What if Eclipse from AP was a naga? And this took place in the deep jungle of the amazon, where photographer y/n is trying to take pictures of the wildlife?
I'm vibrating at the speed of sound over this ask while also nudging my naga au
Naga Eclipse from AP would have the tail of a Green Anaconda, with an olive green scaly color dotted with black, framed by burning-like flares of orange along the length of his slithery body. He's also decorated with orange-yellow striping on either side of his long, slipper form. His upper half is scaley with a lithe deadliness to his musculature and decorated by frills surrounding his head with brighter orange-yellow colors, almost hypnotic in their gradient hues. One eye is deep emerald green, and one is midnight blue.
Lucky you—you're out on a once-in-a-lifetime expedition to explore a jungle closed off to the public, funded by Fazco, and occupied by two researchers who will be your bunkmates for the next few weeks. You're itching to take photos of the large river, including swamps, marshes and streams, and whatever wildlife is out there.
The few locals you did meet before you left to hike the rest of the way to what would be your new, isolated home warned you of a dangerous snake—a large, mythical beast. You take note of the local folklore. You understand the truth is hidden in there somewhere, and you are well aware of the dangers and diseases you could be met with in such a harsh environment, but you're determined.
It doesn't take long for you to feel eyes watching you when you first venture out by yourself. You take beautiful pictures of freshwater fish, big and beautiful, unlike any you have ever seen. Of course, you have hundreds of snapshots of the local flora, the trees, the floating meadows, the thick vines that drape each branch and hang thickly about the ground. You almost forget that you eerily don't feel alone.
But you swear something moves in the water—the ripples stop as soon as you look. The stillness is suddenly stiff, lifeless. Even the birds have stopped chirping.
You lower your camera and carefully put it away. A trickle of fear slips into your heart. You turn away from the river's edge only to be met by a low hiss and a creature, unlike anything you witnessed in your travels, spooling itself neatly out of the water, blocking your path to the base. An incredible creature with long arms and a great, serpentine tail that seems to stretch for yards and yards. You can hardly breathe in his presence—he's otherworldly with his frills and scales and fangs.
His eyes contain a mesmerizing shine as if staring into a fire as it burns or watching the ocean as it laps up against the beach, drawing your attention, demanding you don't look away. You couldn't anyway. Half-frozen, you struggle to keep from collapsing. He beckons with a sharp talon. He hisses softly for you to come closer, mouse. He wants to see you. You try to beg no without revealing how terribly you tremble. He doesn't let you go. He insists. His eyes flash with an allure. You almost step close when he murmurs that you need to be good.
But then your sense of survival kicks adrenaline into your heart, and you turn to run—
He strikes faster than your eyes can follow. Two loops of his green and orange tail surrounded you in an instant. You're dragged to the ground, your arms pinned under his mass, and the back of your head cradled by his large palm as powerful muscles squeeze you in the slightest—a gentle rebuke for thinking you could get away. You're hyper-aware of the terrifying bulk of muscles as you lie trapped in his coils. One strong twist and your eyes could pop out of your skull, and every bone protecting your heart and lungs would crumble to shards. You gasp. An urge to kick your legs and struggle erupts in your panic; a sinking feeling tells you it would only make things worse.
He coos over you, hissing and humming in an ancient song of the jungle you have no name for. When you whimper, he shushes you and strokes your cheek. He tells you how lovely you'll be. When you talk back to him, somehow finding your tongue amid your horror, you find out his name. Eclipse. He moves you more upright, resting you on his tail so you're not petrified by how vulnerable you feel lying down, but he never loosens his scaly bindings. He hovers over you. You gaze into his stunning frills of yellow-orange and wonder how a being like him came to exist. He studies you as you study him. He grins at how you shiver when he traces your collarbone with a sharp fingertip.
You remind yourself that you can still breathe. He hasn't crushed you—yet—but you don't like how wide his smile is. Sometimes, his jaw stretches a little too long as if dislocating from his skull, ready to devour you. His eyes gleam with a ravenousness as scales twist around you, holding you close enough to smell the slick green water he had been in and deep musk.
He tells you that he'll see you again very soon—away from other humans, lest you bring him a fine gift for a meal. You can only flex your fingers, silently pleading in your heart that he won't unhook his jaw and eat you alive.
Then, he unravels himself from your limbs. But before he lets you go entirely, he leans in close, his serpentine tongue flickering close to your neck and by your hair, tasting the air around you as you muster all your strength to not scream. He inhales deeply, pleased, before he murmurs, "Sweet mouse. You are mine. Say it."
You don't understand, but you echo his command, and when he taps your chin once in what might have been a loving gesture, you force your jelly legs to solidify before you run and run, all the way back to base. You slam the door to your room behind you. You touch your ribs, your arms, still caught in the heavy sensation of his loops as if he were upon you right now.
The stories are true—there is a giant snake in this jungle, and he wants you. You're afraid to discover if Eclipse's intrigue with you is only an exotic way to satisfy his hunger.
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the more i rotate him in my mind, the more i really enjoy a genderfluid transmasc tim who is pretty freaked out by his own more fem days because he is so set in thinking he's a guy. he made himself into jack drake's all-star american son as much as he could for years, and it feels like a betrayal of all that time he spent being the son his father always wanted, if he "regresses" into wanting to be a girl again.
what he doesn't realize is that there's a world of difference in being closeted and pretransition vs sometimes wanting to be a masculine figure presenting fem. it's not regression but he's convinced it is bc he has fucking issues. he can separate out disguising himself as a woman as playing a part, but wanting to dress more femme himself sometimes - wanting to look like a boy dressing as a girl? oh that must mean something is wrong with him. he's going to repress this urge really, really hard every time it comes up. and if he snaps at kon for looking like a boy dressing as a girl one day (he's jealous. he can't admit it. he envies that shy delight on kon's face when bart compliments his dress. he knows kon is still exploring and feels tentative and fragile about it. why can't he do that? he just can't. and then kon asks why he's so tense and if he's okay, and a cutting comment he doesn't actually mean slips out...) oops!!!
(of course it gets talked out and resolved. cassie might threaten to throw him off a building if he doesn't admit what's actually bothering him, but they work it out.) but anyway that's beside the point. the point is i really like transmasc tim who isn't as binary about his gender as he has convinced himself he is. and it gives him Problems and Fucking Issues. he needs more problems and fucking issues
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A KH newbie's take away from BBS and how Ven, Aqua, and Terra are each coded as part of a typical 'tragic' Fairytale, as Princess, Prince, and Villain. Before they're able to deconstruct those molds in KH3.
I think it's so interesting how Ventus, Aqua, and Terra are so like. Weirdly coded lol. Like bare in mind this is personal opinion/hc, kh newbie here, and what I've seen so this is mostly just spitballin' since I haven't really seen anyone else say anything about it (could be wrong) but like.
First things first a personal view- they are siblings to me lol, they make me think of myself and our siblings sm it's kinda insane. Not in a perfect parallel way, but an understanding. That in mind though,
Ventus is so princess coded??? Like. First, he's a pure light (albeit made rather than naturally like that compared to the actual princesses of light), he's super sweet and and has a lot of faith in his 'princes/heroes' (Terra, Aqua), has a dream of making friends where ever he goes and budding independence (again, kinda like those 'i want' Disney princess), hes kept away in a castle (both in the Land of Departure as his Mentor/Father Figure doesn't want him to leave, AGAIN, ARIEL?? and later when he's in Castle Oblivion.) Again, the whole sleeping in Castle Oblivion also paralleling Aurora, in an actual throne... Waiting to be woken up.
Then you have Aqua, who has so much prince coding. Always helping the princes of each world, slaying monsters and chasing after her 'princess' (Ven) to bring him back/'Save' him from the 'villain' (Terra, and not actually, more as in like, Terra being not a bad influence but def not Ven should be following after rn, metaphorically being dragged along the villains path and needing to be saved, but also from the actual antagonists of the game), her heroics and selflessness always being out on display as a literal master and her huge sacrifice in the end of BBS to try an save Terra and facing a dark path/obstacle like the princes and princesses she helped before. The whole thing with Cinderella, her promise to wake Ven up paralleling Snow White.
Then you've got Terra who is villain coded. I'll be the first to admit I think he's wasn't as bad as everyone was making him out to be (Maleficent and I think Hades saying he's literally too chicken/good for him to willingly give up to Darkness and his choices more of a product of manipulation and self doubt?? And trying to do the right thing in the wrong way idk it's weird.) But he's more painted as this villain who leaves crumbs for Ven and Aqua to find, and tries his best but still causes harm to the other princesses and people he meets. Eventually succumbing/loosing to darkness to be sealed away like another great evil biding it's time to break out again after it is sealed away by the 'Prince.' (Aqua saving him with her armor but not succeeding in the long run).
Anyways, what I'm trying to get at is that BBS to me just comes off as a 'tragic' fairytale, just like the old Disney movies they use as world's in game. Although Disney always gave them a happier ending, and BBS, though a tragedy ends in a happy reunion it's not without its trauma that each of its protagonist had to go through and endure till then. Almost like how original Grimm fairytales ended sadly. It just carries that.
By the end of their story, they no longer have to play thoughts parts however, as much as Kingdom Hearts uses old fairytales and their story structures, it also deconstructs em in a way. With Eraqus gone, the Wayfinder Trio are some of the last vestiges of this 'traditional' way of Keyblade wielding, and history. Their game uses older and more old-fashion Disney movies, with a typical villain, prince, and princess to tell a story with that the other games don't have necessarily. (Not with Riku becoming a redemption, or Sora technically not being the chosen one) so the Wayfinder Trio doesn't have to follow that narrative anymore either by KH3. Just as stories allowed for more complex characters and themes as skill, budget, technology, and ideas grew so did they. Aqua's heroics and light weren't infallible and fell to darkness after so much time trapped in it, Terra was freed and allowed to have a happy ending, Ventus went off to have, in its own way, his own agency in following and helping Sora in his heart, then saving Aqua and Terra as they tried for him. Each a reversal of what they were initially set up for and coded as in the beginning.
I just... Think it's super neat and cute! Obviously they've outgrown these codings, but in some small ways they remain or are shared between them, Terra becoming more prince, Aqua more villain and Ven retains his position as princess, but now all together they're all royalty in some way. Awoken from his slumber, and helping the people he loves, and letting those people get the chance to join him in become like princes (heroic) or princesses (light) again.
In a lot of anime and manga there's this theme of Princess and Princehood. A good example of this would be Revolutionary Girl Utena, in that being a prince is more of a code or way of living rather than a thing you are born as. Something to strive to be in a abstract way. It's not extended to being a Queen or a King however; those still being very much rooted in its realistic counterpart's roots. Like bing a good ruler (A La, Ling Yao FMAB). Prince and Princesses have a layer of separation because they are not yet the rules of their kingdoms, there's an element of youth there, sure, but it's more that a Princess and a Prince can be symbols for something greater to be of service to a larger society and part of their community. Utena wants to be a prince because she sees them as kind and chivalrous and a symbol to people, like the one that saved her (I haven't seen Utena in a while or even finished it pls bare with me but I'm sure this is it.) Or think of the 'prince of the school' archetype in shojos/slice of life type anime. They're seen as princes because they're kind and respectable and help their classmates like a good prince would do for his people.
Then Princesses are a bit more unique, I don't have a good example in anime or manga, but in the west we do something similar in framing Princesses as symbols of purity and goodness. Disney is a big perpetrator of this. We've got Queen Bees, or calling people princess teasingly. How they're good with animals, and young children, generous and kind. That myth that all little girls wanna grow up and be like a princess; partly because of the dresses and castles, but also because they represent being a good person to the people around them. (Yes this is also steeped in misogyny that girls need to be these things or strive to the other parts of princesses like the dresses and obedience to their royal families and such, but in reclamation of princesses as an idea- this is the barbies in fairytopia types, or twilight sparkles, who want to be friends and help people with princesshood being a reward for choosing to help their communities and cherish their friends.)
Villains are a little trickier, they're not seen as a good thing, but times change and the definition of a villain changes with it as attitudes change over what does and doesn't qualify under that label. It's oddly fluid like that, no one wants to be a villain but we're all villains in someone else's eyes, which kinda goes in line with the games in a way. The Guardians of Light are the Villains in Xehanort's eyes, preventing change though he doesn't begrudge them I don't think. Or Terra not seeing Xehanort as a villain at first, but his Master under the gaze that he was going to hurt Ven. And Terra looking like a villain to everyone else outside looking in. If you don't try to understand at first, then you're just going to keep thinking they're villains. (This doesn't apply to everything obviously; some things are cut and dry and you can see their actions plain as day, but Terra's actions are not something the other's bare witness to first hand and only get 2nd hand accounts or the after effects, which they refuse to believe are even real lol. They love their brother too much for that.)
Anyways, there's not much more to add other than I thought this would be neat to day and put out there. Totally don't want people to draw Ven as and Aqua as a Prince and Princesses sibling duo (and yes, VEN, as the princess let's be queer guys, put him in a tiara and holiday barbie esk gown lol) and again, when I say Prince and Princess they're as removed from their gendered connotations as I can get, more like, complimenting takes on the same idea of chivalry? This is coming from someone who is both genderqueer and genderless. And uses We/Us in reference to ourselves so like, I don't see princess as a girl thing or Princes as a boy thing. We can be both and neither as the same time.
Anyways it's 5:03 am. This has been a brief Moonie analysis ig. Have fun out there guys, and follow what your heart tells you to. 💙
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