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#apart from the midnight library which is excellent
meljwrites · 3 months
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pls do give me gay book recommendations. and do expand on "i dislike most of the popular gay books for very specific reasons" what specific reasons? i love to share nitpicks. i imagine you have a low tolerance of rpe as you mentioned already? is it too dark for you? also, i never read aristotle and dante and the secrets of the universe, but i watched the adaptation recently, and i hated it surprisingly enough, and i had high expectations it was going to be good. i didnt feel any romance most of the movie and i have no idea why everyone seemed to know aristotle liked dante while he didnt show to know for most of the movie. so i guess will just throw my nitpick out there first: i hate when gay stories leave it to the end for the characters to show to like each other.
yeaaahhhh i'll give you a list of complaints and then some recs...
I didn't like aristotle and dante (i actually read it twice bc it was required reading in uni) because of the whole - doesn't realise that he's gay until his dad tells him he is, also i'm pretty sure someone literally just said that author is transphobic so yeahhhh - also i just dont like the rythm of the way he writes.
I didn't like the seven husbands of evelyn hugo because of the straight protagonist, managing to kill off every queer character by the end of the book, having a character chip her tooth on the tv and be fine (i chipped my tooth as a kid), and the line that goes something like "her breasts where what made her famous in this world and they were going to take her out of it". i also didnt pay for that one funnily enough, i got my uni library to order it.
I didn't love red white and royal blue because of the heavy focus on politics and the way it ends with everyone holding up signs to support them which i found unrealistic and the way they were discovered bc they didnt remember that the front of cars is see through 🙄. (but one last stop is like my second fave book and i liked the movie!!)
I do recommend:
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern - a literary queer overlapping sea of stories and myths which is my favourite book
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston - a speculative sapphic romance novel about a girl lost in time and a group of queer friends rallying to save a local diner.
If you still recognise me by Cynthia So - a ya lesbian romance between childhood friends exploring chinese diaspora and culture, fandoms, and comic shops
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Voung - a poetic novel based on his life as an immigrant in america and his relationship with his mother and grandmother and gay identity.
Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour - my fave book when i was a teen, this is a lesbian romance wrapped in a mystery with a focus on old hollywood and film sets.
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender - a trans mlm ya romance about a summer art school program and shifting identites when faced with the cruelty of teenagers.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo- ya lesbian romance set in the San Francisco in the 50s against the backdrop of chinese diaspora and the cold war.
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters - a modern classic historical lesbian romance which the korean movie the handmaiden is based on.
Also "Laura Dean Keeps Breaking up With Me", "spinning", "on a sunbeam", "Heartstopper" and "mooncakes" are good graphic novels
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tuesday again 9/26/2023
six sentences or less, bc having a physical form has been super duper extra fun this past week
listening
i like Chappell Roan very much as an artist/performer/media personality (and have previously featured tuesdaysongs Pink Pony Club and Red Wine Supernova), but i do not like her new album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess very much as an album. it is not very good to listen straight through as a work. very high high and very very low vibes all over the place, three different kinds of club bangers interspersed with torch songs. After Midnight both sonically and like, vocal delivery? reminds me a lot of modern paramore?? chill but danceable, a canonically bisexual song.
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reading
what would we fucking do without Riptide Publishing and their batshit insane (lovingly) catalog? The Glamour Thieves by Don Allman is the platonic ideal of a "one last job"-style heist book, in gay urban magic/paranormal wrapping paper. had remarkably good action sequences, buckets of atmosphere, excellent pacing. i read it in one sitting and was up until 3AM. my library doesn't have the other two in the trilogy, so i'm impatiently waiting until there's more fun money in the fun money budget
JT is an orc on the way up. He’s got his own boutique robotics shop, high-end clientele, and deep-pocketed investors. He’s even mentoring an orc teen who reminds him a bit too much of himself back in the day.  Then Austin shows up, and the elf’s got the same hard body and silver tongue as he did two years ago when they used to be friends and might have been more. He’s also got a stolen car to bribe JT to saying yes to one last scheme: stealing the virtual intelligence called Blue Unicorn. Soon JT’s up to his tusks in trouble, and it ain’t just zombies and Chinese triads threatening to tear his new life apart. Austin wants a second chance with JT—this time as more than just a friend—and even the Blue Unicorn is trying to play matchmaker.
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watching
the latest Felix Colgrave and partner Zoë Medcraft video has big madeline vibes. in a big giant anthill all covered in vines lived twelve billion ants in many straight lines. love to watch an ant carry off an entire head of garlic
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playing
the next g/enshin update is rapidly approaching and that's about all i've been doing the entire time i've been sick. toodling around and finishing off stray quests here and there, accidentally discovering i never engaged with a fairly major quest, exploring nooks and crannies for stray chests and puzzles.
i did an extremely tiresome quest chain and rejuvenated this big tree that you can see from three other in-game nations which is pretty cool. i wish it looked slightly less like a nuclear test cloud?
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this monarch butterfly of a claymore-wielding woman will be released in late winter/early spring hopefully and i Must have her. this game is so good to me re: women with giant swords
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making
fallow week. i hope to GOD i will have the energy this week to make these fucking couch covers i want them to be Done
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bereft-of-frogs · 2 years
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Favorite Books of 2022:
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Okay here's the positivity, I've split my list into New vs Rereads.
New:
Nona the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir - not over it, obvious answer, what more is there to say?
In the Dream House, by Carmen Maria Machado - really clever and creative memoir, I'm currently rereading Her Body and Other Parties because I just love Machado's writing so much.
This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone - fun fact I originally read this because I'd gotten it for my friend as a late Christmas present last year but then read it before giving it to her, so it was the only one of my top 5 that I didn't own. Until this Christmas when I got it from my brother who, and I quote, 'googled what you should read if you like that lesbian space necromancer series' which is also 100% how I picked it out for my friend and also 100% true.
The Secret History, by Donna Tartt - the seminal dark academia text, I read 300 pages in a single day and I am already planning on going as Murdered Vermont Farmer using things already found in my closet for next Halloween.
The Fifth Season, by NK Jemisin - oh my god this was so good. Both an excellent example of how good second person narration can be and how satisfying good plot twists can be. I 'guessed' this one early and was so gratified as it developed.
Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - what an unexpected delight for a book I essentially read because of BookTok drama. In case you'd already forgotten, the routine Classics vs YA drama took an unexpected turn in January when the first shot about how the booktok girlies should read Crime and Punishment was parried with 'um Crime and Punishment is a YA novel actually', and lead to 1) at least one Booktokker trying to read it and gifting us with their angry annotations like 'omg why is this book so bleak and depressing' (it's Russian Lit, there are so many memes about this) and 'um is this book really about him murdering an old lady' (yes that's the plot that's on the cover what did you think the 'crime' was), 2) a solid year of jokes, 3) me reading it sincerely and really enjoying it. So thanks booktok!
Ok, now onto the Rereads:
1. & 2. Gideon and Harrow - yup I read these both twice this year, still faves, still cry every time, not over them either.
3. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman - always a favorite.
4. Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel - This one for sure hit different after COVID, but is still so, so good.
5. Lord of the Rings - I really like my new 3 in 1 copy, it’s so pretty and drives home that these are really one extended story spread across 6 volumes rather than a true trilogy, so yeah I recommend a 3-in-1 edition if you are in the market for LotR books. It does make it rather heavy to carry around, but at least it’s paperback and I found this one wasn’t too hard to physically read.
Honorable Mentions: Dracula (Dracula Daily was THE MOST fun I had all year), The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (takes place in the What We Do In the Shadows Universe you cannot take that headcanon away from me, Dracula is the #Drama, no notes, a worthy successor), The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (excellent), The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (the amount of hate this book gets on Tiktok is unnecessary and kind of toxic, imo), Revenge of the Sith novelization by Matthew Stover (Stover, why are you Like This? Why?)
If anyone has StoryGraph and would like to follow me/be friends, I’m on there under bereft_of_frogs, so please feel free to friend me!
The #Salt (aka my bottom 5 books of 2022 and a little mini rant on each) under the cut:
2. Rule of Wolves, by Leigh Bardugo - Another really disappointing sequel that made me wish I’d stayed a Six of Crows duology-only girlie. Though I did really like King of Scars, specifically for the continuation of Nina becoming a necromancer and infiltrating Fjerda. That part really fell apart in this book. A lot of things fell apart. It honestly felt sort of like Bardugo just wanted to be finished with this universe? Because a lot of things were resolved in really weird ways and really quickly. It also felt like it lost some of the interesting nuance in the worldbuilding that SoC had. And of course, she really showed off how bad she is at portraying the passage of time in her writing with this one. I was given the impression by King of Scars that it was taking place months at most after the events of Crooked Kingdom, and then out of nowhere it’s actually been 2 years so Nina can totally move on! But it still never felt like it had been 2 years and I feel like the end of the grief narrative was really abrupt and I just…couldn’t get into the romance because of how rushed that resolution was. I hope she’s done with this universe, aside from whatever extra writing/retconning goes on with the TV series - or at least, I’m done with this universe aside from the TV series. In future rereads, I’ll likely stick to my unofficial trilogy of Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom/King of Scars.
2. Rule of Wolves, by Leigh Bardugo - Another really disappointing sequel that made me wish I’d stayed a Six of Crows duology-only girlie. Though I did really like King of Scars, specifically for the continuation of Nina becoming a necromancer and infiltrating Fjerda. That part really fell apart in this book. A lot of things fell apart. It honestly felt sort of like Bardugo just wanted to be finished with this universe? Because a lot of things were resolved in really weird ways and really quickly. It also felt like it lost some of the interesting nuance in the worldbuilding that SoC had. And of course, she really showed off how bad she is at portraying the passage of time in her writing with this one. I was given the impression by King of Scars that it was taking place months at most after the events of Crooked Kingdom, and then out of nowhere it’s actually been 2 years so Nina can totally move on! But it still never felt like it had been 2 years and I feel like the end of the grief narrative was really abrupt and I just…couldn’t get into the romance because of how rushed that resolution was. I hope she’s done with this universe, aside from whatever extra writing/retconning goes on with the TV series - or at least, I’m done with this universe aside from the TV series. In future rereads, I’ll likely stick to my unofficial trilogy of Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom/King of Scars.
3. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, by VE Schwab - This book is SO HYPED and for WHAT? I’m a big fan of lyrical, plotless writing, but that means actually having lyrical writing and no plot. This book just decided to do all the plot in the last 30 pages. So it was like 70% meandering, 30% rushed weird romance plot? And I’m sorry, I will NEVER be over the ‘not like other girls’ feminism of the main character. You cannot convince me that she would not have been in favor of the French Revolution. She’s an anti-clerical feminist but as soon as the Revolution happens it’s like ‘ew those peasant women are too violent, fuck all of them, I’m getting out of here.’ It’s a prime example of the hollow historical feminist archetype that is luckily starting to get some critique, where the main character fits perfectly with modern ideas of feminism, without the author actually having to put that much thought into their actual principles and how that fits into the historical context.
4. Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, by Eric LaRocca - This one was just bad. Read like a first draft. Went nowhere, said nothing.
5. Nothing But Blackened Teeth, by Cassandra Khaw - I almost put this together with the above, because I think they had similar problems. Really under-developed, but at least this one had good writing. It was beautifully written, it just…went nowhere. The characters and their relationships were really surface level, and the intriguing premise just…never really went anywhere. Both I think get more hype than warranted because they’re rather short and they have striking covers. Both I compared to short films that a young/student horror director would send around to short film circuits or use as film school theses while they were working on developing and funding the feature-length project, but unfortunately that’s just not how book publishing works so we’re not going to get to see the fully developed works.
Dishonorable Mentions: Dead Space by Kali Wallace (just finished it, the flattest characters I think I’ve ever encountered in fiction), If We Were Villains by ML Rio (I had this rated higher and then I actually read The Secret History and was like…oh my God, this is so much worse, what a poor imitation), Winter’s Orbit (I feel real bad about this one but…maybe I just don’t like romance, but I could not stand how 50% of the book was just miscommunication), Lost Stars by Claudia Gray (still got 3 stars, but I think this one is just overhyped. If you want to know what reading this book is like, just watch the original trilogy, pause at any major plot point, watch the ‘are we the baddies?’ Sketch and then continue on), What Moves the Dead by T Kingfisher (I also gave this one 3 stars, and I think it’s…really not that bad but I can’t stop thinking about the hubris of saying that you’re going to write a more fully fleshed out version of The Fall of the House of Usher and then add on a whole sub genre, 4 extra characters, another whole plot, and barely make it any longer)
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spookfished · 8 months
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media roundup dec 2024
hi everyone :3 another backlog post from december! its always interesting to look back at something that you were super into during finals. haha. during finals week i think i read a romance novel every 2-3 days?
with this, ive read through almost every single courtney milan book that my library has to offer. they are excellent romance novels if that's your thing, but i also watched some fantastic movies and played some really good games :3 once again will be crossposted up on my website at. some point in time
books:
once upon a marquess by courtney milan: m/f romance. judith, a ruined woman from a ruined family, encounters the man responsible for her familys downfall: her childhood friend. i started reading through this series bc of the most recent installment, the devil comes reading. that ones still my favorite but this one is pretty good! the relationships between the worth siblings were really good and the banter was cute :3 i think ms milans strong sideplots come through pretty clear here--the tension of judiths search for her sister was really sad! her every wish by courtney milan: f/m romance novella. daisy is trying to bluff her way into a grant to start her business, but only one person has the confidence to bullshit his way through: her ex. ok idgaf about small businesses so i didnt read this one for a while, but crash (the love interest) is sooo charming :3 the reasons that their relationship fell apart and the way those hurts were resolved felt really good i think. yay! the pursuit of… by courtney milan: m/m romance novella. hunter, a black soldier during the american revolution, is trying to get back to his family. a british deserter with nothing better to do accompanies him. yeah this was cute. not a lot to say about it :3 the charm offensive by allison cochrun: m/m romance which i picked up bc its about a romance between the bachelor (from the bachelor) and a producer on set. (its not actually the bachelor.) very cute! very fluffy! i have to say, not quite as good as uhhhh all of the courtney milan books ive read over the past couple months but still pretty solid. dev is a cute lead but i found the other lead (charlie or sth) kinda annoying for a significant portion of the book. which i think is somewhat intentional but its like ehhh. i can find awkward tech boys irl too. (SPOILERS) liked how the 'evil ex' actually got some nuance to him too mrs martins incomparable adventure by courtney milan: f/f romance novella featuring two women over 70!!!! and its conwoman x mark?? dudeee miss milan NEEDS to write more femslash im kinda begging here. this was really light and fluffy and also just really awesome. there is a lot to appreciate about romance when youre old i think. im really into it 👍 after the wedding by courtney milan: f/m romance. ok so if you read the first book in the worth saga u know a big b-plot is about trying to find judiths sister camilla. this book is about camilla! so spoilers for that. she gets forced into a mutually unwanted wedding, and while the bride and groom try to annul the wedding they ~also grow feelings~. another milan novel with a weird amount of detail on ceramic design + manufacture? well im not complaining that part was really cool actually. camillas situation is honestly just really sad so its satisfying to see her get out of it
what happened after midnight by courtney milan: f/m romance novella. a man chases after his (former) betrothed after she runs away with his fortune? yeah this was cute. loved the melodrama
unclaimed by courtney milan: dnf. f/m romance. a woman has staked her livelihood on her ability to seduce the ultimate target: the inventor of male chastity??? lmao this is one of her earlier novels published in 2011 (i think) and it kinda shows? the premise is a little bit too unserious for me and the banter/dynamic between the main pair is just not quite as good. it also felt like it dragged a bit. however!!!! i would still extremely recommend pretty much all of her more recently published stuff!! so
love on the brain by ali hazelwood: dnf. f/m romance, but its also by the reylo author. this one neuroscientist has to work on a project with a guy who she thinks hates her, but actually he is ~super in love and too shy to say it~ my mom really wanted me to read this bc she likes the author a lot and "it has women in stem". well guys i have to say i am not a fan of the reylo author. honestly out of all the women in the book the lead is literally the least interesting one? idk it was bad. uninspiring prose. also i wasnt really a big fan of the way it focused on chauvinism and discrimination in the workplace, but thats a personal thing
comics/manga:
peace of mind (2019): short furry comic about a cosmetic brain surgeon, and some of the issues she just cant fix. yeah this was cute!!! pretty classic concept but presented in a sillyfun way imo. like literally only 20 pages i thought the art style was cute go check it out if you have the time
yugami kun has no friends: slice of life school comedy about a transfer student desperate to make friends after moving around her whole life who unfortunately gets placed next to yugami, who is THE MOST AUTISTIC BOY IN THE WORLD. i think i read this whole series in like two days lmfao its just?? extremely charming??? i really like these sort of slices of life where you get to gradually expand your cast of characters over time. everyone is sort of an ass but also trying their best in the way that high schoolers kinda are. also has some very fun will-they-or-wont-they. bro i felt straightbaited. also has some really charming art with good expressions! definitely recommend :3
to strip the flesh by oto toda: manga oneshot from an anthology. chiaki, a trans man, works as an animal dissection youtuber but feels trapped in the closet to keep his father happy. idt it hit as hard for me as it might for some people but i still liked it! wow being trans! and being meat!
movies/tv:
blade (1998): marvel action movie about vampires (and the half-vampire sworn to slay them) but like, before marvel moveis were bad. watched this with friends over the thanksgiving weekend and it was so badass!!!!!!! fuck yeah!!!! honestly id forgotten that action movies can be good but they seriously can be. full of style :3 the boy and the heron: miyazaki movie about uh, grief? and isekai-ing into a cool world with freaky stuff? i heard somewhat negative reviews from my Movie Friends before watching this, which definitely colored my impression. yeah its a gorgeous movie, but also kinda messy and not super coherent imo. mr miyazaki please quit your job and spend time with your family ok. log off christmas perfection: f/m christmas hallmark romcom. protag who just wants the perfect (IRISH) christmas is transported to a world of eternal (IRISH) christmas where her parents are no longer divorced, everyone drinks hot cocoa every day, she has the perfect boyfriend, etc. will her childhood friend be able to get her out? does she even WANT to get out? so i got this rec from a post made by @.dragonomatopoeia who is apparently the hallmark romcom expert. dude. this movie is so fucking awesome. its literally christmas coraline. i love how everything is irish for no reason and also the irish. please watch this movie
video games:
zachtronics solitaire collection: ok so this is literally just a bunch of solitaire-like games. zachtronic games is infamous for making games that feel like work (spacechem, shenzhen i/o, etc). they also included solitaire minigames in several of these, which are compiled here! most of these are arent standard solitaire games, like spider or klondike. theres a solitaire based off of kabufuda, a solitaire based on mahjong (but not like that other one.) and also my favorite, tarot-based FORTUNES FOUNDATION!! which gives you a READING at the end!!! anyways i had to uninstall this game because i was spending 20 hours a week on it.
7 billion humans: parallel programming game. in a world where robots have replaced all necessary labor, whats left for mankind to do? well, make up jobs for themselves, of course! ive grown up with tomorrow corporations dry, dark, and corporate sense of humor from world of goo and that continues, of course. a fun set of problems that gets really fucking tricky, especially if you even take the teeniest peek at optimization. also has a lot of QOL improvements from the initial game such as being able to c+p code, line by line debugging, and more! i feel like youre already going to know if this game is for you or not.
in stars and time: rpg game about TIMELOOPS!!! siffrin, an adventurer, gets trapped in a timeloop on the day of the final boss. dudeeeeee ok ive been a fan of insertdisc5s writing/art for like an embarrassingly long time and it was really cool to see it in longform. some of my friends got to see me rending my hair and wailing about this game in real time even! i think isabeau + odile was my favorite non siffrin rship, but im a huge sucker for romance so the siffrin + isa stuff really got me. and in the end i got extremely suckerpunched by Loop Obsession and also every single character + convo was very delightful so who can say!!! i remember seeing some crits saying that the writing felt too 'young' or juvenile--it definitely takes a lot of inspiration from undertale, earthbound and the like, but also i think that like. the jrpg genre As A Whole demands some willingness for like. idk Earnest and Youthful Whimsy. plus i literally am a youth so it didnt bother me lol. the game definitely can feel pretty grindy at times, but its also like…. very ludonarratively accurate? or something like that?? like. you get tired of killing the same stuff + skipping the same convos As siffrin becomes inured to the loops, as they become increasingly estranged from the rest of the party. which is honestly really awesome and captures that rpg grindy feeling like nothing else really does haha. (and theres also quite a few features to ease that friction!) even if you played the demo there are some really good twists still left in there and also i teared up at the end fr. who else thought about loop (loop)
music:
i spent a lot of this month listening to the clod by no party for cao dong and scales by king isis, which ive already talked about! so im going to spotlight a couple tracks + one album ig lol?? grace by idles: this is from idles' upcoming album tangk which im super looking forward to!!!! i love when these guys do slower tracks (such as progress and mtt 420 rr from their previous album) and this is a very nice evolution from that. has a warm but slightly eerie feeling zapper by nanoray: more jungle music!!!! this is the album that introduced me to nanoray bc i knew a guy who would just blast this kind of stuff while cleaning the kitchen. favorites are nekomata '97 and salmon cannon deluxe--i tend to listen to this album in like, airports and stuff or while cleaning? its such such a wall of catgirl-themed sound that its impossible to be anxious :P iron by woodkid: ok so i found this from the playlists for in stars and time that came out before release--specifically, the one for the king? (big villain who wants to freeze the kingdom in time forever) i havent listened to this since before finishing the game and man. listening to the lyrics with additional context is kinda crazy. anyways woodkid is apparently much better known for directing a bunch of music videos such as KATY PERRYS TEENAGE DREAM? but also makes 'chamber pop' which is when, uh, pop music incorporates a lot of classical instruments? anyways i have a lot of fondness for brass (synth or not) in pop music so this was nice <3 so melancholy… so winter…learning that this was also used for an assassins creed trailer did make me like it less unfortunately.
hey whats up. writing about stuff i read a while ago isnt as interesting huh… but i also feel the need to do things in chronological order… oh well :3 the semester starts for me very soon.. how scary. anyways if you finished reading thanks as always! dont forget to stretch your hamstrings. did you know that crab rangoon is named after the city of yangon in myanmar?
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lollytea · 3 years
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Hi! I love you Shageera fic! The fandom is so small and your fic is so good, I can't thank you enough! And I wanted to ask you, do you have any headcanon about their relationship outside of Talespin? In the original Jungle Book "canon" or some other AU? I'd love to hear them if you do have them, your takes are gold!
Hi! Thank you so much!!
Hmmm. All the versions of shagheera in my head follows the same basic story structure of “friends as kids, grow apart as they get older, reconnect as adults” EXCEPT for the jungle book/canon universe, where the first two DO apply to them (thank you jungle cubs for making that canon, idk where I’d be without jungle cubs canon.) but they continue to keep their distance from each other once they’re grown. I mean Khan tried to kill Bagheera’s kid AND his bear husband. I don’t think they ever can bounce back from that one. They got bad blood and they probably always will.
Unless….just kidding…..unless….
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I think about the plot of this cancelled third jungle book movie very often. Yeah it would’ve been bad but….but….but adult Khan and Bagheera might have interacted. Also I wanna know how the fuck a shere khan redemption arc is written. Not very well probably but I still wanna see it. I think Disney should send me the script to this film. As a gift. I think I deserve it. It’s not like they want it. Hand it over, lads.
ANYWAY
Besides the talespin universe, I’ve got like two shagheera AUs
Treasure Planet AU — Bagheera is a scholar and astronomer who comes aboard Captain Shere Khan’s ship. The two know recognize each other as the childhood friend they used to play pirates with. So, rather ironic circumstances they’ve found themselves in. Neither know how to react to reuniting so they’re pretty awkward about it and refuse to acknowledge that they were ever close. They mostly interact with the distant politeness of people who barely know each other and strictly refer to the other Captain/Doctor (unless circumstances are dire) But they’re gonna be stuck on this ship together for the next few weeks so they better figure out what the fuck their relationship is.
Bagheera is deeply out of his element. He’s intimidated by the crew and he doesn’t know how to handle a weapon so he considers himself rather useless on this expedition. He’s never even held a pistol before and now he’s expected to know how to shoot one. He’s so frazzled that he nearly (accidentally) shoots Khan dead at one point. But he wouldn’t be Bagheera if he wasn’t stubbornly insisting that he knows what he’s doing, especially when the captain shoots some sardonic comment his way. The two get into more squabbles than he cane keep track of.
Shere Khan is exasperated with the doctor, with the boy he brought aboard, with the entire idiot crew he hired, but especially with the doctor. He attempts to keep himself composed but he keeps stooping to the most childish arguments and he feels like the presence of Bagheera is forcibly dragging him back 25 years every time they interact. Shere Khan does not know how to feel about that.
Shere Khan finds himself having to acknowledge that Bagheera is brilliant. Due to the doctor’s calculations, the ship avoided the waves of impact during a difficult path through a black hole and he’s the reason they got out alive. He never felt all that much admiration for the little brainiac when they were children but now he is absolutely blowing him away.
Bagheera starts spending more time in Shere Khan’s office because it’s the only place he feels comfortable. (The crew really creeps him out.) and they do everything from argue to discuss alternate routes to pour over the map. This evolves to Shere Khan teaching Bagheera what he knows about wielding a sword and they have many homoerotic sparring sessions. Sometimes they’ll lay out in the escape boats and Bagheera will teach Khan the names of all his favourite constellations. They have many homoerotic star gazing sessions. BASICALLY they have a gay space pirate love story but it’s behind the scenes stuff cuz Kit is the protagonist of this au and he doesn’t give a fuck what Shere Khan and Bagheera are doing.
They are forced to acknowledge that they care about each other when the stakes get more dangerous and both have their near death experiences, rattling the other considerably. At the very least they start calling each other by their first names again ❤️
Fairytale/ Dragon Princess AU — OKAY i don’t think I’ve ever publicly posted about this au so I won’t unpack all of it cuz I know y’all aren’t familiar with it. It’s mostly focused on Baloo/Rebecca and the bear family as a whole but Shagheera is involved too so I’ll focus on that part for now.
So basically Shere Khan was a kid prince and Bagheera was the son of a servant so, as the only two children in the castle, they’ve been playmates since before they could walk.
The only other children they interacted with were Bagheera’s friends (Baloo, Louie etc.) and Shere Khan’s wife-to-be, Princess Rebecca. Their parents arranged the engagement and neither Khan or Rebecca were thrilled about it. As they grow older, Bagheera leaves the palace to make his own way and he and Khan don’t keep in touch.
By the time they were young adults, mysterious circumstances paused Shere Khan and Rebecca’s upcoming marriage when word spread around that the princess had been horribly cursed and locked away in a tower. Details were sparse, even to her fiancé. All that was known was that she had last been seen talking with a man who had a reputation for being a dark mage and it can be deduced that he was the one behind the curse.
But before she disappeared, Rebecca sent Khan a letter begging him to please not retrieve her from the tower, warning him that whoever ventured out to save her would not make it back alive. Khan obliged of course, both because he respected her wishes and if she returned, he would have to marry her.
As a king, Shere Khan had excellent publicity. He was charming and charismatic in public, masking the fact that he was an absolute bitch in private. He was also obliged to act like he cared about his fiancée being returned to his side so every now and then he allowed whatever arrogant glory seeking fool who offered, to go “save” her. None of them lived.
Years later, Khan drops into an ancient, desolate library on the outskirts of town, hoping to find a particular book on plants. It’s after midnight, so he doesn’t have to deal with the scandal of the king being out and about. And who does he find between the shelves, bathed in the dim glow of oil lamps, but Bagheera, snoring on the floor in a pile of open books.
This begins a tentative acquaintanceship in which Khan escapes to the library every now and again for a change of scenery and to meet with Bagheera, who lives on the floor above.
It doesn’t take long for Shere Khan to learn Bagheera’s reputation. As it turns out, the passionate yet introverted scholar with books on the brain, is allegedly the “dark mage” that put a curse on Rebecca all those years ago. This would explain why his library is always empty. Everyone in town is petrified of him.
Rather than turn to anger or fear, Shere Khan can only feel disbelief and intrigue because whatever rumors are going around are clearly fabricated. He challenges Bagheera to perform some evil little spell for him, summon hellbeasts if he must. But Bagheera falters and it is revealed that underneath that reputation is a bit of a sham. Bagheera has been trying for years to become an adept mage but he just can’t get the hang of it. His spell-work is terrible. Always has been.
“Well surely you can’t have cursed the princess then?” Shere Khan reasons. But that’s not exactly true. Yes, Bagheera was not behind the original curse but when Rebecca came to him for help, he accidentally made it so so much worse. Bagheera is the reason shes been forced to hide herself away in a tower and he’s been spending all these years attempting to improve his magic so he can finally undo what he’s done.
And so Fairytale/Dragon Princess AU is a fantasy love story where Shere Khan attempts to help Bagheera effectively channel his magic. The fun part about it is magic is intricately tied to a persons emotional state so when you’re having homoerotic little scenes with your childhood buddy and he touches your forearm, you nearly set the whole goddamn library ablaze. Real gay shit.
I have run out of steam and cannot ramble anymore. Hope I have pleased you.
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Do you have any techniques you find incredibly useful in creating good characterization?
Ooh excellent question! I’d say the two things I pay the most attention to for characterization are dialogue and motivation. 
Dialogue can be really tough, because I think the gut instinct in writing is to make the characters speak the way “normal people” talk in every day life. But in writing, that’s rarely the right way to go, because people are borrinnnnnggg lol. People also use a TON of filters, everything from “ums” to circular conversation, and that can be really distracting or uninteresting in a story/fic. (Take a show like The West Wing, or even something like Schitt’s Creek, for example. The dialogue is witty and clever, and that’s not to say people can’t be witty or clever but it’s not usually done in the same way or with the same precision and regularity. Like, I’m lucky if in a conversation I get ONE good one-liner off lol). But no one wants to listen to characters have this convo: 
“Hey, what’s up?” 
“Not much, how are you?” 
“Pretty good. How was your weekend?” 
“Eh, it was fine. Didn’t do anything.” 
“Me neither.” 
 Like don’t get me wrong, this is a perfectly great convo to have IRL! But on screen/in a fic/story, unless that conversation is pushing you somewhere, it’s just lead up to the ACTUAL conversation the characters want to have. 
People on TV usually get right to the point, but they also do that in unique ways. So another big thing I pay attention to is HOW people say things. What dialogue do they repeat, and in what circumstances do they repeat those words or phrases? What are their dialogue “quirks”? Are they short and terse? Long winded? Do they interrupt other people, or interrupt themselves? Do they give too much detail, or not enough? Are they reassuring in a crisis, or too distracted? etc. 
Eleven, for example, is prone to ridiculousness, long-winded and self-interrupted phrases, asides, as well as a kind of lyricism, or poetic interjections. Take this dialogue, from Night and the Doctor: 
River: Where are we going?
Eleven: Calderon Beta — boring planet of the chip shops — but there is a 400ft tree growing out of a cliff-top on the north side of a mountain in the middle of the sea. And if you take the lift to the top and look up, at exactly 12 minutes past midnight on the 21st of September, 2360, you can see more stars in one sky that at any other moment in the history of the universe. It's like daylight, only magic. You could read a book by it. 
So, we’ve got
- Asides: “boring, planet of the chip shops”  - Rambling/too much detail: “400ft tree, north side, middle of the sea, 12 minutes past, etc etc.”  - Poetics: ‘it’s like daylight, only magic’ - Ridiculous: ‘you could read a book by it.’ 
Thirteen, on the other hand, isn’t nearly as poetic. She’s more to the point, doesn’t give away a lot of herself, and isn’t quite as quick to try to comfort or reassure (12 is similar, at least in the beginning; he changes a bit with Bill). Thirteen tries, I think, but she’s also socially awkward in a different way than Eleven is, and that comes out in her dialogue - Eleven doesn’t know he’s awkward. Thirteen is very aware - so they behave differently and speak differently. 
Example: 
DOCTOR: This is where I leave you. NOOR: Answer me one question. The fascists, do they win? DOCTOR: Never. Not while there's people like you. (She touches Noor's temple.) DOCTOR: It's all right. I'm just removing me from your mind. (She catches Noor and lays her on the bed.) DOCTOR: Bonne chance.
(Skyfall, pt 2) 
VS
CLARA: Stop it. You're scaring her. DOCTOR: Good. She should be scared. She's sacrificing herself. She should know what that means. Do you know what it means, Merry? MERRY: A god chose me. DOCTOR: It's not a god. It'll feed on your soul, but that doesn't make it a god. It is a vampire, and you don't need to give yourself to it. Hey, do you mind if I tell you a story? One you might not have heard. All the elements in your body were forged many, many millions of years ago, in the heart of a far away star that exploded and died. That explosion scattered those elements across the desolations of deep space. After so, so many millions of years, these elements came together to form new stars and new planets. And on and on it went. The elements came together and burst apart, forming shoes and ships and sealing wax, and cabbages and kings. Until eventually, they came together to make you. You are unique in the universe. There is only one Merry Gejelh. And there will never be another. Getting rid of that existence isn't a sacrifice. It is a waste. MERRY: So, if I don't, then everyone else DOCTOR: Will be fine. MERRY: How? DOCTOR: There's always a way. MERRY: You promise? DOCTOR: Cross my hearts.
(Rings of Akhatan) 
So I mean, obviously there are things to consider, like the point in the episode the dialogue occurs in, what else is happening/still needs to happen plot wise, etc. but these two reassurances are INCREDIBLY different. Yes, one is said to a child, but both of these people are ostensibly asking, “Does good prevail? Does my sacrifice matter?” And these are the two totally different responses they get. 
I can talk about dialogue forever but I’m gonna move on now to the other thing, which is motivation. Why are they doing what they’re doing? Why are they saying what they’re saying? It’s not always obvious. 
Again, with the Doctor, 9/10 the motivation on the surface is PROTECT EVERYONE. But why?? Guilt? Compassion? God-complex? Fear? Self-righteousness? Usually it’s a combination of both selfish and altruistic traits that lead characters to do things (at least the “good guys”) so knowing why they’re doing the things they’re doing in the canon, as well as in the fic, I find to be really helpful.  
In fic, it’s figuring out what their motivation is in YOUR STORY! Which is the best part!! and the most frustrating part!!!! But also super important. 
So i’m just gonna use my own fic as an example: this is from my 13/river fic, just the dialogue: 
“Why me?”
“What?”
“You have plenty of friends, some more scrupulous than others. You obviously don’t want to be here, so why me?”
What makes you think I don’t want to be here?”
“You left me for dead. I assumed that meant your obligation had finally ended.”
“Obligation? You’re the only one I trust to get him out alive.”
“So it’s about him. Your new family.”
“River, please—“
“I don’t have time for this.”
“I’ve been there every time you’ve asked.”
“So this is quid pro quo?”
“No, it’s not—I just meant—"
“Because considering I gave up my life for you, multiple times, in fact, you have a lot of nerve asking me for anything.”
This particular fic is from 13′s POV, so we see some of her motivation in the narration - she’s terrified of losing River again, she’s confused about what’s going on, she wants to make things right, etc. But she’s also incredibly driven by FEAR in this scene. Fear that River really will walk out on her; fear that she deserves it; fear that she’s not going to say the right thing; fear that she WILL say the right thing, and things will change, etc. But mostly, she’s afraid that whatever she’s done this time is irreparable. That’s part of the reason why she doesn’t REALLY ask. She repeats River - “What makes you think I don’t want to be here”  “Obligation?” - rather than straight up asking, “Why are you angry?” She changes the subject back to Ryan - “you’re the only one I trust” and doesn’t quite manage to say what she WANTS to say. She tries guilting River, because she knows her well enough to think it’ll work. 
MEANWHILE, we don’t get River’s POV, but even still, she has to have motivations of her own in order for the dialogue to work. So for me, while I was writing this, I was thinking, “what does she want?” And she, of course, wants the Doctor to ASK HER. Wants her wife to straight up say, “What did I do, how do i fix it, I’m so glad you’re back, I love you” and those aren’t things she’s getting from 13, which leads to conflict in the scene. Whoo! 
But River is also at a point where she’s had 2 years post-Library where she’s been in a lot of pain, alone, thinking her spouse doesn’t love her, so she’s angrier than we usually get to see her on the show, which means that she’s in a situation where she can be a bit harsher than usual - BUT, that harshness doesn’t come from nowhere. (See, for example, AGMGTW or TATM). But I didn’t want to take it too far, you know? Because River still LOVES the Doctor very much, and doesn’t WANT to hurt her - she just wants to be loved in return, in a 
ALSO, I already knew at this point in writing it that River had a lot of baggage the reader didn’t know about yet, so that also has to factor into the dialogue and characterization. 
TLDR; I try to pay really close attention to the WAY characters speak as well as what they say AND I try to always know what they really want and how they plan to get it. 
[Edit:] I realized I forgot to clarify this, but for the record, dialects are NOT dialogue quirks. And I don’t mean quirk as I’m something strange, I mean something unique to a character (for example, my friend often answers a complaint with the line, teasingly, “Sounds like a personal problem.”) That’s a quirk in her dialogue. I DO NOT mean accents, regional dialects, communicating in a second language, or culturally based idioms.
[ ask me a question about fic or writing! ] 
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A New Decade
Summary: Ten years have passed, but you and John haven’t forgotten about each other.  Pairing: John Krasinski x Reader Word Count:1570 Warnings: None? A/N: This is a part two to A Happy New Year. Thank you for the lovely comments on that fic, and I hope you also enjoy this one!  Tags: @professorkrasinski​​ @booklover1814​​
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Over the years, you and John crossed paths via Ashley and Chris, kept in touch via phone calls and text messages, and you even flew out to Los Angeles to see him a few times. It was always the same; when you were together, you were together. When you weren’t, you weren’t. You were always aware when John was dating someone else, and vice versa, but you always came back to each other. That strange in-between the two of you were involved in never went away. 
At the turn of a new decade, Chris and Ashley’s two young kids were with Ashley’s mother for a few days. With their time freed up, the pair decided to hold a New Year’s party again — smaller than the one when you had first met John, but no casual get-together, either. 
You had been single for almost a year, and you knew that John was coming off of a break-up with his latest relationship. You had pressed Ashley for details, but she refused to give. 
“If John wants to tell you, Y/N, he’ll tell you. Maybe he needs a little time with this one.”
That statement took you aback and made you think — made you overthink. What was it about this woman that made John need time to move on? No other break-up had been that way; sure, he’d been disappointed, been bummed out for a few days. But it had been over a month now. You had never met the woman, granted, so maybe that’s why you didn’t understand. 
You donned a pretty dress for the occasion, went easy but appropriate for hair and makeup, then slipped your feet into a pair of ankle boots. No sense wearing heels and risking your ankle on the snowy Boston sidewalk before you even made it to the party.
Feeling a bit of deja vu, you hung your coat in the entryway, then went in search of a drink. One side of the double sink in the kitchen was filled with ice and beer bottles, so you plucked one from the group, used the nearby church key to pop the top off, and took a sip before going to mingle. 
Though your eyes searched the party for John, you found Ashley and Chris first. They were conversing with some of Chris’s co-workers. Not wanting to interrupt, you tapped Ashley on the shoulder. 
“Hey, you’re here,” she smiled, carefully balancing her wine glass in the hand that wasn’t hugging you. “And you found yourself a drink, good deal.”
She went on to introduce Chris’s co-workers, then excused the both of you back to the kitchen. She added a little wine to her glass, then leaned one hand on the island. 
“John’s not coming.”
“Not coming? Why?” And why wouldn’t he tell me that himself?
Ashley sighed. “I don’t know, Y/N. All he said was that he needs space. He also asked me — shit, I wish he wouldn’t have put me in this position. He needs you to give him some space for a while, while he figures some things out. He wouldn’t tell me anything else I was going to wait until later, but thought maybe it was best to do it now, before you drunk text him or something.”
You lifted the beer bottle to your lips and downed the majority of the contents in an effort to fight the tears stinging the back of your eyes. “Right, of course. It’s fine. I’m sure whenever he’s through whatever’s going on, he’ll fill me in. Let’s get back to the party, yeah?”
“Y/N …”
“Ashley,” you sighed, shaking your head, “I don’t wanna talk about it. I can’t talk about it.”
She gave you a quiet, ‘Okay’, before walking with you back to the party. There was no beer pong tonight, but Ashley had planned several other fun games. You kept a beer in your hand at all times, and thinking of John became a little drinking game of your own. Think of John, take a drink. Feel sad, take two drinks. Feel like texting or calling or crying, drink till the feeling goes away. 
As midnight and the New Year grew closer, you switched to water. You were upset enough to bring in the New Year without John, no sense in being sick, too. 
Why does it matter so much?
What an excellent question. You realized that you missed John, more this time than you had any other time one of you was in a relationship. Maybe because you were ready to settle down, and you were both single, so your mind and your heart had convinced you that things could happen for real. 
You chugged down your water when the truth of those realizations washed over you and made you feel like falling apart. You tossed the cup, and helped Ashley pass out sparklers and noisemakers, while Chris went behind the two of you with a lighter. With a few minutes to go, you snuck off to the library, preferring to bring in the New Year on your own if you couldn’t bring it in with John. 
The countdown was at thirty seconds; you stood at the window with your unlit sparkler. Even people on the street below had stopped to countdown with each other, eager to kiss their loved one when the clock struck the new hour. You swiped at a single tear that managed to escape when you blinked. 
Ten. 
You heard the library door open, but you didn’t turn around. You assumed it would be Ashley and Chris, coming to look for you, together so that they didn’t miss the celebration. 
Nine. 
A single pair of footsteps approached you, stopping close enough that you could feel the person’s presence behind you. With a sigh, you turned from the window. 
Eight. 
“John? Ashley said you weren’t coming. She said … I thought you didn’t want to see me or talk to me.”
Seven. 
“Yeah, I said that. But — I don’t wanna say I changed my mind. I’m here now, regardless.”
Six. 
You swallowed down your sarcastic reply. “You didn’t have to be.”
Five. 
He closed the gap between the two of you. “I wanted to be. We have a lot to talk about, me and you.”
Four. 
John’s arms encircled your waist, yours rested on top of his, your hands near his shoulders. “Would you like to discuss those things now?”
Three, two, one! 
John chuckled and shook his head. “Not at this exact second, no. Happy New Year, Y/N.”
“Happy New Year, John.” 
The two of you met in the middle for a sweet, lingering kiss that felt like coming home after being gone for far too long. 
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After the kiss, the two of you agreed to go back to your place. You had moved recently, to a place closer to Chris and Ashley, within walking distant. John held your hand the entire way, but you could still feel the tension simmering between the two of you.
“I’ll take your coat,” you offered, hanging both his and yours on the rack near the front door. “Do you want something to drink?”
John shook his head and put his hands in his pockets. “What are we doing, Y/N?”
You frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean … I can’t have a relationship with anyone without wishing she was you. Without comparing her to you. The last one, she was perfect. We were compatible in every possible way, and the differences just balanced each other out.” He paused for a sardonic chuckle. “Ten years, Y/N. We’ve been doing this for ten years. We’re not together, but we’re definitely not ‘just friends.’”
“John …”
“No. No more excuses. The limelight, the age difference, ‘I’m out of your league’ — which, I don’t agree with, by the way. Ten years,” he repeated, “how much longer are we going to drag this out before we cut the bullshit and do this and be together, for real?”
You sniffled. So much for holding back the crying you’d been trying to avoid all night. “What ever happened to secret lovers, huh?”
He smiled kindly. “C’mon. If you’re gonna let me down, this is the time to do it.”
You took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “You know, when Ashley told me you weren’t coming to the party … when she told me you didn’t want to talk to me for a while … I was heartbroken. More than I thought I would be. John, I think — I fell for you that first night we met, in the library. You’re right when you said that I think you’re out of my league. I still think you are, and I may always think that. I don’t want to let you down, John. I want to do this. For real.”
“For real?” He asked, as though he wasn’t expecting you to say that. 
You smiled. “For real.”
John let out a whoop! before picking you up from the ground and kissing you. You kissed him back, though you struggled not to smile through the kiss. He hugged you tightly, almost as though he was afraid if he let go, you’d change your mind. 
“What now?” you asked when he finally set you down. 
He pretended to think for a minute. “French toast and bacon?”
You laughed and nodded. “Yes. French toast and bacon is perfect.”
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quibblersandbits · 5 years
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The Devil Works Hard but Pansy Parkinson Works Harder
A/N: A short series I started a while ago and have only recently decided to come back to. When you arrived at Hogwarts and won Draco’s attention, you ruined Pansy’s perfect life plan. Now she’s hell bent on driving the two of you apart by playing on Draco’s jealous tendencies and making your life as difficult as she possibly can. Will her plan work?
Part one:
Pansy muttered an incantation under her breath and flicked her wand almost imperceptibly with a tight twitch of her wrist. A few desks down, you hissed slightly and leaned over to examine the new run in your sheer black tights. You touched the back of your leg lightly but didn’t look back at Pansy. Pansy’s eyes lightened in satisfaction. You thought it was your own clumsiness that was ruining your stockings every day. She straightened in her desk and resumed her note taking.
The hex was petty, sure, and was only a minor inconvenience to you, but Pansy loved doing it. Since you had arrived at Hogwarts, you had thrown her entire life’s plan out of whack, and that was unacceptable.
When Pansy received her Hogwarts letter on her eleventh birthday, her entire life began to fall in to place. She would go to Hogwarts and join her family as a Slytherin, where she would excel at her studies of course, become a prefect, and then head-girl, graduating at the top of her class, with a world of opportunities ahead of her. Pansy worked tirelessly, ruthlessly, to achieve her goals. She had been on a diet since the age of thirteen. She stayed up all night studying by the light of her wand and then took PepperUp potion and emerged from Slytherin common room looking like she’d just been at the spa. The pleats in her skirt were perfect, her sweaters never pilled, her shoes were polished and her makeup never smudged. Pansy believed that she was as close to perfect as a person could get.
The only problem was Draco Malfoy. Pansy had known Draco for as long as she could remember and they were destined to be together. Pansy matched Draco in every conceivable way. She took the same classes and matched his grades on every exam. She cheered for him at every Quidditch match. When Draco put a book down, she picked it up.
Even if you hadn’t stolen Draco’s attention, Pansy would have hated you. A Gryffindor, first of all, but it got worse. Though your marks in other classes were consistently average, Pansy couldn’t match you in potions. You appeared to be so disorganized that any time an essay was due, you would be at the library until midnight the night before frantically writing. You showed up to class with your hair in messy buns and your shirt untucked. It was only the sheer novelty of being the new girl which made people like you.
“Hey, Pansy?” Goyle interrupted her brooding, “What was the homework for Potions?”
“Read chapter nineteen and copy the recipe for a confusing concoction.” She muttered.
“Thanks,” Goyle said, his eyes lingered on pansy’s face for a moment but he didn’t say anything else. Pansy ignored this. He had always seemed a bit slow.
---------------
“Hey, Pansy.” 
“What, Goyle?” Pansy was harsher than she meant to be but she didn’t apologize. She was hovering near the door of the library where she knew you would emerge with Draco any minute to go to divinations.
“I was just saying ‘hi’” He shifted nervously in front of her. He towered above her yet she seemed to turn him in to a nervous child just by looking at him. “You know, I like it better when people call me Greg.” He added.
“What are you talking about, Goyle?” Pansy was trying to see behind him, where Draco had just left the library with you.
“Greg… or Gregory even.” He repeated.
“Oh never mind.” She brushed past him, “I’ve got to go.” Pansy hurried down the corridor and turned a corner hexing the back of your stockings, she stepped behind the corner again for a moment, then stepped out to look at her handiwork. A large run all the way up the back of your leg. There’d be no fixing that one.
“Did that happen just now?” you said in bewilderment. Draco had stepped back to examine the tear.
Pansy approached from behind, “You’d better get that taken care of, Y/N. It looks pretty trashy.” You were flustered, too embarrassed to even think of a comeback. Pansy snickered.
“You go get changed,” Draco said, “I’ll cover for you in divinations.”
“Thanks,” you said looking at pansy suspiciously and walked off in the direction of Gryffindor tower.
“I’ll walk with you to divinations.” Pansy said to Draco but he didn’t acknowledge her.
She kept up with his long strides easily and talked to him about charms as if nothing was wrong.
“Why did you do that, Pansy?” This was the first thing Draco had said.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“You hexed Y/N’s stockings.” He stopped in the hallway. He wasn’t amused.
“Just a little joke.” Pansy shrugged, “I don’t see why you’d care.”
“You know that I do.” Draco’s voice was hard and low, in a way that prickled at the back of her neck with pleasure but also churned her stomach with jealousy.
Pansy continued walking, her shoes tapping rhythmically on the stone floor. She turned back once, looking over her right shoulder quickly to say, “The sooner you forget about that Gryffindor, the better as far as I’m concerned. You’ve heard she’s been hanging around Potter, right?” Pansy flicked her head forward, her hair bouncing behind her and grinned at the empty hallway, leaving Draco sulking behind her. Pansy liked to imagine that people watch her as she walks away, shoulders back, skirt swishing, hair bouncing.
------------
There was no truth, of course, to what Pansy had said about Potter, but that wasn’t important. Pansy knew Draco well and she knew his insecurities. Once the seed had been planted, he would do most of the hard work himself.
That night at dinner, you happened to sit next to potter across the dining hall. It was pure, dumb luck that you’d chosen that seat. Pansy didn’t even have to say anything to Draco. He glowered at his plate and hardly said anything all evening.
Pansy flicked her wand openly this time, aiming for one of your knees which was barely visible from under the Gryffindor table. The spell missed and instead whipped at a girl’s skirt. She laughed anyway as did Goyle who was crammed in next to her.
“Nice one, Pansy.” He said. Goyle was all elbows and knees, accidentally knocking and bumping Pansy constantly as he filled his plate and talked animatedly about Quidditch with Crabbe.
Pansy didn’t answer, her eyes fixed on you as you pushed your plate aside and stepped away from the dining table, using potter’s shoulder to steady yourself as you got up. Draco exhaled sharply next to her and she smirked at the steamed spinach on her plate. You were practically doing her job for her.
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elle-stevens · 5 years
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The Break Up Blog - Day Twenty Six
It’s official: I hate my nasal passages. 
It’s like there are furry kittens growing inside of them, that’s how sensitive they are today. Not that I’m allergic to cats or any other furry mammals; at least, I still hope that’s the case. I have heard that some adults develop latent allergies later in life that they didn’t have as children. Wouldn’t that just be my luck if that happened? 
While I sneezed my brains out nearly all day, I carved out time to do a few creative and productive things. First, I made scones for breakfast; I haven’t baked scones in nearly two years. This is the first time I made them while living abroad by myself. Granted, I left them a little too long in the oven, so they came out firmer than usual. But for a first attempt in a miniature oven, they weren’t half bad, especially when I spread butter and strawberry jam liberally all over it. My colleague, N, expressed a love for scones the other day at work and I thought of her while baking this morning. 
So when I decided to do my grading for my students’ journals at a cafe instead of at home, I asked N if she wanted me to drop off some scones for her near her home since it was en route to where I wanted to go. I left my apartment 15 minutes later that what I initially told N, but the traffic was kind to me and I got to the meeting point early enough. N had a harder time getting to me after doing her grocery shopping. There’s all kinds of roadworks and construction happening in my city these days to build more subway lines and the neighbourhood close to where N lives is completely discombobulated, including all the bus stops that have shifted over slightly to make way for the construction walls. 
Anyway, N finally met me and I gave her the scones, which she was happy to receive. It seems like she’s really stressed about work since she and C are part of the recruitment process that hires new foreign teachers at my school. There have been some issues with visa paperwork and flight bookings for a new hire that has many of my colleagues completely stressed out. Thank God I don’t help out with visa paperwork at my job; I’d be two blinks away from being carted away in a straitjacket if I were. 
N had to rush off to her Chinese class and I made my way to a cafe she and C frequented the week before. The cafe has cosy decor inside and a terriffic balcony section above where you can sit outside. Sadly, the balcony was closed today; the cafe probably only opens it up in the evenings when they serve dinner. So I sat inside and did my grading, which was still nice and cosy. 
The grading itself was more stressful than I initially planned. Maybe I just over-thought it and did more than I needed to. But it took me close to 4 hours to check and correct 38 journals as well as give each student feedback and a rating based on their writing. I know that H meant well when she planned for us to do weekly journals with our students. But the plan was meant to be executed at the start of the school year and it’s already the second semester. Plus, she made C design all the journals in different formats and colours for each grade instead of just ordering ready-made journals from a publication house. Now H wants us to critique each student’s writing every single week and only give them positive feedback so they stay motivated to keep writing in class. If I have to climb up more people’s asses and kiss them from the inside, including those of my students, I might never see the sun again. 
Nevertheless, I forged on and managed to finish all my grading, even though I was hungry and the cafe suddenly didn’t serve food. But they had a menu which not only had drinks displayed on it, but food as well. So naturally I was confused that there didn’t appear to be any food. I wrapped things up and tried to call my Dad to wish him happy birthday. After all the delays with my money transfers, I was happy that I managed to send my siblings some cash to help pay for my dad’s gifts and the family brunch. But the signal was really crappy on my phone since I was outside and waiting for the bus to take me home. I managed to get back to my neighbourhood after 18:00 and made a stop at the grocery store to buy tomatoes, mushrooms and garlic. N gave me some French bread earlier, so I made some bruschetta for dinner. Not the healthiest meal to have, especially right before going to the gym, but it kept the hunger pangs at bay since I inadvertently skipped lunch. 
My parents and siblings ended up going on a drive around the beach, which gave me enough time to have a good session at the gym almost unimpeded, shower and then head home. I even had time to go to work beforehand to pick up the new headband I ordered for the gym that I used for my workout. Unlike last week’s ultra-crap fat-loss regimen, I practically aced it the second time around tonight, which kept me in good spirits. 
I got home after 21:00 and called my Dad again. With most phone conversations, I don’t always know what to say to him. I don’t know why, I just run out of safe topics quicker with my dad than with my mom. My mom and I aren’t as close, but we find ways to talk about very superficial things like who’s a new and upcoming contestant on ‘Idols’ or what new wave of crime hit my old neighbourhood this time around. I’m closer with my Dad, but it’s hard to grab time with him to have a good heart to heart. Still, I was in an excellent mood and the conversation flowed well, especially when we talked about dishes we’d been cooking in the kitchen lately. It makes me realise how much I miss my Dad these days. 
It was great catching up with my mom and my siblings too; I feel bad that P and G have been treated to my depressing and morbid side too much lately. So it felt good to ask how they’re doing and make lots of silly jokes to keep the mood light.  Even though I wished I could’ve been home with my family celebrating my dad’s birthday today, I’m happy they’re still able to have fun without me too. Sometimes I feel guilty about being so far away from home, but I know my family loves and supports me no matter. I’m really lucky and it’s time that I start acknowledging and embracing it more often. 
Throughout my busy day, I still thought of X on occasion. When I walked to the grocery store earlier, this called ‘Loving Strangers’ by Russian Red started playing in my iTunes library. That brought up a flood of memories all related to X. I actually liked that song long before X and I even became friends, but I put her onto it and it eventually became one of our songs that epitomised our relationship. The song is from a soundtrack for this lesbian romance movie called ‘Room In Rome’. It’s about these two women who meet at a bar in - you guessed it - Rome, and end up spending the night together in a beautiful Roman hotel room. It wasn’t the best acting in the world, but the chemistry between the two actresses was on sizzling and the movie had a scintillating soundtrack too. 
Anyway, X and I both loved the song and the movie and watched it together a few times over 3 years. When I visited her the first time in the Philippines, we stayed a lovely 5-star hotel for our last night together. Unintentionally, we acted out a few romantic scenes from the movie. Like dressing up in fluffy bathrobes after taking a swim in the hotel and staring out the window together at the city skyline. Of course, we improvised with other things, like slow-dancing in our bathrobes to Coldplay’s ‘Sparks’ and ‘Loving Strangers’ in the middle of our hotel room. 
That night was so bittersweet for me because my flight back home was at 4am (I still don’t know why I booked that absurd flight time), so X and I only had a few hours together in that hotel room before I left her. I felt like Cinderella on the night of the ball with the Prince. For those first few hours, everything felt magical and wonderful. But as soon as the clock struck twelve, reality kicked in again and it was time to go back home in my pumpkin carriage. 
Being with X always felt like a beautiful dream that I was eventually going to wake up from. Now I’m finally awake and it’s still disorienting knowing that we won’t have more beautiful memories together or new shared experiences to make life a little sweeter than it was before. But I’m trying my best to move on and only focus on the crappier aspects of X’s personality to make me miss her less. What I need is to just land myself a hottie Sugar Daddy or Sugar Momma with low self-esteem on the next go-around with a relationship and hope to God they never get clued in on the fact that they could do better than me. Don’t get me wrong, I know I’m a catch in a lot of respects, but I am also a hot mess. I’m a slow learner, but I’m getting better and wiser with time. 
Shit, it’s past midnight and I’m starving. I’m trying hard not to snack late at night, but I haven’t been eating well lately because of stress and my depression kicking my proverbial butt. Does this even still count as a diary entry for 7th September? 
Since I’m making up the rules for my own happiness now, I say it still counts. And from here on out, I’m gonna do whatever the hell I please. 
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forever-yoongis · 5 years
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My Chemistry Of Love
Ships: Namjoon x reader
Genre: Angst and fluff
"Again?" You speak into the phone wearily. "Yeah jagi, you know how these last minute meetings work...I'm really sorry", he speaks apologetically. You sigh into the phone for the umpteenth time that day. "It's fine I understand", you try say as calmly as possible. "I'm really sorry", he says, "didn't mean this to happen". You hang up, whispering, neither did I.
You had been dating Namjoon for over five months now. Your time with him seemed to be a scene right out of a fairytale. Butterflies in your stomach? Head dizzy and knees wobbling after the long kisses? Heart skipping whenever he smiled? Collapsing into his arms for your knees felt too weak after he kissed you like you're the only thing that mattered in this world..you had experienced it all. He would show you just how much you meant to him through every little of his actions. You two couldn't always manage to pull off a proper date at a restaurant or pull off romantic walks through the streets of Seoul at night because of his schedule, but you were more than content with what you had. Falling asleep on his shoulder while he worked on his computer in the studio, and then he'd wrap a blanket around your shoulders carrying you to the sofa because he didn't have the time to take you back to your apartment. He would feel like the shittiest boyfriend on the Earth for making you suffer that way,but you were happy. The small post-it notes with "I love you" scribbled on it that would be stuck on your fridge in the morning after a night of spending time with each other, were things that you kept looking forward to. The small study dates in the library where you would drag him whenever he would hit a writer's-block....the two of you would read books for the whole day till he got inspired by a random quote he came across in one of the pages, or if that did not happen, the two of you would fall asleep on each other's shoulder with an open book on your lap or face and the librarian would yell at you two to get out. The sudden dates he'd try to pull before he got busy for weeks, and the sudden canceled dates which you wouldn't mind because you knew these were things that would come along with dating him. But he would still feel like the most rotten person on the Earth and would come running to your apartment after he finished his work, knocking your door at 1 am. You would scramble up from your bed half-sleepy with a frying pan in your hand, ready to beat the hell outta anyone who dared to ruin your sleep at the inauspicious hour. But even before you could react, he would wrap his arms around your waist,pushing you inside your apartment and closing the door shut behind him with his foot. His long, passionate kisses would be accompanied with "I'm sorry" between breaths, his eyes begging for your forgiveness, till you relaxed in his arms and started responding to his kisses. He would spend the night with you cuddling against him and he would stroke your head mumbling that he loved you till you fell asleep in his arms. You would wake up to see him already gone and lil sticky notes stuck to your bedside table, closet, mirror and fridge holding promises of a second date and that he loved you with all his heart.
But that was before he got so busy. The comeback was near and the members said that he could be hardly seen outside the studio. They had to practically shout and yell and bang at the doors to get him to open up. He'd never text you on his own accord, let alone call you and you knew things would be this bad. He had told you that things might end up being this way. You had merely shook your head and had said, "We'll get through this together." Lifting yourself up on your tip-toes you had pressed a kiss to his lips saying, "this is the time for you to concentrate on music and music alone. Forget about the world, just focus on your work,okay?" Namjoon had kissed you for longer than usual that day, trying to show how thankful and lucky he was to have someone like you who understood him so well.
You kept giving him daily reminders that his health came before everything else and that he needed to eat and drink. At first, he'd reply with a short 'thank you' or smiley but eventually even those stopped. He kept you on read, but you were satisfied knowing that your messages got to him. You understood.
There were a couple of times when he had invited you out on a date. "I-I just miss you and I feel that I've not been treating you well enough, and just-" his voice would crack, "let me make upto you, I promise to spoil you tonight". But he had failed to keep every promise of his. You would end up waiting in the restaurant for hours till the waitress would politely ask you to leave because it was time for them to close up for the day. And you would leave, feeling hollow, ignored and neglected. But you understood and never said a thing to him.
He would call again the next day, saying that there was a sudden meeting or that the boys had decided to prolong the dance practices. You merely nodded your head and had tried to be cheerful for his sake, swallowing down your emotions, saying, "It's fine Namjoon. We'll go out on a looott of dates after the comeback right?" Right? He had said yes, chuckling, "yes of course".
But things got even worse after the comeback.
You had understood each and every one of his excuses--- extended dance practices, meetings, deadlines to maintain, tiredness. You had promised him and also yourself that you'd never be that girlfriend who whined for her boyfriend's attention. You were strong-willed and independent and you could go without his affections for a couple of months or so. Sure, you felt neglected and lonely, especially when you'd see your friends go out with their boyfriends. But you swallowed and gulped down your feelings and instead focused on how proud you would be when their albums would make it to the top of the charts and win awards.
But you had also hoped that this would stop after the comeback.
You had hoped your boyfriend would keep his promises.
"Yeah I'm on my way home".
"So sorry, I promise to be on our next date".
"Sorry babe, but the boys decided to celebrate for the album sales".
"Can we cancel the date? The boys decided to extend the dance practice".
And the excuses kept piling up. You tossed your phone to the side after seeing that he had canceled the date once again. The comeback is over. Could he really not take a few hours off his schedule to meet you? You wondered. You were getting increasingly frustrated by the day. He had promised! You tell yourself.
But you had also promised to never beg, your mind says. You saw him on various shows and interviews on the TV and saw how happy he seemed to be. He doesn't seem to care, you tell yourself. There were videos all over the internet showing how they were celebrating together. You hated being like this, you hated the fact that you cared, when he clearly didn't seem to.
"Again?" You speak into the phone wearily. "Yeah jagi, you know how these last minute meetings work...I'm really sorry", he speaks apologetically. You sigh into the phone for the umpteenth time that day. "It's fine I understand", you try say as calmly as possible. "I'm really sorry", he says, "didn't mean this to happen". You hang up, whispering, neither did I.
The waitress looks at you sympathetically. "Should I cancel your order?" You smile faintly at her. "No why would you? Can't let go of an opportunity of having good food", you try to grin at her, but it comes out as a painful grimace instead. Yura, the waitress who stood before you, had become somewhat of a friend to you after you had spent hours sitting on that restaurant every time he asked for a date and then canceled. She understood your pain somehow and never asked you to leave, at times even sitting with you when the crowd would grow thinner and there wouldn't be many customers around. The two of you would talk randomly for hours, and you found her to be an excellent listener who would listen to you rant whenever you felt like it. The restaurant remained open till midnight and Yura would insist on staying with even after her shift would end saying it was dangerous for you to be alone at that hour. You appreciated her presence and would thank her for her kindness which she would wave off with a "nah it's nothing".
It was the sixth time Namjoon had canceled a date with you after the comeback and you were already getting tired of it. But you would still keep your emotions at bay, not letting the dam break loose. Then there were a few times when he didn't even bother to let you know that he wasn't coming. You kept standing in front of the park where he had promised to come for hours. You waited for more than four hours and he never did receive any of your phone calls. You gave up and went home that night, emotionally drained and tired. You really did expect a call from him the next day and an apology from him, but that never came. It was as if he had never asked you out in the first place and it had been all in your head. But yet, you bit it down and didn't mention a thing to him.
But, you too had a limit. There was only so much of frustration you could bear. However strong willed you may be, you had reached your breaking point, and you exploded one day over something very trivial.
Namjoon had come to your place that day for the first time since the comeback. It was past ten o'clock and you had just reached home from work. The doorbell rang when you came out of your shower and so naturally,it took you a while to open the door. The day at your work had been especially bad, with your seniors not listening to a single thing you said. But it wasn't their fault. You had been neglecting your work ever since Namjoon stopped contacting you and pretend you did not exist. You had not expected him to come that day, so you stood frozen at the doorstep, eyes scanning over the face you haven't seen for the last two months. You had planned a whole speech in your mind (and even practiced it in front of the mirror) on what you'd say to him when he finally came, and you'd tell him how he made you feel. But he never did turn up,and you had given up.
So when you see him in front of your door after so many weeks, it would be fair to say that you were speechless. You had told yourself repeatedly that when he came, you'll not break down in front of him or show your emotions. But you couldn't help stare into his features for a long time till you felt his hands wrap around your arm, "Won't you let me in?" He smiled tiredly.
You stepped aside to let him in, closing the door behind his back. An uncomfortable silence settles around the room as you two stand awkwardly facing each other, not knowing what to say. Namjoon breaks the silence,asking you, "how have you been?"
Your voice came out harsher than you had expected as you snapped, "fine, pretty fuckin fine". He looked a bit taken aback by the way you replied, standing still for a while before he reached out to you. You flinched away from his touch, looking elsewhere, trying to ignore the look of pain that passes his eyes at what you did. He tried to give you a smile nevertheless, saying, "I missed you" and that was when everything broke. You laughed uncontrollably, laughed at him like never before and wiped the drops of tears that appeared on your face. Namjoon looked confused and stiff, his hand that he had outstretched hung mid-air.
"Missed me?" You hissed at him. "I've never heard such crap before", you look at him, your fist trembling in anger. He had ignored you for weeks on end, kept canceling dates, made you look like a fool who kept coming to the dates despite getting ditched. Namjoon looks at you wide-eyed in alarm.
"You don't really have a right to say you missed me, you know? Also, just so you know, there's nothing I hate more in this world than liars", your voice came out cracked with emotion and by this time, you had lost capacity to even try holding your emotions anymore. "Can you count and tell me just how many times you had kept me waiting?" Namjoon did not even lift his face from the ground, didn't even try to protest. "You were busy during your comeback, I could understand! But after that?" You snapped. "You could celebrate your album sales with the boys and have dinner with them and that's just fuckin fine with me. But could you really not spend a few hours to come and see me?" Your voice kept on rising as you threw your accusations at him one by one. He didn't lift his head even once,but you could see that his shoulders were shaking.
"I did not even ask for a date", you whisper. "You didn't even have to spend a few hours to see me. You really didn't have to do anything. A simple 'i love you' over text would've been enough", you spoke, "that is, if you felt that way bout me anymore". He snaps up his head at that, eyes-wide with alarm as he tries to protest vehemently, "No no no, don't say that eve-"
"Shut up Kim Namjoon", you practically screamed at him at this point at which he closed his eyes shut. "Do you think that I have nothing to do all day? Do you know what I had to go through to adjust my schedule so that I could go out on a date with you? Do you have any idea how many times I had to get insulted by my superiors because they said I was slacking off!!! Namjoon, I never compromised my work before. But I did it," you stopped to take a breath, "I did it for you, because I knew you wouldn't be able to adjust your schedule for me".
Tears threatened to spill from your eyes,when you saw that Namjoon had slumped down on the floor at your words. But you chose to ignore him. "I was friggin fine with that too, because I knew I wouldn't be able to live with the guilt if I made you compromise your work. But you canceled every single date! What did I do all my work for? You kept me waiting for hours Kim Namjoon! You know how humiliated I felt? I looked like a fool trying to cling onto to something that was no longer mine", your voice reduced to a whisper.
Hot tears rolled down his cheeks as he stared at the floor. He was crying. You hadn't realised that you had been crying too, till you felt a drop fall on your shirt. You furiously wiped at your tears. "Do I even have the right to say sorry?", He whispers, his voice cracking as he cried. "No, you don't", your voice came out raspy. "You could've sent me a single text when you knew that you won't be able to make it? Why did you keep me waiting for hours? It wouldn't have taken even a minute to type out a 'i can't make it today' and hit send", you yelled once again.
Namjoon spoke softly, "I always thought I would finish my work in time. I tried, Sophie, I really did try to finish off everything within time. But the meetings kept on getting elongated, I wanted you to know so that you didn't have to wait, but that also would've meant that I wasn't even trying. I kept on thinking that I would really tell you after half an hour if I couldn't finish it by then, but..." his voice reduced to a whisper, "I refused to believe that I wouldn't be able to make it, until it was too late". His silent sobs filled the room, and you spoke angrily between your tears, "you didn't want to admit the fact that you couldn't do it, but you were ready to make me wait", you choke on your words, "even if it was for hours, late into the night. Do you have any idea how many times I had to walk back home afraid that I won't be able to make it that night?"
Namjoon had crouched into a ball by now, arms around his knees and head resting on them, a sobbing mess. You could see your words were breaking him, but you didn't stop.
"I risked staying out late despite knowing that it was dangerous, just in case you turned up". You started crying uncontrollably after that, "you're really selfish, Kim Namjoon, really selfish."
Namjoon's voice came out cracked when he said, "yes I am, I really am."
You turned your back to him as you said, "leave Namjoon. I don't want to see you". He stiffened at your words, and blinked at you. Once. Twice. Then he leapt to his feet looking startled, "you're not breaking up,are you?" When you didn't reply, he reached out to you wrapping his arms around your waist and head resting on your shoulder. "You can't do this to us yet Sophie. Don't ask me to leave." He shook his head repeatedly, and sobbed into your chest. His hold on you turned tighter and you felt his tears falling on your bare neck. "I know I'm being selfish but don't let me go. I can't let you go", his grip on your waist turned solid when you tried to push him away but he begged you to not do that to him.
He cradled your face with his hands, wiping away your tears with his thumb. His eyes were red and puffy from crying for so long, " give me another chance, Sophie. Give us another chance", his eyes pleaded with yours to change your mind. Your heart broke at how damaged, vulnerable and raw he looked but you didn't want to suffer any longer. But then, you loved him too and did not, for the world want to let go of him. "Just one," you whispered out a reply, letting him wiping your tears, "one", you said. And he nodded, a faint smile appearing on his face, then hugged you close. "I won't mess it up, I promise."
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can we talk about some of the funny moments that happen in DH for a change?
That ‘Skeeters book contains less fact than a Chocolate frog card’  - In Memoriam 
Harry’s favourite moment had been the one when Uncle Vernon, unaware that Dudley had added his dumb-bells to his case since the last time it had been unpacked, had attempted to hoist it back into the boot and collapsed with roars of pain and much swearing. - The Dursleys Departing 
‘Are you actually as stupid as you look?’ Harry to Vernon.  - The Dursleys Departing
‘Don’t you want to remember all the good times? I mean, look at this doormat. What memories...Dudley punked on it after I saved him from the dementors’ - The Seven Potters
‘Well, none of us really fancy it, Harry,’ said Fred earnestly. ‘imagine if something went wrong and we were stuck as specky, scrawny gits forever’  - The Seven Potters
‘Ooh, you look much tastier than Crabbe and Goyle, Harry’  - The Seven Potters
Fred and George turned to each other and said together, ‘Wow - were identical!’ -  The Seven Potters
Mrs Weasley reappeared carrying a bottle of brandy, which she handed to Hagrid. He uncorked it and drank it straight down in one. - Fallen Warrior 
‘Saint-like,’ repeated George opening his eyes and looking up at his brother. ‘you see...I’m holy. Holey, Fred, geddit’ 
‘Pathetic,’ he told George, Pathetic! With the whole world of ear-related humour before you, you go for Holey’ 
‘Ah well,’ said George Grinning at his tear-stroked mother. ‘you’ll be able to tell us apart now, anyway, Mum’  - Fallen Warrior
‘We are holding your brother’s wedding here in a few days’ time, young man -’
‘Are they getting married in my bedroom?’ asked Ron furiously. ‘No! So why in the name of Merlin’s saggy left-’ - The Ghoul in Pyjamas 
‘I’m doing it, I’m doing -! Oh, it’s you,’ said Ron in relief, as Harry entered the room, Ron lay back down on the bed, which he had evidently just vacated.  - The Ghoul in Pyjamas
‘Oh, of course,’ said Ron, clapping a hand to his forehead. ‘I forgot we’ll be hunting down Voldermort in a library’  - The Ghoul in Pyjamas
‘Oh, well, lucky we’ve got such a large supply of Basilisk fangs, then,’ said Ron, ‘I was wondering what we were going to do with them.’ -  The Ghoul in Pyjamas
‘I think dating opportunities are going to be pretty thin on the ground, to be honest’ - The Ghoul in Pyjamas
‘How’s Norbert doin’?’
‘Norbert?’ Charlie laughed. ‘The Norwegian Ridgeback? We call her Norberta now.’
‘Wha-Norbert’s a girl?’ - The Will of Albus Dumbledore 
‘No I’m not,’ retorted Hermione, ‘I’m hoping to do some good in the world!’   - The Will of Albus Dumbledore
‘Has anyone ever tried sticking a sword in Voldermort’ - The Will of Albus Dumbledore
‘We heard Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Cinderella-’ 
‘What’s that, an illness?’ asked Ron. - The Will of Albus Dumbledore
Hagrid was causing a certain amount of disruption. Having misunderstood Fred’s directions, he had sat himself not upon the magically enlarged and reinforced seat sat aside for him in the back row, but on five seats that now resembled a large pile of golden matchsticks. - The Wedding 
‘She lingered in that charming little garden to say hello to the gnomes, such a glorious infestation! How few wizards realise how much we can learn from the wise little gonmes - or, to give them their correct name, the Gernumli gardensi.’ 
‘Ours do know a lot of excellent swear words,’ said Ron, ‘but I think Fred and George taught them those’ - The Wedding 
‘But I must say, Ginevra’s dress is far too low-cut.’
Ginny glanced around, grinning, winked at Harry. - The Wedding 
Krum was pointing at Ginny, who had just joined Luna. ‘She is also a relative of yours?’ 
‘Yeah, said Harry, suddenly irritated, ‘and shes’ seeing someone. Jealous type. Big bloke you wouldn’t want to cross him.’  - The Wedding
‘You there! Give me your chair, I’m a hundred and seven!’ - The Wedding
‘God, that’s revolting, Ron added, after one sip of the foamy, greyish coffee. The waitress had heard; she shot Ron a nasty look as she shuffled off to take the new customers orders. - A Place to Hide 
‘It’s no wonder I can’t get it out, Hermione, you packed my old jeans, they’re too tight.’
‘Oh, I’m so sorry,’ hissed Hermione as she dragged the waitress out of sight of the windows. Harry heard her mutter a suggestion as to where Ron could stick his wand instead. -  A Place to Hide
‘You got in all right, then?’ Hermione whispered to Harry.  - A Place to Hide
‘No, he’s still stuck in the bog,’ said Ron. - Magic is Might
‘NO!!’ roared Ron, causing Harry to jump into a hedge.- Xenophilius Lovegood
‘I think we should vote on it,’ said Ron. ‘Those in favour of going to see Lovegood -’ His hand flew into the air before Hermione’s.  - Xenophilius Lovegood
‘Sorry, I just think it’s a bit spookier if it’s midnight!’ said Ron. ‘Yeah, because  we really need a bit more fear in our lives,’ said Harry, before he could stop himself. - Tale of the Three Brothers
‘Death’s got an invisibility cloak?’ Harry interrupted again. ‘So he can sneak up on people,’ said Ron. ‘Sometimes he gets bored of running up at them, flapping his arms and shrieking...’  - Tale of the Three Brothers 
‘For instance, this new idea that You-Know-Who can kill with a single glance from his eyes. That’s a Basilisk, listeners. One simple test: check weather the thing glaring at you has got legs. If it has, it’s safe to look into its eyes, although if it really is You-Know-Who, that’s still likely to be the last thing you ever do.’ - The Deathly Hallows 
‘Well, who wouldn’t want a nice little holiday after all the hard works he’s been putting in?’ asked Fred. - The Deathly Hallows
‘The fact remains he can move faster than Severus Snape confronted with shampoo when he wants to’  - The Deathly Hallows
‘Well, I don’t know how to break this to you,’ said Ron, ‘but I think they might have noticed we broke into Gringotts.’  - The Final Hiding Place
‘Stag!’ roared the barman, and he pulled out a wand. ‘Stag! You idiot - expecto patronum!’ - The Missing Mirror 
‘Aberforth’s getting a bit ratty,’ said Fred, rasing his hand in answer to several cries of greeting. ‘He wants a kip, and his bar’s turned into a railway station’ - The Lost Diadem 
The aged caretaker had just come into view, shouting, ‘Students out of bed! Students in the corridors!’ 
‘They’re supposed to be, you blithering idiot!’ shouted McGongall. - The Sacking of Severus Snape 
Percy roared, so loudly that Lupin nearly dropped his photograph.  - The Sacking of Severus Snape
‘Hello, Minister!’ bellowed Percy, sending a neat jinx straight at Thicknesse, who dropped his wand and clawed at the front of his robes, apparently in awful discomfort. ‘Did I mention I’m resigning?’  - The Battle of Hogwarts
Draco was on the upper landing, pleading with another masked Death Eater. Harry stunned the Death Eater as they passed: Malfoy looked around, beaming, for his saviour, and Ron punched him backwards on top of the Death Eater, his mouth bleeding, utterly bemused.
‘And that’s the second time we’ve saved your life tonight, you two-faced bastard!’ Ron yelled. - The Elder Wand
‘Oooh, look, a Blibbering Humdinger!’ and pointed out of the window. Everyone who heard looked around. - The Flaw in the Plan
‘As a matter of fact, I did Confund him,’ Ron whispered to Harry, as together they lifted Albus’ trunk and owl on to the train. ‘I only forgot to look in the wing mirror, and let’s face it, I can use a Supersensory charm for that.’ - Nineteen Years Later
‘Don’t get too friendly with him, though, Rosie. Granddad Weasley would never forgive you if you married a pure-blood’ - Nineteen Years Later
‘No,’ said Harry firmly, ‘you and Al will share a room only when I want the house demolished.’  - Nineteen Years Later
‘Outside, yeah, but at school he’s Professor Longbottom, isn’t he? I can’t work into Herbology and give him love...’ - Nineteen Years Later
‘Why are they all staring?’ demanded Albus, as he and Rose craned round to look at the other students. 
‘Don’t let it worry you,’ said Ron. ‘It’s me. I’m extremely famous.’  - Nineteen Years Later
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hydrospanners · 6 years
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A-Z on the writing meme because I need to know absolutely everything immediately.
WELP okay but just remember you asked for what’s about to happen. meme is here. most of this is under a cut cause i’m longwinded as hell.
A. If you could rec a piece of music to accompany one of your fics, what would you pick? Why?
Um I absolutely was vibing to Lips by The xx when I wrote a wish your heart makes and you should too.
B. Who’s your favorite side-character from something you wrote?
I feel like the answer here is supposed to be Doc because he is not The Main Character in the game but also I have written about him and from his POV so much it feels unfair to call him a side character at this point. So instead I’m going to say this random woman named Cherita who was just trying to make a midnight snack for her pregnant wife from a little eggstra. I thought she had a lot of character for someone I pulled out of my ass for the sake of an outside perspective.
C. Get any good comments on your stuff this year?
I am thirsty for praise and I feel every single comment is a good comment but I think the one that sticks out to me is when I wrote a wish your heart makes someone said something like “if you like doc at all you have to read this” and I don’t remember who it was or where they said it but it really stuck with me!!! If that was you, thank you!!!!
D. Any drawings or pictures that had a big influence on your writing?
No!!! I feel guilty about this answer somehow but it’s true. I think it would be a fun challenge to try to write a piece of fic inspired by someone’s art so I may play with that idea next year (Editor’s Note: it was still 2k18 when I wrote the answer for this one) but for 2k18 the answer is no. :(
E.  Who’s your favorite main character you’ve written?
I feel like this answer is obvious but it’s my girl Rea. I’ve reincarnated her as an Inquisitor and a Pathfinder but the OG Jedi Knight is still my fave.
F. What stories are you planning for the future?
I won’t pretend that a lot of planning goes in to my fic. I normally only write short bits so it kind of goes like this: I have a concept, I write the bit I fixate on, and then it sits in my WIPs for five years until I get motivated during some Fictober or something to finally finish it.
I will say I do have serious designs to finally finish the second chapter of the things you do for love are gonna come back to you one by one as that one is a little more complex than stuff I usually write. I have plans to do some kinda flashback-y thing that finally lays out The Velaran Backstory in clear and obvious terms after years of hints and tidbits I’ve been peppering through my fic. I also have a thing planned and kinda partly written about the first instance of horrific violence in the lives of all the Knight’s companions. Also I have a long series of AU vignettes that glimpses into universes where Rea is a Sith or Kira never made it off Korriban or Rusk remained a pacifist or where Rea never joined the Jedi after losing her family the second time. Stuff like that.
G. Where do you think you grew the most this year?
Structure? I’ve been really working on trusting my reader to bridge some gaps and not letting myself get caught up in details that are important for me to know to write the next part but that don’t necessarily need to be in the story. I think I’ve really tightened up my game where trimming the fat and staying focused are concerned.
H.  How do you write? Paper, pen, computer? Music, no music?
My fic writing process is very different from when I am trying to write original stuff and is even kind of different depending on the mood I’m going for? I always write fic in Google Drive cause I write fic from a lot of different machines and need the easy cloud saving.
My ideal condition for fic writing is listening to instrumental music or ambient sounds playing through headphones either in a coffeehouse or the library or when I am at home completely alone. Angst and smut are best written at night with the lights low and warm. Comedy and fluff are best written in the late afternoon/early evening after one single alcoholic beverage (any more than and one I am drunk and no longer capable of writing).
Realistically though, I usually write in whatever time I have. Mostly at work. My job requires me to sit at a desk and wait for things to happen. Since I start work at 5am, things usually aren’t happening. Even with me going out of my way to create new work for myself and excel at what work I do have, I have a lot of downtime. I spend it writing fic. I get interrupted too much to have the focus I need for original writing, but fic writing is much easier so mostly I write my fic at this bland little desk under the terrible fluorescent lights with lots of noise and interruptions, occasionally playing a thematic playlist very quietly in the background.
I.  What’s your favorite work you did this year? Why?
This is a very tough question. Surprisingly, I published a lot of things that I really liked? ([not pictured: me high fiving me for finally allowing myself to state that I like my own writing]) I think I’ll go with when the wicked play if I have to pick just one. Relative to my other work I think it’s very structurally sound and thematically focused and pretty efficient with its characterization and imagery without ever getting too sparse. Also I’m a slut for examining the commonplace nature of violence and brutality in the Star Wars universe.
J.  What are the best jokes you told this year? Any jokes you thought were funny that people didn’t catch? Vice-versa?
I’m gonna say the pun I used as the title for bars and stripes. Honestly the whole fic is a joke and I like it and I don’t care if anyone catches it or not because I know that I am hilarious and no one will ever convince me otherwise.
K. Who have you killed this year? Why did they have to die?
No one, I think? I don’t think I even mentioned any specific off-screen deaths except for shit from the decades old Tragic Backstories. Not even Valkoriate. I’m not an especially murderful writer, maybe because I haven’t had to deal with a lot of that kind of loss in my own life. Mostly I write about things that are somehow adjacent to my own emotional state/journey. That’s why I fixate a lot on the weight of duty and moral philosophy and the nuances and complications of relationships, of how you can hurt someone and be hurt by them and still love them and how messy yet fulfilling the whole thing is. Thankfully--for me--not a lot of grieving the dead in there yet.
L.  Which character did you most write about this year, and why do you like ‘em?
Pretty sure it’s Rea. Maybe Doc because of the Docember thing I squeezed in at the last second but I’m still pretty sure it’s Rea. Pretty sure it always is.
There’s a particular kind of release I get from writing her because her whole sloppy person is a part of me that doesn’t often see the light of day. I won’t say she’s aspirational because I like who I am and I don’t have any special destiny or Force powers or anything to save me when the consequences of living like she does catch up. But there are pieces of her that I admire, pieces that are still part of me that I have a hard time expressing, and spending time with her gives me a little more strength to unlock those dark musty corners of who I am, I guess? Writing Rea makes me a little more bold, a little less apologetic, a little less prone to overthinking and anxious fretting and a little more prone to doing. She makes me feel strong enough to ask for the things I want and confident enough to feel like I deserve them.
Also she is a damn good time, even when she’s falling apart.
M. Meta! Have any meta about a story you’re dying to throw out there?
Of course I do. I could ramble for hours about the story behind any single one of my stories. Aren’t all of us creative types like that??? Don’t we all love to talk about what we were going for and why we made the choices we did??? What we liked and what we think needs improvement??? Why we wanted to make the thing we made in the first place???
I could ramble about this for hours and honestly the possibilities are overwhelming so I am not going to go into any detail and just say yes. Obviously I am willing to ramble about the story behind every single story I’ve published but there’s 63 of them so if there’s something specific you want to hear about you’ll have to ask about the specific one!!!
N. Anything you were planning to write that never got written?
Nothing will ever be “never got written” until I am dead and unable to write. I am still going back to WIPs from 2014. I am rewriting garbage exercises I wrote in 2013. I like to think everything in my WIP folder will eventually be moved to my Published folder and I am going to keep thinking that until I am physically incapable of writing.
O. Do you believe in outlines? Show us one!
I believe in them very much and yet I do not practice them usually. I rely on them more with my original work which is longer and more involved and doesn’t already have a convenient structure to follow in the form of 300000 hours of video game. Most of my fic is really short, just a single scene or so. I usually start out by writing the moment that inspired me to write the fic and fill in the before and after. I do have an outline for the second half of the things you do for love are gonna come back to you one by one but I don’t really want to share it for something that isn’t written yet!
P. What are your pet peeves in other people’s work?
This question makes me kinda uncomfortable so here we go with some disclaimers: I write the stories that I want to read or that I really need to tell to satisfy something inside of me and I assume other authors do the same. I don’t want to say anything here that might have a chilling effect on someone exploring some idea they really need to explore, even if it’s tired or cliche or offends my own tastes. Writing is very personal and I think everyone should tell the stories they want to, whether anyone else likes them or not.
That being said, I am always desperately wishing for more media about close, intimate friendships and familial bonds. As someone who isn’t interested in sexual or romantic relationships, it makes me weep basically every time I read a story about characters who are friends or family that give that kind of relationship all of the value and weight and nuance that you see romantic relationships getting. It is a very special kind of feeling to see that it is possible for people to value what I have to offer them as much they might value someone who will romance them and sleep with them. It is very validating to see the possibility of emotional intimacy with people outside of romantic/sexual partners.
But I would never want anyone to feel bad about or stop writing their romances and their smut. That stuff speaks to people and that’s what fic is about. Telling the story that speaks to you. I want everyone to write what they want to write and if that leaves gaps, well that’s why I started writing fic in the first place. There was a story I needed to read and no one had written it yet, so I did it myself.
TL;DR Genfic & friendfic & familyfic is the greatest gift anyone could ever give me, but no one should write to satisfy other people. Always write for yourself first and foremost.
Q. Quote three bits of writing you read his year. Can be your writing, or not.
I keep little quotes everywhere--index cards and sticky notes scattered among all my belongings, snippets on my phone, untitled documents on every cloud service there is, random word docs hidden amongst my many hard drives--but the only ones I can find right now are from @meonlyred‘s Dark Horse so please enjoy three bits from that fic that I loved:
They remained sitting on the floor, Rossa leaned against him, eyes staring into the distance. Her silence might as well have been weeping.
I just love how I can feel the vacant, numb quality of her despair in this line. How it feels more poignant for its lack of drama.
“You're an idiot and I hate your hair,” Jonas said over the rim of his glass.
I mean.... Do I need to explain this?
He had never believed in happily ever afters. Not for him, at least. But the cruelest thing about being with Rossa was that he had begun to believe that maybe, just maybe, it was possible.
Closing his eyes, Theron didn’t expect to open them again.
This little snippet still punches me in the gut no matter how many times I read it. It’s so relateable and so Theron and so painful.
R. If you had to rewrite one of your stories from scratch, which one would it be? What would you do to it?
I don’t think I’d rewrite any of them? At least half of my fic has been completely rewritten once or twice before it ever gets published so I mostly have it out of my system before anyone else sees it.
S. What’s the sexiest thing you wrote this year?
a wish your heart makes. It may also be the saddest thing I wrote this year which I consider an achievement. (I was asked for smut but I literally do not know how to write just smut without anything else going on in the story.)
T. Themes, motherfucker, do you have them? What are they?
The importance and nature of family (it is what you make it and not what you were born with! but sometimes you get lucky and get to choose the one you were born with!)! The cost/impact of violence and war! Failure and coming back from failure! The nature of what is right and what is wrong and how much responsibility any one individual bears for the moral direction of their society!!!!
I don’t think I’ve ever written anything that didn’t include at least one of these concepts and most of my stuff deals heavily in at least two of them.
U. Any stories that took a abrupt u-turn from where you thought they were going?
Yep! I was trying to make a stupid joke about a haircut when I started making take back what the kingdom stole but in working my way backward from the joke I ended up with a heartfelt exploration of my character’s past emotional trauma, her character growth, and the nature of friendship and forgiveness.
V. Which story was the most viscerally pleasing to write? Tell us your narrative kinks.
I don’t know that I would necessarily call the sensation pleasing but, once again, the things you do for love are gonna come back to you one by one was probably the story that made me feel the most, that I was the most connected to. It hit on every single one of the themes I find compelling and I really got to play with telling the story in the white spaces, which is something I really love. I’ve been working a lot on trusting my readers and not over-explaining and I think this story really saw the impact of that work, stylistically. It’s peak self-indulgence honestly.
W.  Who are your favorite writers?
Does this mean like authors of original published works or fic writers????? How am I supposed to choose???!!!! Either way my reading habits this year have been abominable. I have really been going through some shit, lifewise, (not bad shit but emotionally consuming and time consuming nonetheless) and I had to let the reading go a little bit.
I have been really into NK Jemisin though. Her stories are complex and challenging and there is so much poetry and power in the straightforward way she tells them. I also was obsessed with the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. The characters were so textured and real with such clear voices and the relationships and ideas were so complex and compelling, yet the story never got weighed down by the heft of the subjects. She has a very light touch as a storyteller that makes her work so easily digestible without making her tale any less impactful or profound.
As for fic…. I’ve got about forty million fics bookmarked, waiting for me to get around to reading them and I am the worst kind of person because I have not yet read any of them. I’m behind on reading one of my very favorite fics right now. I think I’ve read a total of like ten fics this year and straight up probably only read that many because I was doing a bit of beta’ing.
I’m gonna do better in 2019 and I’ll get back to you on all the good shit I’ve read then.
X.  What’s your least favorite work of this year?
crapshoot. It was a really old concept that probably would have been better as visual art than a fic but my artistic talents were too limited so I wrote it instead. It could probably stand a little more meat and a lot more polish, but I don’t have the time to try and turn every goofy image in my head into a fictional masterpiece.
Y. Why did you write? For fun, for a friend, for acclaim?
For fame and fortune obviously. It’s why most of my fic is about a super popular ship in an enormous fandom.
Or, y’know… not. I write for fun and because I have to. Because there are stories inside of me I want to tell, ideas I feel compelled to explore, things I need to say. It doesn’t matter if anyone else hears them or likes them; I need to get them out of me. Also it’s a really great way to work through my own emotional turmoil at a safe distance, so I can engage with what vexes me without being consumed by it.
Z. If you could choose one work and immediately finish it, what would it be? How would you end it?
the things you do for love are gonna come back to you one by one. It’s the most self-indulgent thing I’ve written probably but it means a lot to me and if I knew how it ended I would have finished it months ago. D:
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drakorn · 7 years
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Dracula vs Krolock: Who’s the better Vampire Lord?
Sources used: The Dracula Novel and the Tanz der Vampire Musical
PS: Don’t take it too serious XD
The Lair
Dracula: A ruined castle in the middle of nowhere that has only a few tidy rooms left. There are dust and ruin everywhere and no mirrors at all. Basically, the castle looks like it has been the prime battleground during a World War. And Dracula doesn’t even bother to clean up the dust. BUT...that’s okay...because apparently, the kitchen is still excellent. And the library and bedrooms are still in great shape.
Krolock: Imposing castle in the middle of nowhere. However, the big difference is that it’s still mostly intact. It has beautiful architecture, functioning hot-water bathrooms and mirrors everywhere. It also has a ballroom, a personal graveyard, a massive art gallery and a library. However, the library does need some cleaning, as do the bedrooms. 
Verdict: Overall, while both showing some fixed left to improve, Krolock takes much greater care of his lair and actually undertakes the effort to make it at least feel and look like a functioning home.
Preventing Victims from Escaping
Dracula: Locks 90% of the castle’s rooms and keeps the keys to himself. If a victim somehow manages to get away, there is an entire wolf pack waiting outside. The only two people who made it out of this castle alive suffered severe mental health problems, with one of said two people ending up in a mental asylum for a lifetime.
Krolock: Trusts the labyrinthian structure of his castle. However, apart from that...he doesn’t actually DO anything to prevent his victims from escaping. He is so full of himself that he even allows them to move EVERYWHERE in the castle, including his crypt. If it weren’t for Alfred’s pacifism, Krolock perhaps wouldn’t have even made it to the ball. If the victim escapes...they pretty much get away safely actually. The only active force working on Krolock’s behalf in this is Koukol, and he turns out not to be much of a hindrance.
Verdict: Dracula clearly took more careful measures to prevent his victims from escaping and even if they did, they suffered for it. 
Seducing Victims
Dracula: Stalks his prey in all shapes and sizes and pretty much forces them to drink his blood so that he can oversee them mentally. If the victim resists, he uses vampire hypnosis to make them do their bidding. However, as soon as he is away, the victim actively tries to fight back, which eventually lead to Dracula’s downfall.
Krolock: Spends years preparing the chosen victim to be his bride at the midnight ball. He constantly flat out tells Sarah what he’s going to do to her, even though he chooses his words very carefully. The big difference is that Krolock’s victims actually WANT to go to him willingly. The entire risk of them fighting back and foiling his plans is eliminated here. What he does is much more dangerous and successful. Rather than forcing people to join him, he gives them the illusion of choice and makes his side look so much better than anything mortality can give them.
Verdict: While both have effective ways to obtain their meal, Krolock essentially has much more patience and efficiency on his side.
Treatment of Servants
Dracula: Well, he’s got his gipsies, Renfield, the nocturnal animals and, of course, the brides. Later, Lucy joins these ranks. Overall, this is a force to be reckoned with. However, Dracula couldn’t care less about the state of his servants. He leaves his brides in a constant state of hunger and provides them with the absolute minimum of nourishment. He constantly threatens Renfield and was the sole reason for his madness in the first place (or so it is implied). As soon as he is done with Lucy, he tosses her aside and pretty much forgets about her. His gipsies are the only people who actually appear 100% loyal to him. However, it is also implied that they don’t even know Dracula’s vampire identity. So we’re talking deception here. However, Dracula is a VAMPIRE lord. How many vampires does he have in total? THREE (four, if we count Lucy’s short-term vampire existence).
Krolock: Commands an entire legion of vampires. All of them are 100% loyal to him. He also has his own son living with him as a vampire, and from what the musical shows to us, they are in a pretty healthy father-son relationship. He also has a loyal mortal servant at his side. What’s the difference here? While Dracula might have the bigger amount of servants in total, Krolock’s servants are all loyal to him. He also treats them much better. They get their own graveyard to rest in, Krolock throws yearly balls at the castle at which he himself provides his subjects with nourishment. It might not be much, but at least he tries XD
Verdict: While Dracula has more of a “rule on fear” logic, Krolock actually undertakes the extra step of making his subjects loyal to him. He surely rules them with an iron fist, but despite everything, he really seems to care for his people.
Plan to expand the Species and dominate Mankind
Dracula: “Right, I shall get those 50 boxes filled up with dirt, then I shall buy estates all over London, travel there and turns England into my new vampire kingdom! I will do this all by myself, for I have no trust in my current servants whatsoever. Sure, they can assist me here and there, but I am still the conqueror! I conquered humans once, I can do it again. There is absolutely no way they could brace themselves.”
Krolock: “Okay everybody, so here’s the plan, and I will require all of you to be on board with this. We have our yearly balls and each one of them shall serve us as an evening of expanding our breed! And look at those vampire hunters coming from a civilised world to save the peasant girl. They clearly know a lot about us AND the current state of the human world. What we shall do is the following: We will turn them and they shall be our first steps to widen our conquest. So nobody undertake any solo missions here, we actually have a plan to survive! Just imagine! Each one of you will be able to feast as you crave! We will need to work together to achieve this! Team spirit, everyone!”
Verdict: Well...Dracula is dead and Krolock enjoys his new position as vampire ruler in the modern world. We can clearly see who’s plan worked out in the end.
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yourarmynoona · 6 years
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Red Light District || Chapter 1
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(Moodboard by Me)
Description:  [Sex Worker!AU] [DomTae!AU] You were young, naive, and oh-so desperate to keep your head afloat in the big city. Working in the Red Light District was easy. Until he came along.
Rating: M
Pairings: Taehyung x Reader; Jungkook x Reader; Jimin x Jungkook x Reader; Taehyung x Jimin x Reader
Themes: S-M-U-T. Drugs, Alcohol, Sex, and mentions of abuse.
3.5k+ Words
Notes: Find the music for the dance scene here. This is the SECOND piece I’ve ever written for BTS AND THE LONG AF. I’m hoping to keep it to 5 chapters, though who knows. I get carried away.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5
It was Friday evening and the city streets were beginning to fill with the sounds of patrons laughing and stumbling drunkenly about from one establishment to another. As the golden and lavender painted skies began to fade into a deep midnight blue scattered with glimmering orbs and the moon’s luminescence illuminating the glowing city skyline, a neon red glow begins to creep onto the damp asphalt and pavement of a familiar set of streets deep within the concrete jungle. The air is cool and damp, the familiar echo of footsteps following groups of men and women who cast shadows as they walk between the red hued lights filling large windows with scantily clad women and men in seductive poses or swaying their hips to the low thrum of music emanating from within their establishments.
Like any other Friday evening, your shift at Euphoria began as soon as the sun disappeared beneath the city skyline at 8pm sharp. Tonight was a special night, however. You had been working and dancing at Euphoria for almost 4 months since you had started going to college almost a year ago. Despite having excellent grades and doing well in High School, financial aid was barely enough to cover the tuition for your classes and your family could barely afford to send your younger brother to the private schools you had attended for the best education possible. It was tough at first. You had moved into a seedy apartment because the cost of housing was so high in the city and had spent nights unable to sleep between the domestic fights of your neighbors to your right, the loud drug-filled parties upstairs, police sirens, and the multiple part-time jobs you took to eat, pay your tuition, and not end up on the streets. After half a year of sleepless nights, tired and aching muscles, and struggling to not fall asleep in class, you had decided you had had enough. Searching through the various “Now Hiring” ads online in job forums, you had seen a tempting ad for weekend work with incredible pay and no experience required for women only. Normally, you would have been sketched out by the requirements for the job however, you were beyond exhausted and had made up your mind to toss your pride (and dignity) aside and take a chance on the job.
That was how you ended up at Euphoria as a dancer and server. Euphoria, compared to many other clubs and “hotels” in the area was higher-end with most clients and patrons paying thousands a night to see the most beautiful men and women dance at their feet or make their deepest, darkest fantasies come true. It was a large, spacious establishment with a large vaulted and mirrored ceiling that encompassed a central stage with two go-go cages at either end and three, iridescent poles, all illuminated by neon red and magenta lights surrounding the stage. There were various leather-clad booths with rich-wooded tables and private niches filled with large velvet cushions, inset leather couches, and weighted privacy curtains along the far wall with smaller pole platforms for entertainers strategically placed throughout. 
Euphoria dripped wealth and luxury for its patrons from the surroundings to the expensive top-shelf spirits that filled the enormous magenta-illuminated bar staffed with multiple bar tenders and bar backs shaking up the newest mixology creation or wiping down crystal glasses that hung from racks between the library of spirits that spanned to the ceiling. The venue began to glow with various shades of crimson and pink as a sensual playlist selected by the resident DJ began to play in the background. In addition to the vast stage and dancefloor, there was a long hallway between the VIP booths guarded by a singular man of abnormal size and musculature. One didn’t get to know what resided down the long, red-lit hallway. Unless they paid the right price, that is.
The night had only begun and men in crisp, dark business suits were filing in group by group as they checked with the resident bouncer to ensure their favorite booth or table had been reserved. There were attractive men and women beginning to sit beside patrons that were slowly becoming inebriated by alcoholic creations that would equate to a week’s pay for the average person. Girls with their perfect eyeliner, false eye lashes, and scarlet lips wearing revealing outfits laughing at haughty businessmen attempting to make small talk with them and muscled young men in tight fitting jeans with shirts unbuttoned to expose their finely chiseled chests serving refined older women with their legs neatly crossed in plush seats became a part of the highly orchestrated nightly activities that filled Euphoria.
At the moment, you were leaning over the bar requesting a drink for one of your regular patrons, Mr. Bong. Mr. Bong came in every Friday night and requested to be seated in your section and though he never requested services beyond perhaps the occasional private dance, he could be a handsy man. However, you most often didn’t mind because paid more than the average wealthy patron. From what you knew, he was the Chief Operations Officer for some major conglomerate, but the name currently escaped you. As you leaned over the bar to yell the order, the hem of your black bandage dress riding up your backside, a young bartender with a defined nose and large doe-eyes came over with his familiar bunny smile.
“___! Mr. Bong again? Is he having the usual Dalmore ’64?” he asked giving you a brief glance before sliding over a rolling redwood ladder that slid along the bar and reached the highest tiers of the library of liquor stocked at Euphoria.
“Yup! I swear, Jungkook, he should just buy the bottle. He has all this money and he just buys per glass. He knows we reserve bottles here” you kicked your legs off the bar, your breasts pressed to the bar and threatening to spill over the low neckline of your dress.
Jungkook just smiled as he quickly climbed up and down the ladder, bottle in hand. “You would think but eh, he can waste whatever money he wants here as long as he keeps tipping me good.” Jungkook grabbed out a cleanly wiped crystal glass, a round frozen whiskey stone, and began to pour the liquor carefully into the glass before recapping the oddly shaped bottle. You could only roll your eyes in response.
 Jungkook was only a year younger than you but he had come to the city with the dreams of becoming a singer and dancer. His family was much like yours in that they were not wealthy and he was having to pay his own tuition, thus he ended up becoming a bartender at Euphoria about the same time you started. The both of you shared a unique bond since you were the youngest of the staff and he was the only male on the crew who hadn’t made a pass at you in some way. Though you weren’t sure if it was because you had a special friendship or it was his naturally shyness around women. Even though the bar was illuminated by bright red and magenta, you could definitely see the times a heated blush rose to his cheeks when he glimpsed your breasts in a revealing outfit or a woman would touch his arm flirtatiously.
“You got that straight. I’ll be back soon for more so store the bottle. Don’t want you having to go up and down all night unless you’re getting paid for that” you laughed, your magenta lips peeled back into a smile as you laughed at the innuendo. Sliding the glass filled with the deep golden liquor in your direction, Jungkook just shook his head. You had to admit, he was finely muscled and extremely attractive with his pierced ears and the few tattoos you had glimpsed on his chest and upper arm. Maybe if there was a time you were both lonely one night, you wouldn’t say no. You gingerly grabbed the glass, giving Jungkook a final wink, and sauntered off back to Mr. Bong with a seductive smile. 
The next hour you spent in conversation with Mr. Bong, touching his arm delicately and speaking about the things you were familiar with, ushering him to perhaps seek a private dance with you before you were to go on stage. However, tonight he was far too inebriated and simply paid you a rather large tip from his Black AMEX card before you had to say your polite goodbyes.
The club was now packed and filled with not only the business types, but the young and wealthy socialites who were heirs to family companies and had come to blow off steam from their duties or education. There was an assortment of men and women of all ages who were in attendance as you made your way from the VIP booth with Mr. Bong, past the stage, and towards the back to get ready. Jungkook was extremely busy with a group of young men who looked like they had stepped out of a runway magazine and you could see the DJ, Yoongi who went by the alias AGUST D, was head bobbing as he began to mix a faster and more upbeat set of songs for the remainder of the night.
“Hey, _____! You look positively gorgeous tonight” you heard a voice call. It was Jimin. He, like you, was a server and entertainer. Jimin, however, was the most in-demand dancer at Euphoria. He had grown up and danced for most of his life, which had afforded him a lean and muscled physique that looked as if it was sculpted by the gods. Jimin had been dancing at Euphoria for the last year and was known by his stage name, “Christian”, after a drunken night where he had gone from his sweet and cheeky demeanor to straight Dom, pushing down and spanking poor Yoongi who was just trying to get him to sober up. Jimin had regal and princely features with his jet black hair parted neatly down the center, plush lips, and the copious amount of silver rings and earrings he wore. He walked the line of androgyny quite well and both men and women loved him.
“Thanks Jimin! I’m going to try something new tonight and hope I don’t bust my ass” you said sarcastically, slipping on your black silk robe.
“Oh? Something new you say?” Jimin remarked with his best acting.
You giggled, placing one foot up on a nearby chair as you strapped your patent leather platform heels on.
“Duh, I’m going for this new ‘Subby Leather Vixen’ vibe. I feel like I’ve been playing it too sweet this entire time.”
Jimin opened his mouth in an ‘O’ in understanding. He was a very seductive dancer and naturally good at it. You however, had to adjust and become comfortable before exploring the direction you wanted your stage personal to take. There were a handful of girls and guys in the coed dressing room currently other than you and Jimin who were chatting and laughing as they applied copious amounts of makeup or changed into their outfits for the night. Untying your robe and slipping it down your shoulders to take a look in the full-length mirror of the dressing room you heard a whistle from behind and a catcall coming from Jimin.
“Ah ____ I love it!” Jimin cheered grasping you in a rather large hug from behind, his chin resting on your bare shoulder. “You know, I’d totally be down to fuck one of these days if you wanted” Jimin said seductively, his dark hooded eyes meeting yours in the reflection of the mirror as he gently rocked your body in his arms. You blushed as you laughed out of his grasp, your nose scrunched at his comment. Jimin was indeed shameless.
“Jimin! I thought you were all over that Min-booty last time we were out? And hey, what about Jungkook? I could have sworn you said you were going to get in his pants by the end of this year?” You said jokingly, your hands adjusting your faux-leather bra-top and your faux-leather thong that had an “X” of tiny chains across the front. Jimin simply laughed and clicked his tongue. Bingo.
“Yoongi, maybe if I was super drunk again and Jungkook clearly has a thing for you. Not stepping on toes there ____. Though I wouldn’t mind jumping in on some action between you two so-“
“Foxx on in 3!” the stage manager called, promptly interrupting Jimin’s comment and much to your satisfaction.
“Gotta go Chimchim, see you in a few!” you scampered out of the dressing room, your platform stilettos clattering across the hardwood of the dressing room and into the crimson lit hallway as you laughed at Jimin’s displeased expression. You just had to love his brashness. Jimin was pretty much your best friend and even though he joked about sex with you from time to time, you wondered how much truth there was to it. A part of you really wouldn’t mind. After all, the night Jimin had gone total Dom on Yoongi was also a night you had made out with him and if his kissing was any inclination as to how he could fuck, you were probably down to do it. It was better fucking a friend by choice and having a good time than someone you had met five minutes prior.
You were waiting patiently for the girl before you to finish her routine, her body sliding to the floor in rhythm with the end of the heavy guitar riff and the lights cutting out. As men cheered for her and the lights dimmed up only slightly, you could see the bouncer assist her in gathering the wads of money that she had been writhing in only moments earlier right before the stage manager approached her. She was going to get lucky tonight. One of the men in the audience was intrigued enough to pay for her private services.
In just under a minute, that was going to be you.
Removing your loose silk robe and hanging it on the doorhanger in the hallway entrance behind a heavy velvet curtain, you did a series of hops to shake off your nerves. It wasn’t the first time you had gone out there but the nerves never seemed to go away.
“You’re on!” the stage manager called from behind you.
You put on your best act and sauntered out from behind the curtain, a brilliant spotlight on you. It followed your form as you crossed one foot in front of the other and walked up the stairs to the platform, the pulsating rhythms creeping into your body, making your body fill with a passion and desire that even the most heated lover could only hope to give you. Your song, “Wicked Games” was playing and it never failed to turn you into the vixen men dreamed of.
You walked slowly, seductively, your hips exaggerating a drop with every cross of your black stilettos before you. You worked your hands over the bare flesh on the outer part of your thighs and drug them hashly, sensually across the curve of your hips and the swell of your breasts, running them behind your neck to raise your hair up in unison with the beat and the slow, passionate sway of your hips.
You swayed your hips side to side, creating an infinite pattern you were slowly losing yourself in. Your hands wandered from behind your neck and crossed around your throat with your thumbs running along your plush, magenta lips before sliding back down your breasts, stomach, and along your thighs as you dipped down low to the ground, spreading your knees outwards and swinging your hair around. Slowly you brought your thighs together and slid forwards onto the floor reaching outwards on the black reflective stage.
That’s when you saw him.
He was a man of about your age, dressed in a plum silk shirt and dark slacks, his legs crossed elegantly as he reclined deep into the velvet of a VIP couch. Something about him was alluring and his ash brown hair was doing little to hide a carnal stare of dark eyes following your every movement. Your eyes met his and you beckoned him forwards from his seat with a long, elegant curl of your fingers before turning around and laying down onto the stage, writhing as if in pure ecstasy. With your arms above your head, you kicked your legs straight upwards, making small languid circles before letting them fall open and down, bringing them to an angle to which you swiveled your hips as if seeking pleasure from a lover.
Though your eyes were closed, you could feel his eyes on you, his heated gaze ready to set your skin alight. Bringing your legs together, you swiveled them together to position your body on all fours. You were going to make sure to give him a show he’ll never forget. With the bass pulsing deep inside your veins, your rolled your body upwards, your hands grasping a chrome pole before you. You could see his lust. Bringing your hands to your top, you leisurely unzipped your top, letting your naked breasts free. His tongue ran leisurely across his wonderfully plump lips as you tossed your top aside and grasped the pole, walking gracefully around before pulling your body upwards, your legs tightly wrapped around the pole as it spun. You closed your eyes and let go.
You bent back with your arms outstretched before grasping the pole and splaying your legs open as the pole carried your magenta and crimson illuminated figure delicately in a circle. As you spun, you lowered your body, grasping the pole lightly and letting your legs carry you around before they met the floor. His searing gaze fueled your desire. With hands holding tightly, you grasped the pole tightly and flipped yourself onto the pole, your thighs tightly clamping to the slick metal so that you could reach outwards, as if beckoning him to come to you. Your body was feeling hotter than normal as the cold metal of the pole stung at the flesh of your thighs as you slid to the floor and crawled on all fours one last time towards the edge of the stage.
Your veins were coursing with desire as you noticed he was waiting for your attention, his teeth with a firm grasp on his lower lip. With a swing of your hair and roll of your hips, you brought your hands to his face, running a thumb across his bruised lip. Your breath quickened when you felt him take a thumb into his mouth and suck it harshly as he stared into your eyes as if trying to penetrate the darkest depths of your soul. Your thumb slid out from between his lips and your hands worked down his throat and to his chest before you brought them to the floor. He grimaced at the loss of contact and you could tell he desperately wanted to reach out and touch you.
The music began to fade as you sauntered back to the pole to grind passionately on it, your hips swiveling back and forth and into circles. His eyes were hungry for your body and you wanted him to know exactly what you would do with him if he was willing to pay the right price. As the music dissipated and lights dimmed low, leaving only the neon glow of the stage, you left the stage, giving one last glance in his direction.
By the time you had left stage, cheers and whistles erupted from above the music and the MC made his announcements about how to meet with you.
When you got back stage and grabbed your robe. You could feel your heartbeat in your throat.
Your fingers were aflame.
Your core was throbbing.
You prayed desperately that he was going to have you tonight. If you didn’t get a chance to fuck him, you thought you would end up having to finger-fuck yourself into oblivion to relieve the tension his gaze and mouth had created.
“Oh my God ____! That was SO HOT! I’d sell my firstborn to get a chance with you tonight! I haven’t seen you perform that way in ages. Who got you horny?” Jimin was shouting excitedly as you made your way down the hallway.
“Oh my God Chimchim!” you blushed, “I was just feeling it tonight is all.”
“Lies, all of it.”
You smirked and held back a laugh.
“Okay maybe. There’s this guy out there, he looks like a fucking model. He’s wearing this dark purple silk shirt and dark slacks. He’s sitting right in the front VIP area and-“
“WAIT. Oh my God, ____! That’s V! He’s a famous model and actor! He’s pretty much the hottest thing out there right now. You’re so lucky ___! I’d kill for a guy like him.”
“V? Like, the V from that one period drama series?!”
“YES FROM THE PERIOD DRAMA SERIES!”
Jimin was grabbing your hands and leaning close as he excitedly explained just who the VIP in the front row was. V was his stage name but apparently he was an international model for GUCCI and also acted in a new show on TV. You didn’t get to watch television much but if Jimin knew who he was, he must be big. Jimin was a pop culture aficionado who knew everything and anything current about celebrities not simply from TV, but because he had habit of befriending anyone and everyone who was of some importance. He had a way with schmoozing his way into ritzy parties and taking you along for the ride. And you thought that part of him would never come in handy.
“___, I have a request to meet with you. VIP in booth #7. Willing to paydown big bucks for a night. Come out when you’re ready” the stage manager called out to you and you felt your heart stutter.
“___ THIS IS IT. You’re going to get to fuck the one person guys and girls only dream of!” Jimin was cheering as you rolled your eyes and walked off, slipping your bandage dress overhead and leaving the dressing room. Jimin was too excited for his own good.
And you were more nervous than you had ever been.
126 notes · View notes
astrogeoguy · 6 years
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The Hunter’s Moon Wades through Water Constellations, Jupiter jumps Mercury, and Uranus Looks its Best!
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(Above: Before dawn on Friday, October 19, 2018, Stuart McNair captured this spectacular image of the zodiacal light taken from a site near Lake Simcoe, Ontario. The wedge of light toward the image’s left is the glow of sunlight scattered from interplanetary dust concentrated in the plane of our solar system.)
Astronomy Skylights for this week (from October 21st, 2018) by Chris Vaughan. (Feel free to pass this along to friends and send me your comments, questions, and suggested topics.) I post these with photos at http://astrogeoguy.tumblr.com/ where the old editions are archived. You can also follow me on Twitter as @astrogeoguy! Unless otherwise noted, all times are Eastern Time. Please click this MailChimp link to subscribe to these emails. If you are a teacher or group leader interested joining me on a guided field trip to York University’s Allan I. Carswell Observatory or the David Dunlap Observatory, visit www.astrogeo.ca.
I can bring my Digital Starlab inflatable planetarium to your school or other daytime or evening event, visit DiscoveryPlanetarium.com and request me. We’ll tour the Universe together!
Public Events
Every Monday evening, York University’s Allan I. Carswell Observatory runs an online star party - broadcasting views from four telescopes/cameras, answering viewer questions, and taking requests! Details are here. On Wednesday nights they offer free public viewing through their rooftop telescopes. If it’s cloudy, the astronomers give tours and presentations. Details are here. 
At 7:30 pm on Wednesday evening, October 26 the public are invited to attend the free RASC Toronto Centre Speaker’s Night Meeting at the Ontario Science Centre (Room TBD, just follow the signs). The speaker is Dr. Chris Gainor, author and President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, presenting History of the Hubble Space Telescope. Details are on the RASC website here. 
On Wednesday, October 24 at 6:30 pm, the Aurora Public Library will present a free lecture by RASC member Ian Wheelband entitled The Milky Way, followed by outside stargazing (weather permitting). Registration and details are here. 
On Thursday evening, October 25 at 7 pm, the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics in Waterloo will present a lecture and webcast from Jocelyn Bell Burnell, winner of the 2018 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. Details are here. 
At 8 pm on Friday evening, October 26 the public are invited to attend the free RASC Mississauga Meeting at UTM. The speaker is Dr. Laura Parker, Associate Professor, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, McMaster University, presenting The Dark Universe. Details are here. 
On Friday, October 26, starting at 7 pm, U of T’s AstroTour will present their planetarium show entitled The Life and Death of Stars. Tickets and details are here. 
If it’s sunny on Saturday morning, October 27 from 10 am to noon, astronomers from the RASC Toronto Centre will be setting up outside the main doors of the Ontario Science Centre for Solar Observing. Come and see the Sun in detail through special equipment designed to view it safely. This is a free event (details here), but parking and admission fees inside the Science Centre will still apply. Check the RASC Toronto Centre website or their Facebook page for the Go or No-Go notification. 
The next RASC Public Event at the David Dunlap Observatory of 2018 will be a Family Night on Saturday, October 27. There will be presentations in the Skylab, a tour of the giant 74” telescope, and viewing through lawn telescopes (weather permitting). The doors will open at 6:30 pm for a 7 pm start. Attendance is by tickets only, available here. If you are a RASC member and wish to help us at DDO in the future, please fill out the volunteer questionnaire here. And to join RASC, visit this page. 
On Saturday, November 10, from 7 to 10 pm, adults aged 19+ can enjoy a social evening of astronomy and music at the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill. There will be live music by THE CALDERONS, a "WATER WORLDS" talk by Dr. Bhairavi Shankar, tours of the DDO, and stargazing through telescopes (weather dependent). There will be a merchandise table and a photographer on site, a cash bar and refreshments. Tickets and details are here. 
Orionids Meteor Shower
We’ve now entered meteor shower season! Over the next few months, we’ll experience a wave of several showers. The excellent Orionids Meteor Shower, which is derived from material dropped by repeated past passages of Comet Halley, peaked in the hours after midnight (in your local time zone) this morning. At that time, the sky over your head will be plowing forward through the densest region of the particle field, generating up to 25 meteors per hour. The meteors will continue to appear for several more nights. 
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(Above: Tunc Tezel of Turkey created this composite image of the Orionids Meteor Shower from a sequence of tripod-mounted camera images. NASA APOD for October 23, 2006)
The meteors can appear anywhere in the sky, but true Orionids will be travelling in a direction away from a location (the radiant) a fist’s diameter to the upper left of the bright red star Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion. Although not too numerous, Orionids are known for being bright and fast-moving. You can watch for meteors in the evening, too – but many of them will be hidden behind the Earth’s horizon. 
To see the most meteors, find a wide-open dark location, preferably away from light polluted skies, and just look up with your unaided eyes. Binoculars and telescopes are not useful for meteors – their field of view are too narrow. If the peak night is cloudy, several nights on either side will be almost as good. Happy hunting! 
The Moon and Planets
The moon will continue to gleam in the evening sky this week as it transitions through the middle of its monthly cycle. Between tonight and Wednesday, the waxing gibbous moon will pass through the dime water constellations of Aquarius (the Water-bearer), Pisces (the Fishes), and Cetus (the Whale). 
The full moon of October, traditionally called the Hunter's Moon, Blood Moon, or Sanguine Moon, will occur around mid-day on Wednesday. Since it’s opposite the sun at that time, the moon will rise at sunset and set at sunrise. 
When the moon is full, bright ray features may be seen radiating from the most recent craters on the lunar near side. The biggest ray system surrounds the prominent crater Tycho, which is located in the southwestern region of the moon’s face, about where the “Lady in the Moon” would have her pendant. (Note that east and west are reversed on the moon). The bright lines radiating from the crater are reflective crystalline rocks excavated when Tycho was formed. They extend up to 1,500 km from the crater! 
Mare Fecunditatis, Latin for “Sea of Fertility”, is a large dark mare in the eastern equatorial region of the moon, south of the very round Mare Crisium “Sea of Crises”. Near the centre of Mare Fecunditatis sit a pair of small deep craters named Messier. Parallel bright rays extend into the bright lunar highlands rocks to the west. They resemble a comet in binoculars or telescopes. The rays, approximately 120 km long, are consistent with an extremely low angle impact that arrived from the east at 1.7 km/second. That’s more than 6,000 km per hour – five times faster than a rifle bullet!
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(Above: The major features on the full moon include dark maria regions and ray systems emanating from recent craters, such as Tycho.)  
After Wednesday, the moon will wane and rise later – lingering for a little while into the morning daytime sky. Overnight on Friday, the waning gibbous moon will approach and then pass through the Hyades star cluster, the stars that form the triangular face of Taurus (the Bull). The moon will enter the cluster at approximately 3 am Eastern Time on Saturday morning. By sunrise in the Eastern time zone, the moon will be in the centre of the triangle. Observers in western North America will be able to see the moon pass less than a finger’s width above Aldebaran, Taurus’ brightest star at about 7 am Pacific Time. This pairing of the bright star and the moon is also an opportunity to look for Aldebaran in daylight using the nearby moon as a guide. 
The moon will end the coming weekend brushing the horns of Taurus, above the bright winter constellation (Oh, no – not Winter!) of Orion (the Hunter). 
Mercury will still be visible this week, but it will be tough to see it from the Northern Hemisphere because it will be barely above the west-southwestern horizon after sunset. The elusive planet will set at about 7 pm local time – 45 minutes after the sun. Because Mercury is on the far side of the sun right now, its appearance in a telescope will be a nearly fully illuminated disk. (For eye safety, be sure to wait until the sun has vanished completely before using binoculars or a telescope on Mercury.) 
For an added bonus, and some help to find Mercury, the bright planet Jupiter will pass near Mercury later this week. Tonight, Jupiter will be less than a fist’s diameter to Mercury’s upper left. On Saturday, October 27, Jupiter will sit only 3.5 finger widths directly above Mercury. The two planets will be slightly closer together on Sunday evening, and then start drawing apart next week. Jupiter will set in the west-southwest before 7:30 pm local time. After this week, we’ll have to wait until next May before the mighty planet will return to the evening sky.
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(Above: Mercury will sit below Jupiter in the western evening sky on Sunday, October 27, as shown here at 6:45 pm local time.)  
Reddish Mars and dimmer, yellow-tinted Saturn will remain visible in the southern evening sky this week. As soon as the sky becomes dark enough to reveal them, both planets will be located about two fist diameters above the horizon, with Mars located 35° (three and a half fist diameters) to the left of Saturn. Mars will set in the west at about 1:15 am local time. It’s still well worth looking at, even in a small telescope. Try to see a small white oval near the top of its disk. That’s the southern polar cap (but inverted by your telescope’s optics)! 
Saturn will set before 10 pm local time. Once the sky darkens, even a small telescope should be able to show you some of Saturn’s larger moons, especially its largest satellite, Titan. Using a clock’s dial analogy, Titan will move counter-clockwise over the course of this week – starting from a position at 9 o’clock (to the left of Saturn) tonight, and ending next Sunday at 4 o’clock (to the lower right of Saturn). (Remember that your telescope might flip and/or invert the view. Use the moon to find out how your telescope changes things and keep a note of it, since that will always be the case.) 
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(Above: Mars and Saturn remain excellent targets for evening observing this week, as shown here at 7:15 pm local time.)
This autumn presents an ideal time to peruse the ice giant planets Uranus and Neptune because they will be conveniently placed for evening observing and also bigger and brighter than normal because Earth is roughly between them and the sun right now, minimizing our distance from those planets. 
Distant Neptune continues to be visible from evening until about 3 am local time. Using a decent quality telescope you can see the very blue, magnitude 7.8 planet among the dim stars of Aquarius (the Water-bearer) - sitting roughly midway between the modestly bright star Phi (φ) Aquarii and the brighter star Hydor (Lambda Aquarii). Neptune will highest in the sky (and best viewing conditions) at about 10 pm local time. The bright moonlight will make seeing the planet harder this week. 
On Tuesday, the blue-green planet Uranus will reach opposition. At that time, it will be visible all night and at its peak brightness (magnitude 5.7) and size for this year. You can see it without optical aid under very dark skies, but binoculars and telescopes will work better. After mid-evening, Uranus will be high enough in the eastern sky to see it clearly. Uranus is so far from Earth all the time that its appearance at opposition is little better than it is on evenings within a month of opposition. The planet will be 2.8 trillion km from us this week. Its reflected sunlight will require more than 2.5 hours to reach our eyes on Earth! 
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(Above: On October 23, the Earth will pass between Uranus and the sun, causing that planet to appear at its brightest and largest for the year. The full moon will all but drown out Uranus.)
Uranus will be located about 3 finger widths to the left (east) of the modestly bright star Torcular (Omega Piscium). That star sits a generous palm’s width above the “V” where the two starry cords of Pisces (the Fishes) meet. The planet will be carried higher in the sky until 1 am local time. 
I’ll post sky charts for the observable planets here. 
Peering at Pegasus
If you missed last week’s information about the constellation of Pegasus (the Winged Horse), I posted it here.
Keep looking up to enjoy the sky! I love getting questions so, if you have any, send me a note.
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gabrielas-journal · 3 years
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-3rd Assignment-
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....Rules of Netiquette...
How many hours do you spend on the internet per day?
I almost spend my whole day using internet
Can you live without internet for a week?
Yes, I can live without internet for a week as long as I'm with my family.
How many times do you complained about your Internet connection speed?
I am always complaining regarding our internet connection
-Sailah Carrasco
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How many hours do you spend on the internet per day?
I spend 15 hours using the internet, especially when I have an online class and task that needed to do and submit.
Can you live without internet for a week?
As a part of digital native, it is difficult to leave without the internet. Our necessary things in life are mostly needed to use with the internet. Best example is our online class.
What positive or negative impact does internet have on your life?
Nowadays, Internet is also a part of my routine in everyday life. This is the way to still have a communication with my friends and relatives that are far from me. It also helps me to easily finish my school works, and at the same to widen my idea by learning new things through searching with the use of internet. I am just worried of getting into the point where I am already addicted to the internet, of course it will really affect my physical and mental health.
How many times do you complained about your Internet connection speed?
Based on the experience of my family and I when it comes on our internet which is ‘planet,’ It is not that bad compare to the other internet connection here in the Philippines. Planet connection meets my expectation. Having problem on our internet is exceedingly rare. But once our internet is having a trouble, it takes a lot of time to fix it.
-Ma. Jesy Nicole Mangubat
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How many hours do you spend on the internet per day?
I think I spend my time with the internet at least 17 hrs. or 20 hrs. it depends to the task that were given to us and especially now that we are having online class there’s a lot of things to do.
Can you live without internet for a week?
Honestly speaking don’t think that I can leave without the internet because I’ve always relay on the internet for the news, and for the entertainment purposes.
What positive or negative impact does internet have on your life?
The Internet has a positive and negative side the positive side you were able to communicate with your family overseas, you were able to entertain yourself with the help of social media platforms like Facebook, Tiktok, Instagram, and etc. While on the other hand it has a negative side because, you might get addicted on the online games like DOTA, call of duty, Rules of survival and Mobile Legend, there’s a possibility that you can experience being cyberbullied
How many times do you complained about your Internet connection speed?
I always complain about the internet speed especially now that we are having class online and there’s a time that I got disconnected due to internet connection and when I play online game like mobile legend, I always experience the red connection.
-Emaraida Olimpain
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How many hours do you spend on the internet per day?
- I think I spend more than half of a day on the internet, probably 12-16 hours since it is required for us to have it in online class. We have our classes in virtual meetings and we also do school works using internet. Not only with school purposes, it is also used for communication and entertainment.
Can you live without internet for a week?
- To be honest, I really can’t live without internet. I always use my phone for communication. I am a student and I need it for my studies. And watching my favorite series and movie and also playing mobile games is what kills my boredom. Internet makes my life easier.
What positive or negative impact does the internet have on your life?
- The positive impacts of the internet in me is for it provides effective communication using messenger or any online communication apps and services to any part of the world. Online shopping have made my life less complicated using Shopee or Lazada. I can access the latest news from any part of the world without depending on the TV or newspaper. Education has received a huge boost as uncountable books and journals are available online from libraries across the world. This has made research easier. We, students can now opt for online courses using the internet. Just also like what I have mentioned I also use it for entertainment purposesm The negative impacts of this is it ruins my health and body clock as I spent more than half of the day using internet. It leads me in addiction to social networks that can disrupt my life, both personally and professionally. It also spreads my personal information as strangers stalks my profile.
How many times have you complained about your nternet connection speed?
- I often complain about the internet connection speed we have. It always distracts my online class and leads to disconnection. Also when I play mobile games it lags every time I am in a game.
-Almira Pagsuyuin
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How many hours do you spend on the internet per day?
I spend at least 16-18 hrs. on the internet as I’m using it for online class, research, news updates, and for entertainment purposes. I also use this to communicate with my parents as I’m currently staying here in our province.
Can you live without internet for a week?
No, because internet and gadgets are part of my everyday life, especially now that we’re not allowed to do outdoor activities.
What positive or negative impact does internet have on your life?
Internet provides information for us to entertain. On the other hand, excessive use of gadgets and internet could be the reason for having physical and mental damage and addiction to online games.
How many times do you complained about your Internet connection speed?
I always complain when it comes to internet speed as we’re always having internet problems here in our province.
-Leizl Joy Ricafort
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How many hours do you spend on the internet per day?
It depends whether I have online classes or not, because as much as possible I am trying to lessen the hours, I spend on Internet so that I can be more productive throughout the day. When I have my online classes and school works to do in that day, I usually spend around 15 hours a day, but when I don’t have online classes and school works to do in that day, I usually spend 10 hours on the internet.
Can you live without internet for a week?
I guess I can’t, especially now that we are performing online classes and Internet has already been part of my life ever since I was born. Also, I can’t communicate with my loved ones, especially with my parents because we are apart from each other. Lastly, Internet is my only source of entertainment in this ongoing pandemic, because we all know that going out is very limited.
What positive or negative impact does internet have on your life?
Internet helped me to have an effective communication with my parents abroad, I can message or call them in an instant. Internet also served as an entertainment for me because I can watch any movies or series that I like, I can also download pictures, songs and videos. But Internet also have its negative impact in my life, it makes me so lazy and dull because I tend to binge watch on my favorite series, I am becoming less productive throughout the day. Also, I sometimes experience having stress and anxiety because of the things I see on the internet, such as fake news, cyber-bullying and harmful behaviors of other netizens.
How many times do you complained about your Internet connection speed?
Well, I must say that the performance of our internet connection provided by Converge is really excellent and a top-quality compared with the other Internet connection we had in the past few years here in the Philippines. So, I believe that me and my family haven’t complained about our internet connection speed.
-Kate Red
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How many hours do you spend on the internet per day?
I usually spend 15 hours or more because of the online classes
Can you live without internet for a week?
I can but it will be hard for me because I always use my phone.
What positive or negative impact does internet have on your life?
In positive manner, internet was the one I am using to attend my online classes but the negative one is having too much exposure on screen that may cause to harm our health in terms of excessive use of it.
How many times do you complained about your Internet connection speed?
I am rarely complaining to it because we are paying for a higher mbps of wifi connection due to our online classes
-Elaine Taniegra
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How many hours do you spend on the internet per day?
Since the school year started, I almost spend my whole day from 7 o’ clock in the morning until midnight finishing school works.
Can you live without internet for a week?
No, because I will be absent if that happens. Also, even just for a minute I am afraid to slow connection I might miss important announcement.
What positive or negative impact does internet have on your life?
The positive impact is I can call my parents anytime, since I am far from them while the negative impact is it can be very distracting whenever I have important things to do. I tend to be tempted to watch Korean drama.
How many times do you complained about your Internet connection speed?
I am grateful to say that I only complain 3 times because there are only 4 gadgets sharing the connection and I am the only one using this during class hours.
-Jhovelle Villapando
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