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cutielando · 8 months

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summer love | t.n.

synopsis: in which you spend your summer with your boyfriend in his home country

my masterlist

“Amore” Theo called to you as you were resting on the sofa in the common room, a couple of days away from the end of the school year.

“Yes, amore?” you mumbled, not moving your face from where it was buried in the comfy jumper Theo was wearing.

Despite it being summer, the dungeons were void of any warmth, the burning fireplace doing little as to heating up the spacious common room.

“What are your plans for the summer?” his voice was like a melody to your ears, being able to calm you down and soothe you in any situation needed.

“Don’t really have anything planned. Why?”

“I was thinking the other day, would you want to come spend the holidays with me in Italy?" his voice was soft, but it still made you tense up.

You knew about Theo's tumultuous relationship with his father and you knew how much his mother's death had affected him. You didn't think he would want to take you to his home, given that most of his happy memories and moments were spent anywhere but there.

"Are you sure? I don't want to be a bother or anything, especially not to your father" you explained, hesitant about his request.

He nodded, sitting up to hold you better so he can also see your face.

"Amore, don't worry about my father. He's never around the house that much, you probably won't even see him at all" he explained, curling strands of your hair through his fingers.

You hummed, staring at the crackling fire while deep in thought. Spending the entire summer with Theo sounded like a complete dream, and you knew your parents would be more than happy to let you spend your summer with your boyfriend.

Theo had met your parents very early into the relationship. Due to the fact that your families were part of the same circle in the wizarding world, you all knew of each other. But the first time Theo met them as your official boyfriend, he immediately won them over.

Your father was particularly thrilled to have Theo in the family. He almost always stole him away from you when he would visit for the holidays, talking to him about God knows what.

Absentmindedly, you found yourself lifting your head from Theo's chest, gazing into his eyes.

"If I do decide to come, what would we do?" you asked, brushing a strand of hair that had fallen in his eyes.

A smile threatened to break out on his face, but he managed to keep it hidden for now, apprehensive that you would change your mind and refuse his offer.

"Well, we would stay at our vacation house right by the beach, we would travel to the most beautiful and history-rich places in the country, spend quality time together undisturbed, have amazing and constant uninterrupted sex..." you hit his chest at his last remark, making him chuckle and quickly kiss your forehead.

You giggled, nuzzling your face deeper into his warm neck.

As you laid there wrapped up in his arms, you couldn’t think of anything better than spending the whole summer with the person you loved the most.

“I’ll spend the summer with you” you spoke softly, kissing his collarbone.

Theo smiled to himself, squeezing you closer to his chest and burying his face into your hair.

A long summer awaited you both. A summer spent basking in love and happiness, away from the troubled realities of your lives.

♡♡♡♡♡

You knew that spending the break with Theo was going to be the time of your life, but you never thought it would be this perfect.

At the beginning of the summer, you had traveled all throughout the beautiful country that is Italy, visiting the most beautiful villages and cities, full of history and beauties to discover.

At first, you were a little reserved, not wanting to go overboard and make Theo regret that he brought you along. Only after he reassured you that he loved seeing you excited about traveling with him did you completely let loose and enjoy everything that Italy had to offer.

Of course, Theo being Theo, you would never leave a place without him buying you a couple of souvenirs. You almost ran out of place to carry them in your bag, but then he came to the rescue and purchased you an Extendable Bag, mainly to make sure he could continue showering you with gifts.

"I feel bad" you had told Theo after you were done visiting Florence and he had surprised you with yet 4 new gifts.

"Why?" Theo asked, genuinely confused.

"You're buying me so much stuff and you won't let me return the favor. I don't want you to feel like I'm using you or that you have to buy everything for me" you explained, fiddling with your fingers.

Theo couldn't believe his ears. How could he ever think that you, his innocent, soft and perfect little girlfriend, would ever think about using him for money? That thought was just simply not possible.

"Amore, I could never think that. I love buying things for you, your happiness and excitement make me happy. Your presence here with me is the best gift I could ask for" he sealed that promise with a kiss, and you didn't have any choice but to listen to him.

Once you had checked every single place you had wanted to visit off the list, it was finally time to retreat to his beautiful vacation house, where you would spend the remaining couple of weeks of summer break before school started up again.

If you thought his house was impressive, this one was straight out of a fairytale.

A gorgeous abode welcomes you both with a grand and gleaming door, poised to impress.

Within, a spacious living room bathes in natural light from floor-to-ceiling windows. Furnishings are arranged for cozy chats around a crackling fireplace. The kitchen gleams with polished counters, stainless steel appliances, and a meal-prep island. A formal dining room, with a dazzling chandelier, awaits culinary creations. Upstairs, bedrooms boast plush bedding and ample storage. Each room showcases a distinct decor. The master suite indulges with a spacious bath, including a soothing soak tub, separate shower, and dual vanities.

From the balcony, the fresh smell of the sea lingered in the air, the sand glowing under the hot Italian sun.

"I can't believe this is all ours" you whispered at Theo once you had taken everything in.

He smiled, walking over and enveloping you in his arms. "We have the whole place to ourselves. The maids have been instructed not to bother us, you have clothes here that I specifically picked for you, swimsuits so we can go swimming every day, dresses of every sort. I want you to feel at home here"

"Theo, my home is wherever you are" you cupped his face in your hands, leaning up and sealing your lips in a kiss.

Theo felt like he could cry in that moment. He had never felt a love like this since his mother had passed. He never believed someone could love him, someone as damaged as he was. But you did.

You saw past all of his anger issues, past the facade he tried to hold up and past all the walls he had built around himself for protection. You saw him for who he was, a boy who needed love, who needed someone to show him that he mattered, that he was important, that he deserved to be loved.

And you had vowed to be that person for the rest of your days, to make sure he would never go another day feeling unworthy.

♡♡♡♡♡

"Do you want to go swimming for a little while?" Theo asked, after you had spent the better half of the day in his bed, just enjoying each other's presence.

"Yes" you squealed, kissing his cheek before rushing to the closet in order to pick a swimsuit.

Theo chuckled and got out of bed himself, kissing your head on his way to the bathroom.

Once the both of you were ready, you started the small walk towards the beach, setting down your towels near the water.

As you discarded Theo's shirt that you had stolen, your boyfriend eyed you up and down and whistled, making you blush heavily.

"Stop embarrassing me" you mumbled, but Theo knew you secretly loved it when he complimented your body.

"I'm just admiring what's mine" he said, wrapping his arms around your waist and kissing your neck.

You wrapped your arms around his neck, your hands immediately tangling themselves in his curly hair. His hands slowly traveled down to your ass, giving it a light squeeze.

"Let's go" you took his hand and led him towards the water, enjoying the hot sea enveloping your bodies.

You spent more than an hour just splashing around in the water, enjoying the warm weather.

After you decided to get out, you both laid together on your towel, enjoying the sunset together. You were laying with your head on his chest, his fingers drawing shapes on your back.

"Thank you for bringing me here" you spoke up softly, not wanting to disturb the tranquil atmosphere.

"You don't have to thank me, I wanted nothing more than to spend my summer with you. Thank you for agreeing to come with me" he kissed your forehead, making you nuzzle even closer to his chest.

"I love you, you know that, right?" you spoke after a moment of silence, temporarily lifting your head from his chest to look at him.

He nodded. "I love you too, so much" he leaned down and captured your lips in a kiss.

Best summer of your life.

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vashhanamichi · 6 months

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I’m insane and out of my depth but I like to think about different metaphors for the relationship between Harry, Voldemort and Dumbledore. Although the obvious one is Dumbledore as God, Harry as Christ and Voldemort as Satan sometimes they seem to me akin to a mortal family, such are the families in the great Greek tragedies, families whose drama is incensed by the Gods and whose stakes are high enough to affect cities, countries, generations.

I’m thinking about the cursed House of Atreus and this post by the amazing @artemideaddams and these are the bits that I think apply the most to the Dumbledore-Harry-Voldemort triad:

(…) would the family fail, the whole country would fail too. The gods know that.

For Iphigenia to be Clitemnestra's favourite daughter, she need to die first.

She has long known that the only child that could never become their father is the one that will forever be a child. The only one who would have never mourned his death was the one killed by him.

Iphigenia had two moments of glory in her story: when her father killed her, and when her mother avenged her. Being killed, being avenged. Being a pawn to kill or an excuse to kill may not be so different, after all. No one ask for her opinion in both cases.

if Iphigenia would have not be so good, so perfect (…) she would have been free to just BE.

I love characters who are aware of their role in the narrative but cannot stop the narrative from unfolding like Captain Crozier in The Terror. He knows he’s in a tragedy/horror, he knows they’re doomed but he can’t change his fate or the fate of his men.

When Harry realises that he is a Horcrux he occupies a similar state of mind: he knows what genre of story he inhabits. He knows he’s meant to be his world’s Christ. Then all remaining childhood illusions dissolve: he was never meant to live, he was always meant to die. These seventeen years he spent between two of Voldemort’s kisses are but an intermission between acts in an opera. Like most of the famous Arias, Harry is meant to die before the curtain closes. Like Iphigenia as she learns of her role:

we talk about Harry as a “good little soldier” but I think we are mistaken: his obedience is filial. Like a good son, a good daughter. Dumbledore is, in his own words, his last and greatest protector. His last parent figure.

Harry gets to be the perfect child and, thus, the perfect lamb. Dumbledore loves him. And through that love that sacrifice is made greater.

What could ease Artemis’ anger so the winds could sail Agamemnon’s fleet to Troy? What sacred deer? What killing should be done to conquer the Dark Lord?

Not just any wizard, not just any child, not just any son, any daughter — a perfect one, whose unbreakable obedience would have him go to his death willingly. Harry doesn’t run, doesn’t cower. He goes willingly.

Harry is like a child caught in the midst of a nasty divorce. Crushed between Mother (Dumbledore) and Father (Voldemort).

My mother, she killed me,

My father, he ate me

But Voldemort’s role is ambiguous. Dumbledore is a parent figure to him as well — and they’re bitterly disappointed in each other. Let us remember, however, that the House of Atreus is a house of incest. Son-husband Voldemort to mother-wife Dumbledore is everything Harry isn’t. He’d never laid down his life in sacrifice. He’s too much like the unspoken root of Dumbledore’s rot, Grindelwald. Tom Riddle grew up in a way that Harry didn’t, and by growing up he became like Grindelwald, the unspoken Father, the unspoken Husband.

By dying, Harry is perfect. By refusing mortality Tom Riddle is corrupted.

As @artemideaddams puts it, regarding Iphigenia: no one asked her opinion. Harry obeys his mother and is consumed by his father. He is filial to both. He is a lamb to both.

#will come back to this later #anyway #riddledore #harry potter #albus dumbledore #tom riddle #lord voldemort

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ghostking4m · 11 months

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TORNADO WARNINGS

Joe Burrow x male reader

Summary: Y/n reflects on his relationship with Joe in therapy. What his therapist doesn’t know won’t kill him.

——————————————————————————

“So tell me your favorite memory with Joe.”

Y/n didn’t know why he was wasting his time in therapy if he’s just going to be asked questions like this. It’s like he was being asked what his favorite childhood vacation destination was and it makes him feel like a little boy being mentally evaluated.

“I don’t know. I mean- there was this one time when I went to his game against the Kansas City Chiefs and we got this tornado warning. We were just sitting on the swings at this park and it was already cold and windy. The alarm started going off and the look on his face was like he was a character straight out of a horror movie.” Y/n said with a tiny smile and turned to his right to look out the window. “Neither of us had ever seen a real tornado, maybe in the Wizard of Oz, but never in person. Sure, we were both scared, but seeing his eyes wide with pure fear and his knuckles white as snow when he was gripping the chain on the swing was the most hilarious thing I had ever seen. He tried to convince me that we need to go and seek shelter, but I just sat there in the swing laughing. Eventually he sat down in the swings with me and just laughed with me. We even saw the tornado in the distance, but we didn’t move a muscle and we were luckily still safe. Well, no, that was kind of a lie. We did move, but it was only so we could play on the seesaw, then we just laid in the bark together. His arms were wrapped around my waist and I felt so safe. We were so close, not only in proximity, but also on an emotional level. We had feelings for each other, but we both refused to admit it. We were like teenagers playing 7 minutes in heaven, in the sense that we were like kids teetering with our feelings in the dark, both too afraid to make a move.”

Y/n felt a twinge of sadness deep in his heart when he thought of the memories. Remembering what it was like to face danger in the face with Joe hurt him a little more than he would like to admit.

“From what i’m understanding, the two of you stayed at the park in the middle of a tornado and risked facing the tornadoes wrath, just because you thought it was funny?” Y/n therapist asked him. It’s like he couldn’t believe that two people could be so in love that they just wanted to stay there and live in the moment, even if it meant being in the wake of a natural disaster.

“Well, when you put it like that, yeah, I guess we do sound a bit crazy.” Y/n chuckled in response.

“Like, don’t get me wrong, it was totally crazy to just sit there when we saw the tornado destroying everything in its path, but somehow it all felt like everything would be okay.”

“Why?” Dr. Wallard questioned Y/n.

“Because I was with him. I knew we would be okay as long as we were together.”

————————————————————————

“CINCINNATI, YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN SO AMAZING TONIGHT!”

Y/n felt a jolt of electricity while he was onstage. Performing in Paycor stadium was something different for him to get used to, but he felt so comfortable in Paycor, considering how many games he had been here to watch, despite being a California native.

“So, you guys know I’ve been doing this thing at the end of every show where I play a surprise song. We have 1 song left, so what do you guys think the song is going to be?”

Y/n didn’t want the night to end, so he was more than happy to keep the crowd engaged. He heard people yelling all around him in the stadium. He heard Vicious, Sue Me, Because I Liked A Boy, Decode, but he had something else in mind.

“Jokes on all of you, because i’m doing a song that no one has ever heard, not even my team. I just finished the final master last night and I’m so excited for you guys to hear this song. Only three people in the world will know what this song is about, myself, the person I wrote it about, and my therapist.” Y/n joked as he was introducing the song. The entire stadium howled with laughter and cheers after he said that.

“This song is called Tornado Warnings”

————————————————————————

“You always blow me away with your performances.”

Y/n knew that voice in the dark, if he were blind, even if he had his ears covered. Just the sound made his heart pick up to an inhuman speed.

“You just want to see me on my knees in front of you, Burrow” Y/n made a teasing joke in response.

“Well, I would never turn that down, but I mean it, you’ve always been such a captivating and talented performer. It was fun to come to your show today.” Joe pleaded. Y/n turned around and his breath dropped the second he saw those eyes, cool as ice. It never ceased to amaze him how much of an effect Joe’s eyes had on him.

“Thank you. That means a lot. Did you have a favorite song or part of the show?” Y/n asked him, trying to be as casual as he could.

“There was one song I heard tonight that I couldn’t get out of my head. It was something along the lines of you lying to your therapist. That seems like it’s the opposite of helpful, don’t you think?” Joe spoke, poking fun at Y/n.

“Yeah, but it was only ever for the lyrics. It fit the melody and theme of the song. I’ve been entering more of my popstar era than my songwriter era and now i’m just singing what fits the melody than making sure my lyrics are true to me.” Y/n said sarcastically. Joe could always see right through him.

“Right, because you’re a popstar, not a singer-songwriter who the internet claims is the son of Taylor Swift.” Joe said laughing. “Anyway, I really liked that song. I really liked being called a son of a bitch.”

Y/n laughed and it felt so natural to be with Joe like this. Oh god, Dr. Wallard would be so disappointed in Y/n right now if he knew about this.

“No, that one was actually just a line that worked for the melody. I don’t think you’re a son of a bitch. Your mom is an angel.” Y/n said with a smile on his face. He slow started inching his way towards Joe and wrapped his arms around his waist, looking up at him.

“I’ll tell her you said that” Joe chuckled back. He wrapped his arms around Y/n and leaned down to kiss him. No matter what happened, no matter how hard either of them tried, they just couldn’t stay aware from each other. There was something magnetic, something out of this world about their relationship. Joe didn’t want to be with anyone else, even if they were officially in a relationship. “You know, sometimes I can’t tell if we’re in a relationship, just hookup up, friends with benefits, or if you just like kissing me.”

“Oh please! Don’t flatter yourself, Burrow. You look like the green giant from that vegetable company.” Y/n retorted. “If anything, YOU just like kissing me.”

“Cant argue with you there.”

————————————————————————

Y/n thought about Joe all the freaking time. In the shower, driving to the grocery store, on stage performing, but his thoughts about Joe just hit a little differently when he was in his therapy sessions.

“If Joe were to tell you, right now, that he wants to get back together with you, would you do it? Would you reignite that spark that started your relationship in the first place?” Dr. Wallard asked Y/n.

“Oh fuck that! No. Absolutely not. I’m over that son of a bitch. I’m at a point in my life where I almost want to put all of that behind me and pretend like it never existed. I’m just gonna start telling everyone that we never dated, we never saw each other in the first place, we never kissed.” Y/n lied with no hesitation and absolutely no conviction.

Maybe some part of him thought that if he could convince Dr. Wallard that if he couldn’t see the lie that it doesn’t exist. Deep down, he knew that he wasn’t as mysterious as he thought and he’s not as good of a liar as he thinks he is. Dr. Wallard has GOT to be catching on as much as Y/n denies anything ever happened with Joe.

“You wouldn’t go back to the person that you described as the most epic love of your life? You’ve once told me that you think he’s the only person you could ever be with. You had plans or dreams to marry him. Do you still get those dreams sometimes?” Dr. Wallard investigated further.

“No. No. No. In fact, I actually met someone else. There’s a man i’ve been seeing who looks like Joe in a way, maybe it’s the eyes, but character wise, he’s nothing like Joe. He’s so much better than Joe. He’s like he was a predestined thought in Santa’s mind before he was even born and has been on the nice list from birth. He’s the upgraded version of Joe.”

“Does this man have a name?”

“I’d rather not say that right now. I don’t want to jinx anything, you know?”

“Ok. That’s a valid argument. Does this man have any green flags that Joe didn’t?”

“This man is nothing but green flags. Joe was like a walking red flag, or like a walking, talking, breathing natural disaster warning.” Y/n argued.

Y/b had to think a little more about his next response. He thought of Joe and his sweet kisses.

“Joe was a walking tornado warning.”

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lunastrophe · 6 months

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I love your posts. They're truly amazing. I've been doing a lot of my own research into Lolthian Drow culture as well, but have been unable to find much about formal holidays or the nedeirra. Anything you might know about any of that?

Hello! As for the festivals traditionally celebrated by Lolth-sworn drow, in books about Menzoberranzan for 2e and 4e there are mentioned three annual festivals specific to this city:

🕷️ Ceremony Of Graduation - celebrated by all the houses that have a member (or members) graduating from the Academy that year. Basically, a great feast with lots of dancing and drinking that spreads to the entire city - younger students and masters leave the Academy this day to visit their families, and graduated students and priestesses celebrate with wanton abandon as equals.

According to tradition and Lolth's will, on the day before, on the day of and on the day after the ceremony any conflicts between houses are forbidden. Most house servants and warriors are allowed three days of leisure, all trade is forbidden and the entire city is closed for the outside visitors. Many drow during this time, especially younger, are generally more relaxed, fun-seeking, drunken and less vigilant than normally.

Description of the main graduation rite can be found in R. A. Salvatore's Homeland, and an adequate summary is on FR wikia.

🕷️ Festival Of The Founding - celebrated on 20th day of Ches, on anniversary of the formal founding of the city. Drow celebrate this festival with their families, dining together - participants of the feast raise toasts to Lolth, to Menzoberranzan and to the founders of their family, and they tell tales about their ancestors.

The entire day is one of leisure and all the shops are closed, but the dinner lasts only for the second half of a day.

It is also believed that during this time, Lolth herself walks through the city in a form of a drow, listening to her people and judging them, rewarding those who please her and bringing death upon those who displease her (by making their food deadly poisonous, for example). It is a custom to offer hospitality to any drow stranger on this day - because who knows, it may be Lolth in disguise.

🕷️ The Open Days - celebrated from 23rd day of Flamerule to Midsummer (eight days). This festival encourages trade and resembles a trade fair when visitors are allowed to freely wander into the city, even into the districts normally reserved only for nobles.

During these days, all the drow houses put on special demonstrations of magic and martial readiness, to show their strength, impress the visitors and overawe their rivals.

🕷️ In other drow cities, there may be similar festivals - at least the Festival of the Founding and the Open Days sound like they could have their own versions in other Lolth-sworn drow communities.

🕷️ About nedeirra - it is a kind of dance popular among ...younger and wilder drow. Seldom attended by high priestesses, these wild, acrobatic "sweat dances" usually leave young drow drenched in sweat, dancing to the syncopated, driving rhythms of drumming and piping music. A wizard or two is often hired to create fun: illusions, tickling and slapping cantrips, and so on. (from Menzoberranzan, 2e)

In Daughter of the Drow by E. Cunningham nedeirra is described as dance competition of sorts (in the chapter where Liriel Baenre is throwing a wild party).

Hope you will find these information useful! 🙂

#drow lore #dnd lore #drow #lolth sworn drow #drow culture #dark elves #drow partying hard is canon for me #Festival of the Founding sounds a bit like drow Christmas Eve #but with Lolth as a gift-bringer

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siriuslychessi · 1 month

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05 Meeting in a Foreign country

The Blacks always did a summer trip abroad to expand their culture, their distaste for muggles and visit distant family, that Sirius absolutely loaded.

However, this time around the trip was not so bad. They were staying with Uncle Alphard, the most bearable person in that family aside from Andromeda. Uncle Alphard had a nice house in the French Riviera where they were a bit far from the city yet close enough to the muggles that the rest of the Blacks and Rosiers didn’t deem a place to visit so often.

This allowed Sirius time to explore on his own, visit places that usually his mother wouldn’t like, and of course not having to endure the horrible afternoon teas with all the dreadful aunts and uncles that Sirius’ never cared to remember or entertain.

On a lazy Tuesday afternoon he decided to go to the nearby market. Regulus had been sunburned from the beach the day before, and her mother didn’t want to discuss his Gryffindor affiliations all afternoon, leaving him to roam around.

He decided ice cream would be the best solution to all his problems, the only issue was that the trip to town was longer than he anticipated and the sun was just getting higher and higher, heating the road. Making him wish he had his apparition permit already instead of having to walk to town.

After a while of sweating and feeling defeated, he remembered something he had accomplished the last year.

Sirius had become an animagus over the last year, something that not many 16 year olds could brag about, and his animagus form was inconspicuous enough that he could arrive to town faster and without raising alarms. Maybe he could try to see if his alternative form would endure the heat better?

It took him longer than an experienced wizard to get the shape to change, he hadn’t perfected it just yet, the back and forth, and he did not fancy getting stuck half man half beast; repeating ‘Amato Animo Animato Animagus’ under his breath just to make sure. But after a few minutes, where he stood now was a black dog.

Sirius let himself adjust to Padfoot’s form, he could feel the hair on his skin and as he usually changed during colder times he could not know how Padfoot’s body reacted. He remembered that the coat of fur would isolate him somehow from the heat and cold, it was an odd sensation being all covered in fur and not feeling as hot as he did in human form.

He felt himself panting, his body running on instinct more than brain, and he decided to start a spring towards the city, gauging how it would be to actually run all the way there, maybe he could make it.

There was a breeze from the sea, and his paws felt a little bit damped, like they were sweating, which made more sense than sweating from the furry spots. Yet the breeze was cooling him down, and he felt almost as if he was on a broom, flying, letting the breeze run through his hair and enjoying every minute of it.

In no time he made it to town, he was tired but elated. Padfoot was amazing and he loved that he made almost no time there. It didn’t hurt that he got attention from the people that noticed him go through the city calling him a cute boy and giving him pets and treats as he went by.

Yet his mind was made, he needed water and then transform to properly get ice cream.

Looking for a place to get back into human form he was stopped by a person with long legs who stopped his tracks.

The smell was familiar, comforting even, and he couldn’t figure out why, until a blonde woman ducked down to his level.

“You are such a cute dog.” Marlene smiled at Padfoot, letting him smell her hand as a greeting.

The smell hit him strongly, the familiar nicotine and lavender mix that always drove him insane, was just there and all he wanted was to talk to her, to ask her things, to know why on earth was she put in France so near to his family? And why didn’t he know anything?

Because you were a proper arse before the end of the year. He reminded himself as he sniffed and then licked Marlene’s hand.

“Who’s your person? Are they around?” she asked him but was not exactly expecting to get an answer. Not finding anyone with the black dog (and Sirius knew she wouldn’t) she stayed and pet him, finding the spot behind his ear that made his back leg move uncontrollably and felt amazing like something he didn’t get to experience as a human.

“So that’s what you like.” Sirius heard her tease, and all he could do was bark as a reply, earning him more pets.

Last time that they had interacted Sirius just had heard about his cousin marrying Rodolphus Lestrange, and he remembered the last conversation he had with Bellatrix where she was outspoken about wizard rights and how muggles and muggles-borns should be put in their place. His mother had agreed with Bellatrix and showed desire to get Sirius and Regulus involved with Bellatrix and her circle. Which of course made Sirius’ skin crawl and all the pent up frustration he had at his family had come out at Marlene, who was a bystander.

Ever since that day Sirius wanted to apologise, and now that they were in the same city he wanted nothing more than to apologise and go back to how things were before that fight, to let her know he didn’t consider Marlene a nuance or bothersome. But he couldn’t bloody transform back just there, this secret wasn’t just his, and after last time he was sure that she wouldn’t listen to him just now. Not another deceit.

Instead he decided that ice cream could wait.

Padfoot licked her face, making Marlene giggle, “You are such a good boy, I wish that I could take you back with me.”

He barked again, wagging his tail, wanting to hear more of Marlene’s laugh, apologising internally for ever hurting her like that, and pressing his head for more scratches. Today she could make her laugh a bit more, later on they could have the awkward conversation that the apology will ensue.

#blackinnon #sirius black #marlene mckinnon #sirius black x marlene mckinnon #blackinnonfest #blackinnonsummerfest #mine

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18catsreading · 9 months

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Ayda: you're Cheese of Cannoncourt, correct?

Cheese: yeah, yeah, er wow, uh yea, I'm Cheese. I'm Cheese.

Ayda: my apologies for my lateness. In addition to being the mistress of the Compass Points Library, I also am in a committed relationship with a rockstar who lives in Solace. So I have to split time between those two locations.

Cheese: yeah, oh yea, I know. I keep up with all the papers, and all those -- that's amazing, yeah

Ayda: I am Ayda Aguefort, mistress of the Compass Points. It's been brought to my attention that you are a young wizard, is this correct?

Cheese: uh, yes

Ayda: may I observe your trapper keeper?

Cheese: uh, ooh, yeah. [As Carlos]: he pulls out the trapper keeper and hands it to her. Starts kind of making excuses for it. [As Cheese]: oh, a lot of these, a lot, a lot of the pages are torn. It's a lot, a lot of stuff that I'm scribbling in the notes I had to like, I don't know the real languages or exactly how this stuff works exactly. A lot of that I put, I put together. it's not, it's not --

Ayda: your voice keeps stuttering over and over again, are you nervous right now?

Cheese: -- -- -- I'm always, I'm always nervous, yes

Ayda: why?

Cheese: um. -- --. [Sighs heavily]. I don't know.

Ayda: I'm going to be frank with you. I command the ind and stars. I am a powerful wizard. Last year I stormed the nine Hells to save my paramour. And I also get nervous a lot. It's okay to be nervous, but I hope you are not nervous around me. I heard of your story and that you are off on an adventure to save your brother. This is a noble calling. I hope you do well. Am I conveying to you affection correctly? You're getting that I'm being affectionate, yes?

Cheese: -- -- I don't have a lot of experience, but I guess so, yes. I mean, on paper it sounds 100%.

Ayda: you don't have a lot of experience with affection? I understand that. Leviathan can be an unkind place to grow up. Do you have any family left here in the city?

Cheese: -- -- y- no, not in the city.

Ayda: [narrowing her eyes] very well. [As Brennan]: she casts a spell. Some act of divination, and she says: [as Ayda]: I've asked the winds and the mist of all the 17 seas to come together and agree with you that you have no family here in the city. Any who live in this city that operate under the mistaken assumption that they are your family will find locating you, troubling you, or harassing you, or ever being unkind to you again to be an impossibility. For you and your brother.

Cheese: Thank you

Ayda: here is a very large book of spells. It's a present. I hope you enjoy it. Don't tell me if you don't, it will hurt my feelings.

Cheese: oh! Thank you!! This is, oh, it even has that new spell smell. Thank you! So much!

Ayda: your adventure awaits. The Crows Keep will be open to you whenever you are ready. I'm out of things to say. Do you have any things to say, or are we done talking?

Cheese: -- -- we're done talking. We're done talking, yes.

Ayda: okay. I consider you a friend. I hope you do the same to me. You can think about it, you don't have to answer now. Goodbye, Cheese.

#brennan lee mulligan #dimension 20 #pirates of leviathan #ep 8 the horizon beyond the squall #carlos luna #marisha ray #krystina arielle #aabria iyengar #matt mercer #b dave walters #ayda aguefort #gotta save spaulding

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magicalhideoutengineer · 5 days

Text

“I was excited about the prospect of exploring fashion in Paris in the late '20s," Colleen says. "I pushed it into the early '30s because Paris is always ahead of the fashion curve; it’s [a] city known for its elegance and style and that was a great period for design.”

Can you take us through your creative process for designing the costumes?

"The first part of the process was meeting with the director and reading the script where you get the idea of what the story is. The next step is meeting with the production designer so you see the world that he's creating. This particular movie is set in Paris and a little bit of New York. I start and go do my own research, and look for inspiration from that time period in Paris, which was a very rich and amazing time for design where so much was going on.

“Newt still has his beasts, but his shell is a little slicker. We put Eddie in clothes that are close to the same silhouette, just a bit better fit.”

"I took all the layers from the art world, to the carnivals, to Moulin Rouge, all the things in Paris that make it such a spectacular city, back into with the different levels of humanity that I'm creating for the film, for the real world, and for the wizarding world. [The wizards] are living not seperately from the muggle world, they have a double life. So they live amongst the regular folks but they have a little flare so I had fun with them with different shaped hats, and different things that were subtle so you could kind of tell it was them when they were mixed with the muggle world. But then when you separate them, I pushed reality a little bit more. They're more strange looking, with different kinds of color and things like that. In this case, because I know the main four from the previous film, I take each character and think about how they evolve and how they've grown from moving through a couple of years into their lives and breaking that down with each of them."

"[For Grindelwald] The name begged for an Alpine twist, and I’ve always loved Bavarian clothing. We made the lederhosen a little bit longer, coupled it with a tall boot, and ended up with a kind of Bavarian meets the New Romantic."

How would you describe the evolution of the costumes from the first movie to the second one?

"Since they went from America to Paris, they have a more European flavor in general. The principal characters are more sophisticated, they've evolved. Katherine Waterston's character Tina has moved back to her old vision as a higher up. Queenie has evolved and become a more grown up, less flippant character. She's in darker colors and a more grown up look. Slightly pushed into the '30s. For Eddie Redmayne's character, it was sort of similar in silhouette and shape as his previous costume, but with a more urban flavor, a more sophisticated fabric, and [with colors that are] a little less bright."

"[For Queenie,] it’s a bit more grown up and has a slightly darker edge than her dress in the last film, but at the same time, it’s feminine and has the whimsy of that big bow in the front. "

How would you describe your designs for the movie?

"In general, I think my designs defnitely have a flavor of movement and color, and a sort of trajectory into the '30s that was different from the first film. I think they're quite sexy in a quiet way, not in an obvious way. I have some amazing beautiful characters like Claudia Kim who is Nagini. She has a very amazing dress that transforms into other things so I had a really magical times with the costumes."

[For Nagini] “Throughout the film, she is wearing her performance costume from the magical circus, so I wanted to amplify the fantasy aspect. For the material, I took lace and screened over it with metallic foil to give the look of snakeskin, and then added ruffles around the bottom and the sleeves to suggest the coils of the snake.”

Did you face any difficulties in designing the costumes?

"I think for a movie like that, the most difficult part is just the time you have to create a lot of ornate cotumes. Getting them ready and getting them aged and looking interesting takes just about enough time to get it done. For instance, Queenie's dress is a beautiful piece of fabric I found in Germany from the '30s, but in order to make it work for her costume, I needed enough to make 12 costumes. In order to do that sometimes I take the inspiration of that fabric and print it myself so I create the fabric for the characters before I make the costume in order to have the feeling of the period and the kind of fabric I want for that particular character. In doing that, everybody's costumes shouldn't look like it just came from a store, it should have a lived in quality. So the same people that do the printing and stuff make things look dirty, if there's a fight they tear it, they do dyeing of fabrics for making different colors and all kinds of things. It's a huge creative department painting, taking the leather coats—when I first get them they look very stiff— and breaking down things so they look like they're comfortably lived in."

“David Yates and I wanted Dumbledore to be the professor the kids all love, their go-to guy. He needed to look professorial but at the same time approachable, so I used softer fabrics and textures in tones like heathery grays, which add to the approachability of the character. I also love corduroy, so I made a wide-wale corduroy coat for him and Jude just loved it.”

Would you say each character's costume says something about their personality?

"I think that each character's costume is part of their character, so for instance, the idea of Tina's leather coat gives immediate authority with its silhouette. I would consider how each character looks not only close up, but how they look far away, standing in a doorway or something like that. They don't have a lot of changes, but they have a look, and I think that's part of the design of the character that's the most important thing to find."

“Tina has more self-assurance since her reinstatement as an Auror. She looks like a true detective in a great blue leather coat. We were fond of everything about it…except how much it weighs.”

Did you have a favorite character to design for?

"That's a hard question! Not really, it was fun working with Zoe Kravitz on the film because she's so sylish and it's great to design things that are chic like that and more sophisticated.

“Leta is from the manor born, so her clothes are all very elegant and rich in color. Zoë looks fantastic in anything, so it was fun to dress her for the period.”

#fantastic beasts #crimes of grindelwald #coginterview #colleen atwood #newt scamander #gellert grindelwald #tina goldstein #queenie goldstein #albus dumbledore #nagini #leta lestrange

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facetsofthecloset · 4 months

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What order would you suggest reading Discworld in? :0

Oh my friend you have opened an entire Amazon warehouse of a can of worms, which is going under a cut because I'm so sorry, you've activated my trap card

1: Preamble

First, a caveat: I have not read ALL of the Discworld books yet. There's a bunch of the short stories and sort of "bonus content"-y stuff that I haven't got round to, and the last two books he wrote before he passed, (I Shall Wear Midnight and Shepherd's Crown) but I have read everything else!

So!

Ok, there are lots of “recommended reading order” lists out there for Discworld, and what they generally do is group books into subcategories based on the protagonists.

These are fine as a base structural framework to work from, but if you're asking me I'm guessing you want a more personalized recommendation, SO

It really depends on your interests! When I started Discworld I'd already been pilled on tumblr, seeing posts cross my dash every now and then (probably due to the Glorious 25th of May actually, which I'm spamming right now) about how great it was and how many books there were.

So I picked up the first book (The Color of Magic) even though everyone said don't start there, and I stuck to it because I'd kind of already decided to like the series, or at least be incredibly open-minded about it.

Listen. The Color of Magic was published in 1983, it was one of his earliest novels, and it's definitely a bit rough. But! Full of personality and chaos, from which stars will be born later on.

You can think of it as the primordial ooze, full of nutrients and ideas and things that could evolve, but kind of formless and a bit confused at the moment

2: The List

So if you're not a bit naive and desperate for a new fantasy series to be obsessed with as an adult and trusting wholeheartedly a lot of strangers online that things get really really good, and you want some proof upfront, this is my list of potential starters:

Reaper Man (Death subseries #2)

Witches Abroad (Witches subseries #3)

Feet of Clay (City Watch subseries #3)

The Truth (Industrial Revolution subseries #2)

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (YA standalone that takes place in the Discworld)

Going Postal (Industrial Revolution #4 or Moist von Lipwig subseries #1)

You'll notice that I've picked almost none of the "first book" in a subseries and I have good reasons for that! I'll talk about each book individually, but my main reason for starting you off a little ways into each subseries is that the Vibes(tm) of the very first book in a subseries are very different to the actual overall Vibes(tm) of the subseries generally, once it's had time to fill out and ripen a bit.

The books I've picked are the "early but recognizable" stages of most of the series', because I think you can go back to read the first ones as a sort of prequel treat for yourself later once you've started to run out of books in the series, which happens faster than you think given there's 41 of them.

But I'll go into more detail about that with the individual books! Again, I am so sorry this is so bloody long. I'm having coffee as we speak

3: List Breakdown

Reaper Man (Death subseries #2):

“What can the harvest hope for, if not for the care of the Reaper Man?”

Protagonist: Death (the anthropomorphic personification)

Summary: Death is fired from his job for caring too much, and has to go live as a farmhand. In his absence, things start to get weird, leading to zombie wizards and sentient shopping carts.

Why start here: Death as a character shows up all over the place in Discworld, and he's wonderful. This is the 11th book in publishing order, and one of the first that had me almost crying at the end. A lot of the earlier books had me kinda going "ok that was fun but I feel like I'm missing something, why is it people keep going on about this series?" and while this book doesn't quite yet answer that question, it gave me a hell of a lot of motivation to keep going.

The Death subseries book before this, Mort, is also good! If you want to start there, that's fine. But to me, it's a prologue, and doesn't give you an accurate picture of what the Overall Vibes of the series are. Reaper Man is still also kind of a prologue in that sense, seeing as Death is not even the protagonist for all of the Death books, but I still say it's a good place to start. It sets the groundwork for future books but also...

...man that quote about the harvest, and yes the summary sounds absurd and it is because it's not just fantasy, it's parody and comedy, but in the same book you'll have moments where you just have to stare at the wall for a bit unsure if you're going to reach enlightenment or burst into tears.

Reaper Man is a very wholesome, funny, and casually profound place to start your Discworld journey. It's early in the timeline of the Disc, you get a taste of the Wizards subseries as well, and you can see how important settings like Ankh-Morpork, the main city, start out. One thing I love about Discworld is how it grows, so starting out earlier in the in-universe timeline can be nice to get the full effect of seeing that.

A later Death book, Hogfather, is one I would recommend someone read if they were under some kind of curse where they could only ever read 3 Discworld books ever, and of course you could jump right to that one.

But if you want a bit of build up and additional context, you can start with Reaper Man.

Witches Abroad (Witches subseries #3):

Lily: You'd have done the same. Granny: No. I'd have thought the same, but I wouldn't have done it. Lily: What difference does that make, deep down? Nanny Ogg: You mean you don't know?

Protagonist: The Witches/Granny Weatherwax

Summary: Magrat Garlick, youngest of Lancre's witch coven trio, inherits a fairy godmother's wand, and thus also a fairy goddaughter, named Emberella. Unfortunately, Emberella lives very far away in Genua, and none of the witches really know how to make the wand work, and hardly any of them have left Lancre much at all before, let alone gone all the way to fantasy New Orleans. And Magrat's the one who got the wand, so she really should be the one taking point on this, but Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax can hardly let the youngest, soppiest, and wettest-behind-the-ears witch of their coven go off and make fairy tales on her own, can they? They've got a happy ending to make, and a bad witch to find...

Why start here: More into witches and fairy tales? Like a good Cinderella parody? Want to know how to stop spelling bananananana daquiri? Well, Nanny Ogg actually can't help you there, but you can get the other stuff.

Granny Weatherwax, along with Samuel Vimes of the City Watch subseries, is the beating heart and deeply, calmly furious soul of Discworld.

She is THE Witch. Witches don't have leaders, but Granny is the First among equals.

You can meet her earlier in the series, in Equal Rites or Wyrd Sisters, but Witches Abroad are when things start to come together in terms of tone and style for the Witches subseries, at least for me. Like Reaper Man, Witches Abroad is fairly early in the in-universe timeline as well as #12 in the publishing order, right after Reaper Man. Between the two, you can get a decent idea of the early form of the Disc, though I'd add in Guards! Guards! to complete that picture.

On its own, it's a fun romp full of recognizable parodies and interesting twists, a good old fashioned road trip. And it punches you in the face later about the nature of morality and how people think, about identity and choosing who you're going to be.

It won't make sense unless you've read it, but I think about a scene towards the end and the line "This one," all the time. Start here, read the other Witches books, have a Granny Weatherwax permanently etched into the back of your mind, reminding you about the difference between thinking and doing.

Feet of Clay (City Watch subseries #3):

“You couldn't say 'I had orders.' You couldn't say 'It's not fair.' No one was listening. There were no Words. You owned yourself. [...] Not 'Thou Shalt Not'. Say 'I Will Not'.”

Protagonist: Samuel Vimes

Summary: Commander of the City Watch, Samuel Vimes, now officially a Sir and married into the ranks of Ankh-Morporks elite, must have a coat of arms made. Thank gods there's been a murder for him to focus on instead. Someone's poisoning the Patrician--Lord Vetinari--too, and something strange is happening with the city's golems...

Why start here: This is it. For me, this was the book that made me go "Oh. That's why everyone loves this series." Every book up to this point had been interesting, funny, engaging, but as yet a little underbaked compared to the hype--until here.

Feet of Clay was the point of no return for me as a Discworld fan. This is the start of Sam Vimes, the man who IS Ankh-Morpork in many ways, the character you think of first when someone says "Discworld" (or boots. The "Sam Vimes Boots Theory of Economics" seems to travel outside of Discworld circles sometimes, from what I've heard.)

The City Watch books prior to this are all important to the formation of Sam Vimes as we know him mainly, which is why most people tend to start you off with Guards! Guards!. Totally legitimate place to start, but if you're going into it after being stuffed full of hype on tumblr and elsewhere, you're going to go "Hm. Is that it?"

Feet of Clay is #19 in publishing order, around midway through the series and part of what I've seen referred to as the "golden age" of Discworld books. As far as in-universe time goes, it's a bit farther along than Reaper Man or Witches Abroad, but not hugely. Things are established and the swing has been grasped, and Sam Vimes in freshly fully baked. (I keep using the word because it's relevant to the story lol) He'll go on from here to even greater heights, but this is a damn good start into Vimes being Vimes.

Now I will caveat this with a warning that if you are so ACAB that even seeing the word "cop" makes you break out in hives, then you probably shouldn't read City Watch books.

But I will say, policing as Sam Vimes does it is different from the modern American police. Obviously. This is fiction, it's based more on older English policing, it's a fantasy world, and Sam Vimes would be the first person to tell you that a cop who isn't a bastard is a liar, which is just another type of bastard.

It isn't pure uncritical copaganda, it's closer to Brooklyn 99, not CSI Miami, but if your stance is that making the protagonist a police officer we are meant to relate to at all is irredeemable, then yeah, this isn't going to work for you.

But so much of the Watch series--arguably all of it-- is about asking the question How do you be a good copper? What is a good copper? What is good? How do you be 'good' when you know that inside your head you're a messy, problematic bastard who thinks he knows better than everyone and has authority to abuse?

Who watches the watchmen? Sam Vimes. He watches himself, all the time. Maybe you won't agree with his conclusions, and I've heard people say the later Watch books where Terry's Alzheimers was progressing were too White Savior, but that's something you'd have to decide for yourself if you decide to keep reading.

For me, the City Watch books are the heart of Discworld, and they are absolutely worth engaging with.

Feet of Clay is a pretty classic and fun murder mystery, coupled with serious discussions of personhood and slavery, and has a plotline dealing with a lot of gender stuff that is expanded on in later books. It's far enough along in the series that the basics are established, and early enough that there is a lot of interesting development to look forward to.

I haven't reread it in a while, but it will always hold a special place in my heart for being the book where Discworld clicked home and became a permanent part of my psyche.

The Truth (Industrial Revolution subseries #2):

“The truth has got its boots on,” he said. “It’s going to start kicking.”

Protagonist: William de Worde, standalone

Summary: Printing presses were not allowed in Ankh-Morpork. Alas, times were moving on, and brought with them The Times, Ankh-Morpork's very first newspaper. William de Worde finds himself falling into the role of the Disc's first journalist. It starts with innocent stories of humorous vegetables and debates over when the coldest winter was, and ends with an attempted assassination (several, in fact), a shadowy conspiracy, a dog's testimony, and daddy issues (doesn't it always).

They say a lie can run around the world before the truth has got its boots on, but William's got a shoehorn and is prepared to tie some laces.

Why start here: Drop into an almost fully-established and stabilized Ankh-Morpork, watch a new technology drop into it and see the ripples. The Truth is categorized as an Industrial Revolution book, but it's also a standalone. You can know nothing about the Discworld and still have a damn good time.

It's honestly one of my favorites, possibly the favorite, owing to the presence of Otto Chriek, vampire photographer (called iconographers on the Disc) to The Times and also my favorite Discworld character ever number 1 no contest hands down don't talk to me. (Are there "better" and "more important" Discworld characters? Of course. Doesn't mean jack when it comes to personal favorites though, does it. Otto Chriek my beloved my darling my heart and soul this is his first appearance and after this he only gets mentioned in passing in the background of other books although he occasionally does get a whole scene and some dialogue I'm Normal About Him)

Ahem. Anyway.

If you want a good taste of what Terry Pratchett's writing is like overall, just one good sampler, this is a pretty decent choice. It's neat and contained but also has a lot of ties to the rest of the series that you could easily pull on if you wanted to. It's sometime after Feet of Clay, timeline-wise, but is really the start of the Industrial Revolution of Discworld proper, and you can make an argument for it starting off a second stage (maybe a silver era?) of Discworld books, in terms of publication order. There's Ankh-Morpork pre-newspaper, then there's Ankh-Morpork post-newspaper, and this is obviously the dividing line.

Because of that, it's possible that it would be slightly disorienting to read this first and then go back to an older pre-newspaper Discworld, because the dynamics are different. But that's one aspect of the series that I love, how it has its own historical eras. "Ah, this story is still in the Century of the Fruitbat, before the introduction of printing presses in Ankh-Morpork" or "Oh, this is from the post-clacks society," stuff like that.

It's a huge part of what makes Discworld feel like a real, entire universe, and how different books in the series feel like snapshots of their history. And history can be funny, profound, horrific, ironic, fascinating, and above all, human.

Even if "human" in the Disc doesn't cover nearly everyone. Barley anyone, you could argue. They have a lot of different species.

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (YA standalone):

“People were people, even if they had four legs and had called themselves names like Dangerous Beans, which is the kind of name you gave yourself if you learned to read before you understood what all the words actually meant.”

Protagonist: debatable but I'll say Maurice (a cat. standalone)

Summary: The trouble with magic is that you never know what it'll do. Sometimes, it turns a bunch of rats (and one cat) from dumb animals into The Clan and Maurice, who work together with a human boy named Keith to run a Pied Piper scam.

Keith is human, and talks to other humans, offering to rid them of their town's rats, and The Clan pretend to be charmed by his flute and make a show of leaving town. Maurice--well, he's the brains of the outfit and makes sure no one grows too much of a conscience over the grift, and that he they get paid properly. And everyone likes cats.

One of the towns they come across, though...something is wrong here. There are no rats, or...are there? What is a rat, anyway? What's the difference between a rat and a Clan rat? What's the difference between a Clan rat and a human? Or a Maurice?

That was the problem with thinking. Once you started, you went on doing it.

Why start here: Similar to The Truth, a good way to get a decent, well-rounded sampling of Prachettian writing. You've got the parodic element in the Pied Pier story, some genuine horror in the antagonist of the story, existential questions on the nature of sentience and personhood, puns that you won't even realize are puns until you come across an explanatory post on tumblr, as well as the puns that hit you in the face and kick you in the fork and make you go "Fucking hell. More please!" Just because it's YA doesn't mean it's any lesser, it's just a slightly different tone of voice.

I don't remember exactly what era of Discworld it takes place in, but it's later in the publication order and I think timeline-wise, definitely after The Truth? I'm pretty sure newspapers exist at this point. It doesn't matter as much, since most of the story takes place outside of Ankh-Morpork. Either way, it's very accessible, a decent one-and-done. There's a rat named Dangerous Beans, who was voiced by David Tenant in the recent animated film. (Not a good adaptation but you could watch it. It's. Well not the worst, as Discworld adaptations go, but it's like. Fine. Kinda weird. Kinda boring. Read the book.)

Going Postal (Industrial Revolution #4, or Moist von Lipwig #1):

“Raise the stakes! Always push your luck because no one else would push it for you.”

Protagonist: Moist von Lipwig

Summary: Professional conman Albert Spangler is hanged for his crimes, and reborn as Moist von Lipwig--his actual birth name. His new lease on life comes with the caveat of resurrecting the long-defunct Ankh-Morpork Post Office as Postmaster General. As a consummate liar and career criminal, he's a perfect fit for government service.

And he's just in time--The Grand Trunk clacks company, under its newest management, has been plagued by enshittification. Once able to relay messages across the continent "at the speed of light," now it's expensive, breaks down constantly, and runs on the blood of its workers. But messages still have to get through, and you can't send a package by semaphore. The world needs the Post, and the Post needs Moist von Lipwig.

Him? He needs a new name. And a way to get rid of his golem parole officer...

Why start here: Moist von Lipwig is a late addition to the canon and only stars in 3 books (one of which is distinctly different in style, owing to the advancement of Pratchett's Alzheimer's at time of writing), but he is just about as crucial to Discworld as Granny Weatherwax, Sam Vimes, and Lord Vetinari. He's a grifter who's all about style, and holy shit is he good at it.

To me, Going Postal is a perfect book, and the sequel Making Money is somehow even better. I got my friend hooked on Discworld by reading a passage out of the sequel to her and subsequently read her the entire book and Going Postal after. Get past his name, and Moist von Lipwig is all you've ever dreamed of in terms of entertainment.

The Moist books (lol) are formatted a little bit differently to the others, as it's one of the only Discworld books to have formal chapters and sort of chapter summaries? I'm not sure why this is but I think it has to do with Moist being, well, Moist. Everything in his life is a show and so his books also have a bit of extra set dressing.

I think if you read Going Postal and Making Money and those were the only Discworld books you ever knew about you'd still be obsessed madly in love and fanatic about the whole series. Moist comes into things when Ankh-Morpork is already pretty much fully-fledged, and he could have been the beginning to a new era. As his presence inclusion in the Industrial Revolution series implies, he brings about a lot of huge structural/technological changes to the Disc and it's amazing to watch it unfold.

Going Postal also has the distinction of having one of the only decent Discworld screen adaptations (look I haven't watched all of them and I'm really sorry if there's a BBC version or something that you really love, but the ones that I've seen so far are mostly...either really low-budget and weird or just boring). I'd say if you watched the movie version and liked it, you'd like the book even more but not in spite of the movie, you know? Charles Dance is in it as Lord Vetinari and aside from his hair not being black he's fucking perfect. You cannot go wrong here.

4: Conclusions

I'm sorry this got so LONG AHH

But! What you choose to read as your first Discworld book imo depends hugely on what your interests are and why you're interested in the series to begin with.

If you just want a quick way to see what all the fuss is about, I'd say any of the standalones or Moist books.

If you want a sample of how it unfolds and grows and are willing to put some time into it, start with Reaper Man and maybe read down the list I made, then go back and read the other books in their respective subseries. Or pick one that you liked a lot and follow that subseries first!

If you're really willing to put in the time and want to understand the series as a whole, do what I did and start with The Color of Magic and go by publication order. You're going to need a bit of patience and be generous at first, wait for things to develop, but for me it's been worth it. Again, if you have the time though. I mean, it is 41 books.

Or, if you're into a bit more chaos than that...use a random number generator and read whatever it tells you. Honestly, even books in longer subseries's are self-contained and pretty readable on their own, you just get more context if you read it "in order." The roulette approach is perfectly viable.

I mean, I do have Discworld books that I'm not as fond of, but none where I'd say you should never read it.

Even my least favorite (Interesting Times, part of the Wizards series) has a lot of redeeming qualities and I reread it a couple times before I decided maybe I didn't like it as much. (It's mostly because they go to fantasy East Asia and it's a bit Asian Monolith-y. Look I love Pratchett but he was a white British man who started writing in the late 70s/early 80s y'know? He's good but not perfect. The Wizards series has a lot of traveling around the Disc and a lot of like, racial stereotypes involved. Which is a shame because I do love the main protagonist of the series (Rincewind), it just personally makes me a little uncomfortable.)

That said, I don't hate it.

There are no Discworld books I regret reading. There's just ones I enjoyed even more than the others, and ones that have been permanently absorbed into my soul. You really can't go wrong.

This concludes my Starter Discworld dissertation I'm so sorry but you did ask 💦

#thank you for asking though aslkdfjlaksdjfs #discworld #facets answers #there are really no wrong ways to start discworld though #and i didn't even mention all my favorites #look up the standalones and pick one at random!#urgh monstrous regiment my beloved i didn't even allude to you

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birdmitosis · 10 months

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Fanmix-slash-playlist for Slay the Princess! Song list under the cut. There’s 96 songs on this fanmix/playlist, and it’s about 6 and a half hours long.

Some of the songs were not available on Spotify, and they will be linked to on YouTube below. (Some artists have 2 songs on the playlist; aeseaes, The Crane Wives, and Hozier each have 3 because they were just too perfect. Also, some songs are definitely on here because of other people's fanvids or even just suggestions, and I've made note of and credited all of those!) (All fanmixes/playlists are a perpetual WIP.)

aeseaes - All Things Devour

aeseaes - Semantics

aeseaes - Tongues

AG - Terrible Thing

t h e . a i m s - Violence & Blood

Alanis Morissette - Everything (friend suggestion)

Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra - Trout Heart Replica

Amber Run - I Found

The Amazing Devil - The Horror and the Wild

The Amazing Devil - That Unwanted Animal

Andrew Bird - Imitosis

AURORA - Your Blood

Baby Storme - This City is a Graveyard

Band of Horses - No One's Gonna Love You

Beth Crowley - Monster

Blindside - Withering

Bring Me the Horizon - Deathbeds

Camera Obscura - Fifth in Line to the Throne

Chonny Jash - The Soul Eclectic (inspiration)

City and Colour - Little Hell

Coldplay - The Hardest Part

Coldplay - Square One

Collective Soul - The World I Know

The Crane Wives - Curses

The Crane Wives - Hollow Moon (inspiration)

The Crane Wives - Tongues & Teeth

Crystal Castles - Suffocation (inspiration)

David Bowie - Changes

The Echoing Green - Starling

Electric President - Some Crap About the Future

Elizabeth & the Catapult - Do Not Hang Your Head

Elizabeth & the Catapult - My Goodbye

Ellie Goulding - Salt Skin

Eurielle - Hate Me

The Feeling - Mr Grin

Florence + The Machine - Kiss With a Fist

Florence + The Machine - What the Water Gave Me

Forgive Durden - A Dead Person Breathed on Me!

Foxtails Brigade - Long Route

Foxtails Brigade - Nun but the Lost

Ghost and Pals - DEATHBODY

Ghost and Pals - In Iolite

Hannah Fury - Angels & Absinthe

Howie Day - Collide

Hozier - Francesca

Hozier - In the Woods Somewhere

Hozier - Who We Are

Jack Conte - Kitchen Fork (inspiration)

The Jezabels - Hurt Me

Jhariah - Flight of the Crows

Kate Nash - Paris

Kiltro - Softy

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Magenta Mountain

lasah - taixu (inspiration)

Lisa Hannigan - Oh Undone

Little Dragon - Twice

The Lord Dog Bird - The Shedding Path

Ludo - The Horror of Our Love

Madilyn Mei - Knotted Constellations

MGMT - Little Dark Age

Michelle Branch - Everywhere

Mili (feat. KIHOW) - In Hell We Live, Lament

Mirah - You've Gone Away Enough

The Mountain Goats - No Children (inspiration)

The Mountain Goats - Sudden Oak Death

Mr.Kitty - After Dark

múm - Prophecies & Reversed Memories

The Nor'easters - 715 — CRΣΣKS (inspiration)

Olivier Bibeau - Better Run, Better Hide

Passion Pit - Seaweed Song

PEGGY - Villains Aren't Born (They're Made)

Perfectly Human - Bad As

Perfectly Human - Fly Again

Racoon - Took a Hit

Reinaeiry - When the Sun Loves the Moon

Ricky Montgomery - This December

RIProducer - Fruiting Bodies

RIProducer - What Gave It Away?

Sarah Blasko - Bird on a Wire

Satin Puppets - Bad Moon Rising

Seeming - Someday Lily

Sharon Van Etten - It's Not Like

Shayfer James - Boots Worn Through (inspiration)

Sleeping At Last - Mind

Sleeping At Last - Taste

SNAKE POOL - FIGURE IN THE BACKGROUND (inspiration)

Snow Patrol - Open Your Eyes

Solas Composer - He Who Devoured the Dark II

Southwest Statistic - Fairy Tale (friend suggestion)

Stars - He Dreams He's Awake

Subsignal - The Bells of Lyonesse (inspiration)

Sunset Rubdown - For the Pier (and Dead Shimmering)

Talking Heads - And She Was

Trespassers William - I Know

TV on the Radio - Stork & Owl

Woodkid - Ghost Lights

#slay the princess #stp #fanmix #playlist #i am probably going to add to this a lot #and it's already loooong #but man so many songs make me think of this game #can an entire game be a blorbo?#I JUST ADDED ANOTHER ONE IMMEDIATELY #i am beyond parody

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rollercoasterwords · 1 year

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hiiiiiii!! i don't have the brain to do or watch anything atm but i would LOVE some movie recs please 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

YAY ok assuming this is coming from the 80s movie post so. here r some of my favorite 80s movies:

ridiculous campy fun:

earth girls are easy (1988) - fucking LOVE this movie!!! such a fun time. horny aliens crash their spaceship on earth + get taken in by a human woman. also it's a musical comedy + the aliens are played by jeff goldblum jim carrey and damon wayans

hell comes to frogtown (1988) - also. obsessed w this one. post-apocalyptic world where society is a matriarchy + humans need 2 repopulate. protagonist is a Manly Man who has been discovered to have a Mega-High Sperm Count, making him a government asset so a sexy military doctor locks him up in a chastity cage 2 conserve his precious sperm. also there are mutated frog people + they kidnapped a bunch of ~fertile~ human women to keep as sex slaves so Manly Man needs 2 accompany sexy military doctor + sexy soldier to go rescue the ladies from Frogtown so he can fuck them <3 also his name is Sam Hell. hence. 'hell comes to frogtown'

clue (1985) - based on the board game!! murder mystery comedy w wacky characters + an ending that is oh-so-fun

weird dark fantasy:

the company of wolves (1984) - the movie that inspired my 80s movie post 2nite <3 creepy fairytale retelling of red riding hood w a bunch of stories-within-a-story so that it ends up feeling like some sort of fever dream matryoshka doll

labyrinth (1986) - one of my FAVORITE movies of all time!!!!! david bowie is a goblin king who kidnaps the protagonist's baby brother as a favor 2 her + then when she's like actually i want him back he's like ok solve my maze then <3

return to oz (1985) - sequel to 'the wizard of oz' that is like. 10 times darker + weirder + creepier + definitely scarred me + my twin when we watched it as children lol. dorothy won't stop talking abt oz so she's taken 2 a mental institution for electroshock therapy. queue dramatic storm + sudden return to oz except the city is in ruins + dorothy needs 2 save the day

horror:

aliens (1986) - sequel to alien (1979) which just missed the cutoff for making this list + i also recommend--but u don't NEED 2 watch it 2 watch this movie. outer space creature feature meets slasher survival horror. xenomorph i love u <3

the thing (1982) - another sci-fi alien horror but this time it follows a group of researchers in the arctic who encounter an alien that can change shape 2 look like any of them. queue paranoia. there's also a more modern remake of this movie if i'm not mistaken

day of the dead (1985) - probably romero's least well-known zombie movie lol but a fun one nonetheless! good if u like 80s movies + zombie movies which. i do <3

the shining (1980) - oooh artsy spooky hotel horror.....a classic to be honest....

animated:

the last unicorn (1982) - ANOTHER favorite movie of all time for me!!!! unicorn who lives in isolation in a forest overhears two humans talking about how there are no more unicorns in the world + is like what i can't be the only one left...so she sets out on an adventure 2 try and find out what happened 2 all the unicorns <3 another movie that scarred me as a child bc of how creepy + dark it was

nausicaa of the valley of the wind (1984) - studio ghibli <3 this is one of my fave ghibli films. post-apocalyptic wasteland where giant bugs roam the earth....amazing

castle in the sky (1986) - more ghibli! girl w mysterious magic necklace meets boy who is searching for castle in the sky. also they are being chased by pirates + creepy government agents. FUN

kiki's delivery service (1989) - aaaaand more ghibli. teenage witch sets out 2 make her way in the world + encounters existential dread <3

classics:

heathers (1988) - veronica decides that she's sick of her mean-girl popular friendgroup + at the same time meets Mysterious New Boy. when she complains 2 him abt her friends he starts killing them <3

the princess bride (1987) - based on the book (which i also recommend!!); i feel like everyone knows this movie but. basically fairytale-esque romance abt a girl named buttercup who falls in love w a farmboy named wesley but then wesley gets murdered by pirates...or so it seems....

ferris bueller's day off (1986) - teenagers decide 2 skip school + run amok in chicago. wahoo!!

#if u watch anything. PLEASE let it be hell comes to frogtown #i'm fucking obsessed w that movie it's so fucking fun #like. definition of camp. 2 me #literally just watch the trailer + you'll get the vibe.....#and if u watch anything else. let it be earth girls are easy. and also labyrinth. and also the last unicorn. ok that is all bye <3 #movie recs #ask

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bestmusicalworldcup · 1 year

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2023 League of Musicals Alphabetized List of Musicals

Below is the full list of musicals in the League of Musicals sorted by Division.

Division A

Alice By Heart Annie Assassins Avenue Q The Band's Visit The Book of Mormon Cabaret Cats Chess Chicago A Chorus Line Come From Away Company Falsettos Fiddler on the Roof Firebringer Fun Home A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder Ghost Quartet Guys and Dolls Hadestown Hair Hairspray Hamilton Hello, Dolly! The Hunchback of Notre Dame In The Heights Into the Woods Jekyll and Hyde The King and I Kinky Boots Legally Blonde Les Misérables The Lion King Little Shop of Horrors Matilda Moulin Rouge Mozart, l'opéra rock The Music Man My Fair Lady Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 Newsies Next to Normal Octet Once Once on this Island The Phantom of the Opera Pippin The Producers Ragtime Rent Ride the Cyclone The Rocky Horror Show Something Rotten The Sound of Music Spies Are Forever SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical Spring Awakening Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Twisted: The Untold Story of A Royal Vizier Waitress West Side Story Wicked The Wiz

Division B

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee 42nd Street 1776 Adamandi American Idiot American Psycho Anastasia Applause Bare: A Pop Opera Beetlejuice Be More Chill Billy Elliot the Musical Bonnie and Clyde Bye Bye Birdie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Cinderella (Rodgers and Hammerstein) City of Angels Damn Yankees Dear Evan Hansen Death Note: The Musical Evita Fosse A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum Grease The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals Hallelujah, Baby! Heathers Holy Musical B@man! How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying Jersey Boys Jesus Christ Superstar Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Kiss Me, Kate Kiss of the Spider Woman La Cage aux Folles The Lightning Thief A Little Night Music Man of La Mancha Memphis Monty Python's Spamalot The Mystery of Edwin Drood A New Brain Nine The Pajama Game Passion The Prom The Scarlet Pimpernel Singin' in the Rain Six South Pacific Starship A Strange Loop Sunday in the Park with George Sunset Boulevard Tanz der Vampire / Dance of the Vampires Thoroughly Modern Millie Tick Tick Boom Titanic The Trail to Oregon! Tuck Everlasting Two Gentlemen of Verona Urinetown The Will Rogers Follies The Wizard of Oz (1987)

Division C

& Juliet 21 Chump Street 35MM: A Musical Exhibition 1789: Les Amants de la Bastille Aida Allegiance Amélie Annie Get Your Gun Anything Goes The Art of Pleasing Princes Bandstand Beauty and the Beast Big Fish Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson Carousel Carrie The Color Purple Contact The Count of Monte Cristo Dogfight Dracula, the Musical Dreamgirls Elisabeth Evil Dead: The Musical Finding Neverland Frankenstein: A New Musical The Frogs Funny Girl Godspell Groundhog Day Gypsy Hedwig and the Angry Inch Jane Eyre The Last Five Years Lizzie The Lord of the Rings Love in Hate Nation Love Never Dies The Mad Ones The Magic Show Mary Poppins Mean Girls Merrily We Roll Along Miss Saigon Mozart! Oklahoma! Oliver On the Town Ordinary Days Parade The Pirate Queen Preludes Pretty Woman The Prince of Egypt Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Rebecca Roméo et Juliette: de la Haine à l'Amour The Secret Garden Seussical She Loves Me Shrek the Musical Starry Wonderland You're A Good Man Charlie Brown

Division D

13: The Musical Ablaze The Act Ain't Misbehavin An American in Paris Anne & Gilbert Anyone Can Whistle Av. Larco Back to the Future the Musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas Big River Bran Nue Dae Bright Star Bring It On Calvin Berger Caroline, or Change Clown Bible Crazy for You De 3 Biggetjes The Dolls of New Albion Dorian Gray The Drowsy Chaperone The Fantasticks Fiorello! Fly by Night Follies Frankenstein (Wang Yeon Beom + Brandon Lee) Hans Christian Andersen Hoy no me puedo levantar In Transit Jagged Little Pill Jerome Robbins' Broadway Kimberly Akimbo King's Table Kismet Lady Bess La Légende du roi Arthur Le Passe-Muraille / Amour Le Roi Soleil Les Parapluies de Cherbourg The Light in the Piazza Made in Dagenham Magic Tree House: The Musical Mentiras el musical Notre-Dame de Paris Once Upon A Mattress On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio & Gloria Estefan Phantom (Yeston & Kopit) Raisin Redhead Sarafina! School of Rock The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1964) Seven Brides for Seven Brothers Show Boat Sidd Siete veces adios Soldaat van Oranje The Spitfire Grill Starlight Express Starmania / Tycoon Tarrytown The Threepenny Opera / Die Dreigroschenoper Timéo Wiedzmin The Wild Party (Lippa) The Woman in White Wonderful Town [title of show] Émilie Jolie

#league of musicals

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the---hermit · 1 year

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Juniper And Thorn by Ava Reid

Last year I read The Wolf And The Woodsman by the same author, and I was surprised by the great idea behind that novel. There were a couple of elements that weren't perfect, but the core idea was amazing, and I had a similar feeling with this new book. There has been a lot of criticism for Juniper And Thorn online, and I'll talk a bit about that too, because although this book was certainly not perfect I don't agree with most of what I read online. The author defines this book a gothic horror, which I think a lot of people didn't really get and thought they were just going into a fantasy story. I didn't get as much gothic vibes as I would have liked, but this book is definitely a dark fairytale that borders to horror, which is a mix of things I adore. Horror-ish fairytales are some of my favourite stories, and I think this book was a great addition to this kind of books. As I said it wasn't perfect for me but I really enjoyed it.

Before going into everything let's talk a bit about the plot. As I mentioned it feels very much like a fairytale, and the way it's narrated makes it very clear. The story is set in an industrial city of clear slavic inspiration, which was on its own a great idea. I loved the early industral revolution setting, it's not something I have seen a lot personally, and I feel like it was a really cool background for this story. The main character is the younger of three daughters of a famous wizard. They too have magical powers, and essentially their father uses them to make money. The father, a powerful wizard who was cursed to feel perpetual hunger and dissatisfaction, is very possessive of his daughters and is prone to anger. Of course this mix of elements creats an incredibly toxic family dynamic, that also influences the three sisters in their own relationships to each other. Things get more complicated when after sneeking out with her older sisters the main character goes to the theater and is infatuated with one of the dancers. In the background of the story there's also a theme of serial murders that some people attribute to a monster.

Let's start with my personal opinions on the book. The writing was beautiful, this author is very skilled with words, and as I mentioned the idea was really cool. I personally would have liked the murders to be a bit more present all throughout the story, but the story had other focuses and that's okay. The main things I didn't love were the fact that the main character is sometimes quite annoying, and some characters then to be a bit repetitive. If I view the story more as a fairytale than as a novel I can definitely excuse this, becuase it really gave more of a fairytale vibe, but sometimes it was a bit too much for me. There were also a couple of things I didn't love about the ending, but they are spoilers so you'll find them under the cut. With this being sad I don't really agree with what I mostly read online of people complaining on how sexual the story is. Sex and sexualization are definitely a big theme of the story, but exacly for the fact that it's a big theme of the book I didn't find it inapropriate. I think it made sense in the story. Our main character has a sort of sexual awakening when she sees the dancer for the first time, she has never had a chance to experience that, and I think it was perfectly okay for her to have this reaction to seeing him. In the rest of the story this theme continues in a positive and a negative line, the first being the main character learning sex and desire are not just corruption and an evil things as her father has taught her, and the latter as her trying to make sense and make peace with and trying to heal from her traumas surrounding abuse and being sexualized. I honestly don't see why people took so negatively this theme. My main hypotesis is that they feel like more sexual themes only belong in smutty fantasy romance and they look down on it, but I honestly don't see a problem with sex being a theme to a story like Juniper And Thorn. Actually I think it's good to have books that are not romance deal with these themes too, I'm honestly tired of the idea that sex is a taboo we should avoid talking about. With this being said if someone comes around this post and had an opposite reaction to mine to the book I would love to hear the reasons behind it. Of course everyone of us reads stories differently and I am always interested in hearing the opions of those who had a completly different reading experience to mine. Another element I feel like some people might have had troubles with is the fact that it's a pretty violet story, I am not sure how the book was advertised, but it's definitely not just a fantasy story, it has a lot of horror elements and the author made it pretty clear. As I meantioned above, the author called it a gothic horror story, I personally would have liked more gothic vibes than I got, but there's definitely pretty graphic horror elements, so if that's something you don't like it's really not the book for you. To conclude this infinite rant about this book, I really enjoyed it even though a few things weren't perfect. This author has very interesting ideas, and I am curious to know what she will come up with next.

The spolery elements of the story I wasn't a fan of are firstly the trope of sisters beeing very mean to each other and betraying each other. In general it is a theme I do not like so even though it worked and it made sense I didn't love seeing the story going into that direction. But as I said I know I am biased on that. Seconly I didn't love how it was Sevas, the love interest, to stab the father in the end. If the main character couldn't do it herself, which would make sense due to her toxic relationship with her father, at least I would have had her sister pick up the knife. Again in the fairytale spirit of the story it makes sense, but it wasn't necessary for the love interest to be the one doing it in my opinion.

#2023 book #book #bookblr #books #reading #book rec #book review #book recommendation #juniper and thorn #ava reid #book cover #mine #the---hermit

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