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hoardcloneheadcanons · 1 year

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Misread Fates Ch 1 & 2

I’m throwing my hand in at original fiction. I will be posting on other sites, this is the first because it’s the one I’m most comfy with.

Summary: A boy grows up in a world where people are destined to relive fairytales every generation. His fate is to be the man who fails to defeat the monster before the real hero comes in. Growing up with this knowledge is complicated.

Chapter 1: A Family Chat in a Mildly Cursed Land

Chapter 2: Training, Adolescence & Obsession

Chapter 1 - A Family Chat in a Mildly Cursed Land

It was a sunny day in August and an 8 year-old Bruin Slater was crawling on his hands and knees by the creek, trying to grab a giant bullfrog in his tiny fists. He quietly crept up to the bumpy thing, keeping low to the ground when a shadow crossed his path, scaring the frog, sending it leaping into the rushes. He turned around to see his mother in her “serious business position” with knuckles on her hips.

“Bruin, It’s time for you to come inside. Your father’s got something to talk to you about.”

“Can’t I catch him first?”

Bruin pointed to the giant frog making splatting noises as it hopped away. His mother sighed and kept her hands firmly planted on her hips, even as she tried to repress a small smile.

“I’m afraid not. I know you’ll be at it all day, and then you’ll try to stall the conversation chasing after some new creature, so no. This talk needs to happen.”

Bruin’s mother took his hand and led him back to the squat, cozy cabin he shared with his parents. His father was set up at his desk, papers scattered around him, with a cloud of smoke obscuring his face.

Brunhilda pushed the windows open in front of her husband to let the smoke drain out, “Really, Helrich, in the house? It’s not enough to wreck your lungs, you have to smell up the place too?.”

“Ah, leave me to some of my vices, Hildy. It gives the words a mysterious air to see them through smoke.”

Bruin’s father looked over his shoulder at him. Bruin saw a pained twinge in his face through the smoke.

Helrich looked at his Hildy,“Eh- it’s that time is it?”

“You need to tell him sometime, Love, the neighborhood kids are going to start to gossiping about it soon. It’s better that he learns it from you rather than them.”

“Right you are. Well then, Bruin, pull up a chair, and get yourself comfortable, this may be a long chat.”

Helrich swiveled around, lifting his knees a little to prevent his wooden heels from scuffing the floor.

Bruin didn’t like where this was going. He wasn’t good at sitting still for long periods of time, and the tension in the air made him nervous.

His father must’ve seen some his anxious energy, for he turned to his mother and asked, “Hildy, do you mind making some tea or coco for him, to settle his nerves a little?”

“I’ll get the kettle started.”

“Thank you, Hildy.”

“Am I in trouble?”

“No- no you’re not, just- the truths I’m about to tell you are not- nice ones, and they’re going to take a little bit of sugar to swallow. Do you know what fates are?”

“I know they’re what you work on every day, and that people tend to gossip about them a lot, but not much else beyond that.”

Whenever his mother took him shopping, he heard little snippets of conversation surrounding fate, but he hadn’t been able to parse out what it was.

He’d hear things like:

“It’s so awful what happened . Well- it was fated. It’s a cold comfort but at least her family was prepared.”

And

“ It’s kinda’ obnoxious him flaunting his wealth in front of us. Some people just get the good fates.”

And

“Did you here? Merida is going off to try and fulfill her family fate this year. She went off into the city for it.”

Fate seemed to be something adults cared an awful lot about. He turned his attention away from his memories back to his father.

“That’s a good enough starting point as any,” said his father, “ Fates are…” he scratched the back of his neck as he tried to find the words, “They’re stories that keep happening over and over again, once every generation.”

“Generation?”

“A generation is like a family grouping. You and your cousins are all in one generation, your mother and her sisters are all in another generation, and your grandparents are in another.”

“So it’s like sorting people by age?”

“ Close. It’s sorting people by who was born after who.”

“Alright, so there’s something that keeps happening everytime a new group of people is born.”

“Exactly, and it’s different for every family. Each family has its own story to repeat. Some record them. A lot of people keep journals to pass down. The wealthier families keep really fancy engraved tomes to record their histories. That way they can keep track of every single way the story unfolds. You see it changes a little each time. For example; One family might have to… break a curse on a magical princess and then marry her. But what the curse is every time is a little different, or why the princess is magic is different. It’s hard to predict what changes and what stays the same each time. That’s what my job is, you see. I look over family histories and record specific repeated patterns and try to help people predict what parts they can expect to happen and what might change. That way they can plan for the future. Nobody knows exactly why it happens, but we know that it does, and we just have to live with it. Now- you’re getting to the age where children start comparing fates, seeing whose is worse and whose is better. I’m going to tell you right now- that’s a load of hogwash. A person’s fate has nothing to do with their strength of character or ability, and people have a lot of life to live once their fate is completed. No one is better than anybody else because of their fate. Repeat that part back to me.”

“No one is better than anybody else because of their fate,” said Bruin.

“Yes, now with a little more conviction.”

“Comparing Fates is Hogwash!” shouted Bruin

Helrich smirked at his son, “That’s a good lad. Now, here’s where we get to the unpleasant bit, which is the fate you inherited.”

Bruin looked up to see his mother pushing a mug of warm tea into his hand. She pulled up a stool to sit right next to him with her own mug after setting one down near his father. Bruin took a sip, it was thick with honey.

“Your mother’s fate is a fairly harmless one. Her family is destined to have a member who witnesses a magical event or miracle and refuses to believe in it’s magical. They are the eternal skeptics.”

His mother nodded, and stirred her own tea,“Your Aunt Marta was in the market when a local cat turned into a beautiful woman, but she got distracted by a bird at the moment of transformation and, to this day, thinks the cat hid under the lady’s skirt. Five other people saw it happen and she believed none of them. And your grandpa Franks found a beanstalk that extended into the sky and he- to this day- will argue that it’s possible they just grew like that without any supernatural assistance.

Bruin giggled, he could imagine his Grandpa Franks saying something like “Nature just does funny things sometimes.”

“However,” His father interjected, “You’re not likely to get that fate. It’s not impossible, just, not likely. You have a lot of cousins on your Mom’s side to take that fate, and none on mine, unless your useless uncle had bastards I don’t know about-“

“HELRICH! Not in front of Bruin”

“Sorry, Love. Bruin, don’t repeat that word. Anyway, fates… want to exist, and they don’t tend to overlap. So you’re more likely to get the fate that has no other receivers to go to, in fact, it’s probably certain you will, while one of your cousins will get your maternal fate. So instead of your mother’s… mostly harmless fate you’ll have to contend with mine. And mine’s not a fun one.”

“Am I going to lose my legs too?” Bruin blurted out.

Bruin’s father had wooden prosthetics from his knees down. It was a fact of life that Bruin had grown up with it. He had since learned that “not all Dad’s were like that” but he still hadn’t learned why his was like that.

“You very well might, but it’s not guaranteed. It’s… honestly the better of some of the options. Do you know the type of stories where a hero goes and slays a monster?”

“YES!”

“We’re the people who go in before that brave knight, and fail to defeat that monster.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Once every generation, one of us goes to battle a monster and we fail to defeat it. Then, right after we fail, a hero arrives to finish the monster off.”

Bruin had gone white. Helrich struggled to find words to make it better. “Look, if nothing else, its necessary work. We weaken the monster, we find its vulnerabilities, we prove that it’s possible to hurt it. Somebody has to be the first to go in, and- that’s usually… us.

“So your leg?”

Helrich sighed. He didn’t particularly like telling this stoy,

“To be honest I’m not sure exactly what type of creature it was. I was…21. People in my town were disappearing. They were wandering off into the woods and not coming back. Jacobson- the wood carver, he used to have a sister. She had a beautiful singing voice but-she’s… no longer with us. Her and five others. There was only so long I could stand aside, I’m embarrassed I waited as long as I did. I knew if I went in someone would come to help right after. So I did.

It was giant spider. It was as tall as a man and had a very, very human voice. It would sound like someone you knew, or used to know, calling you out into the woods. I managed to take out three of its legs. It mangled both of mine and left me bleeding on the forest floor. I think it was full, or spiteful. But I got lucky, and the man destined to slay the monster came in while I was still alive. It was-er- King Henry. His physician patched me up. My legs were unsalvageable.”

“This is why I don’t know Grandpa Ralph, isn’t it? It’s why you don’t talk about him.”

“Yeah, he wasn’t as lucky as I was.”

“Ok… so I’ll just avoid fighting monsters.”

“I wish that was an option, son, but you can’t escape your fate, it’ll find you.

Your great grandfather Elias, tried. He avoided monsters all of his life, and moved whenever he heard about one in the area. But one day he settled, found himself a nice wife, and settled in a well-guarded city, where he had a daughter and a son. A half mad-griffin flew in over the walls and came directly into his home. It killed your great grandmother, and your great aunt Lily, and then him. Only your grandfather survived.

He was young when It happened, younger than you are now. It scarred him, made him a hard man to be around. I didn’t listen to him often-but- he made promise not to run away, not to bring the danger home to anyone I cared about. It’s one of the few promises I kept to him. We don’t run. We can’t. All we can do is prepare for it, and then face it when it comes.”

Bruin grew very quiet and stared at the floor. He thought on the matter for a long time while sitting on that hard little wooden stool in front of his father.

“Am I going to die?”

His eyes grew watery as he asked. He didn’t look up. He didn’t want his father to see how scared he was.

“No!” Helrich pushed his chair closer to Bruin and then gathered his son up in his arms. “You have me and you have your mother. I survived it and so can you. Your mother and I are going to do everything we can to make sure you have the skills to live, ok son? Look, some medicine, and maybe some physical training and you’ll be as right as rain. You won’t win, but you will survive, alright?”

Bruin burrowed his head into his father’s chest, “Ok, Dad.”

“Good, now,” Helrich gently released his son, “Come to the porch with me, and I’ll read you something fun. I need some sunlight and I think we all need something to clear away the stress of today.”

Ch. 2: Training, Adolescence & Obsession

Bruin’s parents kept their promise to give Bruin every possible tool he could have to survive his oncoming fight.

His mother negotiated with Miranda, the medicine woman of the village. As long as Brunhilda made her a nice casserole once a week, Bruin could sit by her side and learn when she treated the townsfolk of the area. In the meantime, Brunhilda gave him private lessons, teaching him how to treat burns and bite marks, having done the job herself before settling down with Bruin’s father.

When he turned 10 his father pulled a favor from an old drinking buddy of his, Guillermo. They’d survived a chaotic youth together, and straightened up their acts in parallel. While he was a fate interpreter, Guillermo was a knight in the King’s Guard and lived in the city near the castle. He convinced his old friend to teach Bruin how to fight. Helrich had a few wealthy clients in the city and would take Bruin with him, leaving him with Guillermo while he was there.

Guillermo was skeptical of this arrangement. He was used to his squires staying with him and devoting their lives to training, not going back home to finish their chores. And Bruin was starting young. He anticipated a fidgety young boy who forgot lessons the moment he went home but was pleasantly surprised to find the Bruin would continue to practice any drills he gave him, and seemed to retain knowledge fairly well from lesson to lesson.

But there were bits that Brunhilda and Helrich could not plan, dedication from Bruin that was unexpected for as young as he was.

His father got him one encyclopedia on monsters, magical and surreal. He found it from the same collector of books he’d typically go to in order to research obscure or lost family histories.

Bruin devoured it whole and then craved more. Despite the terror that he felt, the monsters still fascinated and excited him. It was beyond survival, he thoroughly enjoyed seeing the scales and the claws and finding out how many stomachs they each had. He even enjoyed all the little gory details about how they tore apart or lured their victims even if he knew it could happen to him someday. They were just interesting animals.

He read it under a gnarled old apple tree that grew at the very edge of his parent’s property. He spent sun-dappled mornings there going word by word, with his encyclopedia next to a little dictionary, translating the words into smaller ones that fit into his vocabulary. His mother had to drag him away from it to do his chores.

He’d constantly pester his father for new editions while scouring old libraries. He read one after another after another after another.

The boy never stopped.

If he wasn’t looking over Miranda’s shoulders as she made a poultice, he was reading about monsters. When he wasn’t doing that he was doing his drills, and when he wasn’t doing that he was doing random chores around the neighborhood to use as strength-training exercises. He could always rely on someone needing wood-chopped or their gardens weeded or their gutters cleaned. He’d accept anything that kept him moving, that made him more aware of his body. It was the only way he connected with the community

His mother worried about his dedication veering into obsession. He didn’t attend many get-togethers in the village or talk to many kids his age. He was clearly growing into a focused boy who was very helpful to people, but in all things, he was fairly withdrawn.

She brought it up to him while he was helping her weed in the garden,

“You know there’s going to be a life after you meet your monster, right? What are you going to do after that?”

Bruin shrugged, he didn’t really have an idea.

“I suppose I’ll figure it out then. Maybe I’ll keep studying monsters; there are people who do that.”

He liked the idea of writing his own bestiary someday.

“You can’t always focus on your death, it’s not right. There’s an entire town in front of you that you’re missing.”

“It’s not going to be my death, and I can focus on that all after I know I’m safe.”

She tried bringing it up to her son again but it fell on deaf ears. She could force him to go to town events, and even to talk to people, but he’d never be there for the love of it, or desire for people, only obligation to her, and he’d fight her every step of the way in a desire to go back to his training and his books.

It was a constant source of frustration for Brunhilda, and It became a late-night conversation between her and Helrich.

They were reading together, side by side, snuggled in after their son had fallen asleep.

“I’m worried about our boy.”

“He squirm out of another town festival?”

“YES! Boys are supposed to want to have fun at that age aren’t they? I’m glad he’s focused but I’m worried this is becoming a morbid obsession. I like that he’s being practical, I truly do, he has a reasonable head on his shoulders but he doesn’t talk to people, not unless it has anything to do with monster slaying. I’m afraid he’s going to grow into a very lonely man. Or one that doesn’t truly care for people.”

Helrich set his book down on his chest and leaned on his headboard.

“It worries me too, and I’m sorry I haven’t been helping you out in this fight.”

Hildy made a face at him. She had noticed his lack of support and it had gotten her skin

Helrich looked sympathetically at his wife.

“ I understand your concern, I do. I’m… just scared to send him in the other direction. When I was growing up I lived like every day I was going to die.

I ruined my reputation recklessly and destroyed my body without concern. I only started to think about long-term consequences after my fight, you’ve only known the better version of me. But before, I didn’t take anything or anyone into consideration. I lost a lot of friends that way. Guillermo was one of the few I had left. All my professional connections required me to prove I wasn’t the man I used to be. I don’t want my boy like that. He’s withdrawn, but he’s young and responsible and acting like life matters. There are things I could say that might change his mind, but I’m afraid to lead him down my old road.”

Hildy put her hand on his shoulder.

“I know, there are some things that I won’t understand about bearing the fate that you and Bruin carry. However I truly, truly don’t think anything you say is going to make him turn to your reckless style of living. His skull is far too thick and his heels dug in too deep. You’ll be lucky if you can get him to change one iota. And to be honest, I think some smoking and drinking could be good for him. ”

Helrich chuckled, “Alright, I see your point. He is already different than I was, and he has your solidly practical bloodline to balance out my feckless one. I’ll talk to him about it during my next trip to the city. He won’t be able to run away then.”

She squeezed his hand, “Thank you, my Dear, and good luck.”

………

Bruin was 14 was his father tried to push the issue of his...“Tunnel vision”. He had leather reins in his grip and the cart jostling beneath him as his father supervised his steering.

The conversation started with a rough cough to break the silence, and a hesitant, “Bruin your mother and I have been talking….”

Bruin could feel where there was going. He didn’t show he registered the comment except for a tighter grip on the reins and a slight glance over to his father.

“I don’t want to say this but you know- Your mother and I want you to live, and we’ll do all we can to get you to live, but you still might die. You should enjoy your life- while you still have it. You’re a young man. You won’t be a young man forever. What if your monster comes in your forties and you never let yourself live “

“I’m alive.”

“Yes but you’re not meeting people, you’re not trying to have new experiences. You’re only focused on one goal, and there’s more to life than that. Talk to people, have fun and be a teenager. Take a day off from your fate once a week, or something. Please, for the sake of your mother and me, if nothing else.”

Bruin looked down at the road, “I’ll think about it.”

Bruin was lying. The request annoyed him. He was doing everything that was asked of him, and he was frustrated that it wasn’t enough, that he was asked to do more. It made him avoid his parents and stubbornly dive into training and researching even more.

Ironically, it’s what led him to meet his first friend.

………..

Bruin found some fenced-off fields owned by a man who didn’t live in town anymore. They were only checked on every month or so and left abandoned for the rest of the year. They were far enough outside the town’s borders that his parents couldn’t catch him and pester him about being part of the community.

This is where he met Abagail. He was doing his standard training exercises with a fallen-over tree, imagining it was a basilisk and that he was trying to avoid its eyes.

She was leaning on a fence nearby.

“Why don’t you use a scarecrow or something? They’re closer to a man shape.”

He looked up to see her standing behind him. Wisps from her braids were blowing in the wind.

“I’m not practicing to fight men; I’m practicing to fight monsters.

“What kinds?”

“Any. I don’t know yet. My family is fated to fight a monster and then fail, on my Dad’s side at least, but I’m probably not going to get my Mom’s.”

“Damn, that’s an awful fate.”

“Yeah, I’m trying to learn how to dodge a lot and protect my most vulnerable areas so that I get maimed instead of dying.”

“Is that why your Dad has two wooden legs?”

“Yep.”

“My Mom’s fate was to go on a journey when she was 18 where she’d meet interesting people, get a job and meet the love of her life. My Dad’s was to make a fortune on a gamble and lose it all three years later. I hope I get my Mum’s.”

“Yeah, that one sounds nice.”

“Well don’t stop on my account, keep going, I like watching you practice.

Abagail was not lying on this account. At age 14 Bruin had developed some very distinct wiry muscles that made him stand out from other boys their age, and his movements were so practiced and agile they were almost elegant.

He was her white whale, an unreachable but attractive boy, who no one had gained the attention of. The challenge itself was enticing, but it helped that he spent his seemed uninfluenced by the rest of the town’s low opinion of her.

She found spending time with him peaceful.

Abby was the one who got Bruin to live his life a little bit more. She got him back into swimming in the nearby river and started him in on taking dares and trying new foods. She had a frantic enthusiasm for life that was contagious and a little terrifying. She could get him to dance at least a little bit at town functions. It wouldn’t be for long but he’d be there.

(She jokingly referred to it as his mandatory fifteen minutes, sometimes, if she was lucky, she’d get him to smile.)

He liked listening to her ramble about town gossip while he stretched or chopped wood or did his drills. It made him feel like a part of it all even if he wasn’t making an effort to join in on all the drama.

“Samantha has been gunning for the lead singer for the tavern band for a while, and I swear she slipped something into Katlyn’s drink to make sure the girl had a creaky throat on the exact wrong night.”

“Was that the winter’s festival?”

“Yeah, how’d you know that?”

“People talked about how bad that performance was for days after. I’m not completely oblivious.”

“Yeah! Katlyn was new to all of it, so not everybody knows how well she can sing on a normal night. A lot of them were saying it was nerves, and she can’t handle the attention of the stage. Now Samantha’s been the head singer ever since, but all of us are suspicious of it.”

Abby even found a way to get Bruin to talk for long periods.

It started with a simple question,“ What monster do you think you’re going to fight?” She felt embarrassed asking, feeling that maybe it was too personal. But then he talked, first about the type of creatures typical to Langdon, their homeland, and then moved on to a full-blown 20-minute lecture about the migrating patterns of horn-toothed scallywags.

He stopped when he realized how wide her eyes had gotten.

“I’m sorry, that’s morbid and weird I should-.”

“It speaks. Ladies and gentlemen, the boy is capable of speech.”

“I’ve always been capable of talking. You’ve heard me talking.”

“Yeah, when I drag the words out of you with some tongs and elbow grease. I think I say fifty words for every one you say. Think you talked with some actual enthusiasm there.”

He scratched the back of his neck nervously, “My parents think it’s unhealthy, thinking about my death all the time.”

“Yeah but they’re parents. What do they know?”

He smiled a little at that.

……

Brunhilda and Helrich had complicated feelings about Abagail Puckett. On one hand, they were delighted for their son to finally have a friend. On the other, she was a chaotic gremlin, and her father was a known gambler.

Beggars couldn’t be choosers, but Brunhilda’s smile was strained around her. Abby noticed and fed off the disapproval.

……

Abagail was his first kiss. He was 16.

The kiss itself hadn’t arisen from any big romantic moment. He was stretching in the middle of his makeshift workout field, letting his body cool down while she lay next to him, stating at the clouds overhead.

She’d simply asked him “Have you kissed anyone?” and when he told her he hadn’t she followed up with “Can I kiss you then?” He hadn’t seen a reason not to.

“Sure.”

She’d pressed her lips to his, and he tried his best to kiss back. He hadn’t known what to do with his hands.

“Huh.” She said quietly after she withdrew, “So that’s how you kiss.”

She had a few, suggestions after that, about how to use his lips and teeth, and a little bit of his tongue.

When they’d finished she told him that he learned a lot faster than the other boys she’d been with, but that he could stand to be a touch more confident about it.

“It’s nothing more than physical, just like your workouts. Don’t get too into your head about it. You’ll be great with a little more practice.”

It was faint praise but it still made him blush. In the heat of the moment with the blood rushing through his ears, he asked her, “Why do you… kiss so many boys?”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know, it’s not normal. My Mom and Dad just have each other, and a lot of people just have each other and you seem to have… everyone.”

She snorted, indignantly

“Are you trying to say something about me?”

“I just- I don’t get it.”

“You don’t get it because you don’t want to interact with anyone.”

“I mean- yeah.”

She felt a touch guilty for snapping at him.

“Look- Everyone here is looking for their person, the one they’ll stay with for the rest of their lives, but I can’t do that. I’m going to find that person on my journey- whoever they are. So- I don’t know, when you know there’s someone out there who’s supposed to be your perfect person everything just feels like… wasting time? Messing around? And I guess I just treat it like that. I don’t lie. I’m honest twith everyone that I’m just having fun. And I get to figure out what I like.”

“Why do you hang around me so much then?”

Abby smelled a follow-up question on the wind that Bruin was too afraid to ask, and she didn’t poke at it.

“Because you know when to shut up. Like, this is the first inappropriate question you’ve asked me in our two years of friendship. That’s a record. And it was a question instead of a statement or a judgment. You’ve got a head start on a lot of people.”

“I like you being around.”

“I know you do.”

……………

It was a sunny day in August Bruin got a letter from the royal family. He was 19.

Guillermo was standing in the doorway of his parent’s cabin, a letter clutched in his fist, and a pained expression on his face.

“Bruin-I-it’s good I saw you first. I want to tell you I’m sorry. If I knew how to prevent this I would. I got a little ahead of the escort party so I could give this to you in person, and in private. If there’s anything you or your family needs from me now I’ll gladly give it.”

Bruin felt a storm coming.

“What does the letter say, Guillermo?”

Guillermo handed it to him, and Bruin tore off the protective parchment around it. It read as follows:

To the Honorable Bruin Slater,

We have heard tell of your talents, and the royal family of Langdon is calling you to do your duty to your country. Go to the High Cliff Mountain Range near Kingstown. There lives a dragon there who has been eating the cattle of your countrymen. It needs to be killed. We need you to go find its weakness or slay it.

The Kingdom is counting on you

Signed,

Queen Thistleberry Seidel of Langdon

All Honors to your house and family

He wanted to cry, vomit, and scream all at once. Instead, he collapsed in a chair nearby the doorway, letter crumpling in his hand.

A Dragon.

Dragons weren’t beasts. They were fully sentient, incredibly intelligent creatures filled with magic that had un-piercable skin and could breathe fire.

He was going to die, he had planned all his life and he was still going to die.

#fiction #fairy-tales #original writing #cliff hanger #Misread Fates #writeblr

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julnites · 4 months

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Red riding hood comic collab with the wonderful @yeehawpim (go check out their blog for loads of great comics!) 🌷 See the layouts he did here!

#james art times #artists on tumblr #comics #comics!! very excited to do this and especially with pim who is just fantastic at what they do #fairy tales #little red riding hood #pim did the layouts and I rendered these and my goodness was it a good time #he also did the image descriptions so huge shout out for that as well #go check out her comics! you will not regret it

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thecollectibles · 4 months

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Bluebeard by Marjolaine Roller

#art #digital art #Illustration #fairy tales #Marjolaine Roller

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star-ocean-peahen · 7 months

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After watching Cinderella (the original animated movie, which was my favorite as a child), it strikes me how it solves many common problems people have with this fairy tale. Like:

Why did they try to identify the mystery girl using her shoe size? Because the bullheaded king's only clue to her identity was the shoe the Grand Duke picked up off the steps.

Why didn't the prince recognize her by her face? Because his father wouldn't involve him in the process at all, and wasn't the one going around trying to find her.

Why did the prince want to marry a lady he only met that night? Because his father was going to force him to marry someone, and he genuinely liked this woman.

Why did Cinderella want to marry a man she only met that night? Because marriage was her best and most secure way to freedom. Fucked up, but you can't say it's unrealistic for the setting of a fairy tale. She also genuinely liked him.

If they're using the slipper to find her, wouldn't it be more sensible to search for the person with the other slipper? Yes. The King is purposefully nonsensical and the Duke is purposefully terrified enough of him to carry out his orders to the letter. Furthermore, they end up doing that in the end anyway, because the Duke's glass slipper is shattered, and Cinderella brings out the one she has to prove her identity.

Why didn't the stepmother and stepsisters recognize Cinderella at the ball? Because they were dancing too far away, and then left the party to dance in private, which was possible because the King wanted very badly for his son to hit it off with someone and tried to arrange the best conditions for that to happen.

Why didn't Cinderella save herself? Because in real life, abuse victims should not have to shoulder that responsibility, and usually can't. In real life, you need and deserve an external support system. Asking for help, in this kind of situation, is very important. She is saved by others because she is loved. Because she is not alone. Because she has friends who love her, and want her to be happy and safe and free. Because in real life, people who want to help someone who is suffering are like the mice. We can't pull out miracle solutions, but we can provide companionship and if we're in the right place at the right time, we can help the person find a better life.

Why didn't the fairy godmother save Cinderella from her abusive household, or try to help her sooner? Because she's magic, and magic can't solve your problems. Quote: "Like all dreams, well, I'm afraid it can't last forever." This (and Cinderella's dream of going to the ball) is a metaphor for pleasurable things in bad circumstances. An ice cream won't get rid of your depression, but it will provide you with momentary happiness to bolster you, as well as the reminder that happiness in general is still possible for you. Cinderella doesn't want to go to the ball so she can get away from her stepmother and stepsisters, or so she can meet someone to marry and leave with. She wants to go to the ball to remind herself that she can still have things she wants. That her desires matter. This is important because the movie does a very good job of illustrating Lady Tremaine's subtle abuse tactics, all of which invisibly press the message that Cinderella doesn't matter. While going to the ball and fulfilling her dreams may not be a victory in the material sense, it is still a victory against Lady Tremaine's efforts.

Why is Cinderella's choice to be kind and obedient framed as a good thing, when you are not obligated to be kind to your abuser? This one walks a very fine line, but I think the movie still makes it make sense. Lady Tremaine never acknowledges her cruelty. She always frames her punishments of Cinderella as Cinderella's fault. Cinderella is interrupting, Cinderella is shirking her duties, Cinderella is playing vicious practical jokes. Cinderella is still a member of the family, of course she can go to the ball, provided she meet these impossible conditions. Lady Tremaine's tactics are designed to make Cinderella feel like she must always be in the wrong and her stepmother must always be in the right. If Cinderella calls her stepmother out on her cruelty, or attempts to fight back, Lady Tremaine can frame that as Cinderella being ungrateful, cruel, broken, evil, etc. If Cinderella responds to her stepmother's cruelty defiantly (in the way she's justified to), she's not taking control out of Lady Tremaine's hands. Disobedience can be spun back into her stepmother's control. She wants Cinderella to be angry and sad and show how much she's hurting. So since Cinderella is adapting to her situation, she chooses to be kind. Not only because she naturally wants to be and it's part of her personality, but because it is a form of defiance in its own way, and it allows her to keep a reminder of her agency and value. Her choice to be kind is her chance to keep her own narrative alive: she is not obeying because her stepmother wants her to and she has to do what her stepmother does, but because she wants to. It's a small distinction, but one that makes all the difference in terms of keeping her hope and identity. (Fuck, I wrote a whole paragraph about how this doesn't mean you can't be angry at people who hurt you or that you need to be kind to deserve help, and then deleted it by accident. Uh. Try again.) Expressing anger and pain is an important part of regaining autonomy and healing. Although it is commendable to be kind while you are suffering, it is NOT required for you to get help or be worthy of help. If Cinderella's recovery was explored beyond "happily ever after" she would need to let herself be angry and sad to heal. Cinderella is not only kind because it comes naturally to her, but because it's her defense against the abuse she's suffering. Everyone's story and experiences are different, and one does not invalidate the other.

Bonus round for answers that aren't part of the movie:

Why didn't Cinderella run away? Where would she go? Genuinely, in hundreds-of-years-ago France, where would she go if she snuck out of the window with a change of clothes? With her step-family, she's miserable and abused, but she's fed, clothed, and in no danger of dying or being taken advantage of by anyone other than her stepmother and stepsisters. Even if she escapes and manages to find financial security, her stepmother might be able to find her and get her back.

Why didn't Cinderella burn the house down with them inside it/slit their throats in the night/poison their food/etc.? Because that's a revenge fantasy, and this story is a fantasy about being saved. There's nothing wrong with making Cinderella into a revenge fantasy. That's perfectly fine, as long as you acknowledge that the other type of fantasy is also a valid interpretation. (I mean, the original fairy tale features the stepsisters getting their feet mutilated and all three of them getting their eyes pecked out, so go for it.)

Why isn't Cinderella more proactive in general? Because she's a child who has been abused for the back half of her life, who has had to be focused on survival because. you know. she's an abused kid.

How did she dance in glass slippers? Gotta agree with you there man, that's weird.

#cinderella #cinderella (1950)#fairy tales

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morning-star222 · 2 months

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#aesthetic #cottage aesthetic #cottagecore #fairycore #nature #naturecore #cottage witch #flowers #fairy aesthetic #fairy tail #fairies #fairy tales #garden #beautiful #green aesthetic #green #life #lifestyle

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twistedtummies2 · 1 year

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Let’s Talk About...”A Villain’s Twisted Heart”

So, this is a little different from most posts I make. XD Basically, I just wanted to take a little time to talk to you guys about a couple of games I found out about recently. They have some good characters - as well as very kinkable ones - and they are very “niche” pieces, not especially widely known. So I thought bringing some attention to them would be a good idea. Both games are by a gaming company called “Genius Inc.” They make otome-style visual novels, which are all…TECHNICALLY free to play. Yeah, spoiler alert, I can’t - in good conscience - recommend either of the games I want to talk about AS games. I’ll get to why that is, and tell you where you can find walkthroughs to view, later on in this post, however. First, I want to focus on the positives, and especially on the characters. There are two games I want to discuss, and I think it’s best I do them one at a time. So, I’m going to start with this one: “A Villain’s Twisted Heart.” WHAT’S THE STORY? I am 90% convinced that, since this game came out in 2021, and has a title like “A Villain’s Twisted Heart,” this had to be inspired by the success of my beloved “Twisted Wonderland.” When you first hear the premise, it does bear a few passing resemblances to the game, but it’s different enough that I think it can stand on its own. The story focuses on the POV Protagonist - referred to as “The Reader” - who has the power to make material anything they read aloud. Basically, if they were to read, say, something from Arthurian Legend, they could potentially summon Excalibur; within the story of the game itself, they read from Cinderella and summon the Mice, and from a science book and summon a portal into outer space, just to give you two examples. However, in typical fashion, the Reader doesn’t know how to fully control their powers, and sees it more as a curse than a blessing. Things take a bad turn when they encounter a mysterious antagonist, known only as “The Unraveler.” The Unraveler is a Reader gone rogue, who uses his powers to travel to different worlds via different stories and books, and then basically mess everything up there. The problem is, the more one messes with other worlds this way, the greater the risk of the world itself being completely destroyed by the Unraveler’s meddling. He’s now planning to do the same to the Reader’s own world. To try and combat this threat, the Reader attempts to summon three of their favorite heroes in fiction…but, seemingly because of their lack of experience, they instead summon the villains of the stories in question. These villains are Captain Hook (from Peter Pan), Grimm (the Big Bad Wolf of Fairy-Tales), and Hisame (a genderbent version of the Snow Queen). The Reader thus is forced to team up with these dastardly, selfish, murderous scoundrels in order to defeat the much worse evil the Unraveler presents. In the first season of the game, all the action takes place within the Reader’s own world, with many fish-out-of-water elements for the Villains who are the focus. In the second season, the Reader and the Villains travel between the three worlds of the bad guys’ respective stories, pursuing the Unraveler to try and stop his mad plan to basically become a God. Since this is an otome type game, you make choices along the way to strengthen your relationships with the three Villains, and at the end of the story, you choose to form a romantic relationship with one of the three; they remain in your world (the Reader’s world), while the other two return to their own respective universes…with the promise that they will either visit you or you will visit them sometime down the line.

PROTAGONISTS & ANTAGONISTS

The main thing that both this and the other game I plan to talk about do so well is create strong characters. While the Reader is a mostly pretty blank protagonist - which is par the course for this type of game, to be fair - I do appreciate the person who wrote this visual novel did, in fact, give them a little bit of a personality, and a story arc beyond just falling in love. The Reader starts off as an easily flustered, generally reserved person at the start, and by the end of the game they’ve become just as much of a bad@$$, to be blunt, as the three Villains who they befriend (and, in at least one case, more than befriend). They also have a sense of humor and, despite being shy at the beginning, they aren’t completely spineless, usually ready with a quick comeback or logical argument. On that note, the character IS defined as female, but there’s no reason one can’t imagine them as male in personal writing, or just keep the gender neutral. The Unraveler, our main antagonist (pictured above), is a pretty deplorable villain. And I mean that in a good way: he’s a decent bad guy. He starts off as a straightforward villain without much depth, but as the story goes on, he becomes more interesting. We never find out his true name; apparently, he adopts a new alias each time he visits a new world, and all his misadventures have unnaturally expanded his lifespan, so he’s far older than he seems; just like the Villains we’re facing, themselves. In the Reader’s world, he adopts the identity of a college professor (Moriarty, anyone?), but it’s pretty clear even this identity is something he’s made up. Whoever he is, his backstory is that he was a person who was neglected and shunned by society for most of his life; when he found out about his powers as a Reader, he used them to make himself into the hero of many stories. He craved the attention and praise being the hero got him, but he wasn’t willing to do the actual work to become a true hero; instead, he would organize things to make the heroes of those worlds look bad, and thus present himself as the only one who could stop their evil deeds. It’s this obsessive need to be given attention and adulation that leads to him seeking to become “The Hero of All Worlds,” which would apparently give him powers tantamount to a God. Which brings us to the real stars of this story, the three Villains. What I appreciate about this game is that these three Villains ARE villains, at the start. They aren’t just misunderstood heroes, or even anti-heroes: they, themselves, acknowledge that whatever and whoever they used to be, they became the bad guys of their own stories. A common thread runs through all three of their stories: it’s revealed that each of these Villains used to be the hero of their own respective world. They were protective presences who guarded their people and tried to help them in times of need. That all changed when the Unraveler came to their world: he framed each of them for crimes they did not commit, and when they tried to stand up against him, they failed, lost, and thus their reputations were completely ruined. The suffering they went through led to all three making the same basic decision. To quote a song: “You’re looking for a monster? Well, it’s your lucky day! I’ll be what you want!” As the story goes on, each of the three not only begins to form attachments - both to each other, and to the Reader - but they do start to shape up. By the end of Season 1, they’ve effectively gone from Villains to Anti-Heroes: they’re not exactly GOOD people, but they’re on their way to the path of redemption. And by the end of Season 2, I’d say all three are what would be termed Flawed Heroes. They’re now more or less heroic figures, the way they once were…but after spending so much time as Villains who would kill or even eat you without a second thought, they obviously still have some broken gears in the clockworks, so to speak. On that note, let’s now take a look at the three separately… MEET THE VILLAINS

Captain Hook is the first of the trio we’ll talk about. Hook seems to be the sort of self-appointed leader of the villains, as he’s the one who comes up with most of the plans throughout the story and tends to act as an ironic voice of reason. I do love the way Hook is portrayed in this version: while he’s younger than most versions of the character, he’s still basically the Captain Hook we all know and love. He’s a sneaky, dastardly swashbuckler with a theatrical, charismatic, slightly foppish sort of personality. The game plays a lot with the duality of Hook, between him as the dandified gentleman and him as…well…a pirate. He’s a drinker, a womanizer, and has the sort of cocksure swagger many typical pirates have, but he’s also capable of being quite eloquent and even somewhat of a ham. They also play with the brutality of Hook: he’s a manipulative sadist who loves to play with people’s minds, keeping his cards close to his chest and finding stealthy, subtle ways to solve most problems. You can never fully trust him, and he seems to be the one of the three who gets the most pleasure out of the thought of not only killing but outright torturing those who cross him. As the game goes on, Hook softens up considerably, his sadistic elements toning down bit by bit, as he starts to realize he still has a chance to reclaim at least most of the things he lost when Peter Pan (one of the Unraveler’s many identities) cut off his hand and fed it to the Crocodile.

Grimm, the Big Bad Wolf, actually reminds me a bit of Jack Howl from Twisted Wonderland…except that, at the start, he’s much meaner. Where Hook is a mental threat, who prefers to outwit his enemies, toy with their minds, and use guile and sneakiness to get what he wants, Grimm is a purely physical threat. While he isn’t a total dunderhead, he is, nevertheless, a person who relies largely on brute force and intimidation to get what he wants. At the start of the game, he behaves more like an animal than a human being, and is easily the most physically imposing and strong of the trio. He’s also, being the Big Bad Wolf, RAVENOUSLY hungry. He’s a bottomless pit, really; threatening to eat people on more than one occasion, and constantly chowing down throughout the game, without a shred of manners. As the game goes on, we quickly realize that under his big and bad exterior, Grimm has a soft side; he’s basically a violent tsundere, afraid to admit his true feelings and form close attachments because of past experiences, and trying to seem meaner than he (already) is. As the game goes on, Grimm opens up more and more, and shows a sort of puppyish side to his personality: he’s extremely curious about human life, and the way things work in the Reader’s own world, and goes from trying to push them away to becoming the single most protective of them out of the whole bunch. By the end, while he’s still got his rough edges and doesn’t always like to show his soft sides, those soft sides are clearly taking greater precedence.

Finally, there is Hisame, the Snow King. In order to talk about him, I have to give a bit away about his backstory: Hisame’s origin states that he was stabbed by Kai (the Unraveler’s identity in his world) with a dagger formed from a cursed icicle. In Lord-of-the-Rings fashion, a piece of the icicle knife broke off inside of him, and is working its way slowly into the Snow King’s heart, freezing him from the inside out. As time goes on, not only does this cause Hisame to become more and more emotionally cold and distant, but it also means he runs the risk of dying if his heart freezes completely. The only way to break the curse is, of course, through True Love’s Kiss…but if you’re worried that means you HAVE to pick him, don’t worry: in the same vein as “Frozen” or “Maleficent,” it’s explained that True Love doesn’t have to be ROMANTIC love, it just has to be real. Regardless, for most of the game, Hisame is as cold as his slowly freezing heart: he’s haughty, dictatorial, commanding, passive-aggressive, and thoroughly icy. He’s an emotional threat, constantly seeking to make others feel inferior to himself; a dominating and imposing presence. He’s not a sadist the way both Grimm and especially Hook can be, it’s more that he doesn’t care if you suffer or not…which, arguably, can be seen as even more frightening. Part of the reason he acts so cruel and heartless, it’s revealed, is because he’s afraid of what will happen if he gets too close to someone: he’s scared he’ll hurt them, or that their compassion will be wasted on him in some way. Eventually, he does learn to accept his own emotions and finds a way to both literally and figuratively thaw out his frozen heart. For those reading who know me for my kinkier fanfics, yes, I do have MANY thoughts related to these three lads as kink crushes, especially Hook and Grimm. Perhaps I’ll go into them more if people ask in some fashion, but for now, suffice it to say all three characters are awesome and definitely have the capacity to make me blush. WHY YOU SHOULD NOT PLAY THE GAME. So, I’ve established I like all these characters, and the story itself - while not completely perfect in its execution (the second season is somewhat rushed, in particular) - is actually a decently well-told tale. It blends elements of both slice-of-life romance and a sort of magical/superhero adventure epic together in a very fun and sweet way. I also appreciate that, while you can form relationships with all three, they remember that you can only pick one to be your true love at the end. By which I mean, even though the Reader shares romantic scenes with all three characters, they’re written in such a way that you can sort of “excuse” the fact they ultimately will only pick one lover by the end of the tale. HOWEVER, there are two things wrong with “A Villain’s Twisted Heart,” and to be honest, they are problems that all the Genius Inc. games I’ve looked at (I’ve taken a peek at a few by now) seem to have. The first is that this game is very cheaply made. And I do mean VERY cheaply made: a lot of the artwork featured in the game is taken from stock, with only a few backgrounds, screens, and the main character sprites being original. The music, similarly, is a blend of some original music and stock music together. All of Genius Inc.’s games seem to be made on the budget of a can of beans, but this one seems oddly and particularly low-budget compared to even some of the others I’ve looked at. This problem would be excusable if it weren’t for the other issue: all of Genius Inc.’s visual novels have the same basic gameplay system, and it’s a system that is, to be blunt, rigged completely. The games are free to play, and most of the choices you make throughout the story are totally up to you to make. HOWEVER, there are specific choices - referred to as “Premiere Choices” - which are THE MOST IMPORTANT DECISIONS for the character to make. Choosing one way will lead to basically getting a bad ending, and choosing the other will lead to basically getting a good ending, plain and simple. This is already problematic enough, but this is what really tears it: in order to even MAKE the choices that will lead to the good ending(s) of each game…you have to pay money. Yeah. The games are free to play…but to get the good endings, you have to spend cash. On the one hand, I guess it makes sense from a business point of view: how else would these shoestring budget titles make a profit? But from the perspective of the player…that’s just messed up. SO…how to experience these characters and this story for yourself, without giving in to these miserly fiends? Simple: watch a walkthrough on YouTube. There are actually a couple of channels with walkthroughs of this specific game available online, it seems to be one of the most popular titles Genius Inc. has produced. I can see why: out of all the games I’ve looked at so far from this company, this one is probably my favorite, as I feel it has the strongest and best-written story out of all the ones I’ve seen. So, if you don’t know about this game and want to learn more about these lads, head to the magical YouTube and start looking. It may not be worth playing, but it’s definitely worth checking out.

“But wait!” I hark thou wail. “What of the other game you mentioned? What is it?! Is it on YouTube as well?!”

Patience, my little ducklings, patience…I’ll get to THAT business another time… ;)

#random post #let's talk about...#a villain's twisted heart #avth #grimm #big bad wolf #hisame #snow king #captain hook #hook #fairy-tales #video games #anime bois #kink-related #but only peripherally #at least for now #you all can guess the kinks if you know me

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