#but there are those who weren’t fond of him at first bc they distrusted him or thought he was like every other politician

[strryhaze]

Funnily enough JFK reminds me of more of Princess DIana.....in terms of popularity with people.

in terms of popularity with people well yes!

idk if you’ve seen that one video of a lady fainting as jfk’s car passed her by 😭😭 iconic

[writesowhatnext]

can I get that in writing? // seamus finnigan

Summary: Slytherin!reader has a little crush on Gryffindor’s favourite Irishman. Unbeknownst to her, the feelings are very much mutual. Not the best timing though, is it? With a war going on and all.

Request: I adored your writing and was wondering if you'd write for Seamus Finnigan with a Slytherin reader the angst/fluff prompts of 44. “You’ve always felt like home.”?

A/N: I actually had no idea where to start with this bc I had a general vibe I wanted to aim for but couldn’t figure out where to beginnn, sort of pleased with how it turned out though

Reader: female

Warnings: spoilers I suppose? Mentions of the battle of Hogwarts, abuse, the Carrows, injury, sewing I guess??

You couldn’t come up with a good enough reason to justify your crush. It wasn’t without effort on your part, either. You’d lost a good deal of sleep and favour with your teachers during sixth year for how distracted you were by the whole ordeal; as if their best student dipping a little was their biggest fish to fry with a war on the horizon. If you were to make a pros and cons list of crushing on Seamus Finnigan, there were no pros. Just cons. Only cons. He was a Gryffindor, for a start, if that wasn’t enough. He was also completely incapable of performing any magic without somehow blowing something up. And he swore like a sailor. And he had those annoying Gryffindor traits of never thinking anything through ever and not having even a single ounce of self-preservation. And it was hardly time for a crush. But he was Seamus. And, Merlin, was he funny – especially when his potions were disastrous. He was brave too. He’d been part of Dumbledore’s Army, so you’d heard, before the Umbridge fiasco. Bugger having feelings.

To say you knew each other would be a stretch: you knew of each other. You shared some classes and he hung around Harry Potter so you’d seen him around because, obviously, Harry Potter. The first time you’d spoken to him, actually, was in sixth year. You’d seen him from afar before then, of course. What, with his tendency to get explosive. But after disagreeing with Draco Malfoy on a shockingly Potter-related incident (he had said Potter was an awful seeker, you merely recalled statistics), you were temporarily shunned by many members of Slytherin – as if you hadn’t been already for being a halfblood. And so, you became a lone wolf in many subjects for a short time near the end of the year. You hadn’t intended to strike up a conversation with your crush; it had just sort of happened, but thinking back, you were grateful. You’d watched from the bench opposite Seamus, in Potions, as he attempted to brew an Alihotsy draught.

He was hopeless. With him throwing ingredients in without much regard, you were more than surprised that the potion hadn’t exploded. Thirty seconds later, it did. His hair stuck up away from his face, his eyes wide and green dust all over his skin. You didn’t mean to laugh, and certainly not maliciously, but you couldn’t escape your giggle at his frazzled and frustrated expression. He looked up at you at first with angry, embarrassed eyes: he saw your tie, heard you laugh and immediately took a disliking. Then he remembered something he’d heard from Parvati about you defending Harry to Malfoy. He also noticed how pretty you were when you laughed. And so, he laughed back.

“Not my finest.” He said to you, almost bashfully.

“Not your worst.” You replied with a teasing smile.

And that’s when you- sort of- became friends.

You didn’t speak to him for a while after that. You smiled in corridors, though, and across classrooms. And the great hall during meals. You’d hoped after so long that your crush might disappear, but it only grew. You knew how he felt about Slytherins and honestly, you weren’t too fond of Gryffindors either. So, it’s not like you held out a lot of hope for the two of you: you both had your houses’ reputations to upkeep. Reputations became irrelevant, though, after the Battle of the Astronomy Tower. You’d seen friends of your parents and your friends’ parents hurt in that; fighting on the wrong side. And even though he was the head of your house, Snape’s new post as Headmaster after Dumbledore’s death did not sit well with you. To say Seamus was far from the forefront of your mind through this would be an understatement.

You did think of him, though, when you started seeing DA slogans on the walls at Hogwarts. Slytherin became a hard place to be in seventh year; especially if you disagreed with You-Know-Who, even subtly. The treatment of muggleborns made you sick and you knew you had to do something. Anything. Your fear stopped you to start with: you saw what the Carrows were doing. Practising curses on students had your heart in bits and most Slytherins didn’t speak to you, either too scared or too blinded with power and hatred. Hearing about Neville Longbottom, a wizard you didn’t know well who appeared to be the spearhead of the movement after Harry Potter’s disappearance, being persecuted was what made you snap. You began to speak out against the use of unforgivable curses on students for detention. You didn’t turn up to the muddle studies class – unable to sit through the lies Alecto Carrow sprouted.

They beat you more for being a Slytherin than they had any of the other rebelling students and you knew if you didn’t hide, you wouldn’t last. You couldn’t leave Hogwarts - your parents were on the run for being muggle and blood traitor. Being one of the more astute Slytherins, you knew where everything was in the castle. You guessed that the Room of Requirement would give you some salvation at the least. You didn’t expect to see the DA hiding out there, but you were grateful for your luck. When you walked into the room to see a dozen missing Hogwarts students shocked to see you, you realised that being in Slytherin at a time like this was truly being stuck between a rock and a hard place; distrust wherever you went. You recognised people from all houses but your own. It took seconds before their wands were pointed at you and through his bruises, you recognised Neville Longbottom at the forefront.

“I’m here to help.” You said, hands in the air, wand tucked away. “I just want to help.”

“How can we trust you?” a voice shouted from the back.

“Look at my face.” You said, fully aware of your split lip and the purple-coloured skin around your eye. “I’ve been fighting this just like you.”

“But you’re a Slytherin.” Another voice called out.

You looked around them almost desperately, knowing you’d probably be killed if you went back to the dungeon. You recognised Seamus despite his bruised face; you couldn’t help but offer him a small smile.

“That didn’t stop them.”

There was a deafening silence.

“I say she stays.”

You looked up at Seamus, somewhat shocked. You didn’t expect him to vouch for you. He shot you a half-smile, turning to the rest of the group. “We’ve all taken beatings for the cause.”

To say you were accepted into the army with open arms would be a falsehood of massive proportion. Whilst nobody was rude, they were all wary; though, it was a great deal warmer than the chilly atmosphere of the Slytherin dungeon. One day in early April, there was shouting from the entrance of the room. Two boys were dragging a third in over their shoulders. Neville, the boy on the left, was shouting.

“I need help, now!”

You went over to see what you could do, a few others following. A circle formed around the boy. His face was bloodied and unrecognisable and for a second, you worried that you hadn’t seen Seamus around today. But that didn’t matter. Whoever it was needed help. You bent down in front of him, aware of dozens of pairs of suspicious eyes on you, and took out your wand. A simple spell your father had taught you to make cleaning your room a lot easier erased the blood from his features and you couldn’t help the lump in your throat when you saw Seamus’ face.

“I can fix him.” You said quickly, looking up at Neville. He, too, was bruised from whatever they’d been doing. You just stared at each other for a moment as he debated trusting you. He didn’t speak, only nodded.

“I need a needle and thread.”

You pulled Seamus’ head into your lap, looking at a deep gash on his forehead.

“What happened?”

A Hufflepuff girl dropped a first-aid kit next to you; you made an effort to smile at her in thanks. Neville said down in front of you and watched you work. The rest of the army dissipated, either to leave you to it or cause more havoc elsewhere.

“We were writing on the walls. The Carrows found us. Seamus fell and hit his head when they stupefied him.”

You nodded, beginning to sew the gash shut. Neville watched you closely. You didn’t take it personally. When you were finished, you held the needle in your mouth, tying off the end of the thread.

“How do you know how to do that?” Neville asked, looking you in the eye for the first time.

“My mum’s a nurse. A muggle nurse.”

“Your mum’s a muggle?”

You nodded, smiling slightly as you brushed Seamus’ hair back from his face.

“He fancied you, you know.” You looked up at Neville, frowning. “He wouldn’t shut up about you last year.”

You huffed a laugh. “I fancied him too.”

You were surprised to see Neville smiling at you. Maybe you’d made a friend after all.

You stayed awake all night, waiting for Seamus to wake up. You were sat by his bed, back against it as he slept peacefully. It must’ve been the early hours of the morning when you felt eyes on you. You weren’t sure you were still awake but you could hear birds outside somewhere and figured you had better things to dream about. You turned around to see Seamus sat up slightly, watching you. Neither of you spoke. He sat up with a groan, squeezing his eyes shut and holding his head.

“Easy there.” You said softly, offering him some of the water you’d placed near him. You barely thought about the way you instinctively placed your hand on his back or the brush of his fingertips against your own.

“What happened?”

“Neville said you took a nasty fall after being stupefied.”

He groaned.

“He also said you fancied me.”

“Christ,” he said, rubbing his head as you sat back down, smirking. “A man gets stupefied once and all his secrets come out.”

“So, it’s true?”

“Blimey.” He muttered.

“Because if it is, that’s quite convenient.”

He frowned, his muttering stopping after a second. He looked at you, clearly confused.

“I had quite the crush too.”

“Had?”

You didn’t reply, only smiling as you grabbed his arm and pushed him back down to get some rest.

“You’ll be here when I wake up, I suppose?”

“Nowhere else to be.”

And that’s when you became sort-of more than friends.

Though there were much more pressing matters leading up to Battle of Hogwarts and lots of much bigger feelings, you and Seamus enjoyed what you had going. You never talked about it explicitly though, not really. You laughed together, a lot, and he was constantly teasing you. You returned the favour though with your fair share of flirting. You bandaged each other up whenever you needed to and he even introduced you with pride when Harry Potter finally returned. You were happy about that, of course, but you knew Potter returning would mean something big.

And you were right.

That’s why you were currently running down a corridor after Professor McGonagall in a desperate attempt to find Seamus. You pushed through some other students to reach the front doors.

“Boom!” McGonagall said, Neville on her left and Seamus on her right. As you got closer, you saw her gesturing to the Wooden Bridge; no doubt she was hoping destroying the bridge would stall the invasion.

“Wicked,” Neville said, as you pushed behind another student. “But how are we gonna do that?”

You were right behind Seamus, reaching out your hand to grab his arm.

“Why don't you confer with Mr Finnigan? As I recall, he has a particular proclivity for pyrotechnics.”

“I can bring it down!” Seamus insisted, moving away from you unknowingly.

“Seamus!” you called out, following him, Ginny Weasley and Neville towards the bridge. He stopped, waiting impatiently for you to catch up with a frown on his face. You were acutely aware of the sounds around you, the battle already underway.

“You have to be safe,” you said, now face to face. “You need to get home safe.” You smiled slightly. “Back to your ‘mam’”

He just stared at you for a moment, a smile twitching at his lips. And then he leant forward, very slowly, and kissed your lips. A short and sweet kiss that made your heart sing.

“You’ve always felt like me’ home.” He said, smiling and tilting his head to the side. You stared at each other for a moment longer before Neville interrupted, hurrying the moment along impatiently, reluctantly.

“They’ll be more where that came from when I get back,” Seamus said, walking backwards away from you. “Believe me.”

[cosmicmoved]

HEADCANON for SUMI

actually, this is a headcanon for karam too but this specific post is more sumi-centric so maybe i’ll talk about the karam end of things later. for now, though, it’s sumi’s turn bc i don’t talk about her enough (:

Okay, so I’ve decided to drag Sumi into Karam’s plotline for no reason besides that...I Wanted To but it also helps his plotline make more sense if he has a sort-of go-between character like Sumi in there somewhere. This post will explain what that means and why I’ve come to this decision! Until now, Sumi was kind of just her own character and she wasn’t really tied to any plot besides her own but I didn’t really know what to do with her beyond her backstory. I think this was definitely limiting her as a character so I’d like to use this chance to give her more direction! So, from hereon out, she’s going to be part of the Karam plotline! She’s still her own character but I like making my muses know each other bc,,,idk,...it feels like a more complete universe in my head. Anyway, with that out of the way, I’ll get on to explaining the story behind this connection! Full disclosure though, I’m sticking it under a Read More because it got kind of lengthy. I did TRY to be more succinct but maybe it’s about time I just accept that I’m not capable of that /:

First off, a lot of stuff might be setting or verse-dependent. I guess I’ve written stuff where these muses aren’t strictly based in one country and there’s always the chance of one of them moving somewhere else for the sake of a certain plotline? But the fun thing about rp is its fluidity so I’m going to try and stop getting overly concerned about details that don’t really matter too much. Sumi travels a lot. Maybe Karam tags along sometimes. Shit gets vague. It’s fine. ASDFGHGFDS......

To keep things simple, Sumi is the one who first found Karam when he wound up in the city after his forest was destroyed -- or, rather, she was the first person to try and help him. Other people had likely found/seen him but ignored him one reason or other (he would’ve been pretty dishevelled and tbh,,,probably naked bc what the fuck is he gonna wear clothes in the forest for). As I’ve said before, Sumi can tell when people aren’t human. Her senses aren’t especially strong so she can’t always place what somebody actually is, only if they’re a human or a ghost; she doesn’t have an inherently ability to sense what somebody is but, because she’s spent so much time learning to separate living humans from the spirits of the dead, she’s developed the ability to tell when somebody is neither, even if she can’t say for certain What they are. Because it’s a feat of applied knowledge and not a natural ability, mistakes happen. Now, Karam is a spirit. Not remotely human, despite his appearance. Still, long story short, Sumi mistook him for a ghost and, despite her charging humans for help with their ghostly issues, she’s often willing to help a ghost in need free of charge (because um...ghosts don’t have money). When she found Karam, he was in a state of obvious distress so she assumed he must have been a pretty new ghost, the sort who haven’t at all come to terms with the fact that they are, y’know, dead. Much to her shock, he wasn’t dead and was instead very much alive and tangible but still very much in need of help. More in need of help than she’d expected, in fact.

Sumi has always been the sisterly type so it felt natural to reach out a hand to somebody in need, mostly out of the goodness for heart and because she felt bad for him but also partly because Karam reminds her a little bit of Chulsoo, her late brother (despite being much much older, Karam looks about the age Chulsoo would be if he were still alive) with whom she is in no longer contact despite his being a ghost because he decided to use the afterlife to See The World until he was ready for Sumi to exorcise him. Yikes. That’s another story for another post. She was able to offer Karam a place to stay, a spare room in her apartment (where he’d start this new experience by staying in his room for a fortnight straight, only leaving to slink his way in and out of the bathroom), and help him make sense of a new and confusing world. First, she would offer him her brother’s old clothes to wear and then she would eventually resign herself to the reality of the situation and agree to buy Karam his own clothes, letting him pick out what he liked but also giving him tips wherever possible (financially speaking, this wasn’t her smartest move but she has a guilty pleasure in clothes shopping and the knowledge that she was doing it to help somebody else made her feel better about the whole thing).

In fact, she helped him get tidied up in general. Let him pick out a hairstyle from a pile of magazine and used her experience with hairdressing to replicate it for him. Maybe it’s because Sumi’s rather vain herself (and proud of it, mind you) but she’d fully believed a good start for Karam was to help him discover his own image and use that to regain confidence. Well...that, and the fact he’d looked an absolute state when she found him and she was of the firm belief that it was a shame for him to be wasting his pretty face on dishevelled hair and ill-fitting clothes that hung off him. But, really, Sumi sees her image as the ultimate form of self-expression. The way she styles herself is her way of telling the world who she is --- and, for someone who spends so much time with ghosts, looking as bright and lively as possible means a lot to her --- so she believed that helping Karam with that sort of thing might help him with this strange transition into a new world and come into his own. Yes, she was aware that this plan might fail and Karam might have been distinctly uninterested in his own looks but it ended up working out well. Karam is slow to warm to most very human things but he picked up on this quite quickly and was very willing to engage with it. For Karam, it was a matter of everything changing too fast and those changes being so overwhelming that making these dramatic changes over which he had full control, changes that he made himself and that weren’t forced on him, helped him to process the situation --- but I’ll talk about that in more detail another time, this is Sumi’s post.

Karam is very distrustful of humans and, although he trusts Sumi more than most on account of her having helped him so much, there’s a part of him that is paranoid it’s some kind of trick. Because of this, he tends to keep Sumi at an emotional distance. After all, despite her abilities, she’s still essentially just human and he’s been forced to regretting humans in the past (that is also another story for another time because, again, this is not Karam’s post so I won’t be going into details here). Although it’s frustrating, Sumi understands this and lets Karam keep his distance. She understands that he’s grateful regardless and she doesn’t want to cause any unnecessary discomfort. But, even besides that, their relationship is a little odd simply because they butt heads a lot. She kind of just lets him away with shit because she finds him endearing. Often, Karam won’t even stick around at her place. He’ll just disappear for days on end and resurface when he feels like it but it’s more about the choice to have somewhere he can return. Y’know, the illusion of home. 

Perhaps it’s because of that initial comparison she made between him and Chulsoo or perhaps it’s because he has such a young appearance but, despite the large age gap (wherein Karam is just under 240 years older than her), Karam brings out the big sister in Sumi. Maybe this is also why Karam doesn’t like her that much LMAO...............actually, he kinds of HATES it but asdfghgfd. In the time since she’s met him, she’s seen him struggle with things; she’s seen that he does have good moments and that he’s not intentionally rude in any way so much as he just has a hard time with certain social rules. She’s grown fond of him and feels that she has to try and help him out. Again, it’s hard to say if this is because of the time she spends helping ghosts or if it’s because he ignites the part of her that feels guilty for not being able to protect Chulsoo. It could just be that she’s sincerely worried about Karam. Maybe it’s a combination of them all, Sumi can’t quite tell for herself.

[survivorreelsmagicwithin]

Episode 4(SWAP)- “I'm happy if anyone goes but these bitches' mouths are sealed”-Raffy

I prayed for a swap... and now I'm regretting it. Honestly, kind of got tribe swap fucked. There are 4 original tribe members and then... me and Owen ALONE WITHOUT ANYONE FROM OUR ORIGINAL HOUSES. So... the odds are NOT in our favour. Hopefully maybe we link up with Juls and Chips and potentially set ourselves down as a four.. but also maybe that four isn't tight and I can wiggle these hips into a majority somehow. Straight off the jump you can tell that Landen/Matt are probably close. They have the same interests, same age, and both don't shut up so.. I can see it. I've played with Lily in the past and she's lovely. We weren't exactly very close and she got robbed by a twist but.... hopefully we can try and pick up where we left off. Chips is... lacklustre. I know when I hosted him he was a busy man.. so maybe it is different here. I AM ALSO OBSESSED WITH JULS. So hopefully she's just as obsessed with me and we can work together but I do see similarities in our games and she's someone who when I saw cast reveal I instantly knew I wanted to work with. Honestly, I know the odds might be stacked against me but.. I'm gonna work harder than a hooker on a busy night to get everyone here to love me and keep me around. PS: I miss Jacob ALREADY.

heyoooo WE MADE IT TO A SWAP!!! so basically hufflepuff was the last in-tact tribe standing, meaning we had all 5 players remaining while slytherin had 3 and gryff/raven had 4, meaning a swap right now COULD work well in our favor, and it did, except for meeeeeeeee my ENTIRE tribe (with the exception of me) got to STAY on hufflepuff, meaning I am alone but not only am I alone, every other person on new gryffindor still has someone from their original tribe and the split is 3-2-2-1, so no one tribe has a majority that overpowers the tribe as a whole since theres 8 people, but I don't have someone to fall back on as much as they might because they all have someone in a similar situation as them. HOWEVER, I did get swapped onto a tribe with jacob and jules who are two REALLY good friends of mine, I have known jacob for like 5+ years, and jules and I were a final 2 actually jacob's big brother series (sry we voted you out again sammy :c) so i am hoping i can find solace in them and maybe their relationships can also become my relationships? but its still scary to be the only person of your og tribe because just by process of elimination you could be easy pickings, so come tomorrow, as its still the night of the swap and most everyone just went straight to bed, i need to get boots on and work some social magic. But i wanted to make this confessional to give my first impressions of how i feel about my new tribe mates! we'll just go in alphabetical order autumn - she seems really cool, she turned it out in selfie scavenger hunt for her tribe which was awesome and hopefully we as a tribe can winning due in part to her dedication, all i know about her is that she played crossroads with jake p who i know and that she WON i think she's fairly well known in the community and its partially if not mostly for her good gameplay? she strikes me as the quieter but more strategic type, shes not gonna make big huge moves but shes gonna set herself up perfectly to make those undetectable moves that no one really sees and then she gets to the end and you think what did she do?? and then you realize when she blows you out of the water with her utr gameplay, but also who knows dan - DAN!! me and him played ts manhattan beach together, which was... a time, we were not really on the same side i believe we voted together a few times and worked together for the sake of making a move but neither of us were ever in the others inner circle until the back to back rounds where WE WENT OUT!!! i voted with him as the only person to do so when he left at final 7, which i dont think he believed in the moment but has since realized thank goodness, but i wanted him to stay in that game and maybe voting with him even tho it got me 6th right after and us ending on a good note actually was a good thing? what i know about him is, he is SMART, but i think he lets it show a little much, he seems passionate and very into the game and when things dont go his way i think he struggles to see the logic outside of his own, which makes sense the guy is really smart im sure if he believes something is wrong he has a reason to but it can make working with him unless your undyingly loyal to him a piece of work. if my memory serves me correctly i believe i tried to pull some fast ones on him in mb, where i lied and voted differently or maybe blindsided him a few times and then tried to damage control that and it caused distrust when the time came and i WAS being honest. so my gameplan now is if i end up wanting or needing to work with him (the jury is still out on that one as its like 2 minutes into the swap) but if i do work with him i want to be as upfront as possible and i want him on my good side at all times, like i said he's passionate so he has a FIERY side and i dont wanna be on the receiving end of it. joanna - me and joanna played tashirojima together and..... i may have blindsided her a couple times too.. maybe this is a wake up call for me, BUT ANYWAYS, we played together and we're aligned but i was playing the middle and then i chose the other side and she tried to vote me out and then i worked with her again and then i turned on her again and then i made final 3 and then she voted for me.. so now that we're all caught up, she's a good player, she is very smart and extraordinarily strategic AND loyal, but i dont think she takes to dishonesty very well, not personally but just in the game, i think she sees a clear smart and she'll do what she needs to make that move happen and she's fairly good at it from what i've seen and heard. My other point with her as opposed to dan, we played but ended up on different terms, i voted her out and then she voted me to win, so i think we're fairly informed on how the other plays and that could work against me BECAUSE I WAS SO FLIP FLOPPY IN TASHIROJIMA but hopefully i can bandaid it up and say oh i've changed im tired of stressing every vote i just wanna be loyal find a group and play out with the people i trust yadayadayada which i DO maybe not RIGHT NOW but i do!! anyways im getting away from my point, she's smart, i'm smart (kinda?) it will either bring us together or drive us apart its all reliant on how she feels, personally i would like to work with her bc i do want to be loyal but i want to be in a group that is also LOYAL and also WORKS, i dont wanna jump on just ANY ship, i want to be on the BEST ship, the one that's gonna sink LAST, when all the other ships are capsized and fully submerged. so we'll see how that goes nicholas - i do not know nicholas much at all, i haven't heard anything about him before this game nor during this game, he seems really fun and nice though, i appreciated his intro video it was chill, as for how he plays i have no information on that but i think him and jacob worked together or at least got to know each other so maybe i can get some info on him from jacob we shall see...... raffy - similarly to nicholas i do not know the guy unfortunately, i got a tidbit of info from an unnamed dr guest who was not fond of him, not a very good start BUT i am not going to let that influence me, im still going to go in with an open mind when i talk to him tomorrow and hopefully i have a different opinion and he's really cool! but yet again we shall see as for jacob and jules who i mentioned above i wanna touch on them a little bit because the dynamics there are much more complex, 1. jules is my number 1 in this game, i adore them, i love them, i will do anything for them, BUT thats how i played candyland and jacob HOSTED THAT, he knows how we played individually AND TOGETHER, but more importantly, he knows how CLOSE we are, and if you wanna hurt one of us you take the other out, i dont know if he would DO THAT but he might which leads me to my 2nd point... 2. i have voted jacob out of like every game we have played together lol. BUT I NEVER WANT TO !!!! i love jacob, he's wild and polarizing but he's a good friend just a good person all around but when he plays he can be emotional and in tashirojima i made a move against his number 1 and i didnt want it to divide us but it did because he wouldn't talk to me, so when i had planned to wiggle back in with him he didn't allow me to and i had to vote him out for it sadly, and then in 2020 our last game together, he was practically dead in the water and did himself no favors with how he handled situations with sammy so while i would have voted with him if it meant saving him (sorry sammy) that was not on the table so i had to vote him out, and it literally sucks EVERY TIME, because i love jacob but him in games always puts me in those positions and i hate it, and i told myself i dont wanna do him dirty, well i never WANT to do him dirty, but im going to try and actually avoid a situation that puts me between a rock and a hard place one of which being having to vote him out. but yeah so while i trust those 2 there's some things that could come out of the woodwork that may not be good for him but hopefully i can prevent those or get around them. its not very long into this swap so i may be overthinking and being paranoid but aha ha haha .. ha haa. *raven symone voice* YEP! THATS ME! ok anyways i could be very off in this "assessment" if you wanna call it that but i was bored and its 3 am so i wanted to confess, here's to making it to a swap!! WOOOOOO

OWEN AND I ARE FINALLY ON THE SAME TRIBE, YAY!!! I'm really sad that Kevin is now on a different tribe and all alone but hopefully he can work his way into a good alliance or something.  That would be a really hard spot to be in.  Also when I play these things I'm bad about just talking to a handful of people and not talking at all to others but I am being VERY SOCIAL this came I messaged the people that hadn't messaged me already and I want to keep up a conversation with everyone, I NEED to keep my social game strong and start thinking about endgame.  

so the tribes swapped last night and before you ask, YES i was blessed, YES i got the right house. i was sorted onto hufflepuff as i deserve, because we are the best house, and i got 4 pretty cool new people on my tribe. oh i also happened to get 3 other hufflepuffs which is great for me because it means i am in the majority :D that was such a marshmallow move, and now i don't have to worry all too much about going HARD on social play or anything like that i can just sort of chill, remain a UTR threat, make new pals, and stay on the right side of things via being in the hufflepuff majority. i'm also well positioned here i think as i have max and juls in sort of weeb trio, but ruthie/lily/myself had a sort of agreement max would go if puff lost. on top of that jess seems really funny and i think we'll get along, i might have a harder time with chips and owen but we'll see because they seem nice. (just not sure if they're people i'd personally bond close with, but that may just be because they're newer to me! it's all a mystery!) i'm also obviously very tight with juls, i love her a lot and we were close in 2020 and will continue to be close here! she is the definition of the word legend and i would throw my own game away for her, yes i would. i already have and i'll DO IT AGAIN! overall this is a tribe of really strong competitors and i can't wait to keep making marshmallow moves, *badgerin* the gryffindors, and ignoring the ridiculous idol hunt that's probably going on COMPLETELY while i vibe.

I really like my new tribe. It feels like a good, diverse cast of OG tribes. I think I might lean towards aligning with those in Ravenclaw because they will have the numbers with only two. Autumn and I can be those 2. I am so glad to have Autumn with me as well. She will easily help the most out in any challenge. Also, I feel like I can trust Dan, but I am going to hesitate for now. 

So this swap was pretty okay? I would have preferred Owen over Joanna hands down, but having 3 people from the OG Ravenclaw is kinda cute.  My plan is to really focus on building relationships with the people outside of the OG Ravenclaw, specifically with Kevin and either Jacob or Nicholas. I have played with Autumn before and she gets top 5 without even trying, so she is definitely on my radar of someone to try to get out before the merge. She is a great player and I would prefer to not have to fight against her for a better resume at the end. Also, on top of my idol, I found a risk/reward kind of thing that I will likely only tell Jules about. I want to drive home the point that me, owen, and her are my end game people. I am worried that Jules is close with Jacob irl and in this game because I don't want to risk her spilling the beans. I might think on that plan a little more before I put it into action, but honestly I probably will tell her. The power is only activated if I am willing to lose my vote at a tribal council.  Honestly if we lose this comp, I might need my vote just to establish trust with people, so if I'm able to save it until the merge and then lose my vote when I have individual immunity, that would be ideal. Gotta check on the rules for it though. 

It’s been a while since I’ve given an update and a lot has happened. I’m not sure if this is a blessing or a curse, but I managed to make it on a tribe with 4 original Hufflepuffs. Insane to say the least. Immedietly I felt very relieved. It’s nice to know that the people I’ve gotten to know and built some level of trust with during the first tribe would continue with me for the tribe swap...but idk. It could be a disadvantage in the long run by people associating our loyalty to one another. But I’m hoping the positive relationships I built with this tribe and in the great hall would take the target off of me if I can make it to merge. The odds of that feel good since I’ve been able to avoid tribal for this long, but I’m scared that the first tribal I attend sends me home. I really do like our new tribe but so far I’ve really only had good thin to say about this cast! People have positive attitudes even in such tough times and literally everyone is hilarious! I find myself laughing often! As far as who I can trust most, at this point it’s Ruthie. She is the only one who is deliberately said that she has my back. And I feel the same way. Hoping no one sees us as a power duo, but we shall see. I also think landen has been fairly honest with me about his opinions of the cast and that he hasn’t played with very many people. Throwback eep to when I told him I only know 2 people in the cast but it’s really 5! Ugh that’s gonna haunt me I can feel it when 3 out of the 5 people I know are now on our tribe. Eep! Any who, I’m really nervous for Kevin and hope he does well! I felt like we got along really well on the original tribes. With him being the only hufflepuff on the other tribe, I’m worried he is the easy target. Got my fingers crossed and hoping for the best. 

i do be lying doe.....i do be lyin......

2 minutes later

to leak or not to leak to joanna...that is the question...maybe i wait....i dont want them to think they can vote me!

14 minutes later

lemme take some time to praise the hosts and this game!!!!!!! cause i ain't doin confessionals enough LMAO!!!! wow the level of originality...the level of harry potter inclusion....the idol search... ugh its amazing i LOVE it, yall did an amazing job with putting in harry potter but not like TOO much that people who don't know it might get overwhelmed? also yall are just a joy to talk to in my confessional!!! love this, never been so into a survivor game -- this is literally the first game where i've remembered to idol search EVERY day (well, almost EVERY day but STILL!!!) and idk. im so glad i'm playing this!! idc what placement i get as long as i make it to merge!!! thank you hosts!!

I am kind of disappointed on how things turned out for the challenge. I really didn't want to have to go to tribal especially because I do not think that I have established myself well on this tribe. However, I did a good job on the challenge so I hope I can stay for it. No one has been saying a name. Autumn did mention that one of the J's should leave. I think it should be Jules because she did so bad in the challenge. Well, either way, I'm happy if anyone goes but these bitches' mouths are sealed

Winning feels SO GOOD! I really like my tribe. Everyone has been kind of quiet. Surprisingly even with Owen here I talk to lily more and she is currently my strongest connection in the game. I’m not sure if it is going to stay that way but I kind of hope it does! We’ll see what happens haha

Everything was super quiet and then everything started happening all at once. Now I'm in three different alliance chats and nothing seems super solid. All I've heard if Raffy or Autumn and I'm guess Raffy is going? I don't want to vote anyone out, I like everyone, but I'm not aligned with Raffy and I don't want it to be me, so I'm going where the numbers are going I think. 

Entering this tribe swap, I had definite concerns as Jacob and I were in a minority position by default. However, somehow Kevin was in a minority of one, so I capitalized upon that and reached out to him! Granted, he was someone I enjoyed speaking to from the start, so minority position or not, I wanted to align. Secondly, I reached out to Joanna. She and I immediately hit it off, and if the vibes and aura I am getting from her is true, I think she’ll be incredibly loyal and fun as a ally! Dan, Autumn, Raffy, And Jules have all reached out to me as well. Dan is someone I have enjoyed conversations with for sure, but I do not see myself necessarily staying diehard loyal. I actually adored Autumn and I’s conversation, but I have to be wary of them! They are strong in competitions, and I do not want that. It’s pretty humorous that I think removing challenge threats means I’ll be able to win more challenges, because I suck. Jules and Raffy are who I vibe with the least, but I also remember Jules screwing me over in the ETC mini, when she played into the Hive Mind and basically allowed me to be targeted simply for being an outsider. I am not going to target her simply for that reason, I believe in forgiving the past and leaving games behind, but I do not trust her so far. Personality-wise, we get along! I decided to form the 4our alliance of Kevin, Joanna, Jacob, and Myself. I believe this will be a loyal core to what could be a stellar alliance! I suggested Raffy and Autumn, so I am hoping Raffy ends up being the plan, which seems likely. In the future, I would like to target Autumn-Jules-Dan in that order, although I am open to switching the order. I do think I have some level of control strategically and socially over this tribe, but I cannot get cocky! I have to be humble and take the journey one step at a time. Raffy, in a game of social connections, just like our puzzle, you cannot slide by without talking to others. My vote is for you. x nick

Whew! I made it to the tribe swap!! And I'm a Hufflepuff now! My ACTUAL house! Don't have to spy anymore. https://media1.giphy.com/media/LsKyE4J9PGjIc/source.gif

 Anyway - the people featured on my original tribe are: Me & Juls Cool. She's already been open with me about who she wanted to vote off from the previous tribe so I think we can work together still. From the previous Ravenclaw tribe: Owen Um... boo? I don't know, honestly. He just NEVER has or ever wanted to work with me or even really speak to me in any ORG we have ever played. I would like for this to change and will try but yeah I don't know. From the previous Slytherin tribe: Jess Yay! I wanted a chance to play a game with her. I hear she's cracked out of her mind almost all of the time in games. I am here for it! I hope I don't ruin our game relationship by saying too much or the wrong thing! From the previous (and still on) Hufflepuff tribe: Lily, Ruthie, Landen, Max Yay to pretty much all of these. The fact that they all self-identified as Hufflepuffs means that they are my people! I want to pal with all of them. Anyway, as far as game stuff goes Jess asks me how I feel about the game and I tell her that it's been alright and that our first vote was someone who asked to go and that we haven't really been playing this game. Then I said I hope we don't go to tribal because I think I like pretty much everyone. https://media0.giphy.com/media/5tlq0pRndGu8U/source.gif 

Then I made a huge faux pas... I said that if we went to tribal hopefully someone who was original Hufflepuff would go. And gave no context. So I guess I gave her bullets to have me killed at a future tribal if it's a "anyone but me" situation. Our challenge was not for reward. We had to do a bunch of puzzles. I suck at jigsaw so I decided to do slide puzzles. I have no mouse and apparently not having one slows me down exponentially. I did the worst at my puzzle. Our tribes tied. We won tie breaker because EVERYONE ELSE is good at puzzles! Final topic. Idol hunt. Still a fail. Went to the lake. The selkie would not speak with me. I think we're in love. https://media2.giphy.com/media/oBfiN3ZSuUEdq/source.gif

I guess I will vote Jacob if Autumn wants to lol

hi it’s me nichole.. um. smiles. i don’t really know what to say um.. we won! woohoo! another melodrama victory, i’m hoping everyone likes me as much as i’m thinking because :flushed: yes she has a social game.. yes she’s thriving.. i cant get anything in the castle so that’s cute. only hints but is that shit gonna click? No. 

hi!!!! so we lost sadly. i did rly rly good on the maze so im proud of myself. tribal seems to be easy enough as we were deciding between raffy and autumn but then raffy decided to throw my name out so i think he's going unanimously now. ill be getting a vote which is cute but idc. once hes gone i defff want autumn out bc im in an alliance with everyone but her and dan but at least dan pms me a good bit!

HERE'S THE GOSSIP - I'm so happy we swapped! I would've been heartbroken if we lost and I had to vote out another Ravenclaw, so this is best case scenario. On first glance tho i look mega swapfucked.... all three of prior tribe members separated from me? But honestly, I think that puts me in a better position. Not only can I make new connections, but I won't be targeted for being a block of three. PLUS? I LOVE being on a tribe with Juls, Lily, Jess, Ruthie.... I'm truly THRIVING rn!!!!!!!!!!!!! Chips hasn't talked to me much. Max is okay but seems kind of fuckin crackt. And I like Landen a lot so far! So we're in a good spot. And a puzzle??? whew, this was my week xo Praying my Ravenclaw babies are okay, and I'm going to work on building maybe a counter-Hufflepuff alliance with Juls Chips and Jess if we lose!

ok I only have 5 minutes to write this so we will fully get into the tea later but to recap: 1. God gave me Kevin because He knew what was about to come next 2. the kids are all voting Raffy and only Jules had the heart to tell me 3. I too am voting Raffy because I don't have time to be on the bottom of the tribe and I think there's some fuckery going on 4. all HELL is breaking loose in the tribe chat 5. I got caught in a lie so I've already had to start an apology tour 6. I still have a headache lmao There is so much that needs to be said but all I'm gonna say is Raffy giving me a good laugh helps our goodbye be less bitter. He is genuinely great, was really understanding about it all (and me having to think long term instead of being loyal) and I want better for him. I also want better for myself since my own tribe has been usurped from me? but I digress. Raffy needed to pop off cause they lied to him and me the entire day so what did you expect. I have a lot of his mess to clean up now but hey I have time on my hands. Long live Raffy I will try to do right by you

[jennycalendar]

pint-size potential (3/3)

tagging @theforestlesbian in this last chapter bc she’s the whole damn reason this thing got finished. i love u alex and i am so so happy to know someone who also has All The Feels about buffy & giles’s father-daughter connection

ao3

The doorbell rang at three in the morning. This wasn’t what woke Giles up, though; he was woken up when Buffy, startled by the doorbell, began to wail loudly. Trying to figure out what might have upset Buffy at this ungodly hour, Giles sat up in bed, at which point he heard the doorbell ring and thought he might understand.

There was really only one person who would be ringing his bell at this hour. Giles turned on the light, staring at his bedroom, which was strewn with Buffy’s toys. Not to mention that he was breaking at least seven rules, having Buffy’s crib in his bedroom— “I’m coming,” he shouted, running down to answer the doorbell.

“Not at all prompt, Mr. Giles,” said Ms. Smythe disapprovingly. “I would expect you to be already packed. Your flight leaves in three hours.”

“I’m sorry?” Giles managed, half-wheezing. “When you contacted me—yesterday—you said—”

“Times change,” Ms. Smythe replied. “A true Watcher is prepared for any and every possibility. Be in the car in ten minutes.” With that, she turned and hurried down the driveway.

Giles stood there, somewhat frozen by the sheer panic he was currently grappling with. He’d packed, of course, had made sure to do so the day after he decided to apply for his transfer to Sunnydale. But there was still the matter of the toys upstairs, as well as the possibility of Ms. Smythe or another Watcher seeing the crib in the bedroom when the Council showed up to pack up the house, and he had to figure out how to move a rather heavy crib from his room to the old bedroom in ten minutes without Ms. Smythe noticing.

By some miracle, Giles managed to find it in him to shut the door and hurry upstairs. Buffy was still sobbing in her crib, and as soon as he lifted her out, she grabbed onto his shirt with both hands.

“No, see, this is actually a bit counterintuitive,” Giles stammered, because sometimes his talking calmed them both down a bit, “seeing as if you hold on to me, you obstruct me from making sure these things are out of my room, which means you’ll be placed with another Watcher and I’m sure—that is, I hope that’s not something you’d prefer, I really have been trying—”

Buffy’s crying was beginning to stop, but it would still take about five minutes for her to fully calm down. Giles placed her carefully down on the bed and hurried to pick up the toys, trying to figure out a non-incriminating place to put them while also trying to not give in and comfort a still-whimpering Buffy. Really, all of this was a complete disaster. He felt rather certain that Ms. Smythe was trying to catch him in the act of being kind to a child, which wasn’t making him feel all that fond of the Council. He rather missed his demon-raising days at this point.

Giles gave up and just started throwing toys out the window into the backyard. They weren’t Buffy’s favorites, anyway, and they could be left behind; he’d made sure to pack her favorite toys first so as to hide them as best as possible from the Council. Perhaps he shouldn’t have been so overzealous with the toy-buying, but he’d been more than a bit touched by the whole they-were-both-useless-to-the-Council thing, and he liked thinking of taking care of Buffy as his purpose, and he’d never had all that much of a childhood what with a Watcher father and a tired, quiet mother and—

Outside, Ms. Smythe honked the car horn, even though it had only been about three minutes.

“I can make up some convincing story about the crib,” Giles told Buffy, and hastened to get dressed.

He didn’t have enough time to get Buffy properly dressed, but he did grab his carry-on luggage and wrap Buffy in a warm Council-approved blanket with two minutes to spare. Pausing on the stairs, Giles quietly bounced Buffy in his arms, trying to comfort her a bit before they entered Ms. Smythe’s car and were faced with a possible lecture.

Buffy exhaled softly; it sounded a bit like an exhausted sigh. “I quite agree,” said Giles, mouth twitching, and felt a little bit better.

Ms. Smythe started in on Giles as soon as he got into the car. “I’ll have you know,” she said, “that it is most unusual for an inexperienced Watcher with a low-relevance infant Potential to decide he would like to research a Hellmouth. Most unusual, especially with your background. I myself lobbied quite hard for your application to be denied.”

“Oh, I’m sure you did,” said Giles without really thinking about it. He ignored what he was sure was a very nasty look from Ms. Smythe, focusing on buckling Buffy (who was already drifting back to sleep) into the baby seat. “Will you be flying us to Sunnydale as well, or is your obvious distaste for everything I stand for limited only to Los Angeles?”

“You are a horribly unqualified Watcher,” said Ms. Smythe, which didn’t really answer the question.

Giles spent most of the car ride with one hand on the baby seat, steadying it as surreptitiously as possible. Ms. Smythe seemed almost determinedly focused on the road, which took a significant amount of pressure off of Giles. He even managed to tuck Buffy’s blanket around her a bit.

Truly, he thought, Eyghon was nothing compared to this sort of thing. It wasn’t true, but he felt like he was entitled to be a bit dramatic when he’d been woken at three in the bloody morning. Giles was not going to miss Ms. Smythe at all.

After what seemed like a very long car ride but what was probably about fifteen minutes of angry silence and driving, Ms. Smythe pulled into the airport parking lot, at which point she said very pointedly, “You can leave now, Mr. Giles. Get your bags from the trunk and take the Potential with you.”

“Thank you,” said Giles very sarcastically. “Goodness knows I would have forgotten her without your help.” To make a point, he picked up the entire car seat without unbuckling Buffy and staggered over to the back of the trunk.

“Mr. Giles, that car seat is Council property,” Ms. Smythe snapped from inside the car.

Giles was at this point much too tired to really consider how openly hostile he was being, and much too fed up to really care. He’d only been with the Council for a few years, and it had been a very long and very frustrating process of earning back their trust. He wasn’t all that fond of the organization, even if a few years ago he’d believed them to be his salvation; perhaps it’d be different if he’d spent longer than a few months behind his desk in the British Museum, but he supposed he’d never really find out. “I am not holding my Potential on my lap for an entire bloody plane ride, it is unsafe and you should know that,” he shouted back, placing Buffy’s car seat on the ground so that he could open the trunk. “And this is your fault for showing up at three in the damn morning just because you’re on some sort of godforsaken power trip—”

Buffy, waking up at the sound of Giles’s raised voice, started to screech.

Giles was suddenly beginning to understand very fast why parenting tended to be a two-person job. He’d dealt with the aftermath of raising a demon, he’d dealt with shame and distrust from nearly all his colleagues, but hearing Buffy upset in the middle of the parking lot and knowing he was the only person there to calm her was somehow one of the most isolating experiences he’d faced.

“This is going in my report!” Ms. Smythe shouted.

“Excellent!” Giles shouted back. “Let them know you’ve broken protocol by changing my flight plans the day of my departure!”

Interestingly enough, Ms. Smythe didn’t seem to have a response to that. Giles felt an exhausted sense of smugness, and celebrated his victory by unbuckling Buffy from her car seat and giving her a kiss on the top of her head. She still seemed quite upset, but settled down as Giles (struggling with the luggage a bit) entered the airport. He didn’t bother to look back.

Before checking his baggage, Giles donned a sort of front-facing baby backpack thing (he had no idea what it was called and was at this point afraid to ask), strapping Buffy to his front so as to keep his hands free. She fell asleep quite quickly. Giles was more than a bit jealous.

He hadn’t had time to feel lonely in the chaotic mess of adjusting to taking care of an infant, but suddenly the feeling was settling in and he felt awful. Sunnydale was a Hellmouth, certainly, but Giles was the only supernatural researcher there, and he was soon going to have to be doing extra work on top of managing whatever job the Council had found him and researching Sunnydale. He was going to be doing three times the work he’d signed up for as a Watcher, and he wasn’t going to have anyone else for company. Not that he ever had had a Watcher he’d been close to, but—it was still incredibly lonely, realizing something like this.

As Giles was mulling over this, Buffy stirred in the baby carrier and opened her eyes. They were a very soft gray color, those eyes, and she looked up at Giles with the same intent curiosity that she always did, as though he might have changed in the few minutes she’d been sleeping.

Giles thought about the first time he’d seen Buffy open her eyes, and about how much had changed in his life after that. He thought about Buffy’s independent spirit and how much of a challenge she seemed to love posing to him. He thought about finding out what kind of person Buffy might become.

“I’ll manage, I think,” he said softly. Then he headed towards the plane.