Status: Open
Prompting is currently open. Prompting is open from 28 December 2024 to 19 January 2025.
About
"the poem begins not where the knife enters, but where the blade twists"
"beauty is terror"
"you'll just have to taste me, when he's kissing you"
Calling all readers, lovers of poetry and music, screen and stage. Quote collecters and lyric hoarders, unleash your archive. For this round, every prompt must contain a quote - you can combine them, add commentary, link to articles, do whatever. Steal from a literary classic, or copy a hit tweet.
đ HOLD UP
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Prompting
- Click on [Post a New Comment] at the bottom of this post;
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Need ideas? Check out our 2021 and 2022 Quote rounds.
Filling
- Reply to the original prompt;
- You must change the subject to [FILL] - this is to help the mods track. Feel free to add a title
- Copy+Paste the following HTML into your comment, edit the sections, and add your text.
You may also upload your fill to the AO3 Collection.
Remixing
- Post as a reply to the fill you are remixing, using the same HTML as above;
- Change the subject to [REMIX].
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- Upload your work to any platform (twitter, imgur, youtube, soundcloud, google maps, etc.)
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for you
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: Bodyguard AU? Knight/Hwarang AU? + when devotion is rancid and fraught
Do Not Wants: None
Prompt:
[FILL] for you, my lord
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: vaguely medieval au?
Permission to remix: Yes
***
i made an attempt đđ
First he had carefully cleansed himself in the baths, and then was anointed with blessed oils, and now he stands garbed in newly polished armour, waiting for the final part of the ceremony.
He steals the slightest glances at the Prince when it is his turn to finally come forward, to kneel down and formally pledge his fealty. His stomach swoops with the gentle weight of the Princeâs sword against his shoulder, and threatens to make his voice waver around his vows.
He takes the time to carefully weigh each word in his mouth, each pearl of bravery, justice and obedience placed before the golden Prince. Not his father, not the kingdom.
Just for him.
*
Their hunting party comes across townsfolk besieged by bandits, and with his soft heart the Prince orders the knights to defend the unarmedâeven as he dismounts to join the fray. Heâs leaving himself vulnerable as the rest of the party blindly obeys, and Wonwoo can only scorn their misplaced loyalties as he follows after the Prince. Someone needs to protect his back for him.
Later, as the people tend to the wounded and mourn the fallen, he weathers the Princeâs quiet scoldingâfor that is what it is, really, interspersed with reluctant thanks for shielding him from the blows he had missed, even if it hadnât been necessary.
As untrained as they had been, some of the wild flailing had come dangerously close to skimming past the gaps in the Princeâs armour, even as Wonwoo was moving to intercept them before they could truly make contact. Itâs with that knowledge, and his security in his decisions, that he lets the Princeâs words stoke the warmth in his chest. Theyâre well-meaning, even if he doesnât quite understand.
(if there had been one more knight to defend some of the stragglers, caught defenseless and cornered, would there have been less casualties? The potential doesnât outweigh the value of the Princeâs wellbeing, and Wonwooâs shoulders are light as they begin to ride back to the castle.)
*
No one ever asked whether Prince Seokmin remembered the most minor of incidents years ago, when he was but a young boy briefly escaping the care of his guards to explore the lives of the townsfolk they were visiting. He ran gleefully through the streets until he bumped into a boy just a little older than him, the collision causing him to drop his precious basket of food into the mud. Freshly baked goods he had saved up carefully for, now ruined.
It was the devastation on the older boyâs face that made the young Princeâs heart ache, and his tearful apologies centred around being the cause of such an emotion in the first place. But the older boy buried his sadness deep down and entertained the Prince until the sun sat low in the sky, his guards finally coming to usher him back to safety.
He was sorry to see the young Prince go, even as he knew the coin purse he pressed into his hands in apology would be enough to keep his family fed for weeks. But the memory of the boyâs innocent happiness as he ran, the warm glow of accomplishment when he could finally rekindle that same pure smile solely of his own merit, the way his voice lilted a merry, âgood-bye, Wonwoo!â once he left with the soldiersâ
He, at least, remembered the satisfaction of it for a long, long time.
*
When the Queen tragically passes away, he is standing outside the Princeâs door, helps to dry his tears.
Many of the other knights seemed to view being assigned to the Princeâs personal guard as somewhat of an affront, and Wonwoo was happy to volunteer to take their places on rotation, as often as he could. Perhaps that is how they begin to become so familiar with each other, grown as they now are.
He is an attentive listening ear to his light-hearted complaints about his tutors, his fightsâbig and smallâwith the Kingâs advisors, sometimes with the King himself.
He is a sympathetic listener to his private fears about marriage, future partnerships formed for the good of the kingdom.
Theyâre now comfortable enough for him to offer to help the PrinceâSeokmin, in private, he insistsâexplore for himself.
He tastes as honey-sweet as he looks.
*
When the small force of the kingdomâs enemies invade the castle, Wonwoo is ready.
The toiling bells ring out a call-to-arms, summoning the palace guard to defend their King, and Wonwoo bars the entrance to Seokminâs inner chambersâpulling the chaise lounge across to block the doorway.
The pounding on the door and the frantic bells meld into one as he locks the outer chambers, too, and waits.
He only has to cut down three stray intruders that had the wrong idea. Itâs only a little anticlimactic.
As the bells start up a different, mournful cry, he knows the palace knights had done their job and taken back control of the throne room.
Itâs safe to unlock the doors and allow his King to batter his anger against his breastplate, as long as he likes. Better to get the rawest tears out now in private, even as he glares and begs to know why he would do such a thing. But the answer is simpleâ
âYouâre my King,â Wonwoo says, and carefully strokes a gauntleted hand over Seokminâs hair as he collapses into his embrace.
Re: [FILL] for you, my lord
[FILL] kingmaker
Major Tags: MCD :'D
Additional Tags: Fire Emblem: Three Houses AU (but no context required - treat it as a fantasy AU with knights and mages and dragons), duty vs love, hwa writes sins and tragedies
Permission to remix: Yes
***
Are you proud of yourself klav? Look at the word count on AO3 here and know how good you baited me and how long this fish chewed that bait!!
Re: [FILL] kingmaker
hwa you are absolutely insane for this!!!!!!!!! HOW DID YOU DO THIS!!!!! i finally got to sit down and read this over dinner today because i didn't want to be overly influenced while i was still writing my last fill and it honest to god felt like i was playing the game again for the very first time, even though OF COURSE i knew what was coming and how it was going to end. like i was so locked in. you've designed such a powerful narrative as you always do, such smart and meaningful decisions about who to cast and how to make their character arcs intersect. the genius of the meanie foilery on so many levels and the potency of the background jeongcheol, "background" as if it's not the political context that shapes the entire world and story lol â which is so richly imagined and adapted!! reading thru the comments i really hope we get some new carats to cross over... your power.
like structurally i'm sooo floored by the elegance of this story esp after reading klav's comment and your reply: the reversals! the foilery!! the fact that jww would have been yjh's ideal knight and kmg csc's, but how the fact that they ended up on different sides of that conflict meant that they were doomed from the beginning?? and the way that wonwoo and mingyu's parting scene as children haunts wonwoo's character arc because it encapsulates the social contradiction at the heart of the story, that they live in a broken world that can only be transformed through incredible violence and upheaval, a choice that wonwoo is ultimately too passive to make â and the irony that violence is only necessary because of people like wonwoo and seungcheol who mean well but don't have the courage to break free from the familiar system. and wonwoo asking seungcheol to swear the oath because he needs to surrender agency to something larger than himself is such a powerful scene, because he's accepted already how he's going to die, but to the very end he's determined to fit it into the framework of his ideals â that his final act of resistance is a narrative/interpretive one instead of the material one he's unwilling to make. what an absolutely great universe to put our poor boy in and watch him wriggle in the name of character study and i'm not just saying this because i spent the last year sliding deliriously back down the fe3h rabbithole!
and on a more granular level i love how the first half of the fic has so many wonderful moments of levity even as the tension builds and you can tell things are getting serious:
- from the very beginning i was so tickled by wonwoo's fantasies of bureaucracy/public works/research sponsorship, like baby noble wonu WOULD be exactly like this (in another universe he's an ipad baby cutting his teeth on New Urbanist Memes for Transit Oriented Teens).
- mingyu doing a pirouette in pantaloons
- seungcheol asking wonwoo to be his cyrano de bergerac!!!!! (putting on my delulu goggles) how i need the (won)jeongcheol romcom version of this where they just spend the whole time talking radical politics until jeonghan falls in love but by that time seungcheol is on board too and Yay Continental War Averted
- when jeonghan appeared as the imperial prince i actually screamed.
- the interhouse card game under the table was so cute now i want to think about garreg mach wwjnisms. feeding the stray cats.... i loved all the house assignments/backgrounds for the other sebongs too!!! i want to hear more about them!
- âLet him stew,â Jeonghan smiled knowingly, âItâs a good for him.â jeonghan you are so jeonghan.
every jeongcheol appearance killed me i'm so down bad for them...... i can't believe i never even thought to make them dimigard because it really works for their characters (i think i was too busy considering how to shoehorn josh into the triangulation lol) but i'm so upset! CAN I BE HAPPY? CAN I LIVE???? PLEASECRIMSON FLOWER. THE MOON IS BEAUTIFUL TONIGHT. SEUNGCHEOL LION. SOONYOUNG'S TIGER CREST ACTIVATION. HELLO??????
one of my profs always loves to use the phrase "muscular prose" and even tho it makes me giggle it kept popping into my head during so many scenes â so powerful in moving the plot along/explaining lore while also being thoroughly enjoyable. jeonghan confronting wonwoo about his essay for one! so many delightful jeonghanisms there, but also the not-joke about mingyu becoming emperor which comes back around with SUCH force later. and the descriptions of combat, both interspersed with the deaths of their classmates but also leading up to the final scene... wow.
and so many scenes i'll be haunted by, especially jeonghan's face turned up as if in prayer. wonwoo's exchange with the jeonghan inside his head. wonwoo with his brother's lance (the implication being that if he's crestless he's also taking damage every time he's using it â wonu sentimental to a fault T___T)
just so much to study and learn from and chew on!!!! i'll be thinking about this for a long time.... thank u for this crazy 15k fill truly what a gift.
(and also i'm so glad i waited to read this bc if i hadn't i don't think i would have been able to finish my own without it turning into something completely derivative, which is all to say that the plot bunnies are already spawning in my brain..... if not a proper remix then at least fanart because the image of jeongcheol in their regalia at the white heron cup!!!!!!!!)
Re: [FILL] kingmaker
is this how the victorians felt?? receiving letters at the door and then, already joyous at the weight of it, running to their writing desk to slice it upon and reply. I mustâve reread your comment five times in the span of a day, just relishing the words and forming a response in my head!!
Iâm always worried about the audience when I write, especially for something so heavily based on a lore-heavy work, but then I remember i just need to write for the one person who Gets It and YOU GOT IT. YOU GET IT!! Iâm so glad this fic found you and we found each other! what are the chances!! grateful to the universe.
thank you so much for this comment, and for describing the fic in such eloquent words - I was planning on writing an authorâs note but now I just want to [ctrl-c] [ctrl-v] because it will be difficult to do it better than you! the thing about constructing a thematic work is that the thesis is so clearly in my head, yet I have to write out the scenes which evidence that thesis without acknowledging it directly. Yet youâve pinpointed the scenes which Iâve set up to hit those notes and the character choices Iâve designed to expose those weakness !! thank you!! I am buzzing in satisfaction. (âMuscular Proseâ - I will giggle about this as well. again, because of the density of the law, keeping the narrative moving was on the forefront of my mind!)
so much of this fic is imbued with the fe3hisms that have infected me for year. Iâve thought about writing for 3h before but it felt too much like the same story to make the effort of writing worth it. So [kingmaker] became an outpouring of those thoughts.
[spoilers ahead for the three routes and the paired endings!]
other fe3h references:
(phew - almost there).
âjeonghan's face turned up as if in prayerâ â Iâm so glad you love this bc I actually agonised about it for a long time! It was originally worded something like âjeonghanâs face turned up to the sky, as if challenging the goddessâ â because usually when you pray you look down not up, and jeonghan is not devout. But (1) those words were too clunky and (2) wonwoo is blind in both sight and empathy so he would not have seen what jeonghanâs expression truly was, so to describe it accurately would be to step out of his POV. But in my mind jeonghan was challenging the goddess - like jesus in the garden of gethesemane before his crucifixion.
(Iâm /so/ thankful you didnât read my fic as you were writing yours because now I have a whole new fe3h storyline to obsess over! the jihancheol configuration and then jihan what-if and jicheol what-if and jeonghan what-if is exploding a new part of my brain that I am itching to write and engage with.)
Re: [FILL] kingmaker
i really love that you used this story to explore how class stratifies and fractures the chivalric ideal across this childhood friendship, because thatâs not actually something we get in canon â the commoner/working class characters in the game are mostly late arrivals who donât have prior interpersonal attachments (ashe, leonie) or in the case of dedue his bond with dimitri is so rooted in their shared trauma. the relationships in game with the potential to explore this kind of dynamic are maybe ferdithea and yuridetta, in that both of them involve an early confrontation with class difference as children + meeting later on in the academy on more equal footing, but the fact that you went and added the additional layer of conflicting political allegiances to it is so delicious.
i really love how fe3h reveals the horror of the crest system in bits and pieces/from so many different angles depending on which route you play, but agree that the pacing is a bit off in verdant wind (and to some degree crimson flower too just due to how short/underdeveloped it is relative to other routes). and because the crest system is such a focal point of the narrative, i think that crests throw into particularly sharp relief heteropatriarchy as the internal system of organization that structures the nobility â even for characters like marianne and lysithea for whom gender doesnât intuitively appear to be a central element of their backstories, because the anxiety around cursed crests or the desire to artificially engineer crested children is about controlling reproduction as a eugenic project. obviously crests also legitimate fodlan nobility as presiding over a class and imperial hierarchy, which we get glimpses into with characters like ashe/leonie/petra/dedue/claude, but these arenât explored too extensively or satisfactorily in game because the focus is on the nobility crumbling under its own internal contradictions, via the figure of edelgard and her trauma.
so i love that you went a step further in kingmaker to consider what if mingyu became emperor?? what if a commoner not only gained the respect and ear of the nobility but actually came to occupy (and ostensibly abolish) its premier position of power? i guess in some ways byleth becoming archbishop or queen (sorry i only recognize f!byleth idk who that other guy is) is kind of the closest thing we get but theyâre literally the vessel of god so that doesnât count.
your reasoning behind the csc/yjh/jww casting rings so true to me. when i set out to write my fe3h au i instinctively slotted csc into the role of dimitri, like someone who would buy into the chivalric ideal and come to embody it/make it seem logical as breathing â but youâve put why so well into words with actual evidence thank you!! being defined by roles and responsibilities and an eager puppy to step up to fill them even when they donât come naturally, and jww is similar if less charismatic/extroverted haha⌠pouring one out for my poor faerghan boys oh no. on the other hand, yjhâs willingness to change the status quo absolutely tracks â and i love how his acknowledgment that he wonât be able to properly rule/willingness to give the title to mingyu are also gestures to jeonghanâs self-sacrificing nature irl and how he only ever leads out of necessity.
(not wonwoo being blind in both sight and empathy LOL but it really does work both narratively and poetically that he mistakes jeonghanâs pose for prayer! i also didnt pick up on petra junhui but thatâs so cute⌠aw junnie)
iâm curious if you intended for jeonghanâs motivation for revolution here to be due to a similar traumatic backstory as edelgardâs or if itâs more externally influenced, like from becoming close to mingyu⌠i.e. does he see himself as a victim of the crest/nobility system personally? or largely as a beneficiary of it with a responsibility to destroy it as a result? i noticed heâs blond heheâŚ
i know that reddit analysis of felixâs endings â i read it somewhat recently too and it destroyed me. thatâs also what gets me about sylvix, the fact that it can either be the absolute worst or absolute best of felixâs endings depending on whether dimitri/the kingdom are intact â like ugh thatâs so crazy and potent, and just reinforces to me how great fe3h is at using the game medium to tell a story/develop such a compelling world. i did notice you putting aspects of both sylvain and felix into wonwooâs character and that feels soooo targeted to me as a wwbias/sylvixthinker like damn i rly was right in the line of fire.
and woncheol as edelgard/hubert makes a lot of sense but theyâre also so dimilix (minus felixâs whole whirlwind of grief/rage/resentment) bc of that very faerghan sense of needing the structure of hierarchy. itâs interesting that this sense of hierarchy is still so present in the empire in-game too, like hubert insisting on referring to her as lady edelgard, and getting pissy when he feels other people arenât respecting her sufficiently. i guess it speaks to the idea that edelgardâs revolution still remains somewhat trapped in the social conventions of hierarchy and nobility though arguably this is what also allows her to become such an effective leader! on the other hand the alliance is much more egalitarian, plus claude is an outsider, but they have trouble getting things done as a result (and also my friend once called claudeâs vision of the future neoliberal multiculturalism lol). but jeonghan WOULD be a claudelike lord even as leader of the empire, someone whoâs deeply pragmatic about the failings of the status quo but who would also use a combination of charisma and subterfuge to smooth his path, down to an easier camaraderie with his subordinates⌠actually in the process of writing this ive just talked myself in one big edelclaude circle i guess. really an underrated dynamic to me!
finally speaking of horses how we both made stable duty/horse instruction one of the hallmarks of a cross-class friendship haha. because the game is so clear about the strong association between riding/knighthood and a very specific notion of chivalry (etymologically related to cavalry ofc)! i really love how worldbuilding and characterization are communicated in game through charactersâ skills/stat blocks too, like edelgard and hubertâs weaknesses in faith, asheâs budding talent in lances (also associated with the chivalric ideal), sylvainâs budding talent in reason⌠i think you might also appreciate this series of posts on worldbuilding in fe3h via fashion too if you havenât already seen it!!
Re: [FILL] kingmaker
(PLEASE do send/link me all your fe3hteen fanart on twitter when you can!!)
I will start with the game as a medium to deliver a story, which was at the end of your reply:
scream Iâve noticed some characters growth stats but Iâve never done a sweep to check the themes. I absolutely agree with your sentiment -- the gradual uncovering of details through character interactions was one my favourite part of fe3h. It makes the story more real because it is constructed piece by piece in our heads by ourselves, rather than told to us. And the fragmentation of an idea through different characters like you mentioned! especially when they go through a similar experience like edelgard cf lysithia, or hubert cf ferdinand (the shadow of the fatherâŚ).
also, each player notices different things, recruit different characters, or may skip interactions entirely, resulting in a different ânarrativeâ. I recently pushed dimitri/marianne A support after reading a fic where marianne was queen because the fic explores how they just happen to be the two people who understand what itâs like to live with a monster within you.
you've really taken the thoughts out of my own head about the inextricable influence of crests on characters and customs. I loved how some of the support conversations unravel assumptions and recondition learnt behaviour (Some Other Supports shall not be mentioned) - meeting hanneman on my first run gave off the impression that crests = cool power and knights = noble (thanks ashe), but as we discussed re the crest system + felix's bitterness about ingrid/rodrigue's treatment of glenn, that cornflower glory became tainted and I wanted [kingmaker] to just cut a cross-section into that side of fe3h and tease out that arc.
on your question on jeonghanâs motivation for the revolution and whether it was fuelled by personal or external influences. I did think about this! He IS blond but thatâs just for the aesthetics; I didnât want to put him through the edelgard sausage maker because I think itâs a disservice to jeonghanâs character that he would only be motivated by personal trauma â that he only cared about the crest system because something happened to /him/. I read him as more selfless and omniscient (and nosy), so decided the history on that basis (haha in retrospect this is also another point of contrast to wonwoo, who understood the ethics in theory but only practically through mingyu).
jeonghan is also a victim of his circumstances, in all timelines I think jeonghan would eventually uncover the true history of crests and see the unfairness of the established power systems. however, because he was born into power, he recognised that he was in the singular position to effect change and thus, /had/ to do so. unlike mingyu, I see jeonghan as someone who is unwilling to step into authority, but conversely cannot /step away/ from it if was necessary for him to lead (like how in talk shows, he lets someone take the spotlight but is actually always observing and, if the topic needs to be changed or awkwardness alleviated, he steps in - exactly as you mentioned).
how the cards fell in [kingmaker] was only because jeonghan met mingyu and because mingyu was mingyu (commoner, charismatic, talented, 120% perfect man but still bullyable). with mingyu, jeonghan saw the path to a complete reconstruction of society. without mingyu, jeonghan would have taken softer path of politicking, power erosions, and commoner empowerment (also the path if jww was yjhâs knight), but there wouldnât have been a total abolition of crests, only a less unfair society.
going through to your comment on mingyu as emperor: yes!! I love that for him too, he will certainly Get the Job Done. both jeonghan and wonwoo realises that the eradication of crests = the eradication of themselves. and there is poetic justice in a commoner king after a revolt.
yes edelgard the conqueror blind to her own weaknesses â âedelgardâs revolution still remains somewhat trapped in the social conventions of hierarchy and nobilityâ â as much as VW feels like an add-on to pokemon blue / red, I think it does a good job to give us that third, slightly more neutral perspective to the war and see how edelgard has been manipulated by certain groups to enact change which benefit those groups under the guise of a false crusade (wait this is accidentally too topical)
Other short points:
[REMIX] seasons of warfare
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: fe3hteen, be my mirror my sword my shield
Permission to remix: Yes
***
tweet
well you've seen these already but again for the dw archive :)
[REMIX] kingbreaker
Major Tags: MCD oops
Additional Tags: Fire Emblem: Three Houses AU from someone who has literally never touched the source material, dramatic irony, #doomed by the narrative
Permission to remix: Yes
***
dear hwa I return the question, are YOU proud of yourself?! this remix haunted me. I have not stopped thinking about [kingmaker] since the moment you posted it. I suspect I now know more about FE:3H than any non-player has any right to know, but forgive me for whatever lore does not fit the canon here. one day I will get to play the blue lions route!
posted to ao3~