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wompwomp1 · 4 months ago

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Jaric

ummmm ok! but im being noncanon and tangential about it 🥰 whatever all our souls are made of ours are the same [deep unrestrained weary sigh] ft sophie

send me a pairing and/or prompt idea and i'll write something about it! <3

"Aric…?"

Sophie clutched her arms, her skin crawling with the sickening realization: "All this… Kingdoms ransacked and pillaged, people slaughtered—my friends hurt and killed! And it was all for… for—"

"For love," the Snake said softly.

A horrified laugh burbled out before she could stop it. "Love? What would you know about love?" she spat. "Your brother told me everything. Drove your mother away, did you? I can't say I'm surprised. Only a murderer with just as rotten and sadistic of a soul could 'love' a monster like you—and that's to say you even have a soul at all!" The Snake rose from his seat, but she stamped out her flash of fear. "I'm sorry, did that strike a nerve?" she taunted, fighting down burning bile. "Go ahead. Kill me. At least that creep won't get to live again."

For a moment, they were at an impasse, eyes locked and jaws tense and shoulders rigid. Sophie's chest heaved in angry, shuddering bursts, but the Snake remained as glacial as ice. She watched for any hint of movement, bracing for a sudden attack…

"What makes you think you're any better than me?" he asked instead.

Sophie froze. "Excuse me?"

The Snake shook his head, hands settling on the teapot. "During your First Year you terrorized and attempted to kill the entire School for Good, you did kill all of the wolves and fairies, tried to seize the power of the Storian to serve your own gain—" he narrowed a glance at her as he smoothly poured two cups— "now doesn't that sound familiar. But shall I go on to the wars you started? Shall I mention Rafal?"

Sophie colored scarlet, whether out of fury or terror or shame, she had no clue. "But I've—"

"Changed?" The Snake scoffed loud enough to make her jump. For a moment, she expected him to whirl back to her furious, teeth gnarled and scims sharpened to points—but his shoulders sagged and a long-held weariness crept into his bones… In a blink it seemed as though the Snake was gone, and in the monster's place stood just a boy.

"There's no changing Evil like us. We'll never be satisfied alone. Not until we find love as brutal and selfish as our own." He sighed, as if he knew exactly how hard it was to try. "But you know that already."

Sophie watched him, pulled uneasily closer as he settled the teacups on their saucers. His body seemed to shrink into itself, much more cautious than the confident villain Tedros had fought. Was it a trick of the light, or had his face changed as well? Gone was the hard, cold glare, replaced by unfocused, dark and sunken eyes. It was getting harder to see him as Rhian's copy, two sides of the same manipulative coin. She had very nearly been swayed by the Lion. How did she know this wasn't some kind of trick as well?

"It's why you were drawn to my brother," he continued, "and Rafal, and Tedros before him. All your life, looking for the one person who'd complete you, who would love you despite every foul thing your soul was tainted with. But here you are again. With no one."

"I have Agatha," Sophie insisted weakly.

He met her gaze. "And I had Aric, once."

There was a force behind his eyes, a simmering fire that made her own eyes water and sting. Conviction and rage that had been tamped down to resignation, a person just like her who'd tried so hard to be Good, only to fail over and over and…

Japeth gestured at the chair opposing him.

Sophie took it.

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wompwomp1 · 5 months ago

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Uma and Harry's relationship: An Analysis

So I’m going to dive right into this. Heads up: All my info is coming from one of the books in the Isle of the Lost series, Rise of the Isle of the Lost (kinda spoilers, yeah?), as well as Descendants 2. In Rise of the Isle of the Lost, we actually find out quite a bit about their friendship and dynamics. This isn’t by any means an encyclopedia of their friendship nor their characters individually. There’s a lot I’m not including in here (Sorry!), but I’m just bullet pointing the most relevant parts that I’m comparing, so this thing isn’t just a massive wall of overbearing text that makes your eyes go bloodshot.

Uma and Harry are each others oldest friends on the Isle. They like to cause mayhem together. Gil peaced out from their group years ago for reasons unknown, so its been the fearsome twosome for a long time. Until he joins their crew later on in the book.

They decide to join a “boat” race run by Captain Hook where the winner gets one of his old busted ships from his fleet.

Uma takes Harry’s hook and tells him he’ll only get it back if either he or she wins that race. They make a deal that whoever wins gets to be captain and the other will be first mate. We already know how that turns out.

At first Harry is hopeful she will make him captain at some point, but after she rescues him during an adventure I won’t tell you about, he’s all on board with her being captain.

From there on out, he calls her captain multiple times, even lending her his hand and saying, “Captains, first” so she goes ahead of he and Gil. When Uma’s feeling down, he and Gil offer suggestions of what mischief they could cause and Harry goes, “Captain’s choice.”

Their relationship is full of banter. They take jabs at each other, they’re sarcastic. Examples: Harry teases her when she nearly falls off the ship twice trying to unfurl the masts in a hurry when she has no clue what she’s doing. She makes fun of him for not staying on his feet when the ship sways hard. And how he never beats her at anything. And that’s just a little snapshot.

I don’t know how much time has passed between the events of Rise and and Descendants 2 - they’re still close friends, still captain and first mate respectively - but their relationship seems different now in the weeks? months? that have passed. In Rise, Harry flirts with Uma, but she never once teases or flirts back. He’s the one who is more proactive in getting her attention in that sense and she is unfazed: “As if. You work for me, remember? Do I have to keep reminding you? I’m captain, you’re first mate,” said Uma, pointing a finger and stabbing his chest with it. “First date if you’re lucky,” said Harry with a wink, pulling on his collar and strutting a little. “Shut up,” said Uma with a laugh. “And see to that sail.” (Ch. 13) “A few minutes later, Harry swiveled on his boots and returned to her side, leaning in closely. “Uma, darling,” he said, in his rough brogue. “I just need to ask again - how are we going to find that thing in the water?” “Leave that to me,” said Uma. “Just get this ship ready.” (Ch. 13) “I don’t think this symbol marks the treasure. Remember, we’re looking for a trail. The path isn’t on the ground. It’s written on trees. If I’m right, there are more of these markings. Follow them, and we’ll find the treasure,” said Harry. “Or we’ll find out where two lovers carved a heart in some tree,” said Uma. “Are you trying to tell me something?” Harry joked. “That I’ll cut you if you don’t find the treasure chest?” Uma snorted. (Ch. 27) She also offers us this little tidbit (in Chapter 13, for reference): “Uma knew, try as she might, she couldn’t hurt his feelings. It was all part of the game of question-and-rejection they’d played forever.” What does this even mean though? With all of that in mind, let’s flash forward to Descendants 2. And for the tl;dr crowd here is essentially what this next part is all about:

Where we have scenes like these -

(x)

These moments occur when Harry is performing his part of the song from the What’s My Name scene. In the first gif, his lines at this part are: Never learned how to count ‘cause I’m number one. He crouches down in front of her and she says the words when he does, even putting her finger up to represent the number one. In the second gif, Harry directly points to her and says, “she’s the captain”, then the camera flashes over to the moment in this gif, her winking at him and smiling.

(x)

Again during Whats My Name, Uma goes to the stage and he promptly joins her where this happens. They move closer to each other spurred on by her grabbing his hook. Their smiles after she says it. LOOK AT THEM GRINS. And immediately after they both laugh and she playfully bumps him. Remember those quotes from before? Where Uma’s not particularly bothered, enticed by or even interested in Harry’s flirting in Rise of the Isle of the Lost? Well, look at our little sea witch now. It looks like she’s very much enjoying his attention. For Harry’s part, he seems twice as smitten with Uma than he was before. If he was merely flirting with her for fun in Rise, his actions in the movie show it’s developed into straight up infatuation. This boy is S P R U N G. In the text? He flirts. In the film? We literally never hear a flirtacious line come out of his mouth. He doesn’t quite initiate contact between he and Uma in the movie. But Uma does. It’s almost like a reversal of their dynamic, but with actions instead of words. And Uma’s the one that starts it. Whereas Uma didn’t care when he flirted in the book, Harry is enthralled by her in the movie whether she’s giving him attention or not. All eyes on me, let me see ‘em indeed.

(x)

I want to say this moment is the one that saw the S.S. Huma rise out of the waters all majestic-like and for good reason, too. Some context: She pushes Gil aside and turns to Harry. Her tone and his expression are serious when she asks, “What’s my name?” And this is how he responds. First, body language. He literally lowers himself by kneeling before her, putting himself in a position of reverence, submission. He takes off his hat - taking off one’s hat is typically done for courtesy - and says her name in…. awe? Adoration? Respect? [Insert adjective of your choice here]? You pick because - watch the scene again if you can - even the sound of voice is different when he says her name. And his eyes. He never breaks eye contact with her once throughout that entire exchange. (Remember that time in Rise he called her captain and didn’t genuinely mean it? My how things have changed.) Speaking of eyes…

(x)

She’s dancing on her throne and the camera turns away from her to Harry where he’s literally following her every movement.

(x)

Harry looks at Uma like he just discovered fire and is so captivated by what he’s seeing he can’t look away. He seriously isn’t looking away. None of the above gifs scream platonic from his side. Like, none. I can’t comprehend how you could even view him as thinking of Uma as merely a friend at this point. I never got the sense he was this interested in her in the book, but clearly his feelings for her have exploded since. What the hell happened with them after Rise but before Descedants 2 began?? Let’s talk about that second gif real quick. One of Uma’s moves involves swinging her arm around and pointing it at the crowd around her and they respond in kind by looking away. Except for Harry. Harry doesn’t flinch. Harry doesn’t move. His position remains the same. He keeps on looking. His eyes are glued to the girl in front of him. The line in the song before this scene comes from him, as well: Uma’s so hot they get burned if they look. They get burned, eh? I guess Harry is exempt from this particular fate.

(x) His body is turned towards her, watching as she mocks Mal. He’s biting his lip as he watches. Now a lip bite can mean a few things: scared, anxious, uncomfortable. But it can also be flirtatious. Nothing else about his expression or stature signals that he’s feeling anything other than good af, so its pretty darn safe to say he’s just plain into her.

As for Uma, she is winking at him again and she taps him on the chin (physical contact!). The moment after this is adorable - dare I say, better than this moment itself? - because she looks so pleased, backing up as he steps forward to get in Mal’s face and talk about the ways in which he’ll harm her boyfriend.

(x)

LOOK AT UMA’s GRIN. LOOK. AT. IT.

And of course, I wasn’t going to not mention this moment:

(x)

Again, she’s the one initiating contact with him - running her hands through his hair - and he genuinely looks like he could die in that moment and be perfectly content with that. She even bends down, increasing how close they are to each other.

Meanwhile he is leaning backwards into her touch, mouth agape, watching her the whole time (I wasn’t joking about his eyes never leaving her). His mouth curls up into a smile at the end! If that first moment where he says her name didn’t catch you, then this moment would have for sure.

Now I know there will be some who say: Well, those actions by Uma aren’t necessarily flirty. It could mean nothing. Some people are naturally more touchy feely - they like hugs, placing hands on shoulders, linking fingers - and those actions are never intended to mean anything more. All of which is true. All of which is fine. But Uma? She’s not one of these people. Not based on everything I’ve read and seen. We’re not (please, please correct me if I’m wrong!) presented with scenes where this kind of behavior is displayed by her in the book. In the movie, she does wrap her arms around Harry and Gil but for the most part we don’t see her initiating physical contact a lot. So I tend to think her behavior here means something. Even if its just her being playful. Because she doesn’t act this way, exhibit these particular behaviors (light friendly touches, the winking), towards anyone else but Harry. Which leads me here, the final scene I want to discuss:

(x)

Now this. This is intriguing. Scroll back up folks, look at Uma’s body language, her expressions in those moments she’s initiating contact with him. She’s oozing confidence. She’s joyful, bouncy. She’s totally in her element. But if you glance down here again. Her expression. It’s different. She looks vulnerable, overwhelmed (?), almost lost in Harry’s intense stare. Again with the eyes. Their eyes are locked. The space between them isn’t exactly wide. And Harry is the one leaning closer. Harry. And he’s biting down on his lip and he’s staring at her and his head is tilted. We’ll never know what was suppose to happen in this tiny moment - if anything even was! - as it was broken by Gil talking, shaking them out of this interaction. But to me, it looks like he wanted to kiss her and Uma was shook by the very prospect. And that is certainly something.

Because this is the same girl who - however long ago it was - told him to shut up about him being her first date or threatening to cut him when he teased her about couple’s carving hearts into trees and it having any relevance to them. In conclusion: Harry/Mal is nothing. Uma and Harry’s relationship has kinda sorta maybe changed, Uma is now Harry’s north star and moon and literally every celestial body in existence, and I really want to see where this is heading for these two pirates. Don’t let me down Melissa and Kenny.

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