#where tf is Arthur Christmas????

[prussiacide]

nation reps who bake

bc ive been watching the great british baking show recently

ludwig: so i gotta start with the obvious here, hes shown to have quite an interest in baking throughout the series. i love the thought that this intimidating muscular tough-looking guy is actually a big softie who loves baking streuseltaler and torten and krapfen… i would think he would be most either when overwhelmed by work (as a way to chill in his free time) or right before another nation rep visits his capital for a meeting or something. like arthur, kiku, or alfred or whoever travel over to discuss world relations and trade or whatever tf, but before they start talking ludwig offers them a slice of cake and says in his serious business meeting voice that he made it for this occasion

roderich: another obvious one, as he too is seen baking at different points and it seems to be one of his favorite hobbies/activities along with music. he’s not very affectionate to those he cares about, but i would imagine those close to him (erzsi, feli, ludwig, even gilbert) can see his care through the amount of baked goods he offers them when they visit his house. he probably is also one of, if not the best, baker out of all of the nations reps, as austria is known for its incredible pastries and sweets (strudel, kaiserschmarrn, various torten, etc). yeah, so [insert meme about after u visit grandmas house and you’ve gained 10 lbs]

i know this one’s gonna be controversial, but arthur: there’s something alfred mentions in an episode where he says something about arthur serving him scones, so u know what? my hc is that arthur may not be very good at baking, but he still does it, just as a new skill to learn

francis: a country with such delicious and world famous pastries has got to be included on this list. he doesn’t always bake, and its not as important to him as it is to, say, ludwig and roderich, but he still bakes, esp when he knows alfred and matthew are visiting, or when he has foreigner visitors who he wants to impress with his crêpes, macarons, and éclairs. he also esp enjoys baking mille-feuilles (my personal fav french pastry lmao) and at christmas (which he celebrates with arthur, alfred, and matthew) bûche de noël

kiku: in the latest season we saw that kiku likes baking with ludwig. i imagine that he’s only recently been learning to bake as a relaxation technique. he bakes japanese sweets and pastries, like mochi, dango, and those delicious japanese matcha rolls, but bc of his friendships with alfred ludwig and feliciano, he’s also tried backing apple pie, strudel, and tiramisú (and they have all been impressed by his efforts)

[welcome-to-the-end-of-eras]

Live Reading: The Salt Miracles

I am only doing this for The Salt Miracles and not the other stories in The Winter Spirits because it's too much effort and I'm already going insane. I'm also going in 100% blind, I have absolutely no idea what it's about or whose perspective it's following, but my lord am I nervous.

I haven't even started yet but I just realised I've been calling it The Salt Mines by accident and put it in a twitter post oops-

OOO IT'S SOMEONE NEW

I STILL HAVEN'T STARTED READING YET BUT I SAW THEM REFERENCE A PRIEST AND NOW I'M GOING INSANE I NEED TO BE SEDATED

I'm chewing on glass and gnawing at the bars of my fucking enclosure

This (not) reading is more indicative of my mental illness than my actual diagnoses

If St Hilda is a fucking asylum I'm going to commit several crimes

I already love Mhairi she's so fun

Wait why is it changing to another dude Mhairi was fun :((( ik I'll probably like Flint but Mhairi is cool and I want her to write a proper female mc for once

Wait wait wait if the salt is pink it's probably Himilayan, and that along with Russia was where Mori said there was a weird no-clairvoyance zone thing so ??? I'm going to lose my marbles

Ohh nvm it's algae, that would've been cool

Okay Flint is also a priest, we have two priests now

"... I've been, you know, head first in a bucket the whole way" yeah okay this is a Pulley protag and I love him

" 'A whole...Christmas selection?' 'Nuts' " that may just become my new Twitter bio (probably not I like my Glass Onion reference too much)

He has a portable camera so this is probably taking place in like the twenties, but Kodak as a company was founded literally the same time tlfop was happening which is funny

Motherfucker are we getting animal-human hybrids???

I like fog as a metaphor, especially in tlfop, so I will probably write out something about it later

"...beehives, or cairns (graves)" this sounds like when Mori threatened Ito's wife who was allergic to bees

Why tf are there pilgrims??? Ik they're not like the Mayflower types of pilgrims, but what kind of religious journey thing are they doing???

I also want to write about the complete lack of respect for government officials and just general authority from the pulleyverse protags bc none of them have any fucks to give about authority figures

"...in his unofficial capacity as the bishop's shoulder-angel" PLS-

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was mentioned and now I'm 1.) thinking about tlfop again, and 2.) am fairly certain that this story takes place not far from the events of tlfop, because the first Sherlock Holmes book was published in 1887 and he references them as being "new:

"...now the bishop didn't believe in miracles"

"I'll be Eve in a cider factory" tbh I don't understand what that means too well rn but I love it regardless (ik Eve bit the apple and all that jazz I just can't wrap my brain around the metaphor please don't explain the Bible to me)

I auto-filled an Irish accent for Kerryn in my brain so when he called Flint "Father Kang" I thought he meant "King" for a minute

Okay so it starts December 18th, which is also the date that Mori said he would come back to Japan if I'm not mistaken??? (Edit: I WAS RIGHT AND I FEEL LIKE GOD)

But I must be slightly off because X-rays weren't invented until 1895 :(((

Also I know Kerryn is probably the secondary lead but there's something off about him I don't like, I can't put my finger on it

Either Ms. Pulley messed up her math or I don't know what an advent calendar is, because I was under the impression this was in December, so how tf has Rosemary been on the island for 38 days if she's been there since September??? She would've had to have come in November for that to be true

Flint out here profiling people by name like his name isn't fucking Flint (I also definitely laughed and thought of Batman when I read Bruce's name for the first time)

I can't handle references to the winter king rn don't do this to me-

I stopped to make dinner because I'm hungry, I started at like 5:30 and it's now like 7:35 and I have some yummy pasta and pumpkin tea (I also had like 1.5 margaritas)

I can finally use my insanely eurocentric art history class notes to explain the imagery of what Flint describes in Ezekiel's angels; each of the four creature's heads is representative of the four apostles who wrote the bible, and that coupled with the biblically accurate angels coming down from on high are clear indicators of the second coming in art, meaning the previous priest was preaching the end of days to these people

I've always been such a sucker for Catholicism in gothic media, especially when it comes to imagery, so this all is right up my alley

THE O W L ? ? ?

"...the Almighty had forgotten about the United Kingdom" she's so fucking real for that

Honestly??? The Bishop sounds like he'd be a good love interest for Flint. Maybe it's because I don't like Kerryn that much even tho he's the standard choice, but the whole "hearing them talking to you in times of stress" thing is a fun thing I like with all the pulleyverse couples and it happened with the Bishop so. Hmm.

Fliny's whole color metaphor for logic + Thaniel's synesthesia sounds like another essay for me

The optimism of Flint and the pilgrims is really going to make the horror aspect of this all hit so hard I'm excited

On that note, I love how the stones that looked like beehives so readily became cairns as the tone got darker

My computer started updating as I was making this and I was so scared that I lost everything but thank fuck for tumblr drafts

Anyways those salt rocks are a grade A prime example of Chekov's gun if I've ever seen one

The rocks are fuckin BIRDS???

The fear of machinery is something we have seen in Pulley novels before, especially around this time period, but it's just making me think of the Mars House and how that would tie in

HIMB BABY BIRD I'M ABOUT TO CRY-

N O NOT THE BIRD :(((

That was fast

"The islanders didn't leave a hundred years ago. We're walking in them." this line goes so hard, especially because it includes the audience in the "we"

OOO altitude sickness, very Bedlam Stacks-core

The cloaked devil imagery and unforgotten knowledge description is giving very much Edgar Allen Poe and it's gorgeous

I cannot say I care at all about Kerryn becoming salt but damn was it a creepy twist

And the way she physically started crumbling??? Genuinely horrifying

It took this short story for me to realise that that scene in twofs where Mori is giving his side of the argument with the priest in the future where he actually did go to the wedding, he's arguing about the story of Lot, which likely was derivative of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Wonder why that would come up. Hmm. A mystery.

"He could taste it -- something electric." PLS I'M GOING NUTS-

What in the fucking Cthulu-

Oh Mhairi's back!!! Yay!!!

Alright maybe I spoke too soon with the whole Bishop and Flint thing

Wait it's not Flint??? I thought Bruce was Flint for a second

Oh f u c k dude that was HEAVY

That's so nuts

I literally do not have words what the fuck was that ending

It was really good and clever and fun but w o w

Ending thoughts: I genuinely have none, that was terrifying and beautiful and cool as FUCK, and I think if Ms. Pulley started pumping out only horror novels from now on I would be in full support. It's a really fuckin out of pocket move considering her previous works and even her last short story that had a relatively happy ending but my god it was good. 10/10, very creeped out. Also the sign at the end??? Knowing Flint probably wrote that out and put it around his own neck like a noose??? That's so fucking hardcore I can't believe it. Utterly amazed.

[hchollym]

Also: the twins and Ginny literally assault him the first time he steps back in the Burrow. Why tf would he want to stay?

I can already tell that I’m going to get a lot of hate for this response, but here we go...

Let me just preface this by saying that Percy is my absolute favorite HP character - I will defend him until I’m blue in the face. 

That being said, this is one of the only instances where I will defend Ginny & the twins, because I can absolutely sympathize with their reaction. 

Don’t get me wrong - I don’t blame Percy either, but the entire situation was really messed up.

It’s Christmas - a day for family and joy - and Percy comes over with the Minister of Magic. His entire family (aside from Molly) was suspicious and tense, but no one was outwardly hostile. If anything, they seemed almost excited when they heard that he was home, before they realized that he was with the Minister of Magic, and even after that, they were willing to at least go along with his appearance. 

“Arthur — it’s Percy!” 

“What?” 

Mr. Weasley looked around. Everybody looked quickly at the window; Ginny stood up for a better look. There, sure enough, was Percy Weasley, striding across the snowy yard, his horn-rimmed glasses glinting in the sunlight. He was not, however, alone. 

......

But Percy showed no sign of wanting to greet any of the rest of the family. He stood, poker-straight and awkward-looking, and stared over everybody else’s heads. Mr. Weasley, Fred, and George were all observing him, stony-faced.

Then, Scrimgeour made it blatantly obvious that he was using this visit to target Harry. 

“. . . We’ve only looked in for five minutes, so I’ll have a stroll around the yard while you catch up with Percy. No, no, I assure you I don’t want to butt in! Well, if anybody cared to show me your charming garden . . . Ah, that young man’s finished, why doesn’t he take a stroll with me?” 

The atmosphere around the table changed perceptibly.

Do I think Percy had any say in this whatsoever? Definitely not. The Burrow was probably the last place in the world that he wanted to be. 

However, Scrimgeour clearly forced his hand, and as a result, it certainly made it seem like Percy was using his relationship with his family to do exactly what they accused him of doing in the first place - and I’m sure that Percy recognized that he was being used, which made it so much more humiliating for him. 

Even knowing Percy’s side, do I blame Ginny and twins for their reaction? No, I don’t. As far as they knew, Percy was completely okay with Scrimgeour's actions. So in this particular situation, I can understand their frustration and bitterness towards Percy. As immature as it was to throw mashed parsnip at him, it didn’t physically hurt him, and I think it was rather justified from where they were standing. 

Thanks for the ask! 🙂

[pawsitivevibe]

It's been such a shitty week, but this is my last day before Christmas, yay! I won't be back in until the 27th. And I have so many things planned to make these days off fun!

Tomorrow is Arthur's birthday! We are going to do a little photoshoot, give him all his many presents, and take him and all the girls to the private dog park in the evening. We'll definitely pick up Leia and Holly to come to the park, and now that Willow is big enough she might get to come too! I think I can shove a 6th kennel in my car if it's a small one, but we have to FIND a smaller one ... Leia could potentially fit in my cat's carrier lol. I prefer having all dogs secured in the car, but if need be I think Willow can ride on Tom's lap.

Oh and then Saturday we have an agility fun match! Leia and Arthur are going. Should be fun. I will probably also take them to a public dog park before the match. I have mostly been avoiding public dog parks for a while now, but this one I've never had a bad experience at, so we will see how it goes. Arthur loves to play with other dogs so much.

On Sunday we'll probably go to the members only dog park we take Arthur to. Man he's gonna have a big weekend! He'll love it though. He's not actually a High Energy Dog, so he'll be passed tf out after all these outings and we will know peace in our home lol. Oh and I suppose I might go to church ... I kinda miss my family church, it's one of those little, cute, homey, nice ones. All the shitty people left when our minister officiated a gay wedding many years ago, so the congregation is good people ... I'm not particularly religious, but the community aspect of church is nice, and I like the Christmas hymns. And honestly I like the sermons, our minister is cool, he's really into history and mythology, and he plays Dungeons & Dragons, and he has a Kermit the frog puppet and can do the voice perfectly for the kids. We've had good conversations.

On Christmas we are taking our 3 Dog Circus to my parents' house in the morning. And then the show moves to my in-laws' for the afternoon and evening, where 2 more spaniels will join the circus. We have not done the 5 dogs together yet, so I'm sure it will be chaos lol.

I'm considering bringing all 3 to my aunt's on Boxing Day too. And trying to convince my mom to bring Leia. I think 6 dogs is just the thing to spice up our family get together. 3 mutts, 1 spaniel, 1 beagle, 1 XL lab ... Oh even better, my aunt should also bring her two Schnauzers, and my mom's cousin should bring his Cairn Terrier. 9 dogs would be even spicier.

[us-ugay]

Noooo ok I love the rival mind swap idea. (It’s good trash.) Would it happen to both of them at the same time? Or just one? Idk why but my mind first went to them being rival lawyers. But I think the rivalry should be pretty intense or maybe Alfred burned Arthur really bad in the past (maybe over a career move). But I’m loving that idea of say Alfred harboring feelings for Arthur but he act like he hates his fucking guts. Alfred goes to bed hating Arthur and plotting revenge and wakes up in a bed that’s not his to Arthur rubbing his back and handing him a cup of coffee. An absolute mind fuck and for once in his life Alfred is speechless.

you know? i didnt get anywhere other than the initial idea 😂 i saw some 👀 fan art 👀 on twitter with the canon verse boys and their cardverse counterparts and was just like hehe nice 😎 then tried to imagine a scenario where that would happen, but only got so far as alfred (country) suddenly waking up in the spades universe with alfred (spades) waking up in the hotel at one of the various world conferences and them just trying to figure out wtf is going on and meanwhile alfred (country) has arthur (spades) waking up in bed next to him all lovey dovey (and h*rny because this /is/ arthur we’re talking about) and alfred freaking out cuz why tf is e*gland acting so fucking weird

howeverrrrr 👀 in the spirit of yesterdays spam im loving the concept of rival lawyer AU. i guess going w the same train of thot w the initial brain fart of an idea i guess itll just be one of them swapping over (and their counterpart also swaps 👀) and w alfred suddenly waking up in his rival’s bed of course he freaks out and is talking absolute nonsense and arthur is just in mama hen mode being like “how do you not remember we’re married? :( baby are you feeling ok? we should get up and take you to this hospital this isnt normal 🥺” and alfreds not used to such /tenderness/ and being doted on especially by arthur of all people isnt that bad so maybe he leans into it a little bit 👀

and he learns the meaning of true love and friendship and lives happily ever after uwu

of course, the married alfred wakes up in the other universe in his old apartment he lived in before getting hitched and is so lost and confused cuz all his shits there so its not like he broke into it and he goes through his day like hes being tormented by the ghosts of christmas past present and future and his heart absolutely breaks when he sees arthur in the court and he pushes him away from his hug and then realizes somethings actually up when arthur looks at him like he has a second head when he brings their marraige n stuff up

i think w this situation its less for alfreds sake and more for arthurs sake because yeah arthurs had a big fat crush on that absolute bastard but he hates it because alfreds a bastard and itll never happen but suddenly alfreds in front of him absolutely besides himself w grief when arthur pushes him away? and arthur then thinks how nice it is to be wanted so much even if alfred might be having a brain aneurysm

and they hook up and arthur learns the meaning of true love and friendship and lives happily ever after also uwu