#right back where we started from

[soloorganaas]

7 Up

tagged by @pinklume @anemicc-royalty and @msalexwp (this was indeed how I spent half my flight 😏) and also @tracingpatternswrites and @messrsage for a snippet game. ty for all the love 🥹💗💕

“Professor Black - did you know Professor Lupin’s patronus is a dog that looks just like you?”

Sirius’s chest clenched so hard he couldn’t breathe.

“I did not, no,” he choked out after a second.

The class was quiet, watching him oddly, except for one girl in the middle row who had a disconcertingly curious expression on her face. She nudged her friend and turned to whisper something in her ear.

“Dogs are quite common patronuses,” Sirius told the class, readjusting the papers on Remus’s desk.

“Professor Black?”

Sirius looked up to see the girl in the middle row now had her hand raised.

“Yes - Sienna, I think?”

“Mmhmm. Professor, are wolves common patronuses too?”

Her large, brown eyes fixed on Sirius’s with a knowing intensity that made him want to run from the room.

“Probably not,” he said eventually.

tagging @blitheringmcgonagall @tahtahfornow @kaymardsa @meli-mess

[howifeltabouthim]

Then we would find ourselves again and speak to each other in the old way, and there were hours of happiness.

Siri Hustvedt, from The Blindfold

[stonerbughead]

right back where we started from (a bugvarchie o.c. au)

chapter four: cotillion

“Will you be my escort, Jones?” Betty says, letting her voice take on an air of friendliness. “I promise I’m a fun date.”

Jughead’s entire face lights up, and she knows she doesn’t imagine it. It makes something stir deep in her stomach, but she tamps it down. 

“It would be my pleasure, Betty,” Jughead finally stammers out.

“Great,” Betty says, smiling and unsure what to say next. 

Perhaps inspired by Betty’s bravado, a kind junior named Ethel Muggs boldly steps up beside Betty, her hand outstretched toward Archie, as she says, “Will you take me to the cotillion?”

Archie’s eyes soften with some mixture of amusement and surprise and he kindly answers, “Of course. I’m Archie.”

“Ethel,” she says, coming to stand beside him. “You’re from Chino, right?”

Betty exchanges a smile with Jughead. “I better get back to Veronica,” she says. “But we’ll talk more later.”

“O-okay,” Jughead says, grinning sheepishly.  Elated, Betty is at first surprised when she returns to Veronica to find her glaring across the room. Until she follows Veronica’s eyeline to reveal Archie and Ethel, laughing, with Ethel’s hand resting innocently on the crook of Archie’s arm. Ah.

read now on AO3 or start from the beginning.

suggested listening: music from the o.c. mix 2

[singles-bar]

[aboutoriginality]

Maxine Nightingale - Right Back Where We Started From • TopPop

[pepsinister]

btw the other day I found out that a certain all-time great disco song heavily sampled its instrumentals + borrowed a lot of its melody from this obscure northern soul track

I think the source song is really good everybody should give it a listen

[lab-gr0wn-lambs]

I'm not sure if I'll have time to actually draw this before the next episode comes out but I honestly enjoy it just in its raw form

I've also accidentally made the walkers the most charming little creatures

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

Not sure if this theory makes any sense at all but I'm starting to believe that there's no time skip between Wally's phone calls and what we see/hear in the show's Media/Merchandise. If we see the Toyland call being made before the Homewarming episode then it would make sense that Wally's expecting Barnaby to come over soon. As well as the Homewarming sketch from the prior update. (I don't know, still kind of brainstorming this perspective)

that theory Does make sense and i've been considering it! the "timeline" is such a nebulous thing right now because we still... don't really know! there are too many variables and too many Maybes for any solid answer.

maybe the reality that the neighbors live in exists outside of time like you say, and like half of me suspects. there's so much reality fuckery already present, but I'm also... unsure of how much merit this holds given what we know / can infer about how time passes in Home. i'm putting this theory on a low shelf to look at but not prioritize

maybe it really has been 50 years, and Barnaby is either still around / Wally is still in contact with him, or Barnaby... isn't there. who knows, maybe Wally was just verbalizing some Wishful Thinking. i mean, Wally is a bit of an unreliable narrator, isn't he? we can't assume that everything he says is entirely accurate or truthful. and i mean, if it's been 50 years it makes sense that Wally would be pushing for connection / to revive WH. who knows how long he's been trying.

hm... i mean. it could be a mix of that and the Outside Of Time theory. who knows, maybe W is receiving calls from different points in the timeline - Wally may have started out just calling, and has just graduated to invading the WH website / getting pushy with the envelopes and media that's been sent to the WHRP. maybe Wally got tired of waiting for W to respond before W was even born. who's to say!

[wangxianficrecs]

Follower Recs

~*~

hello! I’d like to rec this story; it’s a beautiful modern fic about opening up after feeling like you’ve been in the dark for a long time…beautiful prose, and that hallmark of Wangxian, miscommunication…and part 1 of a series! -Anon

🔒 California Here We Come (Right Back Where We Started From)

by LizzyPanic (@lizzypanic)

M, 23k, Wangxian

Summary: Lan Xichen's decision to transfer Lan Zhan to San Diego to open their new company offices is an act of betrayal. When he says as much, if much less dramatically, Lan Xichen smiles very indulgently. “I’m not doing this to ruin your life. In fact, I suspect it might improve it.” --- In which Lan Wangji is transferred to Lan Real Estate Company's SoCal offices and Wei Wuxian is living that van life, and they meet again for the first time in a long time, and maybe it feels a little like fate.

~*~

(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for this hard-working author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

[love-toxin]

me? consuming media i had long left behind within my grungy adolescent self in an attempt to finally feel something again? in my me?

[soloorganaas]

Tuesday Treat

thank you to my lovely @tracingpatternswrites for the tag 💕 no pressure tags in return: @strugglequill @lynxindisguise @bythehearts @sliebman10 @elder-millennial-trash @kaymardsa

have a little something from chap 8 of right back where we started from

~

“Maybe if I’d been a better godfather, set a better example! Maybe if I’d given him more freedom! Maybe - ”

“SIRIUS!”

Sirius stopped dead, breathing a little heavily.

“You’re spiralling. And that’s not going to help you or Harry.”

Sirius clenched his jaw but then nodded, slumping back against the sideboard with a despondent sigh.

“Don’t do this to yourself,” Remus said softly.

“I just…” Sirius pressed his fingers to his forehead. “If it’s not my fault, whose is it?”

“It’s nobody’s fault when teenagers act like teenagers. Short of imprisoning him at home… Well, actually,” Remus amended. “Look at how that turned out for your parents.”

Sirius huffed a dark laugh.

“Yeah, at least I’m doing better than them.”

“You are an incredible godfather.”

“Well he’s not an illegal animagus. I’d know that - we can tell.”

“Really?” Remus said, as he began walking towards him.

“Yeah, when you’re in close quarters. It’s a miracle I slipped that one past McGonagall.”

“Well, you were rarely in her classroom.”

Sirius laughed more fully. “Harry definitely attends all her classes. I think he’s a bit scared of her.”

“Do you think we scare any of our students?” Remus asked, as he slid his hands down Sirius’s arms.

“I like to think I have a mysterious and intimidating aura,” Sirius replied, tangling their fingers together. Remus smirked teasingly. “You know half my students have a crush on you?”

“What?”

“They’re enamored. They never stop talking about your classes and begging me to invite you to mine again.”

Remus chuckled awkwardly.

“Can’t say I blame them,” grinned Sirius, nudging him flirtily. “I would definitely have had a crush if you were my professor.”

“Oh don’t start.”

“Professor Lupin.”

“You’re an absolute menace.”

Sirius laughed mischievously, then his expression settled into something softer.

“Moony, I….”

Remus held his breath. There was a long pause, then Sirius pressed his lips together and swallowed hard.

“I’m really glad you’re here.”

Remus just smiled and squeezed his hand.

[howifeltabouthim]

She was consumed with an intense desire to turn back the clock to the way things had been . . . and to win him over with her virtuous and all-consuming love, the way her book heroines always did. But it gave her a start to realize that she had once again slipped into thinking of herself as a heroine in a novel. Had her mind been addled by romance to the extent that she was willing to risk her life over an absurd and wildly unrealistic hope?

Anna Biller, from Bluebeard's Castle

[stonerbughead]

exactly what I’ve been sayin’ (source)

read my bugvarchie O.C. AU, in which O.C. mixes are always the suggested listening

[isfjmel-phleg]

🥜

[hella1975]

wondering why old ladies aren’t smiling at me around town as much this morning then remember im wearing hoops and a puffer jacket and generally look like a bitchy year 9 girl who’s about to punch someone

[sage-nebula]

Martha didn't get a Tennant Doctor because she didn't want a Tennant Doctor. Martha was the only one of RTD's companions who left the Doctor of her own volition, and only ever called him back on her own terms, when she had need of him.

Rose didn't leave the Doctor willingly. Rose was trapped in an alternate universe because it was either that or be stuck in a void with Daleks and Cybermen for the rest of time. And when she returned (primarily to warn the Doctor about the oncoming darkness caused by Davros but also because she wanted to be with him), she left with the Metacrisis Tenth Doctor and their own TARDIS because that was the only way to give her a satisfying ending from the viewpoint of the audience. (And even then, there are some fans who will tell you that nothing short of her being with the Time Lord Doctor in the prime reality is satisfying, but that just couldn't happen for reasons outside the narrative story.)

Donna didn't leave the Doctor willingly. Donna absorbed all of the intelligence of a Time Lord into her human brain, and this was going to kill her. She had to have her memory erased and be kept away from anything alien for presumably forever or else the knowledge would return and literally kill her. Donna begged the Doctor not to wipe her memory anyway, because she would rather have died than give up that life. Just like Rose, Donna had planned on staying with the Doctor for the rest of her life.

This was not the case for Martha. Setting aside the fact that Martha was treated like garbage for the duration of her season from a writing standpoint, by the end of season three Martha has realized two things: 1.) that she is goddamn brilliant and never deserved to feel like she was second best, and 2.) that she doesn't want the Doctor anymore. Unlike Rose, Donna, and Captain Jack, Martha leaves the TARDIS of her own free will, to pursue her own life and career outside the Doctor. Even Sarah-Jane says in "School Reunion" that she waited for the Doctor to come back for her; she didn't want to leave, not permanently! But Martha did. She chose to step away. The only other companion to have done this during RTD's run is Mickey, so I guess Martha wasn't the only one; still, she's the only one of the primary companions, the three women, to want to leave. She made that choice herself.

Now, does that mean everything about Martha's ending was perfect? No. As much as the "Smith and Jones" wordplay of her ending with Mickey is amusing (get it, like her first episode), it makes no sense when you consider that she was engaged when she returned in season four, and yet we never hear of that fiance again. I mean, I guess it's fine since it's not like we ever saw him? But what happened there? Why was no thought given to Martha's story there? What was she doing with Mickey in an active war zone? Why no mention of her in these three specials even though, last we heard of her, she was working with UNIT in a really important position? I like Mel well enough, but why couldn't Martha have been there instead? Especially since Martha and Donna had a preexisting friendship, and would have been delighted to see each other again?

With that said though, she doesn't need a Tennant Doctor. She didn't want a Tennant Doctor. Frankly, Tennant's Doctor doesn't deserve her with the way he acted ("Rose would know" right to her face, like -- dude, I get it, you're grieving, but that's fucking rude and Rose would NOT approve you using her memory to make another woman feel bad about herself). Martha's character arc was about recognizing her own brilliance and her own worth; standing on her own two feet as a PROPER doctor, Doctor Martha Jones, walking the earth and saving the world without a TARDIS or Torchwood or a Time Lord brain. Just her own fucking determination and brilliance.

Rose and Donna got Tennant Doctors because that was the way to make their final send-offs satisfying. Rose and a Tennant Doctor got to be in love and happy together in a parallel world, which is fitting considering that they were in love and never wanted to leave each other. Donna and a Tennant Doctor get to be besties and happy together in this reality, so that RTD has a convenient excuse to pull Tennant back into a story if he ever wants to again (since it'd be hard to explain why Tentoo came over, versus having Fourteen right there) . . . but also because, like Rose, Donna never wanted to leave the Doctor, she wanted to be with him forever.

But Martha didn't want that. Martha left on her own accord. She left with a smile on her face and her cell phone on the TARDIS console, so that when she said "here boy!" the Doctor would listen. She left on her terms, with him at her call, only there when she has use for him.

And honestly? Good for her.