#the struggles of being poor

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Ron needs better friends: Prefect badge scene

“No way,” said George in a hushed voice. “There’s been a mistake,” said Fred, snatching the letter out of Ron’s grasp and holding it up to the light as though checking for a watermark. “No one in their right mind would make Ron a prefect. . . .” The twins’ heads turned in unison and both of them stared at Harry.

Honestly, am I the only one who is sick and tired of these twins favouring Harry over their brother? Poor Ron. His first major accomplishment and everyone makes it about Harry. And Ron antis are mad over him being jealous. Smh.

“We thought you were a cert!” said Fred in a tone that suggested Harry had tricked them in some way. “We thought Dumbledore was bound to pick you!” said George indignantly.

So...Dumbledore was involved in picking Draco and Pansy as prefects... 😏😏

If Draco and Pansy were able to make prefect, then they did so fair and square. These two could never bribe Dumbledore. Or the Doylist idea: Draco and Pansy were the most developed Slytherin pair so JKR made them prefects.

He strode over to Harry and clapped him on the back while giving Ron a scathing look. “Prefect . . . ickle Ronnie the prefect . . .”

Part of me feels sorry for the twins. I know they are lashing out at Ron because they feel some kind of jealousy and insecurity for not making their parents proud like their brothers. But screw them anyway!

“I knew it!” she said excitedly, brandishing her letter. “Me too, Harry, me too!” “No,” said Harry quickly, pushing the badge back into Ron’s hand. “It’s Ron, not me.” “It — what?” “Ron’s prefect, not me,” Harry said. “Ron?” said Hermione, her jaw dropping. “But . . . are you sure? I mean —” She turned red as Ron looked around at her with a defiant expression on his face. “It’s my name on the letter,” he said. “I . . .” said Hermione, looking thoroughly bewildered. “I . . . well. . . wow! Well done, Ron! That’s really —”

Can you feel the love tonight ~~ Not! Romione sucks. Friendship and romance.

“Match his what?” said Mrs. Weasley absently, rolling up a pair of maroon socks and placing them on Ron’s pile. “His badge,” said Fred, with the air of getting the worst over quickly. “His lovely shiny new prefect’s badge.” Fred’s words took a moment to penetrate Mrs. Weasley’s preoccupation about pajamas. “His . . . but . . . Ron, you’re not. . . ?” Ron held up his badge. Mrs. Weasley let out a shriek just like Hermione’s. “I don’t believe it! I don’t believe it! Oh, Ron, how wonderful! A prefect! That’s everyone in the family!”

Of course, Molly starts the scene by disregarding Ron's preferences with the maroon socks. But finally! Someone is happy for Ron! Neither Harry nor Hermione has yet to give Ron a heartfelt congratulations!!!!! What amazing friends!

Gosh, still feeling sad for the twins...

She let go of him and said breathlessly, “Well, what will it be? We gave Percy an owl, but you’ve already got one, of course.” “W-what do you mean?” said Ron, looking as though he did not dare believe his ears. “You’ve got to have a reward for this!” said Mrs. Weasley fondly. “How about a nice new set of dress robes?” “We’ve already bought him some,” said Fred sourly, who looked as though he sincerely regretted this generosity. “Or a new cauldron, Charlie’s old one’s rusting through, or a new rat, you always liked Scabbers —” “Mum,” said Ron hopefully, “can I have a new broom?” Mrs. Weasley’s face fell slightly; broomsticks were expensive. “Not a really good one!” Ron hastened to add. “Just — just a new one for a change . . .” Mrs. Weasley hesitated, then smiled. “Of course you can. . . . Well, I’d better get going if I’ve got a broom to buy too. I’ll see you all later. . . . Little Ronnie, a prefect! And don’t forget to pack your trunks. . . . A prefect . . . Oh, I’m all of a dither!”

This part made me feel so sad. I can almost feel my eyes getting wet. Ron is not used to getting new things or being asked what he wants. It's only when he does something special that he earns the privilege of his parents making the sacrifice. Even how he asks for a new broom - not a good one but just a new one for a change - is so heartwrenching. I know the feeling. I grew up relatively poor. I never got gifts often. And unlike Ron, when my parents promised to reward me for my high achievements, they rarely followed through. It hurt so much. Even now, I struggle to buy things for myself as a working woman. I feel sorry for the twins too. I'll be honest: seeing people who are financially struggling have large families somewhat disgusts me. Never going to be me. Two max. Having too many kids has to be a form of mild abuse!

“I don’t think they are,” said Ron doubtfully, also looking up at the ceiling. “They’ve always said only prats become prefects. . . . Still,” he added on a happier note, “they’ve never had new brooms! I wish I could go with Mum and choose. . . . She’ll never be able to afford a Nimbus, but there’s the new Cleansweep out, that’d be great. . . . Yeah, I think I’ll go and tell her I like the Cleansweep, just so she knows. . . .”

Was he, Harry, Ron’s best friend in the world, going to sulk because he didn’t have a badge, laugh with the twins behind Ron’s back, ruin this for Ron when, for the first time, he had beaten Harry at something?

You know, I wonder if people see the fake humility I am seeing? Harry is so full of himself. Give me a break! It's things like this that make me hate Harry's character.

“Cool,” Harry said, and he was relieved to hear that his voice had stopped sounding hearty. “Listen — Ron — well done, mate.” The smile faded off Ron’s face. “I never thought it would be me!” he said, shaking his head, “I thought it would be you!”

This reminds of me of a time in highschool where this girl beat me in a science test about the food chain. I was used to getting the highest grades and when I saw she beat me, I remember saying, "Congrats" with as much fake cheer I could. I remember how uncomfortable she looked. When I told my parents about it later, my dad said I should have made a joke so I did not sound so bitter.

So now here, Ron has to downplay himself to make his best friend feel better. The best friend who should be clapping his back and sharing his joy. Ugh.

Ron doing all the emotional labour in this friendship.

Bonus from book 6 to prove my point:

“Only failed Divination and History of Magic, and who cares about them?” he said happily to Harry. “Here — swap —” Harry glanced down Ron’s grades: There were no “Outstandings” there. . . . “Knew you’d be top at Defense Against the Dark Arts,” said Ron, punching Harry on the shoulder. “We’ve done all right, haven’t we?”

The first thing Harry does in his head is find a way in which he is better than Ron. But look how Ron is happy for Harry despite his own failures. Too bad Horrid Harry couldn't muster up the same for his achievements. It's amusing how Ron haters constantly bash him for being a bad friend when Hermione and Harry are arguably worse friends to him so often.

Golden trio is the greatest friendship ever my butt.

[criesinspanishxp]

Thought I’d share a different angle of Diva Sam standing up to wave at all of us while he waited for Jacob to finish signing books

[skitskatdacat63]

2023 Qatar Grand Prix - Oscar getting in his floor time

[sunnibits]

loving reminder as someone who struggles with food: you are allowed to add joy to your food. you are allowed to add a little joy even if it’s a tiny thing, something silly or something weird. you are allowed to do it whenever you want, as many times as you want. anything that makes food easier and more enjoyable for you is worth it!! it’s your food, you can decide what to do with it!! you can add rainbow sprinkles to your ice cream. you can cut your food into little heart shapes. you can pack your snacks into cute little bento boxes. it is not pointless or childish, it is an effective and active coping tool that you are allowed to use.

give yourself a little joy. the little things add up.

[peachfruitcake]

did you hear about what Martin said about Susan and Linda on the Twitter space he hosted on the 27th? i thought of you instantly when he started talking about them and have been waiting for you to post your thoughts! :-)

HEHE YES IM THE ONE WHO’S QUESTION LED TO THAT!!!!!

Now for those who didn’t listen to that space, Martin said that Linda called her to say goodbye but never specified how it went of course. Besides “hey Susan I’m leaving sorry this is really impacting my mental health” “gaaaaaaaaaaey”/j

This is all a personal headcanon but I like to think that their friendship grew incredibly distant ever since Linda married Felix, Susan probably stopped talking to her altogether for a while and it would leave Linda very confused and upset. They might’ve started talking to eachother again a little bit as the series of events began to approach but only very brief small talk, maybe Linda complaining a little and giving Susan a few life updates and them both talking about stuff they’ve been noticing with others lately (especially Felix’s drinking), but nothing deeper than that.

I see Susan being extremely emotionally closed off to most people except maybe a select few that she knows very closely, so if you were to ask her what’s going on in her life she’d give you a very vaguely watered down version and not what’s actually going on or how she’s really managing herself emotionally.

So basically she used to be more open with Linda, but during that period she sort of just started treating her like a stranger.

So when Linda called her first to tell her that she’s finally leaving, Susan acted how she usually would, keeping it calm, understanding and respectful and wishing her luck, but she won’t really show any more than that. Or that she cried later and felt pretty bad that they couldn’t be so close anymore and that she’ll probably never be able to make up for herself acting so distant for the past many years again.

Of course this all comes from how I view Susan as a character myself though and also the fact that I refuse to pass up the idea that she has feelings for Linda. I like to think that she introduced her to Felix cuz Linda was getting more desperate to find a relationship and Susan was getting weird thoughts so in a panic she shoved her off to him so she could avoid the urges. They’ve been boiling within her since highschool and she always was able to push them aside or excuse them as “she’s just my very close friend I don’t have many close friends so she feels extra special” and as the years went by they began distracting her a lot from her work and were growing stronger and more unavoidable aaand they were really beginning to affect how she’d interact with Linda and you see Susan hates feeling like another has any control over her and Linda just wouldn’t shut up about hooooow badly she wants a relationship and hoooow many dates keep failing and Susan was at the point to where she was starting to get the kind of dreams that make you stare up at the ceiling in horror when you open your eyes in the morning so one day when she overheard Felix speaking about being single and wanting to start looking around, she decided to introduce her to him. Susan allegedly never finds a problem she can’t fix in some way so that was her solution.

They hit it off, Susan’s solution isn’t working for some reason cuz she doesn’t feel any relief at all and in fact feels worse but just sucks it up and just focuses on her work and looks the other way. Linda and Felix get married, Susan feels like throwing up the entire day and now feels somehow even more worse by now and suddenly whenever Linda wants to chat she’s suddenly always “busy” every time. Susan’s often busy anyways but you know yourself when there’s a difference between “shit I’m busy that day, let’s do Sunday instead” and “Sorry I can’t, I’m busy”, “I don’t know when I’ll be available.”

While Linda and Felix were dating, Susan probably assumed that she was just jealous that she couldn’t have a little fun at her age herself. When they got married, Susan told herself that she’s probably so depressed over it cuz it’s making her feel like she’s fallen behind others her age and that maybe she feels bitter that all of these people are moving on and going through these important life stages while she remains behind. Which made no sense otherwise cuz Susan couldn’t give any less of a fuck about starting any sort of family or going out. But that’s what Susan would tell herself that she feels so she wouldn’t have to think about it any further. By the time Susan thinks she’s over whatever it was, she begins having brief talks with Linda occasionally. Not often and still a bit distant, but way better than before.

So yeah can you imagine how shitty and guilty Susan felt that whole time of her weird bitterness toward Linda being in a relationship and not being able to approach her much anymore or how Felix turned out to be such a shitty husband.

If this headcanon is aligned with twf’s canon, she’d probably be dead before she even gets to actually acknowledge and accept her feelings as they are. Such is life though. Not like she could’ve done anything about it.

[ferahntics]

The smallest gestures can move mountains for someone.

[druidonity2]

You stumble across a sha with a unique appearance. It looks like it's struggling to keep it's original form. What do you do?

[aurevell]

Returning the Favor Sterek | 5k | T

Stiles pays a nighttime visit to his boyfriend in secret, or so he thinks. Unfortunately, the Hale family has keener ears than he realizes.

It’s late when Derek hears the noise at the side of the house. A creak of siding that cuts through the backdrop of cricket song. Just one lone sound, but there’s something cautious about it. Probing.

He lowers the book he’s reading, but no other sounds follow. Derek has been lying sprawled across his bed, drowsy and warm and comfortable, sweatpant-clad legs resting against the wall—but now that he’s conscious of the sound, his focus sharpening, he thinks he’s been hearing quiet noises grow nearer for some time without quite comprehending them. A wild animal outside, maybe, creeping slowly around the foundation of the house. Something large enough that the mulch in the flower bed crunches beneath its weight.

It’s not often that a solitary animal grows bold enough to venture this close to a werewolf pack—the scent always scares them off first. They don’t even get raccoons out here, especially not with the cold this time of year. It could always be their cousin Warren, who’s always thought it funny to startle his relatives with unexpected visits in the dead of night. Or any one of the nasty things in Uncle Peter’s wild stories, supernatural things that creep into the house come dark.

Derek glances at the window, book still resting on his chest, but the house is still.

Maybe it’s gone. That’s just as well: he’s too comfortable to drag himself over to the window to look.

And then another sound comes, an unmistakable creak. Heavy weight settling into place.

Downstairs, his mother sighs. “What was that?” she demands, her voice faint with distance. She and his dad are likely out on the porch swing at this time of evening, even though it’s nearly winter, lunatics that they are. “If Laura and Cora are at it again—”

“I’m sure they aren’t, Tal,” Derek’s father replies, sounding amused. “You put the fear of god in them.”

Mom scoffs. “If we have to repair another door, it’s coming out of their pockets.”

“Not everything is my fault, Mom,” Cora mutters pointedly from down the hall. There’s heavy metal coming from the vicinity of Laura’s bedroom, just low enough to be blasting from her headphones, and she doesn’t pipe up to defend herself.

The thing hasn’t gone away. Metal squeaks a moment later, and then the scrabbling returns, punctuated by a thump and a muffled grunt.

Annoyed, Derek tosses the book aside and clambers to his feet, crossing over to the window. When he hoists up the sash, letting the night chill waft in, he peers down into the dark and finds that the source is worse than anything he could have imagined.

It’s his boyfriend, scaling the side of the house like some deranged cat burglar.

Stiles is hanging onto the drainpipe, having managed to hoist himself several feet off the ground. He’s leaning against the metal awning over the kitchen window, one foot atop the shutter and the other scrabbling for purchase against the siding. At the clatter of Derek’s opening window, he looks up, startled, and nearly loses his balance.

“What are you doing here?” Derek hisses.

“Just returning the favor.” With a moment to catch himself against the awning, Stiles gets his bearing and grins. “What? Don’t make that face. C’mon, you can show up at all hours of the night, but turnabout isn’t fair play?”

With that, he sticks his tongue between his teeth, which he sometimes does unconsciously when something demands his full attention. And the perilous task of climbing should get his full attention, given how often he stumbles when both of his feet are on the ground. God, Derek is about to witness his idiot boyfriend fall to his death or something.

Stiles heaves himself mostly onto the awning, clawing for purchase with a grunt. When he reaches for the window, he loses his grip, nearly sliding backward onto the grass; in a flash of panic, Derek grabs him by his shirt and yanks him forward.

“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” he demands, aware of their volume and even more aware of their audience.

The awning rattles as Stiles draws up his long legs to slip inside the window feet first, ducking under the sash. He’s panting a little as he pulls himself upright, though he bats his eyes sweetly in the face of Derek’s scowl. “Oh, please. I knew you’d catch me. ‘My hero,’ and all that.”

“Should have let you fall and die,” Derek retorts, shutting the window.

“Probably. Oh man, that was so athletic. Sometimes, I amaze myself.”

Derek doesn’t have anything smart to say to that. He’s only half paying attention, too busy bracing for the discussion sure to follow.

He and Stiles may as well have stomped up and down the stairs blowing air horns as far as the rest of the house goes. Everyone will have heard. Derek is absolutely sure because you can hear a pin drop, like no one’s even moving, like everyone’s waiting with bated breath—either gleeful or judgmental or both—to hear what comes next. Even Laura’s deafening headphones have gone silent. Fuck.

Worst of all…Stiles doesn’t know any of this. He doesn’t yet know about the secret the Hale family hides, or how keenly they can hear, or that every word he says will be seized up and cheerfully dissected and gossiped about in real time.

Read the rest on AO3

[secret-whump-basement]

I honestly love whump involving drowning.

Maybe it’s just by accident. Whumpee was swimming too deep and got their arm or leg trapped in some rocks, and they have to choose between staying still as possible and saving oxygen or struggling to free themselves but losing air. Maybe their boat got wrecked in a storm and they’re trying to fight against the turbulent sea to reach the surface again, they break the surface and get one good gulp of air before they’re back under.

Or maybe there’s someone else involved. Whumpee might have their head held into water by someone else, even if it’s just in a bathtub, where struggling gets them shoved farther in. Or the classic “knock them out, tie a rock to them, and chuck them in the ocean” move.

Either way, I love it. The pure panic when their lungs and chest start burning, lightheaded mess and fading vision as they start needing air, frantic breaths when they finally surface. Perfect trope

[incorrect-ikevamp-quotes]

Leonardo: Now, the recipe calls for 2 shots of vodka.

Dazai: *upends the bottle*

[legislacerator]

i had a glass of red wine and can’t seem to stop myself from posting about this. ELLE WOODS GOING TO HARVARD ACTUALLY WASNT HARD BECAUSE SHE WAS RICH!!!!!! legally blonde isn’t a very thorough or meaningful takedown of law school and lawyering as a profession because elle woods was ultra rich and going to law school was never going to be that hard anyways. the only way in which elle’s harvard experience was subversive was that she was new money instead of old money. legally blonde is fun and not to sound overly Woke but i wish there was a new lawyer girl movie that everyone loved where the main character is like poor or non-white or trans or something that is an actual hindrance to becoming a lawyer 😔😔😔 it’s not like legally blonde is problematic. it doesn’t matter. it’s just funny to me

[quirkle2]

the angst in your zombie au bREAKS MY HEART INTO PIECES (I LOVE IT VERY MUCH)

okay, okay, so!! if the kagebros got separated from reigen and teru when mob is still fine, i imagine that their reunion would be hEARTWRENCHING also, i'm a bit curious, would mob still be able to recognize teru and reigen? or would he thought about them as strangers?

(tbh, following your lore, i imagine mob would act a similarly like nezuko from demon slayer? but instead of little hums, his zombie sounds would more like babbling and incoherent mumbles :"D)

the reunion is fuckin AWFUL man it's SO gut-wrenching. both reigen and teru feared this for Months while looking for the brothers; pretty much the worst case scenario was that mob or ritsu or Both turned—a lot of humans prefer death over being a zombie any day, so the idea of ritsu or mob having to go through that and wander around aimlessly until starvation or smth else gets them,,,

it hurts them so much to think about. teru forces himself not to dwell on it and he's pretty good at that but reigen thinks abt it a lot and he's honestly not sure what scenario is worse. best case is that they're both alive and unturned, obviously, but what's the worst case? you'd think it's both of them getting killed, or turning, but reigen also knows that if One of them got killed/turned, the other would probably lose their mind, especially if they had to watch. the fact that they're kids makes this all three times worse and reigen has to act like he's Not worrying himself sick over the brothers while he tries to keep teru in high spirits

the reunion itself is rly fuckin gut-wrenching for them. they see mob from afar, wandered off just a bit from ritsu and tome who are just around the bend looting a place, and they book it bc ofc they do, it's mob!! but then they see how pale he is, and when he turns around they don't see that light in his eyes that's usually there and the red is dulled and dead looking,, teru almost moves in for a hug before he realizes mob looks vastly different when he Rly takes him in, and mob doesn't rly react too much besides staring at them blankly. the obvious answer is almost too horrifying to even consider, so it takes them a minute to rly,,realize what's going on

tome comes around the bend and shouts, cuz when humans and zombies mix it's usually guns pointed at zombie heads. ritsu comes running out after her and when he sees reigen and teru his thoughts go, in order: holy shit is that reigen and tero ohmygod oh my god they're alive they're alive ohmy god i could fucking cry, and ohmy god they see shige ohno oh no oh no

ritsu sounds like a lunatic when he pulls mob away from them on instinct and says that he's safe to be around and that he's "still him" and he's "not gone" and he's very aware of that. he's very, intimately aware that he sounds fuckin crazy, bc ofc he does, this is what all the crazy people in zombie movies sound like. but he doesn't care, he doesn't care if reigen or teru dismiss him as nuts—he has to make them understand that his brother is still in there somewhere

and yeah, they both kinda think that ritsu's lost his marbles a little bit, but while teru is focused on that and the fact that mob doesn't look like he's rly tuned into Anything that's happening rn, reigen is a bit more focused on the fact that both ritsu and mob look awful? they're both very skinny and very dirty, obviously barely scraping by. they're cut up and ritsu's jacket is basically blood and dirt with a little bit of green fabric mixed in. and just by the look in ritsu's eyes, reigen can tell, man ... reigen can tell ritsu is like.not okay at this point he's kinda lost it.

i think the most painful thing about this whole reunion in general is that later that night, when reigen and teru r finally like ok we get it he's,, he's still mob. we believe you (they want to believe him... [they Do believe him, later, wholeheartedly]) and they settle down someplace safe, teru asks how long mob's been like this. and ritsu has to answer "since we got separated" and they both have that to stew over while everybody else sleeps

they realize that ritsu likely watched mob turn, watched the entire process, and that process takes a long time. it's at least a week of deteriorating motor functions and cognitive skill, and the fact that ritsu stayed for that to keep mob company is .ough. and it doesn't end there bc ritsu obviously stayed after that too

given how these things usually go, ritsu probably did think about killing mob. it probably did cross his mind, bc that's basically what everybody's been told to do. kill them before they have a chance to do any more damage. and it's obvious that ritsu did not have it in him

ritsu not only did not have it in him to kill him, he didn't even have it in him to leave him there. the kid fucking took him with him. a zombie. and he's somehow made it work, for months. and the next few days are filled with watching him still treat mob like a brother and take care of him and gently steer him away from a bird he tries to follow down the wrong street.ritsu is as gentle and kind as he's ever been with his brother. and even tho they're both hungry and tired and barely making it, ritsu is doing a rly good job taking care of mob with what he's been given

the kid obviously wholeheartedly believes in a cure and that mob is still There. he's gone through the trouble to take care of him, and the grief of continuously seeing a loved one that many would consider effectively dead, to get him that cure. to get him his brother back. and mob doesn't seem to be in any pain or distress, so reigen and teru think that this path ritsu has followed is probably infinitely kinder than the mercy kill method they've been taught to do

i think they have a new respect for ritsu, after that reunion

[featheredadora]

I know this is a bird blog but...yikes guys, things aren't doing so good over here in the UK at the moment

Being poor is not a moral failing (though it is a societal failing - no one should have to live in poverty), and poor people deserve more than just survival!

[i-heartclones]

The fear in Omegas eyes when Hemlock said that was her new home

I cant take it anymore

[fairy-verse]

(Sorry if this has been asnwered before >.<) Is there such a thing as hibernation for the fairies? Like once a season takes over, do the fairies of the season before it become tired/more sleepy? :0

Spring, summer, and autumn fairies will mostly hibernate throughout winter, as they are not suited for the freezing cold outside. Autumn fairies will have moments of wakefulness, as Nightmare’s underground nest keeps them warm and safe, so they do not require as much rest.

The spring fairies have also been known to occasionally leave their nests to feed on big folk blood, and sometimes they might play on the snow and ice, though not for long.

The summer fairies are all completely tucked out during winter. They will sleep through the whole season, preserving the warmth they accumulated during summer.

The winter fairies will only grow somewhat weary during summer, should they ever travel outside Error’s Mountain halls, that is. The intense summer heat makes their bodies rather sluggish.

[izikyu]

I LOVE ALIENS!!!!!!!!

I need to be sedated

again its @maudiemoods au BFHEJIWHDH the brainrot is REAL