#howl writes things

[nadiajustbe]

One of my favorite parts about the writing of Howl's Moving Castle is how easy it is to write off all the things from our world at first as him just being a weird wizard™ (also thanks to bestie @jutenium for spotting this I wouldn't put it like that without you!!/pos). Sure, Sophie uses weird descriptions, but readers have every reason to believe them because of the way Howl is presented as a character. When Sophie says he wrote with a quill that doesn't need an ink, you wouldn't think it was actually a ballpoint pen, you would think Howl had just enchanted his quill so that it wouldn't need ink! When she adds that she can't make out a single word, you think he has matchingly terrible handwriting, but in fact Sophie has simply never seen a pen writing. When she sees the mysterious labels on his books, you think he's keeping a lot of obscure magical literature, but it's really just an encyclopedia and a guide like "Top 10 Rugby Tips." When Sophie notices the bottles in Howl's bathtub, you think they're some kind of magical jars where he keeps girl's hearts, but I'm almost certain that they're just 'Dove' and 'Head and Shoulders' that he's enhanced with his spells and put silly labels on. When you read Calicifer singing a song in a language Sophie doesn't understand, you think it's some kind of ancient cipher or code, but it's actually just a rugby song in Welsh that Howl sings when he's drunk. And finally, when you see the terrifying black door, which is completely shrouded in darkness, you imagine a passage to an eerie, mythical place, similar to what Miyazaki showed us - but it's just fucking Wales.

[whatmakespaperwithoutitspen]

LOVELESS MARRIAGE

A LEONA KINGSCHOLAR X FEM!READER.

You are [name] [last name], daughter of the Unrelenting Tactician of the Savanna Afterglow. Not only were you a beauty beyond compare, but you were intelligent, charismatic, a competent combatist, and an intimidating political figure considered to be the voice of their people, their quick-wit able to crumble their opponent's argument in debate.

But alas, though you were skilled and beloved, you had one fatal flaw that no one ever let you forget: You were engaged to the scorned Second Prince, Leona Kingscholar.

INCLUDES : unreliable narrator, implied toxic relationship, unrequited requited unrequited love, open ending, deuce is the main character ?!

"Nice shot, Grim! You got Yuu sent to the infirmary!" Ace chastised the creature as they walked down the hall, towards where the magicless prefect was recovering from the blunt force trauma they got from the magic disk to the head, "I didn't mean to!" Grim rebutted, "They were in the way,"

"In the way of what!?" Deuce clicked his tongue, "Can't you just apologize to them when they wake up?"

"I will, I will!" Grim replied, pouting impetulantly like a scolded child. They pause when they hear someone approaching them from behind, heels clacking against the floor, "Excuse me," The voice said, "By the color of your uniform, you're Heartslabyul students, correct?"

"Who... woah!" Ace jumped, "Hello,"

You chuckle at their startled reaction, "Sorry to have surprised you. I'm looking for the Savanaclaw Housewarden, but I heard he was in the infirmary. Do you mind showing me the way?"

"Bananaclaw Houseward?" Grim repeated, before immediately getting corrected by Ace, "Savanaclaw,"

"O-of course!" Deuce stammered, suddenly straightening his posture, "We were just heading there, uhm, right this way," He gestured as they all walked together. Ace snickered at Deuce, "You're acting like you've never seen a girl before, Deucy. It's embarrassing."

"It's not because she's a girl!" Deuce whispered back, "It's because she's a visitor from outside. I want to make a good impression on her, show her that we NRC students are very hospitable."

"I doubt she'll care about that," Ace scoffed, "What is she? The superintendant?" Deuce gasped sharply, "Is she?"

Ace wacked him in the head, "Of course she isn't!"

"I can hear you," You said, amused but also exasperated by their antics. Though, you can't say it made you smile, reminiscing of your childhood. You still remember how rambunctious you were as a child. Though all that changed when you grew older... it was probably the undiagnosed depression that got to you.

"He, he," Grim suddenly laughed under his breath, "Ignore them, they're always like that. Such embarrassments, ruining NRC's reputation,"

"Ha!?" Ace said, in an outburst, "Who are you to talk Mr. Burnt-A-Great-Seven-Statue!"

"That was one time!"

"One time too many!"

"I'm so sorry," Deuce slumped as Ace and Grim exchanged arguments and insults back and forth. Grim had now climbed onto Ace's face, tugging at his hair, while Ace tried to get him off. You just smile at him, reassuringly, "Don't be, highschoolers are always so lively,"

"Highschoolers?" Deuce now walked ahead of the two troublemakers with you. He tilted his head, wondering, "How old are you, miss?"

"Didn't anyone ever tell you to never ask a woman her age?" Deuce immediately fumbled over a frantic apology, making you laugh out loud, "You're so serious, I'm kidding. I'm kiddiiiiing. I'm in my early twenties."

"Oh, are you related to Leona?" Deuce asked, and you shook your head in reply, "Not a chance,"

"In-laws?" You shake your head again, "Nah,"

"Are you a friend?" You pause at that, looking up in thought as you get closer and closer to the door, "No, we are not friends," You placed your head on the door knob and twist it, "I doubt we'll ever be friends," You ignore Deuce's confused look and open the door.

"Yuu!" Grim immediately jumped onto the prefect's bed, followed by Ace and Deuce walking up behind him. You smile at the group before turning to Leona, your smile immediately dropping into a cold expression, "Leona,"

The brunette laid in his bed, arms crossed, and eyes closed. He huffed, opening them to stare back at you, "I don't recall ever inviting you here," You let out a haughty laugh, "I don't recall every needing your permission to go anywhere. This is a public event."

"By the looks of your horrible disguise, you weren't supposed to be here,"

"I wanted to see you," You said, feigning sincereity enough to come off as mocking, "Isn't that enough of a reason?" Leona gave you a glare, "You were horrible out there,"

"Hey, hey, hey," The hyena beastmen on the neighboring cot butted in, "If you're insulting Leona's playing, you're insulting the entire team too, you know?"

"Shut up if you value your hide," Leona told Ruggie, "Ha!?" The latter reacted, surrpised, "Don't you see who you're talking to?"

You removed the wig and heart-shaped shades you were wearing. Leona cocked an eyebrow, "Purple hair. Really?" You threw the wig at his lap, "Since when were you a color theorist?"

"No way!" Ruggie trailed off, mouth gaping in shock, "You're...!"

Jack finished Ruggie's sentence for him, "Leona's fiancée, the woman that's always seen advocating strongly for the people's needs on TV. None other than [name] [last name]!"

"WHAT!?" Ace and Deuce yelled, startled.

"Who?" Grim and Yuu said in unison, clueless.

"That's a longass title," You said playfully, closing the shades and letting it hang on the neckline of your shirt, "But I'm glad that's what people knew me by. Getting called daughter this, daughter that can be so boring. Where's the spice? The corny titles that make you more important? Haha."

"Great performance. Can you leave now?" Leona groaned.

"Hey, you shouldn't talk to your fiancée like that.." Jack said softly, unsure if he should cut in or not, "Yeah, Leona! The lady came all the way here for you." Ruggie said.

"Who's side are you on?" Leona's eye twitches at Ruggie, who snickered, "The winning one,"

"Actually, I come bearing gifts," You suddenly starting counting, "Four... three..." The door bursts open, "Unca!!"

"Oh God no,"

"So... uhm.." Deuce awkwardly spoke as he sat beside you while you watch Cheka terrorize Leona in the distance. You pat Deuce's back, "Hey now, don't go treating me differently just because I'm out of my disguise. Just keep calling me by 'miss', it makes me feel fancy."

"You already are fancy," Deuce chuckled sheepishly, "So you came here to watch Leona play?" You nodded in answer. Deuce twiddled his thumbs, "Well, uhm. He really tried his best, you know? It's unfair if you tell him straight up that's its horrible."

"Don't be so sympathetic with him," You said, "Feeble words like that won't bother him at all, he doesn't care,"

Deuce fell silent for a few minutes. Then, his fists clenched, "For someone who's engaged to him for a while now, you really don't know Leona," That startles you, "Excuse me?" You respond.

"Words hurt, it hurts anyone," Deuce said firmly, "Even if he doesn't show it," You grimaced, "Me saying his game was horrible isn't going to make him sad, he's not a baby,"

"I'm not trying to baby him, I'm just saying-"

"I've known him long before I was engaged to him, you know nothing," You find yourself getting defensive, your tongue growing sharper as if you were talking to another figure of authority in the court. As if you're speaking from your heart once more as the feed is live on everyone's screen for all to see your glory, "I don't need your unsolicited advice, boy,"

"I'm just saying you don't need to rub salt in the wound," Deuce said, "Savanaclaw has been in a rivalry with Diasomnia since before I got into this school, and Leona really gave his all to beat them,"

"It's just a game," You gritted your teeth.

"A game that's broadcasted live, a game where a dorm's players can be scouted out, a game where a Housewarden would feel humiliated if they had kept getting beaten by that one person, that one team. One dorm."

"Why are you being so insistent about this?" You started to lose your temper, afraid your voice will get too loud and Leona will hear you fussing over him. He doesn't deserve that. He doesn't deserve consideration, empathy, not when—

"He overblotted," You froze. You felt your heart stop beating, you felt every resentment in your chest wither away.

Suddenly, you're back in those hallways, chasing Leona down after he had stolen your obnoxious flower hairclip that was bigger than your eye. But it had been so important to you as a child, for some reason. It was stupid, you were both being stupid, your anger was stupid. And yet, looking back on it now, what once was a frustrating memory was now something you missed.

Suddenly, you're back in the garden where you were feebly trying to drag Leona back to his tutoring lessons and he decided to climb up the tallest tree just to avoid you. You attempt to climb it but you fall and hurt you leg and cry, and Leona didn't even care. Thinking back on it now, you suddenly remember Leona peeking into your room while your leg was recovering then quickly running away when you spot him.

Did he feel bad? Was he just too prideful to admit he felt guilty? Or did he just want to see the damage?

Did Leona care or were you just desperate? Did he care and you were just too self-absorbed to realize it?

It doesn't matter. None of it matters anymore. Because your engagement to him ruined everything that was ever there between you to. Be it respect, trust, friendship, or love. Love, eugh.

Can Leona Kingscholar even love? Is he even capable of doing so? He isn't even capable of etiquette and decency. How the hell is he supposed to love someone the right way?

Overblot. A phenomenon that happens when someone overuses their magic and got consumed by their negative thoughts and emotions. That doesn't sound like something the prideful, selfish, ignorant buffoon that is Leona Kingscholar.

But maybe he isn't. Maybe it's because you never had the courage to talk to him because you were afraid he wasn't the person you wanted him to be, the person you wanted to marry.

"I'm so sorry!" Deuce snapped you out of your spiraling thoughts, "I'm not supposed to say that. I'm so-"

“It's just a game," You repeated, this time, more softly, "He shouldn't be hung up on that," You stood up from where you sat, "He has better things to do than wallow in his own self-pity forever,"

Before Deuce can argue with you again, you ruffle his hair, "You're a good kid," Deuce looked up at you, confused, before muttering, "I just know what it's like to not meet someone's expectations," He looked down at his feet, "It's a terrible feeling,"

"Just try not to meddle in the adults’ problems, yeah?" You grinned, "Well, I'm getting suffocated by athlete sweat smell. I'm going to bounce now."

"Cheka!" You call out to him, "We're going,"

Cheka lets out a sound of disappointed before running towards you, "Are we going to visit him again soon?" You cracked your neck, "No need for that. He's going to go back during winter break, remember?"

"Yay!" You decide to ignore the intense stare you feel from a specific set of emerald eyes that haunt your greatest insecurities. What a nosy bastard, that one.

"Hey," Yuu called out to Deuce once you were out of the room, "What did you two talk about? It looked tense." Deuce perked up, "Huh? Oh, it was nothing.."

"Don't tell me you were flirting with Leona's fiancée," Ace poked fun at him, Deuce recoiled at that, "Ew, what!? Ace, that's so weird! Stop being weird!" Deuce slapped his elbow, "Ow! I was just joking!"

"So you heard that too?" Ruggie tells Leona, who sinks into the cot, "I don't know what you're talking about.” Ruggie gave him a disbelieving look before turning to Jack, "So you heard that too?"

"I tuned it out, it sounded like it was none of my business,"

"Such a goody-two-shoes!"

Leona sighed quietly. Do you hate me yet, [name]? I'm sure you don't.

Because no matter the distance between us, you always come running back to me.

Leona turned away from Jack and Leona as he lets himself fall asleep. I just don't know why.

A/N: i’m worried its kind of OOC and its not subtle at all. ik. but i thats why i still left room for ambiguity so you all can insert your own thoughts and reasons as to why [name] acts or thinks like this with Leona and othersssz

[chaosu-no-hime]

The fact that calcifer is Howl's heart and so basically Sophie tamed his heart. HIS HEART!

(i can never not take this obsessively jhfygrtuyytdegjuyfrfv)

[bun-lapin]

TWST Voice Line Scene #19

(in the Mostro Lounge)

🍩Ruggie: (watching Jack) Having trouble deciding what to order, big guy?

🐺Jack: (stares intensely at the menu) I can't mess this up. I've only got one shot…

🍩Ruggie: This isn't THAT big of a decision, y'know. You're too serious for your own good.

🍎Epel: You don't understand, Ruggie! Floyd is in the kitchen today and lately he's been doing something called 'menu roulette'!

🍩Ruggie: 'Menu roulette'…?

🐺Jack: Basically, Floyd secretly chooses one item on the menu to sabotage everyday. If you choose the wrong menu item, you could end up with a culinary nightmare.

🐺Jack: (makes a disgusted face) Last time I lost the roulette, I wound up with a pickled onion and marmalade tuna sandwich...

🍩Ruggie: (physically recoils) Yeesh! I know I'm usually the guy that'll eat anything, but there are some things you just can't do to food!

🍎Epel: (terrified whisper) The worst part is, if you order the roulette item of the day, Floyd will come out and stand next to your table until you eat the whole thing!

(they all turn to look at the kitchen door where Floyd is peeking his head out and grinning at them)

🍩Ruggie: ….....

🍩Ruggie: (stands up) Thanks for offering to buy me lunch, but I'mma head out now.

TWST Voice Line Scenes Masterlist

[summertimemusician]

Hero's Purpose Episode 6 Release Date

WE ARE SO BACK

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

twst jp august schedule~

Early August

📝 Unified Exams still ew (Unfortunately, no new NRC Staff lines.)

🏃‍♂️🐺 SSR Clubwear Jack Banner (Like other Clubwears, he comes with furniture instead of vignettes; the next Clubwear will likely be Deuce, since he’s the other boy in Track and Field Club!)

Mid-August

💐🤖 SSR Broomquet Ortho Banner + the return of the last 2 years’ birthday Ortho cards!

BABE WAKE UP, NEW EVENT??????? WITH STITCH??????!??????!?!!!!?!🏝️🚀 Lost in the Book with Stitch ~Midsummer Sea and Spaceship~ (Get prepared for a DOUBLE WHAMMY for a summer beach event we’ve been praying for for 3 years straight 😭 This event will feature 🦇 SSR Lilia, 🦈 SSR Floyd (yes, two of them), 🌹 SR Riddle, ♥️ SR Ace, 🐺 R Jack, and 🐙 R Azul. Also Stitch becomes canon in the TWSTverse… Wild… You think they’re going to the same beachy area that Crowley went to for his vacation in book 4…? Or that Lilia is a SSR bc together it sounds like “Lilo and Stitch”? 🤔)

Late August

💐🌹 SSR Broomquet Riddle Banner + the return of the last 2 years’ birthday Riddle cards!

[flavia8]

You know. Something I really hate about a lot of popular fantasy books, and it's especially prevalent in Romantasy, is what passes for Feminism in them. It's a toothless fake, used as an aesthetic/seasoning. A sprinkle of *strong female character* and a dash of deceptively misogynistic everything else, and for the finishing touch a pinch of man who's slightly better than being openly sexist and Boom. Fantasy series led by a FMC.

Generally, the Female Main character either starts out or becomes incredibly powerful, but always, always, always her power is linked to the men around her. She supposedly has agency and makes her own choices but the choices she makes are between choices provided to her by men. Her male love interest is more powerful in SOME way, and ends up besting her in some way. Experience, training, power, there's always some way the man is better than her. Female characters are never allowed to just BE powerful. Or even just BE single. Often they give up their powers, or are forcibly stripped of them. They look down on other female characters for doing "feminine" work. And, they're stupid as hell to supposedly make them relatable or endearing. Often, the male mc is concerningly abusive but it's portrayed as dreamy, romantic and Ideal. (I genuinely get the love for villains, and enemies to not, and the love for morally grey characters, I genuinely do, but this isn't that, what happens in these books is just genuinely bad (if they actually were people) being portrayed through rose colored glasses) [And in some stories that could be genuinely interesting!] If there's a second Love Interest, he will just do the same awful shit to the MC but it's better now bc it's him.

If the female character isn't white, all of this + a staggering amount of racism. They're rarely MCs. They're fridged for the MCs, they serve the MCs, they're never as beautiful or powerful as the MC, they're stereotyped and portrayed as savage, vapid, comically evil, or just as a good guy with no character at all.

These books are presented as feminist and it pisses me off. Feminism is equality for all, and the fight for Women to be equal and have their own agency. To make their own decisions. Genuinely I believe writers should be able to write whatever they want. I have no issues with having "problematic" stuff in books. My issue is when people start to believe that this shit is feminist, and the author is so skilled and amazing, and it's a masterpiece! Fuck that.

[girlwithakiwi]

where raging storms at midnight howl (this place is haunted)

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin Rating: Mature Relationships: Jon Snow/Daenerys Targaryen

Summary:

There is ice in the mirror, and death too—the kiss and the shadow, the inferno and the chasm. She is the Silver Princess, the delight of the realm, and this reflection tells her of a world that cannot be, a world she cannot know. She wants to be comforted, but she cannot reach into that storm-silver surface to touch him and the comely young man with the grey eyes cannot step through to embrace her. His voice is a dream and it is half a memory. It is all her desires and hopes and fears and she wants and wants and wants. • In 283 AC, those who rebelled against the dragons were defeated on the Trident. This is the world Daenerys Targaryen knows, a world where her brother rules over a fractious realm and the dragons still sit on the Iron Throne, a world where the Baratheons and the Lannisters never rose to power. So who is this haunting boy in the frozen winter mirror who tells her otherwise, who tells her that the world she knows is a dream, a lie? And which side of the mirror is the truth?

For @iceandfirejonerysdiscord's Jonerys Falling For You 2024

[howlingmoonrise]

my last work for battleship is done, and it's time to say goodbye to team mermaid!

for @acernor, who i thought was super cool when we last spoke: i was over the moon to see you'd submitted a prompt to the collection and really wanted to write this for you! if there is one thing i can say about this fic is that it very much kept to your prompt of dfs bottoming, even if i wasn't too sure in which direction you'd like to see this ship in particular go. i hope you enjoy it 💖💖💖

many many thanks also to @a-memory-a-distant-echo for the very wrinkly-brained dfs takes, incredible brainstorming, major cheerleading, and for putting up with a truly ungodly amount of whining! i owe you like a thousand and shall continue to bother you ceaselessly 💖

--

Pairing: Di Feisheng/Fang Duobing

“You’re so cold,” Fang Duobing says as he pours him a fresh cup of tea, the brush of his hands warming him in ways the blankets will not. “I wish Li Lianhua had left more instructions.” He looks so distressed, Di Feisheng thinks hazily. It’s ridiculous - he’s hardly Li Lianhua, withering away like a plucked flower, and he’s suffered through so much worse besides - and yet the pup is acting like he’s dying on his watch.  This is nothing. He’s just-- cold. Very cold. Colder than he was as an orphan on the streets, shivering in threadbare robes and not yet knowing how to start a fire. Colder than when the sea had claimed him ten years ago, icy and biting down to his bones. Di Feisheng curls further into himself - the dampness of his hair is not helping, soaking into the fabric wrapping his back, and neither is the stray breeze he can feel make its way through Lotus Tower. Every shiver feels like it’ll shatter him into pieces, like ice on the ground. It’s nothing. He just has to wait it out.

Read on AO3

[voidthescribe]

dangerous habits (pt. 2)

(eleventh doctor x reader)

it’s me again, your favorite procrastinating fanfiction author, (finally) doing a follow-up to dangerous habits! i am a sucker for pet names as stated previously, but i am also a sucker for using them on other people. if you are my friend and okay with it you’re getting sweet-talked out the wazoo. this is dangerous if you have male friends. we don’t talk about the times i called my crush ‘honey’.

you can read the first part here! it’s not required, but it does provide a little more context?  

author’s rec while you read: the flower garden by joe hisaishi

________

He likes to catch you off guard with them. 

Thanks to your habit of losing yourself in thought (you were in space all the time! There wasn’t a weekend you weren’t visiting a new planet! You had a lot to think about!), it was pretty easy for him to appear behind you, warm hands sliding a familiar path around your waist, chest pressing into your back. 

“Hello, dear.” 

“Darling, you’ve disappeared again.” 

“Love, what are you thinking about this time?” 

You were starting to get used to being startled, and that was a strange paradox all its own. It was the worst on his happy days, because the gentle hugs were usually accompanied by the softest kiss to the back of your neck, or your jaw, or, if he felt especially cheeky, your mouth, after he’d spun you around and made you gasp. And, as he liked to say into your skin, he’d never been happier.

So now it was time to turn the tables on him. 

The benefit to having an especially flirty sort of lover is that you were picking up quite a lot of ideas for romantic teasing. Despite the fact that he knew exactly how to push your buttons, you were learning what exactly made him click–and you were waiting for the perfect moment to use your new knowledge. (You’d tried flirting to yourself in the mirror, once, to make sure you knew what you were doing, and made yourself laugh so hard that the Doctor had come running to make sure you weren’t choking.) 

“You sure Hayao Miyazaki isn’t from here?” you ask, knee deep in endless flowers. This planet was nothing but fields and always a gentle springtime. There was a pocket storm rumbling gently in the distance. The sun was a little cooler than Earth’s, so you had the Doctor’s coat draped around your shoulders like a cape, despite the bright weather. 

“Took him here once,” the Doctor says carelessly, a flower stuck behind his ear. “I think he made a film about it later.” 

“Remind me: we’re having a movie night later,” you say, knowing he’d forget. You wade to him, stepping delicately around a rock buried in the flowers to move into his space. You grasp one of his suspenders, pulling him down a bit to your level, trying not to smile at the way his eyes widen, at the way he sputters a bit when you touch him. You smooth his hair down and slide the goggles he’d forgotten to take off out of his hair. Then, you place the flower crown you’d twisted on top of his head, giving it a pat so it would stay. He’d been so wrapped up in watching the oncoming storm that you’d had plenty of time to weave the crown behind his back. It hangs a little down over one of his ears, and he twitches his nose at the smell of the flowers, blinking, adjusting to its weight. The bright yellow of the blossoms brings out the green in his eyes. 

“You’re really handsome, sweetheart,” you say, dropping your voice an octave, and lean up to kiss his temple, right underneath the crown. “Thanks for taking me here today. I love getting to spend time with you.”  

You can see his hands fluttering at his sides out of the corner of your eye. For someone so attractively smooth, he was remarkably awkward. 

“Close your eyes, love,” you say, and when he does, you grab his face and tilt it down, pressing your lips to his forehead, the bridge of his nose, his eyelids. The storm behind you makes the breeze kick up. The Doctor shivers a little and leans into your warmth. His hands come to rest on your hips. You can feel the tremble in his fingers. 

Oh, now you knew why he did it to you. This was fun. 

His eyes flutter open, a kaleidoscope of greens and blues and grays, a little unfocused as you adjust his bow tie and straighten the collar of his shirt. 

“What are you doing?” he says, almost to himself. 

“Flustering you,” you tell him, barely speaking above a whisper, and it makes his fingers tighten on your hips. “Come here, love.”  

You can smell the rain in the air when you grab his lapels and kiss him. It mingles with the scent of the flowers. 

“This is unfair,” the Doctor groans, chasing your mouth when you pull away. You run your fingers up into his hair and the words die in his throat. 

“I’m just returning a favor, Sexy,” you say, pulling him close as the rain comes down. You hold him like you’re leading a dance, wrapping him up in your arms as thunder rolls above your heads. The flower crown drips petals onto your shoulders. Both of you look like wet cats when you finally stumble back into the TARDIS, shivering, giggling, hands full of drooping flowers and each other. 

When the Doctor sneaks up behind you and grabs your waist while you’re toweling off your hair, making you scream and laugh, the TARDIS lights glitter with amusement. 

look at this small precious bean man like what I wouldn’t give to fluster this fool--

(also, tagging @greycircles1​ because you asked me months ago if I would do a follow-up and I wanted to but couldn’t think of anything so I didn’t answer your DM and sorry about that! I hope you enjoy this :))

[fictionadventurer]

"There had to be some such creature as Mary--otherwise God would have found no one in whom He could fittingly have taken his human origin. An honest politician seeking civic reforms looks about for honest assistants. The Son of God beginning a new creation searched for some of that Goodness which existed before sin took over. There would have been, in some minds, a doubt about the Power of God if He had not shown a special favor to the Woman who was to be His Mother. Certainly what God gave to Eve, He would not refuse to His Own Mother.

"Suppose that God in making over man did not also make over woman into a new Eve! What a howl of protest would have gone up! Christianity would have been denounced as are all male religions. Women would then have searched for a female religion! It would have been argued that woman was always the slave of man and even God intended her to be such, since he refused to make the new Eve, as He made the New Adam.

"Had there been no Immaculate Conception, then Christ would have been said to be less beautiful, for He would have taken His Body from one who was not humanly perfect! There ought to be an infinite separation between God and sin, but there would not have been if there was not one woman who could crush the cobra's head."

-Fulton Sheen, The World's First Love

[italoniponic]

I was literally messing around and ended up creating such a wholesome scene

also, what a nightmare to arrange them in their correct heights and proportions in relation to each other (yes, Silver and Epel are pngs thrown into Jack's card bc my wolf boy here is the only one without a png version </3) I still think they're just roughly realistic-ish

[what-even-is-sleep]

thinking about Bodkin again bc I mean,,, ALL THE SYMBOLISM OHHHHHGH. i NEED some tumblr film analysis hobbyists to watch this show and tell me all the themes n such

[trunklewunjle]

I did some twists and turns to the Dreamtale I included in the server me an my friends rp in, and I’ve been kinda hyper fixated so I did a little thing

I don’t like perspective but im going to have to eventually learn, soul shattering I will never be the same once i dominate it

Yea the fucking tree told him to shoot night because everyone is so mean to him so I just yknow she might as well also be mean to a fucking seven year old who knew no better 

Dreamtale (Dream and Nightmare) Belong to Jokublog

[thesynthesist]

Foiled: How Do We React to Fate? Sophie vs Howl

So I just got around to reading the book Howl's Moving Castle, which I've meant to do for quite a while now and I have thoughts! This will have nothing to do with the movie so here's your warning to get off now if that's what you're looking for.

So our protagonist is Sophie, an Eldest Child, who worst than generally being the eldest, is also the eldest in a land that runs on fairy tale rules, where the eldest is often a failure in a quest, especially when you have two younger same gender siblings, as Sophie does.

One of the first things we learn about Sophie is that she has resigned herself to this and her life of labour and unimportance. We also learn that Sophie is kind and empathetic almost to the point of her own detriment - it appears part of the reason she has resigned herself to this fate is on behalf of her sisters whom she genuinely cares for. She doesn't begin to show any bitterness about her position until she is essentially the family hat shop's sole overworked employee who is not receiving a salary.

Once she confronts her step mother about this and truly doesn't receive an answer is one of the first times we see Sophie really experience a lasting negative emotion directed at another person but this doesn't really come to anything besides Sophie getting a bit rude with customers who are rude first. Sophie does not think of leaving the shop, in fact we don't even get any clear indication that she intends to bring the wage conversation back up with her step mother any time soon. In fact, when Sophie runs into her step mother again later in the book, she reacts with her usual empathy rather than feeling upset that being left alone in the shop was ultimately what got her cursed in the first place.

It's only once the Witch of the Wastes curses her that Sophie decides she's had all about the resignation she can manage and sets out of her own. While her change in form is both reflective of how Sophie sees herself - a person without a life before it's even begun - it also gives her an excuse within how she believes fate to work to go off. After all, once you've been cursed by a witch to be elderly when you've maybe lived the better part of two decades, how much more failing can you really do? Even as Sophie sets off to 'find her fortune' as she puts it, she's in part only doing so because now she believes fate will allow it. She has stepped out of the eldest sister role at the start of the story and into a completely different role entirely. This may also be why Howl remarks he decided Sophie 'liked being disguised'. If Sophie returns to her youth, to herself, even if that may have physical benefits and add 60 years back onto her life, in her mind she returns to being trapped by fate, destined to be lonely and overlooked. Even when she's doing magic and actively improving the lives around her, she internally laments how her efforts are not enough and doomed to failure because of her position as first born.

Then there's Howl.

Howl is immediately painted as someone on the run from everything. He doesn't like to answer questions directly and will ignore them or change the subject, he's only in love with women until they love him back and then he no longer cares. He reacts to responsibility and day to day concerns such as cleaning, with an air of flippancy and seems to put his appearance above all else.

In fact, he wants to be seen as so unreliable that he has rumours spread about himself so people will think he's evil and not bother coming around. Howl himself admits that he doesn't like to be pinned down and we find out later that he is both physically and metaphorically on the run from a curse.

Even as he treats his apprentice well and goes out of his way for Sophie, and returns to visit his family on a regular basis, he persistently puts on an air of irresponsibility. His sister despairs that he'll never clean up his act when he shows up at her house in a rugby jacket, but we see moments before that Howl magically changes the clothes that they're wearing. He could have presented himself to his sister with as much flair and vanity as he does in the world Sophie is from but he makes the consistent choice to show up to his sister's house as a bit of a shlub.

Despite appearing to be polar opposites Howl and Sophie have one very important thing in common, they have both accepted fate as a force that moves the world that they will be subject to. And even with the character growth they both experience, which appears to be largely switching perspectives on fate and responsibility with Howl stepping up to take responsibility for things that need doing even if that leaves him fated to ruination, while Sophie rages against the unfairness of it all and seeks a way out, even if it isn't for herself.

This shared view drastically shapes both Sophie and Howl's characters and how they interact with the world around them, even though this belief is not grounded in reality. The book presents Sophie's sisters and to some extent Howl's apprentice as examples of how this world despite its magic is not so much beholden to fate as it is to other people's expectations.

Sophie's sisters, instead of accepting their lots which Sophie feels are appropriate for their birth order and likely fated roles because of it, simply switch places and get along quite famously. To top it off, instead of the youngest falling in love with or even seeking to marry royalty she falls in love quite happily with Howl's orphaned apprentice, while the middle sister handily side steps her 'fate' of falling desperately in love with the disreputable wizard Howl.

Even with these examples right in front of them, Sophie and Howl cannot shake their internalized perceptions of what they should be.

Sophie, while visiting her sister's witchcraft tutor, is asked if she's where her sister gets magic from as it runs in families. Despite being told almost directly to her face that she has magical powers, it's not until chapters later after being told again that she accepts it, and even longer for her to fully claim it and begin actively working with the power she possesses.

Whereas Howl refuses to pay attention long enough to his curse or the Witch of the Waste to really do anything about it. He knew Sophie had magical powers and knew that his own were quite formidable, and his gallivanting about - in part to keep up the appearances that he was a good for nothing self indulgent irresponsible man - and in part to actually be self indulgent most likely worsened how bad the fight was as it gave the Witch of the Waste more time to prepare and gave the curse enough time catch up with him.

Yet this paradigm is also what allows Sophie and Howl help each other. While they might not understand why the other reacts like they do, on some level they recognize what they're reacting to is the same. While Sophie doesn't understand her magic enough to suggest anything direct, she does take the curse seriously because the way the story goes it will be a problem that needs dealing with. She might not be able to do magic but she can deal with problems head on, that's what being the eldest and responsible is about. Howl might not be able to understand why Sophie wants to look like an old woman but he understands why disguises are important and is willing to give her a place where she can escape the fate that she thinks is following her.

So while Howl and Sophie are incapable of seeing themselves and what they are truly capable of clearly, they are perhaps the only two people in the narrative who are capable of fully seeing each other.

[diathadevil]

Do you ever think about how Fakir, after him and Ahiru finally broke everything that kept the town of Goldkröne in the ghostly hands of its writer, after they finally have some air of peace over the town finally being able to live in its intended early 2000s environment, that Fakir still feels at times like it's not real and that for a while he fears that if he closes his eyes it'll be back in Drosselmeyer's control. Like it just doesn't feel real to him during that first year of calm, until he feels the dull pain on his recovering hand injury and Ahiru who follows him without a pendant anywhere to be found.

He doesn't feel it's real, the calm finality of this town, but he makes sure to feel the scar on his hand. And he makes sure to hold the little duck and realize that she is who she has always been. Him and the town are finally living peacefully.