#i've been having my first ever HP era recently

[aureli-us]

FICTOBER 2024

as usual i was unable to find any good fictober lists that i PERSONALLY enjoyed for this year, so, keeping with tradition! i made my own! since we're a week from october i figured i'd post it now to let people take a look :^) if you end up using any of it (or all of it) PLEASE DO TAG ME! i'll post a link to my ao3 fictober in the next few days so it'll be up there as well! (plaintext list is below the cut + click for MUCH better quality)

shackles

headless

thunderstorm

journal

sun

clock

sacrifice

moth

aged

catacomb

ancestral

fissure

tentacle

cairn

swamp

statue

vail (NOT veil or vale!)

precipice

impaled

cage

rotten

sunrise

immolation

prisoner

peak

coward

delirium

carved

garden

mandible

(and as always) All Hallows' Eve

[mardytoast]

🍓🔪☁️

i thought you were referencing a song coming out from this band i know and i was like ?

but omg ask game!!

🍓how did you get into writing fanfiction🍓

omg this is serious loree. so ive been reading ff for a good few years and so do two of my irl friends (the only ppl who know i read ff in this day and age irl) and we were all in the harry potter fandom. then we were like, we should make our own JOKE fanfic, and we're were like planning it all out for fun w y/n and shit and then we actually wrote it😭 it has four chapters and it's on wattpad but it's the most insane cliché shit and probably the funniest thing I've ever done LMFAOO

and then months and months after that i tried to do my own little things but they were all terrible. but then jan 2023 i started like seriously writing. the first proper fic (multichap) i tried to do kinda crashed and burned and the other ones never made it past a few thousand words. the writing was good i just dk how to make a story😭 anyway then in september i wrote a full hp one shot even though im not in the fandom anymore?? tried to reform my multichap and wrote a few more chapters then was like wait, this still isn't working (for plot reasons).

writing is hard but rn im working on a clyde biography which is easy enough bc it's it's basically just all my head cannons❤️

🔪what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project 🔪

usa secret service LMFAO

i was writing this bodyguard x presidents daughter clybe fic and i was like.. is he even necessary??

turns out that yeah the american president has a stupid amount of guards for him AND his family and some of them live in the white house

i was basically js trying to figure out if a personal bodyguard was a reach

but that's been scrapped bc honestly it would've just been a rip off of an incredible bodyguard fic from another fandom that i read, but oh to dream

the first chapter actually bangs though i read it over a few months back and i was like damn who wrote thiss

im also considering on becoming a baby electrician bc i feel like electrician clyde x terribly built house bebe would be SO cute, but if need to know so much for it to work, thoughts?

☁️what made you choose your username☁️

basically there was an era where i was like oh i should probably get socials so i made an ao3, twitter, discord etc and i just picked two random words for each. for ao3 my first username was savage toes but i forgot abt it so i made a new acc

i picked mardytoast bc my friend, who knows i read ff has a cat called melba, and she was talking to me one time and she was like oh it's melba as in melba toast and i was like oh okayy

so when i was making my user i used that but obviously im not stealing her cats name so i chose some other word that started with m

and im actually not joking i literally created the word mardy scholars would say i COINED the phrase. like i remember i was just like okay mardy i guess. AND IN FEBRUARY I FIND OUT MARDY MEANS ANGRY GRUMPY MOODY?? like explains that arctic monkeys song but damn. so if anyone's wondering I DO NOT CLAIM THAT im just mardy with no meaning

and in september (?) i created this acc bc this writer i was going to beta read for wanted to be able to contact me outside of email so i really quickly made this and just used my ao3 username!

omg and whenever she sends me the doc with the chapter she titles it 'Mardy's Copy' and the first time I saw it i had this out of body feeling and i was like WOAH...i guess im mardy now

(and also our one on one channel in her discord server of betas was called mardy's seat like cutee)

so now me and my username have merged and i genuinely feel like my name is mardy😊

so mardy is the alias i use on all accounts where ppl i actually know don't follow me!!

send in more asks pls i love talking abt myself

the ask game is in my recent reblogs <333

[mintchochipkookie]

Banshee,

For the fandom ask:

Harry Potter

Nanuuu! THANK YOU for sending Harry Potter (you, Blue, and Ever just really knew what fandoms I desperately wanted to talk about huh?) but also this is the worst because HP has been in my life for upwards of 2 decades and I have never been able to pick a favourite or anything so uhhhhh yeah you're probably not gonna get a straight (or short) answer out of me for anything here.

my favorite female character lmao fuck idk man. I love them all in different ways, but I think maybe I can narrow this down to 2: Luna is the purest soul and she deserves all the happiness in the world. She's so unapologetically herself and doesn't give 2 fucks about other people's opinions. But you know for some reason what moment sticks out to me? When the golden trio visit Xenophilius in DH and they see that she has this painting of the six of them on her walls with the word 'friends' woven through? That gets me in a place that I just don't want to examine rn. And the fact that she married Newt's grandson? Iconic. I've also been remembering how much I love Tonks recently. Like, she's another ray of sunshine and I almost forget that she's a Black family member too. idk maybe there's a hint of the 'not like other girls' mentality there (not gonna deny that I had my nlog phase too) but idk I don't think it's super overt? Maybe if I read the books now I'd think different but I still love Tonks to death. Also! We all talk about how Sirius was a blemish on the Black family tree by being sorted into Gryffindor, but hello ??? Tonks is literally a Hufflepuff ???? That was probably even more shameful to them than Gryffindor lbr. Also she is very relatable because I too would fall madly in love with Lupin and do anything for his happiness.

my favorite male character asdfgh somehow I think this is even more difficult than the previous one. Can I pick from FBAWTFT? Because while I have a tough time deciding for HP, it took me all of 2 seconds of watching Newt to fall in love with him. (I wrote a few thousand word thing about why I love him right after watching the first movie if you care to know more of my thoughts on him lmao) UGH fine. I think it might have to come down to Ron, Neville, and Remus. But I'm saving Ron for another answer, so I'll talk a bit about Neville and Remus. Ugh the boy who could have been, honestly Neville is so severely underrated and okay maybe I just have a thing for the more tortured characters who have stayed pure souls through it all. I just. The St. Mungos scene in OotP still makes my heart squeeze into a tiny little ball, there's something about Alice and Frank's fates that is so absolutely horrifying to me. Gryffindor is my least favourite house tbh, but I think Neville embodies all the best traits of the house. The kind of courage that Neville has is the most relatable to the real world and I think everyone needs to respect my boy a little more. And Lupin holy shit if I love soft tortured souls whose life experiences make me want to cry, how could I NOT adore Lupin to bits???? I have so many feelings about this man I simply cannot. I want to wrap him up in blankets and give him hot chocolate and I WILL kill anyone who tries to hurt him. He deserves so much better than he got and I'm just glad that this lonely child found some friends who would literally break laws and endanger themselves to keep him company in his worst moments. Just to make his life marginally less shitty. Friends are just so important guys omfg. (Also umm, an accomplished man who's just trying his best but has so much self loathing cuz he thinks that he is inherently a monster not worth being loved??? Mild Zuko vibes anyone? No? Okay I'll shut up.)

my favorite book Ahhh idk? I think Deathly Hallows will always have a special place in my heart (end of an era and all that, and also I do really like it, so much lore), but I think Prisoner of Azkaban maybe. Idk there's a lot of interesting stuff there, plus Lupin (which honestly might be a big part of it lmfao). I feel like it's also the first massive expansion of the HP-verse that we get and it's nice to get a bit of a break from Voldy tbh. I think that's just when things really start picking up y'no?

my favorite cast member I can't pick wtf ????? Although can I just say, I loveee the relationship Tom Felton and Jason Isaacs have? It's like, the opposite of Draco and Lucius.

my favorite ship Oof I think it's gonna have to be Romoine. I just remember really rooting for them as a kid and being so happy when they finally kissed. I also LOVE how it went down in the books, it was so fitting and showcases so much about them as people and their relationship. Honourable mentions: Hinny and Remadora

a character I’d die defending I'm gonna say Ron here because wowowowow the movies did him so dirty and people who've only watched the films don't understand how fucking special he is. I've ranted a little about this before if anyone wants to know my thoughts. Suffice it to say, Ron is a very good boy. (I would also "defend" a lot of other characters in the sense that the fandom likes to misrepresent and selectively analyse a lot of the morally grey characters and it pisses me off.)

a character I just can’t sympathize with I was gonna say that I don't have an answer for this one cuz there's something about the way all these characters are written that I can find something that appeals to my humanity about each of them. Except like...Voldy, Bellatrix, and Umbridge I guess. But then I remembered that Peter Pettigrew exists. Yeah okay boohoo you weren't as great a wizard as your besties fuck off I have no time for disloyalty.

a character I grew to love idk if there was anyone I hated who I unconditionally love now? But I did change a lot of my opinions about Snape after DH. I still hate him for bullying children as a full-grown adult (hits too close to home) but he's a much more nuances character that people give him credit for. He's not 100% good or 100% bad, he's just...a person you know? And I love that. I think he's a really great character. (But no, Harry should not have named his child after either Severus or Albus wth?)

my anti otp There's probably nothing that's canon endgame that I hated. A lot of the fanon ships aren't my jam but that's not really my business. I think the one ship that's somewhere in the middle is Luna x Neville cuz the movie tried to do that and I'm like 'uhhhhh no thank you' they have a very nice friendship, there's no reason to squash the last of the main 6 together just cuz.

Send me a fandom ask

[oceanspray5]

James and Lily are my favorite ship as is the Marauders Era my favorite HP era and there have been many fan casts for Lily over the years despite the rest of them being fixed and agreed upon by the fandom (Aaron Taylor Johnson as James, Ben Barnes as Sirius, Andrew Garfield as Remus for the boys) and for the longest time I adored Karen Gillan as Lily to the point I couldn't see anyone else as her for years and yet something was still missing although I could never tell what.

Recently I discovered that newer Marauder edits have been using Sophie Skelton and I hadn't seen any of her shows so was skeptical but oh my gosh is she PERFECT? It took me one edit and I was sold despite that never happening before and at first I couldn't figure out why Sophie worked so much better than any other fan cast for Lily especially when Karen has been the fandom favorite for so long (I've seen Elle Fanning and Holland Roden also) but then the difference became clear after watching an older edit where Karen was used.

I feel like Karen's Lily embodied more of the movie version of Lily that we got and consequently understood but weren't satisfied with: Smart, followed rules, orderly and an overall goody two shoes. That's not how the fandom ever viewed her as but the movies took "bright student" to mean in the most stereotypical way possible. Karen fit the mould for that Lily fairly well but you could squint to see the book Lily between the lines if you tried hard enough so she was a satisfactory Lily for the longest time.

However, Sophie Skelton embodies the book and fandom version of Lily where she's full of life and love and charm and mischief amidst the movie Lily's qualities of being a bright student. Sophie's expressions express Lily's wit and passion and delight and creativity past just being smart.

You see Sophie Skelton's Lily and understand why James fell in love with her while with Karen's Lily it's more of an acceptance that he did because we know Lily's qualities even if we don't see them portrayed exactly as we have in mind. Falling in love with Lily the way James did adds a magical level of realism which is why Sophie is so perfect.

Sophie's scenes from her shows also work SO WELL with the ones used for the rest of the Marauders and I've been watching Marauders edits with her in them for days but can't get enough which is why I hope she's a permanent fixture fan cast finally like the rest of the Marauders era fan casts.

I still love watching edits with other fan casted Lilys but I think it's safe to say that Sophie is now my permanent fan cast for her. It's strange I wrote an entire essay on the "portrayal" of different actresses in a role they didn't even play but it speaks to how attached I've become of this fc and also how much this Fandom puts love and effort into the Marauders stories that even just edits make it appear that our fan casts are acting out the stories we have chosen them to play unknowingly.

[yeats-infection]

like many people i first discovered your work through r/s though i've loved your other writing as well...i hope this question doesn't come off as fic pressure at all, i really am just curious about how your interests have evolved. are you still interested in r/s, like do you still read/write/think about the pairing, or is it more in the past for you as you've moved onto other things? in general would love to hear your thoughts on why different pairings matter to us at different points in life

thank you for asking this great question. in all honesty i feel like i got all the r/s out of me. seven simple machines felt like the last thing i needed to say or i guess add to the fanon that exists. i do have two unfinished r/s things (ashcan era NYC boxing AU and post-apocalypse los angeles AU) and i’m not writing off ever finishing them. it is just not as extremely generative as it was for me in 2015-17 when i literally couldn’t stop writing r/s stuff! i think it was hard for me for a while because i was struggling to write something that had seemed easy to me for so long. but i truly do feel like i don’t have anything else i need to say at this point. i don’t want my stories to be formulaic and be about the same thing over and over, and i think i might feel done until i can approach it with a fresh mind again, if that makes sense! 

i think that’s why i threw myself into writing all the band stories... which are still tangentially within hp canon but also come from a more original place and can be more creative and break from the mold i kind of wrote myself into with how i characterized r/s and their place and time. 

when it comes to different pairings mattering at different times... i feel like a lot of the other pairings i’ve been interested in other than r/s in recent years are also in the vein of “childhood friends who save one another and then must reconnect as adults to save one another again and/or die in one another’s arms.” we all have our kryptonite i guess and there’s something about fate or “doom” in the tolkien sense to me... 

[imnotinclinedtomaturity]

For the ask game: Forever (do you spend more time on one or the other?), Monday (I'd be interested to hear what you consider the "boring" parts), March (and what kind of music?) and Anicent (and do you have a special attachment to it)? Kat, I've basically added onto the original questions but I'm interested to know about your writing, my friend. And LY is still very much in my To Read list and I'm hoping to get to it soon.

hey lovely :) lol i love your add-ons for the questions, making it more original :P

[ask me]

forever: do you balance fic writing with original concept stuff? I do! aside from all the profesh academic writing I do (published papers are basically currency in academia), I have some original projects that I work on. I spend much more on phanfic, but I recently found an irl creative writing buddy who I refuse to tell I write phanfic, so I’ve been more motivated to find time for original work.

monday: do you struggle with the ‘boring’ parts of writing? good lord yes. I tend to play out scenes in my head a lot before I write them, and if I’m struggling to find the motivation/inspiration to do that, it’s usually a sign that it’s a “boring” part. I know you’re not reading ly yet, but the first like 1k of chapter 32 is a great example. My usual tacts are: 1) write an incredibly basic and shitty draft of the scene, 2) have @auroraphilealis look over it for general comments, 3) talk through the scene and develop a more nuanced view of what I want/need to accomplish with it, 4) rewrite/heavily edit. Also, I know some people hate editing and find it boring, but 99% of the time I don’t. Some of that credit definitely goes to elizajane because she usually hangs around while I edit (and I do the same for her), which makes it more silly and fun and productive. I helps me laugh at stupid shit I do, as opposed to wallowing in feeling like an idiot lol

march: do you listen to music whilst writing? for the most part, I can’t listen to music and write (anything, not just phanfic); usually the adhd ruins it for me. the only exception to that is Lorde for some reason, which I can sometimes work to. I do, however, listen to music when I’m planning scene. I’ve got an ly playlist (that’s slowly being revealed in the fic) that I’ve listened to probs a million and one times during brainstorming sessions, and some of my other fics have had inspiration music for planning.

ancient: the first fic you ever posted online? um, if we are getting technical, it was a marauders era fic for hp from my teen years lol. For phan, it was Crazy stupid, you and me from back in 2015. It’s kind of cringe, wasn’t beta’d, and even I didn’t put that much effort into editing, so it’s definitely a highly different product than stuff I post now. But it’s still there one my account and I don’t hate it and it’s a good example of how growth and forethought and editing can make a big different

and dw I have a few of your fics on my to read list too lol. ily

[03713]

misogyny is when people don't like pears 😔 HMM i've been liking pink ladies recently!! theyre just so small n sweet i love them as a snack!! but granny smith apples also hit... so fresh and delicious!! BROCCOLIII i love :D i had some in my dinner yesterday.. all of my hp was restored :) and NOOO!! NOO!! TOMATOES!! auuahg i respect your answer but i think they are so icky.. i tried to make myself like them LOL but they taste so chemical to me ToT BUT i do love tomato soup ahjgfhfg that was my dinner today heehee

enterin my misogyny era 😏 and pink ladies ARE so cute!!!!! AND x2 I WAS JUST ABT TO ASK UR THOUGHTS ABT GRANNY SMITHS!!! they dare to be different.... green guys :-) havent had any apples in a long time!! the og fruit ..

TOMATO SLANDER??!! WHAT THE HELL ..... maybe the tomatoes in ur area arent made too well or somethin >:o i heard theyre super easy 2 grow esp if as a first ever plant!!!! could b somethin to look into ..... it MUST be that u havent had a good batch IT MUST BE (<- GUY IN DENIAL). that said i have never had tomato soup omg. IS IT GOOD!!!! anon have u ever had broccoli cheddar soup .... what are ur thoughts on that if so!!

[vveissesfleisch]

I started following you on tumblr awhile ago after I got into your Negan fics (WHICH ARE STILL SOME OF THE BEST EVER). But recently I have been feelin some HP(I've fallen in to the energy sucking abyss that is the mobile game) but have never been intrigued by Drarry (I typically don't even read M/M fics). Until now that is. I gave your fic a chance since your Negan ones were so fucking good, and I am so glad I did. I HAVE ALL THE DRARRY FEELS NOW. YOU'VE RUINED ME. INJECT DRARRY IN TO MY VIENS!!

*throws self down on black velvet fainting chaise that I definitely own* oh dear sweet dark lord, you have no idea how much this ask made my fucking day! I’m so glad you enjoy my Negan fics, they are my pride and joy, and I am OVER THE DAMN MOON that you do not regret diving headfirst into my Drarry!!! All my fics are near and dear to me but Drarry is just *clenches fist* so close to my heart because they’re my special boys and I’ve loved/shipped them for so long (literally more than half my life) and this is the first fic I’ve written about them & properly posted in my Adult Era™️, and I can’t even believe people are reading it nonetheless *enjoying* it and I am fully aware that I am Sir Rambles McRunOnSentences right now but I CANT BE BOTHERED TO CARE BECAUSE I AM IN A GLASS CASE OF GRATITUDE AND EMOTION!!!

Thank you thank you thank you for this beautiful ask, and thank you for reading my fics and loving them. And gird your loins for more Drarry this weekend, I’ve finally stopped fussing over and rewriting the new chapter so I’ll be editing it within the next few days >:).

For now, back to work! *clears throat, resumes usual resting bitch face, and turns into a bat*

Edited to add: if you need to cry about gay wizards or have any particularly salient headcanons that are ripe to be shared, I hope you know where to come.

[keijukaisvalssi]

That time of the year again (for the first time ever): Best movies I've seen in 2016

 So, wasn’t that a year? Maybe the roughest year of my life, so I’m looking forward what 2017 has to bring. I’ve never gone to the cinema this many times within a year. There were many movies I wanted to see this year but couldn’t, because some movies didn’t come to where I live, or will be coming in 2017. So let’s start the list with those movies, the ones I wanted but couldn’t see.  The biggest bummer of this year was Arrival. Everybody was, and still are hyping this as one of the best movies of the year and I was pumped when I saw the poster for it in our local cinema. But suddenly overnight, all of the movies showings were cancelled, because it didn’t do well in other small cities and towns. So now I’ll have to wait for it to come on dvd/bluray and watch it in our small televisions, what a shame. Other movies I couldn’t see were: Kubo and the Two Strings, Sausage Party, Elle, Hell or High water, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Jackie, Moana and Nocturnal Animals, plus many anime movies like Only Yesterday, The Boy And The Beast and Your Name.

TOP 15 MOVIES I SAW IN 2016:

15: Don’t Breathe/ Ouija: The Origin of Evil - I saw these two movies in a double-screening on Halloween. It was really cool seeing them in a crowded cinema, in the middle of the night. Both are very good horror movies, that break many horror cliches and guidelines. I guarantee that the little girl from Ouija will give you nightmares.

14: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Not as strong as the original trilogy or Force Awakens. It has some really unnecessary scenes and plot points, but the end half of the movie and all the battle scenes made this a Star Wars movie that any fan or movie buff has to see!

13: Doctor Strange - The visually most interresting Marvel movie to date. This mindmelting action movie introduced magic to the MCU, and did it with a bang! This is the third comicbook-movie I have in this list and spoiler alert: None of them are from DC.

12: Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them - Ahhh... This movie brought me right back into the magical world of JK Rowlings. It made me so warm and cozy inside. I’ve always loved the HP movies and this movie has all the wonder and charm those movies had.

11: The Conjuring 2 - Was so excited to see the sequel to one my favourite horror movies ever. I saw the first with my friends and gf when it opened in the theaters, so we decided to do the same with the sequel, and the movie didn’t disappoint and we had a great time. Not as strong as the first, but a fantastic horror film that knows how to make the audience scared.

10: The Jungle Book - THE CGI IN THIS MOVIE! It’s so frickin great! I don’t really care for the original Jungle Book, but this was great. They made the story way more compelling. Sure there were few scenes that could have been taken out, but they didn’t mess the story. And the casting in this is on point! I mean, Bill Murray as Baloo! This year shows if the Warner Bros. version will be as good.

09: Zootopia - A movie that makes you think about the society, even if it doesn’t seem like that superficially. A cute looking movie full of fluffy animals, about human rights and racism. And by cute, I mean hella’ CUTE.

08: HUSH (SHHH in some countries) - One of the most suspenseful films I saw the whole year. It was released to Netflix and I highly recommend you to watch it, if you like horror or just really good suspense.

07: The Nice Guys - There aren’t many good comedies nowadays. The Nice Guys is a great comedy, that embraces the era it is set in. All the performances are great and the characters really likable and charming. Also the dialogue is really hilarious.

06: Captain America: Civil War - The movie, I was maybe the most hyped to see of the good movies this year. Almost all the MCU superheroes are back and have some beef with each other. Also there’s some new characters that are introduced to join forces with them. This is the movie that filled the disappointing void, left by Age Of Ultron, while bringing some of the best action scenes in recent years.

05: The VVitch - This movie is so unnerving.. The use of silence and lack of jumpscares made this my favorite horror movie of the year. The atmosphere is so unsettling and suspenseful, that you stop questioning the events that are happening and just watch silently, as this family is torn apart by a presence of evil.

04: Swiss Army Man - I heard good things about this movie, before watching it. Heard it was an original comedy, and an original concept as a movie. It starts a bit iffy, when a stranded man finds a farting corpse on the island he’s in, and when he investigates the body, he finds out that it might not be that dead after all. After that the movie really kicks in to speed and all I wanna say that I laughed my ass off with this film.

03: Deadpool - Talking about movies that I laughed my ass off: Captain Deadpool! There is no other film this year, I have re-watched as many times as Deadpool. I first got to know of DP from X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Wasn’t that a fun introduction. They got the actor spot on, but then fucked up the character. After many years, and some “leaked” test footage, the movie was made and is now one of my favorite superhero movies of all time. Lets just hope the magic doesn’t wear out for the sequel.

02: The Revenant - So, this is technically a 2015 film, but it was released in Finland in 2016 so I’m justified to include it on this list. The direction and sound designing in this movie are masterful. This is another movie that uses silence so greatly, that you feel all the loneliness and cold this character had to go through. All the actors are perfect and the vast landscapes make this small story feel larger than life. It’s funny how Leo won his Oscar from this film, when two thirds of the movie he is just grunting and panting.

01: Hagsaw Ridge - I had to put this movie as my number one, because when I walked out of the theater, I was just blown away by this movie. This movie was so empowering. It’s about a man who would do anything for his belief and performs miracles by standing behind what he believes in. A soldier going to war without a weapon, because he doesn’t want to take lives, only save them. All the performances are amazing, especially Hugo Weaving and Vince Vaughn. This movie was so heavy to watch, not only because of the horrors of war, but just by all the pressure the main character has to go through, just so he can help others.

So that’s my list. This year really was a mixed bag, when talking about movies. There were great movies I wanted to see, but there were also many bad movies that I saw. 

Hopefully 2017 will be a greater year!