#this feels oddly prophetic for some reason

[ingravinoveritas]

Just thinking about this interview for no real reason at all right now...

[k-s-morgan]

Hello i hope that you are doing well! I actually had a question regarding Alphard. Feel free to ignore the question if you have to spoil parts of the story that you are not comfortable with sharing!

For some reason i am in the habit of sympathising with alphard just like harry. How does Alphard feel about harry and will their relationship become more like a friendship in the future? Harry attempts to stick out his neck quite a bit for him, and It also seems as though Alphard retained some sort of fondness for harry (atleast before ch 5!).

In canon alphard is disowned from the family, and he actually leaves a small amount of gold to sirius. It seems that he either was defiant like sirius or something else is going on. Have you taken this into consideration when you wrote alphard in atlwetd?

I know it seems oddly specific for me to focus on alphard and harrys relationship, i just think i feel bad for harry and it’s my weird way of coping with it. Hopefully harry will get some better relationships in the story. I personally think i’d go insane if i spent even a day in the house of slytherin (the toxic dynamics are so well written, keep up the good work!!)

Thank you so much for your time. I have been an avid reader of your works for at least five years, and your stories have been a comfort to me during hard times (even though they tend to be dark!). You are so talented and amazing at writing.

P.s Fuck putin! I wish you safety and peace in these trying times, you are incredibly strong and inspiring! 💛💙

Hi! Thank you so much for your lovely words - and no worries, I don't mind answering these questions at all!

Harry and Alphard's relationship will definitely deepen and become close to a real friendship at some point. I can't promise a long-lasting and happy bond between them, but there will be some serious development on Alphard's side.

Right now, he's torn between genuinely liking Harry and worshipping Tom. Tom is the embodiment of power, cunning, and success in Alphard's eyes, and he got so addicted to being able to touch this greatness even with one fingertip that he can no longer live without this feeling. Harry has brought something more solid and authentic in his life, but their relationship is still new, and Tom's roots go deep, so Alphard keeps choosing the familiar old toxicity for now.

And yes, I took what little we know of Alphard from canon into account - I think Harry even mentions it a couple of times. In the last posted chapter, Tom said:

He hasn’t pledged himself to anyone yet, not fully, but once he does, his loyalty will be unwavering.

In this context, in canon-based universe, Alphard ended up pledging himself to Sirius, so he left inheritance to him with no care for the consequences. In this time period, Alphard is going to make different choices under Harry's influence, which will lead to a different kind of future. But either way, Tom's words are going to be prophetic, and I actually can't wait to get there because this will be a breaking point for Tom and Harry's relationship as well.

Oh, and I agree with you, being surrounded by toxicity all day long is incredibly difficult. I admire Harry for being able to withstand it.

[miradelalune]

For @orv-gotcha-for-gaza project to support Palestine! Just a little fic I wrote when i had time over the course of two months. :). I hope the person who asked for this enjoys it!

Prompt: Kim Dojka falls asleep on Yoo Joonghyuk’s shoulder. Yoo Joonghyuk feels things.

The fire heartily crackled in the bonfire as laughter carried throughout the encampment. Everyone was laughing and talking, sharing drinks, glad that the Demon Castle was over (for most of them, at least). Even among those who were soon going to the third floor, the atmosphere was cheerful. Lee Hyunsung, Jung Heewon, and Yoo Sangah were engaged in cheerful conversation, and the children were playing some sort of card game, on the verge of yet another fight

Looking out onto the scene, Yoo Joonghyuk was reminded of the reasons why he chose to regress, again and again: to see the small moments of happiness shared between his teammates, even if they were not the same ones he had once suffered with. Of course this time, it was all thanks to him…

“I need to set out to find Han Sooyoung soon.” Kim Dokja said, breaking the silence between the two. Seolhwa had gotten up to get more drinks for them, and the two were alone now.

“Are you that intent on having her for the third floor?” he asked.

“She’s vital for what I need to do.” the man responded without elaboration. Kim Dokja took a sip from his beer, as if that had answered his question. He looked up at Joonghyuk with an unwavering gaze. “May I ask you a question?”

“Yes, but-” Joonghyuk said.

“Am I really a companion to you? ” He blurted out. He looked down, nervous for the response that awaited him.

A companion?

Joonghyuk looked down, startled. It was the word he had used for Kim Dojka, one he had said even without thought as he defended his group from enemy after enemy. But why?

Even now, he still did not understand Kim Dokja. Every scenario they had passed, he always had a plan, a way out that even stunned the Dokkaebi. His prowess as a prophet seemed even greater than Anna Crofts’...which still bothered him.

He knew that Kim Dokja was hiding something from him. As a regressor, Yoo Junghyuk had lived through enough rounds to be able to tell when someone was lying. And Kim Dokja was definitely hiding some things about his attributes. His true attributes.

Thump. Yoo Joonghyuk felt a weight against his side. One that was warm. Face burning, he looked over.

On Joonghyuk’s left shoulder, Kim Dokja’s head rested, tilted slightly towards his chest. His eyes were closed, and he appeared to be sound asleep.

He flinched before taking a deep breath, trying to steady his feelings. His eyes fixed on the campfire and the night sky. How had he fallen asleep so suddenly? To him, it had always seemed like for Kim Dokja, everything was always accounted for, under control.

Then again, the man had just come back from the dead…it made perfect sense that he was exhausted, Joonghyuk was simply being unreasonable. Moving on to more practical matters, he should probably wake Dokja up now.

Looking down, he was surprised by how peaceful he looked. The warm firelight certainly had done him a service, softening his features.

The regressor reached his available hand towards Dojka, about to give him a gentle shake to wake him up…but he just couldn’t bring himself to. He found himself gently brushing a stray hair that had fallen in front of Kim Dojka’s face instead. His stomach felt oddly light and jittery. Dammit. Maybe he could let him sleep for a little while.

His thoughts circled back to Kim Dojka’s question. He was surprised he did not have a logical answer. From past experiences, it might’ve served Joonghyuk better to betray Kim Dojka by now. He still remembered the searing pain of his own sword slicing into his shoulder, her unwavering gaze as she turned against him.

But Kim Dojka was different. Unlike all his other teammates whom he had fought with before, the at first unimpressive man he had met on the bridge was someone new. Things had changed because of him. The reason they were all there now, alive and happy was because of Dojka’s painstaking plans. This round was unique, unlike anything before.

And yet Joonghyuk knew there was something else. When Dojka talked to members of the party, whether it be to resolve the kids’ petty fights or delegate patrol, there was always a sort of affection in his eyes, even if he was annoyed or angry. Almost as if he was simply happy to be there. Kim Dojka wanted to see the end of the scenarios with his companions. All of them. It certainly helped that he was strategic, witty, warm-hearted, liked children, smelled a bit like fresh laundry…

Besides him, Kim Dojka shifted, drawing his shoulders closer together, a faint frown on his face. The temperature had dropped as night fell and now the air was biting and frigid. He was probably cold by now. He began to take off his black coat, but Dojka stirred, freezing him in his place. For a fleeting moment, he considered wrapping his arm around the sleeping man, to feel the steady rise and fall of his breath, but he quickly dismissed the idea; it would most likely wake him up.

It seemed there was only one option: the shop. With a sigh, he brought up the virtual window with his free hand, trying to move his arm as little as possible. After scrolling through the survival essential tools, he selected the Deluxe Fluffy Throw. His finger hovered over the cream option for a second (it was for Dojka, after all) before finding himself with an ink black bundle on his lap with 3000 less coins in his account.

He was about to simply spread the blanket on Dojka’s lap but stopped. With the man’s slightly hunched posture, he could see that Kim Dojka’s back would still be exposed, defeating the purpose altogether. That was a mistake of a mere noob that he had learned long ago with Yoo Mia. In one deft gesture, he brought the throw around both of their backs, wrapping both him and Dojka on either side so that they shared the blanket.

[Constellation Demon-Like Judge of Fire is squealing in joy!]

[1,000 coins have been donated]

“Please stop Uriel. We’re not even in a scenario...don’t you have better things to do?”

[Constellation Demon-Like Judge of Fire says that nothing is better in her life than watching this.]

Joonghyuk sighed, covering his face with his hands. Sometimes he felt that he was the only real adult in the entire Star Stream. Now with no one to talk to and no way to train, he was a bit at a loss on what to do.

“Whooo!!! Jihye for the win!!” shrieked Lee Jihye. Looking up, he could see why Seolhwa hadn’t returned: Kim Dojka’s Company had started a game of Spoons. The victor stood with her hands in the air, holding two metal spoons in the air, the playing cards scattered around her. The Han Sooyoung looked downright incredulous, with the young author still flat on the ground after losing the tug-of-war for the last spoon, while Seolhwa, the other loser, smiled bemusedly at the scene.

His feelings about Lee Seolhwa were beyond complicated. During his second regression, he had grown to even declare her as his lover. However, while her beauty was identical from the last regression, from her silky white hair that shimmered like a pearl, to her cherry red lips, Joonghyuk no longer loved her romantically. He saw his old lover in her at moments, but his Lee Seolhwa had forever vanished.

Joonghyuk looked down. With Dojka laying absolutely still, inches away, he could fully see the man’s face. He was beautiful, his skin a soft porcelain despite more plain features. He could see each individual eyelash softly curled, the small part of his lips that were ever so slightly opened.

Joonghyuk knew that he had caught glimpses before, in brief moments of respite, but after the fact when he tried to recall the exact features, he couldn’t picture anything but a blurry smudge. He wanted to keep the memory of that face.

He sat there for a while, gazing at Kim Dojka. The heated rounds of Spoon slowly wound down as he heard the shouts and laughter dwindling to low chatter.

He blinked, suddenly cold. Only amber-orange coals remained from the once blazing bonfire. His eyelids felt leaden with fatigue. It was time for both of them to go to bed.

Ever so carefully, he picked up Kim Dojka, fully wrapping him in the blanket. No one was awake now, save for a few people on night watch. He could hear the grass being crushed under his boots as he approached Kim Dojka’s tent. Joonhyuk began to part the fabric that served as the entrance, he felt the weight in his arms shift.

Kim Dojkas’ eyes were half open and his expression one of vague confusion, senses clearly dulled by the chloroform of sleep. He parted his lips to speak, but Joonghyuk interrupted him mid- word.

“You fell asleep. I was going to put you to bed.” He stated. He laid Kim Dojka in bed and covered him with a blanket. As Dojka’s eyes began to close, he paused and turned around.

“I consider you my companion because you mean something to me, Kim Dojka.” He said.

Without further ado, he walked out into the night before he could regret what he said, flustered but at content. He could remember Dojka's face. The face of someone he loved.

[variousqueerthings]

watched network and it's ofc very famous and the acting was very good, esp really interesting women in this one and it has some great moments and speeches, but idk. doesn't feel as though it has the same kind of heart to me as the other lumet films i've seen so far:

i thought it was interesting and worth watching, but both on an emotional and political level it seemed oddly disjointed to me in that way where it's abundantly clear that while it's meant to be satirising a whole swathe of ideas, some people have more innate humanity than others based on static identities (yes, the shadowy tv exec is a white dude, but so are almost everyone else. yes faye dunaway is giving a great performance as a cold, fucked up network person, but it's got great dialogue and there are other women in the film. black characters? well...) i don't even think it's anti-establishment as such, even though it does start there and probably wants to be and also could have been if it had been more focused

with parts that were tremendously good, especially the ex-wife speaking her part + the network executive describing the power of capitalist-fuelled "entertainment" in shaping peoples' opinions and how that plays now with especially american politics more shaped by that notion than what people have done politically a lot of the time, and other parts that were highly suspicious in their cold seemingly satirical dehumanisations, such as the depiction of a far-left liberation terrorist group based on the symbionese liberation army that is ultimately a hollow inclusion of leftist ideas (whether or not those ideas are positive it's just shallow) and certainly puts you in mind of what the fanatical ultra-radical hypocritical left looks like (and it looks like it's run by politically messy black people), or the anti-arab rhetoric that seems to come out of nowhere all of a sudden, twice! (and this without a single arab onscreen....)

that's it for me in the end -- where everything else I've seen so far of sidney lumet (12 angry men, dog day afternoon, serpico, running on empty.... so yes, i have a fair few yet to watch!) seems to be offering humanity within plots that have surface-level similarities, this one just seems very "throws ideas at a wall about being angry at... something, but it seems the people causing the trouble consist of a. the soulless network executives and capitalist CEOs (sure, yeah, ok) b. the shadowy arabs somewhere (huh?) c. the ultra-left, led by black people (.... wait) who ultimately will also cave to the great spectre of Ratings and d. literally everyone else who watches tv"

sometimes "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore" begs the question... who are you mad at, exactly? and this movie, in failing to answer that beyond a vague "... society? tv...?" kind of way rather than being more specific and direct, falls into some very biased obvious ideas, and also I think is at the core of why there are so many "woah this movie predicted everything!!!" type articles. it's a blank space that doesn't have a clear political idea and so people can fill that space however they want

i didn't really speak much to the "prophetic" nature of the movie, but that does also feel not-entirely-wrong-but-not-quite-right, I think people exaggerate -- it is resonant, especially today, but it's also based in the times it was made in: soulless network execs? they existed in the 70s. people doing extreme things that got a bunch of ratings? happened in the 70s. prophets on-air asking you to get mad? you got that in the 70s. like it wasn't ronald reagan and donald trump or the sheer amount of reality tv, but like. it's all structures being built in the 70s already

and I do give it a lot of reasonable doubt in intention, because as far as I know sidney lumet was always making movies with a clear idea about what he felt, and so I guess I can say who he is mad at, but the movie itself? feels more like an indictment against itself by trying to float a hopeless endless churn of soulless tv vs. the self-fulfillment that seemingly comes from pursuing a more wholesome (het, white, marriage-based, american) lifestyle that can "save" you from the trap of tv's ensnaring entertainment cycle. as if those two things aren't inherently connected

[shinebrightlikeanarwhal]

Hiya, it’s me again. Uhm, hear me out. On November 5th, around the time Sal is 17, Travis goes missing. There’s no info or anything about him, he just kinda disappeared without a trace when he was walking home on fateful night.

A few days later, Sal has this dream. It was like, he was experiencing one of Travis’s memories, for some reason. On the seventh day is when he is found, dying of a hedonistic bender, a heroine overdose.

The gang re-look the missing posters and the cameras, only to see someone in a oddly familiar dog mask, watching Travis from the woods and shadows. And then the cameras go off.

Narwhal is feeling unwell so after this ask I’m going to take a nap, then I’ll get RIGHT BACK to answering asks💖

It’s an entire operation. Sal hardly ever has prophetic dreams but when he does it’s serious. So a dream where he can feel and hear the terror f Travis. Fleeing from who knows what.

The woods were dark but he can make out unique features. The voice while low and forcibly raspy, it was familiar. And that mask. That damned mask plagued his dreams. Before these visions started!

They search day and night. Looking for any extra clues. It isn’t until Neil comes by with the shoes Travis always wore and a torn piece of his shirt. There’s blood and a chemically smell. Todd checks and remarks that it’s a kneeler drug to knock someone out. If it’s that seeped into the clothes Travis was doomed the minute that person took interest in him.

Larry tries desperately to search for any clues. He’s constantly searching the woods, leaving no stone unturned. It isn’t until he hears a familiar voice echo that he finds he might be in the correct place. Shooting a message to the rest Larry tries to investigate more. Hoping to find the exact location by the time the gang gets there.

Unluckily for him however, when he finds the little bunker, Travis’ captor is there and making sure no one is near. Larry has to hide and alert the gang silently that they need to be careful on the way, it’s not just one guy. It’s a small cult.

[1doesnotsimplyhavejust1fandam]

Can you IMAGINE if Sirius and Harry had been truly reunited the night Harry ran away after blowing up Aunt Marge? I feel like the two of them would've been SO chaotic together. 13 year old Harry fresh from inflating his non-blood aunt and seething over the Dursleys' words about his parents, teaming up with 33 year old Sirius fresh from 12 years in Azkaban, basically frothing at the mouth to rip Peter apart and protect his godson. They would be SO fucking fun for the Wizarding World to deal with (NOT). I'm imagining a world where Harry recognizes Sirius' magical signature or some bullshit as Padfoot and isn't immediately terrified when Padfoot suddenly turns into the murderous ex-con he just saw on the news had escaped. They're both just suddenly on the run from the Ministry bc Harry is like ??? WHY DO I RECOGNIZE YOU??? And Sirius is like I'M NOT LEAVING THIS KID AGAIN LIKE I DID THAT NIGHT!!!! So they're running around Britain and Harry's getting the 411 on Peter's betrayal and cute Marauders anecdotes and Sirius is losing his mind bc OMG it's his best friend and best friend-in-law (it's a thing, OKAY!?)'s son and he's so big and sassy and angry. And then Sirius is trying to figure out where they should go, and ends up deciding to go to fuckin Moony's place even though that's the first place people who knew them back then would check bc idk luck is on their side for once idc. So Remus has the absolute pleasure of opening the door to Mr. Harry James Potter in the company of a terrifyingly familiar black dog, and Remus' alarms are firing in his head as Sirius transforms from Padfoo t back into himself and he's shouting at Remus to LET HIM EXPLAIN, while Harry is doing his best to not let Remus fire a spell at his newly discovered godfather. Eventually Remus just lets Sirius explain on his front porch steps like they're a bunch of barbarians bc he refuses to let Sirius inside or let his guard down for a single second, and then Sirius tells him the whole story and Harry pulls out the Daily Prophet, and suddenly Harry has two absolutely FUCKIN FURIOUS Marauders on his hands, and they both want to chop Peter's head off and roast it on a stick, but Harry is oddly enough the most reasonable bc he's suddenly got a godfather that he doesn't want to lose bc hey, dude's kinda really great and also doesn't hate his guts like the Dursleys do, so of course he yells at them that they can't do anything yet bc Sirius would be carted back to Azkaban and probably Remus (who is still currently this random man to him ngl but also apparently the other loyal bestie his dad had at Hogwarts, so Harry doesn't want him chucked in Azkaban either) as well. So they devise a plan that involves kidnapped the fuck outta Scabbers as soon as Ron and Harry board the train together on September 1st, and Remus already has the DADA job, so he can help w that (although he still falls asleep bc I think Moony is absolutely iconic for that). And then the three of them just chill for about a month til it's time to board the Hogwarts Express, in which everyone at the station is suitably horrified when Harry just rolls up to the train with his brand spankin new pet dog Snuffles like nothing happened and he didn't just disappear off the face of the earth for nearly a MONTH, but Harry just ignores all that shit bc boy is on a MISSION and that mission is to destroy the bastard who got his parents killed and also started the catalyst of events that led to him growing up in an abusive household for like 10 years. Which is a thing he discussed at length w Remus and Sirius because Dumbledore is a manipulative piece of shit who TOTALLY KNEW the Dursleys were awful people and still decided to place him there :))))

Basically what ends up happening is Harry asks Ron to hand Scabbers over for a minute under the pretense of idek checking his lil rat toes or some shit bc he saw one was missing ???? And then Harry kicks Remus awake to do the spell, which he does, while Ron and Hermione are becoming deeply confused and disturbed by Harry's one-track mind and clear hatred for this stupid little RAT, but they let it happen bc Hermione sees the Professor part of RJ Lupin on Remus' briefcase (which, SCORE 1 for the Marauders definitely pranking him by getting him that briefcase at some point bc they WOULD and he had never been a professor before then so ???), and Ron and Hermione don't have a problem with authority figures, that's fuckin Harry. And Remus turns Wormtail back into Peter, and we get the whole Peter begging the Trio for mercy before Sirius turns back into himself from Padfoot, at which time Ron and Hermione start yelling about the escaped very dangerous convict in their TRAIN CAR, while Harry tries to convince them that Sirius isn't a danger to anyone in the tiny space but the fucking RAT, at which time Ron is like WELL HE'S NOT ACTUALLY A RAT ANYMORE NOW IS HE HARRY???!!! And Harry has to go with the short version of HE BETRAYED MY PARENTS RONALD!!!! while Peter is cornered by Sirius and Remus. And no, nobody has heard the yelling yet bc obviously Remus cast the Muffliato Charm or something, of course he did, I wouldn't forget that people have EARS. And then all of the sudden, the train car starts getting all cold, so Remus starts yelling at Sirius to change back to Padfoot bc the dementors won't sense a human that could be Kissed if he's not in human form, and Sirius does, but Peter also tries and Ron realizes what's happening and knocks him out (why Ron? Idk, why NOT him honestly, it's what he deserves after letting that creepy motherfucker live with him for the past few years bc YIKES I would be so freaked out) before Peter can turn back into a rat. The dementors come into the train car and Harry has his fainting spell which makes Sirius and Remus suitably LOSE THEIR MINDS bc WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED TO THE KID?!!??!! and Remus uses the Patronus Charm to repel them even though it means Peter won't be Kissed and Remus really wants revenge.

So Harry wakes up and is immediately accosted by his best friends, Sirius back in human form, and Remus trying to force chocolate into him. Ron and Hermione have been suitably informed of the situation, so they've closed the curtains, and nobody even knows what's happened besides those in the train car with them. Sirius doesn't have his wand, but he resolves to sit as Padfoot, staring at an unconscious Peter for the rest of the journey to Hogwarts, and the other four join him because no way in HELL are they letting that MF escape after Harry and Remus have managed to explain everything (and even before bc Ron and Hermione are the best and all they needed to hear was that Harry's parents died bc of Peter to determine that they would fucking the rat UP if he tried anything at all). So of course this weird fuckin quintet shows up to Hogsmeade's station with the real traitor and have to wait for everyone else to exit the train before traipsing up to the castle with the still unconscious Peter (Ron may not have cared all that much about being careful with head injuries from knocking bastards out bc of the whole ya know TRAITOR thing). Remus manages to send off a Patronus message to McGonagall (her bc of the aforementioned Dumbledore is a shithead thing) and they all head to Remus' new office with Peter in tow. Minerva shows up to Sirius as Padfoot, but an unconscious man who is CLEARLY Peter Pettigrew, and she's immediately like WHAT THE HELL??? and calls in some Aurors to deal with the trash. The Aurors are all suitably horrified but clear out soon bc they're not important to this story (sorry, kisses Aurors😘), and Minerva starts raging about Sirius being innocent and how DARE Peter, to which the Trio are extremely horrified bc they've never seen her lose her shit QUITE this much and it is highkey terrifying, but Remus is enjoying the show bc at least SOMEONE AGREES and Padfoot is wagging his tail and panting happily before Sirius realizes that Minerva can KNOW and he transforms back into himself, giving the poor professor half a heart attack. And because I think it would be hilarious for me personally, Snape walks in at the end of this lil story to see where tf Remus is bc he and Minerva are BOTH missing from the Welcome Feast, to Minerva McGonagall hugging the life out of a beaming Sirius Black while Remus looks at the two of them with a huge amount of relief bc THANK GOD she accepted his innocence, that could've been so bad for them lmao, they couldn't even Disapparate away at Hogwarts if she decided he wasn't innocent after all. And then Snape sees the Trio right beside Remus, also watching the hug and grinning like fools, especially Harry bc this meant Sirius was going to be FREE and also Harry would never have to deal with seeing the Dursleys or dealing with the fact that he literally blew up Dudley's aunt ever :)))

[fantastic-wizards]

continued from xoxo

:｡･:*:･ﾟ’★,｡･:*:･ﾟ’☆ || @fallencrowns

His back remained to Professor Corvinus while a lengthy silence ensued between them. Albus had no idea what Corvinus was truly thinking about the situation, but if Hogwart's newest heartthrob doubted the squeaky clean image Albus presented unto him that fateful night in the lounge then Albus couldn't --- wouldn't be able to blame him at all. It seemed that the more time passed, the less 'clean' Albus appeared, especially now that the leading man for the new Minister of Magic position was in cuffs for who knows how long. Perception was everything to the naive mind and by tomorrow, many would likely be bombarding Hogwarts with letters asking for comments or writing their own columns in the Prophet speculating as to why the Head of Magical Law Enforcement saw fit to cuff Grindelwald's only equal. He knew the written works wouldn't be all bad, but young journalists out to make a name for themselves would spin juicey tales that Albus was in no position to dispute much either way. It was, for lack of a better term, a three ring circus and he had somehow become apart of the main act.

The former defense teacher hadn't realized Corvinus was standing next to him until he felt the other's warmth gently tapping the top of his clenched hand. Albus looked to him momentarily before looking away again, letting fingers slowly uncurl to reveal palms marred by nails. He had dug deep --- deep enough to tear through once untainted flesh, but it was nothing Poppy couldn't heal later. Right now, he couldn't be bothered. Hands may as well remain scarred as they wouldn't be worth anything for quite some time. If Travers had his way, Albus wouldn't be conjuring any spells until long after Gellert was defeated ( and that was provided Albus could find a way to break the troth ).

Albus nearly let out an audible groan, but instead he managed a shaky breath to save face. He was glad to hear that Corvinus was not so easily swayed by the Ministry's theatrics, but he had no idea about the others they worked alongside. Save for Minerva, it could go either way really. He would not dare say such things out loud right now, but just having a potential 'ally' or even 'friend' within these walls was giving him a very small sense of relief --- just a little. It wasn't from who he expected, but perhaps he wouldn't have it any other way. Regardless, it was nice knowing some people used their head before buying into every scene unfolding in the world.

Albus would only meet Corvinus' gaze again briefly before forcing himself to tear eyes away. He was far too afraid of what lay behind his own blue eyes that could be read by someone as astute as Professor Corvinus. His eyes felt fragile; as if the faintest thought or look could send him, but remaining upright and together was an absolute must. What even would Corvinus think if one of the wizarding world's most powerful men fell to his knees in despair? He would sniff weakness and Albus could not allow that. Not with him --- not with anyone.

Eyes remained downcast as he studied the magical cuffs. Even a hint of wandless magic made the cuffs pulse against his flesh. How cruel of them he thought. To put him in this position The urge to make palms bleed kicked in again but he managed against it. Oddly enough, Corvinus' voice seemed to be helping --- like a voice of reason of sorts. Albus knew that any other time, having someone here watching him this closely would have made him unravel even more quickly. This was a rare exception and while he didn't know how to feel about it, it beat losing his mind over this.

"Oh...I... Thank you, but..." Albus shook his head. "I wouldn't trouble yourself, professor. People are going to talk either way and the Prophet will spin its tales as well. The masses are far more likely to believe what's written in black and white as opposed to anything else. It's... fine. I suppose it was only a matter of time before they forced my hand. I just... haven't found a solution yet."

And it wasn't as if he wasn't working on it. By Merlin he spent EVERY WAKING MOMENT outside of class pondering ways to best Gellert. The Ministry wanted results, but this situation was far too complicated for anyone with half a brain to expect quick results. Even IF they had bothered listening a few hours ago, Albus had a feeling they wouldn't have cared at all. They expected him to fall on his own sword if it meant killing Gellert, but Albus couldn't. It was impossible. He has tried...

Corvinus offered to listen. Albus probably should have disregarded that offer and in truth, some part of him wanted to. But then his mind wandered back to the last time they were alone together. It was New Year's Eve and much was revealed between them, but mostly concerning a secret of Corvinus'. The man was only pretending to be married which, in truth, probably wasn't as big of a secret in comparison to Albus' own issues. However, to build trust, bread crumbs must be given in small doses. How was he to truly know if Corvinus was the man he appeared to be if he never once let him in on any of his secrets?

So after a while Albus moved away from the window, back to Corvinus as he seemingly hugged his himself. It was better than scarring his hands even more and so after a long, tense silence, Albus finally broke it. "I WANT to end Gellert's nonsense, but I CAN'T." And it was heavy stress on the word 'can't'. "I keep telling them that but 'can't' is translating to 'won't' in their mind and that... that isn't it at all."

Albus slowly turned and faced Corvinus, undoing a few buttons of his shirt. The necklace was now in plain sight and began to turn a bright red. The chain coiled around his neck while the troth shook violently. Albus tugged at the chain as it wrapped tighter and tighter around his neck, gasping for air as he tugged. The tip of the troth moved quickly, pointing towards Albus' heart. It made to pierce his chest but Albus eventually stopped struggling, letting his thoughts drift to happier times. The troth's glow faded and the chain laxed some. Albus took a moment to collect himself, trembling as he stood before the other man.

"I can't draw my wand against Gellert nor can he turn his own at me. And now you see why." And he hoped Corvinus was smart enough to put the pieces together because that was all the explanation he could give right now. At least regarding that matter. Shoulders slumped in shame and feeling defeated, Albus turned eyes towards the window again, wishing he could hide from the world --- at least for a little while.

[flowersandbirdsflyingfree]

A Promise For My Queen of Darkness

(A short oneshot for @jamieaiken919 x Edward Richtofen)

Oh, my sweet revenge will be yours

For the taking… It’s in the making, baby!

Julia had been worried for some time now. She had been traveling with the Ultimis crew since the very beginning. When you already have pre-existing knowledge of the timelines, it makes you feel utterly helpless. She knew either ending would be a total disaster. Either everyone’s stuck on the moon and Richtofen’s trapped in a zombie… or everyone dies “for the sake of a better tomorrow.” She couldn’t tell him he was from a video game! Those hadn’t existed around his time nor any place they time traveled. The only way was to phrase it as a prophetic dream. That’s how she “predicted” those explorers to show up trapped in Shangri-La. How she knew of Group 935’s mission and the severity of the outbreak.

She wasn’t able to pay attention so well during the Doctor’s elaborate explanation for the evening. Edward knew something felt… off. When he had the chance to dismiss everyone, he placed a hand on his lover’s shoulder. “Liebchen… are you alright?” Edward asked. Julia tried to turn her face away slightly, afraid of being seen so obviously troubled. Julia sighed.“It’s okay, hon. I’m fine.”

“Don’t lie to me, schnucki! I can easily read when you’re upset too!”

Normally, Julia would laugh when he tried to be silly and squish her cheeks to kissy lips like this. But he eased his cup around her face realizing something more serious was going on. This was no ordinary depressive cloud hanging over. Richtofen recognized her expression as something he’s been burdened with before. His face became stone serious, determined to know what was really going on. “Come to the office with me.”

They headed down the hallway of the lonesome desk of the worn down Soviet facility. It was filthy with dust, decay and oxidized stains of what was hopefully zombie blood. The doctor ushered her into the cushioned office chair, while he stood tall in front of the desk. He tilts his head and locks on with her. “Are you afraid to tell me what’s going on, Julia? I need to know.” Julia furrowed her brows and sheepishly looked up at him. “It’s about our future. N-not us! I mean… I mean what happens next in the plan.” Richtofen softened to a sullen expression. It almost seemed like the visor of his uniform hat shadowed his vision. “You know about my real intentions, don’t you?” He droned.

“…I don’t want to lose you, Edward.”

“Wait- what?”

His mood shifted in an instant. She wasn’t mad that he was going to find the MPD and acquire infinite power?

“No matter what happens, I’m afraid of losing you forever.” Julia trembled. “Either Maxis is going to ruin everything for your grand scheme or somehow you die in the end.” Richtofen started to giggle… Then chuckle… And then raise his tone to a maniacal cackle. He threw his head back and fell down to the floor, kicking his feet childishly. It was a bit frightening to see. “Me? DIE?! HA! Oh, my dear, you are too sweet to worry about mein well-being. But I always have tricks up mein sleeve.” He grinned at her like the cheeky bastard he was. “Did you really think I’d leave you out of my plans?”

He leaned over the desk and lifted her chin with his index finger. His overconfident leer was oddly intoxicating. “I know you were gifted to me for a special reason.” Richtofen whispered. His breath was warm and gentle against her neck. He pulled away smiling, hoping to tease her more. “The voices told me you are not of this world. You only know about the future because your world showed it to you! They said it was from something called an X’ed box. I have never heard of this revolutionary artifact before. I hope to find it and see for myself. But, I digress.”

He wraps his arms around her neck and presses his forehead against hers. This alone was the hidden language the two often shared for comfort. “I need to make sure you’re still safe in the end too. A victory without you isn’t truly worth celebrating.” Reassured, his better half had a meek smile. He kissed her on the bridge of her nose.

“My dearest Queen, I vow to keep you safe und ruling beside me. I only ask for your undying loyalty and help to achieve this goal in the end… no matter the price of destruction we need to get there.”

Julia thought about it for a while and nodded. “I promise.”

He raised his head and lifted his hand.

“Pinky promise?”

“Pinky promise.”

They curled their pinkies and shook on their pact.

“But… I don’t think I will be ensuing as much destructive chaos as much as you do, liebling.” Julia laughed.

Richtofen pouted slightly. “But that’s the fun part! Aren’t you tired of being nice? Don’t you want to go apeshit and make all who’ve wronged you kiss the ground you walk on? I’ll arrange it!”

Julia tried to hold back laughter at his usual antics.

“Ach, no matter! I’m sure in due time, you’ll come to your senses. We have much to do.”

They had to prepare and discuss their shared grand scheme. The world better kneel now. Because when the King and Queen arrive, nothing will get in their way.

[writingturtlesandbeans]

Fuck now I feel like writing a Time Travel fix-it fic—

Like imagine the war is already underway, and it’s been several years and Megatron is at the point of no return from his dubious deeds. Primus realizing and knowing that his people will be fighting eons worth of war because of this, and he decides (a dumb decision really) that Megatron is the best person to send back in time to fix things.

Megatron D-16 wakes up in his berth, disoriented, and is facing his former best friend. He feels like he’s in a nightmare, back in the mines, working for that damned Sentinel Prime. He doesn’t know which is worse, knowing what he knows about their leader now or knowing that he’s responsible for the rise of the new Prime, who happens to be recharging right in front of him.

He could end that, he thinks. He can end the false prophets and the wrong chosen one right here and now. But looking at Optimus Prime Orion Pax, peaceful and unaware of what will be, he remembers what he had done. He remembers how he shot him. He remembers that he was the one who let go. Being back in this old body, being given another chance—would he really recreate the mistakes he made?

“We could have built a future together.”

That would have been nice, D thinks. Rebuild Cybertron into what it was meant to be, destroy the caste system, bring back the flow of energon on the planet. But then he thinks of what would be needed for that last part. A Prime has to be chosen to lead the people, to bring life back on the planet. And he knows, in the end, it will still be Orion.

His stupidly naive Orion will be chosen to lead.

Megatron decides to say fuck it, and starts to re-engage in his past, but he becomes more serious and more blunt than his previous self. Orion notices and “D” just brushes him off.

Megatron decides to start writing against Sentinel under a pseudonym. He learned a lot how to encrypt his data thanks to his time with Soundwave, who seems seemed to be the only decepticon he could trust. His writings spread even to the highest places of Iacon. Rumors begin, and Sentinel doesn’t hear of it until his return. He is still popular but now for all the wrong reasons. Now, even those in high places have distanced themselves from him.

When the Iacon 5000 comes, and Orion’s little surprise comes, D doesnt react badly, he missed his old friend, he admits. And he wonders if any of that is still left within Optimus Prime. When they get sent to sub-level 50, Megatron thinks he’ll hate hearing B-127’s voice you took his voice and was prepared to hold himself back from any violent thing he might do to the yellow cybertronian. Instead he feels oddly relieved to hear his voice and yap, and finds it hard not to pat his head or hug him.

Everything continues as the movie, but with a less temperamental Megatron, since he knows where this all leads. Maybe some things change along the way, with Orion and Elita noticing things that are different with D-16. When they get to Alpha Trion, he knows that one is not who he says he is, and confronts him while the others are mesmerized by the visions Alpha Trion gives them. Alpha Trion maybe has a message for Megatron or a warning from Primus. When they run from the attack, Alpha Trion gives Megatron one last glance as if asking him to choose his path wisely.

Megatron does not try to steal Alpha Trion’s last gift. He does not argue with Pax. When they’re captured by the high guard, he still fights only to get their attention and respect (he still has need of them after all). When Sentinel’s goons find them, he spares Bee and shoves him away, yelling at Orion to look after him. When they’re back at Iacon, he admits that he was the writer.

Things go the same until it’s time to shoot Sentinel. Orion stops him. He doesn’t shoot.

But Sentinel does. And shoves Orion’s body towards the void leading to Primus.

Megatron catches him. He tries so hard to hold on because he has started to feel like his old self again. He’s afraid. He’s afraid of losing his Orion in place of a new Prime. He is not ready.

Sentinel tries firing again but the high guard subdues him. They don’t kill him. Not yet.

Megatron lets go, because Orion asks him to. Because a voice inside his head Primus commands it, despite his pleas.

When Optimus emerges, Megatron claims his name. When the new Prime rises, Megatron waits for the anger and hatred but he feels none of that.

He runs.

He tackles Optimus.

And

He holds him.

They don’t execute Sentinel.

They don’t start a new war.

They rebuild Cybertron.

They get rid of the Quintessons.

Life is peaceful for a time.

And Megatron hopes it is forever

It’s not, Unicron is still out there but we wont talk about that

Me:

[charlenasaxen]

“the consequences will be awful. Madness. Terror. I’ve seen it happen before. 16 can unravel your thoughts.”

“16 can make you doubt everything you see. 16 can make you doubt me.”

“I was appalled. This was a level of wickedness that I had never imagined.”

“what with one thing and another, now did not seem the time”

“How will you kill me?’ I asked.

‘You don’t want to know that,’ he said.

‘No. I suppose not.”

“Oh,’ said the Other. ‘Did you? That’s nice.’

‘It was nice,’ I agreed.

“Thank the House I had not told him! At worst it would have inclined him all the more to kill me.”

“if it were the Other’s sanity that was threatened by 16, I would not resort to killing him quite so quickly”

“Now hide Yourself!

Then I run swiftly and silently to a Wall”

“One shirt was a very nice cherry red colour. But they have all faded.”

“However my hair is a different matter. Over the years, as it has grown longer, I have interlaced it with pretty things: seashells, coral beads, pearls”

“I have placed my ornaments in the beautiful box with the octopus”

“When 16 returns to his own Halls, I shall put them back – I feel oddly naked without them”

“more efficient than indexing them straight away. After some time has passed it is easier to separate the important from the ephemeral.”

“I made another entry:

Prophecies concerning the coming of 16”

“Under the letter ‘I’, I wrote:

Italian, dishy, young”

“Ovenden, Stanley, student of Laurence Arne-Sayles: Journal no. 21”

“Outsider literature, see Fan fiction”

“Added to this was the writing itself. It was my handwriting – no doubt about that – but it was subtly different”

“There were nine of them. Just nine. I did not find twenty others that I had inexplicably overlooked.”

“If Journal no. 1 (my Journal no. 1) had originally been Journal no. 21”

“turned to page 154. There he was.”

“His most favoured students (the inner circle) went with him”

“During dinner Arne-Sayles talked about the other world (a place where architecture and oceans were muddled together)”

“Ten years later when Arne-Sayles was convicted of kidnapping another young man, the Italian police reopened the case”

“What meaning could words such as ‘Birmingham’ and ‘Perugia’ possibly have?”

“I have discovered that I am mad already! Or, if not mad now, then certainly I have been mad.”

“I felt a great pressure there as if a whole host of half-formed ideas were about to break through”

“I saw in front of me the Statue of the Faun, the Statue that I love above all others. There was his calm, faintly smiling face.”

“But today it seemed to mean something quite different: Hush! Be comforted!”

“climbed up on to his Plinth and flung Myself into his Arms”

“Safe in his embrace, I wept”

“I ate a little fish and drank some water. Then I revisited all my favourite Statues.”

“Their Beauty soothed me”

“Even now, as I write the words, I begin to feel anxious again. A crowd of images stirs in my mind – strange, nightmarish, but at the same time oddly familiar.”

“the fleeting image of towers and spires”

“The Prophet also tried to think of the name of the dishy young Italian but could not do so. Perhaps it was Maurizio Giussani.”

“Which means that twenty Journals (twenty!) are missing – a highly alarming thought!”

“I pictured Myself throwing all ten Journals and the Index into a raging Tide”

“if the House has made you forget, then it has done so for good reason”

“It does not matter that you do not understand the reason. You are the Beloved Child of the House. Be comforted.”

“I composed music on the flute that I made from the bone of a swan”

“This Hall contains the Statue of the Gorilla and I thought the sight of Him would lend me Strength”

“she wanted to go to university to study Death, Stars and Mathematics. Inexplicably the University of Manchester didn’t offer such a course.”

“part of her duties consisted of driving him wherever he wanted to go, including to Canal Street on Saturday nights to pick up young men”

“Arne-Sayles instructed her to quarrel with her parents. According to Angharad Scott, this was a test of loyalty.”

“with occasional splashes of blood-red”

“Moon/Wood contains very little speech and what there is is incomprehensible”

“The walls are lined with statues and puddles”

“According to the people who believe such things, this is a record of one of Arne-Sayles’s other worlds”

“these are in the same peculiar code as her last diary and remain impenetrable”

“Angharad Scott made several attempts to decipher it but got nowhere”

“This time D’Agostino refused.

She was never seen again.”

“Arne-Sayles’s career, always controversial, ended abruptly”

“Behind the wall – the fake wall – the police found a room in which was a young man, very ill and entirely incoherent”

“Arne-Sayles did not testify at his trial and never offered any explanation as to why he’d imprisoned James Ritter”

“Ritter was very good-looking. He worked as a model, a waiter, a barman, an actor and occasionally as a prostitute.”

“he had been at a different house, a house that contained statues and where many of the rooms were flooded by the sea”

“while he was in hospital he became very agitated, saying that he needed to go back to the minotaurs because the minotaurs would have his dinner”

“Certainly, Ritter’s description of the house is similar to the vast, empty rooms in Sylvia D’Agostino’s film”

“But in that case why was Ritter babbling about houses with seas in the basement?”

“it too was a vast building with great rooms and statues and staircases. The resemblance to the other house calmed him.”

“James Ritter was clearly the person who had eaten crisps and fish fingers.

This insight alone justifies my decision to continue reading my Journal!”

“occurs to me that there are many other ideas that I understand perfectly, even though no such things exist”

“It is from these things that I deduce the idea of a garden. I do not believe this happens by accident. This is how the House places new ideas”

“Do not be anxious, I tell Myself. It is the House. It is the House enlarging your understanding.”

“thirteen remain. This is the exact number of the Dead in my Halls. A coincidence?”

“It is impossible to say at this juncture how many of these people there are”

“… that he has done to me. How could I have been so stupid? I will die here.”

“This was the writing of a very angry and unhappy person. I wondered who it had been?”

“I passed some time (about half an hour I think) talking to it. I am LOSING MY MIND.”

“Before I forget why I HATE HIM”

“There it was again! A scent. A perfume of lemons, geranium leaves, hyacinths and narcissi”

“Yes, the scent was discernible here too. I traced the person’s path.”

“hints of cloves, blackcurrant and rose”

“No, this was someone new.

16 had come. 16 was here.”

“someone so wedded to Destruction and Madness, should wear a perfume so lovely, so redolent of Sunshine and Happiness”

“For an answer, the Other put two fingers to his head in imitation of a gun and made the sound: Boom!”

“Though it would be interesting to try. Tell you what. I’ll get a gun. That’ll make it easier, whichever of us has to do it.”

“I don’t know why I’m describing him to you. It’s not as if hordes of old men are going to start turning up.”

“I scattered scraps of fish to feed them. Two alighted on my shoulders. One pecked at my ear, hoping to discover if I was good to eat. It made me laugh.”

“I paused and examined Myself for signs of imminent madness”

“RETURN TO YOUR OWN HALLS, 16, AND REFLECT ON YOUR WICKEDNESS”

“I tried putting ‘your enemy’ but this seemed unnecessarily confrontational”

“The Stars blazed bright in all the Windows. The Thousand Statues, faintly lit by the Stars, looked out upon the Hall as if they blessed it.”

“The person was shouting: ‘Raphael! Raphael! I know you’re here!’

It was the Other.

“But as for 16 himself, I could see nothing of him. He was a mere blot behind the dazzle of the light.”

“I had told him to reflect on his wickedness. Was that what he was doing?”

“No one has ever written to me before”

“Part of me (a very foolish part) felt that it would almost be worth going mad in order to read the message”

“NED ME THAT YOU MAY BE SUFFERING”

“It is not the fact 16 is a woman that fascinates and excites me – or at least, not entirely; it is the fact that she is another human being”

“Everything keeps leading back to this one same person, Laurence Arne-Sayles”

“Unless I disappear myself, in which case, con”

“it was also persuadable. Nature was willing to bend to men’s desires.”

“men could turn into birds and fly away, or into foxes and hide in dark woods, castles could be made out of clouds”

“providing you had a physical link with a person who had once possessed them”

“(a head, but not one that belonged to Marepool I)”

“at one point he had seen the lips of Marepool III move but he had not heard any words”

“second, it left a hole, a door between this world”

“unsympathetic to my request to be allowed to stand in the garden for several hours performing an Ancient Celtic ritual”

“No matter. I discovered when they would be taking their holiday, returned at that time and ‘broke in’.”

“though now forced to share their beds with flowers of insufferable vulgarity”

“I no longer saw or felt the rain. I was standing in the clear, strong sunlight of early childhood. The colours of the roses were supernaturally bright.”

“the one into which everything forgotten flows. The edges of that door were frayed and worn by the passage of old ideas leaving this world.”

“A strange thundering – as of a sea – filled my ears …”

“I do not understand why this sentence is in the past tense. The World still speaks to me every day.”

“immediately discovered something Highly Alarming – a Conjunction of Four Tides in less than a week’s time!”

“Oh, fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I muttered to Myself.”

“I’ll be fine,’ said the Other. ‘Will you be OK?”

“I knew that I would miss her if she had. Other than 16, there is only Myself and the Other in the World”

“(it may surprise you to read this) the Other is not always the best of company”

“PLEASE ABSENT YOURSELF FROM THESE HALLS AT THIS TIME OR YOU WILL BE IN DANGER”

“THEN CLIMB QUICKLY! THE STATUES ARE GRACIOUS AND WILL PROTECT YOU.”

“DAY OF THE FLOOD WILL BE THE FIRST DAY OF THE QUARTER MOON”

“a pure white colour with a beautiful, glowing translucency”

“but birds do not move a great number of stones for no reason”

“Too late I realised that the pebbles formed shapes. Words! Words made by 16!”

“Matthew Rose Sorensen …

An image rose up in front of me, like a memory or a vision.”

“everything smelt of rain, and metal, and staleness. This vision had a name and its name was …”

“But they were only Statues and they could not bring me water. They could only look down on me with Calm Nobility.”

“It’s a name associated with labyrinths. You don’t mind, do you? I’ll stop if you don’t like it.”

“It was delicious and refreshing (it had been a Cloud only hours before)”

“a man who transgressed against science, against reason and against law”

“If he really was some forgotten part of Myself, then he would not like to be contradicted; he would argue”

“He did not rise up from some shadowy recess of my mind. He remained an emptiness.”

“The circles that you find in the windmills of your mind”

“I had already been obliged to reallocate two pages from the letter P to accommodate them all”

“called on the University of Manchester to dismiss Arne-Sayles. (The university did not do so until 1997 when Arne-Sayles was arrested)”

“The last ten pages – the very pages that I wanted – were missing”

“The thirty-two pages with information about Ketterley were gone”

“But if I had torn out the pages, what had happened to them? Where had they gone?”

“Quickly – almost feverishly – I began to put the pieces together”

“The longest entry was titled: The events of 15 November 2012”

“When I got to his house I heard music playing. A requiem.”

“somehow intensified; inside the house there was a smell of rain, clouds and air, a smell of limitless space. A smell of the sea.”

“Well, quite. People still think I must have known about his crimes. I didn’t.”

“God, no! Not for twenty years.”

“He’s just perverse. If someone says white, he’ll say black.”

“how they are received by the various disciplines – religion, art, literature, science, mathematics and so forth”

“He wrote about magic and pretended it was science.”

“Of course I object to the fucking word,”

“And then he demolished you. His theories weren’t just smoke and mirrors. Far from it. He’d thought everything through.”

“And she did. She did it because Laurence instructed her to do it and because Laurence was the great magus.”

“He did it because he could. He did it to cause anguish for her.”

“A vision of cosmic grandeur. A symbol of the mingled glory and horror of existence. No one gets out alive.”

“But he made it clear that this was a concession to our lack of ability.”

“this is quite hard to admit – but yes, I did see it once. I mean I thought I saw it once.”

“Oh, I see,’ he said. ‘So you’ve told lots of people that you were coming here today.”

“Oh! Oh, OK. Sure. Why not?’ I said. I stood up. ‘I don’t have to take any drugs, do I?”

“You know. When you get to the labyrinth.’

He had an odd sense of humour.

“I feel a sort of terror descend on me. I know now what is coming.”

“that was the point at which I realised that he was lying. The candle had stood in that precise spot many, many times and he had performed this ritual over and over again.”

“He still believed. He still thought he could reach the other world.”

“he began to chant in a language I’d never heard before”

“He chanted with conviction, with fervour”

“It was as if the world had somehow just stopped.”

“My eyelids were still closed but I could tell that the quality of the darkness had changed”

“There was a sound of vast emptiness, and all around me waves were hitting walls with a dull thud”

“The walls of a vast room rose up around me. Statues of minotaurs loomed.”

“He was looking at me and smiling as if I was an experiment that had gone surprisingly well”

“I really am delighted to see you. A young, healthy man is just what I wanted.”

“He began to laugh.

And he laughed, and laughed, and laughed.”

“I was mistaken. The Other is not my friend. He has never been my friend. He is my enemy.”

“He called me Piranesi so he would not need to use the name Matthew Rose Sorensen.”

“when he did that he was walking away into the Other World”

“HE TRICKED MATTHEW ROSE SORENSEN INTO COMING INTO THIS WORLD”

“I could have climbed up to a High Place, safe from the Waters and I could have watched him Destroyed”

“I will deceive him as he has deceived me. I will say I made a mistake about the Flood.”

“I will snatch him and bind him with fishing nets. With these hands I will do it!”

“For two days he will be bound. He will be in torment, knowing the Flood is coming.”

“Perhaps I will give him water to drink. Perhaps I will not. Perhaps I will say to him: ‘Soon you will have plenty of Water!”

“he will scream and scream. And I will laugh and laugh. I will laugh as long and as loud as he laughed”

“And always I could have saved him, but I never did”

“My eyes and throat were sore with weeping and shouting”

“from time to time a sob or cry would escape my lips – a little sound of desolation”

“Perhaps the Other had taunted him. Matthew Rose Sorensen had torn into pieces the description of his enslavement”

“he had scattered the pieces in the Eighty-Eighth Western Hall. Then the House in its Mercy had caused him to fall asleep – and it had placed him inside me.”

“Hush now! I said, Do not be afraid. You are safe. Go back to sleep. I will take care of us both.”

“Neither he nor I had ever been mad”

“This too referred to Ketterley. 16 was saying that Ketterley knew that she had arrived.”

“Because she was looking for Matthew Rose Sorensen. Because she wanted to rescue him.”

“Tears sprang into my eyes at the thought. My only friend and I had hidden from her!”

“I am here! I am here!’ I shouted to the Empty Air. ‘Come back! I will hide no longer!”

“It would have taken a long time to arrange those pebbles. 16 was patient, resolute and ingenious. 16 was still looking for me.”

“The rooks made a fuss at my approach. Yes, yes. I am glad to see you too, I told them.”

“The Other. The Other had done this. I was quite sure of it.”

“Perhaps he had already done it. 16 was in danger.”

“My thoughts return constantly to her and her safety, yet I cannot think of anything else I can do to protect her”

“all the Dead stand in the Path of the Flood Waters. I began the work of carrying them to safety.”

“I left the Folded-Up Child snuggled in a blanket because I wanted her to feel safe in an unfamiliar Place”

“I had not forgotten the albatross chick (now a very large bird!)”

“The albatrosses consider me a friend, but I did not think they would allow me to carry their chick”

“and in any struggle between us they would surely win!”

“since my Journals and Index are almost as dear to me as my Life”

“it became a long flat shape, which was pointed at both ends. It was a boat.”

“I could throw it into the Tides.

I replaced the Gun in the bag and did up the closures.”

“It was a quarter to eight.

My most important task was to find 16 and ensure her safety.”

“the first Tide was already ascending”

“Suddenly I had a mental image of both 16 and Myself hiding in the First Western Hall, both waiting for the other one to appear”

“no nonsense from you, all right? Because I swear, Piranesi, I’ve just about had enough from everyone.”

“When I got to his house I heard music playing,’ I said. ‘A requiem. I waited for him.”

He froze at the sound of his own name. “What are you talking about?’ he asked again in a voice made hoarse with fear.

“You asked me once if I remembered Battersea. And now I do.”

“Really, Matthew, how stupid do you think I am?”

“He dived suddenly to the right, towards the Gun. But I had chosen my position with care and I was nearer to it.”

“I gave it a good, sharp kick with my foot. It skittered across the marble.”

“at that moment a voice was heard. ‘Ketterley!’ it cried. A woman’s voice. 16 was here!”

“As I ran, I shouted: ‘A Flood is coming! We must climb!”

“she understood the urgency in my voice. I seized her hand. Together we ran towards the Eastern Wall.”

“the Statue of a Father seated with his little Son in his Arms”

“he had run to the Northern Wall to retrieve his Gun. He was firing at us.”

“He fired again, hitting a Statue above our heads. I felt a sharp pain.”

“presumably with the idea of firing his Gun at us more effectively”

“Her eyes were wide with apprehension. I held out my arms. She jumped. I caught her.”

“As he struggled, he seemed to grow heavier; the boat by contrast grew lighter, freer. It danced on the Waters.”

“The Other kept changing direction to follow it, but by the time he had taken a few arduous steps, the boat was somewhere else entirely”

“But he could not hear me above the Sound of the Waters pouring into the Hall. He continued to wade desperately, uselessly, after the boat.”

“Spray as high as the Ceiling exploded through all the Northern Doors. The Spray caught the Sun; diamonds into the Hall.”

“He crashed into the Statues. I imagine that that was when he died.”

“The Wave drew back; he disappeared into it.

Meanwhile the little inflatable boat whirled about. If he could only have reached it, it would have saved him.”

“Waves crashed against the Southern Wall; explosions of white Spray”

“We were drenched, we were numbed, we were blinded, we were deafened; but always we were saved”

“We could not return the way we had come since that would involve a leap upwards”

“My hair – which is dark and curly – was as full of droplets as a Cloud. I rained every time I moved.”

“The birds found us there. Many different kinds – herring gulls, rooks, blackbirds and sparrows – gathered on the Statues and Banisters and chattered at me”

“I mean we can go to my house and get dry. And then I can take you home.”

“I am home,” I said

“It’s usually a lot drier than this,’ I said quickly in case she was thinking that my Home was inhospitable and damp.

“I don’t know if you remember this, but you have a mum and a dad. And two sisters. And friends.”

“They’ve been looking for you. They’ve been worried about you.”

“They’ve felt pain because they didn’t know where you were.”

“All that is true. But I haven’t got his mind and I haven’t got his memories.”

“He is here.’ I touched my breast. ‘But I think he’s asleep. He’s fine. You mustn’t worry about him.”

“come with me to Matthew Rose Sorensen’s parents and sisters – to let them see his face again? It would help them a lot to know he is alive.”

Raphael’s dark eyes were wide with astonishment. ‘My God! Are they all right?”

“Certainly the Proph … Certainly Laurence Arne-Sayles thought so.”

“Oh, they don’t say much really. They’re all dead.’

‘Dead!’

‘Yes.’

‘Oh!”

“I said there are thirteen Dead, but that is incorrect. Dr Ketterley has joined their number. I must find his body and make him ready to lie with the others.”

“She put out her hand and rather awkwardly – but also gently – put her hand on my shoulder”

“to my huge embarrassment, I started crying. Great creaking sobs rose up in my chest”

“It doesn’t matter how late it is. I’ll wait until you come.”

“My last thought before I fell asleep was: He is dead. My only friend. My only enemy.”

“Then you will be a handsome skull and handsome bones. I will put you in good order and you can rest in the Sunlight.”

“I am sorry that I was angry with you. Forgive me.”

“first mocking Dr Ketterley and then abandoning him”

“that he is unconscious but perfectly safe, and that I am a strong and resourceful person who will care for him”

“You spoke to him?’ she asked in a tone of incredulity.

‘Yes.’

‘He came here?”

“it was as though a principle of Death had been replaced with a principle of Life”

It spoke with Laurence Arne-Sayles’s haughty, drawling voice: ‘You think that all my talk about other worlds is irrelevant.”

“You mean do we perform them on the edge of a precipice and he just fell off?”

“Yes. And you are going to do it for the exact same reason that Rose Sorensen did it. He wanted to understand my thinking. You want to understand his.”

“I thought he meant metaphorical paths. It was a bit of a shock when it turned out he didn’t.”

“Matthew Rose Sorensen was shocked when he first arrived. Shocked and frightened. And then he fell asleep and I was born.”

“I do not see why you say I can only see a representation in this World,’ I said with some sharpness.”

“As many as seventy?’ I asked, deliberately choosing a high, rather improbable number.

“It’s the way you raise your eyebrow at me. That dubious, rather imperious look. You look like Matthew Rose Sorensen.”

“How do you know that there are more than seventy people?’ I asked. ‘Have you counted them yourself?”

“I don’t want to trick you. You must only come if you want to.”

“if I stay here will you come back and visit me?”

“Of course.”

“For as long as I can remember I have wanted to show the House to someone”

“the Statue of a Winged Horse and its Colt”

“Today all my imaginings came true. The Sixteenth Person and I walked together through the House and I showed her many things.”

“Raphael looked relaxed and happy. (I was happy too.) With every step Raphael was looking around with pleasure and admiration.”

“But I was pleased that she had asked the question. It showed that she regarded the House as I did.”

“We don’t know who they are,’ she said. ‘Poor things.”

“go back to thinking of them the way I always had before – as good, and noble, and peaceful”

“If I leave, then the House will have no Inhabitant and how will I bear the thought of it Empty?”

“I will know that I am alone.

And so for this reason I have decided to go with Raphael.”

[spacecadetspe]

Aug. 24, 2024

Let's see if I can catch things up here relatively quickly. It feels like things have sped along quite a bit since my last update for this year.

A few stars have stepped in to help us fight this thing, whatever it is. BG and Ropana came to help train Ad Astra and Glinda in using the seraphic sword that Lugh made for them from the sword of Eden. And the Telchines have been oddly helpful, as well. Perhaps I shouldn't say that. There hasn't been a time when they haven't been helpful; just snarky.

BG took the Dream Staff and tried to communicate with the Prophetic faction, but that didn't go well; all they heard were murmurs of prophecy in the fire. So I stepped in and made it clear: "United we stand... divided we fall."

And so they began preparing the dreamlings.

I didn't sleep for several more days in a row. That frustrates me, but for some reason I just wasn't tired. Perhaps my body is changing again. It's done this once before. Bodily functions are largely optional in the metaphysical, so it was sudden and unwelcome when I had a toilet emergency. The oneiroi were sympathetic and kind about it, and helped me clean up, but I was still understandably embarrassed. These changes I'm going through can be unpredictable, and I'm not sure what will happen next.

Morpheus led the other dream deities in preparing the dreamlings for the enormous task of processing this astral guide, and when I came back, they had all migrated to Muspelheim (some of them kicking and screaming). Three of the children were marked for death by the Fates, but... well, I suppose I showed them how to extend their threads a bit longer. Clotho seemed to get a chuckle out of this, as if the ordeal wasn't over yet.

And I hated to admit it, but she was right. While we processed the dreamlings in the forge, Ad Astra, Glenda, and Dox made the trek back down to Tartarus.

When the guard asked what had brought them there, Ad Astra simply answered, "Providence."

Eventually, they were allowed entry and returned to the Telchines for further aid. At first, one of them antagonized Ad Astra and was met with the seraphic fire of his new sword. But as always, Mylas was the voice of reason. He pointed the three children to the corpse of the astral guide, and a massive stone that sat upon it. He told them if they could remove the stone, they could leave.

It took a great amount of struggle, but the three managed to move the stone off the cadaver, rolling it down to the bottom of the ravine. Dox enlisted the help of one of the Hellkin to help Glenda with the sheer gravity of the thing, and Ad Astra blessed the yoked Hellkin with enough holy power to move it out of Tartarus.

They paused outside the gate to ponder that, after all this teamwork, they might have to fight each other in accordance with the prophecy. I was quick to remind them that this Filodoxia was not the one they would be fighting, and they seemed to take that as a comfort.

They pushed the stone into a portal to the astral realm, and while Dox held the stone in place, Ad Astra and Glenda began forming a solar system around it. A star was being reborn.

The nascent being called out, alerting every dream spirit in the universe of its presence. Every old star looked in its direction. And then suddenly, the Dream Staff was ripped from my hand.

The being who caught it was made of darkness, glittering like the rest of the night around it. He tapped the staff forcefully, and all the dream spirits fell into a deep sleep.

"Now," he said, "you and I seem to be the mightiest ones here. I thought we should have a talk."

I sat back. "Well, to whom do I owe the pleasure of this meeting?" I asked.

"The Sleep of the Ages," he answered. "A child of Chaos."

My mind raced to come up with who this might be, and then I heard Morpheus mutter something in his sleep... "Father?"

Oh. Oh my. I knew exactly who this was; not Hypnos, but older still. This was the father of Sleep and Death; Erebus.

He and I talked for a bit, and he attempted to start a bargain with me. He meant no harm toward me or "my people," but wanted me to render Dox unto him to act as his proxy. He offered me the keys to the Black Hell as collateral, but I refused them outright.

I told him in no uncertain terms that I do not deal in bodies or souls, and that he should ask Dox personally.

"But you're his sovereign," he said.

"No," I corrected. "He is an autonomous person, and can make his own decisions. Sovereign or not, my power does not give me the rights to his life."

I reflected later that leaving me and "my people" alone while Erebus did as he pleased to further his agenda was the same thing as putting me in a box. I didn't tell Erebus so, because he seems to think violence is his trump card.

It's not going to go the way he thinks it will. And now I see where Hypnos got his attitude.

Erebus returned to sleep, still pulling himself together after eons in Tartarus, and the dream spirits all awoke from their slumber. Morpheus took everyone back to the Dream World, and told the kids to take the night off. They had all collectively been through enough.

Morpheus is the only one still awake now. He leans against me, exhausted, chalice in one hand. He yearns for sleep, but is too stressed to get any. So he leans on me, and I am happy for it. He needs this more than wine.

Erebus did finally talk to Dox, and gave him the same honey-coated spiel he gave me. Dox is a smart, kind kid though, and when offered the keys to the Black Hell, he turned and started walking away.

"Where are you going?" Erebus asked.

"The future. You should keep up."

[newtonian-tragedy]

Robert Hooke's drawing of the bat gave me a sense of déjà vu, but at the same time, I felt like I had been expecting to see something like it eventually.

As most of my deepest thoughts tends to do, this post will veer off onto a mystical tangent, but I wanted to share an oddly-specific dream that I had the summer before last—almost a whole year before I even knew who Hooke was.

I don't recall any details about the setting beyond the fact that I was a schoolboy, but the gist of it was that I was excited to demonstrate my submission for science project, only to be disappointed at my disqualification for my invention being "too impractical".

My entry? A fully-functional flight suit with wings styled like a bat's. It worked perfectly, but not a single person seemed impressed for some reason.

I remember my instructor trying to keep me from getting discouraged, telling me something along the lines of: "What you lack in scientific ideas, you make up for with your impressive technical illustrations. Have you thought about a career in art instead?"

I remember intense feelings of rejection, anger, and frustration. I didn't care how good my artwork was—it was my ideas that should have been the focus of my talent.

Overall, it really captured the feeling being unseen and unappreciated. Being ahead of one's time, or perhaps simply being out of place in a culture that favored function over, well... fun. Something that would liberate the human spirit by defying natural laws, returning it to its natural state prior to the Fall of Man.

You can imagine that the significance of such a dream hit me like a train once I started researching Robert Hooke. In a way, it felt oddly prophetic.

It might also be worth mentioning, but at the time I was also reading Thomas Lewis' The Medusa and the Snail, and one of the most memorable lessons I took away from that book was the author's interesting take that the total lack of scientific curiosity and exploration is even more dangerous for humanity than hubris is, because it would mean that progress is officially dead.

[quamatoc]

Putting aside that I very much feel with the unitarian I feel that either my bible is very weird or there have been some things that are not said out loud. Because:

In the gospels there is scant a word about jews (other than references to earlier prophets) but a lot of talk (and criticism) about Pharisäer (I actually do not have a clue how to translate this but I can give the description from my bible: "Set apart", the strongest religious party since the Maccabean wars, who honored the heritage of Isreal, the Law and the tradition of the Fathers, trusted in the promise of God, therefore also believed in the resurrection of the dead, and above all fought with passionate zeal for the punctual observance of the Law down to the smallest details of everyday life, in order to ensure the fulfillment of the Messianic promise from man. [...] Not only the written down in the law of Moses, but also the orally handed down exact and strict rules of application, the "statutes of the elders", i.e. the older teachers of the law, had to be observed in daily life. Initially a lay movement, they were soon closely associated with the status of the scribes. Their danger was legalism, which could lead to self-righteous pride and unloving harshness. Such excesses are denounced especially in the Gospel of Matthew. The Sadducees contended with the Pharisees for leadership among the people; since the fall of Jerusalem, the Pharisees dominated and shaped the thinking of Judaism.Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version))

This whole braiding a whip straight up doesn’t exist in my version.  However he does take offence at the presence of tellers and stuff *in* the temple and throws them out. Which seems oddly reasonable. (See: Markus 11,15-17; Matthew 21, 12f.; Lukas 19,45f.; didn’t find it for Johannes; all three direct sources point to Josaja 56,7)

Isn’t the entire “Jews killed Jesus” a mediveal conspiracy??? Because in the bible I have it is pretty clearly said that the romans were responsible for that to happen other parties may have skewed stuff but ultimately it was the romans doing.

Now, I could be that I am actually wrong on some stuff - I am no expert after all, and even those are not infallible.    

Also: What’s it with not calling a jew a jew? Unless it is some kind of english anomaly I have not yet heard about (with this language you actually never know)

how can you be so controversial and yet so brave

(reposted from Twitter)

Hey so, have I ever told you about the time I was at an interfaith event (my rabbi, who was on the panel, didn't want to be the only Jew there), and there was a panel with representatives of 7 different traditions, from Baha'i to Zoroastrian?

The setup was each panelist got asked the same question by the moderator, had 3 minutes to respond, and then they moved on to the next panelist.

The Christian dude talked for 8 minutes and kept waving off the poor, flustered, terminally polite Unitarian moderator.

The next panelist was a Hindu lady, who just said drily, "I'll try to keep my answer to under a minute so everyone else still has a chance to answer." (I, incidentally, am at a table with I think the only other non-Christian audience members, a handful of Muslims and a Zorastrian.)

So then we get to the audience questions part. No one's asking any questions, so finally I decide to get things rolling, and raise my hand and the very polite moderator comes over and gives me the mic.

I briefly explain Stendahl's concept of "holy envy" and ask what each of theirs is.

(If you're not familiar, Stendahl had 3 tenets for learning about other traditions, and one was leave room for "holy envy," being able to say, I am happy in my tradition and don't desire to convert, but this is something about another tradition that I admire and wish we had.)

The answers were lovely. My rabbi said she admired the Buddhist comfort with silence and wished we could learn to have that spaciousness in our practice. The Hindu said she admired the Jewish and Muslim commitment to social justice & changing, rather than accepting, the status quo.

The Christian dude said he envied that everyone else on the panel had the opportunity to newly accept Jesus.

I shit you not.

Dead silence. The Buddhist and Baha'i panelists are resolutely holding poker faces. The Hindu lady has placed her hands on the table and folded them and seems to be holding them very tightly. Over on the middle eastern end of the table, the rabbi, the imam, and the Zoroastrian lady are all leaning away from the Christian at identical angles with identical expressions of disgust. The terminally polite Unitarian moderator is literally wringing his hands in distress.

A Christian lady at the table next to me, somehow unable to pick up on the emotional currents in the room, sighs happily and says to her fellow church lady, "What a beautiful answer."

anyway I love my rabbi to death and would do anything for her

except attend another interfaith event

[amazing-spiderling]

👀 Do you have any WIPs that you would never let see the light of day? If yes, what are they about?

📥 What is your fave fic to receive comments/messages on?

😈 Is there anything you enjoy doing that you think your readers hate?

🧠 What’s an idea you have that you can’t quite call a WIP yet?

Do you have any WIPs that you would never let see the light of day? If yes, what are they about?

I have probably 5-10 trashy Spideypool AU's that are like... freeform plot outlines (enough detail that someone could easily take them and flesh out the story from beginning to end, some including dialogue or ending scenes etc). Stripper AUs, ABO lab experiment with a side of dubcon AUs, abusive caste system AU, that kind of thing. Hilariously little porn and probably way too much plot for any of them to hit with an audience, and while I'm a "never say never" kind of person, I'm more motivated to work on other projects at the moment.

What is your fave fic to receive comments/messages on?

The fics I lovingly refer to as "the weird ones". Every so often I will have a funky little idea for an au or something and it compells me in the late hours and I just have to get it out of my brain, target audience be damned. For Metal Gear this was "Rat in a Foxhole", which was an AU that imagined if hackerman/guy in the chair Otacon had been (stupidly) enrolled in the same military program as Solid Snake. An alternate first meeting story that ended in a way that brought it more in line with established canon (albeit with some added layers). This was one that sprung into my brain almost fully formed when I saw some art by the talented @polmcarts and I just had to write it.

For Spideypool it's "The Man in the Mask"- a story that ended up being oddly prophetic on my part. It was a story I wrote when I was processing my own anger about the detention camps at the border, but the AU involves a world ending pandemic... I wrote this in 2017 mind. It's a bit of a "bottle episode" that deals with a Wade who has more or less given up and has resigned himself to be shunted around wherever people throw him and a Peter who has given up being Spider-Man because the world needs him as a researcher more than it does a hero.

Since these were stories I wrote entirely for myself, it's really touching when they resonate with other people- for any reason, because it feels like we're connecting for personal reasons that come from something beyond fandom, and I think that's neat.

Is there anything you enjoy doing that you think your readers hate?

Hahaha, I have witnessed people dunking on multiple/split POV fics quite a bit. But I tend to co-write with others a lot, often in the form of RP (written with the intent of becoming a fic) so this is in inevitability. Stories do spend a lot of time in edits to make sure that there is a flow and to minimize confusion on who is doing/thinking what in any given moment, and I like to think I've gotten better at that with practice. I actually think my skills as an editor have grown as much as a writer. Maybe more, haha.

I'm probably not inclined to stop doing this any time soon. I enjoy the collaborative process way too much.

What’s an idea you have that you can’t quite call a WIP yet?

Murderdock and the Mary Janes isn't even an outline, it's just vibes. Since I don't even have a "rambled to my buddy at 3 am in a DM" plotline hashed out so much as "oh and you know what else would be good" pings in my head, I don't think it's really a WIP. Like, the ingredients are in the fridge but I haven't started cooking.

[midgarmosquito]

sooo instead of fantastic beasts 2 and 3 (which sucked) i wish we just got a 10-ep series abt newt going across pre-ww2 europe & cataloguing magical creatures 🤷‍♂️

maybe he noticed the creatures he had were oddly distrssed and went off to find the cause? maybe they sensed dark forces, aka. grindelwald's rise to power, the way birds can sense a storm

perhaps the creatures further east were more distrssed than those on the west? he couldve noticed that on his usual travels, or read some vague reports in the daily prophet

but ofc, the wizarding world doesnt rly care much abt magical creatures yet at this point. so the reports are pretty nonchalant and borderline joking

yet, they contain details that are pretty alarming to newt. maybe creatures harming themselves? or others? attacking muggle towns? herbivores suddenly hunting other animals? weird hybrids popping up that shouldn't even exist?

maybe its grindelwald experimenting with the idea of using creatures to gain power but psssst we dont know the reason yet ok

so newt sets off eastwards to figure our tf is going on. starting from britain and ending in ep 10 in romania (as we've learned in hp, romania has DRAGONS 🔥🔥🔥)

every ep has a different magical creature as the focus. some we know from hp (hippogriffs?), some are new. dark creatures (stuff from defense the dark arts classes in hp) also show up so there's action lol

and maybe grindelwald's minions are also on newt's tail? trying to stop him from sniffing around?

ofc jacob tags along because due to wizards not giving a fyck abt magical creatures yet, newt's only guides are local muggle rumors and fairy tales. and newt's a very awkward wizard, while jacob is an incredibly likable and normal man to whom villages readily open up

tina tags along too, because she's an american auror and is trying to figure out whatever dark forces could be gathering (but might be doing that in secret from local authorities cause politics).

theseus is there for the same reason except from the british ministry

we could have a slow burn romance with tina where newt's rly awkward and tina's rly reserved but they clearly care abt each other & over time & experiences, they bond

like newt has no idea how to be in a relationship or show feelings and might even doubt if there's space in his life for another person, considering how long he's been alone and how obsessed he is with his work. he's also kinda always been alone so it's all a strange new situation for him

tina, on the other hand, is incredibly guarded and careful to the point of seeming cold. over time she learns that yes, some people can be trusted.

oh and both learn to actually communicate lol

theseus has actually persuaded the ministry to send him (with some difficulty) because he was worried abt newt and wanted to be around to help. but he doesn't admit this, at first claiming the ministry made him come and that it's even a hassle for him.

he cares abt newt but theseus is a very regular dude who thinks newt's very weird. he loves his brother but struggles to relate to him at all. maybe even infantalizes him a bit? is overbearing?

over time he kinda Gets what newt wants to do and gets a newfound respect for him and learns to accept his weirdness and learns boundaries. and, again, communication lessons for both

i dunno how to shoehorn queenie into this but yeah she could be here too... if i think of a good pretext lol maybe she's just following jacob along

and queenie & jacob are very lovey-dovey but maybe they struggle with the realization that being together might mean being ostractized by their communities

maybe they get rly dramatic and queenie does an Edward Cullen like going "I never loved you" and breaks his heart because she believes he's better off without her

but ofc it horribly backfires and she admits what she did and the whole thing is a mess and they do get back together. but like everyone else, they learn to Communicate

and our merry band of misfits visits both other wizarding schools mentioned in hp (i dont remember their names sorry 😔🤡)

the french school has fairies and half-fairies in it and they have a connection to nature. so they give newt's concerns more attention than anyone else so far. newt's pretty stoked abt that, but there isn't much they can do. maybe the headmaster is too sceptical, despite other staff willing to help newt. maybe grindelwald's dark influence has spread, and the headmaster mistrusts foreigners, muggles, and wizards friendly with muggles as a result

the german school is far less welcoming. maybe they think he's a weirdo too. here grindelwald's influence is even stronger. but perhaps a student or young teacher comes out to help regardless of directive. maybe out of respect for newt's pure guts, wandering dangerous forests and risking everything for his beliefs. after all, their school values being stoic, and this student considers newt to fit this ideal. maybe they help the group find a giant (but i dont think giants are technically magical creatures...?) or an ice monster or something

i've always been fascinated by those other magical school, but we never got a glimpse. so i'd love it if they were very creative and had detailed interiors and exteriors. maybe the french one is an enormous living tree? maybe the german one is entirely underground?

along the way we might also meet other characters, both muggles and wizards, who help or hinder our heroes' journey. maybe we also meets other authors of future hogwarts books, or parents of known characters in hp. neville's parents are an idea, but i dunno if it's possible timeline-wise 🥴

along the way jacob helps a lot using the skills he has (strong social skills, loyalty, a good heart, maybe also knowledge of muggle affairs) and as such is a counterpoint to grindelwald's philosophy of wizard superiority

oh and in ep 1 newt has a near-death experience with a magical creature. rather than blaming the creature, he's understanding and just says the creature was distressed. (other people think he's insane, though.) this does scare him, though - what would happen to his beloved creatures if he was done? what about his body of work? his painstakingly acquired knowledge of magical creatures?

so he starts compiling his notes and writing a book, with doubles as an instruction manual on how to care for magical creatures. but he has no one to pass on his notes to, and it bothers him

maybe he tried to give the notes to dumbledore, but dumbledore smiles and says to give him the book when it's fully done

(dumbledore's lobbying in hogwarts to introduce care of magical creatures as a subject, but wont tell newt yet since its still uncertain)

oh and the eps can start with newt narrating the corresponding parts of his book. the ep's very first shot is always that shaggy, agressive meanace of a book we see in hp. then we see newt's hand carefully patting it, opening it, then reading

over time, he learns to trust his companions, and they begin to understand his work. maybe in like ep 9 he opens up abt his fear of dying and not being able to take care of his menagerie. so they all promise to care abt the creatures using newt's book, should anything happen to him

obv it does, he dies in ep 10 😭 maybe by sacrificing himself while trying to stop grindelwald from enchanting a dragon to do his evil bidding or something

his companions are sad ofc and they do keep caring abt his creatures. we see a montage of all of them doing so, jacob clumsily trying to feed some huge creature, theseus getting bitten, tina sadly stroking the back of some bird-like or horse-like thing

we can have a post-credits scene where, many years later, hagrid's teaching care of magical creatures. maybe fondly talking abt newt and wishing he could've met the man who Understood so deeply why all creatures matter

so yeah thats the kind of fantastic beasts content i crave and think about

and this is how i chose to spend my morning 😃 detailing my imaginary series into the void 😃

jk i regret nothing, this was rlyy fun to brainstorm about ☺🥰

[talvenhenki]

erdariel asked: Ok from the prompt thing you reblogged, can I get "You're my friend, of course I fucking care" with platonic Nerys & Julian (with Julian being hurt/sad/not doing good) pretty please? Bc I need more Nerys & Julian friendship in my life

----

“What are you doing?”

Julian spun around. It was late, way past midnight, and nobody should have been walking on the Promenade. Especially not Major Kira Nerys, the first officer. No, if someone were to be hanging out on the Promenade, it could have been either Quark or Odo. Or Garak, even. But not Nerys.

“Walking”, Julian lied, “just taking a midnight stroll, major.”

A finger poked Julian’s cheek, irritating him, for some reason. He just wanted to be alone, to be unseen.

“Who are you and what have you done with Julian?” Nerys asked softly. It wasn’t a threatening question; no, Nerys sounded tired. As if she had been worrying for weeks.

“The Changeling is gone”, Julian muttered, “you were there. Weren’t you, major?”

Nerys hummed. “And yet he did not call me ‘major’ like you do”, she said, “when did you change the way you speak to me?”

Julian shrugged. He wasn’t that certain either. Nerys was not the only one; Julian had begun to call everyone by either their surname or rank.

“We’ve been worried”, Nerys said softly, “ever since that dreadful Zimmermann left the station. You haven’t been yourself.”

Avoiding Nerys’s eyes, Julian leaned against one of the circular windows. “Why would you care? I don’t even know what it means to be ‘me’.”

“You’re my friend”, Nerys argued, grabbing Julian’s wrist, “of course I care! Do you...do you think we would not care about your wellbeing? That we’d leave you to suffer alone?”

Shrugging again, Julian allowed himself to slide onto the floor. If this was to be a night of uncomfortable talks, he might as well make himself comfortable.

“I did feel like that”, Julian admitted, “in the Jem’Hadar camp. And right after, too. Everyone seemed to like the Changeling more.”

Nerys knelt next to Julian. “I’m sorry, Julian”, she whispered, “by the Prophets, I’m sorry. I wish I had noticed. I thought...I thought you were sad about your break-up with Leeta. That you just needed time.”

Julian looked at her and saw shame. Oddly, it didn’t make Julian feel better.

“You thought I was depressed?”

Nerys nodded. “And I’ll be damned if I ignore your hurt again”, she said, “because we’re worried. And ashamed. You deserve better than that.”

Shaking his head, Julian avoided Nerys’s eyes again. “I don’t”, he whispered, “I don’t deserve any better. And yet...I want to stop hurting. I want to stop feeling so empty. I want to feel like I belong here again. That I’m not too much.”

Nerys pulled Julian close, hugging him as tight as she could. She was, as usual, a lot stronger than Julian could imagine. She rocked him from side to side - both of them knew how comforting the repetitiveness of it felt.

“I’m sorry, Julian”, Nerys breathed, “oh, I’m so sorry.”

Biting his lower lip, Julian blinked against the emotion that threatened to overtake him. He had felt so alone and when Miles had made his little comment on the Changeling being easier to get along with...it had felt like a betrayal.

“I’ll fix this”, Nerys said, “I promise. You’ll be okay. I’m so sorry we made you feel like an outsider.”

For a moment, Julian could almost forget how bad he had been feeling.