route 38, Smallsville. You wrote me when you were six." Superman, surprised, asks, "Wow-- You remember that?" Santa replies, "You asked for 'a new coffee maker for Ma and Pa.' And something about how you thought coffee was yucky, but they love it."

Superman, touched, says, "I can't believe you read my letter..." In the background, the dragon is looking at them menacingly, and Blue Beetle shouts, "¡Eyyy! Supes! ¡Hola! Back here!" End ID]

Credit to @princess-of-purple-prose for the description. Thanks for writing this up! I didn’t think to add something like this but if it makes it more inclusive I’m happy to add it! Everyone deserves to see Supes being a cutie pie.

[bumblesimagines]

Bundles of Joy, Bundles of Anger

Request: Yes or No

Summary: Upon becoming man-grown, Jace was wed to his mother's cousin, the daughter of Daemon Targaryen. Months later, the war breaks out and surprising news of his child being born reaches him soon after returning to Dragonstone to say his final goodbyes to Luke.

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

CW/TW: Typical GoT/HOTD warnings, mentions of pregnancy and childbirth, arranged marriage trope, Targcest (Cousins)

so short I do not know why my F!Reader stuff ends up being short

~~~

A million thoughts raced through Jace's head as Vermax descended through the clouds and the ancient castle of Runestone came into view, nestled by the water and essentially isolated by the rural landscape expanding in nearly all directions. His heart raced faster than his mind and his orders for Vermax twisted on his tongue but his dragon nonetheless understood the urgency in his tone and tucked his wings closer toward his body, plunging the both of them toward the ground at a higher speed before expanding them once more and gliding closely over the vibrant grass. 

It'd only been two days since Jace received the shocking news flown in by raven revealing his lady-wife, Princess (Y/N), had given birth to his child a month prior. The surprise on his face had no doubt been comical when Maester Gerardys awkwardly read the contents of the letter at the meeting and remained standing in silence as Rhaenyra and everyone else took in the startling news. 

There'd been no word from Runestone, not since (Y/N) had sent a letter detailing an illness to explain her absence from attending alongside them while the claim to Driftmark was disputed. At the time, Jace had shrugged it off and dismissed Baela's insistence that he tend to his wife. They hardly enjoyed each other's company so he saw no use in visiting her and causing her further strife, but now as he watched Runestone grow closer and closer, he kicked himself for not heeding Baela's words. 

Their presence roused the dragon sleeping near the castle and the shriek from her forced Vermax to slow down. His dragon responded to the call and diverted course toward her, flapping his wings until his speed slowed further. He landed near the she-dragon and lowered himself onto the ground with a quiet chirp. Jace carefully climbed down and landed firmly on his feet, instinctively tugging off his riding gloves and eyeing the bemused she-dragon who seemed half-tempted to burn them both.

"Sagon gīda, Starlight," Jace called, swallowing down the fear that bubbled in him as he began walking toward the path she conveniently rested beside. Starlight huffed a cloud of smoke at him and squinted her emerald eyes at him, her head following him until he reached the gates of Runestone. 

"Prince Jacaerys," An older man he recognized as Gerold Royce greeted him when the gates opened, bending at the waist. "Our Princess of Runestone has been expecting your arrival, My Prince. She awaits you in the nursery. Come this way, if you please."

The nursery.

Jace nearly stumbled over his feet at those mere words, luckily catching himself before he made a fool of himself before men who eyed him with disdain. He knew of the Royce's dislike for Daemon Targaryen (especially after the supposed murder of Rhea Royce) but he never expected it to extend to his family and himself. Still, he kept his head held eye and one hand on the hilt of his sword as he followed Gerold into the castle. 

"I was not aware of Princess (Y/N)'s... condition."

Gerold glanced back at him. "We know." 

A familiar rush of anger spread through him like spilled water. He gritted his teeth and inhaled sharply, his nostrils flaring. "Why was I not informed sooner? I may be young but I am no fool; I know pregnancies may last up to eight or nine moons." He tried restraining his simmering anger. He knew very well how loyal the man was to his blood. 

"Our Lady desired a peaceful pregnancy, My Prince. She did not wish to be disturbed or bothered during such delicate times." Gerold explained simply and Jace allowed himself a brief scowl before he wiped it off his face once they came upon a guarded door. 

Stepping inside, Jace's eyes were instantly drawn to the crib in the center of the room and then to his wife seated near it. She looked away from the crib at their presence and sighed quietly, sipping the last of her tea before she set it aside and rose. (Y/N) exhaled deeply, her nose crinkling and her hand pressing near her back to massage the flesh. Jace spared Gerold a glance and walked forward toward her, extending an arm to offer his support but she stopped him and waved him off. 

"You may leave us, Cousin. Thank you." She told the older man, offering him a brief genuine smile that promptly disappeared when he left. 

Jace finally noted her appearance up close. She looked exhausted, as was usual of mothers after labor. The bags under her (E/C) eyes were noticeable through her powdered skin and she'd discarded her usual dresses for a simple thing gown that showed her belly still full from the pregnancy. He knew from his time in the Keep that most women differentiated from each other; some, like Dowager Queen Alicent, were able to lose the weight gained during pregnancy fairly quickly whilst others, like his mother, retained it for some time.

A gurgled coo brought his attention down toward the crib and he finally looked upon the baby. "Oh.." He shakily whispered when he noticed the head full of brown hair with silver streaks through it, strands that curled subtly at the ends just as his once did before he got older. Small, frail, and so beautiful. His child. His. He hummed forcibly when tears abruptly sprang to his eyes. "What- What is their name?"

"His name is Valerion."

"A boy?" Jace breathlessly questioned, his head snapping back toward her with widened eyes. "A- A son?" An heir.

He looked back at the little being happily dozing and his heart twisted into itself, cautious steps bringing him closer to the crib. He reached out tentatively and carefully took him into his arms. Valerion stirred in the golden bundle he'd been wrapped into and parted his eyes to peer up at him, blinking sleepily and sighing before his eyes closed again to doze off. Jace chuckled and leaned down, nuzzling his nose against Valerion's forehead. 

"Your grandmother will be pleased." He whispered and drew back, carefully bouncing his arms as he'd once seen his mother do with Joffery. "A perfect little dragon. You shall be given an egg soon enough. Silverwing has recently laid a clutch and one shall be yours, little one. Once we return to Dragonstone-"

"Valerion and I will remain here in Runestone until further notice." (Y/N) cut in swiftly and his brows knitted together. "Runestone is a safe castle, Jacaerys. If the enemy comes, they will be seen before they can come close and dealt with. I am in no state to travel and neither is he at such a young age. He will see Dragonstone and the Keep after the war." 

"I cannot stay here, (Y/N). I am needed in Dragonstone to serve alongside my mother, you know this. You will heal in time, and it will be much better if you do so under the care of Maester Gerardys. He will be safe-"

(Y/N) scoffed. "Your mother was nearly slain in her own bedchambers and the Greens are merely a short flight away from the island. I will not risk my child's life, Jacaerys. It is your duty to serve on Dragonstone, it is mine to serve here. Runestone is my castle and my responsibility to protect it, just as it is my responsibility to protect my son." She spoke, tone full-on authoritative and eyes challenging. 

Jace stared at her in disbelief and grounded himself enough to delicately place Valerion back in his crib before he faced her. "Was this all part of your plan to alienate me as much as possible from my child? We have not spoken since our wedding night nearly a year ago and you remained silent on your pregnancy. I could have been here to see him enter this world. I should have been here- No, you should have been in Dragonstone." 

"You are a fool if you believe you would have been any help. You would have hovered like a bothersome fly and questioned every single thing as if you had any idea what a pregnancy is like. I remained here in Runestone with my family and I delivered a healthy boy with the help of Maester Corrad and the midwife. This child is Royce as much as he is Targaryen. If you were to pass in battle-"

"Is that what you hope?" Jace bristled as he spat words laced with accusation. "Do you wish for me to pass in battle so that you may rid yourself of this marriage? We made vows, oaths, in the name of the Seven or have you forgotten? We have duties to one another, regardless of our desires, and we are bound to each other. This child is mine as much as he is yours. He needs his father. We do not know how long this war will rage on and I will not allow him to see me as a stranger." 

(Y/N) released a sigh and lowered herself down onto the cushioned seat, resting her arms over her belly and watching him. "Then, you may visit as you have done today." She said simply and he scoffed again. "You believe because you are Crown Prince that your duties are more important than mine but if I recall only one of us currently rules and it is not you, Jacaerys. I have ruled Runestone since my flowering at the age of eleven whilst you spent your days tormenting Aemond One-Eye, being spoilt and coddled endlessly by your mother, and trailing after the Velaryon girl like a fool."

His face flushed with embarrassment and anger and he took a glance at his son to ease the bubbling emotions threatening to spill over. Jace inhaled deeply and squeezed his eyes, releasing the air and forcing his tense body to relax. He stepped forward and unclasped his sword's holster before bending his knee in front of her. He set the sword aside and reached forward to take her hands into his.

"I understand." He murmured. "I do, I truly do. I understand your concerns and- and I will try to find a compromise that will please us both. I do not wish to fight before our son but I ask of you, as your lord-husband and father of your child, to consider my side of things. I know we have been far from a happy couple and I will admit my feelings for Baela have not left entirely.. but I am willing to change. For you. For him."

[graciereadshannigram]

hey fam, welcome to the November round up of all my favorite fics i read this month!!

as a reminder: the ingredients for a five star rating typically (but not always!!) include some combination of a.) believable characterizations of both Hannibal and Will, b.) compelling plot and/or character arcs, and c.) high quality smut.

that being said, my judgment of the aforementioned ingredients is powered almost exclusively by vibes and as such, it's incredibly subjective.

you can find past recs below:

February March April May June July August September October

you can now also find ALL of the five star fics in my 5 Star Hannigram Fics collection on ao3 :))))

and if you have any recs of your own for me, PLEASE SHARE.

without further ado, and in no particular order, let's go!

~

WET by agarina_amigara

Word Count: 5652 Summary: the prompt for day 5 of fcktober: "wet"Post-Fall. The water filtration on the boat sailing Hannibal and Will to freedom sucks ass. Thankfully Will is good with his hands. So is Hannibal.

i desperately need more 'Will being good at fixing boats' fics lolol this was so good!!

Only One Night? by onmywayhome

Word Count: 3203 Summary: It had been 20 minutes of him laying down with his eyes closed, still awake. The only thing that caused his eyes to open was the feeling of his psychiatrist wrapping his arm around his stomach. He pulled Will in closer, Will could hear the faint noise of snoring, ‘Is he asleep?’ he thought to himself, he suddenly felt something poking his backside as Hannibal pushed closer. ‘Oh.’-OR-Hannibal and Will have to share 1 hotel room (and 1 bed ;)) which brings out some intense feelings in both of them

oooooooooookay, i saw the "only one bed" tag and blacked out, love love love love. (it's just PWP, what more do you want from me?)

The Corpse-Angel's Blessing by @dbmars

Word Count: Summary: Will Graham is the omegan prince of the kingdom of Gaulemagne. Despite being the eldest child of the murdered king and queen, he cannot take the throne - the crown is reserved for alphas only, and his brother Matthew will rule once he comes of age. In the meantime, Will and beta princess Alana are under the guardianship of the Regent, their father's first cousin: Frederick Raul de Brûler, Earl of Chilton. Gaulemagne suffers under Chilton's rule. Will's only method of resistance is writing anonymous pamphlets about omegan rights and getting them into the hands of those who can affect change. Chilton knows this brilliant omega is trouble, and arranges a marriage for him with Alpha King Hannibal, the sovereign of Eidermark, the last "civilized" kingdom before the Northern Wastes - a tundraland filled with dangerous nomads uniting under the banner of a man calling himself the Great Red Dragon. Will is sold to King Hannibal the Vicious, traded along with a herd of cattle and casks of wine for weapons and armor. He travels to Eidermark determined to stand up for his beliefs and resist any way he can. And yet... there is more to King Hannibal than anyone knows...

this was a TREAT!!! (idk what else i'd be expecting from dbmars though) the tag 'hannigram is very very horny for eachother but they have to wait for the wedding' is what initially got me and wowow.

Safehome by @dbmars

Word Count: 27798 Summary: On the run, Will and Hannibal lay low for a month in a safehouse in rural Iowa.��We could disappear now. Tonight. Feed your dogs, leave a note for Alana, and never see her or Jack again. Almost polite.”Will’s mind railed against the words. His resistance was powerful at first, like the failure of a mighty dam holding back a river, the water pounding down to the valley below. No. Of course not. Hannibal had to pay for what he’d done to Abigail Hobbs. Jack Crawford was his friend and on the right side of the law. The plan to betray Hannibal would go down exactly as they’d plotted together.But then...Will opened his mouth to artfully refuse.Instead, he heard himself say, “Let’s go.”This is a finished, polished version of my DoMAYstic 2023 prompt challenge completed with twitter x threads. I was saving it to publish in May of 2024 with more smut and better writing, and then suddenly I realized IT'S JUNE AND I FORGOT TO POST IT.So, anyway. If you're looking for a comfort fic, this is pretty damn sweet. And if you've ever lived in the Midwest, well... you get it.

oh oh oh oh this was so freaking good. it was beautiful, it was poignant, it felt like home (hi hello, i am from the upper midwest), it felt like a hug. i love them so much.

Strangers with History by sourweather

Word Count: 2843 Summary: Will and Hannibal both like to visit a website that allows them to sext with random, anonymous strangers. What are the odds they would match with each other?It had to happen eventually.

I want like… 80k words of Will and Hanni sexting each other anonymously while normal s1 events are happening, you know? Or s2.

Night Terrors by @gnawing-suspicion

Word Count: 2665 Summary: Will Graham wakes up from a sex dream about his therapist. It throws off his whole morning.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH I AM DECEASED THIS WAS SO HOT. the entire series is fucking AMAZING, @gnawing-suspicion bb you're amazing <3

Birthday Wish by Redeye17

Word Count: 5927 Summary: Will makes an impulsive wish and is dismayed to find it granted by the gods of love.-"I feel it's pertinent to ask you what exactly you wished for last night."Will rapidly mentally calculates how to explain the situation. He certainly hadn’t fucking wished to be a woman, but he has to admit that it is perhaps an easier solution to his wish than the logistical hurdles that carrying a baby in his male body would present."I can't tell you. If I do, it won't come true," Will mumbles out against Hannibal’s chest after a moment's hesitation.

DELICIOUS

Quarantined by KatherineKrawl

Word Count: 9102 Summary: En route to Kansas City for a murder case, Hannibal and Will get an urgent call from Jack, telling them to self-quarantine immediately in a small cabin near the woods. Shopping at Walmart, one double bed and no suits will bring them both a lot of 'firsts'.-“Perhaps we could...” and before Will could turn, an arm extended before his chest to pick a bottle from the pile. “...forgo this for the coming weeks?”Hannibal had appeared beside him, and Will saw the cart he was dragging after himself filled to the brim with cans, bags, bottles and packages. Toilet paper, too.Hannibal had been smart rather than stubborn by forgoing the fresh, perishable produce, and Will was relieved to see it. The look in those amber eyes, however, was... haunting.“That's my aftershave,” Will frowned, as he watched the glass bottle with the little blue ship being removed from the basket.

Enough time has passed since those initial days of the pandemic that this was actual perfection. I loved this so freaking much. And the marshmallow bed. Naturally.

responsible, forever, for what you have tamed by multifandom_fanfic_writer

Word Count: 6689 Summary: There was only one bed.

ONLY ONE BED. God, this was perfect.

To Fuel Your Radiance by GoldenUsagi

Word Count: 21340 Summary: AU where Will is the actual Devil. After Hannibal sells his soul, a fascination begins to develop between them. Will is intrigued by the unique monster Hannibal is, while Hannibal thinks Will is the most magnificent thing he's ever encountered. As their conversations continue, their involvement with each other becomes something else entirely.

Oh this was excellent. This dialogue here was TOP NOTCH.

If i went to touch you now (what would you do?) by LumusWinter

Word Count: 1944 Summary: Will tries to make Hannibal jealous. Needless to say, it works. Set during the second half of season 2.

This was hot PWP, love Will Graham being a size queen.

SEMI-BUTLER by TheSeaVoices

Word Count: 23714 Summary: A modern day Master/servant Hannigram AU. This idea came to me whilst working (literally on my hands and knees applying gold leaf) in one of the extraordinary Cheshire mansions I find myself in surprisingly regularly. I am continually surprised by the inexplicably loyal staff managers (nobody ever says the word BUTLER - but they are), proudly servile and selfless.Will inherits such a property in North West England, complete with staff and an interesting sort-of-butler who enjoys his work. REALLY enjoys his work.Also inspired by Jeeves and Wooster which I'm currently re-reading and loving, and all butlers everywhere. Oh, and Men On Edge :)Encouragement, ideas and pointers have really helped, thanks to:@weconqueratdawn@thecountessolivia@zigzagwanderer@aviran007@zacharybosch@fragile-teacup (Mrs_Gene_Hunt)

This was so OOC for Hannibal and Will, BUT i loved them anyway, and the sheer creativity when it came to the smut ramped this up to five stars for me!

Graham Cam by bigfootghostdick

Word Count: 19363 Summary: In nearly every aspect of his life, Hannibal is wholly unabashed in the endeavors he chooses to take on, especially where Will is concerned. At his core, he lives outside the realm of societal norms, so in a twisted effort to learn more about the beautiful empath that has captured his attention so utterly, he decides to install hidden cameras inside Will’s home.Will is blissfully unaware…or is he?

Will Graham showing off for Hannibal on the cameras Hannibal set up without telling Will? God, this was perfect.

It takes four by TheRosetteThief

Word Count: 4893 Summary: Adam confesses that he has a dirty fantasy to Hannibal. Hannibal talks him into letting him help him act it out with Will and Nigel.It's really just shameless foursome smut written for my lovely friends.

okay yes this is technically not just hannigram, but HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA good lord, I think if I could be Adam in this scenario, that would fix me.

The Pleasure Was Ours by wyldefire

Word Count: 4215 Summary: “Hear that, Han? Fucking your boy full. He fucking loves my cock.” Nigel teased, reaching up and tweaking at a nipple, nearly drawing a cry from Will’s lips. “Hush. Go on, Will. What else?” Hannibal replied, unfazed by his brother’s taunts. “And… And… I need… I need more. Fuck, Hannibal, I need more. I need more. Please.” Will begged. “What do you need, William?” Hannibal inquired. “You.”

Once again, not strictly Hannigram but... yeah, I'll see myself out. Trans Will in this was perfect.

A Joy Hard Learned in Winter was the Warming of the Bed by omnilegent

Word Count: 2709 Summary: The doctor took the key and opened the door, revealing a pretty standard motel room. Small en-suite with the light still on, terrible TV leaning precariously off the wall, clean but worn out to almost complete smoothness carpet. And only one bed.Ah.‘Adequate.’ Hannibal sniffed, hanging his coat up and feeling the fluffiness (or lack thereof) of the pillows.‘Yeah?’ Will asked, nervous that Hannibal was going to demand another room out of disgust.‘It’s only a night, after all.’ He gave Will a look, fond with a teasing twinkle that he couldn’t quite understand. ‘Unless you would be uncomfortable?’‘No!’ Will replied all too fast. ‘No. Better than the car.’ He tried to quip, but Hannibal’s smirk grew toothy.‘I assure you, I will keep you far warmer than the car heaters can.’—————The boys get stuck in a snowstorm and have to stay in a motel - but guess what? There was only one bed!

THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED.

Appetites of the Flesh by Magnetism_bind

Word Count: 2902 Summary: Will gets aroused at murder scenes. Eventually this gets noticed.

So this is a thing now for me, I guess!!!

The Business of Pleasure by Magnetism_bind

Word Count: 23888 Summary: Hannibal hires a hooker with the intention of eating him after he’s done fucking him.His plans change when he sees the hooker.

Give me moreeeeeeeeeeeeee.

A Little Unfinished Business by Magnetism_bind

Word Count: 26680 Summary: Ten years later Will Graham returns to Baltimore.

Sequel to The Business of Pleasure. Just as good.

Sweatpants by mattHughdancy

Word Count: 11736 Summary: It's gray sweatpant season and Will wears some for Reasons. Poor Hannibal is having a *hard* time.

Gimme more of the gray sweatpants please. Tbh me and Hannibal are very much on the same page here.

Wringing a Rock Dry by McRibFarewellTour

Word Count: 4556 Summary: (Between S2 and S3)Will’s sick. Sick enough that he’s pretty sure he’s going to die. Aware that winning their game is no longer an option, he decides to change the rules and go see Hannibal in prison.Hannibal does not appreciate this move.

OUCH. I've rec'd this one before, but I did a reread and it is just as good as it was the first (several) times!!!

~

and that's it for this month!! see y'all next month for the December rec list :)

[floylia]

𝐈𝐅 𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐒 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐊 🖋️

Entry #04: The Garden in the Artist’s studio

“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” — Vincent Van Gogh

—S.MASTERLIST | PREVIOUS | NEXT

EVERY REAR OF THE ENGINE was a constant reminder that silence could be so loud without words filling its space.

“So you believe me now? Changed your mind? Suddenly you don’t hate me?” You pry, hoping to remove the awkwardness inside the car, and receive answers to his sudden compliance. One moment he was pushing you away and the next he’s inviting you to his car.

“Don’t confuse my kindness. It all depends on how useful you are.”

You stare at him, expecting more snarky remarks, but he keeps to himself as he drives with one arm, while the other rests on the elbow window. His clothes have changed since the morning you’ve seen him. He’s wearing an oversized black t-shirt to match his cargo pants. At least his style hasn’t changed.

“You’re staring,” he says. A smirk playing on his lips. Shameless.

“I know.” You’re shameless too.

“Do you make people uncomfortable as a hobby?”

“Do you hold grudges without explaining why as a hobby?”

“Aren’t you a hypocrite?”

“It’s an observation,” You state.

“You seem to like what you see.”

He might be right. But you’re not going to admit that. Instead, switch your attention at the window, overlooking the buildings in the road as you pass by the rural area. You drive by more trees than houses and more animals than people.

Until you reach a bridge overlooking the sea.

That’s when you see the flock of boats sailing under.

The setting reminds you of a dream you once kept having as a child.

It would start off in the house where your childhood rested and it would end in the backyard with you playing alongside Scaramouche, digging the ground for treasure chests. In the dream, you were either dressed up as princess while your purple-haired friend was the pirate or it would alternate in you being the pirate and him being the prince, depending on how you slept. It never mattered, because the roles were always the same.

Someone had to be the thief and the other had to wear a crown.

You missed those days. Where the real threat was eating vegetables or the monsters hiding under your bed. You missed the days where you would go anywhere and Scaramouche would follow. He was an obedient child. To others, he might have just been a shy kid who kept to himself, nothing more, nothing less.

But to you, he was the treasure chest you wanted to open.

The kind that dragons would keep. The kind that pirates would sail after. Sometimes, you wanted to steal him away from the important parties your families were forced to attend. So you could hide under the table and eat the desserts you weren’t allowed to eat. He never refused. He would just follow as you took the lead. He always did. And when he didn’t, it was like saying goodbye to your shadow when the sun strikes, except you never got to say goodbye. He just disappeared.

Perhaps, he got tired of being the shadow.

Only he wasn’t your shadow. He was your sun.

“Why’d you leave?” You blurted your thoughts out loud.

He glances at you, puzzled, “Leave?”

“You never came.”

“What? I–”

The display screen in his car suddenly changed to a calling screen. Sethos, it says.

He lets it ring.

“You should answer it.” You point.

Instead he presses the end call button, “He’s probably calling for some bullshit request.”

“That’s rude.”

“I’m Scaramouche.”

You sigh exaggeratedly, “You can’t make that your whole personality.”

“Who said that’s all I have?”

“Your mouth.”

“I can do a lot of things with my mouth.”

You ignore the implications in his words, “Like spew out accusations?”

“It’s an observation.” He repeats your words.

“We’re not seeing the same thing.”

He turns the wheel aggressively. You had to hold on to your seatbelt, before speaking, “You do see that house though, right?”

Once your view is clear, you spot a rusty two-story house made of nightmares and monsters. Thousands of spiders probably live within its rooms. You shudder at the thought before turning towards Scaramouche, now realizing that maybe this was a mistake, “Are we really doing this? Why are we doing this? My judgement was clouded with adrenaline earlier. I think this is a bad idea.”

“Are you backing out now?” He says as he takes off his seat belt and opens his side of the door to leave.

You do the same, “Yes. No. Yes. I don’t know. Y’know when you go on a roller coaster, and the line is getting shorter because it’s your turn, then you see the drop and hear their screams–at the last minute you want to back down, but you don’t? That’s what it feels like.”

He laughs. It’s a laugh you miss.

Then he suddenly turns serious, “Go in, first.”

Maybe this is why he’s shown just a tiny bit of compassion. He wants you to die. Not by his own hands, but by another.

“Are you serious? I just went on a whole rant about how stupid this is.”

He shrugs, “You got us into this mess.”

“No I didn’t?”

“You’re a master at breaking into people’s houses. And now you’re scared?”

You shake your head, “That was Makoto’s house and I had keys.”

“And?”

“I knew her. This,” you point at the abandoned building, “...Is a video gone wrong.”

He crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow, enjoying this as he leans on his car, “Do you want me to film it?”

“Are you enjoying this?”

“I am,” He tilts his head towards the mansion, “Ladies first,”

“Do you not understand the severity of this situation? What if the killer is in there.”

“All the better, we get to catch him.”

“Are you crazy?”

“Am I lying? You ask stupid questions.” He says with a half-bored expression, while dusting off his shoulder as if this was an everyday thing.

You crossed your arms, suddenly getting suspicious, “Did you orchestrate this?”

“Now you’re accusing me?”

“Did you?”

“No,” he clicks his tongue and leans closer to you, “Do you know why that ‘person’ probably left this clue, little thief?”

What?

“Don’t call me that.”

“Answer the question.”

You think of the person behind this. You think about their messages. The clues they left behind. The phrase they kept repeating, Play with me these silly games.

A game. A game. A game.

“Because they want us to play their game?” You say.

“Exactly, they’ll drag this out for as long as they can. And you’re the first player. So go. Do what thieves do best, break into that house.”

“I am not a thief, quit calling me that.”

“You act like one—and today you become one.”

“Thieves steal, I don’t.”

“I can debate that.”

“I’ll kill you.”

“You already did.” His words then held no playfulness. His eyes glimmered with venom—the same look he gave you in the car.

You take the lead and head to the gate of the house. Vines swallow it whole, leaving no room for the bricks to show their true colors. Beside it sits a perfectly groomed garden filled with variety of plants all the way from red, green to purple. For a house struggling to stand on its own, the greenery surrounding it begs to differ, friendly enough for gardeners to tend nature.

You see a lock. But you know how to pick locks. It’s a skill you learned over the summer. It might be useless in the traditional sense, but it’s quite useful in criminal activities.

You pick it, until you hear a click.

“You are a little thief.” Scaramouche says from behind you.

“And you’re my accomplice.”

“I’d rather turn myself in.”

As soon as you open the gate, he goes in first, pulling you behind him with his flashlight on.

“And you said I would go in first…” you mumble.

“Go ahead,” But he makes no room for you to lead.

If you weren’t careful, you’d probably end up getting crushed by a wooden plank hanging above. The door was open, only because the door had a knob with no locks. Privacy must’ve been awful.

You look around and it’s still dark despite the daylight peaking through the window creaks. Rats must be living within this house. It’s difficult to tell whether it’s your footsteps or another visitor.

Scaramouche walks towards the second floor, while you head to the living room. There’s a chimney in the middle and an old rugged vintage sofa. Next to it is a wooden table with a half broken leg. On top of it sits a flower vase.

You wonder how the table still stands upright. But it’s a better question as to how the purple flower is still alive in a decade old’s house.

You turn your attention towards the chimney. It’s built by bricks and underneath lays ashes and wooden chips. But you notice a piece of burned paper poking out under neath the wood. You use your sleeves to pick up the paper.

It’s old and wrinkled, half of it is burned off and the ink is unreadable. But the information left is enough to surmise that it’s a birth certificate—only the name is unknown.

“What is that?” Scaramouche asks as he goes down the stairs, “There’s nothing upstairs. Not even a bed.”

You show him the document.

“It’s freshly burnt.”

Then the ceiling collapses.

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

i like the dialogue in this chapter lol

🏷️ (OPEN):

@danfelions @scaraenthusiast1 @meowrenapurrdo @dreamayy @misterpoofin @eternal-dokja @lalalaloveallmydays @jshkfan @kazeyozuha @yotraumainthebuilding @marivaudages @aphxdea

[celepom]

For Transgender Day of Visibility, here’s several books about Gender that I haven’t recommended before (I Think)!

Fine: A Comic About Gender

By Rhea Ewing

As graphic artist Rhea Ewing neared college graduation in 2012, they became consumed by the question: What is gender? This obsession sparked a quest in which they eagerly approached both friends and strangers in their quiet Midwest town for interviews to turn into comics. A decade later, this project exploded into a sweeping portrait of the intricacies of gender expression with interviewees from all over the country. Questions such as “How do you Identify” produced fiercely honest stories of dealing with adolescence, taking hormones, changing pronouns—and how these experiences can differ, often drastically, depending on culture, race, and religion. Amidst beautifully rendered scenes emerges Ewing’s own story of growing up in rural Kentucky, grappling with their identity as a teenager, and ultimately finding themself through art—and by creating something this very fine. Tender and wise, inclusive and inviting, Fine is an indispensable account for anyone eager to define gender in their own terms. 

Galaxy: The Prettiest Star 

By Jadzia Axelrod & Jess Taylor (Illustrator)

It takes strength to live as your true self, and one alien princess disguised as a human boy is about to test her power. A vibrant story about gender identity, romance, and shining as bright as the stars. Taylor Barzelay has the perfect life. Good looks, good grades, a starting position on the basketball team, a loving family, even an adorable corgi. Every day in Taylor’s life is perfect. And every day is torture. Taylor is actually the Galaxy Crowned, an alien princess from the planet Cyandii, and one of the few survivors of an intergalactic war. For six long, painful years, Taylor has accepted her duty to remain in hiding as a boy on Earth. That all changes when Taylor meets Metropolis girl Katherine “call me Kat” Silverberg, whose confidence is electrifying. Suddenly, Taylor no longer wants to hide, even if exposing her true identity could attract her greatest enemies. From the charming and brilliant mind behind the popular podcast The Voice of Free Planet X, Jadzia Axelrod, and with stunningly colorful artwork by Jess Taylor comes the story of a girl in hiding who must face her fears to see herself as others see her: the prettiest star.

To Strip the Flesh

By Oto Toda

A moving collection of six short stories that explores what must be stripped away to find the truth and celebrates the beauty of embracing who you are. Chiaki Ogawa has never doubted that he is a boy, although the rest of the world has not been as kind. Bound by his mother’s dying wish, Chiaki tries to be a good daughter to his ailing father. When the burden becomes too great, Chiaki sets out to remake himself in his own image and discovers more than just personal freedom with his transition—he finds understanding from the people who matter most.

Sir Callie and the Champions of Helston 

By Esme Symes-Smith

In a magical medieval world filled with dragons, shape-shifters, and witches, a twelve-year-old hero will search for their place as an impending war threatens. A thrilling middle-grade series opener that stars a nonbinary tween and explores identity and gender amid sword fights. My name is Callie, and I'm not a girl. I am here as Papa's squire, and I want to train as a knight. In a world where girls learn magic and boys train as knights, twelve-year-old nonbinary Callie doesn't fit in anywhere. And you know what? That's just fine. Callie has always known exactly what they want to be, and they're not about to let a silly thing like gender rules stand in their way. When their ex-hero dad is summoned back to the royal capital of Helston to train a hopeless crown prince as war looms, Callie lunges at the opportunity to finally prove themself worthy to Helston's great and powerful. Except the intolerant great and powerful look at Callie and only see girl. Trapped in Helston's rigid hierarchy, Callie discovers they aren't alone--there's Elowen, the chancellor's brilliant daughter, whose unparalleled power is being stifled; Edwyn, Elowen's twin brother, locked in a desperate fight to win his father's approval; and Willow, the crown prince who was never meant to be king. In this start to an epic series packed with action, humor, and heart, Callie and their new friends quickly find themselves embedded in an ancient war--the only hope to defeat the dragons and witches outside the kingdom lies in first defeating the bigotry within.

I Think I Turned My Childhood Friend Into a Girl 

By Azusa Banjo

It's a familiar story: a popular high school student gives their plain friend a makeover and transforms their life. But this time, the path to a new life isn't quite so straight and narrow. Kenshirou Midou has loved cosmetics all his life, keeping his obsession secret from almost everyone except for his childhood friend Hiura Mihate. One day, Kenshirou gets permission to practice applying makeup on Hiura, and the results are earth-shattering: Hiura's appearance transforms from a plain, undersized boy to a pretty, petite girl, and Kenshirou discovers just how freeing it is to apply his passion! Yet he's not the only one who finds the process liberating. Hiura likes the makeup, and the subsequent dress-up in feminine clothes, and decides to start wearing the girls' uniform to school. Kenshirou doesn't understand if he's unlocked something in Hiura, or if he's simply seeing a new side to his childhood buddy that he never noticed before. What are these feelings bubbling between them now--is this attraction truly new?

My Androgynous Boyfriend 

By Tamekou Wako and her androgynous boyfriend don't exactly have the most traditional of relationships. She spends her days working hard in the world of publishing, while he spends his time obsessing over fashion and makeup--all with the goal of making himself beautiful just for her. This romantic slice-of-life story is about love, relationships, and breaking with tradition!

[bittersweetarts]

Fanfic Recommendations ✴ by bittersweetarts (Volume I)

Fandoms: Harry Potter (Books), House of the Dragon (TV), The Bear (TV), Criminal Minds (TV)

As much as I like writing fanfiction, I love reading it even more! I enjoy a beautifully-written story as much as anyone does, and recommend the following for those looking for a wonderful read that will make you feel like you're in another world –

dirty old town – Regulus Black x OC

Author: WizardGod

Status: Complete - AO3 Page

One of my favourite stories that I have ever read.

Set during the Marauders Era, the plot follows a young woman named Finn Lynch, who lives a reserved life in rural Ireland, until her uncle, Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, asks her temporarily house a war defector from a Wizarding World she is not part of.

Word Count: 286,984

Tropes: Slow Burn, Mild Enemies-to-Lovers, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Mutual Pining, Hurt/Comfort, Found Family

Thy Wicked Torment – Fred Weasley x OC

Author: this_pendent_world

Status: Complete - AO3 Page

You know it's a good fanfic when the writing actually makes you feel like you're in Hogwarts, and this story is impeccable!

Set during the Tri-Wizard Tournament, the story follows a young Slytherin named Evangeline Parkinson Rothchild, and the trouble she ends up finding herself in as she becomes involved with Fred Weasley, Gryffindor's resident troublemaker.

Word Count: 218,347

Tropes: Enemies-to-Lovers, Slow Burn, Angst, Found Family

Where the Gold Meets the Green – Aemond Targaryen x OC

Author: vhagarapologist

Status: WIP - AO3 Page

Well-written House of the Dragon fanfiction with romance, political intrigue and minimal Targ-cest?? Say less. This is a fairly recent-read and is still being regularly updated, but I am really enjoying it and look forward to reading new chapters when they come out.

The story follows Leona Lannister, the only surviving child of Tyland Lannister, during the Dance of the Dragons, as she navigates life in King's Landing and catches the eye of two Targaryen princes.

Current Word Count: 67,148

Tropes: Slow Burn, Enemies-to-Lovers, Angst, Toxic Relationship

The Fool and the Dragon – Aemond Targaryen x OC

Author: prince_aemond_targaryen / @prince-aemond-targaryen

Status: WIP (Almost Complete) - AO3 Page

The first Aemond Targaryen story that I adored (written before the episodes with him as an adult aired) - back when Season 1 was airing, I would re-read the chapters between the weekly episode premieres to tide me over; it's just that good.

Faune Follard, the valued lady-in-waiting of Princess Helaena Targaryen, navigates life in King's Landing whilst enduring the ire of the One-Eyed Prince.

Current Word Count: 99,899

Tropes: Slow Burn, Angst, Mild Enemies-to-Lovers, Toxic Relationship

How Can You Mend a Broken Heart – Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto x Reader

Author: justfantasy

Status: WIP - AO3 Page

Finding good Carmy fanfiction is akin to searching for water in a drought, and I do really wish there was more! This is my favourite one, but sadly there aren't many chapters and it hasn't been updated in a while.

Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto, a man of few words, has a one night stand which turns into something more.

Current Word Count: 11,345

Tropes: Friends-to-Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining

The Keeping of Words – Spencer Reid x OC

Author: BryWrites

Status: Complete First Version on Fanfiction.Net + WIP Second Version Re-Write on AO3

I read this story originally when it started being published seven years ago, and I was obsessed!

The story follows an aspiring human rights lawyer, Bianca Brown, as she is asked to assist on a BAU case and ends up finding herself intertwined with a member of the BAU, an elusive man named Dr. Spencer Reid.

Word Count: 264,402 (FFN) / 202,439 (AO3)

Tropes: Hurt/Comfort, Second Chances, Slow Burn

This list is not very long, but like said, these are stories that I really enjoy and feel passionate about. Evidently I prefer self-insert fanfiction, but I do read anything and everything. If you have a recommendation (for any fandom and any pairing), feel free to share in the comments!

I also write fanfiction myself, and my masterlist is linked below incase you'd like to give any story a read.

– Masterlist ✴ by bittersweetarts

Until next time, Happy Holidays!

PS. I still don't know how to respond to comments on posts (as this is a secondary blog), but I read and appreciate them all! If you ever want a direct response from me, you can private message me or send a question in my ask inbox.

[arcielee]

Interview With a Writer

Thank you again @inthedayswhenlandswerefew for continue the Maggie's Suffering Sundays tradition with a behind-the-scenes on her latest story! As always, here is masterlist to my Interview With a Writer series and the other talented individuals who allow me to continue this self-indulgent series! 💜

Name: inthedayswhenlandswerefew

Story: Napoleonville

Paring: modern Aemond Targaryen x female!reader

Warnings: 18+ mature themes. Be mindful of chapter warnings.

What inspired the plotline for Napoleonville?

I’ve always thought that bayou country (and the Deep South in general) has a fascinating, slightly unnerving, ancient sort of beauty, and I had a vague idea that I’d use it as a setting for a fic one day. I actually wrote a short story in college that took place in rural Louisiana (it involved fraternities and murder, sounds like me, right? 😂) and really loved the experience of mentally living in that setting for a while.

One day I was thinking about this preoccupation I have with Louisiana while listening to You’re Wrong About, a podcast I really love. They have a 5-episode miniseries about Princess Diana that is super informative and also hilarious, and I go back and re-listen to those episodes a few times a year because I enjoy them so much. So the plot of Napoleonville was a marriage (pun intended) of these two seemingly random, disconnected inspirations!

I think I imagined the story as taking place in the 80s primarily because of the Princess Diana connection, but also I’m super obsessed with 80s music and fashion, so I’m sure that was a contributing factor. 😁

My Pinterest board for this series was called "Swamplands" and featured a LOT of retro 80s photos, as well as plenty of alligators and baking recipes, of course!

I sadly did not yet exist in the 80s, so extensive research was necessary.

Explain your interpretation of Aemond. What drives him? Why is he the way he is in Napoleonville?

To me, Aemond seems a lot like Prince Charles in the 80s. He’s very image-conscious and dutiful, but also deeply insecure and unhappy, and he has a secret scandalous life that serves as his escape from the emotionally devoid reality that has been chosen for him.

Aemond is at peace when he gets to feel like he’s in control, but he’s also just fundamentally starved for genuine affection, and those are things that he needs—even in secret, and even in small doses—in order to survive the stifling, relentless demands of being the heir to the Jade Dragon Energy dynasty.

Did you already have an idea of how you wanted the Targaryen family dynamic to be in Napoleonville?

In most of my fics, Viserys is either dying/dead or super distant, so I liked being able to get a sense of how the family would function if Viserys was alive and well and at least somewhat present.

He’s this dark cloud of a patriarch whenever he jets into town from his latest business trip, reminding every member of the family how they’ve disappointed him: Alicent is an unlovable wife, Aegon an embarrassment of a son, Aemond an overlooked middle child always trying to prove himself (at the risk of both his mental and physical health), and then Helaena and Daeron are barely even on his radar.

When Viserys is away, the family seems a bit happier, lazing around the pool and distracting themselves with a variety of hobbies and substances. I think the fact that Aemond picked up smoking Marlboros from Alicent—and then she shared them with Christabel as well—is very indicative about how a dynamic like this is generational. Parents suffer, and then their children develop maladaptive behaviors to survive in that environment, and then they grow up to recreate it because that’s all they know.

With Viserys still around, Otto became a different character, and this version of Otto Hightower was really fun to write. I imagined him as someone who was once a determined social striver and now—burned-out and somewhat aware that all his ambitions led to nothing but misery—has become a bit of a nihilist and is content to spend what remains of his life on a beach in the South Pacific.

Can you give us the "dad dynamic" comparison of Aemond and Willis?

Aemond, while emotionally kind of clueless, is definitely aware that he had a bad childhood and doesn't want any other kids to have to feel that way.

Also Aemond, unlike Willis, is socially open-minded. He has this fascination with scrappy underdogs who manage to take bad circumstances and make something meaningful out of them, undoubtedly because that’s deep down how he’s always felt: like someone harmed and overlooked, yet a constant striver.

When Aemond first meets Cupcake, there is a level of chemistry and attraction that he didn’t expect (although he certainly has always hoped for it), and he realizes almost immediately that this will be more than a one-time hookup and treats Cupcake accordingly. Then as he begins to learn more about her, his admiration and affection grows.

Cupcake is unassuming and yet nontraditional and defiant in the face of adversity, exactly the sort of person that Aemond respects most. He feels that—like himself, although in very different ways—Cupcake was also robbed of the agency she deserved and wronged by people who should have had her best interests at heart. Viserys was responsible for Aemond’s lost eye; Willis—in Aemond’s mind—was responsible for Cupcake’s loss of control over her body, and the loss of her educational opportunities as well. Aemond doesn’t hate Willis because he used to be married to Cupcake. He hates Willis because he consigned Cupcake to a life that was less than she deserved.

Aemond gets along so well with Cadi because, simply put, he treats her like a human. He is intrigued by her obstinate personality and pays attention to her interests, even if she’s just a kid; Aemond remembers being chronically ignored as a child, and he sees children as being fully sentient in a way that a lot of 80s parents didn’t. Since he isn’t much of a traditionalist, Aemond doesn’t care if Cadi has short hair or dresses primarily in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles t-shirts. Similarly, Aemond is not fazed that Amir is gay, and I’m sure the fact that Aemond is European has a lot to do with that. Aemond is definitely not a rural Louisianan at heart!

Willis, by the standards of the time and place, is actually a relatively decent dad; he cares about spending time with Cadi and has negotiated a schedule where he has custody three days a week, which is (sadly) way more time than a lot of dads spend with their kids! We learn in Chapter 10 that a huge source of anxiety for him has been his fear of Cupcake meeting someone who will take her and Cadi far away from Napoleonville, and thus from Willis. He also invests in certain activities that he and Cadi enjoy doing together, like boating/fishing. Willis may have a very traditional, conservative view of gender roles—and life in general—and he doesn’t always take Cadi’s interests seriously, but he isn’t an awful guy.

Although his mullet is definitely awful.

What was your favorite moment of this series?

The first vivid scene I envisioned for Napoleonville was Aemond asking Cupcake to marry him under a massive southern live oak after abandoning his wedding to Christabel—the Princess Diana of this story—but I’m not sure if I can call that my favorite moment. I was really excited to write Chapter 6 because of Aemond jumping into the alligator-filled water to rescue Cupcake, but as much as I loved it I don’t think that’s my favorite scene either.

My favorite scenes tend to be small, quiet moments, probably things that don’t stand out to anyone else. I think my absolute favorite scene of Napoleonville is in Chapter 7 when Cupcake is in bed with a migraine—sad, stressed, missing Aemond but also furious with him, reflecting on never feeling chosen, fearful of Cadi one day leaving her—and Aemond shows up and is just super gentle and kind and apologetic for the way he was the last time they saw each other.

They’re two people who are both in a lot of pain, both physically and emotionally, and they desperately want to help each other even if they aren’t sure how.

Speaking of Chapter 6, do you have an idea how it went between Aemond, Aegon, and Willis on the boat once they realized Cupcake was overboard?

Oh yeah! It all unfolded within a few seconds, so it was super quick. How I saw it happening is that Cupcake goes overboard, and all three men hear the splash and then turn around to see she’s gone.

Aegon is thinking “RIP cake lady,” because he certainly has no idea what to do about it and would sooner chew off his own arm than jump in that water. Willis scrambles to grab ropes, etc. to at least try to help her back into the boat. And then Willis starts giving Aemond orders and as he’s shouting, Aemond just dives into the bayou and Willis and Aegon are left staring at each other like “???” 😂

Aegon was so much fun in this story. I loved the relationship between him and Aemond.

I think we all know by now that I'm an Aegon girlie, and so of course Napoleonville Aegon had to have an opportunity to shine!

This is the first series since my HOTD debut (Have You No Idea That You’re In Deep?) that Aegon and the protagonist have no romantic relationship, but they still develop a friendship and fondness for each other that I think is really healing for Aegon. He has resigned himself to being the failure of the family, and is an afterthought in the Targaryen household (and to his wife, Princess Stephanie of Monaco).

Even Aemond, who Aegon loves and admires (even if Aegon is not very good at expressing this), is oftentimes preoccupied and emotionally closed-off. But Cupcake remembers Aegon and tries to make him feel included when she starts showing up at the mansion. She can't resist a sad, maligned outcast!

Were there any other characters in your story that you enjoyed writing?

Of course I loved writing Amir, Willis, and Cadi, but I think the character I grew the most unexpectedly attached to was Christabel.

She's so young and idealistic, and although she is Cupcake's rival of sorts, she is pretty impossible to hate because she never does anything wrong. Christabel is an Aemond fangirl who expresses emotions openly, even when no one around her does. She wants a real relationship with him and does everything in her power to please her fiancé and make him proud of her. And Christabel is aware on some level that things aren't right, but everyone else in her life is trying to gaslight her into thinking that all courtships and marriages are like this.

All these details are true for the real Princess Diana as well. Even years into her marriage when things were clearly dire, Diana would still choose outfits based on what Charles might think she looked good in. She spent so long trying to earn her husband's love, but it was an impossible (and agonizing) mission. Fortunately for Christabel, she didn't have to endure 15 years of torment before breaking free.

Do you feel Reader and Aemond complement one another well?

Absolutely! On a superficial (and kinky) level, Aemond likes being in control and Cupcake likes being able to rely on someone else to make trustworthy decisions, so in that sense they're a perfect match. But they also just genuinely get along well and are able to understand each other.

From the very first meeting, Aemond can tell when Cupcake is nervous, and she can tell that he's wearing his authoritative confidence like armor, and they both adjust to try to make the other feel at ease. Furthermore, Cupcake might be a high school dropout, but she is not dumb. She lacks academic training (and is often self-conscious about not knowing certain words or references), but she's a naturally clever person who can keep up with Aemond intellectually and pick out inconsistencies in his logic (as there are MANY!).

Finally, the life Cupcake has built for herself in Napoleonville is simple but has true warmth and love, something that Aemond needs.

Was there anything in specific that inspired your Reader portrayal?

So I very rarely write a Reader with a specific inspiration in mind, but I do have one for Cupcake. You'll probably think I'm insane at first, but Cupcake is inspired by my grandma.

My grandma was born in rural Western Maryland in 1945, and her family was so poor they didn't even have indoor plumbing. She was considered very beautiful and very clever and she had all these dreams about what she wanted to do with her life. Then when she was sixteen, she got pregnant and had to drop out of high school and marry my grandfather, because that's what people did back then. She wasn't given any other options.

They ended up moving to an urban area and my grandma became a real estate agent, and by any outsider's perspective she had a normal, happy, all-American existence. But my grandma also endured decades of domestic violence, substance abuse, and profound dissatisfaction with her life. This environment was not good for the children, both of whom (my aunt and dad) developed severe mental illnesses that they still struggle with to this day. My grandma was a very tenacious, passionate person and open with me about how she felt she'd never been treated right by a man, and I was a little too young then to fully understand what she meant. She passed away in 2018 after a long battle with cancer, and I think about her a lot, and I wanted Cupcake to be someone who broke free and got the fairytale ending that my grandma (and so many other women) never had.

What is next for Maggie's Suffering Sundays?

I am delighted to say that there is a new series on the way soon!

I'm not sure EXACTLY when it will be ready, because I want the rollout to be a little different this time (you'll see what I mean... 👀), but I've already begun writing. I believe there will be 12 chapters total, and 12 is a significant number! In terms of vibes, I think this new series is most similar to Now I’m Covered In You.

I hope you love it. 🥰

[somethingclevermahogony]

WIP Tour Tag!

Finally getting to this! Thank y'all for the tags @paeliae-occasionally, @illarian-rambling, @willtheweaver, and @topazadine!

For the sake of simplicity I'll be showing you around a single city, the Grand City by the Lake, Labisa.

(There is a 99.9999 chance that I missed at least one typo, please be forgiving haha)

Stop 1: The Serpent Road

You find yourself walking down a worn and dusty road, one which stretches far behind you, curling serpent-like through the forested hills, as well as farms and villages, eventually vanishing into the looming Red Cedar Mountains. At first glance you may believe it to be little more than a wide dirt path, but as you look closer you can see the faint outlines of cobblestones, laid in times long forgotten, their surfaces sanded down by centuries of feet, hooves, and wagon wheels. Other travellers surround you, many dressed in strange clothing, some are Kishite some come from far more distant lands. They have come to partake in the Festival of Humbalibal, Goddess of the Mountains. Performers draped in the skins of leopards and boars, dancers bedecked with bells and ribbons, and poets bearing harps and drums ply their trade. Over the excited chatter, they sing of great heroes and tragedies, of beautiful Hiru and sorrowful Lat. Through the people, on either side of you are steles, dozens of them, some as small as a child, others as large as a house, pillars of stone their surfaces carved and chiselled with decrees of kings and queens, living and dead. Gods and beasts glare down at you as you pass beneath their stony gaze. Woe the Thief, Woe the Murderer, Woe the Traitor they seem to whisper. Or perhaps the whispers come from the lips of the heads, their eyes plucked by birds, cheeks sunken, skewered upon the poles of pine wood which line the roadside, their crimes scrawled in black coal upon their foreheads. To your left glittering under the mid-day sun is Lake Shebali, its massive expanse seems to swallow the horizon. White-feathered shorebirds stalk black sand beaches and weave amongst reeds. Ships bob lazily at the docks, grandest among them is the royal barge, a floating palace, its two masts extend high into the air like two massive trees. Beyond the docks you can see the fishing village, humble buildings of mud and timber, racks where fish dry, and leather cures. Children run between the houses whooping and crying, waving sticks and dolls of hair and cloth above their heads. Neither you, nor your fellow travellers have the time to ponder as to their games.

Stop 2: The Outer Walls of Labisa: The Black Walls of Tamel and the Serpent Gate

This rural scene does not hold your attention for long, for now you have reached the walls of Labisa. They tower above you, their stony surface rising 70 ft, and almost as thick, each one of the tens of thousands of blocks is the size of a horse. The lowest stones are made from black basalt, dragged from the looming mountains. Above these are yellow limestone, the surface of the stones each lovingly carved with scenes of animals, forests, battles, gods, and spirits, most so worn by the ravages of time that are all but incomprehensible. One could spend a lifetime inspecting all the images. The upper most layer and the towers placed at regular intervals are made from snowy marble. Long ago these walls had been built by the demigods Tamel, Sadaric, and Mikrab alongside thousands of workers and artisans. These walls had been made to withstand all enemies from armies to dragons. No tree or shrub grows against the imposing stone, nature kept at bay by fire and bronze. Before you, rearing high above, are two gargantuan stone serpents, one is crooked, its snarling face cracked. Any of the excitable travellers will tell you that the story goes that it was Narul that cast down the serpent while fleeing from the city with the fugitive princess Ninma. How any one person could do this, you do not know. But now is not the time chat, you are approaching the gates. Doors of thick cedar, 30 ft tall, freshly painted, as blue as the sky, bolts, and rivets of bronze glimmering in the sun. Guards stand on either side, inspecting the wagons and carts as they pass through. They wear armor of bronze, scaled like dragonskin. Their tall helms are bedecked with red feathers. In their hands are gripped spears, shields of bronze and oak hang from their backs. They stand stern and proud, these are not the men of Hutbari, untrained and inattentive, these men serve Akard, King of Kings. As you reach the gates they look you over. After a thorough but quick glance, they beckon you inside.

Stop 3: The Grand Square and The Tomb of Tamel

You enter a grand square, larger than most villages. Tents and makeshift ovens have been placed around the square to feed the hungry people. Honey cakes, stretched flatbreads, snails, sausages, olives, wine, beer, fried fish, fruits, nuts, fried dough, cups of stewed beans, dozens of different choices, each with a hungry crowd jostling for the next spot in line. The smell of fried foods hangs heavy in the air. Surrounding the square are buildings, many are beer halls from which sounds of laughter and twangs of harps emanate. Still others are brothels, men and women hang from windows cooing and calling to passers-by.

Musicians blow on flutes and pound at drums, while men dressed in naught by ram's skin, their faces and bodies painted, dance their arms raised above their heads, their eyes rolling in their heads as if in a trance. Sages awe children and terrify adults with streams of fire and crackling electricity which arcs from their fingertips. Exotic animals pace in cages under the curious eyes of Kishite children. If you look closely among the crowd, you may notice hillfolk, short and broad, their thick fur and long arms easily distinguishing them from their human neighbors, or perhaps you might see the amethyst hair of an Ikopeshi, or rarer yet the great winged form of a kiriki, their feline bodies draped with beads of amber and bone.

Laborers are hard at work, constructing a massive stage at the center of the square, here is where priests from the Temple of Humbalibal will perform odes and songs in honor of the goddess. But it was what lies beyond that catches your attention. At first you assume you must be hallucinating, for it seems that somehow a mountain has sprung up here in the middle of a city, complete with lush forests and trilling birds. As you draw near, you can see marble steps among the greenery leading up to the summit, three hundred feet above you.

This is the Tomb of Tamel, built to house the bones of the founder of the city. What appears now as a massive mountain, is in actuality a tiered structure, composed of thousands of stones, concealing a burial chamber within. As is the tradition of the Kishites, the tomb has been covered by soil and planted with a lush garden, fed by manmade rivers, the water drawn up from underground sources. Entire orchards of fruit trees inhabit each rounded tier. Tamel alone has been given the honor of being buried in the city, the tombs of his successors dot a nearby mesa. While magnificent in their own right, none can match the grandeur of this tomb. Kishites pour bowls of crimson wine at the tomb's base, libations in dedication to the spirits said to guard the dead king's bones. A man approaches you, offering you a bowl for a small fee. However, as the crowd grows you are quickly forced to continue on with your exploration of the city.

Stop 4: The Temple of Humbalibal

The city is marked by three hills, aside from Tamel's Tomb. The first of these, which stands opposite to the square, is the Temple District. As you walk up with stone steps, statues of many armed gods and animalistic spirits dance on either side of you, freshly painted with vibrant shades of red, green, yellow, and blue. Dozens of temples flank the steps, some little more than huts, others grand structures of stone and wood. The smell of burning incense combines with the aroma of sacrificial fires and of the city below. The greatest temple lies before you, dedicated to the patron of the city, Humbalibal. The red doors are swung open to allow all entrance. Priests and priestesses, devotees of the Mountain Goddess, go about their work, some tending to the statues, others kneel, their heads bowed in reverence, hands raised with palms flat in silent prayer to the watching divinities. Their white robes swish as they walk, their horned headdresses click and rattle as they walk, adorned with pins in the shape of poppies. Also, among them are many of the city’s sages. They are recognizable by the ivory circlets rested upon their brows, traditionally sourced from the dwindling Kishite elephants of the southern cedar forests, though increasingly, the city’s ivory supply is reliant on the elephants of Namut.

The great statue of Humbalibal, sits within the eastern alcove. As with the other various statues and reliefs that fill the great altar room, Humbalibal is painted with garish colors, her skin the color of ice, her nude form draped in iridescent dragon skin. The muscles and veins in her four powerful arms have been carved with loving detail, as have been the curling ram horns which sprout from her jet hair. Her silvery eyes, creased with the cold fury of the avalanche, look down at the mortals milling around her feet. Opposite her in another alcove sits a simple wooden throne, it is from here that the king of the city listens to the concerns of his people. Between the throne and Humbalibal, sits the grand altar where sacrifices to the goddess are made. The flame there has burnt, uninterrupted since the days of Tamel. At that moment another one of the temple doors is opened and six cattle, five geese, four sheep, three pigs, two gazelles, and a lioness are guided into the temple, flanked by priestesses wielding knives of cruel obsidian. Rather than sticking around to see the sacrifices, you decide to travel on to the next part of the city.

Stop 5: The Markets

You descend one of the other staircases, winding back down into the city proper. You can see ships approaching on Lake Shebali, carrying yet more visitors to the already crowded city. To the north, hugging the Black Wall, you can see the so-called Lower City, named for its elevation rather than its position on the map. It is marked by many small, cramped hovels of mudbrick and straw, interconnected through various doors and halls to form a sort of hive. There is no such thing as a private home in the Lower City. A man could walk from one end of the district to the other without ever stepping onto the street. Peasants lie on their roofs, chatting, trading, and playing games of dice. There are fewer travellers there, for it is there the city's poorest live. There are no statues, the beer halls are puny, and the shops ill-supplied. Yet cramped and humbled as the lower city may be, you have heard stories of how it once looked under the reign of the previous king, Hutbari, crumbling and filthy. Under the reign of King Akard, no longer do children pick through piles of rubbish, no longer do disease and fleas run rampant, nowhere else in the city are the praises to Akard sang so loudly.

In front of you, to the south, can see the palatial hill, rearing high above the city, the Blue Walls, those that separate the hill and the palatial olive grove from the rest of the city. You decide to head in that direction to see the Palace for yourself, but first you must pass through the Market Districts. Called the 26 Streets, these form the economic and production backbone of the city. The streets are as follows: The Potter's Street, The Perfumer's Street, The Weaver's Street, The Butcher's Street, The Slaver's Street, The Bronzesmith's Street, The Coppersmith’s Street, The Carver's Street, the Brewer's Street, The Vintner's Street, The Jeweller's Street, The Plantbrew's Street, The Scribe's Street, the Ropemaker's Street, The Tanner's Street, The Spicer's Street, The Painter's Street, The Dyer's Street, The Stonemason's Street, The Fishmonger's Street, The Carpenter's Street, The Basket weaver’s Street, The Papermaker's Street, The Musicians’ Street, The Farmer’s Street, and the Candlemaker’s Street. Your path through towards the castle will take you through the first three: Potter's, Perfumer's, and Weaver's. You start with the Weaver's Street.

As with the Square, the market streets are bustling, crowds of people, mostly visitors, rush to gawk at and purchase bits and pieces of Labisian clothing. Garments of silk, linen, and wool of every color are waved by enthusiastic shop owners and hawkers seated in front of the flat-topped brick and wood buildings that function as store, workshop, and home. The shops are colourfully painted with blues, reds, and greens, in the hopes that their bright tones will draw in curious patrons. The pungent smell of dye lays over the distract like a blanket and the squeals and clicks of the looms and wheels fight to be heard over the many chattering voices.

You may have heard of the state of these streets thirteen years ago, when Hutbari and before him, his predecessors reigned. Then mounds of various kinds of filth had formed stinking barriers along the road. Human muck had clogged the streets, bodies of livestock, broken pottery, and every other imaginable pollutant rendering the market district and the surrounding city a stinking cesspit of disease. There were and are tunnels beneath the city, meant to carry waste out of the city. But these had been neglected for years, with monarch after monarch failing to delegate the duties of their upkeep. Upon taking the throne Akard and his new court had undergone a disgusting and arduous quest to see that the tunnels were returned to their former functionality, and the grime removed from the city. This was later derisively called, The Shit War. Methane gas, collapsed tunnels, and dark things living below the city made the endeavour a nightmare, one which claimed the lives of many guards and even a nobleman or two. And yet after 3 long years of constant work, the city was cleaner than it had been in the last 90 years.

This is not to say that the city is in anyway perfect. As you pass into the Perfumer's district The smell of dye is quickly overwhelmed by a headache-inducing melange of fragrances. Jugs and bottles of dozens of sizes, from the size of a child’s palm to the height of a grown man, line the street, images have been painted on their surface to advertise their contents. Perfume is of immense importance throughout the lands of the Green Sea, but especially in Kishetal. No person leaves their home without first scenting themselves, slaves are typically the only exception. Indeed, among some peoples like the Makurians and the Korithians, the Kishite people were thought of as feminine for their love of perfume, adornment, and their extravagant bathing practices, even the presence of public toilets was at times considered to be unduly opulent. As you look at the various decorated perfume bottles, a thought occurs to you. You recognize visitors from Korithia, Shabala, Makur, Ikopesh, Knosh, and beyond, but there is a group that is missing. Despite being one of the largest and most wealthy kingdoms you see no one from Apuna. Perhaps it’s not surprising, after all Labisa is currently war with Apuna.

At least that is what you think at first, until you look closer. There are Apunians here, slaves. They follow behind Kishite masters or else can be seen cleaning the streets and do other kinds of menial labor. Many are missing eyes, a hand, a thumb, or other parts. Kishite Palaces have a long and proud tradition of mutilation when it comes to their prisoners of war. You quickly avert your attention, but it lands on something else, the figure of a woman, sat in an alley, her knees tucked beneath her chin, her eyes hooded. At first you assume she is a beggar, though thus far they have been a rarity in this city, until you see the pustules. Her face and arms are covered in hundreds of angry red swellings, her teeth are chattering, her eyes vacant. Disease is an inescapable reality of living in a city, particularly one as massive as this. There are no hospitals or hospices, and in favor of the festival most of the temples have temporarily banished those being cared for there. And so, the ill gather here in the Perfume District, where the sweet smells may in some way cover the smell of pestilence.

In recent years Pyrian Fever become an increasingly dire problem throughout the domain of Akard. Though Kishites may not know what bacteria or viruses are, they have managed to identify where this particular outbreak originated from. As is often the case, war is a flashpoint for plague. Some of the same prisoner's war and slaves, you had previously noticed, brought the deadly disease with them. Now every slave is inspected for any signs of disease, but it is too late, they sickness is already here. You notice the plantbrews, medicine women, marching up and down the street, tending to the sick who huddle in alleys and under doorways. Some of the treatments seem to be working, certainly the disease seems less virulent than it has been in the past. Even still, you take note of the warnings scrawled on wooden boards. " Enun Nadolul Na Lumiga" "Do not touch the sick." You quickly decide to move on from the perfume district.

Soon enough the smell of rose and cinnamon declines, replaced by the earthy scent of clay and the sharp tang of kiln smoke. Potters line the streets, hawking their wares, hands stained with the rich red brown of freshly fired earth ang glaze. From tiny, ornate perfume bottles to massive pithoi, many of which you recognize from the previous district. The pots, jugs, and jars are adorned with intricate designs, some depicting scenes of daily life, others abstract patterns that seemed to dance around the curves of the vessels, still others are unglazed, fiery orange or ashy grey. A group of Korithians, immediately recognizable by their short colourful kilts and their long-braided hair, are gathered around one such shop, gawking at the erotic imagery that adorns those particular bowls and plates. You stop to look for yourself, though you quickly find that the going price is far too high for your tastes.

As you leave the Market Districts and approach the Palatial Hill, you enter the area where many of the richer families dwell, minor nobility, and wealthy merchants. Here too are the grand estates were visiting dignitaries stay. Buildings of stone and cedar wood, one, two or even three stories tall. Their surfaces painted and carved with stylized frescos of nature and festivity, curling palms, and leaping gazelles alongside bell-adorned dancers.

Kishite nobles, lounging in front of their homes, sipping wine, and eating dates and olives can be seen dressed in expensive clothing, their hair bedecked with many beads, ribbons, and rings, their necks and wrists choked with chains, collars, and baubles. Their robes are made from silk and soft linen, purple, red, and saffron yellow, their hair and beards are slicked with scented perfumes. Some wear capes and cloaks of lion and leopard fur.

The Kiriki Gates now stand before you.

Stop 6: The Palatial Hill

The Blue Wall separates the Palatial Hill from the rest of the city, while considerably smaller than the Black Wall, at only 32ft in height, it is no less magnificent. The wall itself is made from limestone. Unlike the carved surface of the Black Wall, the stones of the Blue Wall have been sanded and smoothed until it almost seems to sparkle in the afternoon sun. Even the cracks and gaps between the stones have been filled in to create a uniform surface. It is named for the upper most layer of stones, each one painted with a mixture of cobalt and copper to produce a vibrant blue. The only break is the Kiriki Gate, named for the two massive guardians which stand at either side, stone statues of Kiriki, each larger than an elephant. Kiriki are bull-horned and winged lions with the human-like faces. They are culture is secretive, their language indecipherable to most humans, yet they are seen on occasion, you had even seen earlier at this very festival.

While the statues are immobile, the same cannot be said of the guards, eight of the, standing on either side of the open cedar doors. They carry spears and axes, and massive shields in the shape of hourglasses. As you approach one of the guard's holds out his hand. You place a small tablet, no larger than a postage stamp in his palm. Carved on its surface in miniscule writing is a number of Kishite glyphs. This tablet acts as your permission to enter the palatial grounds. After a minute he nods and steps back. He does not return the tablet, this particular privilege is only being afforded, once.

You walk through the gates, head respectfully bowed. It is as if you had just been transported miles away to the countryside. An olive grove stands around you, gnarled trunks twisting and turning. Many of these trees have been here for hundreds of years since the time of Tamel and his children. Currently the workers and caretakers are lounging by ponds and pools, a handful are pruning and attending to the trees, but overall, with the harvest still being months away, the Palatial Olive Grove is tranquil. A few of the laborers wave as you pass by. Stags, gazelle, pheasants, and other peaceful creatures roam through the rows of trees, their presence meant to simulate a rural farm or hillside orchard. A gazelle approaches you, hoping for handouts, upon finding none it goes back to nibbling at the grass.

You spot a small stone shrine tucked among one particularly thick grouping of olive trees, you are not sure which god it is meant to honor, for there are no markings on the alter. Before the shrine is a ring of stones placed on the ground. You immediately recognize this structure as one of those in which Kishite dead are placed, allowing their flesh to be reclaimed by nature before their bones are buried or placed in tombs. However, this particular ring has never held a corpse, rather this ring is used as part of the naming ceremony performed on Noble Kishite children upon reaching the age of 4. The child is made to sleep here, and upon awakening, they symbolically rise up from their "old life".

Beyond the olive grove you enter an area filled with fig, pomegranate, regalu, and quince trees. You even spot a peach tree, still a rarity this far west. Myrtle and laurel trees also make an appearance, their trunks seemingly wrapped in grape vines. The fragrance of these trees mingles with the dry scent of earth and old wood. A few more workers, dressed in simple linen wraps, tend to the trees, and prune the vines, their movements slow and deliberate.

You spot a number of terraces built into the hill side; great blocks of limestone topped with soil. Here is where the king's plantbrews grow their stock, exotic berries, tubers, and flowers.

The ground is crisscrossed by stone pathways, like the one that you are walking on, however it seems that most of the laborers choose to ignore these, instead walking over grass and roots.

The White Wall waits before you.

Stop 7: The Palace

The last and smallest of Labisa's three great walls, at only 24ft is The White Wall, which separates the palatial complex from the rest of the hill. In similar fashion to the Black Wall, the White Wall is made from massive blocks of stone rather than many smaller bricks like the Blue Wall, the lintel above the king's gate is the single heaviest stone in all three of the walls, at nearly 20 tons. The White Wall is the only one with stones that were not quarried in Kishetal, rather its stones were sourced from the original homeland of Tamel and his followers, Shabala. Each massive stone was transported by ship, barge, and finally by rope and manpower over hundreds of miles to the top of the hill, thus while the wall itself may be the smallest, its construction was arguably the most expensive. At first glance you might be confused as to why it is called the White Wall, the stone used is a pale grey, distinctly not white. The name comes from a thin layer of marble tiles that once covered the entirety of the wall, placed there by Tamel the Second, the last monarch of his namesake's line and the last king of a united Kishite kingdom. The tiles cut from the ruins of Arkodian temples, their capture viewed as the symbolic end of the war that had ravaged both Kishetal and Arkodai for decades, the single most destructive war in the recorded history of the Green Sea.

The tiles were stuck to the walls, with the plans for the white marble to be painted not only with images of the valiant heroes of Kishetal, but also those of Arkodai, their faces meant to stand guard over the palace as a memorial of the terrible war. After the last of the tiles had been placed but before the first of the paint could be applied, Tamel the Second was assassinated by his own son, Kerim. United Kishetal died with Tamel. Kerim cancelled the plans to paint the walls.

After Kerim was himself, killed by his younger brother, Farut, the tiles were taken ripped down and instead used to decorate the tomb of Tamel the Second. If one were to venture to the mesa where the royal tombs sit, the tomb of Tamel the Second would be easily identifiable by the snowy white Arkodian marble which still peaks from under the greenery.

The King's Gate is surprisingly plain, there are no great guardians looking over you as you pass under the massive lintel. The eyes of the guards burn into you as you pass, though they do not stop you.

The main palace along with the other palatial buildings function as a miniature city of sorts. The royal residence, a temple, storage buildings, a smithy, a pottery workshop, several workshops reserved for the palace weavers, two different sets of kitchens (and several massive outdoor ovens), the slave quarters, the bathhouse, and the stables are all contained within the White Wall, forming a large palatial citadel dotted with oleander, chestnut, and beech trees. The nobility and their guests who visit palace bathed in the grand bathhouse which stands directly beside the palace, constructed from polished granite, built atop an ancient spring, its interior is decorated with exotic plants and birds, carvings of dancing gods and heroes adorn the walls, and steam curls constantly from its high-set windows. Three similar though decidedly less extravagant baths can be found in the lower city, open to the people of Labisa. The palatial slaves make do with a large pond which lay at the edge of the courtyard.

The palace stands like a fortress atop the rugged hill, its thick stone walls towering above, as imposing as the demigod Tamel the First, who both ordered and assisted in its construction. Built from massive limestone blocks and mudbrick, it seems to have risen from the earth itself, sturdy and timeless. At six stories tall, it is the highest structure in all Labisa, save for the Tomb of Tamel. The outer walls are fortified with battlements and defensive towers, making the palace not just a seat of power but a stronghold overseeing the sprawling city below. Black soot still scars the walls, a grim reminder of Barunaki's brutal raid during Akard’s coup, when soldiers snuck in, murdered Hutbari’s children, and accidentally set the ancient structure ablaze. Only heroic effort saved the palace from complete destruction.

As you pass through the massive stone gate, you enter beneath an arch adorned with reliefs of lions, leopards, and horned men. Inside, the vast central courtyard opens before you, its stone floors smooth from centuries of footsteps. This space, often the site of ceremonies and rituals, is now empty—the king is far to the south. Yet, the palace is far from abandoned; at least two hundred nobles, along with their servants and slaves, occupy its thousand rooms, overseeing its care and performing sacred rites.

The halls are vast and labyrinthine, easy to get lost in. The lofty ceilings are supported by cedar beams and painted columns, every surface intricately adorned. Walls, pillars, ceilings, and even floors are decorated with colorful cloth, carvings, and frescoes. The murals depict royal processions, epic battles, dragons, divine figures, and tales from the Age of Glass and Metal, drawn from "Ti Jali Chasma," the Great History. You pause to admire a fantastical depiction of an ancient city, its twisting, impossibly shaped buildings a testament to the imagination of the artisans. Peeking into some rooms, you find many to be storage spaces, filled with pithoi and vessels holding oil and grain. One door nearly costs you your head, as the Chief of Wine glares at you with a spear in hand, clearly protective of his charge. Hastily, you move on, climbing stone stairs worn smooth from use, the center dipped from countless feet. Banquet halls line the next level, each filled with ornately carved furniture inlaid with pearl and ivory. Large hearths and massive braziers warm the rooms, the scent of smoke and wood blending with resin, stale perfumes, and the earthy smell of stone. Light filters through narrow windows, casting sharp contrasts of shadow and brightness across the floors. As you ascend further, you pass thick wooden doors fitted with bronze, marking private chambers—most are closed, and you wisely choose not to linger. The throne room is at the heart of the palace, both intimate and imposing. A raised platform holds a richly adorned stone throne, carved from black rock streaked with gold. Frescoes and tapestries line the walls, depicting heroic figures battling savage beasts. High above, barely visible, are the words of long-dead kings carved into the ceiling, some written in dialects so ancient only a handful of scholars can decipher them. At the back of the room are doors leading to upper floors, reserved for the royal family and palace sages. As you approach, a guard blocks your path, his stern expression and sharp spear making it clear that your tour ends here. As you leave the palace, the painted eyes follow you. Descending the palatial hill along with stern guard, you are guided back towards the bustling city. Somehow in your brief time away, the streets have become even more hectic, alive with color and activity. With the festival’s opening drawing near, you ponder your options for the time being. You could choose to explore the vibrant market districts, engage with the locals, or simply enjoy the lively atmosphere, the city offers a myriad of experiences. Perhaps if you can find a good beerhall or city corner, you may just be able to hear one of the many tales of Princess Ninma and the giant Narul. Regardless, the festival promises to be a grand affair, the likes of which no other city in the region can match.

I hope that you enjoyed your tour!

Tagging @kaylinalexanderbooks, @melpomene-grey, @mk-writes-stuff, @elizaellwrites, @unrepentantcheeseaddict

Also gonna go ahead and leave this one open

@patternwelded-quill, @persnickety-peahen

@elsie-writes, @the-ellia-west, @the-octic-scribe, @the-golden-comet

@finickyfelix, @theprissythumbelina, @autism-purgatory, @diabolical-blue , @tildeathiwillwrite

@katenewmanwrites, @leahnardo-da-veggie

@drchenquill, @marlowethelibrarian, @phoenixradiant, @pluttskutt

@dyrewrites, @roach-pizza, @rivenantiqnerd, @pluppsauthor

@flaneurarbiter, @dezerex, @axl-ul, @surroundedbypearls

@treesandwords, @skyderman

[nyxshadowhawk]

The Rural Dionysia submissions inspired me to attempt some poetry:

LARPing

I was accused of LARPing again. I get accused of LARPing, and of hubris, by people who see that I don't worship the gods properly, so I must not take them seriously. I am told that I have not been initiated. That the gods will strike me down, and put me in my place and then I'll be sorry. And I was sorry. I wept.

You kicked down the door with a big box of costumes, painted green with gold clasps. And you sat atop it with a winning smile. You asked me, “What shall we play? “Let's play pirates, and ride on the high seas, and turn the sailors into dolphins. “Let's play wizards, knights and castles. Grab your sword, and your armor, and your book of spells, and we'll save a princess from a dragon. “Let's slay Medusa, like you did once when you were seven, using your fairy princess wand as a sword, swinging it by the star until it broke. “You were Perseus, then. You climbed on Pegasus' back, and he took you to Olympus, where we, your siblings, waited for you.”

I asked, “Why wasn't I struck down like Bellerophon?”

And you said, “There's a big difference between being invited, and kicking down the door claiming you deserve to be there.”

I look at the box and I say, “I want to play Shaman.”

I know how problematic that is. I know that shamans are spiritual leaders from Siberia I know how insulting it is for a colonizer like me to imitate Native Americans as a childish game, Dressing up in fur and feathers like a bad Halloween costume And listening to New Agey "tribal" music While I dance around an altar that I built out of feathers and rocks and other natural talismans I'd collected and little figures of deer and elephants and leopard-print scarves spread under a fake plastic campfire that burned in the center of it all.

But I remember how it felt. It felt powerful. It felt ancient.

You smile and say, “It was powerful, and it was ancient. “You were not imitating any real indigenous rituals, except to burn sage and call it "smudging." “Everything else was your own. It was your ritual. A child, reaching back, back through the mists of time “To find the oldest ritual in the book. “Before there was theatre, there was LARPing. “Before there was writing, there was dance.”

And I said, “Lord of Dappled Pelts, give me that feeling back.”

You open the box. Inside are fawnskins and leopard skins, feathers, bones, animal skulls, Rough-hewn masks, with empty staring eyes, as primeval as the soil. You put a horned mask on my face, and dress me in furs, and braid feathers into my hair and put a necklace of bones around my neck that rattles with every step. Before there was theater, there was LARPing. There was the shaman, in their animal mask, behaving as the animal does, dancing round and round the ritual fire until they don't know the difference between man and beast, real and unreal, day and night. And you are there, where you've always been, in the dance. Casting the illusion over our eyes. The mask is a glamour, the stage, a farce. Storytelling itself, an enchantment cast over an audience as they watch and listen, enraptured, fully believing what they feel and see. It is old magic.

I found my gods by LARPing. I put on a white sheet, like a makeshift peplos, and made an olive crown out of pipe cleaners and construction paper and gold glitter and I drank nothing but white grape juice, the blood of the vine, and pretended it was ambrosia, and it was. I threw my paper leaves and thought the gods were listening, and they were. Back then, I didn't ask whether they were real or not, or whether what I was doing was historically accurate or not, or whether I was guilty of hubris for pretending that I, too, was a god.

You and I dance around our ritual fire decorated with stones, and feathers, and figurines grapevines, pinecones, and phallic objects and other fetishes, wearing our pelts and our animal masks. I lose my name, my face, my gender. I am made and unmade. In the primeval woods, in a time before the dawn of civilization, industry, writing, art, theatre religion, liturgy, sacrifice, humanity itself, we were LARPing.

[fantasygerard2000]

Grata

[kawaiiblue18]

So, random ass Beetlejuice x House of the Dragon crossover au I came up with while spacing out walking between classes

So what if Emily was a dragonless, Targaryen princess who ran off with and married Charles Deetz, a successful farmer. Emily and Lydia, who inherits the classic Targaryen blond hair, die their hair black to conceal their Targaryen heritage (and also cause they love gothic stuff).

Lydia grows up in a small, rural town away from the busyness of the kingdoms. Emily shares with Lydia about their Targaryen heritage (mostly so the young girl understands why they live where they do) and also teaches her High Valerian when Lydia eagerly asks to learn. When Lydia turns 16, Emily tragically dies from illness and this impacts Lydia heavily. Charles finds himself a new wife, Delia, shortly after Emily's death as a distraction from the grief of lossing his previous wife. This action enrages Lydia as it’s like her father is trying to erase Emily’s memory and Lydia’s concerns fall on deaf ears. So Lydia climbs to a high point on a nearby mountain, looking to jump off and join her mother. That is when she's stopped by the weirdest dragon she's ever seen.

Enter Betelguese, a millennia old dragon of unknown origin with bizarre anatomy unique only to him. He wasn’t even classified as a dragon at first until someone recorded him flying and spitting fire. Few have ever seen this wild, otherworldly dragon and even fewer have ever lived to tell to tale. He gets his name from his beetle-like appearance and the star in Orion constellation. Legend has it that the dragon is a demon from hell and/or undead due it seemingly unable to die from old age and from rumors of it surviving fatal injuries.

Lydia has always wanted her own dragon ever since her mother had told her Targaryens can tame a dragon and command it with High Valerian. She, however, never expected it to be this dragon in particular. Lydia, still having a death wish, waits for the dragon to spit fire on her or eat her, but she's surprised to find that Betelguese has instead chosen her as a rider. (Bro pulled a Seasmoke)

With new found confidence and will to live, Lydia believes Betelguese is a gift from Emily. She's determined to use her new dragon to show her father and the world that she is never to be cast aside again.

——

Lydia will eventually make a saddle for herself so she can hang on more securely in the space between the top of Betelguese’s elytra, but in the beginning he lets her hold onto his antennas.

Betelguese prefers forests, grasslands, or other areas where there is high density of vegetation. Despite his size, (he’s about the size of Drogon) he knows his way around trees without bulky wings hindering him so armies trying to hide from dragons using trees won’t work with him. His stripped patterns allow him to camouflage. Betelguese isn’t a picky eater but his preferred food is deer and wild boars. Prior to meeting Lydia, he lived a mostly nomadic lifestyle, going to wherever there was an abundance of prey. This included humans if he couldn’t find anything else.

More on this au later, lmk if y’all are interested in hearing more about it :]

[arwainian]

Reading This Week 2024 #34

Hello! a professor I worked with last semester on his fantasy genre class asked for a recommendation for a queer book recommendation because apparently he admires my knowledge of contemporary fantasy publishing. I gave him a novella that seemed like it's fit the themes he was looking at (Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh), and took the compliment instead of telling him that there are so many queer fantasy books my beloved tumblr mutuals are obsessed with but I haven't gotten to yet

Finished:

Invisible Kingdom, Vol. 1: Walking the Path and Vol. 2: Edge of Everything written by G. Willow WIlson, art by Christian Ward this was pitched to me as cool scifi with lesbian leads, but to be perfectly honest i am not getting the chemistry between them at all..... the first volume was cool but the second felt like a major let down. I'm interested to see where the final volume goes tho so I'll still give it a shot

Bloom Into You, Vol. 2-3 by Nakatani Nio, translated by Jenny McKeon on the other hand, the girls in lesbians in this manga are coming for my fucking throat. they are kind and caring but the Teenage Desire in this is strong and extremely messy (what is love? what does it mean to fall in love? what if you fall for each other at different speeds? is what you're doing with her right if you dont think you feel the same way?) reading it is like poking me in a bruise fucking WHAT

The Sprite and the Gardener by Rii Abrego and Joe Whitt gorgeous art, bland story

Are You Listening? by Tillie Walden inter-generational lesbian friendship roadtrip in rural texas. the way the world gets progressively stranger is very well done. this is a comparison i haven't seen made yet, but maybe check it out if you like Alice Isn't Dead?

long day by kathkin on ao3

Maigret Bides His Time by Georges Simenon, translated by Alastair Hamilton just a short old mystery novel. fun time but in an outdated style

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, narrated by Michael Page Locke Lamora is... as you might say a Character Type that works for me very very often, to the point that I gender flipped it for a dnd character of mine. This was a great book with basically no misplaced or extraneous world building elements: it feels rich and lived in but everything snaps together perfectly. The book could maybe use more women, which maybe feels a bit greedy since there are a number of named interesting women characters, but none of them are leads and so those side characters just made me crave more. I just am also extremely OC-pilled and was kicking my feet imagining my girl Letha running around Camorr causing trouble.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 1 written by Kanehito Yamada, art by Tsukara Abe, translated by Misa "Japanese Ammo" fun and sweet, pretty straight forward in what it's doing so far

Female Husbands: A Trans History by Jen Manion, narrated by Kate Harper a thorough history of many assigned-female-at-birth people in the UK and the US who passed as men, often legally marrying women for desire or for gender passing reasons (though not all of the people discussed in this book did so). leaves open both lesbian/same-sex desire and transmasculine interpretations, while also being as specific as possible to the lives, circumstances, and testimonies of its subjects (including the ways we know about them, and that very few of them after being discovered as "women" were allowed to continue in male dress)

Sensor by Junji Ito, translated by Jocelyne Allen hm. well, interested to hear the Shelved by Genre opinion on this.

Started/Ongoing:

The River of Silver: Tales from the Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty, narrated by Soneela Nankani finishing out the short vignette collection from this series

Witches, Princesses, and Women at Arms edited by Sacchi Green a collection of semi erotic lesbian fairytales that I'm reading through. first one has an exiled princess cross dressing as a man and seducing a witch during her quest to slay a dragon

Homie by Danez Smith poetry book i picked up because my black queer lit prof from last year talked about the second poem in here, which i think lives up to his interpretation of it

Reading Plans:

tbh, my brain is coughing up dust right now. finish the stuff in the prior section. get ready for actually writing my thesis in the coming months.

OH I'm going to read A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood for my queer lit book club, and I guess check out whatever Shelved by Genre is reading next? gotta take a look at my Libby loans, and pull something from my book shelf

[the-one-and-only-moldy-cheese]

Belle (2021 film)

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Belle (竜とそばかすの姫, Ryū to Sobakasu no Hime, literally The Dragon and the Freckled Princess) is a 2021 Japanese animated science fantasy film written and directed by Mamoru Hosoda and produced by Studio Chizu. The story is inspired by the 1756 French fairy tale Beauty and the Beast by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont as well as the 1991 Disney animated film.[2]

Belle

Theatrical release poster

Japanese name

Kanji

竜とそばかすの姫

Literal meaning

The Dragon and the Freckled Princess

Transcriptions

Directed by

Mamoru Hosoda

Written by

Mamoru Hosoda

Produced by

Nozomu Takahashi

Yuichiro Saito

Toshimi Tanio

Genki Kawamura

Starring

Kaho Nakamura

Ryō Narita

Shōta Sometani

Tina Tamashiro

Lilas Ikuta

Kōji Yakusho

Takeru Satoh

Edited by

Shigeru Nishiyama

Music by

Taisei Iwasaki

Ludvig Forssell

Yuta Bandoh

Miho Sakai

Production

company

Studio Chizu

Distributed by

Toho

Release dates

July 15, 2021 (Cannes)

July 16, 2021 (Japan)

Running time

121 minutes

Country

Japan

Language

Japanese

Box office

$64.7 million[1]

Belle premiered on July 15, 2021, at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival,[3] where it was well-received by critics with a standing ovation that lasted fourteen minutes.[4] The film was additionally dubbed into foreign languages (English, Chinese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, Greek, German and Polish). It was released theatrically in Japan on July 16, 2021. Belle is the third-highest-grossing Japanese film of 2021, accounting for ¥6.53 billion in box-office rankings as of December 12, 2021.[5][6]

Plot

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Suzu Naito is a third-year high school student living in the rural Kōchi Prefecture of Japan, with a lost passion for singing and songwriting. As a child, Suzu witnessed her mother rescue a girl from a flooding river at the cost of her own life and thus resents her for "abandoning" her for a stranger's child. Suzu remains in contact with a group of older choir teachers who were her mother's friends but is alienated from most of her classmates, except her childhood crush and self-appointed protector Shinobu Hisatake, popular girl Ruka Watanabe, sportsman Shinjiro "Kamishin" Chikami, and her genius best friend Hiroka "Hiro" Betsuyaku.

At Hiro's insistence, Suzu signs into the popular virtual world "U" and is appointed a beautiful avatar with freckles (through the AI engine's biometric analysis[7]), whom she names "Bell", the English translation of her own name. Upon logging in, she finds herself capable of singing again. With the assistance of Hiro, who appoints herself Bell's manager and producer, Bell becomes a hit on U's music charts, and people start referring to her as "Belle", meaning "beautiful" in French.

During one of Belle's concerts, an infamously strong and near-unbeatable user, "The Dragon" (or "The Beast"), arrives, fleeing from the Justices, a vigilante group led by the self-righteous Justin, who fight the Dragon and accuse him of disturbing the peace of U. Justin plans to unveil the Dragon's identity to the public using a specialized program mostly reserved for U's owners. Intrigued by the Dragon, Suzu begins to gather information about him. She discovers that he is popular amongst children, who consider him to be their hero. She meets the Dragon and his five guardians AIs. Belle and the Dragon grow close. In the real world, Ruka confides to Suzu that she has a crush on Kamishin. Suzu helps the two confess their feelings.

In U, Justin captures and interrogates Belle, threatening to unveil her identity to the world if she refuses to cooperate. The Dragon's AIs rescue Belle, but their intervention allows Justin and his group to locate the Dragon's castle and burn it down. The Dragon flees before Belle can find him. Suzu and Hiro work to find out the Dragon's real identity before Justin can and warn him. They find out the Dragon is a third-year junior high school student named Kei who is being physically and verbally abused by his father; Kei's protectiveness over his younger brother, Tomo is what gives the Dragon his unbeatable strength in U. Suzu contacts Kei offering help. Kei does not believe that she is Belle, and generally distrusts everyone who offers him help, since nobody has ever followed through. Shinobu, Ruka, Kamishin, and the choir teachers reveal their knowledge of Belle's true identity and urge Suzu to sing to gain Kei's trust. Suzu unveils herself to the world in the U and sings. Tomo convinces Kei to trust her and they try to contact her again. When Kei's father sees that evidence of his abuse has been posted online, he terminates their internet connection before Kei can tell Suzu their address.

Using context clues, Ruka and Kamishin deduce that Kei's hometown is Kawasaki, Kanagawa, near Tokyo. Since authorities cannot intervene on abuse charges until 48 hours have passed, Suzu locates Kei and Tomo on her own and protects them from their father. The next day, she and her father warmly greet each other at the station. Shinobu praises Suzu for her bravery and deciding she no longer needs his protection, finally feels free to pursue the relationship he has always wanted with her. Finally understanding her mother's selfless actions, Suzu makes peace with her death.

Voice cast

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Character Cast Summary

Japanese English[8]

Suzu Naito / Belle Kaho Nakamura[9] Kylie McNeill A third-year high school student who lost the will to sing after the death of her mother. She is known as Belle in U.

Kei / Dragon Takeru Satoh[10] Paul Castro Jr. A third-year middle school student who is being abused by his father. He is known as the beast in U.

Tomo / Angel HANA Bentley Griffin Kei's innocent and frail younger brother. He is known as the Angel in U.

Hiroka "Hiro-chan" Betsuyaku Lilas Ikuta Jessica DiCicco Suzu's best friend and manager of her identity as Belle.

Suzu's father Kōji Yakusho[11] Ben Lepley Suzu's widowed father who she feels distant from.

Shinobu Hisatake Ryo Narita Manny Jacinto Suzu's crush since elementary school.

Shinjiro "Kamishin" Chikami Shota Sometani Brandon Engman Suzu's friend who has a passion for canoeing.

Ruka Watanabe Tina Tamashiro Hunter Schafer The popular girl in Suzu's class.

Justin Toshiyuki Morikawa Chace Crawford The leader of the Justices, a group of corps that are proclaiming themselves the unofficial protectors of justice and order within the virtual online space of "U".

Okumoto Fuyumi Sakamoto Ellyn Stern

Jellinek Kenjiro Tsuda Andrew Kishino

Swan Mami Koyama Noelle McGrath

Muitarō Hitokawa / Tokoraemaru Mamoru Miyano David Chen

Kita Michiko Shimizu Jessica Gee George

Yoshitani Ryoko Moriyama Barbara Goodson

Hatanaka Sachiyo Nakao Martha Harms

Nakai Yoshimi Iwasaki Wendee Lee

Suzu's mother Sumi Shimamoto[12] Julie Nathanson

Kei and Tomo's Father/Kakeshi Kun Ken Ishiguro Kiff VandenHeuvel

Peggie Sue ermhoi Cristina Vee

Production

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While Studio Chizu worked on the project, they had help from veteran Disney animator and character designer Jin Kim and Michael Camacho on the design of Belle and studio Cartoon Saloon for the background work of the world of U.[13][14]

Hosoda initially intended for Belle to be a musical, but considered the idea difficult due to Japan not having a culture of making musicals. However, he still wanted music to be central to the film, so he searched for a protagonist who could sing. He stated that he preferred the same person doing both speaking and singing voices to make it convincing and searched for a singer who could express their feelings through song and move people, even if they don't understand Japanese. He then found Kaho Nakamura, whom he considered relatively unknown, but a perfect choice for the role. Hosoda stated that Nakamura was also involved in writing lyrics, so she could feel the lyrics she was singing.[15]

Release

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GKIDS acquired North American distribution rights in June 2021, and released the film theatrically with a nationwide release date of January 14, 2022,[16] and previews in select IMAX theaters on January 12,[17] [18]

Sale rights to the film outside Japan were handled by French company Charades who pre-sold the rights internationally, including Kismet in Australia and New Zealand, Anime Limited in the UK,[19][20] Ireland and France (with Wild Bunch), and Koch Media in Italy and German-speaking territories. The deal size was due to the popularity of Japanese anime and the international status of Mamoru Hosoda.[21]

Music

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Main article: Belle (soundtrack)

The music for the series was composed by Taisei Iwasaki, Ludvig Forssell, and Yuta Bandoh. The soundtrack album was released on August 18, 2021, by Ariola Japan.[22][23]

Reception

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Box office

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Belle is the third-highest-grossing Japanese film of 2021, accounting for ¥6.53 billion in box-office rakings as of December 12, 2021.[5][6]

In the film's U.S. opening weekend it made $1.6 million from 1,326 theaters, and a total of $1.8 million over the four-day Martin Luther King Day holiday frame.[24][25] The film dropped out of the box office top ten in its second weekend with $570,213.[26] The film was released on May 17, 2022, on DVD & Blu-ray by GKids (through its distribution partner Shout! Factory).[27]

Critical response

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On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 129 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "A remarkable story brought to life with dazzling animation, Belle finds writer-director Mamoru Hosoda setting a brilliant new benchmark."[28] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 83 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[29] American audiences polled by PostTrak gave the film an 86% positive score, with 63% saying they would definitely recommend it.[30]

At the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, the film received a 14-minute-standing ovation.[31][32] Joe Morgenstern wrote for The Wall Street Journal that "There's too much plot for the film to manage, but its heart, and sumptuous art, are so firmly in the right place that its appeal comes through sweet and clear."[33] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times praised the visual quality, character development, worldbuilding, and called the film "unfailingly touching."[34] Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times praised the visuals and story, writing "It’s a tale as old as time and as newfangled as TikTok, in which the virtual world, though packed with fantasy and artifice, can bring startling truths to the surface."[35]

Accolades

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The film has received five Annie Award nominations, including one for Best Independent Animated Feature. Its total makes it the second most nominations for a Japanese anime film ever at the awards, tied with Ghost in the Shell (1995), and behind Suzume (2022) and The Boy and the Heron (2023).

Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.

Sitges Film Festival October 6, 2021 Best Feature Belle Nominated [36]

[37]

Grand Honorary Award Mamoru Hosoda Won

Locarno Festival August 9, 2021 Locarno Festival Kids Award Belle, Mamoru Hosoda Won [38]

[39]

Animation Is Film Festival October 26, 2021 Special Jury Prize Belle Won [40]

Fancine2021 November 18, 2021 Best Feature Film Nominated [41]

[42]

Best Sound Design Won

Public's Choice Award For Best Feature Film Won

Gato Rabioso Award Won

Utopiales2021 November 30, 2021 Cinema International Feature Film Competition Jury Prize Won [43]

Detroit Film Critics Society December 6, 2021 Best Animated Feature Nominated [44]

Chicago Film Critics Association December 15, 2021 Best Animated Feature Nominated [45]

Audience Award Best Feature Won [46]

Hawaii International Film Festival December 3, 2021 Audience Award Best Feature Won [47]

Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards December 18, 2021 Best Animated Film Runner-up [48]

New Mexico Film Critics December 21, 2021 Best Animated Feature Runner-up [49]

Florida Film Critics Circle December 22, 2021 Best Animated Feature Nominated [50]

San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle January 10, 2022 Best Animated Feature Nominated [51]

Austin Film Critics Association January 11, 2022 Best Animated Film Nominated [52]

Best Voice Acting/Animated/Digital Performance Kaho Nakamura Nominated

Crunchyroll Anime Awards February 9, 2022 Best Film Belle Nominated [53]

Gold Open February 23, 2022 Gold List Best Animation Feature Belle Honorable Mention[note 1] [54]

VFX-Japan Awards March 3, 2022 Excellence Award - Animated Theatrical Film Category Belle Won [55]

[56]

Japan Academy Film Prize March 11, 2022 Animation of the Year Belle Nominated [57]

Outstanding Achievement in Music Taisei Iwasaki, Ludvig Forssell, Yuta Bandoh Won

Annie Awards March 12, 2022 Best Animated Feature — Independent Belle Nominated [58]

Outstanding Achievement for Animated Effects in an Animated Production Ryo Horibe, Yohei Shimozawa Nominated

Outstanding Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production Mamoru Hosoda Nominated

Outstanding Achievement for Writing in an Animated Feature Production Nominated

Outstanding Achievement for Production Design in an Animated Feature Production Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, Alice Dieudonné, Almu Redondo, Maria Pareja Nominated

Anifilm May 18, 2022 The Best Feature Film for Children Belle Won [59]

Cartoons on the Bay June 4, 2022 Best Writing Award Won [60]

Animafest Zagreb July 9, 2022 Best Animated Feature Nominated [61]

Uruguayan Film Critics Association December 16, 2022 Best Animated Feature Won [62]

Golden Tomatoes Award 2022 January 13, 2023 Best Animated Movies 6th place [63]

Best Foreign-Language Movies 9th place [64]

Best Wide Release Movies 13th place [65]

Cultural influence

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After the release of the film, Ochi, Kōchi in Kōchi Prefecture, which served as the prototype for filming, was certified by the Anime Tourism Association as one of the "88 Japanese Anime Mecca I Want to Visit".[66][67] The Kochi Prefectural Tourism Bureau plans movie sightseeing routes to attract tourists with movie locations.[68]

Belle was included in a high school art textbook released in Japan as a teaching example of animation production, and passed the audit of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in March 2023. This textbook will be used as a high school art textbook to be launched in 2024.[69][70][71]

Footnotes

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Tied with《Flee (film)》

References

edit

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BELLE.Ochi Town, Kochi Pref (in Japanese). Anime Tourism Association. September 24, 2021. Archived from the original on April 12, 2022. Retrieved January 1, 2022.

日本のアニメ聖地116カ所選定「竜とそばかすの姫」など新たに (in Japanese). Kyodo News. Archived from the original on July 9, 2022. Retrieved December 15, 2021.

映画「竜とそばかすの姫」物語の舞台高知へ。. よさこいネット/映画「竜とそばかすの姫」スペシャルタイアップサイト (in Japanese). 公益財団法人高知県観光コンベンション協会. July 24, 2021. Archived from the original on January 16, 2022. Retrieved July 24, 2021.

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大谷翔平、小学校の教科書でも引っ張りだこ…打撃で算数の活用法紹介 (in Japanese). 體育報知. March 29, 2023. Archived from the original on April 3, 2023. Retrieved March 29, 2023.

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External links

edit

Official website (in Japanese)

Belle at Anime News Network's encyclopedia

Belle at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata

[stardust-in-my-mind-blog]

ridiculous tarot meditation today

some of the energies mentioned were of

the Morrigan and Babel

Jupiter and the All Seeing Eye

resonated with how the limiting mindsets of people around me

often gave my heavy self doubt more power

than the transient and kaleidoscopic paths of my dreaming

everything was once unreal but people like to use

the concept of subjective reality being the only constant

focus is hard today and my thoughts are so unorganized

the chaos is peaceful however not fear or disruptive

something about the heart space and sacral chakra

something else about heavy sperm flow

her words not even mine and when I wrote them down I also

wrote "what the absolute fuck" in my journaling

generational limitation and generational wealth building

books I'll read and conversations changing around me

came from absolutely nothing in this country

rural Iowa that is not heaven or my field of dreams

the only thing that brought me peace in a world

where I felt like some type of beautiful alien

was the beauty and art and stories of the past

all around the world I travelled in books

universes and galaxies and they all disproved everything

my ears were forced to hear about anything around me

resonate with everything feeling disarrayed now

and how time is a construct I can't quite grasp now

what time is it? what day is it? what the fuck does an hour mean?

something about orange transparent glasses which reminds me

of the orange wings of the cicada brood that spawned this year

they sang so loud they drowned out the birds

speaking of the birds they are crazy today

at least fifty in the jasper having some sort of meeting

usually they do this in the evening but it's been going on

all afternoon in the middle of the day

faith is strong my executive function is dysregulated

tower's burning and the Morrigan's special meteorite

library in the beast's castle and the rose that blooms forever

learning how sweet and graceful my chaos can be

my favorite story as a child was about a boy who went to see

the living Kuan-Yin and ask her three questions

Kuan-Yin is the white statue at my Blue Lotus Temple

and I smile at her whenever I go in to remind my spirit

how to sit still for a few minutes and empty thoughts

the story is about a boy who knew how to make

melancholy princess laugh and it reminds me that

for the last few years I forgot how to laugh

I'd just say things like "that's so funny"

now I keep laughing randomly remembering conversations

my son accused me yesterday of being possessed by a demon

for this obviously uncharacteristic habit

Kuan-Yin told the boy to tell the serpent with seven pearls

that if they gave away six pearls that they'd become

a magnificent dragon and he watched it happen

Kuan-Yin also has a soothing energy of humming

which is like starlight in the throat chakra

falling like soft cyan rain into the swirling sea reflecting

on its surface the energy of the starry night

my mind is a pinball machine again with a mercury ball

loud music and it's hard to tell where it is

most I see where it's been and can't even tell the score

so many bells and sirens and playful laughter

but I'm not afraid just kind of frustrated and bewildered

so that's a nice change to the energy I'm trying to unravel

I see you everywhere and sometimes in a form

that seemed solid enough to make me hyperventilate

which is impossible, right? but the physical symptoms

were very overwhelming and I am known to

totally gaslight myself into and out of things

now my brows are drawing together to make sense

of something that reminds me of something else

I do remember a time I had control of my mental faculties

and from the pattern of everything all this confusion

and distraction technique has a strategy

and hell if I can figure it out so I'll just keep

dancing around until an answer comes to me

I've never been so clueless or ever had this much fun

it's kind of weird to truly believe everything and nothing

somehow all at once but it's my current experience

and then I'll get hit with this wave of pure knowing

and see everything in a vision and forget to breathe

or I see a vision and breathe way too fucking much

I don't even have feet anymore I'm just being swept

and you taught me how not to be ashamed of my feelings

so I write them here and I feel a little cringed out

because I sound like a love drunk fool and not at all

in the form of composure I like to keep myself in

I can't stop smiling and I don't even know why!

now I'll feeling all this extra energy and it's not quite

overstimulating but it's overwhelming and my youngest

just rushed in to tell me his score on dance dance

so that's a perfect opportunity to put it somewhere

the world is fucking mad and I'm right there with it

you've completely disassembled my mind and I feel like

I switched from Artoo to Threepio and for some reason

Threepio always annoyed the shit out of me

but for once I'm not annoyed with myself

okay yeah this is way too many emotions

so much excitement and delight and I need to

go shake my ass because I feel like I'm going to combust

[typhin-hoofbun]

Princess Tells Her Story - Art by BirdOfGrain ( FurAffinity Profile )

A human guy (trans girl in denial) from Earth ends up in the magical world of Terra, and it’s as castles-and-sword-and-sorcery as it gets. Not ideal for a terminally online dork, but it gets worse when a mad wizard captures him and, in a fit of paranoia, transforms him into a non-anthro dragon. A female one. She gets rescued by another man the wizard captured, and the two band together to deal with the world. At first, she pretends to be his pet in public, but she discovers she is… actually liking that more than she thought. So the two make it a real thing.

It’s got some spicy content that I’ll probably edit mostly out (I didn’t really know how I wanted the story to go when I first started it), and some violence that is treated seriously as it’s pretty traumatizing, but explores themes of petplay, pet/owner relationships, body (gender/species) dyshporia, wild adventures, low self-esteem, and more.

Book 1 is fairly episodic, since I didn’t know if each individual chapter would be the last thing I ever wrote. Princess and Tola get to know each other, get settled into their new lives as mage and dragon, and deal with issues and challenges that come up.

But with more confidence, I was willing to go into bigger things, like Book 2. There, the duo end up on Earth, in a tiny town in the rural Midwest! They must contend with trying to keep magic a secret, finding each other, and then finding a way back home while a spoiled, entitled man demands the power of magic belong to him and him alone.

And in Book 3 (just starting up), the worlds are starting to collide in a way that is going to shatter any illusion of them being alone, as a mad and broken god has his sights set on the town that is becoming the biggest hotspot of the arcane on Earth.