#it's my favourite thing that george just goes around drugging people
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#it's my favourite thing that george just goes around drugging people#and also this scene may be the most gorgeous she's ever looked#but i've probably said that about most of her other scenes at one point or another#georgina dymova#king hugo#the great
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Day-to-Day
Part of the Whatever Tomorrow Brings series.
Chapter 2: Theo
This chapter is all about Theo coming out to his family, which I know can be a sensitive subject for people. So I just wanted to give fair warning before anyone reads it.
Word count: 4.7k
Read here on ao3, or below the cut.
Let me know what you think!
January 2010
Emily was nervous as soon as the school called, Theo’s teacher, a kind woman called Ms Gorman, wanted to speak to her as soon as possible. Aaron couldn’t make it, a meeting with his superiors running over, so she had a cranky Amelia in her lap as she sat in a slightly too small chair in Theo’s classroom.
“Mrs Hotchher, I understand that the circumstances around Theo’s recent absence from class was...unusual to say the least.” Ms Gorman says kindly. “But I do have a couple of concerns.”
Emily frowns, her heart constricting in her chest, fears about her son being held back a year taking root. She shushes Amelia as she cries out, holding the small toy she had brought to entertain her infront of her.
“I did try my best with homeschooling, I know it wasn’t ideal but we did ok.”
“That’s not what I mean, Mrs Hotchner. Theo is a very bright boy, and he is doing very well academically.” Ms Gorman reassures, and Emily feels a brief moment of relief. “My concern is more around the social side of things.”
“Oh.” Emily says. “He hasn’t said anything. What about Ollie, and his other friends? You couldn’t get them to spend 10 minutes away from each other before.”
The truth rolled around Emily’s head. ‘Before’ was back prior to their world being torn apart and a serial killer almost murdering Aaron in their old home. Before she had spent 6 months in a cramped apartment with her kids, allowed no contact with her husband or anyone else in their lives.
“6 months is a long time when you are their age. They’ve all moved on.”
It felt like a gut punch to Emily, guilt spreading through her body quickly. She swallows against the lump of emotion in her throat. “Does he talk to anyone?”
Ms Gorman smiles sadly at her before shaking her head. “He tried at first, but he just sits alone now at lunch and at recess. I’ve tried to encourage him to play with the others, but all he wants to do is see you or his older brother.”
Emily closes her eyes briefly and takes a deep breath before she looks back at Ms Gorman.
“Thank you for letting me know.”
__________
Theo doesn’t want to talk about it at all on the way home from school, despite her attempts to bribe him with ice cream. Jack isn’t even able to pull him out of it with promises of a few rounds of MarioKart. Theo solemnly eats his dinner before going to his room early, asking if he can just go upstairs to play alone.
Emily sighs as she gets Amelia out of her high chair, kissing the sleepy baby’s head as she pulls her into her arms. “Bed time for you I think, sweet girl.”
Aaron walks over to them and smiles, kissing his wife on the lips and his daughter on her head.
“Why don’t I put her down and you go speak to Theo?” He says, a tightness in his voice that had been there since she told him what the teacher had explained to her. He was already lifting the 11 month old from her arms as Emily started to protest. “We both know you’re the only one he’ll talk to.”
Emily opens her mouth to argue, but Amelia interrupts her, mumbling into her fathers shirt as she sleepily lays her head against him.
“Dada.”
Emily rolls her eyes as she relents. “I fed her almost exclusively with my body for 10 months and you’re the favourite.” She says, eyebrow raised but no malice in her voice. They both knew she didn’t really mind, that she was delighted that the once strong bond between father and daughter had been repaired after their long separation.
She kisses her daughter’s head again, whispering goodnight and words of love against her skin before she heads upstairs to her son’s room. She knocks lightly on the door.
“Theo? Can I come in?”
There’s a sniff through the door that makes her heart twist in her chest. “No.”
“Theo, baby. I want to make sure you’re ok.” There’s a pause. “Please?”
“Ok.”
Emily walks into the room to find Theo sat on his bed, tears streaming down his face and Archie held tightly in his arms. “Oh my sweet boy.”
She walks over to the bed and sits next to him at the head of it. She wraps her arm around him and he immediately curls into her embrace, his wet face pressed against her shirt.
“I have no friends.” He cries, and she shushes him, pulling him fully into her lap so she can hug him properly.
“Your teacher said you have been having some problems with Ollie and the others.”
“They don’t want to talk to me anymore.” He sniffs. “They said I’m weird.”
Emily immediately stiffens, anger spiking in her veins. She hears a voice in the back of her head, that sounded suspiciously like her husband, that was telling her she couldn’t tell off a bunch of 7 year olds for upsetting her son.
“That’s not very nice of them.” She says, kissing the top of his head, surprised at how even her voice sounded. “Have you tried talking to anyone else?”
Theo sniffs again. “There’s a girl called Lucy that seems ok.”
“Well, why don’t you talk to her?”
Theo pulls back from her enough to look at her, an indigent look on his face that she just knew was all her. “Because she’s a girl, Mommy.” He says, like it's the most obvious thing in the world.
“Well, I’m a girl.” She replies, fake indignation in her voice as she pokes his nose. “You speak to me all the time.”
“You don’t count.”
“Oh I don’t, huh?” She says, tickling him until he relents. He is laying against her again and she runs her hand through his hair. “Just try talking to her, baby. You never know she could end up being fun. Even if she is a girl.”
Emily stays with him until he falls asleep, slipping out from under him with years of practice at not disturbing him. She goes in search of her husband and finds him in their room, laying on their bed, one hand under his head, still fully dressed from his day at work.
“Is he ok?” Aaron asks as soon as she enters the room, his voice tight and his eyes are fixed on the ceiling.
She sighs, joining him on the bed. “I think he will be.” She looks at him, biting her lip when she sees the barely suppressed emotion on his face. “Are you ok?”
“It’s my fault.”
“Aaron, it’s no-”
“Don’t say it’s not my fault.” He says, his voice too close to begging for her liking. “I goaded a serial killer and he came after me, after us. And now our kids are traumatised, and our son doesn’t have any friends left.”
Emily grabs his hand and tugs him towards her. He doesn’t resist, rolling onto his side until he is pressed up against her, his head on her chest. She wraps her arms around him, scratching her nails through his hair.
“Honey.” She punctuates the pet name with a kiss to his forehead. “I’m not going to let you blame yourself for any of this. It’s all George Foyet’s fault. All of it.” She almost feels her own resolve slip when she feels his tears through her shirt, opposite to the side that Theo had cried on only an hour earlier. “Ok?”
“Ok.” He says, his hand moving to her hip to squeeze it. “Ok.” He repeats, sounding more sure.
They lay there for a while, taking comfort in each other that two months after their reunion still felt precious.
“What would we all do without you?” Aaron asks into her shirt, his voice sounding lighter than it had done all evening.
Emily laughs. “I don’t know. I think our kids would all have less of an attitude though.”
“You’ve got that right.” He replies, and she can feel his smug grin against her chest.
“Jerk.” She says, unable to stop herself from laughing. He looks up at her and they kiss, his hand on her hip tightening. They pull back and she leans her forehead against his. “I love you.”
“I love you too, sweetheart.”
__________
November 2020
Theo wants to get it off his chest, he wants to tell his family before he leaves for college. He decides to tell Penelope first. Aside from his parents she had always been his biggest supporter, his confidant. Her friendship with his mom and dad had served him well before, a rare teenage tantrum about them being over protective turned around in moments as she reminded them how much they had been through to have him, and to keep their family safe. She had driven him home, his head lowered as he apologised to his mother for their crossed words. Now he needed her advice.
He had sent her a text the day before asking if he could come round after school for a chat, saying he needed some help with something, his insistence that it would be kept a secret from his mom and dad clear. Penelope replied, almost immediately like she always did, with the affirmative and Theo found himself unable to concentrate throughout this classes. His mind focused elsewhere.
Penelope answered her front door in a flurry of bright colours and barely concealed anxiety. She ushers him into her home, a hug and a greeting in quick succession as she guides him into her living room.
“Now, you have got to tell me what this is all about.” She says, already passing him his favourite soda before he can ask for it. “I know you said you wanted to keep whatever it is between us, but if you’ve done drugs or killed someone or something else illegal, I don’t think I can keep it from them.”
“Aunt Pen-”
“Your dad has this way of looking directly into my soul or something. And your mom is terrifying when it comes to you guys. I’d have to go into hiding-”
“Aunt Pen.” Theo says more firmly, finally getting her attention. She stops ranting and stares at him, an expectant look on her face. “It’s nothing illegal. I promise.”
She seems to notice how serious he is and she instantly calms, the concerned look on her face melting away into comfort. “Theo, you know you can tell me anything.”
He takes a deep breath, and he says the words he had never said out loud, but had known were true for as long as he remembered. “I’m gay.”
Penelope doesn’t react for a second, no emotion passes over her face, and Theo very briefly wonders if he had somehow made a mistake. Then all of a sudden he’s in a bone crushing hug, and he can almost feel the relief pouring out of him.
“Am I the first person you’ve told?” She asks, still holding him tightly.
Theo swallows against the lump in his throat, tears of relief on his face. “Yeah.”
“And you want my advice on how to tell your mom and dad?”
“Yeah.”
There’s a beat of silence. “Oh.” Penelope suddenly exclaims, pulling back from Theo, making him jump slightly. “I have an idea. You could get one of those confetti gun things, fill it with rainbow confetti and just let it off at dinner.”
Theo stares at his aunt for a second, the enthusiasm rolling off of her in waves. “Yeah, I’m not going to do that.”
“A cake?”
“Aunt Pen.” He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I’m not going to do something over the top. I just want to tell them.”
“Teddy Bear.” Penelope says, using the nickname she had used when he was small. She was, without a doubt, the only person he would let get away with calling him that now. “Your mom and dad love you. Nothing will ever change that. You should just tell them, whenever you feel ready.”
He nods, a smile on his face. “Ok.”
She sends him home with enough baked goods to feed a small town, and a fierce hug at the door. “I am so proud of you, Theo.”
It’s the only secret Penelope Garcia ever keeps.
__________
The next day Theo comes home from school to a package, Penelope’s recognisable handwriting on the label. He takes it to his room and opens it, something like a mix of a laugh and a sigh coming out when he pulls out a handheld confetti cannon.
There’s a small note attached to it that simply says ‘in case you change your mind.’
He hides it under his bed.
___________
Emily is surprised when she looks up from her never ending stream of paperwork to a knock on her office door to see her son standing there, nerves rolling off of him. There were times when it was hard for her to accept that so many years had passed. That her once tiny baby who refused to be separated from her in the first few weeks of his life, although her husband would argue it was years, was now this 18 year old standing in front of her.
Her nerves were immediately on edge. He would only have finished school just less than an hour ago, meaning he had come directly from school to Quantico. The kids used to visit her at work more when they were younger, Aaron bringing them in on evenings when she was still Unit Chief and they were fresh back from a case, paperwork too behind for her to go straight home. He would walk into her office, Theo and Jack by his side and Amelia resting on his hip with a bag full of food prepared for them all. This was rare, just one of them showing up unannounced, and a number of worse case scenarios were already tumbling around her head.
“Theo, hi.” She immediately abandons her work, pen forgotten on her desk as she approaches her son. “Is everything ok?”
“Yeah.” He chokes out, sounding anything but ok. “I just wanted to talk to you. Alone.”
“Of course. Give me one second.” She walks past him, a hand briefly on his shoulder before she pokes her head out of her office and tells her assistant to give them some time. She then closes the door and pulls the blinds shut giving them total privacy, already completely prepared to hunt down whoever had Theo this upset. She sits on the couch she keeps in her office and pats the seat next to her, encouraging him to join her.
At first Emily just sits there, watching Theo intently as he avoids looking at her, worry all over his face. She lets five minutes of tortuous silence pass. She sees how he is picking at his cuticles, a habit he had inherited from her, how his left knee was bouncing constantly, anxiety rolling off of him.
“Theo, honey.” She places a hand on his knee to stop it from bouncing. It makes him look at her and she gives him an encouraging smile. “You can take as long as you need to tell me whatever it is you want to. I just need to know if you’re ok, because I’m worried.”
“Sorry.” He says, trying to smile at her.
“Oh sweetheart, no.” She cups the back of his head. “Don’t apologise. You have nothing to be sorry for.”
Theo suddenly closes the gap between them and hugs her tightly. He’d always been the most affectionate out of her children, even throughout his teenage years he had still consistently sought her out. A bond between the two of them that Aaron often said even teenage hormones couldn’t fracture.
Emily hugs him back, frowning at what almost felt like desperation in his embrace. “You’re ok, Theo. You’re ok.”
“Mom?”
“Yes, honey?”
He pulls back from her, and she instinctively wipes the tear away from his cheek. Something she had done countless times in his life. Something she would do as long as he needed her to.
Theo takes a deep breath. “I’m gay.” He says, his voice shaky but his words certain.
Emily had known this was coming, she always had. She had seen how anxious Theo had been lately but waited for him to come to her, for him to be ready. She smiles at him and wipes another tear away from his cheek. “Thank you for telling me. I love you and I’m so proud of you.”
There’s a beat of silence before Theo furrows his brow, looking so much like Aaron it makes her smile wider. “That’s it?”
“Were you expecting something else?”
“No.” He says, shaking his head. “I don’t know. Lucy came out to her parents lately and it didn’t go well. I guess I was worried.” He swallows the lump in his throat. “Do you think Dad will be ok? What about grandma?”
Emily smiles at him again and pulls him back into a hug and kisses the side of his head.
“Sweetheart.” She soothes, her hand running up and down his back. “Your dad loves you, no matter what. It’s kind of part of the whole being a parent thing. I can be with you when you tell him if you want.” Emily smiles when she feels him nod against her. “Just take it one step at a time. And as far as your grandmother goes, if she says anything even slightly awful you leave her to me. I’m long overdue for a fight with her anyway.”
Theo laughs at that and pulls away, and wipes the few remaining tears from his face. “Thanks, Mom. I don’t think I could go head to head with her.”
“Lucky for you I have 50 years of practice.” She smiles. “Do you want to go home? Talk to Dad?”
“Don’t you have work?”
“You’re more important than any of that.” Emily says gesturing to her desk. “It’s completely up to you though.”
“Let's do it.”
__________
Theo is grateful for his mother as she sits next to him on the couch, close enough for him to reach out for if he needs her. She’d always been his favourite person for as long as he could remember. His memories of the time they had been separated from his father were slightly fuzzy, and at this stage when he dreamt about it he wasn’t always sure what was real and what his brain had made up to torture him. What Theo did remember, however, was his mother. How she had held it together, the way she had still let them all know how much they were loved.
It was only as he got older, and he realised how disgustingly in love his parents were, it occurred to him how difficult it must have been for her. He had seen how miserable either of them were if they were separated for a few days at a time, and every time they hugged a little too long in the foyer of their home, only breaking apart at Amelia’s protests, he wondered how they had managed it for 6 months.
When he tells his dad his most closely guarded secret he feels instant relief at his supportive reaction. It was almost, word for word, the same as his mother’s, and a small part of Theo wondered if they had practised it.
__________
He tells his brother over the phone a week later, Jack’s working schedule as a resident at the local was difficult and made getting together tricky at times.
Theo takes a deep breath as he walks into the living room, a small smile on his face as he finds his younger sister sitting on the couch, her head buried in her phone.
“Mills.”
“Yeah.” She doesn’t look up from her phone.
“Can I talk to you?”
“Yeah.”
Theo pauses when she still doesn’t look up at him. “Amelia.” He says, the use of her full name finally drawing her gaze from her phone. “It’s important.”
She holds her hands up and makes a show of locking her phone and putting it down in her lap. “You have my undivided attention.”
Theo takes a seat next to her on the couch. “I’ve already told Mom and Dad, and Jack, so I thought it was important to tell you too. I’m gay.”
Amelia looks at him for a second, expression blank before she picks her phone back. “Are you free right now, or are you doing this with everyone tonight?”
Theo furrows his brows at her. “Sure...I’m free.”
“Cool.” She stands up, furiously texting someone. “Jack thought you wouldn’t come out until after Christmas, and now he owes me $20. Can you drive me to his place?”
Theo stares at her for a second, his car keys already in his hand. “You guys bet on that?”
“Yeah.” Amelia replies, smiling at a text he assumes is from Jack. “Can we go to Taco Bell after?”
“Why?”
She rolls her eyes at him. “To spend my $20. Obviously.”
__________
Amelia sits next to him, her feet on the dash of his new car, eating what appeared to be her third taco in as many minutes. She reaches into the paper bag in the passenger seat footwell and passes him one. Theo takes it with a smile on his face.
Amelia nudges him with her elbow. “I’m very lucky to have you as an older brother.” She briefly rests her head on his shoulder, and Theo is taken aback by the out of character sentiment from his sister.
Then as quickly as it happened, she removes her head from his shoulder and takes a sip of her Baja Blast. “So, what’s your type? Big and muscly like Uncle Derek, or nerdy like Uncle Spence?”
“Mills.”
“What? I’ve got to be on the lookout for you.” She takes another sip of her drink. “You’re terrible at flirting.”
“You’re not even 12. You shouldn’t even know what flirting is.” He deadpans.
“Oh come on.” Amelia says, rolling her eyes. “I’ve known what flirting is since I could talk. Mom and Dad do it constantly. It’s disgusting.”
__________
“It’s rare we get the house to ourselves.” Aaron says as he wraps his arms around Emily’s waist from behind, kissing the side of her head. She was standing at the kitchen counter, cutting up some vegetables for dinner. It was the closest thing Aaron would let her do to cooking, his claim that she could burn water always quickly following his protests that he could prepare meals by himself.
Emily smiles as she briefly leans back into him. “Careful, or it will be your fault when I cut myself.” To make a point she purposely pushes the knife down a little harder than necessary. “And we both know you can’t cope if I’m hurt.”
“That’s unfair.” He says squeezing her a little tighter.
“Do I need to bring up the time my appendix nearly exploded, again? Or do you remember that differently to how I do?”
He takes the knife from her hand and turns her round so she’s facing him. Her arms automatically wrap around him, her hands trailing up his back to rest at the edge of his shoulder blades. Aaron leans down to kiss her, determined to wipe the smug look off her face, when they hear the scrape of a key in the front door. He groans and rests his forehead against hers.
Emily laughs and briefly presses her lips against his. “We’ll carry on this conversation later, Mr Hotchner.”
“That better be a promise.” He says, pulling her slightly closer, hearing Theo and Amelia’s voices drift into the house.
“Always, my love.” She kisses him again before extracting herself from his grip. She walks towards where she can hear the kids talking, and she arrives to find Amelia going upstairs.
“Does she not want dinner?” Emily asks Theo, watching her daughters retreating figure up the stairs.
“I think Mills just ate more tacos than anyone ever has in one sitting.” Theo says, smiling at the look of bewilderment on his mother’s face. “She bet Jack $20 that I would come out before Christmas, she made me take her to Taco Bell to spend her winnings.”
Emily raises an eyebrow. She knew Ameila had very little tact, and a part of her was concerned at what she could have said to her brother. “Do you need me to have a word with her?”
“No it’s ok.” Theo shakes his head. “Mom, did you and Dad already know?”
Emily flushes slightly, averting her eyes from her son before she looks back at him. “Yes. We did. We were just waiting for you to feel comfortable enough to tell us.” She laughs at the look of confusion on his face. “Honey, I think you sometimes forget what your dad and I both used to do for a living. Plus, your first ever crush was Joe Jonas from Camp Rock.”
Theo laughed at that, the relief blooming in his chest. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“It wasn’t our place, honey. This is your story to tell.” She opens her arms up for a hug which he gladly accepts. “We’re both so proud of you.”
______
After dinner Aaron goes to the home office to mark some papers for the class he taught at Quantico. Full retirement had never quite suited him, so he taught one class a semester. Theo finds himself standing outside the office just before he went to bed, after watching a movie with his mother, knocking to say goodnight to his father.
“Come in.”
Theo opens the door and walks in, hovering in the doorway. “I’m off to bed. Mom says she’ll meet you in your bedroom to finish the conversation you started.” Theo says. Aaron tries to hide the smile on his face, but obviously fails when his son makes a noise of disgust. “I should have known that was something gross.”
“Sorry, you know she thinks it’s funny to freak you out.” Aaron laughs, his amusement at his wife's antics still as strong as they were when they first met. “If you need me as backup the first time you bring a boyfriend home let me know. We both know what your mother is like.” Aaron says, smirking as Theo’s face pales, images of Jack’s first attempts at bringing a girl home flicking through his brain.
“Oh God, she’ll find a way to bring up the you vs Foyet thing won’t she.”
Aaron smiles as he takes a sip of his drink. “Without a doubt.”
__________
Aaron sneaks into his bedroom a couple of hours later, well aware that his wife was likely fast asleep by now. He smiles when he sees her curled up in the middle of the bed, mouth slightly open as she snored lightly, her hand under his pillow.
He quickly gets ready for bed before joining her. The movement of the bed wakes her enough for her to make a disgruntled noise before she moves closer to him, her thigh pressed over his waist.
“Go back to sleep, sweetheart.” He soothes, securing her to him with a hand on her back.
“I think I promised to do something dirty when you came to bed.” She mumbles, face pressed into him.
Aaron chuckles, his hand drifting under her sleep shirt to press against her skin. “Another time, baby. You’re tired.”
She hums into him. “I’m glad Theo is ok, he seemed happier at dinner.”
“I think he’s just relieved it's out there.”
They lay in silence, and he thinks she may have fallen asleep until she speaks again. “He told me that Penelope sent him an explosive prop to come out to us with.”
“She did what?”
__________
#hotchniss#hotchniss fanfic#hotchniss fan fiction#aaron hotchner#emily prentiss#aaron hotchner x emily prentiss#family#family fluff#chaotic hotchners#WTB Universe#they all deserve this happiness after what I put them through#I know it#you know it#Penelope Garcia would be the best aunt#I will take no feedback on that fact
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Favourite Stream Moments:
Streamed by Philza on Twitch on Monday 16th of November 2020
First stream after MCC12 win!!!
Wilbur is the driving force after any team he plays in bc he rallies the team together really well!
Phil REALLY wants that second coin
Funniest MCC moment according to Phil was Fundy in his Hello Kitty skin just standing next to them and Tapl going “Hello, kitty”
Mining stream today bc he wants a new speed mining area
Pog Tubbo got 100k viewers
Tommy asked for advice on figuring out which song caused his stream to mute
(The only way you can really now is by putting a now-playing thing on your screen bc twitch is awful with telling streamers which song caused them trouble)
1million vid might be Phil reacting to like,,,, really really old videos
The joke this stream is Phil being old (thanks quackity)
This is gonna be (this is LITERALLY the place where I switched over to Techno and a variety of other Dream SMP streams, which means that anything after this is from my rewatch, knowing what I know now. Anyway)
This is gonna be a chill mining stream so people watching dreamsmp don’t miss much (absolute jebaited lmaoooo)
Tim has literally donated 2k dollars in bits for his copypastas
Man’s committed
Both bits and subs are cheaper on pc than through the app! (bc google/apple takes a cut)
C418’s Memento Mori is a gorgeous song
Also condolences to all the unus annus people, I wasn’t one of those people but the concept seems awesome and I know it meant a lot to a lot of people
“Techno is sad” “Why? he gets to kill people today”
Phil is fully conviced Techno is fully prepped for war, with his firework deathtrap and potions and probably at least several sets of netherite. (Phil is ABSOLUTELY right)
An editor for the videos Phil wants to make (which compile 10-30 streams of each 3-5 hours) costs over a thousand dollars, which just... doesn’t pay itself back, especially with the risk of Phil not liking it, in which case it doesn’t even end up on youtube
He does hire editors for other videos (like the among us video), but hardcore is just too important for Phil!
People keep mispronouncing “Greedy, greedy Phil”? Not really, not 3d, and most certainly not pretty (looking at you Kristen)
Lol Phil went to the bathroom and Ian immediately started a message spamming “old, old, old, old”
Ian will record “Greedy, greedy, [Your Name]” for five dollars lmao
Tommy 200k viewrs POG
He’s asking chat for updates on the dreamsmp
“Is techno still hiding his power level?” (THIS MAN KNEW)
The amount of times he goes “oh we’re just chilling, just haning out” AAAAA
He’s not gonna tell us what the new build is gonna be, although it has like three different phases so even if he told people wouldn’t be able to build it before him
Phil crashed during Terra Swoop Force in MCC, but that was either due to lag because of server things, or because of the change in elytra mechanics
Techno has five complete sets of enchanted netherite (exactly like Phil’s prediction at the start of stream lmao)
Phil goes “Watch Will still die with full netherite” before chat tells him that he refuses to wear armour
“He’s too chaotic”
Techno 300k POG
“That must mean he’s about to murder soon” “Murder soon, pog?”
“Wilbur killed someone?” “PROUD”
Phil at one point literally edited a Dark Souls trailer into a PG version just so he could (sort of) illegally play it in his retail store
Most cursed sentence ever in Phil’s twitch chat: “Everyone is surrounding Schlatt in Wilbur’s drug van”
Phil’s analysis of Dream: He’s either bigbraining or lying (This was about there being no traitor... once again, Phil 5head)
“They got L’manberg back? Pog”
“How many people died for this?”
Not Karl Jacobcs! (at karl dying 4 times)
Phil vibes with George building his house during the war, bc he’s just chilling and playing minecraft as well lmao
Phil is slightly losing his mind at the presidency being handed around lol
“Wait where’s wil going?” here we go
“what are you doing”
“I’m hacking in” lmaooooo honestly i’m curious how it would’ve gone if he hadn’t been immediately timed out lol
“mhm”
Phil’s expressions lol, his conflict between amusement and roleplaying and genuine concern with where this is going lol
Wilbur actually went “Killza” ??? lol i missed that the first 20 times
“You just had to throw your toys out the pram”
Phil’s genuine panic at hearing that Techno is the traitor lol, Phil might be the only person who knows what Techno truly is capable of
Phil losing it at Techno messing up placing the wither heads lol
Everyone panicking while Phil just goes into Philza Minecraft mode and starts actually shootingdown the withers
Techno being “Phil you’ve been on this server for ten minutes and you’re already stacked?!” after Phil raided Tommy’s corpse
Phil’s headnod at Techno going “at least he was lawfully elected“
Just Phil’s general amusement at the kids being all dramatic
“At least the pokimane statue didn’t get blown up”
“i just find it funny that there was no tnt under that statue”
Phil still being in the vc with the others while walking away and just,,,, watching Dream blow up Tommy’s base
I don’t think animatics of the dream-tubbo-tommy conversation at the bench show enough of the dozen people standing around them while they were talking lol
Honestly everyone in general just,,, sitting around in a vc with each other and jumping around doing nothing now that the roleplaying is over is really funny
“I wonder how many netherite sets despawned” Phil opens his inventory to show his stolen set “yeah, despawned”
Karl fanboying over Phil is a mood btw
Tubbo getting completely distracted for a bit because phil can finally help him with the guardian farm
#november16th
rip the twitter employee
...does Phil know what a dreamon is?
Phil threatening to shoot the pokimane statue while everyone was walking quietly
I’m really curious what builds Phil is gonna make/help with on the server!
Also I can’t wait for the tubbo and phil content lol
“i don’t want a shitty little furry as a grandson”
rip ponk’s lemon tree
Phil’s disappointment in every single of his kids except for Techno lol
(i’m gonna make a post on that lmao)
“oh come on, not karl” “he was the weakest!”
I admire Techno’s marketing tactics
Techno (almost) crashing the server with grinding the spider spawner
ANTARCTIC EMPIRE 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO
Techno assassinating George while Phil just watches (and the rest doesn’t do anything either??)
why do they keep scheduling events for weekdays?
Techno joked about Phil farming clout with him but Phil hit 30k viewers on a mining stream two days after this sooo
“am i a bad influence?”
I do feel Techno with the (lack of) suspicion with the whole traitor thing
“i’ll spend five hours stripmining, i’ll just grind for five hours” *side eyes the next stream where he mines for 8 hours*
Techno sabotaging the netherite armour is amazing
Wilbur begged people not to walk around manberg during nighttime? (bc the creeper explosions might actually set off the eleven stacks of tnt lol)
“hey phil did you like watching me destroy everything I build? :)”
annnnd T I M is back with a risotto recipe
I am also currently having vivid flashbacks to that time Wilbur showed something to Phil on his stream, but neither of them would tell us what
Shoutout to T I M for the prime sellout since Phil won’t do it
I want to be friends with Wilbur purely so he’ll sent me incredibly rare memes lol
420 SUBSSS
every time all the new people are so confused lol
Blend W is even more,,, whatever it is, when you watch it on 1,5x speed if anyone wanted to know
Rip Techno’s raid
Rip Phil’s chat
RIP TECHNO’S OFFLINE CHAT
you will be dearly missed, even if you guys are incredibly deranged and somewhat terrifying
Techno just having his viewers prime sub to Phil makes me soft
Lol he just showed Techno’s hidden chest when next stream he actually hides his screen when he does it again lol
How many bases does Techno have? Will we ever know? (no.)
...I kind of want to see Techno actually do faction pvp
“this is a filler arc”
chat immediately finding the woonland mansion as soon as they talked about it
We went from 420subs to 700+ in like,,, half an hour maybe?
the power of techno chat
Someone make a compilation of the subscribe to technoblade in everyone’s videos once they’re out please
Kristin begging Phil in chat not to go buy a cheeseburger at midnight
“just chunk error bedrock l’manberg”
honestly? i’m all for it
Techno actually logging on to “save” Phil froma baby zombie
“Phil is the jesus of minecraft!!”
Riptide is absolutely the most broken mode of transportation on the server
Cheeseburger time!!!
Honestly I didn’t realise it but during those streams they really just go without food for 6+ hours rip
#dream smp#mcyt#sbi#sleepy bois inc#wilbursoot#tommyinnit#philza#ph1ilza#technoblade#eret#the eret#minecraft#pogtopia
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My Ryden Recs
not in any particular order
The Heart Rate of a Mouse Series (11/10)
~513k words
Ryan "Heterosexual" Ross and his incredibly popular prog rock band, The Followers, start their summer tour for their new hit album "Boneless" in June of 1974. However, Ryan begins to take a shine to their new roadie, the ever mysterious Brendon No-Last-Name-Given, who dodges questions about his past and flaunts his flamboyant homosexuality. After an assault by a member of the supporting act, Brendon and Ryan get their payback, and begin to bond. But much to Ryan's confusion and alarm, he starts to want something he can't let himself have, starts to feel something he can't let himself feel.
--Okay I kinda lied. This list is in no particular order EXCEPT for this one. This one is the best. Anna Green owns my ass. I'm not someone who's picky about first vs third person, but if you are, then just this once throw that out the window and read this utter masterpiece. Ryan's character development throughout is so touching, but my god he fucks up a lot. One of my friends who has gone through the process of buying the physical copies and annotating them says that Ryan majorly fucks up over 50 times. Emotional rollercoaster straight ahead!--
Freaks (7/10)
~45k words
Ryan's face was permanently disfigured when he was 12 years old, and since then, the only person who has ever stood by his side is his best friend Spencer. After earning the nickname "Freak" in high school, he finally accepts that nobody will ever want him, or ever treat him normally again. But after an accident that lands him temporarily in the hospital, he meets Brendon. They get along great, and Ryan begins to fall in love. One small problem though:
Brendon had been recently blinded. Neither of them know if it's permanent, and Ryan is sure that if Brendon knew about his face, he would leave him forever.
--I really liked this one. It makes you sit on edge and every single time you think that Ryan will finally confess and tell the truth, he blue balls you like an asshole. This story is so sad and so sweet, I definitely recommend. Also, there's some background Joncer, which is really cute. Definitely a worthy read if you're looking for some angsty fluff. Oh, and a little aside: the author, spazzyskittles on LJ, actually beta-ed a lot of Anna Green's Ryden fics, including THROAM! So do with that what you will ;)--
The Red Eyed Owl Series (10/10)
~403k words
As one of the best players of one of the best National Hockey League teams, the Chicago Hounds, Ryan Ross has everything he could ever want. Young, famous, and free to do whatever he damn well pleases, the world either wants him or wants to be him. But after a leg injury that could potentially ruin his career, Ryan begins to realise that perhaps he doesn't have everything. Perhaps some things can mean so much more than women throwing themselves at you every chance they get and receiving bottomless drinks at sports bars. Perhaps he could fall in love.
--This was actually recommended to me by @wandering-verses and it was 100% worth the read. I broke out crying in the middle of class during the second book, and I cried again at 3 am when I stayed up all night to finish it. It's one of those that fucks you up so bad that you can't read anything else for a little while after finishing. Now, both the authors are from Spain, so English isn't their native tongue, but it's so well written that I probably wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't read the notes at the very beginning. An all time Ryden fave.--
Missing In Action (10/10)
~204k words
In where the American Civil War goes differently, the nation once known as the United States of America is instead separated into two: DURA and Beauregia. The latter didn't change much in terms of their economy. Slavery is still legal, and the kingdom is ruled under a tight, Christian monarchy. Their king is Boyd Beauregard. His only son, crown Prince Brendon Beauregard, heir to the throne, resides in the highly respected Saint Francis' Academy. DURA on the other hand developed quickly, a democracy founded on new technology and equitable ideals.
Everyday, bipartisanship seems farther away from grasp, and DURA, realising that cooperation is impossible, creates the DURA investigative bureau. Identifying the crown prince as the Royal Family's weakest link, they realise that he could become an infinitely invaluable asset to them. Agent Ross, under the pseudonym "Ryan Hastings", is chosen to go undercover, enroll in Saint Francis' boarding school, infiltrate the Prince's friend group, and gain his trust by any means necessary.
--I'm ashamed to admit that I let this one pass me by for a while. I read the words "American Civil War" and I automatically assumed that this would be a mid 1800's Civil War fic about closeted gay soilders, and I'm not against that, but the premise didn't really interest me. But once I finally caved and started reading, I quickly realised not only was the premise entirely different, but it was really fuckin' good. Read this!!!!--
Esoteric Contagion (8/10)
~18k words
He wakes up with a note stuck to his forehead that reads, “You traded your memory in a spell. It was worth it.” The note is signed George Ross. He wonders if that’s his name.
In which things are lost and gained and remembered and forgotten, in that order.
--Despite being the shortest on this list, I loved it to death. You will cry so hard, I promise. This story is so sad. The author can deal so many shocking blows in less than 20,000 words, and you will be completely invested. I don't want to spoil anything, but it's massively underrated, and it will fuck you up.--
Two Vatos Locos Series (7/10)
~311k words
When you have your first dream with your soulmate, everything changes. But after years and years of watching all his friends have their dreams and fall in love, Ryan started to wonder if he would ever has his dream. At twenty, Ryan started to get desperate. He went to doctors, therapists, even a fucking palm reader. No one could tell him what was wrong with him. There was only one explanation: his soulmate had to be dead.
Ryan spent endless hours laying in bed, staring at the ceiling, begging, wishing, praying to have his dream and meet his soulmate. One day, with blood gushing down his face and vomit coating his tongue, his prayers were finally answered.
And now, as he stares at this scared, helpless boy, with bloodied rope burns around his wrists and tears staining his cheeks, he wishes that they never were.
--The title "Dos Vatos Locos Lleno de Carnalismo y Inamorates" roughly translates to "Two Crazy Dudes Full of Carnality and Infatuation," which is definitely accurate. I did enjoy this fic; it was cute, sad, and very interesting, but if you are interested in reading, you will need to be patient at times. Some passages seem like filler and the writing in a few places is kinda dry or cringey. But it's still overall a good story though. WARNING: Brendon is underage for most of this fic, but nothing sexual happens until he is of age.--
The Way Home From Nowhere Series (9/10)
~158k words
After his parents find out about his relationship with another boy, Brendon Urie makes a snap decision to flee from his abusive home. After a quick makeover to hide his identity, he decides to thumb a ride. He starts living the life he never even dreamed he could. Talking openly about things like sex, condoms, and homosexuality- he's happier then he's ever been.
There's one problem though.
His new roommates, Ryan and Spencer, have no idea that he is the missing Mormon boy from the nearby town of Summerlin.
--Ladies and gents, welcome to my first ever Ryden fic! This will always be a favourite of mine. Both Brendon's arc and Ryan's are are so heartbreaking, and there were so many times that I wanted to reach into the story and give Dallon a hug. So many tragedies in this story, and not all of them solved. I don't have any empathy for Brendon's parents in this story, but I feel so hard for his siblings, and for Marc. I just wish they knew. This story is so heartbreaking and yet so happy. Will play with your emotions like they're a shiny new toy.--
Filthy Lucre (10/10)
~362k words
Ryan Ross is living the American wet dream. He’s rich, he’s good looking, he gets paid just to turn up at parties and he spends his days drinking, doing drugs and climbing into bed with eager and willing boys and girls. His parents and PA beg him to quit, and his brother turns up his noise at his destructive lifestyle, but Ryan is desperate to sink into the void, escape the memories of what his father's friend did to him when he was fifteen.
Brendon Urie is a man bordering on desperation. He whores himself out to millionaire bankers and CEOs to fund his boyfriend's heroin addiction and pay off his ungrateful father's medical bills. Things could be worse, though. He's lucky enough to have a roof over his head, to be living with the love of his life, to no longer have to hook on the street, but instead be privileged enough to turn tricks in the wealthy circles of Wall Street and Goldman Sachs.
Where a broken boy meets another broken boy, and falls in love.
--Normally, I would never recommend an unfinished fic, let alone fic that hasn't been updated in four years, unless it was it was so good and so engaging that it made me literally scream. Trust me when I say that you have not experienced true hatred until you read this fic. I have literally never hated a character more in my entire life, and I know who Dolores Umbridge is, for reference. The best thing about this fic, in my opinion, is that the characters, whether good guys or bad guys, do evil. And they do it on purpose. Because the characters feel and act as though they're real, and real people fucking suck.--
The Black Rose Season (8/10)
~158k words
Ryan Ross' life is essentially over when his scholarship is inexplicably cancelled and he will be forced to pay his way through school. As a young, broke college student, Ryan is desperate to find cash fast, but to no avail. Just when he thinks all hope is lost, a mysterious benefactor promises to pay his tuition in full, on one condition: Ryan is infiltrate Sigma Chi Beta, the most prestigious and cultish fraternity that Swan University has to offer. And if, by some miracle, Ryan succeeds, his mission is clear:
Befriend Brendon Urie, fellow Swan Sigma, and, more importantly, alleged leader of Sigma Chi Beta's secret society, which might not even exist. He is to document his findings, and send them to his benefactor. One small problem though: Brendon fucking hates his guts.
--Did I mention that Anna Green owns my ass? Because Anna Green owns my ass. This one is so fleshed out, and there are some moments where it really spikes you in the chest. Every time that Patrick comes onto the page, my interest piques, and I remember That One Scene™ that completely changed my perspective of him (You'll understand once you read). Besides... college AU? Secret societies? Betrayal? Enemies to lovers? Sexual tension? Need I say more?--
I have more fics to recommend if you guys like this list, so tell me if you want more fic recs
#ryden fanfiction#ryden fanfic#ryden fic#ryden recs#panic! at the disco#panic at the disco#rydon#ryden#p!atd#patd#fanfiction#fanfic#p!atd fanfic#throam#the heart rate of a mouse#two vatos locos#missing in action#the black rose season#esoteric contagion#freaks#the red eyed owl#filthy lucre#the way home from nowhere#ryan ross#brendon urie#ryro#beebo#brendon patd#ryan patd#fall out boy
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about the fandom things, I want to ask from different fandom :) 1. Harry Potter fandom 2. RE: Aeon Cannot think for number 3, so I guess that's all. Thanks
Harry Potter (books, not the film adaptations since I stopped enjoying those after the third one):
– Favorite character: Luna Lovegood. I read Philosopher’s Stone when I was like… 9, I guess? And CoS, PoA, GoF, OotP immediately after as I devoured those books as soon as I finished PS. So, when HBP was launched in 2005, and then DH in 2007, I was already one of the anxious fans waiting for the saga’s conclusion. I never revisited it, though – but as a child (and later, pre-teen) I always felt some sort of peer pressure from the fandom to love Hermione the most – and ok, I do adore her –, but when I think back to what I thought and felt when I was reading the books, the character that always made me excited for her appearances, lines and overall participation was Luna;
– Least Favorite character: Draco Malfoy. God, his type of character just annoys the livin’ fuck out of me. The spoiled mean brat and dirty coward who can easily serve as an allegory for the I-have-a-problem-with-drugs rich teen. As one TV Tropes editor put it, “an unrepentant Upper-Class Twit Dirty Coward school bully”. Hahahaha, I just… despise this character;
– 5 Favorite Ships (canon or non-canon): Hinny, Romione, Snily, Ronks and Marthur;
– Character I find most attractive: Harry! I think book!Harry’s personality kinda shaped my interests in men? Hahaha I have a huge weakness for the “Socially Awkward”, “Brilliant, but Lazy”, “Heart of Gold” and “Hot-Blooded” type. Actually, my boyfriend is exactly this type of guy lol;
– Character I would marry: Ginny, probably? But like, she and Harry are my bisexual dream;
– Character I would be best friends with: Hermione and Luna since they remind me a bit of my real life best friends (Natane and Isabela);
– A random thought: Rowling could’ve been more creative with the next generation’s names? That “let’s name all of our children after dead relatives and lost beloved ones” trend that she influenced in fandom is… bad;
– An unpopular opinion: I wish J. K. Rowling could just shut up already and let this franchise have its deserved rest. Also: movies 4 to 7 are bad, but The Cursed Child and FBAWTFT are like AWFUL and I wish they never had the chance to exist in the first place;
– My canon OTP: Hinny;
– My non-canon OTP: Sirius Black & Happiness;
– Most Badass Character: I’d say Hermione since she’s the one responsible for coming up with the solutions for most of the narrative conflicts, but I honestly think it’s a tie between her and Ginny (both of them are truly awesome);
– Most Epic Villain: Bellatrix Lestrange. Name a more iconic and plainly HATEFUL female villain in this saga, I’ll wait;
– Pairing I am not a fan of: Harmony or anything with Draco;
– Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): I don’t think Rowling did this to any of her main characters in the original saga? Maybe Lupin and Tonks deserved better, but oh well;
– Favourite Friendship: Fred and George Weasley;
– Character I most identify with: I don’t think there’s one in Harry Potter??
– Character I wish I could be: Nymphadora Tonks! I truly dug that Metamorphmagus shit.
Aeon
– When I started shipping them: In 2002, when I played RE2 for the first time in N64. I was eight years old, barely understood English, but something in the way Leon jumped in front of that bullet to save her just… struck me;
– My thoughts: I actually think A LOT about those two, so I have plenty to fill into that question, it’s better if you check my Aeon fandom tag to get a more comfortable and organized sneek peek in my thoughts for them.
– What makes me happy about them: The circularity in their relationship, their devotion towards one another (teaming up, saving each other’s asses), the fact that almost 15 years later they still CLEARLY love and pine for each other;
– What makes me sad about them: That they can’t be together in a conventional style? Like, settle down and stuff;
– Things done in fanfic that annoys me: Oh man, there surely is a lot. But most of those things are related to the distortions fandom is prone to make concerning Ada’s characterization. Like portraying her as if she’s some sort of psychopath or sociopath – incapable of empathy or completely lacking remorse, and that Leon just picked her interests for some alien kink reasoning??? Oftentimes Ada is perceived as a pure play of the Dragon Lady trope, not taking into consideration that her characterization throughout this franchise averted the stereotypes associated with that trope SEVERAL times – by the way, let’s be frank here, in most cases people don’t want Leon with Ada not because Leon and Claire would be healthier, but because Claire is white like him, so, automatically morally more worthy of him, and there you go, I spilt the tea. Ah, and that trend of infantilizing Leon, portraying him as some sort of pure-naïve-and-tame Manchild – god, this just kills me. This incapacity to understand that even though this character is good and nice and lovable, he’s also more complex than that and have agency in this fuckin’ narrative?
– Things I look for in fanfic: The author avoiding those things I hate that I just mentioned it’s good enough, but what really makes me go all !!!!! in fanfiction is when the author… detours? a bit of the usual “Leon and Ada can’t be together because of their jobs, circumstances, worldviews, blablabla” – like, I know that already man (and really I LOVE IT), but give me some fluffy and introspection now and then for a change, I don’t know. Show me their love only, without the drama, y'know? Some good examples of what I’m talking about are “sometimes i still feel the bruise” and “a fool for you”, both by by tenienteross (she’s great, go read everything she wrote for them ASAP);
– My wishlist: I don’t really have one because Capcom always delivers a very good job in portraying and further developing their relationship, hahahaha, I’m a very spoiled fan in that sense, BUT… I think one more on-screen kiss? Maybe?;
– Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: No one. And that goes for both. These two couldn’t get over each other for the past FIFTEEN YEARS or so and then suddenly Leon ends up married with kids with someone else? This sounds dumb and I hate it, so no thanks. If Capcom wanted to convince me that Leon could settle with someone else, they should’ve done this when Leon wasn’t getting to his early 40s.
– My happily ever after for them: A situation that mirrors RE2 in the sense that they have to survive a similar outbreak, one more nightmare, and they partner up for it – but now it’s so different from all those years ago, they’re much more comfortable around each other, their bantering and flirting sounds a lot more like that of a married couple, they’re older and more experienced and mature and in the end, when they’re about to have to choose each other again and then part ways because they know that’s what it has to happen (because they can and they do always choose one another, but staying together is more than what they bargained for), Leon asks for her to stay. Out loud. She replies to this by smiling lightly and saying that she thinks she’s done contributing to her job and think it’s time to be closed for business. We see Leon smiling, peacefully, as the scene fades to white.
#Harry Potter#Resident Evil#Aeon#Leon x Ada#Ada x Leon#Q&A#Fandom Stuff#Fandom Memes#text post#asks and answers#rebel-the-way#Aeon fandom#//#sorry for taking so long to reply to you#I was very busy with work
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Hello! I’m Ellie, this is Dorcas and I hope you enjoy this trainwreck of a soft as all hell introduction to my babe. I’m super excited to be writing here okay byeeeeeeeee.
is that LILY JAMES wearing that HUFFLEPUFF scarf ? no, it appears to be DORCAS MEADOWES who happens to be a SEVENTH year and a MUGGLEBORN !! SHE is CISFEMALE, and i heard they’re COMPASSIONATE and BENEVOLENT but might also seem NAIVE and DAMAGED. they appear to be leaning towards the side of the ORDER, but this is a conversation we should be having somewhere else. ( ellie / nineteen / gmt / she/her )
TRIGGER WARNINGS : death, injury, hospital mention, dogs.
PART ONE. BASICS / MAGICAL
FULL NAME & MEANINGS : Dorcas ( GAZELLE ) Andromache ( MAN / BATTLE ) Meadowes ( LIVED IN OR NEAR A MEADOW. )
DATE OF BIRTH : November 16th.
AGE : 17.
ZODIAC SIGN : Scorpio.
HEIGHT : 5 ft 7 in.
EYE COLOR : Dark brown.
LEFT OR RIGHT HANDED : Ambidextrous.
FAVORITE COLOR : Light blue / black.
SCHOOL : Hogwarts.
BLOOD STATUS : Muggleborn.
WHAT ARE THEIR PARENTS JOBS? : Her mother was a stay-at-home tutor, and her father was a doctor. ( Her aunt is a therapist. Her uncle is a lawyer. )
DO THEY HAVE ANY MAGICAL BLOOD? : Not in her immediate family. Her fifth, twice removed, much, much older cousin is a wizard (of Emeric Switch fame! Imagine that!)
HOW DID THEIR MAGIC FIRST MANIFEST ITSELF? : She wanted to talk to the dogs at the local pet store, and accidentally ‘phased’ through the door. She was found half an hour later just stroking a pitbull puppy which had latched itself onto her.
YEAR : Seventh year.
HOUSE : Hufflepuff.
PATRONUS : Panda. ( THE PANDA IS A RESOURCEFUL ANIMAL, AND THOSE WITH IT AS A PATRONUS ARE THE SAME. THEY ARE GOOD AT USING WHATEVER IS AROUND THEM, AND INCREDIBLY CREATIVE AND BRIGHT. THEY ARE FRIENDLY AND WARM, AND MANY MAY GO TO THEM FOR ADVICE OR HELP, WHICH THE PANDA WILL WILLINGLY GIVE. THEY ARE A BIT OF A HEALER BY NATURE, ENJOYING COMPANY AROUND THEM AND USING IT TO ENHANCE THEMSELVES. THEY LOVE TO EXPLORE MANY AREAS OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE WORLD, TRYING TO BROADEN THEIR HORIZONS AND KEEP THEIR MINDS OPEN. )
BOGGART : Her father, sat in the same armchair he’d always loved. His head turned towards her as he tells her it was all her fault, and the room shrinks. UPDATED: Earlier, and for very good reason, I wrote a drabble centered around what her Boggart would be for a different roleplay. It’s different than what it is now, but I’m nevertheless extremely proud of it. You can read it here.
AMORTENTIA : What is it about true love, dearest? What makes everyone go wild? Is it the prospect that someone, someone whole, and unflinching, is out there - waiting for you? Waiting for your embrace, your touch? Or is it just that they are tired - tired of making homes in people and receiving nothing back? You, though. You make homes in all manner of things. And, anyway, who decided homes can’t be humans? Who decided home is a stationary concept? That your heart can’t be held in the hands of many people, that it cannot be crushed and sewn back together in a matter of minutes? Who decided that love, that great big messy concept, has to be romantic? You are as messy in love as you are in life - that is to say, you build pieces of yourself from the people around you, from the pieces of themselves they give you. The skin beneath your ear? Composed of the whispers of secrets from your first boyfriend. Your nose? Your mother’s love. The inside of your wrist? The balm of Emmeline’s arms around your body, shielding you the only way she can.
No. It isn’t so impossible that love is greater than the romance. That love is so many more things. The Greeks of old always said there were many kinds of love. Eros. Agape. Philia. Storge. Ludos. Pragma. Philautia. It is these things that you, alone, recite in that dungeon. The cold seems to envelop you as you take in a breath, the tendrils of your senses magnifying. It can be overwhelming, you know, but you are not as surprised as you expect to be. Warmth, sinking between your fingertips, laps at your cheek, at your lips as you breathe out. It sticks to you, to your tongue. Like caramel and peanut butter, the batter of the cookies your aunt always makes, the s’mores that you made around the campfire just last week. Her hair, or is it her perfume (?) wafting in your direction - regardless, you stay rooted to your place. Daisies, growing wild, the way they had at home, in your back garden. The smell of old brick and something crumbling - that weird Dragonleather smell that stays in the air whenever Hagrid passes, the smell of bursting fireworks (that time that the Marauders hadn’t realized there was anyone still down the corridor) and butterbeer, warming. Your dogs breath, laughter bubbling up as you remark on the smell of toothpaste, on peppermint and mossy treebark.
You’re not surprised to smell all the things that make this place home - you’re not surprised to smell that it’s not made up of just one person - just one thing, fixable - but many. Moving parts that flare up and slide away into the background of your senses.
WAND : Phoenix tail feather core. 9 inches. Black Walnut.
PETS : Owl, named Athena. Also owns a pitbull, the light of her life, Agape ( LOVE AND AFFECTION ) or Aggie, for short.
CHARACTER INSPIRATION : Cinderella, Sonya Rostova, Izzie Stevens, Craig Middlebrooks, Ann Perkins, Ella Lopez, Jess Day, Riley Matthews, Penelope Garcia, Kara Danvers, Capheus Onyango, and Jane Villanueva. ( CHARACTER TAG HERE. )
PART TWO. ARE YOU GOOD AT…
DANCING? : I certainly try.
SINGING? : Yes!
COOKING? : Somewhat.
DUELING? : Never been better.
STUDYING? : If my grades are anything to go by, yes.
MAGIC? : Uh, I’d hope so.
PART THREE. HAVE YOU EVER…
DRIVEN A CAR? : Yes. Not well, though.
FALLEN IN LOVE? : … Yes.
HAD SEX? : Yes.
LAUGHED SO HARD YOU CRIED? : I don’t know anyone who enjoys their life who hasn’t.
SMOKED? : ... No.
DONE DRUGS? : Nope.
BROKEN THE LAW? : Accidentally.
KILLED SOMEONE? : No.
PART FOUR. LITTLE SECRETS
BIGGEST FEAR : Losing everyone. And everything.
SOMEONE YOU ADMIRE : Emme, McGonagall.
SOMEONE YOU FEAR : I don’t really know. Dumbledore, when he’s mad. Whatever that ponce of a miserable Muggle hater is called.
SOMEONE YOU MISS : Grandpa. Terry. My brother. Mum. Dad.
SOMEONE YOU COULDN’T LIVE WITHOUT : Emme. Myself, too.
SOMEONE YOU COULD KILL : Anyone who hates muggles.
DO YOU WANT KIDS? : Maybe someday.
DO YOU WANT TO GET MARRIED? : To the right person? Yeah.
BIGGEST REGRET : Not sleeping in the same room as my brother that night. ( I could have saved him. I should have saved him. )
CAN YOU SEE THESTRALS? : Yes.
PART FIVE. FINISH THIS SENTENCE
I AM… : Sleepy. Wishing Emmeline was here.
I WISH… : Ice-cream could become a person.
MAYBE ONE DAY… : I won’t feel this guilt anymore.
SOMETIMES I… : Fall in love in the morning, and out of it by lunch.
MY FAVOURITE SUBJECTS ARE… : Herbology.
MY LEAST FAVOURITE SUBJECTS ARE… : History of Magic, Divination.
IF I COULD DO IT AGAIN, I WOULD… : Save my brother.
IF I COULD GO TO A DIFFERENT SCHOOL, I WOULD CHOOSE… : Beauxbatons, not Ilvermorny.
IF I COULD CHOOSE A DEATHLY HALLOW, I WOULD CHOOSE… : The Stone. ( Say it like it isn’t a mantra, Dorcas. As though it isn’t something that’s poisoned your dreams since discovering those stories may be based in reality. )
PART SIX. MISCELLANEOUS
DESCRIBE THEIR AESTHETIC IN THREE WORDS : Sea, daisies, laughter.
THEME SONG : Lavender’s Blue ( CINDERELLA SOUNDTRACK - 2015. ) / Sonya Alone ( BRITTAIN ASHFORD - NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 - ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST RECORDING. ) / Times are Hard for Dreamers (Pop Version) ( PIPPA SOO - AMELIE - ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST RECORDING. )
TOP FIVE SONGS IN THEIR ( MODERN ) PLAYLIST : You Are Enough - Sleeping at Last, Yellow - Coldplay, When I Kissed the Teacher - ABBA, Breathe - In The Heights, & Paradise - George Ezra.
VINE THAT FITS THEM : ( x )
RANDOM HEADCANONS :
1. Dorcas loves deeply. Deeply, deeply, deeply. It’s intrinsic to who she is. She’s protective, maddeningly so, and unable to sit still. She wears her heart on her sleeve, and is a nightmare when it comes to pacing herself. She knows not of patience, or of taking time to breathe. She consists solely of love - a palace built between her ribs of the people that she loves. In this, she is a typical Taurus Hufflepuff. ( x )
2. Dorcas lost her parents at a very young age. She doesn’t often speak of it - speak about them, about the parents that she lost and the brother that she was unable to save. They were killed in a home burglary turned murder spree when she was six. They’d been meant to go on holiday, but Dorcas had come down with the stomach flu, so they’d foregone the vacation when it spread to Dorcas’s younger sister, Calliope. The only reason that Dorcas survived was that she managed to climb beneath her bed with her younger sister Calliope facing the wall, only her back visible from the opening created by the duvet.
She gets stabbed three times, one of those stab wounds narrowly avoiding piercing her spleen and the major abdominal arteries. She still has the scars on her lower back. Callie was uninjured, and she was the one who managed to get to the neighbors house (by climbing out of the window from the second floor and dropping at least eleven feet). Dorcas remembers, mostly, finding out her parents and brother were murdered. The rest of it often feels incredibly foggy. She went through therapy for a number of years before she was discharged from the North West Surrey Mental Health Trust. The nightmares, today, are infrequent, but some nights are worse than others. She often takes a calming draught before she goes to sleep - provided by Madame Pomfrey at the Hospital Wing.
3. Dorcas’s best friend in the universe is Emmeline Vance. They aren’t in the same house, but that doesn’t matter. They met at eleven, on the train to Hogwarts. Dorcas, with brown hair down to her hip, and Emmeline’s hair newly cut into a bob ( her parents had gone wild at her for that one, ) and that was it. The rest, as they say, is History. If you can’t find Dorcas, she’s usually with Emmeline. 60% of her spare time is spent wherever Emmeline is. They’re one another’s great loves. She doesn’t know what she’d be without Emme.
4. Dorcas wants to be a Herbologist or a Healer when she graduates. She’s not sure how likely that plan is to succeed with everything going on - how far she’ll get before she abandons it all to help the people that she wants to help, desperately. As it stands, 40% of her spare time is spent either in the Potions classroom or the Herbology classroom - Potions is a required course for becoming a Healer.
5. If this were a modern AU, Dorcas’d totally be a theater kid. She’d also be that kid that is always making scrapbooks - always half finishing projects, the one that has too many cacti and exotic plants in the corner of her room. She’d keep her phone on her, always, lockscreen always changing. She’d love bands like Little Mix and butcher the Spanish when she tried to sing songs like Despacito.
6. FUTURE: Dorcas manages to live through the Wizarding War ( well, mostly ) without casting the Killing Curse. She’s fast, she’s quick, and she doesn’t stand still. She’s often the one coming careening past the others, ducking beneath their outstretched arms as light - green, red, blue, yellow - is cast against the ground. She Apparates in and out, as though her being there is a mirage. People, injured, bystanders, disappear from where they’d been only seconds before, as soon as her hand secures around anywhere she can grip on. She works with trembling hands, to heal those that she can. Four separate times she manages to Apparate away from under Voldemort’s nose.
The first time is with her arm hooked under Fabian Prewett, his unconscious body bruised and the cut on his arm infected with what she suspects is a modified strain of the venom of the Venomous Tentacula. The second time is with a handful of wands - all belonging to fellow Order members. The third time is with Dedalus Diggle. He’s a handful, that time, splaying limbs, cracking as they twist around. They have a spell maker in their midst but Dorcas is the only one that can sooth the pain, to make it all more bearable while they try and fix it. The fourth time is with Emmeline. Emme’s far too headstrong for her own good, and knows how rare it is that Voldemort himself makes an appearance. Dorcas is the one that breaks Bellatrix’s focus - the Cruciatus curse trained on her best friend, on her Emmeline, flickers when Dorcas passes, a blur of black leather and hair tied up in a bun, bangs hanging low and the light long since dimmed in her eyes. When Emmeline comes to, the pain still ricochets through her bones, and Dorcas is powerless to help. It takes days for the aftershocks to fade. The faintest roar of rage is still heard in Dorcas’s brain.
She’s just too slow, in the end, to save herself, although she doesn’t try. She’s not ready, but she is. She’s not happy, but she is. She knew there was only one way this could end. The one incapable of love striking down the one composed entirely of it is the only end that makes sense in a world at war - in a world in which war stories are not one of morals. War stories are made of absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil. It just takes her years to realize. Years to reconcile. Being soft does not make her immune to this. Being alive doesn’t. She is happy, but it is not a happy ending. No - it’s a very sad beginning.
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Some Thoughts About S4
Thanks to the anon who prompted this mini-thesis because. So. Many. Thoughts.
Tommy faces the morning sun and closes his eyes to regret and grief. Another series dawns…
Let’s start with the big question: ‘Is John Shelby Going to be Bumped Off?’ Short answer, I think so. I’ve vacillated a lot tbh, because being so spoiled it feels massively telegraphed, to the extent that it could be deliberate misdirection. Although that the evidence for it in the trailer is far from conclusive for people who casually watch the show is kind of proof in itself I think - there is still meant to be a question mark. But when you combine Esme weeping in (I’d bet on it because of her height and the necklace) Lizzie’s embrace; John and Esme’s absence at the family meeting; the Watery Lane bts shots without him joining the swagger; the wearing of black at that family meeting and elsewhere; that John and Esme haven’t had terribly much to do together since s1 and now are heavily featured; and Joe Cole not spending so much time on set it’s feeling ominous. Sure, it could still be smoke-and-mirrors. The tweeds of the promo pic suggest he goes country (the absence); and the black dress Esme’s in from that promo is the same as the one she’s wearing in a scene with John when he’s clearly very much alive. Her tears could be shock for his near-death (there are the scenes outside the hospital) or the untimely demise of one of their children. I don’t think the black is a ruse though, they all seem too united in anger at Tommy, and it’s not for our golden wrapper Harry Kirton at that point. The trailer heavily suggests that at least one of them will die, and wise money would be on John. At least it looks like there might be relatable grief this time.
About the family meeting, it is nice to see them in the gambling den again. I am terribly pleased Johnny Dogs and Charlie Strong are there too. But my favourite bit of the entire trailer is Finn’s Look™ at Tommy. They’ve come a long way since “that’s why you should never pretend to be me.” As if Finn ever had the choice to depart that shadow. I’ll miss Harry for whatever reason he’s leaving, he looks like a baby F. Scott Fitzgerald with that parting.
The Michael, Arthur and John scene with the policemen is likely a follow-up to s3. They are either being walked to the noose or a sentencing. They clearly all make it, past that point anyway.
Paul Anderson can break me with a twitch of his moustache and the dribble of a tear. Please never kill off Arthur, SK, I beg. Or Linda, I like her and that revolver was so cheering…
Michael and Ada don’t appear much in the trailer, but I think in combination with their ‘ranking’ in the s4 promo pic (and the comparative luxury of both’s outfits in said image), that’s because they’re still going to be the ‘legitimate’ side of the business - Chief Accountant and Head of Property and Acquisitions. Here’s hoping they share a plot, it could be enormous fun.
Polly facing the gallows must be her follow-on scene from the cliffhanger; she has the same hairstyle and blouse as 3.06. She clearly survives to do other things, which is great because SK needs her for balance. She’s the heart of the family, after all. The scene of her dressed in a fabulous floral kimono-type thing, taking a moment, is overlaid briefly by the zoetrope of the Edwardian (Victorian?) woman, perhaps representing something she once aspired to be, spinning round and around and it seems Polly herself will be sent reeling this series. She has a couple of quite different hairstyles - is there an element of disguise? Also the holster.
Speaking of hair, Charlie has a Peaky cut lmao. Tommy’s mini me. Perhaps nits were a problem at Arrow House? Tommy continues to have Dodgy Taste™ in artworks.
Adrien Brody appears to be another threat from Northern Ireland by that accent. Knowing SK, he’ll be ‘establishment’ of some kind as well; Tommy is always working against ‘them above,’ being as bad in order to survive ergo badder by the series, and there’s no other character we know of yet that could fulfil that role. But hell, Brody could be dubiously linked to the US government and have a legacy accent. He seems to be reprising Sabini in a murky tunnel at one point.
Alfie isn’t looking any healthier, or happier. Is the beach where that machine gun enters the country? Bravo the Woody cameo!!! I am desperately keen for Tommy and Alfie to have a fight on wet sand it would be hilarious.
Speaking of the machine gun, I LOVE the styling of that shootout! First time Peaky’s felt like a Western since s1 and I am digging it deeply.
ALSO pumped about the boxing match which I’ve been looking forward to since that ticket surfaced (date: 12 February 1926, Golliath vs Gold). Jack Rowan’s character is a bit of dark horse, though I’m guessing he’s the ‘Gold’ of the ticket bc his opponent is a fair bit bigger - he’s victorious in the ring, as well as there with Aidan Gillen’s character who is still thankfully lovely despite the hair - what ARE they there for? Anyway, that’s a publicly demonstrative thing Tommy’s doing with the gunshot at the end of the fight - it’s a message surely. The massive Union Jack AND Saint George’s Cross on the wall feel significant, especially possibly in conjunction with an Irish villain.
The girl under the bridge… I’ll come down off the fence and say I think that’s Charlie Murphy. I’d bet on it. One of my favourite mutuals (who’s very good at these things) swears blind it’s Lizzie, but there’s something about the profile where the cheeks meet her mouth and that tiny bump in her nose. Her hair looks longer than Lizzie’s s4 bob too. It is better than comparing Gaite and Annabelle’s breasts. Anyway, we’ve found our love interest of the series. Jury’s out on whether she’ll be the only one or one of two or three; my anxiety about Lizzie is unabated and May’s in s4. It would be the first series since one to not give Tommy three ladies. *sigh* *crosses fingers* The scene itself calls a bit to Ada and Freddie in 1.01, who met in the tunnel to hide their relationship. We’ll see; whatever it is it’s more intimate than the ‘hands’ bit of the s2 promo or the drunk snogging of s3. I’m just not that interested any more. At least it doesn’t look like she’s a queen on Tommy’s ever-more-acquisitive series of bedpost notches.
That scene in the cell with Arthur? No idea. And the tunnel-walking with gun raised in the lighting that seems designed against intravenous drug use is also a mystery. Though it looks like Victoria Baths to me and there isn’t even a whiff of May so at least that bit of plot is probably not facing reprise.
Cautious optimism abounds for a series that looks to be bringing all those chickens home to roost. There was no emotion that wasn’t pain or fear and after s3 that is apt and deserved. Here’s to the bleak midwinter!
#peaky blinders#s4#s4 theories#mine#i'm a bit worried about the way location's going to work but otherwise...#looking up
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what are the most important/beautiful things to visit in lisboa?
OH BOY
ok so it REALLY REALLY DEPENDS on what you like but the GENERAL MUST SEES for me are (and i’m only mentioning things/places IN LISBON - sintra isn’t lisbon, i know sometimes it’s sold/advertised as it is but it isn’t and while it’s 100% worth it it’ll take you like 1h to get there so you have to dedicate a whole day to it):
first of all: most museums are open on sundays and closed on mondays, don’t open until 10h, and have their last entry about 1h/30min before the museum closes. plan accordingly. but the nice thing about lisbon is that if you’re here on a monday there’s still plenty of things to see.
the whole downtown/chiado/bairro alto area. like. that’s vague i know but you just have to walk around and enjoy the day tbh. if you don’t want to suffer i recommend starting in principe real (the very top) and make your way down to the downtown area (a lot of people go the other way around and like RIP honestly). IF YOU HAVE THE TIME principe real is just a neat place to start, as you start going down there’s a gorgeous viewpoint, you can then visit the church (and museum) of são roque, and then you can get yourself inside bairro alto and explore its streets (art, shops, you’ll find a bit of everything there - unless you’re going at night then you’ll only find bars lmao). in chiado there are a bunch of churches you can visit for free if you’re into that. right next to chiado you have the church/ruins of carmo (you’ll hear and read convent of carmo but it’s not the convent it’s just the church turned museum - the convent is occupied by GNR) which is a must see for me tbh. also in chiado you have the iconic brasileira café, and the chiado museum (contemporary - again depends on what you like and dislike). in the downtown area there’s an archaeological center if you like those things (more info here - also fun fact if you go inside H&M, on the ground floor, and look down the floor is made of glass and you’ll se roman ruins). the lift of santa justa is neat, the arch of rua augusta are neat as well (you can see both but you don’t necessarily have to visit them). if you want to learn more about the history of lisbon, Lisboa Story Centre (in commerce square/praça do comercio) is p neat. AROUND HERE YOU ALSO HAVE: rua cor de rosa/pink streett (near cais do sodré - just a neat street, at night it’s usually filled with people bc it has a lot of bars), the historical ginginha place (near rossio - ginjinha is a sweet liqueur), lisbon jewish memorial (in rossio), adamastor viewpoint (on the edge of bairro alto - gorgeous and p much almost everyone’s fav, someone will likely try to sell u drugs here just say no and keep doing ur thing it has happened to almost all of us)
st george’s castle - the whole castle hill tbh. marybe follow the "cerca velha" pedestrian route which personally is one of my favourites. ANYWAY my advice for you is to walk there. i know it seems like a lot (esp in this heat) but if you take your time and don’t rush, maybe make a stop (there’s plenty of viewpoints), it’s really not that bad and on your way up you’ll get to visit Sé/the cathedral, viewpoints, the ruins of the roman theater (there’s a museum too - the ruins are free but the museum isn’t). here i’ll even write u a thing - i recommend going up the following streets: rua santo antónio da sé (you can visit st anthony’s church first - not really mandatory but he’s p important to lisbon so? yeah? - and then the cathedral), rua augusto rosa, rua da saudade (roman theater + museum - museum not really hella important but it’s still interesting) all the way up to st george’s castle, (and now you start going down) rua do chão da freira, travessa do funil, largo do contador mor, travessa de santa luzia (viewpoint + church), largo das portas do sol (viewpoint - there’s some museum here as well but they’re not… important… altho i do suggest the decorative arts museum which is one a lot of people ignore & it’s gorgeous. NOW, you can call it a day here or you can keep going. chill at the viewpoint for a while, get some food and drinks, and then go down to alfama (historical neighborhood - there’s a staircase in the viewpoint in a street called rua norberto de araújo wher you’ll find this aka the story of lisbon) you’ll end up close to the river and 5 minutes from commerce square/praça do comercio. depending on what do you and skip/don’t skip, this is a tour that can take half day to a whole day. i once did the whole thing in 4hrs but i really do recommend taking your time especially in this heat!!!!!!!!!!!!! NEARBY: you have the fado museum (which also has a restaurant).
listen…. u gotta dedicate a day or an afternoon to belém. u just gotta do it. my recommendations for belém are: the monastery of st jerome (u don’t have to pay to go inside the church and like u can just visit the church but…. the monastery is totally worth it imo), the archeological museum (if you like those things), the naval museum (listen i didn’t think much of this museum but it’s…. it’s incredible), the national coach museum, pasteis de belém (not a museum - it’s where u buy delicious tartlets from heaven. there’s going to be a line bc there’s ALWAYS line but the ppl who work there move fast just HAVE THE MONEY IN HAND), the tropical & botanical gardens (not really mandatory but a+ if u like gardens), and if you’re up to it ajuda’s palace which is nearby (you can walk there) and a personal fav. you need to visit the tower of belém but you don’t NEED to go inside - you can, awesome, it’s great, i love it, but if the line is huge or you’re on a budget you can see it from the outside that’s it’s still fucking outstanding and incredible. same goes to the monument to the navigators/monument to the discoveries/padrão dos descobrimentos. if you like contemporary art (or just want to chill bc the view is nice and there’s cafés) def visit CCB (cultural center - big white building, u won’t miss it - it houses the berardo museum which has works by ppl u might know such as picasso, dali, and warhol). tips for visiting belém are: lunch hours are the best for visiting the monastery - there are HUGE lines in the mornings (esp during the weekends and fridays) and at about 3pm they start getting huge again. either go early (10am) or around noon. ALSO ANOTHER TIP: YOU CAN BUY COMBINED TICKETS IN A MUSEUM TO VISIT OTHER MUSEUMS!!!!!!! i can’t promise you you’ll be able to skip lines bc sometimes it’s just fucking impossible and it’s no one’s fault (especially not the museum workers!) but if you have combines tickets YOU CAN ASK IF YOU CAN SKIP. i can’t remember all the combinations off the top of my head but just go to a museum/monument and ask about the combined tickets! if you want to visit several things it’ll save you money. ALSO NEARBY BUT NOT NECESSARILY IMPORTANT IT DEPENDS ON YOUR TASTE ETC: if you like art def visit the ancient art museum - several buses that go to belém (and from belém to lisbon) stop right in front of it. a cool place to chill is LX factory - several buses that go to belém (and from belém to lisbon) stop right in front of it.
OTHER THINGS: Gulbenkian!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! if you have the time DO VISIT THE GULBENKIAN MUSEUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it’s gorgeous. it has a nice space for you to relax. it’s worth it. 10/10 heaven on earth 100% recommend and would take a bullet for. the national tile museum is hella nice but again it depends on what you want to do and the time you have available. the orient museum is also a personal fav but like… i don’t know if it’s for everyone? but yeah. you also have the whole estrela area - there’s the royal basilica and you have the house of writer and poet fernando pessoa nearby.
there are other things you can visit, obviously, but i think i covered the basics and what’s most important. if you like something in particular or have a particular interest let me know so i can share things in specific!
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The Beatles - Sgt Peppers Lonely Hart's Club Band 2017 Remix
Sgt Peppers Lonely Hart’s Club Band for me is a great deal of many things, it was my first introduction to the band and it was a fantastic album which consisted of new indentities, of exploring new ventures in music which the young heart throb band was never meant to go. The album has always stood remarkably high in best of album lists despite it’s age and well remembered for many of it’s songs such as With A Little Help From My Friends, Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite, When I’m Sixty Four and the masterpiece A Day In The Life, as well as controversial songs Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and She’s Leaving Home, songs which some fans believe contain references to drugs and about a young girl getting an abortion.
In 2009 The Beatles discography was reissued, fully remastered to there previous glory as the original transfer to CD was terrible, so bad that fans online would resort to making digital copies of the original pressed vinyls to make up for the disappointment of the official release. Fans like Dr Ebbett who provided these vinyl rips would retire after they felt that they couldn’t surpass the quality found in these reissues. While many would rejoice and over these remasters The Beatles would brave new frontiers such as digital music stores and even allow people to stream the music of the fab four but my mind has always remained on something an old friend would say based on these remasters that he felt the only way for the sound to progress or even give it more of a modern flair someone would have to go to the hassle to remix all there music again. A brief history on the mixing of The Beatles albums would be they was mixed in mono with producer George Martin and the band present while the stereo mixes would be handled as an afterthought later without the band present, many believing the mono mixes to be the definitive way The Beatles wanted there music to be heard. I was somewhat delighted and surprised when I saw that a 50 year anniversary edition of Sgt Peppers Lonely Harts Club Band with a new mix overseen by no other than the original producers son, Giles Martin. Giles history with the band includes working on the 2006 Love album and a remaster of The Beatles Live At The Hollywood Bowl, an album I was very impressed with after he managed to clean up one of the muddiest, drowned out, horrid live albums I had ever heard into a great sounding representative of The Beatles as a live band, with this in mind I began to wonder if this remix could perhaps spoil one of the greatest albums ever made? Was there someway in which this could be ruined? Owning mono and stereo editions of the album I thought it would maybe be a nice experience to give the album a listen to in it’s original form and then be able to compare the mixes fairly with them all in mind.
Begining with the mono mix of the album in which I can already noticed differences compared to the stereo mix which I usually listen to. From opener, Sgt Peppers Lonely Harts Club Band, I can already hear that this mix sounds muddier and less clear than its stereo counterpart, many elements of the song I have known from many years of listening are still there such as the horn section, backing vocals and the audience sound and they are still present in this mix they do not stand out as much as I recall from memory and certain elements like the bass sound like it is high in this mix, in turn giving this album more of a harsh rock sound compared to what I have usually envisioned as a happy pop sound in the stereo mix. Songs like Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds I found took on a new feeling in this mix, sounding in what I can only describe has feeling more like something heard in a sci-fi piece, giving off a distance and cold sound, Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite while not nessairly being a favourite of mine I feel takes on a more comftable sound in mono as as it better presents a dark and haunting sound not heard in the stereo edition, which tends to sound more like a joyful carnival experience. A difference I notice more as the album progresses is She’s Leaving Home and Within Without You show a different side to them, once being vibrant, colorful and cheery sounding they come off sounding bitter, darker and more honest.I may not find the experience as joyful as the stereo version I would usually listen to but it certainly registers with me how much of a different sound and atmosphere this mix has, there are few elements which I are missing from the stereo mix such as a Good Morning in which a hurd of animals can he heard going past the listener from channel to channel.
Switching to the stereo mix of the album, this time it embraces me like an old friend, speaking in the same tone I recall, reminding me of all the good times and retelling me old stories, but I may have broken myself to the point with this album that it now sounds a little bit too polished for my liking now. Opening Sgt Peppers now uses a much wider range of dynamics and sounds much more clearer that it is easier to make out guitar lines and sound effects going on at the same time, it sounds as good as I always recall it doing so, but now I feel it is missing something without that rawer sound the mono mix has. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds sounds like the psychedelic classic it always has been and still has a refreshing happy pop sound and even It’s Getting Better and Fixing A Hole even sound more happier somehow, despite the songs subjects focusing on what registered with me as trying to be a better person despite being an abuser of women in the past and while we have another song with drug references, ones which fans have suspected maybe have been heroin although McCartney insists like Got To Get You Into My Life was an ode to marijuana, an interesting comparison I note during this as I feel both and the mono mixes and stereo mixes would express either opinion, with the mono one sounding more like the trappings of an addiction and the other sounds like a wonderful light fun often associated with marijuana use. The second half of the record starting with With In Without You, and ending on A Day In The Life I feel benefits more with the stereo mix, songs like opener With In Without You sound better to be in a clearer recorder and goes along better with the subject of the song, despite it being about a death I always felt George Harrison was trying to express that part of you will always live in, despite the body and the mind being departed rather than the dark drudgery of ”tough shit, one day you will die and everyone else will go on living there lives". The reprise of Sgt Peppers however sounds like it has been neutered in its stereo format as this mix to me sounds too sparse, the mono edition gives the sound of it being loud, live and dirty , a sound much better for this type of song.
At this point I am thinking that I am prefering the mono mix although the truth of the matter, just like when it came to John Lennon wanting to mix the best parts from variouis takes on Strawberry Fields Forever, I am of the opinion this much or less the same case where the songs on this album sound better in mono while others sound better in there stereo form. The closest way to sum the sounds of the album in a simple way would be the mono mix sounding like The Beatles actually being in a room recording the album together while the stereo mix sounds like either a stage show or cinema production, it is a clean, well produced and accessible piece of art but it lacks the same gruff, rough around the edges darker sound and mood which is presented here. At this point I am thinking that if Giles Martin could somehow marry both the upsides of the mixes and present it in a stereo format we could be in for perhaps the definitive edition of this album, at the realm of possibility of this I am excited to open up the 2017 mix and find out.
From the start of the album it is clear to hear that there are differences present from the original stereo mix, while being able to keep the clarity various musical effects used in Sgt Peppers Lonely Hart’s Club Band such as the horns and audience chatter no longer sound as if they are overpowering the rest of the instrumental piece but gel into one fantastic piece of music that sounds like it fits together. Ringo’s drums sound like they are higher in mix which helps give it some of the rock sound present in the mono mix, other songs like LITSWD manage to keep the darker sound and present on the mono mix and other tracks such as It’s Getting Better have more of a live sound. The only track in my listen that I noted that sounded worse off was A Day In The Life, this mix sounded like it just missed the bang present on other versions. This remix has managed to successfully bring Sgt Peppers into the 21st century and for the first time perhaps have an excellent stereo mix of the album which as I had hoped managed to bring some of the best qualities of both previous mixes and bring in all into one excellent package.This version to me sounds like it managed to capture the sound of the band playing together in the same room much like the mono release by the clarity in this release is pure bliss to my ears, while these listening comparisons may not be perfectly fair due to the age of the original stereo and mono vinyls I own possibly being over 40 years old I have tried to listen to these with purely the mix in mind rather than comparing the sound condition to that of a new fresh vinyl played for the first time. This remix will most likely be my go to for future plays although with Giles Martin having already hinting that he has already done work on The White Album, preparing it hopefully for next year’s 50th anniversary, I wouldn’t mind comparing those mixes again should it happen.
#the beatles#john lennon#paul mccartney#george harrison#ringo starr#george martin#giles martin#sgt. pepper's lonely hearts club band#with a little help from my friends#lucy in the sky with diamonds#it's getting better#fixing a hole#being for the benefit of mr. kite#within without you#when i'm sixty-four#lovely rita#goodmorning#a day in the life
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Okay. Now that I know your in the fandom I need sow of your next gen headcanons (sorry I'm just obsessed with your headcanons. I am also here for Slytherin!Lily!)
I have a large collection of Next Gen headcanons, carefullycurated over the years I’ve been in this fandom. They go on for days so I’mreally sorry. I almost entirely reject CursedChild, just so you know (the only bit I like is the rumours that Scorpiusis Voldemort’s kid, because that makes Astoria fascinating).
As a whole, the kids are more disparate than people thoughtthey would be. Few of them count their closest friends within the family, mostmake their best friends outside of it. The exceptions to this rule are:Dominique, Molly and Teddy; Fred and Lucy. They all love each other and arefirst in line to defend each other, obviously, and will usually hang out andhave a smashing time, but when it comes to who they gravitate towards they’reusually found outside the family.
Other Weasley family things as a whole: divorce rates seethe same rise in the wizarding world as in the Muggle one. George and Angelinaamicably call it quits when Fred is seven and Roxanne is three. Ron andHermione separate for a good few years after Rose is born but end up backtogether, and Hugo follows. (Unknowingly these two have a half-sister: Ron’sdaughter with Daphne Greengrass, product of an ill-judged fling, who iseighteen months younger than Rose.)
Molly and Lucy lose their mother Audrey when Molly isthirteen and Lucy is ten. To almost everybody’s surprise, Percy does anexcellent job raising them alone. They’re still mad as a bag of cats butthen—they’re Weasleys.
I could bang on about inter-family dynamics forever but I’llgo on to the individual kids now.
Teddy—Hufflepuff. Really tall (like 6′3″) and has got a real Black family look to him, which he hates. I’m writing a Teddy fic at the moment that has turned into a sprawling monsterand contains most of my Teddy headcanons. In short: bit of a loser, butcharming and hapless so makes friends wherever he goes. Directionless. Happy tolive off the money his parents left him and the benefits he gets from theMinistry as a war orphan. He’s a fine artist, but he never puts the effort intoactually getting his name and work out there. He’s best friends with Dominique(two years younger than him) and Molly (four years younger than him). They windeach other up a lot but ultimately adore one another. He has a finely honedsense of the ridiculous and a hugely empathetic nature, which he mostly triesto keep hidden. He’ll be fine, in the end.
Victoire—Ravenclaw.A hugely difficult act to follow for most of her cousins. Beautiful, caring, atalented witch—but also bullish, one-track-minded, with a tendency to set asidethe feelings and concerns of others if she gets fixated on a goal. Mostly thisgets called ‘ambition’ and praised, but her sister thinks of it more asselfishness. She has huge aspirations for her life and damn if she doesn’t getthere. Of course, being Victoire, she does it despite getting accidentallypregnant much earlier than she wanted to, and ends up with a similarly brilliantson as well as the career she wanted. Nobody can quite figure out how she’sdone it.
Dominique—Gryffindor.Dominique is pure fire. She’s quite aggressive, but her temper burns itself outquickly and she forgives as hastily as she runs to fury. Her affection is hardto win but once you’ve done it her loyalty is unyielding. She’s prickly,brusque, funny, and has a kinder heart than you would believe underneath itall. Not much patience, but lots and lots of laughter.
Louis—Gryffindor.So laid back he’s horizontal. He has a grand total of two interests in theworld: computers and celebrity gossip. He’s beautiful in a way that makespeople stumble over their words around him which he actually doesn’t much likeso he tries to dress it down. He wears oversized 80s glasses and his hair long,like his dad used to. He floats through life seeming almost untouchable untilhe gets into a very messy drama concerning Lily at 19 and he ends up a lot morephilosophical and altruistic.
Molly—Gryffindor.Known as ‘Young Molly’ to differentiate her from her grandmother within thefamily, but it kind of spreads until everybody calls her that. Hapless. Honestlythe character I think she’s most like is Isla Fisher’s character inBachelorette but without the hard drugs (not that she’s never done that, but it’snot like—a regular thing). She seems kind of oblivious a lot of the time. She’ssoft and easily hurt, and inspires protectiveness/caring instinct in others.Honestly she could take care of herself if she had to but she’s always hadDominique and/or Teddy and Lucy looking out for her so she’s never had to try.
Lucy—Ravenclaw.Conspiracy nut. She’s absolutely convinced the Founders weren’t real and arejust a convenient story made up later in Hogwarts’ history. She’s very bold andserious and intense, and jokes tend to go over her head quite a lot. She’s alsoabsolutely fascinated by space (mostly because of aliens and alienconspiracies) and ends up going to Muggle university to study Astrophysics. She’skind of off-the-wall, but once you get to know her you can’t help liking herbecause she’s so unapologetic about who she is.
Fred—Gryffindor.Pretty much the opposite of the uncle he was named for except for his lovelymerry sense of humour and his resolute bravery. He’s Prefect and then Head Boy,the one everybody knows they can go to with their problems for his ability tolisten, offer sensible advice, and then make you laugh. He’s calm, solid,unyielding. 90% of the girls in younger years (and a few of the boys) arecompletely in love with him. He’s the friendly face of the Weasley family. Therest tend to be a zany, prickly bunch—but Fred is pure warmth, and he’s open togetting to know anybody.
Roxanne—Hufflepuff.During her teenage years she’s pretty EdgyTM and gets into a lot ofindie Muggle bands and spends a lot of time yelling at people about theenvironment and the bees. She’s a bit of an inventing whizz and has inheritedher paternal grandfather’s fascination with Muggle technology, and spends a lotof her free time tinkering with Muggle things like iPods to make them work withmagic. Roxanne’s main problem is that she cares far too much, so much it hurtsher, and she has to focus on something to give her an outlet for all thatcompassion. Her cousins know that she’s not going to be first in line to seekthem out, but if somebody’s hurting them she will be the first one into the ensuingfistfight.
Rose—Gryffindor.Nobody quite expected Rose to turn out the way she did. She has her father’shapless charm and tendency to put his foot in his mouth, but this is pairedwith her mother’s ruthless pragmatism. She believes very strongly in thingsbeing Sensible and Explicable, and fights a lot with both Lucy (who she feelsis wasting everybody’s time) and Lily (who will espouse inexplicable thingsjust to frustrate her). Rose faces a deep conflict inside herself, one thatmakes her quite a reflective and irritable person: she has the gift of Sight,but has absorbed her mother’s derisive attitude towards Seers. She tries toignore her visions, but they will not leave her alone.
Hugo—Ravenclaw.Hugo just wants to be left alone. He’s quiet, frightening clever, and with amind for strategy that you wouldn’t believe. Really, he belongs in somesweeping epic high fantasy where he could lead people and fight battles andprove himself. Instead he’s stuck in a life where he’s overshadowed by hislouder family members. He retreats into books and music, and ultimatelyretreats from the wizarding world altogether. He gets a flat with three Muggleguys, all into music, and they end up forming a band that becomes world famous.Hugo turns his intelligence to songwriting and strikes a chord with the publicthat nobody would have believed possible.
James—Gryffindor.James thinks he is a Bad Boy, and by virtue of getting tattoos, smoking,partying, and wearing a leather jacket everywhere has mostly managed toconvince everybody else he really is Bad. His family see right through him. Hepretends not to care about anything but he has internalised a huge amount offrustration and an inferiority complex about his father’s legacy which makeshim prone to acts of aggression. He will act out simply to prove he is not hisfather. The only people that can calm him are his younger siblings and, later,the person he will eventually marry. James mellowed out is a much nicer person,but it takes him a while to get there.
Albus—Gryffindor.Albus has the same inferiority complex about his dad as James, but his goesdeeper because he asked the Sorting Hat to put him in Gryffindor, and spendsthe next couple of decades wondering where he’d be if he hadn’t. He doesn’tfeel he deserves to be Harry Potter’s son. Inside he is the angriest andscariest of all the Potter siblings, but he has covered this up with suchlayers of cool that most people overlook his quiet fury in favour of hissiblings’ volatile attitudes to everything. He is cutting and snide, ready toback up his taunts with fists/hexes if he needs to, and generally is cut of asharper cloth than most people in his family. Lily and James have softer heartsinside than anybody realises. Albus is the opposite.
Lily—Slytherin. Lilyis my favourite next gen character and also the one I struggle to get a grip onmost. She’s prickly and resentful, prone to lashing out, and wants to punishthe world for heaping all this expectation on her as the daughter of HarryPotter. Mostly this results in her damaging herself more than anybody else. She’sa party animal from the age of fourteen, into alcohol and drugs, anddeliberately gets pregnant at 15 in a skewed attempt to punish her parents.Actually being pregnant makes her stop and re-evaluate, however. Her attitudedoesn’t change massively, but she does take steps to dealing with her anger.She reconnects with Teddy over the whole issue and he encourages her to talk tosomebody. She’ll never be okay, exactly, but she refocuses her intense emotionsinto other pursuits instead of on herself and her parents. She gets taken outof Hogwarts to be homeschooled between the ages of fourteen and sixteen, andreturns a more together and confident person. She still goes hard as fuck, but it comes from a desire to havefun rather than a deep insecurity.
Scorpius—Gryffindor.Kind of an asshole, which is why he gets on so well with Albus, but he’sinherited from his mother a sense of the ridiculous that makes him great fun.He can find the funny side in almost anything. He went into Gryffindor mostlybecause he thought it would be hilarious and piss off his dad, who he feels treatshis mum badly. He’s prone to do anything he thinks will get a rise out ofpeople, which makes him a menace if you’re the subject of his needling buthilarious if you’re not.
Lysander and Lorcanare much younger than the rest of the Potter-Weasley kids and don’t mix muchwith them as a result. They’re brought up travelling the world and studyingmagical creatures, and have an incredibly piecemeal education up until they goto Hogwarts as a result. Their basic understanding of the world is almostnon-existent (neither of them can do much more mathematics than basic additionand subtraction, cannot conceptualise the solar system, and wouldn’t believeyou if you told them humans have been to the Moon), but they each speak severallanguages, have exceptional control of their wandless magic, and an encyclopaedicknowledge of magical creatures. Their relationship with each other is almostsymbiotic, and being separated at Hogwarts is highly traumatic for both ofthem. When they are seventeen they witness their father being brutally killedby a rogue magical creature, and end up putting their abilities to use huntingdown and containing any magical creature known to pose a threat to human life.
Lysander—Gryffindor.Taciturn and prone to moodiness. Braver than you would believe. Relies onlyupon himself and his brother (as a result of distracted, occasionallyneglectful but loving parents) and is never willing to allow anybody else intohis business. His control of wandless magic is unmatched in the last twocenturies, and a couple of his teachers keep a careful eye on him as he fitsthe profile of somebody who could end up turning very dark and being immenselydestructive. Lysander would never even dream it, though. He’s selfish,introverted and a loner but his intentions are wholly good and he couldn’t turndark if he tried.
Lorcan—Ravenclaw.Lorcan is almost painfully shy and struggles with great social anxiety. Despitethis, he makes some friends in his house and, though he still depends onLysander, can function apart from him. He’s incredibly clever and can retaininformation so well it’s almost unbelievable. He’s never the first to speak upin class but—depending on the subject—he almost always has the right answerwhen called upon. His grades are fairly poor despite this. His knowledge andpractical ability is enormous, but his essays and exam answers are rambling andirrelevant, veering off down pathways that interest him but that have no basisin the question asked.
Okay and because this is long already I might as well makeit longer, right? So here are my thoughts about other non-canon kids and justquick sketches of them.
Leonora Greengrass—Slytherin.Known as Lo. Ron’s daughter with Daphne. She has a terrible relationship withher mother as both are selfish and fickle, and is the sort of person for whom everythingis someone else’s fault. She doesn’t know who her dad is until she’s eighteen,since Daphne has kept her concealed from Ron, and when she finds out she blameshim for not being part of her life and sets out to try to destroy him. She endsup getting along very well with him and they become incredibly positiveinfluences on one another. Ron feels he can be there for her in a way he thinkshe couldn’t be for his own kids, and she thrives with a positive male rolemodel in her life.
Longbottom kids—Daisy(Hufflepuff), Poppy (Gryffindor) and Euan (Slytherin). Daisy is adorable inevery way, very maternal and giving. Poppy is sociable, out-going and a massivedrama queen. Florian is good friends with Lily Potter—sarcastic, unnecessarilyrude, and generally a much more unpleasant person than you’d think it waspossible for Neville and Hannah to produce.
Astynome Nott—Slytherin.James’ best friend. Known as Asta. Terrifying, irrepressible, takes noprisoners and no bullshit. Frightens most of James’ family apart from Lily andAlbus, who think she’s awesome.
Eirnin McLaggen—Hufflepuff.Possibly the purest soul on the planet. James’ future husband. Introverted,soft-spoken, deeply kind and patient. Finds it easier spending time withanimals than with people. Struggles deeply with the division between hisCatholic faith and his magic and his sexuality.
McLaggen kids—apartfrom Eirnin we have Eithne (Hufflepuff, dates Teddy for a while, very merry andgiving), Faolan (Gryffindor, James’ arch-nemesis, braggart and brawler), thentwo much younger sisters I haven’t fully developed yet. They grow up in thewizarding village of Tullyaghan, Co Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, on the landwhere their father breeds and trains Kelpies for a dangerous wizarding versionof polo. They are all fearless, rough-and-ready, and incredibly proud of anancestry that has fought the English at every turn.
Lily’s best friends—allSlytherin. Yelena Nott (Asta’s younger sister, the leader of the crew. Type Aice queen with a ruthless competent streak and absolutely no patience foranything), Ophelia Yaxley (sweet and easily-led, attaches herself to thenearest mean girl like silly string, helplessly in love with Albus Potter andconstantly messed around by him), Sophie Parkinson (unafraid, irresponsible,loves to party more than anybody else), and Beth Zabini (she and Lily actuallykind of hate each other, but they’re still…best friends….nobody else gets iteither).
Okay I’m done, Ipromise. I promise. Sorry about this.
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Hiiii. I think I saw this ‘tag’ on youtube for multiple topics- books, movies, tv shows, etc. I hope I do justice by actually finding connections between these books :p
»»» If you liked Sadie by Courtney Summers, I think you will like Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.
~ Sadie is about a girl (Sadie) who is on the hunt for her sister’s killer. She goes on a trip, from city to city, in a car she bought herself. She finds new people, new leads, and she gets hurt to the point where you’d expect her to fall over and die. And she still never rests until she finally finds him. What is novel about this book is that it is told in podcast style. It alternates between a man who is investigating this case through a podcast, and the narrative of Sadie on the other hand. We see the fear, the grit, the need to solve this gruesome murder in every single character. Another side to this is the man doing the podcast, he is terrified of finding more dead girls and he is not ready for that (Sadie is missing the whole time the podcast is being recorded). I loved his angle, because it showed the human, sensitive side to investigators- they’re not always strong, things affect them too, and it cripples him, the amount of fear he has over Sadie being dead. It is a very unique book, in plot and in format, both.
~ I read Speak about five years ago, my aunt gave it to me. I didn’t think much of it, I didn’t know it would be this impactful. It follows Melinda, an outcast in her school. I’ll admit, its the cliched character who gets humiliated and laughed at, but it deals with her character more than her background, if that makes sense? What I mean is, we see her be herself only in art classes, when she expresses herself through her art. She was raped by a senior at a party; a party where she called the cops because things were getting out of hand, hence her being outcast. Her art through the book evolves and gets deeper and more impactful, much like how she feels. I want to reread this book someday and see if I still like it as much.
⇒ Both of them deal with heavy topics, so they’re definitely not easy reads, don’t say you weren’t warned. I made the connection between these two because both authors do brilliant jobs at building characters and making the stories relatable and raw.
»»» If you liked Autoboyography by Christina Lauren, I think you’ll like The Book of Essie by Meghan Maclean Weir.
~ Autoboyography is about Tanner, who moves to Provo, Utah, from California. He was out in California as bisexual, but while making the move to Provo, Tanner’s mom tells him to never say a word about his sexuality, because she knows how unaccepting they are in this Mormon town. His best friend, Autumn, dares him to take a writing seminar class where they have to write a book in four months. He joins the class, and taking one look at his mentor, Sebastian Brother, he knows he’s fallen deep, in trouble and also in love. Their relationship evolves through doubt and comfort, and the whole thing is heartbreaking(ly cute). It is a mixture of religion, writing, school, coming out, moving away, all packed tightly together. The major plus point for me was the fact that Sebastian, being gay, being religious, being shunned by his family just for hypothetically asking what they’d do if someone they knew was gay, being torn between admitting that he’s gay and still wanting to stick to his religious commitments- through all this, he never loses faith. I appreciated that no matter what happened, he never went out of character and said he didn’t believe in God. Honestly, one of the best YA books I’ve ever read.
~ I think I’ve mentioned The Book Of Essie way too many times, bear with me please. I love this book so so so much. It is about Essie, who is part of a family that has their own reality show (think Keeping Up With the Kardashians, but make it religious). Essie’s mom finds out that she’s pregnant, and she starts to talk to their producers to figure out what to do. Should they send her off somewhere? Pass it off as her older sister’s baby? Parallelly, Essie talks to Roarke, a boy in her school, takes him home, and both families talk it over and agree that they can make it seem like they’re a young couple in love. Roarke is, in fact, gay, but still keeps up this facade of a relationship for tv. They have some of the sweetest conversations and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy. The book is full of drama, scripted lives, lights, cameras, sexuality, young people finding their way, and how not everything you see is real. A person may look one way, but they could be completely the opposite, off screen. It is not revealed until the very end who the father is, and it hits hard.
⇒ Both these books deal with religion, LGBTQ+ characters, acceptance and faith. Both of them have similar themes, but are different in so many ways, and beautiful in all those different ways.
»»» If you liked either one of these, I feel like you’ll like the others- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, 1984 by George Orwell.
~ The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian fantasy world that is a little too close to home. It’s not that impossible, and it feels like any second now, this book will come to life. It is set in Gilead, where women, if fertile, are given the role of a Handmaid, and sent to Commanders’ houses to get pregnant. Essentially, the book deals with how women are stripped of the *limited* power they have and are made to be like rag dolls, submitting to every whim and fancy of the ‘government’. They are fired from their jobs, their bank accounts are blocked, they are taken away from their families. All of this happens in a mere few days, all of a sudden, with no warning. That’s the point though, something like this could happen to us any minute, and we are just blissfully unaware. The only role women have anymore is to breed, and if they can’t do that either, they’re considered ‘Unwomen’ and are just hired as help. This book is important because it talks about gender roles, patriarchy, and mainly, the position and perception of women in society.
~ Brave New World was the first dystopian classic I read, and man, it messed with my head. I did some research and realized how many things he included that were a part of society back then- LSD was just starting to gain momentum and he talks about a drug in the book called ‘soma’ that lets people forget about everything and be happy for a while.
The book is so forward thinking for being written in the 1930’s, it talks about test-tube babies, genetically modified people, society that is distinguished on the basis of intelligence, sleep hypnosis, and conditioning of the mind to instill ideas. It’s insane how Huxley wrote all this, predicting that in the 2050’s, the world would be essentially the same as it was then. Look around now, the caste system is still rampant, there are several new methods of reproduction, the world is a lonely place where people are either looking for love or have no love, the concept of pleasure is very different, and drugs are on the rise. It’s scary how he managed to predict so much back then.
~ 1984 is another example of dystopian society that is just teetering on the edge of reality. Oppressive governments, dictatorship, wiping out people and covering it up, the way language is being distorted, and individuality being something that everyone prays for. Whoever called this the most terrifying novel ever was right. It made me cringe how real everything felt. The book is set under the eyes of Big Brother, who watches everything the citizens do. Literally everything. What you do is monitored, what you say is monitored, and worst of all, what you think is monitored. They have a concept called ‘doublethink’, where if someone thinks of an idea that isn’t proposed by the government, bless your soul, you will be tortured and probably killed. Another very interesting idea that Orwell uses is the erasing of news that the government doesn’t want the public to believe anymore. They basically burn the newspapers and books that have a piece of news, and republish it with new information that the public must believe now. It’s scary to see how every single action you do is being watched.
⇒ All three of these books are a little too close to our world, and things like these can happen overnight and that is terrifying to comprehend. I feel like they were written way ahead of their time and written to last way ahead of our time.
»»» If you like Gillian Flynn books (Gone Girl, Sharp Objects, Dark Places), then I think you’ll like Kanae Minato books (Confessions, Penance).
~ Gillian Flynn writes a lot of messed up things. If you’ve read any of her books, or watched either of the adaptations, you know. She always creates these situations where all you want to say is ‘what the hell?’
> Gone Girl deals with a psychotic woman who wants to take some warped version of revenge on her husband. Very messed up, pretty good book.
> Sharp Objects is my favourite of the three (it’s the most messed up one in my opinion), it is about this woman who has to go back to her hometown to investigate the murder of two young girls. She is spooked by her little 13 year old step-sister who seems to have the entire town wrapped around her pinky.
> Dark Places is about a woman who survived a massacre where someone killed everyone in her house but her. Back then, as a kid, she said it was her brother who killed them. 15 years later, there is a club dedicated to discussing murder cases, and they want her help to free her brother. This book has a lot of gore and satanic rituals, just a warning.
All her books are pretty gory, read at your own risk if you can’t stomach a lot of blood.
~ Kanae Minato I’m not entirely sure how I came upon, but mAN, she’s good. Both her books are highly highly messed up and I love it. I love how weird the ideas are in her books, they’re not cliche, they’re not the usual tried and tested formula, you know? I just saw someone say there are three broad types of thrillers- US/UK/Canada- Nordic- Japanese. I have to agree, Japanese thrillers are just on another level.
She creates messed up characters, in comparison to Flynn’s situations. Minato has mastered the art of making a character so flawed, so strange, it makes you want to crawl into their heads and try to understand their minds. I liked Confessions more than Penance, because it had shock value. I honestly put the book down for a minute, pulled at my hair, and then resumed. It’s that weird. Take my word for it though, they’re brilliant books.
⇒ Both these authors just know how to write readable, gory, strange and overall, interesting books. They just know. I envy them.
»»» If you liked Circe by Madeline Miller, I think you’ll like The Bear and the Nightingale series.
~ Circe has made it into my top ten, top five, top three books of 2019. It is about Greek mythology, of Circe, who is banished to an island and is punished to live there alone with no help from the Gods. Her father, Helios (the Sun god) sends her to the island, and the second he disappears from there, she accepts the fact that she is destined to be there, and doesn’t spend any time unnecessarily lamenting about it. She is a fiery, scheming, idealistic witch who spends her time by breeding animals, making potions and concoctions, and occasionally taking men to her bed. No one who enters the island knows that she is a witch, because they are usually mortals who come for shelter. She lives her entire life on that island, and the way her life unfolds is inexplicable.
This book talks about power, the ability to handle both being stripped of power and earning it back, being ostracized, being a woman, sorcery, magic, and majorly, motherhood.
~ The Bear and the Nightingale is a story following characters and the setting of Russian folklore. Honestly one of the best series I’ve read. The idea of having folklore as a backdrop was genius. It is rich, it is atmospheric, it’s hauntingly beautiful. I learnt about 40+ creatures and gods from Russia and how each one plays a very important role in keeping the people living their life. I love how history is a part of fiction, no matter where you look in this book, no matter what you’re reading, it feels as though its a record of the time. The strong belief in the supernatural, the superstitions, the forests, the foraging, the war, the killing, everything. Also the idea of making the frost demon and a young, fierce girl the main characters was sheer brilliance. Who would have thought of that?
⇒ Both of these are historical fiction, highly atmospheric, appeal to all five senses in a way, and have strong female characters who do not give up and are stubbornly fighting their own battles. Beautifully written.
I was originally going to do 13 book comparisons, thank god I didn’t. Let me know if you like this, I can do a part two! 😀
If you liked this book, you’ll enjoy this (I think) Hiiii. I think I saw this 'tag' on youtube for multiple topics- books, movies, tv shows, etc.
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Blue Velvet. 1986. Directed & Written by David Lynch.
Starring Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern, Hope Lange, Dean Stockwell, George Dickerson, Priscilla Pointer, Frances Bay, Brad Dourif, & Jack Nance.
De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG)
Rated R. 120 minutes.
Drama/Mystery/Thriller
★★★★★
David Lynch is one of my favourite filmmakers, his directing and writing equally fantastic. My dad told me about Twin Peaks when I was young (it was on TV when I was about five years old), so in my teenage years I discovered its magic. This lead to seeing Eraserhead with a few friends in a dim lit basement, which blew my mind. On and on through Lynch’s catalogue of work I went, eventually watching his early short films opening up a whole other door into his mind as an artist.
Blue Velvet is a surreal film. Not as steeped in it as much as his other work, though full of surrealism nonetheless. It’s through the absurd Lynch taps into this element, alongside his modern noir-ish plot that digs deep into the underbelly of idyllic American life. What makes the movie so exciting is the dangerous story, looking at this darker side of suburbia in a small logging town, fittingly named Lumberton.
Lynch has said this film inspired Twin Peaks; the way in which he blends the darkness with the absurdism is strangely compelling. There’s an explicit scene or two, depravity taking the reins in violent fashion. Mostly, Blue Velvet takes place in a space where violence is always possible, never far; its threat is debilitating to the progression of everything from innocence to love. The central character Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) finds himself pitted against the psychotic, Freudian villain Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper), faced with either accepting his role in a hierarchy of violent men or rejecting the male violence which underpins the light and goodness of Lumberton.
The now iconic opening of the film is perfect, designed like the meticulous opening sentence of a piece of great literature. Lynch starts with those typical images of American life, things he remembers from the 1950s: white picket fence, bright red firetruck with waving firemen followed by the bright red roses of a luscious garden, the beautiful houses like boxes in a row.
He immediately smashes the gorgeous, American Dream-type feeling with Mr. Beaumont, Jeffrey’s father, having a stroke while watering the garden. As if innocence is starting to shatter with it, a child in a diaper wanders up while the man seizes on the lawn. The hose spurts water, and Lynch goes into a slow motion shot, the sound likewise slowed – the dog snaps at the water’s stream, his face looking vicious and snarling, his sounds become sinister. What a perfectly thematic opener. I honestly don’t know how this could’ve been improved; because it couldn’t.
This first sequence is a thesis for Blue Velvet, ending in its statement where we zoom in and the camera takes us into the grass, into the dirt, right to the insects crawling in the earth. An image that sticks with us, coming up again in the end. But it effectively shows us what Lynch is doing, and plans to do throughout the plot – put a microscope over the lives of those in a quaint town. In this story, that involves a young man under threat of violence invading his life, maybe even his very soul.
“It‘s a strange world, isn‘t it?”
Jeffrey’s dropped into a Freudian nightmare of a world, perhaps one to which Oedipus could relate; in a symbolic sense, anyways. He is lured into the dark side of his town by a sliced off ear, yet more importantly the story begins with his father’s brutal stroke. He loses the male influence in his life, falling prey to corruption.
Frank’s arrival is surreal in itself. He switches between two personas – Daddy and Baby. He treats Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) as Mother. At the sight of her vagina, and with a gas mask dose of amyl nitrite, he goes from Daddy to Baby, then back again. Likewise, after there’s a change in Jeffrey. Without his actual father around he adopts Frank, albeit subconsciously (perfect for a Freudian analysis), as Daddy. And where his family didn’t introduce him to the darker side of Lumberton, Dorothy and Frank become his surrogate parents, leading him down the garden path to the truth; no matter how disturbing.
This is quickly evident when he leaves Dorothy’s apartment following the first time we meet Frank in his erotic rage. We’re whisked directly to a dream sequence of Jeffrey remembering the events, then he wakes and there’s a strange moment where he seems relieved, touching the wall near a figure: the figure may be, to him, something else entirely but it looks like a vagina dentata sort of image. The influence of Daddy is transforming Jeffrey’s image of women into something dangerous; tying into one of the film’s themes being his journey, as a young man, trying to reject the violence of the male gender through the lens of how his surrogate Daddy treats the surrogate Mother.
Jeffrey walks to and from the hospital during the day and everything is bright, beautiful, positive. In the evening this changes, suddenly even the normal things don’t feel right. For instance, a moment many never catch when the first night scene sees Jeffrey out for a walk in his neighbourhood: a man stands in the grass as his dog on a leash stands on the sidewalk, a reverse of what you’d see like he’s being walked, you almost expect him to squat, drop a coil. One early indication of the surrealism Lynch employs.
Part of the surrealism is that idea of the twisted, half-Freudian and half-Oedipal journey on which Jeffrey goes. Because not only does the story dive into the underbelly of Lumberton, the story itself dives into the subconscious mind. This is best represented in the shot from Lynch after Jeffrey’s discovery of the ear – the camera closes in, further and further, right into the ear canal; figuratively, and literally because the orifice is an ear, into the mind. So, our trusty director dips us into that subconscious, in every way. Once you begin peeling back the layers they shed like skin.
The other surreal moments, the best, involve Frank most of all. First, there’s his amyl nitrite through the gas mask. On the surface that’s absurd alone, but coupled with the whole Daddy idea, you see that Jeffrey’s father has to breathe through a tube while Frank uses the surgical gas mask to inhale his drugs; a weird double image. The doubling continues, too. Frank is captivated with music, in particular the song “Blue Velvet” by Bobby Vinton and Roy Orbison’s “In Dreams” – the doubles return here, with Dorothy singing Vinton, suave Ben (Dean Stockwell) singing Orbison. And Stockwell’s little performance is so unnervingly odd. Strangely enough, the scene that weirds me out most. We see him singing, holding an electrical cord lamp lighting his face, and Frank stares at him, mouthing Orbison’s words, almost in a trance. An addition to the psychosis of Frank, suggesting something behind his fixation that we don’t need to know to find terrifying.
The violence is likely the most surreal of all: the Man in Yellow is dead on his feet, in literal fashion; Lynch shows us a close-up of Dorothy’s chipped tooth in her red lipstick-ed mouth then a little later Frank paints Jeffrey with lipstick and slaps him around, too; Frank’s crew stands by watching in complacence as he commits various unpredictable acts in a violent rage. Just as surreal as the absurdist situations in which Jeffrey finds himself throughout the film, from finding an ear in a field (the ants call to mind an image from 1929’s silent short film Un Chien Andalou) to witnessing the ritualistic sexual assault by Frank on Dorothy.
One of the reasons Lynch’s film acts as an excellent piece of visual literature is how he ties off the imagery. Whereas in the first couple scenes we go into the dead ear’s canal, the camera takes us back out of the ear later, except it’s Jeffrey’s ear, alive and in the sun; a transformative journey, from darkness into the light (a visual motif we see in the use of light Lynch employs in many scenes). In addition, the rightful Mother and Daddy are restored once Frank is dead; Mr. Beaumont is recovering well, the sun is shining, the backyards of suburbia are back to their dreamy quality again. Finally, while the darkness still exists – the robins feed on the bugs, the extent of Frank’s connections and the bad people in Lumberton remain unknown – a lightness is restored.
These elements help Lynch suture together his masterpiece of neo-noir surrealism. One of the greatest films made in the 20th century, a work of dangerous art. Lynch’s BLUE VELVET is Like Disturbing(ly Good) Literature Blue Velvet. 1986. Directed & Written by David Lynch. Starring Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern, Hope Lange, Dean Stockwell, George Dickerson, Priscilla Pointer, Frances Bay, Brad Dourif, & Jack Nance.
#Absurd#Blue Velvet#David Lynch#Dennis Hopper#Isabella Rossellini#Kyle MacLachlan#Laura Dern#Male Violence#Mommy Issues#Surrealism
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