#a couple of HP references

[delineate-creates]

Tom yanked with enough force that Harry fell into him.

“Whore,” Tom whispered into his ear.

Harry’s nostrils flared with rage.

•

From chapter 18 of @ambivalens999’s Of Kings, Of Pawns, and Of Men

[lorenzocarrera01]

It's been fun lately to read about that pair getting into adventures in the name of the law.

[5ummit]

AO3 Ship Stats: Year In Bad Data

You may have seen this AO3 Year In Review.

It hasn’t crossed my tumblr dash but it sure is circulating on twitter with 3.5M views, 10K likes, 17K retweets and counting. Normally this would be great! I love data and charts and comparisons!

Except this data is GARBAGE and belongs in the TRASH.

I first noticed something fishy when I realized that Steve/Bucky – the 5th largest ship on AO3 by total fic count – wasn’t on this Top 100 list anywhere. I know Marvel’s popularity has fallen in recent years, but not that much. Especially considering some of the other ships that made it on the list. You mean to tell me a femslash HP ship (Mary MacDonald/Lily Potter) in which one half of the pairing was so minor I had to look up her name because she was only mentioned once in a single flashback scene beat fandom juggernaut Stucky? I call bullshit.

Now obviously jumping to conclusions based on gut instinct alone is horrible practice... but it is a good place to start. So let’s look at the actual numbers and discover why this entire dataset sits on a throne of lies.

Here are the results of filtering the Steve/Bucky tag for all works created between Jan 1, 2023 and Dec 31, 2023:

Not only would that place Steve/Bucky at #23 on this list, if the other counts are correct (hint: they're not), it’s also well above the 1520-new-work cutoff of the #100 spot. So how the fuck is it not on the list? Let’s check out the author’s FAQ to see if there’s some important factor we’re missing.

The first thing you’ll probably notice in the FAQ is that the data is being scraped from publicly available works. That means anything privated and only accessible to logged-in users isn’t counted. This is Sin #1. Already the data is inaccurate because we’re not actually counting all of the published fics, but the bots needed to do data collection on this scale can't easily scrape privated fics so I kinda get it. We’ll roll with this for now and see if it at least makes the numbers make more sense:

Nope. Logging out only reduced the total by a couple hundred. Even if one were to choose the most restrictive possible definition of "new works" and filter out all crossovers and incomplete fics, Steve/Bucky would still have a yearly total of 2,305. Yet the list claims their total is somewhere below 1,500? What the fuck is going on here?

Let’s look at another ship for comparison. This time one that’s very recent and popular enough to make it on the list so we have an actual reference value for comparison: Nick/Charlie (Heartstopper). According to the list, this ship sits at #34 this year with a total of 2630 new works. But what’s AO3 say?

Off by a hundred or so but the values are much closer at least!

If we dig further into the FAQ though we discover Sin #2 (and the most egregious): the counting method. The yearly fic counts are NOT determined by filtering for a certain time period, they’re determined by simply taking a snapshot of the total number of fics in a ship tag at the end of the year and subtracting the previous end-of-year total. For example, if you check a ship tag on Jan 1, 2023 and it has 10,000 fics and check it again on Jan 1, 2024 and it now has 12,000 fics, the difference (2,000) would be the number of "new works" on this chart.

At first glance this subtraction method might seem like a perfectly valid way to count fics, and it’s certainly the easiest way, but it can and did have major consequences to the point of making the entire dataset functionally meaningless. Why? If any older works are deleted or privated, every single one of those will be subtracted from the current year fic count. And to make the problem even worse, beginning at the end of last year there was a big scare about AI scraping fics from AO3, which caused hundreds, if not thousands, of users to lock down their fics or delete them.

The magnitude of this fuck up may not be immediately obvious so let’s look at an example to see how this works in practice.

Say we have two ships. Ship A is more than a decade old with a large fanbase. Ship B is only a couple years old but gaining traction. On Jan 1, 2023, Ship A had a catalog of 50,000 fics and ship B had 5,000. Both ships have 3,000 new works published in 2023. However, 4% of the older works in each fandom were either privated or deleted during that same time (this percentage is was just chosen to make the math easy but it’s close to reality).

Ship A: 50,000 x 4% = 2,000 removed works Ship B: 5,000 x 4% = 200 removed works

Ship A: 3,000 - 2,000 = 1,000 "new" works Ship B: 3,000 - 200 = 2,800 "new" works

This gives Ship A a net gain of 1,000 and Ship B a net gain of 2,800 despite both fandoms producing the exact same number of new works that year. And neither one of these reported counts are the actual new works count (3,000). THIS explains the drastic difference in ranking between a ship like Steve/Bucky and Nick/Charlie.

How is this a useful measure of anything? You can't draw any conclusions about the current size and popularity of a fandom based on this data.

With this system, not only is the reported "new works" count incorrect, the older, larger fandom will always be punished and it’s count disproportionately reduced simply for the sin of being an older, larger fandom. This example doesn’t even take into account that people are going to be way more likely to delete an old fic they're no longer proud of in a fandom they no longer care about than a fic that was just written, so the deletion percentage for the older fandom should theoretically be even larger in comparison.

And if that wasn't bad enough, the author of this "study" KNEW the data was tainted and chose to present it as meaningful anyway. You will only find this if you click through to the FAQ and read about the author’s methodology, something 99.99% of people will NOT do (and even those who do may not understand the true significance of this problem):

The author may try to argue their post states that the tags "which had the greatest gain in total public fanworks” are shown on the chart, which makes it not a lie, but a error on the viewer’s part in not interpreting their data correctly. This is bullshit. Their chart CLEARLY titles the fic count column “New Works” which it explicitly is NOT, by their own admission! It should be titled “Net Gain in Works” or something similar.

Even if it were correctly titled though, the general public would not understand the difference, would interpret the numbers as new works anyway (because net gain is functionally meaningless as we've just discovered), and would base conclusions on their incorrect assumptions. There’s no getting around that… other than doing the counts correctly in the first place. This would be a much larger task but I strongly believe you shouldn’t take on a project like this if you can’t do it right.

To sum up, just because someone put a lot of work into gathering data and making a nice color-coded chart, doesn’t mean the data is GOOD or VALUABLE.

[florenceafternoon]

━。゜✿ jily fic recommendations ✿ ゜。━

I've also seen a lot of people asking for 6/7th year jily so I tried to include some. These fics explore how much they've grown in that period between the end of school and the rising tensions of war.

Of course, I've also included fics with marauders shenanigans. As always, these fics are set in the wizarding world but aren’t necessarily canon complaints.

For reference, anything in italics is taken from the summaries.

Death and Other Inconveniences by @asteriaem

When James Potter disappeared for ten days in the middle of the spring term of their fifth year, the whole school noticed. He buried his parents in a quiet ceremony and returned to school amid outrageous rumours.

When Lily Evans disappeared for three days before the Christmas holidays in sixth year, two people noticed. She found the house packed, a nasty note from her sister, and spent the rest of the holidays sleeping rough. Both are left grieving and angry at Hogwarts over the summer, with no where else to go and war raging around them. Really, how else could it have gone?

God where do I even start? This fic is incredibly well written; everything from how well-rounded and dynamic all the characters are to the dialogue and descriptions. For everyone tired of character deformation and would like to read a long-form that explores the turbulence of adolescence coupled with grief and the uncertainties of war this fic is for you. When I say I miss old jily, I mean this exact era of characterisation.

Notes by @scriibble-fics

On an ordinary Tuesday in October of 1975, James Potter passes Lily Evans a note. She has no way of knowing it, of course, but it’s the first note of thousands that will pass between them in the years to come.

Head of House by SwissCheesePlant

The consequences of Sirius and James pretending to be boyfriends weren't supposed to come to a head during a convoluted and unnecessarily kinetic drinking game... but such is life.

As If By Magic by @annabtg

Lily Evans, Head Girl, is starting her seventh year at Hogwarts. Alongside her, Head Boy James Potter, who has always had a crush on her yet has given up all hope of winning her over. But between working together, sharing fun times with friends and getting through the darker moments that come with living in an era of war, things between them are bound to change...

Questions and Answers by lizardcookie (on ao3)

The simple question of whether or not they're dating doesn't exactly have a simple answer (seventh Year jily).

Come Together by @thequibblah

It’s difficult to say when James and Lily took the first steps to love. Perhaps they had always been walking this road, unaware of the person they were walking towards until the mist cleared. They would fall in love eventually — but we would be remiss in ignoring the hiccups along the way.

Okay so confession, I haven’t read this but it's been on my TBR for ages and everyone's been recommending me to read it. Judging by other works by the same author that I have read, I can attest that Lily and James have always been well-written so I trust that this fic is no exception.

These next few fics are all by @gigglesandfreckles-hp because Abi's characterisations are perfect and there’s just something about her writing that transports me to the scene. This woman can make me laugh and cry and worry all in under three thousand words.

roots of memory

Lily frowns slightly, mulling it over. “I’m not really sure either,” she admits. “Honestly, don’t take this personally, but I don’t remember much about you in the first couple of years. I think I was too focused on trying to figure out school and magic and everything else.”

James clutches his chest in mock offence. “I’ll act like that didn’t just irreparably damage my soul.”

crafting chemistry

“Is there something that needs to be discussed between the three of us?” Minerva prompts, her eyes narrowing sharply.

Lily’s face betrays her first. A bright flush creeps slowly along her cheeks, blooming from her neck upward, as though her skin can’t hide the emotion simmering underneath. She keeps her eyes stubbornly trained on the far corner of the office, anywhere but James. Minerva notices James’s hand, the one that had been habitually running through his hair, freeze mid-motion, his fingers tightening slightly.

but we dream in the light (a continuation of one of my favourite fics)

“Lily Evans, we have got to stop meeting like this,” he grins.

She shakes her head, laughing. “Jesus Christ.”

James spins around dramatically. “Where?”

the dance of mischief and duty

Lily Evans is an infuriating mosaic of traits—beautiful and she knows it, captain of the House Quidditch team, and the loudest voice in nearly any room. She has this way of floating through the school, her laughter ringing out as she moves between corridors and classes, one arm usually slung around Sirius Black’s shoulder and the other gesticulating wildly as she spins tales of misadventure.

But she also sort of has a point, and that’s possibly the most infuriating part about her.

prompt: flip the script

my church offers no absolutes

She stares at him, her eyes the only ones open as the priest prays, but she can’t look away.

James Potter is here.

under the influence of loss

“Like what? You fancy me! Kiss me.”

Each time she says it, it’s like a new bruise blooms around his heart, her words pressing on all of them at once.

“I can’t!” he shouts, the frustration cracking through.

“Because I’ve been drinking?” she demands, a bitter laugh escaping her. “Your chivalry is duly noted, Potter, but I’m giving you a pass here. Just—”

“It’s not about that,” he interrupts.

You know what they say, you can tell who an author's favourite character is by how much they make them suffer

From the Edge by @maraudersftw

A three-hour-long detention. A barrage of unspilled words. A kiss that has remained unacknowledged. Until now.

That Summer by the_casual_author (on ao3)

In which James and Lily spend the summer in a house by the sea. (and fall in love in the process)

pleasant, poised, polite, professional by @ohmygodshesinsane

Lily Evans' journalism career is stagnating, and when Mumblemumps sweeps through the office, she couldn't be less pleased to be asked to cover the sports beat. James Potter, the captain of the Wimborne Wasps who is campaigning to win Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile, only seems to confirm her worst fears about athletes. Until.

If you enjoyed James' characterisation in James Potter Won't Go Quietly then you'll enjoy this

Fantasise also by @ /ohmygodshesinsane

When Lily ends up taking Veritaserum as part of one of Sirius' games, James finds that he really doesn't need to know any of the nitty-gritty details. Fate has other plans.

And James Potter also by @ /ohmygodshesinsane

The most unfortunate part about being one of the best students in the year, if you ask Lily Evans, is being forced to work alongside James Potter. The most fortunate part about being one of the best students in the year, if you ask James Potter, is getting opportunities to annoy Lily Evans. The fact of the matter is, that despite their both being talented, intelligent students with bright futures and burning competitive streaks, Lily and James will never get along. No matter how much others think they ought to.

Braid also by @ /ohmygodshesinsane

Sick and tired of revision, Lily gladly takes a distraction in the name of giving James Potter a helping hand.

Revenge Tastes Sweeter by @charmsandtealeaves

This by far had to be one of the more stupid things that Lily Evans had ever agreed to, and she’d gone along with a lot of her friends' bullshit ideas. She’d wanted to maintain her dignity in breaking up with her shit of an ex-boyfriend. However, fake dating James Potter hadn’t been in her grand plan of dignity. She’d merely been venting her frustrations to her dorm mates in the common room, she hadn’t expected advice and well… plotting. Though she should have expected better, these lot were always plotting something. Was it too late to just go with Dorcas’ “Stab him!” suggestion?

Simmer Until Ready by @kay-elle-cee

James Potter is not a healer. His is a potioneer—the Order of the Phoenix's lead potioneer, in fact. So when their top field fighter—Lily Evans—comes to him for treatment after a particularly rough mission, he helps the best way he knows how: a vial of freshly-brewed Skele-Gro and a dose of laughter.

Kels always writes the best order!jily

climb higher by penniesinthepool (on ao3)

It's been three (long) years since Lily and James have seen each other. Now, he's living out his dream playing Quidditch with Puddlemere United and she hers as an Auror.

They're happy. But fate (and annoying friends) works in funny ways, sometimes, and through a series of chance meetings, they begin to wonder if maybe, just maybe, they could be happier. My take on what would maybe happen in a universe where James wasn't Head Boy, taken to the extreme.

after O.W.L.s by @juniperpyre

a short snippet of James Potter's and Lily Evans' thoughts after their Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L., and before the altercation with Severus Snape changes everything.

It was so close to going a better way

Haley's characterisations are always on point

”Just” Partners by @petalsthefish

James asks Lily what they are after a series of long and hidden snogs in dark corridors.

tied to you by @jjameslily

Lily’s foot sank into the damp earth as she stepped closer to the water’s edge. The lake mirrored the starry sky above, but something else caught her eye – a shape in the reflection.

James my sweet summer child, thank you for looking after her

Love for the Summer by @missgryffin

It's the summer after sixth year, Lily Evans is realizing she fancies James Potter, and James has Sirius Black's motorbike to thank for getting Lily out of the friend zone.

of hearts and keys by the_crownless_queen (on ao3)

In a world where magic means everyone can see your soul, Lily Evans wonders what it would feel like for someone she loves to open her heart.

Seven Years and Seventy More by surlybobbies (on ao3)

When James walked into the 7th year Gryffindor boys’ dormitory a few moonstruck minutes later, he found Sirius lying in bed with his hands folded across his stomach. “Been with Evans, then?” he asked, without lifting his head. There was a distinct note of disapproval in his voice.

James froze in the act of unwinding the scarf from his neck. “Er, yeah.”

“She doing well?” Remus asked from his bed, the closest one to the door. He had a book open on his lap but had lifted his gaze when James came in. His stare was steady and pleasant, but there was a sharpness behind it that put James on the defensive.

(James has some news.)

This Town Is Fake But You're The Real Thing by @tedwardremus

Teen radio star Lily Evans works for a show on the wizarding wireless network called, The Marauders. The teen soap drama stars James Potter as an arrogant school jock and centers on the secret adventures of his friends in the forbidden forest as illegal animagus and a werewolf. The show's antagonist, played by Severus Snape, left after a scandal, and now Lily has a romantic storyline with James in the final season of the show. Basically, her life is a disaster.

Prophecy by Alohaemora (on ao3)

Faint rays of sunlight began to filter into the nursery from the pink-red sky outside, the morning song of robins and thrushes lilting as all of Sirius's worst fears manifested before him, devastating in their might.

"Fuck," he whispered. A horrible, painful lump swelled in his throat, clawing, stinging. "Fucking hell."

The corners of Lily's lips trembled. "James didn't know how to tell you."

Not quite a jily fic but I wanted to share

not as smart as you think you are (or how to fall in love in 7 months) by Squidge_06 (on ao3)

Lily Evans has spent the past 6 years excelling at school and hating James Potter. Both these facts converge suddenly at the beginning of her 7th year when she’s confronted with a less than perfect grade and a Transfiguration tutor who is the very last person she wants to see.

That same person might just turn out to be a whole lot more complicated and just a little more wonderful than she could ever have imagined.

Meeting the Potters by FloreatCastellum (on ao3)

It's always a risk, introducing your parents to your girlfriend. Most people don't have to worry about whether or not their mother is going to be in handcuffs, though.

Mistle-Wow by LiveLaughLoveToRead (on ao3)

Lily and James Potters’ love was fiery, filled with passion, tragedy, and love. It was not a fast ignition of a flame that proceeded to burn bright. No, it was a flame that was lit on the Hogwarts Express before anyone had joined the compartment. It burned brighter as their years progressed, and it was lit ablaze in their seventh year. It burned until the day they died.

Or an incident that would have had Madam Pince seething (if they were caught)

Simple Math by yallofthemwitches (on ao3)

Remus notices something is off about James and Lily at the Prefect's meeting.

[morsmordream]

my random HP family headcanons that i firmly stand by

(not canon compliant)

creature blood was remarkably common in the older family lines that existed before modern-day laws. it is rather rare that these families produce true creatures themselves, even half-blooded creatures, but the blood can often manifest into family gifts. for example, creature blood is how the slytherin line have their ability to speak parseltongue.

the black family are world-renowned in various fields. they’ve produced countless scholars, and some of the finest duellists of each generation. but the family specialty, that everyone learns, is curse-breaking and it’s inverse. there’s a terrible item in the family vault that could kill you if you touch it? contact the blacks. you need an object enchanted to persuade someone into supporting a wizengamot bill? contact the blacks. expensive as their services may be, it’s always worth the money. customer satisfaction guaranteed.

the black family have held their reputation for dabbling in the darkest of arts, even black magic, since their very beginning. their family name comes from their reputation of practicing black magic. this is separate from dark magic, and is a dead art today. whilst books exist in the darkest corners of very few family’s vaults and libraries, the sacrifices required have deterred anyone who picked them up for centuries. a branch of black magic involves the summoning of beings from beyond our world, ‘demons’ as they are often referred to. the summoning of a shape-shifting demon, and subsequent procreation with, is a potential reason why only the black family have metamorphmagi in britain today- though this claim is unproven, and no longer proudly claimed by the family itself.

the malfoys have veela blood, especially these days. it was a rather scandalous affair when abraxas malfoy married a french witch, amelie bonnacord, who had been adopted into a notable pureblood family and happened to be a veela. the malfoys already had distant veela ancestry, making abraxas resistant to the veela allure. their children, lucius and lydia malfoy, were therefore half veela, and her grandchildren, including draco malfoy, a quarter veela. the veela allure seemed to work differently with men, and little was known about it as men born to those with veela blood was rare. the malfoys spend most holiday seasons in france, visiting family, and all speak fluent french.

the potter family never have been, and never should be seen as, a sparkling beacon for light magic. as necromancers by blood, no matter how much time passes since their amalgamation with the peverells, they naturally lean towards darker magic to facilitate practicing the art. not every potter has dabbled in their family gift, it’s not a requirement, but the ancient books in the family vault cannot be destroyed and will always return to the vault after a necromancer passes.

a few centuries into the past, the potter family migrated to india before a couple of branches returned to britain in the early 20th century. fleamont potter and his cousin, charlus potter, were the first potters to be born on british soil for centuries. fleamont potter married euphemia patil, a half-indian british witch, and had james potter. james potter, upon marrying lily evans, had harry potter- who was half indian.

the lupin family have a long history of naturally born werewolves, hence their family name. as time went on, and laws changed, werewolves born into the family would assimilate into packs instead of living as wizards with a dark secret. with time, fewer and fewer werewolves were born into the family, and the werewolf blood appeared dormant. remus lupin became a werewolf through an attack from fenrir greyback- the first werewolf in the family in several generations. his condition did not pass onto his son, but it is possible that remus being a werewolf may awaken the possibility of future werewolves in the lupin line in generations to come.

the weasleys hail from an old irish clan, one which they no longer practice the traditions and magic of- deeming them outdated in an age where they are deemed ‘blood traitors’ for their love and acceptance of muggleborns. the family magic is largely based around the elements, and is only really practiced by bill and charlie- though fred and george dabble in it from time to time. due to turning their backs on tradition, the weasley manor wards refused to grant entry to those in the family who did not practice their family magics- which is why they live in the burrow instead.

the weasleys fall from grace is infamous in pureblood circles. before the first war, they were actually a rather wealthy family. arthur weasley’s auror wage was enough to live off with two less children, and their vault was plentiful. molly added to their income by authoring books on household charms and tutoring pureblood daughters in etiquette. unfortunately, molly encouraged arthur to funnel money into the order of the phoenix to help with the war- they were not active participants, rather financial backers. by the war’s end, the family vault had been halved, they had two more children, and molly had quit authoring books to raise the children. she soon quit tutoring too, turning her back on other pureblood families due to her paranoia that anyone who hadn’t aided the order in the war were all dark and thus contributed somehow to her brothers deaths. soon after, arthur left the aurors and moved to head the misuse of muggle artifices office at molly’s insistence, due to her persistent paranoia- this time that something horrible would befall him as an auror. this caused another significant drop in the family’s finances, gaining them their reputation of being a poor family with more children than they can clothe.

the nott family are descended from viking clansmen in norway, and the majority of the family are still based there today. they’re very proud of this heritage, and every child born into the family is trained extensively in hand to hand combat from a young age. the nott family additional pre-schooling education also includes the language of old norse, nordic history, ancient runes, and runic magic. the england-based branch of the family add norwegian on to this as well.

the gaunt line, and subsequently the slytherin line, are only extinct in britain (the cursed child is not canon to me idc about delphini). a branch of the family, descended from one ominis gaunt, live on in france and have long abandoned their practices of inbreeding. the branch or branches of the family that remained on british soil rapidly squandered all that remained in their vaults by the turn of the 20th century, leading the family to financial and societal ruin with only their heritage and a few heirlooms remaining intact.

the lovegood family are rather notable as one of the few remaining seer lines in britain. pandora lovegood, upon marrying xenophilius ollivander, found her own seer ability passed down to her daughter luna. many overlook their seer lineage and focus more on the family’s eccentricity, forgetting that true seers rarely speak in plain language- they cannot always just speak the truth of what their visions show them, they must relay what they have seen in a way that makes others search for the answer. it’s not that hard to understand when you actually try it.

[radigalde]

Zain accident guide (fencing club route)

Well, first of all: accident in the fencing route is harder to pass compared to the polo accident. Unlike Pippa, Zain dies in most of the outcomes.

So... how do you keep him alive?

The best outcome is achieved by MC. You'll have to manually deflect all sword shards (#I strike down the flying mid-air shards with nothing but my blade alone. or #I duck and cover and-- no, why are my feet moving forward?! No, no, no I'm not trying to 1v1 an entire shower of sharp shrapnel!) through the power of anime and a whole bunch of stat checks:

have a body stat of 30 or higher or have a combination of body stat and magic stat be 30 or higher

or have a talent of agility and body stat of 20 or higher

or do a dance during conversations twice (or more) and have body stat of 20 or higher

and don't be too high on energy drinks from the vending machine before the duel (you are okay as long as you drink less than 7 of them).

Both body and magic stats start with 5 and are gained through the first chapter (yes, including the club routes). On the stats screen body stat is "Physical Strength + Athleticism", magic stat is  "Magic + Mysticism". Percentage equals to the score (i.e. 5% is the score of 5).

The dance thing may be a problem because there are only 3 instances when you can do it before the duel, and all of them come at the price of embracing a cuckoo 1 of them may be locked out for you:

#I say nothing, I merely start dancing the Tango de la Muerte. at the very start of the club segment. It gives you a bunch of small stat increases (including +1 for Adrian relationship), huge boost to boldness, and Simpsons reference. But it's available only if you chose Spandex Tracksuit as your main clothes.

#It's time to do the Dance of Joyâ! when you finish gearing up in the armory. Doesn't offer anything aside from cuckoo increase.

#I AM Michael Jackson. I put on a single glove and moonwalk to the piste. when you decide on how many gloves you are goin to wear for the duel. It gives a couple of small stats increases but can backfire with -1 HP if your body stat is less than 15. It also sets your gloves counter to 1 (since you are literally wearing only one glove). Luckily, this particular value won't backfire.

Upon failing the stat check, MC with luck talent and changeling MC get additional chance, but you are at RNG's mercy here, since the success requires a dice toss. MC with both luck and changeling childhood gets slightly higher chance of success in this toss, but it's still pure RNG.

The best outcome gives a huge boost to relationships with other club members, small boost ot relationship with Adrian, and fear stat reduction.

The second-best outcome is achieved by convincing Zain to wear his mask and not trying to deflect the shards. For the former right before the duel, when you decide on stance, pick #I gravely inform the audience that only masked eyes are allowed to behold my full splendor. The problem is: this option requires 4 or more in cuckoo score to be pickable.

This outcome doesn't have any boons aside from +3 to Adrian relationship, but it also has no downsides like HP losses.

For the third-best outcome instead of convincing Zain, force Adrian to help. For that, pick #I invite Adrian to a have a front row seat to my next match. at the end of Jianhua and Gil duel. However, this option will be blocked if:

you accused Adrian in being a stalker (#"Adrian, are you stalking me?" Might as well grab the bull by the horns and body slam it.),

or picked a violent option during the conversation about sleepover/sleeping in motel (#I make a violent slashing motion that sends Adrian staggering backwards several steps.),

or annoyed him by being rude during sleepover/motel discussion (#"Not a chance in hell and quite frankly that suggestion sounds completely mental in the first place."),

or spooked him by being weird during the discussion of intrusive thoughts (#Thiiiiis iiiiis completely riiiidiculous.). However, this fragment appears in this way (and with these consequences) only if MC told Adrian about at least one strange thing before going into intrusive thoughts topic or if Adrian knows that MC works as a security guard (i.e. you talked about murder beforehand with #"There was a murder during my last work shift..." or #I launch into a long involved story regarding my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. and its silent equivalent). Also, this option is the only one available in this branch for the possessed MC.

This outcome doesn't offer much aside from Zain survival, and Adrian is going to loose 10 HP.

In all other outcomes Zain dies.

Fuck you, Zain, Pippa was much easier to save.

[strstab]

𝐛𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐚 - 𝐣.𝐦

summary ; you see a tiktok trend and decide to see if you boyfriend will help you participate in it

pairing ; jj maybank x fem!reader

notes ; soft jj, kissing, video filming, hp & family guy references

a/n ; my first public writing, hopefully ppl see this. if y’all do send requests? i think you can do that.. but enjoy <3

— tiktok in question —

scrolling on tiktok with kie sitting next to you, you came across a video of a girl putting makeup on her best friends face. you let out a small giggle at the thought of your boyfriend with mascara and pretty pink lips.

“what’s funny?” kie asked turning to peek at your phone.

you showed her the video and got up to go find your beloved boyfriend, who coincidentally, had just walked into the room.

“jj, can you help me with something?” you looked at him with pouty lips and sparkles in your eyes only he could see

he lifted a brow and grinned as he looked at you, knowing you were up to something, “it depends on what that something is, baby,”

kie let out a quiet laugh from behind you as she threw your phone towards him, letting him watch the video you previously showed her. knowing you’d be able to convince him happy or not, you started searching through the drawers of your vanity in hopes of having your makeup bag in one of them.

“no way,” jj scoffed with a shake of his head, “you’re not putting makeup on me.”

giving a knowing look to kie, she walked out and closed the door behind her.

this is where the fun began.

after 10 minutes of begging, smacking, pecks to the cheek and tugging, you finally managed to convince your lover to let you do his pretty boy makeup.

you sat on the counter of your bathroom sink with jj standing in between your thighs with his eyes looking straight at you.

“don’t give me that look” he said with a quick eye roll

you smiled as you uncapped the ‘better than sex’ mascara in your hands, “roll your eyes and i’ll poke your eye out with my wand.”

“wand? what are you a witch?” he replied with a soft grin. you lifted his chin and softly ran the inked bristles across his long lashes. god those lashes of his you wish you had. why were men blessed with female preferred features?

“i am, i casted a love spell on you a couple years ago,” you laughed and scolded him for blinking shortly after.

he stared at you in silence, admiring your pretty eyes that tend to crinkle when you smile. the soft lips he kissed every morning he woke up next to you. your perfect nose that just seemed to fit your face structure perfectly. everything about you he fell in love with more by the second, minute, hour, and day.

jj was never good at english class, but ask him to write an essay about you and you’d get a 20 page google document.

getting sucked out of his thoughts as you painted his thin lips a soft shade of pink, “what’s on your mind, j?”

“nothing, just how powerful your spell is on me. did you go to hogwarts, baby?” he questioned with a smile, pushing the strands of hair that covered your pretty face behind your ear.

“fuck yeah, i was fighting dementors and shit” you answered while filling in his eyebrows and putting highlighter in the corners of his eyes.

you finished after another couple of minutes and while pulling out your phone to find the audio you were going to use, jj spoke up with a concerned tone in his voice,

“are you actually going to record me in this?!”

looking up from your phone to look at him you saw his filled in eyebrows furrowed, “duh, that’s the point of the trend, j” you stated.

you weren’t going to let his worried expression get to you because you knew you’d be able to kiss it away in a couple minutes.

he let out a whine in protest but you had already started the video, doing your part, you lip-synced

“do you or do you not feel bonita?”

and with a turn of the phone, the camera faced him and he slightly panicked not knowing what to say.

“you didn’t tell me what i’m supposed to say!”

your lips shaped into an ‘o’ and proceeded to explain how to do the tiktok.

once again, with the flip of the camera jj awkwardly worded his part

“...uhm i feel bonita”

“wonderful, because you look bonita!” you grinned and went back to your phone to caption and post the video

jj pushed your phone aside and placed his lips on yours, in desperate need of affection. you let out a quiet gasp as you were caught off guard but kissed him back anyways.

he placed his hands on your cheeks and pulled away slowly. “do my lips feel prettier?”

you snorted, tilting your head in confusion

“y’know, because they look prettier, do they feel prettier?” he asked again, trying to explain his question

you placed another kiss on his lips and nodded, “yes they feel prettier, baby”

he picked you up, wrapping your legs around his waist as he peppered your face with kisses, leaving pretty pink marks on your glowing skin.

he smiled, pleased with the outcome of his make over.

a win is a win.

check out ocean eyes 🌅 water drops 🧴 & pretty present 🍰

WOAHHH FIRST WRITING HOW WAS THAT.??

hopefully people see this 😓

but anyways i’m a whore for some jj fluff, and the trend has been flooding my fyp so ofc i had to write for my love ❤️‍🩹

[sitp-recs]

HP Rec Fest 2024

day 9: a wip

so very excited to be reccing two of my favorite authors for @hprecfest today! what a privilege to have WIPs from both of them this year. it feels like an early Christmas gift and I’m so hyped up. I’ll try to keep this short & sweet (LIES) and not give too much away, but I’d love to scream about these with anyone else who’s following them!

First Watch of Night by @tackytigerfic (E)

Harry Potter defeated Voldemort at the Battle of Hogwarts on May 2nd, 1998. But what if he didn't?

Tacky’s FTH started posting a couple days ago and it’s already consuming everyone’s hearts and minds (as it should). this is the Voldemort wins AU meets time travel multiverse we’ve dreamt about and deserve. the tags were clearly crafted to meet my cravings and paint the most exciting scenario: wartime politics, magical theory, undercover, the list goes on and up to perhaps the most important tag of all (This Fic Asks the Question Would Harry Potter Have Sex With Himsel ‼️) and I am ready to inhale this in an obsessive frenzy. Tacky is my reference when it comes to Drarry romance and gorgeous prose, so I just know this is gonna be epic, heart-wrenching and potentially ruining in the most satisfying ways. I’m extra excited bc (don’t ask me how) I was able to avoid all excerpts posted this year hoping to stay in the dark and I’ll save the experience for my birthday as a lil treat!

I will also say (this time as a personal note) that having been friends with T for some time now, I know what this accomplishment means and how much this journey took from them over the last few years - there’s a renewed sense of pride and appreciation you develop watching your friends achieve something massive like this, I couldn’t be prouder of them!

Little Gods by @the-starryknight (M)

The Ministry claimed that the restrictions on magical education were for the good of wizard-kind, but it doesn't feel like that when Harry works his dull machinist job. With a new mission and the advent of a snowy winter season, Harry and his compatriots might find a way to keep their underground organization alive and plan for future teachings one banned artifact at a time.

my second rec is Starry’s advent fic, which caught me completely off guard and made me scream at my phone in excitement for about 5 minutes. their Christmassy fics have a little altar in my heart and figure in all my comfort lists (see also: A Room Up There). something about the tender and unhurried slow burn, quiet contemplation and wistful tone hit a deep personal place for me. this fic opens up with such an intriguing vibe it got me immediately hooked and in love with this melancholy Harry. I wanna learn everything about his post-war life, his mysterious job and this grim corrupted world that Starry crafts with such impressive detail in about 3k (so far), contrasting with the merry holiday aesthetics. the mood is tense and enthralling, the world building perfectly executed and the hints of a complicated Drarry relationship got me at the edge of my seat yearning for more. now excuse me while I go check ch 7 and you should be doing the same 🫡

[hp-flowers]

New 2024 Autumn prompts await...

All righty! You asked for it, so here we are with some new flora! All 2024 HP Flowers’ Autumn Mini Round prompt cards have now been posted up. You can view each prompt card via the links below:

>> (October 1-7): Prompt Card #1 >> (October 8-14): Prompt Card #2 >> (October 15-21): Prompt Card #3 >> (October 22-31): Prompt Card #4 New prompts are available as a text only version for easy accessibility and for downloading if you’d like to plan ahead. There is also a floriography resources page for all your flower and plant research needs! As a refresher, we've got 2 tracks for this round, where creators can: >> Choose 1 prompt, a couple, all of the prompts (aka bouquet or display), or none of them from each prompt card. >> Rewind, play catch-up and use any previous prompt(s) from the prompt card catalogue for the whole month of October! For more challenge info, please refer to the Mini Round Guidelines or the FAQ. New works can be posted to HP Flowers’ open AO3 collection starting October 1st, when the challenge starts. Looking forward to see what y'all make! Don't forget to follow @hp-flowers and #hpflowers2024 to get latest updates. Happy creating! 👻🌹

[gremlinmodetweeker]

I LOVE your eldritch horror kinky story! I can’t get enough of it! Were you inspired by HP Lovecraft? Where did you get your knowledge of eldritch horror because I love the genre and would love to read more

Okay so, SO, I have a lot I take reference from. The big one yes is Lovecraft, of course. I read his stories, but then I went on to read a bunch of Call of Cthulhu mysteries and ran a couple of Call of Cthulhu campaigns (ttrpg) and stuff like that. I also just consume cosmic horror everywhere I can! A big resource for Eldritch!König is really based on Lovecraft plus a couple of SUPER COOL video games.

The first game is Dredge, which is beautiful and stunning and through the story isn't too exciting, the world? OH MAN THE WORLD. Also, I love the ocean and fish and marine biology so that shit is just my game. I'm into it big time.

Another game is World of Horror, which is heavily based off Junji Ito's work. If Lovecraft isn't your jam, try reading some Junji Ito mangs. They're extremely graphic, but also the stories are wild and super cool. A lot of the times, people don't pick up on the social commentary on Japanese culture in his works.

Speaking of manga, Berserk? Crazy good, but read up on the trigger warnings before reading because despite being (imho) one of the best mangas of all time, it has graphic SA and abuse and gore.

Bioshock and Fallout also heavily inspired the bug horror (though I haven't finished either game but shhhhhh).

Finally, the classics inspire me. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is genuinely one of my favourite books of all time. The themes it explores? The imagery? The characters? All incredible. Just a beautiful book that I desperately needed to read when I was in high school. The monster's dialogue really hit home for me when I was a very depressed teen struggling to find hope and friendship in high school.

Various different body horror artists and analogue horrors also heavily inspire Eldritch!König. It's a big mix.

My main elements when writing him are incorporating marine and cosmic (astronomical) horror with him. I also notice I tend to rely on bugs a lot, despite his biology not being bug-like at all. I will say, he has tentacles and a beak under his mask, but that's about all that your mind can comprehend (also let's be honest, he's not gonna let you see anything else). When I think of how I want to write his horror, I sometimes think of Over the Garden Wall or a Ghibli movie with how he interacts with horror. To him, it's mundane. To you, it's shit-balls crazy off the walls insanity. He genuinely does not get why you find it so foreign until he remembers that you're a human.

I do want to write more gore and horror with him, but I haven't found a good opportunity... If you have any suggestions, let me know. I want to have Eldritch!König fuck somebody up. His tentacles are crawling for kills...

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

quick question: do you by chance know if dame aylin's "child of the moonmaiden" feature is a combat only feature?

Quick answer: No, it's a passive ability and it's visible most of the time on her character sheet regardless of combat. Here's a couple of example screenshots.

Long answer below, because I had some fun digging into the implementation of her immortality a bit more.

So, Child of the Moonmaiden is visible as a passive when you examine Aylin whenever she has (a specific one of!) her resurrection statuses enabled - which is not all the time, but again isn't tied to combat. You can take a look at how it gets handled in various game scripts here, as well as search for other objects or statuses or absolutely anything of interest. Aylin's immortality stuff can get a bit convoluted to track, though. What you want to be on the lookout for are mainly these three things:

1. GLO_NIGHTSONG_RESURRECTION aka "Moonmaiden's Reconstitution" which is a Status that does nothing by itself, and instead works by giving Aylin a Passive ability, which then applies some effects to her,

2. SHA_NightsongResurrection aka "Child of the Moonmaiden" which is that Passive. It alters Aylin's reaction to being downed by replacing the "normal" DOWNED status everyone gets with GLO_NIGHTSONGRESURRECTION_DOWNED - this implements the downed behaviour you've probably seen her do, and that she might get stuck in if in Myrkul's anti-healing bone chill aura: she's auto-stabilised instead of killed if she hits 0 HP, and when her next turn starts she attempts to regain 1 HP and then has her move and bonus actions if she succeeds. The spell Death Ward is implemented in a very, very similar way to this, by changing a character's default downed status to a special DEATH_WARD_DOWNED status. For reference, this is what that spell is described to do: "Protect a creature from death. The next time damage would reduce it to 0 Hit Points, it remains conscious with 1 Hit Point left." Sounds familiar, no?

3. GLO_NIGHTSONGRESURRECTION aka "Nightsong Soars Eternal" which is a Status that doesn't give any permanent passives (so you won't see it just hanging around on her character sheet like you will CotM), but instead has a short duration, and immediately runs a "Resurrect()" call on Aylin when it expires.

Having done a bit of scripting for the game myself now, I'm finding it easier to make sense of all of these than when I made this post. Still, this is me reverse engineering stuff and if anyone has any corrections or additions, I'd welcome them!

So, about Child of the Moonmaiden/Moonmaiden's Reconstitution, because you don't have one without the other, and about Nightsong Soars Eternal, which resurrects Aylin in a slightly different way and gets applied to her only ever if she's "died".

Aylin doesn't have CotM before you free her, even though she will always resurrect here unless you specifically kill her in the cutscene with Shadowheart and the spear:

How so? Most of the time, if you see Aylin pop up even though she has no CotM passive visible, it means Nightsong Soars Eternal was applied to her. But first, how does the game even apply statuses to characters (or anything, really)? And when does Aylin get CotM?

To apply a Status to a character you execute this call somewhere within your code: ApplyStatus([target character], [status to apply], [duration of status], [force of status - this is an override for resistances and the like and is not super relevant here], [source of status]).

A note in advance, whenever you see this great big unwieldy string of characters: S_GLO_Nightsong_6c55edb0-901b-4ba4-b9e8-3475a8392d9b -> [happy Isobel voice] This is Aylin!

Here's an example of a bit of code that handles Aylin's resurrection and which includes this call. This is a snippet included in the big script that handles the assault on Moonrise Towers at the end of Act 2, but something similar to this appears in several different places and, while there are a bunch of other bits and pieces and failsafes and helpers, this is in general how the game ensures Aylin doesn't stay dead:

IF DB_Dead((CHARACTER)S_GLO_Nightsong_6c55edb0-901b-4ba4-b9e8-3475a8392d9b) AND DB_GlobalFlag(MOO_Assault_State_InProgress_0f3a8f5d-7402-4220-bebb-d4b21d3db08d) AND HasActiveStatus(S_GLO_Nightsong_6c55edb0-901b-4ba4-b9e8-3475a8392d9b, "SHA_SHARSPEAR_MORTALWOUND", 0) AND GetFaction(S_GLO_Nightsong_6c55edb0-901b-4ba4-b9e8-3475a8392d9b, _Faction) THEN PROC_SetRelationToPlayers(_Faction, 100); ApplyStatus(S_GLO_Nightsong_6c55edb0-901b-4ba4-b9e8-3475a8392d9b, "GLO_NIGHTSONGRESURRECTION", 6.0, 0, S_GLO_Nightsong_6c55edb0-901b-4ba4-b9e8-3475a8392d9b);

What this essentially translates to is the following:

IF Aylin is in the database of currently dead characters (nooooo) AND the Moonrise assault is in progress AND Aylin having been permakilled by Shar's spear in the Shadowfell is FALSE (aka zero) AND we were able to correctly fetch data about Aylin's faction/approval THEN set this approval so she is an ally to the player (shows up as green, affected by friendly spells etc.) and give her the "Nightsong Soars Eternal" status lasting for 6 seconds.

She is both the target and the source of this effect, as there isn't anyone else casting it on her. Once the 6 seconds (aka one standard D&D combat round) have passed, the status will expire, and whatever is in its "OnRemoveFunctors" part will happen - and that is a simple Resurrect(100, 10) call. The numbers there mean Aylin is immediately resurrected with a 100% chance and at 10% of her max HP (as opposed to CotM's 1 HP). This usually results in her being at 9HP if this happens.

So there you have it, a friendly Aylin will pop right back up. The Ketheric/Myrkul boss fight in the mindflayer colony has a very similar snippet, for instance. But an important thing to note is that IF Aylin has CotM active aka visible when you examine her, that one will always kick in first. As many people asking for help salvaging their Honour Mode runs after aggroing Aylin in camp will tell you, combat against Aylin if she has CotM literally cannot end. She will keep getting up with 1 HP (she does not state that she didn't hear any bell, but she does loudly exclaim HO! I HAVE RETURNED! and I love her for it). The variant using Nightsong Soars Eternal has her actually leave combat for a bit, so if she's your only enemy, this will usually make combat end and let you exit turn-based mode, plus it makes her non-hostile approval-wise. (And of course, all of these things can bug out in a bunch of different ways.)

This is what it looks like in camp without CotM (sorry, Aylin).

Moving on, there is another way of calling this same function, and that is ApplyStatus([status], [chance of applying status], [duration of status]). A nice example of this appears in a very relevant-to-our-interests code related to the Soul Cage - both in the Shadowfell and in the mindflayer colony. The bit, in particular, that goes like this:

OnRemoveFunctors ApplyStatus(GLO_NIGHTSONG_RESURRECTION, 100, -1);

Just like above, "OnRemoveFunctors" defines what happens when the Soul Cage is removed from Aylin (no matter how this was achieved). So as soon as Aylin's free of the Soul Cage, she's given her Moonmaiden's Reconstitution/Child of the Moonmaiden variant resurrection with a 100% chance and a duration of -1, which means it has no chance of failure and it lasts until it is explicitly removed by some other bit of code. Again, this happens both when you free her in her prison, and when you free her in the colony after she's been recaptured - from that moment on, she has CotM until something removes it.

What's one prominent place this status explicitly gets removed? Why, Ramazith's Tower, and it happens when combat starts regardless of allegiances, as seen here in the script that handles Sorcerous Sundries:

//Tracking final combat IF DB_Is_InCombat(S_GLO_Nightsong_6c55edb0-901b-4ba4-b9e8-3475a8392d9b,_CombatGUID) AND DB_Is_InCombat(S_LOW_Lorroakan_a9d4b71d-b0ef-429e-8210-6dc8be986ee9,_CombatGUID) AND QRY_OnlyOnce("LOW_SorcerousSundries_StartFinalConfrontationCombat") THEN RemoveStatus(S_GLO_Nightsong_6c55edb0-901b-4ba4-b9e8-3475a8392d9b,"GLO_NIGHTSONG_RESURRECTION");

Fairly simple, right? If Aylin is in combat, and if Lorroakan is in combat, and the final confrontation has begun, remove the resurrection status from Aylin. Why? As mentioned above, CotM means any combat against Aylin very literally never ends, so siding against her would be an unwinnable scenario. There is also a fail state in which she gets downed after you've sided with her and you flee from combat against Lorroakan - if you return, you'll see he's captured her. Why doesn't she resurrect using Nightsong Soars Eternal? That whole implementation of checking if she's dead is not present in the Sorcerous Sundries script at all. So if downed in the tower, Aylin will stay dead until one of two things happens: you've betrayed her and you leave and return, upon which she will be caged again and swearing her vengeance against you, OR you've sided with her and the combat ends. Then she'll pop back up for her backbreaker cutscene, and it will be via this custom bit of scripting:

IF DB_LOW_SorcerousSundries_FinalConfrontationCombatEnded(1) AND DB_Defeated(S_GLO_Nightsong_6c55edb0-901b-4ba4-b9e8-3475a8392d9b) AND DB_GlobalFlag((FLAG)LOW_Lorroakan_State_IsPermadefeated_2c446081-2f24-49c4-84d9-b8f64a3d3098) AND NOT DB_GlobalFlag((FLAG)LOW_SorcerousSundries_State_PlayersSideWithLorroakan_24c45d86-9027-48cc-afdd-3e6bac7d5425) AND QRY_OnlyOnce("LOW_SorcerousSundries_NightsongGetsUpAfterCombat") THEN PROC_CharacterFullRestore((CHARACTER)S_GLO_Nightsong_6c55edb0-901b-4ba4-b9e8-3475a8392d9b);

If the combat is over, Aylin is down, Lorroakan is dead and the player didn't side with Lorroakan, get Aylin up and do a "full restore" of her.

This makes way for some of the most delightful of checks in a segment of code marked as "//REGION Nightsong going to WWE Lorroakan":

PROC PROC_LOW_SorcerousSundries_HandleNightsongVictory() AND QRY_SorcerousSundries_NightsongCanSmashLorro() QRY_SorcerousSundries_LorroakanBodySmashable() QRY_OnlyOnce("LOW_SorcerousSundries_NightsongSmash")

The many branching variants handled here were actually really interesting to see, from who is alive at the end of the fight and who the player sided with to whether Isobel is still alive and whether Lorroakan's corpse has a head.

There's also a Patch 3 fix for older savegames, addressing a bug that I remember being fairly common, where Aylin would just not ever resurrect after the wizard tower and sometimes wouldn't ever come back to camp. It basically looks at your save, just checks a couple flags and triggers Nightsong Soars Eternal on Aylin if she is for whatever reason still in the "dead characters database" even though you sided with her against the wizard (and didn't kill her in the Shadowfell, of course).

Just in case anyone missed me dying on my hill, by the way, none of this has anything to do with her "breaking her oath" or "losing her mother's favour" or anything of the sort, because none of that happens at all.

I also love the straightforwardness of some of her behaviour parameters and the comments:

Act2_GLO_Nightsong AI Archetype USING melee_smart //Focus harder on Keth MULTIPLIER_TARGET_PREFERRED 4.50 //Care less about killing the minions - MULTIPLIER_KILL_ENEMY -0.20 //To stop her from overvaluing shoves on the necromites - MULTIPLIER_FALL_DAMAGE_ENEMY 0.2

To wrap this all up, thank you for your attention, hope you enjoyed or found any of this at all interesting. Here's a very sad fact I discovered today:

Boooo. Let her rock out.

[muffledcalliopemusic]

⚔️ 🐙 Met him in my dreams. 🐟 ⚔️

A couple nights ago, I dreamed I met some sort of reincarnation of ya boi HP wandering around in some beautiful green armor looking for monsters to slay. He wore no helmet, and carried no weapons. I figured a pole-axe suited him better than a sword, so that’s what I decided to give him when recreating the image. Sadly, I don’t think I managed to convey how incredibly iridescent his armor was, even when using the dogsbane leaf beetle for reference, as seen below.

[effypcfcwrites]

The Owl House

(Originally posted on my personal Facebook dated April 25, 2023)

This is probably the first time I'll be posting a detailed review of a piece of media that I like, so witness me sing all of my praises for this animated series from the House of Mouse, because wow, I've never been so invested in a Disney show after rewatching Gravity Falls.

For those unfamiliar, The Owl House revolves around Luz Noceda, a teenage girl who stumbles upon a portal to an alternate world called The Boiling Isles, meets a witch named Eda Clawthorne, learns magic under her tutelage and eventually enrolls in Hexside, a magic school where she makes many friends and goes on multiple adventures.

I binged this whole show in a span of weeks and even stayed up all night on my day off to finish it up to Season 3, the first 2 Seasons being on Disney+ and the latter on Disney Channel's YouTube page.

Simply put, I love it so much! I love how it reminds me of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, and, dare I say, Harry Potter, which it even poked fun at, at times. Well-deserved, considering J.K. Rowling’s transphobic views and HP’s underlying anti-Semitic undertones.

I loved the pop culture references to Thor: Ragnarok, Howl's Moving Castle, Metal Gear Solid, and even Hades, among many others! I thought those were very clever and funny, and just a treat for fellow nerds, geeks, and fans of fantasy stories, anime, and video games.

I love the LGBTQ+ representation all throughout the show, which was such a bold move considering Disney’s iffy stance on the subject. None of them were antagonized for it, and it was treated as something normalized in both the Human and Demon Realms. The show featured 2 gay dads, non-binary and aromantic-asexual characters, and one of the internet’s favorite sapphic/WLW couples Lumity, which is the ship consisting of canonically bisexual Luz and implied lesbian Amity Blight, whose rivals-to-friends-to-lovers relationship was just so wholesome, so natural, and very healthy, considering they're both teenagers. Suprisingly, there was very little melodrama, not once were they petty towards one another whenever either party did something wrong, and they never got tired of showing affection towards each other. I found myself shamelessly gushing over how cute, adorable, and supportive they were together, and tearing up a lot during key moments of their relationship, especially when they both found themselves in dire straits as the story progressed.

I love the writing and the character development of them all! None of them felt static, they all grew throughout the series, maturing, getting better, and healing from their own insecurities, trauma, and guilt. The humor and comedic timing was a nice touch, and I was really taken aback by how S2 ended on such a dark cliffhanger with all stakes raised to the roof, similar to A:TLA S2 and The Empire Strikes Back, as mentioned earlier. That season wasn’t afraid to have such a grim ending, with such a great payoff by the end of S3 which is worth celebrating.

I love the animation and art style, which blended colorful and whimsical with eerie and ominous in just the right amounts. As a sucker for animated movies and series such as Adventure Time, The Prince of Egypt, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, it was just such a delight watching it.

I love the overarching message of the show, which is to be truly yourself, to embrace your quirks, and never to limit yourself and your potential based on what the majority of society and the powers-that-be expect from you. All throughout, you’ll find the characters challenging pre-established norms and roles, and it’s just so satisfying seeing them all win.

11/10 top-tier show. Don’t @ me, it’s hard for me to find something I disliked about the series. It's definitely a must-watch, especially if you're sick and tired of all the bleak nihilism of modern adult animation, and you just want to baby your inner child and escape to a whimsical fantasy world with characters you can all relate to. Betting my bottom peso you'll all be hooked, like I was.

[k-s-morgan]

Heyy! I am such a fan of your work in the Tomarry fandom, and I don’t want to sound intrusive, but I’m just wondering if you ever shared your history with the ship. You said before that you were a huge Snarry fan, so how did you transition from that to this? (Hehe, maybe I’m getting it wrong like you were always a fan of both since then, my apologies if ever. I don’t know if I’m assuming you’re no longer a Snarry fan.) And what made you write fanfic of them? How did you come up with such unique and great storylines? I wonder if you got inspired from someone or something because damn, the way you tell your stories is just my perfect cup of tea. And I can see you enjoy it! Really great.

Hi! Thank you so much for your sweet words <3 You are absolutely right, I used to be a Snarry shipper. I can't say I'm indifferent to this ship now, but the years where I gulped down all kinds of fics featuring them have passed. The passion isn't there any longer.

How I stumbled upon Tomarry: some months before publishing the first chapter of WHGTB, I was re-reading a Snarry fic called The Marriage Stone. Snape is not nearly the bastard I prefer him to be there, but I liked the world-building a lot, so I enjoyed reading it. There is a small arc there where Lucius Malfoy is attracted to Harry, and I found myself fascinated by it. It occured to me that it might be interesting to try the fics centered on Harry and Lucius - I was never a fan of the latter, he's overly pompous and a coward, but I wanted to find something where Lucius would be dark, regal, and a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, the fics I read didn't appeal to me, so I started wondering what other dark, regal character to pair Harry with. I was in the mood for something darker than I typically found in Snarry.

And that's how I thought of Tomarry. In retrospect, it's amazing that I hadn't found them sooner. I always liked the parallels between Harry, Tom, and Severus, and since I thought Harry and Snape might make a potentially great couple, I don't know why I never considered Tom and Harry in the same context until years into shipping Snarry.

I tried some Tomarry fics, and ohh, I fell head over heels. I could no longer go back to my other HP ships, it was like my most perfect drug.

I'm so flattered that you referred to my stories as unique because I actually really hesitated about publishing WHGTB. I knew I would write this story, but the fandom has so many Harry-raising-Tom fics that I thought people are already bored to death with it, so it'd be something I'd create just for myself. Needless to say, the response to it shocked me.

I consider WHGTB and ATLWETD very plain in terms of plot uniqueness - they are just my takes on 'Harry raises Tom' and 'Harry studied with Tom' tropes. To me, stories like Consuming Shadows and Train to Nowhere are unique, while I'm doing the maximum relationship, minimum plot thing. That's what I prefer as a writer, and I love it - knowing other people enjoy it just as much never fails to make me incredibly happy.

As for why I decided to write these fics at all - to be honest, I can never tell how these things work. For example, despite my intense love for Snarry and the years I spent dedicated to this ship, I never wanted to write about them. Same goes for my other fandoms. I can be absolutely insane about a ship, I can love the characters and the universe they come from to death, but the need and desire to write something can be lacking. With Tomarry, I wanted to write about them immediately.

I can't say I got inspired by anything except for a general Tomarry vibe. I think a couple of fics I read might have had an impact on me in terms of some ideas, especially Fate's Favorite since I read it an absurd amount of times, but there is nothing specific I would point out as my source of inspiration. Just a ship itself.

[sunshades]

Speaking of story/gameplay mix, Heath's Distortion have a special place in my heart because of that. Skills' names, sin affinities and attack types, attack pattern, event check and my favorite - passives! Passives that start animalistic, but on low enough HP he'll get 2 very familiar ones...

Every Catherine's passives are a little different between phases and their names also hurt...

THISSSS it's such fun narrative integration. starting off with the envy skill as the strongest one, then when the chain to the sack is broken the Big Skill becomes the gloom one--

since the distortion's causes are his own low self-worth and his belief he's the one responsible for catherine's death, that always makes me think that as the fight goes on it's his own mindset shifting... the "envy" sin of "i should've been better i should've been able to save her" lasting until the chain (THE GUILT!) is cut off, and then it changes into the "gloom" sin of "i'm irredeemable and worthless regardless". yk since there's always been the matter of Who Is In The Bodysack? i feel like the skills kinda give an answer... in phase 1 it's catherine, in phase 2 it is heathcliff.

then ARGHHH RESSENTIMENT AND SPITE-DRIVEN COMING ONLINE AS HE STARTS TO RETURN TO HIS SENSES... i always think about ressentiment a lot in general because it's such a specific thing to reference- finding an external Enemy to take the blame of your actions and feelings of inferiority. very fun when the scene right after him coming back from distortion (the peccatula waves) and after nelly's betrayal both have him (+catherine in the pda scene) explicitly recognizing their faults, the tendency to avoid actual confrontation and being honest with their feelings...

LOVE EVERYRINE'S DETAILS AS WELL! i actually never noticed the different bits ohhh... all of these is in phase 2 referencing both how she is in the process of killing og cathy BUT og cathy is also in the process of trying to kick her out. so silly

and like for heathcliff the sin affinity order is interesting... the more common attacks are the wrath of their fate, but the stronger attacks are gloom, for the grief over her belief she's the cause of heathcliff's misery, and envy towards all her other selves that still live and haven't experienced her pain, and the need to have them all take part in her plan as a way to repent... so pretty much the same concept as the erlking's/wild hunt's lineup. as expected of a dullahan x banshee couple i suppose 🔥🔥🔥

[wannabelilybriscoe]

2024 In Review!

Thank you for the tag, @leavesthatarebrown! <3

I only have two stories and I only started writing halfway through the year! But I'm going to take this opportunity to indulgently ramble about my two stories because I love them both very much. Under the cut for anyone who happens to be interested.

June - December

A Song For the End of the World

So, I'd gotten back into HP fanfiction earlier in the year, after a long time away from being actively in the fandom (we're talking ohhhh ~15 years). Turns out, many people wrote many truly fantastic stories while I was "away," not to mention the treasure trove of older stories that I'd missed because I was a tween back when I first started reading fanfiction! Who knew!

After reading so many gorgeous, poignant, fun, and hard-hitting stories, including a whole whack of really creative AUs featuring the Marauders, I found myself kinda sorta wishing that I could write one of my own. I used to write fiction a lot when I was younger but only ever short stories. Then, university and my twenties happened and put creative writing other than poetry on the back-burner (poetry has been a constant throughout my entire life). But I've always wanted to write a novel! I just didn't think I was the type of person who could write a long story.

Anyway, I was in an extra slumpy place creatively, and aching to feel connected to my old self again (hence getting back into HP fanfiction in the first place). So I thought...fuck it! I've done a bunch of other really hard shit in the last decade. Why can't I just write a stupid fanfic for the pure fun of it, and use it as a sandbox to learn how to write a multi-chapter story? Just to prove to myself that I CAN?

So I started brainstorming what would be the most fun for me to write i.e. what I would be intrinsically motivated to stick with. That's how I landed on:

Zombies! I love zombie movies. Zombies are fun! The genre never takes itself too seriously, but creates a lot of opportunities for interesting character dynamics and explorations into the human psyche. Plus, a lot of opportunity for action-packed, cinematic scenes!

Set in the 70s because I find that era interesting from a pop culture and political milieu.

Remus POV because he's my favourite and I thought he would be the easiest brain for me to inhabit (but I later enjoyed exploring other POVs, I think I just needed to build up my confidence in Remus's head first).

I wanted it to be EPIC. Like a TV show with a couple of seasons. Lots of characters. Multiple plot reveals. Something of a scale I'd never done before.

I wanted it to be a queer coming-of-age story because I love those stories, and stories about found family, friendship, and learning to be brave in the face of insurmountable obstacles.

Then I made a list of cool and/or funny things to add in. I decided that nothing would be too ridiculous for this story because the name of the game is fun. Those things included:

Ample 70s music references

A priest with a flamethrower (can't tell you why, I just loved the visual)

Zombie dog!

An apocalyptic roadtrip

A romantic scene on a tower ledge

A cult with a classic 70s cult leader

Zombie rats!

A Commer van

A chainsaw (hmmmmmm)

And the very final scene, which I won't spoil, but which I've had in my head since the first week of writing this story.

But as I wrote and wrote, I started to tease out different themes I wanted to explore, and different characters I wanted to introduce and inhabit.

One of the biggest things I'm learning from writing this story is to trust the process. Before writing this, I thought I had to have every little piece of the plot figured out at the get-go. It always left me with analysis paralysis. But now I'm learning that while you need to have the broad strokes planned to give you direction, a lot of the parts of the plot that make the story engaging and memorable are discovered along the way. How can I begin to explain how freeing that realization was for me? I've rewritten my plot outline about four times. Although, the funny thing is, whenever I find myself second-guessing a plot point, I seem to end up circling back to my initial idea anyway.

Does all this mean that parts of the story are clunky and in need of refinement? Hell yeah. If I was going to even consider trying to get something published traditionally, I would need to put it through so many rounds of edits. But this is my hobby story about Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, and I'm sharing it as I go. So, I'm choosing to not feel bad about things like going back and making edits to past chapters after they're published if it serves the final product. And I'm choosing to not cut scenes I've included simply for my own self-indulgence, even if it makes things ramble a little. It's imperfect but it's full of joy and heart (and angst and irreverent violence).

December

The Road to Love Is Covered in Ice and Slush

If ASFTEOTW is long for the sake of long, The Road to Love is short for the sake of short. I've read a bunch of tight, punchy romcoms that were just brilliantly executed. I wanted to see if I could do the same. Also, things are at a heavy point in my zombie story and I needed a little brain break. I've been having a blast writing horror but I wanted some silly, light comedy during the holidays!

I decided to set it in Toronto because I've wanted to write a story set in Toronto for a long time. I was born in Toronto and have lived in and around it my entire life. Some of my most formative years were spent living in the west end of the city.

I set it in the present day at a startup because I've lived it, and I knew all the ridiculousness that could be packed into a story with that setting. My goal was to make the plot uncomplicated, as a counterpoint to the zombie story, because that one has required a lot of research and planning. Basically, I approached this story as a rapid-fire project that would hopefully flow easily. I'm happy to say that it did! I've enjoyed writing it immensely.

It's a love letter to my home city. I've fully romanticized Toronto because I think the city deserves it. And it's been so lovely to see people commenting that my story has made them want to visit! It’s also officially the first multi-chapter story I’ve ever finished!!!

Fanfiction is so fun! I've met so many lovely, creative people in the last six months. I've learned SO MUCH about writing fiction! Thank you thank you thank you if you've been reading my stories, and especially if you've been leaving likes and comments. I think one day I WILL write an original novel. I know I'm capable now! But for the time being, I'm enjoying playing in the fanfic sandbox.

(I don't know who to tag because seems like most of my moots have done this already....so if you haven't, consider this an open tag!)