#Minerva actually means the world to me

[wilderflowergirlie]

Lily Evans is endorsed by McGonagall to be the Quidditch commentator because they "need someone unbiased but who is still a gryffindor" and who "has the capability to actually learn more about the game." So Lily starts the microphone up, ready to do her best and impress her teacher, yet somehow turns bright red whenever James Potter in his uniform and sweating passes by and winks at her (something he does more and more when he notices she likes it).

Eventually, McGonagall has to choose a new gryffindor, because too many audience members complained that the commentator A. repeatedly got distracted and would trail off and B. could be heard flirting with the star player during the game multiple times.

McGonagall, of course, knew this would happen all along.

[vigilskeep]

colour symbolism breakthrough

[mask131]

The truth about Medusa and her rape... Mythology breakdown time!

With the recent release of the Percy Jackson television series, Tumblr is bursting with mythological posts, and the apparition of Medusa the Gorgon has been the object of numerous talks throughout this website… Including more and more spreading of misinformation, and more debates about what is the “true” version of Medusa’s backstory.

Already let us make that clear: the idea that Medusa was actually “blessed” or “gifted” by Athena her petrifying gaze/snake-hair curse is to my knowledge not at all part of the Antique world. I still do not know exactly where this comes from, but I am aware of no Greek or Roman texts that talked about this – so it seems definitively a modern invention. After all, the figure of Medusa and her entire myth has been taken part, reinterpreted and modified by numerous modern women, feminist activist, feminist movements or artists engaged in the topic of women’s life and social conditions – most notably Medusa becoming the “symbol of raped women’ wrath and fury”. It is an interesting reading and a fascinating update of the ancient texts, and it is a worthy take on its own time and context – but today we are not talking about the posterity, reinvention and continuity of Medusa as a myth and a symbol. I want to clarify some points about the ACTUAL myth or legend of Medusa – the original tale, as told by the Greeks and then by the Romans.

Most specifically the question: Was Medusa raped?

Step 1: Yes, but no.

The backstory of Medusa you will find very often today, ranging from mythology manuals (vulgarization manuals of course) to Youtube videos, goes as such: Medusa was a priestess of Athena who got raped by Poseidon while in Athena’s temple, and as a result of this, Athena punished Medusa by turning her into the monstrous Gorgon.

Some will go even further claiming Athena’s “curse” wasn’t a punishment but a “gift” or blessing – and again, I don’t know where this comes from and nobody seems to be able to give me any reliable source for that, so… Let’s put this out of there.

Now this backstory – famous and popular enough to get into Riodan’s book series for example – is partially true. There are some elements here very wrong – and by wrong I do mean wrong.

The story of Medusa being raped and turned into a monster due to being raped does indeed exist, and it is the most famous and widespread of all the Medusa stories, the one people remembered for the longest time and wrote and illustrated the most about. Hence why Medusa became in the 20th century this very important cultural symbol tied to rape and the abuse of women and victim-blaming. HOWEVER – the origin of this story is Ovid’s Metamorphoses, from the first century CE or so. Ovid? A Roman poet writing for Roman people. “Metamorphoses”? One of the two fundamental works of Roman literature and one of the two main texts of Roman mythology, alongside Virgil’s Aeneid. This is a purely Roman story belonging to the Roman culture – and not the Greek one. The story of Medusa’s rape does not have Greek precedents to my knowledge, Ovid introduced the element of rape – which is no surprise given Ovid turned half of the romances of Greek mythology into rapes. Note that, on top of all this, Ovid wasn’t even writing for religious purposes, nor was his text an actual mythological effort – he wrote it with pure literary intentions at heart. It is just a piece of poetry and literature taking inspiration from the legends of the Greek world, not some sort of sacred text.

Second big point: The legend I summarized above? It isn’t even the story Ovid wrote, since there are a lot of elements that do not come from Ovid’s retelling of the story (book fourth of the Metamorphoses). For example Ovid never said Medusa was a priestess of Athena – all he said was that she was raped in the temple of Athena. I shouldn’t even be writing Athena since again, this is a Roman text: we are speaking of Minerva here, and of Neptune, not of Athena or Poseidon. Similarly, Minerva’s curse did not involve the petrifying gaze – rather all Ovid wrote about was that Minerva turned Medusa’s hair into snakes, to “punish” her because her hair were very beautiful, and it was what made her have many suitors (none of which she wanted to marry apparently), and it is also implied it is what made Neptune fall in love (or rather fall in lust) with her. I guess it is from this detail that the reading of “Athena’s curse was a gift” comes from – even though this story also clearly does victim-blaming of rape here.

But what is very fascinating is that… we are not definitively sure Neptune raped Medusa in Ovid’s retelling. For sure, the terms used by Ovid in his fourth book of Metamorphoses are clear: this was an action of violating, sexually assaulting, of soiling and corrupting, we are talking about rape. But Ovid refers several other times to Medusa in his other books, sometimes adding details the fourth-book stories does not have (the sixth book for examples evokes how Neptune turned into a bird to seduce Medusa, which is completely absent from the fourth book’s retelling of Medusa’ curse). And in all those other mentions, the terms to designate the relationship between Medusa and Neptune are more ambiguous, evoking seduction and romance rather than physical or sexual assault. (It does not help that Ovid has an habit of constantly confusing consensual and non-consensual sex in his poems, meaning that a rape in one book can turn into a romance in another, or reversal)

But the latter fact makes more sense when you recall that the rape element was invented and added by Ovid. Before, yes Poseidon and Medusa loved each other, but it was a pure romance, or at least a consensual one-night. Heck, if we go back to the oldest records of the love between Poseidon and Medusa, back in Hesiod’s Theogony, we have descriptions of the two of them laying together in a beautiful, flowery meadow – a stereotypical scene of pastoral romances – with no mention of any brutality or violence of any sort. As a result, it makes sense the original “romantic” story would still “leak” or cast a shadow over Ovid’s reinvented and slightly-confused tale.

Step 2: So… no rape?

Well, if we go by Greek texts, no, apparently Medusa was not raped in Greek mythology, and only became a rape victim through Ovid.

The Ancient Greek texts all record Poseidon and Medusa sleeping with each other and having children, but no mention of rape. And the whole “curse of Athena” thing is not present in the oldest records – no temple of Athena soiling, no angry Athena cursing a poor girl… “No curse?” you say “But then how did Medusa got turned into a Gorgon”? Answer: she did not. She was born like that.

As I said before, the oldest record of Medusa’s romance but also of her family comes from Hesiod’s Theogony (Hesiod being one of the two “founding authors” of Greek mythology, alongside Homer – Homer did wrote several times about Medusa, but only as a disembodied head and as a monster already dead, so we don’t have any information about her life). And what do we learn? That Medusa is part of a set of three sisters known as the Gorgons – because oh yes, Ovid did not mention Medusa’s sister now did he? How did Medusa’s sisters ALSO got snake-hair or petrifying-gaze if only Medusa was cursed for sleeping with Neptune? Ovid does not give us any answer because again, it is an “adaptational plot hole”, and the people that try to adapt Ovid’s story have to deal with the slight problem of Stheno and Euryale needing to share their sister’s curse despite seemingly not being involved in the whole Neptune business. Anyway, back to the Greek text.

So, you have those three Gorgon sisters, and Medusa is said to be mortal while her sisters are not. Why is it such a big deal? Because Medusa wasn’t originally some random human or priestess. Oh no! Who were the Gorgons’ parents? Phorcys and Keto/Ceto, aka two sea-gods. Not just two sea-gods – two sea-gods of the ancient, primordial generation of sea-gods, the one that predated Poseidon, and that were cousins to the Titans, the sea-gods born of Gaia mating with Pontos.

So the Gorgons were “divine” of nature – and this is why Medusa being a mortal was considered to be a MASSIVE problem and handicap for her, an abnormal thing for the daughter of two deities. But let’s dig a bit further… Who were Phorcys and Ceto? Long story short: in Greek mythology, they were considered to be sea-equivalents of Typhon and Gaia. They were the parents of many monsters and many sea-horrors: Keto/Ceto herself had her name attributed and equated with any very large creature (like whales) or any terrifying monster (like dragons) from the sea. The Gorgons themselves was a trio of monsters, but their sisters, that directly act as their double in the myth of Perseus? The Graiai – the monstrous trio of old women sharing one eye and one tooth. Hesiod also drops the fact that Ladon (the dragon that guarded the golden apples of the Hesperids), and Echidna (the snake-woman that mated with Typhon and became known as the “mother of monsters”) were also children of Phorcys and Ceto, while other authors will add other monster-related characters such as Scylla (of Charybdis and Scylla fame), the sirens, or Thoosa (the mother of Polyphemus the cyclop). Medusa herself is technically a “mother of monsters” since she birthed both Pegasus the flying horse and Chrysaor, a giant. So here is something very important to get: Medusa, and the Gorgons, were part of a family of monsters. Couple that with the absence of any mention of curses in these ancient texts, and everything is clear.

Originally Medusa was not a woman cursed to become a monster: she was born a monster, part of a group of monster siblings, birthed by monster-creating deities, and she belonged to the world of the “primordial abominations from the sea”, and the pre-Olympian threats, the remnants of the primordial chaos. It is no surprise that the Gorgons were said to live at the edge of the very known world, in the last patch of land before the end of the universe – in the most inhuman, primitive and liminal area possible. They were full-on monsters!

Now you might ask why Poseidon would sleep with a horrible monster, especially when you recall that the Greeks loved to depict the Gorgons as truly bizarre and grotesque. It wasn’t just snake-hair and petrifying gaze: they had boar tusks, and metallic claws, and bloated eyes, and a long tongue that constantly hanged down their bearded chin, and very large heads – some very old depictions even show her with a female centaur body! In fact, the ancient texts imply that it wasn’t so much the Gorgon’s gaze or eyes that had the power to turn people into stone – but that rather the Gorgon was just so hideous and so terrifying to look at people froze in terror – and then literally turned into stone out of fear and disgust. We are talking Lovecraftian level of eldritch horror here. So why would Poseidon, an Olympian god, sleep with one of these horrors? Well… If you know your Poseidon it wouldn’t surprise you too much because Poseidon had a thing for monsters. As a sort of “dark double” of Zeus, whereas Zeus fell in love with beautiful princesses and noble queens and birthed great gods and brave heroes, Poseidon was more about getting freaky with all sorts of unusual and bizarre goddesses, and giving birth to bandits and monsters. A good chunk of the villains of Greek mythology were born out of Poseidon’s loins: Polyphemus, Antaios, Orion, Charybdis, the Aloads… And even his most benevolent offspring has freaky stuff about it – Proteus the shapeshifter or Triton half-man half-fish… So yes, Poseidon sleeping with an abominable Gorgon is not so much out of character.

Step 3: The missing link

Now that we established what Medusa started out as, and what she ended up as… We need to evoke the evolution from point Hesiod to point Ovid, because while people summarized the Medusa debate as “Sea-born monster VS raped and punished woman”, there is a third element needed to understand this whole situation…

Yes Ovid did invent the rape. But he did not invent the idea that Medusa had been cursed by Athena.

The “gorgoneion” – the visual and artistic motif of the Gorgon’s head – was, as I said, a grotesque and monstrous face used to invoke fright into the enemies or to repel any vile influence or wicked spirit by the principle of “What’s the best way to repel bad stuff? Badder stuff”. Your Gorgon was your gargoyle, with all the hideous traits I described before – represented in front (unlike all the other side-portraits of gods and heroes), with the face being very large and flat, a big tongue out of a tusked-mouth, snake-hair, bulging crazy eyes, sometimes a beard or scales… Pure monster. But then… from the fifth century BCE to the second century BCE we see a slow evolution of the “gorgoneion” in art. Slowly the grotesque elements disappear, and the Gorgon’s face becomes… a regular, human face. Even more: it even becomes a pretty woman’s face! But with snakes instead of hair. As such, the idea that Medusa was a gorgeous woman who just had snakes and cursed-eyes DOES come from Ancient Greece – and existed well before Ovid wrote his rape story.

But what was the reason behind this change?

Well, we have to look at the Roman era again. Ovid’s tale of Medusa being cursed for her rape at the hands of Neptune had to rival with another record collected by a Greek author Apollodorus, or Pseudo-Apollodorus, in his Bibliotheca. In this collection of Greek myths, Apollodorus writes that indeed, Medusa was cursed by Athena to have her beautiful hair that seduced everybody be turned into snakes… But it wasn’t because of any rape or forbidden romance, no. It was just because Medusa was a very vain woman who liked to brag about her beauty and hair – and had the foolish idea of saying her hair looked better than Athena’s. (If you recall tales such as Arachne’s or the Judgement of Paris, you will know that despite Athena being wise and clever, one of her main flaws is her vanity).

“Wait a minute,” you are going to tell me, “The Bibliotheca was created in the second century CE! Well after Greece became part of the Roman Empire, and after Ovid’s Metamorphoses became a huge success! It isn’t a true Greek myth, it is just Ovid’s tale being projected here…” And people did agree for a time… Until it was discovered, in the scholias placed around the texts of Apollonios of Rhodes, that an author of the fifth century BCE named Pherecyde HAD recorded in his time a version of Medusa’s legend where she had been cursed into becoming an ugly monster as punishment for her vanity. We apparently do not have the original text of Pherecyde, but the many scholias referring to this lost piece are very clear about this. This means that the story that Apollodorus recorded isn’t a “novelty”, but rather the latest record of an older tradition going back to the fifth century BCE… THE SAME CENTURY THAT THE GORGONEION STARTED LOSING THEIR GROTESQUE, and that the face of Medusa started becoming more human in art.

[EDIT: I also forgot to add that this evolution of Medusa is also proved by strange literary elements, such as Pindar's mention in a poem of his (around 490 BCE) of "fair-cheeked Medusa". A description which seems strange given how Medusa used to be depicted as the epitome of ugliness... But that makes sense if the "cursed beauty" version of the myth had been going around at the time!]

And thus it is all connected and explained. Ovid did invent the rape yes – but he did not invent the idea of Athena cursing Medusa. It pre-existed as the most “recent” and dominating legend in Ancient Greece, having overshadowed by Ovid’s time the oldest Hesiodic records of Medusa being born a monster. So what Ovid did wasn’t completely create a new story out of nowhere, but twist the Greek traditions of Athena cursing Medusa and Medusa having a relationship with Poseidon, so that the two legends would form one and same story. And this explains in retrospect why Ovid focuses so much on describing Medusa’s beautiful hair, and why Ovid’s Minerva would think turning her hair into snake would be a “punishment fit for the crime”: these are leftovers of the Greek tale where Medusa was punished for her boasting and her vanity.

CONCLUSION

Here is the simplified chronology of how Medusa’s evolution went.

A) Primitive Greek myths, Hesiodic tradition: Born a monster out of a family of sea-monsters and monstrous immortals. Is a grotesque, gargoylesque, eldritch abomination. Athena has only an indirect conflict with her, due to being Perseus’ “fairy godmother”. Has a lovely romance with Poseidon.

B) Slow evolution throughout Classical Greece and further: Medusa becomes a beautiful, human-looking girl that was cursed to have snake for hair and petrifying eyes, instead of being a Lovecraftian horror people could not gaze upon. Her conflict with Athena becomes direct, as it is Athena that cursed her due to being offended by her vain boasting. Her punishment is for her vanity and arrogant comparison to the goddess.

C) Ovid comes in: Medusa’s romance with Poseidon becomes a rape, and she is now punished for having been raped inside Athena’s temple.

[As a final note, I want to insist upon the fact that the story of Medusa being raped is not less "worthy" than any other version of the myth. Due to its enormous popularity, how it shaped the figure of Medusa throughout the centuries, and how it still survives today and echoes current-day problems, to try to deny the valid place of this story in the world of myths and legends would be foolish. HOWEVER it is important to place back things in their context, to recognize that it is not the ONLY tale of Medusa, that it was NOT part of Greek mythology, but rather of Roman legends - and let us all always remember this time Poseidon slept with a Lovecraftian horror because my guy is kinky.]

EDIT:

For illustration, I will place here visuals showing how the Ancient art evolved alongside Medusa's story.

Before the 5th century BCE: Medusa is a full-on monster

From the 5th century to the 2nd century BCE: A slow evolution as Medusa goes from a full-on monster to a human turned into a monster. As a result the two depictions of the grotesque and beautiful gorgoneion coexist.

Post 2nd century BCE: Medusa is now a human with snake hair, and just that

[eastwindmlk]

A @jilymicrofics for the prompt Retire, Jan 14th

Word count: 838

It was strange, after more than half a century, to be cleaning up her office for the final time. To carefully wrap her trusty tea set in yesterday’s Prophet, sift through the boxes of paperwork in search of what to archive, what to keep and what to finally bin. 

As she sorted through an assortment of old assignments and Christmas cards from a bygone age, Minerva finds herself reminiscing. Once familiar faces and voices curled from the depths of her mind, a fond smile on her face. 

The corners of her lips trembled like her aged hands when her fingers brushed along a script that gave her pause. Because even after all these years, all these hundreds of students, she could still tell whose penmanship this was. 

The large letters crammed onto the parchment, like he knew he was going to run out of space for his sweeping t’s and large loops. The words slanting upwards as if wanting to escape from the paper. 

She did not doubt that, at the time, that was precisely what he’d had on his mind, while stuck doing a detention assignment for her. It was supposed to be an essay, but in true James Potter fashion, he’d ignored the explicit instruction and instead composed a letter. 

Dearest Minerva, 

As we sit across from each other in your office, a pot of lapsang souchong between us, I am aware you are pretending to be cross with me. For the sake of posterity, I will pretend with you. Though we both know that they deserved every miserable second. 

In the future, however, I will strive for a more creative solution. Even if I think turning their belts into snakes was quite a nifty piece of transfiguration. I will let you be the judge of that. Being the expert and all that. 

Speaking of the future, I am supposed to write an essay about where I see myself next year. Which I could have answered effortlessly a fortnight ago. But things changed. Every paper is full of it now. And I refuse to sit idle just because I happened to have been born into a family that fits into their narrow view of our world. 

One year from now, I will be as restless as ever. Using the privilege that comes with my name to help those who cannot help themselves. However, unlike before, I will not humour myself with the delusion that this can be achieved by mere words. 

I will gladly put my wand with my conviction and face whatever is in store beyond the safety of these walls. Together with my friends, we will make a difference. 

My friends and I are talking about getting a place together, somewhere nice and lively. We were hoping to travel, see some of the world. Those plans are on hold, at least for now. Though none of us will say it aloud, we hope that the four of us will be around for it.

So, we spend evenings talking about this trip, imagining places to go and things to do in the hopes that the four of us will get to go.

Hopefully, I will be dating Lily Evans. (Please don’t tell her I said that.) I think she is finally coming round to me. She no longer glares in my direction, though I can still feel her eyes on me sometimes.

Maybe I am crazy, but I can tell it is her just from the way it feels. Her watching me is special somehow. Often I itch to turn to her, to catch her looking. To catch a glimpse of her smile or her fluster. Just the fraction of a moment where I can believe she might actually feel the same way. 

Or maybe not the same way. I would not wish this complete and utter agony on her. If she does come to fall for me, I hope she falls softer. I hope that I am not too blind to see and catch her before the rough landing. 

That is only if I will ever be lucky enough to be enough for her. To have grown into a person, she can depend on rather than the childish prick (I am so sorry, did not mean to curse.) I used to be. 

I am afraid I am running out of space. I could fill several more rolls of parchment (Which is not me asking for more) with hopes and wishes for the year ahead. Some more achievable (Pass my N.E.W.T. s) and some more hopeful (Snog Lily Evans. Again, please don’t tell her I wrote any of this.)

Your favourite student, 

James Potter 

Her fingers crumpled the paper where she gripped it tight, a lump rising in her throat. Her eyes scanned the content of the letter once more before pressing it briefly to her heart before placing it atop her pile of keepsakes. 

Minerva pushed herself to her feet, in dire need of a break and craving a cup of lapsang souchong. 

[tealeavesandtrash]

🎄 Sweet Dreams of Holly and Ribbon: Part 7 - 9 Days Until Christmas 🎄

Read in full || Part 1 || Part 6 || Part 8

“I just don’t understand why I have to dress up as well.” Sirius mutters as he pulls at the collar of his top. It’s a truly horrendous elf outfit - gaudy green and red and completely unnecessary.

“It’s a Potter family tradition,” James replies cheerfully, completely unaware  - or more likely uncaring - of Sirius’ plight. 

“Since when?”

“Since now.”

Sirius glares at James which, given his current get-up, isn’t intimidating at all. Lily’s Mrs Claus costume is understandable with James as Santa (they have always been suckers for matching costumes) and to be fair the dress fits her well and actually looks good, while Harry is the epitome of adorable as he runs around in his reindeer onesie. The three of them would make an annoying adorable family photo.

And then there's Sirius who would currently make a very good Will Ferrel in a knock-off Elf reboot. James is a master of roping people into his schemes which Sirius never had an issue with when they were in school and the schemes were causing as much mayhem as possible. But now those schemes involve Sirius playing dress up while James makes his - incredibly important - debut as Santa Claus for the Christmas Fete. And Sirius had been so close to resisting until James pulled the trump card and announced mournfully that Harry was looking forward to them all matching and it would ruin the Christmas magic if Sirius didn’t at least try. 

So Sirius gets stuck with an hour of elf duties, left alone to manage the queue to Santa’s grotto while Lily does a lap of the stalls with Harry. It’s not the worst thing in the world, the kids seem to love it and it’s certainly a conversation starter for some of the parents, but hat is itchy and bells jangle every time he moves.

When Lily returns she also has Teddy and Remus in tow. Remus just gives him a knowing smirk when he clocks the costume while Lily hands Harry over.

“He only has £5 spending money,” she tells him sternly. “Don’t let him spend it all on sweets and don’t spoil him.”

There’s a lapse of awkward silence after Sirius is relinquished from grotto duty and they set off, the normal buffer of Harry and Teddy absent as the two of them scamper ahead.  The second he’s able, Sirius rips the hat off and shoves it into his jacket pocket.

“So,” Remus says slowly. “Is that better or worse than the jumper?”

“Don’t rub it in,” Sirius groans at the reminder. “I am really sorry about that, I should have apologised sooner.”

Remus eyes him curiously for a minute before shrugging it off. “It’s okay. I know they're hideous. I’m pretty sure James is pandering me by wearing it, but he’s so sincere I can’t tell.”

“Trust me, he genuinely loves it.”

“Well play your cards right and you might get one next year.”

“Is that a threat Mr Lupin?”

“I think that outfit alone is karma enough.”

“Yeah well, I would have been Mrs Claus if Lily had let me.”

Remus is still watching him carefully. “Do you have the legs to pull off that skirt?”

“I know you’re joking Lupin, but I will have you know I used to have a very promising drag career.”

Remus snots, “What happened? Did someone push you down the stairs, ruin your career and take the lead?”

Sirius pauses a moment. “Was that a Showgirls reference?”

“Don’t know what you mean,” Remus shrugs with a sly smile. “So who Nomi-ed you?”

Sirius huffs a laugh. “Fucking hell you’re full of surprises aren’t you.”

Remus’ lips quirk up more at the comment, eyebrow raised. 'Language’ he mutters, head jerking slightly to Teddy even though the kid is too wrapped up in the tombola stall to pay attention to their conversation. 

Sirius watches Remus as he gently ushers Teddy along before he spends all his pocket money on the one stall. There’s something about him that Sirius can’t quite figure out, Minerva wasn’t kidding when she said there was more to him than meets the eye. Every time they meet it's like another piece of the puzzle gets unlocked and all Sirius wants to do is find all the pieces and complete the Remus Lupin jigsaw. 

He has to take a couple of strides to catch up with them, who have moved onto a guess-the-number-of-jellybeans-in-the-jar completion. 

“For the record,” he carries on, “it wasn’t anything nearly that dramatic. I just stopped when I joined my dad's company.”

“Well surely the work hours didn’t clash,” Remus says, glancing back over to Sirius. 

“No, but apparently that sort of side gig promotes a bad image of the company.” 

Remus frowns. “That doesn’t seem fair.”

Sirius shrugs. “It is what it is.”

“That doesn’t make it okay, Sirius. That’s blatant discrimination.”

“Yeah I know,” Sirius heaves a sigh. “But pick your battles and all that.”

Remus is staring at him intently now like he’s trying to unpick the deeper implication of the words and Sirius has to drop his gaze under the scrutiny that leaves him exposed to the emotional vulnrabilty. Tentatively, Remus reaches out and gives Sirius’ hand a gentle squeeze. “I’m sorry you have to put up with that,” he says quietly enough for only Sirius to hear.

Sirius squeezes back. He swallows thickly, letting their hands stay clasped for a little longer than maybe they should before eventually dropping his hand and crouching down next to Teddy who is staring intently at the large jar of jellybeans. 

“So,” he whispers conspiringly. “How many do you think there are?”

Teddy has a deep-set look of concentration. “Ten thousand,” he says with utmost certainty. 

Sirius lets out a low whistle. “Wow, that’s a lot. I think I’m going to go with ten thousand and one.”

Teddy giggles. “You can’t guess that, it’s too close to mine!”

“Hm, ten thousand and two?”

Teddy shakes his head again. 

“Ten thousand and three?”

At that Teddy pauses, thinks it over, and gives his nod of agreement. 

He watches with earnest as Sirius carefully fills out their names and guesses on the answer sheet. And, when Remus goes to pay for their entries, Sirius quickly cuts in.  “I’ve got it, half of it’s mine,” he says as he bats Remus’ hand away. 

“I can’t expect you to go around paying for my kid.”

Sirius just shrugs. “It’s fine, any friend of Harry’s is a friend of mine and all that.”

Remus doesn’t argue with that, although Sirius suspects it may be to just avoid causing a scene. Still, he fixes Sirius with a look that he can’t quite decipher as he hands over the money to the stall owner. It makes the hair on the back of his neck prickle. 

Read in full || Part 1 || Part 6 || Part 8

@annaliza999 @marigold-hills @veganbutterchicken (If you do/dont want to be tagged in the next parts lmk <3)

[teecupangel]

IDEA: Desmond gets turned into a creature of your choosing, just has to be able to “write”. And yknow how we always go with the ‘his writing becomes illegible’ thing? What if all of his writing is unreadable except the word “Desmond”. Drop him in with Ezio and watch the chaos unfold.

I was thinking what creature we should go for and my brain just went ‘screw it, go with Slime Desmond so we don’t have to think if the creature can actually use a quill or if he’s using his hands to write’.

Then my next thought was “Wouldn’t it be funny if Desmond could write ‘Desmond’ but he can only write it in a specific language that Ezio doesn’t know? Like… the Isu script?” but you know what would be funnier?

Desmond had always been an intelligent creature.

He used his strange body structure to make creative shapes that Ezio would be able to decipher and understand. He was the best scout and planning partner to have.

His uncle believes Desmond was a descendant of the slime ‘companion’ the legendary Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad supposed had.

If he was, Ezio could see why everyone believed Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad was the best mentor the Brotherhood ever had.

Desmond made everything so easy that Ezio knew he needed to not depend on him too much. He needed to be able to stay on his own feet. To show that he was a formidable Assassin in his own rights.

That was why he asked Desmond to stay in Monteriggioni while he went to the Vatican to finally confront Rodrigo Borgia.

He focused on the safety of his family, knowing it was Desmond’s soft spot.

And it worked.

Desmond stayed and Ezio went to Rome alone.

And then he heard Minerva’s message.

‘Desmond’.

She specifically said Desmond’s name.

Desmond wasn’t a usual name and…

It was the only ‘word’ Desmond could write.

So when he returned to Monteriggioni, he briskly walked towards Desmond and crouched in front of him. Desmond’s entire body seemed to be vibrating slightly and Ezio pointed at him as he asked in an almost panicky tone, “Desmond?”

Desmond created too slimey appendages and pointed at himself, waving the tentacle-like appendages furiously.

“Desmond!” Ezio repeated and Desmond began to vibrate more noticeably.

“Desmond!” Ezio said cheerfully and Desmond started bouncing in front of him in pure joy.

“Why is my brother repeating Desmond’s name?” Claudia whispered from behind them, looking both confused and tired already.

“I’m not entirely sure…” Mario answered as he rubbed his chin.

“Ah, of course!” Ezio grabbed Desmond midbounce and held him in his arms before turning to face his family and allies. He recounted Minerva’s message and what he had seen, making his allies wear different expressions on their faces.

When he got to the part where Minerva specifically said Desmond’s name, Mario’s eyes widened as he asked, “Nipote, are you saying…”

“Yes.” Ezio raised Desmond to his eye-level as he proclaimed…

“Desmond is a messenger like Minerva! He keeps writing the name Desmond because he is looking for him!”

Desmond’s happy vibrations immediately stopped and then…

WHACK.

A tentacle appendage suddenly appeared from Desmond’s body and smacked Ezio behind the head, making the Assassin yelp in surprise and let go of Desmond.

Desmond quickly hopped away from them and went straight for the secret door that would lead to the Sanctuary below.

“What? What did I do? Was it supposed to be a secret, Desmond?!” Ezio followed the slime, already knowing it would be sulking behind the statue of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad.

… leaving his family and allies back in the office who stared at the secret entrance.

“…………. well… who’s going to tell him that Desmond is angry because the obvious answer was he’s the Desmond in the message?”

“I will respectfully decline. For one, I don’t want to argue with Ezio about how that idea is foolish as this Desmond is meant to be alive centuries from now to save the world.”

“O dio mio, does that mean our Desmond used to be Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad’s Desmond?! Is Desmond immortal???”

“I’m going to bed. Wake me up once my brother stops being stupid.”

[castkorb]

I made this post a few days ago and was asked for more input on Sting's character in regards to future Rogue so here's some more thoughts:

enjoy <3

Future Rogue explicitly says he killed Sting and took his power but I have my doubts about that:

f!Rogue said to Natsu that in one year from the games Frosch would be killed by Gray and thus his pillar would be gone and he would succumb to the shadow, meaning during Avatar Gray and Rogue would fight.

But Tartaros happened before Avatar, and during this arc we witness Sting and Rogue's first shown improvement after swearing change in the name of Sabertooth, which culminates in both of them killing Jienma and erasing Sabertooth's ugly past for good. also using a unique unison raid that only they can do <3

Which solidifies the fact that Rogue is no longer intimidated by his shadow because, as he said himself, Sting would be able to kill it. He no longer lives haunted by the thoughts of his shadow taking over him because he knows Sting will always be there to protect him.

But this obviously all happened in the good future where the world didn't end and now THIS is where the fun begins.

What happened in the bad future where f!Rogue is from?

If my memory serves correct f!Rogue later revealed that his plan was to open the gate of Eclipse to let dragons from the past in and rule them to overcome Acnologia, who would soon descend and raise the world into chaos.

Now I don't think he gave an exact date as to when would this be but, Acnologia did indeed appear later during Tartaros so we're going to assume that's when the apocalypse started in the bad timeline.

And let's rewind for a sec to what happened in the good timeline's Tartaros: Sting and Rogue helped Fairy Tail, saved Minerva and killed Jienma, which is a direct consequence of what f!Rogue did during Eclipse.

I explain:

What would have happened after the games ended in this bad timeline? Would Sting have accepted to become Sabertooth's new master? His resolution begins when he gives up before Erza and the rest during the final battle but I don't think he really makes up his mind about it until the dragons are attacking the city and he fights to protect his guild, both he and Rogue do.

It's not until both of them are fighting at the end of the world that they realise what made Fairy Tail the strongest guild, and even after having tecnically lost, this battle gave them something f!Rogue probably didn't expect.

It gave them hope.

So can we really assume they would've followed the same path had they not fought the dragons? I find it absolutely marvelous and poetic how f!Rogue, having lost all sense of compassion, hope and having nothing left but rage, wanting to cast his revenge in this new timeline indirectly saved him and his beloved from the horrors he had to endure.

Which brings me back to my first statement. In the bad timeline Sting was left with nothing after the games ended, sure Jienma was gone, he got Lector back and he had Rogue but what was he supossed to do from there on? Without the cataclysm of the Eclipse gate I assume he'd want nothing to do with Sabertooth again, or maybe he did, but then as Tartaros arrived maybe the guild had not yet gone through the experience of truly fighting along your peers to protect them, none of the guilds had. except, yknow, fairy tail but they're literally the mcs here

We can't forget that they were fighting literal demons here, plus Acnologia himself. -Again taking in mind the experience of fighting dragons had also not happened here-

You could also argue that the FACE project the Tartaros gates had planned might've actually worked in this timeline, which would result in over half of the population or more being left without magic to fight, it's understandable the world fell into chaos pretty quickly and a huge number of people died, as we saw in f!Lucy's timeline.

And Sting and Rogue were probably neither mentally nor physically prepared to fight all of this right after the magic games, they didn't have time to bond with their guildmates after Jienma died the same way they did in the good timeline, hell I'd even argue Sting was probably in a worse state because he got his emotional and physical strenght tested back then and there's no way he'd recover from that in such a short time with only Rogue's help.

Throughout the manga we see how Sting is the uplifting half of this duo, he's the one who constantly reassures Rogue and the rest of the guild, he's taken his admiration for Natsu and learned from it in that sense, but is bad future Sting like this? Is he able to smile and shine a path to the people he loves, is he able to fight for them?

In my head f!Rogue didn’t kill Sting because Sting likely gave up fighting or chose to sacrifice himself. that being to give Rogue another chance to live or because he knew one of them would die and he knew he wouldn't be able to live without Rogue is up to interpretation :)

And this proves to me that neither can live without the other, when Sting died f!Rogue either lost his mind and gave into grief not fully, he would after Frosch's death and took his powers in order to survive or to preserve a small part of Sting with him, which makes this shit sadder when his shadow fully takes over him and he's no longer concious of this, using his partner's power, the only power able to guide him and subdue him to kill without remorse.

f!Rogue said that Frosch was his pillar but I refuse to believe Sting is not a pillar for him as well, he may have fully lost against his shadow after losing Frosch but his relationship with Sting having ended simply with a "I killed him amd took his powers" I will not accept, Rogue lost half his heart when Sting died/was killed and Frosh was the last bit of sanity that remained of him after that, which was ultimately but not the only reason he wasn't strong enough to fight his shadow.

As you can see I have a lot to say about this arc and I would've given anything for it to be explored more but alas I've spent the last 6+ years rewritting the entirety of this manga in my head and I love to dive into the possibilities, like what could have happened if Sting had lost Rogue in that future? what happened to the rest of the Sabertooth's members? I can be here all day.

But anyways I feel I'm not good enough at expressing my thoughts in written form but I hope it's understandable enough? I'm growing more confident though so hopefully I can puke more nonsense about this two <33

[ladykf-writes]

New Fic Series: The Goddess' Roulette

Summary: By the time Genesis was healed, the world had been ruined three times over and was barely hanging on. Seeing an opportunity, he offered his life and blessed powers as a WEAPON of the Planet for one chance to change things.  Now he’s on a whirlwind ride across space and time to become a version of himself Minerva believes is capable of doing the job.

Just wanted to let you know, I started the first fic in this series (largely because it was planned and no other fics were cooperating) -- and it's where it all starts, with Genesis and Minerva post-Deepground. This series is going to be fun, but also require some hefty work and returning to old friends media. Not a hardship, but time consuming.

The premise is this: Genesis is willing to give everything to change the fate of Gaia, to do things right, to fix what he sees as his most grievous sins that set off a snowball leading to the massive damages to the Planet. (He's not entirely wrong.)

As far as Minerva is concerned, he's not ready for that yet. He needs time to gain skills and maturity -- and he will gain these by going to other worlds and helping other people. The people include, in fandom order:

DBZ's Son Goku

FF9's Garnet til Alexandros

FF15's Ardyn Izunia

MCU's Tony Stark

Sailor Moon's Usagi Tsukino

SWTOR's Barsen'thor (my player character OC)

Zelda's (OoT) Ganondorf

This isn't the order I'll be starting in, I may actually add / subtract others, too. I'd really love to tuck Threads of Fate (Dewprism) in there, and I'm tempted to add Revan (KOTOR) though I'd also prefer not to double up fandoms. Idk.

For each of these, he has something to give, and something to learn. They'll all be posted as separate fics, of course, but I do advise reading all of them. I mean, come on guys, it's me. If you're here because you like my writing doesn't it stand to reason you'd like my writing in other fandoms? ;)

Anyway after allllllll that, he goes back in time to Gaia to deal not only with ShinRa and its scientists, but with Jenova in a final fic.

It's ambitious. It's a little crazy. It's a series of stories I have wanted to tell for an age, so I will and hopefully some of you will like it. No ETA on arrival, paying more attention to DW and WTT right now... but it's coming, be assured it is coming. (Also it's fair game for asks, I do know enough about it to answer those!)

[saintsenara]

I am living for the rare pair asks and answers!!! Break it down for me (any or all, your choice)!: Viktor Krum and Ron, Snape and McGonagall, Trelawney and Umbridge!

thank you so much for the ask, @nanneramma - three absolutely top-tier choices here.

viktor krum/ron weasley

listen... unrequited kron is quite literally canon. ron wanted krum to sleep in his bed [come on, king, have some chill], kept a little model of him on his bedside table [and then snapped it when krum had the temerity to fancy someone else], and just generally had such little idea about what to do with his hitherto untapped bisexuality that his embarrassing behaviour made everyone within a ten-mile radius profoundly uncomfortable.

do i think krum would be into it...? yes.

as he says to harry at bill and fleur's wedding, one of the perks of being an international quidditch star is the opportunity to nail your fans. finding a fan who's as enthusiastic as ron would undoubtedly be about this scenario is like hitting the jackpot.

minerva mcgonagall/severus snape

a genuine obsession - sustained by every single fic @kellychambliss has ever written about the two.

firstly because i’m an equal-opportunity age-gap fan, and there is far too little older woman/younger man in the fandom, but also because i’m a huge fan of the fanon that snape and mcgonagall are friends prior to dumbledore’s death - i’m not sure it’s canonically plausible, but who gives a fuck - and i like the idea of that blossoming into something more, especially in fics where snape survives the second war. after all, he is a man who definitely needs to be treated quite strictly [and i don’t just mean in the staff room], there's a shared loneliness and grief to them both, they’re intellectual equals despite the age gap, and bickering about quidditch is absolutely fine as a method of foreplay.

plus, you can’t tell me dumbledore’s portrait doesn’t ship it.

sybill trelawney/dolores umbridge

well, they've obviously got the "enemies" part of "enemies-to-lovers" nailed [behave].

but, actually, i'm not sure i back it. the thing that's really interesting about trelawney is that she's clearly very aware that the face she presents to the world is a work of fiction - she knows, absolutely, that she's not really a good seer, that her colleagues think she's weird and off-putting, and so on - and i think that the insecurity she feels about this and the affect it must have on her relationships is a really fascinating thing to work through in both platonic and romantic ships which feature her.

umbridge, on other hand, also lives - essentially - in character at all times, but believes she's entirely right to do so. she's never letting go of her righteousness enough to give a crap about poor sybill, I fear.

[my fave trelawney rare pair? her with rita skeeter, who does have the 'being well aware you're a fraud' vibe. my fave with umbridge? her with prison.]

[magicaleggplant]

extremely belated montreal worlds impressions, part 1

i've been meaning to write this for weeks now, but never found the time for it. finally putting some thoughts down in words before i forget everything.

this post covers the pairs and women's events. part 2 will be ice dance and men (if i ever get around to writing it...) warning for extremely unfocused writing; i have been so stupidly busy lately.

ETA: here is part 2

-----------------------------------

PAIRS:

pleasantly surprised by how much i enjoyed pairs at worlds! the short program was remarkably clean, and while the free was messy, there were still a few bright moments. the level of pairs did decrease after the last olympics, but i think many teams have been gradually building up their technical content and skills, and it's good to see teams coming from many small feds. i have to admit that i did not watch many pairs events this season (it's the first discipline i cut when i don't have time to watch everything), but pairs live is much more fun than pairs on screen. i can appreciate their elements much better. in general, my favorite thing about watching live skating is the sense of speed and scale.

miura/kihara: i was nervous as hell for them but they pulled through! i really didn't know what to expect after all of their injury struggles this season. it wouldn't have surprised me if they didn't make the podium, so i'm thrilled for their silver medal. this was my second time seeing them live and it was clear that they weren't at the top of their game - there were a bunch of little mistakes scattered throughout their programs. the free went much better than i hoped. i'm glad they went back to an old program, but i really wish they had started the season with better programs to begin with... (hear me out: have you considered lori nichol for choreo?) but i think at their best, m/k are still the class of the field. their speed and skating skills really, really stand out when you see them live. i cannot stress enough how fast they are; no other team comes close to their speed. their lifts are also very steady (when ryuichi isn't injured, anyway). i was happy that the audience cheered loudly for them even though they were clearly rooting for deanna and max to win. it was a tough season for them but they are such strong skaters, and i really hope the next season goes better. i'm also really glad they were able to get a medal ceremony do-over after the men's ceremony. they looked happy there.

stellato-dudek/deschamps: the crowd was HYPED for them, i couldn't believe how many people came to watch pairs for them, considering it always gets scheduled in the middle of the week! i'm happy for their win, though there was a little bit of home cooking to help out lol. they have great programs this season. it's a bit of the opposite situation with m/k where i really liked sd/d's programs, but their actual skating, not as much. their lack of speed is really obvious compared to m/k. many of their elements feel like a fight instead of effortless. but i was really impressed with how they held up under the pressure of a home worlds. deanna's determination is amazing.

hase/volodin: ok, count me impressed by this new team. they still have a ways to go in connecting with each other, but their elements are really solid and their skating skills aren't bad, either. technically speaking, i'd put them behind m/k but above sd/d in quality. i enjoyed their short program a lot; the free was a bit of a snooze, imo. minerva is a wonderful pairs skater. i'm looking forward to seeing them improve. that one lift entry they do is SO cool.

other notes:

really enjoyed both of hocke/kunkel's programs. they're fun, i'm a fan now.

also enjoyed golubeva/giotopoulos-moore quite a bit

still can't believe cats won euros

peng/wang's throws were too big for this rink. i was very sad at their placement, but cheng is such a wonderful skater and their choreo was excellent, i especially love their free.

-----------------------------------

WOMEN:

a very up and down worlds after a very inconsistent season. so, more or less as expected.

kaori: her fs was a MOMENT. i think the first time i saw kaori live was...2017 skate america? it was her first senior season, and i remember being so impressed by the lightness of her jumps then. the same is true this time, but her growth has been astounding. kaori was not one of my favorite skaters when she was younger; she absolutely is now. while her free skate this season is not my favorite of hers, i love how her range of expression has expanded. her skating is lush, luxurious, she's learned to take her time with the music. and god, her speed. she makes everything look so easy. i'm so happy i got to see this confident, mature kaori win her third world title. the crowd was losing their shit for her, as they should. also love how she was the team mom at the medal ceremony with the two younger medalists. she's such a great role model.

isabeau: i feel like every time someone talks about her, they have to add the caveat that they hate her jump technique. which, yes, i do agree with that. but from now on i'm just going to talk about the positive aspects of her skating, because i think she deserves more of that. it was my first time seeing her live and i liked her! she's musical, her arm movements are beautiful, and she's not slow at all, except on jump entries. her spins are great when she hits them. i appreciate her a lot more after seeing her live. her reaction after her fs was really cute.

chaeyeon: unexpected medalist but i'm happy for her! she is not my favorite among the top korean women but i'm impressed with her improvement this season. her sp is one of my favorites. that kind of quirky program suits her really well. the fs is a bit muted, but i think she does a good job with it as well. her musicality is the less obvious kind, but it's there. she's gradually growing into her own style.

loena: her sp was a lot of fun, the audience really got into it. she can sell a program, alright. loads of charisma and she skates BIG. the fs...well, to be fair, even without the jump mistakes, i never liked it. i appreciate what loena brings to the women's field, but i hope her programs are better next season. maybe a change in choreographer would be interesting?

haein: sirens is a masterpiece. i'm so glad she could skate it cleanly like that at least once. she has my favorite step sequences in the women's field by far. we'll just ignore everything else in the fs except for the step sequence. i love her so much and i want her to win another world medal someday.

mone: her skating skills are a dream, her overall quality is chef's kiss. but when she's nervous, you can really feel it. she skated like she was terrified in the sp and it showed. it detracted from the performance. i'm glad her fs went better. i hope her confidence improves and that this worlds was a good learning experience for her. i randomly ran into her on the concourse and she signed my japanese flag! she’s so tiny and adorable.

hana: on the other hand, hana does not skate scared. she just goes out and does her thing! but to me her skating still feels a bit "small" at the moment. her lutz-toe technique is terrifying... she can also work on her dance skills a bit more, her overall polish. but i love her programs. i still can't believe she made koo koo fun work. i love that she never does conventional "pretty" programs.

other notes:

amber: love her, but it is what it is. her 3a was excellent.

katia kurakova's fs reaction was a great moment. i like that she's trying different styles of music now, but i think she went a bit too far in the "serious" direction. her natural spark feels too muted.

young you: my darling. we all wanted so badly for her to do well... her sp was wonderful, though.

olga mikutina is becoming a new fave of mine. her skating is powerful and she's a good performer!

also love niina petrokina's powerful skating

[s0phos-writes]

lupin iii - fuck it im writing my own silly movie

so this is a combination of two "ideas" i had - one with a self-insert OC and one of inserting someone else into the story lmao im still on the fence between asking for forgiveness and asking for permission but we're gonna say our piece and see where we land afterwards…

if the person i took inspiration from is reading this and recognizes what im talking about no you dont LOL NO uh you can tell me to take it down or w/e if you think i'm over stepping lol;; ANYWAY NOW THAT THAT'S OUT OF THE WAY

so… i have two OCs… one is the girl of the week (GotW) - a librarian named minnie (short for minerva); the other is the villain - an agent of a secret evil world police (or maybe just CIA lmao) named mal (short for mallory). can you guess which is the self-insert lmaooo

i don't have the like actual plot figured out? like i don't know what the lupgang is after or why the librarian gets involved -- the only clear like scene? i had was the GotW has a van (a book mobile perhaps?) and she helped lupin escape zenigata by hiding him in the van and distracting zenigata with flattery and trash talking lupin lol i thought it was cute

as for the villain… idk i just had the thought (after being inspired by some art) what if zenigata, but worse? like she isn't above harming/maiming or even KILLING to get what she wants (him) IDK MAN its fucked up but i thought it was interesting… like when we meet her, we learn shes been watching lupin for a while , maybe not even a relatively long while but she became obsessed.. Maybe its in the name of the law that she pursues him but she wrestles with the internal struggle of wanting to control him, become him? Break him? I think ultimately destroy him so that she can have peace of mind once again… OH and i also wanted her to be a “Magnificent Bastard” [thanks trope talk!] bc its so fitting and i would love to see her lose her cool i just think that’d be neat…

I also wanted to explore themes of identity like i imagine mal like gets to lupin in the beginning bc he typically has the upper hand in every situation but with this woman, he doesn't? and it shakes him so we get to deal with what does it mean to be "lupin iii"? [basically i want to explore that moment in part V(?) where the bad guy reverse-uno-cards lupin's escape plan-literally explodes him-and he sleeps it off for two days but he's ultimately fine?? like bitch no wtf that was kinda a big deal??? at least i think it should've been]

and of course the secret weapon that lupin has that wins him the day is the power of friendship lmao idk if i should say cuz maybe its a spoiler? but also who cares 1. idk if im even actually going to write this and b. its not like everyone that reads that (if it exists) will see this and be "spoiled" ok so here goes: the real trump card that villain doesnt prepare for will be fujiko bc she expects fujiko to sell him out for one corn chip but surprise ! she doesn't lol so really this is a continued exploration of fujilup lmao cuz im a simple man

[hpsaffics]

Authors are revealed for the HP Saffics Summer Exchange 2023! Check out the 33 fabulous double drabbles on AO3 or below 🏖. Treat giving starts tomorrow and will continue all week (Jul 21-Jul 28)!

1. wrenches, redheads, and romance, oh my! by @leftsidedown [G, Millicent/Ginny]

Ginny's apartment is in need of a little extra love.

2. Deal with the Devil by @storyof-eden [T, Hermione/Bellatrix, Hermione/Narcissa]

Hermione makes a deal in order to save the one she loves.

3. On Display by @sugareey-makes-stuff [E, Katie/Alicia]

Katie tries to be good and lets Alicia watch her.

4. What Would It Take by @herochicklyrrie007 [G, Cho/Luna]

Luna's tired of no one believing she and Cho are more than friends, maybe it's time to do something to show the world how they feel about each other?

5. House Points by @bee-prescott [T, Hermione/Minerva]

A vignette of Minerva and Hermione's life together

6. Chocolate-Stained Fingertips by @slythercrux [G, Hermione/Luna]

After the war, Hermione slowly learns to find beauty in the slow rhythm of her everyday life. (And Luna finds her voice again without needing to utter a single word.)

7. Harpy by @hermioneclone [M, Narcissa/Ginny]

The new owner of the Holyhead Harpies is getting under Ginny's skin.

8. Spare you the pain by @an-organism [G, Millicent/Astoria]

Three days into a stay at St. Mungo's, Astoria wakes to an all-too-familiar face. Millicent wishes the both of them could be anywhere else.

9. the lady of the lake by @nanneramma [M, Giant Squid/Lily]

During a swim, Lily comes into her own.

10. She would’ve made such a lovely bride (what a shame she’s a lesbian) by @caitiewantstobeavadakedavrad [M, Narcissa/Marlene]

Nice dress, princess. Those three simple words destroy Narcissa’s wedding

11. Wrapped in Love by @mugsdontlie [M, Minerva/Pomona]

It’s a cosy late afternoon and Minerva helps Pomona take care of their plants in the greenhouse.

12. toss me, turn me by nocturn [T, Millicent/Pansy]

Waking is always the worst.

13. Never Again by @fiestylilmetalbendingqueen [M, Narcissa/Lily]

Narcissa's holding out hope for a hopeless situation.

14. Trophy by @byrainchance [M, Katie/Angelina]

Katie and Angelina share a post-game celebration.

15. Divination by @leftsidedown [G, Bellatrix/Sybil]

Bellatrix is pregnant, and that means cravings. Good thing her wife's psychic?

16. Interchange by @padaminpadam [T, Fleur/Angelina]

Fleur’s dress was the colour of a ghost, like a hunter wearing the skin of her prey.

17. Work can wait, my love by @cottagewhore [G, Hermione/Narcissa]

Hermione gets sick, luckily Narcissa is there to take care of her

18. Sweat it Out by strawhouses [M, Pansy/Ginny]

Pansy’s a hell of a Keeper, actually; it’s just that Ginny is in a constant state of wanting to mess her up.

19. Words Are All We'll Have by @rhiaflamesong [M, Lavender/Millicent]

Her boldness to act on her feelings was too little, came too late.

20. Beyond The Veil by @miss-grimwood [T, Bellatrix/Lily]

Bellatrix never meant for them to hurt Lily, she just wanted her all for herself.

21. Daffodils Swaying With Pansies by @hadesvampire [T, Narcissa/Pansy]

Narcissa has watched Pansy matured, always spending some time during summer breaks at Malfoy Manor. But she was never caught watching Pansy until this moment.

22. A Most Suitable Suitor by mouldy_voldy [G, Astoria/Pansy]

Astoria has brought home a prospective suitor from a respectable family. Mrs Greengrass has thoughts.

23. Going Beyond by @bleepbloopbotz [T, Hermione/Bellatrix]

Using a time-turner, Bellatrix arrives in the future of Hogwarts and meets a remarkable witch.

24. desperately mine by @fantasyborn [M, Astoria/Daphne]

Her sister may be set to marry Draco Malfoy but Astoria will always belong to Daphne.

25. Whispered Secrets by @digthewriter [T, Tonks/Ginny]

Whispered secrets turn to forbidden love. She holds your hand and you don't want to let go.

26. Flawless by @schmem14 [T, Hermione/Marietta]

Hermione has to work with an old enemy. It doesn't help that she's attracted to the one person who could ruin her career forever.

27. skin so soft by @mrsprobie [G, Hermione/Pansy]

Hermione is on a work trip with Pansy and they have to share a hotel room. The problem? There's only one bed.

28. She Got There First by @sliebman10 [T, Alice/Narcissa]

When Narcissa finds out Voldemort's plans for Alice and Frank, she has to protect her former girlfriend from that fate.

29. comfort in the absence of light by @picklesonjupiter [M, Marlene/Dorcas, Narcissa/Lily]

An attempt at normalcy after the war.

30. the air and lingers (resilience) by @blue--dreaming [T, Astoria/Ginny]

Ginny is curious, and Astoria finds her confidence.

31. I Will Stay If You Dare by @hawksquill [M, Hermione/Tonks]

Sometimes Hermione's friends with benefits arrangement with Tonks feels like the only simple thing in her life. But that's about to change.

32. leaning over the edge by @iamsiriuslyriddikulus [E, Pansy/Ginny]

Back at Hogwarts months after the war, Ginny is haunted by memories and nightmares. Only Pansy can offer relief.

33. dinner on saturday by @silv3reyedstranger [T, Pansy/Ginny]

they've certainly come a long way from being enemies, and things are different now. maybe, just maybe, they're ready for the next step.

Read all double drabbles in the collection on AO3!

[intertexts]

GMORNING !!!!! u know what time it is

EPISODE 8 TRIVIA:

- the big monster they fought in the beginning was called a Crawling Apocalypse which looks like this. terrifying !!!

- bizly really liked that william banished it. he was originally not gonna let him do that but then "i realized your character can do so little and that was cool so i said fuck it" we love william pity points he is such a loser and he rolls so terribly <3

- they start talking about one piece because grizzlys saying things abt how certain parts of dakota are inspired by luffy and bizly goes "ive never watched anime" which is the biggest lie in the world

- grizzly: "yknow we were about an hour into the episode before i realized wow i havent done anything productive yet"

condi: "you just hit on vyncents mom for like 20 minutes!!!!"

- and then they start talking about how dakota and chip (bizlys pc from riptide) would either be best friends or hate each other which is really funny bc there are now MULTIPLE what if crossover episodes where they meet and interact and thats exactly the dynamic . i love them

- condi wasnt expecting his dad to be dead, he thought theyd have to fight him

- he kind of hesitated taking the sword !! vyncent doesnt really know how to feel about using something that belonged to his father

- he wasnt entirely Present for the part where his dad betrayed the party, he was sort of fading in and out of consciousness so theres a chance he didnt actually get the full picture. condi knows this out of character and vyncent knows it in the back of his mind somewhere that his dad might not actually be fully evil but hes too angry to come to terms with that yet

- hes struggling a lot with the fact that his mom.doesnt know about the betrayal. he doesnt want to tell her because "its not his fathers pride at stake, its his mother's memory of him" and that makes me so . :(

- THE GREATS!!!!!!!! THE GREATS ARE HERE i love the greats. surely nothing bad is happening to them

- they have a couple theories as to whats going on with the greats:

-- condi: theyre in this state because vyncent took too long getting them back here out of his head

-- condi: they were killed when they got transported to the other world and there was no way to get them back completely

-- charlie: something happened in the time where vyncent was transported to prime and the greats had died, so someone did something to keep them alive by putting them in his head. maybe they could only be kept alive by being in vyncents head

- grizzly tries to insight check bizly irl to see if any of their theories are close so far. this does not work . he rolled a 17 btw

- none of them trust minerva they think she might be secretly working with the lich. bizly defends her by saying "shes also in the middle of basically an apocalypse i think shes allowed to be a little mean to you"

- le frog is the only french person ever. this is brought up with NO context no explanation

- bizly is sharing some of the thumbnail art from youtube because this was right around the time the first few episodes were being put up publically !! most of them are just the same as the official refs but the most important one is le frog bc im not actually sure if youve seen his offical design yet . also tide used to be white. we dont have to talk about white tide

- bizly says pd feels more like a DC comic than a Marvel comic. hes right about this

- charlie starts talking about marissa meyer books and this is important 2 me because the lunar chronicles was an extremely formative piece of media for me . she apparently has a book called renegades thats superhero themed and i have not read it yet but i put it on my list specifically because of this. wahoo!

tgis is SUCH good trivia for this ep thank u dude... ouagh. really solid meal here. i love these last couple episodes so much.. there's so much fun stuff happening here i'm enjoying all of the greats stuff & getting like a solid Vyncent Moment for a while.

i LOVE the william pity points its great! it WAS cool as fuck!! also i gain +5 hp every time a gm goes "who give a shit if this isn't technically how the game mechanics should work, it's fun for everyone at the table & makes for something cool and makes sense narratively."

that being said. i DID take SO MUCH PSYCHIC DAMAGE from how long dakota spent hitting on his fucking mom. Please. Please king !!! sob.

I ALSO WAS EXPECTING THEM TO FIGHT VYN'S DAD???? still not unconvinced that some lich undead bullshit isn't going to happen with that. god i'm so invested in figuring out what HAPPENED there... i love this type of murder mystery situation. & i also was genuinely unsure if he would take the sword or not!! really kind of an ohhh shit! moment when he did. imo. vyncent virion sol i love u.... also it's still INCREDIBLY funny 2 me that he's still in his normal clothes. i have not forgotten that he is just doin his fantasy bullshit thing in the just some guy drip. (<- i might have forgotten something but i've been assuming they no longer have/wear Official Hero Drip since they're no longer really sanctioned or on great terms w/ them? also i've been assuming that the episode-specific clothes & shit isn't really permanent... now that im thinking about it though please tell me wiwi hardcore blue flame black leather kickass spiky biker jacket remains. it's too cool for him. but. still.)

I LOVE THE GREATS SO MUCH... i hope nothing permanently bad happens to them :( i like them so dearly..... you know they r really solid folks because they spent a YEAR and change living in a teenager's brain & came out of the experience still bein so nice 2 him.... augh. also in general big fan of the system-adjacent bullshit :] i love it when theres. guy with guys in his head. etc. will b sad ab their departure but i hope they r OKAY and return 2 Being Alive & shit!! nervous laughter. also god i can't wait to find out what Actually Happened with them. hhrhrghghgghh.

THIS IS SO TRUE ALSO???? free my girl minerva she did nothing but have Literally Normal Reactions to TERRIBLE things happening!!!

I DON'T LIKE THAT LEFROG FACT. it raises the question of is he actually even french or like, is there even a point of reference for his behavior. like. What is going on there. Horrifying thank you!!!! also man this entire degree im working on would be useless! well. maybe prime quebec exists. somehow. independently of a hypothetical europe. HIS DESIGN IS SO FUN BTW. its so cute.. i WAS kind of imagining a mutant Big Real Fucking Frog situation but i think this is a lot more reasonable. also literally ignoring white tide I Do Not See it. It Does Not Exist.

ALSO. NOT GOING TO START TALKING AB COMICS FOR EVEN MORE PARAGRAPHS. BUT. he is so so so right. (<- dc comics guy with Opinions. well. technically im not even much of a dc guy im just a vertigo guy. but. still.) hghghghbhgh.

[vigilskeep]

Keir rescuing/meeting Nathaniel quest, how did that go? Also, Nathaniel participating in the final battle against Meredith gives me brainworms.

Nathaniel getting back to Vigils Keep all like: "Commander..!" and letting her know Anders is alive is sending me.

it went well! the quest felt like a breath of fresh air because it was just such a relief for keir to see anders happy in act 3, he didn’t care why. i mean, he cared a LITTLE why. keir isn’t characteristically jealous but at some point it’s like hello i’m right here you could just tell me to my face that this guy is your ex. (whether or not you actually ship nathaniel/anders is hilariously completely irrelevant to this situation, keir is thinking it either way)

the fact that nathaniel and zev can apparently both be at the final battle makes me lose my mind. i didn’t see them there—i THINK zev was there, i skimmed through a recording i took of some of the last straw and there’s definitely a dual wielding rogue stuck outside the gate who isn’t isabela but i never got close enough to really see—but like. that’s insane. so you’re just telling me straight up that minerva’s man and right hand man were there. CANONICALLY? i can’t even comprehend that. like, this is essentially tantamount to minerva being complicit. the two people the rebel-leaning mage collective supporter blood mage hero of ferelden trusts most in the world, and they just HAPPENED to be there at the gallows after the chantry explosion. okay cassandra you may have a point about that grey warden conspiracy like what on earth else am even i the player supposed to believe

[teecupangel]

Ok hear me out: Desmond as one of Ezio’s bastard children. He gets captured or something by whoever and gets forced to use the apple (since Ezio could open the vault because dna or some shit I wasn’t paying attention and by extension Desmond would also be able to)- which leads to the Apple basically sending Desmond into 2012 where he grows up for a while?

So forget Desmond going to the past- let’s send him into the future and warp his entire perspective of time so he just comes back and has NO idea what year it is and doesn’t believe anybody when they tell him when it actually is

I mean, if you really wish to hammer in the angst, you can make Desmond’s time in the future at the start being hopeful, with people helping him because he looked lost. Getting him on his feet and helping him move forward in this strange new world. Desmond was pushed into the future young enough that he has no problem acclimating with everything that was happening with the stubbornness and curiosity of a child but old enough to remember the Borgias and how Cesare taunted him about his father who didn’t even know he existed and would never think to look for him.

Let’s say Desmond is around… 10 or 11 years old when he’s transported in the future. That would make him be born in 1490, during the time a 31st year old Ezio was looking for any clues that would lead him to the Apple. It is during this time that he shared a night with a woman who looked a lot like Cristina.

Too much like Cristina, some may say, to be a coincidence.

Ezio would say that he had too much to drink back then and he had, as shameful at it was, not remembering the night correctly.

We’ll keep it a mystery if her similarity to Cristina was simply a coincidence or if this was the Calculations at play… with something more. (To muddle the waters, you can have other people say that she didn’t look like Cristina at all, if anything, she looked like Sofia… maaaayybbe)

Anyway, the main point is that Desmond returns to the past (or his actual present) on 1503 when Ezio took the Apple from the Borgias.

And this is where the timey-wimey aspect of this entire thing changes…

So we can have:

Desmond’s time is accelerated and he’s been in the future for the past 10+ years. He was living and found small pockets of happiness in the future that he considered returning to the past as… a punishment.

Desmond’s time in the future advances the same time as the past so, to him, 3ish years have passed as well. This would make Desmond around 13~14 years old roughly.

Regardless, Ezio knows Desmond is his son because Leonardo remembers seeing him and hearing Cesare talk about him (this is also the main reason why Ezio was looking for Desmond the entire time he was in Rome as well).

And here’s the kicker:

Desmond isn’t the name given to him by his mother. Desmond Miles is the name he took when he was taken to the future.

And now we have the subplot of Ezio wondering if his son is meant to be the Desmond that Minerva spoke of in the vault. And if he is… did that mean Ezio had to help Desmond return to the future so he can save the world?

[charmfamily]

(SEMI) CHARMED KIND OF LIFE: EPISODE 2, PART XXIV. “THE HARDEST PART IS SAYING SORRY (WITH YOUR DIGNITY INTACT)”

Transcript Below.

KYLE: There’s no hard feelings about all the shit talking by the way, we just do this to blow off steam and besides, I can respect the fact that you may be a fuckin’ moron, but at least you’re not a pussy. It was fun, with some training you might actually be really good, I’ll talk to Marcus about it at some point if you want. 

DAMIEN: [He groans a little and shakes his head, the idea of mixing alcohol with an already splitting headache not appealing in the slightest.] Even if the bar was an option, I’d have to rain check on the afterparty but I appreciate the gesture, man. I’ve got a second half of this stupid plan to implement, and it probably needs to happen before I pass out again –

AKIRA: About that– [frowning as he reaches the top of the stairs, he purses his lips uncomfortably.] I got Em on the phone finally, but uh, turns out I was way off base because there wasn’t much sympathy to be had – all she said was “take him to the Healers in the Vale.” She’s packing for some kind of trip, and no, I didn’t get, like, the specifics of what’s going on there  but…yeah, long story short, you’re on your own and SOL. Sorry, dude… I mean, we can still go over there if you want, but I don’t think it’s gonna do much.

DAMIEN: YOU’RE GONNA STAND THERE AND TELL ME THAT I GOT MY ASS KICKED FOR NOTHING?! MOTHERFU– [Attempting to stand up and haul himself to his feet a little too quickly, Damien sways unsteadily, the world tilting and spinning again as he clamors to hang onto the rope for balance, Kyle reaching out to grab his ankle and Johnny standing up to steady him a little bit easier.] [Lou bursts into a nerve-splitting hyena-like cackle.] I can’t go to The Vale, my mom works there and the second she hears “Damien got knocked the fuck out in a boxing ring, he has a concussion” – Nah, that’s the only thing that would make this shit worse and these guys are alright, there’s no way I’m unleashing Hurricane Minerva on ‘em. JOHNNY: You can’t Transportalate anyway even if you wanted to, that’d really fuck you up – have Kibo go stealth mode and grab whatever shit you need out of The Porph and you guys can crash at ours while you wait for it to work. We just live right over there, across the street– you can make it that far. I think.