#and for some reason the version I listened to didn't have the epilogue??

[noctvrnal9999]

Got a private message asking me to comment on the whole Neil stream thing so I guess here goes. Excuse my thoughts, they are never coherent.

What I liked about the stream is not what Neil said, but what he didn't say. I'm not big on watching streams, his or anyone's, but I watched some and I noticed Neil is very very careful when discussing Astarion. If anyone is aware how deranged the fandom can get - it's definitely him. I saw him dance around the topic multiple times either in streams or in clips I've seen all over the internet. I highly respect him for that because unlike someone (cough cough) he's not telling people what to think or what narrative they should take for any reason. A true professional unlike someone (cough cough).

So while he addressed operatic vs theatrical and there's no arguing that he delivered it wonderfully, what we really have is Larian saying "yeah, AA is still same Astarion, just with his most awful traits amplified" and then we have Neil saying "oh yeah, the mask is off". And that's... extremely important. I said this in tags before - what Neil doesn't say, to me, is important as well. He doesn't tell that Spawn is maskless just as AA, he just... skips over it, emphasizing that AA is the complete mask-off version of Astarion. I'm not going to cling to this because this is just something I immediately noticed and might not have been intentional on Neil's part, but... I don't know, I personally think it was done for a reason.

Anyway.

But this is what I've been saying too. Astarion is a bad person from the very beginning. I got people insult me over this take, I got told I'm a horrible garbage person for this take. But I stand by it. And even without personal interpretation you have proof of that within the game. You have a very good-aligned character (Karlach) and Astarion is at the opposite end of that spectrum. Every other companion (sans Minthara) fall somewhere between the two.

What Ascension allows Astarion is not only to live his life fear-free - it allows him to be himself. As Spawn he's constantly acting. To either get protection or simply not to turn into a mind-flayer. And Tav can take the route of trying to convince him to be better and he starts aligning his views to Tav along the road but he's still the same person. Just going to say this - nobody changes this drastically in just couple of months without pretending (which is presumed timeline for entire BG3). And people don't immediately get all better from major mental trauma in 6 months only (just sayin').

Point I'm trying to get at is this - to me Neil confirmed what I have been saying all along - Spawn is coping and still lying. Because he has no choice but to adapt. Maybe he's not lashing out or yelling, but seeing the epilogue he came off to me as grieving for things he will never have.

And then we have Ascended - a fully unleashed Astarion, who's confident and not apologetic for being himself.

That is true Astarion.

Astarion who isn't guilt-tripped or chastised into needing to change, Astarion who does not need to listen to people telling him how he's awful, Astarion who can do as he pleases without needing to explain himself to either his master or houlier-than-thou Tav.

Astarion who he was always meant to be.

Because he's a vampire. There's a reason why vampires in every single media piece are portrayed as evil. As a Spawn he's evil, as a Vampire Lord he's just doing what vampires do best - gain power and exploit that power for his own benefit. He's not just some cute boytoy with fangs, he's a vampire and he will never not be a vampire in BG3 (you can headcanon whatever you want in what happens after but that's not relevant here).

Ascended Astarion is true Astarion not because it's one of the routes we can take and headcanon that way, but because he's a vampire, and as Vampire Lord he's his own man at last, not needing to rely on anyone or to be defended by anyone. He has power now, to be whoever he wants and be true to himself while he does it. Without the fear of judgement, without the fear of being discarded if he's "too much" or not "good enough".

And with Tav at his side - he has everything he ever wanted: vampiric power that has never been witnessed before and a beloved who vowed themselves to be by his side forever, giving him ultimate assurance that there's someone there for him and will be there for eternity.

[optiwashere]

No sleep gang!

BTS Fic ask! Was gonna do Nightsongs, but since it's still ongoing, here's a throwback.

Like I Am Safe Again: 7, 10, 26

Oooooh, now that's a fun one! It's hard for me to tell if that fic is just unpopular with people, or if folks don't have much to say about it (tbh both are reasonable) but it's one of my favorite things I've written for the fandom lol. Thanks for asking about this one 💜

7. What inspired the idea for the plot?

Other than the fact that expanding on "memory" for Shadowheart is one of my favorite things to do, it was a couple things! I was finishing up a reread of the Realm of Elderlings series, and I've always resonated with "outsider" characters in pretty much everything I read/watch/play. People that are, through their own actions or happenstance, sidelined in their own lives is very fascinating to me. That feeling of never being able to actually reach out and interact with others in a meaningful way because of what they've done, said, or because of who they think themselves to be is creative catnip for me. My love of that series and those types of (frustrating) character moments influenced the way Shadowheart in that fic continually tries to manage everything herself without once relying on people that would immediately help her. At least, at first. Shadowheart has a lot of (mostly appearance-based tbqh) benefits other outsider-types don't get, but trying to focus on the aspects of her that disconnect her from the others at that point in the timeline (namely her early secrecy, her mid-game zealotry/hesitancy) intersected really well with my canon divergence from the first part of that series. There are clear themes of repression, self-ostracization, and insecurity within her storyline that I just love. I was also obsessed with exploring her character that way after I had the thought: "how does someone who already deals with memory issues handle dissociation?"

10. Share a screenshot of the original outline.

OK, so my outlining method for that fic was kinda unhinged. I think I had an outline at one point, but it was probably a bullet point system. At some point, I either deleted it or it was never actually written down? Either way, I know the original version was actually a long one-shot like "It Is the Wound She Gave Me" but it kept getting longer and longer. Then it became three chapters/three mornings. Then I kept adding moments to expand and expand, and eventually I just had to admit that it should probably be a short multichapter lol. Some bits I know that I changed: Chapter one used to be just the "prayer at the tree" scene, Chapter two didn't have the fireside chat/episode until I was nearly done writing the whole thing, and the Epilogue didn't exist until I realized ending on Chapter four left things a little too bleakly open for me.

26. Wild Card! I'll tell you a fun fact about this fic!

Despite being named after a Cure song, I never once listened to The Cure while writing it.

[opalescentegg]

So the thing about Moby Dick is that, like. It's a weird book, right?

For one thing there's the sliding between genres thing, in that there's everything from Shakespearian-style soliloquies to lengthy, Homeric metaphors, to anatomical studies, to flights of philosophy & theology---to say nothing of how the first-person narration will just quietly slip fully into another character's head without commenting on it at all. And it's not that it's exactly hidden that Ishmael is an unreliable narrator---plus there's the whole thing where Queequeg says they're married as he'd all "oh, silly Queequeg not understanding English, we just slept in the same (one-time bridal) bed & spooned & cuddled pillow-talked, he just means we're best buds :D"; like....sure, Jan. By the by, this book is one of the most homoerotic texts this side of the Iliad that I've encountered. And speaking of homoeroticism, what can I even say about the chapter where the crew has to constantly work the spermaceti found in the sperm whale's head with their hands in order to keep it at the proper consistency, which our narrator blithely describes as "squeezing the sperm." Aside from all of that though, it's completely fascinating how, the longer the voyage goes on, the more the style of the story begins to dip into a kind of magical realism---I can't help but think about a moment near the end of the book where Ahab has declared that all the crew is an extension of himself, a collection of limbs for him to manipulate; because that's kind of what ends up happening. The captain is the ship & the crew is the captain and the ship is the crew, and at that moment individuality dissolves and the Pequod becomes one single organism, going up against the great organism of the white whale. Is that why Ishmael gives us the thoughts and feelings of so many of his crewmates? Was it a gesture towards that eventual (and, per the themes of the novel, fated) experience of the Pequod, or a result of it? What does this have to do with the theme of cannibalism? I'm actually fascinated by that particular theme, especially in how it plays into the crew's interactions with whales---of course they're killing them & rendering their fat for oil, and it's a grisly process that the book describes, but outside of those times the whales are described more or less as people, with emotions and family relations and desires and so on. And hell, I haven't even touched on how, in some ways, Ishmael as a character is defined more by what he doesn't say than by what he does---I'm particularly struck by how, after Queequeg's near-fatal fever, both he and Ishmael begin to disappear from the text; Queequeg is only alluded to as one of the group of harpooners, while Ishmael stops giving any information about anything he's assumedly doing as part of his literal job on the ship. It's only after the ill-fated final encounter with Moby Dick that we even learn where he was at the time everything was going on. It's almost like, the closer the story gets to its inevitable tragedy, the more Ishmael wants to distance himself from it (maybe that's part of the reason for his digressions---if he didn't "pad out” the story so to speak, he'd have to actually talk about what happened). That may also be why he stops mentioning Queequeg, even though he told us near the beginning that he stuck to his, uh, companion "like a barnacle" ever since Nantucket---like, he can talk about his near-death, but his actual death is a wound too painful to touch. Hell, Ishmael doesn't say a single word about how he feels about seeing the Pequod sink, or how he felt in the minutes and hours after---or even about where he was when it happened!---until the Epilogue, which is less than a single page. For all of that, though, the last sentence in the book fucking breaks me. I listened to an audiobook version as this my first experience of the story, but all the same when I came to that line and it was all over I had to just stare at the wall for a little bit.

[cartoonus-maximus]

Okay, so I finished 'Fazbear Frights #1: Into the Pit,' and I have some thoughts and theories on it...

No commentary about the writing itself; just my thoughts about potential lore implications and theory fodder.

For my actual review of the book, here's a link [x] to my review for it on GoodReads.

[spoilers under the cut]

"Into the Pit"

- the main kid in this story is named Oswald, which... I feel like his parents naming him Oswald is just as much of a crime as anything William does XD (jk, jk)

- Oswald lives in a town that formerly relied on the jobs provided by a local mill, but the mill has since closed down and everyone lost their jobs. Many have moved away, while others, like Oswald's dad, have had to take jobs that don't pay nearly as well. The town has become little more than a ghost town, and even 10 y/o Oswald can tell that the town is barely alive.

- one of the buildings in town is "Jeff's Pizza," which is owned and run by a man simply known as Jeff. The building clearly used to be a "Freddy Fazbear pizzeria," but has been partially renovated so that the unusable ballpit in the corner and an empty stage are the only remnants of its former life. Oswald doesn't know what the building used to be; adults don't talk about it, and the other kids all find the place creepy because of how empty it feels.

- Oswald likes to draw in his spare time. Specifically, he likes drawing mechanical creatures and robotic animals. He doesn't know why he feels compelled to draw robotic animals, since he's never seen anything like them before, and he can't decide if the idea is creepy or cute.

- when Oswald accidentally time travels through the ball pit the first time, he returns back home to the same exact second he left during. No one had even had time to notice him near the ballpit.

- in the past, Oswald sees the Fazbear animatronics. He's struck by how much they look like his own drawings, but decides that the animatronics are purely creepy, and that there's nothing pleasant about them.

- the past is 1985; in the past, Oswald meets two boys named Chip and Mike (not Mike Afton, as this Mike is a tall, nerdy black kid who wears glasses and is a general sweetheart); Chip and Mike begin calling him 'Oz,' and are happy to include him in their games.

- a waitress at Freddy's in 1985 is described as an adult woman with big blonde hair and blue eyeshadow, which I just think sounds like a good design for Mrs. Afton

- when going to Jeff's, Oswald seems to always sit in the same booth, which is apparently in the same spot that Spring Bonnie uses to keep his victim's bodies after killing them

- Oswald is the only one who can see Spring Bonnie most of the time, making the whole thing feel like a long, terrible nightmare

- while representative of William Afton, Spring Bonnie is *not* William. It's not a person at all, but some sort of monstrous thing. It behaves more like Glitchtrap than like William - it just kind of stands around, acting out spooky behaviors and robotically hunting down children, but doesn't seem to actually think much by itself.

- Spring Bonnie claims five child victims, and arranges their bodies in the storage closet around a table, dressing them and setting them up like they're having a private birthday party.

- "[Spring Bonnie] seemed to think it was his father."

- it knows how to cook pizza, drive the car, and perform basic household chores

- Spring Bonnie takes the role of Oswald's dad for awhile, and somehow Oswald is the only one who can recognize it as Spring Bonnie; everyone else treats the thing like his dad, even his own mother. This seems indicative of how William was always able to get away with his crimes - everyone who looked at him simply saw a businessman, a children's entertainer, a husband, and a father of three, but every once in awhile someone might recognize him for the monster he was.

- the Spring Bonnie thing somehow hangs itself on some decorative ropes above the ballpit while chasing Oswald and his father; it silently begs Oswald for help, but Oswald does not

- once hanged, the Spring Bonnie creature is clearly nothing more than a costume, and hangs loosely like so much cloth

- it's interesting that the yellow rabbit thing is only really threatening under certain conditions. It hunts, tortures, and kills children in certain rooms after hours at Freddy's, but behaves like a normal children's entertainer / normal household father and husband the rest of the time. It feeds Oswald and listens to him talk and generally takes care of him while acting as his father, and isn't even openly aggressive toward him anywhere else (even at Freddy's) unless Oswald triggers it. It feels very representative of William's double life as a serial killer and a children's entertainer / father of three, as well as William's ritualistic fashion of murder sprees (always five kids, always after hours at Freddy's, only every few years, always with a birthday party setup, etc.)

- I guess this story tells us that '85 is a meaningful year in the timeline. Since we already had '83 and '87, that gives us a beginning sequence of every two years, each year ending with an odd number. Not sure what that means, if anything, but it's interesting.

--------------------------------------

"To Be Beautiful"

- a teenage girl named Sarah finds a robotic doll of some sort (in a vehicle junkyard) that calls itself "Eleanor," who is definitely something akin to Scrap Circus Baby, as the robot is described as a "pretty, feminine clown with bright green eyes," but small and believably doll-sized. (Which, y'know... goes completely against how big and unwieldy she looks in the official art.)

- Eleanor gifts Sarah a special necklace with a heart pendant, which is supposed to make her prettier with each passing day; Sarah suffers insecurities about her appearance, and is delighted

- the prettier Sarah becomes, the more mature and adult-like she also becomes, both emotionally and physically; she also gets hungrier, and taller as well

- as Sarah changes outwardly, she also becomes more self-absorbed and bratty, which kinda sounds like Elizabeth Afton's personality traits

- Eleanor insists on singing Sarah to sleep every night, which is supposed to help with the beautifying process

- Eleanor warns Sarah about growing up and changing herself, ominously telling her how strange and scary it can be to look at your reflection one day and not be able to recognize yourself

- Eleanor remarks that parents always think their children are beautiful / perfect, regardless of their actual appearance, which I just think is interesting since Eleanor very clearly represents Elizabeth Afton, and this line made me think it was Elizabeth talking about her own parents.

- Eleanor apparently watches Sarah while she sleeps, "to keep her safe from danger"

- Sarah has a nightmare about Eleanor, in which the robot has a mouth full of sharp teeth

- Sarah trips at school, and lands hard on the floor; she loses Eleanor's necklace, and with it control of her body, and starts feeling and hearing and seeing everything from a distance; when she stands back up, she realizes that her body has been replaced with robotic parts build from scrap metal pieces, and the necklace casts an illusion of humanity over her (like an illusion disk, like Circus Baby has?)

- without the necklace on, everyone sees her as a metal monster girl, and are afraid of her

- the longer she goes without the necklace, the more robotic she becomes, struggling to move or speak, and starting to feel more like a metal statue or decorative animatronic than a person

- Sarah goes searching for Eleanor throughout the house, but can't find her, instead finding the bags that Eleanor had hidden in the garage; the bags contain Sarah's body parts, which Eleanor had been surgically removing and replacing over time

- Eleanor corners Sarah in the garage. Eleanor presses a button on her own chest, which transforms her body into Sarah's human body, complete with the fluid movements and voice of a human girl (since it's mentioned specifically that this button looks like the heart pendant of the necklace she made for Sarah, it seems like it could also be an illusion disk?)

- Sarah loses all sense of feeling, both physical and emotional, and collapses into a pile of metal scraps in the garage

- the story ends with Sarah, having been slowly transformed into a robot over time, the comment that Sarah "felt sad, then scared, then nothing at all."

- this is such a dark, unhappy story, holy shiz!!!

- the story is, basically, about a young girl who puts her trust in the wrong person, thinking they are harmless and friendly, and getting lured in by false promises, killed horrifically, and belated realizing that she has been turned into a horrible robotic creature that can't move on its own. At its heart, this it the underlying theme of horror in the FNaF franchise: children being led with false promises of safety and happiness, and then being killed and transformed into something horrific and sad.

- as for Eleanor, she clearly represents Circus Baby / Elizabeth Afton. She's a robotic toy that wants to be human, and lies to and manipulates a person in order to steal their appearance, and then flounces off in her new human form. This directly mirrors Elizabeth's behavior and actions toward Michael in "Sister Location," where she promises him safety only to kill him and steal his body. We also know that Elizabeth is good with robotics, a trait learned from her father, as we know she's built new bodies for herself in the past (i.e., her Scrap Baby form in "Pizzeria Simulator," or even her fixing up Michael's body after she's done with it). This also seems to call back Elizabeth's role as her father's primary assistant in the "Fourth Closet" and "Twisted Ones" books, where she helps him build new animatronics and performs special surgeries on William (under his guidance) to keep him alive.

- I wonder if this story could explain how Michael became the Purple Man we know him as - Elizabeth replaced parts of his body over time, while living in him as part of Ennard, slowly transforming him into a robot man, which maybe leaves him empty as a person, leaving him "sad, scared, and then feeling nothing at all anymore..."

- EDIT: I also want to point out how this story attempts to parallel the original novel trilogy, at least so far as having a girl who doesn't realize she's a robot (Charlie in the original story, and Sarah in this one) being replaced, at least for awhile, by Circus Baby/her stand-in.

-----------------------------

"Count the Ways"

- the story starts with a teenage goth girl named Millie, who wakes up from a nap to find herself trapped inside Funtime Freddy's stomach; Funtime Freddy immediately starts mocking her, and talking about how he's going to kill her.

- Millie's parents moved to Saudi Arabia, straight up abandoning her to live with her grandfather. Her grandfather collects weird, eclectic things, and keeps basically anything he can get his hands on, from car license plates to taxidermized animals to creepy old dolls.

- Millie's parents (Jeff and Audrey Fitzsimmons) have bad habits of starting up new projects with an alarming frequencies, buying and starting new things all the time, and never sticking to their jobs.

- Millie hates everything about her life, and is obsessed with death in a very romantic, Poe-esque way. She writes poems about both death and love, very romantic either way.

- Millie is made fun of at school, and gets called "Dracula's Daughter" by everyone. She currently has no friends in school, with her only friend having abandoned her to be friends with the popular kids.

- She makes friends with a new boy named Dylan, who also appreciates Poe, as well as Lovecraft and other classic horror writers. He approaches her while she's reading "the Fall of the House of Usher." She develops a strong crush on him, and is in turn crushed when she realizes he only sees her as a friend, and has a girlfriend already. She gets into a fight with him, ultimately driving away the last friend she had.

- In her self-inflicted misery, Millie chooses to skip out on Christmas with her family. Instead, she decides to hide out in her grandfather's workshop. She climbs inside Funtime Freddy to avoid her family seeing her.

- Funtime Freddy was in a salvage junkyard for years, but he was found by her grandfather, who set it up for decoration in his workshop in the house. Other things in the workshop include creepy old toys, such as a clown bank, a monkey with cymbals, and a jack in the box.

- Funtime Freddy continues to mock her, suggesting different horrible ways she could die in his stomach. Dehydration over a period of days, starvation over weeks, impaling her like Vlad the Impaler... he describes how sad and pathetic each one would be, and makes cruel puns about them. He laughs when she tries to explain to him that she doesn't actually want to die, she just wants to escape her problems.

- Funtime Freddy says that he can direct electricity into his stomach cavity, electrocuting her to death. Or fill his stomach cavity with water to boil her alive. He also says he has a sheet of metal inside of him that he could use to bisect or behead her, but he's never tried that before, so he's not too sure how it would work.

- while the ending is left pretty open-ended, it's implied that Funtime Freddy kills her by either beheading or bisecting her inside of him, all while her family, who could have saved her, sit in the next room unaware (which is such a sad, dark ending, holy carp!)

- there doesn't seem to be any hidden lore in this story that I can tell. It seems to just be confirming what we already knew: that Funtime Freddy is a murder machine with an advanced AI that has a cruel sense of humor. FF's dialogue may be giving us a brief glimpse into how William thinks about his victims, and maybe even how he talks to them, but that's all I can glean from it.

- (Therapist: "French Funtime Freddy isn't real and can't hurt you." French Funtime Freddy: "Bonjour!")

[rogue-durin-16]

THINGS NEVER GO AS PLANNED (Part VI/VII)

"the downfall"

Summary: After Fred's death, George and Y/n lean on each other to carry on. This wasn't the most brilliant idea, though; George was pretty much in love with the girl, and Y/n— well, she had been dating Fred prior to the Battle of Hogwarts.

Pairing: George Weasley x Reader

Genre: angst mostly

Tags:

Suggested by: @crispykittywitch

Things never go as planned: @just-here-to-escape-from-reality @beautyschoo1dropout @s1ut4georgeweasley @sunshineandshadows @missmulti @accioweaslcy @andreaareynoso @georgeweasley16 @dianarte @skarlettmikaelson

Permanent taglist: @elia-the-bibliophile @randomparanoid @karlthecat15722 @thebutchersdaughtersblog @amourtentiaa @just-here-to-escape-from-reality

Warnings: language, allusions to sex

A/N: my apologies for keeping y'all waiting for this one darlings, but here comes the next part YAYY! Enjoy <3

Prologue: the aftermath

Part I: sleepless nights

Part II: candy floss

Part III: shock therapy

Part IV: wrong name

Part V: the perfect excuse

Part VII: apart

Epilogue: I still love you

Rogue-durin-16 masterlist

He had left me in the room that morning, alone, with regret and guilt straining my chest, with embarrassment and panic heaving over me, my only company being a terrible headache and a sore body.

I was still waiting for him to come back. Of course, he still lived in the apartment, but the day after, he slept at Shell Cottage because Bill needed help with the chores, and the next night at the Burrow because Molly had asked to keep an eye on 'the kids' —the kids being Ginny, Harry, Ron and Hermione— while she and Arthur were off to visit Andromeda, and at Lee's because Angelina was away and they were going to have a boys' weekend; in summary, he managed to avoid stepping into the flat while I was in there for an entire week.

I would be lying if I said the idea of moving out hadn't crossed my mind, but I knew I was being dramatic— we were being dramatic; we were adults, even if we forgot about it more often than not, and adults talk things out, so I decided to confront him at the only place I would manage to corner him; the shop.

When I descended from the office on the second floor, I spotted the ginger turning the 'CLOSED' to face the glass door. "Oi!" His head snapped to me as I climbed downstairs and he instantly walked to the shelves on the opposite side. "Can I have a word?" I requested, following him, only for George to move on to another shelf.

"Right now I'm quite busy." He replied, seemingly absent-minded as he pretended to check the products in front of him.

"This is important." I insisted, moving to stand besides him.

Not fast enough, though, because he was off to yet another part of the shop as soon as I got close. "I'm sure it can wait."

"You know it can't," I assured intently, stalking after him, only for him to speed up his own pace, moving from product to product without stopping too long in front of him. "George I'm- Oi, stop! We need to talk about this!"

"Well maybe I don't wanna talk about this!" He exclaimed, taking big steps under one of the stairs in order to shamelessly dodge the hand with which I had reached out to stop him.

"George Weasley don't run away from me!"

"I'm not running away from you!"

"You're literally RUNNING AWAY!"

He stopped circling the counter and stood across from me, slamming his palms over the till. "ALRIGHT, LOVE!" for the first time, I didn't like the way the name dripped off his tongue. "Let's talk about how we accidentally FUCKED! That's what you want so badly, isn't it?!" Flush crept up his neck and ears, and I couldn't tell if it was from anger or from timidness. "Go on, darling, lead the bloody way!"

I felt my own cheeks going red, partly because of his straightforward statement but also because I genuinely had never heard George raise his voice like he had just done.

"Cat's got your tongue now?!" My stuttering seemed to fuel his anger more. "C'mon, Y/n, talk! You wanted to talk!"

"SHUT THE HELL UP, GEORGE!" He clenched his jaw as his freckles drowned in a sea of pinkish red. "Yeah I want to talk! 'Cause that's what grown-ups do! We don't know how to act around each other so we just don't spend time together anymore— Fuck, I've barely seen you! AND WE. LIVE. TOGETHER!" I emphasised each word with stomps. "We can either pretend it didn't happen or talk it out to make sure we're on the same page, you choose but for Merlin's sake, don't avoid me!"

"OKAY!" His eyes widened, surprised at his own tone, and then he repeated in a softer, self-conscious one, "Okay." He breathed deeply and then added. "We're on the same page, right?" His eyebrows raised as he looked into my eyes. "It was... A mistake."

I should have noticed the uncertainty and hope in his voice, but I panicked and was too quick to respond, "Yeah! A massive mistake." My words stung my heart and, to my dismay, his own just as much. "Can we go back to being friends? Because I'm going crazy without you." I blamed our watery eyes to the argument we had had, and not to the fact that it had been a mistake.

He circled the counter and walked to me, hesitating before pulling me into a hug. "Can I...?" I tugged him closer, wrapping my arms around his middle. It took a moment for him to ease into my embrace, and I could tell we had fucked up our friendship for good. "It's alright, we'll make it right again." His words made me squeeze him tighter, as if he was about to vanish from my side.

And from then, we tried to make it right, we tried so hard, because it seemed so easy to make it wrong again.

Everytime we stood too close, everytime he leaned on to whisper something, everytime I helped him with his tie, our eyes would fall on each other's lips; I would sometimes drift off the conversation, staring too much at his mouth and hands, wandering if they would feel just as amazing as they had done while we were drunk.

"Y/n are you listening?"

"Uh yeah- I mean, no- sorry, what?"

I was so focused on trying to hide it that I didn't notice George was in the exact same situation, meaning that neither of us could give in, because we would go down together. In all honesty, it was doomed to happen at some point, we were just delaying the inevitable.

The moment came the last night of January, when George showed up in my room due to a really rough nightmare, and I, as always, invited him in so we could lay down together.

"Isn't this... Weird?" He murmured as we scooted closer. We had kept physical contact at bay for obvious reasons, and cuddling had been off the table since New Year.

"It doesn't have to be." I replied, my voice as quiet as his. "We've done this a thousand times."

"Right." He cleared his throat, averting his eyes from mines as we shifted in our places ever so slightly, trying to find a position where the situation turned less awkward.

And it happened, my mind got lost on the way his neck tensed, on the damp locks hanging over his forehead, sweaty due to the nightmare; on his plump lips, which he had just wetted with his tongue in the most subtle way. It was a nervous habit of him, something he would usually do, but that didn't make it any less hot.

"George..." I called his name without noticing, my heart hammering violently against my chest when his gaze landed on my eyes, quickly falling on my lips.

The next thing I knew was that he was holding my thigh over his hip, his other hand on the back of my neck while we shared a hungry kiss that, as soon as my hips involuntarily rocked against his, turned into something more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

GEORGE'S P. O. V.

The next morning we swore to each other that it was just another accident, that it would happen again.

And the next one too.

And the following.

The fifth time that happened, we agreed to call the situation a 'friends with benefits' kind of thing, well aware that it was an euphemism for the downfall of our friendship.

I had longed to be hers for so long, and it that moment, as I lay by her side in her bed, that wish seemed so close yet so far; I could reach out and my fingertips would touch her skin, yet I had never felt that distant towards her.

The moment my eyes were averted from her form, her gaze was laid on me. "You don't have to go."

"I know." I replied in a mumble, already sitting up and reaching for my pants. "But soon we'll have to get up, so I might as well do that and let you sleep." I didn't want to turn around, I didn't want to see her beautiful irises pleading for me to stay by her side, because I knew I would.

I saw on my peripheral vision her fingers attempting to carefully wrap around my wrist, and I was quick to stand up and walk to the door; sadly, I did not miss Y/n burying her face into the pillow, her hands fisting on the fabric ever so subtly.

She tried to hide her tears like that, and I agressively wiped mines as soon as I reached the corridor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Morning, lady!" I light-heartedly greeted Y/n without turning my back to the making of our breakfast when I heard the steps approaching the kitchen.

In the morning it was easier to pretend everything was back to normal; usually, the refreshing sunlight and the drowsiness provided by a night of sleep were enough to wash away the sad truth of our relationship.

"Good morning, sir." She responded with a yawn, rubbing her eyes as she walked to stand besides me, leaning against the counter with her arms folded. "Smells good." She commented, leaning on to take a peek at the scrambled eggs.

I was about to make a cocky, playful comment when it dawned on me what she was wearing; it was my jumper, one of the old ones that I exclusively used for pyjamas.

I knew she didn't do it intently; I had left it on the floor the previous night, and it was probably the first thing she grabbed, but it struck a nerve.

I had seen a similar scene way too many times before; a sleepy, dishevelled Y/n entering the kitchen with an ugly Weasley jumper as only clothing, ready to start the bickering with an almost identical version of me who would be making breakfast.

My head then travelled to the thought that lately crossed my mind more often than not and my heart clenched; In Y/n's eyes, I was, most likely, just a poor replacement for Fred.

"You alright?" That worried furrow appeared between her brows too often lately. We were both walking on eggshells, and it got me on my nerves.

"You don't have to ask if I'm alright every time I'm quiet." I hadn't meant it to come out harsh or curt, but it definitely did.

"You're not quiet, you're overthinking." She responded with a tinge of hostility.

"What's to overthink?" I fought the need to raise my voice.

"Dunno, you tell me." She squinted her eyes with a scrutinising gaze directed to me.

"Can we not do this?" I almost pleaded; heated arguments had become a usual thing between us —yet another sign of the unfixable problem we refused to address.

Y/n was about to reply something that would lead us into a fight when the doorbell rung. "Mister Weasley?" I took that as a cue to go open the door to Verity, already dressed on her uniform. "The Valentine's Day products arrived, should I unpack them or..." Her eyes flickered behind me and her cheeks heated up. "Y/n—" When I looked over my shoulder, I felt my own face flushing out of embarrassment. Y/n was still my employee and Fred's ex, so Verity catching a glimpse of her dressed in my jumper wasn't the best thing for any of us. "I— am I— sorry, am I interrupting?"

"You're not interrupting." I assured her with a reassuring smile. "Leave the boxes on the puking pastries section, we'll be down in ten."

"Alright, sir." Her curious gaze travelled to Y/n one last time, and with that, she was rushing back down to the shop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

READER'S P. O. V.

The ache that had appeared on my chest the day after New Year would end up killing me, or at least it felt like that.

I had a dreadful gut feeling of knowing what caused that pain, but my mind refused to believe it was that, and kept pushing the sensation back into my heart day by day.

George had gone to relocate the puking pastries in the upper level of the shop so I could prepare the section with the Valentine's Day products.

My eyes dawned on the small packages of Amortentia. I knew it was a terrible idea but I needed to know.

I took a look around, making sure Verity wasn't near and George was up still, and brought one of the Amortentias under my nose. It didn't take long for the scents to besot me, and I had to put all my will on not to fall under the potion's spell.

The first smell to reach my nostrils was gunpowder; my heart skipped a bit when the next scent was vanilla.

Then strawberry and chocolate; candy floss cupcakes and George's cologne.

The tiny, heart-shaped bottle fell from my hands, scattering all over the shop's floor. "Shit!" I rapidly kneeled to pick the shattered glass when I realized it had echoed in the empty establishment.

"Oi! What was that?" George descended from the second floor, using the ladder. "Oh shit—" his hands took a hold on my bicep and pulled me away from the pool of pinkish pearl liquid that seemed to be attracting me. "Don't!" He warned Verity, who had attempted to jog in the potion's direction too. "Verity, can you bring me my wand?" The girl complied running up to the office.

In Verity's absence, George took the chance and cupped my cheeks, tilting my head up to check my eyes. "You alright?" I managed to give him a slow nod, my mind buzzing with the newly acquired information. "Getting the Amortentias was a bad idea, wasn't it?" I nodded again, producing a frown between his eyebrows. "No 'told you so'? Are you sure you're alright?" He chuckled nervously, his hands falling to his sides right in time for Verity to rush back to us.

"Here, Mister Weasley!"

"Thank you, darling." He politely replied, taking the wand and restoring the potion bottle in a swift movement. His eyes peeked at me again; I could see the worry growing on him. "Y/n-"

"I'm gonna go wash my face." The words hastily left my mouth before I dashed off to the restroom.

I closed the door behind me and took a look at the mirror; my pupils were blown and my cheeks pink. I ran the tab and splashed the water on my face a few times until the potion's mild effect was gone and my mind clear.

It was in that moment that it dawned on me that I was in love with George Weasley.

[yonfiendmaker]

behold! i didn't see any otgw icebergs, so i made my own :)

if you think i should add something, lmk!!

Explanations under cut :)

First layer:

▪︎Beast!Wirt au - very popular au in which Wirt stays in the Unknown, possessed by the Beast to some extent.

▪︎Bad End Friends - Crossover AU of Beast!Wirt teaming up with Ice Finn from Adventure Time and Bipper from Gravity Falls; sometimes other 'bad end' au characters are thrown in such as a glitched Gumball from TAWOG

▪︎Irl Copies of the For Sara tape - Limited copies of the For Sara tape were sold at two points. They have yet to sell for a third time. (🤞🤞🤞)

▪︎Tome of the Unknown (pilot) - The Pilot of the series. Can be watched on YouTube.

▪︎Wirt Staying in the Unknown - In a scrapped ending, Wirt was to stay in the Unknown, saying that facing your real problems was scarier than staying there.

▪︎Mystery Kids - Crossover AU with other child-late teens aged characters from sources based on mysterious and supernatural themes such as Gravity Falls and Psychonauts.

▪︎Quincy Endicott's grave - Quincy's grave can be seen in the graveyard that Sara and the others are hanging out in.

▪︎Original Beatrice Voice Actress - Beatrice had a different VA in the pilot, Natasha Leggero. Melanie Lynskey voices her in the actual series.

▪︎The Woodsman's Daughter is Named Anna - The comics have several issues focused on his daughter, in which her name is revealed to be Anna.

▪︎Jason Funderburker's Ax Murderer Story - At the gathering in the graveyard, Funderburker is telling a story about a man with an ax; this story is believed to have influenced the existence of the Woodsman.

▪︎Full Versions of Songs in the OST - A handful of the songs are cut down for their appearances in the series and can only be heard in full on the OST. The most notable example is Old Black Train , which is actually 2 minutes and 15 seconds long, but is only in the series for about 15-20 seconds.

Second Layer:

▪︎Sara is named after the Fleetwood Mac song - Listen to it here :) it is notable that it includes lyrics about "drowning in a sea of love" and that Sara is "the poet of [the singer's] heart."

▪︎OTGW Reanimated - a reanimated project for the first episode. Got taken off of YouTube, but can be viewed on Dailymotion.

▪︎Baby Wirt Audio - In the For Sara cassette, there is a small section of audio that can be heard in about the middle of the recording of Wirt's father talking to him as a baby.

▪︎Funderburker/Funderberker - The two Jasons's surnames are spelled slightly differently to avoid confusion.

▪︎The Brothers Never Ate or Needed to Rest - Although Greg expressed being hungry, neither of the boys actually ate anything (outside of one spoonful of bland potatoes and inedible items such as dirt and leaves) and never laid down to rest, only sleeping when night came.

▪︎Book on Interior Design in Wirt's Room - In Wirt's from, a book on interior design can be seen laying on the floor, backing up the knowledge he displayed when analyzing the interconnected mansions.

▪︎Mad Love was Based on a Dream - The plot of Mad Love came from a dream that Pat McHale had about house hunting. In the dream, while exploring one of the houses being shown, he ended up wandering into someone else's home.

▪︎Beatriceoftheday - A blog dedicated to our lord and savior Beatrice, known for its strange shitposts and intense praise of the titular bird girl.

▪︎Wirt is Jealous of Greg's Popularity - Shown in the Circus Friends issue of the comics, Wirt is jealous of Greg's ability to make everyone laugh and have fun. This may factor into his dislike of his brother.

▪︎Greg was Feeding Fred at the Tavern - At first watching, one may be confused as to where all the food Greg was gathering went, why Fred was wearing lipstick and why he was refusing to talk to Beatrice. Shown in a deleted scene, this all explained, as Fred tells Beatrice that he didn't talk to her because Greg was feeding him.

▪︎Elijah Wood Voiced the Crazy Driver - Exactly what is says on the tin, the nutty driver was voiced by Wood.

▪︎Cloud City is Heaven - A popular theory that Cloud City actually represents Heaven.

▪︎Greg is Greg Universe - A headcanon/theory that has mostly died out that Greg is the same Greg in Steven Universe.

▪︎Bee Beatrice - Beatrice was originally cursed to become a bee, but was changed into a bluebird to match better with the seasonal autumn theme.

▪︎Pat McHale Voiced Wirt's Voice Crack - Wirt's voice crack when asking the Beast Are You? was actually done by McHale, not Wood.

▪︎The Other Actors Harassing Elijah Wood When Singing Wirt's Song - In order to make the performance as awkward as possible, the other actors were asked to yell and demand Wirt to sing. This can be heard in the episode.

▪︎Come Wayward Souls Has the Same Melody as O Holy Night - The song shares a cadence with "O Holy Night", and can be sung to its tune.

▪︎Black Turtles Origin/Purpose - No one knows why the black turtles exist, and McHale has said that they're just one of the unexplainable things of the Unknown.

▪︎Anna Never Left the House - In the aforementioned comics, it is shown that Anna had never left the house, living on her own until the Woodsman's return.

▪︎Sailor Suit Greg - Greg originally wore a sailor suit, but was changed later on to his current, Johnny Appleseed inspired outfit .

▪︎Beatrice Missing Being Able to Flip People Off - In the Art Book, Beatrice's introduction states that one of the reasons she hates being a bird is because she no longer has hands to flip people off with.

Third Layer

▪︎Jason Funderberker is Visually Based on a Teen Pat McHale - As seen here, Funderberker was designed after McHale.

▪︎Babes in the Wood is Based on an Old Alice in Wonderland Cartoon - You can view the original 1923 cartoon here! Starts at 4:25.

▪︎Wirt and Sara are Dipper and Mabel's Parents - A popular AU/hc where Dipper and Mabel of Gravity Falls are the future kids of Wirt and Sara.

▪︎The Tune of Wirt's Song is Improvised - In addition to the aforementioned harassment, in a further attempt to make the performance as awkward as possible, Elijah Wood was not given a tune to sing, only the lyrics.

▪︎Wirt's Costume Origin - As said in the art book and on his tumblr, Wirt's cone and cape come from an attempted rock and roll persona from McHale's teen years.

▪︎Greg is Based on Pat McHale's Son - It has been claimed that Greg is based on McHale's son, but Greg existed before him. The similarities are simply coincidental.

▪︎Old Scratch - The original name of the Beast.

▪︎The Beast Killed the Woodsman's Wife - Shown in the comics, The Woodsman's wife was mortally injured, with her attacker implied to be the Beast.

▪︎Wirt and Greg Staying in the Unknown Until Christmas - Another scrapped ending, in which the brothers stay in The Unknown until Christmas, with their absence unexplained.

▪︎Tome of the Unknown (original plot) - Early concepts had the Beast ( then known as Old Scratch as mentioned earlier ) scattering the pages of the titular book for the brothers to collect. Each page would come to life and the brothers would explore each story.

▪︎Dante's Inferno Comparisons - Check out these videos for full analysis!

▪︎Wirt Panty Shots - In the aforementioned Circus Friend comics, Wirt dons a dress as part of a disguise. Later on, he rips off the bottom half off, revealing that he is wearing bloomers.

▪︎The Beast's True Form was Inspired by Trypophobia - As stated in the art book, The Beast's hole-filled appearance was inspired by Trypophobia, the fear of many small holes.

▪︎The Fight is Over is About Drowning - Give the lyrics another read.

▪︎The Beast Last Minute Design Change - The Beast had a very different design, and it was changed into the current one at the last minute.

▪︎Gnome in Cloud City Representing Wirt - Many people believed that the Gnome with the lantern in cloud city was a parallel to Wirt, or a glimpse into his future. However, this was debunked.

▪︎Send Me a Peach - This song is included in the ost, but isn't in the actual series.

▪︎Fred and the Highwayman's Backstory - The comics expand upon the story of Fred the Horse and his involvement with the Highwayman.

Fourth Layer

▪︎Babes in the Wood Title Origin - The name of this episode comes from an old story of a pair of children getting lost in the woods, dying, and being buried in leaves by robins.

▪︎poorlydrawnotgw - This was a blog created during the poorly drawn series meme period. It consisted of poorly drawn and very strange shitposts and has since been deactivated. I was a part of it as mod Goopy Wirt and only have a handful of images saved from it.

▪︎Read and Listen Book Lost Audio - A read and listen book was created, with the book being read by Greg's Frog, who would stop every now and again to talk about being a frog. The pages can be found online, but the audio is currently lost.

▪︎Skinless Witch - A scrapped episode concept involved a skinless witch that kidnapped Greg and rode him like a horse.

▪︎Gentleman Burglar Wirt - A scrapped concept in which Wirt breaks into a woman's home, who is charmed by this young man who has come to visit her.

▪︎Animal Transformation - It was originally planned for Wirt and Greg to be turned into a bear/dog and a duck and remain that way for several episodes. This was later used in the comics.

▪︎The Unknown is influenced by Wirt's mind/interests - The Unknown is influenced by those who walk in it, in this case, Wirt. This includes the old timey mystical nature of it, as Wirt has been stated to have an interest in old folk tales.

▪︎Good Guy Beast/Black Train Scrapped Concept - In an earlier draft, the brothers were on a train, heading to what they assumed was death. They jump off, ending up in the Unknown. The Beast tries to get them back on the train, which turns out to be heading back to life.

▪︎Evil Woodsman - At one point, the Woodsman was intended to be under the influence of the Beast and tried to sabotage the brothers's attempts to return home.

▪︎Lorna Reading the Tome of the Unknown in the Epilogue - In the epilogue, Lorna can be seen reading the titular book from the aforementioned scrapped plot.

▪︎The Beast was Originally the Devil Himself - The Beast was first designed as a devil-like character, the aforementioned Old Scratch.

▪︎The Brothers Never Went Home/The Hospital is Part of The Unknown - a theory based on the fact that the edges of the screen are still blurred at the end of chapter 10, the rushed narration, and the lack of consequences of nearly drowning.

▪︎Beatrice Seeing Wirt Nude - In one of the comics, Beatrice accidentally sees Wirt while he is washing his clothes in the river.

▪︎Sara is a Descendant of Lorna - A theory that Sara is a distant relative of Lorna.

▪︎Exists in the Same Universe as Clarence and Home Movies - The most well known piece of evidence is the overhead shot of the town matching the town that Clarence is set in. Wirt and Greg also have a cameo in another episode, and one of the final episodes shows Brendon Small of Home Movies runs a movie rental store in the town, connecting all three series together.

Final Layer

▪︎Beast x Wirt - Also known as Poetree.

▪︎Candycone - Greg x Wirt.

[reasonableapproximation]

Molly's Game: Movie vs book

I watched the movie a few weeks ago, then listened to the audiobook. Spoilers for both.

The movie and book cover basically the same time period, with the movie focusing much more on the bit post arrest (which in the book was just an epilogue). But in the movie, the book was published pre arrest. Bits of it hinge on her lawyer reading between the lines.

Both of them open by saying that her real name is Molly Bloom, but she won't use anyone else's name. In the movie that's mostly true, the only exceptions I remember are her family. In the movie version of the book it's mostly true, we're told she only names four people whose names were already leaked during the Bad Brad stuff. This is an important part of the movie, she's sacrificing a lot to protect people who trusted her with secrets and the people those secrets refer to (like kids whose dads have told her they regret having kids).

In fact she names many many people. This says that yeah, those names were all already public, but in the book she doesn't tell us why she's naming those people and not others. She doesn't particularly mention having secrets, there's a moment of "I know enough to ruin this guy if he doesn't pay me but he could ruin me too", but it's never focused on. In any case, the only named person who comes across particularly unsympathetic is Tobey Maguire, who in the movie is "Player X".

(The movie makes him friendlier towards her until he tries to ruin her, and adds a line where he tells her he likes to ruin lives. It removes a bit where he tells her to bark like a seal for $1000. I probably wouldn't have believed that in the movie. Another thing it removed that I think I wouldn't have believed is after she steals the game from her boss. He summons her to his house, she goes (for some reason?), he's all angry glare face for a bit and then he's like "lol just kidding, proud of you, game is yours" and continues to play. In the movie he just doesn't appear again. Also, when her boss tells her to give up volunteering because altruism is for suckers.)

The movie's thing of "obviously all these guys are falling in love with me, I'm the perfect girlfriend, I don't try to stop them from drinking and gambling and hanging out with the boys" is also not mentioned in the book, so it doesn't sound like she'd really have the kind of secrets the movie says she's protecting. In the book she makes herself useful to the men by acting as an impromptu (and free apart from tips) assistant, getting them into fancy restaurants and stuff. (That's at least a large part of her appeal early on, by the time she moves to NY I'm not sure if she stops doing that or just stops mentioning it.)

The movie leaves out her boyfriends, which makes sense for time. It's a shame, because after the mafia guy visits her house she calls one of her exes, says in tears that she needs him, and he refuses to come. I think that would have been a good scene.

(Also, one of them gets into her pants by telling her first time they meet she should be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, and that could have caused some spicy discourse if it had been in the movie.)

It also leaves out the way she lost the second NY game and builds up again, just brings the Russian mafia into the wall street game. And it doesn't mention the 08 crash that was part of the background around when she lost LA.

Book Molly never had the second (admittedly super implausible) skiing accident, she just quit while she was ahead, and there's no suggestion her dad had an affair. There's no reason to think the boss said "nigger bagels". I think in the movie, Howard commits suicide after the night he goes full tilt and misses his wife's party? That's not in the book.

Overall I'm more sympathetic to movie Molly than book Molly. I didn't super get into movie Molly's head during the main plot, and post arrest she gets to be a hero.

In the book, it seems her motivation basically she likes glamor and celebrity and power, and feels insecure because her brothers are more successful than her. Which, fair enough, but eh. She's self aware enough to realize she doesn't like who she's becoming, but then she doesn't do anything about it. And at the end she says she knows better now, but she'd do it again, so does she really?