#there was witch hat but idk if i wanted to pay money ._.

[lokh]

YARICHIN BITCH CLUB????????

[elibean]

thank you for the tag, @sgdlr-asdfghjkl ! :D

last song: Bravely You- Lia

song stuck in head: uuuuuh. free of that at the moment i guess haha

favourite colours: red

currently watching: entirely too much...atarashii joushi wa do tennnen, hoshikuzu telepath, jujutsu kaisen 2nd season, kusuriya no hitorigoto, mahoutsukai no yome season 2 part 2, sousou no frieren, spy x family season 2, yoru wa neko to issho season 2, yuzuki-san chi no yonkyoudai., and zom 100

currently reading: noragami (not for much longer...;_;) kind of flip through witch hat every once and a while? and just caught up again on the summer hikaru died, though i'm sure i'll fall behind just as fast. also recently caught up to my housemate sano-kun is just my editor!

currently craving: uuuuuh. food

last movie: don't remember...probably a whisker away

sweet, spicy or savoury: sweet 10000000%

current obsession: well there's a normal answer to this and the real answer. we'll stick with link click for now

three favourite foods: ice cream!!! next would be hmmm. chicken nuggets! and then potato anything i fckn love potatoes in all forms

last thing googled: I ALWAYS FORGET HOW TO DO THIS, which makes it "how to find out the last thing you googled" BUT AFTER THAT oh lol it's "nakitai watashi neko" to find the eng title for "a whisker away" bc i couldn't remember it

dream trip: oooooh. i wanna go back to japan. rn i also would love to visit germany, too!

anything you want right now: to be employed at a job that pays money that i can live off of. also other things

tagging....uh idk. hey @oceaniche if ur feeling up to it and haven't done it already

[tj-crochets]

I ask this genuinely: how do you manage to create so much? I really admire how much you make things, and enjoy your hobbies so much. I'm trying to figure out how to feel motivated to do projects again

This got extremely ramble-y, so it's below a read more

A lot of it is honestly luck? I have a stay-at-home job that has a fair amount of down time* where I have to be sitting at my computer in case someone emails me/messages me/calls me but can make things while waiting for emails, and it pays enough I can afford to live and buy craft supplies. I've also had a bunch of people, including relatives, neighbors, friends' relatives, and strangers destash and give me a lot of craft supplies for free. Part of it is that I get...idk how to word it. Antsy and listless when I haven't made things in a while? Making things is enrichment for me, and I know that, so I make a point to not go more than a few days without making something. Sometimes I don't want to make things, but I know I'll feel better if I finish a project**, so I'll crochet a little monster or make a tiny witch hat or something, and usually once I start making something I feel better and want to keep making things. Part of it is that I let myself make things on a whim. I've accumulated enough colors of minky, yarn, and embroidery floss*** that I can pretty much make any small thing I think of immediately after I think of it. This isn't universally applicable advice; I have the storage space to (mostly) store it neatly, and I know myself well enough to know I will absolutely lose enthusiasm for a project if I have to wait too long to start it. If I'm making a quilt but have a strong urge to make a tiny monster, I will take a break from the quilt to make a monster (I sometimes struggle with finishing big projects because of this, but it's a work in progress, and I always finish the project eventually). I also love craft supplies as decor. I let myself switch between hobbies as I have the urge to, and trust that I will eventually go back to previous hobbies. I used to guilt myself about changing hobbies, but now I embrace it. Learning new things is good for me! I just spent like three months quilting, like two weeks making doll clothes and a doll to fit them, and now two and a half days embroidering. I'm thinking about making a teddy bear sized tricorn hat. A few weeks ago I made a chain mail/scale mail bracelet, and before then I think it had been like five years since I made anything with chain mail. Sometimes I do get caught up in guilt about crafts. Like, guilt that I promised to make someone something and haven't yet, or that I spent money on supplies but haven't used them, or that someone bought me supplies and I haven't used them. It can absolutely drain all my crafting motivation. When that happens, I try to take a step back, and find what is stopping me/causing me guilt. Is a gift late? That's okay, my friends and family understand crafting takes time and won't be upset. Did I spend money on supplies and not use them yet? That's okay, picking them out brought me joy and inspiration and I will use them in the future. Someone bought me supplies and I haven't used them? How awesome that they thought of me! Someday I'll make something cool with that stuff, and it's great to have another metaphorical crayon in my crayon box to open up more possibilities of things to make. Sometimes I also get hung up on patterns, where part of it is just utterly unenjoyable to me and I can't bring myself to start making the thing. When that happens, I try to figure out what bugs me about it. Is it too complex a pattern? Okay, I'll pick a simpler one. Do I hate hand sewing applique? Okay, I'll look up machine applique, or use a different fabric that doesn't need applique, or pick a different pattern. I think I might've gotten a little off topic? Part of it is also that I struggle to focus on watching shows or even sometimes reading if I am not also making something.

*I mean, it varies day to day, but a lot more downtime than my first job

**there's some neurochemical thing about finishing a project, especially when the finished project creates a tangible object? ***I used to make friendship bracelets

[luckycheesefoodie321]

ok...ok ok ok... ok... so I watched Mulan (2020)... spoilers + LONG POST (yo this took me an hour and a half)...

before yall scream at me for spending money on it, lemme just say i was fully intending to wait until December so that I would not have to give even more money to the Disney machine (especially in light of things that happened with John Boyega) nor endorse individuals who support police brutality or oppression... but my mum and sister nagged me to buy it so we could watch it now, and explaining the politics of supporting both Disney’s greed and the controversy around the lead actress and would’ve just frustrated us both so I paid for it -_- please don’t crucify me... 

also want to preface this by saying I am not Chinese (though I am Asian), and I understand that the 1998 film and this film have inherent issues, given neither were directed by Asian directors, let alone Chinese ones... so the representation of the Chinese culture is likely flawed (and likely straight up wrong) in many ways... additionally, Li Yifei has been shown to support the actions of police in Hong Kong, so just know I’m viewing her role purely from an acting and movie standpoint...

now that’s done... general rating for the movie

when compared to the original animated film (my favourite Disney movie of all time): scrapes by on a 5/10

movie that stands on its own as I watched it (just note I’m the type of person who can enjoy pretty much anything - even if I’m hyper-critical of it): 7/10 (I’m very generous but my viewing experience was nice)

if I break it down completely into its underlying faults and wash away the Hollywood sheen and the nostalgia filter: 4/10 for themes 8/10 for cinematography and the technical aspects... (this movie was gorgeous to look at and had some really fun camera work, sue me for enjoying the visuals)

Full SPOILER review:

For the most part, my nostalgia filter from the animated film, which I dearly dearly love, basically had me ecstatic anytime there was even a hint of a reference to the animated film (see: occasional notes from the songs), and also sorely disappointed when the acting or the general pace pulled the fun or the emotion from key points (see: A Girl Worth Fighting For being abruptly cut off upon seeing the carnage would’ve been so much more impactful because they actually showed the bodies in the 2020 version but instead we got this kinda funny convo referencing the lines completely separated from that scene)...

The biggest issue I have with the film is that Mulan was naturally skilled from the beginning and was told to suppress her abilities.. making her OP from the beginning undermines the 1998 journey where we see every step of her development both in physical ability and her emotional struggles... then through her wits, intelligence, and strategy, as well as being on par and even better than her fellow soldiers, she manages to defeat Shan Yu and makes us feel her “Hero” status is very much earned... so it takes away from what the 1998 film tried to show in suggesting Mulan could just OP her way to victory at the drop of a hat.. and also implied her being dishonest about her true identity was her primary flaw? idk thematically they were trying to be super empowering of women and the capability of women, and the boxes women are forced into according to society... but then suggest Mulan was always inherently gifted/had a special power and that is why she succeeded, while the other soldiers worked hard and effectively achieved the same goal (albeit in a less flashy manner)... so the message gets very confusing...

i felt that Xian Niang (was that her name?), the Witch, had a lot of potential, but I was also really concerned they introduced her to make sure Mulan had a female enemy to defeat, and Shan Yu/Bori Khan was a minion of this female enemy... so in that sense I’m glad she served as a foil to Mulan... I would’ve liked the parallels more if the “being your true self”/”bring honor to us all” theme wasn’t so muddled... Mulan was accepted while XIan Niang wasn’t because they both had powers, but then Mulan convinces her to take the noble path and so Xian Niang died for her? idk there was a better way to fold her into the story...

Shan Yu/Bori Khan was about as much as I expected from him... I think he matched Shan Yu for skill, though idk about ferocity or intimidation power, though the actor was decent enough... but I did enjoy his and Mulan’s fight... less impactful because he didn’t even know about her and how she was the one to take down most of his army...

didn’t mind that Mushu was missing... fondly referred to the phoenix as Mushu (though I understand there may be cultural missteps in a phoenix being the spirit/ancestor/guardian)...

I also didn’t mind they removed the power imbalance between Shang and Mulan and had her love interest be a fellow soldier...I really liked Yoson An’s character actually...but the romance element was significantly dialled back, so we didn’t get the bisexual icon that is Li Shang... also Li Yifei’s emotional acting was normal but not outstanding... so her feelings for Honghui didn’t really register much except for that first time they chat in the barracks about girls, and right before she goes home... (just me being pouty about him not joining the Imperial Guards to Mulan’s home and presenting himself for matchmaking... though I understand it was to keep focus on Mulan’s journey, not her love interest)...

while it probably wasn’t the intention of the 1998 film, the positive portrayal of gender fluidity, the specific empowerment of trans and bisexual individuals through Mulan and Shang (bc let’s get real, he was just as attracted to Ping as he was Mulan), all did not ring in quite the same way in the 2020 version... again I’m not part of either community, so I can’t say for sure, but this is what I read from it...

overall the fun was taken out, with the songs... I would say this is probably on the higher end of Disney Live Action adaptations, there were some fun moments and funny dialogue even, and I didn’t mind that they were trying to do something different, unlike some of the others which made it note for note the same... but ultimately the biggest flaw of most of the adaptations are that it removes the fun and the levity in lieu of a more serious tone... 

I accepted no songs (I was hopeful and then pleasantly surprised when they did pay some minor homages through the score to the original’s songs)... but the fun moments were meant to be intentionally undercut by the reality of the war... there’s a reason A Girl Worth Fighting For was cut off so abruptly in the 1998 version... it was the moment where these trainees (all of them young and having never experienced battle or war before) suddenly realised the severity of the situation before them, and it was in that moment they accepted their fate and duty to protect the kingdom...

the 2020 version just kind of had them walk through the carnage without any real build up... the grand battle sequence with the avalanche was pretty well done, the overdramatic “Hua Jun died but Mulan lived” scene notwithstanding.. i didn’t mind that Mulan volunteered to expose herself rather than be forced half-naked into the snow by the Chancellor dude... didn’t like Honghui got the “you listened to Hua Jun, why is Hua Mulan any different?” line... the “I believe in Hua Mulan” was kinda goofy, but I could see what they were going for... it was kinda undermined by the Commander saying “you dishonoured your family and this regiment but hey, you’re brave and loyal kid”...felt very patronising...

I’m not gonna lie, I kinda loved Cricket... he was adorable and I had half a heart attack when I thought he’d died... 

DIDN’T REALISE MING NA WEN MADE A CAMEO UNTIL I CAME ON HERE...so that was nice..

still pissed they didn’t even put the drum beats for “I’ll Make a Man Outta You”...they were using drums during the training sequence too so would’ve been real easy to do so AND THEY DIDN’T...they did it for “Bring Honor to Us All” and “Reflection”...idk why they couldn’t even give us that much of my favourite Disney song...

again, cannot emphasise enough how gorgeous this whole movie looked...and there were so many fun camera work moments... the visuals had me dead on the floor ya’ll...

idk what else i have to say now...

tl;dr I enjoyed the experience of watching it, but hooooo boi the film is flawed as hell...

[itsclydebitches]

I finally got around to Witch Hat Atelier. How much money would you pay for a video game where you can draw out runes and create magic that way? I'd love a game where you can make your own magic following the rules of the runes in that manga. Actually drawing them and making your own to use.

A LOT OF MONEY (I say after just answering an ask about how bad I am at playing new games) BUT THEY’D GET MY MONEY REGARDLESS. I adore the Witch Hat Atelier world, including the magic system. I think it would be fun to make use of a drawing pad and, as you say, actually drawing the runes yourself to make use of them in game. The last thing I want is a version like the Harry Potter mobile game where you trace things and then it just says you did a bad job even though you know it was fine... instead it would be cool to help you hit on what you’re good like the characters do in the series. No good at drawing a clean circle? What about a straight line instead? Maybe you’re good at sqiggles or dots or making really intricate repeating patterns (I personally love drawing cubes and connecting them lol). Idk how this would all work in practice but it’s a cool concept to consider a game where magic is drawing and you get to figure out what kind of magic you possess 

[branwyn-says]

Reese/Fusco : Florist AU + Magical Accidents

THANKS. THANKS, PAL.

Okay, so, being a florist is a pretty working class job sometimes. You can be working in the deli department of a big grocery store and just up and get transferred to the floral department. No experience necessary, they’re putting the warm bodies where they need them. If you’re in charge of the floral department they give you a book of pictures. Your job is to make arrangements that look like the pictures, pretty much. Easy peasy, just follow the directions.

Lionel’s not a natural choice, like, nothing about him says “untapped aesthetic sensibilities”, and probably they only put him here to try and make him quit, but screw that. He’s got a kid, and he already bailed on the Academy, he’s not trying to make quitting into a habit. So Lionel gets close and personal with Google. He reads about color theory, and flower language, and the rule of thirds, and all kinds of other crap about art that he never knew or cared to know before now. Weirdly enough, it’s really interesting. Twenty years ago he’d have turned his nose up, but he’s changed, and for the better.

At work, he starts going off-book. The standard bouquets and arrangements for birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, they sell at the same rate they ever did, and sometimes Lionel gets a little creative and they sell a little better than normal. But there are always these cuttings left over. Just the odd flower that didn’t make the cut because it was starting to spot or brown, or just whatever reason. In his down time, Lionel makes practice bouquets out of leftovers. They’re unconventional. They’re unpredictable. Weird, a little ugly. They’re not even for sale. Lionel’s just practicing, for fun, with flowers that would just get swept up and thrown away normally. He’s not even allowed to take them home.

“How much?” someone asks him one day, gesturing at the weird little bouquet behind the desk. 

This particular arrangement, Lionel’s proud of. There are blue roses, purple carnations, tiger lilies, and some kind of black spriggy thing. The colors are not normal, the outline is not harmonious, but then again from a certain angle, it’s kind of neat. And it makes Lionel happy that someone wants to take his weird little scrap arrangement home.

“Just take it,” he says. “But I gotta charge you $5.99 for the vase.”

The next day, someone comes in and asks if he’s the guy who made THIS: *holds up phone with Instagram loaded showing a picture of Lionel’s bouquet beautifully lit and photographed* Yeah, says Lionel, that looks a little familiar.

Can you make an arrangement for my girlfriend’s birthday I will pay you $200, says the Instagrammer frantically.

And well, what do you know. For that kind of money Lionel’s willing to buy a couple of bouquets from work, take them home, and make one of his Frankenflower bouquets for a private customer. He gets clippings and leaves all over his kitchen, and his fridge stinks like rose petals for a few days, but it’s fun, and he’s at least $100 to the good, so he’s pretty happy about it.

Within a month, Lionel is a social media sensation. He has no idea. He doesn’t use Instagram. And the people reblogging him don’t know his name, just his flowers. But he’s everywhere. He’d Banksy, with begonias. People are going wild. Lionel is still earning $14 an hour.

Magically, it’s pretty much Howl’s Moving Castle, but instead of magically pairing hats with wearers and having no idea he’s doing it, Lionel is charming everyone who looks at his flowers, and has no idea he’s doing it. That’s the accident part. Lionel is just accidentally magicking all over the place. Floral arrangements just happen to be the first thing he’s ever made with his hands from scratch. Apart from his cooking, which, admittedly, will put you under a spell, but he never has the time these days. 

Meanwhile, in a far away land (Manhattan), Harold and Grace are married and John is...let’s call him their bodyguard. Still a badass, but he got medically discharged from the army before the CIA got to him, so he’s less fucked up. Still pretty good at tracking things and people down, though. Right now, what he’s tracking down is some damn florist whose name nobody knows. Grace is obsessed with his arrangements and wants to paint a still life based on his work, but she wants to commission an original arrangement and paint it from life. 

John, obviously, said he would take care of finding the mystery florist. John’s detective work takes him to every upscale flower shop in Manhattan that’s copying the Instagram craze for Lionel’s Frankenflowers. He strikes out a dozen times, then ends up in the floral department of, idk a Wegman’s or something.

“We don’t keep a full time florist on staff but the manager of the floral department would be happy to talk to you,” John is told, so he goes to the floral department, where Lionel is elbows deep in clippings.

Unbeknownst to himself, he is also absolutely magically radiant with all the beauty he’s about to channel into the kind of weird, kind of ugly, but also kind of neat-looking from a certain angle scrap bouquet he’s about to start working on.

“Can I help you?” he asks when he notices the tall, good-looking guy in the suit, who’s standing there staring at him like he’s got something on his face.

Yes, John is pretty sure than Lionel can help him. John can probably help Lionel too, when the pastry witch that works at the Safeway decides to hunt down and stamp out his rival.

[thatgirlonstage]

I wanna know more about the weird domestic 7sins AU!! What kind of job are Arthur, Ban and Merlin working at together? What's King up to in this universe? Does he still look like a kid? Is Merlin still a witch?

Okay I swear I wrote up a bunch of ideas for this and for the life of me I can’t find it anywhere so I don’t know if I imagined that or what but. Here we go.

(Also Blue you are my favorite enabler for all my weird ass ideas I love you)

[Referring to this post]

–Arthur is probably trying to start his own business and Merlin is his eccentric investor (she is Absolutely still a witch and exists in that space of, well we can’t prove that she actually did magic but we also definitely can’t prove she Didn’t either). Idk exactly what business he’s trying to start but he’s probably like, waiting tables or something in the meantime to make ends meet

–Consider the fairy forest is a passed-down-through-the-family flowershop and Harlequin was running it but his friend Helbram who also helps out at the shop went gallivanting off to, hmm, New York probably (idk why my immediate instinct is that this all takes place in San Francisco? But sure let’s roll with it) and got in trouble and Harlequin flew out to try and help him but got involved in just like. The absolute WORST series of unfortunate events of like, someone pickpockets his wallet and his phone gets wet and dies so now he has no money, no ID, no way to call home for help, he’s stuck in an unfamiliar city, he tries to go to the airport and see if he can just get back on the flight home that he had already picked but he doesn’t have an ID and when he tries explaining what happened it gets tied up in a ton of red tape. He meets Diane when he’s just like, camped out sleeping in the airport trying to get on a flight and she lets him couch surf with her for a few nights while he’s trying to get home. She offers to let him call Elaine, but he doesn’t know her number by heart and he lost all his contacts with his dead phone. Ultimately it takes him like a month to get back home because So Much Bullshit just keeps happening.

–Meanwhile Ban meets Elaine and they’re fully living their flower shop AU while Elaine is like “yeah my brother left to go help his friend and uhhh hasn’t come back and I want to be worried but I’m also busy carrying this goddamn shop on my back” so Ban starts helping out at the flower shop and is very quickly just adopted by all the employees

–But then there’s a fire and they get tied up in all of this legal nonsense because they own the shop but rent the land and they don’t have the funds to rebuild the damn shop AND keep paying rent while the shop’s bringing in no income

–King finally gets back sometime in the middle of all of this and finds Elaine has fucked off to take a vacation and left Ban in charge

–(she comes back in like a week but I just can’t stop laughing at the image of King having gone through The Worst Travel Hell Story Ever and finally getting home and instead of his sister Ban’s just standing in the doorway like Can I help you? and poor King is just like. What the fuck. Who the fuck. What is happening. Please I know I used to live here where did my sister go)

–Ban does… something. No one can figure out exactly what kind of job he has or if he’s just straight up running unending credit card schemes and somehow not getting caught and they’re all a little afraid to ask (he’s probably just running unending credit card schemes). But he’s somehow always free to hang out and always has the money to go do stuff.

–Meliodas and Ban try to go out to drink but Meliodas has had four separate IDs confiscated by bouncers convinced that they’re fake (this for real happened to a friend of mine lmao, she got it back eventually but it was a Thing) to the point where it’s honestly just a running joke Meliodas is not allowed to go out drinking anymore lest he almost lose even more IDs and this probably results in him eventually starting the Boar Hat as a side project

–Diane and Elizabeth definitely like, found each other on Craigslist because they were both moving from out of town and didn’t have a better way to find a roommate and were both SUPER RELIEVED to find out their new roommate was really nice and not a serial killer

–and then like a week after they move in together Arthur and Meliodas move in together upstairs and are very much like, that neighbor who’s probably not doing anything BAD but also you always want to hear the update on what they’re doing because it’s always something batshit

–I feel like Gowther does video editing of some kind? Idk how he fits into the whole thing socially but he definitely does like special effect video editing and has a YouTube channel

–The Dumbass Gay Trio (aka Gilthunder, Howzer, and Griamore) are regulars at the gym where Meliodas works and watching him judo-flip newbies who think he doesn’t know what he’s doing has become their favorite spectator sport

–okay this is getting very long but I may end up adding more at some point because I love these characters a very stupid amount

[potions-and-potters]

Well I researched a bit and found that Pettigrew is a name from around Glasgow but I think (Im not really sure) that Glasgow was in a financial depression during the 60s and in my opinion James & Sirius would not have accepted Peter (due to classism) if he was poor or from the slums that I have read about in 60s Glasgow. I have come to the conclusion that Peter was from a new-money wealthy Muggle family. Do you have any ideas?

OH MY GOD I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS AND I AM SO EXCITED TO SHARE THEM WITH YOU.

Okay so to start: keep in mind this is meta and isn’t canon (but I’m basically ready to work for MI6 with my skills so make of these deductions as you will *wink*). Now, I’m also warning that I’m mixing book and films. But that’s sort of necessary and what I did with the Cokesworth so moving swiftly on.

So overall, you’re like sort of right. Like half right. Like just about got it.

You’re TOTALLY right about the Glaswegian origins. Pettigrew is originally two different words in French, but due to That Pesky Invasion of 1066, it got mashed up and turned into the name Pettigrew in Scotland. BUT Peter was totally not Scottish.

So I did the research going off what you said, and found probably what you based your deductions off. However the absolute key to this is recognising that the UK is super travelable. Has been simply due to how small and close together it is (also no huge mountains dividing it all up). Also, us English love going all over the country. No matter how much money you’ve got. We go all around. This means a Glasgow based surname is basically a starting point. You’ve got to pay attention to accent. It’s ALL in the accent.

So to my ears and my mother’s (bless her talent for this honestly) Peter has a Nottingham accent. That’s near Birmingham. If you recall my Cokesworth post, Birmingham was a big part of that meta. Without rehashing all that meta, the short is that Birmingham isn’t exactly where the well-off are living. In fact, the midlands in general isn’t. In the 1960s, they’d either be the rich owners of the factories (which would be few and far between as at this time they were closing down a lot) or they’d be in London. Probably London. 

So this is why I said you’ve sort of got it. Peter was almost definitely from a lower class. Probably not poor, but Nottingham wasn’t Birmingham. Far from it. It was this weird mashup of middle and lower class like in pockets. In fact, the 1960s was a rough time for Nottingham. It’s got this connection to Robin Hood. You might have guessed lol. But it’s in general got a huge medieval connection with like castles and old roads and all that. Beautiful. But 1960s midlands saw a huge development surge that sort of ruined the places it boomed in (I think the BBC has like a whole article on it I read once if you’re interested???). So that kind of killed some of the beauty and stuff. 

What I’m getting at is with the place he was from and ancestory he had and such, I think he was probably sort of new money but not NEW MONEY. Here is what I’m thinking: his grandparents were from Glasgow and he was brought up (if not born) in Nottingham. His family went from one social ring to another, but it wasn’t a big jump. So his grandparents were raised poor or upper poor class. He was raised either lower middle or middle class. So basically his family went up one ring. I imagine a family member (his dad or mom, probably) got a job offer in Nottingham. His mother was witch (I base this on Enid Pettigrew being a witch, and though not confirmed it is suspected that she is Peter’s mother) and his father probably a muggle. (If Enid is not his mother then she probably is his aunt or someone, but with his same last name then she’s probably on his father’s side. That suggests his father is either a wizard or a squib. If both parents are squibs, then that could also suggest why Peter is so untalented at magic and a hat stall. Like he barely had enough magic to be a wizard and got to hogwarts at all due to being a squib type thing? OR if she turns out to be his siter *dun dun dunnnn* then idk man I could write a whole book on that so let’s not go there.)

He was probably a social ring under Remus or JUST ABOUT on the same level. He was hella under James and Sirius. Like… hella. He wanted to be at James and Sirius’s level. Remus befriending him was probably a sign of “I’m at this status” but like low key nervously about it (like feels a bit of a fraud but nobody’s laughed him out yet so???). THEN Remus gets friends with James and Sirius. This is a HUGE step up. James and Sirius are WAY out of his league. But they like Remus and so he gets to tag along. That bit is canon (except the class guesses which is meta but how they met and are friends is legit canon as you know). So he totally knows that he is nowhere close to their class status, but is willing to be the tag-along do-whatever-to-stay-in-this-group fourth kind-of-unwanted-and-totally-a-charity-case wheel because he’d NEVER get to be with these people otherwise. He wants that level. It’s his personality. It’s a power move (and as we know he goes where the power is *death glares backstabbing asshole rat*).

So yeah. I think you’re like sort of right. Glasgow ancestory. New-ish money. Just the details I think are a bit off. Thoughts?

[willgayers]

Omg you're from Finland?? So cool!! As an American that is very seriously considering moving out of country somewhere and is considering moving to a Scandinavian country, I'd really appreciate it if you'd share a little bit about what life is like there? Do you enjoy living in Finland?? Sorry if this is weird...America is just a pretty scary place to be lately.

first of all; i spent half an hour writing the answer and then accidentally closed the tab. i am sCREAMING INSIDE !!!!!

but, lets do this again, so:

hey!! yeah i am from finland! born and raised! and its not weird to ask ,, tbh i kinda get your point. i actually answered to an ask yesterday telling what are my 5 favorite things about living in finland, but i can tell you some more under the cut, especially differences etc ! this was actually fun to write 

ok first things first, food is very expensive. ofc not in fast food chains like mc donalds etc, but restaurant-restaurants are expensive and also grocery stores, unless you’re buying the store’s own product so at least we’ve got a cheaper option. but yeah restaurants are very expensive (salads starting from 12euros, pizzas from 13euros, chinese/nepalese starting from 12euros, sushi is so damn expensive dont even get me started on that, i only ever eat it in a lunch buffet… and if you wanna order a steak or something like that lmao prepare to pay nearly 20euros OR MORE),, anyway during lunch hours there are usually special offers. coffee prices aren’t that bad. we also have starbucks! but not all the drinks that you guys have

just like food, alcohol is very expensive, so if you like your liquor be ready waste a lot of money on it. thats why finnish people actually go to estonia by ship to full the cabinets bc their alcohol is so much cheaper! its a finnish tradition lol. same goes with cigarettes. its 8 euros for a pack in here so 9 dollars.

traveling abroad is pretty expensive, but mostly just to the states and some very exotic places like the maldives idk. its like 1000euros to travel to california (i would know because i’ve always wanted to visit but im poor af 3). traveling inside finland is not that expensive , gas is p expensive but depends on the gas station 

clothes are not that expensive, at least it depends on what you’re buying. mostly anyway its the same price range that in usa i think but we don’t have the same stores, at least not forever 21 and primark for example but we do have h&m and zara and then some european stores like bik bok (which is my personal fav!) also victoria’s secret is super expensive cause it’s not normal for finns. there are only 2 of them in here anyway, one in the capital city aka helsinki and a small one at the airport

now to holidays! in actual calendar order ;-) valentine’s day; not big on celebrating, stores have stuff and some people do spend it but… not like… many easter; we have a thing similar to trick or treating, kids only dress as bunnies and witches tho may day; basically students (from like college) get “crowned “with student caps. everyone goes out to a park for a picnic and to drink. a lot. im telling you finnish people are huge drunks,, also its part of the tradition to dress funnily, stores sell weird may day clothing (like glittery hats and neon colored sunglasses), also there are sugar donuts and a either alcoholic or non-alcoholic (you decide) drink called sima. aaand decorations like balloons and paper streamers are literally everywhere midsummer; other finns go to their cottages and barbecue and go to sauna and swim in the lake. others go to a festival to get wasted. either way its a beautiful finnish tradition lmao, also this is the night when the sun shines for the whooole night!! not like literally shines but its not dark at all. there are bonfires and honestly, i’d say midsummer is the one holiday where finnish people really drink. like its -the- heavy drinking holidayhalloween; NO trick or treating which was very sad to kid-me bc no one gave me candy when i went t-o-t as a kid. also still pissed off cause it’s my fav holiday. stores sell halloween stuff and people dress up for parties, but no one really decorates. which sucks. finland sucks for halloween tbh. one plus is that we have the perfect halloween weather because its super dark and chilly and rainy and orange leaves everywhere during halloween-time!!thanks-giving; very very very little people celebrate this. definitely not a common thing. i only do it with friends and we call it friends-givingindependence day; obviously finland’s independence day. 100 years this year!!! christmas; 1000000% celebrate. so much snow. so cold. every store has christmas things and plays christmas music. everyone decorates. i mean it’s only fair bc santa claus lives in finland duhnew year; well i don’t think theres a country that doesn’t celebrate this tbh. stores sell stuff again. we have fireworks. also a lot of drinking. againalso obvs moher’s day and father’s day

concerts happen, not as often (especially with big stars) as they do in the states, but they happen! so do festivals. i actually summer-work at the largest one in finland ayyyyyy 

also, finnish people swear. like. a lot

MINUSES;- it can get freezing in the winter. last winter the lowest we hit was like -32 degrees- most of the time during summer it rains. this is also a finnish people joke because there was a meme saying “in the bible it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. they called it the apocalypse. in finland it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. they called it summer”- some finns are very narrow-minded, so expect not everyone to definitely not agree with you. i actually have a hard time dealing with this and usually always stood out from the mass mainly bc i am way too social and open-minded and everything to hang out with kids my age because their opinions and standards never really match to mine. finns are tbh kinda raised to be cold and they have to be well educated. oh boy if you only would’ve heard all the things they have told me after i have told them that i wanna make a living out of singing and acting and writing! - well the expensive things that i mentioned and the lack of halloween :-( - also if you wanna make it big, like international-big, in the music industry for example, it is very hard to try and do that from here because literally no one either knows that we exist or thinks that we live in igloos and have polar bears in our backyard. also everyone loves sweden more lmao and we hate that. there’s actually a finnish joke ,, we won them in hockey one year with 6-1 and every time we argue with a swedish person… thats always a great comeback, no matter how long its been :-)

PLUS- THINGS;+ we are mostly a very safe country with an amazing president+ free health insurance+ free studying + same sex marriage is approved+ summer is very beautiful if its not raining. especially in the countryside. amazing!!! + finns aren’t over-all bad, for example there is an incredible bond between finns when it comes to extreme finnish stuff, like midsummer drinking, seeing dramatic movies that revolve around finnish history (like war for example, a re-make of an old movie called the unknown soldier just came out and it was intense in the cinema!), hockey victory and this especially!!!! like it doesn’t matter if you hated that guy from your math class, if you two run into each other on a victory night, you fucking hug for three hours because WE FUCKING WON and tbh that is what i find most beautiful in our culture. its cute + ok honestly, just christmas again. finland is the winter wonderland i am telling you!

overall, i enjoy living in finland very much. it is a home and even though i wish to live abroad one day, finland will always be my home!! so if you really wanna move out, i suggest you at least consider finland. we are actually an amazing country. i hope this helped you! XO