Birthdays

Regulus never really cared for his birthday, always stuck spending it at number 12 Grimmauld Place. The first time June 25th arrived after he ran away, he was surrounded by people who genuinely cared about him, his lovely boyfriend smiling brightly at him, encouraging him to blow out his birthday candles. The cake they sat upon was baked by Euphemia, who assured him it was no fuss. Sirius was there, passing him a terribly wrapped gift and tearing up, finally able to give him something without fear lingering in the distance. Barty and Evan showed, wreaking havoc, popping balloons, and making a mess. Regulus gave Sirius and James nervous glances, but they assured him Fleamont and Euphemia didn’t mind the commotion. Remus got him a new journal, to replace the one he lost when he left. Marlene and Dorcas picked out a new set of pens for him, saying he should really give up on quills, Marlene giggling behind her girlfriend who knowingly looked at him. Pandora got him new crystals, giving her condolences to the ones he had to leave behind. Lily and Mary got him a book set, claiming he needed to learn the ways of muggle literature. He glared at them but was unable to hide his excitement for very long.

During the small party, the only thing Regulus could do was helplessly smile, occasionally excusing himself to the washroom to cry. He had never felt so cherished, so loved in his entire life. He finally understood why people got so excited about birthdays- it was supposed to be filled with love. When the night winded down, and people began to disperse, leaving through a chorus of ‘Happy Birthdays’ and ‘see you soon,’ James found Regulus sitting on a sofa, looking quite exhausted. A faint smile adorned his tired features, his face brightening at the sight of the other man. James beamed back, pulling a gift from behind his back.

Regulus quietly accepted the small box, gently unwrapping it. He flipped open the lid, finding a slim chain with a sun attached to it. He looked up to James, the other man now holding a similar necklace, a star taking the place of his sun.

“You always call me your ray of sunshine, so I thought you should be able to have a little piece of me with you everywhere.”

“I love it, James,” Regulus replied, tears welling in his eyes.

James sat on the couch beside him, gently taking the necklace and putting it on the other boy. He watched as Regulus wrapped his fingers around it, holding the cold metal tightly in his palm. He moved his arm to wrap his shoulder, bringing his lover in close.

They stayed there a while, Regulus soaking up the love James would supply endlessly. Regulus learned to love his birthday, not because he received things, but because it meant he got to be surrounded by those who truly loved him.

—

My friends were wonderful today. Birthdays can be rough but they make them better. Thank you for reading lovelies. And thank you to my wonderful friends.

while we wait.

may i offer you all a pubby?? lil bby barns?

Mr. Riordan, it is truly a pleasure getting to experience your second draft.

I cannot express enough that if your reaction, as a hobby artist, to not getting that many notes on your art is to say "maybe I should just stop doing art altogether" you need to stop posting art to tumblr

not necessarily forever, not even for long, but just stop putting your art on here and start doing it for you again, remember why you enjoyed doing art in the first place and stop relying on the attention of faceless people on the internet for your enjoyment of your hard work

believe me, I get it, nothing crushes the artistic soul quite like labouring for hours on a piece only for it to get like 10 notes, so you need to find your own source of joy in the act of creation and a lot of the time that means making art and not showing it to anybody

podcast people in my phone

Consider this: ghosts are actually exactly what the Fentons think they are.

They're snapshots of a longing so strong, unfinished business so deep it reaches out beyond life. Lingers just a bit longer. And if it happens to meet a dense cloud of ectoplasm (invisible to the naked eye, but omnipresent even in the mortal realm), it coalesces. The ectoplasm fits into the shape of it. Which, when the desire is strong enough, it's got a rough idea of its self-image. This tends to mean a more humanoid figure, though it's more often warped in some way–a self-reflection, skewed by said desire. The warping varies on the dead soul’s perception of themselves, the intensity of their desire, how much time passed after death, and how much ectoplasm was present.

In short… no matter how “normal" a ghost looks or acts, it really, truly isn't human. It's animated ectoplasm with a single goal: an obsession. Nothing else. They're more akin to plants than animals, following a single drive with no emotion. They react to stimuli, recognize threats (including other ghosts), and can even imitate human speech and mannerisms to obtain fulfillment of their obsession.

Not “evil" by any stretch, but they're entirely driven by instinct. A tree doesn't pause to consider the rocks it breaks with its roots. A cordyceps doesn't torture its host for fun, or kill with malice. It just does. It follows code in its DNA to survive and multiply–And ghosts just follow the code in its ectoplasm to fulfill its obsession. The more powerful a ghost, the better it's able to overcome obstacles preventing this–whether through brute force, or manipulation. This power is always directly proportional to the amount of ectoplasm present at the time of formation, and how much time passed since death.

What then, does this mean for Danny? Danny, who's previously come to the conclusion that he's only half-ghost, which surely explains how he retained his mind? His independent thoughts and emotions?

What does this mean for Phantom, who experienced an entire world’s worth of ectoplasm condensed as a singularity, at the exact time of his death? Whose strength only grows and begins to exceed every limit they previously thought possible?

If a ghost was as strong as him… could it mimic a human perfectly? Down to a molecular level?

Could it, in its desire to fill an obsession… trick its own fake mind into thinking it was still human? Or half-ghost?

Taking the current topic as an excuse to ask you to tell me all the reasons you love Rarijack. Your art for the ship is so sweet and intimate I'd love to hear any in depth thoughts you have.

Breathes in.

I think what makes their dynamic really strong is that they have opposing personalities but aligned values. It's deeper than just "opposites attract." Rarity's fancy, prissy, and femme while Applejack's modest, rough, and "masculine." But both value hard work (to the point of being workaholics), their families (both have guardianship over their little sisters), running successful businesses, and eventually each other. Their relationship can be boiled down to, "Despite our differences/disagreements, I still like you because we value the same things."

We see their relationship develop so much. In the first season, they can't stop bickering about surface-level differences. By season four, they still bicker, but will mend their relationship because they can't help but do nice things for each other. In Trade Ya, they start off arguing over personality differences (Applejack likes old junk and Rarity likes useless crap). Then they pivot and start arguing that they value their relationship more than the other. In the end, they mend things by sacrificing their needs and buying each other a gift. Even if they don't understand it, they know it'd make the other happy. And that's all that really matters. It's a genuinely sweet moment that shows how arguing can be healthy and necessary for relationships to strengthen.

We even see them dropping their hang-ups about each others' personalities. In Made in Manehattan, when Rarity runs off in dramatics about someone's fashion, AJ doesn't roll her eyes or scoff, she smiles. Oftentimes, their conflicts are very common domestic conflicts romantic couples face. Applejack's Day Off is about a woman's inability to balance work and life and find time to properly spend with her partner, causing her partner to feel neglected.

By season seven, they're actively participating in each others' interests. Any problems or conflicts that arise are dealt with, and they come out the other end stronger and closer. In Honest Apple, AJ pretty much spells out why their relationship works so well: even though she doesn't understand fashion, she can recognize and appreciate how much work it takes and wants to respect that. When she realizes her mistake in the episode, AJ goes above and beyond to fix things and apologize to Rarity. They care about each other so much.

The two go out of their way, sacrificing their personal desires and beliefs and doing things they normally wouldn't, to make the other happy. That's just love.

There's Simple Ways, where AJ gets stuck in an unwanted love triangle between Rarity and her hipster crush. And her frustration and anger can be so easily interpreted as AJ finding herself in a terrible position; the girl she loves wants another man, and that man wants her.

I dunno. I've always had a preference for opposites attract ships, but Rarijack's stuck with me like a brain worm because they have the perfect chemistry. The way they show they care, or do things for each other, I've always read it as the truest representation of romance in the show.

yes house md as a show is outlandish and insane. house is literally a truman show of his own show. background characters are made out of cardboard, the walls are glass, he is just allowed to bully patients and his coworkers for funzies. but like there is also a deeply realistic element to house as a character. his actions are in line with his life, his backstory, and with his predicament. his chronic pain which lead to an opioid addiction, his childhood trauma, his trust issues that have definitely been shattered throughout his life leading to his cynicism, his refusal to seek mental support. of course the one constant and true trusting relationship in his life will also be codependent. this all makes sense. but this is also a show where house gets shot, gets recruited by the CIA for an episode, goes to jail multiple times. but it’s also a story about a deeply damaged man making the best of what he has and also learning to accept love? oh yeah and this is also a sherlock adaptation.

fionna's world being represented by a dandelion makes so much sense ... they're weeds. yet people make wishes through them, changing their whole meaning from something meant to be destroyed to something hopeful.

dandelions are also resilient and it makes sense that something associated with them would. you know. perservere despite the destruction caused by the scarab.

but ultimately i think what REALLY made me tear up over this is that dandelions are really boring plants. when you're a kid you blow on them and make your wish but they're not eyecatching or anything but still, fionna's final wish was for her old world to still exist as it was when she left it (> plain and simple. boring even).

like the moment she realized she would lose her friends, and that her friends might forget each other if the world got its magic back, she immediately decided she didn't want it and I think that ties back to the dandelion metaphor so well... like, do you really need magic to be real to find it everywhere? or can you turn something boring into something magical?

season 1 poster: this is a lighthearted pirate comedy :)

season 2 poster: death is inevitable and btw love is a lie

what was with cameron house md she spends 90% of the episode saying she wants their patient to die bc he's a genocidal dictator and her colleague husband says "babe it bothers me for ethical reasons that you want our patient to die :(" and she said "hm maybe you're right :/" but when it comes down to it the genocidal dictator lays a finger on her in an aggressive manner and chase instantly commits medical malpractice to murder the guy and then when he tells her she LEAVES HIM bc boo hoo he's a murderer now like GIRL he killed a man for you!!! he's wracked with catholic guilt!!! he's being crushed beneath the weight of his sins because he chose his devotion to you over his devotion to god!!! he literally could not get any sexier at this moment in time!!!

ok but the REAL question is….. will newton the corgi be appearing in season 3????

can you even call urself a real ninjago fan if you dont have at least one side character ur weirdly obsessed abt…

soukoku's brand of trust where it's so not obvious yet painfully clear to everyone at the same time.

like at first everyone in the cast might see them and actually buy how much they hate each other but one mission later they're convinced skk can read each other's minds and are so intuned with one another they can find each other deaf, dumb and blind.

chuuya will let himself be swept up in a flood and be played at the side of a madman, knowing dazai has a plan, that he'll make sure they both oull through. dazai will sit and keep an unwavering stare down the barrel of a gun and let his partner fire it into his skull, with all the confidence that chuuya will not let him die.

and everyone thinks there's no blind faith because there's only deeply familiar trust; they know every part of each other, they understand each other, they can pinpoint the ins and outs of their partner's thoughts and feelings, they know how to read each other, know what makes them tick. and so everyone else in their lives thinks their trust is the trust between two halves of a single soul that is familiar with the other enough to place their lives in a rival's hands.

what they don't see is what goes even further, where they wordlessly bare to each other the parts that aren't known. chuuya will surrender his soul to unleash a being of calamity with only the belief that dazai will bring him back, save his life, stop him from razing the world to the ground.

dazai will reach out his hand to a boy he barely knows with solid faith that they will beat this enemy together, he will openly laugh until he's teary-eyed, express his worries, and his blatant shock, share his musings out loud without a facade of an all-knowing genius who doesn't struggle to understand his foes.

i don't even know where i was going with this but they make me INSANE

let me go, please -- i don't wanna do this!

we'll be there! 💖