johnsmith6801

[ofbardsandmen]

nothing ever excites me more than a spontaneous genshin, or more particularly, mondstadt discovery. i sat diluc upon the barbatos statue as a nice spot to go afk on without being interrupted by repetitive idle animations and voicelines (sorry diluc, this is nothing personal). my volume was turned up more than regularly by accident, and my in-game music was off despite how much i like the original game soundtrack. aNYHOW- i was about to go afk when i heard some strange noises that i didn't recall hearing in mondt before. it made me pause and turn my volume up even more. in the video above, it's kind of hard to discern the brief sounds over the noise of the wind up on the statue and in mondstadt in general, but when the wind dies down a little, you can distinctly hear voices of people, and what shocked me the most – neighs of horses. i have no clue whether it is just me discovering this only now, after 4 years of playing this godforsaken game and clearly not having paid enough attention to mondstadt's sfx before, but i still felt the need to share this terribly interesting tidbit in case there's other clueless mondstadt enthusiasts like me.

[theprettysettersclub]

Element of Secrecy

chapter two (of now three) is on ao3 here

Summary: The Grand King is a mysterious dancer that travels all over the Earth Kingdom. No one knows who he is, where he comes from, or where he's going to go next. Iwaizumi and Matsukawa are lucky enough to be in the same place as him so they can see one of his performances. Matsukawa isn't necessarily okay with accepting that the Grand King is some unknown person, so he and Iwaizumi enlist the help of a stranger in order to unmask him.

“Are you sure you’re ready?”

Oikawa nodded. “As long as you’ll be here when I come back to help me change.”

“Of course. Now go and then get back here quickly. Don’t waste time. I told Yahaba earlier to act like he doesn’t know you when you go through the line, so you’re all set on that end.”

Oikawa gave Hanamaki a mock salute and ran off to the place he was supposed to meet Iwaizumi and Matsukawa. He already had as much of his costume on as he could while still being inconspicuous. Matsukawa and Iwaizumi were already waiting for him when he got there.

“Suga, what took you so long?” Matsukawa called once he noticed Oikawa.

“I lost track of time, sorry. I take it you’re both ready to go, then?”

“Have been for a while,” Iwaizumi muttered. “How are we getting in? Mattsun and I don’t have enough money for more tickets.”

“We’re going through a side door. Not many people know about it, so we shouldn’t get caught.”

Oikawa led them around to one of the side entrances and then down a dark hallway. He ran one hand along the wall in order to give himself some sense of where he was and to count the doors so he made sure they came out the right one. Finally he came to the right door. He pushed it open just enough for the three of them to slip through and into the crowd.

“Is it seriously this easy to just sneak in?” Hanamaki asked quietly.

“If you’re with me it is,” Oikawa replied. “Come on, let’s get closer. The second night is almost always better than the first.”

Oikawa wove through the crowd, subtly trying to lose Iwaizumi and Matsukawa. They seemed to be able to follow him easily, though, which was frustrating. He saw the perfect chance to lose them when two people were walking towards each other quickly. It wasn’t easy to time, but he managed to just barely slip between them and get even farther into the crowd. When he turned around, Iwaizumi and Matsukawa were nowhere to be seen.

“Finally,” he muttered before making his way back out of the crowd as fast as he could. He slipped out a different side door, one that was closer to his changing room. Once he closed the door behind himself, he started running and taking as much of his clothes off as he could.

“You’re late, c’mon,” Hanamaki said, helping him take off the rest of his clothes and put on the costume. He was already in his loose black clothing he would wear backstage. The only thing left for him to do was flip up the hood.

Oikawa’s costume tonight was different. He had picked it up a while ago from a waterbending village in the South. It was different shades of blues with more ribbons attached than he liked. The way they shimmered and fluttered when he moved made it look almost like he was actually waterbending. It covered less of his arms than the other one with no sleeves except for two arm bands that covered his forearms. Those were the only tight part of the costume. It was one of the better costumes Oikawa had worn, but the one from the night before was his favorite.

“Okay, are you ready?” Hanamaki asked as he clipped the veil in place.

“Of course. Are you?” Oikawa answered calmly.

“As ready as I’ll be. Let’s go.”

Oikawa took his place on the side of the stage and Hanamaki stood off to the side. The stage itself had been slightly modified in order to hold the water that would be needed for the performance. Oikawa took a deep breath before walking confidently to the middle of the stage. There were more torches near him tonight, burning brighter than last night. He struck a pose, pointing at the ceiling, and the roof started to open. A smile came to his face when he heard the newcomers gasp. He’d have to remember to thank Yahaba for that new feature when he got a chance.

Once the roof was all the way open, he settled into his starting position. The music started slowly and he mostly let himself get carried away with it. He had danced this exact dance so many times before that it became completely muscle memory. The only reason he didn’t completely let go was because he needed to make sure he was in sync with the waterbending. But he trusted that as long as he did his job correctly, Hanamaki would do the same.

The water was always fun to watch while he was dancing. He almost believed that he was a waterbender. The water flowed so gently and the light from the torches looked beautiful reflecting through it.

At the end of the dance, the water fell and it was almost like a spell was broken. The crowd, who had been so quiet Oikawa almost forgot they were there, erupted into applause. Oikawa bowed before running off stage, making sure he was completely out of sight before starting to take his costume off with Hanamaki there to catch various articles of clothing as he threw them.

“Ugh why does this have to be so difficult,” Oikawa complained as he tugged off his armbands.

“What? Undressing or inserting yourself needlessly into a plot to figure out your true identity?”

“Both.” He finally made it into the changing room with only his pants and veil on. “Close the door please.”

Hanamaki grabbed Oikawa’s clothes from before up off of the floor and handed them to him so he could start getting dressed again. “That’s entirely your fault, you know. You didn’t have to get involved in this scheme.”

“But it’s fun, Makki. This is the most fun I’ve had in awhile.”

“Just don’t get yourself found out. It won’t be fun then.”

“I won’t, I won’t, I promise. You might want to clear out of this room in the next couple of minutes though. Wouldn’t want them to think you’re the Grand King,” Oikawa said as he slipped out of the door.

“Wait, you’re actually bringing them here? Oikawa!”

Oikawa snickered as he ran back to find Iwaizumi and Matsukawa. It didn’t take him very long to find them seeing as the crowd had mostly dispersed in the couple of minutes it took him to change. “Iwa-chan! Matsukawa! What happened to you two?”

“What happened to us? What happened to you?” Matsukawa asked. “You, like, disappeared.”

“Right, ‘disappeared,’” Iwaizumi rolled his eyes and made air quotes around the word disappeared. “Why’d you ditch us?”

Oikawa tilted his head in mock confusion. “I didn’t though? I saw a really good spot open so I went for it, but when I looked around, you two weren’t behind me.”

“Anyway,” Matsukawa interrupted, stepping between Oikawa and Iwaizumi, “We should really get to the changing room place.”

“Right, follow me,” Oikawa turned to look back at Iwaizumi, “And keep up this time.”

He led them around a longer way in order to give Hanamaki a bit longer to get everything out of the changing room.

“So… which one of you am I going to be waiting with?”

Iwaizumi barely let Oikawa finish asking before responding with a simple, “Me.”

“Sounds like fun,” Oikawa said to himself. “Did you two like the show tonight?”

“It was so cool! He must be such a skilled waterbender to be able to do all that,” Matsukawa gushed.

“It was ok. It was the same dance, just with some bending thrown in. I don’t really get what’s so special about it.”

“Iwa, you literally said to me ‘Holy shit that’s so cool how does he do that’ during the performance. Don’t even try to pretend you didn’t like it.”

“Okay, fine, it was kinda cool. But still, it was the same dance.”

“I wish I could waterbend,” Oikawa sighed. “I’d definitely do something like that if I could.”

“Can you bend at all?” Matsukawa asked.

“Well, I can’t waterbend and I can’t earthbend. All the airbenders are supposedly extinct. So all that’s left is firebending, but what would a firebender be doing in the middle of the Earth Kingdom alone?”

“Damn, that sucks that you can’t.”

“I’m mostly over it. Besides, bending isn’t the only cool skill someone can do. And just because I can’t bend doesn’t mean I’m not in tune with the spirit world.” Oikawa stopped in front of one of the doors to his changing room. “Here’s where you’re gonna wait, Matsukawa. We’ll be at the other one.”

“Iwa, don’t kill him,” Matsukawa called after them.

“I’ll try,” Iwaizumi called back in what Oikawa hoped was a joking voice.

“So…” Oikawa tried after a few minutes of waiting in silence by the other door. Iwaizumi glared at him, but he decided it was safe to continue. “Can you bend?”

Iwaizumi nodded. “I’m an Earthbender.”

“Cool, cool.” Outwardly, Oikawa was keeping a straight face. Inwardly, he was freaking out because of how awkward the silence was between them.

“So what’s your real name?” Iwaizumi asked after another few minutes of silence.

Oikawa’s heart skipped a beat. “I’m sorry?”

“What’s your real name?” Iwaizumi repeated, moving to stand right in front of him, placing one hand on the wall by Oikawa’s head and leaning forward. “I know you lied when you said it was Suga. So what is it?”

“I… I don’t understand. My real name is-”

“Cut the crap. I can feel your heartbeat through small vibrations in the ground, that’s how I know when you’re lying. It’s something I can do with earthbending. I know you lied about your name.”

“If you knew I lied, why did you give me your real name? And why did you agree to work with me?”

“Matsukawa is hard to say no to sometimes. And how do you know that I did give you the right name?”

“Earthbending isn’t the only way to tell if someone’s lying, Iwa-chan. I’m pretty skilled at dealing with liars.”

“So now you know my name, but I only know you lied once about your name. What’s the harm in telling me?”

“You’re very stubborn, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa said, pushing lightly against Iwaizumi’s chest with one hand. “But fine, since you absolutely insist, it’s Hanamaki.”

“No it’s not.”

“Fine. Oikawa. There. Are you happy now?” Oikawa snapped. It probably wasn’t his best idea, giving out his name like that.

“At least you didn’t lie this time. Was that really so hard?”

Oikawa sighed. “It’s not something you’d understand, Iwa-chan.”

Iwaizumi scoffed. “I’m sure-”

“Don’t you think he should have come out by now?” Oikawa asked, abruptly changing the subject. “Can’t you see in there with your earthbending thing? What’s taking so long?”

“I can’t because of the carpet. It’s gotta be a solid earthen surface for me to be able to tell if anything is happening in there.”

“Good to know,” Oikawa hummed. “Maybe there’s a third exit I didn’t know about? All the floors and walls are stone, so couldn’t you just, I dunno, look for a third place with an opening?”

Iwaizumi stared at him for a few seconds. “Stop coming up with good ideas it makes it harder to not like you,” he muttered and turned around to put his hand on the wall on the other side of the hall.

“Ah, so it’s a conscious effort to not like me?” Oikawa asked, draping himself over Iwaizumi’s shoulder. “That’s good to know.”

“Stop that.” Iwaizumi pushed him off his shoulder. “I need to concentrate.”

“Not only do you have to put effort into not liking me, but I’m also a distraction to you?” Oikawa teased. Iwaizumi ignored him in favor of closing his eyes and trying to find a third door.

“There’s a trap door in the ceiling. He probably went through that awhile ago.”

“Damn. I guess we can’t do anything else tonight, then.” Oikawa said, doing his best to act disappointed. “And just when you were starting to warm up to me.”

“You know,” Iwaizumi started and Oikawa was fairly certain he knew where this was going, “Matsukawa… doesn’t know about the trap door. We could just… stay here for a while.”

Oikawa was tempted to. He was so tempted to forget about everything to stay with Iwaizumi for a while. He nearly said yes. “I… We really shouldn’t. It’s, uh, it’s not fair to Matsukawa. He’s all on his own on the other side of the door probably bored out of his mind.”

“You sure?”

Oikawa nodded. Iwaizumi probably knew he was lying. His flimsy excuse, while it did work, was very obviously thought up on the spot. He was met with no argument, though. Iwaizumi just started leading them around to the door Matsukawa was waiting at.

“Did you two give up or something?” Matsukawa asked when he saw them turn the corner.

“There’s a trap door in the ceiling. He’s probably long gone by now,” Iwaizumi said.

“Are we gonna try again?”

“We’ve only really got one more chance,” Oikawa pointed out. “But with the trap door we’re not gonna know if he’s ever coming out of one of these doors. And in theory one of us could go up there, but who knows if we’ll be able to get into whatever room it leads to.”

“Are you giving up?”

“No,” Oikawa answered Iwaizumi’s question. “I’m just pointing out how hard it’ll be now that we know more.”

“That doesn’t mean we’re not gonna just stop trying.”

“Right,” Oikawa nodded.

--

Iwaizumi was rudely awakened by loud knocking on the door of their room. He looked around and found that Matsukawa was also just waking up because of whoever was at their door.

“What’s going on?”

Iwaizumi shrugged. “No idea.”

The knocking hadn’t stopped, so Iwaizumi got up to open the door. He was nearly there when the door flung open.

“What the-” he nearly yelled, taking a step back and dropping into a fight stance. “Who are you?”

Three people, dressed as Fire Nation soldiers, walked into the room. “Our names are of no importance to you,” the leader said. “We merely have a few questions. You can relax.”

“Forgive me if I don’t relax after someone kicks open my door.”

The leader ignored his comment. “Do you know a man named Oikawa Tooru?” she asked, bringing out a scroll and unrolling it to show to him.

Iwaizumi looked at the picture on it. There was absolutely no doubt that it was the same person they had been working with. “I’ve never met him,” he said, looking directly into the leader’s eyes.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“How about your friend over there?”

Matsukawa got out of his bed to shuffle over to them and look at the picture. “You said his name was Oikawa Tooru?”

“That’s correct.”

“Never met him.”

“That’s a pity,” she said, rolling up the scroll, “because multiple people in town saw you with him yesterday. If you had told the truth, I may have let you off easily. But now I fear you’ll have to come with us.”

Iwaizumi and Matsukawa tried to fight them off, but they were quickly subdued. The two soldiers tied them up and then started shoving at them so they would move. As they were passing the check in area, the leader stopped.

“Let Oikawa know, because I’m sure he’s staying here, that I’ve got some of his friends and I’d like to meet him on the edge of town,” she said to the owner. And with that, they were led out. A few more soldiers were waiting outside the door and joined them when they came out. The few people that were out in the morning stopped to stare, but as soon as the leader started turning her head one way, they would all disappear into stores and buildings as fast as they could.

He caught a glimpse of Oikawa, eyes wide and an absolutely terrified look on his face, before he followed the rest to hide in a building.

“What do you want from us?” Iwaizumi growled. It earned him a smack to the back of his head and he was going to give up at that, but the leader started talking.

“Oikawa always saves his friends. He'll come for you, likely agree to give himself up if I let you go, you two run free and I'll finally be done with this worthless mission.”

“What mission?” Matsukawa cut in.

“To bring Tooru home of course.”

--

It was nearly sunset and Iwaizumi's arms were numb and his legs were only slightly better. They had tied up his legs a while ago after the first escape attempt. He would try yet another, but he seriously doubted he would be able to do anything.

The leader, Iwaizumi still didn't know her name, had started pacing around the camp. If Iwaizumi had to guess a reason, she was probably nervous that Oikawa hadn't shown up yet. She had seemed so confident that he would, but it was getting late and no Oikawa.

“Hey Iwa.”

“Yeah?”

“Was his name really Oikawa?”

Iwaizumi nodded. “He told me last night.”

Matsukawa smiled. “You know what that means, right? I was right.”

He groaned and leaned back. “Is that really what you're gonna focus on right now?”

“Absolutely,” Matsukawa replied before they fell into a relatively comfortable silence for a few minutes.

Iwaizumi felt a hand cover his mouth.

“Can I trust you to stay quiet if I take my hand away?” He nodded and the hand moved away. “If we get caught, follow my lead.”

He nodded again and the ropes started loosening. Whoever this was must have been cutting him free. He brought his arms around in front of himself and grimaced at the marks left. Once the stranger was done cutting his legs free, Iwaizumi looked to Matsukawa, expecting to see the stranger uncutting him. Only to find that another stranger already had it done.

“Can you stand?”

Matsukawa nodded immediately, but Iwaizumi wasn’t so sure. Not with how tight they had his legs tied for so long. One of them sighed and stepped forward, bending a small stream of water out of a flask at their side. The water flowed around his legs, glowing blue. It tingled a little and generally feld weird, but when they bent the water away, back into the flask, his legs felt much better.

“That’s good enough for now, we need to-”

“I was beginning to think you wouldn’t show up.”

“You know me, I’ve always had a flair for the dramatics,” one of them said, taking off their hood.

“It’s been a while, Tooru.”

“Not quite long enough, sister,” Oikawa answered. Iwaizumi froze. Sister. She had said something earlier about bringing him ‘home’ but Iwaizumi had thought she meant one of the prisons maybe. Not actually home.

“You’ve got two options. You can attempt to fight your way out of the mess you landed yourself and your friends in, but I doubt you would be able to save everyone like i’m sure you want to. Or you can give yourself up willingly and I’ll let your friends go.”

Oikawa thought about it and Iwaizumi hardly dared to take a breath while he waited for Oikawa’s answer.

“Is father here?” he asked instead. His sister shook her head.

“What the fuck is he doing?” the stranger next to him hissed.

“In that case,” Oikawa said, raising his voice, “I challenge you to an Agni Kai. Should I win, my friends and I get to walk free. Should you win, we will all go with you willingly. Do you accept?”

“Tooru, what are you-”

“Relax, Makki,” Oikawa said, “She hasn’t even accepted yet.”

“I accept your challenge and its conditions.” She turned to them. “If any of you try to interfere or run, that will count as an automatic win for me.”

Oikawa’s friend nodded.

“The Agni Kai will begin when the sun begins to set.”

“What’s an Agni Kai?” Iwaizumi asked after all the soldiers that had stopped to watch went back to what they were doing before.

“It’s a duel between two firebenders. Usually it’s an honor thing, I think, but I guess it can be used for this too. I don’t know much about them, Oikawa never explained much.”

“Oikawa’s not a bender, though.”

“He’s a firebender. He couldn’t issue a challenge otherwise.”

“But he-”

“Sorry, but can you struggle with the fact that someone lied to you even with your weird lie detector thing later? We have more pressing issues right now. Hold out your arms.” Iwaizumi did as he was told and Makki bent water out of the flask again and it swirled around his arms, giving him the same feeling as before with his legs. “My name's Hanamaki by the way.”

“I'm Iwaizumi,” he said.

“I know.” At Iwaizumi's confused look, he said, “Oikawa told me.”

The water flowed away from his arms and he moved them around, testing how they felt now. Iwaizumi was surprised at how much better they felt.

“You next, Matsukawa.”

Matsukawa made a face when the water touched him. “This feels weird.”

“I know, but it’s necessary. You’ll need your arms fully healed if we get out of this mess.”

“If?” Iwaizumi cut in. Hanamaki was about to respond when Oikawa bounded up to them.

“Excuse us for just a minute,” Hanamaki said before literally dragging Oikawa away. They didn’t get far enough that Iwaizumi couldn’t hear the whole thing, though.

“Makki I-”

“No. You promised, Oikawa. You promised you wouldn’t do this again.”

“Last time was different. I know my sister and-”

“She’s the reason you need to be healed after every time you dance! What else is there to know?”

“There’s a lot and I don’t have time to tell you everything-”

“I thought you already had.”

Iwaizumi turned away then, well aware the argument was far too personal for him to be listening in on. It wasn’t long before Oikawa stalked past him and Matsukawa.

“Oikawa,” Hanamaki called and for a second Iwaizumi thought he wouldn’t turn around. “I’m pissed beyond belief at you, I hope you know that.”

“What’s the point of this, Hanamaki?” Oikawa asked coldly.

“Good luck. Just because I’m pissed and we need to talk doesn’t mean I want you to lose.”

“Right,” Oikawa nodded. Some of the tension between them lifted, but it was evident to anyone that they weren’t actually on good terms again yet.

Oikawa and his sister moved to two ends of a long clearing. It appeared as though tents had been hastily moved in order to make space for their fight. Iwaizumi, Hanamaki, and Matsukawa moved to the end Oikawa was kneeling at, just outside of a line drawn in the sand, in order to watch. The same two soldiers that had helped take Iwaizumi and Matsukawa were at the other end talking to Oikawa’s sister.

“Dodge if you need to and please don’t get hurt,” Hanamaki instructed.

“How likely is it that we’re going to have to dodge?” Matsukawa asked.

Hanamaki tilted his head in thought. “About a 50/50 chance.”

There must have been some sort of signal that Iwaizumi missed because Oikawa and his sister both stood up at the same time and turned around. It looked like Oikawa hesitated for a second before taking a step and shoving both of his hands forward. Iwaizumi shouldn’t have been surprised at the fire extending from his palms, slowly growing stronger and stronger, but just because he was prepared for it didn’t mean it wasn’t still a shock.

“Are the flames… green?” Matsukawa asked, voicing one of the many questions going through Iwaizumi’s mind.

“Fire can be any color in the rainbow,” Hanamaki replied. “Most firebenders only know how to bend orange or red, but Oikawa and I found a tribe of people who guard the last dragons and he learned from them how to change the color of his flame.”

“Dragons?”

Hanamaki nodded. “They’re supposed to be extinct. And a secret, but I figure you already know one of the big secrets so you may as well know the others. Oikawa is the Grand King.”

Iwaizumi let that sink in. As soon as he fully realized what that meant, he turned to Matsukawa. “Don’t even say it.”

“Say what?” Matsukawa asked, attempting to feign innocence. “That I was right?”

“Whatever. Shut up. It's not like you actually knew.”

Iwaizumi turned his attention back to the fight. The two seemed fairly evenly matched, but Oikawa seemed to be on defence mostly. His sister fired attack after attack at him and he dispersed the flames, but rarely attacked for himself.

“You fight like a waterbender!”

“Maybe that’s because that’s who I learned from,” Oikawa said through gritted teeth as he took control of the flames around him, redirecting them into his own attack and pushing her back. He started going on the attack, shooting quick bursts of fire from his fists. His sister didn’t stop her attacks in order to defend herself. She simply attacked back in order to stop the blows. It looked like she was more powerful than Oikawa, but he was faster and better at using her strength against her.

It was hard to tell who was winning, but Oikawa kept getting pushed back. One particularly strong blow from his sister had him falling back, sliding for a second before coming to a stop.

“Oikawa!” Hanamaki yelled and moved to take a step forward. Iwaizumi grabbed him by the back of his shirt and roughly pulled him back. “Hey, let-”

“We can’t interfere, remember?” Hanamaki crossed his arms and rolled his eyes, but stopped struggling.

“I expected better from you, little brother.” His sister was standing above him. “I’m not sure why. You left before you even finished your training.” Iwaizumi bit his lip, anxiously waiting for Oikawa to get up again. He knew Oikawa was still alive, but he wasn’t getting up. “Don’t tell me you’re accepting your defeat so easily? You’ve changed a lot. Being away has softened you too much.”

“No,” came a weak reply. Oikawa pushed himself to his feet. There was a hole singed in his shirt and the skin underneath was red. “Being away from all of you made me stronger. I will not give up.”

It must have been his imagination, but it looked like Oikawa’s sister smiled. Oikawa started going more on the attack, knocking his sister back. He didn’t let her collect herself at all, launching attack after attack. She slipped in the sand at the same time Oikawa sent one of the largest balls of fire at her and she nearly flew through the air before landing in the sand.

“Take your friends and go,” she coughed. Oikawa paused to help her up and whisper a few words to her before turning around and walking towards them.

“We have until the morning to leave town or else she will come after us again,” Oikawa said once he got closer. He looked dead on his feet. “Your stuff is still in Yahaba’s inn, right?”

Matsukawa and Iwaizumi nodded.

“Shouldn’t you-”

“Unless you’re about to suggest that I leave here faster, it can wait,” Oikawa said, cutting off Matsukawa. “I’m sorry if you two were planning to stay here longer, but it’s not safe for you to stay here. We can talk when we’re out of town and far away from any more Fire Nation soldiers.”

Matsukawa fell silent and Iwaizumi didn’t blame him. Oikawa was snappier than they’d experienced and neither of them wanted to make his mood any worse.

--

“Well?” Hanamaki prompted once Iwaizumi and Matsukawa had gone in to get their things.

“Right now?”

“Right now.”

Oikawa sighed. “I didn’t tell you because I don’t like talking about it. As you can imagine, our father wasn’t the greatest person.”

“That’s one way to put it,” Hanamaki muttered under his breath.

“I think I realized what he was doing, all of the unnecessarily cruel things about a year before you and I met and I started planning to get away.”

“I already know this part,” Hanamaki interrupted.

“I asked my sister to come with. She was still for the most part under Father’s control. Even thinking of disobeying was scary because it felt like he would know. Instead of selling me out, she made me promise not to talk about it to anyone else. The reason she fought me all out last time was because Father was there. He wasn’t this time, so I knew she would throw the fight.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about that before?”

“I didn’t know it would be her when we were making the plan, so I’m sorry I worried you and made you upset. I would have explained it while we were there, but I didn’t want any of the soldiers to overhear.”

“I’m just glad you’re not severely injured. Do you want me to heal your burns here or after we’ve left town?”

“After we’ve left. I don’t want to stay here any longer than we have to.” Hanamaki nodded in agreement. “There’s one other thing. I was thinking that since, you know, those two know most of our secrets already, we could invite them along with us. After we’ve gotten them to the next town safely.”

Hanamaki looked at the door of the inn, taking a few seconds to think about it. “I’d like that.”

[floralmotif]

Destiel and editing

@obsessionisaperfume here’s the Kuleshov Effect post I talked about. Hopefully it is sufficient. TL;DR: Editing is probably the most powerful tool film has and how it’s used tells the story. Literally. In the case of SPN, there is a lot of instances that can be read as destiel riding in on a giant brick.

Ok, so preamble for those who don’t know what it is: The Kuleshov Effect was named for Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov. It deals with a “mental phenomenon by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation.”

The original test that coined the name was a short series of clips showing an actor in a black and white film with a stoic expression, intercut with various images. It’s about 50 seconds, have a looksie.

The short was built to see what meaning people would give to the man’s expression and as Kuleshov expected, they reacted accordingly based on what shots were intercut. So the stoic face was read as hungry, lustful, sad, whatever by most people even though it was all the same expression.

You can invoke this effect without both pieces ever seeing each other. You can create a vast head space for a character that the actor may never see by intercutting the actor with something like... war stock footage. We can understand what the character is going through without it ever being spoken and without the actor saying or sometimes really doing anything in relation to it.

That isn’t to say that actors aren’t important, of course they are. But a lot of understanding a filmed work look to the editing. The same way books look at word choice, sentence structure, etc. Editing is the last stand of “authorial intent” (as a nebulous term. Not by a single person) between the production and the audience. It’s the syuzhet, the filter of bias that sets the tone and the pace and the narrative and almost no one is truly privy to it until all of production is over.

Now, directors, producers, various others depending on the work often help dictate the editing to an extent. They decide what version of shots to leave in and give an idea of what they’re going for. Some take a much more active role and are part of the editing process to a great extent. Sometimes it’s just the director helping, sometimes it’s like... 8 other people in production. Sometimes a film studio drops all their footage for their several million dollar property off at a trailer house and says “panic number’s on the fridge, I’ll be back in the morning.” and expects the final edit not to suck.

Editors exist for a reason and it’s not just to cut the film to an edible size, set pace and presentation. “When to cut” and “how to think like an editor” are important to the process on their own and they are their own people.

Authorial intent is honestly kind of hilarious. Especially in works with multiple “intenders”

But let’s poke the intent bear anyway, shall we? ‘Bunch of examples under the cut.

Let’s start with 12.10 since it was recent and was pointed out specifically by @bluestar86​ not long ago.

Gah... I don’t have any gifs. I keep trying to make them but they don’t want to work for whatever reason when I post them.

I’ll add them in later if I remember/get them to work.. *sigh*

So in 12.10, we’re shown the scene Cas tells about what he remembers when he and Ishim’s fleet killed Akibel. At one point, Akibel states something like: “ “how can you know humans and not love them?” with the camera cutting to Cas’ reaction.

Another instance happens in 12.09 after Billie is killed and the BMoL meet up with the Winchesters on the bridge. When the Winchesters are getting back into the impala, the BMoL tell the Winchesters they were “unprofessional” with the camera then finding Castiel and then cutting to him entering the car with foliage framing the foreground. It’s a PoV shot.I have a feeling they’ll be after Cas before the season’s end.

One of my favorites is in 8.17 (when it doesn’t make me sad), while Sam is talking to Meg. It’s intercut with Cas and Dean’s Crypt Scene to an interesting parallel. It’s a bit muddy, but it’s there:

Meg: So some chick actually got you off hunting eh? That’s a rare creature. So tell me, how did you meet this unicorn?

-And the scene cuts to Cas in the crypt with Dean. They have the start of their tiff, followed by a J-Cut and we’re back to Meg and Sam talking. Now take a look at this exchange and then think about how it relates to the next scene with Dean and Cas.

Meg: You hit a dog and stopped, why?

Sam: That whole story and that was your takeaway?

It is kind of a weird takeaway... isn’t it? Moving on.

Meg: No, I heard the rest. You fell in love with a Unicorn. It was beautiful, then sad, then sadder. I laughed, I cried, I puked in my mouth a little... and honestly I kinda get it.

Sam: Really?

Meg: ...We’ve got company.

Sound familiar to another situation?

-Cut back to a closeup insert of Cas and his Angel blade. The above discourse serves a few purposes with the lens I’m applying to the cuts here:

1) It parallels a relationship between Sam and a love interest to Cas and Dean. How many times has that happened? Oh yeah. Constantly.

2) We know that Dean has been paralleled to a dog before. Cas hits Dean, then stops... he breaks his connection to Naomi by any means needed. He chooses “them”.

Meg: Go. Save your brother...and.. my unicorn

We know what she’s talking about. She’s saying her feelings for Cas and how important she is to him but using the established metaphor. Cas is likened to a unicorn by Meg- who’s connection to Cas draws us further into the intercut parallel by specifically referring to Cas in metaphorical terms and comparing her situation with Sam’s. That situation being what’s happening in the crypt during their conversation. You could argue that Cas and Dean are each other’s unicorns but for the purposes of this, Dean is the dog Cas hit to make him stop, and Cas is a rarity that changes you. On its own, the scene allows for some drama and the continuation of Sam’s story but we don’t learn anything new on Sam’s end. We also don’t really learn anything new on Meg’s end. We already knew she had something for Cas  It mostly serves to give motivation to Meg’s actions but why tell the whole story at that time? The famous “Too much heart was always Castiel’s problem” cut to the river scene in 8.02. Remember, a physical person edited that. Why put that scene there? What were they trying to accomplish? Some instances from season 11:

Dean and Sam’s intercut difference in takeaway at the end of 11.11

11.18: Amara’s reaction shot when her attempts to reach Dean are cut off by his concern for Cas.

11.21: Amara uses Cas to find Dean, we see her placing her hand over Cas’ heart, then cutting to Dean behind a cage motif.

11.22: Casifer going limp on the cut after Amara inflicts her power on Dean and Lucifer’s “vessel” being out of commission afterwards. You cannot convince me that Amara didn’t access Cas’ function through her power..

Isn’t it interesting that throughout season 11, the closups on hearts and pining have all involved Dean or Cas?

Here’s a favorite from all the way back in 5.04. This episode is full of editing choices that tell us about a potential relationship between endverse Dean and Cas: 2014!Dean kills his own man and 2009!Dean intervenes. From the shot of the remaining men and 2009!Dean, we’re led to believe the convoy is disturbed by 2009!Dean. It’s not until 2014!Dean starts talking about his “pretty messed up situation” does the camera cut to 2009!Dean, who, along with the audience, realizes that 2014!Dean isn’t pointing at him, he’s pointing and talking about Cas, and from Cas’ expression, there’s a reason for it. This scene sets up, almost entirely through editing; an unseen structure of the conflicts in the episode and the endverse. The way the relationships for Dean have progressed in this version of the future.  Also in 5.04, there are several great ones in the meeting scene just before they take the fight to Lucifer:

2009!Dean: We were in uh... Janes.. cabin last night, and apparently we, and.. Risa. Have a connection.

Within this dialogue alone, there are several shots showing character relationships. There’s Risa’s disgusted arm crossing, 2014!Dean’s sort of sad glaring, realization of what is known about him in the room and who is present, but most notably Cas’ inhale of realization and smile at the end of what is said. Cas isn’t being spoken to. He has seemingly no reason to have a reaction shot here that says without words “Of course he did” unless there was some reason to place it there. It’s a very specific reaction. 2014!Dean shoots the rest of that conversation down right quick.

There really are so many instances of this. I can only think of a few. I’m sure many others could think of more. Feel free to add your own. Doesn’t have to be destiel related.

Even if we don’t get many match cuts in this show (for some dumb reason), we aren’t short on very heavily framed instances of the Kuleshov effect giving us little glimpses of whatever swims around in the post production of SPN. The final decisions that tell the story mixed with our own expectations and perspectives. Many hands working to create a world.