LCDrarry 2024 Round-Up Post | Week 3
On Sundays during our posting period, we won't post a new work, instead you have time to catch up with the works that posted during the week and hopefully leave lovely comments for our creators.
Happy reading, commenting and sharing! ;)
~Your LCDrarry Mods
PS: Please have a look at the author notes and tags on AO3 for additional information. Thank you!
PPS: Please share far and wide! Thank you!!
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Podfic
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"The Pirc Defence" by sleepstxtic
Prompt: "The Queen’s Gambit", 2019, Scott Frank
Written by: @sleepstxtic
Narrated by: Anonymous
Podfic Length: 01:05:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: None
Summary: They were rivals, and they were lovers, and they were the greatest chess players of their generation. Exactly in that order.
Listen to it now on AO3.
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Art
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Draco's Moving Castle
Prompt: "Howl's Moving Castle", 2004, Hayao Miyazaki
Prompted by: @Somethingveryodd (newskyillusion on ao3)
Author: Anonymous
Art Medium: Digital
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: None
Summary: Art for LCDrarry2024 fest. Prompt was Howl's Moving Castle.
Read it now on AO3.
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Fic
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we were born to be national treasures
Prompt: "Legally Blonde", 2001, Robert Luketic
Prompted by: MoonyEmilie3017 (ao3)
Author: Anonymous
Word Count: 4,979 words
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: There is nothing triggering in the work, although it does heavily rely on the subject of needing academic validation as a woman in a patriarchal society.
Summary: Danica Malfoy is determined to study law and move forward in life. But is anything really ever that simple?
Read it now on AO3.
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End of Beginnings
Prompt: "All of Us Strangers", 2023, Andrew Haigh
Prompted by: Anonymous
Author: Anonymous
Word Count: 5,324 words
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Canonical Character Death
Summary: As Harry and Draco start developing a relationship, Harry finds himself drawn back to the Potter house in Godric's Hollow, where his parents appear to be living just as they were on the day they died.
Based on the movie All of Us Strangers (2023) though you don't have to have seen it to understand the fic.
Read it now on AO3.
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The Potters : Possessed case
Prompt: "The Conjuring", 2013, James Wan
Prompted by: Anonymous
Author: Anonymous
Word Count: 12,039 words
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Horror, blood, vomiting, mention of suicide, possession, exorcism
Summary: After a lecture, Harry and Draco meet a frightened woman, telling them that her entire family is scared to death of their new house.
But Harry and Draco wanted to take a break after a traumatising case. Maybe it's just natural causes and the house isn't haunted, right?
Read it now on AO3.
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By the Book
Prompt: "The Proposal", 2009, Anne Fletcher
Prompted by: Anonymous
Author: Anonymous
Word Count: 14,586 words
Rating: Teen and up
Warnings: None
Summary: It’s hard being Draco Malfoy: workaholic publishing professional extraordinaire. Between revolutionizing the Wizarding World and fighting with Harry Potter, his chief of staff, it makes sense Draco forgot to check his mother filed some paperwork. Oops. Easy enough to avoid deportation by saying he’s engaged to said manager.
Too bad that plan involves visiting Ottery St Catchpole, a gaggle of redheads, and defrauding the government.
Read it now on AO3.
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this strange effect
Prompt: "Killing Eve" (2018 - 2022)
Prompted by: Soulmates Drarry
Author: Anonymous
Word Count: 30,670 words
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Violence, Blood and Injury, Assassinations, Killing Eve AU, Murder, Light Poisoning, Obsessive Behavior, Reference to past addiction issues, Presents
Summary: Harry hated his job, his cousin, and his inability to figure out how to fit into the boring, depressing world around him. He kept his peace until Draco Malfoy turned out to not be dead like Harry thought he was. Deadly, though? Harry was going to figure that out.
Read it now on AO3.
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The Heart of the Heart
Prompt: "Howl's Moving Castle", 2004, Hayao Miyazaki
Prompted by: @Somethingveryodd (newskyillusion on ao3)
Author: Anonymous
Word Count: 52,775 words
Rating: Teen and up
Warnings: None
Summary: Harry Potter’s boring routine comes crumbling down when he takes the wrong shortcut at the wrong time; he almost ends up in a brawl, gets rescued by a handsome stranger, successfully escapes sentient tar, learns to walk on air and then becomes victim to a spiteful, petty and undeserved ageing curse - and all that within a single afternoon!
Now transformed into an old man, Harry decides to run away in search of a way to reverse the spell, but the path is precarious and the journey long. As he's trying to make his way through magic and treachery, danger and deceit, it's becoming abundantly clear that something more is hidden behind petty magic - something deeper and more valuable and connected all too thoroughly to what may only be classified as love.
Read it now on AO3.
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Please help promote the fest by sharing your favourite submissions, so more people can enjoy all the amazing new Drarry works of LCDrarry.
Thank you!
Creator reveals are on 15 June.
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So you've decided to play low combat or low magic D&D:
You probably should not.
If this were a video then I'd do a fake-out fade before coming back but unfortunately my medium of choice is "long tumblr text post no one asked for", so we must soldier on.
Here's the thing: if you are a person on the internet in TTRPG spaces, and particularly if you are a D&D player, you will, at some point, hear from someone with all the misguided zeal and smug dipshittery of a missionary, though to be fair usually significantly less of the violent racism, preaching the Good Word of Indie TTRPGs that you, stupid D&D player, simply must not have heard of.
Usually, I tell these people to fuck off, because they do not have any understanding of what game I'm trying to play, ie, D&D. However, if you want a game that's not full of combat and magic, I strongly advise you actually do check those indie TTRPGs out. PbtA isn't my jam but it is almost entirely RP and simple checks, ie, the sad husk of D&D when stripped of two of its three best qualities. Not that I'm biased. Savage Worlds, also not bad. Basically, if you want to play a game that doesn't do the core things D&D does...play a game that isn't D&D.
Ok but we want to play D&D though
If you absolutely must: pick one of low combat or low magic. You can't have both. It can, technically, be done, but only by Brennan Lee Mulligan and even then it was one of the weaker Dimension 20 seasons and also 4 of the 6 players had to be rogues. Also make sure your players are fully onboard, and both you and your players should have some experience with more standard D&D. Because here's the thing: the balance of D&D - what different classes can and can't do - tends to assume a decent amount of magic and combat. A ranger might be much more useful out of combat, but a barbarian's skill set is really skewed towards the battlefield. When you mess with the balance of gameplay, you also unbalance the classes.
(continued below the jump)
You also absolutely need to have your players on board, and this might mean "we play for 3 weeks and if it sucks, we stop, reroll, and play D&D normally," because I think a lot of people are into the concept of adding these challenges without realizing that they are actually harder and often less fun to do.
If you're new to D&D, again, I need to ask: why aren't you playing a different game that is more suited to your needs.
Ok! I've picked low combat.
Ohhhhh my god u picked low combat? should we tell everyone? Should we throw a party? should we invite the dalai lama
Now that I've gotten that out of my system: You can do this. Here's what I'd advise.
make a plot heavily dependent on intrigue, mystery, or discovery. You still need stakes and a goal, and turning this into something political, investigative, or centered around creative problem-solving.
Steer players towards what are typically known as the high-utility classes, depending on what kind of plot you've picked. If it's intrigue and politics, classes that favor charisma and stealth would be wise. If it's mystery, it's time for intelligence and high perception. If it's discovery, ranger skills are helpful. I would advise people lean towards the full casters, hybrid classes, and rogues, and even then, talk through the subclasses; war clerics are going to have a rough time of it.
It's low combat, not no-combat, and if the players snap and decide to murder hobo 1. all bets are off and 2. they're valid, and dare I say correct. Let the game evolve, and don't be too closely wed to your choice of low combat if the situation no longer makes sense for it.
I've picked low magic.
I don't have any jokes for you, just a withering glance.
You can do this, and honestly a lot of high fantasy is low magic; it's just, again, D&D has wizards in it. This situation is somewhat rife for the one character playing a full caster, if you permit that, to end up with disproportionate attention, because the other thing about high fantasy is that it has chosen one narratives, which are bad in D&D. Anyway, here's my advice.
Continuing with the high fantasy aspect: you know what high fantasy has, when it doesn't suck, is really good worldbuilding. Can you do this? No? Maybe don't play low magic. I'm not only being mean here: you better have a very good reason why there's not much magic but there is some. If magic is frowned upon, why? How is this enforced? Why didn't they stomp it out entirely? If your player is a full caster, how did they become one? Even if you burned all the arcane textbooks, if you still have things like gods and the echoes of creation and draconic bloodlines, you're gonna get some sorcerers and and bards and clerics. Why haven't they killed the people controlling magic? Is that the campaign? That would rule actually, and if you're not doing this you should....but even if you're not you really do need to do a ton of extra work on your world. You did this to yourself.
Also TBH "magic is illegal" is tough to do well and "not many people have magic, they just don't" is much easier, so like, do that. If you want truly no magic, then don't allow magic. Also play Blades in the Dark or something.
You do at least have more flexibility with general plots, so that's nice.
Do NOT skimp on combat if you've gone low-magic, because most of your PCs, unless you're doing the "we are special magic users" route (in which case, technically, the world is low magic but the game isn't), will be uh, low-magic, which means their abilities are all about fighting.
To that end: steer your characters towards martial classes unless the plot is Bringing Magic Back. Hybrid classes are good options if you'd like some magic but not too much.
FOR REAL THOUGH while a low-combat game can be framed as "these characters aren't in a place with tons of violence", a low-magic world needs the worldbuilding to support it. Are you up for the task?
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Spider-Man India, but... where from India?
A SUPER long post featuring talks of: cultural identity, characterisation, the caste system, and what makes Spider-Man Spider-Man.
I’m prefacing this by saying that I am a second-generation immigrant. I was born in Australia, but my cultural background is from South India. My experiences with what it means to be “Indian” is going to be very different from the experiences of those who are born and brought up in India.
If you, reader, want to add anything, please reblog and add your thoughts. This is meant to be a post open for discussion — the more interaction we get, the better we become aware of these nuances.
So I made this poll asking folks to pick a region of India where I would draw Pavitr Prabhakar in their cultural wear. This idea had been on my mind for a long while now, as I had been inspired by Annie Hazarika’s Northeastern Spidey artwork in the wake of ATSV’s release, but never got the time to actually do it until now. I wanted to get a little interactive and made the poll so I could have people choose which of the different regions — North, Northeast, Central, East, West, South — to do first.
The outcome was not what I expected. As you can see, out of 83 votes:
THE RESULTS
South India takes up almost half of all votes (44.6%), followed by Northeast and Central (both 14.5%) and then East (13.3%). In all my life growing up, support towards or even just the awareness of South India was pretty low. Despite this being a very contained poll, why would nearly half of all voters pick South India in favour of other popular choices like Central or North India?
Then I thought about the layout of the poll: Title, Options, Context.
Title: "Tell us who you want to see…"
Options: North, Northeast, Central, East, West, South
Context: I want to make art of the boy again
At first I thought: ah geez. this is my fault. I didn't make the poll clear enough. do they think I want them to figure out where Pavitr came from? That's not what I wanted, maybe I should have added the context before the options.
Then I thought: ah geez. is it my fault for people not reading the entire damn thing before clicking a button? That's pretty stupid.
But regardless, the thought did prompt a line of thinking I know many of us desi folk have been considering since Spider-Man India was first conceived — or, at least, since the announcement that he was going to appear in ATSV. Hell, even I thought of it:
Where did Spider-Man India come from?
FROM A CULTURALLY DIVERSE INDIA
As we know, India is so culturally diverse, and no doubt ATSV creators had to take that into account. Because the ORIGINAL Spider-Man India came from Mumbai — most likely because Mumbai and Manhattan both started with the same letter.
But going beyond that, it’s also because Mumbai is one of the most recognisable cities in India - it’s also known as Bombay. It’s where Bollywood films are shot. It’s where superstar Hindi actors and actresses show up. Mumbai is synonymous with India in that regard, because the easiest way Western countries can interact with Indian culture is through BOLLYWOOD, through HINDI FILMS, through MUMBAI. Suddenly, India is Mumbai, India is a Hindi-only country, India is just this isolated thing we see through an infinitely narrow lens.
We’ve gotten a little better in recent years, but boy I will tell you how uncomfortable I’ve gotten when people (yes, even desi people) come up to me and tell me, Oh, you’re Indian right? Can you speak Hindi? Why don’t you speak Hindi? You’re not Indian if you don’t speak Hindi, that’s India’s national language!
I have been — still am — so afraid of telling people that I don’t speak Hindi, that I’m Tamil, that I don’t care that Hindi is India’s “national” language (it’s an administrative language, Kavin, get your fucking facts right). It’s weird, it’s isolating, and it has made me feel like I wasn’t “Indian” enough to be accepted into the group of “Indian” people.
So I am thankful that ATSV went out of their way to integrate as much variety of Indian culture into the Mumbattan sequence. Maybe that way, the younger generation of desi folk won’t feel so isolated, and that younger Western people will be more open to learning about all these cultural differences within such a vast country.
BUT WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH SPIDER-MAN INDIA?
Everything, actually. There’s a thing called supremacy. You might have heard of it. We all engaged with it at some point, and if you are Indian, no matter where you live, it is inescapable.
It happens the moment you are born — who your family is, where you are born, the language you speak, the colour of your skin; these will be bound to you for life, and it is nigh impossible to break down the stereotypes associated with them.
Certain ethnic groups will be more favourable than others (Centrals, and thus their cultures, will always be favoured over than Souths, as an example) and the same can be said for social groups (Brahmins are more likely to secure influential roles in politics or other areas like priesthood, while the lowers castes, especially Dalits, aren’t even given the decency of respect). Don’t even get me started on colourism, where obviously those of fairer skin will win the lottery while those of darker skin aren’t given the time of day. It’s even worse when morality ties into it — “lighter skinned Indians, like Brahmins, embody good qualities like justice and wisdom”, “dark skinned Indians are cunning and poor, they are untrustworthy”. It’s fucking nuts.
This means, of course, you have a billion people trying to make themselves heard in a system that tries to crush everyone who is not privileged. It only makes sense that people want to elevate themselves and break free from a society that refuses to acknowledge them. These frustrations manifest outwardly, like in protests, but other times — most times — it goes unheard, quietly shaping your way of life, your way of thinking. It becomes a fundamental part of you, and it can go unacknowledged for generations.
So when you have a character like Pavitr Prabhakar enter the scene, people immediately latch onto him and start asking questions many Western audiences don’t even consider. Who is he? What food does he eat? What does he do on Fridays? What’s his family like, his community? All these questions pop up, because, amidst all this turmoil going on in the background, you want a mainstream popular character to be like you, who knows your way of life so intimately, that he may as well be a part of your community.
BUT THAT'S THE THING — HE'S FICTIONAL
I am guilty of this. In fact, I’ve flaunted in numerous posts how I think he’s the perfect Tamil boy, how he dances bharatanatyam, how he does all these Tamil things that no one will understand except myself. All these niche things that only I, and maybe a few others, will understand.
I’ve seen other people do it, too. I’ve seen people geek out over his dark brown skin, his kalari dhoti, how he fights so effortlessly in the kalaripayattu martial arts style. I’ve seen people write him as Malayali, as Hindi, as every kind of Indian person imaginable.
I’ve also seen him be written where he’s subjected to typical Indian and broader Asian stereotypes. You know the ones I’m so fond of calling out. The thing is, I’ve seen so much of Pavitr being presented in so many different ways, and I worry how the rest of the desi folk will take it.
You finally have a character who could be you, but now he’s someone else’s plaything. Your entire life is shaped by what you can and can’t do simply because you were born to an Indian family, and here’s the one person who could represent you now at the mercy of someone else’s whims. He’s off living a life that is so distant from yours, you can hardly recognise him.
It shouldn’t hurt as much as it does, yeah? But, again, you’re looking at it from that infinitely narrow lens Westerners use to look at India from Bollywood.
AND PAVITR PRABHAKAR DOESN'T LIVE IN INDIA
He lives in Mumbattan. He lives in a made-up, fictional world that doesn’t follow the way of life of our world. He lives in a city where Mumbai and Manhattan got fucking squashed together. There are so many memes about colonialism right there. Mumbattan isn’t real! Spider-Man India isn’t real!! He’s just a dude!! The logic of our world doesn’t apply to him!!!
“But his surname originates from ______” okay but does that matter?
“But he’s wearing a kalari dhoti so surely he’s ______” okay but does that matter?
“But his skin colour is darker so he must be ______” okay but does that matter?
“But he lives in Mumbai so he must be ______” okay but does that matter?
I sound insensitive and brash and annoying and it looks like I’m yapping just for the sake of riling you up, so direct that little burst of anger you got there at me, and keep reading.
Listen. I’m going to ask you a question that I’ve asked myself a million times over. I want you to answer honestly. I want you to ask this question to yourself and answer honestly:
Are you trying to convince me on who Pavitr Prabhakar should be?
...
but why shouldn't i?
I’ll tell you this again — I did the same thing. You’re not at fault for this, but I want you to just...have a little think over. Just a little moment of self-reflection, to think about why you are so intent on boxing this guy.
It took me a while to reorganise my thinking and how to best approach a character like Pavitr, so I will give you all the time you need as well as a little springboard to focus your thoughts on.
SPIDER-MAN (INDIA) IS JUST A MASK
“What I like about the costume is that anybody reading Spider-Man in any part of the world can imagine that they themselves are under the costume. And that’s a good thing.”
Stan Lee said that. Remember how he was so intent on making sure that everybody got the idea that Spider-Man as an entity is fundamentally broken without Peter Parker there to put on the suit and save the day? That ultimately it was the person beneath the mask, no matter who they were, that mattered most?
Spider-Man India is no less different. You can argue with me that Peter Parker!Spidey is supposed to represent working class struggles in the face of leering corporate entities who endanger the regular folk like us, and so Pavitr Prabhakar should also function the same way. Pavitr should also be a working class guy of this specific social standing fighting people of this other social standing.
But that takes away the authenticity of Spider-Man India. Looking at him through the Peter Parker lens forces you to look at him through the Western lens, and it significantly lessens what you can do with the character — suddenly, it’s a fight to be heard, to be seen, to be recognised. It’s yelling over each other that Pavitr Prabhakar is this ethnicity, is that caste, this or that, this or that, this or that.
There’s a reason why he’s called Spider-Man India, infuriatingly vague as it is. And that’s the point — the vagueness of his identity fulfils Lee’s purpose for a character that could theoretically be embodied by anyone. If he had been called “Spider-Man Mumbai”, you cut out a majority of the population (and in capitalist terms, you cut out a good chunk of the market).
And in the case of Spider-Man India? Whew — you’ve got about a billion people imagining a billion different versions of him.
Whoever you are, whatever you see in Pavitr, that is what is personal to you, and there is nothing wrong with that, and I will not fault you for it. I will not fault you for saying Pavitr is from Central due to the origins of his last name. I also will not fault you for saying Pavitr is from South due to him practising kalaripayattu. I also will not fault you for saying he is not Hindu. I also will not fault you for saying he is a particular ethnicity without any proof.
What I will fault you for is trying to convince me and the others around you that Pavitr Prabhakar should be this particular ethnicity/have this cultural background because of some specific reason. I literally don’t care and it is fundamentally going against his character, going against the “anyone can wear the mask” sentiment of Spider-Man. By doing this, you are strengthening the walls that first divided us. You’re feeding the stratification and segmentation of our cultures — something that is actually not present in the fictional world of Mumbattan.
Like I said before: Mumbattan isn’t real, so the divides between ethnicities and cultural backgrounds are practically nonexistent. The best thing is that it is visually there for all to see. My favourite piece of evidence is this:
It’s a marquee for a cinema in the Mumbattan sequence, in the “Quick tour: this is where the traffic is” section. It has four titles; the first three are written in Hindi. The fourth title is written in Tamil. You go to Mumbai and you won’t see a single shred of Tamil there, much less any other South Indian language. Seeing this for the first time, you know what went through my head?
Wow, the numerous cultures of India are so intermingled here in Mumbattan! Everyone and everything is welcome!
I was happy, not just because of Tamil representation, but because of the fact that the plethora of Indian cultures are showcased coexisting in such a short sequence. This is India embracing all the little parts that make up its grander identity. This scene literally opened my eyes seeing such beauty in all the diverse cultures thriving together. In a place where language and cultural backgrounds blend so easily, each one complementing one another.
It is so easy to believe that, from this colourful palette of a setting, Pavitr Prabhakar truly is Spider-Man India, no matter where he comes from.
It’s easy to believe that Pavitr can come from any part of India, and I won’t call you out if the origin you have for him is different from the origin I have. You don’t need to stake out territory and stand your ground — you’re entitled to that opinion, and I respect it. In fact, I encourage it!!!
Because there’s only so much you can show in a ten minute segment of a film about a country that has such a vast history and even greater number of cultures. I want to see all of it — I want him to be a Malayali boy, a Hindi boy, a Bengali boy, a Telugu boy, an Urdu boy, whatever!! I want you to write him or draw him immersed in your culture, so that I can see the beauty of your background, the wonderful little things that make your culture unique and different from mine!
And, as many friends have said, it’s so common for Indian folks to be migrating around within our own country. A person with a Maharashtrian surname might end up living in Punjab, and no one really minds that. I’m actually from Karnataka, my family speaks Kannada, but somewhere down the line my ancestors moved to Tamil Nadu and settled down and lived very fulfilling lives. So I don’t actually have the “pure Tamil” upbringing, contrary to popular belief; I’ve gotten a mix of both Kannada and Tamil lifestyles, and it’s made my life that much richer.
So it’s common for people to “not” look like their surname, if that’s what you’re really afraid about. In fact, it just adds to that layer of nuance, that even despite these rigid identities between ethnicities we as Indian people still intermingle with one another, bringing slivers of our cultures to share with others. Pavitr could just as well have been born in one state and moved around the country, and he happens to live in Mumbattan now. It’s entirely possible and there’s nothing to disprove that.
We don’t need to clamber over one another declaring that only one ethnicity is the “right” ethnicity, because, again, you will be looking at Pavitr and the rest of India in that narrow Western lens — a country with such rich cultural variety reduced to a homogenous restrictive way of life.
THE POLL: REINTERPRETED
This whole thing started because I was wondering why my little poll was so skewed — I thought people assumed I was asking them where he came from, then paired his physical appearance with the most logical options available. I thought it was my fault, that I had somehow influenced this outcome without knowing.
Truth is, I will never really know. But I will be thankful for it, because it gave me the opportunity to finally broach this topic, something that many of us desi folk are hesitant to talk about. I hope you have learned something from this, whether you are desi or a casual Spider-Man fan or someone who just so happened to stumble upon this.
So just…be a little more open. Recognise that India, like many many countries and nations, is made up of a plethora of smaller cultures. And remember, if you’re trying to convince Pavitr that he’s a particular ethnicity, he’s going to wave his hand at you and say, “Ha, me? No, I’m one of the people that live here in the best Indian city! I’m Spider-Man India, dost!”
(Regardless, he still considers you a friend, because to him, the people matter more to him than you trying to box him into something he’s not.)
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