#i wish tumblr formatting would let me make actual spaces between sections

[fjoresterthoughts]

It calls me

@fjoresterweek 2021 - Day 4: Modern AU

[AO3]

Jester wakes up to her shoulder being shaken, and all she wants to do is push her face further into the pillow. She can feel the cooler air outside of her warm blankets, and the thought of leaving the cozy warmth is incredibly unappealing.

“Jessie, wake up.” she hears Beau whisper, and Jester finally opens her eyes. The room is surprisingly light, and for a minute she worries she overslept - but the clock beside her bed says it's still very early. 

“What’s up?” she mumbles in response, still incredibly sleepy.

“School’s cancelled. They called a snow day.” Beau says, and Jester shoots up.

“Really??” She exclaims as she runs to the window of their shared bedroom, and sure enough, the snow that started last night had continued heavily all through last night, and had no sign of stopping. The sun wasn’t quite up, but the white of the snow gave everything a soft brightness, including their room. 

Beau grins. “Yeah, I was really hoping they would. I do not want to go to my morning classes in this.”

“Beau, you never want to go to your morning classes.” Jester says, and checks her phone for the cancellation confirmation emails from her professors. 

“True.” Beau confirms as she searches her side of the room for a pair of socks.

Jester pulls her pair of unicorn slippers from underneath her bed. “Let’s go tell Fjord!”

“Shouldn’t we let him just sleep in?”

Jester shakes her head, already heading to the door. “No, he’ll freak out and think he missed his class. Besides, I’m too excited and I wanna tell him.”

Beau and Jester step out the door of their shared room, and walk down the hallway of their apartment to Fjord’s room. They had gotten a two bedroom apartment near campus at the start of the school year, and it had been the best. The three of them met during orientation and had stuck close together ever since. 

Jester knocked gently and pushed the door open to Fjord’s room, who was still fast asleep in bed. His room is much smaller - barely any room for his twin sized bed, his little desk, and a dresser. With Beau and Jester sharing a room and needing space for two beds, they had taken the larger one.

“He looks like a supermodel even when he sleeps, it’s not fair.” Jester whispers to Beau, who just laughs.

This makes Fjord stir, and as he’s slowly opening his eyes, Jester practically jumps on his bed, with Beau following.

“It’s a snow day!! It’s a snow day!!” Jester cheers, and Fjord groans and flops back down after the initial shock.

“For real?”

Beau holds her phone up to Fjord’s face. “Yeah, check it out!”

Fjord looks, and then smirks. “Oh, nice. Also a text from Yasha came down when you were showing me the email.”

Beau pulls her phone back quickly and Jester screeches, trying to wrestle the phone to see.

“Ooooh, what did she say, Beau?”

Beau jumps off the bed. “Fuck off!”

“Fjord! You saw it! What did it say?” Jester asks, still sitting on Fjord’s bed but watching Beau with intent.

Beau turns and walks out of the room. “Fuck you guys, I’m making coffee!”

“Can you make me some too?” Fjord calls out to her, and she affirms but grumbles something about him not deserving it.

Fjord gives a knowing smile to Jester. “I have a feeling that Beau’s not going to spend her snow day with us.”

She grins and wiggles her eyebrows. “She’s gonna spend it with Yasha?”

Fjord makes the same expression back at her, and then starts to get out of his bed. “I’m gonna go use the bathroom before Beau claims it.”

-

Beau does in fact, eagerly take up Yasha’s offer to spend their snow day together, leaving Fjord and Jester in the apartment by themselves with nowhere to be. Jester makes a suggestive joke about her and Yasha staying warm, and when Beau throws one back at her and Fjord, she blushes and is incredibly grateful Fjord is out of earshot.

Jester insists that her and Fjord start their day off by making snow angels and playing in the snow. With them both being west coast kids, neither of them got to do this as children very often. After Jester’s fourth snow angel, she reaches her hands up to ask Fjord to help her up, but instead purposely pulls him down into the snow and their snowfight commences. It mostly consists of snowballs, but tackling is fair game and Jester eventually wins when she makes a running jump onto Fjord’s back, knocking them both to the ground and he falls face first into a snowdrift. Shivering, and with their fair share of snow down their shirts and backs, they finally decide it’s time to go inside and change into warm and dry clothes. 

Breakfast comes next, and it’s the perfect day for pancakes and hot chocolate. Jester would argue that every day is good for pancakes and hot chocolate, but there is something special about a gigantic stack of decked out pancakes and extra marshmallows in your mug on a snow day. 

“Fjord,” Jester starts, biting into the very last of her pancakes, “Do you want to watch a movie?”

“Sure. Can I take a shower first though? I’m still kinda cold from the snow you put down my shirt.” He replies, and takes their dishes and puts them in the sink.

“Of course! I might take one too, I think my hair is a little frozen.”

Fjord interrupts her before she can continue. “Dibs on having a shower first! I don’t want you to steal all the hot water.”

Jester laughs and calls out to him as he walks down the hall. “Think about what movie you want to watch!”

-

After they both have their showers, Jester pulls the duvet from her bed onto the couch and grabs herself a bowl of caramel popcorn, much to Fjord’s dismay.

“Aren’t you still full from breakfast?”

Jester shrugs. “I mean, kinda, but I really wanted popcorn.” She tosses some into her mouth. “I’m assuming you don’t want any, then?”

Fjord shakes his head, and settles onto the couch under the blanket. “Nope! Besides, I wouldn’t have caramel. The original salt and butter is the way to go!” 

“Suit yourself! You’re missing out.”

Fjord turns to her and turns the TV on. “So, what movie do you want to watch?”

“Oh, I’m good with anything. You?”

“Is it weird if I say I want to watch something that takes place somewhere warm?”

Jester laughs. “Of course not!”

Fjord looks a little sheepish. “I just got warm again. I’m not as good against the cold as you.”

“Want to watch Moana?” Jester suggests with a smile. She knows it’s secretly one of Fjord’s favourite movies. 

He grins. “Always.”

They’ve both seen this movie a million times. They sing along to every song, Jester a bit louder than Fjord, and they quote the lines along. Fjord does end up stealing some of Jester’s popcorn, and Jester knows when in the movie to subtly pass tissues over to him because he always ends up getting choked up.

What Fjord doesn’t expect, is that Jester has slowly been inching closer to him. He’s not sure if she is doing it subconsciously or not, but he selfishly likes it. He knows he’s had a crush on Jester for ages, and isn’t entirely sure if she likes him back. Beau has called him out on it, getting tired of the underlying romantic tension, but he’s terrified that if she doesn’t like him back, he’ll ruin the entire house dynamic. He knows he needs to tell her. He’ll tell her at the end of this semester - that way if she doesn’t like him back, she has an easy out if she wants.  

“Fjord?” Jester quietly says, and Fjord forces his attention back to her and the movie.

“Yeah?”

She snuggles in closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder. “I bet it would be fun to go wayfinding. Or even just sailing.”

Fjord raises an eyebrow at her. “Oh yeah?”

Jester hums. “I think it’d be fun. Maybe one day we could go.”

“Well, maybe eventually I can buy or rent a boat and we can sail our cares away. I’ve got some experience, I can show you the ropes.” He replies softly, almost wistfully.

He feels Jester smile against his shoulder. “I hope so. I’d really like that.”

She then pulls herself even closer by casually draping her legs across Fjord’s under the blanket, almost sitting in his lap. He pauses for just a moment before wrapping an arm around her, gently tucking her into his side and she happily melts right into him. His heart is fluttering about in his chest, and any thought of the outside cold is far, far away from his mind.

--

It’s much later in the afternoon when they’re working on their papers and readings in their respective rooms, and Fjord hears Jester bounding down the hallway, calling his name repeatedly and incessantly. Before he can even ask what’s up, she appears in his doorway.

“Fjord! You’re not doing anything for reading week, right?” She asks, almost breathlessly.

“Uhh, no? Probably just ending up being an awkward third wheel to Beau and Yasha when I’m not working, why?”

Jester is practically bouncing. “Wanna fly back home for the week? To the coast?”

“What?!” He says in absolute shock. “What do you mean, I don’t think I can afford-”

Jester interrupts him. “No, no! I was just talking to my dad, and…” She takes a breath. “So, after watching Moana I kinda missed home a bit? Like being by the ocean and beach? I mean this snow has been super fun and I love it, but I kinda miss home a bit, too, you know? So I’m on the phone with my dad and I told him I was maybe wondering about coming home for reading week in a month, and he offered to pay for my ticket! And THEN said I could bring a friend too if I wanted.”

Fjord’s shock has only grown. “That’s expensive! We can’t accept-” 

Jester cuts him off again, trying to calm him down. “It’s ok, it’s ok! One of the tickets is through his like, flying points! And he has to make up for all the birthdays and holidays he missed when he wasn’t around. Do you want to come? We’ll stay with my mom so we don’t have to worry about a place to stay.”

Fjord is truly stunned, still processing. “I mean, if he’s sure… that’s very generous of him.”

Jester jumps up, and throws her arms around his neck, giving him a little kiss on the cheek. “Wonderful! I’ll go let him know!”

Fjord blushes. “Thank you. For inviting me, and tell your dad I sincerely thank him.”

Jester beams, and starts singing “You're welcome!” as she walks down the hall back to her room. 

Fjord leans against his desk and places his head on his hands, still making sense of what just happened and what’s ahead of them. Jester’s (potentially) mob boss father just paid for their plane tickets to go home and they’ll be staying at Jester’s famous actress mother. But more importantly...

He’s going, with his crush, on a week’s trip back home with just the two of them. Who just gave him a kiss on the cheek. 

Surely everything will go just fine.

[votederpycausemufins]

it's been a while since I posted a chapter. Would someone like to tell me wtf is up with tumblr's post formatting? who changed it? i don liek.

Well, the first section gave me major writers block but the rest was smooth sailing. well, other than the fact i was delayed from kinda graduating. I am a very happy muffin due to that, and now you can deal with writing from someone with a gd degree, so take that or whatever.

Remember to check my pinned post to find all the chapters for this fic if you need a refresher.

and lastly since this is a hermit tommy au fic, thanks to @petrichormeraki for first creating the au.

Xisuma landed on what should have been the shopping district, but instead of the terraformed mushroom island filled with buildings, it was a plains area with creeper holes littering it and a few simple and broken builds. There was a cracked nether portal, not able to let anyone through, but still humming with magic, something that worried Xisuma more.

Tommy had been living with the Hermits for a good amount of time. At first he was terrified of all of them, Xisuma especially, but over time he was able to relax and feel safe. Tommy had also shared some of what was going on before ending up in Hermitcraft, but they all knew it had to be worse than he was describing it. But this was even worse than Xisuma thought if it was all real. The large open space meant it was easier for mobs to spawn, worsened by the lack of structures for safety. Then factor in the damaged portal, and things could get… messy.

Xisuma was used to hearing his own voice come from elsewhere, whether from recordings, or from his brother’s mouth, but neither of those should have been around. But as he approached the log walls of what fit the description of what Tommy’s home had been in exile, Xisuma still managed to hear someone talking that sounded too much like himself. And then when it stopped, there seemed to be a quiet reply from Tommy.

Though the walls of Logstedshire stood fairly well, everything inside the wall was gone, replaced with a deep hole from who knew how many explosions. And standing in the center of it all was Tommy, a copy of Xisuma right behind him.

Not wanting whatever was happening to continue, Xisuma slid down into the pit, running over to Tommy and the fake, calling out for the teen. Tommy looked up, then between the admin and his copy before the copy seemed to whisper something in Tommy’s ear.

“Hey! Get away from him!” Xisuma called out, wishing he had some way to easily separate the imposter and Tommy. Even more so when he finally reached Tommy and the teen flinched. “What were you saying to him? What did you do?”

Sure, Xisuma could be a bit of a derp, and while he knew the ins and outs of actually being an admin, in practice he wasn’t always the ‘best admin’ as everyone claimed he was, the start of season six being an example of that. But when it came to his hermits, he hated the idea of them getting hurt on his watch. Especially the younger hermits. If he had a way to keep them safe, he was going to try it. So seeing Tommy like this, especially due to a copy of himself, really hurt.

With a few quick movements, Xisuma moves Tommy to him and his own body between the teen and his copy. Tommy was covering his ears and had his eyes squeezed shut, his body tensed. Xisuma wasn’t sure how to help with any of that, too worried about making it worse, so he went to look at the other version of him again, only to find them gone.

After whirling around to look just about anywhere, the imposter seemed to really be gone, which on one hand was good to not deal with, but also worrying, as Tommy could be more likely to mistake him as the fake Xisuma. 

“Tommy. Tommy, Tommy. Can you tell me what I was just saying?” He asked while carefully pulling one of Tommy’s hands away from his ears. Sure, the easy thing to do would be to claim everything the fake said was a lie, but after one too many hermits having come to him in the past convinced him otherwise. Tommy’s former admin had isolated Tommy like this, hurt him, then claimed that they alone were Tommy’s friend. And the teen was in a situation where he was desperate enough to believe it. So in saying the imposter was lying, they could have not been and were just twisting truths.

‘ban.’ Was the only word Xisuma could hear from Tommy. He had said more, but they were too quiet to be heard. “I said I was going to ban you?” Xisuma asked to be sure, and Tommy nodded. “I would never ban you.” And then Xisuma was reminded of how this place worked. It was based on what the other person thought or believed in. On one hand, that fact hurt, but it was only because Tommy had been hurt so much already. “Other than me saying it, why would you believe that?”

Tommy flinched at the question, likely interpreting it as accusatory. He spoke again, but had to repeat himself, Xisuma finally catching the word ‘brother’. Immediately Xisuma’s thoughts went to Grian, him being the one they were after, but Xisuma still asked which brother, only to be shocked when his own brother’s name was spoken. He was quiet, trying to figure out what to say while also keeping his emotions in check. “I… you’re right. I have banned him before.”

Tommy tried to pull away from Xisuma, and while he loosened his grip, the admin didn’t let Tommy go fully. “I know, I’m sorry. Tommy, I’m sorry it’s hard to believe, but I would never ban you. Especially after what happened with my brother. He… he had been a pain since we were in season two. Trying to destroy the world again and again. The closest I got to banning him before had been trapping him in a lava pool until he left on his own.” Tommy tensed and X quickly clarified. “Xannes is immune to fire and lava. I think due to his hacking.” And that seemed to calm Tommy down a little bit.

“I said he couldn’t come back until a certain time. He wasn’t officially banned, he just followed the unofficial rules.” Xisuma then smiled for a moment. “I helped him a bit and he hung around season five for a time. Made a friend, told me a little about his own server, which I now know is Hels.” And with the mention of the somewhat alternate reality, his smile went back to a frown. Sure Tommy couldn’t see the admin’s mouth behind his helmet, but the sadness in his eyes was enough. “In season six, he was back to being evil again. And one day I couldn’t deal with it anymore. So I did what the others had suggested multiple times in the past, and finally banned him. I… didn’t know what would happen.”

“For most things outside of Hermitcraft, if I needed to ban him, I would. Done it a few times with some solo worlds. He’d of course always find a way back in. And then hermitcraft himself, he’d find loopholes in unofficial bans. But when I actually banned him, it all went wrong. Normally it sends you to what is considered your home world. If that place was the one you were banned from somehow, you would be sent to the world you frequent most after that. When I banned my brother, he was mostly living in Hels at the time, so, when I banned him, whatever natural magic tried to move him there didn’t work, trapping him in the void. I didn’t even find out until a bit after he escaped, and he was immediately upset at me. I don’t blame him for that though.”

“But because of all that, unless the situation is dire, I’m not planning to ban anyone again. And I doubt I’ll have much reason to.” At this point, Tommy had mostly calmed down, so Xisuma was able to look him in the eyes. “Sure, maybe you’re not the ‘ideal’ hermit, but who is? Doc finds a break in reality to exploit at least once a month, Mumbo’s machines create time distortions that affect anyone nearby, and Grian’s likely created more chaos than any one hermit on their own. I’d never consider banning you and if for some ungodly reason I tried what your last admin did and sent you to a place like this, the Hermits would come to visit you anyway.”

Tommy pulled away slightly. “You’re still admin. You could make them stay away.”

“Tommy, has anyone ever told you about someone named GenerikB?”

Tommy shrugged. “Maybe? Sounds sort of familiar.”

“He was the original admin. Hermitcraft is named after him like how your old world was named after Dream. But he only made it because he was jealous he wasn’t invited to a different world. Then once he was allowed there, we didn’t have an admin. And not having an admin for a while can be dangerous, so eventually I offered. I had some experience before and I especially started learned more after the fact, but from the start I was only admin out of nessity. Legally, I’m listed as admin, but I’m not the only hermit who has admin abilities in the world and I normally just act as any other player. Remember back when you first joined, you were around Grian so much, you didn’t know I was admin.”

Tommy nodded to that, but still was looking away from Xisuma. “You’re still admin… Dream didn’t have his fancy powers, but he was still admin.”

“That’s true.” Xisuma agreed. “I’m sorry. I wish I had whatever words would reassure you. To be completely honest, I’m a little hurt.” And out of the corner of his eye, Xisuma could see Tommy suddenly look back at him, likely worried he had messed up. “I’m hurt I didn’t notice that you were hurting this much. We’ve all been dealing with what scares us here, if the other things we’ve gone through are any indication. Obviously you’re still worried about me turning out like your old admin. I’m sorry I never noticed you felt that way. I don’t know if I could have ever helped it, but I want to care for all the hermits. And that includes you.”

It was quiet for a bit before Tommy spoke up again. “It’s not just ‘cuz you’re admin. The Dream SMP was just really fucked up. My friends abandoned or betrayed me, those that didn’t do either got killed, the one person who said they were my friend was pretending and manipulating me, and my family was fine to pretend I don’t exist. ‘Course I’ve been hanging out with Grian since he’s pretty pog and right up my alley with his pranks and shit, but he’s always around Mumbo and the bots. The bots always called you their grandpa, which I thought was because of the whole shit with you being admin or whatever, but then one time I heard Mumbo calling you dad.”

That last bit seemed to be news to Xisuma with how much it surprised him, and Tommy made note of that, but otherwise kept talking. “My guess is because he was around my age when he showed up or whatever. Basically grew up here. There. Whatever. But before then, I was fucking fine, I was dealing with it. But I’m practically family with them and then he spouts the bullshit of you being his dad and… suddenly you’re like family, friend and admin all shoved into one, and none of those worked out for me.”

“And you started waiting for the other shoe to drop again.” Xisuma finished for Tommy, who nodded. “If you would like, when this is all done, I can leave you alone. If you want something else, you don’t have to contact me directly, you can ask someone else to do it for you.”

“Thanks.” Tommy replied, quietly, the spoke up again in a sadder voice. “This was stupid. I was just stuck here and everyone had to go through more traumatic shit.”

“That’s not true. You’ve told us about this place. I and the others have seen how your’re- …you have a distaste for plains biomes. Just being here must have been bad enough. Not to mention whatever was going on before I arrived.”

“What about the others?”

“Well I was the only one able to get here, I think because of my being an admin, though Wilbur was able to see something on what was going on here.”

“Ghostbur was one of the people who was in e-exile with me.” Tommy explained, struggling to say the word directly.

“Ah, well, that explains that. Now, would you like to go over to the others? Or do you want to start by going elsewhere that’s quiet to calm down first?”

“Can we do the first one?” Tommy asked, and Xisuma nodded, then asking whether they wanted to fly or for him to teleport, which Tommy picked the latter option.

Xisuma took them to the replica of Cleo’s base, the zoo setting being one that Tommy enjoyed normally and seemed to find calming enough in the present. The pair took some time to ground the teen, trying to think of topics less related to the current issue, but Xisuma knew that there was still something going on, since they were still stuck in this imagined scenario’s world. “So, what do you think the others are up to?”

.

.

.

“Alright, so you’ve got a lot of hybrids and shifters in Hermitcraft, right? Like you’re a creeper hybrid.” Paul spoke up. They had been waiting a while, so he had been trying his best to keep the conversation going and not make the wait seem so long.

“Yeah.” Doc agreed. “And I guess also cyborg at this point. Before you ask, the goat horn is just cosmetic like the metal one.”

“Got it. And I know Bdubs has latent genes. Anything come up yet?”

“No, not yet. He’s still holding out hope. You know I’ve taken a couple looks at him.” Doc paused, thinking something over before speaking again. “To be honest, season 5 was… a mess in more ways than one, but it was the first time something tried coming out. At least it seemed like it.”

“So something jungle or arboreal based most likely. Ever talk with Joe about it?”

“Nah, he may know more in general because of the, y’know, Herobrine thing. But he doesn’t know anything about that.”

“That’s a shame.” Then Paul went over what he knew. “Well, let’s see, so you and Bdubs are both hybrids, Joe’s a higher being. I know Beef’s just human.”

“Hey, I don’t think you can call any of us Hermits ‘just human’ man.”

“Well, it terms of the scale, yeah he’s human, unless I’ve missed everything from the past however many years.”

“Nah man, you’re right. Beef’s essentially just human.”

The two walked along a bit before Paul spoke again. “So, you’re friends with Ren, who’s a shifter, but says he’s a werewolf most of the time.”

“Yeah, he’s fine with that term. He just dealt with a lot of hybrid stigma growing up so it’s easier to have people call him a werewolf instead of going at old wounds.”

“Makes sense. Now let’s see. Grian’s obviously an avian, based on what I know he’s more on the shifter side of things?”

“Honestly, who knows man. Watcher stuff makes it weird. Normally he stays the same but it’s when that Watcher stuff happens. And apparently that happens with any Watcher, human or being.”

“Got it. Well your admin’s a voidwalker. Tommy might have latent genes from his heritage, but he might just be like Wilbur and just be human. Keralis I’m ninety percent sure is human.”

“More sure than we are.” Doc replied, half laughing.

“Zedaph’s a sheep hybrid as well as being the Reaper. He’s friends with… Tango and Impulse I believe? The first of which is netherborn and the second is… are they human?”

“Yeah Tango’s netherborn, but Impulse is actually a demon.”

“No kidding.” Paul said, a little surprised, but ended up just nodding his head, accepting it as fact. “Oh, is Biffa still around?”

“No. He left. He’s ended up more secluded than you. But it’s fine. He needed the break.”

“Well I hope he’s doing well.” Paul paused as EX walked over. “Any updates?”

“Ugh, no. Either Xisuma has forgotten, the derp that he is, or he can’t actually change it to let any of us in. So he’s stuck out there alone with Tommy to fix things.” The Xannes looked between Doc and Paul. “What are you talking about?”

“Well I thought I’d ask Doc if Bdubs’ latent genes had come out yet.” Paul explained.

“Alright?” EX just looked more confused, then turned to look towards Doc.”

“Bdubs is a hybrid, but we don’t know what of yet. Then we just started covering what all the hermits are since half of us aren’t really human.”

Xannes looked back and forth between Doc and Paul before huffing. “Fine, just leave me out of it.”

As the hels walked away, Doc chuckled. “Well sort of obvious. He and X are brothers.”

“Yeah… Well, let’s see who’s next. Oh, right. How could I forget Etho?”

“Because of the fact that no one actually knows? Even with some actual testing, I still don’t know because he manages to screw up the results.”

“I’d suggest it could be magic, but that’s, what, Scar Cub and… Her name was Stress, right?”

“Yeah. Some vex dealings and then fae lineage with Stress. She and Impulse get on well enough though.”

“Good to hear.” Then Paul counted on his fingers, knowing the number of hermits, but not recalling off the top of his head how many he had named compared to how many he knew. Then, he seemed to remember more and snapped his fingers. “Right. Cleo. Easy enough to just say zombie hybrid, right?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Then Jevin. He’s aetherkind, right? Modded world? Swet hybrid?”

“Yeah, you know your stuff. But I mean, he’s the obvious one.”

Paul had to take a moment to realize what Doc meant. “Right! Wels. Also Aetherkind as counterintuitive that is.”

“Yeah. Named after the dimension his home doesn’t even naturally belong in. I’m sure someone out there has it the other way around.”

Paul shrugged. “Maybe. Then you’ve got TFC who’s at least partially an ancient with what I know. And everyone else except Mumbo is human.” Doc was silent for long enough that Paul doubted what he had just said. “Wait, are one of them not human as well? Sorry, Your letters always implied-”

“Mumbo’s human too.” Doc spoke, making him and Paul stare at each other like the other of them was crazy.

“No… He’s a being. Latent hybrid maybe. But I can tell something’s there.”

“But he’s not like Etho. There’s no way he’s messed with the results.”

“Then something’s up. Maybe if he had stayed in Hermitcraft, I could concede being wrong. But he’s been with us the whole time. I know he’s something. You know I know.”

“Yeah well…” Doc stood back up. “For once, I think you’re wrong.”

As Doc walked off, Paul looked over to where Mumbo stood, getting into a small argument with EX. “And I know I’m right. I just don’t know the full answer.”

.

.

.

Things had not gone that well when Grian and the girls got back to the castle. Finding Aven hadn’t helped much. It was frustrating enough with him calling them ‘Grifter two’ ‘yellow Nightmare’ and ‘Wile’s kid’ the entire time, but anything he knew about The Dark was shaky at best since he was mixing up facts and sometimes sprinkled in unrelated information. They tried piecing some stuff together after the talk to learn that the place has some sort of stupid strong creature guarding the place you first showed up in, and you had to kill it to get anywhere else. How to get anywhere else was the question because then Aven started talking about a ‘Finny’ and the Warden Soul and maybe a gateway? It was practically incomprehensible, so eventually Flora was the first to give up and dragged Astrid and Grian away so they could rest for tomorrow.

They woke up bright and early, or maybe even dark and early because the sun wasn’t even up yet when the door to the room in the castle they were staying with was broken down. Astrid and Grian woke up easier than Flora did and were quicker to notice that there was someone else in the room that wasn’t supposed to be there. The lights were turned on and Grian was even more freaked out to see a dragon standing in the middle of the room. It had black eyes that contrasted against its toxic green scales that screamed danger. For a moment he wondered if this is how he was finally going to die, when he was more upset if it was going to be embarrassing as, in an almost cartoonish fashion, a tiny bipedal goat walked from behind the dragon, their legs moving in a near blur as they moved at a normal walking pace.

“H-hello?” Grian asked, not sure how to react to the current situation. He was trying to have a nice greeting but it just came off terrified. The goat seemed to notice this and turned to the dragon, waving one of their little cloven hooves, hands? Whatever they were, and the dragon suddenly shifted into a more hybrid form, scales seeming to change into a royal looking jacket and the black eyes becoming cracked sunglasses. “R-right, that’s less terrifying.”

“Slatt!” The little goat man spoke up, then continued with some loud chewing noises? Grian had gone so quickly from terrified to extremely confused he had a bit of whiplash. Some other phrases the tiny thing had were ‘Kiddie.’ ‘They thought I was gay.’ ‘Rice man.’ and also some slurping noises? Eventually they were stopped when Astrid threw her bat, er, umbrella at them, opened up the side room’s door, and brought out Jane. “Kiddie! Kiddie! Slatt!”

The goat man grabbed Jane’s hand and left the room, and the dragon hybrid nearly did too before the door shut on its own. The dragon looked back towards the trio, hand changing into claws before they were bonked on the head with a pillow by Flora. “Next time Toob wants something from us, he can ask us himself instead of sending you two.”

“We were visiting anyway. World is shut for a reset, so we’re here for the day. Slatt was very upset to learn our granddaughter was missing.”

“Ah, so you’re whipped is what you’re saying.” Flora huffed. “It was a goddamn prank. She was fine. Silski and Astrid are good enough… acquaintances that he could have shown up or gotten Toob to send a message for him., made this simpler.”

“Oh well, guess we were too rightfully concerned.”

‘I hope you choke on a sweet roll.’ Astrid signed, but it didn’t seem the dragon hybrid knew sign since he just nodded and left.

After that, Flora fixed the door and the trio tried to get back to sleep, and at the very least she was able to, but Grian and Astrid, not so much. And that was about where they were now, lying in the dim light, listening to Flora snoring. Fortunately, it was easy enough to have a silent conversation. ‘You can’t sleep either?’

Astrid frowned, not immediately signing back. It gave Grian a chance to actually look at her, since she didn’t wear her mask to bed. She was still mostly encased in her hoodie, but grian could at the very least see everything below her eyes, noticing a few freckles on her cheeks and the bridge of her nose as well as a few scars littering her face. Her lips looked a bit chewed up, but otherwise there weren’t any fresh wounds, which was slightly comforting to know those scars probably weren’t recent. ‘Not really. Not a fan of getting barged in on.’

‘You too?’

‘When your brother is the admin, no locks can keep him out.’

‘I stopped locking the door because they kept getting broken and we couldn’t afford it. Just had to live with getting barged in on.’

‘It sucks’

‘Yeah it does. Though a friend of mine managed to get something set up so we had one day to ourselves.’

Astrid just nodded, seeming to think something over before signing again. ‘My sister’s like this too.’

‘Yeah, I knew about the animal thing. What’s the sign for HYBRID?’

Astrid quickly showed Grian the signs related to hybrids before giving some clarification. ‘Vee and I are both adopted. Our dad was in a shitty situation growing up, so he ended up finding us, saw the shit we were dealing with, and decided we were his kids now.’

‘Oh, that sounds cool.’

‘Yeah. Vee mainly lived with her actual mom when she was little. Her dad was out of the picture, which sucked because her mom was fucking horrible. Liked exotic pets, decided a five year old was perfect to look after them.’

‘That sounds horrid.’

‘Yeah’ Astrid signed, nodding, ‘So she only really associates animals and their parts with danger and bad. Claws and beaks hurt, ears and nose track her, tails trip her up, wings hit her, etcetera.’

‘Yikes. At least I could hide my wings if I tried meeting her. Doesn’t seem like Flora can do that.’

Astrid shook her head, then looked over to Flora. ‘Well, we should try to get a little more rest like her.’

‘Yeah, thanks for letting me talk. Or- you know.’

Astrid gave Grian a thumbs up, then rolled over and pulled the blanket she was using back over her. Grian looked over at her for a few more seconds before doing the same and before long, he managed to get to sleep again.

.

.

.

Hours later, Grian had been led to the foot of a giant temple thing. It was sort of like if someone had shoved a snow tower on top of a pyramid of ice, but also giant as hell. Though he still didn’t know how Cerus really was, one look at this place made him get some ideas. It also didn’t help that just before stepping into the perimeter of the place, both Astrid and Flora drew their weapons, leaving Grian to do the same.

As they walked through, Flora seemed the most alert, her ears swiveling every which way to catch any sound she could. Grian was also hoping that he could pick something up since based on what little he knew about hybrids, most if not all also had heightened senses of some sort. But it didn’t seem to work out when he looked in the opposite direction of the other two and only noticed one of the stone statues was different not even a second before it grabbed him.

The girls pointed their weapons at whatever Grian was being held by, but didn’t get a chance to attack before Grian started kicking and managed to hit a weak point enough to get away. Turning, he was finally able to get a good look and see it wasn’t a stone statue. Though shaped like the other statues, it was metallic, and also seemed to have some sort of pink cloak over it. Lastly it seemed to have ruby eyes, like no, it wasn’t a red color, but actual rubies as its eyes.

“Cerus.” Flora spoke up, and even though it should have been obvious, Grian was still a bit surprised that this was the person they had come to see. “Look we just owe someone and they cashed it in to make us get info out of you. We would have loved to ask Aven, but he’s…”‘No brain cells.’ “Yeah he’s got no brain cells.”

“What information could you possibly think I would give away?”

“We’ll fight you for it if need be.”

“Wait, no I don’t agree to this.” Grian spoke up.

“Smart kid. Fine,” And Then leaned down and spoke in a babying voice. “What do you think I’m gonna tell you about?”

“The Dark. You’ve been there, and my uncle opened it up again, but we don’t know what’s on the other side and Astrid’s older bother already fucked with it.”

“Older bother?” Cerus asked, a metallic eyebrow raising, making Grian wonder how that was supposed to work.

“I can’t think of a better way to insult him. Suggestions would be lovely. I stuck all my brain cells on a trio name and Wassa ended up being the one to pick it.”

“Oh. That explains it. He wants a catalyst or some growths, doesn’t he?”

“Yeah, essentially.” Grian spoke up, not sure if when Cerus turned to look at him, they were glaring or not, because the eyebrows could move, but the gem eyes didn’t change shape at all. “I had some weird shit on my wings, we got it looked at because it was mushroomy, and now he wants more as payment. Or more, he just wants to know if he’ll get permakilled to get it.”

“Oh, well that’s simple enough.” Cerus said with a slight chuckle. “I’m sure Flora-” “Fleur.” “Whatever. Your uncle fixed it properly. Nightmare was still fucking around so things would have been broken there. The only thing that would screw things up is if the place closed up again while you were in there. Respawns were working fine until that happened.”

Astrid and Flora were fine with the information and started to leave, but Grian hesitated. “Who didn’t get out? Was that Aven? Is that why he’s a ghost when no one else is?”

Cerus was taken aback for a moment before huffing. “I heard that there was supposed to be a younger Grifter about, but I didn’t realize you would be just as nosy.”

“Sorry… I was just curious.”

Cerus crossed his arms and the rubies seemed to glow for a moment, maybe in anger or something, but then he sighed. “Someone… working with us got trapped in there when the place first got locked down. That was their punishment similar to Aven’s… current situation was his punishment and my consistent residence in this world is mine.”

“You mean you can’t leave?”

“That’s correct.” Then he looked at Flora, definitely glaring this time. “You can thank a relative of yours for that. Not your grandfather.” He tacked on at the end when Flora started to open her mouth.

‘Well I think that’s all we need. Aven had enough wits about him to mention there’s a monster on the other side. We just needed respawn info.’

“Well I’m glad I could help you so you won’t just stick around bothering me. Now, leave before I make you.”

And not wanting to test the patience of the statue man, Grian grabbed Flora and Astrid and ran them out of there. “So, I guess we got what we needed?”

“I mean I think? Now I’m wondering who in my family Cerus dealt with?”

Grian’s wings twitched slightly and the mycelium grew a little quicker for a moment. Neither of the other teens noticed, instead focusing on his following question. “Does… Does the name ‘The Warrior’ mean anything? I ran into Aven before since I’m living in the castle, and he mentioned that name.”

“Ugh, yes it does.” Flora grumbled. “Great Uncle. Also death, but in his own way. He’s the chicken guy. Well, the big reason they’re a death omen.”

“Ah, I guess that makes sense. Speaking of chickens, let’s get home. I want to make sure Sally’s fed well enough. She keeps not wanting to eat normal food but instead he’s getting into people’s chests and eating icestone?”

“That’s weird. But yeah, you can figure that out, I think I want to ask Grifter about the guests we’ve got.”

‘And I should check in with dad. Meet up in a few hours?’

And the teens parted ways to meet back up later at the castle, though while Flora and Astrid did as they said, Grian didn’t make it to Sally, someone else getting there first.

.

.

.

“Hey, there they are!” Techno shouted, getting everyone’s attention. They looked to see Xisuma and Tommy in the distance, walking towards them. Tommy looked a little tired, leaning against Xisuma who was helping keep the teen up, and at the very least they could see Tommy’s mouth moving sometimes, so there was probably some sort of conversation going on.

The first person to run over to the pair was Grum, who when he reached them, tackled Tommy with a hug with enough force he almost fell over. After that, Xisuma picked Tommy up and just teleported them the rest of the way to the group before helping him sit down. “So, what took you so long?”

Xisuma rolled his eyes at his brother before hugging him, which just left Xannes frozen with surprise even after the hug ended. “Tommy just needed to talk for a while and I talked with him.”

“If that’s all he needed, why are we still stuck here?” Phil asked, getting a jab in the ribs from Paul, hand enough to leave him doubled over from getting the wind knocked out of him. He was still able to flip him off before fully recovering, though it wasn’t helped by Tommy nudging him enough to cause the avian to fall over. “What the fuck was that for?”

“I’m getting a new dad.” Tommy answered, Getting a confused look from Phil once he realized Tommy was serious and not just making a joke.

As Phil started to open his mouth, Xisuma stepped in and held a hand up to silence him and then gestured to Tommy. “Give him a chance to talk.”

It took a bit before Tommy got the confidence to actually speak. Before he got any words out, Mumbo had his hands over Grum’s ears, almost sensing just how vulgar Tommy was about to get. “Look. I went through a lot of shit that you three didn’t give a fuck about. Tech was acting like a cunt from almost day one with his bullshit about anarchy as if that shit had anything to do with the crap we had to deal with growing up. Wilbur was a pussy that gave me ptsd well before that green bitch did shit to me. Like I looked up to you and you treated me like shit and then were too much of a pussy in the end to kill yourself and made dad did it first. And then Dad, you showed up because you only fucking finally paid us enough goddamn attention to figure out the bullshit we were dealing with from that green motherfucker, but you still acted like a dick and shut yourself away and didn’t give a shit when I disappeared. I’ve got no fucking clue how true it was, but I’ve heard from at least someone that you and some others thought I fucking deserved what I got. You only gave a fuck when you thought I killed myself because you suddenly realized you were down to one kid and maybe realized that maybe you could be less of a fuckface and try to fix it, only managing to screw me over more. Because because of you guys, I might have gotten an actual goddamn good family but I was so fucked over, I thought they would be just as shitty as you three. So yeah, maybe you’re technically still family, but I’m getting my own fucking peace of mind and getting Xisuma to adopt me or some shit so if you fuck things up again, I’m not stuck with you people.”

There was a bit of shocked silence as people tried to comprehend what just happened before Paul shook Phil’s shoulder a little to pull him from his thoughts. “Well… fuck, I can’t really just apologize to fix that.” Phil started but then sighed and nodded. “But fine. I’m sure if I said no, you’d still do it. I already dealt with a bit of a mess with Wil and Fundy, I don’t want to deal with another, so go ahead.”

“Well fuck that!” Grum spoke up, getting a quick scolding from Mumbo. “Family’s weird but I’m still calling you my brother like we covered before. Stop trying to be an uncle because it’s not working on me!”

Mumbo went to scold Grum again, but Tommy just laughed and ruffled Grum’s nonexistent hair. And that seemed to do it, because in a few moments, the scenery changed, and instead of the enlarged base, all but one of them found themselves standing in a sort of cross between residential and shopping districts that looked unfamiliar to most of them, but clearly overgrown. The cheerful tone immediately shifted to a more grim one as simultaneously, Paul, Mumbo and Xisuma all spoke. “This is Doc’s.”

[theeeveetamer]

Scarlet Blaze Liveblog, Chapter 5

It got rid of my extra spaces when I hit post :( Why do we live? Just to suffer?

SPEAKING OF SUFFERING! Holy shit the new Tumblr beta editor REALLY fucking hates formatting. Wouldn’t let me make any of these sections into bullet points. I have been fighting with this thing for weeks now (it also really hates letting me remove large sections of text as well). Had to turn it off to get any semblance of formatting so I hope it looks alright when I hit post

Explore dialogue

Now we have an NPC saying that there SHOULDN’T be fog this time of year. Make up your mind, game.

Linhardt: Aw my lazy days are over :(

Shez: You know some of us never had lazy days

Linhardt: Yeah but weren’t you just doing that because you wanted to?

Uh, no it’s called Shez is a commoner and had to literally become a mercenary to SURVIVE. They mention that numerous times. In another support they talk about how they were happy to eat rats if it meant their belly got filled. jfc, Lin, the privilege just oozing from you…

There’s a random mage lady who asks you if anyone on the opposing side uses dark magic. Agarthan lady, perhaps?

Ferdie stands like someone wearing one of those babydoll skirts from Style Savvy and I love him

Interesting that they explicitly state that Hrym was wiped out for resisting Ionus’s power centralization here. IIRC that was a lot less explicit in 3H

We also have explicit trade with Dagda, Albinea, Brigid and others. So I guess that’s another point against “Rhea doesn’t let Fodlan have contact with outside nations”

Why does Randolph look like he has a tiny blanket on his shoulder lmao

Wait why was Constance hostile to living in the Empire again?

Oof. Between Dimitri and Edelgard, Dimitri definitely got the superior Hapi nickname

Random Tidbits

Lmao. Hubert being like “I don’t even have to try not to kill you” during training and Ferdie being like “uh. Thanks. I think.”

I really wish the game would tell me when a character maxes out support points even if the letter is locked. It’s really annoying building support and then just realizing it’s not going up anymore after you’ve wasted so many training points and whatnot

I’ve decided that I’ve stopped caring if units like the food I’m cooking. Y’all will eat it and y’all will like it. I’m done coddling your asses.

I don’t care if you’re bad at the tasks either. Caspar, Linhardt, I’m sure you’ll do fine at running this street stall.

HUBERT WANTS TO GO ON AN EXPEDITION!!! OH BOY!!!

Hol up lemme drop everything

I hope he takes me somewhere nice to kill me

Good thing I unlocked all these new excursion spots. Gonna drive me crazy tho since I’m pretty sure there’s different dialogue in each one

“The shorter a leash, the better”. Kinky

Let’s go on a nice waterfront murder date

“Once, two souls took a boat out on the water… Only one returned. A fine story, yes?” oh my god he’s actually going to kill me

I have a feeling he wanted me to propose a competition… No wonder Ferdie is his type

“Ask thoughts on their employer” that’s a new one, I don’t remember that question ever popping up before

Unfortunately I don’t get to stare at his face. I was really looking forward to more murder dialogue.

Support Conversations

Shez/Caspar C - Caspar has daddy issues lmao of course he does they all do.

Sorry, having daddy issues won’t save your appeal from that hairstyle

I was about to comment on Caspar being like “I’ve got to build my way up from the bottom” but then he actually addressed what I was going to say by acknowledging that he at least has his name to lean on. So good for you Caspar, I see you retain some semblance of self awareness in this game so far.

Shez/Linhardt C - Shez: Just so we’re clear, whatever Hubert said you were gonna do to me, I’m not into it.

Shez is not kinky confirmed :(

How is Linhardt NOT interested in Shez’s power. She literally fucking shapeshifts and he’s just like “eh, whatever it’s just a sword.”

Like. What. C’mon dude.

Shez/Monica C - Ok Monica I hate you

MANUELA/JERITZA B LET’S GO - GIRL STOP BEING SO THIRSTY

Oh my god do not make Jeritza smile

Manuela: Don’t you want to talk to people?

Jeritza: No.

Stop making Jeritza relatable to me

Lmao Manuela realizing she’s still single because everyone views her as a teacher

Come to me Manuela! I have a teacher kink! We can do both!

Caspar/Dorothea C - Caspar: I’m reading

Dorothea: You can read???

This support is weird. Caspar is like “I wanna study” and Dorothea is like “You need to study!!!! Here let me lecture you on how you need to study!!!!!!!!!!” Caspar: “WOW I NEED TO STUDY!!!!”

Like he was already doing it Dorothea, geez.

Shez/Manuela C - Lmao we stan a messy queen

Y’know Manuela we can smash. I’ll never leave you

Shez/Hubert B - Uh wow weirdly abrupt start. Am I supposed to take this as happening directly after the last one??? They’re standing in the same place and Shez starts like Hubert just said something

Like. Really weird way to do this

“Sever ties” so that’s what the kids are calling it these days

Shez: You have emotions

Hubert: *confused Hubert noises*

Lmao he just had to insult my intelligence there at the end. Never change, Hubert

I know this is a lot of supports but since I’m playing on NG+ I have like 8 activity and 8 training points so it’s stupid easy to get supports. I didn’t even talk about all of them. I imagine future posts will have less as I start hitting time gated supports

Side Battle/Story Content

I’ve been putting this off by playing free mode battles with the renown unlockable characters lol.

Omg Maximum ambulation. Ferdie runs so fast. He’s got the zoomies!!!

Oh no Hubert wants to kill talk to me

Hubert: It’s cute how u thought I would let you live, tho

HI DADDY RODRIGUE

Man first Seteth now Rodrigue? This route really hates DILFs I guess

I mean I’m not surprised. Look at Count Bergliez

RIP Gustave is here too. Guess they’re making him fight in this route

Main Battle/Story Content

Everyone: *whispering*

Ferdie: WHY ARE WE WHISPERING!!!!!!!???? :D

Ferdie you lovable himbo

Ok do we really need three rounds of “why is everyone so quiet” so everyone can get their dialogue about being quiet in?

I wonder if this conversation changes with permadeath. It’s kind of written like it

Maybe I should do an “everyone dies” run in the future just to see how the story changes lol

INGRID!!!!!! MY DARLING!!!!!

Lmao I don’t even like Ingrid that much but I already miss my Lions :(

Oh I guess Jeralt is in the Kingdom now

I mean they’re trying to do the whole “oooooh mystery who could it beeeeeeeee” thing but I know Ling Tong when I hear him

Oh looks like Ashe is a traitor. Can’t say I’m surprised

Honestly fuck Lonato. If you have a problem with sexy dragon lady you have a problem with me

I haven’t talked about this but honestly the colors are fucking me. It’s a good thing Warriors games don’t have friendly fire because I keep running right past all the soldiers in blue to try and kill all the soldiers in red, because like. Fire Emblem do be like that normally

I keep finding big purple circles on the ground. What is that. What does it do. Who is doing that

I actually feel like a bad person for recruiting Ashe here. I mean Lonato is literally willing to kill the poor kid

Edelgard: Family should not fight family

Also Edelgard: Unless it’s Dimitri fuck that guy lmao

Also Also Edelgard: Also Rhea, since she probably banged my great great great great grandaddy a thousand years ago (and maybe is my great great great great grandmommy). Fuck her too

“I could not bear to lose another son” Ok then maybe don’t try killing him, Lonato???? What the fuck?

If saving you weren’t a requirement you would be so dead right now, Lonato

Byleth was kind of a pushover on NG+ lmao

… I’m sorry does Monica have jiggle physics

Ok her boobs don’t have jiggle physics, but her bow does. Which makes it look like she has boob jiggle physics. Why.

JFC Bergliez is so ugly

JUDITH MY BELOVED

She was surprisingly absent from AG I’m glad I get to see more of her

I’m sorry, Bergliez got all the way to Deirdriu????? When???????? When did we do that?????

Damn we killing daddy Gloucester, aren’t we? This is dead Fire Emblem dad dialogue

Oh even this guy gets a first name. Not the moms tho. Fuck the moms I guess :/

I’m surprised Fleche got a name and wasn’t just “Randolph’s sister” for the entirety of 3H

Kinda awkward to hear Petra complimenting the dude that murdered her dad

“The head of House Ordelia is one of the Five Great Lords” am I misremembering? I thought Lysithea’s family gave up their seat at the roundtable to Marriane’s uncle because they knew their house was in decline thanks to Lysithea’s condition

I went looking through her supports to see if I was right and apparently Lysithea/Hilda support confirms homeopathy of all things exists in 3H. No wonder these people still die of the plague.

Ok I couldn’t find anything and I don’t care enough to keep looking, but I got my eye on you, continuity guy

“Consider why we chose not to dismantle House Aegir” goddamn Hubert is just going straight for Ferdie’s throat

Ferdie: Haha I’m in danger

Also RIP Ferdie basically blatantly admitting that he’s only still around because he’s willing to “toe the line” regardless of how he feels about anything. Why am I supposed to be rooting for the Empire again?

I don’t get why people are like “We went to school with these people for 30 seconds maybe they’ll listen to reason” like? Why would they, exactly?

Like it was stupid in 3H but at least they had a whole year in 3H. In this game they were all literally at the academy for like a month

Recruiting Ashe also feels weirdly OOC for him after he spent the entirety of AG’s prologue and parts of part 1 talking about how Lonato would want him to do what he thinks is right and how he believes Lonato has gone off the rails, and while it hurts him, he believes it’s right to stop Lonato. Here he’s just like “Ok fine I don’t want to kill him I guess I’ll join you. Fuck my dreams of being a knight.”

I guess they had to make someone from the BL recruitable and everyone else makes even less sense than Ashe. I mean can you imagine if they let you recruit Ingrid here? Lmao

Anyways wrapping up

Spoilers for recruitables in this route here here.

Can I just say, the spread of recruitable characters, from a gameplay perspective, is kind of weird?

On SB, of the characters you get automatically, half of them are mages (5 of your starting 11 are mages).

Not including the wolves or other characters, you get Ashe, Ignatz, Lorenz, Raphael, Lysithea, Marianne, Mercedes, and Leonie (under special circumstances) in addition to the SB characters. But like. That means on SB you get two axes (Caspar, Edelgard), two swordies (Shez, Petra), three mounted lances (Ferdie, Jeritza, Lorenz), one brawler (Raphael), four archers (Bernie, Ashe, Ignatz, Leonie), and eight magic units (Hubert, Dorothea, Linhardt, Monica, Manuela, Lysithea, Marianne, Mercedes). If you include the wolves you get ten. Ten magic users. What do I need ten of these guys for? What is this game’s obsession with mages (the Lions also had way too many, though it wasn’t this egregious and at least Annette can be a serviceable axe unit once she gets Crusher)?

Made even worse because there’s only two magic master classes, and only one magic master class per gender which means you’re going to be ending up with two dark bishops and eight gremories. You can’t equip tomes as a dark knight or holy knight either, you have to use the lance, which is not optimal for many of these mage units. No idea why they decided to take out Valkyrie and Dark Flier if they were going to create so many damn mages. Basically every other weapon type (aside from archers and brawlers) gets at least two different options for master classes, and there aren’t nearly as many archers and brawlers as there are mages.

I guess I’ll use Constance and Hapi more on GD, since at least they only come with Marianne and Lysithea to start

[s-k-y-w-a-l-k-e-r]

My GIF making process!

I’ve been asked many times for a tutorial, but because I get really detailed, I always get overwhelmed by the idea. But I finally decided to buckle down! 

Just so you know: I don’t use PSDs in this, and I don’t import layers to frames or anything like that. I like the hard way—at least in gif making, I believe you get higher quality gifs. Join me as I show you how to make gifs by loading videos directly into the Photoshop timeline and my coloring and sharpening techniques.

Tools used:

Mac OS X (only necessary for the first step, and there are other ways around it with a PC)

Adobe Photoshop

YouTube Purchases (any streaming service will work)

Topics covered:

Obtaining the Source Material

Loading the video file into Photoshop

Prepping, Cropping, and Resizing the Media

Adjustment Layers

Sharpening

Exporting

Obtaining the Source Material

There are a few different methods for obtaining video to work with. Proper YouTube videos are nice, but finding any major motion picture in that format is difficult, if not illegal.

Once I realized I could get really great quality video by doing screen recordings from streaming services, I stopped worrying about finding (and pirating) high resolution video files. So now, I just go to whichever streaming service I need to, pick out the movie or show, find the spot, and record small snippets.

Mac screen recording instructions:

On a Mac, Command+Shift+5 will bring up the screen recording dialogue. 

Resize the frame of what you want to record within the browser. 

Go to a second or two before, press the “record” button, and then begin playing the video, remembering to keep your cursor out of the recording box. 

Use the Space bar to pause your video when you’ve gotten the snippet you need. Stop the screen recording by clicking the ⏹ button that is in your menu bar at the top of the screen.

Important: when the recording appears in the bottom right of your screen, click on it, and then trim the video on either end. This will help your computer convert the video file to the type that can be opened by Photoshop.

Click “done” and it will appear on your desktop, ready to be used!

PC Users: ??? Here’s a Google search I did for you

 Loading the video file into Photoshop

Lots of people use this process for making gifs (a great tutorial!). I didn’t even know it existed until last summer, when I’d already been giffing for years. I wish I could still do something like that with these screen recordings, but the files are absolutely HUGE, especially on Macs with double retina displays, which actually increase the dpi by a lot. Making screencaps of them fills up my hard drive, almost immediately—even when I’ve got 20 gigs of free space to work with. So what do we do? We just. Open the file. In Photoshop. Et voila!

You can do this with any type of video, not just screen recordings.

 Prepping, Cropping, and Resizing the Media

When Photoshop loads your videos up, it makes the video hilariously fast (something about frame conversion). You must slow it down for it to look natural. THIS MUST BE DONE BEFORE YOU RESZE. Your Photoshop timeline window should be at the bottom of the screen. See that little triangle in the top right of the video? 

Click on it, and a menu will appear to change speed and duration.

Change the speed first- usually between 80-85% will seem realistic. (I actually went a little faster than I usually would on this at almost 86%—I don’t recommend this)

Press the button next to duration and pull the toggle all the way to the far right (if you don’t do this, full length of the video will be cut off).

Now you’ll want to crop it. Ever since Tumblr upped its GIF size limit, I have been playing around with 7:5 ratios, but let’s go with 3:2 for now. Use the Crop tool, pick out 3:2 in the top left (it may say 2:3, but you can switch that) and then find the most suitable spot in your gif for that. Hit enter on your keyboard.

Some things to keep in mind when cropping:

Most videos come in 16:9 ratio (BoRhap is even wider). If it’s a wide shot, you’ll need to do the full 16:9 to not lose anything. Of course, experiment and find what’s right for you!

As you can see above, I moved forward in the timeline and made the crop to a point in the video when the broadest movement was happening.

Certain videos WILL have a black or red bar that may be imperceptible until you’ve already exported the gif. Just crop in a little tighter on top and bottom to avoid them.

Now you’ll need to resize your gif to be the correct size for Tumblr. If you don’t use Tumblr’s exact dimensions, your gifs (as uploaded) will appear blurry or pixellated. We’re doing a full-width gif here, which is 540px. On a Mac, I use Command+Option+I (for “Image Size) to open the resize dialogue. You can also find it under Image->Image size...

Make sure to also have “Resample” checked. Lately I’ve been playing around to see if different options are better. Most GIF makers use “Bicubic Sharper (Reduction)” and they are not wrong to do so. I’ve just been unhappy with it lately, so I have been trying this other setting out, “Bicubic (smooth gradients)”.

Click OK. A dialogue may come up that asks if you want to convert to a Smart Object. The answer is yes, okay, do it. The only major caveat is that you can’t go back and change the timeline speed. That’s why we did it first. But you can preview the speed now that it’s smaller, and if you don’t like it, use Command+Z (or “Undo”) and go back a couple steps to get the speed you like.

You may find, especially on a Mac screen (and possibly other displays), that at 100% your gif looks too small to be 540px. That is the curse and blessing of working with super-high resolution hardware. Zoom in to 200% and proceed about your business. This is what it will look like on Tumblr.

You may find it helpful at this point to begin by defining the beginning and end of your gif by moving around these bumpers. It’s safe to keep gifs under 02:00f in length. Under half of 01:00f will be way too short. (I tend to overshoot in length and then trim the beginning and the end once I see how big the gifs are upon exporting.)

 Adjustment Layers

Now the creativity and fun begin!

There are a LOT of ways to get creative here. I’m going to keep it simple, very simple, but I strongly recommend opening up a new adjustment layer of each type and trying to figure out what each does!

You’ll find the adjustment layer menu at the bottom of the Layers window.

Curves

There are a lot of ways to make Curves work for you! It can do the job of Brightness/Contrast, it can do Levels, it can do Color Balance! We’re going to use it mainly to help with brightness here, but also to level out some of the tones. One of the quick tricks you can do is use the droppers on the left side of the Properties window. There are three- one with a white tip, one gray, one black. These can help define what your white tones are (and whether they need to be more of one color or another), and so on with your blacks. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t; in this case, I think it doesn’t:

That looks totally blown out and somehow also too dark!

So instead, we’re going to use that little hand with the finger pointing out and some arrows pointing up and down. This lets you define which sections you want to get brighter or darker, and how much. It doesn’t do color correction. In the example below, you can see I dragged up on a white spot and down on a dark spot. Then, I moved points around on the curve itself to refine (which the gif here doesn’t show...).

Vibrance/Saturation x2

Next, I’ve been using @gwil-lee​‘s Vibrance/Saturation trick (I know you said you learned it from someone else, but I learned it from you!). 

Create a Vibrance Adjustment layer, bump the values up a bunch, and then change its Fill to somewhere between 2-9%. Change the Blend Mode to Color Burn. Then make a copy of that layer keeping everything the same, but make it Color Dodge. I can’t quite define what these do, but it makes it punchier!

Color Balance

Most people are familiar with this. For this gif, I’m going to make the shadows more Cyan/Blue and the highlights more Red/Yellow. Just a few points each. 

Exposure

I brought the Exposure up a bit, but not enough for you to need to read about, haha.

Selective Color

Here’s where you make fine adjustments to colors. This particular scene is extremely simple, color-wise, so keep it simple. I’m going to bump up the cyans/blues, take up the black by just a point or two, and maybe bump up the yellows and reds a tiny bit. (And as always, remember, the “opposite” of cyan is red, the opposite of magenta is green, and the opposite of yellow is blue. CMY/RGB!)

I think at this point I’m going to call it with the adjustment layers. You can go absolutely hogwild with more of them! But at this point, I’m ready to start sharpening!

 Sharpening

I do three sharpening filters these days. These are all under Filter->Sharpen. Make sure your media layer (default called Layer 1) is selected as we go through this! (Also, this can really take a toll on your processor, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.)

Sharpen- This layer does the basic job

Smart Sharpen (Amount: 10%, Radius: 10, Reduce Noise: 4% Gaussian Blur)- This layer gives texture

Smart Sharpen (Amount: 500, Radius: 0.3, Reduce Noise: 12% Gaussian Blur)- This layer gives refined sharpening and smoothing

Fiddle with these as needed! Let your gif play all the way through- this may go slowly as your processor works on it. Make sure the beginning and end points make sense.

 Exporting

After You’re going to have to use File->Export->Save For Web (Legacy)... or use the shortcut of Shift+Option+Command+S. This could take some time for the dialogue to pop up! Be patient.

In my opinion, these are the best gif export settings for crisp edges and no noise:

Now you see how big the file is in the bottom left. Tumblr won’t let you upload anything bigger than 10MB and it’s safer to stay under 9MB, in my experience. When your gif is too big, you have a couple options. You can close the dialogue and change the length of your gif. 

OR, you can uncheck “Interlaced” and bump up the lossy to 1 or or more. This will create noise. Sometimes, that’s a good thing!

Here’s without lossy:

Here’s WITH lossy: (Honestly in a fast moving gif like this, it’s almost imperceptible, but I can see it!)

And now that I’ve exported, I can see what there’s a little black line on the bottom! So I’m going to trim that off and call it good! You can see the full gifset here.

Hope you enjoyed! Reblog if you try this out or learned anything. Feel free to reach out with questions any time!

[nomorewritinganxiety-blog]

Nano Dump 1

Day one. I have very little inspiration and almost forgot to write. My roommates were up late last night fighting. It always keeps me awake. There are kids here today. It is distracting. I get frustrated with there being people here all the time that I don’t like. They get in the way of things I want to do. Sometimes they get in the way of things I need to do. I need to get words down though. Maybe these words will turn into a novel, or maybe I will just journal a few thousand words. Either way, I will write this month. Hopefully it will help with the anxiety. Maybe it won’t. (I wish I knew how to add the “read more” button) I should take time to work on a resume and job applications but that is aggravating my anxiety. For now I will leave that alone. I will be uploading all of my writing to my Tumblr. Years ago I did really well on Nano and my mom deleted everything and then wiped my trash. I’m not risking losing my work again. I lost 30,000 words that year and I’m sure it has something to do with my writing anxiety. I have shared some of this before but I’m getting words down. One of the tricks I’m going to have to use this year is mind dumping. That’s not what I wanted to call it but I’m going to write whatever comes to mind whether I like it or not. I am going to make an effort to only use the backspace button to fix spelling mistakes. I am going to make an effort to only edit by adding things. Deleting material is dangerous during Nano even if it is totally useless fluffy words and mind dumpage. There, see almost three hundred words and I haven't stopped myself. I’m keeping the negative thoughts and the editor’s voice in check. I can feel my story bubbling beneath the surface. I can’t access it right now. Maybe if I dump long enough I’ll be able to. I’m sue it isn’t helping that I’m hungry but I don’t have snack food and I’m not going to stop to make dinner. I wonder if Pages has a function of automatic indent when I start a new paragraph. I want to go play with formatting but that’s a procrastination technique. At least mind dumping gets words down on the page. 1,667 words a day to meet my goal. There will be days where I will not have time to write. I will have to write more on those days. That’s ok. Sam. Sam is still a mostly unfinished character. I have a lot of trouble getting in his head. I just tried and it almost stopped me from typing. This is not a readers draft. This is not for an audience. I am getting words on the page. Writing anything at all is better than nothing. It doesn’t have to be productive. This is good. This is more than I have written in a long time. The feeling of anxiety is somewhere else. I need a better writing surface. Stream of consciousness is what this kind of writing is called. That was the word or phrase I was looking for. I guess I’ll call it whatever works though. I need a better writing space but it’s not likely to happen this month. A cafe would work but I don’t want to go somewhere that I can’t bring the dog. There are also comforting things about sitting in my own bed. I don’t have to button my pants if I don't want to. I can go without a bra. I know I won’t be spending money that I don’t have on snacks and drinks. I don’t have to worry about people reading over my shoulder. On the other hand, it’s loud here. I would like a desk. It would be better for my back to be sitting up in a chair. Probably better for my neck too. I’m on a bit of a roll and I don’t want to get up but I need to use the restroom. It’s a bit embarrassing knowing that I’m going to post this to Tumblr and people might read it. It’s not for an audience though. I don’t have to be perfect. My writing doesn’t have to be perfect. I think the roommate is about to leave with the kid. It also sounds like she might be staying the night though. The kid should be in school. I don’t think this kid is homeschooled. She is a brat. Bossy, bitchy, alleyways has an attitude. So loud. Never heard a kid get so loud. Even my sentences are starting to deteriorate. Sometimes I want to wring this kid’s neck. That’s not cool though. There’s a reason that no one who knows me has access to my Tumblr. The roommate might actually be taking the trash out for once. I’m watching my word count rise and I’m proud of myself. It doesn’t matter that it’s all unusable junk. I’m writing. I’m getting words down. I’m not fighting with perfectionism or writers block. Time to break. I have to go to the bathroom. It will not damage my focus. Page two. Almost nine hundred words. The door is open. The dogs can play if they want. Hopefully some of the heat will come in. I’m freezing. Space heater in the other room is not enough. I sound like some sort of proper tortured artist. I think Snicket started some of his work like this. I love my auto correct most of the time but sometime I fight with it. I’m sure if I go back and look there will be plenty of things that I will have to fix that auto correct thought it fixed. It’s a computer program, it can’t think. But Gear can. Things I know about Gear: not distinctly male or female, possibly a robot but more likely a non-binary human, very cool human. There, see, question answered, Gear is a non-binary human. I will have to see how pronouns flow for Gear. Gear is young. Most likely somewhere between 13 and 20. I want to put this section on Tumblr separately as a character bio so I can find it again. Gear has short dark hair and almost pale skin. Not Asian. More greek looking. Gear wears a robe. Not sure if Gear’s robe is Association issued or one of the rebel items. I think the rebels need an official name. Dark hazel eyes. No romantic ties. Sam. Leader of the rebels. I need to get my computer cleaned. Sam has black hair and blue eyes. Light skin. Goes by M. I’m going back and editing for punctuation. I shouldn’t do that. No looking back at the writing until I’ve hit the daily word goal. Punctuation doesn’t count toward word count. I’m getting worse at typing. I shifted position. I think my watch may be bothering me. It was on too tight and in the way of my typing. Words are still coming. Maybe only a few of them are worth anything but I got them down and that’s worth something. Hunter needs a profile. Almost blonde. Green eyes. More tan than Sam. Not as dark as most of the population. I want a diverse cast of characters but feel I am unqualified to write for most of them. I’m hoping it will come anyway. If I don’t focus on that feeling it won’t get in my way. Strong statements. I can do this. Only about four hundred words left today. I can do this. Hunter is a writer. He has a collection of books. Those books come from a recent book banning and burning. I want to write this story as the government is starting to show who they really are. I also want to write it well after they are established because pieces would make more sense that way. I want Sam and Hunter to be involved in the whole creation of the dystopia too though. The washer is making an awful noise. I wonder if they tried to start the dishwasher again. Always breaking things. So distracting. I know where I want this story to go. I can feel bits and pieces of it. I know some of the characters. Getting them to flow from my mind through my fingers and onto the page is a whole different story. I want this to work. I will make this work. I don’t have to put the whole story down in this month. I just want to get back into writing. This is good for me. I’m feeling the type again. This is good. I need to know my topics better when I am writing. I can get the words out plenty fast if I can just let go and not care what goes down on the paper. A pause. I can’t let myself feel it. Must keep writing. I can cut out any junk later. How would I describe the notes that is coming from the dishwasher. It’s almost like the machine is saying “wrong, wrong, wrong” over and over again. Only a hundred more words. They don’t have to be good they just have to be there. I am doing this because I want to. No one is making me. No one has to like it. I don’t even have to like it. I just want to be able to say that I did it. May this be the right step in the direction I need to go. May it help me in all aspects of life. May it be good. Good for me if nothing else. Fifty words left. Some of them were helpful. I know I shouldn’t stop at today’s goal. I should keep trying. But I am having trouble grasping the story and what I really want to put down is my story. So for now this will be enough. I can say that I made goal today. I made goal plus a few extra words. Maybe tomorrow I will get some more of the story down. I feel good.

[icyada]

Chapter 3- Potions, Obliviations, and Bonds, Oh My!

Echos across Time and Space Book One: "Something Wicked this way Comes"

AN: Done editing this chapter for tumblr format! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: As much as I hate admitting it, I don’t own Harry Potter. I do think Mrs. Rowling should rewrite the series though, it’s got so much she can add to it.

---------------

Harry and Hermione,

Bad luck mates, with Ron running off like that. Yeah; if we live to see him again, we'll ream him out for you. If you haven’t done it for yourselves that is. Anyways, onto more serious matters.

We read the whole book (not just the marked section), and bloody hell mates, you have a lot on your plates huh? Harry, in all seriousness, we always thought you and Hermione would end up together. Yeah, Fred and I were talking about it and we think at least Mum and Ronald slipped you two a mickey so to speak. That is to say, slipped some love potion into your drinks. Further research found that it’s most likely Amortentia, the most powerful love potion ever. And some of its side effects match both of your worsening moods since your 5th year (for Harry) and last year (for Hermione). Others include:

-Appearing sickly and pale (no offence mates, but you two did seem rather pale last year and the year before);

-Becoming obsessed with the object of their affections (Hermione, don’t deny you were feeling jealous when the prat was dating Lavender, and Harry, we know you kissed Ginny last year);

-And most importantly, becoming excited or dangerously unstable towards others (No offense you two, but we heard about Harry chasing down Snape to curse him after Dumbledore died, and Hermione, we heard you blew up a few times at Won-Won because of his relationship with Lavender. Even attacking him with a conjured flock of birds).

What’s more, our theory about the love potion could be proven right by two passages in the book you sent us.

Passage 1: "Your mother confessed," sneered Riddle-Harry, (Disturbing by the way) while Riddle-Hermione (Again, disturbing) jeered "that she would have preferred me as a son, would be glad to exchange..." [R1]

Passage 2: "...I Disapparated and arrived here in these woods........" [R2]

Obviously, George and I would be delighted to have you two as brother and sister for real, but we both know it will never happen. However, Mum has confessed to at the very least making, if not using, a love potion before. [R3] The love potions that are on our shelves at the shop are one-day use only, and we make sure to control the sales of them so they're only used in jest (as all love potions should be). Harry, what Riddle will say to Ron is true; Mom did admit to wishing you were her son, rather than Ron. And Hermione, it’s obvious Ron has feelings for you. In fact, we'd say the ONLY way you specifically would fall for little Ronnikins would be through a love potion.

As for the 2nd passage, that’s suspicious too. Why would Ron spend time looking for you two when he can come straight home? We still have the Ghoul in the attic disguised as a Spattergroit-infected Ron parading around the house, so it wouldn’t be too hard to slip inside Disillusioned and switch places with it....... Unless he's under orders from mother to keep you two dosed to high heaven, as we doubt the prat has enough of a guilty conscience to feel bad about leaving you. Points to him for the good act though! As for Miss Ginevra, we're unclear about her involvement. We can only hope she is unknowing of these love potions, and that she would be disapproving if she ever found out. We'd really hate to have to hate our little spitfire because of her own bad decisions.

Anyways, we could go on and on about our suspicions. We just wanted to give you some food for thought. Two more things: A) Among all our notes that we provided, there should be letters to Dad and us in the past; we'd really appreciate it if you could see to it that they get them somehow. B) No matter what happens from here on out you two, know that Gred and Forge Weasley will always support Mr. Lightning and Miss Flare.

TTFN you two, Gred Forge

P.S.: Mr. Moony let us know before the first Potterwatch broadcast of the new Mauraders. We're undertaking the prestigious honor of joining them. Toodles.

P.S.S: This is a last minute thing: if Fred and I are right about Ron and Mum, then you might want to check all your items for tracking charms. We don't buy that bull honkey about Ron using the De-luminator to find you.

------------

Harry chuckled as he read the twin's letter. It had been a week since he and Hermione had sent out letters requesting help from some of their allies. Since then, he and Hermione had come up with a tentative plan and had relayed it to Godric via the charmed parchment, and were waiting on a response.

In the meantime, they had already started on the plan. Hermione had gone (under disguise) to Diagon Alley, and bought 2 multi-compartment trunks like Alastor Moody's. Since returning with them, Hermione had been examining the magic of the trunks to see if more magic could be added, being that she was the Ancient Runes and Arithmancy expert (She had said, and Harry quite agreed, that an untrained person shouldn’t be creating and experimenting with spells and potions).

Harry, on the other hand, had been the one to start looking through the abundance of notes the twins had sent, marking down the ideas and topics that looked useful. It was a few days later that he spotted a folded parchment on the floor, something he noticed as he was headed over see if Hermione made any progress.

For an hour each night before bed, they had also been practicing Occlumency. After talking it over, Hermione had convinced him to try it again, despite his misgivings about the whole practice. Her logic? He should do so if for nothing else but to keep Voldemort’s anger-induced visions away. Thankfully, the twins had sent a few books on Occlumency; they had written on the inside of one of the covers that they did have a mental link between them, but hearing each other's thoughts ALL the time had gotten rather annoying. As a result, they had asked their parents during their fourth birthday if there was a way to block each other out. Dumbledore had been there, had overheard them, and was enthusiastic about taking them on as Occlumency apprentices.

"Well, that explains why he wouldn’t teach me in Snape's place," Harry had said when they read that. "He already had apprentices."

Hermione looked over at him from the trunks, his sudden chuckle disrupting the monotone silence of the tent which they had lived in for months. Harry handed over the letter to her, a smile on his face.

"Well, the good news is that the twins are definitely trustworthy. Take a look for yourself," he said, before handing her the parchment.

Taking the parchment, she started reading it, just as a soft chime signaled Hedwig incoming with more letters and possible research notes. Harry went over to her as she flashed onto the table, before untying the packages from her legs and giving her a treat.

"Thanks girl, is this everyone?" he said, stroking her head gently.

Hedwig trilled and nodded, spreading her wings a bit before pointing to the charmed parchment laying on the table next to her with one of her wings. Harry blinked before his eyes lit up.

"Hermione!" he call excitedly, as he watched words forming on the parchment. "Godric is writing back to us!"

Hermione came rushing over, and they both sat down, watching the parchment as a lengthy letter appeared on it.

Harry and Hermione,

I am unfortunately not Godric. I am Myrddin Emrys. I am the one writing you currently because on our journey back home, Godric was bitten by a Runespoor. The poor dear thought he was trying to steal her eggs from her nest. Do not fear for Godric; I was able to pull the poison out in time to save his life. He is currently sleeping comfortably. He was, however, overjoyed to see that you had written back to him so quickly, and even more ecstatic to learn that you agreed to help him, despite the risks you place on yourselves in messing with time. 

He has asked me to pose a question to you. He would like to know what you want your younger selves to do about various people around you. In particular, he wants to know about Hagrid with his natural inclination to follow Mister Dumbledore blindly, while Ms. Minerva and Madam Poppy quite possibly might need to be obliviated. Severus (as you might know) made an oath, most likely to Albus Dumbledore in order to protect Harry. I do not know why, but Lady Fate has pointed out to me to tell you that there is also Molly and Ron Weasley to consider. She said you would know what I mean.

She also pointed out to me that it might be prudent to write a few letters to those who you will summon. Godric wishes you were here already; he's getting a bit jittery because he wants to get started. Honestly, that man can never stay patient for very long.

Anywho, that’s all I was told to speak with you of. Myrddin Emrys

The duo was silent for a few minutes as they pondered the information. Then Harry looked at Hermione quizzically, a question quickly forming in his mind.

"How far are you with that trunk?"

"Oh, I've actually got a good list of modified spells that will work with the enchantments already on there," she said airily. "The problem is...well, to be quite honest, I don’t have the right amount of power to cast the more powerful ones..."

Harry blinked in surprise, before replying.

"Ok, what can I do to help?".

"Well," Hermione began. "Since you're able to block...You-Know-Who now, maybe you can draw pure magical energy from him and use that to perform these spells."

Harry looked thoughtful, then shook his head before replying mildly.

"I've got a better idea. Why don’t we go to Stonehenge like Godric and Merlin did? I've been reading about it, and apparently the nearby abandoned wizarding village has a structure there that’s sentient like Hogwarts and the sorting hat. It’s been feeding magic to Stonehenge ever since the Druids who lived there abandoned the place."

"Ok," Hermione agreed making a face. "But how does that help me with my lack of power for our spells?"

"Well, and now this is just an idea 'Mione," Harry hedged watching her carefully 

"Why don't we use some basic magic strengthening rituals on you?"

"On us you mean," Hermione interrupted, looking thoughtful as she spoke. "Although, you're pretty powerful as is, Harry. Sirius told me you were unusually powerful as a baby, to the point that your mum and dad had to place magical blocks on you so you wouldn’t hurt yourself or expose your family to the Mundane. It should have been removed when you were starting your magical training, meaning just before first year started, though. I don’t remember you saying they had been removed though, and with the things we've been discovering about Dumbledore, I wouldn’t be surprised if he kept them on you to keep you magically weakened. Do you want me to scan for and remove them?"

Harry had smiled when she had said Mundane; they had had a talk about non-magicals in general, and had both agreed that the word muggle was a derogatory term, much like the word "Mudblood" is; made up by purebloods to marginalize non-magicals.  Harry shook himself out of his thoughts and nodded at Hermione, before beginning to reply.

"Yes, please. If Dumbledore is up to his old tricks, then I want to know."

Hermione took out her wand and waved it over him, muttering "Magicae invenire ruinas” [T1].

Harry felt like a warm blanket had brushed over him and blinked a bit, watching as Hermione nodded a bit before starting to speak her results.

"Definitely there are quite a few on you...actually, I’m surprised you still have magic. Let’s see if I can identify them," she said, waving her wand again. "Revela magicis cuneos [T2]".

"Hmm, some of these are old," she muttered, while seemingly watching something just above his head "Let’s see…one definitely from when you were nearly a year old. Looks professionally done, most likely by a healer your parents hired to perform the blocks. Another at age five..."

Harry was shocked into silence. He remembered the bout of accidental magic when he was five; he had been bored with the class, as he had already studied the content being talked about (he was, after all, bright as a child; he would just get punished for being better then Dudley), and so to liven up his boring day, he had begun to imagine the teacher's wig was blue. The next thing he knew, all the strands of hair on her wig had begun to turn blue [R4]. 'The color change charm,' he thought idly. He and the class had had a good laugh but then...a blank in his memory, until he found himself at home in his cupboard. 'A possible Obliviation?' his mind's voice provided gently.  

Oblivious to his thoughts Hermione had continued speaking. 

"Another at age eight..."

Again Harry's mind went to when he was eight, and he remembered the shrinking sweater incident [R5] ('Yuck, really! What was Aunt Petunia thinking? Brown with orange puffballs, indeed!' he again thought idly to himself). He had accidently used a shrinking charm that time. But again, he had a small gap in his memory. That very same day at school, he had gone outside for their hour lunch break, but the next thing he remembered he was walking back into school after lunch. 'Another possible obliviation?'

"Huh, another block placed the very next day. This one is specialized, unlike the others...to block Metamorphmagus abilities," Hermione said screwing up her face in concentration.

Harry remembered that incident too. Both of them had occurred around his school's picture day, and Aunt Petunia had apparently made it her personal mission to try and get him to look decent for his turn (not that either attempt had worked anyways). Yet again there was another gap in his memory, this one of about two hours.

"And there were four more, well actually, the third one looks like a leech from your scar; that one’s got to be the horcrux..." she shook her head, shaking off the thought for the moment. "Number four you broke with the ah...training that Moony gave us. That one was placed on you at the same time as the Metamorphmagus one. Number five was several months later at school, the September after you turned nine, this one is specialized too. To block a natural apparition ability." [R6.1]

Harry nodded, that one had to be his second favorite bout of accidental magic. Of course, it was marred by the terror that Dudley and the gang had been 'Harry Hunting' at the time. [R6.2]

"The last one, number six," she said in a more furious voice. "Was placed on you the evening of June 23rd just a month and a few days before you turned Eleven." [R7.1]

"Dudley's birthday," Harry muttered for the first time in several minutes, remembering the incident well. 

He coughed as she watched him curiously before replying, "We were at the zoo, and he and his friend pushed me to the ground to get a better look at the boa constrictor I had been talking to. I guess one of them saw it responding to me.  Er, well, I was upset and a little bit bruised from hitting the ground so hard, so I, unknowingly at the time, cast the vanishing charm on the pane of glass between them and the snake. Dudley had actually been leaning on the glass so he actually fell into the enclosure, and when he went to try to get out after the snake had slithered out he found the glass had returned. I guess I unconsciously willed it back into existence." [7.2]

Harry was blushing furiously when he finished, knowing he was rambling out of embarrassment. Hermione smiled a bit indulgently at him and Harry blushed more, this time for a completely different reason. 'How have I not noticed before how nice Hermione looks when she smiles,' he thought. 'You weren't trying to step on little Ronikin's toes,' the little voice in his head whispered, sounding oddly like both Fred and George. 'But now that he's gone and you don’t plan on letting him find you just so he can drug you both again, you're able to appreciate her without worry.'

Harry quite agreed with the voice, but made his mind focus back to the present. 

"A-Anyway, you said I have blocks, and they all coincide with gaps in my memory. Isn’t that the usual sign of an Obliviation?"  At this, Hermione looked troubled and nodded. 

"Yes, um, let me think," she said, falling silent for a few minutes before speaking up once more, only slowly. "Er, well, I think it’s a safe bet that if we try to remove them all at once, it will cause a magical explosion, killing you and-depending on how powerful-anyone within several hundred miles of you. So if we remove them one by one, slowly and carefully to allow your body to get used to the amount of power you have, then you should be ok. The magical backlash should also eradicate the obliviations on you. As for the leech, its most likely Voldemort's horcrux feeding magic from you to him. If we look hard enough, we might be able to find something to pull it out of you without killing you."

Harry nodded, thinking over what he was told before replying "Let’s take the oldest block off me and go from there."

Hermione simply waved her wand over him and said in a clear voice "Longe antiquissimum scandalum [T3]".

Harry felt unbelievable pain, but tried to focus his breathing through it. 'This is nothing like one of Voldemort's Crucios,' he thought with humor. 'It doesn’t come anywhere close to that.' Noticing that Hermione was watching him worriedly, he reached over and stroked the back of her hand gently.

"I'm ok 'Mione, this is nothing like one of You-Know-Who's Crucios. It’s really miniscule compared to that," he said with an encouraging smile.

The next second however, he felt a stabbing headache forming. Thankfully, it had nothing to do with his scar this time. As he had slowly built up his Occlumency walls, he made absolutely sure to block off the mental connection to Voldemort. He hadn't had a nightmare nor felt any of Voldemort's feelings since he had done so, back when both he and Hermione had started practicing Occlumency. 

This particular headache came from the broken obliviation that had went with the block on him. He took a moment to focus, before closing his eyes and starting to sort the new memories. But the more he sorted, the angrier he got. 'Dumble-arse' was lucky he was already dead or Harry would have applauded Severus and joined him in killing the old bastard.

Harry was so wrapped up in his memories that he didn’t notice what was going on around him.  It wasn’t until he felt a pair of arms wrap around him and heard Hermione's voice in his ear that he noticed the whirlwind of power echoing around him.

  "Harry, calm down. Please?"

Relaxing slowly, he re-opened his eyes and blinked sheepishly. All around him, the papers he had been studying were scattered, while there were deep gouges in the table in front of him as if a huge bird had been clawing at the table. Hedwig had positioned herself on his lap and was nuzzling him, trilling softly with her feathers sticking up slightly, but appeared otherwise unharmed.

"Harry, what’s wrong?" Hermione asked from behind him.

He tried to turn his head to look at her, but she kept her face out of his line of sight. Letting it go for the moment, he focused on her question before replying.

"Dumbledore, the old coot! That obliviation was done by him right after the attack on my parent's house," he said rubbing his head. "He purposely obliviated any memories of my parents. I only remembered how they died because he made sure to leave those intact in my mind."

Hermione hugged him tighter before replying, her voice quiet.

"We won’t let that happen again to your younger self. We'll let Godric and Merlin know about it and they'll definitely make sure that your younger self has all his memories by the time they return for first year."

Harry nodded a bit and sighed, relaxing into her embrace before replying.

"I also was supposed to have an eidetic memory. But since I didn’t have a chance to develop it, it’s an ability lost to me as an adult. [See AN at the bottom]."  

"Again, won’t happen," Hermione mumbled while nuzzling his back.

Harry slowly got control of his emotions, before his nose picked up the metallic scent of blood. Blinking and gulping, he couldn’t help but feel upset over what the implications were. He had hurt her.

"Hermione, I'm sorry. I hurt you," he mumbled miserably.

"Relax Harry, It’s only a thin scratch," she mumbled. "Episkey. Anyways, we've still got a lot to do. I'll help you research tonight, and in the morning we can set off for Stonehenge. Er, we'll actually have to be traveling since I've never been there before."

"You mean Hermione Granger, the great explorer of the world, has never been to Stonehenge?" Harry said teasingly.

Hermione smiled and tapped his shoulder playfully.

"Oh, quiet you. Let’s get started."

They both pulled a few books over and started looking through them.

-------------- References: [R1] Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 19: The Silver Doe, Page: 377 

[R2] Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 19: The Silver Doe, Page: 385

[R3] Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 5: The Dementor,Page: 69-70

[R4] I did not find a reference in the first book where its said to be. Can anyone tell me where it is if they find it?

[R5] Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Chapter 2: The Vanishing Glass, Page: 24-25

[R6.1, 6.2] Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Chapter 2: The Vanishing Glass, Page: 25

[R 7.1, 7.2] Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Chapter 2: The Vanishing Glass, Page: 26-28 (And some of the movie mixed it)

Translation (According to google's English to Latin translator):

[T1] Find the magical blocks

[T2] Reveal the magical blocks

[T3] Remove the oldest block

AN: This chapter felt like a hurtle and took long to type because I gave myself lots of breaks and did it small sections at a time. Anyways, Eidetic memory, I read from its Wiki says "It occurs in a small number of children and generally is not found in adults". 

Beware, SPOILER AHOY!!!!!

However, since we're dealing with magic here it allows me to twist that a bit. If Harry had been allowed to develop his Eidetic memory then he would most likely be able to retain it as an adult.

Spoiler end

Ok, so after deliberation I've decided to split what would have originally been 1 long chapter up into 2. So this fic will be 4 chapters long. So yes next chapter. R&R