#until Magical Kingdoms revived him

[simpingforcys]

Fuck it, King Candy/Turbo movie time stamps (According to Disney+)

First "Going Turbo" mention: 6:06

First King Candy Graffiti: 7:16

Second "Going Turbo" mention: 23:38

First Turbo Graffiti: 32:33

First King Candy appearance: 33:46

Castle Interrogation Scene: 37:38

Third "Going Turbo" mention: 38:27

Fourth "Going Turbo" mention: 45:31

Turbo Flashback: 45:36

Kart Bakery Scene: 52:04

Castle/Manipulating Code: 59:00

Ralph/King Candy Talk: 1:03:15

Deleting Vanellope's Code: 1:12:19

Final Race: 1:16:17

Turbo Reveal: 1:20:57

First Death: 1:21:50

King Candybug: 1:24:00

Second Death: 1:26:52

End Credits Cameo: 1:34:49

[chimerafeathers]

there's an essay jumbled up in my brain about dunmeshi's beginning and how clever and deceptive it is as a sleight-of-hand trick that distracts the audience from the depth and scope of the worldbuilding and foreshadowing that's being set up the entire time by dangling zany characters and wacky dishes and biology fun facts in front of us, and how that serves to catch invested viewers off guard when those elements come to the forefront, but also how it works against it with other viewers wanting "more" and not seeing it because the plot bait isn't laid out up front

how people getting frustrated with the characters "not taking things seriously" is mirrored and refuted in the confrontation between Laios and Shuro. how the characters' attitudes aren't just a result of shallow low-stakes "comedy rules" where nothing matters, but are an extension of their personalities (Laios's nonstandard expression of emotions being offputting even to people he knows) and the world and social environment (adventurers being desensitized to death and injury because resurrection magic is commonplace). the way the party refers to "saving Falin" instead of "retrieving Falin's corpse," indicating that they still see her with full personhood, and how that phrasing leads to some readers/viewers believing that Falin is alive in the dragon's stomach, conscious of being slowly digested while the party carelessly fucks around "wasting time." how the weird tonal dissonance makes sense in-universe and yet is deliberately challenged more and more the deeper the party goes

all the character building and pieces of lore slowly weaving together the shape of the larger world, laying the groundwork for the major themes that will surface later. so much is right there in the "low-stakes" early episodes if you know what you're looking for (or pass the perception checks).

it can be so satisfying to see new viewers/readers pick up on the clues even in the earliest "simple" episodes, or notice new things and make connections yourself....and it can also be frustrating to see people dismiss oddities and dissonance as shallow or bad writing because they don't expect a "cooking anime" to have depth like that. why try to question and understand and peel back the layers when you don't expect there to be any layers?

why can't laios take things seriously for once?

[quitealotofsodapop]

okay so, I was curious for something that’s been on my mind for a while….so, in slow boiled au, Wukong kills Mac because he was protecting his egg…my question is, What would have happened if Macaque did kill the egg?

I feel really bad for asking but it has been in my head for months.

Odds are; a version of the Century Egg Au (perhaps even happening within it).

Wukong exits the mountain with an Egg. An Egg that has a pretty high chance to kill him no matter the immortalities he's accumulated over the centuries. He's excited but terrified all at once.

Then the infamous fight between him and Macaque occurs, but unlike the other Egg aus... Macaque's strike at Wukong's stomach was true, or the stress of losing his mate was just too much for Wukong's body to handle. Because Wukong can handle a hit a or too - he's damn near indestructible and the Egg has magic of it's own, but what the Egg cannot handle is the mental and emotional anguish of it's parent. Stone Monkeys who are successfully revived from their stasis *do* often lose their Eggs as a means of ensuring the parent's continued survival - even if it means losing the last trace of their lost spouse.

Now suddenly there's no more Egg.

Wukong's body reabsorbs all the Dao the egg stored over the course of those years. He even experiences symptoms similar to what happened to Zhu Bajie and Tripitaka when they took the Spring Water in the Kingdom of Women.

He now knows that both the Egg and his Mate are Gone.

Wukong falls into a depression that takes decades for him to recover from. His Pilgrim brothers having no easy way to comfort him. Guanyin weeps for her adoptive son/brother as he sobs into their arms. Even the Ten Kings feel the Monkey King's sorrow from a Realm away - out of pity, Ksitigarbha ensures that the Egg's soul is kept safe for a time until when they may rejoin their parent.

DBK and PIF are informed of what happened, the two overwhelmingly sympathetic from their own losses. The birth of Red Son was the first light in Wukong's life for a long time after his tragedy. But he still fantasies of what sort of person his cub may have turned out to be if they had made it.

Then around 500 years before the present day, Wukong finally decides once and for all to take the initiative and bring his child back into the world - even if it means his own passing.

DBK's reaction to learning of his younger brother's intentions is... volcanic to say the least.

Wukong, already despairing the loss of his first child, his mate, and his Pilgrim brothers, now becomes responsible for the imprisonment of his older brother and the separation of his family. The very same people who got him through the toughest point of his life!

Informing Nezha that he intends on a "extended meditation" on his island, Wukong makes the preparations.

He wraps himself in Macaque's scarf before he buries himself into the dirt of Water Curtain Cave, only Nezha, PIF, and his dear Stalwarts privy to his location.

And he sleeps.

Until the reincarnated form of his dearest brothers find him.

[kingsnake101]

I had an idea for a FS/LU au a while back and wrote a little intro for it! Spoilers for Four swords adventures probably

Characters: Green, Red, Vio, Blue, Ganon

TWs: imprisonment, mind control, blood, injury

Green stared at the plain, lichen-stained bricks, counting them for what must have been the hundredth time. Anything to distract him from the sobbing boy curled up against his side. Green gave Red a half-hearted squeeze. He had given up on trying to cheer up his brother long ago. All he could offer now was a shoulder to cry on.

They had been appointed as smiths for Ganon's new kingdom. They were given two meals a day, a workshop, and two cots with megar blankets.

The second cot had barely been touched since they arrived. Although it was irrational, Green couldn't help but fear that his brother would disappear the moment they let go of each other. He knew Red felt the same.

“At least we have each other,” Green mused. Vio and Blue weren't that lucky. Neither of them had seen Blue since they were captured, and whenever Vio visited it wasn't really Vio. Thoughtful purple eyes were clouded over by an opaque red. Red still believed that Vio was in there, and maintained the hope that maybe, if he tried hard enough, he could break through the spell. Green knew better. Ganon was smart. If Vio was in there, he was buried deep. Their meager connection told him that Blue was upstairs somewhere, and absolutely furious most of the time. The times when he wasn't was when Green worried most.

Green had been mad at Link in the beginning. As time went on, however, he began to realize the futility of it all. Red didn't blame Link, because of course he wouldn't. Eventually, the anger faded and melted into the endless void of numb sorrow.

Red let out a few soft sniffles, having finally cried himself to sleep. Green sighed softly, shifting until he was able to lower Red onto the cot. He needed to finish an order of moblins spears. When he tried to stand, the hand on his arm tightened.

“D’nt leave…” Red mumbled, tears slipping down his cheeks. Green glanced to the workshop, then back to his brother. With a sigh, he lowered himself back onto the cot. Red was already back asleep by the time he brought the blanket over the both of them. Green would just have to finish the spears in the morning.

Late that night, something strange happened. A boy dressed in red shook his brother awake, pointing to a glowing portal in the middle of the workshop.

A boy in blue spat blood onto the arena sand, glaring up at his monstrous audience. Ganon only smiled cruelly, raising his hand to signal the next wave of monsters. The gate began to screech open.

The boy in blue braced himself, only to feel a rush of strange magic appear behind him. He spun to face it, snarl turning to shock when he came face to face with a divine portal. A grin split his bloody face. 

The boy wasted no time. His raised middle fingers lingered when he disappeared into the portal.

A boy in purple walked along empty halls, back straight and eyes glowing red. He carried a set of four identical swords. His eyes widened ever so slightly when the floor disappeared underneath him, and within seconds, he was gone. The portal winked out of existence after him.

Explanation: A few months after FSA (I'm basing this off the manga), Link got really lonely and depressed. In desperation, he pulled the four sword, thus releasing Ganon. Ganon kidnapped the colors and put them in the predicaments you see here. Shadow is dormant for now...

Let me know what you think! This won't become a full work, but I might post some snippets. Feel free to ask me any questions about it or write something in this universe! I think I'm going to call it Four Swords Revival AU.

[marciabrady]

here are some sleeping beauty plot points/general details that i love and i would love to see more discussion around

the story team did such an incredible job with fleshing out aurora while still making her feel true to the mythos from which she was derived. in every novelization i've ever read that predates the disney film, she's only ever given one line of dialogue (something like: "what is that thing that spins so merrily?") before falling asleep. disney took that same princess and successfully expanded her into a living, breathing dynamic human who is filled with everything- ethos, pathos, everything, but is also authentic to her origins. they also did a genius job at creating a basis for why love is so revered in this tale. true love conquers all, we're told, and it's indeed what keeps aurora safe from maleficent for all these years, as it's the one thing the evil fairy can't understand. yet, the fact that the princess grew up surrounded by the love from the three fairies, which instills that care in her heart, along with the fact that she grows up in isolation, so connected to the universe around her and allowing her to be introspective enough to observe the animals about her and draw a connection to the human condition and that of the consistencies of nature is so...deep and profound and develops her and makes her an evergreen character that will always represent people, for as long as we're around, because aurora's struggle is one that speaks to everyone. she isn't just some "lovesick princess" but a character that's growing up and longs to be able to find her soul's mate and to express the love in her heart in a universe where she was socially excluded and deprived of others outside of her three guardians. as humans are tribal creatures, social inclusion is one of the main pillars of wellbeing. so to take aurora, who is already an innately romantic person, and to deprive her of that just gives all the more reason why the kiss of true love really would revive her. she isn't just some princess who grows to be fifteen or sixteen, pricks her finger, and then is awakened by a prince she never meets. she is someone who was raised in love, grows up and wants to become a woman and share that love and express it with someone else. when she finds it, it's suddenly stripped from her and she's induced into a magic slumber that's meant to symbolize her transformation from girl to woman. then, she's awakened by the same love she'd thought she lost and it's just...the structure of it is genius and incredible and they retain all of the qualities about her in the fairytale and storytelling devices but they develop it so much further and round her out so well but still maintain a reverence to her source material instead of condemning it or outright changing it and i just LOVE

i don't think enough people realized that, it wasn't until maleficent visited prince phillip in the dungeon and showed him the vision of aurora in slumber repose that he knew that aurora and briar rose were one in the same!!! like this is the moment it all clicked for him and it gave him the drive and determination to slay the dragon in her honor. he realized the woman he loved and the princess he had been betrothed to were both one and that's so important and it's just such a plot twist that, again, was so genius of the writers. it proves to us that he loves her enough to leave the kingdom for her and risk damning the princess he had been betrothed to to the curse she was under and he'd take her as she is, even if it were a peasant, but also that his love is so steadfast and true that he'd defeat a dragon for her. 10/10 and it sooo runs along the vein of the lyric "visions are seldom all they seem." this is a plot twist done RIGHT but with so much sophistication that it tends to fly under most everyone's radar because it isn't like loud

something i love about the original princess movies is how the female characters are forever in the forefront, and the fact that this film opens with the celebration of the birth of a female child is something that's so special! instead of having to think about how female children weren't celebrated in that time, or it was a disappointment she hadn't been a son, or something of the like, the fact that the spotlight is on their daughter and the opening of the film continues this matriarchy, where all in the land praise this female birth, before the fairies are introduced as their most "honored and exalted excellencies." we need to see more worlds like this instead of pixar films where there's like not a single main female character lol

THE FACT THAT PHILLIP WAS WILLING TO GIVE UP THE THRONE AND THE KINGDOM "for some nobody" and told his dad flat out to his face without hesitating makes me love him soooo much?? he loves aurora for who she is, not just because she was a princess to whom he had been betrothed to his entire life, and this proves how genuine his love is. it also paints how progressive and open-minded phillip was, seeming to be the first that would ever break the tradition of princes marrying princesses and opening up his country for a new type of culture and reign. love me a freak like that

one of the biggest facets to aurora's character, and something that further develops her relationship to phillip, is how differently she reacts to her guardians when told of the betrothal. where phillip already knows, and is aware of the king and queen and how his duty is to marry their princess daughter, aurora is just finding out that she has living parents for the first time and the future of a nation rests on her shoulders. she discovers she's to be married to a prince and must give up her true love forever. again, before i hear anything about "she just met this man for two minutes in the woods, why is she crying," this is a fairytale with magic that's meant to be archetypical. in the narrative of the film, and in the universe of this world, phillip is her true love- and this is confirmed when it is his kiss that awakens her from the curse. so to leave the one true love who was meant for you, when that's all you ever wanted in the isolation you were raised in, to accept your duty and responsibility over parents you didn't even know you had and to assume the obligations of a nation you aren't even prepared for...it's astounding. aurora does everything right, she even leaves love behind for the good of her people and puts everyone above her own personal desires, and yet people still criticize her and say she's dependent on a man and all she cares about is love. meanwhile, phillip never receives any hate, and he's literally willing to give up the throne and the kingdom and start a war between two countries for the girl "he just met in the woods for two minutes" but he's one of the most beloved princes...it really just makes me think about how misogynistic our society still is, without even realizing it. aurora literally couldn't have done anything better, by our modern standards, but people still condemn her just because? this is definitely a discussion piece i want to hear more about and, in general, i think it would behoof us all to understand why aurora has been so demeaned culturally as a character when her actions, in and of themselves, are exactly what we say we want and would appeal to modern sensibilities

this is a slight sidenote but i always was tickled by merryweather proclaiming, if she had it her way, maleficent would be turned into a "fat old hop-toad." i always felt like this was a nod to the original tale from which this movie was based on, where a magical frog tells the queen that her wish to be with child shall soon be granted and that it, just generally, was a very clever easter egg/allusion

in this film, they have enough action and movement to appease the more restless demographic/traditionally "masculine" crowd, but i love how the basis of maleficent's defeat lies still in the femininity of the three good fairies. it's these elderly women that save phillip from the dungeon and arm him, not just with weapons that will kill another being and are predicated upon violence, but with symbolic weapons that are laced with truth and virtue. i think it really reminds us all how transformative these values are and how, in arming ourselves with them, we'll alone be able to navigate the road to true love (whether that be familial, platonic, or romantic love) which will be "barred by many more dangers" and how it enables us to have a sense of autonomy where we'll be able to overcome anything that's thrown our way while still retaining the core of who we are

i wrote about this moment previously, but to piggyback off of what i wrote about phillip just above...i love how aurora is the most competent human in this world? much has been said about how the plot of sleeping beauty is essentially the fairy worlds dueling with one another and, in that, many of the mortals are somewhat...inept, to put it for lack of a better term. king stefan is unable to protect his daughter with the burning of the spinning wheels, even with all the power he harnesses within his kingdom, and the fairies are quick to see his folly. prince phillip would still be rotting in the prison had the fairies not interjected, and he would be burned to a crisp had they not sprung a final chant of magic upon his, already, enchanted sword. yet, maleficent has to hypnotize aurora for the princess to even succumb to her plan and, even then, aurora is temporarily able to snap out of the magic hypnosis she's put under. i don't think people realize how powerful that is? yes, i understand it's a minor moment, but the hesitation and the ability to counter magic while remaining totally unarmed is something that reminds me why aurora is our main character, despite what anyone else might say.

going along with what i said above, while many are quick to point out aurora's lack of screentime, the film begins with her birth, the plot is sprung forth with every character wondering what they could do to protect her, then when she pricks her finger upon the spinning wheel, she and the entire kingdom are put to sleep. it isn't until she wakes up, that the entire kingdom does, too. she holds the key to this entire universe in a persephone like way and i just love how important it is in the narrative of the film to wake her up. she isn't just this beautiful creature who's valuable because she's pretty, because if that was the case, her being a lovely figure posed to perfection in her slumbering mode would be enough...but the people of her universe value her so much more when she's alive and active and being her own person, that it ensues a fairy war, practically. she's also involved in every single plot, even if she isn't physically present. this is her movie and no one can take that away from her. but, just to restate, the fact that there's so much emphasis in aurora being alive and well is something that's so important

so, it's kind of a given at this point that every princess can sing, but i think the role that music plays in sleeping beauty is the most meaningful and well done? sleeping beauty makes much to do about its classical score and it skillfully combines realistic characters and storylines (like the fairies not knowing how to cook and clean, phillip being captured with no way out, the kings toasting to the impending nuptials of their offspring before getting into a quarrel centered around a misunderstanding) with the fantastical world of fantasy and opera. by giving aurora the gift of song, the narrative is creating a framework that explains her relationship to her singing voice in a way that's even more profound than that of ariel's connection with her singing. it explains why aurora sings more than she speaks and ties in perfectly with the thematic style of the operatic presence in sleeping beauty, which is that in the opera, instead of speaking about it, you sing.

OK but this scene of hubert's/his general plotline and character motivation that results from this is genuinely perhaps the best comedy disney's ever done? hubert is coming off of declaring war upon his best friend stefan, because he misunderstood stefan's caring for his own daughter as a snub against hubert's son. after challenging aurora's father to a duel, they quickly make up, before hubert hears phillip has arrived and rushes off to greet his son. there, the news is broken that phillip is actually in love with a peasant and that he plans to renounce the throne- which will actually cause a war- so that he can be with his beloved. hubert is convinced phillip is joking, especially as he happens to meet this mystery maiden on the date that aurora is set to come home- the most anticipated date for these past sixteen years in the kingdom- and his son is set to be a central figure in the celebration for the princess's homecoming! before he can reason with phillip, his son escapes, leaving hubert to be the one to break the news to stefan. heavy-hearted, as hubert tries to tell stefan, he keeps being interrupted by trumpets and the musical notes that are meant to accompany the princess in her debut to her country. then the fairies literally put hubert to sleep when he finally gets a chance to explain it to stefan and, when they're awoken from this fog like slumber, the first vision that greets hubert is that of his son and the princess??? the same son who said he had no interest in aurora, but was set to marry the peasant maiden. the whole thing concludes in a very charming "all's well that ends well" but i still think the whole "how am i ever going to tell stefan" dilemma, while continually being interrupted, and this king who declared war in 2 seconds flat and minced no words in being so short-tempered was suddenly at a loss for words and so hesitant and fumbling and nervous about this news his son sprung on him lol

one of the most haunting sequences in film is the one above. the three good fairies have endeared themselves to their mortal charge, even giving up their magic for her for sixteen years. their bond is so much deeper and meaningful than it would've been otherwise, as they probably would've blessed her at the christening and then only appeared in her life intermittently, at a distance. they clearly aren't close enough to humans to know too much about their customs, and their magic always gives them away as outsiders, which indicates they were always content to live in their own fairy-world. but then they give it all up for this baby, this child, and they change their entire world for her. she is their world, to the point where their sole purpose is protecting her, until that's all they can think about for close to two decades. they would do anything they could to make her happy, to give her a fighting chance at life. they're so protective over her- and the fact that they got this close to the finish line...only to leave her alone because they want to be respectful of giving her privacy as she's still reeling and processing from all the news they sprung about her at once. they were even discussing going to king stefan and attempting to convince him to let aurora out of the arranged marriage so that she could be with the boy in the woods. and this all leads to maleficent enchanting aurora to her demise. as the fairies place her in a bed for the last time, looking upon her in her princess form, all of the time they've spent with her runs through their mind. how this isn't their little briar rose anymore, but a princess who inhabits, not the woodcutter's cottage, but king stefan's castle. someone who will never be with them the way she once was ever again and who, presently, is dead for all they know. as they look upon their lost daughter, the faint chimes and musical notes of the celebration of her homecoming is heard in the distance. i could talk about this forever but it's just such a heartbreaking and sad but also eerie mood

in 2023, it's time king stefan gets his flowers. while, in the time period in which this film is set, it'd be totally realistic for a father to set his daughter up in an arranged marriage to further the prospects of his land, stefan displays an understanding that seems more contemporary than his counterpart, hubert. hubert doesn't think about prince phillip's feelings for a beat and concedes that the "children" are bound to fall in love with one another. meanwhile, stefan seems to display a much more well-rounded paternal instinct, even exemplifying a degree of care and concern for both aurora's emotional wellbeing and her consent. he urges hubert to calm down and remember that this might come as "quite a shock" to aurora and to not push all of these political arrangements upon his daughter before she's had a chance to react to them and digest them.

the duality of briar rose and princess aurora is so fascinating, but also the moments in which they overlap is more enchanting still. this is a fairytale that is meant to be archetypical, and aurora's enchanted slumber is meant to be symbolic for her transition from girlhood to womanhood. briar rose, the girl, is anxious about her future, the prospect of meeting her love and settling down and getting to the next stage of her life. she loves her guardians, but is frustrated at their inability to see and treat her as anything other than a child. she goes to sleep a scared, shy, unsure teenager and wakes up as a self-assured, mature, gracious woman- the princess aurora. she's a vision, descending the staircase on the arm of her beloved, and she paints quite the picture as she gracefully curtsies to her parents, the king and queen. yet, true to the girl from the cottage, briar rose takes over. unable to contain the love she feels, she bolts forward and rushes to embraced her lost parents. i love this because, for as calm as a character as aurora is, i've always been so mesmerized by the breathless excitement with which she speaks when she returns to the cottage. this is a girl that has more love inside her than she can contain and it renders her a beacon of light. her running into the arms of her parents, instead of resenting them for giving her up, putting her in an arranged marriage, or even pausing to question whether or not she should be so warm with these figureheads of state, is such a tender moment that i don't think i've ever heard anyone speak of.

i will never get tired of singing the praises of the three good fairies. this film placed three older, conventionally unattractive women at the forefront- without pushing forced hetero ships on any of them- and allowed them to be bad ass (ie saving phillip from the dungeon, providing him with the tools and guidance with which to defeat maleficent, coming up with all the plots and actions that propelled the plot forward), while reminding us that love and kindness is truly the most powerful force on earth and placing an emphasis on the strength and power of femininity. the entire transition, from them being business women in the kingdom essentially (this is more in modern jargon; them being the fairies who are invited to political organizations for their contributions and not knowing anything about things like cooking or cleaning or rearing a child) to learning how to raise a baby and the film ending with them beaming over the shining achievement of their assigned charge finally being safe and happy is...it's everything. how beautifully the film focuses on them and the relationship with their adopted daughter and how that's the driving goal in all of this is something that's been unable to ever be surpassed

[ena-writes-stuff]

— diamonds, clubs, hearts and spades.

˒ ⌕ in a world of magic, the Kingdom of Diamonds' greed sparks a war. after millennia, the Queen of Clubs urges peace for her daughter, and the King agrees. fourteen years of peace follow, until a letter proposes a union, threatening the fragile harmony.

— warnings: female reader, use of his real name

— words count: 742

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

In ancient times, when the light danced in every fold of existence, the world was woven with the threads of magic and enchantment. Beneath the starry skies, the four Kingdoms flourished in harmony: Diamonds, Clubs, Hearts, and Spades, each a pillar of cosmic order, guided by human hands entrusted with the sacred task of preserving the balance and prosperity of nature.  

Yet, the ancestral peace was shattered when the golden caravels breached the shores, bringing with them the shadow of greed and avarice. Originating from distant lands, beyond the confines of the Sea of Night's Sighs, where the stars bent to whisper long-forgotten secrets, the vessels of the Kingdom of Diamonds advanced, propelled by insatiable desires for wealth and power.  

Driven by an insatiable longing for material possessions, for the fleeting sparkle of gold, and for the promise of boundless conquests, the King of Diamonds defied the limits of the known. Ignoring the teachings of the wise and the warnings of the stars, he coveted the magic once devoutly guarded by the sages and wizards of the Kingdom of Clubs. Greed, like a voracious flame, consumed his reason, causing him to forget the ancestral bonds that united the Kingdoms. Driven by his boundless ambition, he challenged celestial balances, defied the very gods themselves. And thus, the shadow of conflict stretched over the lands, threatening to unleash a storm that could forever sweep away the fabric of reality as it was known.

For countless eons, the world bowed before the primordial sources of magic, flowing from the four natural elements, and only the sons and daughters blessed by the magical Kingdom of Clubs could raise their wands and conjure the winds of destiny. Yet, in a moment of alchemy, a flash of understanding was born, a rainbow woven of mysteries that challenged the very laws of nature. Thus, the war between the Kingdoms took shape, a symphony of thunder and lightning, where the Realms of Clubs and Spades marched united, defending the sanctity of nature and the magical creatures that began to shrink under the hungry gaze of humans. Meanwhile, in the South, the kings and alchemists led an army thirsty for the right to manipulate magic, an art that only unfolded when the life force of creatures was extracted.  

Millennia passed since the first spark of discord was ignited on the border between the Lands. The war now dragged on like a wounded dragon, its flames weakened as the hills between the realms grew taller, rising like guardians of forgotten peace. In the shadows of the stone castles, the alchemists wove webs of mysteries, their cauldrons boiling with forbidden promises, while the mist of the unknown enveloped the destinies of the realms.

At the height of the winter solstice, when the snowflakes danced around the castle like magical beings, an aura of enchantment enveloped the atmosphere. The word "peace" echoed through the ancestral corridors, a melody long forgotten but now revived with the promise of a new beginning. The Queen of Clubs, a legendary figure whose courage rivaled the very light of the stars, lay upon her bed, marked by the scars of countless battles. Her weary yet determined gaze fell upon her only daughter, an eleven-year-old whose fate was intertwined with the threads of destiny, written in blood and mystery. She knew her final moments on earth were near and summoned the King, her beloved, to her side.  

In a final sigh, she pleaded that the future no longer be decided by the edge of the sword, but rather by hope and compassion. She urged the King to ensure the happiness of the young heiress and to seal the peace between the realms. With tears in his eyes and a heavy heart weighed down by impending loss, the King granted the beloved Queen's final wish. And so, in reverence to her memory and driven by the fervent desire to prevent further bloodshed, the King ordered the withdrawal of troops from the borders. For fourteen consecutive solstices, the world they knew lived in harmony, as if embraced by an aura of tranquility long forgotten.  

Then, on a morning bathed in the glow of the aurora borealis, a mysterious letter arrived in the Diamonds Lands, brought by a messenger raven that flew with a majesty befitting of legends. Sealed with the royal emblem, the letter carried with it a proposal for lasting peace: the union of the heirs of the Diamonds and Clubs realms. It was a symbol of an end to hostilities and the promise of a future where the shadows of war would never again loom over the land.

That’s how our story begins.

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

— next chapter.

[bokettochild]

hello! I have an ask for you! I’ve seen a post or two of yours mention that four ends up corrupted and was curious if this is a head cannon and what it’s based on! I don’t know much about four at all, so I’d love more background on his cannon and what your head cannons for him are!

Alright, so this is somewhat founded in canon, but the long of the short is this.

Nintendo released a GameBoy copy of A Link To The Past that was packaged with LoZ: Four Swords. In this special edition of the game there was a bonus addition to ALTTP. In the dark world, at Ganon's Pyramid, there was a small hole in the wall of the pyramid that hadn't been there in the initial release. If you'd already completed Four Swords, you could enter this hole in the wall which would take you to a bonus dungeon: The Palace of the Four Sword

In this dungeon, Link (Legend) must face off against four hero look-a-likes as the bosses in different rooms, before reaching the main chamber where he faces off against all four together.

Because it's called the Palace of The Four Sword, some fans believe that the four beings within are, in fact, the Four Sword heroes. How would that happen though? Why would the hero still be alive almost a thousand years after his time? Why would he attack the new baby hero who stumbled across him?

A couple of theories include:

The Hero of the Four Sword (from here on he will be called "Four") died some time after his adventures and was buried in a crypt beneath Hyrule Castle as an honor for his service to the kingdom. Ganon's power animated Four's corpse, and when a young hero stumbled into the crypt through the Dark World, the demon used Four as his puppet to try and get rid of the hero.

After his adventures, Four decided to try and find a way to revive Shadow. This led to meddling with dark magics and becoming corrupted, forcing princess Zelda to seal him away. Because he's her dear friend (or lover, depends on the writer) she can't make herself kill him, but rather locks him away until she can find out how to rescue him. Corruption of his soul prevents him aging, so that when, a thousand years later, Legend stumbles across him, he's the same as he was the day his experiment failed and he became corrupted.

The beings within the Palace of the Four Sword are not Four, but rather the spirit of the damaged sword lashing out to protect their blade. Because he forged it, and was their only user, they maintained a similar form to his own.

Hope this helps!

[graveyardzhift]

since i’m actually thinking about it today, i’m gonna talk about my very not-canon-compliant fake Mario & Luigi fangame

LINK TO THE CARRD WITH MORE INFO AND ART!!!

it’s viewed better on pc but im not stopping you

yea i know what you’re thinking and i PROMISE THERE IS A REASON FOR MAGICALLY BRINGING BACK ALL OF THE VILLAINS (it’s also because i miss them but there is a legit reason)

here’s where it gets long, so if you hate reading:

TL;DR, Alien kingdom is destroyed except for the king (King Galivus), his daughter (Princess Europa) and the royal advisor (Obriel). Galivus is separated from the two and doesn’t actually know they’re alive. The king speedruns thru like 4 stages of grief but he can’t accept this so he wants to rebuild his entire kingdom DIRECTLY on top of the Mushroom Kingdom.

oh and he’s only there in the first place because to rebuild his kingdom he needs dark energy and magic which he gets from reanimating the previous m&l villains since their souls are a potent source of dark magic. he promises them a new and better world (and a second chance at fighting the Mario Bros.) but in the end he’s only going to use them for their power to get back his family and his subjects and then discard them

bowser is the only one that isnt coerced into king galivus’ bullshit so he the bros team up with the princess of voidspell to stop her dad from destroying the world yadda yadda

yeah, that was the tldr now get ready for the big guns (longer and more detailed version)

King Galivus (new guy beside Fawful in the image) was once the noble king of a distant kingdom out in space, the Voidspell Kingdom. That is, until it was destroyed by a rogue Starswallower; colossal space wyrms closely related to Blarggs that are thought of as deities across the galaxy. Galivus was thought to be the only survivor, and so he reluctantly fled through a portal before he could be caught in the falling debris. This coincidentally led him all the way across space to— you guessed it— the Mushroom Kingdom.

Before he arrived, Galivus rashly decided that he would bring back his fallen kingdom at any cost. For that, he would need a tremendous amount of dark energy. Which is why he headed directly to the Mushroom Kingdom— he had picked up on such a powerful energy signal, and a dark one at that. It was clear, this was the place to rebuild. The energy signal is actually remnants of Mario’s past foes, Cackletta, Fawful, The Shroob Princesses, and Antasma. Their very souls are brewing with dark energy, a perfect source of power. With all this magic combined, it would be enough to rebuild the entirety of Voidspell AND bring back Galivus’ loved ones.

So, he does the sensible thing, and uses his Twisted Staff to revive each villain. Some are reluctant to go along with his scheme, and others are ecstatic to be alive/in working order again and will gladly go along with Galivus’ plan. In exchange for their cooperation, he promises a nice little spot for them in his new world… and another chance at exacting their revenge on the Mario Bros.

What Galivus wasn’t aware of, was that there were two other survivors; the royal advisor and the princess of Voidspell, Galivus’ own daughter. They had escaped to the Mushroom Kingdom in a separate portal, out of Galivus’ reach. The queen and the rest of the castle’s inhabitants had been lost, but with Princess Europa alive, there was a chance at bringing Galivus back down to earth and stopping his selfish acts. She and the royal advisor, Obriel, seek out Mario and Luigi to help stop Galivus from destroying the Mushroom kingdom, its neighboring countries, and possibly the entire planet.

Also, Queen Jaydes certainly isn’t happy about Cackletta (and the rest of the villains, but mostly her cuz she’s died like two times now) being let off the hook so easily. Her and the bean witch definitely still have beef with each other.

There’s probably a lot that I missed or haven’t written down yet, but that’s most of it!! If you’ve taken the time to read all that, i love you <3 HAHAHA

[ganondoodle]

Hi! Big fan of your work and I love evil Rauru, now I'm curious what would Mineru & Sonias' role be in this rewrite? Like "Dam, my husbands a fuckin madman..."

Hi!! thank you!!

so .... as of now mineru basically doesnt exist (im sorry) and sonia only has a little somewhat appearance

theres no time travel in my rewrite (both the first one and new one) and with the new version that works with villain rauru there are no flashbacks aside possibly some illusions rauru shows you to tell you just how great it was before bad bad ganondorf showed up (so .. kinda like in canon but with the direct contrast of him telling you a verrrrrryyyy one sided perspecitve vs what you later learn)

so i considered having rauru mention that he had a beautiful perfect wife back in the day and ganondorf murdered her for her stone (unsure yet if hes telling more or less the truth or if its another lie ... i dont want to make him too one note evil either bc whats the point then) and perhaps, before the final confrontation, the true end fight against rauru have her appear

it being on the great plateau where he builds his castle towards the end of your quest- which is sort of a dungeon- and just before you are going into the final room you might encounter sonia ....... s puppet really, like an apparition rauru made of her as part of his plan to revive his old glorious kingdom but not able to literally revive the dead, her greeting you and asking if youd like an audience with king rauru- but in an unsettling way, robotic, always smiling and super nice, oblivious to what you had to fight through just to get here (or alternatively .. she greets you at the start and begins to lead you in until zelda tries to talk to her about what raurus doing thinking she might just be real, but since its just a magic trick of rauru she turns on you and throws you into the dungeon, quite literally, as soon as its clear you/zelda intent to stop him)

i feel a little bad about it but as of now i dont know how to make use of them, i want to keep the past as much of a mystery as i can while still have it all make sense, i want it to be about saving the world as you know it, which is different from the past, very different, but not different in a bad way, and the idea of there being only light with no shadow being bad bc a balance is needed

[xjulixred45x]

I was working on the requests but I remembered a conversation I had with my sister the other day about an interesting topic,

How Nakaba WASTED THE GOLDEN OPORTUNITY of using Morgana Le Fay as the VILLAIN of 4kota(Even if it's cliché)

and it could have been implemented much earlier!! After all, in the Arthurian legends, Morgana is Arthur's half-sister, she could have participated in NNT as an ally who little by little went to the dark side (like Cassandra from Tangled but without a happy ending).

Imagine this, Morgana was just born to Uther Pendragon, having a great ability for magic, but he decided that she could not inherit his throne for x or y reason (being a woman, some profession, being a daughter out of wedlock) and sent her away to Avalon, where She lives her entire life away from her father's influence, but with great resentment towards him for having pushed her away (maybe even killing her mother too?) so she hones her magic with the fairies and wizards of Avalon.

So time passes and Morgana becomes a very strong magician, but she learns from others that her younger half-brother, Arthur, has just pulled the sword from the stone, and that he will be crowned king of Camelot.

NOW, Morgana would like to believe that her hatred is only reserved for Uther, so she goes to Camelot as soon as possible and the whole way she doesn't stop thinking about all this: how long has it been since she went to Camelot? What is her younger brother like? Is he like his-their- father? Although in general I think that Morgana did not want Arthur to be alone running the kingdom, whatever it was, he was her brother after all.

I think Arthur wouldn't even know he had a sister until shortly before Morgana arrived, like "oh by the way, your sister is coming to visit, your half-sister from the king" and Arthur would obviously be nervous about Morgana rejecting him but VERY EXCITED once he hears that she is a powerful mage.

And when do they meet? It's like putting a black cat with an orange cat, but surprisingly they would get along, at first.

Arthur would take Morgana as an advisory figure as she was more in contact with the political environment and helped him adapt to the royal environment, they shared tricks for fights, etc. Everything seems to be going smoothly, they both get along well.

Arthur has a STABLE and loving figure who is willing to teach him and be a family figure at the same time. and Morgana has someone who listens to her and makes her feel important.

but during the series the problems begin.

As the series progresses and Arthur becomes stronger and more mature, Morgana feels that the hatred she had towards Uther is no longer enough, as she begins to doubt whether or not she should love Arthur as HE is her replacement for a "proper heir", yes, she knows that's fucked up to think like that, but on the other hand, is it really wrong if it's your birthright?

and Morgana may have had these moments of weakness where she questioned her recently found platonic love for Arthur and her former bitterness with the Pendragons, having her ups and downs.

She loves Arthur, but she's also very recent about what her father did, and she's trying SO hard not to let it affect him.

But that's not the only thing that pushes her to the limit.

Let's say when the holy war begins, Morgana has a thousand and one doubts about her place in the world and then Arthur DIES.

and what's worse! When he revives, she realizes what Merlin wants to do with him.

(It would be especially horrible if Morgana and Merlin end up having a relationship as friends or as a pupil and teacher themselves).

Morgana pleads, BEGGS, Arthur not to trust what Merlin tells him, that what she wants him to do will not be for the greater good, but for her own benefit and Arthur is confused.

On one hand he wants to believe that after everything he's been through with Morgana she wouldn't lie to him, but Merlin is the closest thing he has to a mother...and the baby is very confused about what to do.

and here two possible endings and how Morgana reappeared in 4Kota:

1- STICKED TO THE CANON:

Arthur ends up bringing chaos, realizing that Morgana was telling the truth, Camelot is destroyed (maybe even Avalon too?) and that makes Morgana lose faith in wanting to help Arthur and the deadly sins, since THEY were the ones who brought that destruction to HIS HOME, and decides to do what has to be done.

which means that a plot begins against the Monarchies, especially against Liones and the Demonic kingdom, seeing them as the main causes of the destruction of Camelot (Meliodas and Zeldris), at the same time that he would try by all means to usurp Arthur's throne. . Even if he tries to make her reconsider.

(good alternative, Sunshine Arthur with wife Guinevere but that has some congruence in the canonical story, but I have a better one:)

2: FUCK THE CANON

Morgana applies a Cassandra from Tangled and obtains chaos instead of Arthur, becoming an antagonist who, although she helps defeat the demon king and so on, at the end of the conflict becomes a full-fledged villain.

having been devalued and pushed aside her entire life NOW even by her brother, and finally having the power to have what rightfully belongs to her makes Morgana very power-hungry. At the same time, Arthur would be having a lot of regret for not having believed his sister at the time and wants to redeem her, but it is difficult when Morgana begins her sale to all those who do not follow her to her "new Camelot."

Arthur here would not have Chaos but he would have Escalibur, which would be his advantage against Morgana in a certain way. although she is working on a "bastard sword" to change that.

Arthur is still a cinnamon roll, only with trauma and above all WITHOUT THE CHAOS, so he thinks things through better and is not corrupted.

Morgana, on the other hand, suffers a great mental decline due to Chaos, but she disguises it under the face of a smiling Queen.

Can you imagine if she created a Mordred from Chaos? ☠️ she says he is her son but trains him so that he can face Arthur and win the crown for her (because Morgana knows she couldn't handle all the allies Arthur has in this reality).

or she just wants to make Mordred do her dirty work because deep down she still loves his little brother...

(it would be especially creepy if said Mordred is similar in appearance to both her and Arthur ☠️ as if she wants a child, but also a version of Arthur that if he had listened to her and joined her...)

anyway...what do you think?

regardless of that, FUCK YOU NAKABAAAAAA!!

[junosmindpalace]

Hey please may I ask for dr.stone Gen and Hyoga with a s/o who got badly injured, then being protective perhaps ❣️

thank you for your request! manga spoilers for hyoga’s part- i hope that’s alright!

warnings: blood, stabbing

Though impressed by Gen’s betrayal of the Tsukasa Empire, Hyoga wouldn't allow him to get away with it. He needed to be reminded of the might they had, that they were no fools.

And so when he remembers a comment Gen had made about a certain villager when reporting back to the Tsukasa Empire, he immediately knows how he wants to deliver that reminder.

As if the situation couldn’t have gotten any worse with Hyoga’s attack on the Kingdom of Science, he revealed that his ambush was merely a distraction as his right hand Homura set fire to Ishigami Village. To deal the final blow on not only the double crosser himself but the rest of the villagers, Hyoga caught you when you were off guard staring in horror at the sight of your home being burned down and stabbed you with his spear. As the others dealt with fending off Homura, Hyoga and his men, Gen and the other villagers stayed behind to help tend to your massive stab wound. Suika had run off in an effort to lure the group away from the village, giving the villagers the opportunity to take care of you without having to be on guard. Senku called out some instructions to Gen on how to help with your wound until he got back before running off after Suika with Kohaku. Through shaky hands, Gen immediately got to work. 

He was relieved when Senku later did a proper assessment of your condition and assured him that you’d eventually recover. Though horribly wounded, your condition was similar to Gen’s from when he’d been stabbed. 

Gen knew better than anyone the pain you were in, being victim of one of Hyoga’s spear assaults himself. It was tremendous, and you were weak in every sense. Just watching you in your frail state made all those feelings wash over him again, and his guilt was just as immense.  

He watches you throughout your entire recovery. When you manage to feel well enough to talk, he talks your ear off. He tries to take your mind off your inability to move and redirect your focus to more lighthearted matters, whether it be the Kingdom of Science’s progress in creating cell phones or his magic tricks. Gen’s company helped you pass the time instead of spending it basking in your agony. 

When you’re entirely healed, he teaches you some of his own tricks to self defense, such as his fake blood bags, to help keep you even the slightest bit safer in the future. He’s nervous to have you involved in any battles after that, especially against the Tsukasa Empire, but he knows it's unavoidable and that you’ll want to fight. So though he can’t physically protect you himself, he does what he can to keep you safe in the ways he knows how. 

In future conflicts, despite his fear, he still puts a protective arm in front of you and tries at all cost to manipulate the battle away from you, so you could stay clear of danger for as long as he could control it.

The Kingdom of Science was backed into a corner- or so the enemy thought. It just so happened that Senku purposely chose the room Hyoga was being held in on the Perseus, and he just so happened to have the last remainder of revival fluid to use on him. Being in the tricky situation they were in, Senku was left with no other option. 

As Hyoga emerged from his stone stature and took hold of Kinro’s spear, he surveyed his new surroundings. He quickly understood the dilemma the Kingdom of Science faced and searched for you within the panicked group. His eyes landed on yours, shocked and doubtful, with the slightest sliver of guilt. From the very beginning you had sided with Senku, disgusted over your friend’s cruel vision for the new world and what he was willing to do to bring it to fruition. Having to help take down someone you were so close to hurt your heart, but for the sake of others, you did what had to be done. On the surface, it was as if Hyoga had no room in his seemingly miniscule heart for you anymore, but your dedication was true and your means of protecting others impressive. 

Which is why when he was torn between siding with Moz or the Kingdom of Science, his eyes settled on you almost tauntingly, cold steel gaze pinning a sort of blame on you. 

But then his eyes trailed downward.

You were hunched over and holding your shoulder with your opposite hand, blood seeping down your arm and all over your fingers and the palm of your hand. You looked tired, presumably from the excessive loss of blood and the need to keep moving in order to stay safe. Yet you stood with your friends once again, not letting yourself submit to Moz’s wrath. 

And so Hyoga lunged forward with the golden spear toward Moz, and a fierce battle between the two spearsmen ensued. Senku’s risky “wild card” paid off in the end, as Hyoga was eventually able to bring Moz to his knees and force him to surrender.

His strength and skill is just as admirable as ever, was your final thought before the loss of blood caused you to pass out near the end of the battle. 

When you woke, you were met with the sound of incoherent talking and the familiar walls of the Perseus bunker. You slowly blinked as your eyes adjusted to the sight of Senku and Hyoga talking over your body, serious looks etched into their faces and tones as you started to comprehend their words.

“...no longer has any affiliation with me. Even then, your Kingdom of Science wouldn’t resort to such violent means.”

“And we have no way of knowing you won’t do the same.”

“I see aiding you in your battle was a mistake.”

As you shifted in your bed, both pairs of eyes snapped toward you in surprise. Hyoga’s eyes widened at the same time Senku smirked. “Good morning, sleeping beauty. Feeling well rested?” 

You yelped as you attempted to prop yourself up on your injured arm, and Hyoga quickly forced you back to lie down. “Think before you act, you fool.” 

His sharp gaze returned to Senku as he narrowed his eyes. “I will look over Y/N alongside you. Whether I have your permission or not doesn’t matter to me.”

Senku shrugged. “I have no problem with that so long as you’re serious.” 

An agreement was reached. Hyoga would take over Senku’s place in monitoring your recovery in order for Senku to focus on the next steps the Kingdom of Science should take. Like that, Hyoga had joined the Kingdom of Science. 

You did a lot of catching up while under his care. What had you been doing while he was petrified? What was the Kingdom of Science working toward now? What other injuries had you sustained? Why the hell weren’t you more careful? There was a conflicting mix between care and resentment in his questions and comments, the contrast between each putting you on edge. You didn’t know exactly where you stood with Hyoga, and his dual responses made it difficult to deduct where he stood on the matter.

It had to be somewhere neutral, because why else would he be so insistent on looking out for you? Why would he constantly put you down for your mistake if there wasn’t some part of him that still cared about you? Why was he so quick to shield you from the other members of the Kingdom of Science? Why did his eyes hold such strong resentment when you told him of the way Moz hurt you? 

In a strange way, you almost felt the need to thank Moz, because you were able to reunite with an old friend and rekindle feelings of something more.

[sugar-coated-prat-dragon]

Title: Lords of Northumbria and Wessex swore allegiance to Uther 🛡️

Interesting note: Northumbria and Wessex are both located outside of Camelot.

Nevertheless, Wessex’s second son Grimond and Eldred's fourth son, Richard, are all eligible to be knights of Camelot because of their families allegiance. 📝

Episode: "Lancelot" questions #2

Questions by @tansyuduri

Tagging: @miyriu

Books used for reference: Merlin Villians Guide, Merlin Complete Guide, A Fighting Chance, Valiant and The Traitor Within

Question: If Uther created the knights of Camelot? What was there previously when he conquered the kingdom?

My answer: We know Uther took the kingdom through conquest and made himself king by conquering all his opponents, all without knights.

So it’s possible that Camelot originally had mercenaries (like Cenred’s kingdom employs), and that once he conquered the Citidal, he created the knights in order to put the only people he trusted in a position of power… the nobles.

The First Code of Camelot was created to ensure that only noble families could serve as knights and those families were the ones who had sworn allegiance to him.

So the existence of that code hints strongly that Uther conquered the kingdom with the help of the noble families and then afterwards he granted them the opportunity to be knights.

… Or at least that’s the option that makes the most sense to me given the existence of the “First Code of Camelot” and Uther’s mistrust of anyone but nobles.

Book description:

Uther did not inherit the throne, but made himself king by conquering all his opponents.

- The first stage of her plan had been achieved. For the first time in three hundred years the Knights of Medhir had been woken. The final downfall of Uther Pendragon had begun.

- UTHER CONQUERS: Into this land came Uther Pendragon, who made himself king through conquest and took the citadel of Camelot as his royal palace. He set about bringing order to the land. Magic was tolerated - after all, it had always been part of the world; who could imagine a land without sorcery?

- NOBILITY:

To Uther, only nobles have any worth.

Those of lesser rank may become well regarded - Gaius, for example - but their fortune is entirely dependent on the king's whims.

Question: What about the Knights of Medhir?

Were the Knights of Camalot disbanded or something following the abuses of the Knights of Medhir?

My answer: The Knights of Medhir existed three centuries before Uther's reign.

So I don’t think what happened to these particular seven noblemen, played any part in why Camelot didn’t have any knights at the time Uther conquered it.

Morgause also mentions in “The Traitor Within” book, that for the first time in three hundred years, the Knights of Medhir have been awoken.

Book description:

Three centuries before Uther's reign, seven noble knights were seduced by a sorcerer and became a terrible force that swept through the land, bringing death and destruction.

When the sorcerer was defeated, the knights became statues in the Fortress of Idirsholas, and there they stayed silent and still until they were revived by Morgause.

- For the first time in three hundred years the Knights of Medhir had been woken. The final downfall of Uther Pendragon had begun.

Question: Does this mean every Camelot knight we see comes from Camelot nobility?

Does this mean Camelot owns some part of Western Isles (Valiant’s heraldry implied Ireland, so Camalot owns part of Ireland?)

Or can it be from any nobility? Even if it's not sworn to him? And Northumbria mentioned later is also Camelot but there are still other kingdoms?

My answer: No. Every knight of Camelot does not need to come from Camelot nobility.

Both Northumberland and Wessex are outside of Camelot, but their lords and the sons of those families are eligible to be knights.

Lord Wessex has pledged allegiance to King Uther and so has Lord Eldred of Northumberland (despite living outside Camelot; given how they are listed in the official guide on the “Outside Camelot” page)

Their families loyalty makes Wessex’s second son Grimond, eligible to be a knight of Camelot and so is Eldred's fourth son, Richard,

WESSEX - lord with allegiance to Uther

Merlin chose Northumbria for the forged seal of nobility, because it was a long way away, and as far as he knew, there were none of Eldred's relations in Camelot.

2. Western Isles is listed on the “Outside Camelot” page, so it’s definitely not part of the kingdom and on the map, it’s actually located seemingly on the outside of Caerleon’s borders.

The Isle of the Blessed, Forest of Balor, Ealdor and The Western Isles are all outside of Camelot’s borders.

Book description:

He paused at the colourful crest for Richard, fourth son of Lord Eldred of Northumbria.

Well, Northumbria was a long way away, and there were none of Eldred's relations in Camelot as far as he knew.

OUTSIDE CAMELOT…

NORTHUMBERLAND

Lord Eldred of Northumberland has sworn loyalty to Uther, and his sons are therefore eligible to become knights of Camelot.

Lancelot masquerades as Eldred's fifth son - but Uther is aware that Eldred's fourth son, Richard, was his last.

WESSEX

The lord of Wessex has also given his allegiance to Uther.

However his second son, Grimond, failed a trial to join the knights of Camelot.

[saph-writes]

A Crumpled Red String Laced Around Our Throats - Chapter 1

ao3 link:

Summary:

How does fate work in a world where your soulmate is decided from birth, and marked on your skin as a symbol of your humanity? Where your magic is derived from it? Your status?

What happens when it gets taken away from you?

Kunigami was faced with this dilemma when he became a monster at the young age of just 7 years old, after dying twice and losing not only his soulmark, but his humanity. Forced to keep living in a world that wanted him nothing more than dead, he thought he had lost all connection to this life. 

That is until one day when he stumbles across the garden of the kingdom’s castle, and meets the young prince, Chigiri Hyoma, who greets him with a radiant smile he never thought would be given to someone like him. As they meet in secret, away from the society riddled with suffocating expectations of who they are meant to be, they begin to grow closer. Closer in a way that defies everything they had ever been taught, until they are forced to confront what their fate utimately means to them.

Words: 5563

Chapter: 2, 3. 4, 5

In a kingdom where its population consisted of townsfolk watching their every step and its forests stood brimming with monsters, where paranoia and folklore had already taken root, a little boy screamed in anguish. 

His cries drowned itself in desperation, deep and hoarse and broken at its edges. Torn skin and bitemarks splattered his neck, arms, legs, but all the boy wished for and all he violently screamed for were his family to come to his rescue. 

He called for his mom, his dad, his sisters, anyone who could see him at all. He wished for a miracle; perhaps the arms of God that could sweep him up and cradle him to sleep, to soothe and dull the ache. But no matter how much he breathed in for another scream, a strike of pain consistently pierced his heart. “Help me!” He cried. His arms grew weak as it became drained. A pool had long since formed under him. “Please…” 

~

Kunigami Rensuke died at the age of 7. 

When he opened his eyes, his entire body ached. He could hardly breathe and his legs were too weak to hold him up. But when he looked around, the animal from before was nowhere in sight.  

He looked at his hands and arms. To his surprise, his gashes and wounds were gone. He lifted his shirt, and while it was still ripped and bloodied, the skin underneath remained unbroken. His heart pounded in his ears and it made him wonder if his old heart had been torn out to be replaced anew. Even his breaths felt heavy and different 

Yet the relief of feeling his breathing and heartbeat remained short lived, as his inspection arrived at his legs and feet. And upon examining them, he made a startling realization. 

He rubbed his ankle, hoping there was just dirt covering it up. He wiped saliva, rubbed his eyes, looked around the entire circumference, but nothing. 

He stared in disbelief. His lungs took heavy breaths. His eyes glanced at his shaking hand, but when it tried to channel his energy to it, nothing happened. 

He no longer had any magic. 

Kunigami Rensuke died at the age of 7, and lost his soulmate mark in exchange for his revival. 

Although, to most, he may as well have stayed dead.

For the next couple of days, the young boy wandered the forest on his own. He spent a majority of it yelling for his parents, his mom and dad who always pushed him to be strong-willed, for his sisters, who taught him the beauty of the world. He’d keep these lessons constantly in his mind in an attempt to pretend he wasn’t alone. 

When he wasn’t yelling for help until his voice became hoarse, he was trying his best to stay alive. Stumbling upon a few berries reminded him of when his older sister showed him which wild fruits were dangerous and which were safe to eat, before his parents came to pull them away from the forest line. He touched the moist surface, its variety of colors, before grabbing one and biting a small part off. He chewed slowly with the berry held close against his chest. 

Glancing at a squirrel reminded him of the weapons his dad showed him how to make. From memory alone, he constructed them all. And yet every time he approached a small animal with these handmade weapons, nothing could bring him to raise it over their small, innocent bodies. He stayed there, watching them perk up and notice him before they would run away, with his small wooden spear in hand as he crumbled down in tears and hunger.

He assembled a shelter by recollecting what he remembered when he helped his parents rebuild a neighbor’s house, after it had been attacked. Standing in the poorly put together wooden sticks and roof made out of a particularly dense branch almost reminded him of home. For the first time since he died, he’d smile at this thought. 

Kunigami was a strong but pure-hearted boy. Throughout his entire time staying in the forest, he never harmed another soul, not even a small animal. After all, they were both trying to survive the dangers that exist within the wild forest. 

He knew this well, and it was this fear that kept his adrenaline up, to the point he could hardly sleep at night. 

What scared him about the forest and what made him so desperate to leave wasn’t the other wild animals that lurked inside it, like the one that had killed him, but something much larger and more beastly. Something that haunted the dreams of every townsperson living in the kingdom of Belushi.

“Rensuke, Aiko! Don’t go over there!”

Rumored to be 5x the average human height, with the wolf-like movements, and a warped disgusting body. 

“But Mom! I was showing Rensuke the berries-”

“I don’t want to hear it, come on, go back inside. Do you know what could’ve happened to you if you two went in there?!”

~

“Never go into the forest.”

~

“What lurks inside there….”

And upon the 5th night Kunigami would return to his shelter..

“..Are beasts beyond any of your wildest dreams.”

He came face-to-face with his worst fear imaginable. 

A monster. 

As soon as that thought hit him, Kunigami fell back to the ground. All of a sudden, his legs grew weak, and his arms trembled so violently they hardly held him up. 

Right beside his poorly made shelter, turned away from him and looming over at a height that blocked out the entire right side of the forest from his vision, stood a sludge-like beast the color of a muddish green. Its head turned, where Kunigami could see its grotesque mouth and pitch-black eyes. Its body heaved like it was in pain and dripped to the ground.

And it wasn’t until they locked eyes that Kunigami noticed the splotches of dark red all over its face. Its indifferent, emotionless face. 

Every story he’s ever heard from his family, his neighbors, the royal soldiers, played back again in his head and the true terror of his situation settled in him like a sword piercing his stomach. This new heart pounded like blood was already gushing out to the ground. 

He wanted to scream, but nothing came out. He could barely feel his surroundings, feeling a jolt of surprise when he felt himself hit a tree behind him. The beast, all the while, had no reaction. It simply stared. Kunigami couldn’t tell if its movement closer to him was the beast’s doing or his own shaking eyes deceiving him. The monster tilted its head. The gaping holes on its face grew several sizes. 

Then it moved rapidly towards him.

His mouth finally opened and the first thing it let out was a blood-curdling scream that remembered the exploding pain the boy felt when he first died. It remembered it so clearly that Kunigami truly believed he did die again. His body thrashed with a panic as if it was sucking in his few last breaths. His eyes closed to brace for the end of it all. It was ready to accept the final moments of his life he spent completely isolated and alone, yelling for everyone who never came. 

But that moment never happened. 

When Kunigami opened his eyes, the beast was gone. Just like the first time. However, unlike before, he wasn’t alone. 

“Are you okay? What are you doing out here?” 

In front of him, crouched down and holding his face, was a lady blocking out the barely rising moon in front of the purple sky. Weak light rimmed her short hair and face, which was soft with concern and care. Kunigami had never seen a face so comforting come outside of his family, much less the past few days. 

The lady pressed on, rubbing off the dirt on his face. “Where are your parents? Do you have a brother, or sister near?” She spoke innocently and carefully, but unbeknownst to her, that was the cruelest thing she could’ve said. The young 7-year old Kunigami, for the first time since he died, found tears streaming down his face. 

Desperate for the newfound warmth, he hugged her tightly. The lady jolted slightly in surprise, but carefully, as understanding dawned on her, she wrapped her arms around him.

Kunigami choked on his tears as he attempted to sputter out coherent words. Snot dribbled down his chin. “There-There was…a m-monster. I-I didn’t wanna..” He went silent for a bit, during which the lady rubbed his shoulders and back. 

He squeezed her. Her hair felt so soft on his face. “I-I thought I was gonna.. die- again..” 

Kunigami kept crying on her shoulders. He cried until his face felt sore. After an entirety passed that way, he belatedly noticed her pause and silence. But as soon as he attempted to see her, the lady held him even closer. This time, protectiveness coated every inch of her warmth. 

“It’s okay.. See? It’s all going to be okay.” 

“But the monster-”

Kunigami was pulled away and he saw her face again, with her hands still holding him upright. She held a caring smile, but she couldn’t hide the sadness in her eyes. She looked down at his hand, and grabbed it with one of hers. When he looked down, he noticed the greenish tint at the edge of her fingertips. 

Before he could think anything at all, the lady chuckled. “It’s hard to keep this form. Don’t worry, I hate it too.”  

The realization made his heart stop, but that warmth on his hand kept his mind grounded. While she smiled, he looked down at her feet, her ankle. It was completely bare. 

It hardly felt real to him. His eyes and heart were telling him different things. 

This woman was a monster, or beast capable of shapeshifting into human-like forms. Those were the rumors all over town, and what made monsters so particularly terrifying. How they can reside among humans as if they were one in the same, with the only distinct characteristic being the abundant lack of a soulmark anywhere on their body. 

And Kunigami was staring at one just a few inches away from him.  

Everything that he has been told, ever known, yelled at him to run away, to not trust her in the slightest. As soon as he lets his guard down, she will attack him, hurt him, strangle and eat him like the animal that had killed him tried to do. 

And yet, she appeared no different than any other human. She was even kinder than many of the people Kunigami saw at his village. She only had no soulmark, just like him now. 

This woman might be the only person he can relate to the most now. 

A human and a monster, connected by their absent link to the one distinction of humanity. 

He didn’t know what to believe, and still didn’t, but as the warmth around his hands enwrapped his body, for whatever reason, he couldn’t bring him to be scared of her. 

Maybe it was her smile that was too kind or her eyes that were too understanding. Whatever the case, the two stood there, embracing each other and taking in the other’s existence as a reason to believe they had some worth left.

“What’s your name, sweetie?”

“...Kunigami.” He sniffled.

“Kunigami… that’s a lovely name.” 

"Miss, do you have a name?"

“...You can call me Tei.” 

Meanwhile, Kunigami kept thinking about her words. 

“It’s hard to keep this form. Don’t worry, I hate it too.”  

While too young to understand, there was something about her tone when she said that he wouldn’t quite understand until many many years later. He hardly noticed it after all. 

The way her voice shook with trembling sadness and anger. 

~

For the next week, Kunigami spent his days with the strange lady named Tei, who never failed to show him unending amounts of warmth and kindness. After finding him, she took him to her home. A giant tree with a hollow trunk.

She assured him that he simply needed to stay in the trunk and that she would take care of everything else outside. Although her warmth made her constantly gentle, her voice took on a stern undertone with a specific warning. He was never to leave the trunk without her presence. 

When asked for a reason, she simply smiled and smoothed out the top of his hair. “Don’t worry about it. Just follow this rule, and you’ll be safe.”

Anger never crossed her expression. But neither did sadness. Nothing of those emotions he saw that first day ever surfaced again. 

“Um,” Kunigami said one day. “I’ve been wanting to ask, but where’s your soul mark miss.”

Tei, who was picking some berries from a nearby bush, stopped for a brief second. Kunigami, who was kicking the grass under his foot, looked at her expectantly. 

“..I’m not a human, little one.”

“But you are so nice.”

“Yes,” the lady responded. “Yes, I try to be.”

Occasionally she would turn into her sludge form. Whenever this would happen, Tei, recognizing the fear Kunigami still held, would tell him to stay in the trunk and that she would be back in a few hours. 

Even though Kunigami stayed afraid during these times, the resting warmth she left behind never left. She is not a bad person, Kunigami would think to himself. There’s no way she could be a monster.

He held this truth close to his heart, as if it was the last lifeline he had to this life. 

On a particular day, it was hot and the sun was beating down on the shriveled grass of the clearing. Kunigami shuffled, then opened one eye to see the sunlight casting in from outside the tree. Still sore and stiff from the day before, he yawned and stretched his arms. 

His eyes were still blurry and unfocused. His mind felt more foggy than usual. He looked at his surroundings, and felt his heart sink into his stomach.

“Mom-?” 

Kunigami stopped. 

Ah, that’s right, he thought to himself. They aren’t here.

For the first time in a week, he felt those familiar pits of sorrow that threatened to drown him completely tighten his chest. He blinked and noticed a tear drip down his cheek. He rubbed it off, then hugged his knees close to his heart.

“It’ll be okay. We’ll find your parents soon enough, it’ll be okay.” Those were the words Tei spoke to him whenever Kunigami showed grief over his family. Repeating the mantra to himself gave him a sense of calm and warmth, like Tei was right there with him. Like maybe he wasn’t alone after all.   

A silence engulfed around him. Kunigami looked around, then outside.

He had not seen Tei since yesterday afternoon. She had told him that she was going to return before night, but he fell asleep before then. The morning sun taunted him beyond the trees. 

Paranoia the taste of vomit rose in his mouth. He suddenly coughed violently. A trembling cold filled his body.

For the first time in a week, he felt truly alone. 

Tei is strong, he reminded himself. She knows everything. She’ll be back. She’ll be back for sure.

“She’ll be back,” he mumbled. A heavy breathing touched his hands, causing him to jump back. He then noticed the rapid movement of his chest, and the coldness that moved to his mouth. Ah, that’s my breathing.

A high-pitch ringing echoed in his ears. His surroundings grew smaller, and fuzzier by the second. A liquid tasting like salt entered his mouth. 

“She’ll be back she’ll be back She’ll be….”

Will she?

He had believed his parents were strong too. He had believed in his parents, his sisters. That they would always protect him. That they would save him no matter what, because they were strong. Nothing could defeat them, not the soldiers that crawled their village, nor the monsters that lived in the forest. 

But they were nowhere in sight now.

“Mom..Dad?”

He took a step forward. 

“Where are you?”

They were not there.

No..

They abandoned him. 

No, no..

They left him for dea-

No!

Kunigami broke out into a sprint, slicing his way across the bushes and thick clusters of plants and trees that surrounded their clearing. His running was sloppy, and he tripped over several times. 3 cuts on his legs, black bruises on his knees, a bloody cut on his lip. Thorns impaled him countless times, but Kunigami could hardly feel them. 

He desperately felt the urge to begin searching, for someone, anyone at all. His mom, his dad, his sisters, Tei…

Any thoughts that reiterated reality were quickly swatted away. If not, he may have lost any sanity he had left. 

He closed his eyes. It took everything he had left in him to keep running, and keep himself breathing. For what felt like hours, that was all he kept in his mind. 

Until eventually, out of the clusters of regular sounds from the forest, he perked up to an unusual one. One of chatter, of walking, of music filling the air. 

He opened his eyes. A clearing appeared in the distance, along with the dark brown color of wooden slabs resembling walls and roofs. Figures walked briskly beside one another, and a faint laughter could be heard.

A town. His town. 

His breath became heavy, but not out of fear or anxiety. More like he was letting out a heaviness. A heaviness that had been stuck in his stomach. He smiled.

“Mom! Dad!”

.

.

.

“Rensuke, dear what’s the matter?”

“Mommy! I-I…I’m…”

“Shh, shh, it’s okay, tell me what happened. Did you have a bad dream?”

“Haugh, mommy….”

“Hahaha… it’s okay sweetie. It’ll be okay.” 

.

.

.

“Hey kid, what are you doing in the forest?!”

“Oh my, isn’t that…?”

.

.

.

“What were you dreaming about?”

.

.

.

“..!!!...”

“Everyone stay back!”

.

.

.

“I-I had a dream… That you were gone.. And you were never coming back–hic!–I ....”

.

.

.

“Wait, please, I need to find my-!”

“Stand back! Don’t you dare come closer!”

.

.

.

“Don’t you worry about a thing. Mommy will always be here for you.”

.

.

.

“Kill it! Please, Kill that thing!”

.

.

.

“You sure? You’re never going to leave? Do you promise?”

.

.

.

“Kill that monster!!”

.

.

.

“I promise.”

~

When Kunigami opened his eyes, he didn’t feel a thing. A haze covered his vision, and filled his mind. But he found that when he tried to breathe in, he couldn’t. He also found that he was staring at the ground very closely. In fact, he could feel the blades of grass across his face, and the tiny needles of dirt tickle his nose and lips. 

Finally, he looked down. He saw his body completely on the ground, and a strange pool of red. A faint murmur surrounded him, which he soon recognized as voices. 

“This is the boy, right?”

“Yup, the one who went missing. That’s another report finished, now let’s head back.”

Their voices were deep, and scratchy. Two pairs of shoes walked past his face, and Kunigami recognized them as the hard soles of the soldiers that surrounded his home. That was also when he noticed the red that coated one of their swords, still dripping to the ground.

One of the voices laughed.

“This is kind of twisted don’t you think? I mean, asking for your own son to be killed?” 

“That isn’t their son anymore, remember? Not a soul mark in sight. Better to kill it before it causes any more trouble.”

“Man, you’re cruel. At least I feel bad for the kid, you know?”

“Oh, shut up. Let’s just file the report as a monster victory and get on with it.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it, now quit yapping my ear off.”

Their footsteps grew fainter and fainter until they disappeared completely. Until Kunigami was left in the deafening silence once again. Left only with the words he repeated over and over in his head.

“Your own son.”

“Better to kill it..”

“Monster.”

“That’s… me, isn’t it?”

A dull pain slowly spread across his torso. He coughed, and saw blood pool together on the ground in front of him, as if they were joining together for a reunion. Darkness appeared on the edges of his vision, but they didn’t close in quickly as if they were trying to conquer him. Instead, there was a thoughtfulness behind it. 

He blinked. From the darkness emerged his mother, still as gentle as ever. Her hand patted his head, and smoothed out his hair. Her hand was ice-cold. She leaned over, and kissed his eyes shut. 

“You’re a monster, Rensuke. Creatures like you don’t deserve to live.” She had a smile in her voice. 

“That’s why you’ve been hurting all this time. Because you didn’t deserve to keep living. God was punishing you, don’t you see?” She lifted her hand, leaving a barren absence behind it. 

“Now we can live better without you. Now we can live happily.”

When Kunigami opened his eyes, she was gone. A coldness washed across his body. 

“Mom?”

No reply. 

“Dad?”

No reply.

Oh, that’s right. I’m nothing to them anymore. They’re happier without me. 

He felt his heartbeat slowing down until it became a faint thump he could hardly feel. The darkness in his vision started closing in faster, until he could hardly make out anything at all. Even the dull pain had completely subsided. He didn’t even feel his body at all anymore.

I’m all alone.

Kunigami closed his eyes, and welcomed death once and for all.

.

.

.

“....Kunigami….”

.

.

.

“...Kunigami!”

A sudden jolt hit his cold body. Kunigami gasped. A sharp breath hit his chest, causing him to cough violently. 

He opened his eyes, and was surprised to be looking at the sky. The big, bright blue sky that extended as far as the eye could see, and the foliage of the trees that littered it. The sun burned brightly in his eyes. 

He couldn’t feel his arms, nor his legs, but he saw the back of someone’s head close beside him out of the corner of his vision. He looked down, and saw the rest of their body, heaving with unrest. 

Then he saw his own body. Except it wasn’t a body. It was a pile of dirt-green sludge this person was hugging, and that sludge was him. Their hair pressed deeply against him.

Reddish-pink chin-length hair.

“...Tei?”

“Kunigami!”

The person pulled him back and Kunigami saw the same smiling face that had greeted him every morning for the past week. Except instead of a smile, this one was streaked with tears and her mouth quivered in despair. But she seemed to have been aware of that, because her expression quickly twisted into a reassuring smile and she closed her eyes. 

“I’m so glad you’re okay. Are you hurt anywhere? Come on, let’s get home and-”

“They killed me.”

Tei stopped. Her head, which had already turned around to leave, stayed in position, obscuring her expression from him. 

“T-They killed me… They.. T-They called me a monster. Mom and dad wanted me dead. They all wanted me dead.” His tears quickly bubbled until his voice broke out into a sob. He hiccuped and wailed, while desperately trying to hold onto what was left of his body: a pile of dripping sludge.

Tei kept her hands on him, and her face obscured. 

“Do they all want me dead? Everyone? Because I-I’m a horrible monster?”

He crumbled down, feeling himself slump against Tei’s body. His wails grew louder, until his voice grew completely and utterly hoarse. 

Until all that was left was his sniffling and occasional hiccups.

He felt the breeze even against his body of sludge.

An eternity of silence passed by them.

“Why am I not dead?” He whispered quietly. “Why am I still here?”

He looked up, as if looking for Tei for an answer, but to his surprise, instead of the confident and gentle smile she always provided for him, heavy tears streamed down her face. Her body shook beneath him. 

“...I’m sorry.”

She pulled him close to her, although he was only sludge. But that did not matter to her. She held him close for all that she was worth.

“I’m sorry you now have to carry this burden. If only… If only I could have been stronger…Maybe I could’ve…” she cried. Kunigami stared at the sky above them. At the sun, still continuing to taunt them. 

“if I could,” Tei started, attempting to suck a breath in. “I'd make this all go away. I'd give you everything. but I-I'm not strong enough... I'm sorry.”

While Tei sat there, hugging Kunigami as tightly as she could, a bird landed on a tree’s branch. Kunigami watched it flap its wings and peck at the branch. Its movements were slow. As it attempted to fly, it couldn’t lift its body off the three. It could only stand and watch, while a flock of other birds flew above it. Until finally, it moved slowly close to the trunk of the tree. There, it sat, and leaned against it. It closed its eyes and became deathly still. A feather slowly fell from its wing. 

The bird had died. Yet Kunigami was still alive. Now converted into a monster, he had no other choice but to stay alive. Even if his humanity had long since been dead. 

~

Kunigami held his breath as his fingers combed through the leaves. Beyond the bushes and forest line, a clearing opened up to the warm sunlight. Tiny trees spotted the empty space and from the center, water streamed down from a structure the color of a dull gray.  Beyond it, a structure more massive than anything he has ever seen before towered into the sky. 

This is the castle.., he thought. 

Before his curiosity could take a hold of him, sudden fear washed over as he spotted a group of people close to the tall gray walls. They were a good distance away, almost completely obscured by the trees, leaves, and stream of water, but the reality of what it could mean if any of them were to catch his eye ran his blood cold. 

He took a step back. 

I need to leave. 

A stick broke under his foot. He sucked a breath in, but the voices and figures didn’t waver. Instead, they cruelly turned in the direction of the rustling leaves. 

I need to leave, I need to leave, I need

“Are you hiding?”

Kunigami could’ve sworn he heard his heart sputter. 

A few feet off to the side in the forest stood a boy with reddish-pink hair down to his chin. His fancy clothes hung loosely off his body, but not in a way to indicate they were too large for him; more like it was purposely messed up and tampered with. But most importantly, the vest he had on stopped at the end of his collarbone, leaving his entire shoulders exposed.

And the long pink mark branded on it.

“I know a spot to hide.” 

Kunigami snapped his eyes away and he noticed the stare the boy had on him while he said those words. The emotion behind them was unclear, but the boy smiled nonetheless and it was then that Kunigami realized his grave mistake. 

He bolted as quickly as he could from his position. 

Not only had he been seen by a human, but the kingdom’s one and only prince. If the prince were to even mutter that he saw a strange boy with no mark in the forest, armed guards and knights would infest the forest for all the square miles it stretched across, and Kunigami and Tei would have little way of escaping. He almost felt the grim reaper’s scythe graze his neck when those boy’s eyes met his. 

However, before he could even get out of the boy’s sight, a blob of pink appeared before him. Kunigami stumbled back. He tripped on his own two feet and fell back to the ground. He’s so fast..!, he thought. 

“Hold on!” the boy said. “Don’t go over there. The guards sometimes enter through that side.” He stopped and took a minute to look at Kunigami, which only made him tremble more on the ground. Then, his face took on a look of determination. 

“C’mon, I know a better hiding spot.” 

Before Kunigami could say a word, the boy took his wrist and started running off in the opposite direction, tugging him off the ground. 

Kunigami felt his thoughts running circles in his mind. 

The first was how fast this boy actually was. Kunigami has always considered himself quite fast, but this boy was on a whole other level. He made him seem like a slug by comparison. 

The second thought that entered his mind was one of panic. He wondered where he was taking him. Was this all a trick? Is he going to turn him into the castle security under the guise of trying to help him? After all, to Kunigami, that seemed infinitely more believable than the literal prince of Belushi helping some random boy he found in the forest. What should he say, how could he convince the stern castle guards that he was a simple lost boy in the forest and hide the fact that he has no soul mark in sight? How is he going to hide Tei’s existence as well? All of the fears he has accumulated from Tei’s warnings of the towns for all these years manifested itself as an all-consuming pit in his stomach threatening to kill him from the inside out before he can ever get to the guards. There is a possibility of him getting tortured to get him to speak on who else he was with in the forest, and if that were the case, he needed to find a way to silence himself before they could get the information out of him. 

But as all those worries circled in his head, a third thought crept into his mind. He closed his eyes. He tried to ignore it. 

He tried to forget the split-second softened look the boy gave him as he stared at him. 

After running for roughly 10 minutes, to Kunigami’s estimate, they entered into a clearing in the forest, a circular grassy area with dense trees covering all around except for the top, allowing for the sunlight to wash into the empty space. Flowers dotted the grass and off to the side, there was a small lake no bigger than the size of Kunigami and Tei’s shelter. A few stumps were scattered across. 

Kunigami looked around, cautious yet fascinated by the landscape that had almost a dream-like filter no matter where he turned to look. The boy, who by then had dragged him to one of the stumps, started digging into the dirt to pull out a burlap bag. When he opened it up, it was filled with berries and bread. 

“Are you hungry? I can grab more food if you don’t like these.”

“Um.. No, It’s alright..”

The boy shrugged and plopped a berry in his mouth before jumping up and laying down on the stump. Kunigami’s mind was still reeling. He wanted to run away, to run back to Tei as soon as possible, but with the threat of the guards still surrounding them, he was left with no choice but to stay. He looked at the boy, who was already popping in his 10th berry. 

His carefree nature almost made Kunigami terrified in itself.

The boy opened one eye. “What?”

“N-No, I just..” He sputtered. “Why- Aren’t you scared of me?”

The boy just blinked in response. He sat up and ate another berry. “Why?”

“Well.. A random boy from the forest was near your garden.” Kunigami held his arms close to his chest, trying his best not to show any signs of being a threat. If this boy wanted to, he could have him killed in a heartbeat, or at the slightest warning.

But instead, the boy did not look scared in the slightest. If anything, concern flicked in his expression. Then, it turned into one of contemplation. 

“Are you planning something bad?”

“No!” He responded a little too loudly. 

The boy stood up and smiled at Kunigami. “Then I believe you. You’re just like me, you just live in the forest right?”

The bizarre nature of the conversation made Kunigami’s head spin, but before he could protest any further, the boy enthusiastically jumped back and ran away teasingly. “While we’re waiting for the guards to leave, let’s play a game! I know a bunch of good ones from my sister. Hurry, before my parents start looking for us, uhh.. What’s your name?”

Kunigami bit his tongue. He clenched his hands together while anxiety closed his throat but when he raised his eyes again to look at the boy, he was smiling at him with a radiant face: a smile as bright as the sun behind him. 

“..My name is Kunigami.”

“Kunigami,” the boy said, almost like he was testing the name on his tongue. He giggled a bit and held out his hand towards him. His vibrant pink soulmark on his shoulder glittered in the sunlight. 

“Nice to meet you, Kunigami. I’m Chigiri Hyoma.”

[changer00]

Lord Darkar, The Shadow Phoenix

When the Magic Dimension was created, scholars believe that it mirrored another dimension called Achlys.  It is thought that because that dimension was dying out, with magical cores of both planets and people imploding and dying, the Great Dragon created a new dimension for magic to thrive – the Magic Dimension.

Lord Darkar was once a King, or a high standing noble, in Achlys.  He had extreme power over shadows and darkness, however, he was loyal and compassionate to those around him.  However, as his kingdom was dying and his wife’s magic beginning to kill her, he made a deal with the Moirai (the ancient deities of Fate) that would allow him to save his dying wife.  In this exchange, he had to give up his mortal body in order for him to absorb magical energy.  When he tried to absorb his wife’s magical core, it ultimately destabilised and killed her, and Darker was unable to heal her injuries.

His wife’s death is what saw his descent into madness and what gained him his reputation for being the Prince of Darkness and the opposite to the Great Dragon. In order to bring back his wife, Darkar tried absorbing as many magical cores as he could in Achlys to try and bring his wife back from the dead. His rampage, along with the destabilisation of Achlys saw the complete genocide of the Dimension, with only Darkar left.  Once he was the only living sole in Achlys, he opened a portal to the magical dimension, believing the Great Dragon’s Flame would be able to revive his wife – but this effort put him in stasis until the Dragon Flame’s instability in Bloom awakened him.

Darkar is unable to feel anything but negative emotions, and thrives on the hatred and vulnerability of others.  While his powers are based on shadow magic, he also has strong transformative abilities such as being able to transform himself into the Phoenix and occasionally other people.  He is also able to create “shadow monsters” from those whose magical core he has absorbed.  Further he is able to influence others greatly, when they let him into their mind.  Darker is well versed in magical rituals and rights, often using these to enhance his magic.

Darkar’s connection to Achlys and his deal with the Moirai elevated him to a higher-level transformation – essentially making him indestructible.  The Moirai, through their ritual made him the deity of Pure Darkness, in order to bring balance to the Pure Light that the Great Dragon bought. Darkar despises that he cannot die and be with his wife, and because of this he will bring destruction to everything until he can bring her back.

[georgi-girl]

Barbie Villains Are Scarier Than I Thought

Barbie in the Nutcracker has the Mouse King, who's voiced by Tim Curry and almost never played for laughs, attempting to chop the Nutcracker to pieces with an axe and then burn him alive in a fire.

Barbie as Rapunzel has Gothel, who kidnapped Rapunzel to start a war between two kingdoms that almost killed a little girl, is emotionally abusive to Rapunzel and her friends, is powerful enough to enslave dragons, and her magic makes her almost unstoppable and spends the majority of the final battle chasing everyone.

Barbie of Swan Lake has Rothbart, who's out to kill Odette for a majority of the movie. After rendering the Magic Crystal powerless, Rothbart blasts Daniel and Odette with his magic, killing them both until their love revives them.

Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus: Wenlock is a G-rated sexual predator. He goes from kingdom to kingdom, forcing women to accept his hand in marriage or face awful consequences. He introduces himself by turning everyone in the kingdom to stone and giving Princess Annika three days to accept his proposal before the spell becomes permanent. Before the film began, he transformed Princess Brietta into the titular pegasus when her parents refused his proposal, and turned three women unlucky enough to actually marry him into mute, goblin-like slaves after getting bored with them. He nearly kills Brietta in front of her own sister, and buries Annika alive in an avalanche when she stands up for her family. 

Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses: Duchess Rowena is a master manipulator and comes the closest to winning out of nearly every Barbie villain. As she slowly poisons King Randolph to death, she plays the part of a loving relative to gain his trust and cut him off from his twelve daughters, until he willingly makes her his successor on his deathbed. In turn, she manipulates the 12 princesses, undermining their self-esteem and capabilities to help their father, to the point that they decide to leave the kingdom for their mother's secret pavilion, believing Rowena's lie that they are the cause of their father's failing health. Before they can realize their mistake, she imprisons them in their place of refuge and steals some of its magic. Upon their escape, she uses the stolen magic to place a Fate Worse than Death curse on Princess Genevieve, compelling her to dance herself to death, which Genevieve only escapes by weaponizing the paper fan Rowena yelled at the girls about earlier. Rowena and her henchman Desmond may well still be trapped in the dance spell to this day. 

Barbie as the Island Princess has Queen Ariana. She plans to murder Antonio and his family, poisons the animals so they'll starve to death in an endless sleep, only had a daughter to serve her own ends, bribes a guard to kill Ro and her friends by knocking them into the ocean, and gained her title through marrying and killing an elderly king with a heart condition.

And those are just the ones I’ve seen! 

[it-begins-with-rain]

TV Recommendation: Hard to Find

Three years ago, a love story ended in disaster.

Helian Xi, Young Master of the mysterious and magical Linchuan people, opened his kingdom and his heart to the beautiful princess Feng Yuan. Marrying an outsider was supposed to be a show of progress and diplomacy- a sign that Linchuan was willing to engage with the outside world.

On their wedding day, Helian Xi gave Feng Yuan a piece of Linchuan's sacred Twinned Tree, a promise between lovers to live and die for one another.

But Feng Yuan was not as pure or as kind as she pretended to be. She betrayed her new husband, aiding in his capture and torture before she personally drove a blade through his heart.

He woke lost and alone, revived by the divine heart of the Twinned Tree... and returned to find his people brutally slaughtered, their sacred tree withered and dead.

Transformed by his hate, Helian Xi broke into the royal palace and slaughtered Feng Yuan's brother the emperor, making a bloody promise that he would not rest until he found his errant wife and made her pay for the annihilation of his people.

-----

For three years, Liang Chan has been the honored guest of the Crown Prince of Shuoyun. She was found near death, and has no memory of her past. The Crown Prince gave her a name, and fell madly in love with her.

On the eve of their wedding, an assassin strikes, attempting to take Liang Chan's life. She is saved- and then attacked- by a dark and deadly stranger, one with near supernatural powers.

The stranger comes back for Liang Chan after her life is saved, kidnapping her and locking her away in a manor deep in the mountains.

Helian Xi has spent three years hunting down his hateful and treacherous wife. He wants nothing more than to butcher her the same way she did his people, but he needs something first:

The twinned branch she was given on their wedding day.

If Helian Xi can retrieve the branch, he can pair it with his own and revive both the Linchuan tree and his people. He will stop at nothing to force Feng Yuan to remember who she was and what she took from him.

But Liang Chan's kindness and self-sacrificing nature slowly wears on Helian Xi's mind.

What happened three years ago to make her betray him and open the shields of his kingdom to slaughter?

Where is her relic of the Twinned Tree?

And who, beyond Helian Xi, is trying to kill Feng Yuan?