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immoralimmortals · 8 months ago

Text

A Song With Ten Names

Chapter 5: Howl

Chapter 1 ☆ Next Chapter

Summary of chapter: Parting gifts from those with little to give back. The stranger is more precious to the zombies than they realized, and the adverse being true makes her heart hurt. So this is goodbye, at least for now…

Author's Note: Please regard the notes and warnings of chapter 1 if you have not read it already. The song for this chapter is Howl by The Family Crest as breaks between moments, lyrics not entirely complete.

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

I know you never mean to say

All of the awful things you say

But, oh, God, the reason is yours

Oh, God, the reason is yours

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

“Home” is a mercurial, fickle thing. The stranger finds it like sand drifting between fingers. One day you’re a failure of society, the next you’re a kidnapping victim, and THEN you’re-- actually, let’s just make a list:

1) You’re a failure of society.

2) You’re a kidnapping victim.

3) You’re in a cult.

4) You’re a one-man band with a manager AND you’re in a cult.

5) ...Well…?

That’s the whole problem, really. What is happening now? There’s a spare few days left with her current entourage, a few more nights with them sleeping on hand-me-down furniture next to a broken window and a symphonic of mice and other such creatures about this old house in the woods. Hidan and Kakuzu are being sent who knows where by the man who introduced himself as their leader, commanded she be under watch. The moment they’re off, someone else is to take their place. The moment she felt stable...poof. It’s all gone: the freedom...the purpose...the company.

She’s already missing them, more gravely than she imagined she could, by the last day.

She’s not even sure if they believe what they’re told-- that the performer is exactly what she pretends to be. Outwardly, Kakuzu is just following orders without judging; he’s the more unknowable one on this front. Hidan, however, actively struggles with the proposal, calling it ridiculous and being so bold as to dispute the one person even Kakuzu dares not raise his voice towards. But Pain was firm, and so is their goal, so Hidan just ended up with a useless argument against a wall. All the two men have left is a couple of hours and her listening ear, absorbing gaze. The wind outside howls, almost like a beast.

“Here.”

A barely-bound book of scrappy paper is thrown into her hands. Upon palming through it, it becomes evident this is hand written-- hand drawn, too. Words and diagrams and symbols, some of which she recognizes thanks to the pendant around Hidan’s neck. Some of it is even written in what she hopes is his own blood! The woman looks up at him and blinks, though he’s refusing to meet her eyes. Instead, the man rubs the back of his neck like any form of kindness is the only kind of pain he can’t stand.

“Study it well, you hear?!” he commands. Is he...blushing? “No fuckin’ idea when I’ll be back around, so it’s up to you till then! Jashin’s watching us.”

The performer’s gaze darts to the masked one’s. After all this time, did...Hidan not notice? Did she not tell him? Did KAKUZU not tell him? And now, more importantly...should they tell him now that she can’t fucking read how they write around here?

Kakuzu gives no such protection in an easy answer, lightly shrugging underneath his cloak. Thus, she decides that omission is not necessarily lying.

“I’ll do my best,” she promises, then allows a smile to push up her cheeks. “Please review with me next we’re together.” Hidan twists his head even further away from looking at her, gritting his teeth even harder. By this point, there’s a vague assurance that this means she’s hitting the right buttons. With precision, the next words are an arrow to the heart. “Take care until then. I’ll miss you.”

Perhaps she’s danced too close to the line, the joy of peeling his layers till his emotions are defenseless, because her pulse jumps once he whips back around, practically growling in the back of his throat. The groans fluctuate up and down as he, for once, is wordless, face bright red and his restless hand not knowing if it should clench into a fist. A wary Kakuzu watches as those fingers twitch into a flat palm, and with as much awkwardness in the air as water is on a humid day, he firmly pats her head. It's the first time anyone has given her affection, and it puts the moon in her sky and stars in her eyes. She's turned dumb with wonder.

“...Don’t die, alright?” Hidan’s touch ponders the softness of her hair before pulling back, lest he linger too long, dare to grin back. There’s nothing to be happy about; why pretend? “Do what I taught, n’ Jashin won’t let you.”

With nothing else left in him to give, the prophet walks away, out the door, and waits to leave. The breeze plays with the edges of his cloak like it’s trying to steal him away.

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

You smile

I howl to the moon, to the stars

To the way that we were

Howl to the moon, to the stars

When the weight of the world

Is just too much for you

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Minutes now until night falls and the zombies walk free under the new moon sky. The woman glances out from her smudged window, Hidan still perched on the front porch. He has an impatience reminiscent of a wolf waiting to pounce as he faces down the final tangles of sunlight through branches. Loneliness wraps around her like thorns.

“Ah-!”

In the corner of her eye, she sees the perpetrator of her broken concentration, a set of fingers with a ring settled on her shoulder. A voice does its best to not sound overly rattled. “I- I thought you were…” Not going to bother saying goodbye. “...Getting ready to leave.”

Kakuzu is a man of few words, as always, merely stepping back to give her space to face him. It’s funny; her perception of those eyes of his fluctuates so easily. Are they a soft moss or a gemstone emerald? Do they glimmer brightly in the low light, or are they dull with his years of labor and death? She’s spent nights prior contemplating the strange man’s multitudes- Hidan’s too- and she knows it’s not going to be solved tonight.

Yet she’s distracted long enough that Kakuzu ends up speaking first. The corners of her lips have risen, perhaps unconsciously. Why does she give this to him, he wonders? He can’t make it stay. It isn’t worth her expense.

“Our replacements have been delayed.” Hope so briefly grown is cut down: “But we can’t stay for them. Zetsu will be around until they show up.”

The woman repeats the name under her breath, smile faded. The amalgamation...black, white, unnatural, sinister.

“Listen.”

So she must, straightening to attention despite the weight of worries. His stare is unflinching.

“We are all dangerous. Every single one of us.” The bounty hunter’s brow furrows harder underneath his headband. “No one will ever defeat one of us, unless they’re wearing the cloak, too. And in that case, it’s a tossup which. Don’t test their nerves. You. Will not. Survive.”

This is advice he knows very, very well, the way he’s held back in these weeks. That face, in hallowed horror before his truth-- it’s fragile. Her eyes are too trusting. She’s pitiable. She’s ignorant. But a part of him believes she must not be stupid. And that’s kept her alive around him longer than most anyone else.

“We are each under oath from here on to protect you, but that means nothing. Know this. We’re no heroes. Takara--…”

Her breath hitches, though the name he gave puts its weight in his own mouth. The ringed hand clasps her shoulder again, and its grip is tight.

“Whatever skill you have, making me and Hidan soft like this...keep it up.” His knuckles clench. “It’s all between you and death.”

Too tight, too tight-!

Kakuzu lets go as she squeaks, her own hand flinging where his was to ease the stinging skin.

“I...--” This is a horrible time for Kakuzu to be mistaken about how she may be saved, for his voice to flounder for the first time. By his own hand, he is proving himself wrong. But why should he care...-?

“HEY SHITBAG!” a voice calls, dampened only by its distance down. “TIME TO GO!”

Takara flinches between Hidan’s stance below and the man ahead who hurt her. Something flashes in that green, and even he isn’t sure if it carries rage or fear.

“...I’m sorry.”

Without another word, Kakuzu lingers by, past, down the stairs, out the door, and is gone.

Just as soon as the two came into her life, she’s left alone, fixated in front of the window with a book in one hand and her fingers overtop the set bruised into her skin. Takara watches until the leaves swallow them up, until she can cry ugly and loud, from the bottom of her heart, without being heard.

But as when she first sang, the two Akatsuki hear too well, and they must continue in silence and brace against the wind as their precious belonging weeps in her rusty, rattling cage. Smiling back would have just made it worse. Two immortals know good things don’t last forever.

She might not be there long enough for a next time.

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Here you state that a storm is waiting, dear

Turn the lights down low

'Cause one of us is surely gone

I know you never meant to stay

I know, love, we weren't meant to be

I know you never meant to go break my heart of gold

Forever lost together, forever howling at the moon

'Cause it's just too much for you

Forever lost together, forever howling at the moon

When it's just too much for you

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

#akatsuki x reader #aswtn fic #hidan x reader #kakuzu x reader #songfic #naruto fanfiction #i almost picked another song but it had the phrase big boy in it and its too funny to call the zombie combo that

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dataanalyzer · 10 months ago

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1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkein

3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks

18 Catcher in the Rye

19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffeneger

20 Middlemarch – George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis

34 Emma – Jane Austen

35 Persuasion – Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne

41 Animal Farm – George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving

45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding

50 Atonement – Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel

52 Dune – Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

72 Dracula – Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses – James Joyce

76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal – Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession – AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchel

83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks

94 Watership Down – Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

I find it kind of funny that the complete works of Shakespeare and Hamlet are both on here. You'd think you'd only need one or the other. Also I've read all of Harry Potter except for the last book because I heard the ending was terrible, but since it didn't list specific books I didn't bold it. I've also seen the play of the curious incident but I'm not sure if that counts either.

I'm hoping to be able to get all the way through Dracula in real time this year. 🙏🏼

How many have you read?

The BBC estimates that most people will only read 6 books out of the 100 listed below. Reblog this and bold the titles you’ve read.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 2 Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkein 3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte 4 Harry Potter series 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 6 The Bible 7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte 8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell 9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman 10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens 11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott 12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy 13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare 15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier 16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien 17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks 18 Catcher in the Rye 19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffeneger 20 Middlemarch – George Eliot 21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell 22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald 23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens 24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy 25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams 26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh 27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky 28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck 29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll 30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame 31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy 32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens 33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis 34 Emma – Jane Austen 35 Persuasion – Jane Austen 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis 37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini 38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres 39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden 40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne 41 Animal Farm – George Orwell 42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown 43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez 44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving 45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins 46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery 47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy 48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood 49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding 50 Atonement – Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel 52 Dune – Frank Herbert 53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons 54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen 55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth 56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon 57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens 58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley 59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon 60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez 61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck 62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov 63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt 64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold 65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas 66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac 67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy 68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding 69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie 70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville 71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens 72 Dracula – Bram Stoker 73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett 74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson 75 Ulysses – James Joyce 76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath 77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome 78 Germinal – Emile Zola 79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray 80 Possession – AS Byatt 81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens 82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchel 83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker 84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro 85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert 86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry 87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White 88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton 91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad 92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery 93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks 94 Watership Down – Richard Adams 95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole 96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute 97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas 98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl 100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

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strawwritesfic · 3 years ago

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Peter Parker x Pregnant!Female!Stark!Reader: Where Gods Do Fear to Tread [Ch. 4]

Summary: The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, the best laid plans of teenagers even more so.

Challenge: “9 Months” challenge by crackleviolet on Lunaescence Archive -- Bonus Two -- Teenage Pregnancy

Rating/Warnings/Tags: T (sexual references; two underage people having consensual sex off the page; teenage pregnancy; family drama; mixed families; teenage cruelty; discussion of abortion; discussion of adoption; foul language; crude humor; postpartum depression; Stark!Reader; Lila & Reader friendship)

Pairings: Peter Parker x Female!Reader; Tony/Pepper; Happy/May; Steve/Bucky; Clint/Laura; past!Tony/Reader’s Mom

Tag List: @imaginesfire, @plutoneu

Master List

Chapter 4: Surprise!

Over the course of your admittedly short life, you had learned one truth for certain: waiting was the greatest agony anyone could endure. Whether it was waiting for the cancer to take your mother’s life; waiting for the results of the DNA test to declare whether or not Tony Stark really was your father or waiting for Peter to get around to asking you out, the times you spent without any recourse to act on your own always stood out as the worst.

The week leading up to that fateful Christmas dinner with the Parkers (and Happy) was no different. You seemed to rush through every single activity in a haze of anxiety. Though you put a painstaking amount of effort into your hair and your makeup and your clothes that evening, you were still left your private bathroom with plenty of time to loiter in the entrance hall before they arrived.

“Hey, kiddo. Good to see you out of your room for once,” your dad said as you stepped inside.

You still hadn’t told him the truth. How could you? Pepper might not have been eager to have guests for the holidays, but your dad always was. Telling him you’d slept with one of those guests would ruin not just his party but his entire Christmas. The only way you could even begin to quash the gnawing guilt in your stomach was to stay locked in your room—and you kind of wish you’d thought to stay there until everyone else got there that night, too.

“You look nice,” he said into the uncomfortable silence. He wore a simple dark suit, something you hardly ever saw him in at home. Seeing that he’d dressed up as well came as some relief, since you’d sort of gone overboard with your own party clothes, if for no other reason than needing something to do with your hands.

“Thanks,” you managed to mutter. “Is anyone else here yet?”

“Just waiting on May, Peter, and Happy.”

“So everyone else already got here?”

Your dad shook his head. “It is just them this year. Your Uncle Rhodey got called out on a last minute job.”

“Steve and Bucky?”

“Wanted to spend their first Christmas Eve as a married couple without having to argue with me over who gets the last piece of Pepper’s fudge.”

Thank God. The fewer people you had to pretend in front of the better. Though you now had only five to worry about, you still felt mere inches away from completely losing your head. Some of this must have shown on your face, because your dad frowned and moved closer to you.

“Are you that upset about not seeing Steve and Bucky for Christmas?” Before you could shake your head, he’d already moved on. “Nah, that’s stupid. You don’t want to share the fudge either. [Name], are you all right? You’ve been acting a little weird lately.”

It was so much harder for you to pretend when he looked you right in the eyes like that. “Weird how?” you asked.

“Just quiet. Hiding in your room all the time. Is that group project still bugging you? We could look into transferring you somewhere else if the girls are becoming a problem.”

“No!” you said swiftly, and immediately regretted it.

“No, that’s not what’s bothering you, or no, you don’t want to transfer schools? Because I thought we had a major blowout because you wanted to go to school with Peter.”

Why, oh why hadn’t you kept your big mouth shut? Now was not the time to confess to your father that your preoccupation lay in the overwhelmingly terrifying knowledge that you were going to have a baby. Yes, you had whined about going to Midtown School of Science and Technology before, but you highly doubted your dad would be gung-ho about a transfer once he found out that even going to different schools had not prevented you from being alone with Peter long enough to get knocked up.

An unusual worry line appeared in your father’s forehead. He placed both his hands on your shoulders.

“What aren’t you telling me, [Name]?” he asked.

You felt an intense pressure on the backs of your eyes as he gazed at you. When no one else had wanted you, he had taken you in. He was your dad. It wasn’t as though he’d never been in a similar position before; he just hadn’t been aware of it at the time. Surely he would still love you after you told him…but how he’d feel about Peter was an entirely different story. Then again, how long could you hold out just to keep Peter safe?

A minute or two passed. Finally, you wilted under your father’s obvious concern. “Dad, I—”

The elevator doors pulled open, cutting off your confession in the nick of time.

“We’re here!” May called as she, Peter, and Happy swept into the foyer.

May was wearing an absolutely beautiful sparkling dress in navy, Happy his usual black and white suit, and Peter…well, Peter had on an nice-looking suit of his own, but also an expression of blank horror that caused your stomach to jolt as though you’d missed a step coming down the stairs.

Your father seemed to forget all about your conversation the second May came up to embrace him. “Hey, May.” He kissed her cheek. “Hanukkah Sameach.”

“Ah! Chag Sameach to you, too. Thanks so much for having us.”

“Don’t mention it. I hate having the place empty during the holidays. Reminds me too much of my childhood.”

While Happy stepped up to shake your dad’s hand, May walked over to hug you in turn. “Hey, you. How’s it going?” she asked.

“Fine,” you lied.

She was warm and smelled like honey. To your vast relief, she did not contradict your answer. Peter had kept his word. His aunt didn’t know your dirty secret yet either.

Clearly, Peter wasn’t happy about this, though. His hug following May’s was as stiff as it had ever been. He raised his eyebrows as he moved away, and there was no need for him to speak for you to understand what he was getting at.

You replied with a minuscule shake of your head.

His eyebrows contracted into one long line.

The next look you sent him was pleading: please, please understand.

This silent conversation might have gone on for some time, had Happy not interrupted with, “You two can make googly eyes at each other over the table, can’t you? I’m starving.”

“Coming!” you and Peter said, in similarly high-pitched voices. One last shared glance, then you trooped after the adults to the dining room where Pepper was waiting, a tiny pine wreath worked into a halo atop her long red hair.

“Merry Christmas!” May said cheerfully, sliding into the seat across from her.

“I’m not sure what’s so merry about it,” Pepper griped.

Happy smiled as he sat down next to his girlfriend. “Pregnancy treating you well, I take it?”

“Unless you want to find out how it feels to be stabbed by a carving fork, I suggest you don’t mention it again.”

“Duly noted.”

Your dad kissed Pepper on the temple before he sat at the head of the table. She sent him a look of pure venom in return. Luckily the seating arrangements left you and Peter across from each other with a gap between you and your hormonal step-mother. The subject you needed to speak of couldn’t be brought up without notice, but at least you could count on Happy and your father to bear the brunt of Pepper’s temper.

Soon, everyone was too caught up in eating to give anymore thought to your strange behavior. Mashed potatoes, turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, and latkes mingled together on every plate. Pepper took a whole extra scoop of the casserole, the dish you’d spent the better part of the morning laboring over to get just like the one your mother used to make. You remained so busy inhaling your own food that it took you nearly emptying your plate to realize that Peter hadn’t touched his.

“You okay?” you asked.

“No,” he said incredulously.

A great swooping sensation filled your stomach, as though you’d just gone tumbling off the top of the tower or something. He really wanted to talk about this here? Now? Okay, so you hadn’t really done a lot of communicating with him since he’d left the day you’d told him the awful truth—but you thought you had both agreed it would be too easy for his aunt or your dad to accidentally see a text message they shouldn’t! Your dad’s Christmas dinner party was hardly the place to resume the discussion, even if all the adults seemed thoroughly invested in whatever conversation they were having.

Peter looked over to see the same thing you did. Apparently that did enough to assuage his nerves, because he plowed right on:

“I thought you were going to tell him!”

“I was,” you whispered hotly.

“Then what happened?”

“What happened was that we wound up having this!”

“So?”

“So? Peter, what do you think would happen if we told everyone before tonight?”

“Hey,” Happy called down the table. “You guys have something you’d like to share with the class?”

“No, sir,” you and Peter chorused.

You both immediately crammed huge bites of food into your mouths to prevent anyone from asking further questions. Happy’s eyes narrowed, but after a moment of uncomfortable silence, the four adults returned to their own conversation. Peter, on the other hand, did not return to anything resembling inconspicuous behavior.

“We can’t just not tell anybody, [Name]! Someone’s gonna find out.”

“I know, okay?”

“I don’t like keeping secrets.”

You tossed your fork onto your plate, completely oblivious to the clatter that arose from doing so. “Oh, that’s rich, coming from the boy with an entire secret identity.”

“That’s not the same thing.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Are you guys breaking up?”

This time, it was May that interrupted you. Again, you and Peter swapped horrified looks.

“No!” he said.

“Not at all!” you added.

“We’re good.”

“Great, really.”

“Can I have some more latkes?”

None of them so much as glanced at Peter’s plate, which was, in fact, still full of latkes. Instead, after staring at the two of you for quite some time, all of the adults turned to look at each other.

“Peter’s been acting a little odd this week,” May said apologetically.

“Teenagers,” said your dad. “[Name]’s been skulking around, too. I’ve hardly seen her since she finished her finals.”

“You know, Peter started behaving like that after the spider bit him.”

“What,” said Happy, “you think [Name]’s transforming into the Amazing Spider-Girl?”

“Nah, she’d tell me if she getting superpowers. Right, [Name]?” asked your dad.

“Right,” you said weakly.

“She tells me everything.”

“No teenage girl tells her father everything,” Pepper put in.

“And you’d know this…how?”

“Because I was once a teenage girl myself.”

“Right,” your dad said. “Hard to remember with that belly you’ve got going.”

Pepper slammed her silverware down and let out a single bitter laugh. “All the insane people you’ve fought through the years, and you’ve decided the way you want Iron Man to die is via his wife strangling him the night before Christmas. I’d have thought you’d try for something a little more dramatic.”

“Want me to hold him down for you?” Happy offered.

“You’re fired,” said your dad.

“You can’t fire me. Who else is going to pick your sprog up from school?”

“I will.”

Happy snorted. “Yeah, she’ll love that.”

“She will,” your dad said indignantly. “Right, [Name]? [Name]?”

Tears obscured your vision so terribly that you could no longer see the room around you, nor the face of the boy sitting only a few feet away. The sound of several chairs being pushed back reached your ears, so you knew that it wasn’t only your father that had seen the water coursing down your cheeks. You still couldn’t stop crying. Though you made no noise, the strength it took to keep yourself in one piece put a sort of roaring in your ears.

You had not told your father everything. You had lied, not only to his face, but to his AI, to his wife, and even to his friends and coworkers. There he was, defending you and all the while you sat across from Peter defending all the selfish reasons you couldn’t tell the truth.

Your father trusted you—and it wasn’t even that that had finally cracked the fragile veneer of normalcy you’d been clinging so hard to. No, that was Pepper, a woman who people couldn’t even conceive of ever having been a teenager because she was pregnant. A teenager was what you were! How could you ever—

“Oh, honey.” May’s soft voice accompanied a comforting hand on your shoulder. “What’s the matter? I’m sorry if I interrupted. You and Peter can go somewhere else to talk.”

“They most certainly cannot,” said your dad.

“What did you do to the girl?” Happy asked.

“I didn’t do anything!” Peter said, in that high voice of his that he only reached when so nervous.

May shushed the men and turned your chair to face her. She alone was close enough for you to see the worry in her huge brown eyes. Clearly she couldn’t see the guilt in your face, because she lifted a hand and smoothed your hair with it—thoroughly ruining the elaborate hairdo you’d put it in, but who cared about that at a time like this? You practically launched yourself into her chest. A brief sound of confusion vibrated against your face; she did not, however, shove you away.

“Hey, it’s okay,” she said soothingly.

But it wasn’t. Nothing was ever going to be okay again. You were pregnant. In one fell swoop, you had ruined your life; you had ruined Peter’s life; and you’d probably ruined your dad and Pepper’s lives, too. May’s chest only somewhat muffled the gigantic sobs bursting out of your mouth. Still, the somewhat was enough to allow you to hear the rest of the conversation nearby:

“Kid, I really hate to kick you off the team, but if you hurt my daughter—”

“I didn’t! Mr. Stark, I swear I wasn’t breaking up with her!”

“He’s kidding, Peter.”

“Who said I was kidding? I take my daughter’s happiness very seriously.”

You couldn’t take it. You couldn’t take the idea of your dad firing Peter because of something you had done, something that was happening to you. You couldn’t take May comforting you when she would stop the minute she discovered the truth. And yet you didn’t have the strength to pull away from her. For days, you had wanted nothing more than someone to hold you, but were unable to explain why without giving yourself away. So you turned your head, just enough to expose half of your face to the cold world awaiting it.

“I’m pregnant,” you said hoarsely.

Only May seemed to hear. She stiffened, then slowly pushed you back into your chair. Her eyes were huge in her face. Meanwhile, Peter, Happy, and your dad continued to argue:

“You must have done something. Is this about her not going to that slumber party with Lila?” your dad said.

“Since when was [Name] having a slumber party with Lila?” Peter asked in a panic.

“I’m pregnant!”

The words exploded out of you upon repeating. They sucked the rest of the sound out of the room the moment they hit the air. Each other person there turned one by one to look at you, their expressions each a near-perfect mirror of May’s—or so you assumed, because you began crying too hard to see once again.

“I-I snuck out to see Peter the night the Avengers were Rotruvia. I knew he’d be alone because Dad told me May and Happy were going on a date! We-we had sex. I’m the one that started it. Not P-Peter!”

They had to know that. They needed to know that. The world needed Spider-Man; it did not need you. But that was not the only secret that needed unveiling. Now unlocked, your mouth couldn’t stop moving. You went on:

“I didn’t even have a group project at school. I-I l-lied so I would have time to by a preg-pregnancy test at the store before Happy came to pick me u-up. And-and-and then I lied about why I wouldn’t come out of my room and I-I-I don’t want to have a baby!”

No one said a single word. Silence fell so thoroughly in the dining room that you could have heard a pin drop. Instead, all you heard was Pepper continuing her meal at the other end of the table.

“Really? We’re kind of having a moment here,” your dad said.

“She’s your daughter,” Pepper replied.

“Yeah. It’s really starting to look that way, isn’t it?”

You had expected him to be angry. Heck, you’d expected him to be disappointed, which was exactly how he sounded. All that mental preparation for it amounted to nothing in the end. Looking at your father after that was beyond comprehension. Before anything more could be said, you stood and ran from the room.

At least Peter’s career was safe. The chances of you being safe anywhere anymore were slim to none. Maybe the best present you could give Pepper and your dad was getting packed before they told you to move out.

112 notes · View notes

ayteezmooveez · 2 years ago

Text

The (Currently) Complete Favorite Movies List

Favorite Movies of 1920's-1960's

1. The Wizard Of Oz

2. To Kill A Mockingbird

3. City Lights

4. It's A Wonderful Life

5. Casablanca

6. Psycho

7. Roman Holiday

8. 12 Angry Men

9. Rebel Without A Cause

10. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid

11. The Philadelphia Story

12. Gentleman's Agreement

13. Citizen Kane

14. On The Waterfront

15. Rear Window

16. Mary Poppins

17. The Birds

18. The Gold Rush

19. A Streetcar Named Desire

20. Miracle On 34th Street

Honorable mention:

Breakfast At Tiffany's

Charade

East Of Eden

My Fair Lady

Planet Of The Apes

Sabrina

Favorite Movies of the 1970's

1. Harold & Maude

2. Close Encounters Of The Third Kind

3. Dog Day Afternoon

4. The Godfather

5. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

6. American Graffiti

7. A Clockwork Orange

8. Kramer vs Kramer

9. All The President's Men

10. Halloween

11. Taxi Driver

12. Monty Python & The Holy Grail

13. Jaws

14. Chinatown

15. Blazing Saddles

16. Star Wars

17. The French Connection

18. Young Frankenstein

19. Superman: The Movie

20. The Exorcist

Honorable mention:

Carrie

Duel

Grease

Enter The Dragon

Rocky

The Warriors

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory

Favorite Movies of the 1980's

1. Ferris Bueller's Day Off

2. The Princess Bride

3. Back To The Future

4. Ghostbusters

5. The Breakfast Club

6. E.T.

7. Die Hard

8. Raiders Of The Lost Ark

9. Brazil

10. Heathers

11. Who Framed Roger Rabbit

12. The 'burbs

13. Gremlins

14. Stand By Me

15. Beetlejuice

16. Clue

17. Scrooged

18. Big

19. Rain Man

20. Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back

21. Batman

22. The Goonies

23. The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen

24. Spaceballs

25. Real Genius

26. Dead Poets Society

27. Say Anything

28. Back To The Future, Part II

29. Pee Wee's Big Adventure

30. Lethal Weapon

31. Three O'Clock High

32. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

33. Planes, Trains & Automobiles

34. Fast Times At Ridgemont High

35. Star Wars - Return Of The Jedi

36. The NeverEnding Story

37. Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade

38. The Terminator

39. The Karate Kid

40. WarGames

Honorable mention:

Blade Runner

Legend

The Little Mermaid

Poltergeist

Starman

This Is Spinal Tap

When Harry Met Sally...

Guilty pleasure:

Just One Of The Guys

The Lost Boys

Weekend At Bernie's

Favorite Movies of 1990

1. Edward Scissorhands

2. Goodfellas

3. Pump Up The Volume

4. Dick Tracy

5. Quick Change

6. Pretty Woman

7. Back To The Future, Part III

8. Home Alone

9. Gremlins 2

10. Joe Versus The Volcano

Honorable mention:

Cry-Baby

I Love You To Death

Mermaids

Guilty pleasure:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Favorite Movies of 1991

1. Dogfight

2. Terminator 2: Judgement Day

3. The Fisher King

4. L.A. Story

5. Defending Your Life

6. Barton Fink

7. The Silence Of The Lambs

8. My Own Private Idaho

9. The Addams Family

10. Beauty & The Beast

Honorable mention:

Doc Hollywood

Only The Lonely

Rush

Guilty pleasure:

Johnny Suede

Point Break

Favorite Movies of 1992

1. Reservoir Dogs

2. My Cousin Vinny

3. A League Of Their Own

4. Batman Returns

5. Chaplin

6. Malcolm X

7. Bram Stoker's Dracula

8. The Muppet Christmas Carol

9. Hero

10. Of Mice And Men

Honorable mention:

Leap Of Faith

Singles

Favorite Movies of 1993

1. Dazed & Confused

2. Groundhog Day

3. Jurassic Park

4. Benny & Joon

5. Schindler's List

6. For Love Or Money

7. What's Eating Gilbert Grape

8. The Nightmare Before Christmas

9. Heart & Souls

10. Mrs. Doubtfire

Honorable mention:

The Fugitive

Rudy

The Sandlot

Searching For Bobby Fischer

Sleepless In Seattle

The Thing Called Love

True Romance

Untamed Heart

Guilty pleasure:

Last Action Hero

So I Married An Axe Murderer

Favorite Movies of 1994

1. The Shawshank Redemption

2. Speed

3. The Crow

4. Ed Wood

5. The Lion King

6. Dumb & Dumber

7. Quiz Show

8. Pulp Fiction

9. The Professional

10. Reality Bites

Honorable mention:

Clerks

The Client

Forrest Gump

Four Weddings & A Funeral

Interview With The Vampire

Little Women

The Paper

The Ref

Guilty pleasure:

Brainscan

Favorite Movies of 1995

1. Seven

2. Before Sunrise

3. Twelve Monkeys

4. Dead Man

5. Toy Story

6. The American President

7. The Basketball Diaries

8. Clueless

9. Living In Oblivion

10. Empire Records

Honorable mention:

Apollo 13

Get Shorty

Mallrats

The Usual Suspects

Welcome To The Dollhouse

Favorite Movies of 1996

1. Jerry Maguire

2. That Thing You Do!

3. Beautiful Girls

4. William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet

5. Scream

6. The Rock

7. James & The Giant Peach

8. Ransom

9. The Frighteners

10. Tin Cup

Fargo

Hard Eight

Mission: Impossible

Sleepers

Swingers

Trees Lounge

Guilty pleasure:

Independence Day

Favorite Movies of 1997

1. Good Will Hunting

2. As Good As It Gets

3. Titanic

4. Boogie Nights

5. L.A. Confidential

6. Donnie Brasco

7. The Game

8. Scream 2

9. Face/Off

10. Cop Land

Honorable mention:

Chasing Amy

Gattaca

Grosse Pointe Blank

Jackie Brown

Two Girls & A Guy

Wag The Dog

Favorite Movies of 1998

1. Saving Private Ryan

2. Rushmore

3. Out Of Sight

4. Dark City

5. Shakespeare In Love

6. Pleasantville

7. Buffalo '66

8. The Truman Show

9. American History X

10. Enemy Of The State

Honorable mention:

A Bug's Life

Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas

Meet Joe Black

Playing By Heart

A Simple Plan

The Wedding Singer

What Dreams May Come

Guilty pleasure:

Godzilla

Favorite Movies of 1999

1. Fight Club

2. Magnolia

3. The Matrix

4. Notting Hill

5. 10 Things I Hate About You

6. Three Kings

7. Toy Story 2

8. Sleepy Hollow

9. Being John Malkovich

10. Man On The Moon

Honorable mention:

The Cider House Rules

The Green Mile

The Insider

The Iron Giant

The Sixth Sense

Favorite Movies of 2000

1. Requiem For A Dream

2. Memento

3. Almost Famous*

4. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

5. Unbreakable

6. Traffic

7. Wonder Boys

8. The Way Of The Gun

9. O Brother, Where Art Though?

10. Snatch

Honorable mention:

Billy Elliot

Cast Away

The Cell

Erin Brockovich

Frequency

Gladiator

High Fidelity

X-Men

Favorite Movies of 2001

1. Donnie Darko

2. Vanilla Sky

3. Amélie

4. The Royal Tenenbaums

5. LOTR - Fellowship

6. A Knight's Tale

7. Ocean's Eleven

8. Ghost World

9. A Beautiful Mind

10. A.I. Artificial Intelligence

Honorable mention:

Frailty

From Hell

Gosford Park

The Others

Shrek

Spirited Away

Favorite Movies of 2002

1. Adaptation.

2. Gangs Of New York

3. LOTR - Two Towers

4. Catch Me If You Can

5. Punch Drunk Love

6. Chicago

7. Minority Report

8. Insomnia

9. Death To Smoochy

10. About A Boy

Honorable mention:

8 Mile

28 Days Later

The Bourne Identity

The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys

The Good Girl

Igby Goes Down

Moonlight Mile

Panic Room

Road To Perdition

Signs

Guilty pleasure:

The Mothman Prophecies

Favorite Movies of 2003

1. American Splendor

2. 21 Grams

3. Big Fish

4. Kill Bill, Vol. 1

5. LOTR - Return Of The King

6. X2: X-Men United

7. Mystic River

8. Pirates Of The Caribbean

9. Matchstick Men

10. Finding Nemo

Honorable mention:

The Last Samurai

Lost In Translation

Phone Book

School Of Rock

Seabiscuit

The Station Agent

Guilty pleasure:

The Room

Underworld

Favorite Movies of 2004

1. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

2. Garden State

3. Spider-Man 2

4. The Aviator

5. Harry Potter & The Prisoner Of Azkaban

6. Before Sunset

7. The Incredibles

8. Napoleon Dynamite

9. Finding Neverland

10. Kill Bill, Vol. 2

Honorable mention:

Dodgeball

In Good Company

Million Dollar Baby

Sideways

Team America: World Police

The Village

Favorite Movies of 2005

1. Batman Begins

2. Walk The Line

3. Brokeback Mountain

4. Brick

5. King Kong

6. Serenity

7. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

8. Wedding Crashers

9. Breakfast On Pluto

10. Sin City

Honorable mention:

The Chumscrubber

Constantine

Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith

Syriana

Thumbsucker

V For Vendetta

War Of The Worlds

Favorite Movies of 2006

1. Little Miss Sunshine

2. The Fountain

3. The Prestige

4. The Fall

5. Pan's Labyrinth

6. The Departed

7. The Science Of Sleep

8. Superman Returns

9. A Scanner Darkly

10. Clerks II

Honorable mention:

16 Blocks

Babel

Stranger Than Fiction

Wristcutters: A Love Story

Favorite Movies of 2007

1. Across The Universe

2. There Will Be Blood

3. Zodiac

4. Superbad

5. Lars And The Real Girl

6. The Darjeeling Limited

7. Sweeney Todd

8. Funny Games

9. No Country For Old Men

10. Stardust

Honorable mention:

3:10 To Yuma

The Bourne Ultimatum

Gone Baby Gone

Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix

Juno

Knocked Up

Live Free Or Die Hard

Michael Clayton

Ratatouille

Favorite Movies of 2008

1. The Dark Knight

2. The Brothers Bloom

3. Role Models

4. Slumdog Millionaire

5. Be Kind Rewind

6. Iron Man

7. In Bruges

8. Tropic Thunder

9. The Wrestler

10. Wanted

Honorable mention:

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

The Go-Getter

Me & Orson Welles

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

Wall-E

Favorite Movies of 2009

1. (500) Days Of Summer

2. Where The Wild Things Are

3. Up In The Air

4. An Education

5. Inglourious Basterds

6. Star Trek

7. Fantastic Mr. Fox

8. Whip It

9. The Hangover

10. The Road

Honorable mention:

Adventureland

Avatar

Coraline

District 9

I Love You, Man

Favorite Movies of 2010

1. Inception

2. The Social Network

3. Black Swan

4. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

5. Blue Valentine

6. The Fighter

7. Winter's Bone

8. Toy Story 3

9. Shutter Island

10. The King's Speech

Honorable mention:

Buried

Due Date

Kick-Ass

Let Me In

Never Let Me Go

The Other Guys

The Town

Favorite Movies of 2011

1. Super 8

2. Hugo

3. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

4. Crazy Stupid Love

5. Moneyball

6. The Descendants

7. My Week With Marilyn

8. Bridesmaids

9. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

10. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Honorable mention:

10 Years

50/50

The Beaver

Horrible Bosses

The Muppets

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

Source Code

Dishonorable mention:

Sucker Punch

Favorite Movies of 2012

1. Silver Linings Playbook

2. Moonrise Kingdom

3. Lincoln

4. The Avengers

5. The Dark Knight Rises

6. Looper

7. Ruby Sparks

8. Django Unchained

9. Argo

10. Mud

Honorable mention:

21 Jump Street

Jack Reacher

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

Premium Rush

Safety Not Guaranteed

This Is 40

Favorite Movies of 2013

1. 12 Years A Slave

2. Her

3. Snowpiercer

4. The Wolf Of Wall Street

5. Star Trek Into Darkness

6. The Way Way Back

7. Before Midnight

8. The Spectacular Now

9. American Hustle

10. About Time

Honorable mention:

Begin Again

Captain Phillips

Dallas Buyers Club

Fruitvale Station

The Heat

Inside Llewyn Davis

Prisoners

Rush

Warm Bodies

Favorite Movies of 2014

1. Wish I Was Here

2. The Skeleton Twins

3. Boyhood

4. Nightcrawler

5. The Imitation Game

6. Whiplash

7. Birdman

8. The Grand Budapest Hotel

9. St. Vincent

10. Inherent Vice

Honorable mention:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes

Edge Of Tomorrow

Gone Girl

Infinitely Polar Bear

Interstellar

Love & Mercy

Veronica Mars

What We Do In The Shadows

X-Men: Days Of Future Past

Favorite Movies of 2015

1. Me & Earl & The Dying Girl

2. Ex Machina

3. Inside Out

4. The Walk

5. Sicario

6. Creed

7. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

8. Spotlight

9. The Martian

10. Brooklyn

Honorable mention:

Avengers: Age Of Ultron

Bridge Of Spies

Joy

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Revenant

Room

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Steve Jobs

Favorite Movies of 2016

1. Sing Street

2. Midnight Special

3. La La Land

4. Hell Or High Water

5. Arrival

6. The Nice Guys

7. Hidden Figures

8. Manchester By The Sea

9. A Monster Calls

10. 10 Cloverfield Lane

Captain America: Civil War

Everybody Wants Some!!!

The Founder

Hacksaw Ridge

The Jungle Book

Loving

Silence

Split

Swiss Army Man

Dishonorable mention:

The Neon Demon

Favorite Movies of 2017

1. Wonderstruck

2. War For The Planet Of The Apes

3. Phantom Thread

4. mother!

5. Blade Runner 2049

6. Call Me By Your Name

7. Dunkirk

8. Wind River

9. Logan

10. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Honorable mention:

Baby Driver

Coco

Lady Bird

Logan Lucky

Molly's Game

The Post

The Shape Of Water

Stronger

Favorite Movies of 2018

1. A Quiet Place

2. BlackKklansman

3. If Beale Street Could Talk

4. Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse

5. Mission: Impossible - Fallout

6. Isle Of Dogs

7. Ready Player One

8. Incredibles 2

9. Stan & Ollie

10. Thoroughbreds

Honorable mention:

Avengers: Infinity War

Bumblebee

Christopher Robin

Eighth Grade

Halloween

Summer '03

Favorite Movies of 2019

1. Rocketman

2. Jojo Rabbit

3. 1917

4. Blinded By The Light

5. Booksmart

6. Toy Story 4

7. Ford v Ferrari

8. Joker

9. Parasite

10. Knives Out

Honorable mention:

Avengers: Endgame

The Lighthouse

Marriage Story

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Yesterday

Favorite Movies of 2021

1. Licorice Pizza

2. West Side Story

3. Dune

4. A Quiet Place, Part II

5. Belfast

6. Spider-Man: No Way Home

7. C'mon C'mon

8. King Richard

9. Ghostbusters: Afterlife

10. CODA

Honorable mention:

Free Guy

The French Dispatch

Last Night In Soho

Nightmare Alley

The Power Of The Dog

Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings

tick, tick...BOOM!

The Tragedy Of Macbeth

9 notes · View notes

theverycoolfish · 7 days ago

Text

Marvelous

First of all we celebrate on Christmas Eve but let’s start with advent: okay for the 4 last sundays before Christmas Eve (if Christmas Eve is a Sunday that counts) we light a candle. Like first Sunday until 2nd 1 candle 2nd until 3rd 2 candle and so on.

We also hang up stars in our windows

Like that one

Next exciting thing is Lucia. It’s on 13th December. Everyone dress up in white nightgowns (the design of them is at OLD no one have worn them for something else than Lucia for ages) (fuck gender roles put the boys/men in dresses) (I wish it said fuck gender roles more but after this it’s decided by gender :/) (but people are starting to break the roles a little and throwing in alternatives so yay but if I start going into the alternatives I will find myself writing a long text about folklore) okay traditionally it looks like this (I found the pictures on Pinterest):

Sadly the woman with the candle-crown ”should” according to some be white and have blonde hair but the times are changing and now it’s more variety :) well I was in one of those and we had 4 different candle crown people. Neither were blonde. They were all perfect.

We sing songs (or well the dressed up people do and the rest listen and watches) its kind of nice kind of wtf are we doing which IS FUN. All that to celebrate some Italian saint and we haven’t even been catholic since 1523 (or well that’s the year the guy who changed that became king) (he needed the church’s money) (okay now I nearly started rambling about history too)

On Christmas Eve there is two movies you have to watch. One is called Donald Duck but it’s actually it’s a lot of clips from old Disney movies/short movies and it’s presented as if they wish everyone a merry Christmas and tell everyone a wholesome/fun story. (It includes but is not limited to Lady &Lufsen dining, Donald Duck trying to photograph a bird, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy camping, the mice sewing cinderella’s dress, Robin Hood stealing Prince John’s money, Santa Claus and elves fixing toys and stuff for the kids [you REALLY should have a paint like that])

According to Wikipedia it’s been streamed on live television since 1960 and at been on top 4 most streamed programs EVERY year since at least 1994 (no data before that year)

It probably costs a fortune because it’s fucking Disney but we’re a lot of people who really likes it and we all divide the day in before Donald (it hurts to not say Kalle which is his Swedish name) and after.

Ofc we have Karl Bertil Jonsson too which I rambled about in the tags that is now screenshotted in the previous reblog.

If there is at least one kid in the family: sometime in the evening dad or grandfather or uncle or someone (usually male person) has to go outside to ”buy the newspaper” or ”buy some milk” soon thereafter Santa knocks on the door. Comes in, speaks a little with everyone, maybe eats something and gives presents. Then he leaves. Soon after that dad returns home. The store was sold out on newspapers/milk/literally anything.

It’s not a complete list but I need to rewatch Karl Bertil Jonsson. The animated version ofc not the live action. Nothing against the live action it’s just not a classic

my only advice is to BE CAREFUL posting about holiday traditions around europeans. you'll post something casual like "anyone else watch the old Grinch movie every year? what a classic" and a european will appear as if summoned and say some shit like "funny how USAmericans always CONVENIENTLY forget that Not Everyone On Earth is from The USA…….. no of COURSE we dont watch 'the grunch' or whatever the fuck that is…. our tradition is to attend a community showing of Glummdorf the Racial Stereotype"

#I did warn you

38K notes · View notes

mosylufanfic · 3 years ago

Note

Hello! Since you’re accepting prompts what about rebelcaptain + 7 (from the kiss prompt list)? <3

Prompt #7 was ". . . to shut them up." It took me some thinking to come up with a version I liked, but here it is! You can probably say this is a sequel to the one a few days ago about pizza, if you wanted.

The Morning After

Shit.

Jyn peeled the covers aside, slithering out of the unfamiliar bed. The boy next to her sighed and shifted in his sleep, and she froze dead.

When he didn't show any signs of waking, she started pawing through the clothes strewn over the floor, mouthing curses to herself. Where the fucking fuckity fuck were her knickers? And of course her bra had tangled itself in his shirt like some kind of mad squid.

Hopping up and down trying to get into her jeans and t-shirt, she scrambled toward the door as quietly as she could.

She'd just yanked her shirt down and closed his bedroom door behind her when his roommate popped up like Lurch or some fucking thing. "Going so soon?"

"Shhhhhhh!" She pressed a finger to her lips, not that it helped at all. Kay was gloriously oblivious, especially when he wanted to be.

"It's considered rude to leave before your sexual partner even wakes up."

"Fuck off. Christ, this is a nightmare. I have to go."

Back in the room, Cassian opened his eyes and looked at the door.

She lived across the hall. When he knocked, she didn't answer. He would have suspected her of hiding from him except that he knew how small her studio apartment was, and how shitty the walls were. You could hear everything right through them. So she'd gone for some reason.

So. He'd wait.

He didn't have to wait long. She came back, laptop bag dangling from her arm. She was digging in her pocket for her keys when Cassian opened his door and said, "Kay's right. It's rude to leave before the other person is awake."

She whirled, gasped, and almost dropped her computer. She caught it halfway to the floor and stared at him, clutching it to her chest. "I didn't mean for you to hear that," she said. "I thought you were still asleep."

"Look," he said. "Obviously you regret what happened last night. Okay. That's your right."

She opened her mouth, but he plowed on.

"It's just that I really like you, and up until about half an hour ago, I thought you really liked me too."

"I - "

"No, please, I've thought about this since you left. Now maybe you reconsidered when you woke up this morning next to me. Maybe you were more drunk than I realized last night. But I wish that you had at least said goodbye, and maybe let me down easy, instead of sneaking out, because it makes me feel like -"

She let out a growl, grabbed him by the front of the shirt, and kissed him hard.

The last of his stupid, humiliating ramble died on his tongue.

She let go of him. "I had a paper," she said. "A final. My last one. Thirty-five percent of my grade. Thought it was due at midnight tonight. But turns out it was due at noon. Which, what the hell, right? What kind of complete psychopath makes a final due at noon?"

He blinked, looked at his phone. "That was about five minutes ago."

"Right! I had to run across the hall, get my computer, go down to the lobby, find that one spot where you can sometimes get wifi from the coffee shop, and turn it in before the deadline. I'm sorry I snuck out without saying goodbye, but I had about twenty minutes, max."

He blinked at her, the whole morning upending and reframing itself in his mind. "Did you get it in?"

She nodded. "I'd pretty well finished it yesterday. I was planning to do one last pass this afternoon, maybe beef it up a bit. But it's in. Prof can deal."

"So it wasn't because you had regrets," he said.

"God. No. Believe me, that's not the way I wanted our first morning after to go, either, but - " She shrugged as if to indicate that the best laid plans of mice and men and disorganized students gang aft agley.

"Our first?" he said. "So, does that mean you want more?"

She grinned at him. "That absolutely means I want more."

He took her by the waist and pulled her close, leaning down to press his mouth to hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her laptop bag bumping his side only somewhat painfully.

He eased back after a few minutes. "Well. Now that we've got that cleared up, would you like to come to breakfast?"

From inside, Kay groaned very loudly. They both ignored him.

"Pop-Tarts and instant coffee?" she said.

"Oh, no," he said. "I'd already planned to make chilaquiles."

She looked interested. "What are chilaquiles?"

He crooked his finger in a come-hither gesture. "Come inside and find out."

FINIS

#Cassian Andor #Jyn Erso #rebelcaptain #fanfiction #mosylufanfic lives up to her damn name #NaNo prompts #college AU #neighbors AU #star wars

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thelonelybrilliance · 3 years ago

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Book Recs

It was a goal of mine to read new books (especially new poetry) for 2021, something I haven't been able to do much in the last decade+ (since starting college). By new, I only mean new ~to me~, as I'm an inveterate re-reader. I finished just under 40--plus a few rereads. Here's the complete list, with recs in bold:

Fiction:

Pierce Brown - Morning Star

Dorothy Dunnett - The Lymond Chronicles (1-6)

- Game of Kings

- Queen's Play

- The Disorderly Knights

- Pawn in Frankincense

- The Ringed Castle

- Checkmate

Patricia Lockwood - No One Is Talking About This

Liane Moriarty - Big Little Lies

Kate Ross - The Julian Kestrel Mysteries (3 & 4)

- Whom the Gods Love

- The Devil in Music

Dorothy Sayers - Whose Body

John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men

J.R.R. Tolkien - The Story of Kullervo

Non-Fiction:

Joan Didion - Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Poetry

Hanif Abdurraqib - A Fortune for Your Disaster

Nico Alvarado - The Collected Poems of Tim Riggins

Louise Glück - Poems (1962-2012) (11 collected volumes)

Louise Glück - Faithful and Virtuous Night

Hilda Doolittle - Hermetic Definition

Halsey - I Would Leave Me if I Could

Ben & Anthony Holden (eds.) - Poems that Make Grown Women Cry

Ada Limón - Bright Dead Things

Ada Limón - The Carrying

Anne Michaels - Poems

Mary Oliver - Devotions

Max Ritvo - The Final Voicemails

Richard Siken - War of the Foxes

LeighAnna Schesser - Struck Dumb by Singing

I reread Little Women, Mansfield Park, and The Two Towers this year as well. I also reread No One Is Talking About This, because it was so moving.

My five favorite books this year would have to be Morningstar, Pawn in Frankincense, No One Is Talking About This, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, and entire collected works of Louise Glück.

#my lists #book recs #books #poetry #fiction #non fiction #pierce brown #dorothy dunnett #joan didion #louise glück

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emzywemzymemzyvonkenzy · 3 years ago

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THE VICTORIOUS? (Part 1)

The screams finally started to fade as the knight continued to walk, back turned and sword clenched. ‘That’s one more to cross of the list’ she thought smugly to herself. It wasn’t always so easy for her to carry out this task: she started with merciful kills, quick, peaceful kills. They didn’t last long. As time passed their resentment grew. It grew big. She would find all the kings’ men, no matter where they hid.

People cheered in joy at the sight of the knight. ‘What a hero’ they would tell their children. Life was good and prosperous. The knight had successfully completed another task for the king and she couldn’t wait to inform him.

“My lord the scout was successful, we know the whereabouts of Villain and we’ll be able to rush his castle by the end of this week”

“Very good. If that’s all then you may be on your way.” He waved his hand towards the door and waited “Well? Is that all or not, why are you still stood here?”

“Um well I thought I should bring something up.” The knight started to fidget, it was getting awfully hot in her armour “Are we sure that Villain is actually… a villain?” It was suffocating now and the silence was filling the room like a plague ‘why wasn’t the king answering?’

“Of course! How dare you question me and me decisions!” The king stood and started to walk towards the knight. “Do you think I’m some sort of IDIOT?” The king was now looming over her.

“N-no my lord I’m sorry I-“ she was cut off by the sound of the door opening. Both the king and the knight turned to face the door, it was the queen. “I’d watch yourself” he whispered as he patted the knight on the shoulders.

“Why aren’t my troops storming the villain’s castle? If this is isn’t done by the end of the week then who knows what they’ll do next” the king threw his dish across the floor.

“The raid I-it was called of b-by you sir” the poor messenger was shaking before the king and could hardly stand.

“Why am I surrounded by complete MORONS!! Someone will be punished for this.”

The knight couldn’t help but to think back on her decisions. Her regrets. ‘Maybe if I had done things differently then my loved ones would- No that king is far too corrupt, this all would’ve happened one way or another. It was just a matter of time’ they cleaned their sword, arose from their bed and set off. The kings men all started to go into hiding, the once beloved knight became notorious in just a few days. Word spread fast about who the knight was targeting and it didn’t take them long to scatter like mice: hiding away in their little holes. The knight knew how to wriggle the little mice out with cheese so their long list quickly shortened -they made sure to save the king till last.

“You will be slain down for aiding the king with his villainous tasks!” She was tired and didn’t want to make this one a long and painful death.

“Y-yo-you used to work for the king didn’t you? So s-surely you too are an evil being who a-aided the king.” The knight stopped in their tracks and thought for a moment then dug her hands into her pocket.

“Ah good I didn’t leave it behind.” They pulled out some tape and placed it over their mouth“How many people do you think said the exact same thing in the hopes that I’ll spare their life because suddenly I realise that I’m just like them. I’m NOTHING like you d’you understand? If I was an evil being who aided the king then would I be here right now, trying to stop him?”

‘That’s one more to cross of the list’ she thought ‘only a few more to go before I finally make him suffer, he’ll be praying for the mercy of death. No such mercy shall be given to a man like him’.

#knights rule #writing #silly little story #I’m so dark and mysterious #better than revision #revenge

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uncommon-etc · 6 months ago

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I know right! What depresses me most is that so many of these posts come from people in their late teens and early 20s (why so cynical already young un's?) who aren't even old enough to remember what life was like before the tories.

I'll be the first to say that I've liked, and trusted, nearly every Labour leader since 1935 except Blair. I'd trust that man as far as I could throw him, and I'll never forgive him for throwing away the goodwill of a significant portion of the electorate on a stupid war in the middle east which destabilised a whole region. The PFI stuff wasn't so great either, but...

I had just started school when Blair won the landslide in '97, and from then until I left school the year the tory-libdem coalition arrived to stamp on all my dreams of an affordable university education, things actually did get better.

We went from being taught in prefab huts where the roof leaked and there was no heating in the winter, to shiny new school extensions with double-glazing and textbooks that weren't 20 years out of date. Because teachers could afford new books, we could read texts by contemporary authors, including those under-represented on the current curriculum, instead of just reading Of Mice and Men for two years like schools do today.

Though the rightwing press did everything they could to demonise benefits claimants, the process was still relatively humane. You could speak to an actual human on the phone at your local jobcentre, and they would show you a list of local vacancies, instead of telling you to go away and sign up for Universal Credit online and come back in five weeks when you were destitute. If someone needed to claim JSA or ESA, they weren't penalised for doing so, and a couple claiming either could get about £800 a month, and housing benefit to cover their rent.

My hometown had five libraries, many public attractions like museums, art galleries, and botanical gardens were completely free, because they were heavily subsidised. Three of those libraries have closed now and the others have had to start charging for DVD rentals, meaning expensive foreign films that those on low incomes could never afford in HMV are still out of reach.

And, being Scottish, I got to watch as we got our own parliament for the first time, an actual seat of power that wasn't 500 miles away from the lives and experiences of everyone I knew. I actually attended a debate there in 2009 about whether devolution had been a success. This was because under the last labour government, state schools had debate teams, and swimming pools, and trips to places other than the local rubbish dump or abbatoir. There was no assumption that just because your parents weren't paying for your education that you deserved less than the children of the rich.

I know that everyone who had a half-decent childhood can have their judgement clouded by nostalgia, but it isn't just white malteasers and belville lego that I miss about the 00s, it's having a government that actually fixed things for the people who paid their salaries.

(Also if you were born between 2002 and 2011, the government literally set up a trust fund for you and put a grand into it, if you didn't know this, go and check right now, it was one of the first things the tories scrapped when they got into power, but you can still claim yours even if your parents never paid anything extra into it.)

Buzzing for a general election. Not so buzzing that every social media timeline is going to be filled with middle-class white girly pops saying 'Labour are no better' whilst the over 4 million children living in poverty in the UK right now might like the option of finding out xoxo

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casxmorgan · 4 years ago

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Books Books Books

100 Years of Solitude

11.22.63

120 Days of Sodom

1491

1984

A Brief History of Time

A Canticle for Leibowitz

A Child Called It

A Clockwork Orange

A Confederacy of Dunces

A History of the World in Ten and a Half Chapters

A Land Fit for Heroes Trilogy

A Little Life

A Naked Singularity

A People's History of the United States

A Scanner Darkly

A Series of Unfortunate Events

A Short History of Nearly Everything

A Song of Ice and Fire

A Storm of Swords

A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Walk in the Woods

A World Lit Only by Fire

Accursed Kings

Alice in Wonderland

All Quiet on the Western Front

All the Light We Cannot See

All the Pretty Horses

America, the Book

American Gods

American Psycho

And then There Were None

Angela’s Ashes

Animal Farm

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Anna Karenina

Anything Terry Pratchett, But, Mort is My Favorite

Anything Written by Robin Hobb

Apt Pupil

Artemis Fowl

Asimov's Guide to the Bible

Asoiaf

Atlas Shrugged

Bartimeaus

Batman: the Long Halloween

Battle Royale

Beat the Turtle Drum

Behind the Beautiful Forevers

Belgariad Series

Beloved

Berserk

Bestiario

Black Company

Blankets/habibi

Blind Faith

Blindness

Blood Meridian

Blood and Guts: a History of Surgery

Bluest Eye

Brandon Sanderson

Brave New World

Breakfast of Champions

Bridge to Terabithia

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: an Indian History of the American West

Calvin and Hobbs

Candide

Carrie

Cat's Cradle

Catch 22

Cats Cradle

Chaos

Child of God

Choke

Chuck Palahniuk

City of Ember

City of Thieves

Cloud

Collapse

Come Closer

Complaint

Confessions of a Mask

Contact

Conversation in the Cathedral

Cosmos

Crime and Punishment

Dan Brown

David

Dead Birds Singing

Dead Mountain: the Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident

Delta Venus

Die Räuber (the Robbers)

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

Don Quixote

Dragonlance

Dune

Dying of the Light

East of Eden

Educated

Empire of Sin: a Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans

Enders Game

Enders Shadow

Escape from Camp 14

Ever Since Darwin

Every Man Dies Alone

Everybody Poops

Everything is Illuminated

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Fahrenheit 451

Far from the Madding Crowd

Faust

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson

Feet of Clay

Fight Club

First Law

Flowers for Algernon

Flowers in the Attic

Foundation

Foundation Series

Foundation Trilogy

Frankenstein

Freakonomics

Fun Home

Galapagos

Geek Love

Gerald’s Game

Ghost Story

Go Ask Alice

Go Dog Go

Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid

Goldfinch

Gone Girl

Gone with the Wind

Good Omens

Grapes of Wrath

Great Expectations

Greg Egan

Guards! Guards!

Guns Germs and Steel

Guts (short Story)

Half a World

Ham on Rye

Hannibal Rising

Hard Boiled Wonderland

Hatchet

Haunted

Hawaii

Heart Shaped Box

Heart of Darkness

Hellbound Heart

Hellraiser

Hell’s Angels

Helter Skelter

His Dark Materials

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Hogg

Holocaust by Bullets

House of Leaves

How to Cook for Fourty Humans

How to Win Friends and Influence People

Huckleberry Finn

Hyperion

I Am America, and So Can You

I Am the Messenger

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

I Was Dr. Mengele’s Assistant

In Cold Blood

In Search of Our Mother's Gardens

Independent People

Infinite Jest

Into Thin Air

Into the Wild

Introduction to Linear Algebra

Invisible Monsters

Ishmael

Jacques Le Fataliste

Jane Eyre

Jaunt

Job: a Comedy of Justice

John Dies at the End

John Grisham

Johnathan Livingston Seagull

Johnny Got His Gun

Jon Ronson

Journal of a Novel

Jurassic Park

Justine

L'histoire D'o

Lamb

Last Exit to Brooklyn

Les Miserables

Lies My Teacher Told Me

Life of Pi

Limits and Renewals

Little House in the Big Woods

Lockwood & Co.

Lolita

Looking for Trouble

Lord Foul’s Bane

Lord of the Flies

Lyddie

Malazan Book of the Fallen

Maldoror

Manufacturing Consent: the Political Economy of the Mass Media

Man’s Search for Meaning

Mark Twain’s Autobiography

Maus

Meditations

Megamorphs (series)

Mein Kampf

Memnooch the Devil

Metro 2033

Michael Crichton

Middlesex

Mindhunter

Misery

Mistborn

Moby Dick

Mrs. Dalloway

My Side of the Mountain

My Sweet Audrina

Nacht über Der Prärie (night over the Prairie)

Naked Lunch

Name of the Wind

Neuromancer

Never Let Me Go

Neverwhere

New York

Night

Night Shift

Norwegian Wood

Notes from Underground

Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea

Of Mice and Men

Of Nightingales That Weep

Ohio

Old Mans War

Old Mother West Wind

On Heroes and Tombs

On Laughter and Forgetting

On the Road

One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest

One Hundred Years of Solitude

One of Us

Painted Bird

Patrick Rothfuss

Perfume: the Story of a Murderer

Persepolis

Pet Sematary

Peter Pan

Pillars of the Earth

Poisonwood Bible

Pride and Predjudice

Ready Player One

Rebecca

Red Mars

Red Night (series)

Red Shirts

Red Storm Rising

Redwall

Replay

Requiem for a Dream

Revenge

Riftwar Saga

Ringworld

Roald Dahl

Rolls of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Round Ireland with a Fridge

Running with Scissors

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

Sapiens, a Brief History of Humankind

Scary Stories to Read in the Dark

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Schindler’s List

Sein Und Zeit

Shades of Grey

Sharp Objects

Shattered Dreams

Sherlock Holmes

Sho-gun

Siddhartha

Sisypho

Skin and Other Stories

Slaughterhouse Five

Smoke & Mirrors

Snow Crash

Soldier Son

Sometimes a Great Notion

Sphere

Starship Troopers

Stiff, the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Storied Life of A.j. Fikry

Stormlight Archives

Story of the Eye

Stranger in a Strange Land

Surely, You're Joking

Survivor Type (short Story)

Suttree

Swan Song

Tale of Two Cities

Tales of the South Pacific

The Alchemist

The Altered Carbon Trilogy

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

The Art of Deception

The Art of Fielding

The Art of War

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation

The Autobiography of Henry Viii

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

The Beach

The Bell Jar

The Bible

The Bloody Chamber

The Book Thief

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

The Brothers Karamazov

The Call of Cthulu and Other Weird Stories

The Cask of Amontillado (short Story)

The Catcher in the Rye

The Chronicles of Narnia

The Clown

The Color out of Space

The Communist Manifesto

The Complete Fiction of H.p. Lovecraft

The Count of Monte Cristo

The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

The Dagger and the Coin

The Damage Done

The Dark Tower

The Declaration of Independence, the Us Constitution, and the Bill of Rights

The Devil in the White City

The Dharma Bums

The Diamond Age

The Dice Man

The Discworld Series

The Dresden Files

The Elegant Universe

The First Law Trilogy

The Forever War

The Foundation Trilogy

The Gentleman Bastard Sequence

The Geography of Nowhere

The Girl Next Door

The Girl on the Milk Carton

The Giver

The Giving Tree

The God of Small Things

The Grapes of Wrath

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gilly Hopkins

The Hagakure

The Half a World Trilogy

The Handmaid’s Tale

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

The Hiding Place

The History of Love

The Hobbit

The Hot Zone

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Hyperion Cantos

The Jaunt

The Jungle

The Key to Midnight

The Killing Star

The Kingkiller Chronicles

The Kite Runner

The Last Question (short Story)

The Lies of Lock Lamora

The Little Prince

The Long Walk

The Lord of the Rings

The Lottery (short Story)

The Lovely Bones

The Magicians

The Magus

The Martian

The Master and Margarita

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect

The Monster at the End of This Book

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

The Music of Eric Zahn (short Story)

The Name of the Wind & the Wise Man's Fear

The Necronomicon

The New Age of Adventure: Ten Years of Great Writing

The Night Circus

The Nightmare Box

The Odyssey

The Omnivore's Dilemma

The Orphan Master’s Son

The Outsiders

The Painted Bird

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Phantom Tollbooth

The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Pit and the Pendulum

The Plague

The Prince

The Prince of Tides

The Princess Bride

The Prophet

The Queen’s Gambit

The Rape of Nanking

The Red Dwarf

The Republic

The Rifter Saga

The Road

The Satanic Verses

The Screwtape Letters

The Secret History

The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

The Selfish Gene

The Shining

The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer

The Silmarillion

The Sirens of Titan

The Six Wives of Henry the 8th

The Solitude of Prime Numbers

The Speaker of the Dead

The Stars My Destination

The Stormlight Archive

The Story of My Tits

The Stranger

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck

The Suspicions of Mr. Witcher

The Tao of Pooh

The Things They Carried

The Time Machine

The Time Traveller’s Wife

The Tin Drum

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green

The Wasp Factory

The Wind Up Bird Chronicle

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle

The World According to Garp

The Yellow Wallpaper

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Things Fall Apart

Thirsty

This Blinding Absence of Light

Tiger!

Time Enough for Love

To Kill a Mockingbird

To Say Nothing of the Dog

Toni Morrison

Too Many Magicians

Traumnovelle

Tuesdays with Morrie

Tuf Voyaging

Undeniable

Under Plum Lake

Universe in a Nutshell

Unwind

Uzumaki

Various

Village Life in Late Tsarist Russia

Walden

War & Peace

War and Peace

Warriors: Bluestar’s Prophecy

Watchers

Water for Elephants

Watership Down

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

We Need to Talk About Kevin

Wheel of Time

When Rabbit Howls

Where the Red Fern Grows

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Why I Am Not a Christian

Why People Believe Weird Things

Wizards First Rule

Wool

World War Z

Worm

Wuthering Heights

You Can Choose to Be Happy

Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

#some of these are fucked up #but #all the better

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autumn-oceanopromises · 3 years ago

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(797) 200 series

see, there’s about a hundred poems left unwritten, as the big 800 approaches. with eagerness, i turned the 200 series into both a recording of a musical and an art series, then gave up on both three entries in.

but, i want to complete every unfinished thing before september (which means, 1000 by september? 8,200 more is somewhat out of reach.) so, there will be some 200 series floating around, as and when I get to doing art.

maybe even some duplexes, projecting it backwards in time - one house, two addresses. hm, i’m still trying to make one house, three addresses, but i’m just not jericho brown. the only one i can contemplate is rigid in form. the last time i tried i ended up with a villanelle. not bad in its own right, but uh, not where i was aiming for.

i have such an unfinished regrets list that spans across almost every digital art form; the only reason I don’t have sculpture on the list is i threw it out in the move, and i’m not starting again from scratch. ephemeral art, i think, is pretty much my unfinished list -

mainly because most of them sit as ideas or plans, nothing active taken.

but they sit almost finished, i just need to put in effort... maybe choose a different medium... (hm... what kind of art...? I don’t want to just ai the art, I want to actually improve) (in drawing, but i can only use a mouse, no stylus, and the well-laid plans of mice and men -)

#spilled ink #poetry #writerscreed #700 series - aonp #writing warmup

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missdawnandherdusk · 5 years ago

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A Silent Night

Hufflepuff!Reader X Draco

Am I allowed to look at her like that? Could it be wrong When she's just so nice to look at?

I'd never tell No, I'd never say a word And oh, it aches But it feels oddly good to hurt

Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three

Summary: Winter break promises soft moments in the snow and laughter... or does it? There’s a darkness looming ahead and it’s harder to escape now than ever before. It doesn’t help at all with how you two feel about another.

A/N: Alright! Y’all told me to follow my heart so here’s about 7k words of a winter holiday that has fluff and angst. Also She by Dodie was on repeat as I wrote this (the lyrics are above). If you’re like me and need music to read, give that song a shot. Also I 100% stan Narcissa in this chapter. There were a lot more cute moments I wanted to add, and rewrote a lot of this, so if you want a headcanon list of things that were going to happen let me know! (Welcome to Christmas in the middle of the summer)

Miss Y/n,

It delights me that you have invited us to your home for the holiday. Draco speaks adamantly about you whenever his father is not around. I must apologize for having him keep you from his father’s knowledge. I know it pains him to have to keep you hidden, but I fear at the moment it is for the best.

I must thank you for your understanding and kindness. The burden that he bears is steep and I wish nothing more to see him through it and to keep him safe. You have taken years off of his eyes and heart and now I can begin see my young son shining through.

Draco and I will accompany you for the holiday. Lucius will be away all of the winter holiday and I feel as if it would do Draco some good to see you as it aided him over the summer holiday. I have written a letter to your mother as well, so she is aware. Draco will arrive in the morning of the 24th and I shall join him later in the evening for dinner.

You are a bright and wonderful young wizard with a heart so pure to see what I see in my son. The same thing that keeps us both fighting for him. Thank you for everything you have given. I am in your debt for bringing back my son even for a little while.

Narcissa Malfoy

I read the letter again as I sat in bed late at night. Tomorrow would be the day that Draco came for Christmas and butterflies had a permanent residence in my chest. I put the energy to good use and spent the few days scrubbing the entire house top to bottom and decorating every square inch. Mother taught me a few new cleaning spells to use and I was getting pretty good at them.

The morning came and I was up before the sun making sure that everything was perfect for when Draco would get here. Not that I thought he would judge me for anything out of place, but I had a sinking feeling that he hadn’t had a proper Christmas in a while, and I wanted things to be almost perfect if not completely.

Keeping myself busy with peeling and cutting apples for a pie, I heard the doorbell ring and almost tripped on my way to opening it.

Draco was there, an amused smile on his face as his eyes darted over my form.

“Hi,” I breathed out, grinning.

“Hello,” His expression was amused and his voice quiet. “Nice apron,”

I flushed, remembering I donned my grandmothers cooking apron that had tiny little snitches buzzing about the fabric.

It wasn’t fair that he looked so angelic on my front porch, almost at home among the snow. He was a bit more formal than I was used to seeing him: a blazer and turtleneck all in dark colors. It only enhanced the contrast of his pale features and the snow. I led him inside, closing the door. Shedding his jacket and setting down his bag, he followed me to the kitchen where I continued to chop apples. He took one, unpeeled from my pile and took a bite.

“Those are mine,” I baited. “Now you have to help,” As if it were the only option.

“Oh, I do? Do I?” He smirked, taking another bite and grabbing a knife.

He watched me for a moment, as if he wasn’t sure what to do before he began to slice the apples the way I did, narrowly missing his fingers a few times. I tried hard not to laugh as I finished chopping up two to his half of one.

It earned me a small pout from him. Laughing this time, I pecked his cheek and took our harvest and a large bowl filled with the rest of the filling ingredients and tossed them in, mixing them with my hands until they were all incorporated evenly. Draco studied me all the while.

“Can you hand me a pie crust from the fridge?” I asked, rinsing my hands. Frowning at the refrigerator he opened it and scanned the shelves.

“Middle shelf, blue ceramic,” I hinted.

He pulled the right dish out and set it on the counter. I lifted the bowl of filling and started to pan it into the doughy crust.

“Here,” I nudged him and nodded to the precut strips of dough on the counter. “We weave them to make a lattice.”

I showed him how to do the first few then left him to it, watching his slender fingers with such care create the woven pattern. Taking a fork, I pressed down the sides of the dough, sealing them then placing the pie in the fridge to be baked later.

“I think that was the most muggle thing I’ve ever done,” he muttered softly, pulling me into his arms properly for the first time since he arrived.

“Not too bad I hope?”

“Nothing unbearable,” he teased.

“Oh, Draco,” my mother greeted making us jump apart. “I didn’t hear you come in darling,”

“Mrs. Y/l/n,” Draco greeted politely.

“It’s so nice of you to join us. Y/n has hardly been able to keep quiet about your arrival,”

I flushed red and rolled my eyes nonchalantly and Draco chuckled, offering his hand for my mother to shake.

“Thank you for the invitation,” I recognized the tone he use: the same one that was present at the Ball from the summer, the one he used when he had someone to impress.

“None of that, really,” My mother scoffed pulling him into a hug that made me laugh. “You’re family here,” She insisted the turned to me. “Well cookies still need to be made before tonight, Y/n you know what to do. I’ll be out for a bit,” my mother gave me a hug before hurrying out the door.

“Cookies?” Draco mused sounding unsure.

I grinned and took out the ingredients to make sugar cookies from scratch and taught Draco how to make them. He padded around my small kitchen in cashmere socks. It warmed my heart to see him so domestic.

Rolling out the dough, I started to press the cookie cutters into the thin confectionary and Draco crowded next to me, taking another cutter and stamping the dough. Preheating the oven, I left him to cut out the little shapes as I began to work on peeling potatoes and sweet potatoes.

“Don’t you have house elves?” He asked, leaning against the counter, finishing his apple, watching me.

“No,” I spoke softly. “Father never liked the notion, and I guess mother kept it that way...” I took a breath in. “And these skills aren’t the worst things to know,” I smiled. “Will you start dicing these?” I gestured to the peeled potatoes with my peeler.

“I suppose,” He mused, picking up the same knife we had used for apples and began to cut the potatoes into small cubes.

When the oven went off, I got up and slipped as many trays of cookies as I could into the oven and set the timer. Throwing the cubed potatoes into a pot, I filled it with water about half-way and set it on the stove to boil.

Draco followed me around the kitchen all morning, helping where he could, confused about some things I did, but there was an explanation for everything. Around lunchtime my mother returned, arms filled with parcels and packages. Last minute shopping I supposed. She shooed us out of the kitchen and outside after lunch.

After a short argument—I didn’t see a need for things like gloves, a scarf or a beanie, but Draco put his foot down and bundled me up—Draco and I were both clad in winter gear and walking outside along the few acres that my mother and I shared together. Our hands intertwined; we didn’t speak much, just enjoyed the quiet moment together. The butterflies in my chest fluttered happily.

“Want to let Pinnae fly?” He asked, thoughtful.

“Maybe later,” I leaned against him. “Don’t wanna fly when you’re still on the ground,”

I caught his eyeroll in the corner of my vision and the redness on his cheeks darken slightly.

“My mother is quiet taken with you; you know.” Draco gave off-hand.

I hummed in acknowledgement thinking of the letter sitting on my bedside table. We meandered around the grounds, heading back to the front porch and inside to warm up.

“Reading anything riveting?” Draco teased as we curled up in the den by the fire.

I laughed softly and stood, taking his hand. I ignored his questioning and led him to the room adjacent from mine: my studio. The entire back wall was covered in floor to ceiling bookshelves holding all of the books, both muggle and wizarding, I had collected over the years.

_________________________________

Draco stared at the wall of books and trinkets. Some he recognized: old textbooks from prior years and items like a Sneakscope and Timeturner. Some things were clearly muggle: the pictures that didn’t move or the snow-globes that weren’t enchanted.

He had never seen so many muggle books resting so peacefully next to wizarding books. Some were new and the gold leaf still shined at him whereas others were dull and faded and he could barely make out the titles. Carefully he ran his fingers over the spine of the nearest book.

“Pride and Prejudice?” He muttered, frowning looking at the cluster of Jane Austen books.

“Sense and Sensibility is better,” You mumbled, and his eyes flickered to the well-worn book beside its sister. “And it’s too complicated for me to try and pay attention to right now. Get out of Jane Austen,” You advised, pulling him a bit further down.

“Of Mice and Men?” He mused, looking at the smaller book that was also well worn.

“Ugh,” You scoffed. “Awful ending.”

“Then why are you keeping it?” He gave you a pointed look.

“Not all books have happy endings, it would be stupid to only keep the ones that did,” You whispered softly.

His eyes followed the names of the books not being able to distinguish one from another— Animal Farm, The Princess Bride, Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, The Great Gatsby, The Scarlett Letter, The Crucible, The Phantom of the Opera, Fahrenheit 451. His eyes passed over your Chronicles of Narnia collection, one book missing—the one that he had.

“Romeo and Juliet?” His eyebrows furrowed.

The name was familiar to him for some reason. The book nested between Taming of the Shrew and Macbeth.

A laugh bubbled through your lips, a quiet amused sound.

“That’s worse than Pride and Prejudice,” You giggled. “Have you ever read Shakespeare?”

His eyes flashed to yours. You knew that answer. No, of course he hadn’t. Rolling your eyes, you took the book of the shelf and flipped to a random page of the wellworn book.

“Tis but thy name that is my enemy;

Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.

What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,

Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part

Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!

What's in a name? that which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet;”

You looked at him and he blinked, his mind unravelling the words. It was almost worse than Divination books.

“They’re plays,” You explained. “Takes a lot of studying and there are versions that have a bit more updated English, but well,” You shrugged and slipped the book back into its place.

“Are they all like that?” He asked, looking at the row of Shakespeare books.

“Pretty much,” You sighed. “Here,” You reached across him and next to your Austen books, pulled out a book. “This should be a good book to read.”

“A Christmas Carol?” He read the title off the faded cover.

“It’s a classic,” You took his hand again and he let you lead him downstairs and back to the small sitting room with the lit fire and curled up on the couch under an afghan.

You began to read A Christmas Carol, and again he was lost in your words and expressions:

“Marely was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge’s name was good upon ’Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to.

Old Marley was as dead as a doornail.

Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a doornail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a doornail”

Just as you began to read of the first ghost that came to Scrooge on Christmas Eve, your mother came into the small den.

“Y/n, Draco’s mother will be here within the hour, you need to get ready,” She eyed your casual attire of jeans and an oversized sweater.

You huffed and handed Draco the book, he kept the page and watched you head upstairs, sulking only slightly. It was such a you thing to do—complaining about being taken away from your book and forced to prepare to socialize.

Your mother hovered in the den and took a seat at the armchair adjacent to the sofa he resided on. He tensed, ready for backlash against the something he must have done wrong, but an amused smile reached your mother’s lips—one that he had seen on you more than a fair share of times. You didn’t look much like your mother, the only thing Draco found was that you two shared the same smile.

“I have to thank you Draco,” She spoke softly. “She is my entire world since her father passed, and I always feared that she would never let herself open up. You have done her a lot of good, and I know that her father would approve of you,” There was your smile on her lips again.

“I must thank you as well,” Draco spoke in the same soft manor. “For allowing her to be with me and for Pinnae. I know she probably would have found a way to do it anyway, but it means the world to her to have your support, as it does to me,” His eyes met the same shade as your eyes as he looked up—another similarity. “And I must apologize for the last month of summer. I thought I was keeping her safe by keeping her away,”

“All is forgiven, darling,” The pet name on your mother’s lips reminded him of his own mother’s habit. “Merlin knows I’ve tried to keep her from things to keep her safe... but she has a way of finding herself there anyway,”

“She is stubborn like that,” Draco mused, thinking of the first night that he knew of your Animagus.

“Yes, she is,” Your mother sighed.

“Is she staying healthy?” He asked. “I know she has a habit of not keeping warm,”

Your mother mulled over the question then spoke.

“The winter has been affecting her more than before, she’s up half the night and sleeps half the day.” There was a soft sigh in her voice as worry blossomed in Draco’s chest at the new information. “She’s getting enough sleep and enough to eat, but I do worry about her. Ever since the change, she’s a bit more spontaneous in her sleeping habits.” The latter information pacified some of his worry.

“It’ll probably take some time for her to figure out,” He said mostly for his benefit. “But she won’t be alone in doing so,” He vowed.

“I know,” Your mother rose, smiling at him once more. “She might not have many friends, but the ones she does have are the most loyal I’ve ever seen,”

He nodded, thinking of Abby and even Pansy.

There was a chime from in the house and your mother rose heading to the foyer. Draco knew that it would be his mother at the door and stood as well. Greetings were made and just as your mother was about to call up to you, you descended the stairs, in a deep green dress he had never seen before. The fabric hugged you to your waist where it then flowed loosely to you knees. The long sleeves and high collar gave him comfort that you would be warm. The sheer black stockings you had paired with the dress seconded that comfort.

Draco gaped at you, deciding that he loved you in green. The night of the summer ball flashed in his mind and the green dress you wore then. He knew that it was stupid to give into house colors with you but Merlin you looked great in Slytherin colors.

“Mrs. Malfoy,” You greeted with the same decorum as the Ball.

“Miss Y/n,” His mother smiled. “It has been too long my dear,”

You flushed and looked down, coming to stand beside him, your hand slipping into his as your mother led the lot of you all into the dining room. It was just as immaculately decorated as the rest of the house, though nothing was overdone or gaudy. It was simple, classy.

Your mother must have taken over cooking to allow you to spend the rest of the day with him, explaining the heavenly smells that emitted from the kitchen all day. There was something different about the food at your home. It was a bit messy and not all of the dishes matched and not everything was perfect, but Draco almost preferred it that way. He had spent too long in perfection; it was nice to have something new.

His mother spoke respectfully to you, asking you about your classes this year and how they had gone. A few times he had to nudge you before you slipped up about Pinnae accidently. Draco would never get over how much his mother absolutely adored you. You had stolen into her heart the same way you had his. If only you could do the same with his father.

As dinner ended, you rose to clear the table, and he joined you, having never done such a thing in his life. You set things carefully on the clean counters of the kitchen and it only took a few trips to rid the table of dinner and replace it with dessert.

__________________________________

I kept my eye on Draco all throughout dinner, worried that something might go wrong. Narcissa proved to be no trouble and his father was never in the topic of discussion. I still knew that Draco missed his father the same way that I missed mine on the holidays.

“Well, I must thank you for your hospitality, but I’m afraid I must be off now,” Narcissa rose gracefully with a kind smile. “Draco, be home before too long yes?”

Draco gave a curt nod as my mother saw Narcissa to the door. Draco slumped beside me, both of our facades falling.

“Well, that could have been worse,” I mused.

He chuckled and rubbed his face. I could see the weariness in his features.

“Dray?” I asked softly.

“When did everything get so complicated?” He mumbled.

I sighed and laid my head on his shoulder. He pressed a kiss to the top of my head and wrapped an arm around me.

“At least there’s presents? And Christmas? And us?” I offered. He hummed in acknowledgment.

Now that it was the Christmas season, I could officially watch The Sound of Music—a Christmas classic at home.

Draco studied me as I set up the DVR and hit play, curling up beside him on the couch. Since it was winter, the sun had set some time ago, leaving us in a soft darkness. The credits began to roll, and I laid my head on Draco’s shoulder, curling under an afghan.

“This is ridiculous,” He muttered halfway through.

I shushed him. I felt him sigh as his arm draped around my shoulders.

“Are you two ready?” My mother asked, coming in with three mugs.

“Ready?” Draco murmured in my ear as I sat up.

“Presents?” I grinned. “We do them on Christmas Eve, it’s our tradition. Then we undecorate on Christmas Day.”

“What?”

“Her father always insisted that as soon as Christmas is over all the decorations should come down. So, we take them down tomorrow.” My mother explained, handing us both mugs.

With the parcels covered in shiny paper distributed, I watched Draco marvel at the number of gifts in his lap. I nudged his shoulder letting him know that it was alright to start.

I started with my mother’s present to me—a new cloak that was a silvery white, matching Pinnae’s feathers. I thanked her and undid the recognizable paper from Abby’s gift. It was a leather-bound photo album. Frowning, I opened the cover and saw Abby and I as little kids dressed up as princesses. I smiled at the photo and ran my hand over the giggling girls. I looked over to Draco, wanting to show him and I paused; he was lost deep in the delicate pages of my gift to him: the entire Narnia collection in one leather bound book.

“It’s charmed,” I explained softly. “If it’s not me or you to open the book it reverts to an old book of spells,”

“Really?” He sounded surprised, not looking up from the carpet pages of finely detailed artwork.

“Mom helped me with the magic,” I stole a glance her way and she was beaming at us.

She stood quietly and gave me a look, leaving us alone in the den to have a few last moments alone.

“You mean you didn’t read me the first book?” He muttered.

“Well, you walked in on me reading the second one,” I poked his side. “Here, this is from Abby,” I placed the photo album between us.

I opened the first page and he laughed at the picture of Abby and I. “You were such a dorky kid,” He chuckled.

“Yeah well,” I rolled my eyes.

The next page was our first day at Hogwarts, my hair was still impossibly long as Abby and I sat together on the Hogwarts Express. I laughed and pointed out Draco sulking in the background of the photo.

“Creep,” I teased.

The photos were a mix of muggle and magic, some moving, some static. Abby and I through the years: getting sorted into Hufflepuff, Christmases, summer vacations. Then there was a page that didn’t hold a photo, but a note:

From Ernie, Blaise, Hannah, Emme, Pansy and me~

The next page held a photo Draco and I at the third task, sitting in the stands. I felt secondhand awkwardness from the two of us in the photo. It was minutes before my entire world ended... or had just begun. The next photo was two of us in the hospital wing, fast asleep in each other’s arms. I ran my fingers over the photo.

Draco took the book from my hands and studied the photos, drawing the album closer to his face. I looked over his shoulder as he slowly flipped through the pages. Each of them was dated and titled:

Draco chasing off after Y/n, Yule Ball, June 21st

Draco and Y/n, Yule Ball, June 21st

Hogwarts Express, Draco and Y/n are prefects, Sept 1st

Draco staring at Y/n and smiling, Sept 13th

Draco and Y/n walking down the hall Sept 19th

Hogsmeade Trip, Oct 5th

Halloween, Hufflepuff Common Room, Oct 31st

Gryffindor v Slytherin Quidditch match, Nov 2nd

Draco fighting Harry, Nov 2nd

Y/n worrying over Draco after the fight, Nov 2nd

Draco and Y/n sleeping together again, Nov 3rd

Late night studying, Dec 12th

Draco and Pinnae, Dec 18th

There was another note at end along with the picture of the four of us the day Pansy found out about Pinnae in the snow:

Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light.

Tears well in my eyes as I rested my chin on Draco’s shoulder. He flipped a few pages back and untucked the photo of us sleeping together in the hospital wing. His slender fingers brushed over it before slipping it into the middle of his new book.

“That’s mine,” I whispered, pressing a kiss to his neck softly.

“Not anymore,” He smiled. “You have good friends,”

“We have good friends,” I corrected him softly, wrapping my arms around his neck.

“We do,” He shifted, closing the book and setting it with his before reaching into his coat and pulling out a small satin box. “This is from me,”

I stared at the box and with a shaking hand I took it, thumbing it open. Inside was a small locket with a shifting roaring lion engraved onto the front of it and familiar words onto the back:

“He isn’t safe, but he is good,” was written in a delicate script.

“Draco, I can’t take this,” I whispered, tears welling in my eyes at the emotions that rushed in my chest at the thought and love he put into the small gift.

“You can,” He pressed. “And will. Here,” He took it from my hands and released the locking mechanism.

A scene sprung to life before me, a halo of light. Balanced on top was a forest with dancing fawns and dwarves and centaurs around a bonfire. Lyre and flute music radiated from the scene. The sight shifted to a lion roaring atop a broken stone table. Then to a familiar ship on the high seas with a dragon circling it. A battle between a man and a snake in front of a silver chair. Then again, a lion, standing tall, proud.

“Draco,” I whimpered out, closing the locket and throwing my arms around his neck. “Thank you, thank you,” Tears fell down my cheeks as I buried my face in his shoulder.

His arms curled around me as he pulled me close.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, or what the future holds,” He murmured. “But don’t give up on me.”

“Never,” I vowed. “Course he’s not safe,” I pulled away, running a hand through his hair. “But he is good. He is king,” My fingers softly stroked his cheek.

With the locket hung around my heck, Draco and I curled up together, watching the end the Sound of Music. My fingers toyed with the locket, rubbing over it again and again, afraid that it might just disappear.

I had to bid him a good night as the hour got later and we were together on the front porch alone. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I reached up and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. He responded immediately and pulled me close deepening the kiss, his hot breath mixing with mine. He tasted like tea and apple pie, a sweet intoxicating flavor.

Draco’s hand slipped down to the small of my back, pressing me against the warmth of his body. My fingers tangled and tugged at his hair earning a low throaty sound to emit from his chest. I responded with a soft mewl.

He pulled away, his hot breaths panting across my face.

“Happy Christmas,” He breathed out.

“Mhmm,” I hummed out. “Christmas, yeah,”

He chuckled and pressed his lips back to mine fleetingly.

“Goodnight, Feathers,”

“Night, Dray,”

___________________________________

Draco melted into his bed that night, watching the photo of you and him sleeping peacefully. There was an amity about the both of you, there was no worry or fear on his face and yours was smiling softly as you clung to him even in your sleep. It was almost as good as the book you had given to him.

Your mother’s present was lying beside him on the bed. He wasn’t supposed to show it to you, your mother had said: it was your father’s wand.

He sighed and looked at the note that came with it:

Draco,

This was her father’s wand. She doesn’t know that I still have it. And she doesn’t know that it belongs to you as soon as you turn sixteen.

Lucius Malfoy killed Walter Y/l/n.

Lucius forfeited the wand, but it will respond to you. It has been a burden to me all of these years but perhaps it can find some peace with you. This is a secret that I share with you. This wand is unique: it knows to protect her, and it is loyal to you.

Keep her safe, I pass her and this wand to you, one Slytherin to another. You will always have a home in among this family.

He sighed and laid back in bed, twirling the wand in his hands. It was similar to his own in length. Birch with a unicorn hair. He wanted to be bitter towards your mother for keeping this secret from you, but the words she said earlier stopped him:

“Merlin knows I’ve tried to keep her from things to keep her safe...”

Was this keeping you safe? This secret that he now held? He knew that if nothing else, it had kept you a pure heart. He couldn’t imagine you’d ever give him a chance if you knew what his father did. He wondered what would have changed...

The morning came along with the small Christmas that he and his mother shared together. It was a quiet affair. He had gotten her a new bottle of ink and a golden quill for her drawings.

“This is from your father,” Her tone held disdain as she handed him a small velvet box. “It belonged to his father and now he passes it to you.”

Nested inside was nothing like the gift he had spent months making for you. Instead it was a weighty silver ring with the Malfoy crest on it. Slipping it onto his finger, the enchantment took place and resized to fit him perfectly.

“Any word of when he will return?” Draco asked, somber.

“January 10th.” His mother sighed.

Draco nodded and drifted to the sitting room that held his piano and began to play familiar Christmas melodies before shifting into his mother’s favorites. She sat behind him on the sofa, working on her embroidery as he played. His melody shifted into something new. He frowned, knowing that it wasn’t anything that he had learned before.

“Composing?” His mother mused.

He didn’t comment. Instead he chased the melody that was fading from his mind, desperate to bring it back. Then he realized that his mind was chasing after you. You were his melody. With you at the forefront of his thoughts, he spent the next few days playing and writing the composition down. When he was certain that it was perfect and represented everything that you were to him, he smiled to himself.

Draco could still have you when his father was home. He would have no idea the melody was wrapped up in you.

“It’s beautiful,” His mother commended. “She’ll love it. You can play it for her tomorrow when she visits,”

And he did. With you sitting beside him on the piano bench, he played your song to you. You were absolutely mesmerized and asked him to play it again. Without knowing it, you had taken something else his father had forced him into and turned it into something beautiful.

Sitting in the rose garden as the stars came out, the year changed. A new beginning, and you were beside him. It was a muggle tradition, but he did kiss you when midnight came. Not that you’d complain.

When you pulled away from the gentle kiss, he about said something that he had forbidden himself from ever saying. No matter how sweet you were, how kind, how long you stayed, how loyal, no matter how much he cared for you, missed you when you were gone, and vowed to keep you safe, he couldn’t say what he wanted to.

He couldn’t tell you that he loved you.

He couldn’t trap you like that. He knew his future was dark and it loomed over him. He wasn’t going to tie you to him like that.

____________________________________

I held my tongue, a thousand confessions waiting to be unfurled. But I would wait. I would wait until Draco was ready to hear them. I didn’t let myself think that a few months would change everything that had him tied down and scared. I wouldn’t coerce him into anything. I would give him time to figure out his emotions and I would wait for him to heal.

Because I loved him.

And I would love him while I waited. I would love him while he healed. I would love him as he went through darkness and despair. I would love him as years of neglect and abuse untied him. I would love him until he was ready to love me.

So, I didn’t say a word.

I spent the next week over at Draco’s, like I had in the summer, but this time, we were working on spells. Everything that I had learned from D.A. I taught to him. His mother suggested to invite Pansy and Abby over as well during the afternoons to join our efforts.

It was a lot easier to cast Disarming and Stunning spells on Pansy and Abby than it had been on Draco. Narcissa joined us one afternoon, watching us, guiding and aiding where we were failing. Draco was losing focus too easily, Pansy needed to work on her wand movements, Abby needed to pronunciate more and I needed to put my heart behind wanting to perform the spells.

“You’re thinking about them incorrectly.” Narcissa stood behind me. “Think not about the intention to attack what’s in front of you, but to protect what’s behind you. Draco, come,”

Narcissa and Draco switched places, he was standing behind me and she was before me, her wand out and raised. I took a deep breath in, understanding what she meant. I had no ill will against her, but I would protect Draco.

We bowed, entering a proper duel. She cast a hex and I blocked it easily, before rebounding it with my own jinx. She deflected it effortlessly and almost knocked me down with a Stunning spell.

“Mean it Y/n!” She coached. “You want to protect him!? You want to save him!?”

“Mother!” Draco argued.

“No,” I panted softly. “I can do this. She’s right,”

I blocked her jinx that in my deflection almost hit Draco, who dropped out of the way thankfully. Enraged I turned back to her.

“Impedimenta!” I shouted.

And it worked.

She was frozen in the snow.

“Expelliarmus!”

Her wand flew from her hand. Beaming, I undid the Impediment Hex and picked up her wand which had landed in the frost by my feet.

“Very well, my dear,” Narcissa glowed. “There is a fighter in you yet,”

Draco picked me up in a twirling hug and Pansy and Abby were all cheering. We went back to dueling, now it was more for fun than work. Narcissa watched us still, encouraging and teaching us. Until she tensed, the color draining from her face.

“Bellatrix,” She hissed, vanishing from the backyard.

Draco cursed and grabbed my hand, pulling me behind the nearest shrub. With the cloak that my mother had given to me for Christmas, I almost blended in with the snow. Pansy and Abby were crouched down with us.

“Y/n, you need to get out of here,” Draco’s eyes were fixed on the house. “Now.”

“But what about Abby?” I squeaked.

“She’ll be fine,” Pansy nodded to me. “Bella likes me, she’ll be safe with me,” I met Pansy’s stark green eyes and an agreement passed between us.

Nodding, I tried to keep my breathing under control.

“Pinnae!” Abby whispered at me as if it were obvious. “Get out of here Y/n!”

I looked at my friends and closed my eyes, morphing into Pinnae and taking perch deep within the shrub.

“Don’t go until we’ve cleared the house.” Draco ordered.

I chirped and watched them all head towards the house, disappearing inside. Then I took off into the sky.

_____________________________

“Draco, darling,” Bellatrix cooed wickedly. “You remind me so much of your father,”

“Aunt Bellatrix,” He greeted politely.

“Well, aren’t you going to introduce me to your little friends?” Her wild eyes flashed to Pansy and Abby.

“Bella,” His mother chided. “Draco was just seeing them off. And you know Parkinson. The other is a classmate.” Her voice left no room for more questions or argument.

His mother gave him a stern look and he quickly ushered Pansy and Abby through the front door. His eyes immediately scanned the skies for you. He thought he could make out your form perched on one of the barren trees, but he couldn’t be sure.

“Pansy,” He started.

“I’ve got it. Abby will talk to Pinnae. We’ll give word that she’s safe.”

Draco nodded and headed back inside, pacing the halls. He headed to his bedroom and slammed the door, casting a Silencing Charm on the room before letting out a roar of frustration. He didn’t know how much time passed as he paced the room but jumped when there was a chirp from his window.

He relaxed when he saw that the owl wasn’t you, but a screech owl, a letter tied to it’s ankle.

~ Malfoy,

Pinnae is home.

Parkinson

Draco sagged in relief and threw the letter into the fire lit in his hearth. Just once in his life he wanted a day where nothing would go wrong. He just wanted to be happy and safe with you. Was that too much to ask?

Apparently, it was for the last few days of the winter holiday.

Epilogue:

“The Dark Lord is adamant about his recruitment,” Bellatrix purred. “A fine young mind to mold into the ways of the Dark Lord.”

“He is my son, Bellatrix.” Narcissa snarled. “He is not of age until the summer. When that time comes the choice belongs to him and him alone. Until then, you have no business here,” A cold glare passed between them.

“Do I sense disloyalty?” Bellatrix tilted her head, mocking a pout. “The Dark Lord does not tolerate disloyalty, sister mine,”

“I do not belong to the Dark Lord, sister mine,” Narcissa gritted out. “Or have you forgotten?”

“No,” She scoffed. “A foolish mistake. Who else deserves loyalty but him?”

“My family,” Narcissa snapped. “And my son.”

“I am your family!” Bellatrix shouted. “Have you changed your mind about the war perhaps? Deciding to follow the footsteps of our dear sister? Or perhaps our outlawed cousin? You were admirable little sister, before you went off and married that foolish Malfoy.”

“I will not stand here and allow you to speak of my husband or my son in such a manner. You have no business here Bellatrix. Leave this place.” Narcissa’s tone was ice cold.

“His time will come Cissy, and he will belong to the Dark Lord,”

A loud crack and Narcissa was left alone in the cold house once more.

“I wouldn’t be so certain,” She whispered to the empty room.

Chapter 5

End Note: Please let me know what you think! Your words and reblogs are so important to me always! Don’t be afraid to reblog and comment! I’m nice I swear!

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ereyies · 2 months ago

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YOU ASKED AND SO I SHALL DELIVER!!

ʚ♡ɞ

I was discussing with a few friends how Of Mice and Men keeps being removed from American school curriculums and banned by various school administrations throughout the states for ‘vulgar language, using the lord's name in vain’ and so on, but primarily about how it was banned for containing ‘racism, misogynistic, and potentially offensive to those with mental disabilities’.

But that's the most fundamental point of the entire book. To show the prejudices that the characters on the ranch experienced and the importance of companionship. I found a whole list online about it, it’s super fascinating seeing just how harshly it is challenged. You can find it here, but I'll post screenshots of the list below:

When I say that the misogynistic and especially racist themes are ‘there for a reason’, that’s not to say that I believe it should be completely brushed over because it is still a fundamental part of the novel that shows a lot regarding the historical and social context which it was written in and about life of Americans during the Great Depression beyond just white able-bodied men and how it should be handled in modern society rather than completely brushed under the rug

It’s awful seeing these painful but important parts of black American history and the treatment of black people in the past being completely glossed over and ignored just because people are ‘uncomfortable’ to discuss it when it’s so important to acknowledge it so we can learn from the last the same way that is done with white history.

Books such as Of Mice and Men are lumped in with hatred-driven racist/misogynistic/ableist drivel when its incredibly important to the time period it was written and should serve as an example of what not to repeat

A wonderful friend of mine said this which is definitely worth contributing:

'Something I remember is the very blatant connection between Lennie and the ranch dog. The ranch dog had nothing more to give after it reached its elderly years and it was suggested that he was to be shot. For the ranch, it had nothing of value to give once its strength was gone. Lennie, who had been compared to a dog a chapter (or more? it's been a while) prior to making it a little more obvious would eventually be the same because jobs in that time period did not accommodate disabilities, particularly Lennie's intellectual disability. They make it very clear that that's the climate they had been working with when they discussed putting the dog down. '

“I ought to have shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn’t have let no stranger shoot my dog.”

Lennie’s parallel with Candy's dog was so clever because it was wrong. Yes, it was foreshadowing what was going to happen to Lennie, yes it was setting up how George was to be the one who shot him because he didn’t want Lennie to die at the hands of a stranger scared and alone potentially like Candy’s dog was. Yes, Candy’s dog had nothing to offer the ranch anymore as it was so old and was ‘no good to himself’ and that’s why it was proposed to shoot him as a mercy.

But Lennie did have something to offer, he was strong and worked hard and efficiently. But he was just assumed to be useless to others because of his intellectual disability. Everyone just kept underestimating him and making incorrect assumptions about him and what he was capable of which Steinbeck intentionally included because he DOES show that the assumptions made are incorrect. Lennie was truly so much more than what other characters believed him to be.

That’s why the harsh banning of it was so ironic and disappointing. The boards of education who read it and still chose to ban it for ‘ableism and offending those with mental disabilities’ are the ones who are assuming that Lennie is just as incapable as every other character assumes him to be. Children could learn a lot from this book and the writing of it's characters, but instead it’s brushed over because it makes people ‘uncomfortable’ when really it’s something so important that should be discussed and if there really is a ‘problem’ with it, then instead of banning it, school boards should instead focus on how the sensitive subjects should be actually taught and addressed than ignoring it or banning it entirely.

Crooks’s identity as a black man is so fundamental to his whole character and the way he is taught about in schools is extremely reductive, completely disregarding the way he’s treated which is bewildering since he’s just as fascinating and fleshed out as every other character in the novel - He’s got personality expressed through how he communicates with Lennie and even more so his room, he has dreams even if he pretends otherwise and longs for companionship, and yet schools just gloss over him as a character and swap out the n word and pretends like the way he’s addressed is just mildly unfortunate because it was written when racism towards black people was ‘the norm’ which again is extremely reductive and children do not truly learn anything from it.

Every major character can be sympathised with one way or another, they’re all so incredibly fleshed out especially for the time it was written even if there are aspects that aren’t socially acceptable today, it contributes to the discussions we NEED to have about WHY we feel this way about the book, how far we have come since it's writing, acknowledging the past and how it’s handled in the modern day. There is SO much to be learnt beyond the story not only looking at language and story, but also the racial, biographical, historical and social context of the novel!!

all the characters are reduced SO MUCH in an educational setting. ‘Lennie is the dumb one. George is the smart one. Curley is the angry one. Curley’s wife is the slut. Slim is the handsome one. Crooks is the black one. Candy is the old one.’

It's SO much more than just ‘Steinbeck wrote a racist, misogynistic, ableist book.’ NO. He wrote a story about migrant workers trying to find work during the great depression. He wrote a story about an intellectually disabled man in an ableist environment. he wrote a story about a woman in a misogynistic environment. He wrote a story about a black man in a racist environment. He wrote about how that environment failed and abandoned them. He wrote about how this environment embodies the whole world of the time it was written. Regardless, they all have a uniting factor: they have a dream. The American Dream specifically. Each one of them hears Lennie and George's dream and they all want the same thing and all band together until it all falls apart. It’s about how the American Dream fails and excludes marginalised groups. But it also is about the importance of companionship and how devastating isolation can be to a person. Candy is alone. Curley’s wife is alone. Crooks is alone. But George had Lennie and Lennie had George until the end when it all falls apart and they’re alone again.

“I tell ya, a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick”

Again and again the need for companionship and togetherness is brought up:

“Books ain't no good. A guy needs somebody—to be near him”

“A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody.”

To conclude, Of Mice and Men is more than what people keep reducing it to. So many different messages and lessons can be extracted from this brilliant work of American literature. Dialogue about it will help to educate on American history of the treatment for people with mental disabilities, physically disabled people, the elderly, black people, and women. This will do more good than banning it.

ʚ♡ɞ

okay VERY sorry for how long this is but THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING IF YOU'VE MADE IT TO THIS POINT <33

sorry if I ended up repeating words a whole bunch or if it's confusing 😰😰 these are mostly edited messages that i copied and pasted from a discussion i had on discord last month that i have been ITCHING to share. love you all so very much, thank you for indulging me <33

please don't be afraid to add any points you think i've missed or correct any mistakes i've made but this was mostly a ramble i wished to share because i feel it's important, at least to me. have a lovely day wherever you are <33

hi guys it's me elaine im eating lunch right now

who wants an outrageously long post discussing why i think the education system in most countries (particularly the us) fails to correctly understand and teach of mice and men by john steinbeck to students??

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introvertguide · 3 years ago

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Influential Directors of the Silent Film Era

Upon hearing that I am a fan of silent era film, people will ask if I have a favorite actor or movie from the time period. However, when I am asked about my favorites from other fans of silent film, it tends to involve my favorite director. This is because silent film actors had to over gesticulate and performed in an unrealistic way and could not use their tone or words to convey emotion. The directors also did not have a way to review as they shot and would have to use editing skills and strategic cover shots to make sure that everything was done properly and come out the way they imagined it. It was up to the director to be creative and they were forced to be innovative and create ways to convey their vision. Luckily for many average or poor directors of the time, audiences were easily impressed. However, today's more demanding and sophisticated audiences can look back at some of the genius behind the films of silent era Hollywood.

Alice Guy-Blache: Matrimony's Speed Limit (1913) and The Fairy of the Cabbages (1896)

Art director of the film studio The Solax Company, the largest pre-Hollywood movie studio, and camera operator for the France based Gaumont Studio headed up by Louis Lemiere, this woman was a director before any kind of gender expectations were even established. She was a pioneer of the use of audio recordings in conjunction with images and the first filmmaker to systematically develop narrative filming. Guy-Blanche didn't just record an image but used editing and juxtaposition to reveal a story behind the moving pictures. In 1914, when Hollywood studios hired almost exclusively upper class white men as directors, she famously said that there was nothing involved in the staging of a movie that a woman could not do just as easily as a man.

Charlie Chaplin: The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1923), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1940)

It is unfortunate that many people today think of Chaplin as silly or for screwball comedy when, in fact, he was a great satirist of the time. He created his comedy through the eyes of the lower economic class that suffered indignities over which they had no control. He traversed the world as his "Tramp" character who found his fortune by being amiable and lucky. The idea that a good attitude and a turn of luck could result in happiness was all that many Americans had during the World Wars and the Great Depression. He played the part of the sad clown and he was eventually kicked out of the country for poking fun at American society. Today he is beloved for his work, but he was more infamous than famous during a large part of his life.

Buster Keaton: Sherlock Jr. (1924), The General (1926), and The Cameraman (1928).

That man that performed the most dangerous of stunts with a deadpan expression, Buster Keaton was a great actor, athlete, stuntman, writer, producer, and director. It is amazing that you could get so much emotion out of a silent actor who does not emote, but Keaton managed to do it. He was also never afraid to go big, often putting his own well being at risk to capture a good shot. Not as well known for his cinematography or editing as many of the other directors of the time, he instead captured performances that were amazing no matter how they were filmed. Famous stunts include the side of a house falling down around him, standing on the front of a moving train, sitting on the side rail of a moving train, and grabbing on to a speeding car with one hand to hitch a ride. If you like films by Jackie Chan, know that he models his films after the work of Buster Keaton: high action and high comedy.

Cecil B. Demille: The Cheat (1915), Male and Female (1919), and The Ten Commandments (1923)

Known as the father of the Hollywood motion picture industry, Demille was the first director to make a real box office hit. He is likely best known for making The Ten Commandments in 1923 and then remaking it again in 1956. If not that, he was also known for his scandalous dramas that depicted women in the nude. This was pre-Code silent film so the rules about what could be shown had not been established. Demille made 30 large production successful films in the silent era and was the most famous director of the time which gave him a lot of freedom. His trademarks were Roman orgies, battles with large wild animals, and large bath scenes. His films are not what most modern film watchers think of when they are considering silent films. That famous quote from the movie Sunset Boulevard in 1950 in which the fading silent actress says "All right, Mr. Demille. I'm ready for my close-up," is referring to this director.

D.W. Griffith: Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916)

Griffith started making films in 1908 and put out just about everything that he recorded. He made 482 films between 1908 and 1914, although most of these were shorts. His most famous film today is absolutely Birth of a Nation and it is one of the most outlandishly racist films of the time. The depiction of black Americans as evil and the Klu Klux Klan as heroes who are protecting the nation didn't even really go over well at that time. Some believe that his follow up the next year called Intolerance was an apology, but the film actually addresses religious and class intolerance and avoids the topic of racism. At the time, Griffith films were known for the massive sets and casts of thousands of extras, but today he is known for his racist social commentary.

Sergei Eisenstein: Battleship Potemkin (1925)

This eccentric Russian director was a pioneer of film theory and the use of montage to show the passage of time. His reputation at the time would probably be similar to Tim Burton or maybe David Lynch. He had a very specific strange style that made his films different from any others. The film Battleship Potemkin is considered to be one of the best movies of all time as rated by Sight and Sound, and generally considered as a great experimental film that found fame in Hollywood as well as Russia.

F.W. Murnau: Nosferatu (1922), Faust (1926), and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

I think that most people would know the bald-headed long-nailed vampire Nosferatu that was a silent era phenomena. It was so iconic that the German film studio that produced the movie was sued by the estate of Bram Stoker and had to close. Faust was his last big budget German film and has an iconic shot of the demon Mephisto raining plague down on a town that was the inspiration for the Demon Mountain in Fantasia (1940). Also, Sunrise is considered one of the best movies of all time by the AFI and by Sight and Sound as well as my favorite silent film. Fun facts: 1) more of Murnau's films have been lost then are still watchable and 2) he died in a car wreck at only 40 when he hired a car to drive up the California coast and the driver was only 14.

Erich von Stroheim: Greed (1924)

Maker of very strange German Expressionist films, Stroheim films are often listed as Horror or Mystery even though he considered himself a dramatic film maker. His most famous movie Greed was supposed to be amazing with an 8 hour run time but it was cut drastically to the point that it makes no sense and was both critically and publicly panned when an extremely abridged version was released in the U.S. Over half the film was lost and a complete version no longer exists. Besides this film, Stroheim was even better known for being the butler in the film Sunset Boulevard as a former director who retired to be with an aging silent film star. He also made a movie called Between Two Women (1937) that told the story of a female burn victim that was inspired by the story of his wife being burned in an explosion in a shop on the actual Sunset Boulevard.

Victor Fleming: The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Gone With the Wind (1939)

Although not known for his silent films, Fleming did get his start during the silent era. He was a cinematographer for D.W. Griffith and then Fleming directed his first film in 1919. Most of his silent films were swashbuckling action movies with Douglas Fairbanks or formulaic westerns. He is the only director to have two films on the AFI top 10 and they happened to have come out the same year.

Hal Roach: Lonesome Luke films starring Harold Lloyd, Our Gang shorts, Laurel and Hardy shorts, and Of Mice and Men (1939)

It is not really fair to put Hal Roach in the silent era directors because he was influential at the time but he had a 75 year career. He was a producer and film studio head and even had a studio named after himself. His biggest contribution to the silent era was his production of Harold Lloyd short comedies and he continued to produce films in the early talkies including Laurel and Hardy shorts, Our Gang shorts, and Wil Rogers films. Roach was the inspiration for the film Sullivan's Travels, in which a famous director who only did frivolous comedies goes out into the world to find inspiration to find a serious drama. Roach did direct a single serious drama, Of Mice and Men, but it came out in 1939 and was buried underneath the works of Victor Fleming. The wealthy cigar smoking studio head that many people think of when they picture a film studio suit is based on this guy. The man would not quit and stayed in the business into his 90s and lived to the ripe old age of 100.

#directors #silent films #old Hollywood #1920s #introvert #introverts #influential

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