#i can’t believe i just saw this with my own eyeballs

[hoovesandfloorpaws]

the way he RUNS AND LEAPS up to plaster himself to the rainbow flag????

😭🏳️‍🌈 helP i’m SO emo

Don't think ever get over watching a joyous, triumphant Louis wrestle himself free from security, spy a 🏳️‍🌈 flag across the way, and take a running leap into the light at it with his whole soul

When I think of how he was made estranged from the lgbtq community for so long, to see this just makes me cry. Welcome home.

Twitter

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

Sometimes I can’t believe I actually got to see Eras in person and that it happened more than once 😭

[j-eryewrites]

Stressed Out

MAIN MASTER LIST

Word Count: 1.k <

Warnings: Not really any, kind of ooc Sherlock (but who cares)

Author's Note: Finally feeling like I have time to write and that the writing gods have been in my favor. This was a fun little one-shot to write. While I'm still trying to get back into my writing groove, this one shot definitely helped get some of the dust off my creative writing brain. So, thank you @my-dear-sweet-melody for requesting this one. I hope you enjoy it!

You weren’t sure how you’d been doing it: managing the day-to-day lives of two people who also happened to be good friends of yours, assisting Sherlock with cases, seeing things you’d never thought you’d see in your lifetime (both good and bad), juggling relationships, your own well-being and health, and time to relax. Although it seemed like you had less and less time to do the things concerning yourself. You knew it wasn’t healthy, but when you were thrust into the world of Sherlock Holmes, more important things came into play.

Sherlock was the first to notice how the stress was weighing on you. It was a total shock when he casually announced your current state to John. The moment the words of concern were uttered from Sherlock’s lips, the puzzle in John’s mind had been completed. With the help of Mrs. Hudson, the two men began to conspire to make life easier for their dear friend.

At first, Sherlock’s conscious decision to wash his dishes and put them away in the correct cabinets struck you as odd. Sherlock’s mind was usually too busy for such arbitrary tasks, and such magnificent brain power couldn’t be wasted on such a thing. Then came the tidiness of his experiments. You could swear you hadn’t seen a stray finger or eyeball dissolving in vinegar for quite some time.

When you had asked Sherlock about his new behavior, he shrugged it off with some wildly strange research idea he had come up with. You tried to follow along, but your brain began to hurt after a moment, so you opted to believe him instead.

Meanwhile, John took extra care to charge his and Sherlock’s devices. He knew no matter how brilliant Sherlock was, the man seemingly ceased to forget that computers, phones, and the lot needed to be charged via a charging cord and port. On the other hand, Mrs. Hudson made the note to prepare extra tea and biscuits to save yourself the trouble of doing that for Sherlock and John.

Now, you felt no need to question John and Mrs.Hudson’s new behavior. It was in character for them to do small things like that. However, you continued to question Sherlock; he grew tired of it. Why couldn’t you see that he cared for you, too? That maybe he cared a bit more for you than he should. He was growing weary of the excuses he made to your insistent questions when all he wanted to do was throw them up and tell you the truth. Truthfully, the truth was something he insisted upon. Sherlock always found it one way or another. Yet, he could only fib when you had a new query about his altered behavior. Was it hard for you to understand that Sherlock could care? That he, too, could be human?

“Sherlock,” you called as you sat on the couch, pouring over the current case. It was usually your job to organize each thing into its Sherlockian category to save Sherlock his brain power. However, when you opened the file, it had already been done. “Did I happen to organize this in my sleep?” You raised the file and peered at him. Sherlock felt his mind conjure up the latest lie. Just before it left his mouth, he paused. He got up and marched to the window, where he began to gaze out onto the street below. He couldn’t lie anymore. He had to tell you the truth.

“I organized it,” Sherlock said.

You froze. Something was seriously wrong with the man if he was now organizing his own cases. “Sherlock, you never orga–”

“Why can’t I?” Sherlock’s voice grew tense. His eyes clenched shut, all while his back was still towards you. He wouldn’t dare look at you. He knew if he saw your eyes, he’d crumble and tell you everything, but everything was what you needed to hear. Everything was what he needed to say.

“I never said you couldn’t. It’s just,” you faltered, “…strange.”

Within a moment, Sherlock whirled around. His icy blue eyes began to thaw under your gaze. “I observed you have stressed: Your trousers falling to your hips instead of hanging snuggly on your waist, the dark circles under your eyes that only grew prominent by the day, the growing urge to sleep instead of join Mrs. Hudson for the weekly watch party of the latest soap opera,” Sherlock shut his mouth. He had said too much already; he shouldn’t say more, but his lips moved again. “I wasn’t the only one who noticed, John and Mrs. Hudson, too. We devised a plan to lessen the blow of our–my constant mess.”

As Sherlock spoke, you realized his words were only the truth. You had noticed you suddenly had more time to eat a meal, spend time with your favorite landlady, who was more like a mother, go on walks in the park with John, listen to Sherlock compose his latest piece, sleep, and live life as it should be lived. Amidst Sherlock’s rambling, you whispered, “Why?”

“Because we–because I care you for,” Sherlock choked.

Slowly, you remove yourself from the comfort of the couch cushions and find a place in front of Sherlock. You watch as Sherlock shudders from the touch of your hand on his cheek. “Thank you,” you said as a smile grew. “Thank you for caring when I forgot to take care of myself. Although…”

Sherlock frowned.

“…while I appreciate the sentiment of you organizing your own cases, John charging the computers, and Mrs. Hudson always preparing tea, I’d still like to be able to do my job. After all, the great Sherlock Holmes still needs to use his brain power to solve cases and save the day.”

Sherlock could only smile at that response for he'd give you anything you'd ask. "Of course. Of course, Y/N."

____

Comment below if you would like to be added to the tag list! Please comment or reblog if you can; I want to hear from you.

Tag list:

@bartokthealbinobat

@astudyinlaura

@sherlockstrangewolf

@yourleastfavoriteguyinthechair

@biggerthancalli13

@themartiansdaughter

@sunsumonner 

@silversword7000

@starlightaurorab

@my-dear-sweet-melody

@neroarrow83

@khaleesihavilliard

@agentxx92

@myszur-blog

@halestorm0707

_____

[daincrediblegg]

Can’t believe I just saw a post with my own two eyeballs waxing poetic about how one direction will never happen again that there are never gonna be just some guys from working class backgrounds that grind like hell and have to go through insane conditions for their music like od invented it. like motherfucker no they aren’t even remotely the first bitches who did that the beatles are what are you even talking about

[stormyoceans]

tbh I'm not sure if we'll get gmmtv2025. js are so busy with their concerts that they just don't have time for it. I really want to see the actors. I started to stan for actors, not singers/dancers/players. I don't have the financial ability to ride them around the world, but I have the opportunity to watch their series day and night. Give me back the actors😭 and give them **ck rest. smt they are out of work for a whole year, then they can't catch their breath coz of the amount of work.

DO NOT EVEN JOKE ABOUT THAT ANON IF WE DON’T GET A NEW JIMMYSEA SERIES FOR GMMTV 2025 IM AFRAID SAYING IM GONNA KMS ONLINE ISN’T GONNA BE ENOUGH ANYMORE I WILL ACTUALLY HAVE TO DO IT FR IN RL TOO

but seriously, i feel the exact same way, like i am sincerely happy for all the opportunities jimmysea got this year, especially because i remember a time when we could count on one hand the amount of jobs they had between fanmeets and other kind of events, and it wasn’t due to them being busy filming or studying, they out right stated in an interview that they simply had no work. so im obviously glad that they’re finally getting the recognition they deserve and doing lots of different activities and travelling the world to meet fans (sometimes i still can’t believe i actually saw them with my own two eyeballs), however, like you said, i fell in love with jimmysea as actors. it was their acting that eventually made me like and want to learn more about them as people, and whatever my feelings for last twilight may be, that didn’t change what i think of them, which is that they’re both incredible actors who are able to bring something really special on screen, especially when they’re working together, and i NEED that back. SO BADLY

and look, i don’t even need their next series to come out in the first half of 2025, okay, i know they’re really busy for the rest of the year and sea already has a concert scheduled for january, that’s still great, i just need THE HOPE THE PROSPECT THE PROMISE THE REASSURANCE of them having a new series in the near future, like i literally survived more than a year with only a mock trailer and a dream before I CAN DO IT AGAIN I DON’T NEED MUCH BUT I DO NEED SOMETHING

SO IMMA NEED EVERYONE TO PUT AS MANY POSITIVE SEXY ENERGIES OUT INTO THE UNIVERSE AS POSSIBLE WE’RE REARRANGING REALITY AND MAKING THIS HAPPEN WITH THE SHEER POWER OF CLOWNERY AND DELUSION

[arcaneorphic]

Yearning - Remus x F! Reader

Part One | Part Two (in progress)

Pairing: Remus Lupin x F! Reader

Genre: pining, angst, hurt (comfort to come)

Summary: Remus is so desperately in love with you, but he feels like he cannot give you the life you deserve.

Word Count: 820

There was something about the way you spoke that had Remus transfixed, even when he wasn’t the one you were speaking to. He’s tried to pinpoint the reason for his fascination with you, but to no avail. Maybe it was the cadence of your voice and the way it soothed him? Or, perhaps it was the way you gave the person you were talking to your full attention, never making them feel as though your mind was elsewhere? 

As Remus watched you speak to a first year from your house he saw the gentle way you interacted with them. He added that to his list of possible reasons for his admiration of you. The two of you had been studying in the library, silently enjoying each other’s company, when the first-year shyly came up to you.

She had spoken too softly for Remus to hear, but he did hear your response, “Sure I can help you, Elle.”

The younger girl seemed elated that you remembered her name. She gave a timid smile as she replied, again too low for Remus to hear.

“Course I can take a look at it for you,” you reply with a smile. You took the notebook from Elle’s hands and read over her work. A look of understanding washed over your features when you identified the problem with whatever Elle was having difficulties with. 

You gently explained the problem to her and the way she could fix it. Before she leaves he hears you gently tell her, “Don’t be so hard on yourself, okay? Now that you know what to do I’m sure you’ll ace it.”

Remus watched as Elle walked away, a little lighter than when she first approached you. He wonders if that was how he looked the first time he encountered your softness. In his heart he knew the answer to that question was yes. 

From the moment the two of you had started to spend more time together he realized just how taken he was by you. Under the softness you showed outwardly there was a temper and a spirit so bright that he wondered why you let so few people see it. Of course, you were genuinely soft and kind, but when someone treated those you cared for unkindly he had seen first-hand how your temper flared. 

“Rem, if I keep looking at these notes I think my eyeballs are going to fall out,” your voice pulled him out of his thoughts. He chuckled softly at your comment.

He closed his own textbook, having stopped actually studying a while ago, and leaned back in his chair to get a better look at you, “You said to not let you out of that seat until you could recite those potions in your sleep.” 

“I can’t believe you don’t care that my eyeballs are going to fall out of my head,” you theatrically threw yourself back in your chair. “You are a cruel, cruel man, Lupin.”

He shook his head in amusement, “Is that right?”

“No,” you huffed. “but I really do think I’m done for the day, Rem.”

He hears the sincerity in your voice and the exhaustion in your eyes. In truth he knew that he could never actually deny you of anything you asked of him. “That’s all you had to say,” sweet girl goes unsaid, but it is most definitely there. “Let’s get going.”

You spring up from your seat, suddenly reenergized, and go to put the books you used back. Remus can’t help but chuckle to himself as you go. Little about you surprised Remus at this point in your… friendship. To call whatever you and Remus have simply a ‘friendship’ was disingenuous; friends don’t look at each other the way the two of you do, but even so Remus still couldn’t bring himself to take it further than stolen touches and longing gazes despite how deeply he wanted to.

He knew that to be with you in the way you deserved would mean he’d have to tell you the truth of his condition. Logically he knew that you would still care for him once you knew because that was just the type of person you were. But, that did nothing to ease the fear of you not wanting anything to do with him if you did not accept him. So, he would rather keep you in his life always slightly out of reach if it meant you remained in it at all. 

He knew that he couldn’t give you the peace or the life you deserved no matter how desperately he wanted to. One day you would find someone who could give you all the things he couldn’t, and although it would break his heart to watch you love someone that wasn’t him; he would rest easy knowing that you were living the life you deserved. That would have to be enough for him. 

Masterlist

[giggly-squiggily]

Omg omg dabble idea bc I’m obsessed with this headcanon.

I think Chifuyu gets psychosomatic illness when he’s even the slightest bit stressed. The symptoms get worse the more pressured he feels.

After even one sneeze, Mitsuya is eyeballing him the whole time, because he knows despite Chifuyu never telling anyone.

I can just imagine Mitsuya getting pissed off in Chifuyu’s place when he sees the little guy so sick he can barely stand. 🙌🙌

Holy- I'm learning so many new words today! :D This is absolutely amazing and I love you for sharing this with me- I've gotcha covered, Ducky! :D

CW: Sickness, Swearing

“Chifuyu, what the hell?”

It started out as a sneeze. Just a simple little “Achoo!”- nothing anyone in Toman put much thought into. Heck, not even Chifuyu thought much of it- must be seasonal allergies.

Definitely not because Midterms, a big Toman meeting, Peke-J’s vet appointment, and Baji’s birthday were all falling in the same week. Nope, definitely not any of that.

Chifuyu was convinced he had this. What was a little stress? He’s been through worse. And yet- soon the symptoms were getting worse. Sneezes turned into congestion, coughs grew more hoarse and hard to hide. Eventually he was waking up in the wee hours in the morning nauseated.

Still- he pushed on. He had this! He just needed to get through the upcoming week and he’d be fine. Once it was over, he’d be his usual self again.

For the most part- Toman believed him.

Except for Mitsuya.

That man saw everything.

Currently the pair were in Chifuyu’s room, the mentioned boy far too sick to even sit up on his own. His body felt like one huge furnace, and he wanted to both rip off all the sheets binding him to his bed and climb into a freezer. He barely heard Mitsuya come in- just heard his disappointed exclamation. “I’m fine..I just-” A hoarse cough exploded from his chest as he doubled over, hands rubbing his back to help him through it. When he looked up, he found Mitsuya glaring at him.

And in his hand, a glass of water.

“Dumbass. I can’t believe you’d let yourself get this sick! Here you are practically dying on us and you’re too stubborn to say anything!” Mitsuya’s back was turned as he dug through the convenience store bag, pulling out cough medicine. “Honestly- it’s bad enough Draken and Mikey only JUST sorted out their bullshit, and now this? What are we to do with you-”

The sound of sniffling made him pause. When he turned around, he found Chifuyu’s head bowed, tears rolling down his cheeks. “Oh Chi..”

“I’m not-” The blonde sniffed, reaching up to wipe his face. “I’m not cr-rying!” He ducked down, shamed at how weak he looked before Mitsuya of all people. “Ju-Just..give me a se-econd.”

Mitsuya didn’t say anything, taking a seat on the edge of the bed. A moment later, he reached out, resting a hand on the younger boy’s head. “So stubborn, even now.” He sounded fond, almost like he was smiling. “Tell me what’s going on. I can help, you know.” He reached over and snatched up the planner laying by, poking through it as Chifuyu wiped his face. “Ah, okay. Easy enough. Look- I’ll take care of Peke-J for you; I’m free that afternoon. Baji’s birthday- Toman’s gonna do something; we’ve got that planned out. You just focus on getting better and knocking out finals, kay?” He reached out, ruffling the other’s hair.

“....Okay.” He sounded so young, like his sisters getting over a fit. Mitsuya almost hugged him right there like he’d do with them.

Instead, he cuffed his chin, smiling. “That’s my guy.”

Send me a headcanon and character(s) and I'll write a short 300-500 word dabble for it!

[cryptid-currency]

*crawls out of my hole, foaming from the mouth*

Alright, new Watching and Dreaming promo just dropped

So i'm going to analyse it like I did with Warrior Cats.

I'm not sure whose hand this is. I was thinking Amity in her Hecate costume, but the gloves don’t match up. It has to be someone who has been puppet-ed(?) because of the joints. 

There are pipes and gears sticking out of the walls and floor and the room looks less kept. Interesting thing, the heart (bile sack?) is still pumping, so I’m wondering when this scene takes place and where. Is it the Collector's realm (?) or a dream or maybe a flashback? 

We see light orbs, probably from light glyphs. I feel like the light glyph is going to have some significance, I just can’t figure out how. We also see eyeballs and goop from Belos surrounding and consuming the plant life around them. 

LULU!!!

In a credits photo from FTF we see an image of puppet Lilith and owl beast Eda with King hugging her. In the background is the Collector, who looks worried/sad. I assume he turned Lilith back, knowing she was around. The Collector did not know about Eda though. This means two things. 

The Collector has the power to turn people back 

The Collector is going to find out about King hiding Eda and probably transform Lilith again

Luz is wearing Belos’s outfit. I assume that this episode is going to take place in a dream sequence/altered reality created by the Collector. During this, Luz will take the form of Belos. Belos had betrayed the Collector in the past, being the source of his suffering. Now Luz is the source and the Collector see’s the two in a similar light. 

Directly after this shot we see statues of characters including Principal Bump, Bosha and Mat Tholomule. I don’t know if this is real or if the two shots are connected, but they seem to be because of the lighting of the statues and the red light on the bridge. This bridge also looks like the one Lilith and Eda battled on in S1. 

I have this screenshot saved as GoopBastard.png

It looks like this takes place in the aforementioned throne room, with the decor being similar. We see Raine struggling with Belos goop (ew) while Belos himself escapes. This means that either Belos can control multiple forms or his curse (I assume it's a curse) is beginning to take a form of its own. I personally believe the latter.

I think Raine is going to fight back like we saw Hunter do (maybe they see Eda) and Belos is too weak to put up a real fight so he escapes. 

YOINK

The characters are in different outfits here. Gus is in his grom outfit, Hunter is in his GG uniform, Amity is in her S2 outfit and Willow is in her school uniform. Something to note is their eyes, they all have a dead eyed expression, except for Willow. She looks sad and nervous, like in S1. I assume she is unconscious/cannot move during this scene because this expression does not change. The dialogue before this scene sounds like Willow speaking, saying “you have to wake up!”. 

I think this shot happenes directly after the end of FTF. Everyone is in the same position and they are still in the skull. This is right before everything goes down. The ground is shaking and I assume the Collector is causing it. One small note is Ghost’s expression. 

The dialogue of Luz saying “you know this can’t last forever” caught my attention. I believe this is Luz talking to the Collector. She sounds very genuine and kind here, sympathetic even, and she is. Luz understands wanting to escape into your fantasy world, but also understands that you can’t do that, not forever. 

In this scene Hunter is injured with the others (Amity, Willow and Gus) protecting him from something. I’m not quite sure what to say here, but it feels important. 

This scene is terrifying. If you look you can see King crying or at least tears welling in his eyes. The owl beast also has multiple wings and there is a glow coming from both her and the king's mouths. Looking at the background you can see hand-like roots on the ground, probably Belos. 

I don’t have much to say here, but boy am I crying. This is the reunion we have all been waiting for. It looks like it's taking place in the Collector's realm/plane we saw earlier, judging by the checkered floor and space background. 

Overall, I am really excited for the new episode. As sad as I am to see The Owl House end, I know it's going to go out with a bang. Of course, I would have loved more episodes but the episodes we've gotten are so wonderful and I know Dana and the crew will make the finale something truly special. 

[hongtonie]

i can’t believe i just saw boss with my own fucking eyeballs

[delicatedayzee]

Happy 1 year anniversary to the era’s tour! I was at nights 1 & 2 in Glendale. Here are my thoughts as I was thinking them throughout the show:

“Omg this stage is massive”

“There don’t seem to be any places for her to pop out of.” (Lol)

“Will she even have any dancers?!” (I was a dummy)

“You don’t own me?! Omg what a perfect song”

“It’s a clock!”

“Are those peacocks?”

“MISS AMERICANA?!?!”

“CRUEL SUMMER?! Omg thank god.” (I was so worried she wouldn’t play it for some reason and it was the ONE song I needed to hear so I could relax the rest of the show. 😅)

“She looks like Barbie” 💖

“Oh…the man….great” (not a fave of mine and I truly thought there would only be time for like 19 songs haha)

“Oh ok, we are doing them in eras!”

“Her dancers have a lot of diversity among them in lots of ways, I’m very happy to see this.”

“WE HAVE TIME FOR THE ARCHER?!” (I was thrilled!)!

“Wow the lover era was really long, she’ll only be able to play a few songs from everything else” (HA)

“Oooh sparks, must be speak now” (it was Fearless lol)

“OMG WE GET TO HEAR FEARLESS LIVE”

“TIS THE DAMN SEASONNN?!?!??”

“MARJORIE?!? Of course, this makes sense.”

“Omg I’m so so glad Tolerate made it and that was fire.”

“Damn her rep outfit is amazing”

“Look what you made me do transition and all the old Taylor’s=perfection.”

“Only one Speak Now song?! 😩😭”

*disappointment that there was no Holy Ground*

*elation that she was playing ATW10MV*

“Invisible String?! 🥺”

“LAST GREAT AMERICAN DYNASTY?!”

“DONT CALL ME KID, DONT CALL ME BABY”

“MY TEARS RICOCHET?!?!?” (And wow the visuals of this one)

“Ooh the golf club is back”

“Damn that bad blood fire is hot”

“Holy shit this a long show and she still has midnights and debut left”

“Awww Tim McGraw on piano!” (Truly thought that was the debut era section the first night)

“Holy shit the dive into the stage. SO COOL!”

“We get to hear MIDNIGHT RAIN?!”

“Holy shitttt vigilante shit?! This is hot!”

“Oh so she’s closing with Bejeweled. Cute!”

“Oh, nevermind must be closing with Mastermind.”

“Wrong again, KARMA IS A CAT!”

“How did she do that?! Omg am I going to be able to walk tomorrow? That was insane. I can’t believe I just saw that with my eyeballs. I’m so tired. How did she do that?! How is she going to continue to do that?! Omg I can’t wait to see it again. Omg I’m so proud of her. That. Was. Incredible.”

[killian-whump]

Five Posts I Hate:

#1: This blog is safe for ________.

Like, my blog isn’t dangerous for anyone, aside from fictional characters played by Colin O’Donoghue. It is literally safe for everyone and anyone else. Saying your blog is a safe place for [fill in the blank] kinda implies there are people / groups / individuals that your blog is NOT safe for. And that just leaves me wondering if you’ve got booby traps laid around the place or something. I suppose it would make sense if the blank was filled with “minors” or “work” but I can’t even remember the last time I saw someone post either of those - as that seems more like something you’d put in your header if it was important enough that you wanted people to actually see it when they come to your blog. Otherwise, it would just be pointless one-time posturing, wouldn’t it?

#2: Unfollow me if you ________.

Well, that’s just not how any of this works. Content creators of any kind don’t get to dictate who consumes their content, let alone based on arbitrary things like their personal / political / religious views. I mean, if you have a real beef with someone specific, you can block them, but you can’t ask people to self-censor your content from their view because something they do / believe is unappealing to you. Hitler himself could reanimate his corpse just to quietly follow your blog and there is nothing you can do to stop that motherfucker’s eyeballs from devouring every post you make - short of not making those posts.

Mind you, if people are doing it for the viewer’s benefit (say a whump blog warning folks, “Don’t follow me if you faint at the sight of blood”) then that’s another thing entirely. In that case, you’re warning people that if they ignore your warning, it’s at their own risk. Otherwise, it’s basically saying, “Punish yourself for holding this belief that I find abhorrent” and, like, no one’s going to do that? Why would they? Why should they? It’s 20-fucking-23 and it has always been true that people you don’t like are going to consume and even enjoy your content. Get over it.

#3: Reblog this to show you care about _______.

Fuck you. Just... fuck you. I care about whatever I care about, and it’s my business what those things are. I share them if I want to share them. I leave them unspoken if I want to leave them unspoken. NO ONE should ever assume people care about or don’t care about things based on what they post (or don’t post) on their little internet blog. I could care about an issue with the power of a thousand suns and I still won’t reblog a post that contains this wording or anything like it, because fuck you for implying that anyone who doesn’t reblog your shitty ass do-nothing post on the interwebs doesn’t care about whatever it is your post is about. Seriously. Fuck off with that shit.

#4: Vote for ________.

I’m as apolitical as they come, but I’m all for politically-minded people encouraging others to get out there and vote. I even think it’s great when celebrities support those kinds of messages. I DON’T like it when non-voters are shunned or not voting is treated like an invalid choice for citizens to make, but I’m 100% for people reminding others when an important election is near and giving positive encouragement to take part in the process.

But such messages stop being okay the moment someone starts telling people who to vote for. Now you’re no longer trying to get others actively involved in the electoral process - now you’re trying to game the system by increasing the number of votes your chosen candidate receives. Adding those few words has now turned your entire post into nothing more than political propaganda. EVERY individual has the right - and the responsibility - to vote for whichever options THEY feel are best, NOT the ones YOU feel are best. Encouraging others to read up on all of the issues, candidates, and offices involved is responsible citizenship. Telling them to go vote for your candidate because you said so is utter bullshit.

#5: Tag five friends / blogs...

How ‘bout I tag NOBODY, so I don’t give five people warm fuzzies at the cost of everyone else’s feelings? How ‘bout I tag NOBODY, so everybody can decide whether they want to take part in whatever shenanigans the post is up to? How ‘bout I do whatever the fuck I want and you stop telling me what to do?

[whump-me]

Unburied, Chapter 2

Chapter 2 of Unburied, my contribution to the Whump Girl Summer event hosted by @whumpawoman. Masterpost here.

Prompt: Sick Whumper (alternate prompt)

Contains: defiant whumpee, spy whumpee, friendly whumper, female whumpee, female whumper, fantasy setting, restraints, human sacrifice

---

Kira woke lying on a bed of stone. The soothing coolness against her bare flesh made her let out an involuntary moan. It came out rough and broken. But the sound of her own voice was enough to drag her a little closer to consciousness—close enough for her to be surprised she was alive. And, a second later, close enough for a spasm of thirst to rip through her entire body, so strong she let out another moan, this one full of quiet but desperate pain.

“You’re awake!” a soft voice exclaimed. “I was afraid you wouldn’t wake up. You were practically dead when I found you, you know. You don’t even look that damaged. The healing devices down here really are incredible! I can’t believe they still had any power left in them after all these years. If only that were true for a certain other device down here, I wouldn’t be…” The speaker erupted into hacking coughs, and continued a moment later as if the interruption had never happened. “I wouldn’t be in this little predicament.”

Kira forced her heavy eyelids open. The movement felt like sandpaper scraping against her eyeballs. Slowly, a blurry figure resolved above her. The woman was painfully thin, with half her heart-shaped face taken up by enormous glasses. Behind the glasses, her brown eyes were wide in an expression of perpetual wonder. Messy brown curls framed her gentle face.

She held out a dripping cloth to Kira. She had a thick stone bracelet around her wrist, with a complex symbol carved into it. “Suck on this,” she offered. “It will get water into you slowly, which is what you need right now. If I gave you a drink right now, I’m afraid you’d hurt yourself gulping it down.”

Surely going without the water she so desperately needed would hurt her more. But Kira was too desperate to argue. She tried to snatch the cloth away—but her arm wouldn’t move. She might as well have been welded to the stone.

“That’s not a good idea,” the woman cautioned. “You’re nowhere near recovered enough to start moving around. You almost died out there, didn’t I tell you?”

She pressed the wet cloth to Kira’s parched lips. Kira parted her lips greedily and sucked at the fabric to extract the precious drops of water, not even caring that it tasted of dust and metal shavings.

The water was nowhere near enough. It did nothing to soothe Kira’s thirst, only made her body cry out for more. But a moment later, her mind cleared enough to let her take a better look at where she was. She was lying in an oval stone indentation, set into the floor of a circular room. Far above her, the ceiling rose to a gentle curve, like she was staring at the underside of a teacup. Glyphs in a language she didn’t understand covered every inch of the walls. They reminded Kira of the symbol on the woman’s bracelet.

From her position, she couldn’t see much of the floor. But if she craned her neck as far as it would go, she could just make out a ring of smaller oval troughs all around her, like little bowls. Running between and beyond the bowls, deep lines carved into the stone ran in irregular zigzags to the wall, where they joined up with the glyphs.

Her neck was the only part of her she could move. A band of stone looped across her midsection, holding her down. Smaller bands held her wrists in place, and, she could only assume, her ankles. They looked built into the stone, but of course they couldn’t be.

When she looked up at the woman again, the woman’s kindly expression hadn’t changed. But despite the offer of water, Kira no longer saw her as a friend.

“Can you speak?” the woman asked, her face full of concern. “I did have some concerns about brain damage.” She leaned in closer and raised her voice—although a raised voice from this woman would have been a near-whisper from anyone else. “What’s your name?” she asked in Kira’s ear. “Where are you from?”

It took Kira a moment to realize the woman had a slight accent. The reason it took so long was because she had grown so accustomed to hearing that accent that it was almost more familiar to her than her own. Stosta and Provisha shared a common language, but the people of Provisha spoke with longer vowels, and swallowed their consonants in odd places. This woman was from Provisha.

“Who are you?” Kira croaked. She tried again to push herself to a sitting position, but of course, her efforts were futile.

A relieved grin spread across the woman’s features. “You can talk! I’m so glad. Maybe there’s no lasting damage after all. That would certainly remove one potential complication. Oh—you asked me a question, didn’t you? I’m sorry.” She held out her hand, as if for Kira to shake. “I’m Leila Larkmoor, of Stralmor University.”

The university she had named was the most prominent research institution in Provisha. It was said that applications to study there were by invitation only, and that you had to be in the top one percent of students in the entire country to even be invited. Only one percent of those were actually accepted. Kira couldn’t imagine what it took to hold a research position there.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Leila prompted, and thrust her hand out further toward Kira. Then she shot an abashed look down at Kira’s restrained arms, and blushed slightly as she tucked her arm away at her side. “Well, it’s probably not a pleasure for you. I’m sorry. Although I did save you from certain death out there, so there’s that, am I right?” She shot Kira a hesitant smile.

Kira didn’t return the smile. But she didn’t voice her hostility, either. She blinked slowly up at Leila, as if she didn’t fully have her mental faculties back. “Where am I?” she asked, making her voice thick and slow.

Leila let out a little chuckle. “Oh, you already know that, don’t you? No one would come all the way out here by accident. I’m guessing you’re from Stosta, right? Everyone says we’ve been crawling with your spies lately. It makes sense you’d try to stop us. We thought we had kept the expedition a secret, but, well…” She shrugged amiably.

Kira dropped the slow blinks and the thick voice. “Then this really is the Buried City.”

“Of course it is. What else do you think you’d find out here in this barren stretch of desert? Even the carrion birds know better than to come out this far.”

Kira tried again to get up, even though by now she knew it wouldn’t gain her anything. Maybe her mental faculties really weren’t fully back online yet—ordinarily, she would have known better than to waste her energy on a futile struggle.

Leila shook her head, her smile fading from her face. “I told you, that’s not a good idea.”

“You need to get out of here,” said Kira. “You and everyone with you. I’m sure your superiors told you all the old stories are just myths and superstitions. It’s what my own superiors tried to tell me. But my…” If she said protégé, Leila would dismiss Edri as a mere student, and although Edri was young, she was more gifted at research than she had ever been at fieldwork. “My researcher has spent the past several months doing nothing but studying this place. The stories wouldn’t all say the same things if there weren’t some truth to them.”

She had to fight to get the last couple of sentences out as unexpected grief clogged her throat. She had never wanted Edri to come with her. She had never wanted Edri as a student in the first place. She had never imagined it would hurt so much to lose her.

To leave her.

“Oh, there’s no one else,” said Leila. “It’s only me. And as for the danger, I already know. There’s a reason I didn’t bring anyone else with me.” She frowned. “Although it would have solved a lot of problems, in hindsight.”

Another hacking cough punctuated her words. A few flecks of blood landed on Kira’s cheek. Kira couldn’t wipe them away.

Leila wiped her mouth with a handkerchief. It came away stained bright red. “Believe me, I understand your frustration,” she said. “They just won’t listen, will they? The fools in power, the ones congratulating themselves for dabbling at the very edges of what magic can do, they think it’s nothing more than a powerful technology shrouded in ancient superstition. But some of us know better. Some of us have spent our entire lives studying this. You’d think people would bother to listen to the experts before forming their opinions.” She leaned in and lowered her voice to a whisper. “By ‘some of us,’ I mean one of us. It’s just me. My classmates always told me I would regret not choosing a more lucrative field of study. I wonder if they have any regrets now.” A brief grin flashed across Leila’s face.

“If you’ve studied magic that deeply,” said Kira, “then you know you shouldn’t be here. You know it’s not worth the cost.”

“I respectfully disagree. I haven’t only studied the mechanics of magic, you know. If that had been the only thing I wanted to focus on, I would have been out of luck. There’s just not that much information out there. Most of it was destroyed in the initial purges. What I’ve studied, even more than magic itself, is history. Some of that still survives, if you know where to look. And what humanity was doing a thousand years ago… you couldn’t hope to understand. I’m not trying to insult your intelligence—I can barely understand it, and I’ve been studying ancient civilizations for decades. They may have been a thousand years in the past, but in terms of what they were capable of, they were hundreds of years ahead of us. A thousand years, maybe. The people of Norkhuggak were truly great. Not what passes for greatness now—someone who wins a couple of battles, or wears a crown for a few decades without making any terrible mistakes. When Norkhuggak twitched a finger, the world moved.”

“Norkhuggak?” Kira stumbled over the name.

Leila patted the stone floor under her. “This place,” she said, her voice soft and reverent. “The Buried City.”

“And then the entire world moved to destroy them,” said Kira. “They were willing to pay the price of losing that knowledge forever.”

“They were wrong,” Leila said fiercely. “Humanity has wasted the past thousand years. We’ve spent all that time living in filth, running in circles, getting nowhere, because people are too afraid to look greatness in the eye and accept what it costs.”

“It costs lives,” Kira answered. “Every child knows that.” Without meaning to, she strained against her bonds again.

“Stop that,” Leila snapped. “Please. Don’t exert yourself. I don’t know how fragile the healing left you, and I can’t risk you dying on me. I—” Another coughing fit interrupted her, this one fierce enough to double her over and send a spray of blood across the stone floor. “I need you,” she rasped.

“To power the magic down here,” Kira finished. There was no sense beating around the bush about it. She was strapped down like a sacrifice, like all the stories said. And here was the world’s foremost researcher in magic, claiming to need her desperately. Might as well call it what it was.

To her credit, Leila didn’t bother evading the truth. She nodded easily. “Like I said, I came alone. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I was trying to be noble about it, you see. I was the only one who really understood the danger, so I wasn’t about to send anyone else to poke around down here without a proper respect for the risks. But, well, I am working from incomplete texts that are a thousand years old. There were some essential things I didn’t understand. To make a long story short, there’s a weapon down here that we desperately need, and I can’t power it myself. Believe me, I’ve tried. And it can’t be moved.” Her slim fingers knotted together in frustration.

Entire cities burned to glass… “The weapon that can level a city,” Kira said, even as she was hoping Leila would tell her she was wrong, that no such thing existed.

Leila nodded again. Unexpectedly, a grin split her face. “It’s real,” she said, bouncing on her heels. “It seemed too good to be true, even after all the research I’ve done. But it’s real.”

“You’ll forgive me,” Kira said dryly, “if I don’t share your excitement.”

“I’m sure you understand why we need it,” said Leila. “Stosta isn’t going to just let us get that far ahead of you without a fight. Not to mention the rest of the world, of course, but it’s you people who are the real problem. Your leaders and ours all smile and shake hands and talk about how they’re such good friends, but everyone knows they’re all scared to death the other side will claim their cities for their own as soon as they think they can get away with it. Probably because that’s what they’d do themselves.” Leila shrugged. “But that’s not actually why we need the weapon. We’re not looking to take over the world—we just want to survive. Everyone who realizes how far ahead of them we’ve gotten will see us as a threat, and they’ll try to eliminate us before we can become a bigger one.”

“So you’d rather eliminate them instead,” Kira said. “It seems to me you’re proving their point.”

Leila shrugged again. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I just don’t like to think of myself as the world-conquering type. But the way I see it, we’ve already taken the most drastic step. Believe me, from everything I’ve read, dabbling in magic costs far more lives over the long term than destroying a few cities. And everyone in the cities would die quickly, at least. Did you know Norkhuggak used to keep whole cities’ worth of slaves to power their spells with their deaths? Slow deaths, sometimes, and for trivial magic. I read about the most amazing juggling shows. Powered by human lives—obscene, isn’t it? My point is, magic isn’t something to take lightly.”

“And that’s the world you want to bring back?” Kira ran her fingers over the stone, trying without success to find the locking mechanism.

“It’s better than wallowing in filth for another thousand years, wouldn’t you say?” Leila smiled pleasantly at her, as if he actually expected Kira to say yes.

“Depends on which city you’re in, I suppose.”

“Lucky for us, we’re in Norkhuggak. Well, not so lucky for you, I suppose.” Leila let out another racking cough. “Anyway, I mistranslated something that turned out to be pretty important. I thought I could bind the weapon to my own soul—feed it with my life force, little by little, every time it was used. You see? I’m willing to sacrifice for this. But it turns out the magic doesn’t work that way. It needs to be fueled up all at once, ahead of time. And to do it, you need two people—one to activate the fueling sequence, and one to serve as a sacrifice.” She shot Kira a sunny smile. “I’m so glad I found when I did.”

Kira was glad when another coughing fit interrupted Leila’s prattle. This fit was more vicious than all the others combined. By the end, Leila was on all fours, spitting mouthfuls of blood onto the stone. A string of it dribbled down into the indentation where Kira was lying. It slid under Kira’s arm, hot and slimy.

When Leila was done coughing, she stayed where she was for a few moments more, drawing in deep gulping breaths. “As you can see,” she said in a rough whisper, “there’s no time to waste. Trying to use it on myself had some pretty nasty consequences. Even the healing devices here can’t help me. I need to get the weapon fueled and get back to the capital to report before the damage kills me, and even if we get started right now, it’s going to be close.”

She stumbled away from Kira, toward an arched doorway set into the wall. She leaned against the wall as she shook her head slowly at Kira, her eyes full of sympathy. “I really am sorry about this. Wrong place, wrong time, right?”

The next words Leila spoke didn’t belong to any language Kira knew, or any she could remotely recognize. They barely sound like words at all—just deep sounds coming from impossibly far back in her throat. As she spoke, she touched one glyph after another, in a vertical line beside the arched doorway. One by one, as if in response to her touch and her voice, they lit up with a white glow brighter than the desert sun. Kira squeezed her eyes shut.

Something tugged at her fingers—like a small hand, but less substantial. Pressure, but no texture. Kira opened her eyes again. Nobody was there.

But the sensation didn’t abate. It spread to her other hand, then her feet. Then all over, an army of invisible hands softly but insistently pulling at her flesh. Or something beneath her flesh. Did Kira feel the sensation on her skin, or did it run deeper—to the muscle, to the bone, to the substance of her spirit itself?

The floor all around Kira was glowing now—not as strongly as the glyphs by the door, not enough to make her squeeze her eyes shut again, but bright enough that Kira couldn’t ignore it. It was as if the glyphs by the doorway had poured rivers of light into all the jagged lines carved into the floor, and those rivers had flowed to Kira, where they lapped at the edges of the indentation where she lay. Was this where the tugging was coming from?

Kira strained at her bonds once again—she couldn’t help it. Of course they didn’t budget. And no matter how much her fingers scrabbled at the smooth stone encircling her wrists, she couldn’t find a locking mechanism. The only thing she could do was tense her muscles and brace herself against the soft but insistent tug. No, she told the light silently, even though she knew the force that had hold of her wasn’t interested in listening. You can’t have me. You can’t use me.

She knew what was happening. This was the fueling process Leila had talked about. That deceptively gentle tug was the magic of this room, of this city, the magic so cruel the entire world had come together to bury the city that had birthed it. And it wanted her. It would use her to burn the world into submission, most likely starting with her own home.

She flexed and squirmed, unable to let go of the habit of resistance, no matter how useless it was. She had never given up in her life—although she had come close, out there in the desert. She would not start now.

If she was going to die here, she would die resisting.

Not that it would make a difference.

The gentle fingers turned to claws. They dug into her flesh everywhere they touched, but when she looked at her skin, it was unbroken, without so much as a drop of blood to show for the pain. Something she couldn’t see raked a set of deep gouges into her abdomen. She let out a rough shriek. When she looked down at herself, she could hardly believe the invisible force hadn’t ripped her gut open. Whatever was happening to her, it left no visible signs.

“No, no, no,” Leila muttered, frowning in Kira’s direction. “This is… this is wrong. What’s going on? I thought for sure I had it right this time.”

More claws raked through Kira’s body, down to her heart, her lungs, her guts. Down to her bones. She threw her head back and screamed.

The glyphs flickered madly. Leila ran her fingers across them in a series of quick and rhythmic touches, like she was communicating with them, like she could hear what they had to say in answer. “You’re resisting,” she said to Kira, in the tone of a parent who had just stopped their child from running out into the street—reproach barely covering panic. “That’s the problem. It wouldn’t hurt so much if you wouldn’t resist.”

With an effort of will, Kira stopped screaming long enough to spit in a ragged whisper, “Fuck you.”

“That explains the rest of those instructions,” Leila said, shaking her head, not looking at Kira anymore. “Of course. Stupid, Leila, stupid. That’s what I get for taking shortcuts.” She looked up at Kira, her eyes liquid and pleading. “Come on, stop fighting. Please. You’re going to die either way, so why not make this easier on both of us?”

Because resisting meant maybe Leila’s efforts would fail, and any amount of pain was worth that. But Kira didn’t have the breath to say all that, and anyway, she no longer had the willpower to stop her screaming. Instead, she briefly stretched her lips back in a feral grin.

The claws dug deeper. They sank into her heart. It stuttered in its rhythm. Her grin widened.

“No, no, no…” Leila slammed her hand down on the lit glyphs, one after another, shouting words in that same rough language as before. The light went out all at once.

The claws vanished. The pain remained, but it was like the echo of pain rather than pain itself, like the vivid memory of a long-ago wound. Had the magic done any actual damage? She ached all over, but mostly from her own exertions. If the claws had ripped her up half as much as it felt like they had, she should have been choking on her own blood.

Leila slowly walked back over to Kira. She looked like she was about to cry.

Kira flashed her another grin. “Looks like you’re having almost as bad a day as I am.” Her voice was rough from screaming.

“Not for long,” Leila said. “I can fix this.” She took a deep breath. Her hands tightened to fists at her sides. Slowly, she relaxed her fingers as she let out her breath in a long exhale. “I can fix this,” she said, sounding more certain this time. “There are instructions for preparing a sacrifice properly. I just didn’t understand what they were for. I thought it was some kind of religious ritual. It didn’t seem like it would do much besides cause a lot of unnecessary pain, and I don’t like causing pain when I don’t have to.”

Kira, the memory of those magical claws still fresh in her mind, responded with a wordless snarl.

“But now I understand,” Leila said. “It’s for making you willing, of course! I’m sorry I didn’t figure that out earlier, before I caused you all that extra pain. I know just how it feels—when I tried it on myself, I was in there for a lot longer than you before I shut it down. Horrible, isn’t it?” Leila shuddered. “Now, let’s get you up so we can do this properly. No more shortcuts.” She crouched beside Kira and reached for the stone cuffs holding her in place.

“Let her go,” a shaky but insistent voice ordered from the doorway.

Leila and Kira both went still. Only Leila’s reaction told Kira she hadn’t hallucinated the voice. She knew who it belonged to, of course, but it was impossible.

But when she looked, there was Edri, holding herself up against the doorway.

---

Tagged: @suspicious-whumping-egg

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[project-doomsday]

The Origin of Doomsday

Hello, everyone! I’m EMatooney and welcome to my side blog of my AU project: Doomsday!

As many people from the 2000s, we all had that one weird phase we were into, and that was Invader Zim. C’mon admit it! We all had our fair share of cringe. As for me, I was a HUGE Invader Zim fan. I was completely obsessed as a child, I had scarfs, shirts, I’d even try to dress up as Zim and run around pretending to be him. And… there were also many fanfictions I wrote BUT BESIDES THAT. I was extremely obsessed. But as time went on, I grew out of it and got into other things instead. Zim became a distant childhood memory and a cringey one at that. Everytime I’d think about Zim my whole body would cringe as all those memories would come crashing back. Not fun.

So, that leaves us with one question: How did you get back into it? And the answer to that is:

By sheer embarrassment and self loathing.

Last year I was at my job doing my business when a little thought came into my mind. It was Invader Zim. Immediately I tried to push the thought away but it kept coming back like a little damn cockroach. So, I did what any rational person would do! I decided to draw him. But with a twist. I drew him as how I would perceive him. In the show, Zim is a complete fucking idiot but believe it or not he's actually really good at killing people. No, I’m not kidding! When Zim is actually being competent he can be terrifying! I mean, have you SEEN Dark Harvest?!? Oh, and what about that time when he, oh I dunno, RIPPED OUT KEEF’S EYEBALLS? Or when he did literal dissection on a fetus in HIS CLASS. Or that time he launched a chicken to space while taunting it or turning that man into a squid? Not to mention WHEN HE ACTUALLY KILLED DIB IN ONE EPISODE. Need I say more?

Zim is a monster, he is insane. If you take away those moments of him being an idiot he could be the most terrifying person on the entire show. So, that’s what I drew, a scary, edgy competent version of Zim. And when I saw this drawing something in my head clicked. I… actually like this. That’s when I made the most dumbest idea I’ve ever made in my entire life. The most dumbest, batshit insane idea I’ve ever come up with.

“What if I made an Invader Zim AU?”

And that my friends is how Doomsday was born. Pretty pathetic, am I right? Well, I would say that if I had any sort of sanity left but I’ve fallen this far from grace so to hell with it. Honestly though, even though Doomsday came from dumb idea it’s also a bit of a love letter to Jhonen Vasquez. He’s been thrown in the wringer with Nickelodeon and it’s honestly pretty sad! I mean, imagine you create your own series and you’ve put a lot of love and care into it, right? You put it in and it gets made into a TV show, and as soon as you get to work the higher ups tell you, “Oh, no we can’t have that. That’s too dark for kids, you’ll need to change it.” And they just keep changing your story over and over and over. A story you worked so hard to make, a story that has so much meaning to you and you aren’t even allowed to express your true creativity. That’s fucked up! Fuck Nickelodeon for that! I feel so sorry for Jhonen and all he’s been through. That’s another reason why I made this AU. To somewhat bring Jhonen’s original version of Invader Zim to life with a twist of my own. And also a big middle finger to Nickelodeon, honestly, fuck them.

Now, do I expect this AU to get popular? Probably not. I’d like for it to! Do I expect to get made fun of? Yes. Undoubtedly. And I welcome it.

Even though this series has brought me so much joy and crippling embarrassment, I have to say one more thing. Thank you, Jhonen. Thank you for creating Invader Zim. You have brought me and so many others joy because of your show. Invader Zim has been a major part of my life and has even got me through the darkest moments. Even though I want to punt him across the field like a football, I love Zim and even though he couldn’t invade the world, he invaded my heart. Thank you.

Okay, enough with the mushy bullshit. Sorry for the long drawn out post! It’s something I’ve been dying to share with people. Feel free to ask me questions about the series! I’d love to answer them! I’ll be sure to update and post often so be on the lookout!! Until then, see y’all next time! Love ya! ❤️

EMatooney

[sofiadragon]

I think the rise in toxicity is because of JKR and her political statements. A lot of people have left the fandom because of them. I don't support her views, and I've told everyone in my offline life not to buy Harry Potter merchandise because she's using that money for political activism I find morally wrong, and while politics isn't necessarily fandom... well it's just attracting more of a certain kind of person, isn’t it? Her newer media isn't nearly as popular as the original 7 books and that says a lot, because she wasn't trying to be political when she wrote the first 6 (some Doyalist arguments can be made about 7.)

Many more people left that after JKR made Grindelwald, the big bad Dumbledore became famous for defeating, anti- holocaust and set Dumbledore's goal as preventing him from stopping a genocide for the greater good... well I pretend those moves don't exist, and lots of people never even saw that part because the second FB movie was a bit shit, but who is attracted to that story? People who believe in predetermination, for certain. People who don't think it was a bad thing that that happened - yikes. People who think some lives are inherently more valuable than others. In short: the toxic bitches (gender neutral.)

JKR doesn't like that she wrote a set of books that spoke so much to so many people she doesn't agree with politically, and I think it is very obvious in her more recent work that she's actively working to attract an audience more keen to her politics and values. She wrote about a boy who comes out of a closet at the beginning and overcomes his self-worth issues and abuse to be a hero. She tacked on that much-hated epilog because she was eyeball deep in her own fanfiction and fandom in a way popular writers these days frantically avoid and wanted to make it clear our heros were not revolutionary. They did not want change. Harry et all were fighting for the status quo and heteronormative procreation!

I'm now older than Snape ever got to be, and from what I can see the young people coming into the fandom skew toward that toxic conservative black-and-white morality that the books, for all that they have a cartoonishly evil antagonist in Voldemort, really don't support. Umbridge is a very realisticly evil person, you will meet at least one narcissist like her in your life. Self-centered and thinking that what is good for them is how everyone should live with no deviation or diversity, and she's sane instead of being cartoonish or nuts like Bellatrix. You know, an HOA president. She thinks she is doing a public good, Voldemort does not. That's what makes him cartoonish. There are fully evil characters in these books because they are written for kids.

But on the side of light there are so many gray-morality characters, and not many pure white ones. Those who are pure white are innocent victims with no agency and few details about their personality (Lily, Ariana.) Remus, Snape, Dumbledore, and even Harry does some messed up shit at times. The message of the books isn't about moral purity, it's about doing what is right when you can and choosing the lesser evil when you can’t. They are about a half-breed overcoming a racist society. They are about marginalized people (people with lycanthropy/aids, Tonks with her dead name, Hermione with her 'dirty' blood, Harry from the closet, the poor, Snape the abused) coming together to vanquish the privileged (the rich, the blue-bloods, the establishment, the politicians.)

And man, JKR hates that, but didn't notice that theme was in the books until it was way too late to salvage.

Death of the Author, Watsonian interpretation, whatever you want to call it, her books directly contradict her current political views and it couldn't happen to a better person.

Tbh I feel like most of this fandom is either

Extremely on Snape's side and defends everything he did wrong

Or

Extremely on the marauders side and defends everything they did wrong

But like both of them aren't that good tho? Snape did some questionable things and so did Sirius and James and Remus and Peter and Lily.

The story is told with some of Harry's thoughts so of course the marauders are going to be glorified and Snape hated so you kinda need to just put the facts on the table

I don't think the marauders are better than snape and I don't think he's better than the marauders

Tbh the hp fandom has gotten pretty toxic lately and started shipping kids with adults and sexualizing alot of kids and it's just not good

But idk

you're right in that the general HP fandom (including marauder stans) have this kind of black and white attitude when analyzing characters and their motives, and tend to oversimplify everything and everyone into terms of bad and good.

which is why i've made sure to keep clear from them and only participate in the snapedom, a place with people who think critically and don't sugarcoat, not even snape. they/we always point out snape's faults and how could we not, when they're what make us love him even more

and i'm not saying this out of bias. snapedom is genuinely the only part of the fandom where i've seen people be fair and not use strawman arguments or bullshit fanon theories

[the1975attheirverybest]

HELLO MY DARLING ☀️☀️

Yesterday was everything I could have dreamed of and more, I was one person behind barrier! And the lovely girl infront of me let me stand infront of her and be at barrier for the last song 😭😭😭 I'm still processing it all, I didn't take many pictures or videos because I just wanted to enjoy it in the moment but the boys were AMAZING, and even more beautiful in person. I feel like I'm on such a high I just can't believe they were right there infront of me. Even George didn't seem far away because his drum kit was raised up, I was just to the right so in perfect view of Ross who's hair was shining in the sunset, and of course Matty was amazing and beautiful and so so talented and his voice is so dreamy and Adam was such a vibe with his new haircut and his sunglasses. I could go on all day

I also saw the Jonas brothers who were my teenage fandom so that was also amazing!!

Omg it was the best day of my life I'm going to watch it back on TV today and see if I can spot myself 😂

🌷🌷

OH MY GOSHHHH 🥹🥹🥹💗💗💗 reading this has made me smile SOOO MUCH! I’m so so glad you had fun and got to experience the magic in person 💗💗💗 especially for such a special performance of their first day back after a (VERY) long break amidst the madness. Even for all of us here on tumblr at home watching online it felt so good and refreshing to see the boys. I can’t even begin to imagine the vibe in person.

IM SO GLAD YOU GOT TO BARRIER OMGGGG. MATTY LOOKED LEGENDARY. And he was wearing sneakers too like HELLO BEAUTIFUL MAN. I think I fell in love with him all over again. The white coat and the glasses. My guy was stunning. ADAMS HAIRCUT??? it was all beautiful and I’m so so so happy you got to take it with, like, your own fuckin eyeballs. And they randomly played ICBMIL!!!! how amazing!

[nicnacsnonsense]

If we’re going to have to litigate that statement (I’d just as soon leave it at “Con was trying to express appreciation that the show was about queer joy rather than queer trauma and in the heat of the moment overexaggerated and said something that was wrong”, but if we must) then let’s get his actual quote in here. (Emphasis mine.)

What I love about the show is all the cruelty is directed away from sexuality or gender of the people. So there’s no violence directed toward queer people because they’re queer.

Because when we look at the exact words he said, specifically the inclusion of the words gender and queer and the total absence of the word homophobia anywhere, it becomes clear that Con’s statement is just blatantly inaccurate. I mean just the word gender in there completely shuts down the argument; you can’t say the show is about toxic masculinity and then say no one is the target of cruelty because of their gender. Men being targeted for “incorrectly” performing masculinity are being targeted because of their gender, that’s all there is to it.

But okay, let’s say, oh, we know what he meant, and assume he was just trying to say that no trans people are targeted by transphobic cruelty (true, I believe) and no women are target by misogynistic cruelty (that one’s on thin ice, but for the sake of argument I’ll let it slide). There’s still the matter of the word queer. Con doesn’t say no violence directed at gay people ie no violent homophobia; he says no violence directed at queer people, which puts us in a whole new ballgame. Because even if you want to say that hate directed toward a man for being effeminate isn’t actually homophobia because it’s not about his sexuality, well, then i very much disagree with you but for this conversation I’ll let you have it because it’s irrelevant. We’re not talking about homophobia, we’re talking about queerphobia. And queerphobia absolutely includes gnc people regardless of sexuality. Which hey, it’s that thing Stede and later Ed* are, and are subjected to cruelty and violence because of it. A little boy getting rocks thrown at him because he likes to pick flowers is absolutely the subject of violent queerphobia, end of.

(*caveat that it is my understanding that Taika meant silk robe Ed to be reasonably gender conforming by standards of Māori masculinity, but he still counts as gnc for the culture he was residing in at the time.)

So yeah, Con’s statement is just factually wrong on a very basic level. And that should (it probably won’t, but it should) serve to prove that you can’t just take anything said by just any of the people involved in the creation of a show as absolute gospel. Because sometimes there can be multiple valid interpretations and sometimes different people working on the show might have different understandings of what they’re putting into it and sometimes people can just say things that are just blatantly wrong. You have to watch for yourself and make your own judgements and conclusions.

Which brings me to my final point that frankly I wouldn’t care even if Con did say there was no homophobia. I wouldn’t care if he said he didn’t play Izzy as homophobic. I wouldn’t care if DJ said there’s no homophobia, if Taika said it, if the entire production team all signed a letter saying it. I saw the homophobia, including some from Izzy, with my own two eyeballs; no one can tell me it’s not there.

part of my stance on why i disagree with con’s statement of “nobody is ever targeted with violence or cruelty bc of their sexuality” is “he’s an actor on ofmd, not a writer” but tbh even if David Jenkins Himself tweeted “no homophobia exists within the world of our flag means death” i’d still respectfully disagree bc 1. he’s not the only writer on the show, and 2. this motherfucker didn’t know queerbaiting was a thing. i have all the respect in the world for his skills as a writer but i genuinely would not be surprised if he thought he was writing a story that only commented on toxic masculinity bc he just doesn’t know all the various nuances and different forms homophobia can take. yes “it’s fucked up that society doesn’t let two men share close emotional bonds” is a statement about toxic masculinity but that is ALSO a statement about homophobia. the venn diagram of things that are homophobic and things that are toxically masculine has a HUGE overlapping section in the middle.