#this is just a random frank and alice moment for fun

[enbysiriusblack]

"I can't remember the last time I had a conversation with my mother that wasn't her telling me chores or schoolwork to do, or telling me off for not doing them."

Alice sat still for a moment before budging frank, "Hey. I've been meaning to ask you-"

"Hm?" He hummed in reply.

"Have you done your potions essay yet?"

Frank groaned and threw a sweet wrapper at her, "Fuck you."

She laughed and carried on, "It's due tomorrow, Frank. You don't want to disappoint your teachers do you?"

"Oh Merlin", he sighed, flopping backwards on her bed, "I think you're the most annoying person I've ever met."

She grinned and laid down too, turning her head to look at him. He looked back and they stared at each other for a few seconds.

She poked the skin above his lip, "Is that a moustache coming along?"

"Wait are you serious?" he jumped up in excitement, "do you have a mirror on you?"

Alice grabbed a small compact mirror from her bag and passed it to Frank, who immediately brought it up to his face and admired the small amount of hair slowly growing.

"You think I'm gonna ever have a huge beard, like Dumbledore or something?"

Alice laughed, "If you do, I'll help you braid it."

He stood with his hands on his hips, passing the mirror back to Alice, "since when do you know how to braid hair?"

"I have many skills, too many to tell them all to you."

Frank sat back down with a small laugh, "Of course, of course."

"Hey guess what?" Alice said, fiddling with the sweet wrapper.

Frank titled his head, "Hm?"

Alice grinned, "Mcgonagall gave me a biscuit."

He gasped, "She what?"

"Jealous?" She laughed.

"I've been dying to win her over! She still hates me and Kingsley for accidentally cheating on her last test!"

Alice laughed and laid back down, Frank following suit.

"Maybe you can win her by beating Slytherin next week."

Frank smiled back, "I'll work the team so hard they'll be begging for a new captain... apart from James, he'll probably love me even more for it."

Alice snorted, "He's cute."

"You would not be saying that if you were on the team. He's like a mini McGonagall with how much he yells at everyone. Definitely needs to be the next captain though, once we leave."

"Please don't remind me about having to leave", Alice grimaced, "I think I'll throw up."

Frank pulled out a packet of bertie botts beans from his robes, "Pleasant."

He opened the packet and chose one at random, "Oh okay. Yep that's vomit", he spat it out.

Alice moved away from the spat out jelly bean, "I feel partially responsible for that."

[spry-the-artist]

Not the best thing I’ve ever written, but it’s decent. It takes place in one of those aus where Joey made a perfect Bendy.

—

Ink Demonth Day 4: Open/Close

Summary: From the moment Joey first brought Bendy to life, the demon’s mouth was always open! To bad that was going to change.

—

The music department was the loudest place in all of Joey Drew Studios. But it’s workers, not so much. At least in talking terms. Sammy and Susie were the loudest, both because of their personalities and their roles required it (what kind of voice actor didn’t talk?). The place with the most talkers was the idea room, though that should be obvious.

But after the little devil darling came into the world, all of that changed. Nowadays, the place with the most mouth traffic all depended on where the company’s mascot ran off to. Some found it charming, others found it annoying. But alas, no one had the heart to tell Bendy to stop talking, it’s not like he had much else to do.

“So I heard a rumour that you’ve got an allergy to daisies, ain’t that right?”

Sammy was the demon’s favourite victim. Bendy couldn’t pull any pranks or cause trouble due limited resources, but making fun of people required nothing but a mind. And a mouth if you’re bad mouthing some poor sap. That poor sap being the music director.

“Yeah, what of it?”

“No wonder you’ve got no girl, you can’t get even get her a bouquet without sneezing all over her!”

Sammy had been asked multiple times throughout that day if he was allergic to a random type of flower, being disguised under some rumour spreading around. But who would spread a rumour of him being allergic to roses, tulips, daisies, cosmos, hyacinths… the point was that this whole rumour bs was nonsense. If the demon was going to be annoying, at least ask directly instead of pretending there was some fake rumour spreading around.

Voting to ignore him, Sammy sighed, “I’m going to my office. Don’t bother me.”

Bendy ran off to go bother a gent worker. He heard they were working to make Alice! As much as Bendy wished he could have his best friend, the fallen Angel was still better than another searcher!

The elevator groaned as the demon went down, but that was what normally happened. What wasn’t normal was the sense of fear and dread it brought him.

Bendy got off as soon as he got to the last floor, thinking it would get rid of that fear. But instead, it just made it worse. The cartoon was in the last hallway before getting to the workspace when he heard a voice. It was Joey’s.

“Please, Susie, listen to me! I know you’re a little worried about all this. But I promise you that everything will go perfectly!”

Why was Joey talking to Susie? Was she here to witness Alice being brought to life?

“I don’t know Joey… if this fails I’ll die. Or worse, turn into one of those searchers!”

What the hell?!

“It’s worth the risk, isn’t it? Don’t you want everybody to see you as the angel you are?”

“Not worth the risk?! Alice won’t have a voice if I die! At least Bendy was made using someone disposable!”

“I’ll just hire a knew voice act-“Ah!”

Bendy fell when he tried to look into the room, curse his skinny legs!

“Well, what do we have here?”, Joey strode over to him and grabbed the demon by the bow tie, “If I had wanted to show you Alice’s birth, I would’ve invited you!”, he chuckled.

“W-what did she mean by all that?”

“I guess I had to tell you this eventually! You see my devil darling, in order to create you, I had to make some sacrifices. And that sacrifice was some random janitor, Wally Franks right?”, he turned to Susie who nodded reluctantly, “You see, nothing to worry about.”

“That was a life! If in order to bring Alice to life you have to kill someone, then it ain’t worth it!”

“Well, it doesn’t matter now, the deeds done. It’s not like Wally’s the only one who died, all those searchers were once people. Now, let Susie and I speak while you go… do anything else but be here!”

Bendy was let down, “I’ll tell everyone! They’ll find a way to fix all the searchers.”, no matter how much the demon hated it, he didn’t exactly want to be fixed himself.

“That’s almost exactly what Wally said. Sigh, I guess I have no choice now.”

“What do you- ah!”

Bendy was grabbed once again by Joey, much more roughly this time. He was dragged to another room where a (torture?) table sat. He was put in the restraints while the psychopath went to go get a needle.

The needle was sharp, enough to pierce hard plastic. Joey grabbed a bobbin of metal wire and walked over to his creation, “I wished I did this ages ago, you really should’ve learned how to close your mouth sooner!”

The man forced Bendy’s mouth into a smile, “Don’t worry, Bendy. You’ll still be able to smile!”. He dug into the demon’s teeth and sowed them together. It felt like hellfire, but the devil couldn’t scream.

After Joey was done with that, he dug into his smiling ‘lips’ and sowed them into his teeth. Joey finally finished, quickly putting away the tools before freeing his creation from the restraints.

Bendy wanted so badly to attack the man he once considered a father figure, but didn’t have the strength to do so. He felt too shell shocked from the last 10 minutes to do anything.

He couldn’t even open his mouth.

[hp-generation-now-unhappy-boutit]

Harry Potter FRED AU (It could not be named anyhow else and you’ll soon know why)

Please bear with me I swear I’ll make the lenght worth it

I also promise this one AIN’T SAD

Few days ago I was taking a nap and when I woke up my half-conscious brain thought about the name Albus Severus again because it’s a terrible name whether he is named after anyone or not. And I thought ‘did Ginny even get any say in it or what the hell’.

I really think that Harry should name their first child (he did) James Sirius, which is fine, Ginny would name their second son and together they would name their little girl (which I think they did).

But then I thought ‘what would she name him?’ Obviously my first thought was Fred, but I was like ‘nah, that one is for George’s kid... unless’

Here comes my AU, imagine it with me:

It is the first 1st of April after the battle, it isn’t very happy for someone’s birthday, then Percy gets an idea. He cannot forget how the last thing he said to Fred made him smile and he refuses to do anything on his birthday that would not achieve the same goal. So he looks at George and proposes this... what if every one of the siblings named at least one of their child Fred or any equivalent of that, if for nothing else than at least for the chaos it will create at Hogwarts. Everyone is silent for so long Percy just wants to take it back and obliviate everyone, but then Fleur stands up to it and gets really passionate about it and then it slowly dawns on everyone and they love it. It is the first time in all those months that George gives them a non-forced smile. Everyone is super into it. Mrs. Weasley is crying because a) she is happy because her boy is smiling again b) she knows she will be super embarrassed if she ever has to talk to McGonagall after she finds out about this and c) she thought Percy was better than this. Nevertheless if it makes George smile again, she won’t be too harsh about it.

It goes something like this (I’m kind of ignoring the cannon children, but whatever):

- Bill and Fleur name their firstborn daughter Frédérique. She had some mean kids try to laugh at her for it because they thought it’s stupid. She shut their mouths pretty quickly.

- Charlie doesn’t have kids. But he did discover a new breed of dragon, which main trait is that it isn’t violent at all, it’s just really mischievious and will mess up with everyone and everything. Charlie names the breed Island Trickster, for both the experts and amateurs the nickname Fred catches on pretty quickly even though majority of people doesn’t know why.

- Percy’s first child is also a girl but he refuses to let anything stop him from naming his child Fred, because a) it was his idea and b) he’ll be damned if anything keeps him from making this prank, that he created in honour of his brother, work. She gets the name Frederica. She hates it and demands her family calling her by her second name. They do and none of them mind, but before she departs for Hogwarts her parents take her aside and explain why they named her this way. Her prankster blood kicks in and from the moment she steps on the train she introduces herself as Frederica, Fred for short.

- George’s first kids are twins, boy and girl. There is no hesitation - their names are immediately Fred and Freda. When they have the second child, there is a mild discussion, but eventually his name is Fredrick. Proud of their legacy, at school neither will respond to anything but Fred. They become Fred & Fred and Fred.

- Ron, who through Hermione discovered Queen, decides to name their son Freddie. Hermione doesn’t see a reason to protest, she loves it.

- Ginny lets Harry name their first son. First, she likes the name James Sirius. Second, whatever happens that child will have prank as their blood type, so there is really no need to add onto that. Third, she is naming their second child and it will be a version of Fred. Harry does not protest at all, because a) he already has his son named after his father and godfather and b) he refuses to stand in the way of this prank. Also Ginny, being the undercover little shit she is, names their son Fred George... everyone keeps calling him Fred and George. They both also talk about naming their daughter Lily Luna Freda or something and they do, it’s just not that public so she can do with that potential whatever she wants.

It also happens that the whole former gryffindor quidditch team joins in on this (including Lee Jordan, who is considered part of the team) as well as bunch of other friends.

Mrs. Weasley is still a little sceptical but she can’t deny that her boy would be proud. Her job also gets a little easier, because now she just automatically makes her grandchildren sweaters with F. Sometimes she makes more of those that she should but the kids love it (cue later).

Meanwhile in heaven James, Sirius and Remus are both really excited and really jealous. Fred is waiting for the chaos to take reign.

As for Hogwarts, most of the professors are losing it sometimes with entertainment (they mostly enjoy it when someone else is in pain because of this and they love to watch it), sometimes with annoyance, sometimes with both and sometimes actually losing it about to break down and cry (especially when some of their colleagues would just watch and smile). Alltogether in all the houses there is about twenty Fred Weasleys (boys, girls, first names, second names) and the Potters (James Sirius, Fred George and Lily Luna) plus the other Freds - all of them there for two or three years, which basically translates into destruction of the highest level.

There are family gatherings frequently at the Burrow, where they all just sit around the table writing letters to their kids and all of them writing one howler.

The howler arrives to a random person, usually a friend of one of the Weasley/Potter kids and the whole Great hall hears, “FRED! WHAT DID YOU DO THIS TIME?!”

All the Fred’s look at each other, because they all did something they shouldn’t (which their parents don’t know, but the kids don’t know they don’t know). No one also knows which Fred it is meant for. No one knows if they are being scolded or messed with.

Very rarely the howler would yell, “FRED WEASLEY”, and in the fat pause after that, every single person in the room can hear, Fred George Potter say “oh, thank Merlin’s nightgown.”

Sometimes the howler would shout, “FRED. I AM SO DISSAPPOINTED IN YOU. YOU WERE NOT GIVEN THIS NAME TO KEEP PEACE AND TRANQUILITY AT THE SCHOOL!” Molly Weasley may or may not scold her children and children-in-law for this one. (Obviously if the kids weren’t into pranking their parents would never force them or out them like this, but since they are all openly on board this happens way too often for the professors’ liking.

Then there is christmas time. Most of the kids leave for home... most of them except for the Weasley/Potters and some of the other Freds, whose parents are friends with the Weasleys. The sweaters come and... every signle one has a F on it. None of the kids protest. They wear it proudly. There are attempts at making fun of them. It doesn’t work.

James walks around announcing to everyone repeatedly and very loudly that his name is Fames Firius Fotter. In the meantime, as long as Lily is wearing her sweater, she refuses to react to anything but Fily or Funa and that includes the teachers.

Everyone tries to resist, everyone breaks down eventually.

McGonagall wants to look stern, but she is loving it.

There is a relatively new professor trying to complain to the colleague sitting next to him. Neville Longbottom, who names his children Frank Fred, Alice Fredricka and Augusta Freda, nods sympathetically while sipping his tea. “I know,” he says. “Imagine if one of them named their kid something like Prank. We would call them a normal name now.”

That is the moment Minerva McGonagall loses it and actually chuckles. Every single one of the kids writes a letter to their parents about that one.

All hell loses all the breaks on April Fools. McGonagall wanted to go easy on punishing the pranks for several reasons and one of them is that it is the twins birthday. It takes one April Fools when the kids take it relatively easy for them to figure out the punichments are quite mild. The next year they go Wild and  McGonagall understands that her nostalgia is a dangerous thing. She stops it then and there, because she knows it won’t stop them, it might just stop some people from getting hurt.

Sometimes Peeves won’t have the mood to come up with something himself so he just goes with calling everyone Fred. Some teachers take from it, figuring that if they don’t remember someone’s name it must be because they decided they will deduce it later, which translates to “the name is Fred”.

Years later when the children leave Hogwarts there is formed a new quidditch team. The name is “Flying Freds”. They are all married and stuff, so their last names are all different, but all of them share the name Fred, which only increases the children named Fred, because who wouldn’t name their child after their favourite quidditch team, amiright?

People in both the wizarding and muggle world are astonished as to Why is there suddenly such a popularity to the name, while in the afterlife Fred won’t stop saying shit like “The students have surpassed the teachers.” and the Marauders are both upset they didn’t manage something like that, but also impressed and really loving it.

McGonagall once talks about it with George and he says it was Percy’s idea. Percy, always perfect prefect Percy, blushes as McGonagall looks at him and says: “All those years I was worried you aren’t an actually Weasley and you’ve just been hiding all that potential, hm.”

It is that moment they understand she might have always been strict, but she loved those little and big pranks simply because they were creative and smart and she was always so proud of the Marauders and the twins for it.

[mediocre--writing]

The Drooping Red Silvias on the Dining Room Table

Tom Riddle X fem!Hufflepuff!Reader

Summary: “Love could be remembered forever and it could be dwelled on for decades, but it didn’t last forever. Nothing did. Not a truly happy smile. Not the Red Silvias on the dining room table. Not even love.”

Word Count: 4544

Warnings: like two bad words, SUPER ANGSTY

“Pathetic, isn’t it?” A teasing voice questioned from behind Tom’s left shoulder.

“What is it now?” He heard a light giggle as he felt her get closer to him, her aura contrasting his in every way.

Where he was harsh, sharp angles, she was kind and bright, in every way possible. And it beat just about every brain in Hogwarts how the two ended up together at all.

“How much you mope around school scowling at people when you could just come find me and we could have a grand ol’ time!”

And so it was, the grin that was hardest to suppress made its way across his dull face, one only the girl next to him could elicit from him. He enjoyed it, no matter how much he protested her jokes and immature behavior, it brought out the child in him that he was never allowed to show.

“Should you be any more childish, they might have to hold you back this year, L/n,”

Matching smirks graced their faces as they made eye contact in the busy hallway on their way to dinner, in which she would ditch her rightful place at the Hufflepuff table and sit with Tom at the Slytherin table, a good bit away from any other students in the house.

“They would never, I’m far too loved in this school for anyone to wish me a disadvantage!” She said, mocking an offended tone and placing a dramatic hand on her chest.

“Think what you will, but you are one of the most adorably immature people I've had the chance to meet,”

“Oh, Tommy, that’s just pessimistic, be a bit happier, will you? We’ve got, like, a month left of school and I’d like to be happy for the time being, if you can manage that?”

They sat at the end of the Slytherin table, close to the door, and far from other students. They both began to place food onto their plates in mass amounts, the Hufflepuff being more than distraught at the idea of having to lose Hogwarts’ meals after graduation.

The brunet smiled at the bubbly girl in front of him, her eyes glimmering from the reflection of candles in the hall. There was nobody he admired more, from her personality to her obsession with Herbology to the way she read, all curled up on an uncomfortable library chair, and he especially adored the way she kept him connected to the person he always strived to be, even if he didn’t notice himself drifting, she always did.

“I think I can manage that,” He said softly, looking down to add more roast to his dinner plate. “For you, I think I can manage anything,” 

“Pathetic, isn’t it?” A teasing voice questioned from behind Tom’s left shoulder.

“What is it now?” He questioned the ghost that haunted him to this day.

“Well, the fact that you’re trying so hard, for one,” Her mocking voice chuckled as her semi-transparent form drifted to face him.

The man-- if you could call him that-- groaned at her insistence on bothering him.

“I also think that you’re doing far to much to not die, that you’re gonna end up getting killed and only end up living to, like, 80, at the most,”

“If you could be quiet for a moment then maybe I would be able to focus and then I won’t get killed!” He snapped, agitated at the nuisance around him, slamming his hand onto the table that had plans spilled across it.

“Too bad you can’t kill a ghost, huh?” She quirked her head to show a false sympathy for the man, “Though, you already did kill me, so…”

“Shut up!” He tried to command with a strong voice, but it came out quieter than he wanted it to, guilt overtaking what was left of his emotions.

She let out a loud sigh as she crossed her arms over her chest, rolling her eyes, “No need to be so dramatic, Tommy,”

“Why don’t you just go to wherever it is you go when you’re not bothering me,” He sneered at the ghost of a girl who used to be everything to him, but was now diminished to absolutely nothing.

“Alright,” She said, backing up to disappear and reappear somewhere else, “Catch you later, Tommy!”

He let out a final groan after she disappeared, getting back to what he was doing before.

Meanwhile, at Hogwarts, the ghost was wandering around, talking to other ghosts, sometimes waving to younger students, and just milling around with nothing to do.

“Excuse me,” she heard a timid voice call from around her. “Ma’am, excuse me,”

“Are you talking to me?” She asked, raising an eyebrow at the brunet boy below her who nodded at her question. “What is it you need, darling?”

“Do you know other.... uhhhhh,” He paused his question, eyes darting around as if to escape the prevalent tension, “Other people, who have… gone from the world?”

“Why do you ask, and what is your name, darling?” The Hufflepuff asked tenderly.

“I’m Neville,” The boy spoke as his cheeks flushed pink, his grip tightening around his satchel, “And I was reading about how some ghosts have contact with those who are passed through, and others can’t and I just wondered if there were any ghosts at Hogwarts who could--”

“Neville, darling,” He was pulled from his rambling and fidgety monologue, “I’m very sorry, but I’ve not been able to contact those who have passed, but I may know who you are referring to, given I have been around Hogwarts for quite a while,”

“Well, my parents…”

“What’s your last name?”

“L-Longbottom, ma’am,” the boy stuttered out quietly.

“Your parents, they’re Frank and Alice, correct?” She tilted her head as she lowered her body from floating feet above the floor to be closer to the ground so as to not be intimidating to the shy boy, who looked more like his father than he probably knew.

“Yes, you knew them?” Neville had a spark of hope lit in his eyes, it was apparent in the way he straightened his posture and could look her in the eyes.

“Yes, I also knew your grandmother, Agusta, while I was at Hogwarts, is she still as intimidating as she once was?” Neville nodded with a small smile, “Well, Alice was one of the first friends I made while wandering Hogwarts. Kindest women I’ve ever met, by a long shot. I didn’t know Frank too well, however, but Alice worked him into just about every conversation she could, she loved that boy,”

“Do you have any stories?” Neville asked, taking a seat on a bench on the side of the hallway, “If you don’t mind, that is?”

“Of course I don’t mind!”

She spent until curfew talking about Alice and Frank, stories of their dates and their friends and how goofy and awkward and wonderful they both were. Neville had never felt so close to his parents, he could almost cry.

Y/n loved talking about her friends, though she was never truly a friend, but she liked feeling close to people and helping them along in the world.

She’d seen people she was once close to go down a path that only resulted in destruction, and she wanted to prevent as many people from doing that as she could. It hurt everyone when someone hurt themselves.

After Neville had gone to bed, she had begun wandering the halls once again, watching paintings move and random cats and owls move around outside on the grounds.

She could never get tired of the castle, especially not the grounds, which, no matter the weather, always seemed to be green and full of life. She loved the edge of the forest, right before it got too dense but where you could still be surrounded by trees.

“Tommy!” She squealed, feeling the blood run to her head as she was hung over his shoulder. “Tom! Thomas!”

He was giggling right along with her, running across the lawn, over to the forest where nobody went, enjoying the warm, sunny, spring day that seemed rare this time of year.

He finally allowed the girl’s feet to touch the ground, but kept her wrapped in his arms holding their chests together, fast breathing causing them to touch every breath or so.

“Was that necessary, love? You could’ve just asked to walk over here calmly,” She smirked, watching as his cheeks lost some of their pink tint as he calmed his breathing.

“Yes, but aren’t you always the one telling me that life should be fun, not mundane, like I, apparently, always am?” Tom teased the girl, poking one of her cheeks as she leant against a tree, staring into his eyes.

He pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, where a small white flower already was, probably from the bouquet that he’d given her just a few days ago. The bouquet had been mostly white flowers, along with a few yellow ones, and he’d said the white flowers were as perfect and pure as she was, along with the yellow sunflowers that he’d put in, comparing them to her bright smile.

“You’re not mundane,” She smirked, poking his cheek as well, to prove a point, but let her hand rest against his jaw, “maybe a little dull sometimes, but --”

His lips touched hers tenderly and with love as he smiled into the kiss they shared, in the forest, away from prying eyes and lurkers.

She gasped a bit from the surprise of her sentence ending so abruptly, but sunk into the kiss after a moment, still holding his cheek in her palm as his hands wrapped around her waist, curling her into his chest.

This was a routine for them, hiding from the eyes that seemed to follow them everywhere and share tender moments that neither would forget in years to come.

Sometimes, the moments they shared, weren’t just kissing, they would sit in the back corner of the library, far from the librarian’s prying eyes, and would read old children’s tales to one another.

(She swore that his voice was made for reading, and the way his chest felt when she rested on his lap was perfect for casual reading days.)

Other days, they would do homework. More like Tom would try and work and she would talk his ear off until he threatened her to do her work. Though the threats were harmless, (ex: no cuddles or kisses until Monday) though, he wasn’t good at keeping them anyway. She was too perfect to just ignore for the sake of lousy school work.

They enjoyed their time together, no matter what they did, it was always precious time if it was spent with the other.

“Ms. L/n!”

She jumped from her daydream as she noticed the man standing at the end of the hallway.

“Professor Dumbledore, how are you tonight?”

“I’m fine,” He smiled kindly from underneath his half moon spectacles, eyes glimmering even in the darkest corner of the castle. “You know what’s been brewing outside these walls. I’m here to ask something from you, once again. Would you be willing to aid me and my friends as you did many years ago, should the time come to do so?”

She stared off, quietly wishing she didn’t have to. “Of course, Professor,”

“My thanks means nothing in comparison to the help you will give us, Ms. L/n,”

The man nodded once more and walked to the end of the hallway, turning left as he disappeared out of sight.

Though it meant close to nothing, she couldn’t help but feel guilty.

How could she have gotten into Hufflepuff, the house of the loyal, if she were betraying the one person who ever treated her with more than a fake smile and courteous conversation.

Her Tommy, who had once been a kind soul who only wanted to feel the love he had been deprived of in his first life. The happiness that had been brutally ripped away from him any moment he got too comfortable.

It was the right thing, going against Lord Voldemort, but there was still a part of her that wanted to help Tom Riddle on the right path when there was so much persuading him from straying to the wrong path.

The person she knew was, well, a person at heart. He may not have shown it often, but he wanted what people were given freely. He hated having to ask or dream of what others were given daily.

For what should give a person a reason to treat a child as less than loved?

“Y/n I’ve been looking for you everywhere, do you know wh--” He paused halfway through the two shelves that hid the table and chairs that they would go on study dates to.

It was the perfect spot, a small window that showed the hilly landscape outside and allowed just enough light that it gave the spot a romantic feel without being too dark or light. There was a small table and two plush chairs, which was just enough for the two. It was the perfect spot, apart from right now, where there was Y/n, tears pouring down her cheeks as she tried to mop them up with the end of her sweater sleeves.

He walked up to her, slightly shaking, body, crouched down a bit, and opened his arms, to which she wrapped her sweater-covered hands around him and connected her hands around his neck, pulling him partially down to her chair.

He adjusted them bit by bit until he was in the chair and she was laying across his lap and chest, her cheek nestled into the side of his neck, his light gray sweater getting slightly damp from her tears.

She began to stop crying, embracing the earthy, yet clean smell he had, along with his fingertips running up and down her spine in an effort to bring comfort to the girl. She shivered every once and a while, in which he would respond by snuggling her deeper into his warm body.

They remained quiet for a while, even after she stopped crying and was breathing normally, just enjoying the embrace, and the calm atmosphere that came with it.

“Wanna tell me what’s got you spooked, darling?” He asked in a whisper, scared to break the comfort with too loud a voice.

She shook her head in the crook of his neck, nustling her nose deeper into his sweater, which was softer than anything she’d ever felt. ‘I’ll have to steal that later,’ she thought.

“That’s alright,” He reassured, “It wasn’t somebody, was it? Or were you overwhelmed, darling?”

She smiled into his shoulder, murmuring “Overwhelmed,” as she closed her eyes once again, feeling more tired than ever.

He had to know that it wasn’t someone who made her upset, and knew that more often than not, it was just a mix of school and general teenage angst, which he knew that better than anyone.

He felt her warm breath on his neck, feeling her yawn as she readjusted her head again, “Tired, darling?” to which he got no reply other than her arms squeezing around his torso a bit tighter than they had been.

He chuckled to himself, smiling at the girl who, in his eyes, at least, couldn’t be more perfect.

During the last war, Y/n had been in the same predicament.

She wanted to do the right thing for a majority of people, but she also felt as if she was going against her loyalty for not defending Tom, though he was barely even who he used to be at that point.

She had advantages for either side, mostly the Order of the Phoenix, because she understood how The Dark Lord’s mind worked and you couldn’t exactly hold a ghost back from a room or hear what she wanted, given you couldn’t exactly stop her from just floating through the wall.

She knew it was the right thing.

She wasn’t a complete idiot, she knew basic right from wrong, though it didn’t erase guilt.

Nothing erased guilt.

That went both ways.

Tom still felt a tremendous amount of guilt when it came to his lost love.

She had never given up on him, not a single time between their years at Hogwarts and the years beyond when they had been trying to understand how their life worked without people telling them how to act. Without set rules to follow.

They’d never strayed from one another, always been loyal and adamant about their trust in one another.

She never doubted him, and that was the worst part. She didn’t see him as a god or supernatural being, and he supposed it was nice to be admired for being a person rather than for actions that could be twisted back and forth.

He didn’t have the best conscious, given it was switching between what he wanted and what he needed, and she was something he needed, but he prioritized his wants over her. His views on blood status had clouded his judgement and, in turn, lost him everything he’d ever wanted and everything he’d needed.

“Stop acting like a fucking twat for once in your life, Thomas!” She screamed as she found, yet another, suspicious book sitting on his desk.

This time it was a book called Horcruxes: How to Make and Destroy the Key to Eternal Life.

“What is that supposed to mean?!” He was agitated, he was close to pulling out his own hair in pure agitation, “I was reading a book and now you’re being all pissy for no reason!”

“Oh, so you can read?” She asked, hands on her hips like a scolding mother, “Then what was the title of your little book, Tom?”

He was silent, looking around the room rather than in her eyes. He’d been caught but he was far too stubborn to admit that he was at fault for the argument.

“Tom,”

“If you’re so mad then just get out!”

“I’m not mad at you, I just want to know what’s going through your head because from what I’m looking at, it’s not a good situation. And you know, good and well, that I will believe what you tell me, but if you keep lying then I really will ‘get out,’”

She set the book down on the desk as she watched his body language, surveying his eyes flickering around the room and his fingers loosening and tightening his tie again and again.

“Tommy,”

“I don’t want to lose you, ever, and I’m trying to figure out a way that we never have to be without the other.” She opened her mouth to question him further but he began rambling, “I want to be with you forever and I don’t want us to be apart because I know we’ve been together for a long time, but I can’t bear the thought of, one day, not having you with me. It’s something I can’t afford to lose because of some stupid mistake or-or,”

“Tommy,” She put her hand over his, which was on the arm of his chair, “Life is about losing things and gaining things. We can’t cheat nature just because we want to be loved for longer or because of pure selfishness. I don’t exactly want to live without you, either, but I know that you’re always going to love me and I know that I will always love you, no matter what you think, so just calm down for a few moments and enjoy life while you still get to,”

That night had changed everything.

Had the conversation been had earlier, maybe the first two Horcruxes wouldn’t have been made. He rethought everything after that, finding his humanity that he’d been repressing for months, all for her.

It was never that easy, though. He had already made the Horcruxes, and he vowed he would stop now.

And he did. For almost a year, he made no more moves to further his progression of splitting his soul into seven pieces. He found happiness, he kept her love for him in a pocket right over his heart, where he also kept the small flowers she would pick him out of the garden, and he still felt like a person.

A person who, though he was now beginning to regret it, had an army of loyal, blood supremacists behind him. He had made them promises that he was now beginning to question.

It was a beautiful morning.

A blue sky, blooming flowers, and the smell of rain that was sure to fall later in the day. But now, Tom was reading in his study, watching his wonderful darling tend to her garden, she was fascinated with nature, what it meant and how it grew so freely.

She would ramble about why she had certain bouquets into the dining room table, about what they meant, and how her smile was only brighter when she was talking about him.

(“These are daisies and morning glories. The daisies mean hope and the morning glories mean care and affection. I noticed you were moping earlier and wanted you to feel happier.”)

(“These are violets and asters-- they look pretty together, no?” “Of course they do, darling,” “The violets are for loyalty and the asters are for love, because that’s how I feel for you,”)

(“All yellow tulips, darling?” “I read somewhere that they represent the sunshine in your loved one’s smile, and you just light up my world,” “Oh, how cheesy, darling,”)

That morning, she’d put in a large bouquet of Red Salvias, which bounced well off the crisp white tablecloth underneath.

“And what of those flowers, darling?” Tom had asked once he came into the room to find her in her gardening clothes, dirty and grimy but still looking absolutely stunning while she arranged the red flowers.

“They’re Red Salvias, they represent a forever love,” She’d sent a cheeky smile towards him at the last part of the sentence, to which he walked towards her, grinning, and wrapping his arms around her from behind.

“Then we shall put them everywhere, darling,” He whispered softly into her ear.

Her smile was one that could not be broken. When she was around those she loved, nothing could dull her happiness and affection towards them.

Tom never wanted her smile to fade, not because of him and certainly not because of anyone else.

A knock was heard from the front door, harsher than the old neighbor lady, who would bring them sweets occasionally, would knock.

Tom looked back to her, then walked to the door, coming to see Abraxas Malfoy, one of his friends from school, though they weren’t necessarily friends, given their heritage.

“Abraxas, how nice to see you,” Tom said curtly, confused as to why the man was there, given he hadn’t spoken to any of them recently.

Little did Tom know that they had been meeting one another recently. All his followers met to discuss their leader’s change in attitude, which led to the answer for his rejection of ideals.

Quite the understandable distraction, they had agreed, but unnecessary all the same.

As Tom was tensely chatting with Abraxas Malfoy, another, undetected Death Eater had walked to the back door, sending a silent petrification charm at Y/n, catching her before she hit the ground.

Unable to speak or move, her eyes widened and looked to Tom worriedly as she was aggressively moved and bound, hands together and a strange man’s hand around her neck, squeezing hardly, but not too tight that she was losing oxygen.

After a few more moments, Abraxas noticed that the girl had been restrained and nodded for Tom to turn, to which he immediately pulled out his wand to the platinum blond, threatening him, but it was evident that nobody was there to hurt him.

There were two more masked Death Eaters in the garden, watching from outside, threateningly, as Abraxas smiled and Tom tried not to act rashly as Y/n tried not to allow tears to slip from her eyes.

“All we want is our old leader back, Tom,” Abraxas said from behind his right shoulder.  “It’s a pretty easy decision to make, if you ask me, we’ll spare the girl, if you come back to us, as you should,”

Tom’s wand, for the first time in his life, was trembling in his tight grip.

It didn’t feel right, the deal, and he knew that if he followed what he really, truly wanted, she wouldn’t live to continue his ideal life with him. But if he chose the path he was avoiding, would he lose her anyway, would she stay if he was a murderer?

She, though bound and being choked, didn’t feel as though she should be nervous, this was her Tommy, the Tommy who would read her children’s stories because it made her smile. The Tommy who would poke at her cheeks when she was trying to be mad at him.

Even if he chose, whatever it was, with these people, she knew that he would always be Tommy to her.

Her Tommy.

And as he made a decision, a stupid one on his part, he knew that it was his last act of true defiance and bravery.

He shot a spell at the man choking her, but was immediately pulled back down by Abraxas as he watched her fall over to the floor, unable to catch herself due to her bound hands.

“You have made a mistake, Tom, and we don’t tolerate mistakes here, now do we?”

There was one last look of vulnerability in Tom’s eyes as he watched a spell hit Y/n.

That last look of vulnerability lasted until his final death.

He watched as her, once tense, body went limp from the use of the Unforgivable Curse.

He’d done it to people before. He’d felt no remorse on the other end of it. He’d almost enjoyed the feeling of power that came with using the Unforgivables.

Not anymore. He didn’t like the other side. He didn’t like feeling this. The pain. The knowledge that if he’d just done what he should have a long time ago, he’d have her there. With him.

Abraxas allowed him to stand up, and he did, slowly, and tried to not look into her cold, dead eyes that still dripped with unfinished tears, and clothes still dirty from the gardening she’d done earlier that day.

He’d looked to the dining room table, at the Red Silivas that she’d just finished arranging only minutes ago.

The flowers that represented a love that spanned forever.

Little did those flowers know that forever only lasted until the love was broken in half and ripped to shreds. There was no love that lasted forever.

As the flowers would begin to droop with days to come and nobody to care for them, Tom’s once shining love would begin drooping with them.

Love could be remembered forever and it could be dwelled on for decades, but it didn’t last forever.

Nothing did.

Not a truly happy smile.

Not the Red Silvias on the dining room table.

Not even love.

[nayialovecat]

Hi :) Could you rank the characters of SATIM, from the one you like the most to the one you like the least and tell us why? I love lists :p

My first list! Yay!

Gosh... it's very hard question. I don't like telling kids that one of them is less liked than the other, lol. I'm not able to choose which of the two very liked characters I like more, but I can certainly group them all collectively into several groups with different levels of liking…

The order in these groups will be rather random…

I don't know what determinant should be to assign them... Because there is a difference between the characters I like and the characters that I consider successful making. I think I'll bet on the former, so don't be surprised what categories the characters I'm really proud of end up in.

.

First category: Beloved characters!

Sammy is definitely here, I don't need to explain why? I omit the fact that his character is quite modeled on myself (and it is quite common that the creator secretly loves to adore himself). But seriously. I love almost every Sammy I meet. This love has no rational explanation, it just exists.

Jack will definitely be in this category too - I love this warm dumpling, his character and the way he combines his pacifist, introverted nature with being Sammy's friend.

I will surprise you, but I'll also assign Bertrum to this category. It's so much fun that when I first saw him in gameplay I had such a "wtf, what is it, what kind of bullshit, why they screwed up the game so much by adding some carousel with a human face". Currently, I cry when I have to go through Chapter 4 and fight him :c He's one of my favorite BATIM characters, along with Sammy - and that's why in the SATIM version he’s simply brilliant! You will love him! Unfortunately, he'll not appear until the second series...

Probably no one will be surprised that Jose Klondike will land my beloved characters - I love the guy, although you don't know why yet. But you'll find out. You'll find out quickly, ‘cause the number of strips with him grows and grows, so I'll be putting them here and there. I am proud of this OC - his history, his determination, his character and approach to life. As if I was in the Workshop as an inky being - I would like to be exactly that character...

Bernard - you don't know him, but he is high in my heart. It’s my way of showing that weaker doesn't always mean weak ;)

After much thought, I decided that Bendy also belongs to this category. I have too much weakness for tragic characters - and Bendy is even a model tragic character (as you will see at the beginning of the second series, when there will be a little more of his backstory).

Gosh, how could I forget to put my favorite three descendants of Sammy and Bendy in this category? This trio is delightful together and separately. I'm so crazy about them lately! Sammy Jr, Henry Jr and Bendy Jr are my favourites :)

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Second category: I like these guys very much!

Here will be most of my OC with Cleaner in the lead. It's amazing how the character that arose as an explanation for my laziness/lacks quickly evolved into one of the more liked by me (though still has, and likely will have, relatively little airtime).

Barman must also be here. This guy stole my heart - and it was at the design stage, which is why he got such a unique design (I spent a lot of time on him). I like a stereotypical barman - that's why I just had to throw such a character into SATIM as soon as it turned out that they had a bar there.

All Strikers also land in this category - as the only species of members of the Butcher Gang. Well, how can you not love this cutie? In the SATIM version, most Strikers are sensitive, polite, have a strong sense of justice and, above all, tend to be innocent despite being horrific, murderous abomination. And they are the most sociable of the three.

Movie Club as a whole will also be included in this category, although I don't like all of its members equally. However, as a group character - I like them a lot, my favourite is Sara (probably that's why she got the most time in drawn stripes so far) and Simon (you don't know him yet, that's the one that was dead on the previous strip with this group), also Wallace (first one you met in comic). I like them, although their early appearance upsets my plans for Bendy a bit... but whatever.

Surprisingly - Twisted Alice will also land here. I did not expect that the character I didn't like in game, which I reluctantly drew and who was supposed to be in the comic as little as possible, 'cause I didn't want her in my story - will turn out to be so interesting and quite... cool. I mean, she's a cold, murderous bitch, yes - but I like her backstory, present character and behavior so much (I'm talking about SATIM - in the game she is still an annoying, cold bitch that I hate).

.

Third category: I just like these.

Here is Brody. Yes. Just here. He is my first OC and I'm really proud of him. Very, very proud. He’s the most polished, I like him - but at the same time (identifying with Sammy) I don’t approve of some of his behaviors and beliefs. Which does not allow me to like him as much as, for example, Barman.

John Dot will land here as well. I like this guy. For someone who was not meant to have any major role, he has grown to become Sammy's religious advisor and is generally quite a funny character.

Fisher, who is my least liked member of the Butcher Gang in the game, ends up in second place here - thanks to the past of one of them (the whole two-piece strip will be about that). The Fishers in SATIM are the "brains" of the Gang. They are the smartest, most cunning and insidious.

Wally Franks - he is and for a long time he will be one of the most enigmatic characters of this comic, but from these narrow premises and traces of its operation it can be seen that he is at least interesting. There will be more about him in the second series, and he will play a more important role at the turn of the third and fourth series. You'll see.

Tom ends up here instead of in the next category only because of his complicated relationship with Sammy, which I would describe in one word as "frenemies". And I really like the idea of ​​communicating with writing board like Wile E. Coyote.

I have a problem with Elena. When I came up with her, she seemed like a great character to me, with the passage of time (and the creation of other OCs) she began to seem a bit... dull. I think I'll have to think about her a bit and maybe change her - maybe not. She doesn't appear until the last series, so I have a lot of time. But I still like the way she speaks to people and her strange relationship with Sammy (she's sort of like his apprentice, only the object of fanaticism has a different one).

.

Fourth category: Not liked, but not disliked.

Sorry, Henry. In my opinion, Henry is a well-written character, his nature fits so much to him, etc. But somehow I don't know how to liked him. In places it irritates me as much as Sammy. What I like the most about him is that he doesn't cause any problems with colouring and strips with more of him mean less work for me.

Boris - you don't know him yet (he has appeared in the background of one frame throughout the comic so far), so I have no way to relate, but let me put it this way... Boris is the perfect Boris, that super-copy Joey dreamed of. He is friendly, obliging, somewhat cowardly, but overall a great buddy. And like any ideal character - he's boring. Just boring. I prefer dramatic characters, with a past, with problems or at least an interesting, aggressive or funny character.

Allison lands here too. I don't like her in the game and maybe that's why in my comic she came out like this... I won't say that she lacks character or claw, but... not intriguing. This may change, but for the moment she is a character whose role is to be a "strong independent woman" and she has no other role. I think many people will like her because of that. Me not very much. I just don't like this type of character.

I almost forgot about poor Piper. This is a character that leaves me cold. In every Gang, he is more of a taunt object or a servant at everyone's beck and call (in Polish we say: "przynieś, podaj pozamiataj" - I think it should be translate as "bring, serve, sweep"). But for consolation I made Pipers the most various (different hairstyles, clothes, length of the wooden prosthesis).

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Fifth category: I hate this one.

Joey. I created a motherfucker that I hate. But I must admit, this motherfucker is well done, you will see...

.

I guess I haven't overlooked anyone, and even included a few characters that have yet to appear. However, if I missed someone, please ask :)

[imnotwolverine]

The marriage pact - Island folk

Henry Cavill x OC Alice - multi-chapter

< Part 6 | Part 7 Island folk | Part 8 >

Disclaimer: mention of late motherhood worries

Author’s note: This story is just so much fun to write. I set a scene and *BOOM* it just kind of writes itself. Now, I don’t know how long this writing craze will continue, but so far you can expect an update every day. You read that right; every day! 

Word count: 1.525

(Link to my Masterlist)

--

[ Alice.in.writing.land ]

Dear readers,

Dark are the abysses of my heart sometimes, and I know that keeping those thoughts under lock and key only make things worse. And so, for the first time on this blog, I’d like to share something really, truly personal with you. A little snippet of my thoughts for a tender of your time, I’d like to come clean about my most recent Google search which I did late last night, after hours of laying awake.  

Late motherhood.

Why? You may wonder. Well, with my relationships continuously failing and the years - and candles - slowly adding up to my birthday cakes, I feel the increasing unease in my heart whenever I come to think of having a family of my own. Will it happen? And if so, am I not too late already? All my friends and family members had their first children in their late 20s, yet here I am, the oddball, single Pringling through life at 37.

It was about 3 AM late last night when I found myself quelling my nerves by looking at pictures of older female celebrities having kids at the “ripe old age of 35”, which in my book is still super young, but of course we are looking at Hollywood standards here. And, to be quite frank, I’m not sure if it helped me, but at least it did offer me the slightest sliver of hope as I found that I’ll probably just need a little luck, good preparation..and perhaps a donor, to make my wishes come true.

Research is required.

But, let’s not get carried away just yet. I know what I want, now all I need to give myself is time. Time to listen to my heart and learn if this is truly it, time to investigate my options a little more and time to sleep. Because honestly, Google is one hell of a click-through trap when you can’t sleep - I may or may not have ended up falling asleep to videos of laughing foxes, which are truly..the cutest. In case you want to look it up and dare to delve into the time consuming trap that is watching random Youtube videos, then search for: “Finnegan fox”.

Hi-la-ri-ous.  

Also; apparently chocolate cakes have internet access. So, aherm, hello and welcome to my little writing den, oh mysterious chocolate cake of mine!

A very sleepy, but glad to have this off her chest,

Ali

The waves broke softly onto the shoreline as the wind tugged gently on my hair, my pen scribbling away on the paper notebook on my lap. For some odd reason I found it much more comfortable to write by hand, and so whenever the mood struck and I found the time, I snuck out to my little beach hide-out and started to write. This time it was for work, but sometimes I also worked on smaller fictional stories, the very act of writing calming my nerves considerably.

I looked up when I heard the sound of slushing feet through the fine sand, the distinct vibrations telling me someone was approaching me with slow, dragging feet. And.. it appeared to be not just anyone.

Henry.

So very suddenly I felt terrible about posting that blog this morning. Had he read it? Would he start a conversation about it? I wasn’t quite sure if I wanted to have that conversation with him right now. We were at best just dating, our newly rekindled friendship slash relationship only a few days young.

He stifled a yawn as he plopped down beside me on the picnic blanket, his eyes sporting large dark circles beneath them, his shoulders slumping slightly as he looked me over. I sniffled, shaking my head at the fact that we both had barely slept - obviously.

‘Mornin’.’ He grumbled, a gentle smile reaching his lips, his body leaning forward, but halting mid-morning kiss. Almost automatically I closed the distance, my hand moving aside my notebook so I could lean in, lips brushing over his, which apparently was just what he needed, his lips curling up in a full smile. ‘Hi.’ I whispered into his lips, then leaned back, tucking some rogue curl behind his ear before studying him better. Once more he wore a blue shirt - he had a gazillion of those, didn’t he? - and some dark jeans, his hair fresh and messy straight out of bed.

’So…no sleep then?’ I inquired, watching him as he slowly moved his gaze towards the rolling waves before us. ‘Nope.’ ‘How come?’ ‘Hmm..’ He thought aloud. ‘..I suppose it is difficult to just stop my life right dead in its tracks.’ He sighed.

‘What’s up Hen?’ I scooted closer to him, fingering a hand through his curls, his eyes closing as he revelled into the simpleness of my touch.

‘I have to fly back to London for the weekend. There’s this event that my manager can’t seem to cancel without serious repercussions and..’ He sighed again. ‘You don’t want to go.’ ‘Not really no. But I will have to. The fox videos helped by the way.’

My heart summersaulted at his words - not only because he apparently read my blog, which wasn’t entirely surprising, but also because he was showing so much vulnerability. This large bear of a man was being honest about the things that frustrated him, something I had never experienced with previous partners. They’d always just burst out in flames all of a sudden, without giving me any fair warning before hand.

‘Hmm..’ I hummed, thinking. His eyes were still staring out to the sea, soft waves cascading in similar shades to his cerulean irises. He truly seemed to be a bit done with it all. 

‘I’ve got some swimming pig videos at the ready too.’ I added, laying my head onto his shoulder and wrapping both my arms around his large chest, wishing to comfort him a little. ‘Hehe..swimming pigs.’ He chuckled, his chest vibrating with near silent mirth. ’Yea..can you imagine? Those tiny, tiny legs kicking through aquamarine water, their noses sticking out the water like living, breathing, skin coloured electricity points. Oink oink!’

Henry’s chuckle turned into rumbling laughter, his shoulders shaking until he finally looked back at me, my head still resting on his shoulder. ‘Ali..I ..eh..know this is maybe a bit weird, but, would you perhaps like to join me? To London? Leaving Friday night, back Sunday morning?’

I sat up, my brown eyes staring into his deep blues. Tender, hopeful blues. ‘Hmm.’ I hummed, blinking for a moment as I mulled over his words.

‘I know it’s all going fast and I don’t want to pressure you.’ He added.

‘No, it’s okay. It’s ehm..okay. Yea, sure, I’ll come. I haven’t been to London in ages and don’t have weekend plans anyways.’

‘Ages?’ ‘Naa..okay..maybe not ages. More like months.’ I snorted. We both laughed until finally my eyebrow quirked up. ‘So..what kind of event are you ..or we..going to?’ Henry smiled, leaning in to kiss me, the sound of my fluttering heart drowning out all else around us.

The answer to my question didn’t matter, I was simply very happy that I could join him and finally get a sneak peek of his usual life. Henry’s life.

—

‘I’m still amazed at the fact that you managed to pack all your things in that one backpack.’ Henry grinned, pushing my backpack in the overhead storage locker in First Class. I grinned in turn, shrugging my shoulders as I sat back in my seat. ‘Oh you know. I don’t mock about. No need to bring the unnecessary.’

‘You’d make for a fine traveller.’ He admitted, plopping down in his seat, right next to me, his hand quite instantaneously interlacing with mine - he didn’t even seem to think about it -, a smile tugging on the edges of his lips as he watched two business men enter, taking their seats a few rows ahead, leaving us plenty of privacy.

Slowly, he cast me a curious glance. ‘What is it, dear?’ He asked, noticing my studious look, his smile growing and his blue eyes sparkling.

‘Mmm..just wondering. You probably thought about this far better than I have thus far. But if you’d start a family..how would that..go? Like..-‘ ‘The travelling and stuff?’ ‘Yea.’

Henry leaned into the headrest, his head tilting up slightly as he licked his lips. ‘It’s going to take some back-and-forthing with my partner. And it won’t be easy. It will not only be my children that will give you broken nights, you see.’ He grinned and my heart fluttered at his words - children! -, yet my mouth remained sealed, waiting for him to continue. He sighed. ‘I..would definitely slow down my career. For the longest time I didn’t even think of that as a possibility. But like you wrote quite perfectly; all my friends and family members had their children young and here I am..the oddball. I know I should not press my luck by demanding my partner to give up everything for me. That is just not fair.’

‘Give and take.’ I added.

‘Yes, give and take.’ He smiled at me, his large warm hand squeezing mine gently. It felt nice. ‘Okay..so another question. You live in London right?’ ‘Mostly, yes.’ He nodded, making me grin. ‘Yea yea..Superman has several mansions and a jet setting career that makes you quiver right back into your 2-bedroom flat.’ I rolled my eyes. ‘But all joking aside..why did you chose to stay with your parents, now you requested a “time-out”?’

Henry shifted in his seat, his smiling face turning to one holding a more serious expression. ‘I’m from the island baby. And I will always, ALWAYS return to the island. It is my one true home after all.’  

--

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[nonbinaryhatboxghost]

Okay, today has been a quiet Saturday morning so far, I have some time, and I like lists. So here is my random (personal) ranking of Star Trek series and movies, out of what I’ve seen, which is everything but seasons 5-7 of Voyager, all of Enterprise, and all of Picard. I’m only counting shows with three or more seasons because it’s easier. But let the record show that I love Lower Decks so far and The Animated Series is actually a blast.

SPOILERS THROUGHOUT

Series Ranking

The Original Series - As influential of a show as it is, I constantly forget how much damn fun the original Trek is. There is an almost Community-like variance in tone and genre throughout the show. And I’m a sucker for a future that embraces primary colors. It is the Trek show I revisit the most so far, and it remains my favorite.

Deep Space Nine - This one comes close, though. It starts out as a solid spinoff with very well-defined characters, and then becomes a big, sprawling epic that had my eyes welling up by the end. It feels more like a sequel to The Original Series than The Next Generation did to me. It dealt with subject matter both different and darker than was expected for the time. It had characters at odds with each other. Religion was explored in a way that balanced brutal honesty with genuine respect. War and the various traumas it induces were acknowledged. And it had “Take Me Out to the Holosuite”. I only finished this one recently but I look forward to watching it again.

Discovery - I was rooting for this show to be good even as it went through so much behind-the-scenes drama during its first two seasons. Even with all of that going on, the show became a fascinating watch as you saw it change from its arguably-too-dark beginnings as a prequel, to the almost Doctor Who-like second season with its joyful embracing of classic Trek, and finally to its current iteration that at long last gives us a Trek show that’s not bound by prequel limitations. Michael Burnham is such a great character and getting to see her arc alone makes this one of my favorite Trek stories. The queer/nonbinary representation also warms my heart.

Voyager - I’m just starting the fifth season, but the show has settled into an interesting groove with its characters. And Voyager’s characters are so damn good that they counterbalance a lot of the show’s early problems. It takes a while for Voyager to realize that the Kazon do not work very well as villains. But once the show realizes that, it begins an upward trajectory in quality that reminds me of Deep Space Nine after it began doing Dominion plots. And Seven of Nine’s effect on the crew dynamic lives up to the hype. Any scene between her and Janeway demonstrates such a unique relationship between captain and crewmate that an episode plot can be meh and still worth it for a scene with those two. Also, Janeway is the best captain character. No other Trek show (that I’ve seen so far) comes close to showing us the weight of leadership like Voyager, and Mulgrew constantly brings it.

The Next Generation - This is my first Trek show. It’s the one that my dad watched. There are several standout episodes to me, but I find myself less drawn to revisiting TNG than the other Trek shows because ultimately it took me too long to understand and care about its cast of characters. If you were to ask me to describe any character from any other Trek show, I would be able to. Ask me to describe a TNG character and I would likely fail to give any good adjectives for any character besides Data and Worf. As iconic as the show is, and as great as it became, it doesn’t have the same pull on me as other Trek shows. But it was the template for the spinoffs that followed, and the portrayal of Picard’s trauma post-Borg assimilation earns its reputation as an all-timer for me.

Movie Ranking

VI: The Undiscovered Country - I’m surprised this one isn’t talked about as much as other Trek movies. It’s a very frank depiction of prejudices and learning to deal with them. It has one of the best Kirk/Spock scenes ever. Christopher Plummer as a Klingon. The ORIGINAL cast credits sign-off (yes, Avengers: Endgame borrowed from this). A score that carefully balances menace with eventual hope. A fun whodunit structure. I could go on and on. It’s just so damn great, and so far the only successful send-off to a Trek crew in any of the movies.

II: The Wrath of Khan - It’s a classic for a reason. I’ve probably rewatched this more than any other Trek movie. You got your great villain, your classic crew beginning to deal with their mortality, an all-timer death scene, a kickass early James Horner score. What more could you want?

The Motion Picture - This is an interesting one. When I first watched it as a teen, I hated it. I agreed with every critique of it being thinly plotted and having an excessive runtime. When I revisited it in my 20s, it became a favorite. It’s Star Trek’s exploration of existential dread, and the struggle to find agency and identity within that dread. It has possibly Jerry Goldsmith’s greatest score. It is the best that the Enterprise has ever looked. This movie envelopes you with eerie and epic imagery, culminating in a finale with interesting philosophical ramifications and a well-earned return to optimism from its crew. This one is criminally underrated.

First Contact - This one is just rock solid all around. The best-ever TNG villains, further exploration of Picard’s trauma from Borg assimilation, Alfre Woodard, Alice Krige, fun action, the genesis of the Federation. It has the best balance of darkness and fun out of all of the Trek movies. It also has a character actually say the words “star trek” in a way that never ceases to make me smile. I don’t know if it’s a good line, but it’s funny regardless.

Beyond - Like The Motion Picture, I initially disliked this upon first viewing. I was still in the middle of watching The Original Series and was in the wrong mindset for this mashup of TOS and Fast & Furious. But it’s one of the most underrated Treks because it’s a perfect balance of the more kinetic action found in the 2010s with a very well-done breakdown of the inherent point and value of Star Trek: learning to be better and move beyond fighting the same battles among ourselves.

IV: The Voyage Home - This one is such a satisfying culmination of the crew’s arc starting in The Wrath of Khan that the joy of the 1980s material is almost just a bonus to me. Nimoy does a good job of keeping things light without disregarding stakes. He gets the best portrayal of the crew’s camaraderie in this and The Search for Spock. And Spock’s reaction to the concept of “exact change” always makes me laugh.

III: The Search for Spock - I revisited this one recently and it held up better than I expected. Seeing the weight of Spock’s death on Kirk in the beginning hits hard. Christopher Lloyd as the Klingon villain is casually one of the best Trek movie villains. And seeing the crew uniting over trying to bring back Spock gives us some of the best on-screen moments of this cast.

Star Trek - One of the reasons I love Beyond so much is that it retroactively makes this one better. I was crazy for this movie when it came out. I was in high school, Star Trek in general was something I was only really aware of because of my dad. But this is the thing that got me into Trek. And as mixed of a bag as it now plays to me, ‘09 Star Trek being a gateway for me to general Trek, combined with the perfect casting of the crew, the excellent Giacchino score, and the emotion of the opening sequence, thankfully makes this one still a blast to revisit.

Nemesis - I have only seen this twice, and both of those times without having seen TNG in its entirety. This was also the very first Trek movie I ever saw. Nostalgia is a factor for why this is higher than the others on the list. Curiosity is another, as I was unaware of Tom Hardy when I watched this, and have no idea what my opinion will be on rewatch. But what I always remembered of this movie was its ending, which even to a novice like myself when I first saw it had an impact.

Generations - There are quite a few great scenes that Stewart gets in this movie. Malcolm McDowell is also great in it. But the whole plot feels too forced for me to get actually swept up in it. And as fun as it is to see Shatner and Stewart share the screen... it ultimately has no impact and leads to a strangely lame death for Kirk.

Insurrection - The idea of Enterprise going rogue against the Federation for forcibly relocating a population for a natural resource is such a good concept... which makes the goofiness and half-baked writing of this entry all the more confusing. All the elements are there, but it feels like the tone was forced to be lighter than the material warranted. It’s frustrating because Frakes’ directing chops that he showed off on First Contact are still visible here. But for whatever reason, this one just falls apart.

Into Darkness - This one is low on the list mainly because it represents almost all the negative traits of the modern blockbuster to me. Darkness without depth, franchise callbacks without substance, and no character development/change by the end. Another reason why Beyond works better as a sequel to ‘09 Star Trek than this one is that Into Darkness feels more like it’s trying to make Star Trek a bigger movie franchise rather than develop this iteration of the Enterprise crew. Nothing and no one is changed by the end of this story.

V: The Final Frontier - It is the most difficult Trek movie to sit through, and yet I can’t call it a disaster. For all of its misfirings on the comedy front (dancing Uhura, for instance), the camping material with Kirk, Spock and McCoy is genuinely great. The premise of its villain being on a quest to find God is ultimately a misfire, but it leads to a very engagingly ridiculous climax centered around the question “What does God need with a starship?” There are far too many undeveloped ideas in this one, but that scene is worth seeing this movie for. At least, now that we know it didn’t kill the franchise, as so many apparently feared when this came out.

[sincerlypadfoot]

Curiosity Killed The Kat (2)

~After getting ready for Slughorn’s usual get together you wait and wait to be asked but go with Lily and Alice who are more than happy to bring you, after seeing Sirius dance with another girl does something to your heart

Word Count- 1587

Send Requests Here

“Wake up,” Sirius whispered in my ear, I stayed still for a second, being comfortable and really not wanting to move. “Wake up,” He hissed in my ear scaring me and causing me to lift my head up fast. “Bloody hell my nose,” He yelled moving his hands from my side and to his nose.

“I am so sorry,” I said sitting up and facing Sirus. “You scared me, I didn’t mean to do that,” I said not knowing what to do, still dressed up and wearing Sirius’ jacket.

“It’s okay, I don’t think you broke it,” Sirius mumbled in his hands, removing them to an aching nose. “I just wanted you to wake up, I have to pee,” He chuckled rolling himself off the couch and walked up the stairs, I sat there for a moment speechless and feeling bad.

I got up from the couch, looking into the mirror that laid across the room, my makeup was smooched and my dress was all kinds of tangles around my body and around the jacket, I was wearing.

“How hungover are you because I just tried flushing the toilet but turned the shower on,” Sirius chuckled walking down the stairs, his nose was a light shade of pink and his eyes were looking tired.

“I got the worst headache, what happened?” I asked rubbing my head. “And why does my head hurt?” I asked looking at Sirius who just smiled.

“Long story, pretty funny though,” He chuckled sitting back on the couch. “Lily made you a drink, I’m not sure how much you had but you were waisted out of your mind, I brought you back to the common room, before that you puked then tried to put your hand in my hair saying I had nice hair,” Sirius explained rubbing his forehead and putting his hands through his hair.

“Oh gosh I’m sorry,” I said shaking my head and smiling. “I don’t know what Lily gave me last night but it was more than I liked,” I huffed taking a breath. “Thank you for bringing me back to the common room last night,” I said walking over to Sirius. 

“Anytime Kat, you should go get changed, we have friends to deal with,” Sirius said tapping my shoulder and turning around, walking right back up to his room. I followed his acting, walking up to my room where everyone laid sleeping, Marlene with a boy and Lily with a boy, leaving Alice with Frank in Sirius’ room. 

I grabbed a black tank top and jeans with new everything and walked downstairs where Sirius was doing the same thing. 

“Alice in there?” I asked smiling. “Because I know where James, Lily, Marlene and some random are,” I chuckled looking at Sirius.

“Yeah, I’ve gotten somewhere for us to go, if you wanna change, little secret of mine,” Sirius said smile. “But it has to be our secret,” He said walking to the door. “You coming,” He asked causing me to nod my head and follow after him.

“Where is this secret spot of yours huh?” I asked following Sirius down the stairs that moved behind us and above us. “Didn’t think we were so far into sharing secrets,” I chuckled mentally facepalming myself.

“Over here, come on before we get caught,” Sirius whispered grabbing onto my wrist and pulling me into a room. “Here we are,” He said, I looked around the room with a smile.

“Where did you find this?” I asked looking around the room, it was a complete room of junk, random things were placed all over the place.

“Exploring the school, if you go over there to change there's a cover, you just stand behind it and change, there's two,” Sirius chuckled not letting go of my hand and pulling me over to the area he was talking about. “See,” He pointed at curtain changing courts.

“Well thank you, Sirius, it’ll be a relief getting out of this dress,” I chuckled letting go of his hand and moving behind one of the curtains. “Was the party fun last night, well it lasted with your date?” I asked stripping my clothes.

“It was fun until I was ditched, was it fun before you got almost blackout drunk?” Sirius said back making me laugh. I listened to him fumble around a bit

“No, didn’t have a date, wasn’t fun at all,” I chuckled tossing my clothes on. “Are you almost done, I’m done,” I asked picking up my dress from the ground and walking out. “Oh your shirtless,” I said covering my eyes and dropping my dress.

“What, you were standing behind there, I didn’t think I had to stand behind the other one,” Sirius chuckled, I kept my eyes closed. “I have a shirt on now Kat,” I uncovered my eyes and looked at the boy, he was wearing a black shirt and jeans, showing out his hair that was almost to his shoulders.

“Oh you need a haircut,” I joked walking over to Sirius and placing my hand in his hair. “We should head back to the common room, I’m glad we don’t have class today,” I chuckled walking towards the entrance of the room.

“Yeah me too, I don’t think I could make it in Slughorn's class today,” Sirius chuckled following me out. “You know we don’t hang out so much, do you wanna hang out today, we could just relax in the common room, or do something, explore that room, I haven’t really looked at anything in there yet,” Sirius said leaning against the wall.

“Are you asking me out on a date Sirius Black?” I asked raising my eyebrows at him, Sirius looked at me nervously and not knowing what to say. “Yes, I’ll go on a date with you,” I chuckled. “Let me go grab a couple things from my room and we could come back here,” I said waiting for Sirius to respond.

“Yeah, oh yeah me too,” Sirius said starting to walk, I quickly followed after him. “You know I’ve never asked a girl on a date before,” Sirius chuckled rubbing the back of his neck. 

“You’ve never asked a girl on a date, Sirius Black?” I asked looking at him and holding onto the railings. “I’ve seen you snog over a hundred girls and you’ve never asked one on a date?” I asked shocked.

“Well no, all those girls were just for the reason of snogging and having a good time, they didn’t show much interest in me once I showed interested in them more than snogging,” Sirius chuckled feeling hurt in his voice, we walked into the common room a couple seconds later.

“Girls are stupid,” I chuckled putting my hand on Sirius’ shoulder. “I just have to run up to my room and grab a couple things, I’ll see you back down here in a couple minutes okay,” I said taking my hand off Sirius.

“I’ll see you in a couple of minutes then,” Sirius said walking up to his room, we walked opposite ways. “Cover-up!” I heard Sirius shout making me chuckle.

“Goodmorning,” I shouted walking into our room. “Rise and shine, good morning,” I said against tossing my dress onto the dresser.

“What are you doing?” Lily mumbled, I looked over at her, her faced was shoved into James' chest then sat up. “Oh my god James,” Lily shouted waking the sleeping boy up.

“Oh my Merlin,” James said sitting up shirtless, waking up Marlene and the boy who sat in her bed. “I’m just gonna go,” James whispered looking at Lily with a smile then crawling out of Lily's bed and walking out.

“You go girl,” I chuckled digging around my drawers and pulling out my wand. “I have a date, I'll see you guys later,” I chuckled looking at Marlene and winking at her. “I’m here,” I said walking down the stairs, Sirius was sitting on the couch and with James.

“I’ll talk to you later James, have fun with the hangover,” Sirius chuckled patting James bear shoulder and standing up. “Come on, we should get going,” Sirius said smiling, he looked back at James who looked at us with his head curved. “Come on,” Sirius chuckled grabbing my hand and dragging me out of the common room.

“So Lily and James,” I chuckled remembering last night. “Didn’t think that would ever happen, well I guess they did go to Slughorns party together,” I said turning the corner with Sirius.

“Yeah well, it was kinda obvious, they wouldn’t stop looking at each other and just laughing and passing notes,” Sirius chuckled opening the door to the junk room. “Where first?” He asked looking around the junk-filled room.

“Well, we could see who could find the funnier thing, I’m sure there are many things we could find,” I suggested looking around. Sirius and I took of Searching and looking around.

“Oh god,” Sirius shouted letting out a cough. “Kat get over here, I found something!” Sirius shouted, I took my head out of the basket I was digging through and ran over to Sirius.

“Move, I’ve got it, I brought my wand,” I said pulling Sirius away from the cabinet he was trying to pull out. “Accio Cabinet,”  I shouted moving the cabinet with my wand and placing it in front of us. “What's in the cabinet so badly?” I asked opening it up.

“Watch this!” Sirius excitedly said jumping into the cabinet and closing it. I waited a couple seconds.

“Sirius?” I asked opening the cabinet door. “What the hell?” I shouted looking at an empty cabinet. I shut the cabinet and opened it back up and Sirius sat there with a smile on his face.

[roseskiesandbutterflies]

Killer Queen - Chapter 10: Dreamers Ball

Summary: Life is easy when things go your way. I know this from experience. I also know that that can disappear in an instant and that you have to be able to rely on your friends. Luckily my name is Arabella Ruth White and I’m the fifth marauder. But I want to show you the girl behind the mask. It takes a lot of work to be this fabulous, darling. (This story is also on Wattpad and AO3 of the same name.)

A/N: So, I recently binge-read all of Lore Olympus on Webtoons and if you haven’t read it, then I highly recommend it. It’s about the Greek Gods (mainly Persephone and Hades) but it deals with some mature themes just to warn you. The chapter title comes from Queen’s 1978 album, Jazz.

Warning(s): alcohol, drugs, swearing, implied sex

Word Count: 4.3k+ (this was one word off of being 4400 words so that’s annoying)

Inspiration: random headcanons I found on Tumblr and Pinterest, The Boy Who Killed God by SeraMGrigori on AO3, All The Young Dudes by MsKingBean89 on AO3, Sweet Things by Cocomouse on AO3

Taglist: @bhmay @briarrose26

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Throwing a birthday ball might just have been my best idea thus far, if I did say so myself, and it hadn’t even started yet. I was gradually walking through the doors of the Great Hall, embracing my dramatic entrance for every little millisecond that it was worth. All eyes were on me, as they should be since it was my birthday and I bloody love attention, and suddenly I understood what brides must feel like when they walk down the aisle. The train of my sparkling golden gown trailed along behind me, leaving a stream of glitter in my wake. It had been both a style choice and a way to infuriate Filch when he had to clean it up. Have fun with that, you miserable bastard. The Great Hall was decorated from top to bottom in gold, gold streamers, gold glitter, gold balloons. It was akin to the Emerald City from The Wizard Of Oz but, well, gold. Anyone who was anyone was among the crowd watching me, providing they were at least a fifth year; I didn’t want little kids at my birthday party, thank you very much. The only ones I would even consider would be Rhea and Luke, but they weren’t at Hogwarts yet and right now, I was grateful for that. As far as I could see, everyone had a glass of amber-coloured liquid in their hand, which I assumed was butterbeer for the far majority of people in the hall. Some minuscule part of me wanted to squirm under all of the attention, but I suppressed it as best as I could. I had a reputation to keep up, after all.

You may be wondering how on earth I got access to the Great Hall for my birthday party, and honestly, I can’t blame you for pondering such a thing. It had been a complete stroke of luck which had come in the form of good old Minnie McGee. I’d been explaining my plan for the ball to the lads during one breakfast back in September, yes my plans for it have been in the works for that long what are you going to do about it, and Minnie had overhead while she was walking past our usual spot. I’m quite sure she has some kind of hearing superpower, even though that particular sense should be decaying with her old age rather than growing. And just in case you’ve somehow found this, naturally, I mean no offence, Minerva, so please don’t give me another detention I really don’t want one please and thank you. She’d then gone on to offer the Great Hall for the party but with three conditions. One, she could go and bring Dumbledore as her ‘date’, two, we served nothing stronger than butterbeer and three, we actually worked hard for our OWLs which were just around the corner. Initially, we all thought that she was joking but it turned out that she was deadly serious (naturally Sirius had interrupted her with his classic pun) and that she was, in fact, rather looking forward to going to a party for the first time in a while. James had then asked if she was on drugs, because quite frankly this was one of the nicest things she had ever done for us, and she came very close to whacking him upside the head for even suggesting such a thing. But she never actually denied it, so I still secretly think she does weed. I don’t know about you, but I can most certainly see it.

Now, as you’d expect, I was rather disappointed at Minnie’s suggestion of a near total absence of alcohol, but it hadn’t been long before Sirius, always searching for an excuse to drink to the point where I often wondered if he was addicted, had suggested something quite marvellous: an afterparty. Such a seemingly straightforward idea quickly turned into something so much more. We decided to hold it later on in the night in the Room of Requirement, and only the elite people knew about it and, subsequently, invited. And by ‘elite’, I mean the male specimens I call friends, the females who I love and cherish and a couple of other people. And that was bound to be very much alcohol-fuelled. As long as I had that to look forward to, I could endure a much more age-appropriate evening, just not for too long.

Finally, I reached the platform where the teachers would usually sit during meals, and bear in mind that I had been milking the moment for way longer than necessary, so this did take some time. I cleared my throat for effect before speaking in an impossibly posh voice, “Thank you all for attending my ball this evening. I won’t talk for too long because I would hate to bore you to tears, I’ll leave that job to Professor Binns. Now, Minnie, don’t look at me like that, we all know it’s true. Look, even Dumbledore agrees with me and you can’t argue with Dumbledore. Moving on, I would like to say a couple of things so entertain me for a moment. One, if any of you are caught drinking anything stronger than butterbeer, then I will happily leave you to face the wrath of our dear Minerva on your own, I have no intention of arguing with any teacher tonight.” A few giggles rippled throughout the crowd as well as a few pouty faces from people who were doing a shockingly awful job at hiding mini bottles of firewhiskey behind their backs. It wasn’t my problem, I did say this on the invites I sent out, if they chose to go against that then they would deal with the consequences, not me. I continued, “Two, I hope you all enjoy yourselves tonight and remember, it ends at precisely eleven o’clock, which means don’t hang around. Frank and Alice, I’m looking at you.” The couple in question blushed furiously and Alice gave me a death stare that could rival the one I get from Remus when I gather enough courage to steal some of his chocolate. I then clapped twice to signal the official start of the ball and music began to blast from the speakers I’d linked up to my record player which was enchanted to start playing a record whenever I clapped my hands.

It took a second, but people were soon dancing and mingling and doing whatever else people do at parties. I made a beeline straight for the boys but ignored their greetings, instead, I grabbed two, I wasn’t sure which ones, and, hoping that they were all following if they weren’t being dragged, marched over to the drinks table. I let go of whoever I had been holding to pour myself a much-needed butterbeer, but in a wine glass because I’m classy like that, leaving two boys to rub their arms in pain.

“Bloody hell, Ruth, you could have just asked us to come with you, that really wasn’t necessary,” Remus muttered as he got his own drink.

“Why is your grip that damn strong?” James pouted, whining like the little child that he is.

Sirius just smirked evilly, “I think we all know where she gets her practice with her grip.”

Naturally, I wasn’t going to have that, so I swatted him on the arm as if he was a fly, but then I decided that that just wasn’t enough, so I kicked him in the shin. Not too hard because I was feeling nice for some strange reason, but you get the idea. He then howled suspiciously like a dog, causing us all to give him strange looks that pretty much read dude what the fuck.

Sirius, then desperate to change the subject to literally anything else, went on to ask, “Ruth, are Snivellus and his mates supposed to be here? Because I don’t have a problem with physically throwing them out,” he shrugged.

I sighed, knowing my response wasn’t going to be immensely popular amongst the group. I muttered quietly, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes, “I invited them.” As expected, I was met with outcries and protests from the cloud of testosterone surrounding me, such as but they’re such pricks and why would you want to infect your own party with the human equivalent of the goddamn plague, so I was quick to defend myself, “I didn’t want to! It’s just that Lily said that she wouldn’t go if I didn’t at least give Snivellus the option. But then I worried that he’d hang around Lily the whole time, and I wasn’t going to allow that, so I invited a couple of his friends too. I didn’t think they’d actually show up though,” I peered over Peter’s shoulder to observe him talking to Lily, grimacing at his choice of outfit if you could even call that monstrosity an outfit. I’d specified in the invites that you had to wear muggle ballgown-wear and you had to make it yourself using magic. I guess blood supremacists don’t even want to wear muggle-style clothes these days. They really are that shallow and it surprised me how Lily couldn’t see that.

Sirius huffed and made a comment that sounded like it should have come from James’s mouth instead of his, “Fine, but only because Lily is a treasure and I’m also terrified to death of her.” When he was met with blank stares for the second time in five minutes, he blushed furiously, only just clocking what he had just revealed.

I smirked at him, “Since when were you such good friends with my dear Lily?”

It was just a widely accepted fact that the girls weren’t huge fans of the boys, and while those attitudes weren’t reciprocated by the other side, it was practically unheard of for the girls to be anything more than civil with the boys. Well, only if you don’t count Lily and Remus’s strange friendship. I’d often promoted a union of sorts between my two friendship groups, holding out in my firm belief that some epic bonds could be formed if they just tried, but I was usually shot down with objections of but they’re arrogant toe rags. I think that that’s complete and utter bullshit but each to their own, I guess. I just carried on in the hope that one day they’d come round and see how silly they were being.

While James was appearing to have a mental breakdown right there and then, Sirius slowly explained, “Since a couple of weeks ago? I went down to the common room because I couldn’t sleep and I found Lily and she looked quite upset, so I asked her what was wrong, thinking she would just tell me to piss off or something, but she just burst into tears and she told me a lot of stuff that I won’t tell you because I think it’s private. Anyway, long story short, we had a rather profound conversation at two in the morning, followed by a couple of games of chess because neither of us wanted to go back to bed. We’ve had some rather thought-provoking conversations in Charms because we sit next to each other this year. She’s actually really cool.”

I grinned broadly at him, “This is what I’ve been trying to tell you for four whole years!” We then high-fived because why the fuck not. Remus gave us a look of wholehearted betrayal, which is understandable because he had been assisting me in my quest to get them to appreciate Lily properly, so I gave him a high-five too, and so did Sirius. Then Peter and James high-fived for no reason other than they were feeling left out, as they should be. So, we all looked like fucking crackheads already but that was to be expected of us.

“Anyway, just because Sniv is allowed to be here, doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to fight him the second he does something fucked up, right?” Sirius asked.

“You and I both know you’ll fuck him up regardless of whether I allow it or not, so yes, yes you can. In fact, please do.”

***************

By around midnight we were drunk off our asses in the Room of Requirement, the civilisation of the ball long gone. It was total carnage, although you probably worked that one out for yourself, but it wasn’t all bad seeing as my two friend groups don’t try to murder each other every five seconds when under the influence of my lovely friend alcohol. Most of us were sprawled out on various sofas, still in our ball attire, with Hunky Dory playing on my record player at a much lower volume because our drunk asses couldn’t deal with too much noise. I was lying on a sofa with my head in Marlene’s lap and my feet in Dorcas’s while James and Peter shared a sofa. Alice and Frank were, as I had predicted earlier on, making out in some darkened corner, thinking that they were being subtle because no one was gawping at them. In reality, the only reason we all refused to look was because they were being more than a bit gross and no one wanted to see that, to be frank. Pun absolutely intended. Dorcas didn’t drink because of her religion, which meant she was the only sober one in the room, and that meant it was her job to make sure we didn’t get ourselves killed or anything like that. Lily was actually a bit tipsy, but only due to Sirius’s incessant nagging that she was missing out on the finer things in life. I mean there were certainly finer things than knock-off elf wine we smuggled in from Hogsmeade, but Lily didn’t need to know that. Meanwhile, Sirius was stumbling on a table he’d conjured for this exact reason, wearing Marlene’s stiletto heels and ranting about society’s many problems as he usually did when drunk. Tonight’s topic was for discussion was feminism.

“But why is the world like this? We shouldn’t just accept it for how it is! Shouldn’t we try and change it or something?” he slurred, finishing his drink and promptly refilling it with his wand. Several amens could be heard from almost everyone in the room, as is what happened every time Sirius made a point. It was strongly reminiscent of the church service my mum would drag me along to from time to time.

“Sirius, not that I don’t agree with you, but maybe you should get down before you break your neck?” Lily suggested, looking at him in sheer terror.

He just pouted down at her, “I will only get down when the patriarchy falls, and you girls don’t have to live in fear of boys who have the audacity to call themselves men!”

“If a boy comes anywhere near me, I’ll just smack him round the face, I don’t give a shit,” I piped up, swinging my hand around as if I was actually punching someone, and coming very close to actually hitting Marlene in the face.

“That’s alright though because self-defence and shit,” James grinned at me, running over to clink his glass against mine, then running back to his sofa and sitting down as if nothing happened, leaving me confused, to say the least.

“Has anyone seen Remus?” Sirius suddenly changed the subject. When all he got in response was shrugs and confused looks, he started walking up and down the table like it was a catwalk, shouting, “Remus! Remus, where are you, you little shit? Remu-” he suddenly fell straight off of the table but stood up and brushed himself off as if he hadn’t just nearly died, “Reeeeeeemuuuuuuuus!”

“I think he’s with Idania. I don’t know where though,” Peter offered.

Marlene and I gave each other a knowing look and bumped arms, “I think we all know what they’re getting up to,” she raised an eyebrow at me suggestively.

“Ooooooh, Remus you saucy boy,” I snorted, making James cackle so much that he fell off of his chair and also making Lily fake-vomit so much that I was seriously expecting her to actually throw up right there and then.

I think it’s important to update you on the whole Idania-Remus situation. It’s been a tricky one, I won’t lie to you about that. They only started talking again a couple of days ago, making it nearly three weeks of silent treatment from both parties. Even I thought that that was a bit much, and we all know that I can be a dramatic little shit at the best of times. After copious amounts of persuasion from us, way more than would have been necessary if he wasn’t a stubborn bastard, a rather miserable Remus had finally apologised for some things he’d said in the heat of the argument that he hadn’t really meant. He didn’t disclose exactly what he’d said, but I have to be honest, I was just glad that he got over himself and talked to her because it was painful to sit behind them in History of Magic while they were being that damn ridiculous. Not only had he said that he was sorry, but he’d wanted to do something for her to show her how sorry he was. He’d done some research, which meant he’d spent twelve hours straight in the library. James, forever the mother hen of the group, was far from pleased to find out that he’d missed two whole meals, so naturally, that had led to him lecturing poor Remus on the importance of eating properly. He argued that that it doesn’t matter that it’s for love, you need to eat, for Merlin’s sake, which was saying something when you remember how James was a closeted romantic himself. He’d eventually found a spell that was a variant on the translation spells Peter was rather fond of for uncomplicated pranks. Usually with those spells, you speak whatever you mean to say in English, but when it comes out, everyone hears the language you’re cursed to speak. This one, however, worked with sign language; he would say what he wanted to say, and his hands would automatically sign what he’s saying. It didn’t solve everything, he still had to keep studying the language so he could understand Idania, but it was a sure start, and a massive help for the both of them. According to Remus when he’d returned to tell us how it went, she’d been so grateful that she’d almost started crying, though she denied it every time we asked her about it.

While I had been simultaneously amusing and horrifying my friends with mental images of Remus doing unholy things, Sirius had been on a mission to find him, and seemed to have returned triumphant. At some point, he must have left the room even though I had no memory of seeing him leave, as he was now dragging Remus behind him by the hand, who was dragging Idania somewhat gentler. “I found them!” he proclaimed with a stupid grin on his face, in a way similar to how a child would announce such a thing.

“Yeah, no shit Sherlock,” Peter muttered with no actual malice behind his words.

“You’re welcome, Pete,” Sirius bowed but then stumbled forwards, crashing headfirst onto the ground. He didn’t bother getting up, choosing to sit cross-legged on the floor once he got his bearings.

Lily plonked herself down next to him and gazed at him quizzically, “Why are you saying, ‘you’re welcome’, when you’re the one who wanted to know where they were?”

He covered her mouth with his hand to prevent her from speaking, “Shhh, Lily-flower, shhh.”

She scowled at him while Marlene mouthed ‘Lily-flower’ at me in confusion. I just shrugged, desperately trying not to laugh at James who was clearly dying of embarrassment while trying to hide from Lily. We once heard him murmur the nickname in his sleep during our second year, and even though he hasn’t said it since, we refused to let him forget it. Lily must have licked Sirius’s hand or something for he retracted his hand as quickly as he would if he’d had an electric shock, wiping it on his trousers while staring at her in disgust and betrayal. Lily didn’t show an inch of sympathy towards his pain.

“So, what were you two actually doing?” Dorcas asked, directing the conversation back to Idania and Remus.

Idania smirked evilly and looked up at Remus, looking awfully glad that she didn’t have to be the one to explain. I still thought they hooked up finally, but Remus didn’t look nearly as mortified as I imagined he would.

Remus opened his mouth to speak but Lily cut him off, “I can smell weed.”

“How the fuck do you of all people know what weed smells like?” I laughed.

She glared at me in a way that had me quaking in my heels, “Please, you know what Cokeworth’s like, so you can trust me when I say I know what weed smells like.” I had to give it to her, that town wasn’t exactly the poshest in the UK, and I would know seeing as I used to live in the damn place.

We locked eyes for a second, then slowly looked up at Remus and Idania’s slightly guilty but overall chilled-out faces.

Well shit.

Once it clicked in my head as to what they had been doing, I started giggling uncontrollably for a good minute, and everyone else started looking at me really worriedly. I can’t say I blamed them if I’m honest, I did look like something of a lunatic. I quickly put the spell that Remus had found on myself, suddenly feeling really bad that Idania probably didn’t have much of an idea of what had just been said.

“Idania, how dare you corrupt our sweet, innocent Remus?” I laughed, shaking my head like a disapproving parent.

“Excuse you, Remus hasn’t been innocent since before he met us,” James grinned lopsidedly.

“I wasn’t that innocent before I met you,” the boy in question tried to defend himself, only to be met with about seven people saying, ‘you were’.

“Anyway, that’s beside the point. The point is you smoked weed?” I asked incredulously.

“Don’t look at me like that!” he said, “It’s not that big of a deal, no one really cares about that kind of thing these days, well not in the muggle world at least. Live a little, Ruth.”

“That doesn’t make it any less weird that it’s coming from you, mate,” James shook his head.

“But here’s the question nobody else is brave enough to ask, apparently,” Marlene raised a finger and then pointed it at the couple, “Is it nice? And if so, may we have some?”

Most of us, excluding Dorcas and Lily, made some sort of noise of agreement to which Remus just laughed, “Well, it’s Idania’s, not mine, so it’s up to her really…” he trailed off, leaving his girlfriend to make up her mind.

I didn’t actually know much sign language, except for the odd word or phrase I’d picked up (naturally fuck off was on of them), but whatever Idania had signed in response put a devilish smirk on Remus’s face that was all too familiar, “I think that’s a yes, just not too much. Ida doesn’t think you’ll be able to handle it.” The girl in question lightly breathed through her nose, which I’d come to learn was her laugh.

I gaped at her with mock outrage on my face, “I am offended but at least I’ll get to try some, right?”

A couple of blunts went round during the next however long we were high for, while Lily and, to some extent, Dorcas looked on disapprovingly. I think it’s safe to say that the concept of time was non-existent for the rest of the night. I have to say it was one of the most relaxing yet insane experiences I’ve ever had, and it wasn’t long until long after it had worn off did I start to wonder how Idania had access to that kind of thing. She must have been even more of a badass than we first thought.

When I had first started holding parties like these last year, I had made an offer to Dorcas which had involved me making drinks that had no alcohol in them but still had the same effect. She’d been grateful for the suggestion, but she’d pointed out that doing that kind of defeats the whole point of not drinking alcohol in the first place. We’d then settled on making non-alcoholic drinks that still tasted like their alcoholic counterparts but had no effect whatsoever, and we were constantly trying different recipes. Word caught soon after we started, and our non-alcoholic drinks were in almost as high demand as the alcoholic black market I’d created with the boys. They proved to be popular among students who either didn’t want to or weren’t allowed to drink, but didn’t want to miss out on a party or something like that, as well as older students who needed a form of stress relief from their exams, but didn’t want to develop some kind of addiction. I couldn’t blame them, seeing as they used to drink a lot as a really unhealthy coping mechanism. I’d much rather they drink something else, so I was glad to have been of service. As you can imagine, the business really boomed around springtime.

“You know, trying to keep track of you all is like herding a load of cats,” she huffed, taking a sip of her not-quite-firewhiskey.

“Hey, Dorcas,” I mumbled in the most serious voice I could muster, which was quite the feat considering I was both drunk and high at that point. She leaned in to listen, only to hear me say, “Meow.”

Her brows furrowed sceptically, “Meow?”

I nodded, not breaking my composure though I desperately wanted to just dissolve into giggles like a child, “Meow. Because you said we’re cats.”

Dorcas sighed with a resigned look on her face,” Sure, Ari.”

A chorus of meows sounded throughout the room, much to Dorcas’s confusion and exasperation. I could only imagine what it must be like to have to deal with all of us unaided when we were like this.

A/N: By the way, I’m not trying to promote the use of drugs, personally I think things like marijuana should be decriminalised but that’s a story for another day. Just to remind you, this is set in 1975 at the moment, which means that drugs were more common, and more people did things like weed. It makes more sense when you consider the context. Also, they’re only human, shit like this happens.

[tocinephile]

The Morning After - Oscars 2019 Edition

My favourite photo from the 91st Academy Awards

My two favourite moments from last night’s Oscars are better represent in audio, those being Olivia Coleman’s speech when she won Best Actress over the heavily favoured Glenn Close, and when Rayka Zehtabchi exclaimed “I can’t believe a film on menstruation won an Oscar!”

It was fun keeping up with everyone’s reactions and remarks during the awards, and chiming in with many of my own even though I do, as always, find the speed of twitter a little breakneck. Also friends and colleagues who, knowing that I’m a big movie buff, came by or message me to discuss last night’s show.  At times we got animated enough that random passerbys and company VPs felt the need to chime in, which is the best gathering of the minds possible in my world.

Here’s a list of the winners and what I thought of each recipient:

Best Picture

“Black Panther” “BlacKkKlansman” “Bohemian Rhapsody” “The Favourite” “Green Book” (WINNER) “Roma” “A Star Is Born” “Vice”

While not entirely classy of Spike Lee to turn his back when Green Book was announced, he was able to joke about it later that every time a film about driving was pit against his own film, he would lose to it (Do the Right Thing lost to Driving Miss Daisy) My silver lining was knowing that TIFF audiences picked yet another Best Picture winner.  We do have quite a track record, don’t we? I really thought the Academy was going to make a different type of history in diversity by awarding a foreign film (Roma) with Best Picture. Or at least Black Panther, that would’ve been cool too.

Director

Spike Lee, “BlacKkKlansman” Pawel Pawlikowski, “Cold War” Yorgos Lanthimos, “The Favourite” Alfonso Cuarón, “Roma” (WINNER) Adam McKay, “Vice”

I agree with this win.

Lead Actress

Yalitza Aparicio, “Roma” Glenn Close, “The Wife” Olivia Colman, “The Favourite” (WINNER) Lady Gaga, “A Star Is Born” Melissa McCarthy, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”

I was ecstatic to have guessed wrong in my Oscar picks for this category.  Both Olivia Coleman and Glenn Close were such strong contenders (as was Melissa McCarthy).  Glenn Close carried her film, Olivia Coleman elevated her already very good movie to another level.

Lead Actor

Christian Bale, “Vice” Bradley Cooper, “A Star Is Born” Willem Dafoe, “At Eternity’s Gate” Rami Malek, “Bohemian Rhapsody” (WINNER) Viggo Mortensen, “Green Book”

It’s nice that Rami Malek won, and I guessed he would. But I think Christian Bale was still better.

Original Song

“All The Stars” from “Black Panther” by Kendrick Lamar, SZA “I’ll Fight” from “RBG” by Diane Warren, Jennifer Hudson “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from “Mary Poppins Returns” by Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman “Shallow” from “A Star Is Born” by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt and Benjamin Rice (WINNER) “When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings” from “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” by David Rawlings and Gillian Welch

I don’t think any other song legitimately had a chance. 

Original Score

“BlacKkKlansman,” Terence Blanchard “Black Panther,” Ludwig Goransson (WINNER) “If Beale Street Could Talk,” Nicholas Britell “Isle of Dogs,” Alexandre Desplat “Mary Poppins Returns,” Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman

One last time I’ll say this: Where was First Man? After not seeing it on the list I really had no one to root for.

Adapted Screenplay

“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” Joel Coen , Ethan Coen “BlacKkKlansman,” Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee (WINNER) “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty “If Beale Street Could Talk,” Barry Jenkins “A Star Is Born,” Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters

I think a writing Oscar is an excellent award for Spike Lee to win. I’m rarely familiar with the original story vs its adaptation, therefore it’s hard to say who did the best job of adapting their source material.  That said, any way you slice it, BlacKkKlansman was a great script.

Original Screenplay

“The Favourite,” Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara “First Reformed,” Paul Schrader “Green Book,” Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly (WINNER) “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón “Vice,” Adam McKay

While I put my money on Green Book, I can’t fathom why anyone would think it’s a better script than The Favourite nor Vice (I didn’t see First Reformed, and I think Roma is at least on par with Green Book) Destroyer was an original script right? I’m personally disappointed it wasn’t up for any writing awards.

Live Action Short Film

“Detainment,” Vincent Lambe “Fauve,” Jeremy Comte “Marguerite,” Marianne Farley “Mother,” Rodrigo Sorogoyen “Skin,” Guy Nattiv (WINNER)

I didn’t watch any of the shorts this year.

Visual Effects

“Avengers: Infinity War” “Christopher Robin” “First Man” (WINNER) “Ready Player One” “Solo: A Star Wars Story”

Again, please to be wrong in this category.  If anything I would have said First Man stood out more in audio achievement, but visual effects were also excellent and I’m glad the film got at least one Oscar because it is such a fine technical achievement.

Documentary Short Subject

“Black Sheep,” Ed Perkins “End Game,” Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman “Lifeboat,” Skye Fitzgerald “A Night at the Garden,” Marshall Curry “Period. End of Sentence.,” Rayka Zehtabchi (WINNER)

Amazing acceptance speech.  I want to see this now.

Animated Short

“Animal Behaviour,” Alison Snowden, David Fine “Bao,” Domee Shi (WINNER) “Late Afternoon,” Louise Bagnall “One Small Step,” Andrew Chesworth, Bobby Pontillas “Weekends,” Trevor Jimenez

Also a fine, inspiring acceptance speech by Domee Shi. I didn’t see any other shorts but I did watch Bao several times over and my Torontonian pride swelled when it won.  Growing up Asian, there’s a lot of embedded humour in this short as well, the husband character is still my absolute favourite. 

Animated Feature

“Incredibles 2,” Brad Bird “Isle of Dogs,” Wes Anderson “Mirai,” Mamoru Hosoda “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” Rich Moore, Phil Johnston “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman (WINNER)

I really gotta see this movie.

Supporting Actor

Mahershala Ali, “Green Book” (WINNER) Adam Driver, “BlacKkKlansman” Sam Elliott, “A Star Is Born” Richard E. Grant, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” Sam Rockwell, “Vice”

As expected. Though Richard E Grant is still my favourite, anyone catch his interview with Ryan Seacrest on the red carpet? And how he’s besties with Melissa McCarthy now? Love it.

Film Editing

“BlacKkKlansman,” Barry Alexander Brown “Bohemian Rhapsody,” John Ottman (WINNER) “Green Book,” Patrick J. Don Vito “The Favourite,” Yorgos Mavropsaridis “Vice,” Hank Corwin

Fixing up a film in editing doesn’t warrant it as best edited film of the year! I cannot believe Bohemain Rhapsody won in this category. Especially again films such as The Favourite and Vice, the former’s editing has a hand in shaping its visual mastery, the latter is entirely built from the art of editing. What the hell?

Foreign Language Film

“Capernaum” (Lebanon) “Cold War” (Poland) “Never Look Away” (Germany) “Roma” (Mexico) (WINNER) “Shoplifters” (Japan)

Capernaum was still better ;) 

Sound Mixing

“Black Panther,” Steve Boeddeker, Brandon Proctor and Peter Devlin “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Paul Massey, Tim Cavagin and John Casali (WINNER) “First Man,” Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Ai-Ling Lee and Mary H. Ellis “Roma,” Skip Lievsay, Craig Henighan and José Antonio García “A Star Is Born,” Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic, Jason Ruder and Steve Morrow

-and- 

Sound Editing

“Black Panther,” Benjamin A. Burtt, Steve Boeddeker “Bohemian Rhapsody,” John Warhurst (WINNER) “First Man,” Ai-Ling Lee, Mildred Iatrou Morgan “A Quiet Place,” Ethan Van der Ryn, Erik Aadahl “Roma,” Sergio Diaz, Skip Lievsay

Just because a film is about music doesn’t automatically qualify it for best sound! Have all the Academy voters gone out of their mind??? If you’re gonna go by that misguided logic then at least give it to A Star is  Born. It’s been a day and I still can’t fathom how anyone could think the sound editing of Bohemian Rhapsody is better than First Man, A Quiet Place, and Roma!

Cinematography

“Cold War,” Lukasz Zal “The Favourite,” Robbie Ryan “Never Look Away,” Caleb Deschanel “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón (WINNER) “A Star Is Born,” Matthew Libatique

This was a pretty stacked category and Alfonso Cuaron did make a beautiful looking film. I don’t know if it was more striking that Cold War or The Favourite, but all in all he did deserve the win.

Production Design

“Black Panther,” Hannah Beachler (WINNER) “First Man,” Nathan Crowley, Kathy Lucas “The Favourite,” Fiona Crombie, Alice Felton “Mary Poppins Returns,” John Myhre, Gordon Sim “Roma,” Eugenio Caballero, Bárbara Enrı́quez

Fine. At least it wasn’t Roma, and I get that more often than not the period film usually wins it, so it’s cool to shake it up. The Favourite is still my fav.

Costume Design

“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” Mary Zophres “Black Panther,” Ruth E. Carter (WINNER) “The Favourite,” Sandy Powell “Mary Poppins Returns,” Sandy Powell “Mary Queen of Scots,” Alexandra Byrne

Again, I like The Favourite more.

Makeup and Hairstyling

“Border,” Göran Lundström and Pamela Goldammer “Mary Queen of Scots,” Jenny Shircore, Marc Pilcher and Jessica Brooks “Vice,” Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe and Patricia Dehaney (WINNER)

I’d have been surprised if anyone else won.

Documentary Feature

“Free Solo,” Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (WINNER) “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” RaMell Ross “Minding the Gap,” Bing Liu “Of Fathers and Sons,” Talal Derki “RBG,” Betsy West, Julie Cohen

:) That’s the one I picked.

Supporting Actress

Amy Adams, “Vice” Marina de Tavira, “Roma” Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk” (WINNER) Emma Stone, “The Favourite” Rachel Weisz, “The Favourite”

I preferred Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone’s performances. Amy Adams even.

So, that’s it for awards season 2019. I did pitiful in my predictions this year because I was way off on the technical awards, not to mention some big ones too like Best Picture. 

I’ll wrap it up by recommending that you watch First Man (with a good sound set up as it is superb technical, has a great score, and supporting actress Claire Foy), Destroyer (for its story and Nicole Kidman), The Hate U Give (that delivers a much stronger message than Green Book ever will), and Beautiful Boy (where supporting actor Timothee Chalamet actually has a sizable role).

[curioushearted-blog]

all the texts ???

Send “✆” for a MORNING text. 

Arthur Weasley to Kingsley Shacklebolt: studying right now sounds like a horrid ideaArthur Weasley: its 9am on a saturday im not awake

Send “✉” for a text that WASN’T SENT. 

Arthur Weasley to Kingsley Shacklebolt: Has Emma ever mentioned me?

Send “☎” for a RUSHED text. 

Arthur Weasley to Kingsley Shacklebolt: merlin’s bollocks kingsley im serious dont tell himArthur Weasley: i swear if i hear that frank challenged pringle to a duel for my honour im blaming you im fine i’ll be out of eht hosp wing by the end of today

Send “⁇” for a DRUNK text.

Arthur Weasley to fun people and kingsley: its been a FAANTSTIC run, lads!Arthur Weasley: im leavin kingsley in charge of you lot now that im graduating

Send “✿” for a SUGGESTIVE text. 

Arthur Weasley to Kingsley Shacklebolt: It’s your choice whether or not you want to go, but all I’m saying is that Molly is making shepherd’s pie and apple turnovers...

Send “ø” for a LATE NIGHT text.

Arthur Weasley to Kingsley Shacklebolt: Yes, the next meeting is on Tuesday.Arthur Weasley: Yes, Charlie woke me up and I can’t go to back to sleep.

Send “✘” for a HATEFUL text.

Arthur Weasley to Kingsley Shacklebolt: And he parades around like some sort of bloody peacock, as if all of us are peasants and he’s a king.Arthur Weasley: But Malfoy’s practically a child. I was married and had CHILDREN OF MY OWN before he went through puberty, for goodness sake! Honestly, what a tosser. Bad morals and bad manners.

Send “#” for a RANDOM text.

Arthur Weasley to Kingsley Shacklebolt: Free biscuits in the atrium todayArthur Weasley: Right to the left of the lifts

Send “@” for a SCARED text.

Arthur Weasley to Kingsley Shacklebolt: Sometimes I wonder if I made the right choice

Send “&” for a LOVING text.

Arthur Weasley to Kingsley Shacklebolt: You’re really full of surprises, you know that?Arthur Weasley: And not because you’re so successful, because you are. You’ve just got this sense of calm around you that soothes other people, and then when someone really gets to know you, you’re actually quite dorky. And you actually don’t take yourself all that seriously.

Send “%” for a CURIOUS text.

Arthur Weasley to Kingsley Shacklebolt: And you’re sure that’s what you heard?Arthur Weasley: Good gracious, things must be getting worse than I thought. Maybe it’s time to start putting protective wards on the Burrow. 

Send “ツ” for an EXCITED text.

Arthur Weasley to Kingsley Shacklebolt: I’m not joking! I found TEN of them.Arthur Weasley: Granted, all of the film castanets were from a muggle recycler bin, but that’s besides the point.

Send “$” for an ACCIDENTAL text.

Arthur Weasley to fredingslur: Yes, but Frank doesn’t know that.Arthur Weasley: Damn. This is the group chat, isn’t it? 

Send “♀” for a HEARTBREAKING text. 

Arthur Weasley to Kingsley Shacklebolt: I always knew there was a price in joining the Order.Arthur Weasley: I just didn’t know it’d be so high.Arthur Weasley: And the worst part is that the moment I heard about Frank and Alice and Neville, the first thought that came to mind was “thank goodness it wasn’t Molly or me”Arthur Weasley: I hate myself for it, I really do. Does that make me a horrible person?

[im-abanana]

“Meant to Belong” [2/3]

The second part of my Bendy x Alice story, I’ve just updated AO3 as well!

This is still a “safe” chapter, only Fluff in here, ‘cause I’ve decided to put the Smut part on the third. Hope you’ll enjoy this one, too!

The song I used is “My Escape” by Ravenscode, btw.

You are a total idiot. Yes, you are, and such a scaredy cat too. Compliments.

Alright, alright, enough with that shit! Let's say that Bendy didn't find the bravery to actually talk to Alice during the long break they just had, and let's even say that the still very nervous angel was now standing right next to the little devil on stage, waiting to find herself in front of their teeming audience once again, with a terrified and uncomfortable expression painted on her slim face and evidently not really up to perform or sing... fucking Hell, they were ruined, and the demonic character knew it well, too. “Great, really great. Oh for Satan's sake, why are girls always so complicated?” the minute star of the show thought as he carefully fixed his own black jacket, the refined piece of clothing Alice rudely tossed against his rounded face when they met in the main corridor just three or four minutes ago. “She's really mad at me this time.”.

Oh, and judging by the death stare Joey and the rest of the worried crew were giving them from behind the busy scenes, an earful or a punishment were the best options the united trio could hope for, especially if they'd mess up again during that important performance. Come on, those annoying creators were definitely exaggerating, his loyal co-workers were professionals and it wasn't entirely Bendy's fault, to be frank! Besides, he had a great plan to cheer Angel Face and his beloved fans up after the previous failure, with a little help from a certain best friend of his and a clarinet. If being successful and famous could allow you to disobey your bosses' direct orders and breaking tons of rules from time to time, heck yeah, Bendy was more than ready to do it his own way and make peace with the angelic singer of his band. “Ready for it, Boris?” the short devil silently whispered to the tall wolf, grabbing a microphone, winking at his kind-hearted buddy and getting an excited thumbs-up as a response; very good, it could finally begin. “Time to set this stage on fire, Bendy.”.

“Would you help me to find a new way? Would you guide me through all of this again? Don't let me slip away.” Bendy's unmistakable voice suddenly sang in the complete silence and darkness when the little devil met the angel's still irritated gaze, surprisingly and promptly accompanied by the peculiar sound of Boris' clarinet, as if those two had arranged to perform that unforseen song together, without saying anything to Joey, to the rest of the crew and especially to Alice, who was the one supposed to follow the right dance steps and don't mess up again. That wasn't on the syllabus, what was happening!? What was Bendy planning that time!? For fuck's sake, that disgusting demon was surely doing that on purpose, he truly enjoyed embarrassing her and get his friends and co-workers in trouble with the creators and the audience! All. The. Time. “I need you here 'till the very end, so stay here with me. There's so much love in your smile when I look at your face, and I'm here to stay. You're my first and my last love, and you're my escape.”

.

But no, not this time: instead of staying still and ruthlessly watch the angelic cartoon's certain failure, grinning at the fallen girl from afar or internally make fun of her lack of preparation and actual panic, evident and almost tangible in her elegant traits, Bendy slowly stepped forward and tilted his round head to look in the young woman's black orbs and lifted his tiny arms up, to gently intertwine his thicker fingers with her tapered ones, silently asking Alice to dance with him; only a simple gaze was more than enough for the two of them to understand each other's thoughts, doubts and secret desires or fears. Natural chemistry, or just an artificial connection? Well, it didn't really concern her now, since Bendy was trying to truly “apologize” for the very first time of his life, so better take advantage from this situation. “So tell me you'll be right here with me, hearing your voice is like hearing an angel sing. Through the good and bad and all in between, you're the one that I want and the one that I need, and I know.” the little devil happily intoned as he guided and moved with his surprised partner on the tidy stage, reminding Alice that his main innate talent was, in fact, dance. Oh, and probably charm too, since the stunning girl couldn't take her eyes off the demon, feeling hypnotised by his sly but caring grin.

Their inky and agile bodies were beautifully lit by the powerful light bulb of the spotlight, that was closely following their graceful and expert movements, almost accentuating the shiny fabric of their fancy gown and suit and each curve of their relaxed muscles, that were freely tensing and flexing to create an unequalled physical harmony and simultaneously a lovely but tacit tension between the apparently mismatched couple. It was like “seeing a fierce predator carefully interact with a frail prey”, that's how Joey and the others described their complicated and burning relationship; you could never know when one of the two would attack, or run, or growl at the other, or angrily submit without a fight, so as not to cause stupid disasters or useless problems to the superiors.

Yeah, the last option occurred pretty rarely to be completely honest, especially before an important performance or worse, a premiere; sometimes, a cold punch in the face or a firm kick in the delicate guts were way more satisfying than a plain compliment by the bosses or a nice communication with the patient and poor crew that had to put up with their unpredictable behaviour 24 hours a day, every single day. Egoism, you might say? Maybe a little bit, alright, but ehy! Brawling with an arrogant rival was one of life's few joys, maybe the sweetest, but the moments of complete peace or dammit, even tenderness between the spiteful devil and the fiery fallen angel were so incredibly rare that right now, seeing the two cartoons performing together with such grace, trust, respect and strength was almost unbelievable, definitely jaw-dropping.“You taught me to live each day, to live each day like it's my last. I won't make you turn away! So come with me, and never look back!”.

That particular song and its deep meaning couldn't be random at all, but the dancers' regal and measured steps surely were improvised... or at least things would have looked like that under the keen and trained eyes of a critic, or a journalist. Luckily for everyone nobody important was there that night, only the inexpert kids and the parents were watching the duo's little show, staring at Bendy and Alice with fascinated expressions and enchanted faces, not speaking as not to disrupt the magical and intimate atmosphere of the busy and pretty crowded room. “After all that we've been through, you are still by my side and I'm grateful you're there and I, I love you. You're my best friend and I want you to know I care!”. Only the tapping sound of their refined shoes hitting the wooden floor of the magnificent proscenium was audible, and the much more taller fallen angel smiled benignly as she spotted the tiny demon having an hard time keeping up with her own fast pace and hold her gloved hands in his, very careful not to step on her pale feet at the same time. Fucking height difference...

Poor thing, maybe he needed some help? Very well.

“So- Uh!?” a loud gasp of surprise and pure fear escaped from Bendy's parted lips as Alice unexpectedly bend over, curled her long fingers around his slim waist and easily picked him up, leaving her black haired partner with his short legs pitifully hanging in midair and feeling his pointed tail snugly wrapping around her curved hips, tightly, to probably get some sort of support and better security. Despite the minute star's evident confusion and distress, those momentary emotions were soon replaced by irrepressible excitement and frenzy as the young woman kept dancing with him in her arms and whispered a quick “I won't drop you, don't worry. Just sing with me.” against the demon's flushed left cheek. That wish was his command and besides, being so tall was awesome indeed! Cool! So that's how Boris and Alice always felt while walking around or simply standing!“S-so tell me you'll be right here with me, hearing your voice is like hearing an angel sing. Through the good and bad and all in between, you're the one that I want and the one that I need, and I know!”.

“So this is how we planned it, knowing that we won't be alone. And this is how it's supposed to be, when you knew it all along!” Alice elegantly sang right after her limp co-worker, her voice echoing in the thin walls and reaching such perfect high notes Bendy couldn't even imagine existed. In those unique moments, the little demon could clearly understand why he felt that huge tension when that majestic, angelic creature would walk on stage and stop by his tense side, giving all she got to their loyal and cheering fans: Alice's powerful but also mild singing was capable of making your fragile ribcage shake in total bliss, your weak heart faint with overwhelming emotion, your knees turning into slimy jelly and your head soar on the clouds of Heaven and drown into the sweetest dreams and wildest fantasies. And her face was so incredible too, her body so damn sexy, her smile so tender and so cute... her freaking everything was perfect, designed to appear breathtaking and absolutely appetizing to everyone, and especially him. Dammit, was he really that helpless in front of her undeniable beauty? Yeah, most likely. “So tell me you'll be right here with me, hearing your voice is like hearing an angel sing...”.

“... through the good and bad and all in between, you're the one that I want and the one that I need.” brushing her smooth and pale chin with the covered tip of his index finger, Bendy encouraged the young angel to look into his pitch black orbs, that were shining with great amusement and sincere entertainment as he took a final breath and filled his small lungs with air, ready for the last verse which he hoped they would sing together. And so they did.

“So tell me you'll be right here with me. Hearing your voice is like hearing an angel sing! Through the good and bad and all in between, you're the one that I want and the one that I need, and I know.” mixing and caressing each other like two passionate lovers would, the couple's voices generated an harmony that fit the romantic song, a very strange thing since they were technically natural enemies: an angel and a devil, good and bad, white and black, grace and disgrace. But maybe sometimes you just needed to forget about the differences to change your condition and embrace a new experience, or a surprising point or view; in fact, that was the very first time they performed together with such composure, without punching or trying to toss the other off the stage every five seconds. Even the audience seemed uncaring about their physical nature or their former relationship, since every single person in the big room immediately got up and started to clap forcefully and merrily, shouting out enthusiastic compliments and cheering at the top of their lungs, yelling their beloved names non-stop. Yes, their names, Alice's and Bendy's at the same exact time, as if they were one, as if them both had... the same importance. “And I know...”.

“Eheh, you hear them, Angel Cake? Listen carefully: this is all for you, you should be proud of yourself! Great job, not as good as mine of course, but pretty close!” Bendy weakly mumbled and laughed under his unsure breath with his usual sly and smug grin, panting a little to regain his yearned breath and still holding onto her narrow but robust shoulders. At this point, the tall angel seriously started to think that his dumb smile was indelible from his round visage, and soon after she felt his long black tail dropping down, the little devil trusting the girl completely and relaxing every single muscle, his tiny limbs imperceptibly contracting because of the previous exertion, and his sore throat aching slightly. Meh, singing wasn't that great after all... who cared about that stuff anyway, despite that he was still the most awesome star ever, and dancing was the most appreciated talent! “They love you, toots!”.

“No Bendy, you're wrong. Not only me.” Alice replied with a gentle and ecstatic smile, that only became wider as the angelic cartoon met the joyful gazes of the little kids, of the adults, of the teenagers and elders all around them. To the devil's tired and burning eyes, that amazing smile could lit the whole town, even the whole world. As the reddish curtain was rapidly brought down by the staff, the black haired woman turned her head towards her short co-worker and sincerely declared: “This is for us, for me, Boris and you. They love us all.”.

The sudden and rather scary sound of a powerful thunder broke the respectful silence that was deeply connecting the duo's blurred thoughts, and the violent rain started to ruthlessly beat against the thick windows, the grey rooftops, the hard asphalt, the greenish trees and everything standing outside their safe and warm building; at that precise moment, as the couple heard the noisy people, who just a few instants before were cheering them and clapping, standing up and quickly walking towards the exit to return home before the storm would get worse, the two talented cartoons knew that their show was finally over, at least for the night. Tomorrow was another day, hopefully a successful one.

“I guess... I guess it's time for me to rest and get some sleep, but only if Joey and the other creators don't wish to discuss the next performance with me, of course. Nice work by the way, I had fun tonight.” Alice kindly explained to her oddly attentive partner, clearing her throat and putting Bendy down with the needed attention, then scratching her cold nape with her nails and hearing another deafening rumble coming from outside. The young angel gently snickered and blinked a couple of times, feeling totally unafraid: “Now, that is what I call a real storm! Right? Bendy, what the...?” the black haired girl questioned and immediately spotted the little dancing demon hiding behind her calm form, his pointy tail tightly pressed between his curved legs and his tiny knees shivering in pure terror. No way, was he seriously...? “Bendy, are you... are you afraid of thunder and storms, like Boris is?”.

Snarling and frowning deeply in response, clearly irritated by her insolent insinuation, the minute demon promptly opened his thin lips to growl: “Pff, if I'm scared!? Do I look scared to you, Angel Face!? Pff! Me, Bendy the Dancing Demon, afraid of thunder and storms like some kind of crybaby, or like that wolf? You're insulting my pride and underestimating me, woman! I'm not scared at all, ok? No, no, no, no, no, no, no...” the stubborn star repeated mostly to himself with his slightly high-pitched voice, causing Alice to let out a pretty frustrated groan and cross her pale arms as she patiently waited for the truth. “... no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, maybe a little bit. Ugh, okay fine, yes! You won, I'm scared of thunder and storms, too! Are you happy now?”.

“Nah, not really, I'm just amused.” Alice shrugged it off with a brazen and superior look, laughing in front of her terrified co-worker without shame and with a vicious glint shining in her dark irises, almost enjoying the awkward situation and seeing Bendy so vulnerable and fragile. “What's the matter, Bendy? Afraid of sleeping all alone, in your isolated and lonely room, with that terrible storm right outside the building and those thunders roaring in your ears? Ahah, you're very cute sometimes. I personally think that you should share a bed with someone tonight since you're so scared, little one!”.

After a moment of total silence and wise reflection, a squealing phrase that the beautiful, young angel would have never expected to hear was desperately shouted by the pleading devil, who dropped down on his weak knees and left the girl completely speechless: “Please toots, we both know that we hate each other's guts with all our soul and passion, but can I sleep with you tonight!?”.

… wait, what the fuck?

[mostlyvoidpartiallysmog]

Just finished the second Night Vale novel It Devours! that I got my hands on when I got a hold of my pre-order yesterday. (So sue me. College strike up here gave me some free time)

So some thoughts?

BIIIIG SPOILERS obviously.

Firstly I’d just like to say that I LOVE the ending. Specifically I love the way the relationship between Nilanjana and Darryl ends. GOD that was so refreshing! Honestly their relationship felt rushed and empty anyway and it was SO fucking nice to see a realistic potential end to a new adult relationship.

In regards to the early parts of the relationship? The writing seemed to have a preoccupation with kisses and lips that squicked me more then anything, but I’ve never been a big kissing person in general so maybe it’s just that.

The sex mentioned, especially with how explicitly they did so, kind of felt... I’m just going to say it, a little annoying? *sigh* Now I get that there aren’t too many places where even this minor level of detail and frankness about sex could come up, but seeing what felt like the first slightly more explicit handling of it then like, Carlos jokingly getting turned on by science or some such as the podcast has done (Not counting the semi-obscure and one time live show they recently did of course. Night Vale after dark I THINK it might have been called? With Cecil and Dylan reading some nsfw content?) what felt like the first more explicit handling went to... well a hetero sex scene and, eh, call me a bitter queer but like, ANY thing else would have felt more interesting. Idk, I was just rather meh about the whole thing.

Oh and well I’m at it, “Sex in Night Vale take’s a little longer, but when it starts it happens much like anywhere else.” also felt kind off to me. Just picky queer sex positive feminist things I guess. It ain’t a big thing, but if anyone else had written it I’d be rolling my eyes going “yo there’s more then one way to fuck my hetero dude friend. It’s not all about cis ass, able bodied penis in vaginal sex.) but again, that’s just me being picky as SHIT because I, to be frank, expect a heckuva lot from Night Vale what with them consistently delivering for 3 year (Specifically how long I’ve been listening I mean. Don’t recall how many year’s they’ve been around in general.)

Also like, the lead up TO the sex was weird? We had a window into both their heads but at no point were we lead to believe they were physically particularly attracted to each other before the sex? It jumped from “maybe he’s kind of cute” to fucking? Like give us a few bits of her (preferably her because fuck yes not shying away from female sexuality) eyes getting caught on his body or some overt desire or something. Direct us to something that says “physical” attraction. (and let’s REALLY not have it be a possessive stereotype about her getting jealous over some female friend of his and taking it out by getting touchy feely with a guy she barely knows for that matter) It just felt really flat. Really lacking it what should have been easy build up. Minor build up, because sex can absolutely and should absolutely be shown sometimes as something human, and pleasant, and potentially just chill and fun to do, but like, we have an internal view of their heads, as such we should have seen SOME small nudge of physical attraction before hand. Some tug. Don’t give the audience nothing and then expect them to buy a relationship that, as it turns out in the end, was largely just based on good/fun sex.

Um, also; IF anyone else had written that whole “let’s cosign forms and get blood work done, lol look how long this is taking” pre-sex bit, then I honestly would have taken it as a “consent is a mood breaker and millennials are prudish idiots ruining sex with their safe sex and their checks for consent.” Idk. That joke felt a little off the mark. Just me being picky again.

Another thing? Nilanjana is fat! Yaaay! That was unexpectedly cool! (Would have preferred if they had said “fat” versus “overweight”. Fat’s not a dirty word, being fat isn’t a reflection on your morals and all that, but hey, not everyone is up with the latest fat acceptance stuff I guess. But like, “over” weight. Over whose weight? Over what supposed perfect weight? Is that supposed to be your short hand for “doesn’t exercise” ‘cause those sure as hell aren’t inherently connected. Correlation doesn’t equal causation. Pbthhh. >.>)

Speaking of being picky, or maybe this was just a very clever sign that Darryl and Nilanjana’s relationship wouldn’t work out in the long term, did Nilanjana REALLY have to get so jealous and competitive with Stephanie? Did she have to instantly dislike and distrust her because of “the way Darryl looked at her”? Because to recap that made all the women in the book in relation to Nilanjana, judgemental, shallow, and foolish (Lusia), cold, untrustworthy, and naive (Stephanie. “Naive” because of her religion in Nilanjana’s books and soooort of by the narrative as well), literally just a world threatening zealous cultist (Munn), or a goofy, initially untrustworthy sidekick (Jamillah).

I mean even Josh Crayton got better billing in this round then either his mum or Jackie who got tiny cameo’s each. =/ I would have liked to see more of those two.

While we’re on the subject of female characters. NIGHT VALE PLEASE. PLEASE give us some more background or remotely confirmed wlw!!! Jeeze. Seriously! We got another random background guy, or at least person getting refereed to with he/him pronouns who got a boyfriend, (The helicopter fellow) and though we already knew Josh was bi/pan otherwise not straight, he got a briefly mentioned boyfriend in this one! And of course the show focus is always Cecil and Carlos which racks the points waaay up for amazing, awesome mlm representation. We DID get a tiny cameo from Basimah Bashara which was neat, and a small moment with Michael Nguyen, but that’s the thing with those two and wlw in Night Vale in general isn’t it? While one can... hope? Somewhat with evidence? That Maureen and Michael might be a couple now, might be positive wlw representation, that was never actually made super clear. (Looking back on it it WAS made super clear with Basimah, so good on them with that!)

There’s also Jackie and Sheriff Sam. I HAVE to say, I was absolutely PREYING Jackie and Dana got together when Jackie mentioned she was dating someone from “high up in the government” so the let down I felt from finding out it was Sam instead came mostly from that. =p (Give Dana a girlfrieeend. Sure there’s always Alice Isn’t Dead but that ain’t the same. =p) Sam uses they/them pronouns and we can probably safely assume from that that they’re meant to be NB, genderqueer, genderfuild, or otherwise just not a cis character, so that’s wonderful, and Jackie dating them pretty much pings her as some variety of queer (or at least queer friendly, but then the majority of Night Vale is.) as well, so that’s also neat! I dooon’t think we had that from her before? Maybe there was something in the first book I’m forgetting. (I am personally mad happy that Jackie is queer or at least chill with nb folk, as she reminds me of myself in way too many ways. Awkward high-fives and “dude’s” and all.) That being said, how old is Sheriff Sam? I always pictured them at like 40 something from the voice. >.> Lol apparently not.

So on a more world building, less representation based note; Kevin.

Kevin is a prophet in the churches lore apparently. That’s neat? I guess? Here’s the thing, when WAS the Joyous Congregation founded? And my main concern; when did Kevin go through the Old Oak Door that showed him the smiling god for the first time??? The Congregation, or at least the general concept of the religion of the smiling god seems fully formed back during the Strex arc, and more then that Kevin hasn’t (as far as we know. Also please Finknor give us more Kevin. Triptych Broke. My. Heart. and I’m begging you.) been back to Night Vale or otherwise out of the desert other world since the time Steve pushed him in at the end of the Strex arc.

I don’t WANT to think that Kevin founded the whole religion. It’s always seemed very much like a thing that existed before him and more importantly not a thing he did before Strex!him if you will, but who knows I guess. =/

That’s the thing. I always thought of the smiling god AS ENTIRELY a Strex concept, and I’m going to wager a guess that at least at the start Finknor did too. It’s so tied into Strex. Inseparable from Strex’s meaning and purpose. Smile. Work. Be empty. Pretend to be happy. Smiling IS Strex, it’s a Strex thing, so it kind of made me feel... like it felt a bit rewrite-y to not even mention Strex at all during this book?

I mean was the smiling god NOT behind Strex? Was the congregation not at least back a couple years ago indistinguishable from Strex? Idk. These are all questions I have.

Talking about things that feel rewrite-y, I’m not sure I did the idea of Carlos actually being in the desert other world for TEN YEARS. Here’s the thing. We were, at the very least, as the audience lead to believe that Cecil and Carlos were thinking of LIVING there. Of moving there. a MASSIVE freaking part of the Carlos in the desert other world arc had us second guessing Carlos and Cecil’s whole relationship ffs! That WAS the subtext of the arc! The purpose! That Carlos seemed more interested in science and research of the desert other world then getting back to freaking Cecil! And now you’re going to claim that not only was he there ten years, which we had NO foreshadowing of during the arc at ALL as far as I can see, but he only ever wanted desperately to get home? Again the twist at the end of the desert other world arc is Cecil unexpectedly NOT MOVING THERE. WHAT? Nah man. That was some silly re-write stuff right there. Contradicting what world building we have on the desert other world until now.

Another thing highly related to that? Where the fuck was the nomadic giant army?? Or hell, even just Kevin and that dumb roller coaster they built? (I GUESS you could say that they all... died... ? And the roller coaster... vanished completely? But nah. Not really because aging doesn’t work there now does it?) Doug and Elisha thanks? Yet more stuff that made Carlos seem at home (and for that matter time passing relatively similarly from the sort of relationships he formed and reported on) in the desert other world. Ugh. I really don’t like that whole ten years thing. It seemed excessive too. Like two or even three years would have been more believable from what we saw of Carlos during that time, and even with only the single year I could already understand Carlos being traumatized from the event. Idk.

Speaking of world building for the desert other world? Assuming we keep with previous would building regarding it we are NOT done with it yet. Or rather, we probably shouldn’t be. There’s WAY too much going on there. Kevin’s still in there, he named it DESERT BLUFFS ffs. (I’m still waiting for the day we get the plot twist that the other world IS the desert bluffs we know from the past or something very similar to that. I also noticed a hella conspicuous absence of talk about desert bluffs OR the desert other world during the Huntokar revelations of the last finished arc. That place is MAD secret to the point that it’s not even on the radar of Huntokar, and probably The Glow Cloud, Distant Prince, Woman from Italy and other elder god type things.)

Then there’s Dana’s drawings up on the mountain. The spiraling murals of triangles I believe it was? We are NOT done with that place. I know at the end Darryl is like “well maybe the smiling god wasn’t that stupid centipede” and we’re supposed to at least sort of think like Nilanjana and be like “Yea huh. Sure. You just want to think that to protect your beliefs.” but honestly yeah, I don’t remotely think the centipede was really... the smiling god? Unless like I said, Kevin started the religion all together which I very much hope he didn’t? So yea, probably not the smiling god, DEFINITELY not the biggest threat in the desert other world. Up until now the “light” trying to get into Night Vale has been really obtuse and obscure. Really vague and therefore menacing and cool. I don’t think Finknor are bad enough writers to just toss all that away on a giant centipede. I’m a cynical person. Usually I’d add “At least I hope not” to that sentence, but damn it all if I don’t KNOW that Finknor are better writers then that.

Also there was the whole “hey wait the “ritual” to summon the god probably wasn’t just a coincidence” idea dropped in there to explore. So yeah. Lot’s to look at still.

Speaking of the ritual? Did you guys caaaaatch iiiiiit??? The jumping. How frantic jumping was a big part of the ritual? Maybe I’m just reaching but it sounded SO much like Kevin’s narration jumping bit from way back in The Sandstorm that Cecil mirrors with his own narration bit in his episode.

I’m SOOOO glad we got a glimpse into additional meaning for that kid jumping trying to recapture the feeling of flight scene for Kevin. It would be cool if more meaning was discovered for it in the future.

I’ve always read Cecil’s retrospective kid scene in those episodes as maybe relating too whatever happens in Cassette Tapes, or maaaybe some weird shit with Kevin himself in a metaphorical or otherwise obscured reference to why the heck the whole doubles thing happens anyway. (Also again, doubles, Desert bluff weirdness. Another thing I attributed to possibly the smiling god that could definitely not be if it were just a centipede, but honestly whether it’s a centipede or not I think it would be much more interesting if the smiling god was only a corrupting force for Desert bluffs and not the “weird Night Vale thing” that causes them to exist in the first place. And like I said? What’s cool is that it seems to not be Huntokar’s fault either that Desert Bluffs exists so that’s neat. That mean’s there’s some other weird shit going on there for us to find out.)

Ok one thing I forgot about the time rules of the desert other world and Kevin? You don’t AGE in the desert other world. Kevin when he contact Cecil in the last section of Triptych say’s he is very old. Now he could mean ancient as in “lived a very long time” but he specifically says “very old” and seems like his health might even me failing. Certainly he puts on a different voice. Anyway, all that leading up to the theory that we can extrapolate from that that Kevin will escape the desert other world at some point. Which isn’t too much of a stretch, and I think we all kind of expected (and I desperately hoped for after Triptych tyvm. FFS Cecil if you know how he ends up and also what he used to be like why not GO SAVE KEVIN FROM THAT FATE! Jeeze man! I really wish that had been part of the arc following Triptych and genuinely thought it might be. Like please. Cecil how can you just leave him there???)

All and all I liked the first novel a LOT more, but I liked this novel. Heck if it it wasn’t from Night Vale crew, meaning I had kind of hyped standards for it already, it probably would have been super awesome.

I mean there were some parts of the first novel I didn’t like, and I’m feeling some similar feelings regarding how the smiling god and desert other world turned out looking a bit mundane in this story and left a lot of “but if they were really just this, then why this old plot point” feelings just like the Man in the Tan Jacket did last novel (WHY was he interested in the underground city damn it? Especially with what we now know about Huntokar? WHY was he working with the Apache Tracker? What the hell were they doing? What was the post office all about?) but all and all I still preferred the first novel to this one. It felt more... human I guess. Had that good good recognizable story about a mom and her kid, growing up, parents, relationships, becoming an adult and a helluva lot of other stuff. Not that this one didn’t have a neat story about religion and science (that part honestly felt a little too basic for me) and fitting into one’s communities (that part was alright) but the first novel just hit the right cords more. Personally at least I felt more attached to everyone AND enjoyed the treatment of the themes more. Idk exacccctly why, but I absolutely enjoyed the first novel way more. It felt more like it’s own entity. A valid reason to use a different medium. A really new and cool thing where we could step into the shoes of likeable, fully rounded characters. This novel felt a lot more like a sometimes wacky one off live show with new characters or something. =/ I still enjoyed it, but not as much, and mostly the parts I did enjoy were all humor and surreal Night Vale goodness.

Alright. Well. That ends my rambling for now. I’m sure I’ll have many instances of trying to get to sleep and thoughts of the novel bouncing around in my head begging me to write them down or otherwise talk about them, so I guess I gotta emphasize the “for now” part.

This is long as shit and I’d be mildly surprised and utterly flattered if anyone can make it through my rambling.

[sirrriusblack]

Your Royal Highness - Part 2

Part 1, Part 3

* * *

Unknown Number: Hello Your Royal Highness ;)

7:32am. Oh god. I winced at the light from my phone, pressing my head into my pillow to stop the pain. It didn’t work. 

Kingsley: That’s not a good nickname

Unknown Number: I disagree

Kingsley: Huh, too bad for you, I didn’t ask

Unknown Number: :) Sooo if you’re still on talking terms with your ex why did you wanna make him jealous

Kingsley: Have you ever heard of grammar?

Two minutes passed. I bit my lip, then threw my phone on to my bed because I was being so stupid, waiting around for some random guy from a random club to text me and— 

My phone went off, and I hate to say that I jumped for it. No, dived. 

lilsevans liked your post. 

I rolled my eyes. 

Kingsley: I didn’t 

Kingsley: Want to make him jealous, I mean

Kingsley: Not that it’s any of your business

Unknown Number: Hmm

Kingsley: Hmm?

Unknown Number: Hmm

Kingsley: 🙄

Unknown Number: So why’d you kiss me then? Like I said I’m not complaining but why?

Kingsley: It’s hard to explain?

Unknown Number: I’m a smart lad, give it to me

Kingsley: Goodness you’re annoying

Unknown Number: I hope you know I take pride in that

Kingsley: I bet you do

Unknown Number: Stop trying to change the subject

Kingsley: Ugh Fine!

Kingsley: All of my friends are in relationships and they all reckon I’m some depressed tosser ‘cause I’m single

Kingsley: It’s getting quite annoying honestly

Kingsley: So I saw Remus and I kissed you to shut him up because he’s my ex and he still feels bad about breaking up with me and getting with Sirius, ‘cause I haven’t dated anyone since. He thinks I’m upset about it.

Kingsley: You can block me now if you want

Unknown Number: wOw

Kingsley: Yeah...

Kingsley: Like I said. Hard to explain.

Unknown Number: Are you still upset about it?

Kingsley: The breakup? No. I’ve never seen Remus and Sirius so happy and that’s all I want for them

Unknown Number: Huh. Well then I’ve come to save your day.

Kingsley: What?

Unknown Number: I’m gonna be your knight in shining armour and save you from all your couple friends

Unknown Number: When’s the party?

Kingsley: I already said I’d find a way out of this

Unknown Number: Nah

Kingsley: Omfg

Kingsley: 2 o’clock Sunday

Unknown Number: Oh look at that! I’m free :)

I rolled my eyes again.

Contact name has been changed to: Gorgeous Freckle Guy

* * *

I rolled over in bed and groaned into my pillow. My head was aching with a pain I never wanted to feel again. I walked past the lounge room and into the kitchen, noting that Marlene and Dorcas weren’t on the couch. They’d stayed here last night, not bothered enough to get a cab home just to have to come pick their car up in the morning. I ran my hands over my face and turned the kettle on. The doorbell rang.

“Kingsley! We’ve got coffee,” I heard Dorcas shout from outside. I sighed and flicked the kettle off before crossing the room to open the door. The grins on their faces actually ripped a piece of my soul out of my body.

“Why are you so happy?” I groaned, opening the door wider to let them in. Marlene grinned wider and handed me my coffee. I downed half of it in one go.

“Morning fun,” Dorcas explained, running her arm down Marlene’s arm. I choked on my drink and Marlene snorted. 

“Ew.” Dorcas hit me across the head and flopped down on the couch. The couch. “Now I have to steam clean the couch. You two are disgusting.” Marlene snickered and rolled her eyes, sitting down next to Dorcas and reaching for the remote.

“Hey, you won’t be complaining when you’ve got your morning fun time with Fabian and his bright, red hair and really, really green eyes, as you so poetically described them,” Dorcas laughed. I groaned.

“Bugger off, I was drunk,” I said, glaring at both of their grins.

* * *

My hands fumbled with the keys, but I finally got them in and turned them. I flipped the sign on the door to open. Mrs Denver followed me in. 

“You opened late,” she said with her squeaky, scratchy voice. I closed my eyes for a minute before walking behind the counter and turning all of the switches on. 

“Yes Mrs Denver, I only just got here. But we’re open now, what can I get you? The usual?” I asked, turning on the machines. 

“You were supposed to open at 8:15, Kingsley,” she squeaked, stepping up to the counter. I sighed.

“Technically, I’m supposed to get here at 8:15, we open at 8:30, but you just get special treatment. It’s 8:17, Mrs Denver, it’ll be alright. What can I get for you?” I asked again. She huffed and opened her purse. 

“The usual please, Kingsley dear,” she said. I took her money and handed her the change before I started making a black coffee. “Two sugars, remember!” she shouted. I gave her the thumbs up.

The shop was empty. No workers—Alice didn’t come in until 9—and onviously no customers. They didn’t usually start coming in until 9 either, despite opening at 8:30. At least on a Sunday. I was usually made to open shop at 6am on weekdays. I weighed the risk of checking my phone. Once Mrs Denver left, the shop would be practically empty. But if Alice showed up early I would never hear the end of it. I carried the mug over to Mrs Denver’s table, careful not to spill it. I left and came back a moment later, smiling at her as I placed the daily newspaper in front of her. She smiled back.

“Oh, thank you, Kingsley dear.” She sipped the coffee and sighed. I nodded.

“Always, Mrs Denver,” I replied. I heard the crinkling of the newspaper behind me as I walked to the back of the shop. My phone was, like always, void of any notifications or messages. I opened my messages and scrolled through mine and Fabian’s chat. I hated that I half hoped he would have messaged me again. My fingers hovered over the screen for a moment. “Fuck it,” I muttered under my breath.

Kingsley: Hey

Why did I just message the random stranger I met last night at a club? Why can’t I go one bloody hour without fishing for attention? Why do I—

Gorgeous Freckled Guy: Hiya :) how are you?

Ah shit. I popped my head out the front to check on Mrs Denver; she was still reading the paper and sipping her coffee. I lifted some boxes onto the counter and started unpacking them—like I was supposed to do yesterday—to make it seem like I was doing something. I don’t know how I still have a job.

Kingsley: I’m good, I’m at work though. You?

Gorgeous Freckled Guy: ooh texting at work? What a rebel

Kingsley: Ha ha.

Gorgeous Freckled Guy: I’m alright, btw. Where do you work?

Kingsley: A coffee shop

Gorgeous Freckled Guy: A barista? Oh you’re so basic

Kingsley: Thanks?

“Kingsley! Are you out the back?” Alice’s voice nearly made me drop my phone. I put it down next to me on the counter.

“Uh, yeah, I’m unpacking,” I called back. I hadn’t even heard the door open.

Kingsley: Sorry, I gtg, my manager just showed up.

I could hear Mrs Denver talking on to Alice—most likely about something in the paper. My phone chimed.

Gorgeous Freckled Guy: Okay, when does your shift end?

Kingsley: What? Why?

Gorgeous Freckled Guy: Would you mind me stopping by to grab a coffee afterwards?

What? Stopping by? Coffee? Like a date?

“Goodbye, Kingsley dear! Thank you for the coffee,” Mrs Denver called out. I ran my hand through my hair.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Mrs Denver,” I yelled back. I heard the door close.

Kingsley: Uh, sure, I guess. I finish at 12.

Gorgeous Freckled Guy: Sound a little happier maybe? 😂

I snorted. He was right. I sounded like seeing him was the last thing I wanted to do. And it definitely wasn’t. That’s what was eating at me.

Kingsley: No, really, I’d love for you to come. It’s Alice and Frank’s on the corner of Diagon Alley.

Gorgeous Freckled Guy: Thanks :) see u at 12.

“Kingsley! I’m going to shatter that thing in a second!” Alice shouted, storming over to me. I raised my hands in surrender.

“I’m sorry! I’ll put it away!” I laughed, twisting around her.

“Yeah, you better,” she threatened, though I could see the glint behind her eyes. I made my way to the locker room and locked my phone away, right as the clock chimed 9 and the door opened.