#those last two are definitely less ''outtakes'' and more ''deleted scenes''

[theajaheira]

no new update of what you make tonight as i'm working on something else, but i AM going through the outtake doc for cute bits and snips! these span a BUNCH of chapters. (the actual outtake doc itself is 50k words but we're not doing that.)

~~~~~

“Sorry about eating your pancakes,” said Art, who really wasn’t.

“You really aren’t,” said Mom affectionately. “And you know I don’t mind. You’re a growing boy, and I’m—”

“A shrinking lady?” said Buffy innocently.

Anxiously, Art said, “If she’s shrinking, she should be eating pancakes!”

“That’s—no. Art—no.” Mom was doing her very best not to laugh. It wasn’t really working. “And Buffy, I am thirty-seven and nowhere near shrinking any time soon. Now, Rupert, on the other hand—”

“I have to go call Anya,” said Dad very loudly, and left.

~~~~~~

“You don’t just throw money at problems,” said Jenny, glaring at him in a refreshingly combative way that felt a bit less like a marble statue and a bit more like a lightning strike. “And we’re not putting you out like that. Do you even know how expensive it is to house this many people in a reasonably decent hotel?”

“More money than we can pay, apparently,” said Stacey under her breath.

“For the love of God, Anastasia, do not create a new problem for me to address when Art’s parents are busily working on arguing their way into this one,” said Nora exasperatedly. “I should not have to tell you how hard your father and I worked to make this vacation a possibility—”

“And it’s sucked!” Stacey burst out. “It has totally sucked! You guys never let me do anything but wander around playing babysitter, and the one time I called Maddy, she said that Casey’s family’s in Honolulu right now and Casey totally has a Hawaiian boyfriend now! I haven’t even gotten to look at boys!”

“Stacey, you need to pick a lane,” said Jenny sharply. “You gonna get up on your high horse about how much you don’t like Rupert or are you going to yell at your mom about not being able to pay for the kind of vacation that Casey’s family is going on?”

Tears in her eyes, Stacey burst out, “This was supposed to be a vacation, and all we’re doing is trailing around after Art’s dad!”

“I…did not realize that those lanes could merge,” said Nora, who looked almost impressed.

~~~~~~

“Yes, thank you, Christian, but I have absolutely no interest in continuing to have mediocre sex with you. What? Yes, it was mediocre. Do you even know where the clitoris is?” Upon seeing Giles in the doorway, Anya sighed very dramatically, then said, “Look, my kinda-boss is here and he doesn’t like it when I use the work phone to break up with disinteresting men. I will not be calling you back, and you definitely shouldn’t call again.”

~~~~~

She was now leveling Giles with a look that clearly said you better not be about to pull what I think you’re going to pull. “Pretty sure the ocean will be a problem, Rupert,” she said, “because you’re not just going to make some sort of impulsive life decision just because—”

“I’m moving to Colorado,” Giles informed them.

“Jesus Christ,” muttered Jenny, dropping her head into her hands.

Nora and Donovan exchanged a completely bemused look. 

~~~~~

“Jenny, he has so many people who love him,” said Giles very softly. “Nora and Donovan, of course, but it’s abundantly clear that his cousins adore him. I’ve never seen a family get on quite like yours does.”

“You’ve seen, like, two families,” said Jenny unsympathetically.

Giles ignored this.

~~~~~

Art lit up the very moment Giles entered the kitchen. Giles had initially assumed that this could be attributed to his relative newness, and would as such fade once he became a more established part of his life, but closer observation had revealed that Art’s delight extended to absolutely every member of his family. Even Bella, who Art valiantly play-acted at violently hating, always got his attention upon entering a room—though, to be fair, Bella got everyone’s attention upon entering a room, usually by causing minor to significant property damage within the first five seconds of being there. “Hi, Dad!” he said. “Aunt Nora made you breakfast and tea and I didn’t let Mom eat any of it.”

“…Was that a risk?” said Giles.

“Yes,” said Art, glaring at Jenny. “She said you said it would be okay, but I didn’t see how you could do that if you were asleep. Were you asleep?”

“Very,” said Giles, sitting down between Jenny and Bella. “How are you doing?”

“I don’t know, it’s too early,” said Art. “You have to ask me that at dinner when I’ve done things. Can we play in the hedge maze again?”

Giles opened his mouth. Jenny shot him a look, then said to Art, “I don’t know, baby. Are you going to be able to take good care of your dad and not get him lost in it again?”

“I wasn’t lost,” Giles started, very unconvincingly.

“He wasn’t lost!” said Art. “He’s a grown-up! And I wasn’t lost either!”

~~~~~

Seeing as Rupert has not quite gotten over the fact that we will no longer be traveling from place to place, and in fact woke me up at four in the morning last Thursday to ask where his little suitcase was so that he could properly pack it for our next trip, any and all aspects of our new home that bring him joy are a great joy to me as well. As such, when he discovered that the telephone was no longer solely for emergencies, he proceeded to ask me to ring absolutely every family member possible so that he could talk to them. Of course, given that Rupert has quite a lot of trouble talking to anyone who isn’t me or Tom, as soon as the phone was handed to him, he would go dead silent, listen with wide eyes to the inquiries of whichever gran he had on the phone, and say, very anxiously, “Thank you for calling. Goodbye,” before abruptly hanging up.

The first time he did this, I was very worried that he’d been made nervous by a family member outside of our little circle. Imagine my surprise when he solemnly handed me the phone again and asked politely that I ring “the other gran” so that they could “have a little chat,” which I am certain is a phrase he learned from my little chats with Lizzy and Ramona! He has spent the last two days asking about people we can call, to the point where Tom sat down last night, drew up a small list of friends and family who he has made sure will not mind getting repeated calls from a four-year-old who is not inclined towards chatter (as it happens, most of our friends and family think that this is ADORABLE, as they SHOULD), and taught Rupert how to use the phone so that he could call people himself.

Rupert has not left the phone for hours on end. He is unbelievably fascinated with it and spent most of yesterday explaining to me how he thinks it works in great detail. Tom caught wind of this (and, of course, my response, which was to treat the whole thing like improvisational theatre and add on particularly outlandish suggestions re: magical telephones) and decided to track down some informational pamphlets on how telephones REALLY work. Rupert, however, was supremely uninterested in actual science, and responded to this pamphlet by drawing up a pamphlet of his own that (according to him) is entitled “How Telephones Really Really Work.” Thomas has absolutely no idea what to do with this. (I am going to get it framed.)

[embrassemoi]

(1/8) You're really out there publising new chapters in such a short amount of time and each chapter is better than the last one!   I'm seriously in awe of your talent! It's so difficult to pick a favorite chapter but this one might be one of my favorites. First of all, I loved what you did with the chapter title, whiskers literally taking padfoot's place in the order they were named on the map. It was sirius' worst fear and it happened. Also Remus and mc's chemistry is so great. I'm a big fan

I've had so much inspiration and free time this past week! and I'm going to start getting really busy this upcoming fall so I want to try and upload as much as possible!

(2/8) of how naturally their friendship and relationship grows and how different their dynamic is compared to mc and sirius. The way she was braiding his hair in common room and the way map practically flirts with her. Their little moment in the halloween party was so great as well, mc (who is dressed up as mcgonagall) drunkly playing with remus' (who is dressed up as FILCH) is probably one of my favorite moments in the sbtmas. Speaking of the costumes, I wish I was a good artist so I could draw

yeah! it's always a struggle to write two different dynamics when it comes to a love triangle because you don't want it to be:

a) the same

b) have it be unfair (although rn it's kinda unfair but hey, sirius will have a chance)

c) please both remus and Sirius stans (its been hard bc sirius stans are so mad with me rn LMFAO its kinda hilarious. I'm sorryyyyy! I SAID SLOWBURN DIDNT I? I WASNT LYING)

and oh my gosh - this chapter was literally so fucking fun to write and I think that really showed in my writing this time. the map - omg - since it's technically remus' magic for his little messages, the map is unable to insult her and I think it's just so cute :)

and I think dressing up as the professors would be so fucking cool! actually, fun fact - this idea was originally supposed to be for fifth year. Sirius was supposed to be McGonagall and MC was still supposed to be a cat but I obviously flipped shit around. for seventh year - I've had their costumes all picked since I started writing and I CAN'T FUCKING WAIT TO WRITE IT MY GOD

(3/8) a fanart of them. Lily as a 20s flapper, marlene as carrie, dorcas as dorothy (it's official, dorcas is the cutest person in this entire series) and sybill as the crazy cat lady (hands down best costume)! And of course marauders as teachers. Remus as filch was son unexpected yet brilliant! I almost died when marlene started flirting with mc for a grade and james called her hot (and also mcgonagall took a photo with her, minnie and marauders era students is always so fun to read about. Can

THE FACT that you would even think of making drawing fan art is literally the most ego-filling thing ever. woah. Thank you for even just mentioning that lmfao.

also, I love Dorcas. I love her. I adore her. the version of her that I created in my head - I'm obsessed. the same goes for Lily. omg I can't forget to mention Marlene! omg I'm a mess. I love them all.

(4/8) you imagine her keeping all of those memories in a box and looking at them after most of her students from that time period die in the war.) Peter had some really good costume ideas after all. But honestly, thank you for... giving peter a personality. In most fics he's just there, only eating in the background (similar to movie!ron). But in sbtmas he's so great and has a great sense of humor (he got his hands on a pen and chose to write "evans' bitch on james' face, an icon). I feel like

okay, that hurt my feelings. I can just picture McGonagall getting teary eyed as she stares at a picture of the Marauders after the second wizarding war, wishing she could have saved her students.

(5/8) this is going to make his betrayal so much better when it eventually happens. I mean, I was genuinely disturbed when james started to talk about how sneaky he was (famous last words). I loved all of the pranks they did in this chapter as well. The exorcist music and ballpoint pens were so creative (and they gave us that adorable scene with dorcas and nifflers) and also... funny. I feel like in a way, it showed how much marauders learned from "The Prank" and matured because of it. Last year

Peter was a marauder through and through. he was just as sneaky as the others, brimming with personality and just as smart. maybe not in academics, but the fucker had strengths in other areas. It was such a pet peeve of mine when they didn't include him in the fics I used to read. idk, sbtmas is everything I guess I wanted in a fic that I didn't get 💀 (I sound a bit egotistical here. If it comes off that way, I don’t mean it to)

(6/8) their halloween prank with spiders was a bit cruel. But this time, it's somethig that would make everyone laugh and maybe a bit annoyed, but still less harmless. Everything was funny and great and honestly, while I was reading this I was laughing the entire time... until I got to the "five years" part! Now that was cruel! You really did used costumes and pranks as a distraction and hit us with the angst! One second I was laughing and the next moment I was having an existential

oh definitely and I'm happy that you caught on to the change in severity from their pranks!

(7/8) how we have no idea about what future will bring and you can never know how much time you will have with your loved ones before it's all taken away from you. But I guess that's the appeal of the marauders era, we all know about the tragic ending they will have but still want to learn about their hogwarts years. And of course the song you chose perfectly captured that. It's halloween 1976, exactly five years before lily and james' death. And they have no idea about how they only have five

(8/8) years together. James and lily was laughing along with peter! There was something so beautiful yet disturbing about the innocence they have and you captured it beautifully. I can imagine sirius, sitting by himself somewhere, thinking about how he lost his friends and not having any idea about the tragic things that'll happen to him (or how he'll try to break into hogwarts on halloween 1993 to kill one of his friends). Okay now I made myself even sadder, I'll just shut up. -🌸

aw, sirius :(. I obviously didn't add him in this chapter but while writing, I imagine him to be in Padfoot form, silently watching the fireworks. just thinking. :((((( I just made myself sad again :( I think I even wrote a small blurb of that part but I can’t remember if I deleted it. If I didn’t, I’ll totally upload it to the outtakes eventually