#she’s back!!!

[theblvcksupreme]

abracadabra | directed by lady gaga

og little monsters watch this video!!! 2010 gaga is here!!!

[cat-eared-dollwitch]

A doll that does not speak.

It is without a witch, for the time being. At some point it had showed up at the institute. Alone.

It appears to understand everything one says, but it does not respond with words. It will occasionally nod or shake its head, if one is lucky. Extra luck will earn one a curtsy or two.

Sometimes, when it thinks it is alone, one may discover that it will stand in front of a mirror, repeating movements over and over as if practicing. It recites gestures that one may see in everyday life, or possibly in a movie. A graceful bow, hat held over chest. A stroking off the chin, contemplative and stoic. A regal but silent chuckle, hand obscuring it’s motionless mouth. Donning sunglasses, crossing arms, a taunting nod, a dejected sigh, an offering of a hand, and exasperated gesturing. Everything.

It stops immediately and acts as if it was simply fixing its outfit if it notices anyone watching it.

This dolls name is Cordite.

There is nothing wrong with it, at least physically. Many witches at the institute have checked its internals over the past few weeks, hoping to fix the poor thing. Every inspection has yielded a clean bill of health.

Its voice box is functional, almost brand new. Its ears are perfectly fine. Its soul is perfectly anchored, and there is no bottleneck of will.

Cordite just can’t, or simply won’t speak.

All of the witches that have tried to help it have asked it outright: “Why don’t you speak?” And the doll either gestures ignorance, or outright does not respond as if the question was never asked. Every witch so far has simply left it at that, some even chalking up its mutism to being just another one of its many eccentricities.

The witch sitting before Cordite has just asked it the same question. “Why don’t you speak?”

It stares across the desk at her for a moment, then performs a strangely practiced shrug. Its intent is clear. ‘I don’t know.’

The witch lets herself think for a few minutes, her bespectacled eyes studying the taciturn doll in her study. After some deliberation, she asks another question. “Do you wish to speak?”

Cordite shakes its head. Somehow this does not surprise her.

The witch hums. Wrong question, she thinks. She mulls the situation over in her mind for a few seconds more. “Are there times when you wish you could speak?” She asks instead. “Even if those times are rare?”

The doll starts to shake its head again, but freezes for a moment. Then, instead, it nods, almost meek in how little it actually moves.

Considering that, the witch looks down at her notebook, paging through the notes from the other witches’ previous attempts at fixing Cordite. It becomes apparent to her that no one has even asked the doll if it actually wanted to use its voice at all. She frowns at that realization, then flips the notebook back to an overview of the doll’s communication abilities to skim through it one more time.

It can write its name, it can write numbers. It can write words, but does not form complex sentences. Its writing is messy, but has a feeling of structured practice to it— like an old skill degraded by disuse. It has learned a curtailed form of sign language at some point, but almost never uses it unless prompted very strongly to do so. It rarely shows facial emotion, but its body language is somewhat readable when placed outside the etiquette intensive role of servitude.

“What stops you?” The witch finally asks.

Cordite shifts in its seat. It looks at the notebook in the witches hands, expression as blank as ever.

The witch notices this, flips the notebook to a blank page, then slides it over to the doll with the pen resting upon its ruled paper surface. “Here.”

Taking the notebook in one hand and the pen in the other, it writes a single word. The witch reads it when the doll slides the stationery back to her.

‘Volume’ it reads.

The witch knits her brows in mild confusion. “Too loud? No…” she interrupts herself when she notices Cordite starting to shake its head. She clicks her tongue then tries again. “No, you mean… too much?”

Cordite nods tentatively, then commits to a full nod after small a moment of deliberation.

“Can I ask what you mean by that?”

At that, its face twitches and it looks away. Cordite stares out the window. Then, almost as and afterthought, it crosses its arms tightly.

To most, the posture would seem standoffish. But to this witch, somehow, it does not. She’s a mechanical automaton specialist for goodness sake, this isn’t her specialty. She isn’t a mind reader. Or gods forbid, a psychologist. Not that any exist that specialize in dolls… at least not that she knows of.

And this doll seems frustrated to her. And maybe a little bit cagey because of it. She can understand that.

She clears her throat. “Hey. Cordite.” she says, shifting her tone to something she hopes sounds gentle and understanding.

Cordite looks over at her, still almost hugging itself with its crossed arms.

The witch gives it a reassuring smile. “You don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to. But… if you can, I’m here to listen.” She breaks eye contact and frowns at herself. “Or read. You know what I mean.” She chuckles, then clears her throat. “But. I have more question.” The witch looks back at the doll to see it nod once. She takes this as her cue to pose her final query and tries to put on a meaningful look. “If I could help you find your voice again, if only just for those times where you wish you had one, would you let me?” She finds the dolls eyes again as she finishes, hoping she sounds sincere.

Cordite gives her another blank stare. It’s kind of uncanny how its body language contrasts with its usual facial expression sometimes, the witch muses internally. The doll finally nods, almost imperceptibly.

She smiles again. “If you want, we can stop here and pick this up tomorrow, yeah?” Cordite simply blinks at her. “Besides, I need to take some time to look some things up. Do some research. And think of better questions. The open ended ones are a lot, I know.” She watches the doll for a reaction to her words.

The dolls eyes search her for several seconds. Then it closes them and shudders softly. And finally, it opens them again and nods.

The witch picks up another, smaller notebook and readies her pen. “Same time tomorrow? Three pm?”

Cordite nods again.

“Very good.” She jots something down, then places the notebook back where it belongs. “You can leave now. Thank you, Cordite.”

The doll promptly uncrosses its arms then stands up. It brushes its hands over the front of its outfit in a fluid motion, perfectly smoothing the small ripples out of the fabric in one go. It pulls the beret off its head and bows elegantly, hat held to its chest. Deftly fixing its beret back over its artificial hair, it turns on its heel and marches out of the room, opening and closing the door on the way.

The witch sighs deeply when the latch clicks closed, leaning back in her chair. “Okay. Another meeting, then library.” She spins her pen around her fingers absentmindedly, looking up at the ceiling lost in thought. “Do we even have anything psych oriented in our collection?” She asks herself.

She wants to help Cordite. She hopes she can, even if it’s only a little. If she can’t… Well. She’ll ask around.

[rhysdoesstuff]

GUYS GUYS GUYS

CAILEN FU WHO PLAYED KATHRINE IN TUTS NEWSIES IS COMING BACK TO TUTS TO PLAY ANNA IN THEIR PRODUCTION OF FROZEN!!!!

[typicalrowena]

I’M SCREAMING

I’m so happy right now!! I can’t wait to see her again!

[wishfulsketching]

Girl dad Silco is a source of endless entertainment for me

Extra doodles:

Someone save Sevika, she is in hell

[skipppppy]

So there’s a trend going round where you draw Miku inspired by your own culture and normally I just sit those out bc i’m from England but then the image of her covered in fake tan with the full chav makeup and sloppily bleached blue pigtails popped into my head and i almost threw up laughing. So here’s bri’ish Miku. She smells like impulse body spray and spent the last 30 minutes arguing with the teacher who told her to take her coat off. It’s chewsday innit

edit: i fucked up with the cigarette i know it’s the wrong way round blease stop making fun of me 😔💔

[l0verseyes]

a hero in his own way 🫡

[batcavescolony]

Katniss is such an unreliable narrator. She says "Then something unexpected happens. At least, I don't expect it because I don't think of District 12 as a place that cares about me" girl you deliver strawberries to the Mayor, you hunt and trade for the district, when you fell at Prim being chosen someone caught you, when you went to Prim people parted for you, when you volunteered EVERYONE stopped. Idk how to tell you but I think you're a pillar of the community.

[nataliescatorccio]

#you tell 'em girl

[sabertoothwalrus]

modern au laios

[shinynewmemories]

The Hunger Games has the FUNNIEST arranged marriage of all time btw. Katniss realizes she'll have to marry Peeta and she's obviously upset so Haymitch tries to comfort her by saying "you could do a lot worse" and Katniss is like "well DUH of course I could do worse than Peeta he's the best & handsomest person on the face of the planet but that's not the POINT I want to be able to choose for MYSELF". Then she goes and chooses Peeta anyway lol. Comedy gold I tell you

[nyenyel]

Putting Mabel through that straight to bi to aromantic pipeline

[loycos]

"You're the only one I have left..."

[yeepof]

Local PHD student at wizard school HARRASSED!! FOR SHAME!!

[nat-20s]

name a more iconic thing to happen for the fictional qpr community than Donna Noble quite literally meeting her soulmate and being like hmm. there's no one I've ever wanted to fuck less