#another one for the wips pile...

[saintsenara]

Merope/Filch

anon, this has sent me - thank you so much!

and i've decided to commit to fully backing it. we know that merope doesn't mind her man sans magical powers - which filch would appreciate - and that she's had her own experiences of being called a squib and knowing how hurtful it is.

we also know that her father and brother expected her to do all the work around the house, and they were fond of criticising her for how she did this without ever making the effort to lift a finger to help. this aligns very well with filch's experience at hogwarts, where he's treated by the rest of the staff as faintly ridiculous and never given any real assistance in his tasks by anyone who can actually do magic.

indeed, the menial brutality of merope's life in the gaunts' shack has some very interesting parallels with something that strikes me about filch and his place at the bottom of the pile in hogwarts. the house elves - even though their subordinate position as slaves shouldn't be forgotten, while filch is [ostensibly] free - are permitted to do domestic labour [cooking and cleaning the dormitories - and, presumably, the staff's quarters] which occupies an interesting position in the hierarchy of domestic service.

if we imagine hogwarts, as its vibes very much allow us to, as a victorian/edwardian aristocratic house - downton abbey style - then the elves' closest parallel are domestic servants like butlers, footmen, housekeepers, housemaids, and cooks [and hokey, the elf enslaved by hepzibah smith, also seems to perform the role of a lady's maid]. all of which were, as far as positions in domestic service go, prestigious.

filch, in contrast, is the equivalent of a porter, gatekeeper, boot boy, or scullery maid - positions which were considered lower skilled, required more menial labour, and which were looked down upon by the rest of the domestic staff.

he and merope have in common, then, the experience of being considered literally less worthy than a house elf, and i'm remarkably taken by the idea of this - two people who have never expected to meet anyone else they're permitted to think of as an equal - percolating into something sincerely beautiful.

particularly because the great tragedy of merope's life is simply that nobody paid enough attention to her to help her. the state allows her to grow up in an abusive home without an education and then leaves her there on her own when her father and brother are imprisoned, and then neither the state nor any private individual steps in when she's homeless, penniless, and heavily pregnant.

if filch does - if he takes her in to a house which is nothing fancy, but which still has a fire in the grate and food on the table, and lets her stay there [sleeping, for the first time in her life, in a bed of her own] and gets her medical attention when she goes into labour - then the series pretty much tells us that she would survive to raise and love her son, who would be much more chill than his canon self simply by virtue of not being an orphan and who would also end up with a radically different outlook on life if he were raised by a squib.

plus, i reckon filch's canonical belligerence - and fondness for the whip - could effectively wrangle a few quid in child support out of tom riddle sr. ...

or: argus filch changes the course of history by giving a pregnant teenager a bowl of soup on christmas eve. he's not the step-dad, he's the dad that stepped up.

[tzarrz]

i listen to fog lake too much

[marikodraws]

Wei “I say so many things and my memory is so bad, you have got to be more specific” Ying

[iedistis]

30 seconds before disaster

[the19thduckpotato]

he's just glad to have his kid back

[lyraeeee]

a terrible father

[fictionadventurer]

One mildly chilly day in August and suddenly I want to read every Victorian novel in existence.

[mitochondria-larson]

feeling cute. might draw a crucification later <3

[wastelandhell]

what if he brushed his fluffy hair back. consider.

[junemermaid]

last line meme

I was tagged by the ever delightful @ripeteeth

rules: share the last line you wrote, tag some people and have fun

(I'm cheating a little, but also, I like these lines and I missed sentences Sunday yesterday.)

"I'm here." Most of him is, anyway. The part that matters. The part that, Di Feisheng is increasingly sure, wants to belong to these two. Little by little, it grows, as he passes more of himself into their hands—as he wonders, in the back of his mind, when they'll drop the pieces or hurl them away, or worse, bend under their weight. He strokes a thumb over Fang Duobing's throat, feels the pulse leaping at the base of his neck. The way they're sitting, he has to look up at Fang Duobing. It feels good, though, the same way as Li Lianhua's grip of his hand as he came. Like an anchor's knot, drawn steady against the tide. "What do you want of me, Xiaobao?" That name, too, still new in his mouth. He keeps at it for the gleam of delight it always lights in Fang Duobing's eye. This time, there is that answering glimmer, but Fang Duobing cradles his face, bites his lip, and seems to stall.

no-pressure tagging @electricshoebox @theotherjax @momosandlemonsoda @lynne-monstr @sleepsonclouds and whoever else would like to do this!

[landwriter]

2!

Hounds of Love by The Futureheads. Oh! What a gem!! I first loved this song when I was a wee bab and rediscovered it this past summer. It, along with all my top songs, was on a summer driving playlist which is why it is so insanely high haha. There's a sort of lovely pastoral wildness to this and I think that suits our lads so well.

An outdoorsy AU with competence kink out the wazoo, where Dream is a bird specialist at a wildlife rehabilitative centre, who becomes a minor TikTok celebrity (much to his enormous apathy) when the centre starts doing interpretive meet-birds events and the internet falls in love with this dour hottie who only smiles when he's talking about birds (Matthew, naturally, runs the account). Hob is a hunter - bow, mostly - who is regrettably very on TikTok, very on all social media - he hates the term but he is unquestionably an 'influencer'. He just likes sharing his knowledge and passion, alright? And the gear sponsorships are nice.

He sees Dream, and sees, mostly, a really great collab opportunity, so he messages him, and Dream (who is Matthew, and just shouted HOB FUCKING GADLING? IN MY DMs? at his phone when he got the message, immediately sets up a meeting at the centre. Then he breaks the news to Dream, specifically when Dream is holding Jessamy, so he can't be murdered.)

Dream, of course, expects Hob to be some like, swaggering font of red-blooded machismo talking points, and suspects Hob is only popular because he looks like an advertisement in Outdoor Living. (Matthew showed him pictures.) He disregards Matthew, who says Hob is actually super cool, because Matthew has terrible taste and would be the first to admit it. But his interest is piqued when Lucienne also knows who Hob is. It turns out Hob is deeply involved in nature and wildlife conservancy. Gives talks at schools. Gets involved with land protection initiatives. Teaches orienteering to youth. But everyone seems to expect him to hate Hob, which he would find faintly insulting except that he also expects himself to hate Hob. He doesn't. Not that much. Even when he shows up in a plaid shirt that is made of 'technical' fabric, because he's smart and excited to talk to Dream about birds, has an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of falconry, and most importantly, Jessamy takes to him immediately.

They run into each other again at a renaissance fair, another thing Dream hates but has been strong-armed into doing, and so they are both dressed in very silly clothes when it happens: the first time Hob watches Dream demonstrate falconry, the first time Dream watches Hob use a longbow made from a yew tree he fell himself, the first time they go from a wary sort of respect for one another to a wanting.

Dream, who has a recurring fantasy about running away from it all, listens to Hob tell tracking stories and thinks, If I went into the woods, you would find me. But he doesn't want to run from Hob - except sometimes, when he sees Hob chew on his lip consideringly before giving a thoughtful answer about the guiding industry, or when Hob grins wildly at the crowd after his archery demonstration, and most of all, when Hob phones him out of the blue one day - he doesn't text, he phones - sounding a little breathless with excitement, and asks Dream if he wants to come with him for a week in the mountains, on "probably a wild goose chase" and promises "all sorts of birds if nothing else." (Hob had meant to only share the news with Dream. Fuck, he thinks. I am so fucked.)

He says yes, for the birds, of course, and tells Matthew the next time he's at the centre.

"So what's the wild goose chase?" asks Matthew.

Dream plumbs his memory of the phone call and says, "Hob told me he received a bighorn sheep tag." Matthew gapes at him.

"Holy shit," says Matthew. "He's in love with you."

"He is certainly not."

"Uh, no, respectfully boss, he 'certainly' is. Lucienne!" he shouts, "Hob invited Dream to come out on his Dall sheep tag. What the fuck, right?"

Lucienne comes in and raises her eyebrows. "Oh dear," she says. She's smiling.

"What," says Dream. "It's a sheep. I don't understand."

Lucienne and Matthew exchange a glance.

"Him. I cannot believe Hob chose him," says Matthew.

"Love works in mysterious ways," says Lucienne.

"I am right here," says Dream.

Matthew turns to him, "Have fun in Alberta," he says.

this would ft. nights of wild stars, rugged terrain, type ii fun, sexual tension around a campfire, homoerotic form checks, tent sharing, dream glassing beautiful birds with hob's $3000 binoculars while hob stares at him in abject adoration, dream watching hob strip off his clothes and jump into an alpine lake, and refusing to join him out of pretended prudishness when it's really because he's suddenly so hard it hurts, camp coffee, confessions about themselves instead of confessions about their feelings for each other, sore muscles for a VARIETY of reasons, and lots of allegories about wildness and taming and running away from things, and SO MUCH COMPETENCE KINK, friends. so much. i would probably write it like - act one them leading their separate lives, their desires and aches etc., act two - meetcute and circling one another, act three - The Trip. this one has a very happy ending i can tell

[nqn]

sometimes i zoom out so i can rearrange my reference pile and i . i need to finish some owed stuff and wips i have TOO MUCH floating around out here

[drfrogphd]

Undertale Dolls - Published: Oct 12, 2021

These are also available on my shop as stickers and buttons!

[gaydexvocaloid]

cakey flowerrrrr wip

[ragnarokhound]

hey your chapel roan anon here. I personally think red wine supernova is lesbian jaytim werewolf coded. does this make sense?

Hey chappell roan anon, quick question - how did you get into my WIP idea doc and when did you ghost write this:

[ciderjacks]

argh. This comic writing is taking me way longer than usual. I keep editing things and it doesn’t feel right.