#my god especially if it's a MALE (or gender-neutral) pen name

[britneyshakespeare]

they cut off my tags on that thoreau post. i wrote like much more of a rant and tumblr didnt even tell me they were cuttin it before i pressed post

[that-bi-bitch-writes]

The Rumor Around Hogwarts (Ch.2)

Chapter Two: Goodbye Old....

Male reader insert for now, future addition of they pronouns as it will lean more towards a non-binary insert with the only change being less reference to Y/N as a young boy and more gender neutral terms. Still masc/male aligned.

Previous // Next

(Your POV)

Your mother is….. A little eccentric. And if you’ll recall, notoriously late. So when you actually took the time to read over your letter you took notes of dates and times. The first one was September 1st, the start of term. Your mother most likely would not let you miss the start of term, or the train to Hogwarts, well actually she might, but she would most definitely forget to take you to Diagon Alley until last minute. Like the time when you were in muggle schooling and had to show up with parchment, quills and ink and not notebooks and pens. Luckily that was easy to explain away (far easier than the whole being a mind-reading legilimens with an extraordinary power that you hid from everyone including your mother). The experience made you decide it was better for everyone if you were the one to keep track of dates and times as well as keeping spare materials on you at all times (thank god for your recent discovery of magic it was hard carrying so much around at once).

You were not popular in muggle school. It was weird enough that you came to school with strange things like parchment paper, ink, quills, and weird animals like snow owls that flocked to you. But you also talked about living in a giant house that you could never invite your friends to. That was really suspicious. Because you were such an odd person people were kind of interested in you. You were like the perfect example of “weird isn’t always bad”. Interest did not mean people wanted to be your friend. They kind of just checked in on you like a show you watch out of boredom and not because you like it.

Your oddity did gain you one friend. He was weird too. But the type of weird that gets sidelined or shunned. He was lanky and had dark skin and feminine features. In a country full of white kids you could see how he was treated like an outsider. To you he was absolutely beautiful, a little too pretty to be considered handsome. But you were drawn in by his sociable personality and it felt a little bit like fate, the two of you meeting. You befriended each other over a riddle. You’d answered correctly even though he wasn’t speaking to you and his eyes lit up. Honestly you’d miss Dante. Maybe you could tell him about wizards and finally invite him over your house during breaks. He could be trusted. Right?

 (Harry POV)

“I’m a what?”

“A wizard, o’ course,” said Hagrid before sitting on the sofa. It groaned and sank lower, “an’ a thumpin’ good’un I’d say, once yeh’ve been trained up a bit. With a mum an’ dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An’ I reckon it’s abou’ time yeh read yer letter.”

I reached out my hand to take the envelope addressed to me in emerald green. I’d never had a letter addressed to me; it was a new experience. But what was more insane is the precise address on it. I’m not absolutely convinced about me being a wizard but if there was one way to make sure this letter got to me no matter what, it was magic. 

After reading the letter, questions exploded in my head. Especially about the boy in the zoo. If wizards truly did exist was he one of them? He said he’d keep my secret when the snake got out almost as if he’d known I did it. What if he did know. Will I get to see him again? I don’t know much about him but besides Hagrid no one had really been as kind to me. Despite all the questions about the boy flying around in my head, I wanted to keep him secret. 

“What does it mean, they await my owl?” I asked instead. Hagrid opened his mouth as if he intended to respond but instead cursed? and pulled out a ruffled looking owl, wrote a letter and gave it to the owl, throwing it out into the storm like it was normal. Uncle Vernon, ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the fire-light and said “he’s not going”

I was pretty convinced magic existed but the final nail in the coffin was the dursley’s refusal of me attending Hogwarts.Not only did Uncle Vernon hate anything abnormal, but he openly despised anything that would be good for me.

“I’d like ter see a great muggle like you stop him” Hagrid grunted

“A what?” I said interested 

“A muggle.” said Hagrid “ it's what we call nonmagic folk like them. An’ it’s your bad luck you grew up in a family o’ the biggest muggles I ever laid eyes on.”

“We swore when we took him in we’d put a stop to that rubbish” said Vernon “swore we’d stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!”

Hagrid’s fat comment flew over my head at the time because I was so confused and slightly angry by the events going on. “You knew? You knew I’m a -- a wizard?

“Knew!” shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly “Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that- that school- and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was - a freak! But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and LIly that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!”

She stopped ranting, looking like a weight was lifted off of her chest, took a breath and continued:

“Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you’d be just the same, just as strange, just as- as- abnormal- and then if you please she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!”

I felt myself go white. “Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!” Apparently that infuriated Hagrid because he started going on about me not knowing my own history. The anger washed away when I asked him to explain . Apparently my parents were close to Dumbledore and a dark wizard named Voldemort killed them and vanished after trying and failing to kill me. Thanks for the scar I guess.

Hagrid’s anger returned twice. Once when Uncle Vernon began demeaning me and my parents and the other time when he’d insulted Dumbledore. As I laid down to sleep, I was glad Hagrid was a friend. I wondered about the boy at the zoo, would he be a good friend to me too?

[kuonabnaq]

What is Wicca and how do you get started?

As Wicca stems from Paganism, it is closely linked to the belief that nature rules everything. However, the founder mixed in Eastern mysticism, Kabbalah and British legend as well as various esoteric traditions. The result is an intricate religion that is interpretation-based, you will often meet Wiccans who pick and choose what fits their needs and what they grew up with. For me personally, Wicca is a way to communicate my wishes and necessities to myself. The spells and prayers help to articulate what my body and mind are lacking in the moment. If you ask a Gardnerian Wiccan, that is probably different – Gardnerians are the most orthodox members of the community and follow the original traditions closely. The most basic principle is that everything exists in a duality – and all individuals do as well. Therefore, there's a dual deity manifesting in a male and a female avatar. Witches (a gender-neutral term) can choose to see them as not having a specific name or form, but there are those who honor Isis and Osiris, Hera and Zeus, or Apollo and Athena, to mention a few established pairings. Gardnerian witches receive the „true names“ of the God and Goddess after their initiation ceremony.

If you choose to practice the Wiccan religion in a community (sometimes called a coven), there is probably a High Priest or Priestess who will initiate you in a ceremony. After that, you will be at the lowest step of their degree system and with experience (studying the craft) and time gain ranks – that time is often referred to as the traditional „year and a day“ period. The initiation is seen as your rebirth to most covens, dedicating yourself to their deities is therefore something you will do for your whole life. Not being part of a coven is also accepted and common, and witches may choose to perform a ritual of self-dedication to pledge their loyalty to the path.

The word „witch“ already implies that magic is something very ingrained into Wiccan belief – and that's true. Magic is something that happens all the time, wherever we are. The difference is whether we add our intention or not. Magic isn't inherently supernatural, it's more about the natural energy. Looking at a candle or a bonfire is pretty soothing, because the controlled flames have calming energy. Watching a forest or a house burn down is upsetting, because that energy is out of control and often unleashed because someone had bad intentions or was neglectful of their environment. This is why rituals and spells are mostly performed inside a sacred circle: The circle is laid out intentionally, it harnesses any energy you may invoke and keeps outside energies at bay, allowing you to focus on what you want to work on. Anyone can work magic with a bit of practice, you don't need to belong to the priesthood for it.

Common tools to help you with focusing your intent are

the athame, a ritual dagger used to carve symbols into materials (also in the air, as it is seen as having energy as well)

a Book of Shadows

herbs (especially herbal wands that may be lit to create smoke)

crystals

Tarot cards

runes

coal

and candles.

Most Wiccans I know adhere to the Wiccan Rede, it's the closest thing the religion has to gospel – it's a set of rules that you choose to live by. Not everyone does, but especially the ones focusing on performing magic to change the world around them perform rituals according to the Law Of Threefold Return (also called the Rule Of Three): Whatever energy you put out into the world, whether positive or negative, will be returned to you three times as strongly. That's why people will often discourage using magic to harm others, it's going to bite you in the end.

If you choose to get started practicing this religion and find a coven, they will probably explain anything according to their rules, so it's best to follow their advice. If you want to be self-dedicated, though, I encourage you to start by looking up what a Book of Shadows is and what people have put in theirs. Books like these are used to document the witches' „year and a day“ journey. Anything related to the workings land there. It doesn't matter whether it's a cheap binder filled with print-outs and screenshots, or a giant tome handpainted and filled with your own secret language. What matters is that you document everything you've learned because all of our knowledge influences our behaviour and our opinions. Popular topics to put into your Book of Shadows include:

crystal types and their magical abilities

herbs and their use in medicine

the „wheel of the year“, a calendar for witches

moon phases

drawings of tools and tea leaf readings

sigil style studies

spell poems, chants and ritualistic words

aspects of the deities

the history of the religion/influencing religions

dream diaries or regular journals to keep track of their personal character development

ritual progress (especially important for charging rituals etc)

elemental correspondences

and many more, honestly.

Still interested in starting your journey of being a witch? Great, welcome to the wonderful world of weirdness! Your room is probably the place where you will spend a lot of time studying and also where you may keep your Book of Shadows, so it doesn't hurt to cleanse it. If you already know that you will perform all your magic in a different room, perform this ritual there.

To get you started, gather the following things:

a clear, round glass bowl (size doesn't matter)

white salt

a white candle and something to light it with

white paper

your favorite writing tool (ballpoint pen, pencil, marker, doesn't matter)

Fill the glass bowl with clean, cold water to about a third. Place it either in the middle of the room's floor or, if you want to contain your magic to a special table, in the middle of that. It should have as much clear space around it as possible, and if you cleanse a table, its surface should be empty.

Next, write out your intention on the paper: If you already know why you want to be a witch, you can write that down. If you feel excited, write that down. If you want to greet the deities, write that down as well. This is about cleansing your room of negative energy, so it's not the time to write down worries or doubts – those will have space in a later ritual, if you so wish.

Done writing? Great! Place your paper next to the bowl and get out the salt. In a clockwise movement and keeping the salt in your right hand, draw a circle around your bowl. It should be big enough to let you sit /stand in front of it, or if you cleanse a table, it should encompass the biggest possible area of the surface. Don't worry about special words right now, just focus your thoughts on keeping negative energy out of the circle and gathering positive energy inwards.

Now you're ready to light the candle. Once it's lit up, hold it over your water bowl and let it burn until the flame is completely still. Then, say this poem out loud, or in your mind: "Creature of wax - Creature of fire - Listen to me - Hear my desire - Cleanse this room - By the power of three - and blast away all negativity - With harm to none - So shall it be!"

Light the paper carefully, let it burn a little and then put it into the water bowl. Leave the candle to burn for at least an hour after that, to ensure that the light has cleansed every corner. If it's hard to hold it for that long, you can carefully place it next to the water bowl. Don't leave it burning alone, though, stay focused on the good energy that it emits.

After you're done, blow out the candle while thanking the fire's energy for cleansing the room. Next, remove the salt circle in counter-clockwise direction, if you can. The water should be thrown out either outside or down the drain, as it has absorbed negativity – you asked fire to bring positivity and the natural opposite, water, has taken on the opposite task. Take out the soggy paper before throwing the water out to protect the environment!

[cryptidofthekeys]

All the writer asks!!!!!!

I’ve already answered the pen n paper one so I’ll leave that one out and answer the rest haha

ink: what do you do to “set the mood” when writing?

hmmm… well to usually set the mood would depend on the type of story I’m writing, if its horror/really angsty shit then I’m definitely going for dark themed music, if its something fluffy n cute- then im gonna go for some really happy upbeat music, so to set the mood- it’d usually depend on the genre

diary: how many pieces have you written that are just for you or will never see the light of day?

……Shhh… Let’s keep those my dirty little secret… (their not nsfw, thats not what I mean by that just to clarify)

journal: do you ever write just so you can enjoy something to read?

Hmm I guess I’ve done it once or twice before, but I dont do it too often-

novella: do you prefer to write short stories, one-shots, or entire novels?

I don’t think I’ve even came CLOSE to an entire novel but, I do a lot of short-stories and ESPECIALLY one-shots, im not very good at chapter based stories or anything

pulitzer: tell about/link a piece where you felt your writing was the best.

Ooooh fuck this is a tough one, Im too lazy to link it but- in my Yan!Henrik story there were some parts I ABSOLUTELY loved and felt were p damn good and in the werewolf story I wrote as well, some good parts in there too, but I definitely feel more fond over some of the scenes in the Yan!Hen story than any other one

genre: what genre do you prefer to write in?

Honestly, I’m pretty open to genres, like- fantasy, science-fiction, etc- the whole shabang- im not too picky bout any of them-

narrator: what pov do you like writing in best?

hmmm I guess like- wouldnt it technically be in third person with the way I write, for the reader its always You and or they, I always keep a story gender-neutral so that way all readers can be who they want to be in the stories, it can give them a better chance to imagine themselves in said position, now if i got a specific thing to do, male, female, non-binary, etc- then yeah I’d do that

backstory: how did you come to love writing?

That’s a- actually kinda simple tbh- its not an interesting story- At first I was actually unsure about it, but then- the more I wrote, the more I got super into it-  It was just… super fun to me after I did it for awhile

time-lapse: how long have you been writing (as a hobby or for work)?

It’s a hobby for now, but I do wish I could open commissions- but hmm its been like, maybe 5-6 years by now, maybe even a bit longer

characterization: describe your favorite character(s) you’ve written.

You should know this for sure haha, my favorite characters to write with tho- I’ll just say who they are, all the septic egos p much except… im still not too confident with writing Angus yet, some of the Iplier egos, like the Jims, Harold, and Eric, and I’m trying to branch out to other fandoms, I like writing with David n Daniel, from the cc fandom, and I’m trying to work on Dream Daddy characters too, Joseph, Robert, Mary, etc- and then my own characters too- I dont write wiht them often but I try

carnegie: what authors and/or books/stories have inspired you to write or influenced your work?

hmmm… I get inspired fairly easily so it’d be hard for me to name anything like that off the top of my head tbh

faulkner: what tropes do you LOVE writing? which ones are your guilty pleasure?

…. Why not ALL the tropes? …okay maybe not ALL of them

o’connor: what tropes/genres do you dislike writing?

Eh, im a p open person to tropes/genres- I mean unless like a trope could count as in, like- “it was all a dream” or “you were the killer all along” or some shit like that, then that type of shit isnt REALLY my cup of tea

dickinson: what insecurities do you have about your own writing? what do you think you should improve on?

There’s a lotta things I think I could improve on, honestly… I think, its not a matter of insecurity really, more so like- no matter who you are, there’s always room for improvements, I think we all improve on things every day, writing, drawing, roleplaying, even simple things- after all, there’s nowhere to really go except forward in life, so I just tend to go with my own flow, and if I improve than I’m happy with that, if I dont? Welp, that just means I still have a bit to go-

playlist: what kind of music/songs help you write? do you have a writing playlist?

oh god I w i s h I was organized enough to fucking- have a writing playlist ashdjshfdsj, it just depends on my mood- sometimes I get distracted by songs tho-

record: have you written things based off of songs? do you like to?

…I wrote one, its a really old one and im not too proud of it, but, people like it apparently so I keep it up since it seems to make em happy and thats what matters in that regard, but nah im not BIG on writing things based off songs

nobel: have you published anything you’ve written? online or irl?

Hmmm not yet, I don’t think I’m ready to physically publish my stories or anything, although my dad does encourage it, he tells me I should find a publisher or whatever and publish some stories (it wouldnt be ones with like- characters from things like camp camp, dream daddy, etc of course- it’d be ones with my own characters)

notepad: can you write anywhere or do you have to be in a specific place and mood to write?

D e f i n i t e l y a specific place and mood, my mood’s totally off and wrong right now and its frustrating bc im trying to write but the body and brain is like no motherfucker, be in pain and hate me more than you already do

parchment: how often do you or your personal life influence your writing?

I dont… know if ANY of my personal life has… influenced my writing? not that I know of anyways

dedication: if you were to publish a book or multiple, who would you dedicate the book(s) to?

I think… I dont know who I’d dedicate the books too or anything-

trope: what’s a pet peeve you have about writing?

…honestly? The one pet peeve I, myself, have with writing is the I/Me POV- now of course its fine if others use it, it could be easier to them, or they simply like it a lot, but I myself, just- cant fucking s t a n d that type of pov

input: what’s something you hate that people say to you about writing/your writing?

Okay- I need to be honest here, bc I get a lot of them, when I constantly state that I only do one shots and not chapter stories but the whole “pls continue” “another part to this please” “Do more of this” that doesnt really make me wanna do more, it makes me wanna move on actually from any of that, like im not about that plz continue, do more!!! type of comments

critic: what’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received about writing?

Oh god I’ve received TONS of good advice from people, especially when it comes to some of the German I use for Henrik, I will admit… I’ve been severely slacking with learning my German, and I…. I deeply regret it tbh, but- I never mind and am actually grateful when someone corrects me when using a word incorrectly in a sentence or whatever

mifflin: what do you feel is your strong suit in writing?

A n g s t

houghton: what’s something you love that people compliment your pieces on?

I love all compliments tbh, I especially love comments on my angst like NO HOW DARE YOU OP, or OP wha t the f uck- my  he a r t, or anything like that- …im a sadistic lil gremlin arent I? I love breakin hearts with angst, but like any compliments I receive on my stories are all greatly appreciated, I just most of the time I dont have the time to respond to them, BUT- I do read em, every last one of em-

[hermanwatts]

Sensor Sweep: Hellboy, Andre Norton, Clive Cussler

D&D (Jon Mollison): fter nearly forty years of tabletop gaming, it can get a little hard to recapture the fresh weirdness of Gygaxian fantasy.  Particularly true in this day and age when the majority of D&D creatives believe that the height of creativity is something along the lines of, “just like before, only WOMEN!” or “just like half-orcs, but half-demons/half-dragons/half-drow/half-kitchen-sink”.  So it was with some relish that a friend pointed out What Happened at Wyvern Rock.

Genre Ponderings (Wasteland & Sky): Not too long ago I wrote a review of two different adventure books. This was done to emphasize the small ways men’s adventure stories had changed over the years. The first was a Dirty Harry-inspired ’70s romp that leaned on hopelessness for drama, and the other was a post-apocalyptic trek where misery lurked under the surface as an inescapable reality. The creeping doom had been slowly consuming adventure fiction for a while.

RPG (Hackslash Master): Fantastic creatures are stories and manifestations of ideas we have that represent our concerns or fears. I will list a few to illustrate my point. Werewolves are about fears of alcoholic behavior, giants are about our experiences of adults and our fears of them as children. a lich is a monster who denies your ability to achieve autonomy over your life, because the men before you refuse to die and make way for their children, vampires represent our fears and concerns over rape and death, zombies represent our fears of rampant consumerism and a loss of identity.

Writers (Karavansara): Clive Cussler was a man that wrote book about sea adventure, and used the proceeds to have real-life sea adventures – and to collect classic cars. He projected a certain joy de vivre that made me like him even when I staggered to finish Valhalla on the third attempt. And later I found out I liked his other series much better – and I absolutely loved his memoirs about treasure hunting and relic salvaging.

Fiction (DMR Books): As it so happens, Mr. Powers’ first novel in 1976 was a planetary swashbuckler titled The Skies Discrowned. He hammered it out for Laser Books and got his first paycheck as an author. Tim quit his job at the pizza joint and has never worked a “real job” since. The Skies Discrowned is solid, but it does show the marks of being a first novel and of being written in some haste. Here’s Tim remembering the writing of that novel.

Fiction (Dark Worlds Quarterly): A girl is killed on the links of Harrison, NJ’s finest country club, her body covered in scratches and her head battered to a ruin. De Grandin and Trowbridge examine the body as well as several others, a boy who claims he was also attacked–by a gorilla in a tuxedo, and a young man named Manly who has a bullet wound in his shoulder. De Grandin puts all the pieces together when he connects the events with an escape lunatic, Beneckendorff, who had turned children into ape-like monsters during the War.

Horror Fiction (MarzAat): “The Horror-Horn”, E. F. Benson, 1922. The story opens with the narrator on winter holiday at Swiss mountain resort near Mt. Alhubel. (This may or may not be a real place – I definitely see a Mt. Alphhubel in Switzerland but no Alhubel in a web search). He is there with his cousin Professor Ingram, an expert in physiology and a mountain climber.  In an English newspaper, Ingram reads a report about the yeti (though that name is not used).

New Release (John C. Wright): Colonel Preston Lost didn’t think of himself as reckless. He believed in preparation, proper equipment, and patience in stalking the prey. But, in reality, he was not a cautious man. Having followed a spaceship into the black storm clouds above the Bermuda Triangle, he flew through a time portal to the end of days, and crash-landed on Pangaea Ultima with few supplies and no way of returning home. Lost is a man of many talents, though, and anything should be possible for him. Having found himself in a world at war, he decides to embark on a journey to set things right.

RPG (Monsters & Manuals): Neutral Evil is the easiest to explain in this way. Here is a character who has no interest in the furtherance of anything beyond himself, and especially not in the grand conflict between Law and Chaos which permeates the multiverse. He is completely self-centred and devoted to his own pleasure and success. That this can turn to evil is obvious. The more difficult questions are where Lawful Neutrality and Chaotic Neutrality turn to evil. Lawful Neutrality – the absolute insistence on the letter of the law and the preservation of order – can clearly have negative consequences where it results in harsh or unmerciful application.

Appendix N (Brain Leakage): But I think after reading cavegirl’s post, I have what I’d call my “5-Minute Knife Fight” version of Appendix N: pre-supposing a brand new player—one who has no prior knowledge or experience of D&D, fantasy, or roleplaying games—what three books would I give him to teach him about D&D’s underlying concepts to help him understand and run a game quickly?

Fiction (Goodman Games): Born as Alice Mary Norton in 1912, Norton started writing while she was still in high school in Cleveland, Ohio. In fact, she completed her first novel while still attending high school, though it was not published until later in 1938. Wishing to pursue writing as a career, in 1934 she had her name legally changed to Andre Alice Norton, and adopted several male-sounding pen names so as to prevent her gender from becoming an obstacle to sales in the first market she wrote for: young boys literature.

Art (DMR Books): Frazetta had been approached by George Lucas to do concept art for Star Wars. Frank, who made several house payments by way of his movie posters for Hollywood in the the early ‘60s, wanted the same deal he was getting from every other client by the mid-’70s: creative freedom and ownership of the originals. Lucas wouldn’t go for it. His loss. The producers of Battlestar Galactica were more accommodating. As Frank put it in 2001.

Fiction (Patheos): This is why we invited science fiction and fantasy legend Tim Powers to be one of our keynote speakers at Trying to Say God. Powers has won the World Fantasy Award twice for his novels Declare and Last Call. Disney optioned his book On Stranger Tides for a Pirates of the Caribbean movie. (I recommend you skip the movie and read the book.) His novel The Anubis Gates is one of the seminal works of the sub-genre now known as “steampunk,” sci-fi narratives marked by the use of 19th century fashion and technology–steam power–in anachronistic settings. Along with K.W. Jeter and James Blaylock, Powers is considered one of Steampunk’s founding fathers.

Fiction (Rough Edges): You won’t find a better examination of the genre than Fred Blosser’s new book SONS OF RINGO: THE GREAT SPAGHETTI WESTERN HEROES. Blosser knows these movies very well and probably has seen more of them than anyone else I know, and he writes about them extremely well, discussing the actors, writers, and directors who made them and tracing the evolution of the genre over the years of its popularity. What you get is a very readable volume that’s both informative and entertaining.

Comic Books (Inverse.com): If you’re a comic book writer working today, the ultimate goal is to see your creations brought to life in a big-budget movie with celebrities in skin-tight leather suits

Mike Mignola has lived that dream. The prolific artist and writer created Hellboy in 1993 for Dark Horse Comics (DC passed on his pitch) and has since spawned an entire “Mignolaverse” of connected superheroes and villains, along with three movies (two from Guillermo del Toro starring Ron Perlman and a third featuring David Harbour as the Hell-spawned anti-hero) plus multiple animated films, video games, and even a reference on The Simpsons.

Sensor Sweep: Hellboy, Andre Norton, Clive Cussler published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/