#musingsofaretiredunicorn

[socialshakespeare]

Reading 4: Saturday, February 24

The fourth read-through of Much Ado About Nothing!

(Most of you are double or triple cast, so double check which lines you have to read.) You can look up the lines of the characters here. The names listed below all go with the Folger Edition.

Please submit your confirmation or any request to understudy here. If you’re in any doubt, please ask.

Times and time zones:

EST (US): 12:00 PM CST (US): 11:00 AM MST (US): 10:00 AM PST (US): 9:00 AM GMT (UK): 5:00 PM AEDT (AU): 4:00 AM (Sunday, February 25)

Leader: @purplemuskrat

Benedick:  @maplelantern Leonato, 1st Lord:  @sirenofthetimes Prince (Don Pedro), 2nd Watchman:  @musingsofaretiredunicorn Beatrice, Sexton:  @thuriweaver Claudio, 1st Watchman:  @bottom-of-the-riverbed Dogberry, Leonato's Brother, Antonio:  @infinitelytheheartexpands Borachio, Messenger, Boy:  @tinyfrenchowl Hero, Verges, Balthasar:  @thehamletdiaries Don John, Ursula, Seacoal:  @normallyparenthetical Margaret, Friar Francis, Conrade:  @purplemuskrat

Please submit your confirmation here. - liking/reblogging this post does not count!

Read the Guidelines. To avoid the differences between editions that make for confusion and missed cues, please use the Folger edition of Much Ado About Nothing during the read-through.

Be on time, be prepared, and make sure you know which lines to read. Good luck!

[epicstuckyficrecs]

Hi! I’m looking for a lost fic; it’s a modern au xmas stucky fic with Bucky as some kind of businessman who gets stuck in the small town Steve lives in over xmas; theres some kind of town-wide gingerbread competition that I’m p sure buck wears Steve’s clothes to.. they both catch feelings super fast but Bucky goes back to nyc before realizing what an idiot he was and returning (possibly on xmas eve).. I’ve tried so many searches but I can’t find it, do u/ur followers know it??

Is there a chance that it might actually be an Evanstan fic? because it really sounds like I Really Can't Stay (Baby, It's Cold Outside) by musette22 (@musette22) and paperstorm ( @paper-storm) !

[theshitpostcalligrapher]

“lettuce is a greedy bitch” pls!! (my roommate is very adamant abt this)

i see??? are they having a Time gardening??

Askbox is currently closed as I work my way through these older asks

[hdowlpost]

OWL GIFTS for @harryandhislittledragon!

(Creators wills be revealed on @hdowlpost on January 8, 2021.)

Gift from: anon Enjoy on AO3: First Christmas Summary: It’s Harry and Draco’s first Christmas as a couple, and Draco wants it to be special. He shares some of his family’s traditions with Harry, hoping it will be a winter the brunet will never forget. Art Medium: Art- Moodboard Rating: Teen | PG Notes: For @harryandhislittledragon!  I liked your prompt of Draco sharing his traditions with Harry, so here is a little moodboard that shows some of the things they might do on their first Christmas together. I hope you enjoy!

Gift from: anon Read on AO3: Harry Potter and the Perfect Boyfriend Summary: Harry wants to come out without putting a potential boyfriend through the insanity that comes from dating him and that's why he hires Draco to be his pretend boyfriend. Word Count: 31557 Rating: NC-17 Contains: Mention of prostitution, and some religious discussion (Catholicism) Notes: Switching POV. It starts in the summer of 2005 and goes to spring 2006 much like the books. Dear @harryandhislittledragon, this story started with a prompt and then it went completely a different way, but I tried to put as many of your likes as I could.   Merry Christmas

Gift from: anon Admire on AO3: Road to Hell and Out Again Summary: Typography and watercolor art inspired by the musical Hadestown Art Medium: Watercolor and Ink Rating: G Contains: angst, hope, Dark Mark imagery Notes: It was a joy to be able to dive into the Hadestown lyrics and my watercolors! I hope you enjoy!

[hideyseek]

give 17 and 66

#17 - Garden Song by Phoebe Bridgers

Everything's growing in our garden You don't have to know that it's haunted The doctor put her hands over my liver She told me my resentment's getting smaller

#66 - Ribs by Lorde

We can talk it so good We can make it so divine We can talk it good How you wish it would be all the time 

send me a number between 1-100 (spotify wrapped 2020) and i'll tell you my favourite line(s) from that song!

[berenshand]

pLease talk about why benedick and claudio are foils!! i’ve only just gotten into much ado and i’m thirsty for analysis 👀👀

hoooo eee you opened a can of worms here my friend. there is literally nothing i would rather talk about than this. im so sorry i am not kidding when i say i wrote an essay in response to this

Ok so, a big theme in Much Ado is realistic vs idealized love, and there’s also a lot of generalizations about love, but Claudio and Benedick generalize about love in totally opposite ways. At the beginning of the play, Claudio sees Hero and immediately thinks ‘she is beautiful and I would like to marry her’. Sure, he’s seen her before, but he was distracted because he was, you know, about to go to war, but in the first scene, he tells Don Pedro that he “liked her ere I went to wars.” Like, he didn’t realize he was in love with her til after, but it was love at first sight.

Claudio, through the whole play, is idealistic – he wants everything to be perfect, to be black and white. There is no room for ‘maybe’ in his character (which, unfortunately means he does not use his brain cells). When he talks about Hero, he almost always talks about her beauty or her chastity. He’s focused on the superficial, and he’s hyperbolic (almost like Romeo). He’s trying really hard to be the perfect courtly lover stereotype – he can’t just say ‘Hero is beautiful’, oh no, he has to say “she is the sweetest lady that ever I looked on”. Benedick even says Claudio used to speak “plain and to the purpose” but now his words are “fantastical”. So Claudio is way over the top.

Claudio expects everything to be perfect. Another big theme in the play is appearance vs reality. Claudio thinks that because Hero looks perfect, she must be perfect, and Claudio seems to be incapable of interpreting things beyond the surface-level, which is foreshadowed when he sees Don Pedro with Hero. He literally planned this with Don Pedro, but as soon as Don John and Borachio show up and say ‘oh by the way, DP’s in love with Hero’, Claudio’s like ‘damn, Don Pedro must be in love with Hero’. Y’all know Shakespeare loves a soliloquy, and Claudio does get one here, but it isn’t a ‘hm should I listen to Don John who is notoriously untrustworthy’ soliloquy, it’s a ‘well I guess Don Pedro screwed me over’ soliloquy. Claudio sees/hears something, has no evidence to contradict it and says ‘well, that must be true’. He doesn’t look for counter evidence or take Don John’s character into account. He’s gullible, black-and-white, and idealistic. If someone says something he can’t, for a fact, disprove, it must be true.

Later, when he accuses Hero, he says, “O Hero, what a Hero hadst thou been, / If half thy outward graces had been placed / About thy thoughts and counsels of thy heart!” He’s finally learned that people aren’t always what they seem, but HE LEARNED IT FROM THE WRONG PERSON because he always sticks with his first impression, instead of like, trusting the person he loves and wants to marry. His first instinct was to believe Don John at the party that Don Pedro isn’t a loyal friend, and a few scenes later, to believe Hero isn’t a loyal fiancée. His trust is completely based on perfection: he wants people to be perfect, and when they aren’t, he doesn’t just like. move on. He completely goes off the rails. In the party scene, he’s furious with Don Pedro, which makes him snap at Benedick and storm off in a huff (meanwhile Benedick is stood there like ????????????), and when he accuses Hero, he can’t just do it quietly. Like Beatrice complains, he waits til they are in church in front of God and everybody and completely destroys her life. He learns one negative thing about her and her perfection is destroyed and he will never love again.

Benedick, on the other hand, does not believe in love at first sight. He doesn’t believe in love at all. Nearly every single one of his lines in the first scene is him complaining about love. He says every man who marries will eventually “wear his cap with suspicion”. (This means married men have to wear caps to cover up their cuckold horns – Elizabethans had a sort of… urban legend that if your wife cheated on you, you would grow horns). So Benedick is basically saying ‘women will never be faithful’ (the irony of this is apparent later when Balthasar sings “men were deceivers ever”). However, Benedick also says a lot of stuff about being a ladies man??? He’s very inconsistent – the whole ‘appearance vs reality’ thing comes up with him too bc its like he really doesn’t want people to think he’s interested in romantic love but he also really wants them to think he can Get It. Who is the real Benedick????? We don't really know bc he keeps swapping personalities. Personally I think it’s interesting how Shakespeare seems to like flipping the connotations we expect… in Romeo and Juliet, he gives day a negative connotation and night a positive one, which is almost unheard of in western literature, and in Much Ado, the consistent character (Claudio, who is consistently gullible and idealistic) is a much less positive character then the inconsistent one (Benedick, who has no clue what he is doing ever).

A few scenes later, Benedick is in the garden complaining about how men make fun of other men who fall in love, then become the exact thing they’re complaining about by falling in love “and such a man is Claudio”. He goes on to say he will never fall in love (methinks he doth protest too much), but if he does the woman he loves will be perfect in every way. On the surface, it sounds like he has high standards, but what he’s really saying is ‘I will never marry because no such woman exists’ (not unlike Beatrice saying a man with no beard is too young for her but a man with a beard is too old – she’s saying she won’t marry because there is no such man in between – you either have a beard or you don’t). Benedick is an idiot, but not that kind of idiot. He knows the perfect woman doesn’t exist. Where Claudio is idealistic, Benedick is realistic.

……and then like one page later, he hears his friends say Beatrice loves him and he goes ‘oh hell yeah I will be horribly in love with her’. His soliloquy from earlier that said ‘men are idiots because they mock love then fall in love’? He’s proving himself right. But the difference between him and Claudio is that he can always acknowledge Beatrice’s faults. Even in the very beginning, he says Beatrice is prettier than Hero, though she is unfortunately “possessed with a fury”. Even now, when he’s deluded into thinking she loves him, and he’s listing off her virtues, he can still say she is “wise, but for loving me; by my troth, it is no addition to her wit”, and not only is he acknowledging her faults, he’s also acknowledging his. He even decides to be kind to her because he hears his friends roasting him and thinks ‘wow am I like that? I need to fix that’. While Claudio refuses to even consider that he might be wrong about distrusting Hero, Benedick is making a list of his own flaws and calling it Things I Need To Work On. Claudio’s list is more like Things I Am Right About Without Doing Any Critical Thinking.

What this all boils down to, for me, anyway, is again, that idea of realistic vs idealistic. Claudio is idealistic about himself too. He always thinks he’s right. Benedick knows he has flaws and actively tries to fix them. Claudio has unrealistic expectations of perfection. That whole ‘love is not love which alters when it alteration finds’ thing does NOT apply to him. If he finds an alteration he will not only stop loving you, he will give up on love forever, and ruin your entire life in front of every single person you know. He thinks love is nice. That it’s a warm fuzzy feeling that makes you feel like chirping birds helped you get dressed in the morning. But Benedick knows that love is a choice. His love for Beatrice isn’t love at first sight. In fact, they had a past relationship that ended badly. His feelings for Beatrice change on a dime because he decides he is going to love her, which is a crucial part of any real relationship, romantic or otherwise. We have to choose to love people in spite of their failings because everyone has failings. If we give up on everyone who fails us, we will be alone – just like Claudio and Don Pedro end up isolated from everyone in Act 4 and 5.

When Hero and Claudio reconcile, they slip right back into their dramatic overwrought nonsense – Hero’s all ‘I truly was dead, because you killed me, but I have returned to life’. Beatrice and Benedick are like “I take you for pity” and ‘here’s a shitty sonnet you wrote about me lmao’. Claudio and Hero feel like Romeo and Juliet 2.0, but Beatrice and Benedick sound like your favourite real-life married couple because they can make fun of each other. So again, Shakespeare is playing with expected connotations: the person who’s more serious should probably be a more positive character than the one who can’t take anything seriously, but it’s Benedick, who literally never stops joking around, who is the positive character, and Claudio, who takes everything Very Seriously, who ends up looking like an idiot.

This is a really long answer but basically, they’re foils because Benedick is unserious, realistic, and introspective, while Claudio is serious, idealistic, and self-righteous.

[bookcub]

Thoughts on platypuses?

They are miraculous creatures and have great theme songs ;)

can y'all send some asks that are like “thoughts on ______”

[fantom-noise]

R and S, please 💜💜

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence? I’ve tagged them before and I’ll tag them again, but when it comes to style, I adore the work of @gingertodgers, and for twists and turns in a good plot, I look to @jbankai89​. Outside of fic, every time I read a Terry Pratchett book, my fics take on that voice for a while 😅

S: Any fandom tropes you can’t resist? Amnesia fics, 100%! Also time travel and alternate realities, god I love ‘em so much. Too much. Like, way too much.

Thanks for the asks!!

[dracolia]

A Piece of Cake

by musingsofaretiredunicorn | @harryandhislittledragon

drarry | 1.8k | teen and up

Draco Malfoy was going to bake Harry Potter a birthday cake. He had all his ingredients laid out, and was feeling rather confident—most potions he’d made in his life had at least double the number of ingredients, so how difficult could this be?

Read on AO3.

[greaseonmymouth]

@musingsofaretiredunicorn replied to your post “I was tagged by @annawrites ! The Rules: Post the names of all the...”

Ooh what’s “SPACE AU”?? That sounds v exciting ����

SPACE AU (yes, the doc title is really in all caps) is a caius/al (volstovic cycle) fic i started writing last spring. it’s a bit slow going because Plot got in the way and i’ve been struggling to figure that part of the fic out, but i promise that it will eventually be written and posted and all that. it’s going to end up somewhere between 10 and 15k in length, though hopefully fewer words than more.

i have shared excerpts of it before! the posts are here, here, and here. :D

[stuckylibrary]

Group Ask 196

What is a group ask?

Previous Group Asks

AO3 Search Tutorial

Please reply to this post if you know one of the fics mentioned in this ask. Thank you so much in advance!

Anonymous 1 asked:

Can you help me find a fic? I can't remember all the details, but Sharon was Steve's ex, and I think she was dating rumlow and she invited steve (and bucky) to her place which was neat and impersonal and she was biphobic and Peggy (who was also there) wasn't happy with her and defended Steve. Thank you so much for all your work!

wickedlybrilliant asked:

Hi! Do you know the shrunkyclunks fic where Bucky and Steve have a meet cute and Bucky doesn't know Steve is cap? It also has an attack in the city where they found Bucky underneath some rubble because he was on the subway and he hurt his arm because he was holding on to a girl he tried to save. The first thing the avengers asked when they saw him was if he's Cap's secret boyfriend.

Anonymous 2 asked:

Hi! i’m trying to find a fic and I haven’t had any luck so far :( I know it’s an apocalypse setting (possibly zombie?) and steve has a baby, I think bucky may have found him on top of a truck or something? I know this isn’t super specific but i’d appreciate it if you’d help me find it!

Anonymous 3 asked:

i'm trying to find a lost fic and i'm just pulling my hair out looking for it. set post CATWS, bucky moves into the avengers tower and gets a service dog (maybe named marshmallow?) who is afraid of elevators. that's literally the only thing i remember and im sorry i'm not more descriptive. please help if you know this fic!!!

Anonymous 4 asked:

Hi! I'm searching for a fic where Steve thinks Bucky's going out with someone and he gets all jealous and emotionally constipated over it (internally). But Bucky and the dude are not actually together for real (I think?). The dude's an artist and he paints Bucky w/ the metal arm (half naked, Bucky half-lidded, and Bucky looks dangerous and sensual in it and it reminds steve of a panther), and Steve sees the painting and gets all emotional ab it. I've been searching forever, sorry if too vague

main-for-aspen asked:

alright, so i'm looking for a fic, but this one might be p hard to find? it was probably canon-complaint, but all i really remember is the line "all i ever wanted, was to be what you wanted," so hopefully someone out there recognizes it nksdafklsj

Anonymous 5 asked:

hi! i'm looking for a fic where at least one of them is a dragon (i think it's bucky if only one of them is) and there's a part in the fic with a mating season where the dragons fly around doing aerial displays to try to attract mates. thank you!

Anonymous 6 asked:

I was wondering if you could help me find a fic I’ve looked everywhere and can’t find it even through all my book marks . It’s a stucky kid fic Steve gets a message from Bucky telling him to come visit him in some small town and Steve finds out Bucky has a daughter and I know Steve does window art for a coffee shop and then Steve asks Sam if he wants to visit them and no one knew were Steve was at the end Sam stays for the little girls birthday party and finds out Nat knew this whole time

Anonymous 7 asked:

Hi! I was looking the story of Steve and Bucky are university students and Bucky wait late night in libraries to escort students their home. Do you know that story? Thank you for your help.

musingsofaretiredunicorn asked:

hello! i'm searching for a christmas fic i read, which i don't think is in your christmas tag... in it, bucky is a lawyer/attorney/businessman who’s stuck in a small town over the holidays due to weather, and meets steve who lives there... they end up sleeping together and steve is like "i don't do one night stands" and bucky is like "... i don't do relationships" but they keep having sex and bucky goes back to the city only to realize he’s a massive fool so he returns for a Big Declaration on what is maybe xmas eve… at some point in the middle the whole town is having some kind of festive get-together that bucky goes to, possibly while wearing steve's clothes??? i think the town's get-together was a gingerbread house decorating competition?????

Anonymous 8 asked:

The fic was about how Steve was depressed in the 21th century, and Rumlow manipulated him into a relationship by acting exactly like Bucky used to do. At one point he also gets to Bucky and tries to provoke him by telling him things he's doing to Steve. Thanks in advance!

Anonymous 9 asked:

Hello, so there was this recent fic that I read that was hot, hot, hot! But I didn't save it and now I'm going crazy looking for it! It was heavily explicit and was a short fic, but it featured Steve spitting in Bucky's mouth during sex. Bottom!Bucky/Top!Steve. Sorry it's so vague but the spitting was just vdjsnxhfjsn

Anonymous 10 asked:

Hi! I'm looking for a fic (modern AU) where Steve gets home from the hospital after a very serious illness: Bucky stays home to take care of him and accepts money from his parents. Steve has some kind of PTSD after nearly dying, and he takes his anger out on Bucky, who is already worried sick. They end up arguing really bad, and I think Steve's doctor was Bruce. Do you happen to know which fic it is? Thank you anyway! Have a nice day!

Anonymous 11 asked:

hi folks! im looking for a fic. it was a daemon au. bucky's one was wolf and he was also a prince. but like pierce, his uncle, ruled very poorly but blamed it on bucky. but one day bucky runs away and meets steve. steve is like the leader of the resistance im fairly sure. can u guys or ur followers help?

Anonymous 12 asked:

Hi! I’m looking for a fic where modern Bucky doesn’t know that Steve is Captain America. I remember that during an invasion or attack, Natasha is sent to bring to him to some sort of base? And when Steve arrives there he kisses Bucky who punches him in the face lol I know it’s really vague but if you know what it is I would be forever grateful :)

[darkshrimpemotions]

Trying to make a list of all the tumblr days for @thehomohomosapiensapien and I can't remember all of them. Help me tumblr friends! So far I have...

Misha Monday

Meat Off the Floor Monday

Oh Buddy It's Only Monday

Taika Tuesday

Brother It's 10am on a Tuesday

Werewolf Transgenderism Wednesday

Out of Touch Angel Thursday

Fingers in My Mouth Friday

Fuck Him on the Floor Friday

Flat Fuck Friday

Slam Him Into A Wall Saturday

Sammy Sunday

Honorable Mentions:

Thanks @musingsofaretiredunicorn and @icannotreadcursive (what is Wetland Wednesday I don't know that one).

Next I'll try to do tumblr holidays!

[theshitpostcalligrapher]

“Recent times call for recent measures.” pls!! (oof @ covid times)

oof indeed 

Askbox is currently closed as I work my way through these older asks

[hdowlpost]

OWL GIFTS for @musingsofaretiredunicorn!

Gift from: anon Listen to on YouTube: enemies to lovers (i see right through you) Summary: Fanmix. "I want you so much, but I hate your guts..." Rating: T | PG-13 Contains: ten Drarry songs Gift from: anon Enjoy on AO3: Sick of Losing Soulmates Summary: Time and life got in the way, but one chance night at the pub brings Harry careening back into Draco's life. Art Medium: Ink on paper, digitally enhanced Rating: T Gift from: anon Read on AO3: The Little Lie Summary: Harry doesn’t mean to lie to his friends about his relationship with Draco Malfoy. Well, not for thirteen months at least. Word Count: 2900 Rating: G Contains: Light angst. Bit of lying between friends, semi-accidentally, not to be taken seriously

[writernotwaiting]

“Renaissance”-- a spring poem by me. Please re-blog and let me know what you think, or what it makes you think about.

I would gladly add or subtract you from my tag list, just let me know

@freudensteins-monster @incredifishface @maxwell-demon @lokiofmiddleearth @icybluepenguin @larouau12 @hornedchick  @missviolethunter @awolfbeneath @antyc67 @sarabeth72 @loki-in-winterfell  @catedevalois @indomitablemegnolia @quoting-shakespeare-to-ducks @prudenceevenstar  @asilhouetteindreams  @just-call-me-your-darling  @runningamokwithanaxe @damageditem @angrymadsygin @missdibley @toasty-hancock  @musicfashionandscotch @feelmyroarrrr  @izhunny @lunariagold @angelus80 @maneth985 @pedeka  @later0varies @storylover92 @sherala007 @destikneeschild @iamhisgloriouspurpose @anastasiaoftheironwood @bubblebubble03  @thingsididntknowwereerotic  @musingsofaretiredunicorn  @nuggsmum @iamthejeanette @toozmanykids  @dangertoozmanykids101

[orpheous87]

Title: his hand (in mine)

Author: musingsofaretiredunicorn

Rating: G

Exploding Snap Trope: Professor Draco Malfoy

Word Count: 1126 words

Tags: Humor, fluff, Professor Draco Malfoy, Professor Harry Potter, Flying instructor Harry Potter, Hands, hand massage, pre-slash, secret Santa

Summary: Draco makes an attempt at Secret Santa. He’s not quite clear on the details.

Excerpt: 

Aiming for nonchalance, Draco says, “Oh, look. You’ve finally got something to help those dreadfully chapped hands.” He wants to feel good about that delivery, but he doesn’t.

Harry squints at him. “Yes, Malfoy, thank you, Malfoy, I’m forever in your debt, Malfoy.” 

Rec Notes: For @gameofdrarry ‘s Exploding Snap. 

This was such a delightful read. The awkwardness of Draco when Harry first joins him is perfect, and then the sweetness of their exchange is just what was needed. The hand massage is soft but sensual at the same time and it’s easy to imagine it turning into more when they get back into the school. 

This whole fic made me smile from start to finish. It’s everything I like in a fic and if you’re on the look out for something that’s short and sweet, then I highly recommend that you give this a try. It makes me look forward to when the weather gets colder and fics like this give you a warm feeling. 

[Read on AO3]