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lifeofkaze · 10 months

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A Search for Balance

A/N: This story wasn't exactly written for the @hp-12monthsofmagic July challenge but as a bonus chapter to my story A Search for Balance but it didn't make the cut and fit this month quite nicely. Warning: mild spoiler alert to the end of SfB

Summer 1995

The season of 1994/1995 ended in another tremendous success for the Montrose Magpies. Lizzie only remembered the final match against the Appleby Arrows and the days after as a blur, and by the time she had finally recovered from all the celebrations, she was well and truly ready for a break.

She and Orion spent a good deal of their free time travelling. They had just returned to Scotland from a short trip to Jersey, and Lizzie was set to spend another few days of blissful peace with him in Wigtown before the season preparations would start. They had slept in late, and the sun was already streaming through the floor length windows leading into the garden as they sat down for breakfast.

Lizzie sipped on her coffee, watching the man she loved prepare his tea with an absentminded smile on her face. She was broken from her thoughts by a sharp clicking noise coming from the window. Standing up to retrieve the owl post, Lizzie handed Orion his letters and the Daily Prophet, and dove straight into the sports section of the Muggle newspaper Orion was getting for her.

“Can you believe it?” she called out to him without looking up from the article she was reading. “Liverpool signed yet another striker. Soon there won’t be any spaces for defenders at all anymore. Don’t they know? Offence wins matches, defence -”

“- wins championships,” Orion sighed indulgently. “I know. You keep telling me.”

“Well, someone should tell them,” Lizzie wrinkled her nose. “Wait until my mum hears about this.”

She continued commenting on the news, until, eventually, she realised that Orion had fallen silent. Looking up from her paper with a frown, she saw him sitting frozen on the spot, the envelope of the letter he’d been reading lying open in front of him. The broken seal looked strange to Lizzie, embossed with a symbol that looked official but she had never seen before. She let go of the thought, however, when she saw that Orion’s hands were shaking.

“Captain?” she asked with a frown. “What’s wrong?”

Orion didn’t answer. He was staring at the parchment in his hands, his lips moving ever so slightly as he read the letter again.

“Orion?” Lizzie asked again, more urgently this time. “What is it? Who’s that letter from?”

Finally, Orion looked up. His eyes were wide, his voice throaty as he spoke.

“It’s a letter from my family.”

#lizzie jameson #orion amari #balance series #search for balance #sfb #hp12mom #twelve months of magic

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poobletoods · 1 month

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Many, many, many, many, many hours later, my capstone project is complete: a mall full of my favorite guys!

Not gonna wax too poetic about my creative process because that's what the artist statement is for, but I will say that this was the most involved, ambitious, and creatively fulfilling piece I've ever gotten to do. OCs, cartoon characters, video game protagonists, DnD player characters, we've got it all here! Each of these characters is special to me in one way or another, and I had an absolute blast cramming them all into one canvas.

Tumblr got nowhere near displaying the full image so I had to condense the hell out of it to get the whole thing on there. If you want a closeup of any character in full resolution just sent me an ask! I would love to hold my little guys up to the camera for you :)

And yeah I'm gonna tag every piece of media represented. If you're seeing this in your tag, one of your fellas is in here somewhere!

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papyskellington · 5 months

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List of TAZ cat merchants because they can't keep getting away with this /lh

Balance- Garfield

Amnesty- Heathcliff

Graduation- Tom (& Gerry)

Ethersea- Felix & Nermal

Steeplechase- Stimpson (Stimpy)

Outre Space- Hobbz(s)

#the noise that came out of my mouth when clint spelled out Hobbs was inhuman #i had to go searching for the taz grad one omg i was losing my mind #they have to run out of cats eventually right?? whos left??#taz #the adventure zone #taz balance #taz amnesty #taz graduation #taz ethersea #taz steeplechase #taz outre space

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gayvampyr · 9 months

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forgot for a second that oscillopsia is in my brain and not external and i almost tried to record what it looks like to me to show people what i mean

#the best i can describe it is like. when you spin around in circles with your head on a baseball bat and the world feels like it's #spinning sideways and you lose your balance #except im sitting and instead of the world rotating its shaking back and forth and i don't have very good motor control cuz #i cant sense where things are #i honestly think it's related to MS. it'd be one thing if this was an isolated symptom but i have so many others that align with it #especially the weird/obscure ones that aren't listed in mainstream descriptions. like i had to go onto MS forums to find people who knew #what i was talking about and had the same experience #and its not like i started there or typed 'MS' in my search. its just the only accurate results were from people with MS blogging about it #not to self diagnose but itd be nice if i could at least get tested and not immediately dismissed #ive also been dxed with peripheral neuropathy which could be related #idk #this got very off topic

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etincelleart · 10 months

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"One brother believed they had disrupted the balance. While the other refused to condemn their creation for their mistakes."

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chainsawctopus · 8 months

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I made a Yoshida-Denji roleswap AU some time ago but gave up on it cause I don't know how to design a good Ocean Devil Hybrid design LMAO 😭 Octopus Pochita's name is Takocchi, more random info in tags

#csm #chainsaw man #chainsawman #hirofumi yoshida #csm au #Yoshida is the Ocean Hybrid cause I think the fear of the ocean makes more sense than octopi for such a powerful devil #Idk ocean devil just seems like a more even match for the chainsaw devil #Yoshida bites his finger off and the tentacle starts forming from there and blah blah #Did that cause Denji's transformation is pretty violent and I needed some kinda balance #Denji's earring cord pull isn't like when he pulls the cord in og cause its not actually attached to him #its basically just the equivalent of yoshida crossing his fingers to summon octopus. chainsaw devil sees the motion #im too lazy to explain all the other au details i made up so far #maybe try and search my rambles on twt lmao #i tagged some with OctoYoshi AU iirc #Denji's angsty looking cause his whole thing for this au is just fighting the bisexuality devil /hj

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crystalpallette · 3 days

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get you a girl who can give you everything

this started a long long time ago when I made a joke about how sega should put ringo in more dresses, and then my friend reminded me that oh yeah!! I can do that instead!!! and then one thing led to another and we joked about punk ringo and I drew that too. using ringo like a dressup doll is so cathartic it's kinda crazy

some bonuses (original designs, timelapse) under the cut bc I like these designs!! I might do some more with them!! please disregard the band poster in the first second of the timelapse that's something else!!!

#everyone look at my girl isnt she so pretty #puyo puyo #ringo ando #my stuff #please look at the timelapse it nicely packages a week of suffering into a minute :)#you cant tell at all from the recording. but all those teeny tiny scallops on ringo's dress? i drew all of those by hand #because the scallop brush i downloaded didnt look right. it never does why do i have that #plus the lace cutouts on the bottom i also drew by hand because i wanted them to look kinda like bunches of apple seeds #but thats not really a thing you can search for- 'lace brush that looks like apple seeds' is wildly specific #there's probably an identical brush to what i painstakingly drew by hand but dont tell me about it i want to think i did that for a reason #punk ringo on top was a lot less work on the lineart bit except for that godforsaken guitar #i had to make sure it looked right and it took forever #but what punk ringo gave me the most trouble with was posing #i knew i wanted an arm out to mirror lolita ringo but thw initial draft was meant to be her holding the guitar the opposite way she is now #(as in her hand was gonna be backwards)#and do you know how hard it is to balance a guitar like that. i had to grab my guitar and do a photoshoot to see what was most natural #while still having leg up arm out #this was fun to do even if i had about three crises in the middle of it #i tried doing my old rendering style again after a while and it was fun too #lolita ringo gave me a bit of trouble in the fact that my brain couldnt handle the dress being shaded but the apples being flat #but we got it lmao. i dont know if ill ever do this again it took too long #but maybe half of the time was because suddenly halfway through everybody needed my help for something or other that required me to leave #anyway wow thats enough rambling. i should go to bed now

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moregraceful · 4 months

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wip wednesday...it's me...ya boy....refusing to let people forget nick suzuki is not white lol

;;

Cole’s played with Nick for so long that he feels unbalanced when he’s on the face off against him for the first time. His dark intent eyes and the determined line of his mouth; Cole’s seen that look from right beside him for almost a decade. He never thought he’d be on the receiving end.

Nick’s skin is a warm brown against the white of the Canadian’ away jerseys, something Cole has seen hundreds of times in Montreal, ten years in, and has never been particularly taken by, but he looks warmer, here, even though they’re in Switzerland in February and it had been a long, long Montreal winter before they’d even gotten on the plane.

He didn’t get a haircut before the NHL took a break for the Olympics and Cole is suddenly desperate to know what his hair looks like now, if it’s messier under the helmet, if it tangles and curls, or if it just stands straight up. Nick’s usually pretty strict about getting a haircut, but there was a long road trip before they broke for the Olympics and the last time Cole saw Nick, his hair was growing out in ways Cole had never seen.

He looks, hmm. Dreamy is a word for it, maybe. Maybe that one Montreal gossip blog who named him Quebec’s most eligible bachelor in January had the right idea. Cole had made fun of him for weeks when he got the promoted post on Instagram but he sees the potential now, the shape of it.

Cole grins at him. Nick’s mouth doesn’t move.

“Switzerland’s beautiful in the winter,” he says. The ref is still shouting at Kirby and Trevor at the other side of the circle about how they won’t quit knocking each other around.

Nick looks at him but doesn’t say anything.

“You look better in red and blue though,” says Cole. “The white jersey, I dunno. You do better with a little color. Gonna be glad to see you out of it.”

Nick blinks.

“Maybe tonight,” says Cole.

Nick says, “fucking—Cole, are you this much of a maniac with everybody?”

They bend down. The ref puts his whistle in his mouth.

“No,” says Cole. Nick makes a face. Cole laughs. “You’re the only Canadian I’d ever cross those borders for.”

“Either pull the fuck up or fuck off, Caufield,” says Nick, but the corners of his eyes are crinkled, before he turns determined and intense again.

The ref tells them to shut up in French and drops the puck. Nick swipes it.

#it is my duty as a mixed race asian to force white fans to confront the fact that jrob nick suzuki et al are not white #always trying to balance between exoticism versus brown skin is very beautiful from a white hockey player's perspective but frankly #most of them have some deep soul-searching to do anyway #oh i just had a thought that would blow open the discourse but would also get me specifically in so much trouble #anyway tk i liked your prompt very much and i hope that someday soon i stop posting and write again #it's been a fun exercise trying to write from cole's perspective which i have never tried before #he is developing-intent flirty with one (1) man and friendly flirty with many (many) olympians #and that has been a fun balancing act #unfortunate birdcage fanfictions

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kingofmyborrowedheart · 5 months

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“I can’t deal with someone who’s obsessed with privacy. People kind of care if there are two famous people dating. But no one cares that much. If you care about privacy to the point where we need to dig a tunnel under this restaurant so that we can leave? I can’t do that.”

-Taylor Swift to Vogue, January 16th, 2012

#taylor swift #was searching for another quote and stumbled on this one #I think this is important for those that think Taylor is lying because she’s more public now to hear #of course she couldn’t predict exactly what would happen to her in 2016 the scale and devastation it would have on her #but she doesn’t mind being public at times #and she will be more private when she needs to #it’s not straight down the line one or the other it’s a balance of the two #Bolded what was supposed to be italicized #quotes

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curiosghostie · 6 months

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New Sticker Club Design this Month !!!

vvvvv Link in Reply vvvvv

#cg draws #pkmnart #sticker club #porygon #the struggle of remaking this post so many times #trying to find the balance between ease of access and not being left out of the tag search

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paging-possum · 2 months

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Debating how much pussy to put into these drawings

#on one hand I want the rhyme items to have some sort of meaning #because it feels boring and redundant to do a themed search and find and then have it not relate #but I also like. I need to make the rhymes work u know??#i want to balance them being fun and having meaning vs not making the process hell YOU KNOW #there is already a significant amount of pussy being put into them

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lifeofkaze · 1 year

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A Search for Balance

CHAPTER 44: FIRE IN THE SKY

Find the masterlist with all chapters of this story here, the previous chapter here, and the next one here.

A/N: Katriona Cassiopeia still belongs to @kc-and-co Warning: canon-compliant mentions of violence against minors

The victory party was in full swing, but Orion didn’t feel like celebrating. The high of the match had faded, leaving him feeling strung up and drained from a night of little sleep.

Ever since Murphy and Katriona had invited him to the World Cup, he had been looking forward to it, yet none of it had turned out like he had expected. In his eagerness to fill the emptiness inside him, he hadn’t questioned what had looked to be an act of generosity, and now he was back where he had begun, his heart filled with a longing for Lizzie that he didn’t know how to deal with.

Not sharing the high spirits around him, Orion kept to the side of the party. He busied himself watching the fireworks flashing across the sky, nodding at familiar faces as they passed him. Luckily, most of them were too ecstatic to bother him in his gloom; it had been a while since he had seen any of his friends, too, but it was just as well - the party was noisy enough without any of them bothering him on top.

More out of habit than anything, he scanned the crowd for Lizzie. He found her standing close to the World Cup trophy, talking to a witch covered head to toe in Irish colours. Lizzie seemed to know her because she put a hand on the woman’s arm before suddenly turning to walk away. When she paused abruptly, the Irish witch whispered into her ear before yelling something Orion didn’t understand. Then, she raised her shirt up to her shoulders, flashing the hollering bystanders and vanished into the crowd.

Shaking his head in astonishment, Orion looked back to where Lizzie had been but found that she had disappeared. When he spotted her again, she was headed for the exit, Skye’s unmistakable blue head right behind her. Then, the two of them were gone.

Without thinking, Orion made to follow them, but he didn’t make it very far. Katriona materialised by his side, her brows drawn together in an angry frown.

“What is going on? Why is Lizzie leaving?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “What did you do?”

Orion sighed wearily. “I did nothing, my sweet but quick to judge sister-in-the-stars.”

At that, Katriona blinked. “You didn’t? Why?”

Hadn’t he been so tired and frustrated, Orion would have laughed at the absurdity of her question.

“How can I cause disturbance in waters that I do not go near? I’ve kept my distance from Lizzie since you so kindly abandoned us at the fire yesterday.”

Katriona tilted her head. “I repeat my question - why?”

“Because there is no use. Every word we share is another twist of the knife in both our hearts. When Lizzie and I parted, we did so hoping to heal, not cut ourselves even deeper.”

Katriona snorted. “All I hear is yada yada yada. I thought we were over this - if you want something, you’ll need to go and get it. You want her. She wants you. Wherever is your bloody problem?”

“The problem,” Orion said, irritation rising in his chest,” is that she has left. Lizzie chose to go and stretch her wings, and as much as it pains me that she has flown beyond my reach, I know she deserves it. She earned it. I will not be who keeps her from her destiny.”

“Not that again.”

“Yes, that again. We played with fire, knowing what happens when you hold your hands into a flame. Who are we to complain now that it burns? We were never meant to be. It was a lie we told ourselves because we didn’t want to listen. We should never have put our careers on the line for this fever dream. What have we to show for breaking every single rule I can think of? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

“The rules, the rules, all I hear is the rules,” Katriona answered hotly. “Sod the rules, I say! If they don’t suit you, bend them. You always did. Where’s your creativity gone?” She grabbed Orion by the arm and pulled him toward the exit. “Come on, Lizzie’s hasn’t gone for long. You can still catch her if you hurry.”

Orion spun away from her, his anger at her, which had been simmering beneath the surface since he had seen Lizzie and Skye at their camp, finally spilling over.

“I don’t want to catch her! Don’t you get it? I want to forget her, and you should support me rather than make everything worse. She and I aren’t meant to be - never were and never will be. The sooner you, and I, and everybody else, accept it, the easier it will be to finally move on. Maybe - just maybe - Lizzie and I can both actually be happy for once.”

Katriona blinked at his sudden outburst, her face illuminated by the green and gold explosives in the sky, but Orion wasn’t done. It was like a dam had broken inside him, all of his frustration spilling from him in a rush of words.

“Every time Lizzie and I try to be together, we part hurting. Every time we try to love each other, we break each other’s hearts. We made our choices - both of us - and all they ever do is lead us away from each other, every single bloody time.”

He took a deep breath, dipping his head back into his neck. His eyes searched the sky, but the stars were eclipsed by the fireworks rising from the tents beyond the party area. When Orion spoke next, he felt light and heavy at the same time.

“It’s time to let her go,” he said, more to himself than to Katriona. “Let her go and be free. Both of us.”

Katriona’s face was a play of light and shadow as the fireworks flared again, but Orion could see the spark of sympathy in her eyes. She placed her hand on his arm again, lightly this time, but Orion shook her off. He wanted to tell her to, please, leave the matter alone but paused.

All of a sudden, the light seemed to have changed. The sky was still glowing in the distance, but it wasn’t fireworks anymore that were lighting the darkness. It was a flickering orange sheen, which was growing brighter by the minute. Orion thought he could hear the faint noise of thundering, but it didn’t sound like fireworks being set off.

Slowly, the music began to die as more and more people noticed the change in the air. A murmur rose among the crowd. Suddenly, Murphy was there, reaching for Katriona’s hand with an alarmed look on his painted face.

“Do you know what’s going on?” he asked, his voice strangely loud in the strained silence.

Katriona opened her mouth to reply when a new sound cut through the atmosphere that made Orion’s blood run cold.

Screams.

Sharing a look, the three of them followed the throng of people into the open, where they would be able to see better. They were met with sounds of confusion and panic as witches and wizards darted to and fro, some headed for the woods in the distance, some straight for the cause of the commotion.

Now that they were outside, Orion could discern a row of cloaked and hooded people in the distance. They were marching in succession, setting tents on fire as they went. They kept their wands raised in front of their faces, hidden by what looked to be silvery masks and joined by a constant stream of equally dressed people coming in from both sides.

Above them, four shapes were floating through the air. They were weirdly contorted, limbs twitching, and movements too unnatural to appear human. When Katriona realised how small two of the hovering shapes were, she drew a sharp breath.

“Come on,” she said with a pressed voice. “We need to see if we can help.”

They fought their way through the people running in the opposite direction from them - away from the hooded group of wizards - but soon had to give in to the fact that Murphy had no space to manoeuvre his wheelchair.

The dark figures had turned from them and were walking in a different direction, but the general commotion seemed to have spread beyond their wake. Emotions both good and bad had been running high over the last couple of hours, and now all of it was breaking ground. Fires were blooming everywhere, the air thick and biting with their smoke, and the sounds of screams and hollering were storming in on Orion from all sides.

“Let’s go and find a meeting point,” Murphy suggested. He had to shout to be heard above the racket. “Maybe someone will be able to tell us what’s going on.”

Orion was about to agree when the atmosphere abruptly changed. Where everything had been black shadows and flickering flames before, the campsite was suddenly cast into a pale green light. An eerie silence settled over the burning field as hundreds of faces turned skywards. Moments after, screams erupted all around them, followed by the cracks of several people Disapparating in panic.

Slowly, Orion raised his eyes to the sky.

“Oh my God,” Katriona whispered next to him. Her voice was hoarse. “It can’t be…”

She reached for Murphy’s hand, who watched the image of the skull with a snake winding from its gaping mouth with his lips tightly pressed together. He nodded.

“The Dark Mark.”

Orion was still watching the sign of He Who Must Not Be Named - the symbol the whole wizarding world had hoped to never see again - when a sudden explosion in the distance made them jump. As if the sound had kicked time into motion again, people began to run, away from the fires, the explosions, and the skull in the sky, without looking left or right. Standing completely still amid the people fleeing around them, Katriona turned to Orion. Her face was ghastly pale.

“The explosion,” she said, her blue eyes wide with fear. “That was by our camp, wasn’t it?”

She clapped a hand in front of her mouth.

“That’s where Skye and Lizzie are.”

#hphm #hogwarts mystery #harry potter hogwarts mystery #quidditch #orion amari #orion amari x mc #lizzie jameson #murphy mcnully #balance series #search for balance #sfb

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