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saintsenara · 8 months

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author self-recommendation

thank you so much for the tag (quite a long time in the past...) @ashesandhackles!

when you get this, reply with your five favourite fics that you've written. then pass it on to five other writers. spread some self love.

did i laugh at self love? the answer is yes.

these are my five (and by five i mean six) favourite complete fics - obviously i’m sufficiently fond of my wips to keep coming back to them, no mean feat for someone with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder - and i’m hyped to get to showcase them.

bookbinding

tom riddle/myrtle warren teen | 35k words

lord voldemort and moaning myrtle in a rom-com - and especially a rom-com with a happy ending - may not appear to be the instinctive response to a prompt from @ladiesofhpfest asking for heartthrobs and heartaches. and yet, when i started writing it i couldn’t stop. my profound affection for dear old tom marvolo riddle is well known, but i’ve also always been very fond of myrtle, and i really dislike the way she’s treated in the canon narrative - especially, as i’ve said before, the fact that she is one of the worst victims of jkr’s tendency to use a lack of conventional physical attractiveness (and, in particular, fatness) to indicate characters the reader is not supposed to root for.

i like the fact that the glimpses of myrtle we see in the series - when she’s not shrieking (behaviour, may i say, i find relatable) - show someone who has lots of admirable traits, which are only poorly expressed because she’s forever fourteen (can you imagine). she’s kind, she’s perceptive, she’s strong-willed, she’s sensitive, she’s assertive. on the other hand, she’s clearly very lonely, she can be extremely clingy, she’s unhappy at hogwarts, she’s insecure. she’s also someone with a bit of a cruel streak, who clearly understands the impulse to externalise one’s own self-loathing onto other people.

in other words, she’s tom’s dream girl. once she’s worn him down a bit.

i loved writing this, i made myself chuckle self-indulgently on multiple occasions, i have teared up at dozens of the comments i have received about it (someone made a reddit post recommending it at exactly the moment i was leaving a horrendous day at work and i was on the train howling like myrtle in her u-bend), and i like to imagine the two of them are still happy nonagenarians in some universe somewhere.

everlasting ink

harry potter/ginny weasley teen | 6k words

this was a gift for @whinlatter, because she is a sweetie-pie. it was also a gift for me - not only because it was lovely to write, but because it enabled me to indulge in one of my favourite emotions: spite.

i am on the record as not being a fan of hinny. there are several reasons for this, some sillier than others, but one major one is that harry’s idealisation of ginny within the seven book canon into a place of comfort and safety is pretty fucking condescending. harry never acknowledges in the text that ginny spends deathly hallows as a resistance leader in her own right, he's constantly trying to direct her away from the fighting despite acknowledging generally that she is a talented duellist, he associates her primarily with the safe-space of the burrow, he breaks up with her ‘for her own protection’ without offering her a choice in the matter, he doesn’t welcome her into his intensely co-dependent relationship with ron and hermione, and - and i think this really is the kicker - he's incredibly dismissive of her experience with tom riddle. indeed, harry separates the voldemort of canon out into two people: there’s tom, who is an orphan, and is hot, and whom harry pities; and there's voldemort, who has red eyes, no nose, and killed his parents. but ginny can’t have these two separate people in her head. the horror she experienced came at the hands of the pretty, charming, sympathetic voldemort - and harry really doesn’t get that. and sure, by the epilogue harry and ginny appear to have ended up in a happy, equal marriage. but the text never shows us how they get there, and i think it’s perfectly plausible to write stuff in which they don’t.

which is to say, i published an extremely tongue-in-cheek post saying this, and several hinny fans were amusingly passive-aggressive about it. undoubtedly they thought my position as a tomarry defender had scrambled my brain and i couldn’t see the beauty with which the complex parts of their favourite ship could be written.

so i did it. six thousand words on ginny and harry learning to function as a couple among the dust of war and grief, featuring ginny’s complicated feelings on how harry sees her, voldemort, being a daughter and a mother, relating to ron and hermione, heredity, love, and what being a family really means. i enjoyed writing it, and the chance it gave me to think from the other side about what hinny would need to work, how the characterisations of harry and ginny (and voldemort!) i typically write could be nuanced, and what trauma looks like in the immediate aftermath of the battle of hogwarts. and i also enjoyed writing it to prove that i could.

that i have received no reciprocal tomarry in return has been noted…

leather

nymphadora tonks/multiple explicit | 3k words

this was something which spiralled out of a conversation with @evesaintyves around the blind-spots many of us have as authors when thinking about sexuality and gender identity - and especially how those blind-spots become particularly pronounced when they come up against canon compliancy. initially, we were talking about hinny - and the fact that keeping them as end-game has absolutely no reason to prevent either of them identifying as queer, either of them exploring their sexuality or gender identity within their relationship, or, indeed, either of them still understanding themselves as cisgender by the time the epilogue takes place - but we then moved on to talking about tonks, and how the readably queer aspects of her canon characterisation (at least in order of the phoenix) are treated within many of the popular ships which feature her, and, in particular, how both her and lupin’s (potential) queerness is sometimes obscured within end-game remadora. there are numerous reasons for this, and the vast majority are - of course - the result of gentle, human fallibility rather than maliciousness, but it set me to thinking…

so here we have a canon-compliant look at tonks looking at herself, exploring her sexuality, becoming comfortable with her gender, and thinking about how her metamorphing would impact how she understands both of those things, shot through with the hedonistic paradise of the lesbian bar and the tight hold of leather.

lux aurumque

sirius black & james potter teen | 3.5k words

sirius’ last days of normality, before he is betrayed by wormtail, haunt me. the idea of this poor lad, who is absolutely convinced he’s pulled a blinder which will keep the man he loves safe - even if it results in his own death - having that certainty pulled out from under him is just devastating. no wonder he couldn’t stop laughing at the grim absurdity of it all as they carried him off to azkaban.

one of the things i find most fascinating about sirius as a character is how he embodies the value of choice - and, above all, how he does so far more than james, whose brief appearances in canon set him up as someone with a much more self-righteous certainty about the path he will take than his best friend. sirius chose to leave his family, and fight, and protect the potters, and he also made a choice which would prove to be disastrous and lives with the consequences.

so, here we have seven dawns which change sirius black - or, red and gold for the man who chose those colours and earned them several times over - featuring harry being a mashed potato fiend and maybe the tiniest bit of prongsfoot if you squint.

there’s basically no lupin though, because he is - i fear - irrelevant.

nor all that glisters gold

sirius black & bellatrix lestrange teen | 9k words

i am definitely a committed james & sirius (or james/sirius) girly, but another dynamic i love to explore is sirius’ relationship with his cousins, bellatrix chief among them. in fact, i always think that sirius’ choices become all the more impressive when we consider that he’s - let’s be honest - quite a lot like his dear and deranged relative. they have a shared arrogance, a shared ruthlessness, a shared deranged jealousy, a shared dogged loyalty, and a shared complicated relationship with their role in their family, which i can see leading to an incredibly intense and codependent friendship, despite their age gap, when sirius is a child.

but this, of course, is then utterly torn apart when sirius enters his teens. this piece asks why. is it just the inevitable drifting which happens when one of you is married and the other is in gryffindor? or is someone else the cause? the dark lord, perhaps?

remus lupin is once again irrelevant in this. sorry to him.

the shack at the end of the lane

merope gaunt & voldemort general | 4k words

death is something i think about a great deal. not because i’m unusually morbid - nor, at the risk of protesting too much, because i’m a killer - but because i’m a doctor, in a speciality where death - and often death in traumatic circumstances - is ever present. obviously, one way of coping with this involves quite a lot of dissociation from what’s in front of you, but another is trying to treat the dead with as much dignity as possible, which is often more dignity than they had when they were dying. the cadaver is a colleague, as one of my professors was fond of saying.

spending so much time trying to offer this fundamental dignity is the cause, i think, of my fondness for attempting to write meaningfully about people who are in no way the heroes of pieces. the violent, the sad, the lonely, and the unlikeable appeal to me far more than the good. our star, merope gaunt, and the combined forces of the horrifying things she did to tom riddle sr. and the horrifying things she endured herself within a world which didn’t give her the tools to know any better, is all four of those things. and i have built her an (after)life here where she can try to make up for what she did on earth by acting as the ferrywoman for a procession of other lost souls on the other side of the veil...

i have taken so long to bother doing this that i’m sure everyone’s done it. if not, please consider this a blanket tag.

#asenora fic recs #hp fic recs #bookbinding #everlasting ink #leather #lux aurumque #nor all that glisters gold #the shack at the end of the lane #tom riddle x myrtle warren #hinny #nymphadora tonks #sirius black #bellatrix lestrange #merope gaunt

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baambastic · 1 month

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Woo Be Upon Ye:

Medieval fantasy TimKon AU where Kon is a half-dragon prince of the realm who elevates commoner Tim to the Royal Guard on a whim. Also has Bart as an apprentice mage, Donna and Cassie as Themiscyran ambassadors, many of Tim’s school friends as Royal Guards, Wildcat as a mentor, the Daily Planet staff as the royal council, and more! Planned as part one of a four-part series.

Bernard Dowd vs. The World:

After hearing Tim’s many, many, many stories about his friends, Bernard realizes that almost all of Tim’s guy friends were hitting on Tim at multiple points. Failing to convince Tim of this, however, Bernard makes it his mission to obtain written testimonies from as many of said friends as he can to support his case. Such friends include Superboy, Danny Temple, Sebastian Ives, Lonnie Machin, and more.

Two for the Price of Them:

In this AU, Tim’s 100th cloning attempt is a success, and so clones of both Kon and Bart are created. Partway through the artificial aging process, however, an agent of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. (overhauled from the same metahuman-abduction organization from the New52) attacks. Tim is forced to go on the run and off the grid with the two clone babies.

The World Didn’t Stand Still:

When Kathy Branden plugs a Phantom Zone Crystal into her teleportal and visits the Phantom Zone, she comes back with a young Krytonian boy, Chris Kent, who claims to be the foster son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane. Effectively taking pre-boot Chris from after his debut story and transporting him into post-Rebirth continuity. Part of a planned trilogy of fics centered on Chris. Guaranteed that they will not end with Chris getting punted into the Phantom Zone for an unknown length of time.

The Dichotomy of Lor-Zod and Chris Kent:

In post-Infinite Frontiers continuity, Lor-Zod begins getting flashes of a life before his own, of a life where he was family to the loathsome Kal-El of the House of El. Lor’s father, Dru-Zod, convince Lor that his affliction must be the machinations of the Justice League’s Martian Manhunter, a psychic attack meant to weaken New Kandor for invasion. Along with Non as a chaperone, Lor-Zod goes on a quest to hunt the Martian Manhunter, though he’s really on the path to restoring his pre-boot history and identity, and all the internal conflict that comes from the contradictions between his two selves. Effectively how I would approach reconciling the current iteration of Lor-Zod with Chris Kent. Guest-starring Martian Manhunter and M’gann M’orzz.

The Cola Caper:

Upon hearing the devastating news that an embargo on the island nation of Santa Prisca will halt the distribution of Zesti Cola in the United States, Dick and Tim go on a mission to infiltrate Santa Prisca and abscond with as much Zesti as they can, and maybe even the secret recipe if they’re lucky.

Stray Little Tiger:

A Billy Batson-centric fic placed in a Stray!Tim Drake AU. Selina Kyle, on her way home from a caper, comes across a lightning-struck boy in an alley. Clearly homeless and in need of help, she decides to take the boy in until he’s healed, though the lightning seems to have severely damaged his vocal cords. She doesn’t know that this boy is Billy Batson, that he’s Captain Marvel, or that there’s something deeply wrong with the Rock of Eternity. This story is told mainly from Selina’s POV, with occasional sidetracks to Tim’s POV, but never Billy’s POV. Identity shenanigans, found family, magic problems, and more.

A Single Word Spoken:

A girl in the shape of a weapon is brought to Fawcett City, where she fulfills her purpose for the first and last time.

The girl who can no longer be a weapon hides from her wielder in an old subway and finds herself transported to a place of great magic.

There, the girl who wishes to be more than she was made to be finds a Wizard, who sees the girl for her heart and not for the blood staining her skin.

The Wizard teaches the girl a name.

Cassandra speaks her first word.

And in so doing, she speaks power.

Also featuring Cass navigating the anachronistic Fawcett City, befriending Billy Batson, codependency issues, an old man who’s also a Bengal tiger, ancient grudges, a different old man who’s barely qualified to give Cass life advice, and more.

Fake it For the Win:

While on a cruise, Tim and Kon decide to fake being married in order to compete on an onboard game show for married couples. When they actually win, though, they have no choice but to keep up the act for the rest of their trip. Fake dating to real dating, with a focus on comedy.

Crossroads of Fate and Eternity:

JLI-era fic with a couple of canon-divergent indulgences. Kent Nelson, helped by Khalid Nassour, decides to take Billy Batson under his wing as a student of the mystic arts. Magic lessons, Tower of Fate and Rock of Eternity shenanigans, Bromfield family stuff, an ancient entity and an ancient demon, philosophy, and other such tidbits.

A Little Ways Along the Family Tree:

When a villain travels through time to the future and accidentally takes Robin with him, Damian Wayne must team up with Mar’i and Jake Grayson to defeat the villain and return Damian to his proper time.

A High-Speed Romantic Tryst on an Open-Water Murder Shack:

When a couple of thugs steal a houseboat belonging to one of Tim’s marina neighbors while he and Bernard are hanging out, the two of them give chase in Tim’s own houseboat. Comedy, crack treated seriously.

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irisinluv · 2 months

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Yandere Stardew Valley- Sebastian

I've been playing some Yandere Stardew mods recently. While I love them..... I feel like they do my husband (Sebastian) wrong. The citizens of Pelican Town are telling me that they can't hang out with me because Sebstian threatened them. That they've noticed some weird behavior. That he's physically violent. I disagree with all of these for Sebby.

He's our hot programmer boyfriend who lives in his basement bedroom, and only emerges to enjoy a smoke break, or to go see his friends. Now, while again, I do enjoy playing the mods...... I think his cannon behavior sets him up to be the perfect chronically online yandere. Pelican Town isn't exactly the most connected (6 out of the 11 rivals have access to a computer), but there's still potential. Obviously they're gonners if they have a computer. Sam finds himself doxed after making a comment about the gifts you gave him this week, and poor Haley's socials are blowing up with hate comments- from her personal insta to her photography blog.

But what about the other 5? The ones who are more disconnected? Well. It's easy enough to get Shane fired from joja. A little email to Morris from "HQ" saying he either fires Shane or his own pay gets docked..... well. Suddenly, everyone's favorite alcoholic doesn't even have a job anymore. Elliott suddenly has all these taxes he hasn't paid on his little shack..... beachfront properties cost a lot, you know. The parents stop letting Penny watch their kids after some..... explicit photos get leaked. It doesn't matter that they're edited. These people don't know about Photoshop. All they know is apparently Penny's making ends meet to support her mother..... and there's a new favorite subject to gossip on between all the older women. The other rivals are equally taken care of. All you need to focus on now is how Sebastian is the only reliable option in the whole damn town.

And he knows you so well, doesn't he? You, who lived away from it all until now. You, who WAS connected to the internet. Who had their entire life detailed through Facebook updates and Instagram posts. Honestly, Sebastian thinks that maybe he DOESN'T need to leave Pelican town... looking at the life you lived before coming to the valley, he thinks its much easier to keep you safe when he can control everything that goes on. There were too many factors to your old life. Too many parties to go to, coworkers to talk to, ex-boyfriends/girlfriends worry about. No. Sebastian thinks that city life isn't fit for the two of you to start you life together.

While he enjoyed seeing the trip down memory lane of who you were before becoming the farmer, and learning more about your likes and dislikes, he much prefers this version of you. The version of you who he found bouncing on their toes outside his door, excitedly shoving a frozen tear at him. Who eventually became the only person he was genuinely excited to have come barging into his room unannounced. And the thought of moving into the farm with you was all together far too tempting. He can picture it already. He'd set up a little area to work on his bike, he'd help out around the farm for you (he saw your hands covered in scrapes and splinters one day, and you sheepishly told him your fences had started wearing down.... but fixing a fence was another first for you. So you ended up scraping yourself up a bit on the old wood. Now, Sebastain, who, while he doesn't enjoy it, grew up with a carpenter mother..... well. He's going to make sure you never have that many splinters again.) Oh and he can already imagine it. The two of you, far away from the rest of the town, from prying eyes, no one to hear what you two would get up to as he helped you relax after a long day of working the feilds.....

This fantasy would sustain him until you eventually asked him to marry you. I don't think he would rush anything. To you, and the rest of the citizens, he was just normal Sebastian. Showing up for band practice, playing pool at the bar (although he seemed to play much better when a certain farmer came to watch). He just realized that the best way to control all the factors in town would be to remain anonymous. Avoid suspicion. After all. In a small town like that, it would be all too easy to turn against him if he decided to publicly threaten someone. And how would you react if you came to drop off some fresh sashimi to your boyfriend, only to find him being dragged out of his house by Clint, with Marlon standing nearby, ready to ship him off to face justice in the adventurers guild? No. That wouldn't do. He can't add any more stress to you like that. He'd remain the puppeteer, pulling the strings of the valley.

This isn't to say Sebastian never stalks you in person or anything like that. He can't help himself. He's a night owl. He knows the villagers schedules, has since before you even came to town. So, he knows he can get away with digging in the trash to find the straw you threw away at the bar. And if someone does hear him.... well. Linus is going to be everyone's first thought. He does, however, start adopting a stricter routine as far as monitoring your house after you mention how you sell your produce.

Sebastian was rightfully horrified when you explained that Mayor Lewis comes by your farm at night to collect anything you wish to sell. How it's such a relief to be able to just chuck things in the the bin as you're rushing to bed at 1:50 in the morning, only to get up first thing and start your day again, and not have to worry about lugging all your goods to the store. Sebastian won't criticize you for the lack of sleep..... no. That's not what's worrying. What's worrying is that this old man who has a gold statue of himself and who gets it on in the bushes with his secret girlfriend (of course Sebastian knows about that) is showing up to your house sometime after 2 am. His mind flashes back to his fantasy of the two of you, completely alone on the farm.... and then is mortified as this fantasy morphs into a nightmare where he looks up from bed with you, and sees Lewis' wrinkled face peering through the window. Yea. No. Sebastain installs some hidden cameras to make sure Lewis doesn't get up to anything funny while you're defenseless, asleep, alone..... ok he might need to get a new mayor elected. The old man might just have to go. Perhaps to a home outside the town. Regardless, he makes sure Lewis stops coming by as frequently. Frustratingly, he isn't able to completely stop it, but that'll be an easy fix once the two of you are married. He'll act surprised, "wow Lewis, that's so kind of you to help out the farmer all this time. But hey, don't worry, I'll take over. I'm up late anyways, and it's the least I can do!" But Sebastian still wakes up in a cold sweat and frantically rushes to check the cameras, making sure you're OK. That Lewis really is just checking the shipping bin.

Once y'all get married, he shows a bit more of that possessive side to you. But you chalk it up to just bedroom spicy time, and honestly find his hand tightening on your waist as Elliot asks you to read his latest poem hot.

Just. Yandere Sebastian brain rot.

#yandere #yandere stardew valley #yandere blog #yandere imagine #tw yandere #obsessive yandere #stardew valley #yandere sebastian

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builtbybrokenbells · 6 months

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Gold Dust Woman | Epilogue

A quick glimpse into the future.

Pairing: Jake Kiszka x f!reader

Word count: 3.5k

Warnings: tooth rotting sweetness 🫶🏻

I couldn’t end this series without some fluff, come on now. Hopefully Jake lane takes this as a sufficient apology for breaking your hearts for a while 😁 thank you all for being the best, and as always, enjoy, be kind, and don’t mind any grammar mistakes.

It’s astounding just how much can change in a year and six months. Your home, although decorated the same, was completely rid from the demons of loneliness that once haunted the building. If you looked hard enough, you could see the areas that once appeared empty beginning to fill with memories of love. Pictures hung in expensive frames, small items littered on counters and shelves to remind you that behind the door, it was no longer just your own life contained inside, it was two. Shampoo bottles standing side by side in the shower, two toothbrushes sitting beside the sink, and two coffee mugs always paired together no matter dirty or clean. A Les Paul and an SG always taking post in the living room, illuminated by the sunlight during the day and blanketed with moonlight during the night. A record collection that had doubled in size, and a bed that only ever previously had one messy side was now in constant disarray. Your clothes no longer littered the floors by their lonesome, because there were plenty of button-ups and t-shirts from another wardrobe to keep them company.

In a year and six months, your house was completely different from the one it used to be. It was filled with laughter, light, and a promise of forever. It was something you never thought the world would bless you with, yet it seemed to surprise you more every day. Although more messy, your home was more inviting than it had ever been. You owed it all to one person, and it was not yourself. Jake had made the sorrow excuse for a wooden shack into your most favourite place in the entire world. He had filled up every empty corner with materialistic items, and the rest with his heart to remind you that as long as he was living, you would never need to be alone again.

It was also intriguing to see just how little things changed in the same time period. You thought that after eighteen months of the same thing every day, you might become bored or outgrow the habits you had fallen into, but neither were true. Your heart still sang with joy each morning, and your body still felt the same peace as it did the day he asked you to be his girlfriend. You worried that the happiness would wear off and you would find yourself stuck in the misery you had been so familiar with your entire life, yet it never made a return. As much as you feared change that might come, it was only proven further with every day that passed that the rest of your life was destined to be just as it was; happy, comfortable, and prosperous. You were eternally grateful for the stability, and you hoped to live in the bubble of elation for the rest of your days.

After the tour came to an end, you all packed up your things with worry about the future. Gold Dust Woman as a band had no plans, yet a following that was steadily growing larger as time went on. Greta Van Fleet was large in their popularity, destined for more fame without a doubt about it. With a new relationship, you feared that distance might add a pressure to your life that you were not equipped to handle, but when the homecoming plane landed, it only took a few moments to decide that Jake would be moving in with you. There was not a hesitation in the process, and it comforted you to know that even if he was gone, he was still all around you.

Finding inspiration in your own leap of faith, Danny and Dylan followed your footsteps not too long after. With your personal lives settled, you thought that as a next step, recording music would be your newest and most exciting adventure. You were not wrong in assuming so, and within the first six months, you had ten songs prepared and awaiting for your first ever EP as a band. You were picked up by a label in no time, and the producing process began. It was a tedious time of relentless marketing and interviews, including a few more gigs for short tours as an opening act for other bands. Now, with the PR out of the way and a team of your own, you were anxiously awaiting the arrival of your very first physical copy of your own record.

Midway through your journey with touring, you had taken a small break to come home and spend time with Jake before he left for his own tour. During your visit, you were pleased to find out that Sam had met someone who turned his world upside down. You were lucky enough to meet her and discover that she was everything he had ever dreamed of, and he was happier than you had ever seen him before. Thus began your quick work at repairing your friendship, finding it incredibly easy to open yourselves back up to each other and return to what you used to be before the brothers relentless conquest for your heart. The world seemed perfect, and although the hurt you experienced during the battle was debilitating, the damage was minimal compared to the prosperity of the future. The scars were white, long gone from memory and replaced by stretch marks that formed from being so full of love and happiness.

You had always been the type to gag at the thought of a fairytale ending, yet now that you were living amidst one, you could finally understand why so many people craved it so desperately. You could not imagine returning to the lifestyle you lived before Jake, because it all seemed bleak and depressing. Constantly searching for a thrill, never having the nerve to speak your truth, never knowing where you were going or where you would end up. It was sickening to recall, and even on your hardest days, or when you went weeks without being able to touch him, your life with Jake was beyond anything you had ever felt or lived before. He was your forever, and your only worry was that you didn’t have enough time in one lifespan to love him. You worried that there wasn’t enough time in the entire universe to love Jake the way he deserved, but you tried your hardest to be the best you could be for him, because god knows he was doing it for you.

You were sat on the couch of your living room, pondering over the empty space that seemed to be growing larger by the day. Jake’s SG was long gone from its stand, and had been for weeks. He was travelling the world and doing what he loved, and you were so happy for him, yet it did not take away from the fact that you missed him terribly. Each day it seemed like the minutes passed slower, and you were counting every second until he walked through the front door. You only had a few more days to go, but you were beginning to believe you wouldn’t survive it. Phone calls and texts only went so far, and you missed his company more than you cared to admit.

A show was playing softly on the television, but you were no longer invested in the screen. You were writing in your journal, hoping to finish some lyrics for a new song you had started. There was an incense smouldering away on the windowsill, the smoke sending a peaceful haze across the room and leaving a calming aroma in the air. The sun was twinkling through the windows, wrapping around the blinds you had pulled across and sending rays through the emptiness of the room. It was cozy, comfortable, yet seemed to be missing something. You knew that feeling would flee as soon as Jake was back home and sitting on the couch beside you. Your coffee cup beside you was spewing pathetic spurts of steam, long forgotten in your mind and destined to be remembered once it was too cold to enjoy.

You snapped from your thoughts, hearing the door open and keys jingling softly. You figured it must be Dylan; she had a spare key and used it quite often when both of your boyfriends were gone off on tour. The loss of constant companionship was made easier with a best friend like her, because she was always willing to help pass the time. Whether it was playing music, or going for brunch, or even just existing together, she was always down for it. She had taken Danny’s place in the routine Sunday Brunches when he was unable to make it, and you weren’t shy in admitting that she did a great job at making them just as fun. Sometimes, when the boys were free from work, the four of you would go together and fill the afternoon with casual drinks and laughter. No matter what, you were constantly surrounded with family, and it was more fantastic than you ever imagined it to be. Sometimes, chosen family was far beyond anything blood relatives could provide, and they outweighed every expectation that you had. You had no idea where you would be without them.

You stood, figuring you could be kind enough to greet her at the door. When you rounded the corner into the kitchen and stepped into the hallway, your heart nearly exploded straight from your chest. At the front door, with a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a box in the other, Jake was standing alone, surrounded with breathtaking beauty as always. He looked up at you, a blinding smile taking over his face, letting you know he was just as excited to see you. “Surprise.” He whispered, kicking his shoes off and walking to meet you. You took off in a sprint, too excited to care about your childish behaviour, and nearly tackled him with the strength in which you hugged him. He laughed, wrapping his arms around you as best he could with the items in his hands. “I missed you, angel.” He placed a kiss to your head, savouring the sweetness for as long as he could.

“What are you doing home so early?” You asked, although the words came out quite muffled due to your face being buried in his chest. The familiar scent was overpowering, holding you captive and intoxicating you immediately. Sandalwood, but it was no longer laced with the implications of sin; it was home, and it was the most sacred of all.

“I couldn’t wait any longer to see you.” He admitted, drawing back from you only slightly. He leaned down, pressing a soft kiss to your lips. “I’m so glad I did, because something came in the mail.” He grinned, reminding you of the box he was holding in his hand.

“Is that what I think it is?” Your eyes were glistening with excitement, knowing that he was wondering the same thing.

“Let’s find out.” He said, nodding his head down the hallway. Together, you walked into the kitchen and he set the package on the table. He let his bag drop to the ground before he went off in search of a vase for the flowers.

“I can do that,” you offered, practically vibrating at the thought of what was inside the box. He shook his head, reaching into a cupboard and grabbing the item he had been looking for. He filled it with water, carefully removing the flowers from the brown paper wrapping and setting them inside. He placed them on the table before kissing you on top of the head.

“Are you gonna open it?” He asked, looking down at your nervous hands settled on top of the package.

“I’m scared.” You chuckled, trying to stop the tremors in your fingers.

“Don’t be.” He said, wrapping an arm around you and pulling you into his side. “We’ll do it together.”

“Yeah, together.” You nodded, picking up the box and slowly pulling back the tape. You balled it up, tossing it down on the table as you opened up the flaps. On top of a mound of bubble wrap sat a card. You pulled it out, looking inside all while feeling like you could throw up. You read over the words written inside, feeling the anxiety morph into excitement. “That’s sweet.” You smiled, setting the card by the flowers. It was a note of congratulations from your label, making sure you were well informed of the huge milestone you had achieved. You slowly picked out the bubble wrap, setting it to the side while drawing in a long breath.

Your gaze fell over the cover of the vinyl record, immediately prompting tears in your eyes. You took a step back, letting out a shaky laugh as you dried your eyes. Jake looked back at you, more proud than he had ever been in his entire life. “You did that, sweetheart.” He said, unable to contain his own excitement. You could hear his tone wavering as he tried to hold back his own tears, only sending you spiralling even further. He pulled you into another hug, allowing you to air out your surge of emotions.

After a moment, you reached into the box and pulled it out. The cover was gold, shimmering under the sunlight flowing in from the windows. ‘Gold Dust Woman’ was embossed on the surface in pitch black lettering, standing out from the background. You flipped it over, looking over the track list. At the very bottom in small print, you could see the production rights trademarked by your company. “That’s me,” you squeaked, pointing at your name alongside Dylan and Riley’s. “That’s my name.”

“It is,” he laughed, leaning in to get a closer look at it. “I’m so proud of you, y/n. More than you’ll ever know.”

“Thank you,” you whispered, pulling the record from the sleeve to cement the reality of the situation. “I couldn’t have done it without you, baby.” He let out a scoff, shaking his head at your statement.

“You can do anything you put your mind to, sweetheart. All I do is cheer you on.” You looked up at him, love surrounding the two of you as hearts danced in your eyes. You leaned up, almost forgetting the record in your hand while you were in his company. There was nothing quite as captivating as Jake, and he seemed to outshine everything else. You kissed him, pouring all of your emotion into him and telling him all you needed to just from the small action.

“I’m so happy you’re home.” You mumbled against his lips. “I missed you so much.”

“I’m happy to be home.” He said, smiling against you as he kissed you again. It seemed like the two of you could never get enough of each other, and you wouldn’t have it any other way. “Now, are you going to listen to it, or what?”

“Yeah,” you giggled, looking back to the album in your hand. “In a minute.”

“Go, I’ll be right here when you come back.” He chuckled at your unwillingness to leave.

“Trying to get rid of me?” You raised an eyebrow.

“Never,” he said, his tone telling you that his statement was final and not up for debate.

“Okay, I’ll be right back.” You said, rushing off to the living room. You carefully placed the record down on the couch, removing the vinyl that was sitting on the player and placing it back in the proper sleeve. You took out your own, gently placing it down and then putting the needle on the surface. You turned the volume up and the television off, waiting for a moment while the static turned into music. You heard a clear drum beat fill the air before your guitar joined in, followed by a clear bass line. You were thrilled, the sound better than you ever imagined it could be. You couldn’t believe that it was really your song playing over the speaker, but it was real, and it was the most exhilarating feeling you had ever experienced. “Jake, do you hear this!?” You shouted, cheeks aching from the permanent smile stuck on your face.

“I hear it, angel.” He replied, but he sounded occupied with something else. “I almost forgot, I have something else for you.” You furrowed your eyebrows, confused at what else he could possibly have for you. “Come here for a minute.”

“Okay,” you said, confusion evident in your tone. You made your way back to the kitchen, a bubble of anxiety rising in your stomach. He sounded distant, nervous almost as he called out to you. You had never known Jake to be anything less than self-assured even when he was wrong, and you were curious about what was so heavy on his mind that it changed his normal routine. When you first entered the room, you didn’t see him straight away.

You were confused at his whereabouts, knowing that his voice had been coming from the kitchen, yet you didn’t see him standing in his previous spot. You walked around the table, freezing in your tracks almost immediately. Your eyes went wide as your heart dramatically thudded against your rib cage. Jake was on one knee, hands shaking as he held a small velvet box in his hands. “Oh, god, Jake.” You breathed, bringing your hand over your chest to sooth your erratic heartbeat.

“That doesn’t sound very good.” He gave a nervous chuckle, just as scared as you were about the whole thing.

“No!” You shook your head, easing his mind before he descended too far into his own thoughts. “Not like that, just… wow.”

“I was going to wait, but I couldn’t. I don’t want to wait anymore, y/n.” He spoke so softly that his voice barely broke through the air. “I’ve known since the day I met you, so I don’t see a point in putting it off. I want to spend forever with you, if you want it, too. You are my whole heart, the reason I can get out of bed in the morning and the only thing that helps me sleep through the night. You’re my best friend, the absolute love of my life, and I can’t think of a single reason why I wouldn’t want to be yours forever.” He said, watching your face carefully in case there was any chance you didn’t want what he was offering. “I don’t want to sit and watch while the rest of our lives pass us by. It would be the greatest honour to marry you, Gold Dust Woman.”

You took a step towards him, cautious for no real reason. Part of you believed that it was a figment of your imagination, because his love often seemed too good to be true. You thought over his words, only feeling your heart swell with more affection the longer you remembered. He was right, and there was no reason in the world as to why you should be afraid of saying yes. He was your forever, and you’d known that long before you ever admitted it to yourself. He loved you like no other, so well that sometimes you forgot what it was like before he came along. Your life was picturesque with him by your side, something you had only ever heard about in movies and books, yet it was your reality that you were lucky enough to live every single day. He was everything, and you were beyond grateful to even exist in the same universe as him.

You realized your silence had given the wrong impression, noticing the shift in his expression as he began to turn worried. “Yes, Jake.” You said, hoping to ease his mind. “A million times yes.” You said, moving forward and kneeling down in front of him. “I can’t think of a better way to spend my life, and there is nobody that could make me as happy as you do.” You said, grabbing his face gently between your hands. You pulled him into a kiss filled with love and warmth, just like the rest of your memories with him. You could barely keep the kiss alive, the smiles on your faces too much to handle. When you pulled away, he took the ring from the box and slipped it on your finger, trying his hardest to hold back his tears of elation. “It’s beautiful,” you fawned over the sight, taking in every detail the ring had to offer.

“But it doesn’t hold a candle to you, angel.” He said, looking back up at your face. “I promise I’m going to love you like you deserve until the day I die, and I’m sure that I’ll still love you the same even long after I’m gone. In every universe, and every lifetime. You’re the only thing my heart knows, Gold Dust Woman.”

“Me too, baby.” You promised, feeling your lip quiver from the profound confession. “So, this is forever?”

“Seems like it.” He laughed, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear. “You can’t get rid of me, now.”

“Not like I ever could before.” You teased, running your thumb over the soft skin of his cheek. “And it’s not like I ever wanted to, anyway.” And it was the truth; not a day passed in which you wished to change a thing, because a lifetime of loving Jake was better than anything you had ever dreamed of.

The End

TAGLIST: @itsdannysworld @gretavansara @jaketlove @laneygvf @freefallthoughts @psychedelicsprinkles @idontwannabeherenow @joshysgirl @sanguinebats @objectsinspvce @klarxtr @sinarainbows @jakesmustache @gvfpal @hellowgoodbye @profitofthedune

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shatterinseconds · 1 year

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Garrison

Klance AU month ‘23 day 3

“I can’t believe we’re back here,” Lance comments as he and Keith stroll the halls of the Garrison.

Not much has changed in the years since they’ve been gone. The paint is still a cold white, the floor gray. Teachers’ names on the doors might be the only difference in the building but even then, Lance catches sight of a few familiar ones—some he remembers hating with a passion and others who tolerated his boisterous energy.

He and Keith are only back here now because they’re getting married in a few days, and while most of the wedding preparations have been completed ahead of schedule thanks to the combined efforts of his mother, Allura, and Hunk, they decided to take a trip down memory lane. Tomorrow, when they have more daylight, they’ll journey to Keith’s desert shack to see what’s happened to it, if anything is salvageable. Keith is hoping to repair it enough to try to sell it since he won’t be needing it anymore. Lance tried to persuade him to keep it, if he really wants to; they don’t need the money right now. But Keith had been adamant, admitting he wanted to have some money set aside for when they would need a permanent residence on Earth when they’re done with their space adventures. Lance may have cried a little at that.

Keith slips his arm around Lance’s waist when they turn another corner. They have one destination in mind right now and are currently trying to remember where the access to the roof is. “Yeah, it’s crazy to think I always had a crush on you,” Keith says lightly, almost chuckling to himself.

Lance stops short. Caught off guard, Keith stumbles back. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” Keith says, mock glaring, and not daring to repeat what he said again. Which is okay because Lance definitely heard it; how could he not?

Still, Lance’s brows furrow while he tries to pick at Keith’s words. “You didn’t even know who I was when we met again while rescuing Shiro. Sorry for not believing you.”

“I knew who you were…” Keith says, trailing off. His gaze drifts off of Lance while mumbling, “I just didn’t know your real name.” He starts to walk away from Lance, as if avoiding the conversation they have to have now, but Lance catches the sudden determined look on Keith’s face. He must have finally remembered something.

“What!?” Lance exclaims, utterly flabbergasted. He chases after Keith. “I never went by any nickname or anything. Well there was the self proclaimed—”

“Taylor. I thought your name was Taylor,” Keith admits, cutting him off. Well, that is… unexpected. Lance almost laughs, cheeks already hurting at how much he smiles.

They’ve stopped at a large metal door towards the end of the last hall, a thin window showing the existence of a ladder inside. They’ve found the place. Exclaiming a quick ‘aha!’ under his breath, Keith manages to bypass the control panel lock to the door leading to the roof. The sign on the door says officers only; Lance never took heed of the sign when he was younger and he definitely won’t now.

Lance smirks, humming happily. “Good to know that title really did get around even if it was misinterpreted.” He starts to climb up the ladder after Keith, practically staring at Keith’s butt the entire time. It’s not like he has anywhere else to look. “But I’m a little insulted. I don’t look like a Taylor.”

Keith rolls his eyes. He grabs onto Lance’s hand as he climbs up the last few rungs and steps onto the flat roof. “How will I ever make it up to you?”

This high up, the desert wind starts to whip around them. Lance cards a hand through his hair to push it off his forehead for a moment. A bit of darkness has already started to descend upon them, the night sky peeking through as the oranges and pinks fade away. How he’s missed this. Of all the planets he’s traveled to and all the sunsets he’s witnessed, Earth’s have remained the most beautiful. He arches his head back to breathe it all in before he turns to Keith with another sharp grin, eyes sparkling.

“I just have to figure out a way to slip that anecdote into Shiro’s best man speech and we’ll be all set.” With his hand still holding Keith’s, he thumbs the engagement ring on Keith’s finger; a matching one rests on Lance’s own. They had proposed to each other at the same time—well, Lance was technically first—only a few months ago but neither of them wanted a long engagement.

“Wonderful,” Keith says dryly. “But I’m pretty sure half of our guests won’t understand it.”

Lance waves off his concerns and guides Keith down to sit with him on the rather uncomfortable roof. Leaning into Keith, he says, “Pidge and Hunk will love it. So don’t worry, it won’t go to waste.”

Keith presses his nose into Lance’s cheek. With the wind, Keith’s hair tickles his face when it blows around them. “I’m so glad,” he mutters into Lance’s skin. Lance turns until he captures Keith’s mouth with his own as his hand moves to cup Keith’s face.

And they watch the sunset together, like they did so many years ago.

#klance #voltron #klance au month #vld #voltron legendary defender #klance fic #keith x lance #my writing

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fem-blade-adept · 3 months

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Everything Wrong with the Bigotry Wizard Series (HP) Because This Transfem Feels Like Throwing Hands

(Yes, I grew up with this shit and I know these books back and forth. It’s knowledge I really wish I could forget, but if it’s in there, I might as well use it for a good cause. And that good cause is rallying people against its terribly bigoted and racist author. Also, know that this is a way of weeding out followers and potentially hateful people so I never have to see them again, so choose wisely if you intend to argue these points.)

House choices are split between Bravery, Ambition, Smart, and Everyone Else, which is Tracking and is very ineffective as a teaching system and also forcing kids into a lane. These houses compete every year for who’s better at what? Following orders? Being obedient? Which is a system HIGHLY susceptible to bias and imbalanced competition considering Snape’s unfair treatment of every house that isn’t his and the overwhelmingly unfair come-from-behind victory the Hero house had at the end of their first year because they what? Saved the world?! What kind of precedent are you setting by saying you can win in school by being a hero when there is a house based on bravery? Favoritism anyone?

No one in an entire castle has ever questioned their gender or discovered their sexual orientation? Not the twins? Or Hermione? Or Tonks? Wild. (And no, I do not count JK’s off-the-cuff tweets “clarifying lore”. If it was actually true, you would fully and unabashedly address it in the books, ya bigot.)

Ah yes, rumors of a haunted house out in a village on school grounds when actual fucking ghosts wander the halls of the school, a poltergeist is constantly causing mayhem, a sad girl haunts the girls bathroom, and a LIVE FUCKING BASILISK SITS IN THE SEWAGE SYSTEM. And those sounds in the Shrieking Shack were the product of a kid sent there because he was dealing with lycanthropy. Yeah, sounds like a healthy way to deal with a kid with a physical disability…

Wizards in EVERY OTHER part of fantasy are thousands of years ahead of everyone else. Yudala in Critical Role was investigating pocket planes, the Astral Sea, and OTHER WIZARDS THAT WERE HUNDREDS OF YEARS AHEAD OF SOCIETY ALREADY. Essek was attempting to understand his own society’s god and had cracked the secrets behind TIME AND GRAVITY MAGIC. Caleb Widogast was a transmutation master and had, not only helped Essek discover the secrets of time travel, but had the ability to alter LIFE AND DEATH. Ayda Aguefort’s library was an educational beacon in a pirate town where people refused to learn to read and was creating new spells for herself and her friends. HP wizards live like they just discovered indoor plumbing and don’t know how cars work even though they already have time travel down. WHAT?! The MOST inconsistent.

Magic system. Everyone has unlimited free access to just three phrases that can control, torture, or kill people?!? And they teach that? To students???? in MIDDLE SCHOOL?!?! WHERE THERE ARE PEOPLE THAT ARE SORTED INTO A HOUSE BRANDED AS AMBITIOUS?!?!!! Bud, D&D spells are CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES. And not only that, but spells like Power Word: Kill and True Resurrection are both 9th level spells and require not only the physical knowledge of the spell, but YEARS, even DECADES of practice for normal people to learn. Even Dominate Person is 5th level and a solid overwhelming majority of the population doesn’t even know the Friends cantrip. And most people aren’t adventuring murder hobos that go on adventures for months on end to level up super fast to get to 17th level to learn 9th level spells mechanically.

Voldemort would get fucking merked by a full line of people with firearms. Dude couldn’t even take over a school of middle schoolers without working at it for 6 years.

Did they not have therapists in Hogwarts? Pretty sure everyone at that school could have used a trained therapist or a guidance counselor with a degree.

We make jokes, but they did not have access to contraceptives. And they had High Schoolers in a giant think tank sleeping in the SAME TOWER. If you think there weren’t unplanned pregnancies in that giant bowl of hormones, you’re crazy.

The hero and his friends standing up for the giant on the school grounds? Hermione being the only one standing up for the house elves? Common courtesy isn’t a heroic trait. That’s why it’s called COMMON courtesy. And why include house elves anyway? Slavery and writing house elves as “wanting to be enslaved” IS A SHITTY MESSAGE TO PUT OUT INTO THE WORLD.

The very obvious racist naming scheme JK shamelessly put forward: Kingsley Shacklebolt (Black Character), Cho Chang (Asian Character), Parvati and Padma Patil (Middle Eastern Characters), Dean Thomas (Black Character), Seamus Finnegan (Irish Character), Fleur Delacour (French Character), and more.

Lycanthropy was confirmed by JK herself to be about HIV/AIDS, which makes how they treated Remus Lupin (another terrible name) even worse.

Rita Skeeter was a character she created to resemble and, as such, harmfully and falsely stereotype and misrepresent transpeople and how she perceives them to be. She makes an active point to describe her as unattractive, having manly features, and in the fashion similar to that of a drag queen. She also spares no expense describing her as duplicitous, dishonest, and having a habit of “changing her body to spy on children”. Even her name insinuates she’s a mosquito. And that’s not even mentioning her actual trans character in the video game, Sirona Ryan. Sir(obvious) ona(woman in Japanese). You named her Sir Woman Ryan. You fucking cunts.

Goblins. Here we go. One of the most obvious problems. Described in book as being greedy, short, intelligent, hook-nosed debt collectors that wear special hats and run all of the banks and speak their own language. And as of the most recent video game, apparently also steal children. Sounds like an awfully racist and stereotypical description of what the hateful side of the world perceives Jews to be.

Even the heroes are perpetually being shallow, reductive, and downright awful people on a regular basis. Basing people on looks, degrading a female character for standing up for mistreated people, judging people based on how quirky, different, or off normal they are. All things that really fall in basic decency if you really think about it.

Attempting a redemption arc for the Dursleys, the Malfoys, and Snape, all parties being aggressively and shamelessly abusive characters for YEARS. Dursleys sticking the MC in a closet to live, refusing him food, shutting him in from the outside world, and generally just treating him with a truly overwhelming amount of disdain IS CHILD ABUSE. Attempting to bring any measure of redemption to their relationship after 14 years of that is irreproachable and irresponsible. Snape berates, abuses, and treats the MC like shit for years because he loves the MC’s dead mother, kills one of the MC’s main mentors, and then when the MC finds all of that out, he names his kid after the guy? Nice message, bruh. And I really shouldn’t have to explain the Malfoys.

The truly insane amount of coincidences and favoritism that stems from a kid’s relatives, pure dumb fucking luck, and a life experience that just happened by chance is fucking uncanny. The world thinks its story is about love and friendship and some shit, but continues to reinforce the ideal that this kid is special because of his mother and father and all of the things that he is capable of to defend against his mortal enemy stems from that. He corrodes Quirrell’s face, he blocks a death spell with a spiritual aura that summons the ghosts of the dead, he summons a patronus that was his dad’s, the wand he picks up from the store is just NATURALLY bitter rivals with his enemy’s, a magical cup just so HAPPENS to ignore its primary function ONE FUCKING TIME to allow for the MC, A PROPHECY mentions this fucking kid and the book even tries to bring in the forcibly branded Kicked Dog™ character that none of us gave a second thought to.

Quidditch is a truly stupid fucking sport. Who wrote the rules? Let me get this correct. Seven players on each team play on a field on brooms where two ANIMATED STEEL BALLS THAT BY THEMSELVES COULD SHATTER BONE AND CAUSE DEEPLY TRAUMATIC INJURY ACTIVELY HUNT PLAYERS while people play a rousing game of handball only two have one player on each team, completely separate from everyone else, are playing the world’s most difficult game of I Spy with a ball that truly would be the hardest thing in the world to see, no matter the lighting, and if they do somehow manage to catch this sentient ball that could really just leave if it wanted to, it counts for like 9x the usual points, usually rendering the entire rest of the game invalid or forcing the other team to be so far ahead that it doesn’t even matter. Nightmarish.

Harry pretending to dose Ron’s drink to improve his performance puts forward a terrible message of “as long as it’s to help, it’s ok to dose someone’s drink with suspicious liquid”. Even if he didn’t do it, you gotta understand how that looks, right?

The ethics of love potions in society in general are incredibly loose in the books for what they should be (especially considering a student actually dosed cupcakes with them at either age 14 or 15? Either way, it’s INCREDIBLY disgusting) and the fact that they actually taught love potions to a group of middle to high schoolers and put the ability to bypass consent in their hormonal claws should go incredibly high on the shelf with death spells, torture spells, and absolute control “bend your will to my own” spells and that entire shelf should be locked away in a safe and never touched.

You’re not supposed to go into the Forbidden Forest except on the occasion that we send you as 11-year-olds in there as punishment for wrongdoing.

There’s just a tree on the grounds that can fucking kill people. And one of our founders left a snake that can petrify and poison people in the pipes. We’re also going to let hell creatures that feed on the misery and woe of the living roam the school grounds for a year hunting a prisoner that really didn’t do anything. We’re also going to bring back a tournament people have died in so that three seventeen-year-olds and a fourteen year old can compete.

If there is any more things I missed, please don’t hesitate to add them in the reblogs. I really would like to know how much more problematic behavior and how many truly distasteful writing choices I’m missing in this extensive list.

#fuck jkr #fuck hp #rot in hell Jk Rowling #fuck terfs

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ladiesofhpfest · 11 months

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The Shack at the End of the Lane by @saintsenara/Asenora

Our first fic of the week is here by none other than Asenora/saintsenara!

Summary: It was an unconventional choice, on the part of the universe, to make Tom Riddle's victims meet his mother the moment they arrived in the afterlife.

What's to love: MEROPE. An AFTERLIFE fic feat. Merope! She's welcomed into the afterlife confusingly, perplexingly, and the way it's described is so unique. There's this scene with two dinner plates, and Merope, always waiting - chills. You'll get that feeling a lot while reading this stunning fic. Drop what you're doing and read it now.

#merope gaunt #tom riddle #lord voldemort #tom marvolo riddle #metope riddle #tom riddle sr #ladies of hp #ladies of hp fest #unconventional and unashamed #fic rec

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yeehanfrf · 1 year

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Week 3 Recs: Right on Time

This week's Yeehan recs were all modern/contemporary AUs. Those fics set in our world and time (or roughly thereabouts) that still include the OTP. Check out the recs gathered from the Yeehan community below, organized by rating then alphabetically by title.

Not Rated

Rootbound by wyntera [WIP; 67,484 words] Reccer comment: "Flower shop au bc yes"

Every plant is unique. They need love and care in the right environment to grow. Give them what they need, and they will flourish.

McCree and Hanzo are a lot like plants. Big, stubborn, root bound plants.

General Audiences

Conflict of Interest by orphan_account [28,222 words] Reccer comment: "Superhero au with a Lois Lane type beat"

“You know, I’ve been wanting to get an interview with you,” Jesse says as Hanzo happens upon another malfunctioning elevator shaft. How is it at all likely that more than one elevator is out of service? When Hanzo levels Jesse with a hard glare, the man keeps talking. “I’m a reporter.”

Or, the one where Hazno and Genji fight crime, Jesse is a cigar-smoking Lois Lane, and everyone else wonders why they’ve been trapped in a bad comic book.

Teen and Up

Climbing the Walls by robocryptid [22,669 words] Reccer comment: "a social-distancing yeehan fic"

Hanzo and Cole are neighbors who have never met until social distancing forces them to stay in their homes. Neither can see the other's face, but that doesn't stop them from getting to know each other.

Da Capo al Signo by midgetnazgul & temporalSilence [75,482 words] Reccer comment: "an incredibly moving fic featuring musician Hanzo and rancher Cassidy falling in loooove"

In music, da capo al signo tells the performer to start over until they see the sign to move on. Life has its movements, too. Even when we must begin again, signs will appear to remind us that just because we feel we are repeating ourselves, we will not necessarily end in the same terrible place we were before.

It's 2018 and Jesse and Hanzo are both living in Tucson, AZ on second chances. Hanzo is on the cusp of recognition as a musician after his life in Japan is run aground by a devastating accident, and Jesse has chiseled out a life of purpose and achievement after a rough childhood. Together, they will come to understand how misfortune and loneliness can end, giving gifts they would never have found any other way.

Flowers for Assholes by HappyLeech [10,552 words]

Hanzo just wants to close up shop for the night. Jesse just wants to tell his boss where to stick it and quit his job.

Of the Pickle Persuasion by Byacolate and mywordsflyup [14,813 words] Reccer comment: "My favorite food truck au"

Hanzo is convinced that his bento wagon is locked in a corporate deathmatch with the taco truck down the street. Genji just wants to flirt with the produce vendor.

Searching for Game... by AsheRhyder [10,792 words] Reccer comment: "Cute, cute, cute, with fun meta jokes about the game, characters, and community."

Genji wants Cassidy to play the new game he helped develop: Overwatch.

Cassidy just wants his hot upstairs neighbor to stop throwing food at him every time he says "hello".

Shimada Dreams of Sushi by delicaterosebud [24,344 words] Reccer comment: "It's silly, but has the right amount of drama, angst and extremely uncomfortable situations."

As the owner of a mediocre taco shack with tanking reviews and multiple health violations, the last thing that Jesse McCree needs is competition - competition, specifically, from a sushi bar so popular that it drove every other restaurant in the neighborhood out of business.

From the very day that Shimada sushi opened its doors, Jesse had hated that restaurant with a burning passion. ...So how does he end up working for the man who runs it?

To the Great Deep He Goes by westerncibee [53,288 words] Reccer comment: "its been a hot second since ive read this but i remember enjoying this one"

Hanzo accompanies Genji to their new college, and of course Genji would want to room with his friend--leaving Hanzo to deal with a god-forsaken cowboy whose only goal that year was to be Hanzo's friend. And as the cowboy said, "You're stuck with me for the rest of the year." - and a lot can happen in a year.

Mature

The Cooking Cowboy by SadakoTetsuwan [WIP; 79,662 words]

It had started simple—he just needed a good recipe for matcha cake to surprise Genji on his birthday, and so he’d started clicking around for tutorials on YouTube.

But now Hanzo is in deep, and is officially part of ‘The Chuckwagon’; the mostly middle-aged, mostly female fan following of YouTube cooking sensation Jesse McCree, the Cooking Cowboy.

How had his life come to this?

Explicit

School Nights by rebeccastceir [WIP; 45,484 words] Reccer comment: "School teacher au and romance~"

Jesse got so flustered he forgot what he was doing and stuck his hand out. “Jesse. McCree. Jesse McCree. I’m -”

“Hana’s teacher, of course,” Hanzo smiled at him, shaking hands, holding on for a split second longer than necessary. He held his head cocked down, almost shy, but kept looking up from under his long lashes, pretty lips teasing in a grin, and ohhh, Jesse was in so much trouble he ached with it.

“Sorry. You knew that,” Jesse mumbled. Was he red? He felt like he was flaming red. __________

It's the fluffiest, smuttiest, romcom-iest, parent-teacher au we all need and deserve

Shear Bliss by wyntera [12,725 words] Reccer comment: "I think about the way Hanzo's hair is described in this fic all the time"

Sometimes you can't help falling for a handsome face...even if they are holding very sharp objects near your head.

And that's a wrap on Week 3! Thank you to everyone who sent in a recommendation! Keep an eye out for next week's theme: "The Rivalmance," or fics all about the rivals to lovers, enemies to lovers, competitive assholes to lovers of it all.

In the meantime, you can also check out the Week 2 recs here or see the list of past and future themes here!

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heart-shaped-horns · 30 days

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THE UNIVERSE IS YOUR STAGE- PERFORM! AND DONT WORRY, WE’RE ALL HERE FOR THE SHOW. 🐩🪭💋🍒💄🍎♥️

PATIENT ZERO: PECAN

*bubble gum pops* HELLO AGAIN tumblr nation…it’s your favorite truckstop whore in the flesh.. nyeah………ANYWAYS. For those who haven’t come to know me my names pecan and I run a church (my blog) where we smoke newports and attend sermons (whatever bullshit posts I have to give) PLEASE! Make yourselves at home- the body of Christ is a gift that keeps on giving.

Specimen Info:

-My name is pecan, and I also sometimes go as pecanpie. Other aliases include: Cherry Ferry Fantasia. Choose wisely how you refer to me- or don’t, I don’t even exist!

-I’m 19 and female, you can use whatever pronouns when referring to me, but I usually go by she/her 🪭🪭🪭

-ADHD

-aroace, with a hint of bisexuality.

-My hobbies include: drawing, writing (though I rarely ever do finish my pieces let alone publish them) collecting worthless garbage, listening to music and blowing my eardrums out, being an eternal pain in the ass to deal with, thrifting, sitting on porches, smoking winstons, masquerading as a sane individual, dressing up, and trying out new things because I am an avid dopamine chaser. woohoo!

Things I like: Pretentious media, throwing pitchforks at rich priests, consumerism, otome games, douma, buddhism, echo rose, religious studies, args, reaching divinity, shitty manga, maximalism in every sense, bedazzled stuff, money, getting tacky nails, the roaring 20’s, 1950’s femme fashion, old era aesthetics, boutique shops, leopard print, grandma couches, pathetic wet sop characters and a lot more.

-I have two cats, Mochi and Waffles. The bloodline ends with yours truly.

Fandoms I’m currently active in; Obey Me! Shall We Date, Demon Slayer, and Stephanie Lawson Stevens. I may consider writing for the first two, but I won’t set that in stone yet.

Movies I like: Pink Flamingos, No Country For Old Men, Helter Skelter, Pulp Fiction, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, Girl Interrupted, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Spun, Gummo, Last Night in Soho, Fruit of Wonder, Elephant (2003) - will be updated the more I get my hands on anything new that tickles my fancy.

My taste in music: I’m pretty versatile when it comes to what I prefer, so it could range from bimbo-pop to classical music. Anything that sounds good to me I like. I mostly listen to 50’s housewife songs and lady Gaga, though.

-I’m a big fan of indie art and surrealism. Filmmaking as well. Shaye Saint John and Mouchette.org are a few of my favorites.

-I like mortuary work and autopsies. I hold the death industry in high regards- not everyone is willing to work with corpses.

-huge GIGANTIC douma fan. anything and everything douma related I will not hesitate to engage with, he’s my little guy.

- heart sunglasses ambassador (this is my trademark) ❤️

-Polka dot prints and faux fur are resounding yesses.

-You know Florence? (If you get the reference.)

-I think vintage pill cases are lovely.💋

-I have the response time of a limp dick. I either respond in less than a second or only after 3 business months.

-I’ve been working on my new oc line on and off for a few months now, called FEAR & LOATHING in JERUSALEM. artblock is a massive bitch, but stuff is in progress.

Anyways if you’re a terrible human being feel free to block me, you are not welcome onto my blog thank you very much xoxo (transphobes homophobes ableists you know who you are)

GOT COMPLAINTS? CONTACT ME AT 1-666-JERUSALEM-CRACK-SHACK! Make sure to leave me a message. Business hours only!

🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒MASTERLIST: IN THE WORKS? 🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒

#pecanpie #introductory

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saintsenara · 11 months

Text

the shack at the end of the lane merope gaunt & lord voldemort general | 4.2k words

before the world went black, she was looking at two women's faces, and a small creature covered in blood, and the cracked plaster ceiling of a london orphanage.

when she opened her eyes, she was looking up at a perfect sky, its celestial blue splashed with cotton-wool clouds. the sun shone warm on her skin. she felt at peace for the first time since september, when tom had stormed out of their knockturn alley bedsit, taking care to kick her in the stomach as he did.

it was an unconventional choice, on the part of the universe, to make tom riddle's victims meet his mother the moment they arrived in the afterlife.

this piece was written for week five of @ladiesofhpfest, on the theme of unconventional and unashamed [you can find the masterlist for this week's fics here].

its star is a character who has fascinated me for a long time - merope gaunt - and the question i have always wondered about: what happened to her after she died?

author's notes under the cut

because merope’s death is one of the moments of the harry potter series that i’ve always loathed - not because it happens, but because it is explained by dumbledore in half-blood prince as something which happens as the result of a lack of courage:

"In any case, as you are about to see, Merope refused to raise her wand even to save her own life." "She wouldn’t even stay alive for her son?" [...] "Yes, Merope Riddle chose death in spite of a son who needed her, but do not judge her too harshly, Harry. She was greatly weakened by long suffering and she never had your mother’s courage."

i really dislike the suggestion that - under ordinary circumstances - a witch would be able to prevent herself dying in childbirth because of her magic, not least because of the implication in this statement - which is very much not what the series thinks it’s saying - that magical and muggle women are, essentially, separate species.

as merope tells us in the shack at the end of the lane, she died "like a woman" - one of the hundreds of thousands of women throughout human history who have died in childbirth for no other reason than that childbirth is dangerous. these women were not weak, they were not hopeless, they were not cruel to their children, they will have wanted to live. they were just profoundly unlucky.

and so, crucially, the merope of this story wanted to live for her son. it just wasn’t as easy as all that.

after her death, she wakes up in a place she had hoped she’d left behind her for good: little hangleton. the self-creating afterlife of the harry potter series is simultaneously comforting and whimsical and totally horrifying if one stops to think too long about it. in particular, if one stops to think about what it would mean for people whose life experience has made it difficult for them to have an imagination or to remember things or places which are pleasant to them.

merope is one of these people - not even able to imagine preston, one of the most ordinary towns in britain, as anything other than "formless white light", let alone paris or rome - and she therefore ends up stuck in a house which must have been a sight of extreme misery for her while she was alive. after all, the implication of canon is very much that she was or would be a victim of incestuous sexual violence at her father and brother’s hands. she is definitely a victim of physical and verbal violence. there can be no way at all that she felt happy in the gaunts’ home - and her experience is made all the more horrifying by the fact that - as i’ve noted in the notes for the snow child, another merope-centric piece - little hangleton more broadly is quite a terrifying place. the village lends itself really well to a sort of folk-horror vibe - perfect and bucolic and too quiet, with darkness lurking underneath its picturesque veneer.

but i wanted to play with this a little - and show how a place merope felt unwelcome in life becomes a home to her in death. the shack moves from being a liminal space into being a solid one: merope makes it into the space she wants, warm and colourful, and she bars morfin from it; it ceases to be a practical space - with a flower garden replacing a vegetable one - as soon as she can acknowledge that her existence is no longer purely about survival or service [for example, when she sleeps in a bed, instead of on the floor like a house elf]; the elements of folklore which were scary in the snow child become neutral here. the blackthorn trees, in particular, spend that story being symbols of ill-omen. in the shack at the end of the lane, in contrast, they should be read as having their second folkloric purpose - protection. [the magpies - one for sorrow, four for a boy - have no happier meaning.]

merope also learns to be happy more generally. the canon narrative tends to take quite a dim view of covetousness - a trait, after all, which gets her into this mess in the first place - not least in the way that it describes lord voldemort’s magpieishness. here, we see that this preference for trivial comforts is inherited, and that taking pleasure in things - such as merope’s shawl, her golden earrings, and the presents she buys for her son in the town - is neither wicked nor sad. sometimes a shawl is a shawl. sometimes it’s a burst of transformative pleasure.

and this idea of things changing ties into a wider theme in the piece - that merope proves herself to be capable of acceptance and redemption. her vicious jealousy of cecilia - tom riddle sr.’s attractive girlfriend - is a central part of the snow child, but here we see her coming to understand how that jealousy was futile, and resolving to manage with the body she has. her rape of tom sr. is a great evil - which, as we see, he’s never managed to get over - but there is a reckoning here as she realises that he was a victim of her instead of the other way round, and as she resists the urge to stroke his hair [as black as the raven’s wing, as she wishes for in the snow child] before she sends him off to a happy place where she cannot follow him. by the time albus dumbledore arrives to see her, she has accepted that tom was never really hers, and is confused when he insists on addressing her as "mrs riddle".

she also finds herself accepting - eventually - her son.

lord voldemort’s grief over merope is one of the most interesting parts of his characterisation, and one which the canon text touches on only lightly [harry notices, for example, that he is furious when hepzibah smith insults merope by implying she stole slytherin’s locket, but he then doesn’t contradict dumbledore when he says that hepzibah’s murder was motivated by gain]. merope’s absence in voldemort’s life manifests itself most clearly in the shack at the end of the lane in her encounter with bellatrix lestrange - as bellatrix tells her daughter’s grandmother that she likes the name merope, unaware that voldemort could never have suggested it to her because all of the evidence of canon is that he has no idea what his mother was called. it also features in the scene with the two dinners, in which the earth-bound tom riddle jr. has finally accepted that his father isn’t a wizard, and has begun his investigation into his maternal line - which will eventually cause him to leave the orphanage for good, sending his childhood room into the ether to await him when he dies. [my headcanon has always been that his limbo is the orphanage - so he has to have it here even though he’ll be living with his mam for eternity.]

merope takes a long time to cotton on to the fact that her son is a murderer - which i don’t think we can really blame her for; it’s quite an overwhelming concept. the dead we meet are both direct and indirect victims of his violence: the rabbit; amy benson [who died by suicide]; myrtle [my favourite]; tom sr.; hepzibah smith; a family of albanian peasants; mrs cole [worn down by dealing with tom]; regulus black; morfin [who wasted away in prison panicking about his father’s stolen ring]; james and lily potter; bertha jorkins; frank bryce [returning to the riddle house, where he was happy]; cedric diggory; barty crouch jr.; sirius black; igor karkaroff; dumbledore [who is kind enough to lie to merope, just for a bit]; colin creevey; lavender brown [in her glittery trainers]; vincent crabbe; fred weasley; severus snape; harry potter [but only temporarily]; nymphadora tonks and remus lupin; bellatrix; and - of course - voldemort himself.

and he’d been waiting a long time for that meeting.

and, look, i’m a hopeless optimist. i think everything will be alright in the end.

#asenora fics #merope gaunt #the shack at the end of the lane #let us contemplate death #lord voldemort #ascending to his final form: mammy's boy #dumbledore being subtle for once in his life #ladies of hp fest

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