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malfoys-demigod · 4 years ago

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"I guess this is a lesson in not trusting people”

Draco Malfoy x Reader

Requested by @potatothingsz

-> Hiii! I am a big fan of you honestlyyy eee i have read almost every blog of yours (mainly dracos-) anyway! I was wondering if you are open for requests rn? If not totally understand! But if you are tho i hope i can request one? Its a draco x reader one the story goes that draco is fighting with (whatever guy in hp) the reason is that the random guy basically have a crush on you (y/n is dating draco) then draco gets arrogant about it then y/n hears it then they fight cuz of things draco said!Gb!

Word Count: 3.6k

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this!

tag list @the--queen-of-hell @bbeauttyybbx

“And that’s how my parents met the headmaster of Ilvermorny School, all the way in America!” Pansy excitingly shared the news with you and Daphne by the Great Hall.

“How excellent, Pansy,” you said, interested in the conversation, “You should definitely tell your parents to bring you next time.”

“Oh my gosh,” Daphne said, sounding so surprised, “It’s only a week before holiday starts! Why don’t you ask them to spend the holidays with you over there? Wouldn’t an American holiday sound fantastic to you?”

“I second that,” you agreed, “Pansy, you would have the most exciting trip ever!”

Pansy liked the idea of spending the holidays in America, so she smiled, grinning as if it was a mischievous plan. “That is such a smart idea, who knows, I could return from the holiday’s with an American boyfriend!”

“You wish,” you teased, lightly nudging her shoulder.

Before Pansy could come back with a funny remark, Blaise bursted into the Great Hall, causing many eyes to look at him as he was running towards the three of you. He seemed terrified out of his life, as there was fear in his eyes, which was something you’ve barely seen from him. He was such a relaxed and reserved person most of the time, so acting like this without caring if people now paid attention to him was a first.

He placed his hands on your shoulders, huffing and puffing breath.

“What’s troubling you, Blaise?” you placed a hand on his hand, sounding deeply concerned.

He was still huffing and puffing when he said, “Malfoy. Fight. Outside. Now.”

It was like this new, uplifting energy came out of nowhere when you immediately stood up from the table and started dashing out of the Great Hall, along with your friends who followed behind.

There were so many thoughts madly entering your mind, swimming around and suggesting the most horrid reasons as to why Draco was involved in a fight. You were very much aware that he liked making dramatic debates and conversations with practically much everyone at school. But to make a huge scene that caused Blaise to briefly trouble you to stop what you were doing was something petrifying to experience.

Mindlessly, you made several turns around the castle, following Blaise, who had quickly followed your pace, guiding you to the crowd by the outskirts of the castle. It was by the balcony which gave a side perspective of the vast body of water which Viktor Krum and his school used to travel by ship.

It was about time when you were faced with your boyfriend, Draco Malfoy, involving himself in a serious and intense magic and physical battle with Cormac McLaggen, a Gryffindor who was in the year above you.

They have seemed to be quite in focus with the fight, ignoring the crowd’s chants and cheers. Honestly, one thing to be quite disappointed in at some point were the people’s reactions and follow-ups when it came to witnessing fights. There were crowds that would stop and call for help, and there were crowds that would watch the fight as if it was pure entertainment.

You were given the crowd that would watch the fight as if it was pure entertainment, saldy.

Since there was so much going through your mind, without thinking, you jumped into the middle of the fight, hoping you wouldn’t be hit with a spell or a fist fight.

“Enough!” you yelled, raising both your hands to the side, for both opponents to see. They terrifyingly lowered their wands, looking around the crowd, agitated with the eyes around them.

Once they had your attention, you angrily heaved a breath out of your system, which resulted from the start of a massive headache. You heatedly walked to the side your boyfriend was standing by and threw out your hands hysterically.

“What the bloody hell is going on, Draco!”

He did not reply, as he remained silent. He began looking down at the ground with disappointment and struggle in his face, realizing the damage he had placed himself. He was breathing in and out, holding his wand tightly with such distress in his grip.

You absolutely did not have the luxury to receive more silent treatment from him, for you were enraged and impatient with the silence. You rolled your eyes with such fury, “Explain, dammit!”

From the other side of the paused, rather ended battle, Cormac showed a condoling facial expression, which made him slowly walk to the other side, where you and Draco were standing by. He placed a hand on your shoulder, which caused you to briskly turn around.

He then placed a hand on his chest and said, “I believe I am at fault, Y/N.” he suggested, “He must have overheard me telling my friends how I fancied you and got distressed about it. I should have tried to reason with him more because if I did, we wouldn’t have had this fight. I’m sorry.”

You felt pity for Cormac, which caused you to shake your head in disagreement. ‘No,’ you mouthed to him. Disappointed in Draco, you sighed with such upset in your voice that when you turned to him with such a let down on your face, you said, “Bloody hell, Draco, he was the slightest threat you have encountered in your life. You are a foolish person for wanting to start a fight which is considered by everyone with the right mind to be useless. Damn you, Draco.”

Draco stressly placed the palms of his hands on his temples, placing pressure on it, “Y/N, I saw him as a potential threat to our relationship. I thought showing him that you were mine would be able to keep him from destroying our relationship, what we have together!”

You disgracefully shook your head upon hearing the madness he called for an excuse. “Unbelievable, Draco.” You looked back to Cormac with a sympathetic look on your face, “First of all Cormac, you are not at fault here,” which he gave a small, hesitant nod as response.

Then you pathetically turned back to Draco, “As for you, Draco Malfoy, you are in every way in the wrong. You’re the one who destroyed our relationship. That was certainly not the way to show him that I was yours. This made me rethink if the need to do that was even necessary! How could you possibly see him as a threat when you know I’m in love with you? I guess this is a lesson in not trusting your significant other, right? Because it seems like I guess I’ve never been a trustworthy person, especially concerning what we have together.”

Draco rolled his head in frustration and annoyance. He scoffed, “Please, don’t say that Y/N, you’re making me seem like the bad person here.”

You scoffed back, but with much anger, “But you are,” you coldy replied. Without thinking, you announced, “Consider us on a break, Draco Malfoy. Don’t bother owling me during the holidays. It’ll be nothing but a waste of parchments on your end.”

Finished with the debate you had with Draco, you gracefully turned around and placed a hand on Cormac’s shoulder, “Very sorry, Cormac. I still hope you have a lovely holiday despite this.” With a small nod from the older boy, it was your cue.

You turned around, walking away from the scene without thinking of the glares and whispers surrounding you. They were nothing but an audience with no respect whatsoever. Gossip all they want, they’ve got the scoop anyways.

—

You walked among the glaring eyes around you, trying to find a suitable cart to occupy. Surely in most situations, you would be happy to sit anywhere. But many would be really uncomfortable to be sitting around the talk of the town, which meant that they couldn’t use you as a conversation starter while they commuted back to the platform.

Thank goodness for Pansy and Daphne, who you found, securing you an empty cart amidst many occupied and packed carts between yours.

“Hey, Y/N,” Pansy warmly greeted you, helping you place your bags up on the rack.

“I got it thanks,” you told her, pushing your bags with strength.

You plopped down, sitting between the two girls, who looked like they weren’t sure of what to talk about since the travel back to the platform would take awhile. Daphne was playing with her fingers, while Pansy was trying to get Daphne to look up and mouth a conversation.

These girls were the absolute worst in trying to make things discreet but they happened to be attempting to converse with you in the most normal way, without thinking of bringing up anything Draco related.

“Anytime this week would be lovely, girls.”

“Wh-what?” Pansy let out an exposed laugh, “What do you possibly mean, Y/N?”

“Come on,” you rolled your head, “Can’t think of making things normal without happening to mention or bring up Draco and my whole outburst in school?”

You checked the two girls, who were cheekily smiling with such guilt on their faces. You chuckled, standing up to move to the other side of the cart, to sit, facing in front of them.

“You two are the silliest,” you crossed your arms with a comfortable look on your face, “I’m not made out of glass, fools. Come on, the worst things could happen to me.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Daphne cooled down, sighing a relief, “We were just being extra concerned that’s all.”

“And of course…” Pansy seemed to have a hard time continuing the sentence for a second as she tilted her head, mumbling the name ‘Draco’, as she continued, “Most likely isn’t taking it well. We haven’t seen or checked up on him, just to let you know!” she promised, waving her arms out, hoping you wouldn’t bust.

Daphne nudged Pansy’s shoulder, looking at her with an angry look, “You said you wouldn’t mention him! The hell is wrong with you?”

“Me? She said it was alright!” Pansy revolted in annoyance.

“Take it easy, you two,” you warned them. “You two are making things even more weird, and I’m just sitting here telling you not to look at me as fragile!”

“Right, sorry,” they both said embarrassingly.

“I just want to let you two know that this whole holiday of mine will be definitely a time for me to invigorate and rejuvenate on my everyday perspectives. I do not know what my parents have in store for this holiday but either way, I am going to throw this whole year away and focus on building for next year, especially when we come back from holiday.”

“That’s brilliant, Y/N! How magnificent, we will definitely be there to support you through owling you every day.”

You sorrily tilted your head with an open mouth, “Well I’m going to have to ask you the same I warned Draco about.”

“You’re saving us from wasting parchment.”

“I’m sorry, I just think, in order to focus on fixing myself, I-”

“Hey,” Pansy said, as both her and Daphne switched to the other side to sit beside you, “We get it, Y/N and we cannot wait to see you once the break ends.”

“One last group hug before we go our separate ways for a little while?”

In the cart that Draco occupied, it was a whole different energy.

During the first part of the ride back to the platform, Draco did not care about searching for an empty cart, or relying on friends. All he did was present a short, cold glare in front of first years, who willingly stood up and rushed out, forgetting that they were about to give away their seats to a couple of older Slytherins.

“Slow gits,” Draco muttered, swimming in his way into the cart as he threw his bag up into the rack without care and depressingly jumped on the seat by the view, which he used to ponder and stare with such a sigh coming from his mouth.

“Chill down mate,” Blaise had the guts, kindly warning his friend, who he sat beside.

Blaise was surprised when Draco calmly replied with, “Whatever, Zabini. I’m calm.”

Given this, he decided to take the advantage and reason out with him. He moved around his seat, trying to shift somewhat nearer to him. “You clearly aren’t. I reckon it’s going to rain over your whole holiday at home.”

“It won’t.” Draco gritted his teeth.

Blaise clasped his hands, shaking his head once, “How do you personally feel about the whole situation, mate?”

Draco looked at him with sore eyes and quickly jumped and leaned exaggeratingly, “Me? Personally? I-” then he turned his body around, facing the entire wall with the window, “Forget it. I don’t have time for this girl-talk.”

There was a small suggestion of fear in your mind because there was always a possibility of bumping into Draco thanks to the many gatherings your parents were invited to. It would have been extremely discomposing to see the boy you had called ‘breaks’ on before the holiday started. It would make things more complicated to remember that there were more adults than children in these parties, making it more difficult to find people to converse with.

Luckily, your parents surprisingly cancelled their parties, wanting to spend time with you more. They weren’t cruel or always self-centered, but they were very social when it came to gatherings and mingling with other wizards. So, hearing about this really felt like Merlin was on your side this year.

With the opportunity to tune out from the outside world, staying at home really made things easier to recollect yourself in these struggling times.

There was absolutely no distraction from anyone, giving you time to think about Draco.

It may have been advantageous to give yourself a break from the relationship. Draco, as you obviously know, can be very outspoken. He is the kind of person who wouldn’t be scared to speak up and share his thoughts in any way possible.

He was a head-strong person, the kind of guy that would really go out of his way to execute whatever he felt like doing.

What he did for you was… out of hand yes, but when you think about it, he was thinking about you. As a person who isn’t afraid of fighting for honor and the truth, he just couldn’t help himself and protect your relationship.

Maybe he could have thought things through and settled his issue with Cormac in a more lighter attempt, but if you step into his shoes, you were being Draco Malfoy. He did not want to use the luxury of time and think things through. He was the person who would do it before thinking.

Plus, he may or may not have anger issues, especially when it came to other boys concerning you. A simple talk about you behind his back would really be an issue for him. The least mess he can do is brag about you if they decided to talk about you when he’s nearby.

Huh, you actually chuckled at that last thought. Whether what Draco did was right or wrong, he did love you and what he did was for you. Maybe you were a bit harsh on him, but that’s the thing, all of these trace back to love.

Maybe you thought that he didn’t trust you enough, maybe you were just blinded by so many things.

It was probably right to give Draco another chance when the holiday ended.

When it did, you had a clear conscience as you were making your way back into one of your favorite places: The Slytherin Common Room. Nothing felt like home than going back to the best common room ever. The weather was still cool, so being around the fireplace was a great idea to warm up.

Someone had already beaten you to it, though. Walking past with your luggage, your eyes darted towards a platinum blonde hair, resting by the cushions of the sofa by the fireplace. Being curious, you slowly brought your luggage with you, calmly walking towards the sofa. You peeked in, seeing a sleeping Draco Malfoy.

He seemed to look extremely comfortable with himself. He was wearing a green jumper with a cup of hot chocolate by the coffee table. Had he stayed here all along throughout the holiday?

To answer your question, Draco’s eyes suddenly fluttered open. His grey eyes were looking at the ceiling for a minute. Still standing there, his eyes now moved towards you. You could see the extreme tiredness in his eyes. A lot could be said by his eyes, aside from tiredness.

There were dark circles surrounding his eyes. They could be as dark as half-wahed eyeliner kind of dark. It was awful, he must have shed bitter tears that went on for hours. You could see a hint of pink in his eyes, meaning he did recently cry.

The two of you had a staring contest, as Draco continued looking at you, but as if you were just a dream. You could tell by the way his eyes were narrow, looking half-asleep. You decided that it was time to break the staring contest and be the first to take action.

To test if he was half-asleep, you dropped your luggage, creating a big ‘thug’ sound, and moved around the sofa, to which he responded by having his eyes follow you. You made your final stop when you stood in front of the ends of the sofa, where his feet were dangling off.

To your surprise, he lifted his feet, wanting you to sit on the sofa. You didn’t want to keep him waiting, so you quickly sat yourself on the sofa, having his feet, covered in green and red socks rest on your lap. Your eyes moved from the color of his socks to his grey eyes, as he was still looking at you.

“I’m sorry,” you said, placing a hand on his ankle. You held on his ankle, tightening your grip as you looked at him with sympathy. You looked down immediately, feeling embarrassed and uneasy.

Draco sat up rapidly, removing his feet from your lap as he decided to place himself sitting beside you. His lower body was facing the fireplace, but his upper body was twisted, looking at you with full attention.

He placed his finger on your chin, causing you to look at his worn-out, grey eyes. “No,” he shook his head, “Merlin knows that it should be me saying that. You know that.”

His soft, post-crying voice wanted to melt or shatter your heart, making you frown in front of him. “What I do know is that I went too far in scolding you. It was wrong of me.”

“The amount of scolding was enough for me to realize the immature actions and misfortunes that I have caused. Without you, I wouldn’t be able to realize how much of a childish git I am.” He took your hands slowly, bringing them to him with such a feeling in his heart. “I can’t ask you to forgive me because I’m embarrassed of myself. You deserve so much more than what I offer as a partner. Please do whatever you think is right for yourself before hearts shatter even more.”

Your heart felt like dropping from the sky, collapsing in a pool full of sorrow after hearing those words come out of Draco’s mouth. Was he allowing you to break up with him? What could he possibly mean? There was absolutely no way he could let you do that. He was being out of his mind.

You let go of him holding your hands, to which his eyes widened to, only for you to wrap yourself around him, tightly and strongly embracing him with such love in your body. “Are you out of your mind? We can get through this, Draco. Leaving you after this would show that our love for each other would never be strong as I hoped to imagine. I’m staying with you because we have so much in store for each other. This is merely a minor bump in this journey you and I walk on.”

You could feel Draco let out a small sob from his eyes as he hugged you back, trying to squeeze and restrain himself from continuing to cry even more. “I love you.” was what he tried muttering without sounding like he was going to break down.

You nodded, wanting to join his crying session should he stop holding himself from. “I love you more than you know it.”

He slowly pulled himself from you, looking away from you. He stood up, causing you to raise an eyebrow.

“What’s the matter?”

“I know you said I’d be wasting parchments,” he replied, removing something from his sling bag, which was by the other end of the sofa, “But I wrote you letters that I ended up keeping during the holiday.”

He brought back with him a thick load of envelopes, ribboned with a green ribbon. He looked at you with a warm smile and handed it to you, “I give you the honor of burning it.”

You scoffed, “Burn it? I’d love to see what you were yearning for while you wrote this.” you teased him.

Draco felt a hint of embarrassment in his eyes as he tried grabbing it back from you. You sneakily pulled it away from him, “Uh, uh, uh” you waved your finger.

Draco smirked, jumping on you as he continued to attempt getting the letters from you. This caused the both of you to fall from the sofa and the day continued as the two of you fought on the ground, trying to play like childish children, ignoring the other students arriving in the common room.

Looks like news would spread that love is in the air again as the power couple is back on track with their relationship.

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thisbluespirit · 4 years ago

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Fic Writer Tag Game

I was tagged to do this by @allegoriesinmediasres but it had already gone round Dreamwidth this last week, so I did it there. I’ll try and c+p it over here, too!

1) How many works do you have on AO3? 620 (but I've been writing a lot of short things since around 2006-7, and there might even still be a couple of the 1994-98 fic from the newsgroups up). 2) What’s your total AO3 word count? 1,476,147 (but this does include about 300,000 words of origfic for RaTs and rainbowfic that are collected into three works, so it doesn't affect the works no too much, but it does affect the wordcount.) 3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they? Too many to list here! A lot. *nods* 4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos? People, it's still Miss Marple. Maybe one day it won't be Miss Marple, but today is not that day. (ETA: whenever i do my top AO3 fic on these memes, it’s disproportionately Miss Marple. I am bemused.) Miss Marple: The Spirit of St Mary Mead So We Meet at Last Not Miss Marple: it's the rain that will strengthen your soul (SW Prequels) Five Times the Doctor Got in the Way of Captain Janeway (and One Time They Got Along Just Fine) (DW/ST) By the Book (Origfic) (Oh, wow, By the Book keeps moving up. It must get recced sometimes, somewhere, mustn't it? 0_o ♥) 5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not? Yes. Fanfic is a lot my way of being social, which is why I don't get along with the new push-button web much. Like, kudos is fine, ok, but I just wanted to talk to people, and via fic always seems to be one of the nicest ways to do it. 6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? Oh, I don't know. I like being bleak sometimes when I feel like it. It might be the EatD one with the two Generals, but honestly there were a few in my mid-illness old bleak telly watching years, and the Level 7 one or the one from Children of the Damned might be even more so? Or some S&S stuff, too? I mean, I wrote S&S plane crash fic and weird drabbles. (I blame my fandoms! It's not my fault! *innocent*) Also I keep doing Clara splinter fic, so I keep killing Clara and it's always sadder than I expect when I get there. You'd think I'd learn by now, or just not kill this splinter, but, nooo, hey, how about MORE Clara splinter death, self? /o\ Oh, no, wait: it's probably Spooks! Spooks is also bleak and how about my tiny ficlet of death, Litany of the Fallen? Oh, actually, if I listen to people who aren't me, it's that B7 Avon/Servalan one, which I was always a bit: BUT I WROTE ONE WHERE THEY WON about it and everyone else was all THIS IS THE WORST in the comments. Sorry? The Quality of Mercy (Is Most Definitely Strained) (I still think the ending of Compendium is more angsty! It has double death!) (Ok, it's me. I like being bleak and angsty when I'm doing it. I'm less sure when someone else is doing it at me, of course. ;-p) 7) What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending? I honestly don't know. I'm usually kind of gen and happy and sometimes even humorous, and keep canon's tone, and DW is fairly light most of the time. I tried searching on Happy, but I have never tagged anything as happy. But probably it is an AAL! thing, because AAL! is happiness in b&w TV form basically. Maybe of Of Human Bondage (or Five Times Adam and His Friends Found Themselves All Tied Up)? But I like all the AAL! ones I wrote for Yuletide, because they were the ones where I tried to be closest to an episode, and that makes them the most fun to re-read. 8) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written? I have a crossover in my top 5, so yes. I'm a DW fan; crossovers are just far too obvious a temptation when you've got a TARDIS. What DW fic writer hasn't managed at least one once somewhere? And I might have, um, written a lot of them. (AO3 says 126). I did once, way back in newsnet times, when we were having a debate over what you could and couldn't cross DW over with (and I was on Team You Can Cross It With Anything You Cowards), write a DW/Rainbow drabble. But I don't think I put that on AO3. I think it might be on Teaspoon. In AO3 works, I think by far the silliest is the Baldrick/Steed one, which AstroGirl said I couldn't write. (It was an Unconventional Courtship summary, not that they randomly dared me to write Baldrick/Steed. I mean, some of my flist totally would have done if they'd thought of it, but not in this case.) 9) Have you ever received hate on a fic? Not really. I've had some weird comments, but the nearest I've come to hate was one of the comments that time I tried to write Swan Queen fic and it wasn't happy enough for people. (I wrote a happy one after, but the ifrst one was set quite early, Regina was still kind of evil!) 10) Do you write smut? If so what kind? Alas, no. Although, ish, if we count my experimental elemental shipping phase, which included The Cornfield (Silver/Steel/(Sapphire)), which is the only time anyone called any of my fic sexy. I would totally have that comment made into a medal or something. 11) Have you ever had a fic stolen? Other than the random scraping things that have gone round over the years, no. 12) Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes! Several people have been kind enough to do this, usually into Russian, and usually (but not always!) Miss Marple. 13) Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes, and no - in adwc days we all co-authored round robins, which were a blast and highly frustrating. I think it'd be fun, but barring the odd bit of drabble tennis with various flisters back in the day, it's not really something that's worked out. (I'm thinking, I could have all the ideas, they could do all the writing, I could criticise?? XD) 14) What’s your all time favorite ship? My Relationships count is very misleading here, because I think it actually is (including in terms of things written for it), Sapphire/Silver/Steel, but it's a weird thing, so sometimes I tag it platonically, and sometimes I don't necessarily tag it at all for that reason, and also I think it puts people off unnecessarily. (But it's a Lie when I don't tag it. All my Sapphire & Silver & Steel is inherently OT3 even if no one else can see it.) 15) What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? None. I have unposted WIPs, but I do hope to finish those, and the only posted WIP is a very old one only on Teaspoon that was begun before I was ill and I can't even really say at this point that I would want to finish it. 16) What are your writing strengths? Character/dialogue, I think? I am actually not that bad at plot, but currently I lack the stamina for long things. I like to think I can be quite funny when I'm in the mood. 17) What are your writing weaknesses? Description, action. Argh. Yes, let's just talk some more, okay? 18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? I was going to say I would never, but actually I did! I wrote Y Gwyll | Hinterland fic, and it wouldn't be right not to have some Welsh in that. However, while I may be a 1/4 Welsh and know some Welsh words, I don't actually speak it, so I had to turn to Llywela who was very kind and translated the sentences I needed. (I added the English translation in the footnote.) This was the fic, but basically language is important in canon (ironically maybe even more so in the Eng-lang version I watched than the original Welsh), and so it was also important in the fic. So, probably if it was a canon where it was required, then I would do what I could to get help to get it right? The good thing about the internet is that you can usually find someone, although usefully for me, I already knew someone. 19) What was the first fandom you wrote for? Doctor Who! 20) What’s your favorite fic you’ve written? I'm going to wimp out on this along with everyone else. Although... if any of you have a fave fic of mine, that would be very cool to hear! (But I don't expect anyone to.) Sometimes I'm pleased enough with the latest to feel it's that, but that's not always the case, and it isn't currently. (No, offence, Latest Works! I like you, it just only happens once in a while, usually when I've managed something I've wanted to do for years.)

I won’t tag anyone, because I know lots of people also did this on Dreamwidth, but it’s always VERY cool to see people’s answers to these things and memes are for stealing.

#fanfic #writing #memes #writing meme #ao3 #fannish nonsense #long post #rambling about fic #replies #allegoriesinmediasres #the c+p worked even with the links!#\o/

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twinbluebirds-archive · 5 years ago

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〔ΦΔ〕 ic 001: excursion.

Φ — “Del-taaaaa!”

A JUVENILE VOICE rang loudly through the trees, high and impatient. Phi sat on a low branch, her sneakered feet swinging back and forth, the midnight breeze tousling her short hair as she waited for her brother to catch up with her.

Φ — “Hurry up! C’mon, do you want me to carry you or what?”

About fifty feet away, the straggler being addressed waded through the high piles of wet leaves that littered the forest floor. Wincing with every labored, heavy step, Delta groaned in futile complaint and pulled his thick jacket tighter around his chest. Did she really have to be so loud? It wasn’t his fault that his weak, useless body couldn’t move him any faster, and besides—

Δ — “If you keep yelling, someone’s going to come find us,”

he murmured, quietly and flatly as always.

Δ — “They might think we’re running away.”

Φ — “Oh, they’ll come find us, will they?”

Phi’s tone was no softer than before, taking on a note of mockingness as they slipped gracefully from the branch with a dismissive snort.

Φ — “I’d like to see someone try a n y t h i n g with you around. They come try and kidnap us, you can just trip ‘em up, right? I’ve seen you do it before.”

This was not the first halfhearted debate the Klim twins had gone through about their clandestine outings, and it would not be the last. Every Saturday at midnight sharp, Phi dragged Delta through a new local adventure on the argumentative basis that he needed to get out of the house more; he protested without any real objection because he knew she wouldn’t make him do anything he didn’t actually want to do, and she insisted without any real expectation because she trusted him to tell her if she was actually pushing too hard. Last week, the two of them had gone out to the local park and played two-man (well, one man, one nonbinary person) tag in the freezing darkness. This week, they were going to climb the tallest tree in the forest neighboring said park and stargaze. Phi had a game they liked to play where they and Delta competed to make up the silliest constellations out of random clusters of stars. It helped take the twins’ minds off things.

Δ — “Sure, but I can’t Mind Hack my way out of one of our neighbors calling Mom.”

Despite how grouchy the boy sounded, Delta couldn’t deny he had been looking forward to this. The crispness of the air made him feel particularly at one with himself, and the loneliness of the forest at night, while frightening for many children his age, was a welcome reprieve for someone who still couldn’t completely control whether or not he heard the internal monologues of every single person within his field of vision.

Φ — “Don’t be such a contrarian, Delta. The tree’s right there. Think you can climb it without having to hang off my back this time?”

Phi was expecting a smart-alecky retort or cheeky eye roll from her twin brother, but instead, Delta stopped moving. His indigo gaze strayed from Phi and the tree, fixed instead on a point somewhere in the distance, off to the side.

Φ — “Uh... Delta?”

Δ — “Hold on. Be quiet for a second.”

Φ — “What? What is it?”

She held her breath, tilting her ear towards where Delta was looking. After a few seconds, she heard it herself.

Footsteps.

Δ — “Someone’s coming.”

#starter #open starter #ic: phi #ic: delta #notevenjupiter; phi 001

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irina-something · 6 years ago

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Roswell RN ep 12 – Is bad writing the bug or the feature ?

I keep watching genre shows – for all the silly, shallow reasons – the beautiful people, the escapism, the entertaining factor of it all , but I also watch them for better reasons – interesting, original premises, interesting characters, new ways of looking at things, lighter ways of speaking about hard things.

So when a show is about ghosts, vampires, aliens and the lot, there is a build in feature of silliness … I love it when there is, at least, a small percent of tongue in cheek writing going on, a small nod from the show that it knows to not take itself completely serious. But being self aware that you are not aiming to be Tarkovsky, does not mean free license to shit all over logic, to screw continuity, to make it seem that you do not remember your own story, to make the conversations between people seem forced and cringy.

So I guess what I am asking myself is – is bad writing in genre shows a bug or a feature? I have no connection to tv channels and I am wondering how much freedom the writers have. But even with a predetermined framework, even when censorship exists, even when a certain level of drama is demanded – is it really impossible to make it seem organic, to make it all cohesive, to thrive for the realness of human connections and relationships even if we get to also deal with demons, aliens, warlocks and such?

For me the series that I watch are divided in 3 – the ones that are about realism and from which I demand that, since that is what they claim to do ( The wire being my all time favourite in this category), the ones that are complete and utter crap, but the level of crap is so high that it only makes my giggle continuously, I have no demands of this type of series, except outrageous entertainment and if at all possible somebody to ogle ( series like The chilling adventures of Sabrina comes to mind in this category) and the last category – the one in between – the one where the characters draw you in, you can feel the potential, some real emotions but the plot remains quite silly ( Roswell NM is in this category).

What got me on this path of rambling was watching Roswell NM ep 12. Damn…so much hurt, so much tragedy going on there, so much potential for emotions being discussed, for trauma being analyzed and yet the episode finishes and I feel a lot like crying while face palming ( it is hard, trust me).

So here is what made me cry and what made me face palm...with a side of sarcasm and some profanity...

So we start with an exposition ( never the best device, but sometimes necessary ) about the aliens’ background …. I didn’t know it at the time, but this is actually a face palm moment, because the whole thing, almost word by word will be said again during the episode, only this time not as running background voice, but directly from Noah ….so in a 40 minutes episode, that contains the mass murder of an entire race, we get to hear the same, not all that revelatory words, twice …. mkay…

Then there is the M/M/I scene where they debate what to do and that felt pretty good, because you can really tell the different motivations and the different needs for each of them. Kyle/Liz interaction is also fun, light and it really flows.

The Malex scene at the junkyard is a facepalm moment – first of all because the writers made it so, while writing on twitter, with no indication in the actual story unfolding on the screen, that between the last interaction we have seen and this one 2 months passed … Seriously, if 2 months actually passed, something should have been said here – along the lines of “where the fuck have you disappeared for 2 month”. Also, we are to believe that Michael did not want to know shit more about the government conspiracy that puts him and his siblings at death risk … and now, supposedly 2 months later, Alex shows up out of the blue and is like – here is some info and also you’re hot, but not like really, but your temperature but also here is a smoldering “I would do you “ look for good measure. And for the fun twist, here is also Kyle for no particular reason…

Then we have the Is/Max/Noah/Liz interactions were we hear all the stuff from the beginning all over again, now with the added bonus that somehow since the conversation is in Is’s mind Noah can not lie.,, mkay… Even with the truth serum addendum, Noah’s story makes about zero sense and I face palm hard. The Liz/Is interaction feels good and organic … there is bitchiness that we know is trade mark Isobel, but also vulnerability and Liz lends an ear and some good advice. Honestly I feel like the scenes with Noah/Max/Is/Liz were somewhat repetitive… some of the things were necessary, but overall a lot of time was lost with no good enough pay-off either emotionally or as advancing the story.

Radom appeance from Cam. I just loved her character through out the story. She has been the right amount of funny, badass, vulnerable, good looking and helpful. If the writers didn’t have an arc for her, beyond what went on so far, I feel good about her departure….it’s hella better than keeping here around with 3 lines and no purpose.

I have to give it to the writers, the interaction among the women of the series has been good and has been consistent. They are not all bitches or all goody two shoes. But while sometimes butting heads, they came through for each other and I am here for that.

The boys arrive at the prison. Kyle has some funny lines, which are genuinely funny and I would have appreciated them so much more if not for WTF I was experiencing from the previous interactions.

Back at the prison it all makes as much sense as pineapple on pizza. High security facility with aliens in it and yet the boys enter with no problem and without alerting any alarms… we have some interaction between Alex and his brother, which I appreciated... I liked the lines, the tension, the background offered about Alex’s life ( see, it can be done without flashback and exposition … yeyyy writers)… but again it’s like the prison has 3 people working there and yet, somehow they developed kickass technology … mkay…

Kyle has the silliest conversation with random army girl … he learns about his father death, actually important for the story, but how the whole scene comes to be is like it’s written in kindergarten… dear lord… how the hell in the prison with 3 people, a guy appears and random army girl is not all that alarmed.

I really wanna know what is the reason and what is the pay-off of making Michael be the initiator of the demise of his mother and what is left of his race? WTF???

Then comes the Malex scene. Damn…. I loved the point of the scene but the execution was face palm level ( not the acting, the acting was top notch and the only thing that help sell the scene ). But this is the pivotal scene of the episode… damn… cut some of the other stuff that had no purpose and really sell us Michael trying heart and soul to save his family, the urgency of the whole situation and how they really had no other choice …. Because honestly, if it weren’t for how talented Vlamis and Blackburn were, the “my mom said run “would have made me giggle.

And after the “you’re my family speech” Alex says nothing to Michael and drives into the sunset with Kyle … it’s been so hard to face palm while the script gave me whiplash … seriously…

And you know, I actually like the conversation between Alex and Kyle at the end… I loved the point of it, what it actually says and how it gives us a little more about Alex … but fucking hell, it is ill placed … because we are to believe Alex let Michael to just drive alone and go wherever the fuck after witnessing the murder of his mother and the rest of his race …. What the actual fuck? Where there no people with writing abilities in the room at that moment?

And then we have the clusterfuck that is the interaction between Max and Michael and I don’t even have fucks to give ….

Really? Really? Were the writers in some sort of race to the finish? Did they not get the chance to look over everything one more time and fix the plotholes ? How come they manage some great lines and interactions and then they fuck up epically ? Is it mandatory ?

#roswell new mexico #roswell nm #malex #i lost my mind #ramble my way to insanity

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fandomsandfeminism · 8 years ago

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youtube

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a weird and wonderful story, full of odd surreal encounters and wacky nonsense. Despite it's strangeness though, I promise that drugs were not involved in it's production.

To read all of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass as a PDF: http://www.gasl.org/refbib/Carroll__Alice_1st.pdf

Full text version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11/11-h/11-h.htm

Full text version of Through the Looking Glass: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/12/12-h/12-h.htm

Closed Captioning coming soon

Transcript below

Alice in Wonderland isn’t about drugs.

Now, I know that may come as a surprise to some people. It’s pretty standard internet fair to point at Alice, with all the trippy visuals and the mushrooms and the Hookah caterpillar, and declare that it was REALLY all about drugs this whole time, oh ho ho, and Disney made a movie about it!

But it’s not. It’s not about drugs.

I want to talk about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass a little bit today, what they are really about, where this idea of them being about drugs came from, and why I find it to kind of be bullshit.

So, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English novelist Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carrol. The sequel, Through the Looking Glass, was published in 1871. I’m going to focus mainly on these two original books, and not the dozens and dozens and dozens of adaptations and remakes that exist. For the record, both books are in the public domain, so it's very easy to find pdf copies of them on the internet.

Almost every movie version of Alice, including the Disney one, splices together elements and plot points from both of the books, rather than simply adapting one story or the other. It’s not particularly important to know which characters and events happen in each, since they are very often published as a pair anyway. But we’re going to have a quick overview.

In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice is a young girl who is in the garden of her home playing with her cat Dinah when she sees a white rabbit in a waistcoat run past, apparently late to an appointment. She follows the rabbit down the rabbit hole and thus into wonderland. What follows is a quintessential example of literary nonsense, filled with word play, puns, and absurdity as Alice works her way through Wonderland.

She eats an odd bite of cake and drinks a potion which change her size. She cries so hard she creates a sea. She recites some poetry she had to memorize for school buts gets it all wrong. She meets a mouse that won’t answer her call in English, so she tries talking to it in French. She wonders if this assumed French mouse came over with William the Conqueror, because Alice doesn’t know much about when things in history happened. They reach the shore where other animals are. The mouse then gives a lecture on william the conqueror and the animals agree to a Caucus race to dry off (Because Alice doesn’t know what a caucus actually is.)

Alice meets the Caterpillar, who seems to speak in riddles, correcting her grammar and not making sense. She meets the Duchess, who yells a lot and seems to ignore her baby. She meets the Cheshire Cat, who again, doesn’t make a lot of sense, and then the Mad Hatter and March Hare. More and more riddles. She plays a VERY silly game of croquet with the Queen of Hearts where the rules don’t make sense and the Queen cheats a lot. She meets a Mock Turtle (a pun on Mock Turtle soup, apparently Alice thought Mock Turtles were an animal). Then the world’s silliest court scene, where everything is unfair and doesn’t make sense, and then Alice goes back home, waking up as if from a dream.

Set presumably about half a year later, in Through the Looking Glass, Alice is playing inside the house with two cats, Dinah’s kittens, when she contemplates the mirror in the room. She finds that she is able to walk through the mirror and back into Wonderland. She discovers a mostly nonsense poem, Jabberwocky, which can only be read if you hold it up to a mirror. She also finds that the chess pieces in the room have come to life. What follows is another adventure in mostly absurdity, though if you know how, you can actually use Looking Glass as a step by step guide for a real chess game. Alice plays the part of one of the white pawns.

She wanders through the garden of living flowers, meets Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, talks to Humpty Dumpty, and eventually makes all the way across the “board” and becomes a queen herself. The Red and White queens throw her a party, and then confuse her with riddles and wordplay. This actually results in Alice physically confronting the Red Queen and “Capturing her”, putting the Red King into “Checkmate” unintentionally, and thus, she wakes up in her arm chair back home having won the game.

Quick recommendation, if you want to get all of the little wordplay and puns and references in Alice and Looking Glass, I recommend the Annotated Alice by Martin Gardner. It’s awesome.

- These books are pretty strange. So, if not a psychedelic reflection about a weird acid trip, or whatever, what’s up with these books? Why are they so weird?

Well, Carrol said he wrote the book after he and a friend spent a day on a river trip with the 3 young daughters of Henry Liddell in 1862. During their journey, Carrol entertained the girls with a made up nonsense story about a girl named Alice. Alice Liddell was so entranced that she told Carrol he should publish it. And so he did. He spent a few years refining the story before it was finally published, and the real Alice got her copy.

So on the surface, it’s just that- a silly story meant to amuse children, a celebration of imagination and childhood silliness.

But there are some underlying themes in these books. The encounters Alice has have a sort of pattern to them- Adults in the books, whether they are the Queen of Hearts or the White Queen, the Duchess or the Hatter, often speak in riddles. They make up rules that don’t make sense and refuse to explain them. The white rabbit is obsessed with never being late, and much of the word play or silliness comes from Alice not understanding adult or unfamiliar concepts (like the Mock Turtle or a Caucus race.)

And so the books become a very silly exploration of how a child, viewing the adult world, might feel confused and lost. Wonderland is Adulthood cloaked in familiar childhood clothes. Nursery Rhymes and game board pieces doing a fumbling pantomime of adulthood, discussing mathematical concepts and latin grammar, through the eyes of a child who doesn’t understand it.

There are many things that can be pulled from Alice- ideas of innocence, of escapism, of identity and sense of self, of intentionally bucking order in favor of disorder. But none of those things are drugs.

(Sidenote: There is a whole other issue about Carrol’s….relationship with the Liddell daughters, and his...fondness for young girls in general. This is a whole separate debate, and it gets kinda messy with contemporary views of childhood and adulthood and whether there was anything...untoward about his fondness for them. But that’s really not what we’re talking about today. )

- So, why do people think this is a story about drugs? Carrol wasn’t known for opium use, or even heavy drinking. He had no exposure to psychedelics (magic mushrooms wouldn't be discovered by Europeans until 1955) So why?

I think the easiest answer is that people want stories to make sense. I want stories to make sense. I spent a lot of money going to college to get a degree in “Making stories make sense.” We want there to be a reason that things happen in stories, and so when a story feels as random and silly and surreal as Alice, we want to figure out what it’s REALLY about.

This is kind of the underlying idea behind surrealism in general- creating art and meaning out of the absurd and random images of dreams and unreality. [Side note, there is an edition of Alice with illustrations by Salvador Dali, which is...amazing.]

And thanks to the culture of the 1960s and 1970s, there is a heavy association between reality-bending images and drug use, especially hallucinogens. And depending on which adaptation you are looking at, some movies really play up this trippy psychedelic aesthetic for Alice.

But I think there’s another level to this one, and one that I find much more grating. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a story for children, especially for girls. And there is a certain segment of the population, especially among young adults on the internet, who really seem to enjoy taking things aimed at children and declaring NO, this thing isn’t for kids, it’s actually FOR ME, and slapping an edgy dark interpretation on top of it, however sloppily.

Fan theories like...Ash is in a coma all along, or all the Rugrats are dead and Angelica is just imagining them, and...yeah, a huge slice of the Brony fandom declaring that adult men are the real audience, they aim at appropriating and co-opting child media for adult consumption

And there’s something about that which leaves a sour taste in my mouth over all. - I don’t think there’s anything inherently bad about reimagining child stories in more adult ways. But I do think it somewhat misses the point when people begin to insist that these mature reimaginings are the CORRECT or more valid interpretation, especially if they lead to the exclusion of children from that media space.

With Alice in particular, I think the story gives adult readers a chance to empathize with children, not as dolls or objects of cuteness, but as people interacting with a confusing and strange world as they grow up. It is an opportunity to revisit childhood, with all it’s familiar characters and uncertainty and wonder, and rather than corrupt that story, I think it should be embraced.

I’m going to leave you with the end of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alice’s adult sister, having heard her story, lays back, and herself begins to dream, of Wonderland and of her sister Alice. And This is what it says, “Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood: and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago: and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days.”

And that is what Wonderland is about.

Thanks for watching this video! I’ll see yall down in the comments, so if you have any questions, feedback, or suggestions, head on over. If you enjoyed listening to this queer millennial feminist with a BA in English ramble on for a while, feel free to subscribe.

#Alice In Wonderland #Alice's Adventures In Wonderland #lewis carroll #feminism

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notevenjupiter · 5 years ago

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twinbluebirds:

〔ΦΔ〕 ic 001: excursion.

Φ — “Del-taaaaa!”

Φ — “Hurry up! C’mon, do you want me to carry you or what?”

Δ — “If you keep yelling, someone’s going to come find us,”

he murmured, quietly and flatly as always.

Δ — “They might think we’re running away.”

Φ — “Oh, they’ll come find us, will they?”

Phi’s tone was no softer than before, taking on a note of mockingness as they slipped gracefully from the branch with a dismissive snort.

Φ — “I’d like to see someone try a n y t h i n g with you around. They come try and kidnap us, you can just trip ‘em up, right? I’ve seen you do it before.”

Δ — “Sure, but I can’t Mind Hack my way out of one of our neighbors calling Mom.”

Φ — “Don’t be such a contrarian, Delta. The tree’s right there. Think you can climb it without having to hang off my back this time?”

Φ — “Uh… Delta?”

Δ — “Hold on. Be quiet for a second.”

Φ — “What? What is it?”

She held her breath, tilting her ear towards where Delta was looking. After a few seconds, she heard it herself.

Footsteps.

Δ — “Someone’s coming.”

The white-haired Phi had felt compelled to venture out to the forest tonight, and she couldn’t put her finger on why. It wasn’t the insomnia. Her insomnia would have told her to stay inside and watch six straight hours of CuriosityStream. And she could have done her usual late night routine that she picked up in college - head to 7-11, grab a few beers, then stroll out on the beach and see what happened. She’d made some good friends that way.

But, no. As if fate compelled her, as if she was locked into a timeline, she found herself walking towards the forest, further and further away from her apartment. It was a strange sensation. Not only were her feet moving on their own volition, but... even the air felt different.

And, that’s when she heard voices.

More specifically, it’s when she heard her own voice.

It was unmistakably hers. When she was a teenager, she used to record audio diaries of herself, so she could play them back years later to see how she’d progressed in life. It was a fun, pretentious way to pass the time - and besides, her future self was the only friend she’d had back then.

But it wasn’t just her voice, was it? Someone else was there, too. And their conversation... she couldn’t make out every word, but what she could hear sent chills down the back of her spine.

‘Mind Hack.’ ‘Mom.’ ‘Delta.’

Her pace quickened. She didn’t dare run - with how high the leaves were, she could easily trip - but she walked, as fast as she could, until she could isolate the sounds’ source. And once she found them, she stopped dead in her tracks.

#twinbluebirds #tb:phi #v:post-ZTD #it's a TIMEY WIMEY ADVENTURE

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