#i.e. the pining after Lily

[alltoounwellll]

a solar eclipse is such a good metaphor for James feeling like he’s taken a back seat in Sirius’s life after he and Remus get together

anywayyyyyyy

[greenwitchcrafts]

March 2024 witch guide

Full moon: March 25th

New moon: March 10th

Sabbats: Ostara-March 19th

March Worm Moon

Known as: Crow Moon, Eagle Moon, Goose Moon, Hrethmonath, Lenting moon, Lentzinmanoth, Moon of Snowblind, Moon of Winds, Plow Moon, Sap Moon, Seed Moon, Sore Eyes Moon, Storm Moon, Sugar Moon & Wind Strong Moon

Element: Water

Zodiac: Pisces & Aries

Nature spirits: Air & water spirits & Mer-people

Deities: Artemis, Astarte, Athena, Cybele, Isis, Luna & Minerva

Animals: Boar, cougar & hedgehog

Birds: Sea crow & sea eagle

Trees: Alder, dogwood & honeysuckle

Herbs: Apple blossom, broom, high John root, Irish moss, pennyroyal, wood betony & yellow dock

Flowers: Daffodil, jonquil & violet

Scents: Apple blossom & honeysuckle

Stones: Aquamarine, bloodstone, jasper, opal &topaz

Colors: Pale-green, red, violet, yellow & white

Energy:  Balance, beginnings, dream work, energy breaking into the open, exploring, fertility, inner development, karma, prosperity, spirituality, success & truth seeking

For many years, it was thought that the name "Worm Moon" referred to the earthworms that appear as the soil warms in spring. This invites robins and other birds to feed—a true sign of spring.

However, more research revealed another explanation. In the 1760s, Captain Jonathan Carver visited the Naudowessie (Dakota) and other Native American tribes and wrote that the name Worm Moon refers to a different sort of “worm”—beetle larvae—which begin to emerge from the thawing bark of trees and other winter hideouts at this time.

March’s full Moon often plays a role in religion, specifically in Christianity, this Moon is known as the Lenten Moon if it is the last full Moon of the winter season (i.e., if it occurs before the spring equinox) or as the Paschal Full Moon if it is the first full Moon of spring (i.e., if it occurs after the spring equinox).

Ostara

Known as: Alban Eiler, Lady Day & Spring/Vernal equinox

Season: Spring

Symbols: 8-spoked wheel, butterflies, chicks, decorated baskets, eggs, feathers, jellybeans, lambs, rabbits, seeds, shamrocks, spring flowers & sunwheels

Colors: Green, indigo, light blue, pastels, pink, red & yellow

Oils/Incense: African violet, florals, ginger, jasmine, lotus, magnolia, rose, sage & strawberry

Animals: Cormorant, hare, hawk, rabbit, sheep, sparrow & swallow

Mythical: Dragon & Unicorn

Stones: Amethyst, aquamarine, bloodstone, moonstone, red jasper & rose quartz

Food: Dairy foods, eggs(hard boiled), fruits, honey, honey cakes, leafy greens, vegetables, pine nuts, pumpkin, sunflower seeds, sprouts & waffles

Herbs/Plants: Acorn, cinquefoil, dogwood, ginger, Irish moss, olive, strawberry & woodruff

Flowers: Celandine, crocus, daffodil, dandelion, Easter lily,  jasmine gorse, honeysuckle, hyssop, iris, jonquil, linden, narcissus, peony, snowdrop, tansy & violet

Goddesses: Aphrodite, Ariadne, Artemis, Athena, Coatlicue, Cybele,Demeter, Diana, Eos, Eostre, Flora, Gaia, Hera, Idunn, Iris, Ishtar, Juno, Minerva, Persephone, Venus & Vesta

Gods: Adonis, Attis, Celi, Cernunnos, Coel, Dagda, Dalon ap Landu, Dumuzi, Green Man, Lord of the Greenwood, Mithras, Odin, Osiris, Ovis & Pan

Issues, Intentions & Powers: Agriculture, balance, beauty, fertility, growth, life, love & rebirth/renewal

Spellwork: Air magick, fertility, new beginnings & water magick

Activities:

• Go on a hike/walk & look for signs of spring

• Add Ostara symbols to decorate your altar space

• Plant vegetable &/or flower seedlings

• Decorate eggs with bright colors

• Set your intentions for the weeks/months ahead

• Start a new class or hobby

• Create eggshell candles

• Make plans & new routines for the future

• Participate in rituals & ceremonies that connect you with energy & the life force of nature

• Have a feast with your friends &/family with sprouts & leafy greens

• Bake hot cross buns or lavender/lemon flavored treats

• Clean & de-clutter your home

• Try a re-birthing/ renewing ritual

• Bring fresh flowers or plants into into the home

• Host a spring & floral themed tea party

• Make egg based food dishes & desserts

This holiday marks the Spring Equinox, which happens before March 19-22. It is the second of three spring celebrations (the midpoint between Imbolc and Beltane)  during which light & darkness are again in balance, with light on the rise. It is a time of new beginnings & of life emerging further from the grips of winter.

There is much debate regarding the origins of Ostara due to the lack of primary sources about this sabbat. One theory is the name of Ostara came from the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre. Another theory is that Eostre is more of a localized goddess in Kent County, England. Despite the questions of her origins, Eostre is associated with modern-day Pagan traditions of Ostara.

There is no evidence that the ancient Greeks or Romans celebrated Ostara, although they did celebrate their own spring festivals, such as the Roman festival of Floralia & the Greek festival of Anthesteria. It was a time to honor the returning sun, fertility & rebirth.

Related festivals:

• Nowruz- March 19th

Nowruz marks the first day of spring & renewal of nature. It is celebrated on the day of the astronomical vernal equinox. It is also celebrated as the beginning of the new year by people all around the world for over 3,000 years in the Balkans, the Black Sea Basin, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Middle East & other regions.

It promotes values of peace & solidarity between generations & within families as well as reconciliation & neighbourliness. Nowruz plays a significant role in strengthening the ties among peoples based on mutual respect & the ideals of peace and good neighbourliness. 

Traditional customs of Nowruz include fire & water, ritual dances, gift exchanges, reciting poetry, symbolic objects & more; these customs differ between the diverse peoples & countries that celebrate the festival.

• Holi- March 25th

Holi is a popular & significant Hindu festival celebrated as the The festival of colors, Love &Spring. It commemorates eternal and divine love of the deities Radha & Krishna. Additionally, the day signifies the triumph of good over evil, as it celebratess the victory of Vishnu as Narasimha over Hiranyakashipu. Holi originated & is predominantly celebrated in the Indian subcontinent, but has also spread to other regions of Asia & parts of the Western world through the Indian diaspora.

Holi also celebrates the arrival of Spring in India, the end of winter & the blossoming of love. It is also an invocation for a good spring harvest season. It lasts for a night & a day, starting on the evening of the Purnima (full moon day) falling on the Hindu calendar month of Phalguna, which falls around the middle of March in the Gregorian calendar.

• Easter- March 31st

also called Pascha or Resurrection Sunday is a Christian festival & cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day of his burial following his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary c. 30 AD. It is the culmination of the Passion of Jesus Christ, preceded by Lent (or Great Lent), a 40-day period of fasting, prayer, & penance.

Easter traditions vary across the Christian world & include sunrise services or late-night vigils, exclamations & exchanges of Paschal greetings, flowering the cross & the decoration and the communal breaking of Easter eggs (a symbol of the empty tomb) among many others. The Easter lily is a symbol of the resurrection in Western Christianity traditionally decorates the chancel area of churches on this day & for the rest of Eastertide. Additional customs that have become associated with Easter & are observed by both Christians & some non-Christians include Easter parades, communal dancing, the Easter Bunny & egg hunting.

Other Celebrations:

• Festival of Luna- March 31st

Is a feast day honoring the Goddess Luna who is seen as the divine embodiment of the Moon.

The Temple of Luna was a temple on the Aventine Hill in Rome, dedicated to Luna, the moon goddess. Its dedication was celebrated on March 31st, thus the celebration.

According to Tacitus, it was built by king Servius Tullius. However, the first confirmed reference to a temple to Luna dates to 182 BC & refers to one of its doors being knocked off its posts by a miraculous blast of air & shot into the back of the Temple of Ceres. That account probably places the temple at the north end of the hill, just above porta Trigemina. The temple was struck by lightning around the time of the death of Cinna, as was the temple of Ceres. After the destruction of Corinth, Lucius Mummius Achaicus dedicated some of his spoils from the city to this temple. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD & not rebuilt.

Sources:

Farmersalmanac .com

Llewellyn's Complete Book of Correspondences by Sandra Kines

Wikipedia

A Witch's Book of Correspondences by Viktorija Briggs

Encyclopedia britannica

Llewellyn 2024 magical almanac Practical magic for everyday living

[florenceafternoon]

━。゜✿ jily fic recommendations ✿ ゜。━

These fics are set in the wizarding world but aren’t necessarily canon complaints.

For reference, anything in italics is taken from the summaries on ao3.

I ain’t missing you at all  (requires an ao3 account) by @blitheringmcgonagall

Set post first wizarding war. "Lily Evans disappeared just when the war with Voldemort ended. Nobody knows why she left. James Potter doesn't care. He hasn't missed her at all."

It reads like a character study. All of the repressed emotions are so well-portrayed that I could picture all their facial expressions and body language. The dynamic between Lily and the marauders really illustrated how she wasn't just James' girlfriend - she was their friend too. I just wanted to give them all a hug.

Up In Arms by @mppmaraudergirl

When Lily jokingly tells her owl to deliver a letter to "the love of her life", i.e. Marlene McKinnon, her owl misinterprets the directive and, to her horror, her ode to James Potter’s arms lands squarely in his lap.

The banter in this one is so good that it made my friend fall back in love with jily's dynamic and read fics again

Evergreen and Pine by @tinyluminaryzombie

Lily Evans is stuck in a closet with Sirius. All Sirius wants to talk about is exactly what she's trying not to think about: James Potter.

Or: A seven minutes in heaven that's more like seven minutes of sweet sweet interegation ft. Lily and Sirius.

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by @jfleamont

Lily's an overthinker, but fear not, James knows exactly what to say to cheer her up.

Because Lily being a stress smoker is canon (to me)

All The Things I Would Do also by @/ jfleamont

Lily can't stop thinking about James' hands.

Anything Leda writes is great so do yourself a favour and go read her works

I’ve Got My Hate to Keep Me Warm by @dizzy–bird

When a mission for the Order goes badly wrong, Lily Evans must spend the holidays lying low in the middle of nowhere. The rules: no magic, no visitors, and absolutely no Christmas cheer.

And the kicker? She’s sharing the safe house with Order darling – and rival – James Potter, who just happens to be the reason she’s in this mess in the first place.

Kat's poem from 10 Things I Hate About You

Hemispheres by @ohmygodshesinsane

James Potter and Lily Evans have set aside their schoolyard animosities for the sake of the Order of the Phoenix, but when they are enlisted to race Lord Voldemort across the world to prevent him from corrupting the very nature of death, tensions run high. In all manners.

Lily's characterisation in this one is so good

No One Knows Us by @annasghosts

As Fifth Year begins, Lily Evans is certain of a few things: she’s proud to be a Muggle-born witch, despite what Petunia might think; Severus Snape is still a loyal friend and whatever confusing feelings she has as she watches James Potter strut around the castle must be squashed because he’s nothing, but an arrogant toerag.

In which Lily gets the dynamic character treatment that she deserves.

51 Minutes to Change Your Mind by @sosohh

When Muggle-Born Oliver Wood becomes an extremely successful cyclist for the British Cycling team, both muggle and magical ministries have to come up with a plan to make sure all is fair. Enter James Potter and Lily Evans.

The Art of Self-Defense by cgner (on ao3)

Gilmore Girls AU in which "after seventeen years of single parenting, she now has to manage a persistent James, nosy villagers, and a son who's all too interested in joining the Order."

[danpuff-ao3]

Snarry Soulmates (Rec List)

Snarry = soulmates.

No, really! See? I have proof!

i.e. here, have a collection of fics where Snarry are, in fact, soulmates. (Which is basically canon, but y'know, whatever.) (Some people need convincing, you know?)

Corresponding Shapes

by bleedcolor (@bleedcolor.) Rated T. 5k. Soulmarks. Soul bond.

For a very long time he hadn’t known what the names meant. He’d woken up the morning of his 7th birthday and there they were; red as blood, one more thing to brand him as a freak in the eyes of his aunt and uncle.

Red Strings

by emeraldlove (@givereadersahug.) Rated T. 6k. Red string of fate.

Their magic is vibrantly red and brilliant. She just not sure what to make of Harry Potter and Professor Snape being soulmates and what it means for the wizarding world. Outsider POV.

Waiting to Divide

by emynn. Rated E. 22k. Soul bond. Time travel. Podfic available (by JocundaSykes.)

Harry always thought soul mates were the domain of overly-soppy romantics. What he didn't realise was that they were very real, very dangerous, and very inconvenient...especially when your soul mate is the very dead Severus Snape. Fortunately, with the help of his friends and a Time Portal, he's able to get past that pesky obstacle...and finds his life completely changed.

The Space Between Failing and Falling

by JocundaSykes. Rated E. 45k. Soulmarks. Podfic available.

A very long time ago, Severus resigned himself to the reality that he doesn’t have a soulmate after all. He’s finally a real Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher and his life is perfectly tolerable, thank you very much.

However, at the age of thirty-nine, it seems his soulmate has come of age. He will ignore this new development and carry on as he always has.

World Enough, and Time

by Likelightinglass (@likelightinglass.) Rated T. 6k. Soulmarks. Angst with a happy ending.

Soulmate clocks start ticking when you first lock eyes, and count down until your time with them is over. Harry’s starts ticking on September 1st, 1991. He has only six years, eight months, and one day.

Advanced Lunacy

by Lilian. Rated M. 6k. Soulmarks. Dreamsharing.

Luna accidentally discovers something, and now the whole Wizarding World is abuzz about it. Meanwhile, Snape keeps appearing in Harry's dreams frequently.

Finders Keepers

by Lilian. Rated T. 7k.

Soulmate AU from tumblr @the-rotten-prince: Imagine whenever you lose something, your soulmate winds up finding it. 

Severus Snape doesn't find a single thing until he's twenty. By that time, he has given up and ignores a young boy, when he arrives at Hogwarts.

Soulmate Flowers

by Lilian. Rated G. 4k. Soulmarks. Podfic available (by JodcundaSykes.) Also read Bloom (inspired work by hippocrates460; E, 1k.)

Whenever your soulmate touches you, flowers bloom on your skin. Snarry.

Property of the Half-Blood Prince

by Lomonaaeren. Rated M. 12k. Angst & romance. Soulmarks.

Harry indulges in an enormous eye-roll at the universe when he wakes up on his nineteenth birthday with “Property of the Half-Blood Prince” written on his neck like a collar. He goes on to live his life like normal, without being too upset about it—and without telling Snape, who he’s sure wants his freedom now.

Penance

by PettyPrince. Rated E. 36k. Magical AU.

Prompt fill: As Harry’s soulmate, it is up to Snape to raise him when Lily and James die. When Harry is finally old enough to complete the Bond, Snape isn’t sure he can go through with it with the boy who he has raised as a son.

Succor

by pluperfectsunrise. Rated E. 40k. Soulmarks. Female Harry.

Five times Severus Snape comforted Harry Potter, and one time Harry comforted him.

it's an inevitable

by swoons (@swoontodeath.) Rated E. 800. Soulmark. Underage. Voyeurism.

Severus Snape can be patient. He's spent six years watching and waiting, after all.

The Lover's Ghost

by Weightless. Rated T. 8k. Soulmarks. Angst & pining. Hurt/comfort.

During the war, Harry and Snape spend their nights alone, at opposite ends of a dining table, plagued by nightmares. As they draw into each other, Harry realises that perhaps Snape bearing his soul mark was what he had desired all along.

He Knew

by WordsAreTrulyBeautiful. Rated E. 13k. Fluff & smut. Patronuses.

Celebrations, misunderstandings, a large manor, the patronus charm, and a whole lot of pent up sexual tension.

Really, it's all Sirius's fault.

A Universe of Searching Souls

by Writcraft (@writcraft.) Rated E. 9k. Soulmark. Soul bond.

When the small, innocuous mark on Harry’s hip begins to cause him discomfort, he decides to go and visit the person who has a similar mark of their own. He’s fairly certain there must be some mistake, because the universe wouldn’t be daft enough to give Harry and Severus matching soul bond marks. Would it?

[ohmycale]

Fix-it AU prompt

This happens coz I read way too many angsty fics.

- Everybody regresses to the timeline of the previous generation

-Teen!Jour and teen!Deruth are dating. Jour is ready to say yes to Deruth's marriage proposal

-Jour gets a weird dream  (courtesy of GoD) where she sees' OG!Cale's memories after her death.

-Jour doesn’t sleep a wink, stays in her room until Deruth checks up on her. Jour decides to break up with him. She uses every reason why she and Deruth aren’t gonna work out, courtesy of the gossip mongers.

-teen!Deruth (with regressed memories) is panicking, convinces Jour to go on with the marriage. He thinks his second chance in life is slipping.  Jour says her mind is made up.

- In another place, Catherine (Alberu's mom) is currently pregnant with him. She hasn’t told Zed yet. Tasha (with regressed memories)  manages to convince her that Alberu will be killed if Catherine pushes to telling Zed. Catherine is convinced, leaves the palace with Tasha

- Teen!Jour is more than annoyed with Deruth trying to change her mind. She decides to 'marry down' to a young common man with merchant links in Huiss to fend off Deruth. Nobody bats an eye because she's not a rich noblewoman and people thinks it’s an equal match i.e. rich commoner matched a poor noble

-Teen!Deruth is shocked to hear Jour that has married, still sends her letters even though she's already married. Teen!Deruth realized that if Jour wasn’t married to him, his chances of seeing future!Cale is nil. He decides to wait if Jour changes her mind or becomes a widow in x number of years

- Catherine, Tasha and Jour meet each other in Huiss. Both Catherine and Jour are expecting. They bond over the topic of babies and their babies being friends.

-Deruth is being forced to marry because he is still single. He still pines for Jour. Eventually, he meets Violan and Basen. He loves them as he did in his memories but is unhappy because future!Cale  isn’t in the picture.

-Jour gives birth to Cale, with all his features intact. Also, Catherine gives birth to Alberu. Alberu has brown hair but his skin is magically altered. Tasha is happy because she has two nephews. The mothers are happy with their respective kids. The ‘fathers’ weren’t informed. At all.

Fast Forward to 10 years or so. (yes, Cale and Alberu have regressive memories. The only one who don’t are Catherine, Violan, and Basen. Might change my mind on the last two. I’m 50/50 on Jour.)

-Cale (yes, Jour insisted on the name) is making a name for himself as a superb merchant leader and going up the merchant guild. Jour taught him to be charming, Tasha taught him to be diplomatic, Alberu kidna taught him to be glib and his father taught him everything about trade. Both he and Alberu are decent swordsman.

-Deruth stayed married to Violan, had Lily. Still fending off his relatives, with Basen being the presumptive heir. He caught sight of Cale when he traveled to Huiss, but Cale disappear before he take a good look.

- The Molan due (with repressed memories) encounters Catherine and Jour. Both men are nostalgic about past!Jour’s help to them. They convince Jour to consider taking them in and work for Cale's new!father. Jour asks Cale what he thinks of the due, Cale approves but is wary of the two.

-TBD

Think this is good enough for a part two?

[diana-skye]

Have 27 (more) One Shots

I made a one-shot rec list last year for my birthday, and since I cannot pass up any opportunity for tradition, I am doing it again!

The list turned out to be almost all rare pairs, totally unintentionally, which says something? I think? I don’t know what!

(The numbers are not rankings, I just needed a visual aid to count all the way to 27) (I am stretching the definition of one-shot to include anything under 20k)

Onward with the list!

1. When the Hurlyburly’s Done by @aibidil (Gen, 7k, T): I have yet to make a rec list without an Aibidil fic and who knows if I ever will! Their writing is always full of humour and heart and clever turns of phrase and this 8th year Goyle character study is no exception. It also forms the basis for my Official Goyle Headcanon™.

2. I have always lived in the castle by @pacific-rimbaud (Hermione & Tom, 3k, T): This story has spare, poetic prose that blew me out of the water. I remember thinking about it for ages after I read it. It’s something completely different and truly special.

3. 5,400 miles by @lqtraintracks (Ginny/Pansy, 2k, M): This Ginsy road trip fic will make you feel the summer heat even in the winter. It will make you feel like you know something about LA even though you’ve never been, and it will remind you that some broken things can still be fixed.

4. Longing by @scullymurphy (Remus/Fleur, 4k, M): I kept having to double check that this fic was what I was thinking of because even though it is pretty short, it feels longer in my mind? Scully does A Lot in under 5k here. There is a scene in a cabin in a rainstorm that I think about with an astonishing regularity.

5. Big Teeth Little Red by @pacific-rimbaud (Remus/Lavender, 4k, M): This charming, witty, sexy, Halloween-party themed fic is like a personal checklist for me. A library? An age difference? A Sirius/Ginny side pair? Check, check, check. Also, this + the above PR fic show such an incredible range and the reason why choosing a single one would have been impossible.

6. Hermione Granger’s Infinite Reading List by @hawksquill (Romione, 3k, T): As someone who convinced a friend to join Goodreads literally last week, and as someone who constantly buys books I don’t have time to read... I felt deeply seen by this. It is a super clever textfic full of amazing book titles and banter between all our favourite bffs.

7. Let’s Workshop This by @roseharpermaxwell (Dramione, 3k, M): Another one in which Hermione is all of us (i.e. writing smut during work hours). It also has all my favourite Dramione tropes (i.e. pining, coworkers, Draco in glasses), and is an absolute gem of a one-shot.

8. Old Enough - by @provocative-envy (Sirius/Ginny, 7k, M): Listen. I have been a PE fan for ages, and I sure as heck subscribe to her AO3 updates, and when I tell you that the noise I made when I got the email for this was inhuman, I mean it. My favourite niche pairing. A favourite writer. They get drunk together at a wedding. I cannot describe to you how that makes me feel in a way that is even remotely coherent. 

9. Dear Tom by @suliswrites (Ginny/Tom, 8k, E): This dark, sad, beautiful story is exceptional. Do check the tags, but it is absolutely a top-tier fic for this pairing - and for any pairing really.

10. A Beautiful Fool by @ladykenz347 (Hansy, 8k, M): This is a Hansy Gatsby AU. Need I say more? (It is deeply tragic and just a little bit hopeful and I positively adored it).

11. three knocks upon the door by @lunapwrites (Lily/Tonks, 6k, E): This is a stunningly written dark mystery. It was originally posted in Untagged Fest and as I recall, swept the awards (with good reason!). A true hidden gem.

12. The Ballad of Sir Sirius, the Brave but Dim by @bluestringpudding (Kreacher POV, 6k, G): A wonderfully absurd tale in which Kreacher, the squire for Sir Sirius, suffers greatly. Another spectacular Untagged Fest gem!

13. Shuffling the Cards of Fate by @ptwritesmore (Sirius/Sybill, 3k, M): This is the kind of premise where I see it, my eyes bug out of my head, and I open a tab at the speed of lighting. PT makes this unconventional pairing work with truly exceptional finesse.

14. The Christmas Gala by @catmintandthyme (Dramione, 4k, M): I loved this sweet, sad, special Christmas Cinderella retelling. And it has gorgeous embedded art!

15. Table for Two by maeshowers (Pansy/Sirius, 3k, E): Is it embarrassing to reference my love of the ‘getting drunk together at a wedding’ trope twice in a single rec list? Regardless, everyone in this is such a mess and I love it so much.

16. Things You Shouldn’t Do at Christmas by akissinacrisis (Hinny, 10k, E): A story about the way that some things are just inevitable. Another one full of the sort of messiness that I love so so much.

17. Fixer Upper by @provocative-envy (Pansy/Charlie, 10k, M): A Bakery AU featuring one of my favourite ever Charlies. Pansy & Charlie have so much chemistry and the writing is so great and I love it a lot. (Also there are sharks. All bakery AUs should include sharks.)

18. R. v. Riddle by devdevlin (Tomione, 18k, M): A muggle AU courtroom drama. It is creepy and complex and so well done.

19. The Hush of Waiting by victoria_p (Wolfstar, 7k, T): An older fic (2006!),  tragic in the way only Wolfstar can be. Stellar characterization and multiple lines that had me gasping out loud how beautiful they were.

20. Inferno - by @jadepresley (SECRET PAIRING!, 6k, M): This fic is so clever. The secret pairing is so, so good. A must read!

21. Beneath the Yew-Tree by BelladonnaLee (Tomarry, 3k, M): An off-brand pairing for me, but a very on-brand dose of gothic horror! Chillingly atmospheric.

22. break on me like light by epsilonargus (Sirius/Charlie, 6k, M): An inspired pairing. Top tier hurt/comfort vibes. A slow-burn within 6k. What more could I ask for, truly.

23. Smoke and Mirrors  by sophh (Bill/Pansy, 2k, T): A charming rom-com, featuring holiday parties, awkward situations and the start of something cute. An excellent dose of fluff!

24. Room Serviced by pir8fancier (Dramione, 6k, E): A classic! From 2004! I’m so glad I had this recc’d to me and got the chance to read it. Hoping I can pass the favour along! Angsty and messy, this is an excellent rendition of Dramione’s relationship.

25. Richard by @indreamsink (Dramione, 5k, M): A story about grief, second chances, and dragons. A highlight of this year’s DHr advent for me, with really lovely writing.

26. One Day / The Day by @icepower55 (Panville, 3k): I read this literally minutes ago and simply had to add it to the list! I loved this Panville - it really leans into the inherent conflict and difficulty of the two of them together, while still being an incredible love story.

27. Funny Little Feeling by DianaSkye (Harry/Tonks, 8k, E): I hope you’ll excuse an impertinent little self-rec for my birthday. I had such a fun time writing this story and I think it’s my favourite of my one-shots.

[sunshinemarauder]

Sixth Year Jily Supremacy

My hot take: sixth year Jily is the best dynamic for one-shots because you get the two of them hopelessly pining after each other and Lily denying how much she wants James while they're becoming friends and- UGHHH ✨👏🌷

Friends to lovers is great and enemies to lovers is also great, but enemies to friends to lovers is my favorite. I just think that you can't delve into a relationship before actually knowing the person, yknow? You can't just go from enemies to enemies-who-want-to-shag to dating (at least, if you want a healthy relationship).

And 6th year Jily is the friends part of the enemies to friends to lovers, along with a healthy dosing of pining, getting through past baggage i.e. Snape, & Lily accepting her crush on James.

[watch-grok-brainrot]

Tea Preferences by CQL Sects - a Headcanon

Since watching ep 3 for the first time (i.e. january), this has been knocking around in my brain. In ep 3, we see JZXuan waltzing into the same inn as the Yunmeng Trio, booting them, and then rejecting “bad tea”. Ever since, I’ve watched a lot of tea being poured in CQL. It got me thinking, what kind of tea would different sects prefer and what would different characters drink? 

Lanning Jin

Per ep 3, we hear JZXuan say “This tea is stale.” This means this tea is no longer fresh. Based on that (and the pale greenish yellow color of the liquid) I would guess he’s drinking green here but green that’s over a year old, maybe only 7 months old. Probably to an average person, this tea is fine. It might even be nice enough. (I like a taiwanese green that is really yummy for about a year but the vendor tells me he doesn’t drink it past 6 months.) But for our rich peacock? Oh no! Unacceptable! He sets it down and walks away. 

I’m guessing Jin Clan (especially JZXuan and JGS)  is accustomed to drink imperial grade pre-qingming dragonwell starting early April. They drink it through the summer. Maybe have some nice aged oolongs between August - October. I can see them drinking motherbush yancha and motherbush phoenix mountain dancongs. They would then switch to a green oolong after the fall oolong harvest. I headcanon they drink the most floral of Tie Guan Yins (tgy, iron goddess of mercy), especially ones that taste like orchids (yes, tgys like this exist) and/or peonies (i’m guessing these exist, but not 100% sure). I can also seeing them drink something akin to modern taiwanese high mountain oolongs, also winter harvest (but that really depends on if that sort of crop exists in their world since world building isn’t period-specific). Either way, I’m thinking super green or super floral fresh tea crops with a hefty price tag.

Qishan Wen

Since the Wens exude red and oppression, I can’t help but think they drink a lot of black teas (called red tea in chinese). Like the Jins, they go for famous teas and rare teas and expensive teas. But since their environment is hot and sulfuric (have you seen Nightless City, sheesh, i’m surprised WWX didn’t comment on the stink), I suspect they have to drink teas that can stand up to such environments. My first thought was Keemun tea! It’s called QiMen tea, which would be perfect for the homonym effect! But it may not be the best fit. My next thought was ZhengShan XiaoZhong (Lapsong Souchong). Fruity, pine smoked, and oxidized, this tea would survive the climate well and show off Wen sect’s wealth. (I’ve had really nice versions of ZhenShan XiaoZhong that aren’t as smokey, but they were still robust and flavorful.) Also Lapsong Souchong was popular enough outside of China that Winston Churchill drank it. UK → China →  Imperialism → oppression → Wens. QED.  Wen Qing and Wen Ning, probably don’t drink that when left to their own devices. I see Wen Qing making herself and her brother drink “cooling” teas, so likely green, to counteract the effects of the fire and brimstone mountains. 

Qinghe Nie

So I get the sense that the Nie sect really cares about cultivation. They want tea that they can feel chi from. They don’t have to have the fanciest things or the most expensive, but they do care about the quality and intrinsic value. NMJ wants tea that will help with his cultivation. NHS seeks out culture and interesting fun teas. I can definitely see the two of them going on tea purchasing trips together in the spring and fall. They travel to Fujian, to Yunnan, to Guangdong.There, they talk to farmers, look at the plants, try the tea, get a sense of the energies the leaves impart. NMJ is partial the Wuyi rock teas, Yunnan old tree heichas, and phoenix mountain dancong mother bushes since many are from old bushes and have their own spiritual energies. NHS is fascinated by the Fujian artistry, especially the Anxi farmers. They source their teas from the farmers and have really good relationships with a lot of oolong and black tea growers.  NHS has a soft spot for Phoenix Mountain Duck Shit Fragrance Dancong. The tea is delicious and the name hysterical. 

Yunmeng Jiang

Yunmeng is a place of a lot of water and lotus and down to earth people. A lot of places in china grow tea. Often they’re just referred to as local green tea. I can see the people here picking the tea in the spring and drinking it throughout the summer. The stuff isn’t fancy but it’s fresh. That freshness makes it delicious. I can also see the Jiang family seeking out bricks of heicha. Heicha is the large category Puerh falls under. They are considered post process fermentation teas which means they develop further after they’re formed into bricks. In a humid and wet environment, I can see these teas being stored easily. A lot of heicha have earthy flavors – which suits the simple Jiang family well. Additionally, tea drinkers often get a sense of chi from heicha – something that’s not lost on Jiang Fengmian. WWX enjoys their local green tea. He especially likes the varieties that are infused with lotus blossom smells or dried on lily pads. JC sticks to the heicha. He’s such a try-hard. JYL will drink the local green and sometimes adds it to her cooking. 

Gusu Lan

So my gut reaction to Gusu Lan is they should drink really nice jasmine tea or white tea. Just look at their aesthetics! Then one day, I was watching the tea being poured out and it wasn’t the right color! I was shook. But Lan sect! Righteous and elegant! White tea! I felt betrayed. 

During this quarantine, I have been drinking more tea. A lot of green and oolong (i’m a sucker for good winter taiwanese oolong, let me tell you. It’s freakishly delicious) but also some aged white. I realized the broth (brewed tea) gets darker with age. Then it clicked into place. 

The Lans drink white tea. They drink freakishly old white tea! 

How old? 

There’s a saying: 白茶 – 一年茶，三年药，七年宝 (White tea – year one, it’s tea. Year three, it’s medicine. Year seven, it’s treasure.) 

I have a white tea from 2005. It’s delicious, rather expensive, and not as dark as the tea LXC drinks. I seriously thought he was drinking a black tea or a heicha! (i don’t know which ep, this is just my foolish brain screaming)

So my headcanon is when Lan An founded the Lan sect, he bought a century worth of white tea. From there on out, every year, the Lans would buy a year or two worth of some fairly high grade white teas, label it, and place it in their tea cellar. (Also, their tea cellar is infused with spiritual energy to provide an idea aging environment for the tea. The spiritual energies of the elders are also partially offered to the tea, imparting more benefits over the years.) Lans would hoard their tea until after the century mark. Then they would drink hundred year old teas. It’s good for their cultivation. It’s a reflection of their patience. There is no reason to be showy about what they have. It just is their way of life. Somewhere, in the Lan cellar, there are a dozen pressed white tea “cakes” from Lan An’s initial hoarding. LWJ wants to break out one of the cakes for WWX: a gift for their wedding night, but also, a gift to expedite the formation of a new golden core. 

[thequibblah]

⭐️ would love some commentary on that dancing scene (or really any commentary on the various parties thrown by the marauders) from the party happening next to the Potions Club party ⭐️

WELL WELL WELL

"This is...a lot of trouble to go to." "It's the Marauders. They love trouble."

i love writing party scenes (as i'm sure you all know lol) and one of the best/worst things w the marauders parties is striking a balance between their, uh, audacious plans, and what's realistically possible at hogwarts without getting caught. (aka literally why i made up the dodgy lodgings). i went back and forth so long on whether or not they could plausibly have managed that with slughorn's dinner next door, but then was like ah whatever the party has to happen for plot reasons so.... plot ex machina??

anyway, i love using parties to establish character — what a brilliant stage of teenage performance they provide. i love contrasting the hogwarts parties to, say, evan wronecki's — for instance, how lily and co. are more at ease in the former, as seventh years, with their classmates hosting, than they were at evan's nye bash

i also love that it gives me space to establish who is and isn't popular, so to speak, but also who acts or doesn't act the way we presume popular kids will act

doe, for instance, who is by all accounts a level-headed and non-wild person, has a more exciting time on net at marauders' parties than mary (drinking game, kissing remus), though she's not a big drinker and isn't really into parties. but she's comfortable in her own little social circle at a bigger event (like with michael at evan's) and so isn't bothered at all by the marauders' do, because...

She did, in fact, trust the Marauders. Her general belief in the inherent goodness of people notwithstanding, she didn't think they would do anything to harm their friends. Intentionally.

this bit always makes me laugh

as with many things, i feel very saddened that i didn't get to make more out of the fools' olympics (although one could argue that The Dance was a pro) — as in, i wish i'd been able to squeeze more of it into the story itself. i could probably come up with a list of tasks and who completed them LOL

WAIT OH MY GOD I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT THIS it just might be my favourite part of this chapter

"How did you do that?" Gillian said, glancing between the other two girls. "Just — drink it without a second thought?" "Practice," said Mary. "Scottish — constitution," David said hoarsely. "I once drank some of Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mass Remover," said Priya.

priya is all i aspire to be

can i say, too, it's hilarious to me how many people worried niamh would be a james love interest? i feel like you will not rest easy on that count until he and lily are together... but that is not where the danger lies babes

circling back to popularity/unpopularity, another fun outlier. gillian is first established, in 33, as someone with friends (we see her around sara and in the seventh-year ravenclaws' compartment) but she's not exactly at ease at the party either — recall how she hesitates when mary invites her. only later, in 38, do we realise that our opinion of her has been skewed by the narration (from doe, who naturally assumes any friendly, nice person must have a wealth of friends and be floating through life; and mary, who naturally assumes anyone she isn't bored by must have the social skills of a medieval noblewoman at court), and she's a bit of a pariah in her own house

david, on the other hand, is just flat-out not in his element. and not because of the drinking or the, er, general revelry (see: summer with mary!), even though he doesn't partake much in either. unlike doe, the company breaks rather than makes his enjoyment — he's acutely aware, the whole time, that his cooler, more liked brother is around:

"Not your scene?" "What gave it away?" said David drily. As one they looked at Chris...

...and mary has intuited as much too, even though she has a lot more in common, superficially speaking, with chris than david

so, i think while i was writing this chapter i made a post complaining about how, as much as i love juggling the constraints of historical fiction, i hate that music from the 70s limits me in terms of tracklists. i.e., when i say a certain record is playing i can't just hit shuffle and go somewhere entirely different to set the mood shortly thereafter

this problem was because i wanted, NAY, NEEDED, to have "martha my dear" playing in the aftermath of that mary and david interaction. of course, time passes in that section break, but since "come and get it," which they talk about it, is a sirius song (though it could be a mary song), and i feel too strongly about needle drops to let that conversation go without a soundtrack. germaine even correctly guesses the white album is on because of mary:

Apparently Mary got fonder of the White Album the drunker she was.

...and of course the song itself makes me squeal with how very mary it is — not that it is something she would listen to, necessarily, or identify with (it would hold up too close of a mirror, ha), but it sounds like it could've been written about her ("hold your head up, you silly girl/look what you've done/when you find yourself in the thick of it/help yourself to a bit of what is all around you," which really sums up the entirety of her portree holiday, lol)

BUT! if "martha my dear" is to play here, then i have some Serious Chronology Concerns. i knew germeline had to kiss and jily had to dance and ideally in that order. but what would those scenes be soundtracked by!!!! i was limited to side two of the white album!!!

so i did the healthy thing and panic-listened to the white album. "don't pass me by" was, right away, an easy lock for the dance, because it's danceable, but not in a way that would've scared lily off. lyrically, it feels GREAT for jily in this moment, on the cusp of lily's realisation ("waiting for your knock, dear [...] i don't hear it, does it mean you don't love me anymore?" vs OF COURSE "don't pass me by [...] 'cause you know darling, i love only you"). i feel about "don't pass me by" the same way as NYT critic nik cohn: it's "straight ahead and clumsy and greatly enjoyable, backed by a beautiful hurdy-gurdy organ," which, if that isn't everything i wanted to evoke with the dance itself!!!!!!

ok we'll circle back to this, but onward with the musical discussion

thus i had four songs to choose from, between "martha my dear" and "don't pass me by," for the germeline scene — "piggies," "blackbird," "i'm so tired," and "rocky raccoon." the latter is on my sirius playlist, so auto-no; "piggies" is, well, like that, so also a no. "blackbird" is a certified germaine classic that was written personally by paul mccartney for germaine, but it seemed too introspective for the moment. i don't think i'd ever listened to "i'm so tired" before this panicked searching, and honestly it must be some wild luck that it is. just SO RIGHT!!!! it's so lethargic and tortured and angsty and, well, a bit of a stoner song, so.... it's THERE

AND NOW for the dance! true story, i initially wanted jily to have a real conversation, after the party. i had the dance in there and then james would catch up with lily after to be like, "hey i was wrong actually, you should write to petunia." but then i realised i wanted james and sirius to have a conversation about the bike/money, and i wanted it to strike a different chord, tonally, than the jily conversation. then i realised it would be too much to have both and i'd need to condense that conversation into the dance. VERY nearly cut the dance in favour of the conversation but wow i am glad i didn't

The tinkling piano signalled the start of the next song; she extended a hand, very matter-of-factly, to James, "Come on, this is a good one."

not pictured: james having a fucking breakdown

obviously, i could have gone the route of a genuine dramatic dance, but as previously mentioned lily would have chickened out, and i wanted to have this be an experience she could look back on and pine about because of how fun it was and james totally doesn't like her back

Loath as she was to admit it, this most indelicate of waltzes suited the plodding chords of "Don't Pass Me By." And worst of all, once they had stopped stepping on each other's feet James started to sing, in the poorest possible Ringo imitation she had ever heard in her life.

by the way, attentive readers of blink three times will recall:

He finally starts to lead — thank goodness, because she’s not the one who was forced into formal dance lessons as a child...

so in 36, this is james being drunk, but it is also james being silly on purpose because not only is he JAMES and so he must take the mick, he also knows it will put lily at ease

okay, and this bit:

"Don't pass me by, don't make me cry, don't make me blue," they both shouted rather than sang, "'Cause you know darling—" Lily broke off, laughing, dimly aware that she had done so to avoid saying I love only you while staring right at him.

from the FIRST MOMENT i picked out "don't pass me by," i knew i knew I KNEW that lily would have thoughts about this line. at this point in the story if someone questioned her about it she would probably have a full-scale breakdown about her male friends vs her female friends ("but no... i suppose i wouldn't mind saying it to remus.... but that's different!" how is it different, lily? "it's different!")

anyway, the bottom line is she could NOT abide saying it. i enjoyed writing that because 1. same girl and 2. it felt like a nice bit of close foreshadowing for her realisation, which i knew was coming soon. so that's a really circular way of saying, i knew what it meant but ideally to readers it was just oh this will mean something far-off in the future!!! which is usually true for me but SURPRISE babey it was just two chapters away!!!

note btw that lily "falls for james"

Lily spun faster than she’d intended to. The room was a brief, kaleidoscope blur. Then there was James. “Jesus, Evans,” he said, steadying her as the next track began.

>:)

and after i thought tracklists would fuck me up, i turned them into my WEAPON!!

Huffing, she stepped out of his arms. (There were some songs you could sing along to with your mates, and “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?” was not one of them.)

(so, you know, keep in mind that for the rest of this conversation, paul is in the background howling "no one will be watching us/why don't we do it in the road?")

also:

"...I’m not drinking tonight, but I’d better get the royal treatment after we win on Saturday."

and then what happened <3

wait jesus oh my god i really went hard on this huh

She only saw its result: the easy grin had given way to an expression so serious it was almost sweet.

LILY??????

and hey, remember when:

...because in chapter 26:

Dex’s measured opinions about the wizarding world seemed more the result of upbringing and inexperience than ill will, but Lily had not expected a radical change of heart.

...but then in 36:

He was right, damn it. And a part of her had known all along, had sought him out expressly so that he would say the opposite thing to her. He’d gone and proven her wrong. She broke the staring match first [...] “What brought on the change of heart?” “It’s a long story, and I expect it’ll have an unsatisfying end if I told it to you.” Lily scoffed, but James had on that maddening grin that meant he would not budge. “Oh, all right.” Softer, she added, “Thank you.” He began to back away, towards the bar. “It’s give and take, Evans.”

in conclusion, i never forget, besties

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

rebecca (2020) thoughts:

so, i was sort of like, “okay, that wasn’t spectacular, but it was better than i expected,” but then that last scene happened, and i just hated it so much that it definitely soured the whole experience for me. no! no!!!!!! THAT AIN’T IT. they’re supposed to be pining after manderley forever and being LOSERS! ugh. When Men Tell Stories In Ways They Think Are Empowering For Women, in a nutshell. :| give me the au where they were sitting at a boring breakfast table listening to their english radio and reading their english papers and, like, that folksy bop version of let no man steal your thyme pops up again while mrs. dw2 stares at her husband in listless boredom that she cannot quite allow herself to admit, because he was WORTH IT! he was WORTH IT, wasn’t he?? (no.) i know her love for him remains pretty constant (yikes, girl), but i feel like there needed to be more of a tinge of sort of pitiful bittersweetness to where they and she wound up.

although, having just seen a gif from that scene: i wonder if it was specifically trying to imply that mrs. dw2 had finally reached the state where, like, she IS rebecca and glorying in her rebecca-style power? the hedonistic way she smokes the cigarette and Takes Her Man just feels like SUCH a different character beat for her that it genuinely feels like she is kind of possessed by rebecca, or finally got what she has REALLY longed and lusted for, which isn’t maxim so much as ... being rebecca, and all the power that comes with it. i don’t think the voiceover does anything to feed into this, though. but i’m gonna believe it, for my own peace of mind.

i enjoyed lily james’s performance -- i think she captured the all-consuming anxiety of the narrator better than i expected a performer as sunny as she usually is to -- and kristin scott thomas was pretty entrancing, and i thought their scenes together were probably the highlight for me. i really liked how they very occasionally had those weird flickers of affinity (BECAUSE THEY ARE SAME! see a few bullets below), and the almost romantic meet-cute energy of the first time they saw each other was real striking. just, like, a lot of good weird vibes that i would’ve liked to see dug into even more.

oh! and ann dowd was very fun too! somebody write me the au where a disgraced danvers has to go be mrs. van hopper’s new companion. i think they would be an enemies-to-lovers otp for the ages.

i had this moment of, like, “damn, this really is such a horror story from danvers’ point of view, where maxim straight up got away with murdering rebecca and she can just never see him answer for it because he’s a rich man with a new wife who’s basically his own danvers who will do anything for him.” that sucks!!!!!!!

also, i JUST made the connection that the narrator is basically maxim’s danvers (i.e. a ride-or-die beeyatch to the point where it’s frankly disturbing and could use some serious therapy). just now! right now! so at least i guess this movie gave me something.

i kinda liked how rebecca’s rooms were all done up in that seafoam blue; it was a really unusual design choice, but i thought it was pretty striking, and tied into rebecca and mrs. danvers both winding up in the sea.

during that scene where jack confronted maxim about rebecca at manderley, i was like, “damn! i would have loved for sam riley to play maxim!” i think he really could’ve conveyed that frosty very english inaccessible quality with flashes of charm, and i just think that actor is neat generally and i’m happy whenever he pops up in something. (ppz darcy forevs!) having maxim as a dashing g.i. joe-lookin’ dude was just weird. like, he was okay i guess, and maxim isn’t really that interesting in this story in general, but something felt so off about him being such an american-looking hunk of human man?? i think it works a little better when it’s not even really clearly apparent why the narrator is so hung up on him, apart from the fact that he symbolizes this life that would otherwise be totally inaccessible to her, and HE’S PAYING ATTENTION TO HER.

LOUISA DURRELL WAS THERE AND I WAS SO HAPPY TO GAZE UPON HER JOY-BRINGING LOUISA DURRELL-Y FACE!!!!!!!!! i know keeley hawes is an actress with many credits to her name, but i’m going to need to see her solely as louisa durrell for about the next five years at least, just for personal happiness reasons. oh my god, i need to watch the durrells again.

and i guess that’s my ultimate takeaway from this movie.

i will forever pine for the version of it that was directed by a woman. ALAS! i just feel like women Get this story in a primal way, and i would love to see the way it would be depicted from a female gaze perspective. maybe in another 30-40 years??????? D:

[theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin]

I really like Tequila from Lee's world. What would that weird Tom/Ginny combination be like if Lee had never returned to the HP universe? Would they become more like October Tom? Or something else entirely? How would Tequila handle the mad creature their main soul has become?

Oh man, you give Tequila far more credit than I do.

For simplicity’s sake, I’ll refer to Tequila below as “he”, mostly because it’s really Wizard Trotsky at the wheel in “Minato Namikaze and the Destroyer of Worlds”. He just happens to rock Ginny Weasley’s adolescent body.

Tequila’s a hot mess, a dumpster fire, and it doesn’t matter if he’s pining after Tom Riddle’s childhood friend Ellie Potter, if Tom is stuck in a diary only to be released to confront Ellie/Harry Potter, or if he’s stuck in a diary and released only to find out Ellie Potter isn’t even there. Tequila will always be a mess.

Let’s say Lee never showed back up. Tequila’s life would be one of hilarity and woe.

Wizard Trotsky likely would have continued masquerading as Ginny, i.e. being Tequila, out of a sheer lack of ability to answer the question “what the hell do I do now?” That’s why he stuck around as Ginny in the first place. 

So Tequila goes to Hogwarts, milks “I’m an invalid, woe is me, I can’t go to class cough cough I am traumatized by snakes on planes” excuse for as long as he can get away with it (which is forever) and ends up with decent marks (having gone through Hogwarts twice now) but not nearly as good as he once had or, say, Hermione has because he’s gotten profoundly lazy. Sadly, this still puts him ahead of 50% of Hogwarts’ population.

Similarly, Tequila’s effort at impersonating Ginny Weasley is half-assed at best. However, because Ginny went through an incredibly traumatic experience, no one gives him shit for it or wonders ��Hey, is this really Ginny?” Due to this, Tequila’s soul is dying inside even more than usual. He doesn’t even have to try around these assholes. He could walk up to the wall, spray paint “I am Voldemort, bitch!” and they’d probably just try to console him.

Lee showing back up out of the ether is the most exciting that has ever happened to Tequila possibly ever. It’d be better if Lee wanted to do epic ninja battle, so Tequila could prove how cool and not useless he is and defeat his prophesied enemy, but even Lee just being in the castle, insulting everybody, and lighting all of Hagrid’s pets on fire is amazing.

But anyways, Lee never shows up.

Tequila gets a pretty good idea of who the original Death Eaters were thanks to gossip but there’s not much he can do about it as all the Death Eaters (aside from the ones in prison) have disavowed Voldemort out of self preservation. His showing up as an adolescent schoolgirl just doesn’t have the same effect  and it’d be a little hard to prove who he is given that he doesn’t even really know these people.

Not to mention that Voldemort was this distant thing in the future for him and he has no idea how to actually go about doing any of that. The actual Voldemort has many years experience on him in recruiting, guerilla warfare, logistics, etc. 

Tom Riddle was in dueling club one time, it was great, he learned things.

So Tequila likely wiffle waffles a lot, telling himself, “One day, I’m going to run out on all these assholes, return as Voldemort, and then Granger will cry” only to sigh and realize it’s far more realistic to start from fresh. Besides, why just try to redo what his other half did, he wants to be his own person (a better more competent version! He won’t get blown up by any toddlers!) and that means finding his own cause. And if he can make Dumbledore’s Order his Order, then great.

Not to mention there’s the disturbing possibility that Voldemort’s not quite dead. Now, Tequila can give this credence as being the horcrux, he knows that Voldemort’s not really dead. He’s amazed Voldemort managed to blow himself up with a baby, amazed, embarrassed, and offended, but Tequila isn’t willing to completely throw out the idea that Voldemort’s this evil wraith who occasionally possesses muggle studies professors. Not exactly on Tom Riddle’s bucket list, but clearly, the original screwed up everything and doesn’t even deserve Tequila’s respect.

(Tequila went through a brief, extremely brief, period of wondering if he should seek out the main soul and help him return it to power. Being the horcrux, technically, he should probably serve the original soul.

Then he remembered that asshole had one job, only one job, and he ruined it. Tequila was shoved into a diary for nothing and look what happened. Now there’s a national Harry Potter Day. Clearly, the wrong half of Tom Riddle was put out of commission and if you want it done right you’ve got to do it yourself.)

So, in 1994 without Lee’s involvement, Voldemort returns from the grave. Because I’m realistic, Neville probably dies. Sorry, Neville, you lived a good if short life and I’m sure you gave it the college try. Dumbledore falls into despair and “THE WORLD IS DOOMED!” mode now that all his even remotely prophesied children are MIA and immediately gets the Order of the Phoenix together.

Ginny, being thirteen at the time, isn’t allowed because that would be ridiculous. Despite it being ridiculous to include thirteen year olds, Tequila is pissed that he’ll have to wait another god knows how many years before Molly lets him do what he wants.

Offscreen Dumbledore probably goes through varying levels of extremely horrifying solutions to the Tom Riddle problem.

First, he probably goes horcrux hunting. Unfortunately for Dumbledore, in “Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus” and “Minato Namikaze and the Destroyer of Worlds” there are only two horcruxes and only one was intentional. Tom had originally planned to make seven but the hangover from the first one was so mind breakingly awful he went “New plan, I will make one horcrux, and then I will think of something else”. He never really got around to thinking of anything else.

Dumbledore, however, doesn’t know this. So he dutifully collects memories, banks on Tom’s ridiculously romantic nature, and starts going to places of importance. Not to reveal too much, but Tom actually laid several traps around for those poking their nose around looking for his horcrux. Dumbledore steps into several of these with not so good results.

Given that one of the horcruxes is Ginny and the other is still stuck in Konoha without any access to magic, Dumbledore is 0 for 2.

More, given that only Neville Longbottom was prophesied to have the ability to defeat the dark lord either Dumbledore has to somehow resurrect Neville or else get himself a new Neville. Because I love terrible, but funny, things let’s say he does both and we get a round of Pet Semetary (sometimes, dead is better, Albus) and pulling in Harry Potters/Neville Longbottoms from other dimensions (but miraculously not Eru Lee somehow, which is great for her because she’s busy having a terrible time in the third shinobi war). 

Back to Lee for a bit and why Dumbledore’s first solution isn’t just to desperately try and find her.

First, she is completely off the map and has been for years. She isn’t even registering as “dead” or “in mortal peril” she’s just gone. Somehow finding her and hoping, miraculously, for her blowing up Voldemort a second time just isn’t on the table.

Second, Lee’s involvement in the prophecy is... a bit wonky. This has been noted a bit in “Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus” but the prophecy in “Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus” and “Minato Namikaze and the Destroyer of Worlds” actually explicitly does not refer to her in that it specifies a male child born at the end of July. This is because the universe is falling apart and we’re all doomed, doomed, doomed, but that’s a different story. Point being, especially in this Lee-less version, Albus has no idea what’s up with Lee but he’s putting his money on Neville. Poor, dead, Neville.

Tequila meanwhile gets to read news of how everything’s going to hell in the dumbest way he can imagine. Voldemort clearly came back wrong and missing a lot of brain cells, even with a body he keeps not taking over the ministry even though they’re practically begging him to do it, and everything he does is not only a) very embarrassing but b) it prevents Tequila from rising into power and becoming amazing.

Clearly, he must be stopped, there can only be one Lord of the Rings.

Well, destroying him completely means destroying Tequila first, and we can’t have that. So Tequila comes up with the only reasonable solution: they have to seal Voldemort’s evil spirit away in some magical artifact.

Tequila drops out of Hogwarts, goes adventuring for a few years, finds some exorcism sword or something and learns how to use it. Comes back and anticlimactically defeats Voldemort while everyone else was busy panicking and Hogwarts was being invaded or some nonsense.

Nobody, not even Tequila, knows how to handle Voldemort’s sudden and very anticlimactic defeat.

Then Tequila recovers and shouts “Weasley is our king!”

Tequila, probably eighteen around this point, is voted the youngest Minister of Magic ever. With Dumbledore dead, Tequila strongarms his way into taking over the Order of the Phoenix, and everything’s coming up Tom Riddle. 

Only then Tom Riddle has that terrible sense of deja vu as the, “What now?” question hovers in his brain. Once again, he has absolutely no answer. Tom is the dog who has caught the car.

Congratulations, Tom.

TL;DR: Without Lee, Tequila would probably end up dealing with the original Voldemort himself/herself. He’s still a mess, he’s learned nothing, and at the end just finds out that actually, he didn’t want to be in power, being in power is stupid.

All he figures out is that he has no idea what he wants.

On the plus side, at least Dumbledore’s dead.

[raymondebidochonlifechoices]

A lot of stress is being put on how Betty is going to redeem herself after the cheating storyline.

Personally, I’d rather have a bughead confrontation that is proportionate to the buildup of the cheating storyline (i.e.: minimal), and save the maximal effect (proportionate to the drama of the cheating fallout) for the reaffirmation of bughead’s endgame status. 

The show didn’t think that establishing a reason for Betty’s cheating was necessary. Why should I invest so much in that? Obviously, because we’re not as moronic as the writers. Nevertheless, inconstancy in writing has (ironically) always been Riverdale’s one constant. (Or, rather, one of two constants.) It’s only bothersome now, not only because it touched something we like, but because bughead also happens to be Riverdale’s second constant.

Although, for once, Betty is in the wrong and wanting to see her apologize is understandable, I have to say I’m tired of seeing her crying and pleading (because RAS thinks Lily is a good actor -and she is). I’d rather not see Betty OR Jughead in such emotional turmoil as f.e. when the Black Hood tormented Betty or the preppies drugged and buried Jughead. From a narrative point of view, it seems that a lot of fans want this to be as big a deal. Personally, I don’t. In the grand scheme of life, these situations are not, and should not, be comparable. Certainly, not for no reason at all. (Yes, Betty was regressing, but it was poorly and harriedly shown).

I suspended my disbelief when, although Alice sided first with Chick (covering his murder) and then with Polly (in the farm, in order to save her) in a way that isolated, hurt and traumatized Betty, she then declared that Betty was her favourite daughter.

I suspended my disbelief when, although Veronica had called Jughead a narcissist for (correctly) surmising Daddy’s evil takeover of the Southside (including ordering Jug’s murder), he called Betty’s plan in 4x10 “a classic B and V scam”, meaning they’re all friends again and it’s all water under the bridge.

I suspended my disbelief when, although Cheryl kept the body of her dead brother in a crypt for months and gaslighted her girlfriend, who then killed the person who found out and proceeded to produce tickle porn, I was told that Choni is the greatest. 

So, am I willing to suspend my disbelief if, after the cheating storyline, Betty simply says “sorry” and Jughead simply says “ok, I believe you”? You betcha! Actually, I’M LOOKING FORWARD to suspending my disbelief for the least drama possible. (I’m betting that the writers are also counting on that!)

BUT

I’m not in denial: I’m willing to put this aside as hastily as it was presented to me, as long as the writers can convince me, as an audience, that, when together again, bughead will be the strongest.

So if Betty says “Jug, there’s something I need to tell you” and the scene ends there and next thing Jughead narrates is “and I never visited Connecticut and Betty never visited Iowa”, I’m cool with that, as long as it is accompanied by: “because we met half-way in Ohio, as we continued our long distance relationship”. 

Right now, my headcanon for Bughead is a remake of the trailer scene in the end of season one: “Jughead Jones, I love you” -“I love you, Betty Cooper-Jones” (Which would also be a fine episode ending for bughead for the episode after the time jump). 

I don’t know if we’re gonna get that. But I have to say, it’s going to be difficult to establish “endgame” status for your strongest ship by having them angry/hurt/pining and apart (with no communication) for 5 years. So, I feel quite optimistic about bughead reconciling before the time jump.

[julieandthefandoms]

Fanfiction Links

I’m not sure as to why I’m making this a post, but here is a list of fanfiction recommendations from The Last Hours and The Infernal Devices. I’ll be updating this as I read more. Keep in mind that it has been a while since I’ve read some of them, so my memory is not the best.

If anyone has any other suggestions, feel free to leave them on this post, I’m in need of more fanfiction to read anyway.

Most of these are set in the canon universe, so I’ve marked those that aren’t.

Thomastair

Haven’t you people ever heard of closing a goddamn door? by GinnyRose

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23168800

To Be Better Tomorrow Than You Were Yesterday by GinnyRose

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23091166

Texting 101: Always Double Check by GinnyRose (College AU)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23176447

The Hideout by GinnyRose (Coffee Shop AU)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23657233

In Henry’s Laboratory by thomaslightwood

https://thomaslightwood.tumblr.com/post/617295071940902912/in-henrys-laboratory-one-shotthis-one-shot-is

Never Forget by UpsideDownCats

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23991526

Making Amends by Nolu/lily-chen-deserves-better

https://lily-chen-deserves-better.tumblr.com/post/617613489359503360/cordelias-performance-hell-reulle-but-with-the or here

five times they were almost found out and one time everyone found out by helenblqthorn

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23743462

"Hey. I made you breakfast. I'm aware it's just a bowl of cereal, but it's all I can make without burning." by magnuslightwood-bane

https://magnuslightwood-bane.tumblr.com/post/622570354013093888/hey-i-made-you-breakfast-im-aware-its-just-a

(This is a little Thomastair subsection I like to call, “If I have to suffer, so do you,” AKA Well written angst)

This is so much worse by bridgestocksariadne

https://bridgestocksariadne.tumblr.com/post/616733540415062016/this-is-so-much-worse-a-thomastair-angst-bc-my

Light by thomaslightwood

https://thomaslightwood.tumblr.com/post/616855429440471040/light-thomastair-one-shot-cartwrightsgrace

Alastair ‘Tell Cordelia I have a headache and I am resting the carriage’ Carstair by tsc-living

https://tsc-living.tumblr.com/post/617020976574742528/alastair-tell-cordelia-i-have-a-headache-and-i-am

(Warning: The following contains suicide. Read at your own risk)

I do not love you by thomaslightwood (Modern AU)

https://thomaslightwood.tumblr.com/post/616912309163606016/i-do-not-love-you-thomastair-one-shot-ok-iz

The Gays Banding Together (Arianna and Thomastair are Friends)

We two strangers by coronaofastar

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23524387

Winning Them Back by UpsideDownCats (Thomastair and Arianna)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24048631/chapters/57868939

End Gracelet/Jordelia

What is Unrequited by Rose_Herondale

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23230459

It’s about freakin time by stephinebills2018

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23148070

Conditionality by foreverinfiction

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23506987

Pour me a drink, oh love by bleuboxes (Modern AU)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23823004

Untitled Jordelia One-Shot

https://thiscrazyfangirl31.tumblr.com/post/617808211384352769/random-29-jordelia-please

Daisy by fairchild-squad

https://fairchild-squad.tumblr.com/post/618574033209950208/daisy-jordelia-fic-james-proposes-for-real

Matthew/Cordelia/James

let’s find where it hurts by archeryian

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23868811

Matthew

History Repeating by Mia_writes

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23048779

way too much whiskey in my blood by ragingcalm

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23459134

Matthew Babysitting Owen Herondale

https://themostawesomehuman.tumblr.com/post/623097072207478784/matthew-babysitting-owen-herondale

Blackheron/Heronthorn/Thorndale (Basically Jesse/Lucie)

And when I touch you I feel happy inside by r_675

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24127123/chapters/58087261

Did not ask for this life by coronaofastar

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23881441

Dancing in the Dark by lily-chen-deserves-better

https://lily-chen-deserves-better.tumblr.com/post/621823192886050816/dancing-in-the-dark

A Kiss In The Rain by immyownghostwriter

https://immyownghostwriter.tumblr.com/post/622356800186040320/hi-there-could-you-please-write-57-a-kiss-in

Where Does The Good Go by immyownghostwriter

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24289783 or here

Untitled Blackdale Fic by cecily-fightwood

https://cecilyfightwood.tumblr.com/post/618644520250359808/4-for-jesse-x-lucie-i-love-your-writing-reading

Untitled Blackdale Fic by cecily-fightwood

https://cecilyfightwood.tumblr.com/post/618194153487089664/could-you-do-3-fluff-for-jesse-x-lucie

Snow White by fairchild-squad

https://fairchild-squad.tumblr.com/post/619562326648078336/jesse-x-lucie-snow-white-drabble

Untitled Blackdale Fic by purplebass

https://purplebass.tumblr.com/post/622200580681646080/prompt-53-please

Kings, Queens, Hopes and Humanity by jesseblackthorns

https://jesseblackthorns.tumblr.com/post/620733228880396288/i-couldnt-help-myself-but-write-about-these-two

Fairthorndale

Fairthorndale Modern AU by fairchild-squad

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24192454 or here

Book Signing by silent-nerd

https://silent-nerd.tumblr.com/post/618631129259458560/book-signing

Counting Stars by fairchild-squad/A247ALICE

 https://archiveofourown.org/works/24432664

Multi Ship Fluff

Let’s Just Talk by CrimzieLightwood (Either College or High School AU, but it’s really cute, I swear)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22382332

Cheers to Beauty by MadJustSH

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24154108/chapters/58163290

Pine With Me (Ongoing Fics)

Popsicle Stick Homes and Construction Paper Hearts by GinnyRose (Thomastair Modern AU)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24132592/chapters/58103440

A Last Chance by CrimzieLightwood (Thomastair)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24149710/chapters/58151143

time to dance on sorrows by fairchild-squad

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24842437/chapters/60093769

new blooms by fairchild-squad

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24830689

If You Want To Read My Work ( Assorted Jordelia/Thomastair/JessexLucie/Arianna/Herongraystairs)

If Crazy=Genius, The Herondales, Fairchilds, Blackthorns, and Carstairs Would Have 162 IQ by TimeToTravel (Yours Truly)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23194744

What Is And What Should Never Be by TimeToTravel (Moi)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23272336

Maybe There’s Something There That Wasn’t There Before by TimeToTravel (Still Me)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23439985

Days Past: Paris 1902 by TimeToTravel (You guessed it, me)

Either: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24015850 or here

Bring Back What Once Was Mine by TimeToTravel (That’s me)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24042889

Heaven and Hell by TimeToTravel (Yup, me)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24192601 or here

Free To Be You And Me by TimeToTravel (This guy)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24466879 or here

We’ll Meet Again by TimeToTravel (Me, myself, and I) (Supernatural and TSC epic crossover)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24621490

Breeding Cannibal Ducks by TimeToTravel (Ashy herself)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24761302 or here

Idris Weekly: The Millionaire Murder by TimeToTravel and LivingInTheNever (myself and my lovely parabatai)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24898957

A Perfect Day by TimeToTravel (Me, Ash. Hello, reader!)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24919912 or here

Best Day of Our Lives by TimeToTravel (Oh, look, that’s me too!)

https://idontgetit-whydoihavetosaymyname.tumblr.com/post/625652360741568512/best-day-of-our-lives or on my Ao3

Herongraystairs

Gift of the Black Tome by wherethewickedplay

https://my.w.tt/rsYZdC8hA5

She Who Holds Their Hearts by wherethewickedplay

https://my.w.tt/XvY6PMniA5

Infernal Angels by wherethewickedplay (Elemental AU)

https://my.w.tt/zYP1zEfiA5

Of Wild Things And Sydney Cartons by wherethewickedplay (Soulmate AU)

https://my.w.tt/lJiG6HmiA5

Turn Upon A Wheel by wherethewickedplay

https://my.w.tt/9XKOZyqiA5

Faults in the System series by sapphic_lightwhore (Soulmate AU)

https://archiveofourown.org/series/1716505

Sophie/Gideon

Table 18 by lightwoodsisabelle (Modern Waitress AU)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/4134633

Cecily/Gabriel

A Rating Of Five by Bellicosi

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12891801

“Can I join you?” by lucieblckthorn

https://lucieblckthorn.tumblr.com/post/624689062915325952/congrats-on-your-celebration-can-i-ask-please

Charlotte/Henry (There’s a severe lack of these, for some reason)

I’ve been looking for you for a long, long time by JaseyRae (Soulmate AU)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/16929876

When The One You Love Loves You Back by survivingasafangirl

https://archiveofourown.org/works/5772868

Poor Charlotte (i.e The Confessions of Matthew and Will)

Changes by NotEvenThat

https://archiveofourown.org/works/15980270

To Drive Away A Shadow by Teddy0414

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23221117

Time Travel/Ghosties (TMI and TID/TLH)

the maze of time by nebulousviolet

https://archiveofourown.org/works/17585591

When things go to Hell in a hand basket by danying

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19188508

Watching Your Back by A_Tired_Writer

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20307538

Kit Herondale: Medium Extrordinare by rosesareredvioletsareblue

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24294493

Jessamine Lovelace’s love consultory by herondaleraxxet

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24570349

Mina, James, and Lucie by cecily-fightwood

https://cecilyfightwood.tumblr.com/post/618574596542726146/mina-james-and-lucie-fic

The TLH Gang Meeting Mina by cecily-fightwood

https://cecilyfightwood.tumblr.com/post/619187251325386752/the-tlh-gang-meeting-mina

In Another Life by themostawesomehuman

https://themostawesomehuman.tumblr.com/post/623798007738007552/in-another-life

Time After Time by just_another_lightwood_bane

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22786828

Shenanigans and Family

How to Find a Pink Salamander by UpsideDownCats

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24277222

Short Story Between Gabriel and Jesse by merrythievesfanboy

https://merrythievesfanboy.tumblr.com/post/618705425073848321/short-story-of-gabriel-lightwood-and-jesse

Explosions and Opinions by Star_Fangirl_Forever

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24589408

Parental Differences by older-brother-kit

https://older-brother-kit.tumblr.com/post/624290228427980800/parental-differences or https://archiveofourown.org/works/25431358

The Discovery of Oscar Wilde the Dog by churchthecatismyspiritanimal

https://churchthecatismyspiritanimal.tumblr.com/post/624601987821027328/fan-fic-characters-from-book-series-the-last

I only know pain

The Life of Lucie by thanatosangel (Immortal Lucie)

https://thanatosangels.tumblr.com/post/623824079823224832/the-life-of-lucie

See you on the other side by lily-chen-deserves-better (Dead Jem)

https://lily-chen-deserves-better.tumblr.com/post/621634182500728832/see-you-on-the-other-side

Falling by lily-chen-deserves-better (Math angst)

https://lily-chen-deserves-better.tumblr.com/post/623355578097500161/falling

How to Save a Life by lily-chen-deserves-better (Dead Lily)

https://lily-chen-deserves-better.tumblr.com/post/620918827067277312/okay-so-what-if-lily-dies-before-raphael-does-and

Don’t worry about me by lily-chen-deserves-better (Dead Lily... again)

https://lily-chen-deserves-better.tumblr.com/post/620196787950632960/dont-worry-about-me

“People can Live for a Hundred Years Without Living a Minute” by themostawesomehuman (Dead Magnus)

https://themostawesomehuman.tumblr.com/post/622456409665224704/promptpeople-can-live-for-a-hundred-years

Whispers of Evil by themostawesomehuman

https://themostawesomehuman.tumblr.com/post/622722341251727360/whispers-of-evil-part-1

[popculturebuffet]

The Loud House Reviews: The Boss Maybe/ Family Bonding

`

Loud House weekly coverage continues as Leni is pushed into the deep end of responsiblity and taking over Lori’s old role of babysitter while her parents are gone and promptly drowns in a sea of comedy clubs, human body parts both on screen and in the fridge, old men in holes and indoor beach volley ball. 

First things first: Last week I forgot to mention Rusty’s mustache freezing off as god, wether it be the judeo-christian god, Odin, that prick Zeus, the flying spagehtti monster or one of many other gods out there. Perhaps all of them did it at once out of hatred for the little weiner. Maybe one of them finally answered my prayers which in that case, that was nice and all but there are far worse things going on i’d prefer you took care of. Also the “stuff I couldn’t fathom” turned out to be just more loudcest, because of course it did. Loudcest is like David Spade, you think it’s finally gone or isn’t doing as much but then it comes around and makes the wrong missy and you waste 90 minutes of your life thinking i’td be so bad it’s good when it’s really just boring and a waste of it’s main actress talent. I lost track of that metaphor, but Loudcest is like david spade in that people like it for reasons I can’t fathom and it hasn’t quietly faded into the background for reasons I can’t fathom, though at least david spade was funny once. So maybe Loudcest isn’t like david spade. or maybe i’ve been taking too long with this bit. 

But whlie last week was a bit wonky it also had a lot to setup.. but now it’s time to see what the show does with all the setup over, and a lot of new possiblities ahead. PItter Patter!

The Boss Maybe Ah now this is exactly what I was hoping for this season. New situations brought about by the year-up and all the changes it brought, with the same old heart and humor and character progression that drew me back into the show. This is the kind of episode i love and have talked about in the past and dosen’t fall into any of the shows usual pitfalls in the process. Just great. I could end it there but I haven’t shut up before why do it now.  So this episode focuses on Leni who I talked about a bit last week and easily had the best plot and in general tends to have good episodes, both before and after the show became an ensemble piece, and even in episodes without her tends to slide in just fine. She’s always a nice breath of fresh air when she shows up. 

I think that’s due to a number of things. For one it’s how sweet a person she is: She’s genuinely nice, kind and well meaning. While she is dumb as a box of rocks that resemble Pauly Shore, what I like is her stupidity isn’t malicious, or overused for misery. She causes comical injuries from time to time with it but she’s quick to apologize iff she realises it and usualyly has no ill will to anybody unless provoked or fighting Lori over a dress despite them wearing the same clothes all the time. I know standard animation thing but it’s always weird to me when shows with a stock outfit for a character have a fashionista, and prefer when shows have stylish characters actually change outfits like Kim Possible did with it’s title character, Xiaolin Showdown did with Kimiko and of all things LIttlest Petshop did with Blythe. Granted Blythe is a nothing of a character but still, credit where it’s due. But I do get this is also a nick show and they givet hem the budget of 50 cents and a network memo that says “BEG US FOR MORE MONEY” written in blood, so fair enough. 

That aside she’s just plesant to watch. The other factor is Liliana Mumy. If you haven’t heard of her , she’s a vetran voice actress whose been doing this on and off since she was a kid, voicing Panini on chowder as a child and later going on to voice Beth in bravest warriors among other roles. Why she only does work so ocasionaly I have no idea but when she does she’s great. She’s also the son of fellow child actor BIll Mumy, aka the guy who as a kid played Anthony Fremont from the Twilight Zone classic “It’s A Good Life”, which if you haven’t seen it is about a small child who has the power of a god and thus can banish people who are “bad”, i.e. disobey him and thus rules over a small town as a creepy and cruel despot. Oh and he can read minds so if you dare to have a thought he dosen’t like your getting banished, with no telling what that means or where anyone disappeared goes. It’s good stuff. Highly recommend it, Mumy is absolutley terrifing and a brilliant actor even at that age and I wish he’d done more as an adult. I also bring it up because Lily played his daughter when they did a sequel episode during the UPN version of the show, set decades later and showing just what the little terror was like grown up... as well as what happens when his DAUGHTER gets the power. It was also really good and worth a watch after the first one. Good stuff. 

TLDR: Leni is one of my faviorites, so’s her voice actress, i’ve rambled enough about unrelated stuff at this point. 

We open at the mall, where for Leni life begins after schol, that’s when we bend all the rules time to hang with all her friends in the place where she belongs!

I mean technically she’s 17 now, but she was 16 when she started this job and none of them were 16 by the time the show ended so nyeh. This started in season 3 when the show started giving the girls not just their own stories but their own supporting casts., storylines, love intrests etc. Luna and Luaan got their romance plots with Sam and Benny, Lori got her college plot towards the end of the season, Lynn’s friends started showing up in her plots more, Luna’s mortuariy club went from assorted background friends of hers to a full fleged supporting crew, and of course Lincoln’s friend group started to become a recurring part of his plots away from his sisters. 

For Leni, being one of the only three kids that could legally work at the time, another possible plot to dig into, and with Luna having way less incentive to get a 9-5 job with her music to work on and the fact we’ve seen her use said music to make money once in a blue moon, Leni was a good choice. It gave her something she was good at besides fashion, even if it’s fashion adjacent and gave us a new supporting cast for those stories: Her boss Mrs. Redinger, your standard “i’m tough by fair” type, and her new friends Fiona and Miguel, two fellow fashion savy teens played by actors i’d never heard of but who do a damn good job and play off her well, with both being a bit sarcastic but Fiona being a bit more mopey and deadpan and Miguel being a possibly but defintely gay teen. Both play off her well by being more down to earth and more wiling to be negative, but still enjoyable enough to be around you can buy them being friends with Leni and their a stellar addition to the cast. I wish, much like we’ve gotten with Liam lately, we could see more of them outside leni stories. Their a treat. 

But I really like Leni’s work there. Besides the cast it puts Leni in a role of responsiblity she excels at. My only real problem is her boyfriend, maybe I dunno, Chaz, one of the ONLY love intrests from l is for love to get mentioned again and one of the more intresting ones, never shows up despite also working at hte mall and the story potetial of them working for rival stores or the same store. I mean I can’t blame them for not throwing another love intrest on the pile when they had two ongoing romance plots, but now both Luna and Luann are on steady ground with their steadies, it’s time to pull that trigger, get off hte ground and eat that horse. Also let LIncoln have one again will ya? It dosen’t have to be stella but Girl Jordan is right there, i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again.. where is she. And if not her just make one you’ve proven to actually be really good at it. 

Where was I? Ah yes the mall. Leni is doing great at her job, suggesting some gloves to scoots, who ceases being skeptical when a hunky younger man of 30 something compliments her on them them chases off after him. If you don’t remember who scoots was that’s the old lady on a scooter who makes troulbe and appareltly can still get it. Good for her. Granted this is coming from someone who ships eda and stan pines still even though it’s now revealed she’s 30 but... frankly I don’t think age is a concern with her and stan can make this joke, so it evens out. 

I mean he would right? I”m getting off topic even more than usual, point is Leni is doing great and her boss takes her to the break room for cake room... it’s just the one cake but can you imagine a cake room? that’s the life. Just a fridgerated room full of cake. 

Turns out she’s EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH. And she didn’t have to chain squidward to an ancient battle ship to get it or anything. After some confusion, Fiona has to clarify it’s NOT her birthday because of course she does, Leni is proud. Full of cake and pride she tells her mom whose decided to reward her good job at work.. by dumping a bunch of respnosiblity on her.  I kid. Rita is being somewhat resonable here. She asks Leni to take over Lori’s old role of babysitting/making sure the other 10, now 9 kids don’t burn the house down... no really she actually specifies that when leaving in the next scene. Which.. fair enough.. you have 11 kids, all likely to plug in a lot of stuff especially Luna and Lisa, said Lisa is a mad scientest who ends up nearly being the one to do it this time, Lynn has no common sense, and the younger ones who aren’t mad scientst are still reckless and vain and combattive respectivley so the odds of a house fire nearly breaking out on any given night are 1:1. But Leni in a show of self doubt that’s rare for her is scared (Though her revealing that by answering a question of how she’d feel about about babysitting the kids with “Scared” was fucking gold. I swear Lily’s deliveries are always so great. ), and while Rita assures her she’s not sure. But as I said, she is being resonable: While Leni’s not the brightest she’s kind, she’s been shown even before her recent major award she’s responsible, she’s babysat for other people’s kids, and she’s kind. I mean they COULD put Luna or Luaan in charge but while when I first read the preview blurb for this episode I was cuirous why they didn’t think of that or thought they would, this episode does a good job presenting WHY they’d do it, while other episodes fill in the gaps: Luna is a bit reckless and Luaan can get caught up in her bidness and as we know once a week goes through the green door and comes out a gamma monster fuled by the sound of her own laughter, a horrible mixture of the joker and madman.. the leader’s insane brother. I’m a huge nerd, you all know this. Leni is the right choice.

Despite her nerves Leni has little choice but to take it on and Mr. Loud proudly sees her out with ye olde english as he and Rita, with lily in a cute little knight’s helmet in tow, are going to a renisance fair to cater, with Lynn Sr needing the backup. And while you may say “what about his staff”.. their either going with and he just needs an extra pair of hands since it’ll be nuts, or some of them are staying behind to man Lynn’s Table while he’s out on his catering gig. I mean the man has plenty of time for his kids, he’s not at the restraunt 24 hours a day. Someone else has to run it when he’s gone. I asked internally why they didn’t just take them along.. then reminded myself that taking all 11 kids to the faire at once, without anyone to watch them and likely having to call in favors when jsuta s likely, Lynn Sr and Rita can take them all another day with presumibly free passes as part of the catering job as that sounds like the kinda thing he’d do. Also Senior’s into scarf’s now thanks to Leni, which I love. Looks good on him. Hank should give her a call. Ascots may be out but I think he could rock a scarf. I’ve had ventures on the brain.  What follows is naturally Leni having several panic attacks as chaos naturally insues btu without Lori’s lifetime of experince dealing with it. IT’s a nice dynamic: Leni, as we’ve established, has always been sort of Lori’s sidekick, her best friend, her amigo. Sure they fight, siblings do that, but they’ll always be there for each other when it counts. SHe’s never really had to THINK without her or be without her, so throwing her into the deep end of taking care of the kids really leaves her shook. It’s a HARD job, it’s probably why the louds don’t bring in babysitters often: there are 11 kids to look after, 10 now and only 9 tonight but still a LOT of them and most of htem pretty high maintince. It was just easier with Lori because she grew up knowing each of them, knowing each of their weaknesses and putting the fear of her righteous wrath into them. They’ve spent their whole lives looking up to her, literally and figuratvely, as their big sister and respecting her as the biggest authority in the house that’s nto her parents, sometimes bigger. Those aren’t just big shoes to fill , their Galactus size and that combined with her big sister worship leaves Leni understandably scared, lost and frequently paralized with anxiety this episode.  No really multiple times she just freezes and one times she screams. As someone with Anxiety disorder I related to this.. sometimes you either just break down or you just FREEZE from the stress and everything hitting you at once and have no idea how to progress while people are still barking at you to do something. It’s a lot but it was a nice touch that really added to her sympathy.   And her anxiety is also understandable when she’s being hit with 80 problems at once, which i’ll tackle all at once here rather than in order as this episode has a really frentic and good pace: while it follows the formula of “Leni runs into a problem, Leni freezes, then Leni gets help from Lori twice hten mr.grouse, more on that in am inute”, the quick pace and great jokes help keep things from feeling too repetivie. 

Anyways the chaos: Just from the start Lucy puts a possibly human liver in the fridge, Lana eats all the cookies then gets skunked by her pet skun, and Lola and Lynn get into a fight over 5 bucks Lynn found, and since Leni can’t just let one kill the other as nature intended she has to fix all this.. mostly by removing the smell with tomato juice and scaring off the skunk and cutting the dolar bill in half. Money dosen’t work that way as both sisters point out but frankly it’s Lola and Lynn, I don’t care who they feel. 

Meanwhile two of my other faviorties get into a tiff over their room: Luaan turns it into a comedy club and kicks luna out, with Scoots and her new man returning. Again, get it girl, get it, and Leni, under Lori’s advice, pretneding to be a fire marshall.. only for Luna towarsd the end to turn it into her own rock club. Lisa creates a corossive super substance that burns a hole in the floor, Lana continues to grapple with the skunk and finally Lincoln and Clyde.. watch a scary movie despite Lucy’s warnings.. and Lucy does something else.. I think? It was a chaotic episode with a lot of set pieces so forgive me if I forgot one of them. Honestly she’s the most well behaved there.But yeah as per the cliche Lincoln and Clyde, after Leni gets the wifi fixed with Mr. Grouse’s help, they get super scared and freaked. Everyomne is freaking, the house is falling apart and Senior wants permission to wear a pinky ring via thought cloud.. which.. no man no. Scarves yes but no one looks good with a pinky ring. No one. And I say that as amporphous blob covered in hair, sweat and regrets. 

As for how Leni deals with all this she leans on Lori, calling her twice, but at inportune times: during a golf game and at the library where said phone gets taken. Granted, I don’t get why she didn’t have it on silent, as I would in those situations, but then we wouldn’t have an excuse to include her and it feels necessary to show WHY Lori can’t just help all night or reassure her sister and with Lori gone the panic only intensifies. As I said she gets paralized with fear and later just outright screams.. which attracts an irate Mr Grouse, the next door neighbor who I need to watch more of’s episodes. Including 12 louds of leapin.. I know i’m way overdue on that. This december. Promise. 

The old man who yells at Louds helps for a bit, helping get rid of a beach Lynn set up because she’s lynn, she has the consderation of a puppy, but eventually falls in a hole like most great heroes and most elderly people. I mean the ones up the street at the retierment home must fall in once a week. They get out of course because the assitant living mole lets them ride out as it digs into the walls. Or maybe that was just a hallucination.  Eventually though the start at her job comes back as she calls the only people she has left for help: Fiona and Miguel, who are at the mall in chairs because of courser they are, and both are confused why she’s so helpless: She’s fantastic at work, she’s kind, confident and smart.. about certain things, she can do this. Besides helping her confidence with this really sweet moment they also give her a good tool for how to use said confdience from work: just treat her siblings as customers. It’s also a nice call back to how we’ve seen Leni learn way back in season 1 during “Driving Miss Hazy” we’ve seen that she can have troulble grasping things, but when you put it in terms she understands, like fashion, or shopping, or in this case helping customers with their issues, she snaps into it. She learns at her own pace in her own way, it’s why I think sh’es neurotypical, and possibly ont he spectrum like yours truly: while her stupidity isn’t part of that the unqiue way she processes things has me supscious. either way it works. 

So with a new strategy Leni.. literally adresses them like shoppers, which is comedy gold. However it’s a valid strategy:  besides the visualation part by getting them to form a line, instead of trying to handle 2 or 3 problems at once she simply handles them one at a time: She scares the skunk off again, shuts down both competing clubs in the older kids room, uses water to take out lisa’s universal solvant, gives Lola and Lynn 5 bucks instead of just cutting a ten in half this time, and in the sweetest moment of the episode, reads Clyde and Lincoln a childrens book to clam them down. Sure it’s  a bit funny but their genuine relief and all threes adorable expressions really melt the heart. 

Leni finally wins, just as her parents get home and congradulate her, Rita’s faith not misplaced. While Rita probably knew it’d be an adjustment, and frankly should’ve prepped her sooner, she knows her daughter and knows waht sh’es caapable of. Also Senior brought home meet and gives leni a turkey leg who gives it to the old man who now lives in a hole inside their house. That’s his home now. Mr Grouse is just there now. Or I wish he was. But I guess you can’t always get what you want epsecially if it’s an old man living in a hole in the loud’s living room. Someday.  Final thoughts for The Boss Maybe: As you could easily tell I loved this one. Funny with a hell of an emotional core, and with great pacing espeially for a loud house episode, this was a joy to watch and easily one of the best episodes the show has done. Just a funny, breezy watch with a lot of subtext, intetional or not, regarding what we’ve seen of Leni and honestly i’m going to go with intetional. It felt really rooted in who Leni is, her relationship with lori, and her work without hitting you over the head with it. It just all flowed really well and made for a hard one to top for the season this early. I’m impressed and it gives me hope for the rest of the season. 

Family Bonding

This one was.. okay. As i’ve learned the hard way from doing Amphibia when an episodes just okay it’s best to breeze through it.. but I can give it this. While it’s mostly a standard loud house episode the ending.. wasn’t predictable. That’s for sure. I mean.. it left me with only one thought really...

But i’m getting ahead of myself. The episode’s plot is standard for the most part: Lincoln’s obessed with a new spy comic book about a james bond expy.. okay so that’s what Sterling Archer did besides physical therapy for the three months between his waking up and Season 11.  Anyways they soon get more exciting news from Lynn. New Neighbors! Before Rita can stop them, the rest of her family tramples over her and goes to make their aqunatince and of course be a bit overbaring with it before Rita rushes in with a spray bottle to spray them like a bad dog because frankly when your dealing with 11 people most of whom are really impuslive, sometimes dog training just works. You try raising eleven kids and see how long before your brain breaks.  Anyways after introductions and the mom turning down cherry pie, you monsters, lincoln sees strange flashing lights and a device and is convinced something is up and unable to convince his family and on a spy kick, recurits clyde. Now why he dosen’t call on Stella and Zach I dunno. And yes I said Zach and not my boy Liam. I have my reasons: Stella, besides being a faviorite of mine, is a tech whiz as shown in one of the comics and in the cookie episode, and Liam is already a paranoid conspiracy nut and as we’ve seen with Dale Gribble, they can be suprisingly useful. I mean Dale is not the best on common sense but he knows goverment bilaws in and out, is skilled with a gun or a bag of pocket sand, and has danny trejo’s octavio, whose basically danny but as hired muscle instead of a master actor, on speed dial. I mean we don’t know if Zach dosen’t have a danny trejo on speed dial or not. We never asked.  As for the other two while I love LIam, spying just dosen’t seem to be in his sizeable skill set and Rusty.. well rusty’s about as subtle as a man covered in screeching cats he glued to himself blowing an airhorn, while screaming the script to a micheal bay movie while doing the explosion noises himself.. which Rusty has probbbly done.  The real thing i’m getting at is I don’t get why, outside of Clyde and LIam, the writers think when LIncoln has an epiosde it either just needs ot be ClyncolnMcCloud or the ENTIRE group, when one or two would do the trick. YOu CAN seperate them out. People do hang out with diffrent friends at diffrent times. I know the show’s grasp on reality is tenous at best, we got to that last week with the whole one teacher for core classes thing with schooled and this week.. again we’ll get to it in a second, but friends DO hang out seperate. We saw each member of the Lincrew, minus stella because she didn’t exist yet, doing their own thing in Racing Hearts. It’s not that complicated. It’s hard to flesht hem out when their used as one solid unit and not unresonable to just use one or two. it’s a lesson I hope the show learns eventually and hope it’s sister show learns too. 

But yeah our dynamic duo spend the episode as youd’ expect; unraveling conspriacies and stalking the new family, though there are some funny bits. Besides Rita squirting her family like a cat or a dog, we have flip getting half his face shaved by a survelince drone and okay maybe just those two things. not bad bits, but the general concept of them roleplaying into mischief.. has been done before. The show’s done the detective bit before and the spy trappings really don’t change that. And you CAN do a good spy takeoff episode, this one just sin’t it and feels like your standard LIncoln and Clyde messaround with tuxedos. Which to be fair are pretty awesome but still. It’s pretty flat.  The climax though? I’ll give it this.. it’s pretty entertainngi if also 100% what exactly the fuck. So our heroes are naturally caught sneaking into the neighbors house and its eems they were wrong, etc etc, exactly what we expected the new kid will hang around.. at least we have a new character. Instead.. LIncoln accidently hits a knob and unveils a panel

So yeah... turns out the new family ARE spies, just for Peach Growers and plan to wipe out all cherries in royal woods. Yup.. look I know this universe is patently insane but even for loud house, even with all of lisa’s super science... even with the slapstick but this is just.. nuts. Like i’m fine with suspending my disbelif, this show is a goofy comedy, but this is a bit much. I LOVE it for being nuts but only in a “what on spagehtti monster’s green earth were you thinking”. I get swinging for the fences but Lincoln getting into a fight with a bunch of spies after playing spy, well beating them with slapsticks and stopping their plot to elmitie cherries..t his isn’t Kids Next Door. This just.. dosen’t work. Jeff Goldblum tell em why, my brains too broken to articulate this anymore

Yeah that. It’s just a weird climax and ends iwth LIncoln vetting the new neighbors.. which does it include girl jordon? Did they just write her out? If so why? Fans liked her, you can have more than one female character in Lincoln’s friend group. Zach is replacable. You can give me whatever the fuck this was, but not an intresting friend for him who has personality already. I get 50% chad but not your decision making. Gah. 

Final Thoughts for .. this. one This one really didn’t work. Besides the ending just not fitting the series specific brand of ludicrous, I mentioned KND for a reason as it made this sort of plot work fine by having it’s whole unvierse be really fucking weird and specific, it’s mostly just okay. We’ve seen this before.. well okay I haven’t watched many of the Lincoln and Clyde messarounds, but the formula’s about the same.  And that dosen’t work. For one you have a HUGE swath of new possiblities: A new school, Chandler coming back, new teachers and faculity, a new principal, and Lynn and LIncoln being in the same school, and you instead just.. retread the same crap. you have 4 of lincoln’s friends other than clyde to use but don’t let them in on the fun. And most agrivating to me you move new neighbors into the neighborhood while neglecting some of your old supporting cast and have them be villians of the week instead of adding someone NEW to the neighborhood. Give one of the other kids a new friend, or give lincoln a new friend to add to his group and replace liam, shake up the dynamic with him and clyde bya dding a third or, most obviously move one of his friends INTO the neighborhood, most obviously stella since you spent so much time building her up then have her addition affect Lincoln and Clyde. Sure we’ve had an episdoe of one of his friends getting in the way of them before, but this would be diffrent. This episode is just.. not great and was a waste of my time, espespcailly after following such a stellar episode. It’s probablyt he first genuinely bad episode i’ve covered on this blog. Now that probably won’t stand, i’ve seen genuiley worse but.. as a wise penguin once said. 

One last note. That Young Dylan graphic is really obnoxiou and obtrusive.  It’s the second most obnoxious thing i’ve seen on this network. 

I”m out for this week. If you want more check out my Amphibia reviews, as I just finished a new one today, my other loud house reviews in the newly minted nickelodeon tab or other stuff on my other tabs, send me an ask for reviews you’d like to see or pay me to review whatver you want for 5 bucks via direct message. And check this blog Monday for the return of weekly Ducktales coverage, and next weekend for the next episode of loud house, and throughotu the week for more reviews.  Until we meet again, GO TEAM VENTURE!. Play us out Mary Kate Wiles. If nothing else this episode let me use this song. 

[orthodoxydaily]

Icons,Saints&Reading: Fri., Feb.19, 2021

Commemorated on February 5_by the new calendar

The Holy Martyr Agatha of Palermo (251)

     The Holy Martyr Agatha was the daughter of rich and respected Christian parents from the city of Palermo (formerly called Panorum) in Sicily. During the time of the persecution under the emperor Decius (249-251), the city governor of Catana, Centianus, – having heard about the wealth and beauty of Agatha, sent his soldiers after her to bring her to trial as a Christian. At Catana they housed the saint with a certain rich woman, who had five daughters. They all attempted to provide temptations for Saint Agatha by means of fine clothes, amusements and entertainment, urging her to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods, but the saint would not give in to their tricks, and disdaining all the delights, she prayed the Lord to grant her the strength for the act of martyrdom. At the interrogation under Centianus, the holy martyr was swayed neither by the flattery, nor by the threats, and she was subjected to cruel jeering: they tore at her bosom with iron hooks, and finally, they cut off her breasts. In prison the holy Apostle Peter appeared to her and healed her of her wounds. Led again to torture, Saint Agatha astonished Centianus, in that her bosom was unharmed. They thereupon began to torture her anew. At this moment in the city there began an earthquake, and the earth opened up and swallowed the closest companions of Centianus. The terrified inhabitants rushed to Centianus, demanding that he stop the tortures. Fearing a revolt by the people, Centianus sent Saint Agatha back to prison, where the martyr, in offering up thanks to God, peacefully gave up her soul to the Lord.

ICONS OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

In Orthodoxy, we believe that icons are windows offering a glimpse of even to our sulls. By contemplating and praying in front of them, one might feel a sensation of peace and spiritual freedom. 

Feel free to try! 

The Chernigov Spruce Tree (Eletsk-Chernigov) 

     The Eletsk-Chernigov (Chernigov Spruce Tree) Icon of the Mother of God appeared on a spruce-fir tree near Chernigov in the year 1060, during the time of the Chernigov prince Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, as was recorded in the Synodikon of the Chernigov bishop Zosima Prokopovich (1655-1657). The icon was placed in a church, built in honour of the Eletsk-Spruce Icon of the Mother of God. The Monk Antonii (Anthony; + 1073, Comm. 10 July), while asceticising on the Boldina Heights in the years 1068-1069), had given his blessing to found a monastery at this place. In 1238 the monastery was pillaged by the Tatars (Mongols), but the icon was hidden inside the monastery walls. In the year 1470 the Kiev prince Simeon Olel'kovich restored the monastery, and they again placed the icon in church. The ultimate fate of the icon is unclear. According to one tradition, a descendant of the Chernigov princes, Baryatinsky, carried off the icon to Moscow in the year 1579, when Chernigov fell into the hands of the Polish king Stefan Bathory. In 1687 a somehow-related prince Daniil Baryatinsky was returning from a campaign in the Crimea. At Kharkov he fell seriously ill and before his death he bestowed the Eletsk Icon to the Kharkov Uspenie (Dormition), being nearby it while on campaign. According to another tradition, the icon vanished from the monastery during its sacking in the XVII Century by the forces of Sigismund III. In 1676 prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky presented the Eletsk monastery a copy of the Eletsk Icon of the Mother of God, brought from Vladimir by the Kozel brothers. Archimandrite Ioannikii (Golyatovsky) was at this time restoring the monastery and he described numerous miracles from this icon in his book, "Skorbnitsa" (or "Sokrovischnitsa", i.e. "Consoler" or "Treasury"), published in 1676 in Northern Novgorod. There is still another Eletsk Icon of the Mother of God that is known of, likewise appearing in the year 1060. It received its name in that it appeared in the city of Elets, in a cathedral church in honour of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God. The feastday of this icon was set under 11 January.

In Honour of Her Icon Named "In Search of the Perishing" ("Vzyskanie pogibshikh")

     The Celebration of the Mother of God in Honour of Her Icon Named "In Search of the Perishing" ("Vzyskanie pogibshikh"): From time immemorial the Russian people, with its faith in the all-powerful help of the Most Holy Mother of God, considered sacred Her title "In Search of the Perishing" as a final recourse, a final hope of perishing people.      About the origin of the image, "In Search of the Perishing", credible accounts are not preserved. Several wonderworking icons of this name are known, through which the Mother of God showed forth Her mercy to people, already over the very threshold of perishing.      In the mid-XVII Century, in the village of Bor of Kaluzsk (Kaluga) governance, the pious peasant Fedot Obukhov on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord was overtaken on his way by a blizzard. The horses exhausted their strength and became hung up over an impassable gully. Not seeing any way out of this to save himself, Obukhov lay in his sleigh and began to drowse off, unaware that he was freezing all over. But in these terrible moments he called out with all his being to the Queen of Heaven for help, and he gave a vow to have a copy made for his parish church of the icon, "In Search of the Perishing". And She heard his fervent prayer: in the nearby settlement a certain peasant suddenly heard by his window some sort of voice: "Get up". He went out and saw the half-frozen Obukhov on his sleigh. Having recovered his health, Obukhov immediately fulfilled his vow and commissioned a copy of the icon from the Georgiev {Saint George] church of the city of Bolkhov in Orlov governance. And from that time the Borsk "In Search of the Perishing" Icon was glorified by many manifestations of grace and miracles. 

Other "In Search of the Perishing" Icons are known of: from the village of Malizhino in Kharkov governance, manifesting itself in 1770 and thrice delivering the people from cholera; another from the village of Krasnoe in Chernigov governance, and another from Voronezh and Kozlov in Tambov governance. And in the year 1835, at the Moscow Alexandrov Orphanage Institute, there was consecrated a church in honour of the "In Search of the Perishing" Icon.

     Of particular interest is an account preserved about an "In Search of the Perishing" Icon, located in the church of the "Glorious Resurrection" in Moscow. This icon had been transferred from the temple in honour of the Nativity of Christ to the Palashevska alley. Its final owner had become widowed and was on the threshold of complete poverty. Fervent prayer to the Most Holy Mother of God saved him from despair and straightened out matters for his daughters. This man reckoned himself unworthy to have in his house this wonderworking image and he gave it over to the church. In 1812 the Palashevsk church was pillaged by the French. The desecrated icon was found broken into three pieces amidst the general rubbish. With the finding of the icon occurred numerous miracles of healing. To this icon recourse brides entering marriage, so that the marriage might be an happy one. People come to it, overwhelmed by drunkenness, perishing in poverty, suffering in illness, and with their prayer they recourse to it as to a Mother over Her perishing children. And for all the Heavenly Queen sends down help and support: "Seek out us the perishing, O Most Holy Virgin, and chasten us not as regardeth our sin, but through Thine love for mankind have pity, deliver us from hell and sickness and necessity, and save us" (Tropar, tone 4).

The Divnogorsk-Sicilian 

 The Divnogorsk-Sicilian Icon of the Mother of God received the first part of its title from its original dwelling place when glorified – the Uspensk Divnogorsk monastery, in the former Ostrogozhsk district in Voronezh governance. Its title of "Sicilian" is from its place of origin, since by tradition this icon at Diva (i.e. "Wondrous Heights") was brought from Sicily by the pious monastic elders Xenophont and Joasaph. They suggest, that these saints were by birth Orthodox Greeks by descent, and that they had arrived hither, actually no earlier than the end of the XV Century. Xenophont and Joasaph founded a monastery at a scenic spot above the River Don, nigh to the confluence into it of the River Tikha Sosna [i.e. Quiet-Pine River]. The Wild-Wondrous Heights of the locale were called such by those struck by the form of the chalk columns, dispersed throughout the hills.      It has been suggested, that Xenophont and Joasaph made their habitation in a cave (where later was made the church of Saint John the Forerunner), and that the first church in a chalk column was carved out by them, into which also they put the Sicilian Icon of the Mother of God which they had brought with them. Herein moreover they found their eternal repose.      On the Divnogorsk-Sicilian Icon of the Mother of God, the Mother of God is depicted sitting in the clouds. In Her right hand is a white lily blossom, and with Her left arm She supports the Divine Infant, Who sits upright upon Her knees. The Saviour in His left hand holds a lily blossom, and with His right hand He blesses. Around the face of the Mother of God are depicted eight angels, of which the two beneathe are depicted on bended knee and with upraised hands in prayer. Over the head of the Mother of God – is the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. The especial glorification of the icon began with the year 1831, when cholera was raging. At Korotoyak, located 7-8 versts from the monastery, there appeared in sleep to a certain elderly woman, Ekaterina Kolomenska, the Most-Blessed Virgin (in the form She is depicted in the Divnogorsk Icon), and She commanded that Her icon be brought and a molieben be made before it. The wonderworking icon was brought to Korotoyak, and after a fervent general molieben before the holy icon, the cholera ceased. By the intercession of the Mother of God the city of Ostrogozhsk also was saved from cholera. The people of Korotoyak and Ostrogozhsk likewise in 1847 and 1848 were saved from cholera through the miraculous intercession of the Mother of God, which occurred after a church procession with the holy icon around these towns.      According to tradition, the feastday of the wonderworking icon on 5 February was established already at its original habitation – by Xenophont and Joasaph.

All texts©1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.

1 Peter 4:12-5:5 

12Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you;13 but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.14 If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people's matters.16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.17 For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?18 Now "If the righteous one is scarcely saved, Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?"19 Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.

1 The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed:2 Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly;3nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock4 and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. 5 Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble."

Mark 12:38-44 

38Then He said to them in His teaching, "Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces,39 the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, 40 who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation. 41 Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. 42 Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. 43 So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; 44 for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.

[ariparri]

Just made a few aesthetics/moodboards whatever they're called for Coby, my version of Jacob, and my MCs amortentia. I put them all in the order from oldest to youngest for each game.

Hogwarts Mystery

Coby McQuaid

Log Cabin | Honey | Smoke | Kiwi Cream Cheese Toast

The kiwi cream cheese toast is something Coby loves to eat for breakfast. Every morning he'll make some for himself. The log cabin scent is the home he now lives in. After being freed from the portrait and hunting down R, he finally settles down and moved in to a cabin of his own. The smoke scent comes from sparklers he used to light up when he was younger. He has a fond memory of him with a little Veruca and Carson where he lit up some sparklers and watched them run around with them. The honey scent is from when he adds honey to his kiwi toast, his tea or sometimes uses it for his skin's appearance. He believes the honey can help stop wrinkles from forming and make him look young.

Carson Ivey

Violin Wood/Music Sheets | Blueberry Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins | Paint | Hot Chocolate

As a child, Carson took violin lessons. He takes pride in his violin skills and would sometimes play it in the Ravenclaw dorm. The muffins are snacks his mother would always make for breakfast. Every time Carson feels homesick, he'll write to his mom and she'll send him a basket of muffins for him. Carson loves hot chocolate, especially when it's his mother's special recipe. He prefers hot chocolate over coffee and tea. While paint is one of the scents you can smell for his amortentia, it's not because he's great at art, it's because it's used for some of his pranks. Paint and glitter are a common element to his pranks, especially on Talbott and Chester.

Veruca McQuaid

Ginger Lemon Tea | Autumn Leaves | Mixed Berries | Carnation Flowers

Veruca has a cup of ginger lemon tea a day. She actually started drinking it at the start of 5th year after telling Rowan she never really cared to try tea. After drinking it for a couple of days, she started drinking it every day after that. Autumn is Veruca's favorite season, she loves to walk through a pathway of trees as the leaves fall around her. Mixed berries are Veruca's favorite fruits, she loves pastries and other treats with mixed berries as the filling (i.e. mixed berry tarts, mixed berry parfaits, and mixed berry trifles). Veruca's favorite flowers are carnations, and when Diego spent an entire week trying to give her the right flower until the end, her love for them grew even more.

Magic Awakened

Marisol Caplan

Marigolds | Books/Book Pages | Cinnamon | Oranges

While she's sometimes represented by sun flowers, marigolds are part of Marisol's amortentia. They are also the flowers of her birth month, October. Marisol is always seen with a book or somewhere that has books. She loves to read, she has her own mini library in her room of the Caplan Residence. The scent of cinnamon is from the cinnamon scented candles and the cinnamon sticks she uses to stir her tea. Sometimes she uses them for her baths as the cinnamon can remove toxins from the body and act as a natural disinfectant that can cleanse the body. It can also help invigorate the person's spirit and elevate their mood. Oranges are fruit she often loves to eat.

Calum Karasu-Ivey

Cello Wood & Music Sheets | Snuggle Fabric Softener | Baked Ziti | Pine/Pinecones

Like his father, Calum started taking music lessons at a young age and learned how to play the cello. He's quite fond of the instrument and would practice every now and then. The fabric softener is always used for his clothes and bed sheets. He refused to uses any other kind except Snuggle. The pine scent in his amortentia started when Raylene gave him a pinecone when she was still a toddler. Calum won't admit to it, but he still has that pinecone in a small box in his room. And the baked ziti is obviously a dish he loves to eat.

Carina Caplan

Violets | Chocolate Chip Banana Bread | Ocean Breeze | Vanilla Beans

Similar to her older sister where she's often represented by sun flowers from both their parents, Carina's first scent in her amortentia are violets. The flower of her birth month, February. Chocolate chip banana bread is her favorite snack. She's not particularly picky on how it's made but she does often point out how it's not as good as the one her father makes. Now although she loves going out to the beach, the ocean breeze scent in her amortentia is actually the shampoo she uses. And the vanilla bean scent is her lotion.

Isa Skyes

Coconut Oil | The Beach | Smoke and Fire | Freshly Cut Grass

As an islander, Isa spends a lot of time at the beach, it makes one of the scents in her amortentia. She's also a pretty active girl, and is outside everyday. Having so many siblings she's often rolling around in the grass with a few of them. The smoke and fire is from all the barbecues Isa had for parties. She often helps with the barbecue rather than decorating. The coconut oil scent is from when she uses the oil to moisturize her skin.

Raylene Karasu-Ivey

Donuts | Wood Shavings | Mint | Balloon Flowers

Raylene's favorite snack are donuts. She would always be seen munching on one while she's crafting some new toy or invention. The wood shavings are from when she's crafting a new toy or invention. The mint scent in her amortentia are the mint essential oil she uses while crafting to try and drown out the wood shavings. It's also from the mint baths she takes whenever she wants an invigorating and stress free soak. The balloon flower scent is from the balloon flowers she got for her birthday. Her father used to make a flower crown out of them for her on her birthday.

Caden Saunders

Dirt | Dove Mandarin & Tiare Flower Body Wash | Rain | Warheads

Caden loves to play outside during rainy days, so rain is one of the scents in his amortentia. Dirt also comes to play as he loves to spend most of his time outside and play in the dirt. He's a very active and rough boy. The Dove body wash is another scent. Since he has two moms, most of the hygiene products he uses are feminine. He doesn't mind of course, he actually loves the smell of the body wash he uses so his moms would always send him a bottle or two while he's at Hogwarts. And the warheads are his favorite candies, his favorite are the blue ones.

Hogwarts Legacy

Avis Ni Conraoi

Ink and Parchment Paper | Lavender | Lily of the Valley | Forests

The ink and parchment paper scent in Avis' amortentia comes from all the poetry she writes, as well as the music sheets for her flute and harp. The lily scent is from her favorite flowers, lily of the valley. It's also the flower of her birth month. Avis is more in touch with nature as she finds it to be more magical than the magic around her in Hogwarts, the scent of forests comes from this. The lavender is from the essential oil she used to help her relax. She mainly uses this when she's playing one of her instruments or writing poetry.