Ali Bri fanfiction.net LittleRedSiren3101, writer, 23, artist, wanting writing prompts, Hufflepuff, Fenrir and Hermione are my favorite paring RP: askahufflepuff
One of life's great ironies is that almost everyone who makes the active decision to not have kids would probably be way better at raising a child than all the people who just kind of have children because it's what they think everyone is supposed to do
Like genuinely if you're like "I don't want kids because of the financial strain/the commitment/the irritation I would feel/the possibility of traumatizing them/whatever reason" you instantly demonstrate to me that you 1) understand the realities of parenthood and 2) believe that children should be treated with at least a base level of respect and compassion. Meanwhile everyone who's like "I want kids because I don't want to be alone" "I can't wait to dress up my babies" "I won't raise my children to be soft" may as well be talking about Neopets for all the fucks they seem to give about kids
"I sort fics by kudos and only kudos on stories with high kudos counts, why aren't there more stories with high kudos, I ran out of things to read." You're part of the problem.
"Authors artificially inflate comment counts by thanking people, I can't find anything with a real comment count to read." No they fucking are not, they're grateful for engagement.
"I can't read anything under 100k." That's the majority of fics you're ignoring, most novels aren't even that long.
"I don't have time to look for the incredibly rare diamond in the rough, so I won't read anything below a certain amount of kudos, comments, and hits." Those fics are popular because people gave them a chance and then snobs like you found them.
"I won't read anthing with a single typos." You made typos in that sentence, get off your high horse.
"One singular author didn't thank me for commenting, I'm never commenting on any fic again so I don't get burned." You're punishing people because someone didn't give you engagement they don't owe you that they might not have seen.
"This fic is three months old, it's so old, it doesn't matter if I comment or kudos, it's old." Fics do not have expiration dates, comment and kudos.
You're killing your fandoms with your snobbish behaviors.
Cherry - a variable color averaging a moderate red
Crimson - any of several deep purplish reds
Damask - a grayish red
Erythematous - exhibiting abnormal redness of the skin or mucous membranes due to the accumulation of blood in dilated capillaries (as in inflammation)
Erythrism - a condition marked by exceptional prevalence of red pigmentation (as in hair or feathers)
Ferruginous - resembling iron rust in color
Floridity - tinged with red
Gules - the heraldic color red
Hectic - red, flushed
Laky - a purplish red
Lateritious - of the color of red brick
Lurid - shining with the red glow of fire seen through smoke or cloud
Magenta - a deep purplish red
Maroon - a dark red
Miniate - to paint with red lead or vermilion
Puce - a dark red
Raddle - red ocher
Rouge - a red powder consisting essentially of ferric oxide used in polishing glass, metal, or gems and as a pigment
Rubefaction - the act or process of causing redness
Rubicundity - having a healthy reddish color
Rubor - redness of the skin (as from inflammation)
Rubricity - redness
Ruby - the dark red color of the ruby
Rufescence - a reddish or bronze color
Rufosity - quality of being reddish
Sanguine - a moderate to strong red; bloodred
Scarlet - any of various bright reds
Stammel - archaic: the bright red color of stammel (i.e., obsolete: a coarse woolen clothing fabric usually dyed red and used sometimes for undershirts of penitents)
Vermeil - vermilion (i.e., any of various red pigments)
Thank you lovely, you are the only one sending me asks at the moment. Here is the second part of the snamione smut one. Enjoy!
~Kyoki
Ever since that night, Snape had thought of nothing else. Each day he thought of her soft cries, her begging him for more, of him giving her exactly what she wanted.Â
It had been a long time since he had been with a woman, and he didn't quite remember the social traditions. Not to mention she was his student and he her teacher. They never should have slept together, he knew that, but it didnât make the longing he felt any easier
It had been a week since that night, and a stressful week it had been. It had been torture seeing her sitting there is his classroom, nose in her books, not paying him any mind. It was like that night hadnât happened, like he hadnât shagged her on the very desk she chose to sit at this week. Was it a small nod to their illicit activities together? He was doubtful.Â
Hermione was acting differently in his classes as well, not raising her hand when she knew the answer, paying more attention to her books than to anything else, himself included.
He didnât realize the reason everything felt off until today. Didnât see the signs, he should have seen them.
Heâd been walking down the corridor towards the dungeons when he saw them, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. He didnât think anything of it until he heard Hermioneâs laugh, his attention dragged back to the pair just in time to see Potter pull Hermione to his chest and kiss her.
His vision went red, seeing yet another Potter taking away smeone that had his affection. It was torture. Did the unverse hate him so much that it would give him this slight hope that someone wanted him only to tear it away? He watched as the kiss ended, at how Hermione had smiled at Harry, how Harry took her hand in his own, pulling her further down the corridor, likely to go find someplace to snog.
Severus was livid at the very idea. She had been with him not a week before and now she was choosing to be with potter?Â
He had every intention of figuring out why tonight. He doubted she would be able to stop him.
It was hours later that he saw her again, she had come into his classroom, her hair disheveled, a large smile on her face, eyes twinkling in delight.Â
Oh, how he loathed the sight of her.
âYouâre late Miss Grangerâ he drawled the words, watching her eyes still twinkling. âIs everything a joke to you?â
The words seemed to snap some of her mirth away, causing her to frown at him âOf course not Professor, I just-ââI do not care what you were doing. You are to be here on time for your lessons.â he scowled at her.
âYes Professor, i apologize, it wont happen againâ she promised him.
Severus took a deep breath, steading himself for the next couple of hours. How strange a mere day ago he had been looking forward to this meeting, to seeing her again, kissing her, now the very idea filled him with fury.
âShould we start Professor?â she asked him, having come up to stand in front of him. Part of him wanted to pull her into him, to kiss her senseless, but he knew better than that. She had just been kissing Potter, had likely justâ The thought infuriated him. âLetâs begin thenâ he said, his wand at her face before she could even blink.
Sliding into her mind was harder than it had been last time. It was as if her mind was surrounded by a thick rolling fog, her thoughts kept hidden from him. He should have been impressed but he wasnât. A dark part of him was dying to know what she and Potter had done together, if they had done exactly what she and Severus had shared but a week before.
Silently he tore into her mind, seeing how she tried to hide her memories, the fog thicker in some places then others. He knew though that the ones he wanted to see the most would be the ones she tucked into the back of her head, protecting it fiercely.Â
He wasnât wrong, soon finding the memory he wanted to view. He tore at her fog, not unaware that the girl was trying to stop him the best she could. Still, he tore at the memory until he could view it.
He watched the scene from before from her eyes, how Harry had kissed her, how she had laughed, being dragged away. The memory began to get foggy again, Hermione trying desperately to push him out. Still snape pushed back, wantingâ needing to see the rest of her memory. He sliced back through the fog, watching as Harry had led her into an abandoned classroom, had pushed her against the wall, had kissed her again, his hands running down her side to under her skirt and thenâ Nothing.
Severus linked in surprise for the girl had managed to force him out of her head. If he wasnât so livid with what he had seen he would be proud of her.
Instead, he stood there, livid that she dared to be with someone like Potter after being intimate with him the week before.
âProfessor-â Hermione started, panting softly from the exertion of pushing him from her mind.
âOut.â he commanded, his grip on his wand tight.
âProfessor let me explainââ
âGET. OUT.â he didnât need to scream the words, his tone cold as ice. He watched the girl start to argue but he left no room for argument.
Roughly he grabbed her by the arm, dragging her to the door and pushed her into the hallway. She stumbled but caught herself, looking back at him with a confused glance. âProfessor pleaseââ whatever she was going to say was cut off by the door slamming in her face.
No, he didnât want to hear her excuses or know why she chose Potter over himself. Didn't need to know.
Heâd lived through that pain once before; he refused to do it again.Â
Choosing the Beast: Modern Folklore Heroines Embrace the Animal Husband
âI choose the bear.â The refrain rang out across the web, with many a woman nodding in agreement or at least understanding, and certain men huffing with indignant outrage. Just a meme, really, but did it speak to a deeper truth? Is it merely age-old mistrust of patriarchy talking, or a true desire for the beastly, the wild, the untame?
Iâm no sociologist, of course, but I have noticed an emerging trend in fem-gaze media that seems to reflect this view. In movies like I Am Dragon (2015) and recent shows like My Lady Jane and The Acolyte, the heroine chooses the beast, loving her animal husband in his wild form rather than requiring him to transform back into a mundane man to earn her affection. This is such a departure from the typical folktale pattern that itâs difficult to even find an historic example where this occurs.
Commonly thought to reveal the desire to tame a dangerous mate in a patriarchal society, most animal husband tales (ATU 425a) feature a hero who ultimately transforms permanently into a human. This is viewed not only as freeing him from the maddening effect of his wild form, but also saving his bride from committing the sin of bestiality. In these tales, the animal mateâs transformation is necessary for the salvation of both.
Is the modern heroine then damned by choosing her husbandâs beastly form? Or does she actually free them both from the yoke of patriarchal expectations?
Bathing: Discovering the Wild Masculine
The first motif that stands out in these modern screen examples is bathing. In animal spouse tales, there is often a dynamic of the hunter and the hunted, and thus a moment when the hunter comes upon their would-be lover unawares. Perhaps they find the animal spouse sleeping, or they cast a light on them unexpectedly, see them without their animal skin or disguise, and so on. And of course, they often come upon the lover at their bath.
There is an implied eroticism in this discovery, finding oneâs quarry not only undressed, but also in the most private of activities. Water of course symbolizes fertility, but bathing is also purifying, symbolically washing away all that might make a mate undesirable. And this, perhaps, is the reason that historically this motif is used almost exclusively for animal brides, not animal husbands.
For the animal husband, he either actively chooses to reveal himself to the bride (perhaps on their wedding night), or she violently strips away his disguise, often armed with âflame and steelâ like Psyche and her many avatars. Animal brides on the other hand are nearly always discovered at a body of water, bathing. The hunter will then capture her either by stealing her animal skin or cloak, or by placing his own clothing on her. What does it mean, then, when it is the husband who is discovered bathing in a body of water, held as an erotic object in the feminine gaze?
In The Acolyte, Osha follows Qimir to a pool where he slowly undresses, in full knowledge that she is watching. On the shore, she steals his lightsaber, just like the hunter who steals the animal skin, symbolically claiming him. When he emerges, Qimir dons new clothes, as if acknowledging that he is a different person than before he entered the water, almost purified in a way. Osha is forced to confront that there is more to the murderer in the mask than she realized.
Similarly, in My Lady Jane, our heroine goes looking for Guildford just before sunrise on their ill-fated wedding night, only to discover him bathing in the stables. The scene is gratuitously filmed from Janeâs (very horny) perspective, flipping the script on the countless scenes in screen history shot with the masculine gaze. Immediately after she discovers and confronts him, Guildford transforms against his will into a horse, and Jane realizes that he is an Ethian, a creature she has been taught is demonic and unnatural.
And in I Am Dragon, Mira makes several discoveries in quick succession: first, she deduces that Arman is actually the dragon. In the next moment, she slips from the islandâs peak and falls, saved only when Arman transforms at the last moment and breaks her fall with his dragon form. The water begins to wash over his unconscious body, and at first Mira thinks that she will allow him to drown. But the sight of Arman in his human form after he rescued her, worried over by his animal familiar, stirs her to pity and she wraps him in a sail and drags him to safety. In this way, she clothes him, claiming him as her own.
Each of these heroines discovered a new aspect of her husband at the bath, finding him unexpectedly alluring, and ultimately choosing to begrudgingly claim him. Each animal husband tried to wash away his beastly form, to separate himself from the wild masculine. These men feel a sense of disassociation from a part of themselves, but now that their brides have discovered it, there will be no more hiding. Further, the bride now holds the power in the relationship, evidenced by how her husband needs her: Qimir needs Osha to be his apprentice, Guildford needs Jane to help him âbreak the curse,â and Arman needs Mira to heal him from his wounds.
Playing House: The Half-Husband
The second feature of these stories is a period of domesticity for the couple. For a brief time after the husbandâs beastly nature is revealed, the lovers âplay houseâ like children. While sexual tension is present, they typically do not consummate their union during this time, but instead cook, eat, rest, and care for one another. Whatâs more, they ignore or even attempt to actively destroy the husbandâs animal form. They deny that this is part of him and therefore part of their relationship.
In I Am Dragon, Mira heals Arman, and wakes the next morning to find he has left food for her (dragonfruit, appropriately). Together they begin building a home out of shipwreck debris they find scattered around the island. A cheery montage shows them decorating a living space, choosing clothes, playing music, and dancing. But the specter of Armanâs monstrous form lurks on the edge of their idyllic life. Mira has nightmares, and tells Arman how much she fears âthe dragon,â notably not referring to them as the same person. And eventually, it emerges that Mira has been planning to escape, rejecting Armanâs dragon form entirely.
After he sheds the helmet and robes of The Stranger, Qimir turns his attention to caring for Osha: he heals her, lets her sleep in his bed, provides clothes, and cooks for her. In turn, after some lightsaber-wielding, Osha becomes more comfortable in his home and accepts the food he offers, eventually even trying on his helmet. Later, they bicker amiably on their way to Brendok, like an old married couple on a road trip. When not facing down Jedi, Qimir leaves his menacing persona behind and transforms into an empathetic, protective, and alluring partner.
Jane Grey, meanwhile, finds herself using her honeymoon sequestered away in a private cottage to try to cure Guildford of his Ethianism. With her knowledge of medicine, she concocts various potions and magical cures, but none of them succeed. Guildford often checks in on her after these disappointments, making sure sheâs getting enough sleep and taking care of herself. Itâs also clear that theyâve been regularly dining together when Jane suddenly dashes off to rescue her friend. Guildford follows her and the two protect one another, followed by an almost-tryst. Even when they move into the palace, their day-to-day (or rather night-to-night) life is one of comfortable domesticity, although they continue to deny Guildfordâs horse form.
In each of these cases (although less so in The Acolyte without Season 2 to continue the story), playing house can only last for so long while the husbandâs animal nature is denied. There is a part of him that is suppressed, rejected, and this leads to him being incomplete, a half-husband. Each hero is unable or unwilling to accept and celebrate his whole self with his bride. Eventually, it is that denial that leads to a rift between the couple, which can only be healed not with the transformation of the husband, but with the embrace of his animal form.
Enforcing Patriarchy: The Rival
Each of these relationships exists in direct opposition to the dominant culture in the story: Arman as the Dragon is the literal enemy of Miraâs people, Qimir as Sith is the enemy of Oshaâs Jedi masters, and in My Lady Jane, intermarriage between humans and Ethians is punishable by death. By choosing to stay with their animal husbands, even for a brief time, our heroines are openly defying the patriarchal norms of their societies. But no oppressive society is about to take that transgression lying down. In each story, a rival emerges to enforce the patriarchal order, kill the beastly husband, and retrieve the bride.
In I Am Dragon, Miraâs betrothed and descendent of the dragon-slayer, Igor, journeys to rescue her from the dragon. Over the course of the story, it becomes clear that Igor cares nothing for Mira herself, and merely feels entitled to her as his bride. Dragon-slaying is his heritage, so he must find her, kill the dragon, and take his place as the hero of his people. Even the marriage ceremony illustrates his ownership of her: he takes hold of a rope tied to her boat and reels her in, thus binding her to the patriarchal order. Contrast that to Arman, who offers her the power of flight, a symbol for freedom.
In Oshaâs case, Qimirâs rival for her loyalty is clearly Master Sol, who wants to keep his former pupil dependent on him and the Jedi. Sol takes patronizing fatherliness to an extreme, constantly rescuing Osha rather than letting her stand for herself, teaching her to deny her feelings and instincts, and lying to her to âprotectâ her. The Jedi refuse to allow that there might be any other way to access the Force than their own, thus invading the home of the Brendok witches and ultimately orphaning the twins. Sol continues to press this dominance to the end, challenging Qimir and insisting to Osha that his own lies were justified.
In My Lady Jane, there are two rivals, both women. Lady Frances attempts throughout the show to dominate her daughters and crush their wills, forcing them into unwanted marriages, applying political pressure, and even counseling Jane to abandon Guildford to save herself. The other rival is Mary Tudor, who is determined not only to emulate her fatherâs violent, oppressive, and misogynistic reign, but to crush anyone she considers âunnaturalâ or who poses a threat to her rule. These characters stand as clear examples of how women can enforce patriarchy, too.
In each story, there is a moment when the rival briefly recaptures or ârescuesâ the bride from her beastly husband, bringing her to a moment of decision: will she stay within the bounds of patriarchy like a good little girl? Or will she make an act of defiance to choose her own path?
Marriage: Choosing the Beast
The brideâs choice will ultimately decide not only her fate, but that of her mate as well. As an independent character, the wild masculine is deeply wounded, separated from himself and thus from his bride. He longs to transform not into a greater, more whole person, but into a lesser, half-person. Alone, without the embrace of his anima, he cannot see the value of his beastly form. Instead of healing, he faces annihilation.
As a part of the brideâs psyche, the beastly husband represents her innermost desires, the truth of her heart, and a spirit freed from the expectations of her society. He is her animus, her missing wild masculine. If she transforms him into a man, then she will tame his wild nature, bringing him to heel under the boot of the patriarchy. Choosing the human form and rejecting the beast means rejecting her own psychological needs. It would be just another form of psychic dismemberment.
Fortunately and unusually, each of these modern brides chooses her beastly husband without demanding he transform. When Osha finally agrees to become Qimirâs apprentice, she takes his hand under the willow tree, clasping the newly-bled lightsaber between them. A few scenes later, this wedding imagery is repeated when they hold hands over the saber again, this time looking into a sunrise/set. Notably, at the moment they âmarryâ under the willow tree, Qimir is wearing his beastly helmet with rows of menacing, wolfish teeth. He has not come to the light side or shed his Dark Side persona, but Osha has embraced him anyway without fear. And while they might not both be healed (yet), they are more whole together than they were apart.
When her efforts to cure Guildford of his Ethianism repeatedly fail, Jane begins to suspect that his âconditionâ cannot be cured at all. But listening to her Ethian friends Susanna and Archer finally convinces her that the truth is Guildford doesnât NEED to be healed - being an Ethian is who he is, and itâs nothing to fear. Unfortunately, Guildford still associates his beastly form with his motherâs death, so he is unable to accept it as Jane encourages, and flees. After a near-death experience, he uses his equine speed to return to the castle just as Jane is deposed and captured. As our heroes battle toward the end, Guildford comes to learn that there are many other proud Ethians, and that his family loves and accepts him in any form.
Still, heâs unable to transform at will, and when Mary captures him and sentences both husband and wife to death, it seems their story may end in tragedy. But as Guildford has been struggling to accept himself, Jane too has been battling with her own conscience. Does she renounce Guildford to save herself? Use her wits to kill the guard and escape? Bend to her motherâs manipulation? Jane confronts each temptation, and ultimately chooses to face death rather than betray Guildford or herself. But when her Ethian friends (the wild instinct) appear to disrupt the execution, our heroine seizes the opportunity to rescue Guildford. Unable to free him from the burning pyre, she confesses her love for him, and they kiss amid the flames.
Fire is often a herald of transformation, burning away illusions to reveal the truth. And when Jane and Guildford exchange their vows in this symbolic marriage ceremony, Guildfordâs fears and illusions are finally burned away. Now that his bride has accepted his beastly form, he can accept it too, and so he at last transforms at will into a horse so that they can escape. Their story ends with them married and whole before the sunrise.
Among our modern heroines, Mira is the boldest in her embrace of the beastly husband. Offered yet again as a bride to Igor, she realizes that this is not what she wants, and casts off the tether from her boat. She declares âI love the Dragon!â using the name of her husbandâs animal form rather than his human name. Then, she sings the song that will call the dragon to her, and he appears to carry her away again.
But their story is not over yet! Earlier in the story, Arman told Mira of how he loses control when in dragon form, and that dragons are compelled to reproduce by burning maidens to death and retrieving their offspring from the ashes. Returning to the island with her a second time, the dragon drops her on the altar and prepares to spew fire, but Mira lunges up and kisses him. This act of love, even when he is a monster, stuns the beastly husband. Again, Mira declares her love and kneels before him, saying she does not wish to be parted. We might expect the animal husband to transform in this moment, but instead he lays his fearsome head in her lap as a lover. Their story ends with a child and a flight in the sky, silhouetted by the sun just like the other couples.
Each bride, when confronted with the option to return to the patriarchal limits of her childhood, chose instead an act of love and acceptance for her wild masculine. This embrace helped the beastly husband to accept his whole self, and he is healed without having to cut off the wild parts of himself.
What Does It Mean?
Again, this story is so rare in world folklore that itâs difficult to even find examples. On fleeting occasions that the woman chooses an untransformed beast, it is presented as a cautionary tale. These women are framed as a danger to the community for their bestial impulses and abandonment of the social order, much like witches who were said to consort with the devil. It was certainly never presented as a happy ending, insofar as we can tell from written accounts.
So what does the emergence of this tale mean for our culture? I would argue that this is just the latest step in our ongoing reckoning with historic gender roles, as well as renegotiating with other forms of systemic oppression. People of all genders are pressured to reject a part of ourselves, cutting us off from our own truth and desires that run counter to the enforced social order. We must not challenge patriarchy, must not embrace different gender expressions, must not blur established hierarchies of power, must not find joy and power in our identities, and so on.
This enforced denial does tremendous damage to everyone caught in the system, and so through story, we dream our way to escape. We dream of embracing the dark, wild parts of ourselves, of flying free on a spaceship or a dragon or enchanted horseback, and of being totally loved for who we are.
Itâs clear patriarchy is still fighting back against this emancipation of the wild feminine and wild masculine, given that both The Acolyte and My Lady Jane were canceled not long after their release. In the case of The Acolyte in particular, there was a sustained campaign from its announcement to harass and silence the creators. Demoralizing as this phenomenon may be, itâs important to remember WHO ultimately owns these stories:
âFanfiction is a way of the culture repairing the damage done in a system where contemporary myths are owned by corporations instead of owned by the folk.
-Henry Jenkins, NYT 1997
Ah, an oldie-but-goodie. But Dr. Jenkins is right. Corporations may greenlight, film, release, and then cancel these stories, but ultimately they belong to the people. We take from these tales what speaks to us, leave what does not, and then retell them ourselves in fanfiction, in art inspired by the stories, and in lessons we pass on to our friends and families. If the embrace of the wild masculine speaks to you, let the story take root in your own life. Do you know someone who needs to be embraced, just as they are? Do you need to accept the parts of yourself that society tells you to hate? Do you want to be free, healed, and whole?
If so, then let these stories show you how, and tell more like them. Embrace the beast, and find your joy.
Sources:
Beauty and the Beast Tales From Around the World by Heidi Anne Heiner
In Search of the Swan Maiden: A Narrative on Folklore and Gender by Barbara Fass Leavy
Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola EstĂŠs, Ph.D.
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