#(then refuses to help them in any competent way)

[marlynnofmany]

I just heard another writer trying to figure out which self-publishing route to take, and all I'll say is that I'm glad I found Draft2Digital. (More accurately, I'm grateful to my more knowledgeable writer friends who told me about it a couple years ago.) I don't even use the free services as much now that I've learned to do fancy formatting etc on my own, but it sure is nice that the option is there.

TL;DR: you upload a manuscript, they make it presentable and available everywhere from Amazon to your local bookstore, and they charge you zero dollars, only taking a cut of the profits they helped you make. A small cut.

They are run by Writer People who want to help other Writer People succeed, and it shows.

[plutoasteroids]

PAC How Will Your Future Spouse's Mother (Your Mother-In-Law) View You

Pile 1 Pile 2 Pile 3

This PAC is how your future spouse's mother will view you and any channelled messages I may get; it could be confirmations or anything their higher self wants to let you know.

AGAIN, TAKE WHAT RESONATES LEAVE WHAT DOESN'T THIS IS A GENERAL READING. If no pile resonates with you, it's fine don't force anything to resonate...again it's just a general reading.

PILE 1

Your future mother-in-law sees you as a breath of fresh air for their child (your future spouse) and their whole family.

Before your future spouse met you, they may have been going through some toxic cycles, bad habits or some kind of betrayal from someone or people close to them. For some of you your future spouse may have fallen into bad habits of some forms of addiction.

But after meeting you, your future spouse is going to want to change bring in positivty and healthy habits into his life because they don't want to lose you and their mother is going to notice the positive change and be so appreciative of you.

Your future mother-in-law sees you as smart, capable and they think you are really good at your job, hobbies or whatever it is you are good at. They admire how hard you work, and they feel like they won the lottery/ won in life by having you as their child in law (I don't know if that's a real thing so bear with me).

They view you as someone who is responsible and is able to keep a promise and hold accountability for their words and actions. You may even trigger some change in your future spouse's family as a whole because maybe it's the way you carry yourself or your work ethic that will make them go 'Dang we really have to do better; we can't be wasting life like this'.

She'll truly love how you have positively impacted her family.

Also, your mother-in-law said she'll baby you when I was channelling her because she recognizes how hard you work, and she wants to show you that you are appreciated and that it's time to take a rest and let someone else be the one to handle things and take care of you.

PILE 2

First thing I channelled from your future mother-in-law is that she will feel 'iffy' about you. Meaning that she's not sure if she likes you or not. Okay it's more like some things about you may rub your mother-in-law the wrong way like maybe she's more of a traditional housewife and you and your future spouse don't go according to traditional roles of spouses.

For example, if it's more of a straight couple maybe the wife works, and husband is a stay-at-home father.

-Maybe it's a same sex couple and the mother-in-law hasn't come to fully accept it.

-Another is the couple is again a straight couple and the wife refuses to have a child this could rub the mother-in-law the wrong way. There may be a lot of conflict between your future spouse and their mother about you because your mother-in-law would want their child to find someone else because obviously, they aren't so sure about you.

For other people your mother-in-law can try to compete with you for example 'The way I cook chicken is so much better' says your mother-in-law.

(You can take these as it being a sign a that the pile is for you)

But once she gets past those reservations the way she will view you is someone not very stable like you and your future spouse may like to travel a lot and are never in one place for too long and your mother-in-law could be like 'Why can't you just stay in one place it's not that hard'. But also, she sees your creative side, she sees you as a kind, gentle person with so much care within them.

She sees you as someone who has achieved so much that they can't help but praise you. They will also see you as someone very popular maybe you have a lot of followers or just a lot of friends in general.

They see you as the voice of reason, if anything goes wrong you are the best person to ask for advice, you are the best person to mediate an argument, you are the best person to a person, situation or an item fairly without an unbiased opinion (She might drag you shopping a lot and even show you off to her friends), more so because you have an obvious kindness and compassion to you that she can't help but love and admire about you despite her reservations. They will see you as strong, nurturing, courageous and passionate in the way you carry yourself and the way you talk.

They see you as someone who wants to protect their own peace, someone who wants to keep things balanced and harmonious.

-By the way Pile 2 she won't be like that with you forever she'll warm up. (Eventually😭)

PILE 3

I channelled 2 things from your future mother-in-law:

'You're a saint' and 'How can you deal with them'

Your future spouse may be a bit of a handful, a bit chaotic but in the 'I can't help but find it cute' kind of way.

Your mother-in-law finds you transformative, you never stay the same way for too long (not in a bad way) as in you will either only get better and better to them as time goes on or you just straight up change your appearance and aesthetic so much that it just throws your mother-in-law off.

Okay so your mother-in-law feels like you take really good care of not only yourself but your future spouse. They think you're physically so attractive (not in a creepy way), that you take extra care of your appearance, you may eat well and work out often.

But they also see you as creative and compassionate and your mother-in-law is just so happy to have you as part of her family and she may tell you this often from the moment your future spouse introduces you to her.

She feels like you're always on the move, you and your future spouse may travel a lot, you guys may go out a lot to dinners and parties, but I think these parties and dinners will be more on the luxurious side.

she said, 'as they should' (honestly your mother-in law is so supportive of you to the point that after you marry your future spouse, if you want to get married that is, that they won't even introduce you as their in law it's just 'this is my child'

Your mother-in-law sees you as successful, financially stable, attractive, nurturing and just overall they just absolutely adore you.

[keepthedelta]

okay it's kinda specific but is there any brocedes fact that is often overlooked but you think that is essential (or perhaps gives a new approach) to the lore?

that's such a good question. i have several, i hope you don't mind

the first one is the "he'll always be my best friend in my heart" quote. i've seen a lot of people use it as a very earnest declaration etc. (or if they believe in the nico is obsessed with lewis shit as a sign of that) but it was actually nico making a joke when he was doing commentary (on the italian comms i think). he was asked a question about lewis and jokingly/sarcastically said "in my heart he'll always be my best friend", and then immediately clarified that it was a joke (maybe recognising the narrative that would be spun around it). i know this seems kind of anti-brocedes but i do think it is essential to the lore that people recognise nico is not a weird as fandom likes to make out. he's absolutely weird, and he's definitely not normal about lewis, but he's not obsessive, and he feels comfortable enough making jokes about them. when you contrast that with lewis who either refuses to say nico's name in conversations where he is the most relevant person (the better teammates than max interview) or brings him up unnecessarily and then panics about it (grill the grid), i think it changes the dynamic of who is yearning, who is "over it", who is winning the idgaf war (it's neither of them but the difference is lewis lost by playing and nico is open enough about giving a fuck that he's not pretending to play). i am biased, but i also think that if you look back at them during their careers, lewis was always weirder about nico than nico was about him, although again, neither of them can truly be described as normal about each other.

then there's nico beating lewis in the 2004 f3 series that they shared. the narrative of brocedes describes it as lewis always beating nico, lewis being the one to win and nico always being slightly behind. and largely this is true. but in 2004 they were both competing in the 2004 f3 european series, albeit for different teams. neither of them won, but nico narrowly beat lewis. now they were in different teams and nico himself has said that some teams had better cars and equipment than others and that made a difference in the end result. but, nico still beat lewis. he had nearly double the number of dnfs/dns (6 to lewis's 3) and triple the number of wins (3 to lewis's 1), finishing highest of all the entrants who eventually made it to f1 (nico himself, lewis, adrian sutil and robert kubica). but nico himself barely seems to remember this. the narrative of lewis always being better, always beating him, is something he seems to have internalised, even though it isn't quite true, or at least, not as true as people make out.

my third bit of lore is that mclaren wanted to sign nico for the 2008 season. following the drama of fernando alonso (affectionate) and spygate, mclaren had an open seat and ron dennis wanted to fill it with nico. he even offered to buy out nico's contract from williams, but frank williams viewed nico as their best hope and refused. the driver that eventually ended up replacing fernando was heikki kovaleinen, nico's gp2 rival and 100% finnish to his 50% (yes nico's national identity crisis does come into this). lewis ended up winning the championship that year. heikki took only 1 victory, and while i think lewis would have beaten nico, i think nico wouldn't have been a doormat for him like heikki, and would have won at least a couple of races, which would have allowed felipe massa and ferrari to succeed. in many ways i think an argument can be made that nico not getting that mclaren seat really helped lewis to win his first championship, in the same way that if lewis hadn't gone to mercedes, nico would have won three, or if nico had stayed, there is a very real possibility that sebastian vettel would have won 2017. their presence and their success dooms the other, and it always has.

my final thing is that they are the most successful teammate pairing in f1 history. it kind of links back to the last one, where the fact that they are each as good as they are hurts the other one, unlike a lewis and valtteri line up or a michael and rubens line up where there is a distinct number one driver and the other one is to be sacrificed for him. but, even though both of those pairs were together for longer (nico and lewis aren't even in the top 5 longest teammate pairings), it takes more than a number 1 number 2 driver lineup to be the most successful. it takes nico and lewis, who are both number 1 drivers (don't come for me on this, nico would have flattened the likes of valtteri, rubens, or mark webber and you know it). although they were only teammates for four years (and one of those was a sebastian vettel/red bull dominance year) they achieved more pole positions, front row lockouts, wins, podiums, and 1-2 finishes than any other pairing in f1 history. they were utterly, utterly dominant, and that's why they hurt each other so badly. they were the dream team, the absolute best f1 could come up with, but they weren't just competing as a team, they were competing against each other, and only one of them could win

[slytherinshua]

➷　CUPID SOCIETY　( 엔시티 위시 )

      summary . . . nct wish hyung line as cupids in training!!

genre fluff , cupid au , headcanons , nct wish hyung line x reader   cw arrows and potion consumption lol , like usual i struggled with yushi so i'm sorry if his sucks idk why i'm so bad at writing him :') , not proofread   wc 650   request no   note this was supposed to be an ot6 headcanon but i was running out of ideas for maknaes :( i will probably write the maknae line ver of this soon tho!! for now just the hyung line </3 maknae line version now posted   net @kstrucknet @chrimatanet

OH SION ﾐ 오시온

does not take his cupid training seriously at all

once he gets his own bow and arrows this man is a menace

shoots arrows at people for his own entertainment

will play evil cupid

if two people on campus hate each other he’s gonna shoot an arrow at least one of them and giggle while watching them fall for each other

his matches have a surprisingly high turnout rate though

once the effects of his arrows wear off the couple is usually still infatuated with each other

this inflates his ego though

will not use his “skills” on demand for anyone

no matter how much another student offers to pay him 

and his ability to refuse any offer he gets just makes him get even more

and this boosts his ego even more until he’s almost insufferably full of himself

his ego is eventually shut down by you though

when you start to compete with him over who can be a better cupid

and eventually one of your arrows ends up hitting him

the boy is down bad for you from that moment on

perhaps that was your plan the entire time 

MAEDA RIKU ﾐ 前田 陸

riku is the type of student that everyone loves

he’s always showing people around and helping them out

as if he’s been attending the school for decades

knows all the in’s and out’s

is somehow friends with every teacher

even knows secret pieces of knowledge about cupids and their magic

and he really likes to share the things he knows with people close to him

builds up a reputation this way as someone that is impossible to dislike 

and he’s seriously popular with the girls as well

not that any of them land a date with him though

the one thing he does keep secret is the person he’s been crushing on since he first stepped into the school

although he is very talented with a bow and arrow

and can also concoct a pretty strong love potion

he knows not to use his magic on you

it would be wrong to make you fall in love with him like that

and he would feel too guilty about it 

so he stays admiring you from the background hoping one day he’ll get the courage to ask you out

but lucky for him he won’t have to wait too long :)

TOKUNO YUSHI ﾐ 得能勇志

he’s quite inconspicuous  

doesn’t talk very much and is quite shy with other students 

so no one really gets to know him well

if they did, they would find out how passionate he truly is as a new cupid

he spends most of his time sharpening his arrows or trying new potion recipes

he even concocts his own potions that have never been done before

he doesn’t have anyone to test them out on, so he has to be his own test subject

they’re usually ineffective despite his attempts at researching

when the potions go wrong, he goes missing from classes for days at a time

you’ve noticed yushi from the sidelines and became curious about his disappearances

you decide to become his friend to find out why

which is hard at first because he’s incredibly awkward and it takes a while to get comfortable with him

but, with persistence, you do 

he tells you about his potions, which you find fascinating 

and finally having someone who is genuinely interested in him and what he’s doing is the push yushi needs to gain some confidence

you become best friends and always hang around each other

eventually, you test out one of yushi’s new potions with him

and it goes a little wrong right

yushi is so used to his potions failing that he hadn’t expected this one to work quite so well

now he has to deal with his best friend utterly enamoured with him every second of the day

but maybe that isn’t such a bad thing

nct wish taglist (bolded could not be tagged): @kangtaehyunzzz,, @eternalgyu,, @lexeees,, @nyukyusnz,, @planetkiimchi,,

@haecien,, @talkingsaxy,, @thesunsfullmoon,, @hursheys,, @mjupis,,

@lilly-cherry7,, @kpopandbookschild,, @taroddori,, @lexeees,, @voikiraz,,

@xikskrrrs,, @cupidslovearrows,, @yvshi

[star2fishmeg]

ᴛʜᴇ ʙʀᴀᴠᴇ

Authors Note | Cowboy!Jack headcanons for my Homegrown AU.

▸ Cowboy!Jack who got his nickname ‘The Brave’ from always being the more adventurous of the three. The one jumping straight into opportunities and living life in the moment, making the most of every second, showing no fear in uncertainty which led him to riding bronco/bull riding in rodeos and being exceptional at it too.

▸ Cowboy!Jack who loves sitting around the firepit in the evenings with you, cuddled on one of the benches under a blanket. There’ll be no music, just the crackling of the fire and melodies of the crickets filling the background while you sit on his lap, his arms around your middle and you’re speaking in murmurs. It’s your alone time, your seclusion from the long day you’ve both had where you can indulge in each other’s comfort. He’ll bury his nose in your shoulder, eyelashes fluttering close against your skin and sometimes you’ll feel his lips softly meet your neck. Some nights you’ll make s’mores together and crack open a can or three if he’s starting later the next day.

▸ Cowboy!Jack who pretends to be annoyed when you turn his kitchen into a mini vet clinic, watching you nurse birds and stray cats back to health but ends up helping you anyway. Something about seeing you so gentle and kind when you could have left it to suffer warms his heart, how you give him strict instructions makes his lips tug into a grin and all he can muster out is a ‘Got it, Sugar.’ or ‘Yes, ma’am.’ It makes him wish he could join you tending his ranch’s own animals more.

▸ Cowboy!Jack who never says no when you ask to go out somewhere. Whether it’s watching and cheering for his friends competing at a rodeo, visiting the lake for a swim or to skip stones, heading into a market to grab a few things where he’ll buy you a bouquet of flowers, whatever you want, he’s more than happy to go with you. He’ll have his hand in your back pocket, smile on his face and lets you take as many photos as you like.

▸ Cowboy!Jack who spends his free time at bars with his friends, but loves dancing with you shamelessly. He’ll take you by the hand and twirl you around, dip you and kiss your lips hard. He’ll teach you how to play pool, do that cheeky manoeuvre where he’ll stand behind you, hand on your hip and chest pressed to your back as he mutters the instructions deliberately low in your ear. He’ll place his hand on your waist if he feels another cowboy’s eyes undressing you, he’s never going to find another woman like you, he’ll hold on for as long as you’ll let him.

▸ Cowboy!Jack who buys you pygmy goat to keep you company around the ranch while he’s away and in general as a little friend. Others thought it was weird but ever since you were a kid, all you've wanted was a little pygmy goat trotting around with you. With the way you both look after it, you’d think it was a child. At first, Jack was hesitant to have much involvement but over time he grew fond and worries when it’s not bouncing around his or your feet. 

▸ Cowboy!Jack who delivers eggs to your family for free. He thinks you make the best pancakes and you’re regularly making him breakfast. He knows how many eggs your father and brother get through as well, it’s the least he can do. 

▸ Cowboy!Jack who takes you to the best spots to watch the sunset, grinning the entire drive while refusing to tell you where he’s taking you. He’ll surprise you with picnics, in which he totally didn’t have Ellen help him make, as you talk about your days and fill each other in on any family news. He’ll find little surrounding flowers that remind him of you and tuck them behind your ear, pull you onto his lap plant quick kisses over your neck and cheeks.

▸ Cowboy!Jack who has your initials on his boots. He’s Jack, he has a few pairs of boots so what’s the harm in one pair having your initials on them? He wears them every day, a sentiment of the feeling you’re with him all the time. Of course, he’ll have a photo of you in the brim of his hat but in his boots feels more unique to him. He had them professionally etched in when he bought them, they had to be perfect, they represented you, the woman he loves with his whole soul. It’s special.

▸ Cowboy!Jack who lets you put little braids in his hair when he’s lying on your lap. One of his favourite things is seeing you sat up in bed or on the sofa. To him, it’s an invitation to plonk himself down, head on your thighs so he can watch the TV or take a nap while you thread your fingers through his hair gently, weaving little braids sporadically and he’ll keep them there for the rest of the day, ignoring the witty comments he gets from his brothers or friends. They’ll never know the little tingly sensation that covers his scalp, how his body melts instinctively in your presence. 

▸ Cowboy!Jack who’s a handy man, fixing rooves, fences, anything and everything but ask him to do a simple task like collecting eggs from the coop? Better off doing it yourself, he’ll just forget. He’ll always fix anything for you and expect nothing but a kiss for it, always offering to check your car, your house appliances, your fences, floorboards, anything. If you haven’t seen him all day, there’s a likely chance he’s balanced on a barn roof, either painting or reinforcing the panelling. He prefers doing it all in the summer though, it means he gets a chance to show off and strip from his shirt, jokingly trying to entice you, but you just laugh at him and continue with whatever you were doing. 

▸ Cowboy!Jack who, on the rare occasion where he doesn’t win a rodeo, comes straight to your place for comfort. He has a key to your place, so when you’re in slumber and feel a sudden weight slinging over your waist, breathing on your neck and a chest pressed into your back, you know it’s Jack. You’ll roll over and brush the strands of hair from his face, place soft kisses to his cheeks and lips, letting him hold you close. He’ll never admit it out loud, but he’ll need your praise, and you will tell him the truth, that he is good at what he does, that he shouldn’t give up, that he can’t win everything but most importantly, it’s not the end of the world. His heart will slow and warm again, the urge to sob will dissipate and soon enough he’ll pull you to lay on his chest and run his hands over your waist, shamelessly sliding his hands under your clothes and whisper that he loves you.

nhl wags | @bunbunbl0gs @bewaryofpity @wineauntie (To be added to taglists, just comment or ask via ‘pass me the puck!’) [Masterlist] [Requests CLOSED]

Special thanks to @rowdyluv and @bewaryofpity for some of the bullet points.

2025 © STAR2FISHMEG All rights reserved - do not plagiarise/copy, translate, or repost any of my works. Please let me know if you notice that any of these have been done to my work.

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[callmewisteria]

Norm is absolutely one of my favourite characters in the Fallout universe. The fact he loves his family and wants what's best for them being what drives him to look for the truth of what has happened to them and why is fantastic. The ultimate difference between him and Chet, too, is a great show of his character. It began with him choosing to help his sister find their father and ends with him coming to the same realisation as she has – their father was not the man he said he was and much of their life has been a lie. Watching him decide to take the hunt for the truth into his own hands, even when it could be the end of him, is incredibly compelling.

What makes Norm so enjoyable to watch, too, is just how human he is. All of the characters in the show are that way, which is part of what makes it great (yes, even the ghouls as they were at one time human). The distress he feels at seeing what happened to Vault 32 being swept under the rug, and the anger he feels towards Betty and the others for doing it seemingly out of a desire for control and power more than anything else is tangible. The fact it drives him to take the risk of sneaking into Vault 31 shows his bold and couregous side, and also that it's driven by not only his own curiosities but his desire for the truth. It’s a great parallel trait he shares with Lucy and, as she comes to find out, their mother. The anger he feels towards his father and also the desperation he feels to survive are a great contrast of his truth seeking and his baser humanity.

All things considered, Norm's competing feelings of a desire for truth, a desire for safety, curiosity, and a love for his family are what make him a great character. The fact he shares those traits with Lucy but expresses them in different ways creates a strong parallel narrative for their characters, and also does a great job showing the two sides of courage. The fact neither he or Lucy are impervious or shy away from moments of weakness and subsiming emotion latch onto the naivety from their upbringing and also their humanity. With them both now having to reckon with the truth about their father, a reunion between them will I'm sure be great and also remind them that not all of their family members are bad. Reckoning with the truth about their mother and Lucy's love for her being what compelled her to end her suffering before breaking down at the gravity of it is another layer of complexity to their family dynamics that both of them will need time to sit with. The contrasting feelings of how they knew their father versus what they've come to learn about him serve well to separate them from others like Chet; where he, their cousin, chooses to remain wilfully ignorant, they chose to put aside their fears and look for a truth they knew was out there.

Chet is a coward because he chooses to ignore the truth he has seen with his own eyes.

Lucy is brave because she is willing to go to any and all lengths to find her father and is then willing to end the suffering her mother is under because of him; she is openly emotional and driven by that and the love she feels for her family and is horrified and shattered by her father being a different man than the one she had always known.

Norm is brave because he is willing to do anything for his sister and father and, when faced with the choice to stay in blissful ignorance, because he chooses to seek out the truth even when it could hurt him; he, too, doesn't shy away from the pain the truth about his father causes him and, like Lucy, has to learn to live with the competing memories of their father and the reality of who and what he is.

Hank is a coward because, while he goes to the extremes to attempt to preserve himself and his family, he refuses to accept the fact his actions have consequences for the way his children (and, previously, their mother) had seen him and instead tries to force things to go back to the way they were before his children could learn of his ability to be selfish.

And Rose was brave because she loved her children so much that she would and did do everything for them, even when she had to put her love for their father aside and risk herself so that she and her children could have a chance to live in truth rather than lies. Her children share that with her, even though they didn't know it, just as much as they share her love, empathy, and desire for the truth even when living in wilful ignorance could have been easier.

Tl;dr – the entire MacLean family being driven by love for each other but expressing it in different ways that ultimately drive them apart is not only great at showcasing the different sides of courage and cowardice but showing the way Lucy and Norm are so similar and are driven by their love for their family just as much as their desire for the truth and that neither Lucy or Norm shy away from their emotional and impulsive reactions to it presents them as not only fully human but two sides of the same coin; they are both couregous even though they take two different paths to the truth.

[lynxfrost13]

SKYWINGS

PHYSICAL TRAITS

Skywings are the biggest dragon breed due to their great height and additional wingspan. Tall and lanky, these dragons are accustomed to life at high altitudes, with many living in mountainsides and other rock faces. Their wings and claws are built for gripping the rough stone of their homeland. Skywings have an incredibly strong grip that is also very effective when hunting prey.

At the base of the skywing skull is where the main horns grow, with a base growth plate being protected by an upturned part of the skull. From this original plate horn segments will grow off of the base or each other with age. Skywing horns never stop growing until death. Additional facial horns grow in a similar fashion as the skywing matures, with hatchlings displaying bumps where the most prominent horns will come in. With age these dragons tend to grow more elaborate scale patterns and horns, with chin spikes/ridges, eyebrow, and cheek ridges being the most common.

As hatchlings, skywings have no underbelly scales, and the scales they do possess on their backs are incredibly soft and flexible. Hatchlings break out of their well protected shells with an egg tooth that falls off a few days after they break free, and it’s typical for heavier facial ridges to develop where the egg tooth was. Skywing hatchlings cannot produce fire of any sort until they reach a few years of age, around when their scales harden and fill in the underbelly area (roughly 3-4 years).

The fire produced by skywings is the hottest of any dragon breed, which could cause serious damage to any dragon’s body due to the heat. To combat this, skywings evolved to have cooling vents on their necks. Several flexible scale plates can open up along each side as the dragon breathes fire, allowing for excess heat and pressure to escape without harming the dragon. To help cool their mouths, skywings also have two additional sets of “nostrils” that serve the same purpose. Despite the common misconception, skywings cannot smell from these sets of nostrils, and their overall sense of smell is average.

CUSTOMS

Skywings have a huge culture around the upkeep of their horns, since they never stop growing they do need maintenance. What began as simple horn trimming ages ago grew into much more. Skywings style their horns in various different ways, and trends in style pop up here and there. Horn painting and carving is common, but there are a wide variety of modifications that skywings apply to them as well. Jewelry is popular, but draping horn jewelry tends to be avoided since it can be a hassle in the air. Overall jewelry and body decoration is incredibly popular, with skywings using light metals, beads, and fabrics in everyday wear.

Skywing cities are situated in cliff faces or mountainsides. These cities hold huge terraced gardens, ensuring that their citizens have a local spot to gather food. It’s also common for most skywing homes to have their own personal gardens, whether decorative or for additional food. These cities tend to have few walls, they’re not needed due to natural protections such as the altitude and surrounding mountains. The Sky Palace was the only city to be heavily fortified under Queen Scarlet, while the rest remained as they were. The openness of skywing cities has also made the ones along the borders into large trading hubs with lots of intermingling.

Skywings refuse to eat birds of prey out of a deep respect for them, as well as a belief that when a skywing dies, the part of them that remains on earth becomes one of those birds. To honor their memory, skywings hold an annual weeklong celebration in the spring, celebrating the births of new hatchlings (both dragon and avian) where they compete in racing games and the like. Their love of festivities has led to them adopting from mudwing culture, and in recent years they have even begun to adopt their own version of the bard, which is more focused on the storytelling aspect rather than the history.

[mecachrome]

not sure whether excerpts from oscar's book have alr been posted here but i found some of the quotes from the author's exclusive interviews with j.sera & rené quite interesting and thought i'd gather them in one place ❓__❓

i always love hearing insights on his karting days and how his unique rc bg & transition from australian to european karting shaped his racecraft... also notable that Every Single person who ever speaks about oscar is just like "well more than anything... he was SMART" 😭 obsessed with baby oscar already learning to dispense his energy in understated / calculative / strategic ways... more below the cut:

another thing i find quite interesting is how because oscar started karting in a relatively smaller scene that wasn't quite as competitive or talent-heavy as in europe, he was always too young/small for the classes he competed in (as with rc racing). of course he was never quite as egregiously undersized as lando but it's kind of fun that they have very similar karting lore in that aspect. not from the book but self-provided visuals:

also love how much the seras talk about his style, from his smooth inputs and clean driving to how much open-wheel potential he exhibited from the very beginning T__T

as for rené's insights on oscar's time at prema, i also find them interesting because while they corroborate a lot of surface level details about his junior campaigns that we're alr familiar with it's cool to be reminded of his growth from f3 (zero front row starts, winning more off consistency and competitor error than any personal dominant performance) to putting it all together in the second half of f2 (consecutive run of poles/fr wins to end the season).

also interesting to hear that THE most angry rené ever saw him was after his f3 monza penalty, because oscar's demeanor & reactions to adversity get discussed a lot and while he's always been very level-headed and i'd argue his core personality has not changed much if at all over the past 5 years, you can still see how he was just that touch less filtered and more defensive during his junior days. oscar is definitely still someone who refuses to take blame if he knows he wasn't at fault and who will never give credit to others when the work was mostly done by him ("i was the one driving" re: mweb helping him) but there has been a fairly noticeable growth curve from the guy who said he felt Physically Weak at the fr finale because of how nervous he was, who said he was grateful to be in school because it distracted him from his "habit of overthinking" that he was trying to get rid of, who complained extensively at monza about the novalak / beckmann incidents and then said "seems to be quite a common theme with liam if i'm honest 😐" re: continued contact in the press conf, to the guy today who reacts to deleted laps with a dry 👍 and stealthily downplays racing incidents to the point of not even calling them "incidents" at all.

there's also a bit from rené about how close he is to chris piastri and how he traveled to melbourne from italy Solely to attend his 50th birthday party, and basically how the piastris are just Good People and that oscar's demeanor is what sets him apart. which i thought was sweet :')

also bonus interesting media quote from laurent rossi, which i've seen before but don't remember in its entirety — specifically the part saying that the other academy drivers "weren't as curious" and basically calling oscar the only smart one of the bunch.... 😭😭😭 this freaking guy

[the-gateway-to-madness]

Platonic dynamics I want to see more in the (tiny) Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons fandom:

Jack being like an older brother to Hiccup and sort of seeing an older version of Jamie in him and not scoffing at how nerdy he is ("holy crap you MADE this? Man show me how it works!!")

Rapunzel post-her-movie being all gung-ho and cheery, and Merida trying to get her to stop being so naïve, only for Rapunzel to calmly list all the ways she was betrayed and abused throughout her adventures (and you'd only have to go through the canon events of the movie and show to make this work, btw, girl's been through STUFF) and tells Merida she is upbeat and kind because she chooses to believe that most people are good, because so many people stuck with her through so much and so many people came back to her after betraying her. And Merida is like "well dang ok, wanna learn to shoot a bow"

Jack being calm, responsible, and protective of the others without becoming too angsty in the process- playing harmless little pranks to bring everyone's spirits up, that sort of thing

Merida being annoyed by Jack at first, but it's because she misses her brothers, not because she categorically dislikes the pranks. She tells Jack this and he asks her to join him doing pranks. She has much more fun after this.

Rapunzel is good at many things, but not so much inventing, as we see in TTS; her trying to assist Hiccup and him being good-natured about it but entirely accidentally outclassing her

Jack very deliberately keeping his past and loneliness to himself, and the others figuring out something's off because they never catch him sleeping, he's pensive when he's not interacting with them, he's got such wide and extensive experience, and he starts admitting bits and pieces like "I'm older than I look" etc etc

Jack never openly getting angry with the kids because they're kids and he's a Guardian, so instead when one of them is upset or trying to pick a fight with him, his staff will glow brighter or it'll get cloudier or windier or snowier- his magic responds, but Jack refuses to, making his calm all the more scary.

Jack being the first to realize Rapunzel has been through Stuff and sitting down with her when the other two are asleep "what happened to you?" entirely gently and patiently because HE'S A GOOD BIG BROTHER DANGIT I WANT THIS SIDE OF HIM TO SHOW MORE-

Hiccup worrying/getting upset/doing that I Have To Stand Alone thing and Rapunzel approaching him like "you're not the only one who grew up alone, you know. It's okay to rely on us, we won't let you down"

Hiccup doing the I Have To Stand Alone thing in general cause I don't see that a lot in crossovers or at least the arts

The others finding Jack in weird places because super-balance go brr

Jack being reluctant to touch any of the kids for any reason because he doesn't want to see the way they treat him change once they realize how cold and inhuman he really is

Merida recognizing Jack immediately as the only other obviously competent fighter by the way he moves (she was raised around all manner of warriors and guards, after all) and immediately setting about allying herself with him because Heaven knows they all need as much protection as they can get

Merida helping Hiccup to have a moment like he has in the HTTYD books where he realizes he's actually a really amazing swordfighter when he actually uses his dominant hand

Hiccup and Rapunzel asking Merida and Jack what siblings are like

Jack just treating them all like his little siblings

Jack and Merida gathering ingredients together and, depending on the region, Jack teaching Merida the safe local vegetation and herbs because he's been everywhere. Also, Jack teaching the others how to cook with local ingredients

Jack knowing a lot about herbal medicine and helping and teaching the others

After much internal deliberation, Jack choosing Hiccup to hold his staff while he takes care of two-handed tasks

Jack knowing how to style hair because of Mary, and he and Merida helping Rapunzel tame her hair

[valtsv]

i went ice skating today and spent the entire time daydreaming about the silt verses gang going ice skating so here's what i came up with:

CARPENTER - competent skater, but lacks any finesse or technique and couldn't give less of a fuck. she's only there to spend some quality time with hayward and paige, who all but begged her to come, and bully the shit out of faulkner. tries to light up a cigarette and smoke it and gets told you can't do that on the ice, much to her displeasure.

FAULKNER - has never skated in his life but is convinced that he will instinctively take to the ice with the grace of a swan to water. when he inevitably beefs it he starts sulkily suggesting that ice skating is actually an affront to the trawlerman, and therefore his lack of skill is divinely ordained, while carpenter laughs mercilessly at him. refuses any and all help no matter how many times he falls, until the very end, when almost everyone has left the rink, and he allows carpenter to stand behind him and push him around. grudgingly forced to admit that it was a lot of fun, until they slipped on an uneven patch of ice and both went down in a sprawling tangle of limbs.

PAIGE - the only one in the group who can actually skate, thanks to her dad trying to buy her love with lessons for a couple of years when she was still young enough for it to almost be convincing (but not so young she didn't question where the money for them was coming from), so it's a bit of a sore subject for her. she gets to rewrite those painful memories a little by risking dredging them up again, though, which is undeniably a blessing.

HAYWARD - the closest this man has ever come to ice skating is when he slipped on a patch of black ice while out on patrol when he was still on the force. paige spends much of the day leading him around and trying to show him the ropes while he staggers about clumsily and frequently falls, much to her poorly disguised amusement. when he successfully completes a single circuit of the rink on his own, he immediately suggests that they enter next years' pairs skating nationals while paige rolls her eyes (fondly).

SHRUE - might have taken their daughters skating once a few hazy years back, hasn't been anywhere near an ice rink before or since and honestly had no problem with keeping it that way. spends the entire time standing to the side and watching the others, occasionally testing their weight on their blades gingerly like a newborn deer before lunging again for the handrail for dear life. looks miserable standing alone hunched into their jacket and scarf, but insists they're fine. to be fair, the others' antics are pretty good entertainment.

VAL - has also never stepped on ice in her life, and wouldn't remember if she had, but unlike faulkner, hayward or shrue, she lacks the self-preservation to even conceive of falling. spends several minutes smugly observing her hapless acquaintances struggle before stepping out onto the ice herself and executing a perfect, beautiful glide - right until she crashes into the opposite side of the rink and takes a spill head over heels over the barrier (she tries to make everyone forget it happened, of course, and they humour her by pretending it worked). later hears about how people have lost fingers in freak ice skating accidents and gets jealous that it didn't happen to her (either giving or receiving, she's not that picky).

[definitelynotafurinasimp]

Hmmm, how about this for a request. Shehe, Rosarian and Eula with an S/O that's an airhead but is weirdly super competent in battle and strategy

Them with reacting to an airhead reader turning out to be good at fighting

characters: Shenhe / Eula x gn!reader

warnings: brief mentions of blood, but nothing gore-y

a/n: left out Rosaria bc I have ABSOLUTELY NO clue about her.

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Shenhe

While Shenhe might have hurried to your help when encountering the sight of you fighting off a group of treasure hoarders on your own, when you’d defeated them by the time she arrived she didn't bat much of an eye. Not even when you almost trip over a small object on the ground while rushing to greet her.

Was it because of her circumstances of growing up not around humans, but Adepti or simply her way of thinking, but for Shenhe, being generally clumsy and being able to fight didn’t cancel each other out. She had seen serious and crafty people be forced to depend on others for protection, just as she had seen airheads like you be able to defend themselves. 

So while she may not be shocked about your skills, she still checks you on any wounds you might have sustained, happy that you were alright.

“See? I told you I’m fine”, you assured Shenhe with a gentle smile when she was done looking for any injuries, only for her to respond with an acknowledging hum, her gaze wandering back onto your face, only to freeze once it reached your hand, covered in red scratches and dried up blood.

“Ah, my hand? That’s from when I tripped on my way back to the city, I was about to head home to bandage it up when I was attacked”, you explained before letting out a brief embarrassed chuckle, cheeks heating up ever so slightly as you did so.

“I’ll accompany you on the rest of the way”, Shenhe ‘offered’, although her determined tone made it sound like no refusal you could muster would be enough to dissuade her.

Good for you that you had no intentions to refuse anyway, simply shooting her a brief smile before continuing to march into the direction of the city, the Adeptus’ Discipline by your side the whole way to make sure you didn’t injure yourself again.

Eula 

You had the tendency to get lost or somehow get yourself separated from the group whenever someone wasn’t looking, so when she noticed you had vanished once again after briefly taking her eyes off of you, Eula began frantically looking for you.

So when Eula finally spotted your bright red uniform in the sea of white that Dragonspine was, only to see you stand surrounded by a group of vanquished Hilichurls, she couldn't help but be completely dumbfounded. Flabbergasted even.

Sure, you were a member of the reconnaissance unit, but your usual clumsiness had made her assume you would be dead meat if faced with combat, the hours of excruciating planning she did before setting out on a mission to assure you would be as far from danger as possible suddenly feeling… pointless.

“Captain Lawrence, it seems I got separated for a bit. I’ve been trying to find you, but instead ran into this group of hilichurls”, you eagerly reported when you spotted her, rushing over to her side, only for the captain to continue to stare at you with her mouth slightly open.

“...Eula?” You asked concerned, seeing her seemingly snap out of thoughts as she looked at the scene behind you, her eyes widening ever so slightly when her gaze landed on the motionless Mitachurl.

“I- You-”, she began before cutting herself off and clearing her throat, regaining her composure as she straightened her posture, looking just as professional as usual.

“Good work, let’s get back to the group”, Eula spoke before readying herself to depart, only to halt in her tracks for a moment once the two of you set out, struggling to look you in the eyes ever so slightly as she opened her mouth.

“Make sure to stick close to me for the rest of the mission. Having to look for a member of the team costs a lot of time.”

[maryymaruu]

I present to you, the Iterator oc number two, the child that refused to be named, now having many, hah! _(:3 」∠)_

While I adore the true name I finally scrambled for him, and couldn't resist disclosing it, for lore reasons it'd be best to address him with his title;

Sentinel Of The Unforgiven, [SOTU] or just The Sentinel.

This one's novel is even longer, so for those who don't have the patience, the trivia board on the ref is a pretty good TLDR! ^^);

This guy needs to have quite a few more clarifications made first, as I'm stepping quite further away from the canon here, and even more into fanfiction/AU territory.

Some background;

[We're talking about one and the same group Three Signals (TS) is included in. They are neighbours of Sliver Of Straw, far away from in-game locations.]

- This group exists in a very mountainous area, and from the very beginning, the Benefactors decided it's more efficient to use their already existing underground tunnels (from drilling for Void Fluid) as a transportation modus; turned into an underground train system for Iterator construction process. That system runs quite far into the group, connecting Iterators like roots, with SOTU at the near center (first one built in the area).

- Due to some harsh weather conditions and poor decisions the city was equipped with "wind-breaking" walls, giving a quite claustrophobic effect. Citizens began feeling discomfort there even before resource problems.

- Once the resource demand problem became eminent, the citizens expressed lack of care or attachment to the city and/or the Iterator. It was agreed upon to simply use the underground trains to relocate to now already standing, various newer cities.

- The justice system is... blurry at best. This post is getting too long already so I'll fully explain it another time; for now it's only important to know SOTU is not the one judging the criminals, he merely holds them up to the verdict.

- The notion of "a stay in SOTU's city feels like a punishment in itself" became wide spread amongst the Benefactors. In face of necessity it evolved into an effort to make it a reality; SOTU was repurposed into a prison facility. Instead of upgrading him to be able to be more habitable, they completed the claustrophobic city with taller sealed walls and gates, and a new set of laws/taboos for the Iterator to obey. Making for a secure, depressing, fully automated trap box.

Now more about the Sentinel himself...

SOTU has always been a rather reserved personality that struggled to express emotion or weakness. There was a specific idea he had to live up to, (be it conditioned into him or self-imposed) of someone competent, serious and strong. Giving off a strict, cold and unapproachable first impression. The Group Senior that believes he has to carry the woes of the world on his shoulders alone and never break, in order to be a good example.

However, despite poorly expressing it, SOTU does deeply care about his people and about his peers. And always tried his best to be someone they can relay on, without directly admitting it though. Like a grumpy old man, would chew one out for making a mistake first, and then help them out of trouble, without sparing any effort.

Would never admit it, but feels quite hurt by how easily his citizens decided to abandon him, and resents them for what he's been turned into. He really tried to take care of everyone. He doesn't enjoy what his city has become, he doesn't enjoy being feared. Secretly wished it was a lot more like something that of TS's city... full of life, bonded and happy, but is unable to let go of the false idea what a Senior should be like, denying himself vulnerability to even express that.

The reformatting into a prison only worsened this problem. The new, additional programming discouraged acts of compassion or affection. (So that he doesn't pity the prisoners)

Despite best efforts, his group did not integrate very well. His ways of handling things left much to be desired, some labeling him a tyrant no one can ever reason with. Some just simply disliked him too much to ever relay on his advice. Communicating within the group was difficult, hence why eventually many stopped bothering and kept to themselves, or to smaller private cliques.

The repressed emotional impulses did catch up to him eventually, allowing for small acts of disobedience against the law.

Didn't stop SOTU from feeling it though. And feeling he sure did....

Those efforts were too little too late, inadequate to prevent the conflicts escalating into hostility. Once an arrest warrant was cast from the Benefactors above, there was nothing he could do. And once the poorly integrated group got a taste of connection against a "common enemy" it was over.

Delays, stalling, omitted reports, "errors", "lost" data, "unreceived" broadcasts... All in efforts to keep the prisoner numbers low, and make the stay of those present shorter and more bearable. Ignoring all reports about what was going on in TS's city in particular- hoping to at least protect something SOTU could never be.

(More to come)

TS got hurt, and the lively community on top was broken up. It is unclear who is responsible for the malware attack idea, nor who exactly deployed it, but SOTU feels fully responsible regardless. He wallows in ever growing guilt and regret since.

[robin-evry]

Hi, i really like your writings, so I was wondering if I could request a yuu based on Shuri Von Neuschwastein, if you don't know, she's a girl who was forced by her parents to marry very young (14) to a man who was twice her age, so she had to mature very quickly. When her husband dies, ( she was 16) she has to take care of everything and look after this man's children. She also had a very bad reputation since people believed that she only wanted this man's fortune¿ ☠️ Sooo maybe when Yuu was taken to Twisted Wonderland she was desperate to go back to take care of her family because she genuinely thought it was her responsibility to take care of them, and despite her age she is very mature so she could handle many things (It is not healthy for someone of her age to talk and act as if as if she were 30)

And no more because God, what a long message, an apology in advance because English is not my first language and I am doing it with a translator.

If you don't want to write this that's fine ‼️‼️

I've been wanting to read A Stepmother's Märchen manhwa for so long but I've been too busy to start it. PS : sorry for the long wait as well if it's not accurate

Anyway, ask and you shall receive

𝐓𝐖𝐒𝐓 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐀 𝐒𝐇𝐔𝐑𝐈 𝐕𝐎𝐍 𝐍𝐄𝐔𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐖𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐈𝐍!𝐘𝐔𝐔 🌷👨‍👩‍👦‍👦

Marchioness Shuri Von Neuschwanstein is one of the main characters of The Fantasie of a Stepmother manhwa. She is the second wife of Marquess Johannes von Neuschwanstein and the stepmother of his four children, Jeremy, Elias, Leon and Rachel. She is the current head of the Neuschwanstein Family. She is formerly of the Ighöfer Family. She is the daughter of lower Viscount Ighöfer and Stella von Ighöfer and the younger sister of Lucas von Ighöfer.

( English is not my first language )

Day 5 : Shuri Von Neuschwanstein!yuu

Shuri!yuu would be so desperate to go back home, every at the end of the day they would ask Crowley had he found a way back. To the point it really got in his nerve he told them to relax. And enjoy it NRC before they went back home

Would be a mother figure to grim. They would take care of him, feed him, give them food and just literally be motherly for him, grim would be so protective of them refusing any harm gets in their way.

A top student at NRC, even tho magic is pretty new but they adapted to the environment very quickly, they are able to get one of the highest scores in NRC competing with Azul and riddle. Professor trein treats shuri!yuu are like one of his daughters after learning about their past he is pretty concerned about them going back to their home due to how much they suffer so much.

The first years after learning about shuri!yuu being married when she was 14. They were shocked and asked if shes okay. When Ace and deuce ask about a former marquess and where are his whereabouts, shuri!yuu replied that he passed away from pneumonia and when they asked why, the first years looked at them like "because it's pedophilia".

But during their time shuri!yuu finally have time for themselves. They are finally free from the responsibility of a mother for the first time. They tried new hobbies, interests and for once they are free from responsibility but they keep reminding themselves they had to go back because of their responsibilities. But they will enjoy this moment of freedom before going back to work.

Cater will teach them how to use a cellphone, they start to post and take photos as a documentary for their time in twst, and it manages to gain popularity and gain many sponsorship, they ask for the help of vil because they don't know how to do these things.

Lilia will feel pity and respect for shuri!yuu ability to stay strong even at the age at a young age. No one at that age should experience being a mother at that age.

During their time NRC shuri!yuu finally have the time to enjoy their childhood and be free from their responsibility of being the leader of the house of Neuschwanstein.

And these scenes are being seen by Jeremy von Neuschwanstein after his stepmother has mysteriously disappeared and all searches have gone dried and the nobleman and woman have been saying good riddance, during one night a mirror in his bedroom emits a glow and when he takes a closer look at it. It's shuri!yuu sleeps peacefully at the ramshackle dorm with grim next to them.

he screamed and called for their name trying to get their attention towards the mirror until his voice dried. Everyday he goes to the mirror and looks at the mirror working like a one way mirror towards them, so close and yet so far. He saw them enjoying their life, laughing and the largest smile he ever saw more than when they were in here. He started to think it would be better for them to be there than here, in twst they would find true happiness and enjoy life for the first time, and they can marry whoever they want and love whoever they want. Right now he's just gonna be watching from the sidelines for now.

[catmask]

lets give it up for pokemon public transit! going off the zones idea what if you unlock new zones by improving or helping out the transit system

the way id thought for it to happen was through this chain of events

- by helping out the baker lady, you can now bake poffins (this is one of the very first quests)

- poffins can be used as pokemon bait, but importantly they can also be used to invigorate and wake up sleeping snorlax

- snorlax have started to block the walkways in streets because the dumpsters behind restuarants attract them, so you cant walk by until you wake them up

- after waking them and helping them better integrate into the city as mascots for the different dining locations (basically a fat snorlax outside is the sign the food you serve is good, so stores begin competing as to whos snorlax is the best fed/cutest. it also prevents any food waste from table scraps!) you can then travel to the areas formerly blocked off by snorlax

- one of the formerly blocked areas was the grassy hills/powerplant zone, which is in need of repairs after a staraptor flew into one of the windmills after being disoriented by the glare of skyscrapers

- by repairing the power plant, the underground metro is opened up again, and you're rewarded with a forever train pass by the powerplant worker as thanks

- this unlocks fast travel throughout the city, and you can revisit any area youve formerly been to. the trainer character will refuse to fast travel to areas theyve never visited on foot before though, in similar fashion to the 'theres a time and place for everything' dialogue prompted by trying to use a key item innapropriately. this is because the pc is only 10 and not comfortable riding the train alone to new areas until theyve met someone there

- (suggested by my boyfriend) the loading screen in between areas could be the inside of a metro car, the people inside the car would gradually be the NPCs you help along the way. so it starts with a mostly empty car, or a car full of blank npcs, but by the end of the game the car would be full of almost entirely familiar faces

[prefrontal-bastard]

One thing people don't talk enough about, is that the way neurotypical adults are taught to punish/discipline/teach neurodivergent children is through competency-deprivation.

What do I mean by this?

Competency-deprivation is a name I'm putting forth to describe a certain tactic of social conditioning: An adult withholds a child's ability to feel competent about their actions and behavior, unless those actions and behavior are the ones the adult wishes to see.

Aggressions can range from micro to macro. Some examples:

Refusal to "yes, and" with the child's actions and behaviors unless they are "normal" behaviors, either by ignoring those actions/behaviors, belittling them, making the child correct their delivery, or by acting as though they don't understand them.

Calling the child nicknames that reference impaired intellect, even if done affectionately.

Discussing the child's behavior with another adult in the presence of the child, and not including the child as participant.

Ignoring self-reports the child gives because the reports don't agree with the adult's perceptions. For example, writing off ADHD symptoms as being an "attitude" or "motivational" problem rather than a neurobiological one.

Ignoring self-reports that the child gives because the reports are not being delivered through the "right" channel of communication (e.g. refusing to acknowledge distressed stimming as a cry for help.)

Competence-deprivation is, by the way, extremely traumatizing.

What makes it particularly insidious is that an adult can be extremely patient and mild-mannered and still traumatize a kid by doing this. Malice doesn't need to be involved.

This example uses neurotypical adults and neurodivergent children because it's the dynamic I'm most familiar with, but competence-deprivation can happen in any dynamic.

(What's worse, people who've been traumatized this way often concluded this is just how the world works, and go onto deprive others of their competency in order to regain a sense of their own. It's a social and generational wound.)

[saintsenara]

honestly is there a single competent teacher at Hogwarts? Any teacher I can think of with more than 10 lines of dialogue is a pedagogical disaster. Very shippable disasters though, for which I am grateful because your page has made me giggle all week.

maybe Sprout.

honestly, anon? no.

that school is a basket case and the older i get the more my sympathy for cornelius fudge increases. imagine getting the call where dumbledore says "heyyyyy... so, i hired what i thought was an ex-auror who was retired from the service because of serious ptsd, gave him no teacher training, let him perform illegal curses on children for fun, and then it turns out he was an escaped convict trying to resurrect the dark lord all along. lmao."

i'd have devoted myself to trying to discredit him too.

and so, for fun and profit, i think it's only fair for us to establish an official competency ranking of the teaching staff at hogwarts during the period 1991-1998... points on for having a basic grasp of the material, points off for anyone who nearly dies in your class.

1. wilhelmina grubbly-plank, care of magical creatures

genuinely, professor grubbly-plank is the only person we meet in all seven books who seems to be an uncomplicatedly good teacher. she's got a series of well-defined lesson plans which feature a mixture of guided and independent study and which work in a tangible way towards exams, she has clear authority in the classroom but is never unreasonable or cruel, she's demonstrably able to lead a practical class which involves wild animals which might behave dangerously or unpredictably without there ever being any concerns about student safety, she takes an active pastoral role [such as when she helps heal hedwig's injured wing, reassuring harry enormously], she's collegial [she shares her lessons plans with hagrid in goblet of fire, and she refuses to criticise his teaching to umbridge], and she's admired by all of her pupils except harry [who is nonetheless begrudgingly forced to admit that she's incredibly good at her job].

plus, her aesthetic is iconic.

=2. filius flitwick, charms; pomona sprout, herbology

in joint second place, we have these two.

both sprout and flitwick spend canon seeming to be pretty good at their jobs - they have interesting lesson plans which seem to balance theoretical and practical work well and which prepare their pupils properly for exams, their pupils like them and enjoy their lessons, they're both excellent at the pastoral side of their jobs [sprout's gentle encouragement of neville is really lovely], and they're adored by their colleagues.

they lose marks for lax classroom discipline. harry, ron, and hermione are constantly yapping away in both charms and herbology - with harry and ron frequently failing to understand what they're supposed to be learning because they were too busy have a chat.

=4. remus lupin, defence against the dark arts; septima vector, arithmancy

two teachers here who earn their placement on the list by having one pupil who considers them life-alteringly inspiring.

for lupin, this is dean thomas - whose constant state of readiness to throw hands to defend his honour is one of his greatest character traits. for vector, it's hermione.

obviously, they're both well-qualified, well-prepared, engaging, and [at least in lupin's case, but i can't see why it wouldn't also be the case for vector] well-regarded by their colleagues.

they don't rank higher because lupin loses marks for endangering his students by not disclosing his knowledge that the presumed-to-be-a-death-eater sirius has a means of entering hogwarts without detection [i understand why he does this from a characterisation point of view, but it's inexcusable from a safeguarding one] and because vector teaches an elective subject which is implied to only attract bright, engaged pupils - and therefore has an easier time in the classroom than someone trying to get a student like crabbe through their exams.

5. minerva mcgonagall, transfiguration

in comes minnie mac at number five.

unsurprisingly, her solid curriculum, excellent classroom discipline, high-regard among her colleagues and pupils, support of student extracurricular activities, and investment in helping her pupils pursue the careers they want all give her points.

she loses marks, however, for the fact that she is so casually disdainful of pupils who aren't instinctively good at her subject - which suggests that she doesn't know how to adapt her material so it can be understood by every student she teaches. like dumbledore, she seems to have an identifiable favouritism for brilliant students - who she seems to permit to get away with much more than students she considers average or dull - which probably doesn't endear her to anyone who doesn't get that treatment.

on her pastoral approach, though, i don't think that it matters too much that she's not particularly nurturing - even though she's a head of house. she seems to be good at responding to genuine distress and managing genuine crises with empathy, and the "pull yourself together" vibes she takes in response to more trivial dramas is because she's a presbyterian scotswoman.

6. severus snape, potions & defence against the dark arts

the one on this list that i imagine will be controversial...

because snape is a dick in the classroom - not denying that - but he's also, in terms of his pupils' exam performance, clearly the most successful teacher in the entire school. he can fill his newt-level classes despite only admitting those with outstanding grades, and he expects every pupil he teaches to pass owl-level potions and seems not to be disappointed. hermione reveals that he does teach the theory of potions and the discipline's wider application - harry and ron just don't listen - and that she thinks his lessons are interesting.

snape loses marks - obviously - for his general vibe, although i think he should be allowed some leeway for his dickhead behaviour since potions is clearly a subject in which not paying attention and not being able to follow instructions properly is dangerous [hence why i've been a trevor hater since day one].

i suppose he should also be allowed some leeway because it's a genre requirement for a school story to have a theatrically evil teacher. but he's not getting it - since he clearly enjoys the role so much.

7. horace slughorn, potions

marks on for encouraging independent thinking and for clearly being able to hold a classroom's attention. marks off for not learning the names of pupils he's indifferent to, getting his favourite pupils drunk, and for having no follow-up questions to "hello, sir. i'd like to commit some murders."

8. charity burbage, muggle studies

entirely because i think it's genuinely admirable - and, indeed, far more admirable than the fact that the order of the phoenix all happily keep working for the state following voldemort's takeover - that she publishes an article in the daily prophet, to which her real name is attached, explicitly refuting blood-supremacist rhetoric when she must know that a blood-supremacist government is about to come into power.

marks off because the fact that even wizards who've taken her class appear to know fuck all about muggle society means that she can't be particularly good at her job.

9. firenze, divination

marks on because his pupils love him, marks off because that's a tremendously low bar to clear given... trelawney.

him telling his classes that divination is a bullshit, made-up subject is iconic, though.

10. "alastor moody", defence against the dark arts

i think it's genuinely impressive that he manages to go from being imprisoned under the imperius curse for a decade straight into planning a full year's lesson plans [which his pupils love] and doesn't have a breakdown.

marks off because of literally everything else.

=11. all the miscellaneous teachers: aurora sinistra, astronomy; silvanus kettleburn, care of magical creatures; bathsheba babbling, ancient runes

they seem fine.

14. rolanda hooch, flying

full respect to her for managing to wangle a full-time salary out of an annual workload made up of teaching one lesson [badly] and refereeing six quidditch matches.

15. quirinus quirrell, defence against the dark arts

all the proof those of us who hate professor riddle stories need that voldemort would have been a dogshit teacher, if he can't even get his meat-puppet to inspire a room full of eager eleven-year-olds in a subject which is about the coolest ways possible to kill people.

=16. cuthbert binns, history of magic; sybill trelawney, divination

they're terrible, obviously, but the fact that they remain in their jobs despite being so clearly incompetent is entirely dumbledore's fault. are you not giving the staff performance reviews, albus? come on now.

18. dolores umbridge, defence against the dark arts

umbridge deserves to be in prison, but she did at least bother to plan out a curriculum.

=19. gilderoy lockhart, defence against the dark arts; rubeus hagrid, care of magical creatures

both victims of dumbledore's "lol this will be so funny" era of hiring practices. both deservedly regarded as completely fucking incompetent by all but one defiant brownnoser. both possessing jazzy taste in textbooks.

21. amycus carrow, defence against the dark arts

he beats his sister simply because his pupils do appear to know how to perform the unforgivable curses correctly.

22. alecto carrow, muggle studies

literally nothing positive can be said.