#(if you have seen a very potter musical you may understand my joke)

[waldensblog]

That's it. We're gonna have to A Very Shadow and Bone musical our way out of this one, guys.

[justsomerandomfanfic]

may I ask for a matchup, please (matchups for both eras in HP, the MCU, and DC/Gothman?) Thank you!

I'm 20 years old, aquarius, Hufflepuff with gryffindor and slytherin tendencies, straight and Poly with a guys only preference and I go by she/her pronouns! And currently I am about to graduate with a diploma for media engineering

I also stand about at 5'4" based on my last height take!As for my personality, the thing is that I know more about the best aspects of my personality the worst I only know a few.

POSITIVE/Negative TRAITS: For a start, I think of myself as someone who is kind, strong, nice, humble and loyal. I like helping people out as much as possible and try to be open-minded and understanding. I'm usually sarcastic but likes to crack a joke at times. I also stick to my personal opinions but I'm happy to learn from a mistake, if I'm being spoken to nicely and not yelled at. I would also do anything for my loved ones but I have a hard time showing it, I'm also very understanding and will stand up for what's right and fight someone for them and I won't hesitate to defend the person or call them out on their bullshit while remaining respectful.

The negative is that sometimes my head is up in the cloud as I tend to daydream alot.i tend to be too talkie so people had to tell me to stop at times.

But that usually depends on the person, as much as possible, I try to be neutral else I will beat thier ass if they are getting more disrespectful

I'm also very introverted and mostly pefer to dive into books and my art but still extrovert when i go out , I also have this rebellious streak but not super rebellious.

HOBBIES:

I have like a LOT of them. Most of them are artistic exploitations such as drawing, listening to music ,writing stories and collect stuff figurines and books but I'm usually seen on my phone and being on social media like tiktok or I'm playing video games (murder mystery, hogwarts awaked) I'm also very particularly fond of learning new things, like shistory and special languages like flower languages....and more learing about magical creatures.

Thank you so much for requesting a Matchup!! I hope you enjoy it! <333

Harry Potter (Marauders Era);

Remus Lupin:

🐾 You met Remus right after graduation while wandering an old bookshop

🐾 You were walking down rows and rows of bookshelves, before turning a corner and almost bumping into Remus; both of you apologizing profusely, but thankfully no one got hurt

🐾 Though you graduated from the school two years ago, you were pretty good at faces, and you almost instantly recognized Remus from Hogwarts, him having been in three of your classes, Potions and DADA

🐾 Remus had instantly recognized you, him having a crush on you since his fourth year, but he never did anything about it, not even telling his Marauder friends; he thought after graduating that he'd never see you again and thought that his little crush would go away, but after seeing you, Remus realized that he never got over you (his crush came back full storm)

🐾 You had found Remus adorable, his words getting all messed up when he spoke to you, him muttering and fidgeting with his lanky fingers, you simply smiled, before asking if he wanted to join you for lunch; Remus nervously said yes

🐾 The lunch went swimmingly, talking about the good ol' days in Hogwarts (though it was only a few years ago), and talking about your lives, likes, and dislikes; the both of you could feel some sort of connection between you two

🐾 After that, you both stayed in contact, making sure to meet up and hang out once in a while, when you both weren't busy or working; you both were quickly growing feelings for one another, and the two of your get-togethers slowly turned into dates, that's to be sure

🐾 Remus's crush on you definitely grew to one of love, he loved how much you loved reading, writing, and listening to music; Remus loved how caring and understanding you were, even when it came to his furry little problem

🐾 You found Remus incredibly sweet and charming, you loved how loyal and kind he was; he always knew how to calm you down if anything was wrong and always loved to just sit and read a book with you

🐾 Together, you two were practically attached to the hip, always together reading or just spending time together in some way; the two of you would do everything together, and always supported each other, making sure each other are healthy and well-minded, and, most of all, loved

--

Harry Potter (Lightning Era);

Neville Longbottom:

🌹 You met Neville when you join Hogwarts as the new Muggle Studies and History professor, having sat next to him during meals and finding him pretty handsome

🌹 You later found out that he was the Herbology Professor, and had a fascination and love for anything green and plant-y; you found this adorable and instantly wanted to get to know him

🌹 It took a while until you got up the courage to talk to the teacher, but after a bit of self-reassurance and daydreaming, you finally spoke to the professor during lunch; you both introduced yourselves and soon enough, a friendship blossomed

🌹 When you both didn't have classes, the two of you would do your period planning and homework correcting together, talking about plants, students, and even some of your hobbies

🌹 You had once given Neville a drawing of one of Neville's favorite plants for his birthday, and he loved it; that was the day he realized he really like you, in fact, he thought he might love you

🌹 You were smitten with the Herbology professor, finding him sweet and such a gentleman, his green eyes reminded you of the many plants that he adored and his brown hair reminded you of the dirt they were often planted in; he was amazingly gorgeous, and you were shocked that he didn't have a partner already

🌹 One day, while you were in class with your third-year students, teaching them about Muggle history, an owl flew through your open window, carrying a bouquet of beautiful flowers; you gasped, seeing them, and your students watching with curiosity as you read the small note, 'I grew these for you, I hope you like them. I was wondering if you would like to join me at Hogsmeade tomorrow after afternoon classes? - Sincerely, Neville'

🌹 Neville was a bit nervous, waiting outside of Three Broomsticks Inn, growing more and more nervous as he waited, his hands stuffed into his long, dark green robes; at the sound of his name, he turned, smiling as he watched you strut over to him, a bright smile on your face; he heart was singing

🌹 As the days and weeks went on, you and Neville finally became an item, holding hands as Neville walks you to your classroom, sharing sweet chaste kisses before heading to your professor dorms, and having picnics in the greenhouse together

🌹 Together, you and Neville are two peas in a pod, you are the stem to his flowers, the earmuffs to his mandrake, and you had captured his heart, you are his life; and you felt the same, finding your Neville to be your knight in shining armor, your lion, your brave prince, and you loved him wholeheartedly

--

Marvel;

Steve Rogers:

⭐ You met Steve when you joined the Avengers since Fury had found that you had an amazing set of powers

⭐ Steve was then in charge of training you, making sure you were ready for any mission, and Natasha would help too, putting you under her wing; you quickly became friends because of that

⭐ You were a bit intimidated by the Captain America, but also found him marvelous, amazed by his every move; from the way he moved, fought, talked, and the way his hair just seemed to flow, gorgeous (not to forget that America's booty he had)

⭐ Long story short, you had been daydreaming about a certain Captain and his cake when he broke you out of that daydream daze, and yes, you were mighty embarrassed, and Steve was mighty confused, but told you to make sure you are aware of your surrounding; Steve was mostly concerned that you'd get injured by not paying attention

⭐ Believe it or not, Steve really liked you, a lot really, when he first saw you, he thought you were really pretty, really pretty; but he pushed his feelings away since you were a coworker now and he didn't want to make you uncomfortable

⭐ But, it seemed that Steve wasn't too good at hiding his attraction for you, since Tony and Bucky noticed immediately, instantly teasing him about it, they even tried to get him to ask you out; Tony's rambling wasn't really helping that case, but once he left and Bucky gave Steve a talking to, Steve finally gained the courage to ask you out on a nice date

⭐ When he asked you, of course, you said yes, and Steve made sure to take you to this nice little diner where the two of you ate old fashion burgers and chocolate and vanilla shakes; there the two of you bonded over your love for drawing, and Steve told you that he'd love to see your work, and you said the same

⭐ After the two of you started dating and made if official, some days Steve would find his shield missing, but he knew where it was, or really, who took it; you loved to prank Steve, taking his shield and pretending to be Steve, lowering your voice and doing the pledge of allegiance, Steve would always find you and thought you were adorable, he could never be angry at you

⭐ Steve finds you incredible, he loves how much you care for others like him, and are always so sweet and how funny you are, he loves just spending time with you, reading and drawing with you, (drawing you specifically); you were sunshine on a gloomy day

⭐ You and Steve are best friends, soulmates, and there was nothing that could tear the both of you apart; you were both perfect for each other

--

DC;

Clark Kent:

⛅ You met Clark when you joined the Daily Planet as the new assistant to Mr. White, giving him his paperwork, getting him to sign something, or he'd just asking you to get him a coffee; your job seemed easy, but it really wasn't

⛅ You had wanted to be the newspaper editor, you loved reading the newspaper and thought editing it would be a fun job, but they weren't hiring an editor and so you became an assistant, and that was when you met Clark

⛅ You were rushing with paperwork in your arms and went straight into Mr. White's office, accidentally interrupting his and Clark's conversation; it was awkward and you apologized, hoping you weren't going to be fired after a week, but you were in luck, Clark saved the day

⛅ Clark introduced himself, as the Daily Planet journalist, and you were in awe, he was so handsome; how come his hair was so perfect, and his eyes were so stunning, and his teeth were so gleaming? Amazing

⛅ Clark found you just as amazing, he loved how sweet you seemed, and even complimented your little sketches and doodles on your notebook cover that you held in your arms; you two were having a lovely time just talking before Mr. White asked the two of you to leave

⛅ It didn't take long before you started daydreaming about the amazing Clark Kent, thinking about his hair and how soft it look, and the way his eyes shimmered and his voice, so dreamy; you wanted to daydream more about him but you had to get back to work

⛅ Only a couple weeks later, Clark asked you out for lunch, and so did your relationship begin, from cute little dates during lunch and wondering why Clark was rushing off early after you heard sirens, you thought he was perfect nonetheless

⛅ You began to get a bit suspicious, when Clark would run off during dates or just hanging out, but you sort of put the puzzle pieces together, realizing Clark was Superman all along; which was pretty cool to you, since a couple days after you moved to Metropolis, you were saved by the man

⛅ The two of you would spend as much time with each other as possible since he'd sometimes have to go and save the day, but the two of you would spend it wisely; reading together in each other's arms, drawing sketches of each other, playing video games (though Clark's really bad at it, except Mario Kart, he always wins), and showing Clark your favorite TikToks

⛅ You and Clark are perfect, the idol relationship, the number one couple; Clark is your hero and you love him to the moon and back, and Clark was feeling the same, he'd do anything for you, just say it

--

Gotham;

James Gordan:

🔫 You met James (Jim) Gordan when you were brought into the GPD for probably knowing information on some criminal, but they got the wrong person, you didn't know anything about any criminal; they didn't believe you though, which was annoying

🔫 They looked through your stuff, your phone, and they knew that you had to have something to do with the recent crimes that have been happening, you must have been involved, but you weren't, you kept telling them; you really didn't have any involvement

🔫 When Jim got hold of the news that some cops captured an informant of some high-up criminal, Jim wanted to have a go and interrogate the person, thinking you were this hard criminal; when he saw you, looking small in the metal chair, he realized his coworkers have got the wrong person

🔫 Not saying that Jim didn't think you could be a criminal, you could've been, anyone can, but you just had this aura, that you weren't a terrible person, you didn't seem like you would intentionally hurt someone, and so he let you go, but not before giving you his number in case you needed anything

🔫 You did call, a lot later, but you called Jim and asked him for help, but guess what, someone had ransacked your place and you didn't feel safe, and it turns out because the cops had plastered your face in the newspaper about how they caught an informant, you were now a target, a big yay on the police's end 🙄

🔫 Jim, as an apology for putting you in danger, become your personal bodyguard, making sure you were alright and giving you a place to stay; it was awkward at first, but you got used to staying in Jim's room while he took the couch, no matter how many time you said you'd take the couch

🔫 Slowly, and awkwardly, the two of you bonded and got used to each other, to a point that there weren't weird silences anymore and the two of you gradually became friends; your crush on him didn't start until you woke up to breakfast made and a note from Jim telling you that he had bought you your favorite cookies; they were in the cupboard

🔫 Jim really liked you, growing a crush on you as well, after coming home to find dinner made, and you asleep on the couch, a book open in your lap; Jim smiled as he picked you up and took you back to his bed, making sure you were comfortable and all tucked in

🔫 There was no confession, but you both somehow understood and realized that the two of you did feel the same, the two of you holding hands and kissing after watching your favorite movie; it was magical

🔫 In the end, you made Jim a better person, really, and Jim thought you were the best person that has ever come into his life; the two of you were there for each other, supported each other, and would always love each other

[variousqueerthings]

@fabiansociety EFUCLNK HELL YEAH!

okay so back in 2009 a group of university students did a harry potter parody musical (known as a very potter musical). and it was pretty good, especially considering it didn't have much of a budget (it was a student production after all), and the performance was filmed on a cheap camera and became a bit of a geeky runaway success when it was uploaded to youtube

so much so that they made a second, and a third harry potter musical, each of which was progressively higher budget and better than the last (genuinely, i do not like harry potter although i did when i was a kid, which was what initially drew me to watching them, but those musicals have a very soft spot in my heart and make me feel a lot of emotions still when i think about them)

in between this they made several other well-received comedy musicals, such as "me and my dick," "holy musical batman," and "starship," all of which are great as well -- this built a solid fan community that was clearly interested beyond the original harry potter parody appeal, and just really liked their work, and a core cast that returns for the majority of productions, so they're really good friends still

the bottom-line is mostly in the realm of parody, but they're very good at knowing when to be sincere in their work -- they're not punching down at a genre or a specific story, so much as they're delving into the tropes of them and deconstructing them, like good parody does (and with comedy). part of the enjoyment is also in seeing the improvement in the core cast (which has a bit of rotation, but there's a few who are involved with pretty much all the productions), they all become steadily more confident performers, although they were pretty great from the start (insert fun fact here that this was where darren criss, of glee fame, had his start)

i haven't seen all of them, because not all were necessarily my thing just in terms of concept -- although i might do a proper watch of the ones i missed back in the day -- so there's no need to watch everything to get their vibe

during the time where i wasn't really watching them, they released 1, 2, and 3 of a horror musical series (as well as an online show during covid that revealed more of the lore of the world, which i have yet to watch) about a town called hatchetville. id recommend watching them in the order they were released in, simply because they grow in scale + there are easter eggs in the two sequels -- not necessary to understand each of them, but then you know why the live audience is screaming at seemingly random moments

this may be the horror fan in me speaking, but I'd actually say if one wanted to try out starkid at this point, then that series is maybe the current best place to start, because it's a great microcosm of the way they work, and they're also very polished productions! + ofc it's spooky month right now

other favourites of mine are "holy musical batman," (batman) "twisted" (aladdin/disney) and "firestarter" (an original, set in pre-historic times), if you'd prefer to try a one-off to begin with

the three horror musicals are "the guy who didn't like musicals," "black friday," and "nerdy prudes must die." they're also all originals, with various kinds of horror subgenre backgrounds

the things about team starkid that i really really appreciate, is that they started out as a bit of a fun semi-joke between friends, grew really big, and they still upload their shows for free onto youtube, they're still doing it for the enjoyment, no matter how small or big the budget is for a given production, they're still community-based at their core, and they both have the aforementioned returning people as well as new cast members throughout the past 14 years

so bottom line you're getting to watch artists having a great time in incredibly fun musicals that raise their money via kickstarter campaigns!

speedrunning the hatchetville trilogy today (the guy who didn't like musicals, black friday, nerdy prudes must die), and holymoly starkid really outdid themselves with the depth of these. the horror, the lore, the music/singing

the fact that starkid put these musicals out year after year is already so incredible, it's lovely to return to their work, but I'm ecstatic they did a horror trilogy!!!

wonderful horror-comedy-musical watch on youtube for anyone looking for something out of the box during spooky month

[wlntrsldler]

hey!! love ur writings so far, could i request you belong with me with fred weasley? thanks! <3

PROMPT: based on you belong with me by taylor swift (an installment of my taylor swift x harry potter series. to read more about it, click here) Fred realizes that he loves Y/N after seeing her so close to George. 

WC: 2.6K+ words

HARRY POTTER MASTERLIST

-

you belong with me (f.w one shot)

“Sorry,” you mumbled, adjusting the glasses on the bridge of your nose as you collided into someone’s chest. You couldn’t take your eyes away from the ginger boy to the right of you, flashing his toothy grin at Angelina. She laughed at his joke, brushing against his arm in a flirty manner. Your heart fell apart at the sight, almost making you want to crush your glasses under your foot to prevent you from seeing anymore. But it was too late— the image was already burned into your mind. 

“Y/N,” the voice called, waving a hand in front of your face. 

Suddenly, you were pulled back to reality. You looked up at the person you ran into, flustered that you completely forgot their existence. George. You visibly relaxed, shoulders rolling back into a less tense state, “Sorry, Georgie.”

“Fred, again?” he asked, a sympathetic look on his face as he watched you stare at his older twin longingly. George took some of the books you had pressed against your chest, helping you carry the weight of the stress that occupied your mind. “Will you ever tell him how you feel?”

At his words, your eyes widened. You shook your head furiously, tucking a piece of hair behind your ear, as you bounced up and down on your toes. You gulped, looking back at the older twin, who left his earlier spot and was no nowhere to be found. You frowned, “Never, Georgie. He’s my best friend and I wouldn’t want to mess that up.” 

He cocked an eyebrow, faking a look of hurt on his face, “I’ll pretend you didn’t just call him your best friend when I’m right here-”

“You know what I mean.”

“As I was saying,” he shot you an annoyed look for interrupting him before he continued. “He may be my brother and your best friend but you’re my best friend too, Y/N. I’d rather not watch my best friend get hurt over and over again.” 

You sighed, lifting your glasses up to rub your tired eyes, “It’s not worth it. I’d rather stay like this and keep Fred in my life than mess up what we have because of my stupid feelings.” 

George rolled his eyes, wanting to somehow find a way to convince you to tell his twin how you felt, but when he saw your face drop at the sight of Fred and Angelina in a lip lock, he decided to move on from the topic. He wrapped a protective arm around you, leading you to the other side of the castle. “Come on, Y/N. There’s nothing for you to see here.” 

The day continued to drag on with everyone whispering about their excitement for the Yule Ball. You tried your hardest not to roll your eyes at the constant gushing from the girls you passed about their dates. George chuckled beside you, copying the scowl on your face, and gagging as Hermione and Ginny talked about their dates. 

You looked up at him as you sat down next to each other, “Who are you going with, Georgie?”

“No idea,” he replied, “Wanna be my date?” 

“George Weasley, do not take me as your date because you pity me.” 

“Hey, I’m sure I’d have more fun with you than with any other girl I may ask,” he argued, nudging you with his elbow. “What do you say, Y/N? Let’s show my dumber and less attractive twin what he’s missing out on.” 

You couldn’t help but laugh at his words, unable to stop the smile that appeared on your face. “Can’t wait.” 

George saw you like a sister— almost like Ginny. He wanted to protect you and make sure you were alright, that nobody could hurt you. It just happened to be that it was his daft and dear twin brother to be the perpetrator. He saw this one coming, really. Growing up together, he saw the way you and Fred always had a special connection. It wasn’t until you began to understand your feelings did you stray closer to him than Fred. He took pride in being the more sensitive brother, more observant than the older one, so he always made sure he was there to pick up the pieces after everything happened, like a brother would. 

George caught onto your feelings for his brother a few years ago when he saw you staring at him a bit too long for it to be friendly. For years he watched you pine after Fred, too afraid to face rejection or to lose your friendship to say anything. If it were up to George, he would lock you and Fred in a room together until you confessed to him how you felt or until Fred got his head out of his arse long enough to figure it out himself. But he knew it wasn’t up to him so he had to go through the pain of watching his two bestest friends in the world run around in circles. It’s pathetic if you asked him. 

You weren’t exactly discrete with your feelings. You were sure all of the Weasleys— Charlie included, who hasn’t seen you since you were 13 when he took a break from tending for his beloved dragons, choosing to visit the Burrow for the summer— caught on to your affections, apart from Fred. Molly would often assign the both of you to do chores together. Even Harry, the most oblivious person you’ve ever met in your life, knew of your feelings for Fred. 

You’ve come to the conclusion that nobody could be that clueless. Fred was simply ignoring your feelings so he didn’t have to be the one to break your heart. 

-

The night of the Yule Ball was equally magical as it was confusing for Fred. You descended from the steps, looking gorgeous as ever, snatching the breath of everyone who awaited at the bottom. George beamed proudly at you, eyes twinkling as he watched you strut down with confidence. Fred’s back was turned, not seeing your entrance as he was too busy chatting with his date. You didn’t expect any less from him— he was a gentleman. 

It wasn’t until Ron spoke up did Fred finally turn around to look at you. Ron’s eyes bulged out of their sockets, “Blimey, Y/N, when did you get so fit?”

When Fred turned around, his jaw fell to the floor. It was like everyone else disappeared. Angelina’s chatter was reduced to white noise. The sound of the music from inside the Yule Ball was faint. All he could focus on was you. 

Ron has a point, Fred thought. 

You looked absolutely gorgeous. The color of your dress complimented your skin so well. You looked so mature, no longer the shy girl that he and his brother took a liking to. You were Y/N. And Godric, you were absolutely breathtaking. 

Hermione slapped Ron’s arm, scowling, “Ronald, that’s not very nice.” 

You chuckled, eyes darting over to Fred for a split second. You blushed when you saw him staring back, mouth agape, like he couldn’t believe it was you. You immediately moved your eyes to the younger twin, taking his outstretched hand before he leaned closer to your ear. George’s breath tickled your skin, making you shiver. He whispered, “Looks like you got his attention.”

You were flustered, hiding your face in the crook of George’s neck to hide the redness of your cheeks. He laughed at you, pulling away to guide you to the entrance. Because your back was turned, you didn’t see the confused look on Fred’s face. 

Since when did that start? He made a mental note to ask his twin about it later, an unfamiliar feeling overcoming his senses as he watched George’s hand find the small of your back.

“Fred?” 

He snapped out of his thoughts, now aware of the beautiful girl by his side. He turned his head to look at Angelina, an apologetic look on his face. He sent her a small smile, “Sorry, love.”

“No worries, you ready to go in?” She asked, looping her arm through his. He nodded, clearing his throat, trying to shake the image of you and his brother out of his head. As they walked in, Angelina spoke again, “I didn’t know Y/N and George were a thing.”

“They’re not,” Fred blurted out, blinking rapidly as Angelina shot him a quizzical look. He was sure his cheeks were now pink, a sure sign of his embarrassment, “Uh, I mean- I don’t think they are, at least. I’m sure they would’ve told me. He’s my brother and she’s my best friend, after all.” 

You would’ve told him, right? 

-

Fred would be lying if he said there wasn’t a weight lifted off his chest when George stumbled into their shared room at 11 PM. He couldn’t bring himself to spend the night with Angelina because the thought of you and George plagued his mind. He shivered at the thought that George would take you back to your room, and Merlin knows what else might ensue. Fred didn’t want to think about it. 

He laid in the dark, hoping that the younger twin would make his way inside at a reasonable hour. He still had on his dress shirt but his tie was undone as he laid against the frame of his bed, arms folded behind his neck. His shoes were in two different places in the room. He quite literally shook them off his feet, frustrated that he didn’t know what he was feeling. Fred perked up at any sound that might indicate George’s arrival, deflating when the sound of footsteps walked past his door. 

Finally, George walked in, shoes in hand but the rest of his ensemble still neatly on his body. Well, that’s a good sign, Fred thought. George flicked the light switch on, making Fred hiss at the sudden light. The younger twin threw his shoes at Fred, thinking there was an intruder in their room, half-expecting Fred to still be out with Angelina. 

Fred squinted his eyes, “What was that for?” 

“Oops, sorry,” George chuckled, undoing his tie and plopping onto his bed. “Didn’t expect you to be back so early.”

“I could say the same about you.” 

“Why is that my dear brother?”

Fred felt bile rise up his throat, hating the words that rolled off his tongue, “You and Y/N looked rather cozy.” 

George cocked an eyebrow, leaning forward to interrogate his brother, “Is that a problem?”

Fred was too worked up to detect the teasing tone in his twin’s voice. He cleared his throat, choosing to look everywhere else but at George’s smirking face. “Yes it is a problem. I’d like a heads-up next time my brother and my best friend start shagging.”

He snorted, “We’re not shagging, you git. We’re just best friends.” 

“I thought I was her best friend too and she didn’t go to the ball with me. She went with you, so I find it hard to believe that you’re just friends.” 

“Believe what you want, dearest brother,” George hummed, getting up to get ready for bed. “But did you even ask her to the Ball? I’m sure she would’ve said yes if you did.” 

“Well, I’m dating Angelina so that wouldn’t work.” 

“Precisely,” George rolled his eyes, throwing his balled up tie in his brother’s direction. “That’s why she went with me. You’re dating Angelina, so what’s got your knickers in a twist?”

“I do not have my knickers in a twist.” Fred huffed, getting up to do the same. Silence fell upon the two boys. George was enjoying their confrontation a bit too much, while Fred was now rethinking everything he thought he knew. Was it possible that he was jealous?

No, that couldn’t possibly be it. 

Can it?

-

You’ve preoccupied Fred’s mind since the Yule Ball. Although, he hasn’t brought up his suspicions— and as much as he won’t admit it, his jealousy— over your relationship with his twin, he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about it. It’s gotten in the way of a lot of things. 

For starters, Angelina grew tired of Fred’s absentmindedness, forgetting dates and always daydreaming or staring off to where you and George sat when he was with her. She broke it off with him, and truth be told, he was relieved. 

He skipped over to where you and George sat, prying the both of you away from each other as he squeezed himself between you. He ignored George’s protests and turned his back on his brother, facing you with a comedic smile on his face, “Hello, Y/N.”

You raised your eyebrows, pushing your glasses up the bridge of your nose, “Yes, Freddie?”

“Just wanted to see how my best girl is doing.”

You shook your head playfully, trying to hide the obvious blush on your cheeks. George giggled from behind Fred, getting up to leave the two of you alone. George knew his plan would work.

You pushed Fred off a bit, his body heat making you more flustered than ever, “Put a cork in it, Weasley. I’m sure your girlfriend would not appreciate you saying that to me.”

“My huh?” he cocked his head to one side, a twinkle of mischief in his eye as he explained his situation to you. “I don’t have one of those anymore, my dearest.” 

You dropped your quill, shocked, as you turned to the red head beside you. You imagined he would be much sadder, given the fact that he no longer had a girlfriend, but the grin on his face told another story. It made you believe that the boy in front of you was pulling your leg. You rolled your eyes, crossing your arms over your chest, “Not funny, Weasley. Don’t joke about that.”

“Not joking,” he mused, shrugging it off like it was no big deal. “We broke up like two weeks ago.” 

“And you’re not in shambles right now because..?”

“Because it was bound to end, anyway.”

A puzzled look took over your features as you gave Fred your undivided attention. His eyes were studying your face, a small smile tugging on his perfect lips. He leaned over and tucked a piece of hair behind your ear, keeping his hand there longer than necessary, cupping your jaw. You managed to speak despite the shocks that shot through your body— albeit it was more of a squeak, but you were proud of yourself for even uttering something out, “Why is that?”

“Someone…” he trailed off, brushing your skin with the pad of his thumb before blushing madly, like he just became aware of what he’s been doing. You suddenly missed his touch when he pulled his hand away. Fred cleared his throat, “Someone else caught my attention.” 

You whispered, still half-dazed from his previous action, “Oh.” 

“Y/N?” Fred mumbled, eyes glued to your lips. 

“Mhm?”

He licked his lips, inching closer to you. His breath tickled your lips, making your heartbeat a million miles an hour. “Can I?”

“If you want,” you gulped, allowing yourself to melt under his touch. 

“I’ve never wanted something more than this. You belong with me.” 

“Shut up and kiss me, Weasley.”

He smirked before letting his lips touch yours. He pulled you closer to his body, almost forgetting that you were both in public. It’s not like he cared much over an audience anyway. He only pulled away from you when he felt his ear being twisted. Fred grimaced in pain, eyes screwed shut. 

You giggled as you watched Professor McGonagall picking him up by the ear. She wore a fond look on her face that she tried to disguise with a scowl, “Mr. Weasley, I will not have you corrupt one of my best students.” 

“Come on, Professor,” he groaned, sending you a cheeky wink, “With the way she was kissing me back, she was the one corrupting me.” 

You flushed red, placing your face in your hands, “Weasley!”

Unfortunately, he got a week’s worth of detention. It was worth it because he got a girlfriend in return. 

TAGS: @rexorangecouny

[notcorrect-persona5]

In Defense of Yosuke’s Parents

I’ve seen so many posts about Yosuke having bad parents which really surprised me because I didn’t get that impression at all. I’ve been meaning to make a post in defense of his parents, but I’ve been working on a Yu analysis. After I saw @personuhh​’s post I thought I’d offer an alternative perspective. I’ll be addressing some of the things they brought up first, and then I’ll get into additional evidence. I have edited this post since I originally posted it because I I wanted to elaborate and reword some things.

My Response

You’re right, Yosuke does take on way more responsibility than a part-timer should. However, I don’t think that’s his parents doing. It seems like Junes is extremely understaffed. In his social link, Yosuke says his dad was “bugging him to find helpers.” I volunteer at a small location of a large church (much like the Inaba branch of Junes), and I have been asked to find more volunteers over and over again because they’re desperate for more help. It’s a lot of work and not enough people. Additionally, both Yu and Chie come in to help due to the lack of staff. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mrs. Hanamura helped out too as Teddie’s under the impression that Yosuke’s parents are always together (which I’ll talk about later). 

On top of that, Yosuke mentions part-timers ditching work and slacking off. When an employee doesn’t show up, Yosuke (and Teddie) are often called in because their managers know they’ll show up. People who are reliable are given more responsibility, period. It sucks, but if someone needs help they aren’t going to ask someone who they don’t see as dependable. I volunteer at church every week, and I have been asked countless times if that’s okay because they don’t want to overwork me. Every time I say I don’t mind, and I assume Yosuke would have the same reaction if asked. Not only is it Yosuke’s natural instinct to help people, but he was kind of a pushover before the events of (and at the start of) Persona 4. In his third awakening, Yosuke says he was overworked and taken for granted. That’s not okay, and it’s a huge problem, but Mr. Hanamura isn't the cause of that. Mr. Hanamura is the general manager; his job isn’t to create the part-timer’s schedules. 

It’s true that Yosuke tries to work out the problems of other employees and listens to their complaints. There is no indication that Yosuke was told to do this, and I don’t know why he would be. In his social link, there are two girls who act as if he has more power than he does. They demand a raise, ask him to give them the day off, and assume he has knowledge about another employee’s schedule. Yosuke says he doesn't have the power to help them, and in a manga page he says “I may be the manager’s son, but I’m still just an employee.” Yosuke is doing much more than the average part-timer, but he isn’t being given the responsibilities of a manager.

As for the Junes concert, Mr. Hanamura did not tell Yosuke he was going to be fired. Yosuke came to that conclusion himself. Mr. Hanumura did not ask Yosuke to find a solution or ask Rise for help. Yosuke only asked Rise for help because he was scared of moving again. I understand how the phrase “awfully nice for some reason” could come across as odd, but I don’t think he meant his dad isn’t usually nice. In the Persona 4 Manga that scene is translated as “My Dad’s been extra nice to me” meaning his dad is nice, he’s just being extra nice, and I’m not surprised. Yosuke was extremely unhappy when he moved to Inaba. Despite trying to hide his feelings, you can see in The Magician that he didn’t do a very good job of it. And now that Yosuke is finally happy, they might be forced to move again. Of course, Mr. Hanamura would feel guilty. Oftentimes, when people feel guilty, they start acting nicer - unnaturally so - to make themselves feel better. Chie (who is already very kind) even does it after she and Yukiko spend Yosuke’s money on clothes for Teddie. Yosuke notices the shift in her attitude and tells her that he’s worried. It’s the same reaction he had toward his dad’s behavior.

The only reason I bring up Chie is to show an in-game example of someone being overly nice due to guilt. What Chie did was wrong, that’s why she feels guilty. The reason Mr. Hanamura would feel guilty is his job may have to move his entire family again. The cause of their guilt is different, but they are responding the same way.

I don’t think Mrs. Hanamura not wanting her son to own porn is unreasonable. My mom doesn’t like magic, so I wasn’t allowed to read or watch Harry Potter growing up. Similarly, a friend of mine wasn’t allowed to watch iCarly. As for Mrs. Hanamura burning Yosuke’s porn in Arena, that’s the third time (that we know of) that she’s seen his porn. I assume she’s told him she doesn’t want him looking at pornography, but he continues to do so anyway. Burning his magazines may seem dramatic, but she was likely just frustrated that he kept disobeying her. 

I don’t think Yosuke’s parents are the reason why Yosuke wants to be seen as manly. I haven’t seen anything that implies that. I think Yosuke’s desperation to be seen as a man comes from Japanese society and his fears regarding his sexuality.

Mr. Hanamura came up with this slogan because they were selling jinbei's which are traditionally worn by men. It’s a play on words. This isn’t the first time Mr. Hanamura has come up with a cringey slogan.

It seems Mr. Hanamura has that stereotypically “dad humor” which is typically associated with positive father figures (it’s not always). Yosuke saying his dad is still saying the “MANsoon” slogan gave me reminds of kids being like “Dad, that’s a bad joke, stop”, but the dad continuing to make his bad jokes regardless. It’s very Disney Channel and sit-com like.

I don’t remember Teddie saying he watches violent war movies with Mr. Hanamura, but I don’t see how that connects to the idea of Mr. Hanamura pushing Yosuke to be a “more masculine, traditional, unshakable, unemotional man.” The idea that only those types of men watch war movies is the type of thinking Kanji’s and Naoto’s shadows were trying to address. I don’t think Mr. Hanamura cares about being that type of stereotypical/traditional man because of his relationship with Teddie. Teddie is not very masculine (he even says so in Persona Q, screenshot will be later), and he isn’t hiding it. 

This exchange is from Kanji’s Persona 4 Club Profile. Teddie went to the store to buy female clothing, and he asked Kanji to make him a dress (the one from the cross dressing pageant). He already owned his “Alice dress” before the cross dressing competition, and I assume he’s worn it. In Arena, you can see the dress is hung out in the open in their bedroom. He also wears hair clips. 

This is not “masculine behavior” yet the Hanamuras don’t seem to have a problem with it. If anything, I’d say they’re pretty open-minded. If they disliked that way Teddie behaved, Teddie would change himself to fit the way they want him to be. I mean, the kid literally grew two new bodies in effort to get people to like him. Due to Teddie’s low self-esteem and need to be loved, he takes any sort of criticism to heart and does his best to act the way others want him too. In Persona Q, Yukari says he’d be cute if he was quiet, so Teddie stops talking. 

In Persona Q, Teddie says he’s realized that to steal hearts he needs to be manly. He gets this realization from Koromaru. He did not think this prior. 

Teddie saying Koromaru gave him this realization means the Hanmuras never said anything to him about his less masculine behavior. 

As for the song lyrics you posted, I don’t really think that means anything. Yeah, people often relate to the music they listen to, but they don’t have to relate to every lyric or even song. My favorite artist is Taylor Swift, but I don’t really like romance. I don’t relate to most of her songs, but I still jam out to them. I could be super wrong about the song thing though because I’m not a huge music person.

My Own Additional Analysis (with some elements of response)

In this section I’m going to talk about Mr. and Mrs. Hanamura’s character and personality, their relationship with each other, Teddie, and Yosuke.

Let’s start off by talking about their personality. They seem to be very carefree people. Yosuke has less than average grades. In the Persona 4 Animation, he didn’t even show up to one of the exam days. Academics is extremely important in Japanese society, yet his parents don’t seem to be pushing him to get better grades. Considering how carefree Yosuke can be, it makes sense that he may have gotten that trait from his parents. 

Yosuke’s family is pretty wealthy. It’s mentioned more than once. They also live in a pretty big house (you can see it in The Magician), Yosuke’s cell phone seems to be a newer model, and he has a large, flatscreen TV in his bedroom which wouldn’t be very common when the game took place. Despite this, Yosuke works for his own money. He complains about being broke and needing save up. I think the reason why Yosuke has a job despite being well-off is because his parents want him to have work experience and grow up to be a hardworking person, so he can succeed in life. It makes me think that hardwork is important to them.

Due to this conversation, I think Mr. Hanamura is a very honest man. Yosuke says he was surprised his dad was against selling gas masks, likely because from a business standpoint, that’s a really big missed opportunity. I think it’s also worth noting that ATLUS talks a lot about how people naturally fit into the masses, including the main characters. That’s why it’s surprising that his father is going against the masses. Although he’s losing money and has faced many hardships running Junes, Mr. Hanamura refused to do something that was against his moral compass.

In Persona 4 Drama CD #1, Junes is closing down half of the electronics section due to a lack of sales. Despite this taking place in March, Teddie panics and hopes to sell a TV set in a month in exchange for keeping the TV they enter the TV World through where it is. 

Yosuke isn’t afraid to ask his dad two huge favors with a not very good reason (side note: Yosuke had to lie because the truth is that’s the TV he and his friends used to go into the TV world and fight shadows). Despite Yosuke’s best efforts, his father says no. He doesn’t really have any choice but to close part of the electronics floor. Junes is losing money by keeping it open. I think Mr. Hanamura gave him the vouchers because that’s the only other way he can help. Teddie made a deal that if he sells one TV set by the end of the month, they’ll keep the TV that leads to the TV world. He’s trying to advertise the TV set by promising other surprise items coming with it. These Junes vouchers are part of those surprise items. 

It’s no secret that many of the shopping district families despise Junes and the Hanamuras. Many horrible things have been said about their family, yet Junes still teams up with the shopping district in the YasoInaba Case File to help keep them afloat. Whether or not this was Mr. Hanamura’s idea, he’s the one who has to approve it, and he does. Despite being treated horribly by them, he still wants to help the shopping district. Junes teaming up with shopping district might be a good business move, but they didn’t really need to do that. The problem is that Junes is taking away the shopping district’s business. Junes doesn’t need to team up with the shopping district to do well. The two of the teaming up benefits the shopping district way more than Junes. It doesn’t do much for Junes other than the shopping district maybe not hating them. At the end of the day, the shopping district families would still shop at the shopping district to keep their businesses afloat, so Junes isn’t getting a lot more business.

When Teddie came to the real world, Yosuke offered to take Teddie home with no hesitation. He didn’t think it would be a problem with his parents or show any concern about how he would convince them. I think this goes along with them being pretty carefree as well as showing that they’re kind and generous people. Not everyone is willing to take others in like that. Yosuke’s also comfortable with asking his parents such a huge favor.

Teddie talks about Yosuke’s parents in a really positive light, and I would say they treat him like their own son. For example, on January second Teddie says, “I got New Year’s gifts! Yosuke’s mom and dad gave them to me!” (edit: Someone said “notice how Yosuke doesn’t say the same thing.” He doesn’t need to. It’s Japense culture to give younger family members gifts for new Year’s. Yosuke saying something would be the equivalent of, “omg my parents gave me a birthday present!!” It would have been weirder if he did say something then. Teddie is excited because because this is his first New Year’s. He’s never experienced this before. Also, Yosuke did get New Year’s money. He talks about saving it on 1/10 when walking to school).

I think I remember Teddie saying he watches movies with Mrs. Hanamura, but I have no idea where he says that. There’s a 50/50 chance I made that up and convinced myself it was canon, so don’t take my word on that one. 

Teddie breaks A LOT of rules at Junes. He steals topsicles, rode a handi mover through the store, slept on both a display bed and the floor of electronics department, been yelled at for eating samples, been chased by store security, and Yosuke had to monitor Teddie during his late night shift because they didn’t trust him to work alone. Teddie’s a terrible employee, yet he hasn’t been fired. I think the reason for this is he’s basically the manager’s son. I do want to say that just because they consider Teddie as their own child doesn’t mean they treat Yosuke as anything less. I haven’t seen a single thing that has implied that there is favoritism going on.

Yosuke and Teddie act a lot like brothers (Naoki even suspects that they're related), and Yosuke’s parents seem to treat Teddie like their own son. He even wears their family crest in offical art. I looks like ATLUS wnted the four of them to be a family. And If that’s the case, it wouldn’t make any sense for Mr. and Mrs. Hanamura to be bad parents.

Additionally, if Mr. and Mrs. Hanamura treated Yosuke badly, and Teddie noticed, I think Teddie would say something.

The second Yukari said something slightly mean about Yosuke, Teddie defended him. He doesn’t like when other people say mean things about Yosuke. Not to mention conflict really stresses him out. If Yosuke’s parents treated him badly, I there’s a chance Teddie might see the problem.

I think it’s also worth noting that Yosuke’s parents have a really healthy marriage.

This quote implies that they’re rarely apart and get along really well. A happy marriage doesn’t automatically equal a healthy household or good parents, but it really increases the likelihood. 

For context, Yosuke is talking about Teddie in this picture. I’m not from Japan, so I don’t know if most families there eat breakfast together, but my family - despite being very close - does not. We all eat and start our day at different times. In my mind, eating breakfast together is a very domestic thing to do. Even the phrase “Hanamura family breakfast” screams domestic to me.

This conversation gives me the sense that Mr. Hanamura has a great deal of trust and respect for Yosuke. I mean, I don’t think he would accept Yosuke’s idea if he didn’t. Adding a kid’s menu would be pretty exspensive. Not only do they have to print the kid’s menu, but they have to design them, create new menu items, and depedning on what’s on the menu buy more food or ingredients. That adds up, and if it isn’t successful then they’ll lose money. Mr. Hanamura has to approve that idea, and he’s putting in trust that it’s going to be successful. Also, Yosuke is comfortable enough to “push really hard” for his idea.

All in all, it is my personal opinion that the Hanamurs are a really close family. It would make sense for ATLUS to go in that direction to create a contrast to the Narukami’s, after all. That being said, neither headcanon is wrong. It just comes down to how we interpret the very little information we’re given.

[nerdypipsqueak]

Lawrence After Arabia (SPOILER ALERT)

Today thanks to the generosity and hospitality of @aivelin @steblynkaagain and @willdudedoo​ I watched the new “Lawrence After Arabia” movie and boy oh boy do I have thoughts, vibes and general WTFery (in no particular order) for you. Buckle up, lords, ladies and supreme rulers of the universe!

1. The soundtrack is... questionable. But we knew that already because it got released, complete with music video, so much earlier.

2. The CGI was... not good. We also knew that because we saw a snippet of it in the music video. But I was not expecting to see the entire screen turn green (like solid green) halfway through the movie. I really understand that the movie was crowdfunded but dammit, if I were a benefactor and saw this I would be severely disappointed. Why I personally refused to donate to this movie is a separate matter; please feel free to DM me if you want details.

3. The acting wasn’t the best. It sometimes felt a bit like a school play.

4. The movie tried too hard to be educational, especially in the beginning when the church custodian tells the little boy about Lawrence, during the public inquiry, during the scene when the secret agents read Lawrence’s file out loud and in the end after the funeral.

5. The movie was actually filmed on location in Clouds Hill, on the grounds and inside the cottage itself. The National Trust (the organisation currently looking after the property) initially denied Mark Griffin (the producer) permission to film on location. He then took to the media (both traditional and social) and ranted about how the National Trust denied his biopic but allowed a “Jane Austen and zombies” movie to be filmed on one of their locations until the Trust gave in.

6. There was a shitload of really random details from Lawrence’s life. Some felt like they were shoehorned in to make the film more educational.

7. I was astounded by the sheer amount of very “in your face” references to “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962), from “nothing is written” to numerous visual references (goggles hanging on the bush, shadow in robes) to literally naming a character William Potter to literally using the quote “the trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts”.

8. So many conspiracy theories! From the black car theory to Feisal possibly being poisoned. In fact the entire film is built around the premise that Lawrence was taken out by two secret service agents in a black car.

9. I really wanted to like Tom Barber Duffy as Lawrence but his performance was just... IDK, bland? There wasn’t much feeling there. 

10. My notes here literally say: “did he just kiss Florence Hardy on the cheek?!” and that’s exactly what happened. We will revisit the Florence Hardy situation later.

11. I want the keffiyeh and the leather motorcycle gauntlets.

12. There’s a flashback to Ned’s childhood where he is seen receiving punishment from his mother. Sarah Lawrence displays a tactic I’ve seen among numerous Christian fundamentalists: she tells Ned she loves him and gives him a hug, then quickly pushes him away and proceeds to administer punishment, complete with the “I do this because I love you” messages.

13. Tom Barber Duffy’s visible piercings sparked joy in me. Thank you @aivelin​ for the screenshot.

14. I was quite excited to see Laurent C. Lucas as Feisal simply because of the resemblance but, damn, he was disappointing and his attempt at a Hejazi accent wasn’t great.

15. Lawrence gets called a “bloody sadomasochistic little bastard” by the head of the secret service. So many opportunities for an intelligent short joke were missed in this movie.

16. “Feisal gives him status of son”. I thought that was Hussein? Am I confusing them? Can someone please help?

17. “If someone isn’t going to annihilate this little shit then I will”. Again, so many short joke opportunities...

18. SO MUCH talk about Ned and Oswald Mosley. I felt that at one point it was suggested that Ned may have sympathised with Mosley but I may be mistaken.

19. I have a weird feeling that Mark Griffin (the producer) was inspired by Matthew Eden’s infamous “The Murder of Lawrence of Arabia”.

20. Cally the dog is a very good boy and so far my favorite character. Cally’s performance was the best and is the only thing about this movie that deserves an award.

21. OMFG NED JUST FULL ON HUGGED FLORENCE HARDY

22. Is Mark trying to make Ned straight?!

23. What the fuck is going on with Ned and Florence Hardy and why does it look like Mark is shipping them?! During the 2 hour feature Ned kisses Florence on the cheek, Florence cups Ned’s face in her hands and kisses his cheek while he turns his head like he’s trying to get a kiss on the lips and then stops himself, Ned and Florence hug, Ned helps Florence down a fence/wall type thing and they have one of those moments where they stand a little too close, still holding onto each other and looking into each other’s eyes, then they hold hands while they walk to the village.

24. Ned pulls a gun on a journalist and almost shoots him. I’m sure this is a reference to that one time Lawrence punched a journalist for asking invasive questions.

25. Is Laurent C. Lucas in brownface make up?!

26. Why TF is Ned bathing in a basin if he has a whole-ass bathtub on the property?! Filming restrictions probably.

27. The secret service agents called Ned “a queer”. No context was provided as to why they would say that.

28. It would appear that the two secret service agents “were roommates” and “there was only one bed”. That is the actual setup of their room and they are filmed sitting on the one bed.

29. At this point my notes say that the soundtrack composer may have been inspired by the BBC News theme tune.

30. The accident is just a major WTF moment.

31. The blood pouring down Ned’s face is just... a lot.

32. Why was there a beep like when someone flatlines on a medical show?!

33. OMFG THAT DICK JUST WENT IN THERE AND INJECTED NED WITH SOMETHING

34. I liked Ned racing the train and the plane on his motorcycle. It was a fun touch.

35. Y’ALL LEAVE POOR MR BROUGH OUT OF YOUR SCHEMES, YOU SECRET SERVICE DIPSHITS

36. The dipshit blackmailed Mr Brough with a picture and I really want to know what was in that picture. Did I miss something?

37. Mark is really going to ride the whole black car thing to the death.

38. The inappropriately happy and upbeat version of “Jesu, Lover of My Soul” was used as the background for Ned’s funeral procession. It was supposed to be a march.

39. Mark Griffin has inserted himself into the movie as a secret agent and a voice-over guy.

40. Deraa was mentioned exactly twice, once as “an allegation” and referred to only as torture. No further context was provided.

41. Dahoum is referenced numerous times but without any context. I feel that Mark struggled to choose between the LGBT theory and his own heteronormative projections on Lawrence and decided to roll with both.

So there you have it. Two hours of my life that I will never get back.

[ordinaryschmuck]

Starkid Musicals Ranked from Worst to Best

Salutations to you, random people on the internet who most certainly won’t read this. I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

Welp. I finally did it. I've watched the entire Starkid musical library, and I must say, most of these plays fit my writing style perfectly:

Humor that is cynical yet random

Leaning in with comedy while sprinkling in some well-executed drama

An understanding that any type of story works as long as the cast of varying personalities of characters is dynamic enough to result in some phenomenal chemistry.

This is in almost all of their plays, excelled through fantastic writing and stellar performances driving the overall quality. And it inspired me not only to review each musical, but also ranking them all from worst to best. Or, more accurately, least good to most good. Because even at their "worst," Starkid still provides a funny, enjoyable experience that will keep you laughing with its comedy and your toes tapping with its catchy music. So strap in as I go in-depth into how Starkid proves how they are the masters of humor and melody.

(I'll also provide links to each musical, which is all for free on YouTube, so you can check them out yourselves. Just know that their early work is impossible to enjoy without subtitles, so you might want to have Closed Captions on when watching.)

#12-Holy Musical B@man-Everything about this play makes it seem like it's the weakest to me. The jokes, songs, and characters in Holy Musical B@tman just don't hit as hard as Starkid's other plays. It's still good, but compared to their best, the cracks show a lot more. That is, except for the ending. Not only is there a great speech that shows what makes superheroes so beloved, but "Super Friends" might just be my favorite finale song Starkid has ever put out. Holy Musical B@tman may not be the best, but it's at least worth the time.

#11-Firebringer-This was stupid. Really stupid. Funny as f**k, but still pretty stupid. Although I will give credit to one of the central pairings being LGBTQA+...Even though it makes little to no sense based on the characters' previous interactions. But in fairness, Starkid really sucks at writing good romantic relationships, so at least Firebringer has the benefit of being gay. And as we all know: The gayer, the better. The play is still stupid, though.

#10-Me and My Dick-The world in this musical makes little to no sense. Penises and vaginas are sentient and can communicate with their humans. And yet the penises and vaginas can also talk with each other, form relationships, leave their humans, and reinsert themselves into others--Yeah, it makes no sense...But, DAMN, is it funny! Every joke and innuendo Me and My Dick has about human anatomy works, and I could not stop laughing at each of them. Especially the names that were given to the vaginas, which are just...I mean, I'm laughing just by thinking about them. That should tell you how funny they are. This play might be illogical in every way, but if you turn your brain off and watch it for the humor, you'll definitely be in for something fun.

#9-ANI: A Parody-What's weird about ANI is that its best qualities are also weaknesses. A good chunk of the jokes are hilarious and expertly delivered. The issue is that most of them are about taking potshots at the Star Wars prequels, which might be the laziest jokes to make in a Star Wars parody. Then there's the soundtrack, having several songs that are a bop to listen to. The problem is that ANI suffers from the same issues as Tarzan and Brother Bear: Yes, technically, it is a musical, but it's one where none of the characters sing, and some people in the background do all the singing instead. It's all an odd balancing act of quality content made through questionable choices. ANI is still an entertaining play, but the force isn't as strong with this one.

#8-Black Friday-This might be the least funny play that Starkid has ever put out. Not just because it leans extra hard into drama, which was pretty effective during certain scenes. It's just when there are jokes in Black Friday, they tend to fall flatter more here than they did in other plays. Also, the plot of Black Friday might not be the best one to play straight. The serious moments work best when focusing on the characters and their personal struggles, but through the big bad that's supposed to be threatening? Not so much. Even if it was meant to be funny, well, I wasn't laughing. And believe it or not, I consider that to be the best judge of whether or not something is funny. That being said, while Black Friday isn't the most humorous Starkid musical, it's still pretty good. The characters are excellent, the songs are awesome, and the story is somewhat easy to follow. I would have appreciated a few more laughs, but I can respect these talented people wanting to challenge their strengths.

#7-Starship-This play feels very...Disney. It follows a familiar formula we've seen several times: The main character wants more than what he has in his crappy life, miraculously gets the exact thing he wants, falls in love with a girl in a short amount of time, faces off against a campy/over the top villain, realizes the hand he's been dealt isn't so bad, and in the end, gets what he wants anyway. Starship is still pretty entertaining through its jokes, characters, and songs, but it also feels weird that Starkid leans into these tropes when they would eventually make a much better play by making fun of them. The end result is not bad in the slightest, but it's also nowhere near their best.

#6-A Very Potter Musical-Starkid's first production, and boy, what a start to something wonderful. Every one of their gimmicks and motifs is present in A Very Potter Musical. The use of parody to playfully mock characters and stories they love, making songs that are as funny as they are emotional, and creating characters that work because of their lines and the actors' performances. Oh, and also, it's funny. And it’s not just through a parody angle, like making Cedric be a perfect boy who's always smiling. It's also funny through its jokes that work, even if you ignore the fact that it’s a parody altogether. Case in point, there are these two bits, one involving Voldemort and Beatrix with the other involving Ron and Hermoine, that are written and delivered so well that I was in tears much more than with any other Starkid play. When watching A Very Potter Musical, you'll not only understand how parody works, but you'll also gain an understanding of why Starkid turned out as successful as they did.

#5-The Trail to Oregon-What can I say? I'm a sucker for comedic dysfunctional families. And seeing a family of idiots make their way to Oregon via The Oregon Trail parody? Yeah, that's a win for me. The play may be another family road trip narrative, which some people might get sick of at this point. But because the dynamics and comedic chemistry everyone has with each other are on point, the end result proves that you don't need an original story to tell an entertaining one. Although I will say that out of all of Starkid's productions, The Trail to Oregon has by far the worst ending. Without giving anything away, the play spends way too much time on this one stupid joke that any of the characters could make. Comedy is defined by personalities, as are most things, so making the joke work for anyone is a bad move when this one, in particular, doesn't fit as well for some characters as it would for others. Plus, the finale song "Naked in a Lake" is a really poor choice to cap off this musical. It's catchy, but to me, a finale song should encapsulate everything about the story, characters, and themes. Not paying off a joke that I honestly wouldn't want the payoff for. So while the ending could have used a lot more polish, that doesn't change how The Trail to Oregon is a pretty funny play that I won't mind revisiting when I have the chance.

#4-A Very Potter Sequel-Hey, sometimes a sequel is better than the original. Sure some jokes don't land, and some story beats aren't as impactful as they thought they were (Serious Black's introduction, for example), but there are far more improvements to this play than the last one. The performances are stronger, the jokes are funnier, the music is catchier, and the characters are much more entertaining in this play than in A Very Potter Musical. Especially new additions like Lupin and Lucious Malfoy, who provide great comedy and sublime drama at times. And Umbridge. Sweet Mother of all that is holy, Umbridge. While A Very Potter Sequel never made me laugh to tears as the first play did, twice, Professor Umbridge carries the comedy so well that she surpasses all of that. Plus, on top of it all, this play nails its ending through a bittersweet note that really captures what makes Hogwarts so special to these characters. I always feel like Starkid's plays tend to lose steam during the last few minutes, but A Very Potter Sequel is one of the few instances that it just builds and builds to a perfect ending. A Very Potter Sequel might not always hit the right marks, but the results are just magical when it does get it right.

#3-The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals-This one is pretty clever. The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals is one of those stories that manages to be explicitly hilarious yet implicitly disturbing. For instance, people suddenly bursting into perfectly choreographed musical numbers in a world where songs are exclusively diegetic is pretty funny (especially through the characters' reactions to it). However, knowing what happens to these people and why they sing and dance so expertly helps make the whole situation pretty dire. It's an excellent balancing act that not many stories can accomplish. And while The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals leans one way or the other at times, it's still all handled really well. Oh, and also, you know how most people say the villain song is the best one in any musical? Well, technically speaking, nearly every song in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals is the villain song. Including the finale, which is just too brilliant for me not to give a round of applause. If you're a person who unfortunately doesn't like musicals either, I'd say be more than willing to give this one a chance. It's funny, catchy, and if you think of the implications, pretty damn disturbing.

#2-A Very Potter Senior Year-...You know how Avengers: Endgame is a bit of a mess, yet people still love it for how much of a perfect (sort of) finale it is? It's the same regard with A Very Potter Senior Year in my eyes. It's far from a masterpiece, but the many, many solid scenes that cap off this series help make me willing to overlook the mistakes. The characters, callbacks, and overall message about how things end was done so expertly well that I physically can’t hate this one. I can understand how it's more of an ok play when compared to the rest of Starkid's productions, but sometimes, ok is wonderful.

#1-Twisted: An Untold Story of a Royal Vizier-...It's Twisted. Everyone loves Twisted! And how could they not? Everything about this play just screams Starkid at their best. The comedy is uproarious, added with the fantastic delivery of the actors and the characters' personalities. Everyone feels as though they have one step in reality and the other in insanity. This, to me, seems like the best type of character work when going for the parody angle. Parody is about giving slight yet snide remarks toward the work you're mocking, which I feel works best when characters drop the suspension of disbelief audiences have when enjoying such a story. And Twisted definitely nails its satire in not only poking fun at Aladdin but also making jokes towards Disney as a brand. From their movies to their inside jokes to their formulas to even their corporate dealings with Pixar, nothing about Disney is sacred in Twisted. But on top of being funny, Twisted might just be the most successful Starkid has been with telling some really compelling drama. The jokes allow themselves to take a back seat to let serious moments play out, and even comedy is added, it provides more for the experience rather than taking anything away. You see this not only through the actors giving it their all but even through some really gorgeous and heart wrenching musical numbers. Oh, and also, Twisted has the best Starkid soundtrack, featuring songs that are epic, funny, and, as I said, heartbreaking. You cannot get better than this and, if you want to get a friend interested in Starkid as a whole, this might be the play for them. Scheherazade may have a thousand tales, but his one is a tale I wouldn't mind hearing for a thousand nights.

And that's about how I feel about Starkid and each and every one of their plays. Odds are your ranking would be much different from mine, and I'm all for that differing opinions. Feel free to make your own ranking if you want because I'm honestly curious where fans would place these plays above or below others. I'm relatively new to enjoying their work, so I have no idea what the consensus is. I do know one thing, though: If Starkid can still be incredibly entertaining through over ten years of content, then I am excited to see what they can accomplish next in another ten years.

[purplehoodiesimon]

i don’t have a number for you, so this is an open invitation for you to pick the number you most want to answer and answer that :)

You say that as if I read through ask game lists before reblogging them lol. Okay uhhhhhhhhhh

11. what’s something neat you’ve learned while doing research for something you were writing? also, how much do you worry about doing research in general?

I got to 11 and immediately knew I had to answer this. Okay so the coolest thing I've learned doing research for fic unrelated to YR is the Cŵn Annwn. They're this sorta spirit dog in Welsh mythology (I was doing research for a spn fic I never published) and they're usually little white dogs with red ears seen as a foretelling of death. They're from Annwn, the otherworld, and a part of the Wild Hunt. They also may be somewhat related to Gabriel's Hounds, which is an English myth. I have to physically restrain myself from adding this to like everything I write, I love these funky little dudes so much. I also made up the world's worst, most obscure joke after learning the pronunciation that requires like so much random knowledge to understand but I find it hilarious. Here it is: What would Blackbeard's ship be called if he was from Welsh mythology? The Cŵn Annwn's Revenge

Okay and now that no one's laughing and I look ridiculous, here's the coolest (sorta) piece I've picked up doing YR fic.

So during the writing of Dear Titanic, I was on a mission to have things about the ship super historically accurate and I spent like 40 minutes tracking ship records and stuff trying to figure out if any of the musicians on board personally knew the Captain. The consensus was I don't fucking know, I can't find anything. I also learned that there's like no records of the actual songs they played which was very annoying, and then I had a hard time tracking down popular music in the 1900s-1910s cause everything was from either the 1870s or 1930s and that was SO annoying. So that was fun! I learned a LOT about the Titanic writing it.

As for the second question, do I worry about doing research? My fellow humans of the tumblr, you are looking at a man that read the Prose Edda (Norse mythology), yes the actual Prose Edda not fun little compilations like Neil Gaiman's Norse Myths (though I did read that too, he did good with it), for fun in high school. You are looking at a man that spent the better portion of sophomore year reading the library's physics books during 5th/6th/7th period every day trying to figure out time travel (unsuccessful, entropy is a bitch, but I have ideas about breaking light barriers with neutrinos and deuterium). You are looking at a man who found Old Latin texts on alchemy and tried to translate them for a fic (unsuccessful, Latin is a bitch), and when getting into actual fic communities way back at 13 years old, would make their Harry Potter stories canon compliant by going through the books with post-its marking off scenes where the characters I was writing about weren't around so I wasn't breaking canon. In other words, no I don't worry about doing research at all. I worry about going overboard with it. And thankfully, I have chilled out a bit on making things canon compliant. AUs are so much fun.

Talk to me about my funky little words

[salemsbones]

Lonely Stars Chapter 3

Trigger Warnings: child abuse, homophobia, homophobic slurs, conversion therapy, internalized homophobia

Age 13      The red and black velvet dress I wore was uncomfortable. I missed wearing Sirius' old t-shirts he bought from the Muggle world and soft jeans around the Ravenclaw common room when I wasn't required to wear the black robes. But even the uniformed robes were much more comfortable than this ensemble Mother had insisted I wear to dinner tonight.      I sat at the large dinner table in the dining room. The table was made from such rich and polished mahogany wood that I could practically see my reflection on the surface, and across the table I could see where my brother Sirius had carved his initials onto the beautiful wood much to my Mother's demise. Sirius had not attended this family dinner as he had chosen to spend the beginning of the winter holidays with the Potters instead of us, it stung a small amount that he chose to spend more time with friends rather than his own blood. Beside me sat Regulus as always, his hair had grown to a slightly ragged mullet that he was attempting to grow longer similar to Sirius, we had used almost a full package of bobby pins in order to hide the messiness from our parents. Regulus also shifted uncomfortably, while I know he often wore dress pants and shirts while not in uniform at Hogwarts, he chose to more comfortable materials rather than the stiff bleached cotton he was currently wearing.      To an outsider, this family dinner may have just looked quiet, but in reality you could cut the tension between my family members with a knife. Barely fifty words had been spoken between my parents and I since I had returned home four days ago. While Regulus was given more attention than I, I knew it made him uncomfortable to watch me be ignored or shushed while speaking.      "When is Sirius coming home?" I ask, looking at both my Mother and Father who sit at the head of the table but on opposite sides. My Father sighed and placed his fork and knife down on his plate before looking up at me, he wiped the corners of his mouth with the blood red cloth napkin he had.      "Sirius will be returning tomorrow morning. We will be sending a driver to collect him as usual Aurelia."      "He will be here just in time for the Christmas banquet." My Mother piped up, looking at me.      The majority of the meal was ate in silence, with the quiet squeal of a knife running along the china plates or the tiny clinks of the dishes as they were cleared and another course of food replaced the empty dishes.      "Regulus, your Mother tells me that you may try out for Quidditch in the fall? Is this correct son?" Father inquires, looking at Regulus with interest. Regulus clears his throat after taking a sip of his water and looks at our Father and nods, "Yes, I'm thinking of trying out for Seeker," He smiles as he speaks, a gleam in his pale grey eyes.      "Well you did always have a eye for things Regulus," My Mother smiles, raising her cup of red wine towards him in admiration.      "And very good grades from what we hear from your professors!" Father boasted, a smile now on his face. Regulus was smiling with pride, until he saw my face with a fake smile on it. I try to be happy for my brother, I'm very happy with his accomplishments, but it would be nice to get the same encouragement from my parents that he got.      "You should ask Lia about her semester, I heard it was very interesting," Regulus smiled, trying to focus the conversation on me instead of him.      "Aurelia, how was your semester?" My Mother asks, her voice had less enthusiasm than when she was speaking to Regulus.      "I've been learning about undetectable poisons in Potions. I like my Potions partner, she's very good," I smiled, thinking about my Potions partner and hoping she was enjoying her winter holiday.      "Nice Slytherin girl?" My Mother inquired, hoping I was choosing to interact as closely to Slytherins as possible.      "She's in Hufflepuff actually, she made this joke that I could've poisoned her at any time and she wouldn't even know. She has beautiful brown eyes and her voice is so-"      I was cut off by the clanging of my Father's silverware hitting the china plate and by the look on his face, he was not impressed. He placed his elbows on the table, his hands folding into a fist, his eyebrows were raised and his mouth slanted down into a disapproving frown,      "Are you a dyke?" He snarled, spitting out the words like venom. My stomach dropped and I could feel my heart begin to speed up.      "I- um," I stuttered, taken aback by my Father's choice of words and question. Below the table I could feel Regulus taking my pinky in his and giving it a light squeeze, he was here for me no matter the answer I gave my Father.      "Well?" My Father's voice boomed, the word echoing around the large room. "Is my daughter a dyke?"      I stammered to an answer, I honestly had never thought about my sexuality in depth before, I had heard my brothers talk about girls that they found attractive, or maybe it was mostly Sirius talking and Regulus just nodding along. But I also couldn't remember if Sirius used the words "she" and "her" while speaking of his newest crush. "No Sir. I'm- I'm not a dyke." My voice faltered and I could tell my Father didn't believe me.      "First a blood traitor like her brother and now a fucking dyke." My Father spat, shaking his head in disapproval. I lowered my gaze to the polished table, watching a single tear fall down my cheek in the reflection. Regulus gave my hand a squeeze, causing me to look at him give me a small nod that my parents didn't notice.      "Aurelia, we will discuss this after dinner." My Mother said, her voice clear but stern. "Do you understand me?"      I gave a small nod, keeping my gaze down, "Yes ma'am I understand."                                                               <>      The dishes had been cleared away by the House Elves and now it was my Mother and I alone in the dining room. Father had led Regulus away to discuss try outs in autumn for Quidditch, Regulus quickly looked at me before leaving the room and gave me another quick nod, everything would be okay, it was just a discussion after all.      "Did your Father's comment upset you Aurelia?" My Mother questioned, rising from her seat and coming closer to me. I raised my head and gave a small nod, her heels clicked against the marble floor as she got closer to me. Sirius had once called that sound "The Clicks of Doom", and it wasn't until this day that I truly understood the meaning behind that name.      She took my hand and pulled me up from my seat, her boney fingers tilting my chin up to look her in the eye. Her face was stern, her mouth tilted downward into a slight frown, one of her perfectly manicured eyebrows slightly raised, "Do you have feelings for this Hufflepuff girl?"      "I don't know Mother, I haven't thought about it." I whispered, she hummed at my answer. She circled me, looking at me up and down.      "Aurelia, you are a daughter of the Noble Black family, do you understand what that means?" I chose to stay silent, fearing if I were to say the wrong answer she was looking for. "That means that we have a reputation to uphold. And your little behaviors do not suit the Black family name."      I nod slowly, "Yes Mother. I understand, I'll try better."      She retreated to where she was standing behind me, I could hear the rustle of fabric moving and a quick murmur of the word Imperio and then suddenly I felt calm and very at ease, I wasn't nervous about my family's tainted reputation anymore. "You will not have romantic feelings for women anymore Aurelia."                                                                <>      The red wine I was holding was staring to warm. I stood near the wall of the banquet hall, trying to avoid speaking to anyone unless I absolutely had to, Regulus had said he would try to distract people from me, which was abnormal considering normally he would agree to steer conversations to topics I enjoyed, but tonight I was thankful as I wasn't in the mood to act a certain way.      I glance over to the large clock mounted on the wall, Sirius was supposed to arrive this morning but the sun had set and was no where to be seen. Maybe he had decided to spend more time with the Potters instead, but even if he had decided to do that he could've at least sent an owl or picked up the phone. I sigh and take a sip of the wine I was holding, it was bitter and warm, not for my taste.            Across the banquet hall Regulus was speaking about his plans for after Hogwarts graduation, I don't know if what he said was true or if it was just to please the ears his words were spilling onto. I notice a tall blonde haired girl walk across the floor, her turquoise dress trailing behind her, the fabric hugged her curves beautifully, her long hair cascaded down her shoulders in soft waves that framed her heart shaped face perfectly. I was so entranced by this girl that I hardly noticed when a arm was draped over my own shoulder.

     "Hello little sister," A cheerful voice sung and I looked up to see the face of my brother Sirius standing beside me.      "Sirius," I breathed, so happy that he was finally here. I hugged him tightly, not wanting to let go. Sirius was a buffer between me and the disappointment or shame my parents felt about me. He made me focus on other things than their shame, like new Muggle music he had discovered or his new fascination with motorbikes.      He smirked as he took the wine glass from my hand and took a big swing, but quickly made a face of disgust after swallowing. "Merlin, Mother has shit taste in wine."      "Shit taste in banquets too," I smiled as Sirius chuckled. "Where were you? You were supposed to be here this morning,"      "Ah well, I was ready to come home this morning and waiting patiently all day for the driver that Mother and Father conveniently 'forgot' to send. So the Potters drove me after I let them convince me not to hitchhike all the way home." I hummed at his story, Sirius and his dramatics never failed to make me smile.         We stood silently for a few minutes like this, his arm wrapped around my shoulders and me just being content around his presence.      "So, as I am your eldest and best brother," Sirius smirked. "I must do my brotherly duties and ask about you,"      "Oh Sirius, don't start." I smiled but let him continue.      "How are you doing, how's your grades, James, Remus and Peter send their love." He smiles as he spoke.      "I send all my love back,"      "Speaking of love," He smirked, drawing out the word love to which I rolled my eyes. "Got your eyes on anyone special these days? Any boys? Or any girls- I don't judge."      Suddenly, I was repulsed, taking a step away from Sirius, "That's disgusting. I could never do something so vile or wrong." I snarl at him, my eyes narrowing as I became angry.      But Sirius only tilted his head and raised an eyebrow, "And is that why you were eyeing that lovely lady over there? Because it's disgusting? Because I think you find her attractive."      I bit my lip, "I could never do something so damaging to the Black name." My words taste like poison in my mouth.      His eyebrow was still raised, "You couldn't or is it because someone said you couldn't?"      My breath falters as I ponder his question. The girl was beautiful just like I thought she was, and like how Sirius mentioned, but when I thought that there was something inside of my body that twisted and felt sick. "I think she's beaut-" Suddenly something in my stomach gave me a sharp pain and I couldn't even finish my sentence without feeling as if I were about to vomit. I felt Sirius' warm hand on my back and I quickly look at my Mother who was chatting to old friends, hanging onto my Father like a lifeline.      "Did they do something to you Lia?" Sirius asks quietly with a hushed voice.      "I- I like girrrr- gir-" The pain in my stomach was back, making me dizzy. "But I- I can't do it or I will be a disappointment."      Sirius closed his eyes for a moment, sighing through his nose before wrapping his arm around my shoulder again and pulling me close. "It's okay, don't force it. I understand. I'm right here Lia."

[shining-red-diamond]

Shallow Waters (Part 1)

Words: 2.5k

Pairing: Hendery x Brittany (OC)

Rating: PG-15

Genre: fluff, some angst

Warnings: mentions of abandonment, illness, and 

A/N: Banner credits to @dearyongs

Summary: When Brittany met a merman named Hendery, little did she know her life was going to change. Not only do they fall in love, learn about each other’s worlds, and create a life for themselves; but there’s also a mystery surrounding Hendery that could potentially put both of their lives in danger.

-

Sipping on her strawberry lemonade, Brittany was zoned into her book. The summer sun brightened up the beach in her backyard, a gentle breeze kept the weather cool, and she was relaxed on her lounge chair on her porch. Brittany hummed a tune as she read, a habit she had ever since she was young. In her mind, it was offered as background music whenever she read one of her books.

Little did she know that her voice had caught the attention of a certain inhabitant of the ocean. Hendery had seen her and wanted to talk to Brittany since she moved to an isolated area in the Florida Keys about six months earlier. Multiple humans had come and gone to where he roamed, but something about Brittany reeled him as if she were a magnet for him. He was a little on the shy side, but he had finally worked up the courage to talk to her. Explaining that he was a merman would be difficult, but he hoped she would understand.

As soon as she had walked inside of her house with the empty glass in her hand, Hendery took advantage of her distraction to sneak onto her porch. He was intending on standing there to wait for her until he noticed the book she was reading. The cover had gold lettering centered at the top, and an elaborate picture of a human boy in round glasses trying to catch a small, spherical object while riding some sort of flying object was printed under the lettering. Hendery couldn’t read human writing, but from the cover he could tell it was an adventurous story. He quickly flipped through pages, but there were mostly words. Only a few pictures showed up on certain pages.

As soon as Brittany returned outside, she immediately jumped at the sight of a strange, young man with jet black hair standing on her porch and flipping through her book. The shock caused her to nearly drop her drink.

“Who are you?” she asked him, keeping a distance in her startled state. “What do you want?”

Hendery tried to speak, but he didn’t know how to speak human either. He’d picked up a few words here and there, but all he could do was make little squeals and dolphin sounds and use his body to explain what he was thinking. The only thing he could get out was his name.

“H-Hendery,” he introduced himself as he pointed at himself.

“Is that your name?” Brittany asked, and he nodded. “I’m Brittany.”

“Brittany,” Hendery repeated with a smile.

She noticed the book in his hands. “Oh, do you like Harry Potter? I’m rereading the series.”

“Can’t read.”

“Oh…” she paused before changing the subject. “May I ask where you came from?”

Hendery pointed to the ocean, but Brittany just chuckled. “Very funny.”

He used his body language to insist that he was from the ocean, and by the look of sincerity on his face Brittany could tell that he wasn’t joking.

“Oh, are you a sailor?” she raised an eyebrow. Hendery shook his head.

He then took the book out of her hands, set it on one of the lounge chairs and had her follow him to the beach.

“Dude, where are we going?”

Once her toes were touching the edge of the shoreline, Hendery stripped his shirt and shorts off before instructing her, “Wait.” Before she could say anything, he was dashing to the water before Olympic-style diving into the ocean. An iridescent glow where Hendery dove nearly blinded Brittany for a second before he dolphin-jumped out of the water again. A flash of purple where his legs should be had sparkled in the sunlight.

Brittany couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

A merman? A real merman?

She shut her eyes and pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. When she opened them, Hendery was sitting there on the beach, staring at her with confusion on his face.

Brittany could see his tail much clearer now. It was scaly, and each one was a beautiful purple and gold monochrome that also turned black in some angles. They faded into skin where the bases of his hips were.

“There’s no way this is real right now,” Brittany chuckled. “I must have hit my head. I’m dreaming.”

Hendery shook his head, and whispered, “Real.”

If she had already pinched herself once, she did it again but without this man knowing.

When she accepted that she wasn’t dreaming, she knelt down and asked, “May I touch them?”

Hendery had never been touched by a human much less any female creature. He hesitated a little, but he obliged. Taking her hand, he set to where he figured his shins would be.

“Gentle,” he begged.

“I will,” she promised.

Her fingertips carefully stroked his tail up and down, and the scales were smooth as a marble slab table with the exception of the gaps lining each one.

“Mermaids are real,” she whispered to herself.

“Yes,” Hendery replied.

Brittany faced him and promised, “I’ll keep it a secret if you want me to.”

“Please.”

“Okay. Can you turn human again? I can get you a towel to dry off with and something to eat if you’re hungry.”

Hendery nodded.

“I’ll be right back,” she said before rushing back into her house.

Lying there on his side, he watched as her slender legs carried her when she ran. Every inch of her was sketched into his brain: her flaming red hair, her eyes the color of the sea, and an hourglass figure like a mermaid’s. Hender was an observer, and as much as he watched her from afar some days, Brittany seemed like a kind person just from her actions. If she really was the most beautiful woman in the world to him, then it was definitely coming from her heart.

Brittany soon returned with a towel and his clothes that were abandoned on the beach, and he sat up a bit straighter. She helped him scoot away from the water to dry off properly. Hendery pat himself down, as he had done many times before with any absorbent cloth, and within a few seconds his tail split in a vertical line so delicately as clay being sliced in half with an invisible knife. His tail and scales melted into legs and feet, but Brittany quickly handed him his clothes before she saw too much.

“Thanks,” he smiled as she turned away to give him privacy as he dressed himself.

After Hendery was fully clothed, Brittany turned back around and asked him, “Would you like to come inside?”

“Inside?” he repeated.

“The house. I’m getting hungry, so I want to eat something for lunch.”

“Food?” Hendery’s eyes lit up as he smiled, showing off his sharp teeth.

Brittany nodded. She had heard of some merfolk having such sharp teeth, but her new friend’s teeth were like sharks. They nearly startled her as it was such a shock for her to see.

She breathed deeply to calm down. “What do you like?” she asked him as she guided him to her back porch.

“Fish.”

“Well, you’re in luck,” she smiled as she opened the door. “I’ve got plenty.”

Brittany’s house was the most beautiful thing Hendery had never seen in his life. It was all so clean and tidy with most of the furniture having a soft navy fabric on some of the human furniture. It was his first time inside of a human house, so he took in everything his eyes could see.

In the kitchen, there was a wooden table with six chairs, and a large kitchen island stood right in the center (he had seen human billboard ads kitchen ware of some place called “Home Depot”). Two metallic doors were built into one wall, and a sink was placed beneath a window. The cabinets were also a beautiful wooden, and Hendery was impressed at how clean Brittany kept it.

“Pretty,” he mumbled as he sat at the table.

“All I have is salmon,” Brittany interrupted his thoughts. “How do you like them? I just learned how to debone and prepare them.” She set out a wooden board on the island and placed three raw salmon fish on it.

Hendery looked at the fish for a few seconds before picking one up with his bare hands and chomping down on its head with his sharp teeth. He ripped the head off in the process, a few fish scales sprinkling onto the counter.

“That answers that question,” giggled Brittany. “Raw it is.”

As he ate, Brittany fixed herself a BLT sandwich and a glass of the remaining pink lemonade. She tore off a couple paper towels for her new friend and herself. Hendery raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“To clean off your hands and mouth,” she explained as she gave a small demonstration, and he nodded before continuing his lunch.

Brittany observed the way he was chowing down on the raw fish. It was as if he hadn’t eaten in a long time, and seeing how loosely the unbuttoned shirt hung on his body she could almost make out a couple of ribs poking out from his sides.

“Thanks,” Hendery said as he wiped his hands and mouth with the paper towel.

“You’re welcome,” she smiled. “Don’t worry about the scales. I’ll clean it up.”

Hendery nods. His eyes then casually wander around her house.

“It’s not much, but I like it.”

“Pretty,” the merman repeated himself from earlier, now poking at the faucet. He jumped when water automatically showered out.

Brittany chuckled as she tossed her empty plate into the sink. “You haven’t seen much of what humans do, have you?”

Hendery shook his head. “Little.”

“A little.” Brittany thought for a moment. She knew he couldn’t form full sentences, but she knew he was smart. Hendery was curious, and from the way he observed everything Brittany could tell he wanted to learn. A light bulb went off in her head.

“How about this?” she said. “I work in the mornings, but every afternoon you can come by and I’ll teach you how to read and talk.”

“Talk? Read?” Hendery’s eyes were lighting up. No human had ever offered to teach him to speak a language before. Sure, he understood hundreds of languages, but for whatever reason he lacked the ability to try to form a proper sentence. All he spoke to his friends were by different voice patterns and ocean soundwaves.

“Everything,” Brittany promised. “Just come knock on my back door and we’ll begin.”

Hendery nodded. Taking her hand in his, he pressed a gentle kiss to it. “Tomorrow?” he begged.

“Tomorrow.”

-

It was a Friday afternoon when Hendery began his reading and writing lessons with Brittany. She was an excellent teacher as her college degree was in elementary education, but she stuck with tutoring young children who needed phonics and spelling help in school. Hendery was no different from them in terms of learning the different phonics, vowels, and consonants. The first lesson was just the basics of the alphabet and what sound each one made. Flashcards with pictures and the letter, such as “M” for milk, were easy for Hendery to follow. The lessons did get harder with each lesson every day for about a month and a half, but Brittany taught him that practice and application are key in having the lessons stick in his brain. Of course, he got frustrated whenever he couldn’t get a syllable or pronounciation correct, but Brittany pushed him to do his best. Before long, Hendery was forming proper sentences to get his thoughts across to her.

“Okay, so as a final test,” Brittany concluded after their final lesson one Tuesday afternoon, “tell me about an adventure you’ve had in the ocean.”

“What story does Brittany want to hear?” Hendery asked. He had grown a habit of speaking in third person. Brittany had taught him first and third person point-of-view, but he liked speaking in third. She didn’t mind it a bit.

“Did you meet any other mermaids or mermen?”

Hendery shook his head as his smile dropped. “Hendery was abandoned when he was small.”

“What happened?” Brittany wasn’t expecting his answer to be so grim.

“He was too small and weak. His stomach couldn’t hold down anything his father gave him. Only fish.”

“Oh…” Her fingernails tapped on the table in a rhythm. “So, they just left you behind?”

He nodded again, but a grin came back to his face. “Hendery became friends with the sirens. They took him in, fed him, taught him to swim, hunt, and to communicate through sound.”

“Sirens?” Brittany repeated. “How many mythical creatures are out there that are real?”

“The Kraken is not real. The only octopus and squids that exist are only slightly taller than a human man.”

Brittany was now curious. She had only grown up hearing fairy tales about the mythological beings of the deep blue, but she always brushed them off as nothing more than stories. Now, that Hendery had entered into her life, she wanted to know which ones existed and which were hoaxes.

“Tell me more,” she begged as she pushed the notes for the lesson aside. “I want to know everything.”

“Is Brittany sure?” he teased. “There’s a lot of dangerous ones that could be harmful.”

“That’s what makes it exciting, and I know the perfect spot for us to talk.”

“Where?”

“Come with me,” she motioned with her finger, and Hendery followed her out the back door.

“But Hendery and Brittany have relaxed here already,” he whined.

Brittany giggled and took his hand. “Not here, silly. We have to walk and swim a little ways.”

Hendery got excited and held on to her hand tighter as she pulled him along. It was about a three minute walk before they came close to a pier stretching out in the ocean. The pier was nothing fancy, just a place where fishermen could come relax and catch a meal. Most of the time, it was empty mainly because it was a more isolated area. However, the two jumped into the water (Brittany had stripped her clothes off in the house, revealing a royal blue halter top bikini) and quietly swam underneath the bridge to avoid being noticed by two fishermen throwing their lines at the end of the pier.

Once they were far enough, the two of them crawled out of the water and onto the beach area. They decided to just naturally dry off in the sunshine, but it was a little chilly as the breeze kissed their skin.

“Hendery and the sun will keep you warm,” the merman offered, seemingly unbothered by the cool winds. Brittany just nodded in compliance and allowed him to wrap his arms around her waist as they sat down.

Leaning back against his chest, she immediately felt the warmth he gave off. Not only was the warmth nice and comfortable, but being held by her new friend likes this made her feel good inside. She could feel her cheeks turn as red as a firetruck, but she couldn’t help it. She wanted him to hold her forever, if he could. Hendery was discovering some new feelings for himself in that moment, and he knew deep down that he wanted to stay with his friend for as long as he lived.

“What does Brittany want to know?” Hendery asked, his voice cracking in shyness.

-

Tagging: @fantasywayv​ @ezralia-writes​ @queen-of-himbos​ @daybreakx​ @the32ndbeat​ @mafia-nct​ @philosopher-of-fandoms​ @neocitybyday​​  @dreamystuffers​ @jaekissd​ Let me know it you wanna be tagged or removed

[kylopen]

Dating an ‘edgy girl’

(House neutral)

Warnings: curse words.

Notes: some are set during the time you were at Hogwarts some aren’t.

Read the golden trio era version here

I don’t know why but it’s not letting me put the link down for this one so for the golden trio era one just go to my masterlist that is in my bio on my page

Sirius:

* As soon as you walked into the three broomsticks, he found himself looking.

* Trying to be subtle but leaning back on his chair to get a better look?

* Not so subtle.

* And then you approach their table, boots clicking against the floor.

* Sirius prepares himself for you to chat him up.

* And then you don’t.

* You simply ask if you can take one of their chairs.

* Baffled boi.

* Lily covers her mouth to hold in her laugh.

* Remus gives him a pat on the back “better luck next time”

* He would try to defend himself and say that you probably got too nervous to talk to him.

* “Or maybe she just needed a chair?” Lily would add with a giggle.

* You had heard all about Sirius’ reputation.

* He was a womaniser and you knew it. Best to stay away from that trouble.

* He ended up not being able to take his eyes off the girl who looked so different to the others.

* Your confidence and your odd sense of style made him feel all sorts of ways.

* As you and your friends leave he is quick to follow, holding your wrist.

* “Can we talk?”

* You’d nod and shoo your friends away.

* “I’m Sirius.” He’d hold out his hand for you to shake.

* “I know who you are”

* “Oh you do” he’d get all cocky.

* “Yeah the womaniser”

* His face drops.

* Oh shit.

* He was determined to make you realise he was serious about this.

* Rumours flew that Sirius hadn’t been seen with a girl in weeks

* So when he asked you on a date, you accepted but tried to act like you weren’t interested.

* But that smile.

* Those eyes.

* You fell for him faster than you’d care to admit.

* But he was the same.

* Your laugh was music to his ears and he wanted to hear it more.

* When the two of you finally got together, after weeks of Sirius hassling you, you agreed.

* A lot of people thought it would be a short fling:

* But weeks turned into months. Months to years.

* Both of your aesthetics fit so well.

* When you met Harry he loved you. Sirius knew he would.

* He hated how much heat you were under when he escaped from Azkaban.

* And because of how you looked people were quick to judge your involvement with the dark lord.

* That didn’t stop him from making you his wife when his name was cleared.

James:

* what a little shit.

* He made a joke about how you looked like Dracula’s wife.

* You cracked down on him.

* “Oh yeah specks?”

* He found his heart pounding at how you stood up for yourself the way you did.

* The confidence was jaw dropping.

* Lowkey turned him tf on

* He would follow you like a lost puppy from then on.

* “What is it potter”

* “I just got lost in your eyes that’s all. Trying to find my way out”

* He would be a real smart ass, learning what annoys you etc.

* Stupid little pick up lines.

* “Did you fall from heaven be—“

* You’d always stop him by finishing it.

* People couldn’t understand why the James Potter would be pining after someone so... well you know.

* No one. I repeat. No one could’ve pictured you two together until you actually got together.

* “Is it just me or do they actually look kind of good together?”

* No matter where you both went together you’d get odd looks.

* But he only saw how beautiful you were next to him.

Snape:

* You had met when you became one of the nurses at the school.

* It was the year Harry Potter had started.

* McGonagall made him go to the hospital wing despite his protests.

* You weren’t dressed in your work uniform as your shift was over but you had been called in hurriedly due to the troll.

* He couldn’t even look you in the eye.

* Not because he was intimidated by your dark exterior but more because he loved it.

* He expected you to roll your eyes in annoyance or tut but you didn’t.

* Your eyes. Your beautiful eyes crinkled as you smiled at him.

* There was no way that smile could be for him.

* But it was.

* “May I?” You gesture to his leg and he rolls up the trouser leg for you.

* You were so gentle and he couldn’t hell but melt into your touch.

* “This is a hell of a gash professor Snape”

* He would stay in silence for a moment before deciding on “Severus.”

* “Well Severus I have just the thing that’ll have that gone in a day”

* “Thank you miss...”

* “L/N. Y/N L/N”

* He would end up coming to the hospital wing frequently and you couldn’t help but giggle at the effort.

* “It’s a little scratch Severus”

* “But it hurts”

* “A potions master such as yourself would have plenty of things in his cupboard to help with the pain” you’d smirk.

* Blush blush blush.

* “Well I— I mean... you”

* “Would you like to have dinner with me Severus? We could pop into Hogsmeade”

* He would try to seem indifferent but he was buzzing on the inside.

* “I guess I could”

* Your relationship blossomed slowly but once he was comfortable enough to openly show you were together...

* You both looked the part.

* The king and queen of edge.

* The students wouldn’t believe that you had gone for Snape of all people.

* But you saw the kindness that was hidden by the shroud of darkness.

Lily:

* lily was a literal flower:

* So bright so beautiful so happy.

* People all assumed she would eventually end up with James, the rich, handsome boy.

* But she found herself drawn to another.

* You had met when you found her crying in the corner of the library.

* It was after she had been called a Mudblood by Snape.

* You didn’t like seeing her so sad.

* So you tried to cheer her up.

* “Can I... sit here?”

* She’d nod meekly and you’d place your books down on the table.

* “Are you okay?”

* “Oh yeah no. I am I just read a sad book that’s all.”

* She finally looks up.

* She was a little startled to find that the owner of the sweet voice was dressed so darkly.

* But she brushed that prejudice away as soon as it appeared.

* “Would you like to see a new spell I’ve learned?”

* You didn’t even give her a chance to answer as you made a beautiful rose bloom from the table.

* You rubbed your neck sheepishly as the colour remains black, not the white you were hoping for.

* “it’s beautiful” she’d crack a smile which made your heart melt.

* “I’m Lily by the way”

* “Y/N” you’d smile.

* People did not see this coming.

* Like no one did.

* When you started hanging around with her the boys were shook.

* Lily’s friends warmed to you pretty fast.

* James was a tad jealous:

* When you both got together, everyone was shook once more.

* The boys would make constant jokes about Lily liking girls.

* But honestly the two of you were so happy with each other.

* The black tulip and her pure lily.

Remus:

* You had heard of the rumours that surrounded Remus Lupin.

* You didn’t care much, it wasn’t like he had chosen that life.

* Either way it wasn’t proven and you weren’t going to judge him on rumours.

* You received backlash for the way you dressed anyways, an outsider you were.

* The first time you both had met was when you walked past them at their table in the great hall.

* “Hey Wolfy watch out it’s the vampire” a couple of boys would snicker.

* Lily would come to your defence, scolding the boys.

* “Yeah?” You’d turn and face them. ”if you’re not careful this vampire might get very angry and take all your blood until you’re an empty. Little. Sack”

* He was more than a little intrigued after witnessing that exchange and a little scared.

* The second time you met was in the astronomy tower. It was late into the night, way past curfew.

* you couldn’t sleep, so you made your way to the one place that could bring you peace.

* But it was taken. You spot his back as he stared out into the sky.

* You try to hide to give him privacy but he speaks out.

* “You can come out. I won’t bite” he would chuckle lightly.

* “I can’t promise the same” you’d joke and he’d turn to you with a smile.

* A smile that made your heart skip a beat.

* “So what’s the vampire doing up here and not in her coffin?”

* “What’s the werewolf doing up here and not in his doghouse”

* You’d both look at each other before laughing quietly.

* Neither of you expected to fall in love.

* You just did.

* It took Remus a long time to finally accept that someone really could love him.

* You were his knight in shining armour and you didn’t even know it.

[x--daughters-of-darkness--x]

I TALKED TO AMY LEE OF EVANESCENCE ABOUT INSPIRING THE WORLD’S WORST FANFICTION

The singer of My Immortal (the song) has now read My Immortal (the fanfic)

If you mention the name “My Immortal,” you may mean one of two things. The first is the 2003 hit song from rock band Evanescence. The second is a Harry Potter fanfic so transcendentally, mysteriously bad that it’s transfixed the internet for years.

The fanfic My Immortal is about a time-traveling mall-goth teenage vampire wizard (named “Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way”) who is obsessed with Evanescence and a variety of goth-inflected rock bands. She’s supposed to look like Amy Lee, Evanescence’s lead vocalist, pianist, and songwriter. And to this day, nobody is sure who wrote the story or whether they were serious.

Back in the real world, Lee and the rest of Evanescence have spent months under stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus pandemic. They’ve used that time to film two music videos in collaboration with director P.R. Brown, each shot by band members and their families. The latest is a surreal video for “The Game Is Over,” a song from their upcoming album The Bitter Truth. In Lee’s words, it’s shot as a “psychological thriller,” full of imagery based on a specific fear or inner demon from each member.

These videos — filmed in living rooms, cars, and other personal spaces — give fans a new kind of look into the band members’ lives. But I was curious about a different kind of fan relationship: did the creators of “My Immortal” know about My Immortal? I spoke to Lee, and the answer is yes; in fact, it’s part of a long-running family joke. She’d never actually read it, however, until last week.

You’ve made two videos under quarantine, and they’ve taken very different approaches. What was the process behind each of them?

We really had to just think kind of quickly. We were working on another video treatment that would have been full-production, this whole deal with a big crew and things we could no longer have because of the pandemic — including the fact that we couldn’t even physically get together because we live all over the world.

We recognized that “Wasted on You” had a bunch of lyrical content that felt like all of a sudden where we were. So we went for that. I really wanted it to be real on a level like people hadn’t seen us before: in our own homes, in our real lives, not dressed up, not in makeup, just the real, raw us.

For the second one, it’s like “Okay, how do we take what we’ve learned and amp it up even more to make it look like a real video more than just us being ourselves?” We have all been very serious about the lockdown, so we have been completely alone for the most part during this time — and that is cool in some ways as a creator. But you really have to live with yourself all the time.

A few of us have gone through some difficult things in the past few years. [Bassist Tim McCord] and I both experienced losses in our immediate family. There’s just been a lot of hard. So you know when you’re finally forced to stop being distracted by all the things that keep us happy, there’s silence — and that stuff comes out. So each of us had a private kind of gut-spilling confession with [P.R. Brown] about what we’re struggling with.

We were just sharing deeply in a way that we don’t normally go all the way with when it comes to at least our visuals. When I pour my lyrics into my music, it’s always really raw. But in this, it’s like, we’re not going to hold back on the video side and just make it beautiful — we’re going to go for it and let it be ugly and share the dark parts of ourselves.

I think of a lot of your music as being open and vulnerable, and you interact with fans online. What does filming a video at home like this communicate that your normal social media presence and music don’t?

I hope it just shows more and more of that willingness to be vulnerable because as hard as it is, it always leaves me feeling more satisfied than just putting on a pretty face.

Social media’s such a weird world for me. I love it — I’m grateful for the idea that we can have a direct relationship with our fans. But it’s kind of a double-edged sword. It’s such an open platform for everybody to criticize everything about you. And when you go there, you’re going to see that. I think that’s true for everybody. It doesn’t matter if you’re a celebrity or not. It’s just a place where people don’t have to show their face to say things, and there’s a lot of ugly out there.

What’s your relationship specifically with fanworks? Do people send you things that were inspired by you?

Oh my god, it’s so wonderful. We’ve got so much art. I’ve got this huge collection of stuff that I’ve been hanging on to just from the beginning. There are so many talented people out there that pour their efforts into making a piece of visual art that is either of something in the Evanescence world or just something else that came out of them while they were listening to our music.

Then there are other things that you have to keep because they’re so hilariously funny. People will make a crazy poem that makes totally no sense but I’m a character within it, which is awesome. It’s like, I know this person’s like 12 years old and totally sincere, but this is so funny. I have a little studio, and I dedicated a little bit of time during our unexpected free time to cover it wall-to-wall in the bathroom with all the fan stuff.

Which brings me to my next question: had you ever heard of My Immortal?

I think for quite a while I was just unaware of it. And then my cynical, Reddit-loving younger sister who’s also an English teacher, somewhere during the holiday every year when the family’s all together, it’ll come up for some reason. And she’s like, “Wait — you still haven’t read My Immortal?” And I’m like, “No, what do you mean?” She’s like, “You have to. Okay, hold on. Let me read you an excerpt.” And then she’ll pull up her phone and read some awesome paragraph from the craziest, funniest thing ever that makes no sense.

It’s one of her favorite things that she thinks is the most hilarious thing in the world, and I still just kept not reading it. It’s been kind of this ongoing joke with us. And then I got a call a few days ago that you wanted to talk about it, so I was like, “Oh, crap. I have to read a little bit of it.”

I read I think not quite half of it, but it did have me in tears. I was laughing really, really hard at one point, just because of the nonsense. And then I started asking myself, is this real? I can’t quite tell. I’m totally undecided. Is it sincere? I feel like it started maybe as sincere, but they got in on it and started playing it up for the haters. I can’t tell! What do you think?

It would have to be so elaborate, but there are a bunch of cases that really make it seem like this person knows much, much more than the character they’re putting on.

I noticed a misspelling that was like, instead of triumphantly, it was “triumelephantly.” And I was like, come on, you don’t think “elephant” is inside “triumphant.” There’s no way.

At one point, the main character’s name is spelled two different ways within three words of each other.

I totally saw that, too! I’m torn because I want it to be sincere, kind of... but I don’t know.

There are things about it that aren’t cool to talk about. Like it’s not funny to talk about slitting your wrists. So it takes me a second to get past that joke, which is so recurring.

Yeah, if you go back to old internet culture, a lot of it is really ugly. And it’s weird trying to separate that stuff out.

Is it better now?

I don’t know because now I’m too old to know what’s going on. But kids do seem nicer. They often seem nicer.

I would like to believe we’ve grown up a little bit as a society from that. Maybe everybody having a little bit more of a microphone has taught us some things that we need to be aware of that are outside of our perception and our personal experiences. There are other people that are seeing that in a different way. I think it would be cool if that’s true.

I was a teenager around when My Immortal came out, and it feels like it describes a very recognizable “goths versus preps” rivalry. Did you feel that?

I think this thing is poking fun at that world — I mean it would have to be, come on — and that part of it really resonates with me in a real way. But I didn’t consider myself goth! Part of what’s weird and funny is like okay, this is describing hating the preps, and you’re the cool one, you’re the underground, you understand real life and the gravity of death, and I get it. But if you’re so depressed and everything’s so hard and you’re so real and they’re so fake, why do you put so much effort into your look?

That was what always turned me off about the word “goth” when that started being assigned to me in our early days. If I was 15 years old and you’d asked me what I was, I’m grunge. I buy all my clothes at garage sales, I don’t do crap to my look, I get ready two seconds before school, and all the preps are the ones who put all their focus on their looks and what party they’re going to go to.

But yeah, that part was funny to me. That part existed.

I love the idea of you knowing about this thing for years without having read it.

I kind of want to thank you because I did get a really good laugh out of it last night. It’s not like, when I have free time, I’m motivated to go read some horribly bad thing. But it’s actually pretty interesting.

And you’ve gotta love all the characters breaking into song to sing My Chemical Romance songs. It’s pretty great.

[dukeofonions]

Puppet vs Video Games (The Gimmicks of Sanders Sides)

If you’ve followed me for awhile (meaning the short amount of time I’ve been running this blog) then you’ll probably be aware of what my opinions are of the “gimmicks” that have been making themselves prevalent in recent Sanders Sides episodes. Now just to make things clear, almost every episode of Sanders Sides uses some kind of gimmick. 

Well, besides the first one, which consists entirely of talking with no added effects. 

And I, being the faceless entity that sits behind a computer screen judging an online web series, am going to rant about that because this is my blog and I do what I want. So let’s begin… 

The Prologue

As season one progresses we see things like location changes, a song, Thomas’ friends making several appearances, simple editing tricks (like putting text or pictures on a screen) minor costume changes (Logan and Patton dressing as Sherlock and Watson) split screen effects, and even an episode featuring an animated segment. 

At the end of Season One we were introduced to the concept of “Rooms” which added a whole new layer to the story and got people excited to see what the other rooms would entail. Still, up to this point, the gimmicks remained mostly in the background as small ways to sprinkle in some extra storytelling while the dialogue continued to be the main thing carrying the series. 

Then Season Two began with Fitting In, which featured a few more props that served to signify each of the Hogwarts houses. This made sense seeing as that was the focus of the video, and for fans of Harry Potter, it would be fun to see the characters wearing things from the different houses. 

After Fitting In, we got Moving On which featured the introduction of Patton’s room. Like with Virgil’s, a lot went into designing his room. There is a lot to look at, who knows how long it took to find all the stuff they showcased in the background? On top of that they also had the filter they used to give the room a dreamlike quality, and my favorite detail, the pictures that continue to change throughout the episode depending on what the characters are talking about. 

It remains one of my favorite set pieces from the series just from the amount of detail they put into it, and it felt like a step up from Virgil’s room (which I also love) and it makes me excited for the rest of the rooms that have yet to be revealed. 

However! I am not here to discuss the rooms. Even though I already did… 

After Moving On, however, is when things start to change with the series. 

During the 12 Days of Christmas, the Sides are each given their own custom Christmas sweaters, but that’s only part of the gimmick. The centerpiece for this episode is, of course, the song sung by all four Sides. This moment is pretty significant as it marks the first time all four of them appeared on screen together at the same time. 

This was just the tip of the iceberg for what was to come… 

Immediately following 12 Days we get Can Lying Be Good? Which featured a new location where the video spent the majority in, using quick cuts with the cameras to give off the illusion of Roman pretending to be Joan (including clever uses of audio) and of course, Deceit himself. The makeup and costume was unlike anything we’d seen in the series yet. Throw in some more split screen to show two Sides on screen together, as well as some clever costume choices for character Thomas, makes this episode (in my opinion) the best at utilizing its effects and filming techniques to tell its story. 

And then, things start to shift again…. 

The next episode we get is Why Do We Get Out Of Bed In The Morning? Which took some time to produce, coming out in April after CLBG? Was released in February. Still, good time considering what was to come. 

This episode had some mixed reviews once it finally came out, but I plan on tackling that later. The reason this episode (which was really just a longer, drawn out version of Losing My Motivation but starring Logan and Roman) was the use of animations. 

For Logan, his arguments were displayed via “Stop Motion” writings of graphs and charts which he used to explain his points. And from a short behind the scenes video, each of these were drawn by hand and took hours to make. From what I understand, all of Roman’s bits were animated on a computer, though I don’t have much info on how they were made. 

Within the episode, these different types of animations were used to help Roman and Logan illustrate their points. And while on their own they’re quite adorable, they aren’t necessary for the telling of this story. One thing this episode was criticised for was how the writing felt off. Everything seemed rushed and none of the characters felt in character, and while I don’t recall anyone outright saying it, it’s likely that perhaps the team felt pressured to get this video out on time, and thus might have skipped out on other elements in order to make up for the time spent working on the animations. 

Whether that was writing the script, filming, or editing, we don’t know. All I know is that the general consensus for this episode was that it was just okay. As a Logan and Roman fan though, it was kinda disappointing for their first episode with them taking the spotlight together to just be viewed as “okay” and isn’t a favorite of mine. 

Things picked up a little after Crofters: The Musical was released only a few days after WDWGOOBITM (that title is a monster to type no matter how ya do it) and it featured a song as its gimmick. The mood was a bit lighter, we got to see Logan having fun, and hey we even got our first main Roman angst foreshadowing! Good thing that wouldn’t be dragged out for several episodes, right?

All in all, things were definitely looking up for Sanders Sides. From the looks of it, we were going to start getting more frequent updates! 

Then the Drought happened and we had to wait almost six months for a new episode. 

At least that would be the longest we ever had to wait for something. 

Before I get into the beef of this post I wanna bring up three more episodes, Embarrassing Phases, Selfishness vs Selflessness, and Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts. 

Like the other episodes throughout Season Two, each of these episodes have different gimmicks. In Embarrassing Phases, it’s the Halloween costumes. In SVS, it’s a location change plus costume change, and in DWIT we get the introduction of Remus along with a musical number and a few props. 

I’d say each of these episodes does a good job at incorporating their gimmicks into the story. Embarrassing Phases involves them talking about Halloween and using costumes as metaphors or something like that (This may be one of the few times I say something positive about this episode don’t get used to it)

With SVS, thanks to some clever acting, we can see Janus get the idea of using the courtroom scenario to try and get his point across. He first does this by suggesting that Thomas may not be as innocent as he seems, and after Patton defends him, that’s when Janus switches to the courtroom in order to put Patton to the test and literally defend Thomas as a lawyer. 

Then in DWIT, given that Remus is a very outgoing character, it makes sense that he’d use a song to explain who he is and make a dramatic entrance. Plus, the series has used songs before so it’s not surprising to see this here. And seeing as Remus is creativity, it’s only fitting that he’s able to conjure random things throughout the episode. Okay, that was a long prologue, onto the actual reason most of you  probably clicked on this post. Part One: The Puppets

Learning New Things About Ourselves also does a good job of handling its gimmick and incorporating it into the story. Like the three I just mentioned, there’s a set up and a pay off. We get an idea of what’s to come with this moment: 

“I don’t feel content,” 

“With my content.” 

Which is obviously a reference to some random children’s educational program (most likely Sesame Street) by showcasing how two words that are spelled the same can have different meanings. Great now I sound like some educational children’s program. 

Then later on, we get the actual set up that comes from Thomas becoming frustrated that he can’t figure out what the problem is that’s causing this whole dilemma. He says, “We’ve got an issue. Something that I’m not aware of yet, something that may be unlocked with the right question. This is like...  fundamental learning!”

After he says that, he gets an idea and asks the others how he used to learn things and each one responds accordingly: 

Logan: Textbooks! 

Roman and Virgil: Mistakes. 

Patton: Puppets! 

And of course, initially, Thomas questions this and no one really understands what Patton means by this. But he explains and makes a case for it, “Thomas used to learn all kinds of new and helpful things from puppets when he was younger! Like how to count and his ABCs. Maybe it’ll be easier to work through issues when puppets are involved.” 

We see Thomas consider the idea, and then Logan sets up a joke with him saying Thomas has outgrown that kind of stuff only to have him express his love for the idea. 

After that, the Sides (excluding Logan) change into their respective puppets and continue on the episode. 

One important thing to note (which I will bring up later) is that this scene takes place around the 15 minute mark. At least by that point, everyone except Logan has changed into a puppet. With the video being 38 minutes long, this is about halfway through the episode, and by the 31 minute mark the Sides begin turning back to normal. 

Which means the puppets roughly take up only about 15 minutes of the video, slightly longer if you count Logan’s puppet, but you get the idea. 

Also I’m bad at math so if I got this wrong sue me. There’s a reason I’m sitting here writing this instead of doing something with my life.

From then on, the conversation continues with everyone still trying to figure out what the question they need to be asking is. Of course, plenty of references to other educational kid shows are thrown around, but that now makes sense seeing as they’re fully embracing the puppet idea. Patton furthers the conversation along by finally getting Thomas to start asking “Why” and uses another reference to do so, which starts the next part of the conversation and brings us the next major conflict in this episode, Logan.

He gives his opinion, stating that no one takes Thomas seriously and that he should switch careers in order to obtain that status instead of devoting his time to making silly videos. 

This of course, causes dissension within the group, and leads to Roman once again insulting Logan before realizing that he’s been going too far. After being prompted to apologize, Roman attempts to express his feelings to Logan and say sorry, but it doesn’t exactly help him feel any better which is when Patton suggests he try a different way.

And, Roman being Roman, decides the best way to do this is through song. A song that’s reminiscent of those one might hear on Sesame Street (there’s probably others but I’m rolling with this one) so it fits with the puppet thing. Again, it’s justified. 

The episode ends with Logan finally understanding where the others are coming from and Thomas finding the right question to ask, which he is able to answer and it solves the dilemma. 

Logan turns into a puppet, there’s another Sesame Street reference, and Roman is finally gonna start addressing his issues! 

Good thing that won’t be brushed under a rug by the other characters for three more episodes right? 

All in all, in case you couldn’t tell, I adore this episode and it still remains one of my favorites to this day. It doesn’t beat you over the head with the references, which are used cleverly and in a fun way that also keeps the story moving along. The designs for the puppets are cute and match each of the characters, and the puppetry is amazing! 

Plus the song is an absolute bop and it still makes me emotional sometimes. 

Which begs the question, was the sixth month wait worth it? Well, after hearing all that went into making this episode and seeing the final result, I’d say it was worth it. 

It’s also nice that we got a behind the scenes video where we got to see the full story on how this episode was made and all the difficulties Thomas, Joan, and Talyn faced when trying to make it a reality. Did they need to use puppets? No, but what matters is that they were able to take the idea and incorporate it into a story in a way that was fun and felt justified for existing. 

Not saying this episode is perfect, there are a few problems here and there, but overall this remains one of my top Sanders Sides episodes and one I’ve watched repeatedly since it came out. 

Now that all that positive stuff is out of the way, let’s get to the fun part….

Part Two: The Video Games

I’m gonna be blunt, Putting Others First does not do as good of a job with incorporating video games into its story like LNTAO does. 

However, I can’t exactly talk about this episode without talking about the extremely long wait we had in between episodes. The last official episode (that follows the main storyline, so not Asides) came out on June 25, 2019. POF came out May 1st, 2020. 

Almost 10 months, the longest we’ve ever had to wait for an episode. And if you wanna go further, remember that POF was meant to be the follow up to SVS, a part two if you will, SVS came out March 31st 2019, so by the time POF came out, it had already been a year since this set up the conflict for wedding vs callback.

By that point, some people were no longer interested or as excited about the new episode, but that changed briefly when a trailer for the episode dropped after a new Bloopers video was released a few months before POF was finally released. 

Keep in mind that up until this point, we weren’t entirely sure what the hold up was for this episode. We’d only gotten the vague answer of “There’s a special sequence for this episode and we’re working with another artist in order to make it, which is why it’s taking so long.” 

Okay, fair enough, and the trailer revealed what exactly that sequence was, animation! 

Now I’ve already explained in another post why I have problems with how vague Thomas and co. are when it comes to giving information about upcoming videos, so I won’t get into that here. 

What I am going to bring up since it relates to some of my points is this, remember when they said it was a “special sequence” they were working on? Well, after the video is released we find that it isn’t one, but 10. 

I’m not counting each time a sequence was used (For example, the opening segment which is later followed by Roman imagining a different outcome in the same style or every single one of Logan’s low-down’s, and the two trolley problems are counted as one sequence for this post specifically) because I really don’t wanna go through and count every single time Logan popped up on screen, but tell me, why in the heckity heck did they feel it was necessary to include 10 of these animated segments? 

And okay, there’s actually 12 (maybe 13? The Pokemon reference uses two different styles) but why are there so many? How are they necessary and what is their reason for being in this episode? 

Remember earlier when I mentioned that the puppet stuff didn’t start until the 15 minute mark? Well, POF literally begins with a video game sequence, and then the game references just keep coming. The intro gets a retro remix along with the rest of the music, and once Thomas enters the picture his curse words are covered by a gold coin and the “mario coin” sound effect. 

And then, not even three minutes in, we get yet another video game sequence recapping the last episode, after we already had a recap of the last episode less than a minute ago! 

To be fair though Rhythm Redux is a bop and I’m not sure why they felt the need to include a “flashback” after the intro when they were going to include this song anyway since it does a better job at explaining things than the random shots and dialogue from SVS. 

With LNTAO, none of the “puppet bits” began until after the Sides changed into puppets, besides that one bit of foreshadowing with the “Content with my content” line. There was no change to the intro’s music, nothing besides that one bit to foreshadow the puppets coming into play. 

Another thing LNTAO does that POF doesn’t is establish a set up, and pay off for the video games. Right off the bat, we get the video games, then later we get Patton’s line about how “Life isn’t like one of your video games” just a few minutes before the next video game sequence takes place, which just felt out of place to me the first time I watched it and I felt like that line was put in there just to remind the audience “Oh yeah, this is a video game themed episode!” 

Which, okay, there actually was some bit of set up before this back in SVS. Thomas mentions that he planned to spend his time at the wedding playing “Word Crush” on his phone, then as POF begins, that’s exactly what he’s doing. 

And there are certain instances where the sequences work. 

The beginning sequence ties back into Thomas’ comment from SVS and, in a way, sets up the video game thing (even if it does make me somewhat cringe but that’s mostly Lee and Mary Lee’s characters) and I wouldn’t have as much of a problem with how “Rhythm Redux” was incorporated if they hadn’t included the flash back after the intro. Again, why did they need two different recaps? They only needed one and it did a good job of explaining everything on its own. 

I will also say the Trolley Segments work due to the discussions being held, they’re talking about “Morality” so why wouldn’t you bring up one of the oldest moral dilemmas out there? It also ties in with my favorite part of the video, the “Final Boss” fight with Lilypadton vs Janus. I was not expecting it, and adding Janus’ reveal on top of that just made everything even better. It was dramatic, and I loved how the health bars that were used for Patton and Janus changed to represent Thomas’ deteriorating mental health. 

All in all, there was potential here with the video game theme, and there were scenes where it was used well. But all the others that I didn’t mention? They just felt forced and out of place to me and honestly, took me out of the moment. 

Another episode I want to compare POF to is Logic vs Passion (I am not typing either the title or the acronym out again) where they both incorporate their gimmicks in a similar way. 

Logan and Roman both use their respective animations to illustrate their points of view, and throughout POF all the characters use different video games to illustrate their own points. 

The issues I have with these episodes is that these conversations could have been had without the use of any of these things. The Sides have had discussions and used examples to elaborate their points in the past without the use of visuals. 

Now, can visuals help with storytelling? Yes, and I mentioned several instances where POF does this. But honestly, the whole video game theme seemed out of place for this particular video. Compare it to SVS which only had a location change, the episode focused almost entirely on its dialogue and still manages to be dramatic and engaging. You can easily follow along with the discussion without the need for fancy visuals. 

With POF, it seems like they just try to rush from one video game reference to the next, leaving little room to breathe in between before another video game is thrown into your face. What could have been a simple discussion like in SVS (which still managed to balance humor with its more serious themes) we got a rather bloated middle section which, honestly, I don’t remember much about. 

I’ve watched the video several times and without fail, I always find myself spacing out throughout a good chunk of the middle until the whole Lilypadton scene takes place. That’s when I became interested, especially when Janus entered the picture to bring in his points and act as a bit of an “anti-hero” in the whole thing. 

I simply believe this video could have been a lot simpler, and probably more cohesive if they’d left a lot of the video game stuff out. The last thing I want to be when consuming any type of media is bored, and honestly if it wasn’t for me making all these analysis posts on the episode, I probably wouldn’t have watched it again save for my favorite parts. 

Not only that, but we waited 10 months for this episode because of the video game sequences, and again you have to ask yourself, was the wait worth it? 

I have to say, unlike with LNTAO, it wasn’t worth it to me. They could take the video game sequences out altogether (even my favorite ones) and I wouldn’t really care. This episode just doesn’t need them, they don’t justify their use in this episode. Whereas in LNTAO, I love the use of puppets and if they were to be taken out, I would miss them. 

Now is this to say I hate the episode? No, there’s actually a lot I like about it. Patton’s development, Janus, and the ending with Roman are all amazing on their own. But really, who’s to say Janus couldn’t have confronted Patton in person instead of a video game world? 

Logan didn’t need to appear via little “Pop ups” and could have been called upon by Patton for help only to be brushed aside when what he says doesn’t help his case at all. Then when things start getting out of hand, “Logan” comes back to try to fix things but it doesn’t work, which is when he reveals himself only this time everyone, including the audience, fell for it because Janus has stepped up his game when it comes to disguising himself. 

Of course, the same could be said about LNTAO, they didn’t need to be puppets, right? Well, considering that the message of the episode was that you can use unconventional methods to express different ideas using different mediums, and Logan spent the whole time seeing the puppets at nothing but silly and childish only to come to this realization himself, it makes sense why puppets were used. 

However, you can actually apply that same message to POF, where they used an unconventional method to get their points across. 

The only problem, like with Logic vs Passion, was that the gimmicks alone couldn’t carry the episode. 

Logic vs Passion wasn’t as good as other episodes (and I may do a full review of this in the future) and in POF, it just felt like there was too much being crammed into this one episode. We went from discussing different types of morality and why people do good things to Janus suddenly beginning his “acceptance arc” with Roman having a breakdown at the end. Honestly, the point where Janus enters the conversation feels like a completely separate episode from what we’ve had thus far. Not only that, I have my own issues with how Janus’ character seemed to suddenly do a 180 (which I already talked about in another post) so while I love the ending scenes on their own, I admit that maybe they should have been handled differently. 

Of course, at the end of the day, all of this is just a matter of opinion. Lots of people loved the video game segments, and others didn’t like the puppets. Some people love all the gimmicks used in the videos, others wish for things to go back to the simpler formats of the older episodes and honestly, I agree. 

It seems like with every new episode the team is trying to outdo themselves and take things up another level each time, which is something I can admire, but it is something that can be overdone. Just look at Sanders Asides, it was supposed to be this simple little thing, but it might as well just be another episode. There’s nothing to distinguish it from any of the other main episodes, and if the rest of Asides is going to be the same way, then what’s the point of making it a separate series at all?

Now, Thomas and Joan have said that after this episode, they’re going to start using more practical effects and make things simpler, which I take as a sign of them learning to step back from all the gimmicks they use and just let the characters shine on their own for a while. Which, if that is the case, good on them. 

We don’t come to this series for the effects and flashy scenes, we come for the characters. They’re what we love and want to see more of. If you want more proof, just look at what people mostly took from POF, they took the character moments. It wasn’t the video game references that resonated the most with people, heck, people outright seemed to ignore the fact that Leslie Odom Jr. made a cameo. 

What do you think that says? 

Not saying people didn’t love the video game references, because a lot of people did, but it wasn’t the main thing people responded to. 

It’s okay to explore different mediums for storytelling. But sometimes, as a creator, you have to stop and ask yourself, “Is this really necessary for the story?” And believe me the hardest thing to do is cut out something that I spent hours working on because, when I viewed the story as a whole, that particular thing just wasn’t necessary for the story. Maybe I enjoyed it, and perhaps others would too, but at the end of the day, I’d be glad that I made the decision for the betterment of the story.

Okay, now this got way longer than I meant for it to be (how ironic) but you’ve all been waiting for this post for awhile and I didn’t want to postpone it further. 

I do hope you enjoyed reading this jumbled mess and, as always, feel free to let me know what your opinions were! Regardless of whether you agree or disagree, and I’ll see y’all next time! 

[the-irrelevant-trumpeter]

My Ranking of StarKid shows

Okay, so I haven’t posted any original content for a while, so I’m gonna do some ranking. Note: I don’t dislike any of the shows, they’re all amazing and just because a show is low on my list doesn’t mean I don’t like it. 

Also, spoiler warning for all of them (duh)

So here we gooooo

12) Holy Musical B@man

I don’t know, to be honest... the humour just didn’t click with me as much as the other shows did. I’ve never seen or read any Batman or DC stuff, so that doesn’t help, but it just really didn’t stick out to me. However, it’s still amazing. The soundtrack is great (Rogues are We is my 3rd favourite StarKid song), Brian Holden as Superman is iconic, and it was overall very sweet and fun. 

11) Me and My Dick

This is mostly because I don’t like sex, but the other parts are really sweet! Joey/Sally is such an underrated ship (so is Tiffanessa... yeah I’m still thinking about them...) and it had a lot of good songs and funny scenes (AJ as Joey’s Heart was the best thing ever). It was made in 2009, so some of the jokes are outdated, but the good parts are great. 

10) A Very Potter Senior Year

This is mainly so low because of some personal reasons (that I’m not going to go into). But it was really sweet and made me cry, had some great songs (looking at you Sidekick...) and was amazing when you take into account that they barely had any rehearsal time. 

9) Ani: A Parody

I’m actually really sad about putting this so low. Ani is so good and is severely underrated. Chris Allen was amazing, and JJ’s death was, in my opinion, one of the saddest deaths in a StarKid musical. My only criticism is Tarkin and Emily’s relationship, which has got to be one of my least favourite ships, but it did provide some funny moments, and Joe and Julia were amazing. Nick’s Obi-Wan was hilarious. Also, the music slaps and anyone who says it isn’t a real musical because the cast doesn’t sing can fight me, because Clark and Pierce went too hard for us to say that it doesn’t count. Also, despite what a lot of people say, I have watched like 2 Star Wars movies and still understood most of the jokes. They actually did a really good job of making it funny for everyone, and the point of most of the jokes were that you didn’t have to understand them. I think that if I hadn’t seen or read Harry Potter, or watched Aladdin or Disney, I would have enjoyed Ani more than the AVP Trilogy and Twisted. 

Wow, went on a rant there. Okay...

8) Twisted

This is going to be unpopularly low... I do love it, I just don’t vibe with it as much. It was really great, it was constantly making me laugh, the soundtrack was amazing, and I loved how it kind of had a moral to the story. I just don’t really care, y’know. It was great, but just didn’t capture my attention like some of them. I don’t really have any more to say on it. 

7) A Very Potter Musical

Ah, the OG musical. AVPM has so much nostalgic value. I think it really holds a special place in all of our hearts. It was the first StarKid musical I watched, and I just have a lot of fond memories from it. Actual quality wise, it’s probably not as good as a lot of them, but it’s what started this whole thing, and it’s gotta go up higher. 

6) Black Friday

I’ve seen a lot of dislike for this one, which I think isn’t really fair? My only real criticism is that it’s very busy and has got a lot going on, but so do a lot of the others. I think it has one of the strongest soundtracks, Jeff did an amazing job. All of the cast was great, and the filming was outstanding. I think a lot of people don’t like it because it was the most serious, but honestly, I like that StarKid is trying something new (AND it still had so many funny moments as well). Yeah, I just think it is amazing. 

5) A Very Potter Sequel

In my opinion, this is definitely the best of the AVP Trilogy. It was the funniest for me, had the best soundtrack (Days of Summer, The Coolest Girl, Harry Freakin’ Potter, I could keep on going for ages). Obviously there’s the problem with the portrayal of Umbridge. I’m not the best with words, so I won’t go into it, but a lot of other people have put it really well. But apart from that, it’s really great. 

Okay, the next two are basically tied. I usually choose them based on which one I’m vibing with at the moment, but just consider them the same. 

4) Firebringer

I’ll admit, I originally didn’t like this one, but then I rewatched it and was amazed that I’d slept on it for so long. It’s very funny, the soundtrack is amazing, the choreography is amazing (thank you Denise Donovan), and let’s not forget, THE COSTUMES. HAVE YOU SEEN HOW GREAT THE COSTUMES ARE. JUNE SAITO IS A QUEEN. Anyway, yeah, it’s really well written, and i super sweet and fun to watch (also Jazzalil was not rushed and I can and will write a whole essay on it). 

3) Trail to Oregon

I just love how dumb it is. It’s so silly and immature, and it’s great to watch. It is, in my opinion, the funniest StarKid show. It has the perfect small ensemble cast (also let’s take a moment to appreciate Joey Richter. Thank you, you may continue) and it has CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! WE LOVE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! The music is amazing (even You Gotta Go, which everyone seems to hate because of the fart noises). I just love it heaps. Also, it has my ALL TIME FAVOURITE STARKID SONG EVER! WAGON ON FIRE ROCKS! 

2) Starship

I feel like most people assume this is my favourite because of my username, which is valid and I can understand why. Starship is my comfort musical. It’s my emotional support musical. It’s just... so cute? It’s silly and a bit of fun, and is just kind of a feel-good show. I don’t mind how busy it is, it keeps me entertained all the way through and makes me want to come back and watch it again. It is also the home of my OTP (Tootsie/Megagirl is the cutest thing ever and I will die with that opinion). It also has some of the best characters. Also, in my opinion, it has the best soundtrack, despite only having 10 songs - it’s got 2 songs in my Top 5 (The Way I Do at no. 2 and Kick it up a Notch at no. 4), and there’s not a single song I dislike. The puppets were freaking amazing! I just love it A LOT and I think all of the StarKid’s are really sleeping on it (looking at you Nick...)

1) The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals

Yes, I know, I’m very boring and stereotypical. I’m sorry I couldn’t have a more interesting opinion. 

I really don’t think there’s much denying that TGWDLM has the best plot/storyline. It gives me big Dr. Who vibes, which I love. I’m usually not a big fan of horror, but this was the perfect mix of seriousness and comedy. It’s very engaging and keeps you wondering what happens next. I’ll admit, I’m a sucker for angsty endings, which TGWDLM definitely provides. I just really love sci-fi stuff. It has a really strong soundtrack, top notch dancing, and was just overall the best StarKid show. 

So yeah, that’s my ranking. Tell me what you thought! I’ll probably do some song rankings for each show. Also don’t be too angry at me please. 

[artificialqueens]

papillionlisse 1/? [gigi x nicky / jan x jackie] - pinkgrapefruit

[ chapter one ]

Fast forward to the middle of sixth year and she’s signing up for the Beauxbaton exchange program, egged on by Jan who’s bouncing on her toes, the tote bag slung over her shoulder almost overflowing as Crystal explains the significance of her One Direction stick’n’poke to Jackie who still only has a limited knowledge of muggle music but bless her, she’s trying.

[harry potter hogwarts/beauxbaton au]

A/N - hey! there was a prompt on aq that i was IN LOVE WITH because I’ve wanted to venture into my second favourite fanfic fandom for months but haven’t seen the need. but hey - this should be fun. Thanks to Meggie for betaing, this should be about 6 chapters but don’t hold me to that <3

*

Ever since she was seven, in the aftermath of one of the greatest wizarding wars in British history, Gigi has longed to go to Hogwarts. Her uncle (on her magical mother’s side) would tell her stories of his youth running through ever changing corridors - challenging ghosts and stealing food from the kitchens. Her mother would scoff, nose up high as Gigi and her father would lean into the fantastical tales. Her dad was a muggle but he was fascinated nonetheless, one of the few that would lean into the wizarding world as far as he could rather than run screaming. Their family had hidden during the war - Gigi’s mother a part of one of the highest orders of pure blood family that still accepted the marrying of muggles (and hadn’t affiliated themselves with Death Eaters) - and Gigi had been immersed in the Pure Blood culture for a few months. She was tended to by house elves and taught to fly on a broom by her grandpapa who regaled her with his time playing as keeper for Hufflepuff.

When she got her letter she cried. And then she sent a letter to her grandpapa with her old owl Fluffy and a chocolate frog.

She’d sat on that train, knees bouncing the cage that held her new tawny owl Snitch at a rate that had agitated the poor bird so much he was flapping at the top of the cage. A small girl with insane dark curls entered the carriage and immediately removed the cage from her legs.

“You doin’ okay there?” the girl asked with a peppy voice and wide eyes. “I’m Crystal.”

“I’m Gigi,” she responded quietly, overwhelmed with excitement. “Do you want a crisp?”

“Are they salt and vinegar?” Crystal asked and Gigi nodded. “Awesome! Yeah!”

It was the start of a very firm friendship.

*

Gigi and Crystal entered the great hall with mouths agape. They were funneled in by Hagrid, grouped together with the first years to be sorted and their eyes flitted between the ornate decorations and the hall full of students in black house robes - seated at long tables decorated with banners and flags of the houses; Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin.

“What do you want to be?” whispered Crystal eagerly as she vibrated next to Gigi.

“I don’t mind,” Gigi mused. “None of them are bad.”

“I want to be a Hufflepuff,” Crystal enthused and it made Gigi giggle at her new best friend.

“GOODE, GIGI,” Headmistress McGonagall called from the front of the hall and Gigi skittered up to the front of the room nervously, passing students both older and taller than she. She sat on the stool carefully as the Sorting Hat was placed onto her head. It wriggled uncomfortably for a few seconds, mumbling things Gigi couldn’t quite make out before screeching ‘SLYTHERIN’ at the top of its nonexistent lungs. The green table erupted into cheers as she ran to take a seat on the end, the badge on her uniform transforming into a snake in front of her eyes.

She sat patiently for a few moments as various other girls were called - a Mateo going to Gryffindor and a Liason going to Hufflepuff before Crystal’s name was called.

The young girl sat for only a second before the hat called Hufflepuff and the house cheered in triumph, Crystal giving Gigi a little wave before running to join the sunny yellows of her house.

Once everyone had been sorted, McGonagall tapped her glass to silence the room. “Welcome first years! As you may know,  since the Battle of Hogwarts we have taken house unity very seriously. This means that although you are governed by your house’s prefects, earn points for your house and play quidditch in your colours, you will live, work, and eat with whomever you choose. Aside from special occasions - you will function as a unit, not separate groups. Common rooms, while house specific, are open to everyone and your dorms could be anywhere so it’s important that you respect all house prefects because you don’t know whose rule you’ll live under. Be kind to one another - it matters more than you know, and let the feast begin!”

With a final flourish of her wand, the empty tables were full of platters and the once plain ceiling looked to be full of stars.

*

Gigi’s dorm ended up being in the old Hufflepuff quarters, ever filled with a glowing warmth. She was thrilled to find Crystal lounging on a bed when she entered, two more girls also already having claimed beds - Jan Sport and Jackie Cox. She’d discerned from conversation that Jan was a half-blood like herself and Jackie appeared to be a very clueless Canadian Pure-blood which only made Gigi chuckle as she thought of the confusion on two sides the girl would be facing.

As she lay in bed that night - the room a perfect temperature and the bedspread an emerald green, she’d never felt so at home.

*

Fast forward to the middle of sixth year and she’s signing up for the Beauxbaton exchange program, egged on by Jan who’s bouncing on her toes, the tote bag slung over her shoulder almost overflowing as Crystal explains the significance of her One Direction stick’n’poke to Jackie who still only has a limited knowledge of muggle music but bless her, she’s trying. Jan smiles to herself as she watches her girlfriend try to understand how the ink is staying under the skin. “C’mon Gigi, write quicker!” Jan whines, “I want to go get waffles before the guys eat them all.” Gigi stifles a laugh knowing that’s the only reason Jan got up before seven today before scribbling her signature at the bottom of the form and transfiguring it into a paper butterfly to be sent up to Headmistress McGonagall’s office without hassle.

They all enter the hall, finding four seats together on the end of an old Gryffindor table - the hall only really sticking to the tables on Quidditch game days and special feasts where house unity can be thrown out of the window and no one wants Slytherin to win another house cup (Gigi doesn’t blame them - she’s the captain and they’ve been damn fantastic these past few years).

Jan’s shovelling waffles into her mouth as Jackie mutters for her to breathe when McGonagal clears her throat and taps her glass bringing the hall to silence.

“As you all might have heard, the Sixth Year Beauxbaton Exchange starts after the holidays. For all who have not heard - today is the last day of sign up. Sixth years who choose to participate will be assigned a partner from Beauxbaton. The partner will come here for our summer term - partaking in their normal NEWT subjects and sharing dorms and generally experiencing life here at Hogwarts. They will take on their partner’s house for all house related activities and will not be eligible for quidditch teams before any of you ask.” She pauses, eyes directed towards Gigi with a smirk making the brunette blush in her seat. “Then, in the winter term our students will visit there - the same rules will apply - before all returning here for our famous Yule Ball just prior to Christmas. This is not a graded event but it will do well for anyone wanting international experience or those considering a mastery at Beauxbaton after their NEWTs. With that, it’s almost nine so you have a few more minutes to devour your eggs before I expect you all in your classes - promptly.” She ends with a smile and a wave indicating the hall can get back to its usual chatter and it does with some immediacy.

“Are you sure you don’t want to do it, Crys?” Gigi asks, pushing a final toast crust around her plate with her fork as the girl opposite her gets crumbs all over the transfiguration essay she’s frantically finishing.

Crystal looks up at Gigi with a raised eyebrow, her unruly curls falling over her face (although they’re quickly fixed back by Jackie who’s particularly proficient at beauty charms). “Baby, if I tried to speak French I’d insult them all.” Crystal chuckles. “I failed year six french, thank god I didn’t have to do high school.” Jan and Gigi chuckle in agreement as Jackie sticks her tongue out, insulting them all in french. She drops a kiss on Jan’s head before leaving for her Ancient Runes class.

“You both in transfiguration next?” Jan asks with mouth full of eggs. Gigi and Crystal nod - Gigi looking much more excited as it’s her favourite subject. Crystal sighs - she wants to be a healer so she’s got a full board of classes from Charms and Transfiguration, which she cannot do to save her life, and Potions and Herbology which are much more her speed. Needless to say she’s grateful for Gigi in spellwork classes.

Jan brushes a few lone crumbs off her robes, grabbing her Beatles themed tote bag and rushing off to Care of Magical Creatures, leaving Crystal and Gigi to walk to Transfiguration together.

“What do you think your girl will be like?” Crystal muses, a finger fiddling with one of her loose ringlets.

“I hope she’s nice…” Gigi replies as if she hasn’t put a lot of thought into it (she has but she’ll deny it to her grave).

“Yeah, and respectful. It takes a lot of respect not to throw a pillow at Janet and Jaqueline some nights,” Crystal jokes and Gigi snorts out a laugh as they arrive at the classroom.

“Alright bitch, are we hoping for an E?”

“If I exceed expectations I will be very happy,” Crystal agrees and they take their seats.

*

Gigi normally finds the Hogwarts Express relaxing. She’s usually soothed by the feeling of the old steam engine chugging away under her feet. Crystal stuffs as many pumpkin pasties as she can into her trunk and Jan spends the whole ride with her head in Jackie’s lap which would definitely be a hazard if the train happened to brake (it doesn’t, it’s a magic train, but it could).

She’s normally relaxed about now, but she’s going to meet her exchange partner and honestly she’s finding it very hard to be relaxed. Not to mention she has a very new cat (Quaffle) that is currently unimpressed with being in a train carriage and has found a home on Crystal’s lap, begging for attention.

“You doing okay there Gi?” Jackie asks, worried as always. “You’re looking a little pale.” This is a joke of course, Gigi’s pretty sure she’s never been more tanned than alabaster but if her reflection is anything to go by, she’s not looking particularly calm.

“Just nervous,” she admits, batting away the stick of Droobles Bubblegum Crystal tries to offer her - branching out from her usual snack trolley order.

“Big day!” Jan enthuses from her reclined position, Jackie’s fingers tangled in her hair.

“Big day,” Gigi repeats under her breath, trying to channel some of her roommate/best friend’s energy. “Big fucking day.”

*

“Honestly Crys I’m pretty sure you’re more excited than I am.” Gigi chuckles as they all walk up to the castle together, Jan holding the squirming cat carrier as she’s the only one not phased by the movements.

“If you think about it,” Crystal starts, adjusting her robes as she walks a way akin to a confused badger, “She’s kind of like a family pet. If you get her - we all kinda’ have her. Like a dog.”

Gigi and Jan burst out laughing while Jackie gives a snort that she stifles into an exasperated sigh. “I swear to god Crystal if you refer to the poor woman as a pet while she is here I will disown you.”

Crystal hums nonchalantly at the threat but all of their attention is drawn away by the faint sound of twinkling in the air. They look up out of instinct and coming out of the clouds is a giant, powder blue carriage drawn by Abraxans (large horses with wings). It floats as if weightless and the entire student body stops in awe just to watch it descend onto one of the large fields by Hagrid’s hut.

No doubt they’d all stare for much longer but Professor McGonagall calls from the entrance, requesting them to hurry and put their things away before dinner.

They all enter the dorm with a hubub and Gigi calls the bathroom first, forcing Jackie to charm her hair into one long brown braid that falls over her shoulder. She applies the minimal makeup she knows how to - feeling an urge to impress the girl she is yet to meet before being hurried out of the bathroom by Crystal who is insisting she needs the mirror to do something (none of them are quite sure what).

An additional bed has been added to the dorm between Gigi’s and Crystal’s. While Jan and Crystal’s beds have yellow covers and trimmings, Gigi’s is green and Jackie’s a deep blue - this new bed has a deep purple cover with delicate silver trimmings down the side and Jan appears to be examining it curiously as she braids her silver blonde hair into a messy french plait. They all bide their time, as they wait for Crystal, and once Jackie has rescued whatever hairstyle the dark haired girl was attempting, they head down to the hall.

Despite this being a start-of-term feast, the house restrictions have been lifted for the school so they all find themselves sat in their usual seats at the Gryffindor table, idly waiting for the process to begin. As far as Gigi knows, the Beauxbaton will sit on the same stool they all sat on as first years and the hat will call out the name of their partner - to get a feel for Hogwarts, or so Professor McGonagall said. Then Gigi will have to stand and the girl will join them at the table.

She plays footsie with Crystal under the table through McGonagall’s speech - too nervous to pay much attention (and knowing Jackie will let her know anything important) and then the sorting starts.

The room goes deathly silent except for the sound of the rain on the enchanted ceiling as the first girl is called up. Violet Chachki is paired with Pearl and Gigi finds herself glad as the girl seems intimidating - her dark hair a stark difference from the rest of the blonde, porcelain skinned, part veela girls.

The part-Veela doesn’t worry her. For one she’s not a desperate straight boy clamouring after a perfect French girl and two - she doesn’t really care but she does feel oddly drawn to the girls in blue and she takes a brief second to wonder what would happen if she did get a Veela more interested in women. A smile flits across her face and Jackie rubs a warm hand on her leg.

The next girl - Nicky Doll - is called. She’s blonde, like the rest, and lithe - gorgeous really - and even from where Gigi’s sat, she can tell her eyes are a pearlescent blue. She sits carefully on the stool - managing to make it look like a Vogue shoot rather than a school ceremony. The hat is placed on her head and it dwarfs her petite features - her button nose and her shining eyes and it makes her look almost childlike. Gigi is so focused on this she barely registers the way the hat screams ‘GIGI GOODE’. She’s sure she wouldn’t have if Jackie hadn’t jabbed her wand straight up into her ribs to jumpstart her again.

She stands inelegantly, smiling at the French girl who bounds towards her like Bambi but much more gracefully. It’s like she’s floating along the old cobble floors and then slides into the seat next to Gigi, breathless.

“Nicky Doll, enchanté,” she offers sweetly with her gloved hand outstretched. Gigi takes it gladly and is pleasantly surprised by how warm it is given the general coolness of the castle - even in April. Her shock must show on her face because Nicky gives a soft chuckle “Warming spell.” She shrugs.

“I’m Gigi Goode.” Gigi remembers to introduce herself. “This is Crystal.” The brunette waves jovially while her eyes stay fixed on the continuing ceremony. “Jan.” She waves too. “And Jackie.” Jackie turns for a split second to shake hands before she goes back to watching a girl named Brooke be paired with Vanessa Mateo - the feisty Gryffindor from their potions class.

“Do you know when there will be food?” Nicky asks rather brashly for her demeanor. “I’m starved.”

Gigi laughs softly. “Give it another five minutes and we’ll have a feast,” she jokes quietly and they turn their attention back to the end of McGonagall’s speech - Gigi unable to help getting caught on the feeling of a warm thigh pressed on her own.

*

Gigi doesn’t think to ask about the bedsheets until they’re getting ready for bed. Jan’s already tucked into Jackie’s bed in her girlfriend’s oversized Holyhead Harpies shirt attempting to read the astrology book that’s peaked the Persian’s fancy.

“I’m surprised you can read, Jan,” muses Crystal while cradling the, now much calmer cat, like a baby. “You’re such a cutie, Quaffle, aren’t you,” she coos at the kitty as Jan pounds the shade button they’d found in the Weasley’s joke shop on Diagon. The snake that comes out makes the cat squirm out of Crystal’s arms onto Nicky’s bed where the blonde picks it up gently. Out of nowhere it calms and curls up on her lap.

“He likes you,” Gigi states plainly and Nicky chuckles, running her fingers through the longhaired tabby’s fur,

“Most cats do I suppose.” Her hair is in loose blonde curls and she’s dressed in a satin blue babydoll which only makes Gigi self conscious about the loose sports bra and shorts she prefers. The dorms are always warm thanks to the old Hufflepuff wards so she’d rather go light than overheat.

Gigi settles herself in her bed, the green covers resting just under her grey bra. She bundles her hair up on top of her head and pulls out the glasses she only wears in the comfort of the dorms. “So tell us about yourself,” she asks as all the girls look to the purple bed. Everyone keeps their curtains open most nights so you can see round the curve of their dorm room through each of the poster beds.

Nicky hums as she thinks, tilting her head to the side in a way that makes her curls spill over her shoulder. “Well, in Beauxbaton I’m in Papillionlisse - and, uh consequently my colours are purple and silver. We are not like any of your houses. Ombrelune is probable to be Slytherin and I would say Bellefeuille is maybe Gryffindor but Papillionlisse is not. We are kind and artististic and idealistic at times.” She smiles softly as if remembering something nice and in the soft dorm lighting Gigi can see freckles on her cheeks.

“Oooh, we’ll have to see what houses we would be sometime!” Jan decides from where she has tucked herself under Jackie’s arm.

Nicky giggles and nods. “Absolutely Janet. Um what else? I do - what are yours called? NEWTS?” Crystal nods and she carries on. “Well I do astronomy, potions, transfiguration, charms, and divination.”

Gigi thinks for a second before she responds, brow furrowed as she mentally figures out logistics. “So you’ll be with me and Crys for transfiguration and charms - although Jackie comes to transfiguration too sometimes. We all do potions together and then astronomy you’ll be with Jackie and divination you’ll be with Jan.” She looks around to check that’s right even though she knows it is.

Between them they cover every subject with Jackie in arithmancy, ancient runes, astronomy, herbology, potions, history of magic, and transfiguration, Jan in care of magical creatures, potions, herbology, and divination, Crystal in potions, herbology, charms, and transfiguration, and Gigi in charms, transfiguration, potions, astronomy, and defence against the dark arts. Muggle studies is mandatory once a fortnight since the wizarding war and they all sit through it for the sake of their academic careers rather than for the joy of it.

“I have a feeling I shall enjoy it here,” Nicky contemplates as she moves Quaffle so that she can lay on her side under the covers.

“I hope so,” Gigi smiles. They fall asleep facing each other.

[retvenkos]

(PART ONE) Hello! Congratulations on your milestone! Can I request a :fire: for Harry Potter? I’m a straight female, My zodiac sign is Scorpio, I’m also a Slytherin. My personality type is Estp-t. I have big goals for my future such as being an actress. I also play the electric guitar and I also really enjoy skateboarding. My favorite music artists are lil peep, Ghostemane, and suicideboys. My friends say that I am very adventurous and I’m emotionally strong.

(PART TWO) they also say that I’m not afraid to take any risks. I can be a bit stubborn at times, I have a hard time trusting people. My aesthetic is a dark grunge. I am an ambivert, I’m not afraid to dream big too. I am also very passionate about witchcraft. I don’t like too much physical contact. I am very protective of my personal space unless I am with someone I’m very close with. Thank you! <3

Harry Potter:

I ship you with Regulus Black!

now, at first this may not seem like the best idea, but i’ve put a lot of thought into this and can say that this is a good idea

from what i gather about scorpios (astrology is not my strong suit) you are the stereotypical slytherin - bold, ambitious, maybe a little secretive... you definitely have the potential to swing either way on the villain/hero scale. you are sharp and intelligent, and more stubborn than anything else, but none of these qualities are necessarily bad. 

truth be told, a lot of these traits are sirius’ personality traits. you’re very similar to him, and therefore, very different from regulus.

where you are bold, regulus is cautious; where you are ready to jump into battle, regulus is patient; where you are defiant, regulus is flexible and goes under the radar; where you are prone to taking risks, regulus is calculated.... and the list goes on.

on the surface, the two of you look like you would never get along - and i’m usually not a fan of opposites attract - but i have some key points that i want to get through to help explain where i’m going with this.

(1) regulus has lived with sirius for his entire life, and since you are so similar to sirius in personality, he understands you really well. of course, he probably doesn’t like you right away, but he knows how you operate and either the teachers catch onto this and make you partners or some of regulus’ friends realize this and task him with getting you to go help them out.

(2) both of you could become either the villain or hero of the story. regulus is a bit of a tragic character, really, because with the push in the right direction, he could have made a lot of change a lot sooner than he did, and maybe the most cruel thing was the time stolen from him. he’s extremely vulnerable to influence, just due to his personality, and so had he been given someone who believed so adamantly in dumbledore and the other side of the war, regulus really could have been the hero - no need for harry potter to grow up, because regulus could have taken center stage and defeated voldemort himself, with the help of the order of the phoenix. from what i know about scorpio, slytherin, estps, you could have a very similar story. because you have all the determination and ambition to go one way, but you are also transformative and can turn with the right influence, and be adamantly the opposite. both you and regulus are perfect for redemption arcs or bastardisation arcs, depending on what influences you have.

and, since you are the more bold and steadfast, of the two, you would be a driving force in regulus’ turn to the good side - you would supply him with all of the confidence and practicality, and the two of you could have honestly stopped voldemort together, that’s in no way a joke.

(3) you are incredibly forgiving, and this is because you have faced the darkness within yourself, so you are not afraid of it when you it in others. furthermore, you are incredibly perceptive and intuitive, so even though you are slow to trust, you know deep down when you can trust someone and perhaps hold them at bay for a while until you are 100%. but when you’ve seen them, and this usually happens early on, you know. you’re just praying your not wrong. (but girl, trust yourself. you are among the most intuitive slytherins out there, and you are rarely wrong).

(4) you both think big! this is usually rare for an estp, but it makes sense since you are a slytherin. you both have goals and will stop at nothing to achieve them. when you and regulus know what you want, you get it, no matter the cost, and that’s really iconic of you.

something i love about you and regulus is that you will bring dreams to him. regulus has never really had the luxury of foreseeing an ideal future for himself, but you are not afraid to dream, and you can bring dreams to him. it’s definitely one of the reasons why he first fell for you - you talk about the future like it’s something meant to be seized, and you talk about dreams like they’re meant to become reality.

i also think that your stubborn side is good for regulus - he can often be gripped with indecision, but you will take the reins and soldier forth with the idea you know think to be the best. you are bold and direct and original, all of which regulus thinks he is not. you are the person that shows him he is, indeed, all of those things - he’s standing up to the dark lord, after all.

(okay, sidebar, but now i really want to read a series with you and regulus. you are fellow pureblood slytherins who believed in supremacist ideologies because you were raised that way, but in your 6th year at hogwarts, the two of you are forced to become death eaters, and slowly from there, you realize what the death eaters truly were - murderers and thieves and terrible, terrible people who are willing to do terrible, terrible things for no real end. and the two of you decide to leave together. you find the first horcrux and succeed in destroying it, and then the two of you start to fight against voldemort alone, until you eventually join the order of the phoenix and start to take voldemort down. in this version, there is no prophecy and harry potter isn’t the boy who lived because you and regulus take down voldemort yourselves. sirius, james, and remus both join your sides (peter can still be a traitor, or not, it’s up to you. same with snape - i feel like without the harry storyline he wouldn’t swap sides.) and we get the marauders plus you two destroying the horcruxes. can you imagine how great that story would be?)

okay i have rambled too long, let me give you some random headcanons.

as i have said before, regulus listens to music religiously so i 100% see the two of you listening to music while on the run, debating about who’s band is better.

and that’s another thing! you guys have debates like no other - it’s really a wonder the two of you care so deeply about each other, because to the untrained eye, you both look like you annoy the hell out of each other, and it’s very funny when people realize you are such good friends.

(oh yeah, enemies to friends to lovers. although now i get just friends vibes, but i’ve put so much effort into this match up.... friends or lovers. your choice)

i definitely think that the two of you have stargazed throughout your travels - regulus probably told you all about his family one night, when you’re looking at the stars, and you comfort him.

oh! since you want to be an actress, headcanon that the two of you have to go undercover as muggles for a while in your attempts to defeat voldemort, and you end up really falling in love with muggle movies, and after the two of you have a marathon one night (maybe you get a night off or something, idk), you talk about how you want to be an actress. and then, regulus prompts you to dream for him - what would this actress life be like, if when it happens?

and you spin an entire story for him, a dream - a hopeful one - without the war and the suffering, without magic and death eaters, where the two of you are happy - you as an actress, and regulus as a screenwriter, only crafting the most complex of characters for you to play.

and he’s pleasantly shocked that he’s in this dream of yours, and you confidently tell him that no matter where you go, he’ll always be there, at your side. “you can’t get rid of me now, you realize that, don’t you? you’re stuck with me, black.”

and he doesn’t say anything in that moment, but he thinks that maybe that’s not such a bad dream, after all.

okay, i popped off with this one, but now i really want this regulus story to be a THING,,,,,,,,,,, ugh. can you imagine how great it would be? okay, just imagine if it were a mini series and it had the greatest soundtrack ever, and the palate was dark greens and blacks,,,,,, i got carried away but can you imagine.