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myexgirlfriendisthemoon · 4 years

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It Feels Better Biting Down — Ch. 1: First Impressions are Lasting Impressions

Set in a modern bending AU, Roku High and Kyoshi High are rival schools in every sense. When financial troubles cause Sokka and Katara to go to separate schools, their bond and new friendships test the civil and social boundaries that lie behind school lines and familial ties. With new friends Aang, Toph, and Suki, will Sokka and Katara be able to hold their Gaang together, or will they let the fire nation clique's drama split them up for good?

“So are you sure you can get me to class on time? I mean, if I ran, I’m sure I could catch up to the bus.”

Sokka shook his head, clicking his tongue in a ‘tsk, tsk’ sound. “Katara, sister o’ mine,” he said, grabbing his keys from beside the front door. He held it open for his younger sister and locked it behind her. “Remember that one time you were sick and forgot your science project? And I-”

“-stopped for a milkshake on the way to school, spilled it on my lab report, and got it to me twenty minutes after it was due?” she retorted with a smirk, crossing her arms over her chest.

Sokka waved his hand, dismissing his sister’s comeback. “Meaningless details, really. Anyways,” he said, walking over to the driveway. “Do you want a ride or not?”

“I do,” Katara said, following behind him, “but do you honestly think your car wants to get us there in one piece today?”

Sokka gasped and put his arms over his car. The thing he called his baby was a navy hunk of metal that at some point resembled an ‘81 Honda, with scratched up rims, too many dents to count, and a few knicks in the windshield (Katara liked to play a game called “How fast can Sokka drive over speed bumps before his windshield shatters.” So far, she’s seen him take the thing a surprising 45 mph over a bump without damage. She swore it was only a matter of time though.).

He turned his head towards his sister with a pout. “Don’t talk about Tun Tun like that, Katara; it’s rude.” Sokka looked back at his car with a strange sort of fondness that Katara knew only Sokka was capable of displaying. “Don’t listen to her Tun Tun,” he cooed. “You’re beautiful just the way you are.” The meticulously taped up side view mirror slipped from it’s rearranged spot, hanging on only by a fraying electrical wire.

Katara couldn’t help the snicker that escaped her.

“See what you did?!” Sokka said, exasperated. “Now Tun Tun is upset, great.” He opened up the backseat and grabbed his spare roll of duct tape. “Absolutely fantastic,” he muttered, beginning to patch up his beloved jalopy.

Katara walked around to the passenger side, and slid in, placing her bookbag down at her feet. “Can you fix Tun Tun any faster?” she called out.

“While I do appreciate you calling her by her name,” Sokka replied, “Car maintenance on a budget is a careful art that takes time and precision.”

Katara groaned and sunk deeper into the worn fabric seat. She could already feel the embarrassment of being late on her first day. This definitely wasn’t the impression she was looking to give her new teachers, especially coming in on a partial scholarship. “Sokka, I’m going to be late.”

He placed one last piece of tape and sighed. “Alright, alright. Quit your whining. I’m finished.” He hopped in the driver’s seat and threw his tape towards the backseat. Sticking the key in the ignition, he gave Tun Tun one, two, three good cranks before she finally sputtered to life. Katara let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.

Katara fiddled with the hem of her uniform, a red wrap-around blouse with ornate gold trim. Her other hand unconsciously rested on her mother’s necklace.

Sokka glanced back and forth between the road and his younger sister. It wasn’t unusual for her to lose herself in her thoughts for a moment or two, but under normal circumstances, she would probably be bickering with him over something stupid or giving him some long-winded speech about how he needs to take better care of himself and start thinking about the future or something else dumb and hope inspired and just very Katara.

But today wasn’t very normal.

He didn’t blame Katara for being a bit on edge. Hell, he was, two years ago when he was in her shoes. After Mom had died, Gran Gran and Dad had decided it would be wise for them to hone in on the Southern Water Tribe’s future, specifically Katara and Sokka. No pressure, though.

“So,” Sokka said, clearing his throat and interrupting both of their thoughts. “Are you excited to be going to Roku High?”

Katara shrugged. “I guess.”

Sokka knew better than to let Katara slip back into her own thoughts. “C’mon, Katara. This is your chance to actually get to bend with other water benders, let alone benders in general. You can’t tell me you aren’t at least a little bit excited.”

She sighed. “I mean, I know I’ve been practicing and all. I know that I know my stuff. It’s just,” she got quiet for a moment, searching for the right words. “What if I’m not as good as Dad and Gran Gran say I am?”

“Oh, shut up!” Sokka laughed. “Katara, you know damn well you’re the best water bender in the whole Southern Water Tribe.”

“I’m also the only water bender in our tribe-”

“Besides the point. Look,” Sokka said, pulling up to the sprawling private academy’s campus. “Dad and Gran Gran wouldn’t have given up so much if they didn’t believe in you. I wouldn’t have given up so much if I didn’t believe in you.”

Katara smiled softly at her brother and trapped him in a bone-crushing hug. “You know, when you aren’t being so sarcastic, you’re actually pretty ni-”

“Okay, okay, I get it. Stop being an annoying little sister and go kick some fire bender ass,” Sokka said, prying her off of him. “Go before you’re actually late, you nerd.”

Katara laughed and opened the door, swinging her bag over her shoulder. “Love you,” she called over her shoulder, closing the door behind her.

“Yeah, yeah, love you, too,” Sokka chuckled, putting his car in gear and slowly driving away.

Katara closed her eyes, lifting her shoulders back. She raised her chin, trying to ignore the slight sting of homesickness in her chest as little beads of sweat gathered above her brow. Opening her eyes, she touched her mother’s necklace as she walked up the white stone steps to her new school.

“Nothing will ruin this for me,” she whispered as she entered the building. “I promise, mom.”

__________

“You fucking scream water tribe, you know that?”

A hand slams onto the locker opposite Katara, jolting her out of her thoughts. She pulled her eyes away from her schedule and scoffed. “Excuse me?”

The black-haired teen cornering Katara rolled her eyes. Her silk hair was pulled back into a perfect bun, with two choppy side bangs framing her face. Her eyes and facial features were sharp enough to cut someone. She was a cunning viper, and her lips dripped poison.

“You know, if you’re going to go to a Fire Nation school, you should at least try to blend in, or at the very least, not be so… offensive to our traditions.”

Katara grabbed her books from her locker and shut it harder than she had intended to. “Look, I don’t care who you are and how old of a Fire Nation family you come from, but water benders and earth benders go here too, so lay off.”

“You should watch who you’re talking to,” the viper hissed.

A brunette, petite girl behind her frowned and opened her mouth to say something, but a girl next to her with two buns, bangs, and long black hair held up a hand to stop her before she could get a word in.

“And while other benders do attend Roku,” the girl with two buns said, “Azula is right, it has always been a traditional Fire Nation school. Hence the name Roku.”

“Thank you, Mai,” the viper, apparently named Azula, said. Katara couldn’t tell if she was actually thanking Mai for her input or if Azula was staking her claim to this battle. “You’re wearing Fire Nation colors for a reason, water girl. Take our advice, it’s best if you don’t stand out.” She sized Katara up and down. “Which tribe are you from anyways?”

“Southern,” Katara answered proudly with a smirk, leaning against her locker.

The three girls sneered at Katara.

“How the hell does a peasant from the Southern Water Tribe like you afford to come to Roku anyways?” Azula remarked. “No offense, of course.”

“Azula,” the brunette with the braid interjected, “maybe you should-“

“Shut up, Ty Lee!” Azula snapped at her.

The brunette sunk back in defeat.

A crowd started forming around the four of them, but Katara didn’t pay them any mind. She had a battle to win.

Katara glared at Azula and took a step forward. She picked up her shoulders, staring the viper straight in her eyes. “I don’t know who you think you’re talking to, but this ‘peasant,’” she barked, “is the daughter of Chief Hakoda and the last water bender of the Southern Water Tribe. So I suggest you watch who you talk-“

Azula let out an outraged gasp and blue sparks danced at her fingertips as she raised her hand and mentally cursing her bravery, Katara closed her eyes and said goodbye to this cruel word and-

The impact never came.

Katara opened her eyes and looked up to see a young man with his hand around Azula’s wrist.

“Enough, Azula,” he said quietly, barely above a whisper. “You know combat is forbidden outside of class.”

“I don’t care,” she hissed back, her eyes shooting daggers at him. If looks could kill, it would have been a blood bath.

“Really?” He raises an eyebrow. “Unless you want a demerit and father to find out.”

Azula’s face went ghostly pale and she got quiet. When her palm stopped crackling with electricity, he released it. He locked his golden eyes with Katara’s ocean ones for a moment. While he was probably only a year or two older than Katara, maybe around Sokka’s age, the bags under his eye and the permanent looking scowl on his face aged him further.

“Okay ZuZu,” she snapped. His emotional disarmament seemed to be only of temporary effect. “We’re done here. You can leave us to our girl talk now.”

He rolled his eyes and sighed, turning on his heel. Briefly, he nodded to one of Azula’s friends.

“Mai,” he greeted.

“Zuko,” she nodded back, cracking what could have been, had you squint really hard and looked closely, could possibly be the hint of a smile.

Zuko walked down the hall and the four girls watched him go. As he exited, so did a majority of the crowd, save for a few curious eavesdroppers.

“Now that my brother is done flirting with my friends and playing hero,” Azula said with a sigh, turning her attention back to Katara. “What was I saying before I was so rudely interrupted? Oh, right. Look, water girl, or whatever your name-“

“Katara.”

“Katara.” Azula drew out her name, testing the way it felt on her tongue. “Listen. I don’t know the way it worked in igloo village, but here, things are different. You don’t want to listen, fine by me. But my dad is someone really important, too, so I wouldn’t start swimming in water that’s too deep if you catch my drift.” Azula flicked Katara’s necklace with her finger, smirking at her. “I think we’re done here, ladies.”

Azula pushed herself off of the lockers and the others followed suit.

“Welcome to Roku High, Katara,” Azula called over her shoulder.

_______________

Sokka perked up when his sister opened the door, jumping over the couch to greet her.

“There’s my favorite bender!” He said with a huge smile, walking up to her with open arms. “How was your first day of-“

Katara slammed the door shut behind her and shot him a glare.

“... school?” Sokka whispered.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she mumbled, pushing past him and heading straight for her room, slamming that door behind her, too.

Sokka walked over to Gran Gran in the kitchen. “Ah, teenagers. You think she liked her school?”

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itzleon345 · 4 years

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We’re a Million Worlds Apart

Chapter 1: If I Could Just Tell Her

Fandom: Little Witch Academia

Pairing: Diana Cavendish/ Atsuko “Akko” Kagari

Read it on AO3: Here

Rating: T

Word count: 1974 words

Summary: Akko is hopelessly in love with Diana but she is to much of a coward to confess so she just keeps her feelings in her inside fantasizing how would it be if she had the guts to tell her how she feels.

Look at your beautiful blue eyes, deep as the same sea, lose myself in them like a sailor without a compass to guided him, believe that I could never leave that abyss without an end, and then, observe your smile which has no comparison, your sort of subtle and perfect and real smile that you only trust to some of us, I can't believe you don't know how that same smile can make me feel, ecstatic, happy, I could even say that overburdened, but well, in the end I know that this is all for the simple fact that I'm hopelessly in love with you, Diana Cavendish

You make me happier day by day, you make me want to discover more things about you, as, for example, whenever you get bored you scribbled stars in your notes, stars that resemble those that some months ago you and I released

And I also notice that although you seem completely disinterested in such childish topics, you still fill out the quizzes that they put in those teen magazines that Hannah and Barbara leave in the library

I know all of this because lately you are the only thought in my head, I know this because I love to know things about you, because I adore every part of you, because I treasure every moment by your side and for that same reason i keep it all inside my head and you don't know anything about this, I have to leave this unsaid, because even if I want to do it, I can't even get close to you, I can't find a way.

But I swear to you that every night when I go to sleep and every morning when I wake up the only thing I can think of is ‘if I could tell her? Tell her all the things I see, if I could tell her? Tell her that she is everything to me’ and I know I will not because we’re a million worlds apart, because you are a queen and I am a jester, and anyway, even if I could tell you I would not know where to start because there is too much to say, Because day after day I discover something new about you, I really don't know what to do, so the only thing I have left is to fantasize about 'if I could tell her?'

Akko was writing all of this on a loose sheet as soon as she woke up

"Akko! Hurry up, it's time to start classes” Lotte hurried from the closet while she finished putting on her vest.

"Please be considerate to us, I don't wish to have to clean the Trolls' toilet a second time this month," Sucy said already ready from her side of the desk as she finished mixing a couple of liquids.

"Yep! I'm going!" The brunette answered as she put the letter in one of the desk drawers

——————————————————

"Well girls, I hope you have paid attention to the class as this topic will come in next week's exam, now go" said Finnelan with force in her voice

Akko closed her notebook with a sigh, notebook that had no notes as the whole class she had spent thinking about her most recent dilemma ‘maybe one day I will be able to tell her how I feel.’

Her morning classes were already over and it was lunchtime -her favorite time-, she and her teammates shot out to the dining room where, as always, the green and blue teams were already sitting, for some reason or another they were talking about the Night Fall convention that Lotte and Barbara had managed to drag them down a couple of weeks ago.

"Hey Princess" Amanda tried to get the attention of the blonde who seemed that didn’t paid attention to the previous conversation because she was waiting for someone to arrive "do you want to know what Akko told me about you a couple of days ago?" Diana instantly turned to see the American with a look of interest.

"Is that a yes?" The redhead asked a second time with a small smile to which Diana just nodded.

Akko -who had just arrived- was nervous as much as she could be, because even if she tried to keep her feelings for the heiress on the sidelines, she knew that -somehow- Amanda had discovered her little crush with the blonde (it should be noted that although she thought she was discreet, everyone had already knew about it, well, everyone except for Diana who was equal or more dense than Akko with all of this romance thing)

"Well, she said she loves the way you ride your broom," Amanda replied with a laugh.

"A-amanda!" Akko complained with her face completely red.

And either way, Akko wasn't the only one with a strange reaction, each of them had a different one, Sucy giggled, Lotte's cheeks were tinged with a subtle blush, Jasminka looked a little disapprovingly at her teammate, Constanze simply stood up from her place next to Jasminka to fist-bump Amanda, Hannah and Barbara glared at Amanda, and Diana? Well Diana was just extremely confused, she didn't understand why they all seemed to exaggerate at a simple compliment from her favorite brunette

"That's it? Did she say anything else? ” Asked the heiress with clear confusion and interest

"About you?" answered maliciously with another question Sucy which had been the fastest to get out of the small group shock

"No, n-never mind" Diana stuttered as she turned to look elsewhere, because it is not like she was interested in what Akko thought about her, obviously not and if it came to interest it would be for the simple fact that they were friends, nothing out of the ordinary, obvious.

"Don't worry Cav, she said so many things! But there are so much that I'm trying to remember the best ones” Amanda said with a bit of mockery “For example! She said that your hair look really pretty whe-” the redhead tried to continue but was interrupted by Akko who lunged from her place in front of her to silence her

“It look pretty...er... cool! The way your hair moves when you fly is pretty cool... hehe ”Akko finished answering from the ground with one hand in Amanda's mouth and the other scratching the back of her neck

"You did?" The blonde asked again with a small blush

"O-of course!" Akko almost yelled as she stood up and helped Amanda to stand "b-but hey, what were you guys talking about before we got here?" The brunette asked looking at her friends for help.

"Night Fall!" Barbara shouted "I-i mean, we were talking about the Night Fall convention we went, heh" Akko turned to see her with gratitude and they continued chatting about the convention and those conventions that were to come.

Lunch continued without any further altercation, just a couple of playful glances from Amanda and Sucy's two-way remarks, the normal. At the end, the group separated and each one go to their respective classes of the afternoon.

——————————————————

"Akko, I think it's about time you confessed to Diana" Lotte said out of nowhere.

The little lunch drama had happened a couple of weeks ago, weeks in which quite similar situations had occurred, which always ended with Akko shouting some nonsense or someone in the floor -except for Sucy who was too scary for Akko to try to tackle her-, and this was gradually annoying her friends, none of them could believe how Akko was such a coward not to confessed to someone who was obviously going to accept her, and how Diana was so stubborn not to accept her own infatuation that she excused as a "Very good friendship"

"W-what ?!" Akko screamed as she got up from her bunk and hit Lotte's.

"Lotte is right, it is too upsetting to see you mopping around by your supposed ‘unrequited love’” Sucy added from the desk.

"Girls you know that I can’t, she herself has shown me that she doesn’t see me as nothing more than a friend" Akko answered while rubbing the place on her head which had been hit

"Argh" Sucy growled as she listened to her stupid -but dear- friend

“Besides, how do you suppose I would do it? What the hell would I say to her? "Akko said as she stood up from her bed to start walking back and forth in their little hallway

"Perhaps you plan for me to tell her how I have always wondered how she learned to dance like if all the rest of the world isn’t there?" the tone of voice of the little witch was gradually growing

"Or how her presence makes me feel back to the stratosphere, that her smile makes me the happiest person in the world, that I don't know what I would do if she were to leave one day, because making her happy became my new dream?" She continued with her little speech as she sat back on her bed

"Is that what you plan? Because I do not see it very convenient, I don’t want to lose her, I don’t want her to abandon me because she found out that I am this freak that fell in love with her best friend, I really don’t want to, because she is everything to me” little by little her eyes began to moisten

"Besides, we’re a million worlds apart, she is literally the best witch to have stepped on Luna Nova in decades, she is the heir to one of the most powerful families of all times, while I" she laughed sadly "I am only a screw up witch who still doesn't know how to correctly fly a broom” By this moment tears were already coming out of her eyes

"What do you want me to do when there is this great divide?" She said and she started sobbing for a moment

"She always seems to be so far away," Akko continued. Sucy, meanwhile, stood up from her place to sit next to Akko, Lotte also got off her bunk while giving Sucy a sad look and sat on the other side of Akko

"What am I going to do when the distance is too wide?" Lotte hugged her teammate as a couple of tears escaped from her own eyes

"She doesn't know anything" Sucy let out with a bit of venom in her voice, because, although, she knew it wasn't on purpose, she was extremely bothered by all the pain the Cavendish heiress caused to her friend.

"And how would l look to her face and s-say" Akko stuttered while she released from Lotte's embrace and got up again, this time going to her desk and began in a whisper to repeat the same sentence

"I love you" she said as she took out the letter she had written a couple of weeks ago

"I love you" she opened the window

"I love you!" She screamed at the top of her lungs at the cold night outside of her room

"I love you" she said for the last time with her eyes closed and a tender smile as she hugged herself and the letter, but when she opened her eyes she returned to reality and likewise she took the letter and threw it out of the window and close it, and then return to the embrace of her friends -Yes, Sucy included-

"But we are a million worlds apart, and I don’t know how I would even start telling her anyway," she said spitefully.

"If I could just tell her" she whispered as she lay down on her bed together with her friends.

"If I could ..." she closed her eyes and slept so she could dream what her world would be like if she weren't a complete coward

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ts1989fanatic · 4 years

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Taylor Swift And The End Of An Era

Love her or hate her, Taylor Swift embodied the contradictions of the decade in pop music

“I’m so sick of running as fast as I can,” Taylor Swift sings in the chorus of “The Man,” a song from her latest album, Lover. She chose the up-tempo tune to open her “Artist of the Decade” medley at the AMAs last month, and it’s a return to familiar Swiftian themes; she claps back at unspecified, sexist critics who fail to acknowledge her “good ideas and power moves.”

Whatever one might think of Swift’s underdog complex, it’s not surprising that the end of the 2010s finds her exhausted. Her transformation from tween country sensation to tabloid-friendly pop star to polarizing Twitter talking point and, finally, to celebrity supernova, required — at the very least — plenty of stamina.

There’s no question that straight white femininity still occupies a privileged place in the cultural landscape, which helped pave the way for Swift’s rise and decade-long pop dominance — even as she became a zeitgeisty symbol of that privilege and a target for those seeking to contest it. Yet as many of her similarly situated peers have faltered, she has endured as one of the last pop behemoths of her kind.

Time and again Swift strategically read and rode the decade’s cultural waves, deciding not just which trends and genres to jump on but, perhaps more importantly, what to pass on. As pop music became feud-centric reality television, there was Taylor; as stan culture transformed the way listeners interacted with performers (and each other), there was Taylor; as artists’ rights in the streaming era entered the conversation, there was Taylor; as politics infiltrated music, there was (sort of, eventually) Taylor.

There are definitely plenty of other contenders for Artist of the Decade (a title both the AMAs and Billboard recently bestowed on Swift) — artists who have hugely impacted pop music over the past 10 years and managed to ride out the seismic, industry-wide shifts they’ve contained, from Beyoncé to Lady Gaga to Kanye West. But you don’t have to think Swift was the “best” or even most significant artist of the decade to acknowledge that her cultural domination, and her ability to pivot and reinvent herself, captured many of the defining tensions of pop music over the last decade.

It’s hard to remember (in internet years) that before 2010, Swift was just a teen pop star and not yet a cultural lightning rod. She was already taken seriously as a musician and had plenty of cultural capital coming into the decade; in 2009, having already won Artist of the Year at the AMAs, she was about to accept a Video Music Award for Female Video of the Year when Kanye infamously interrupted her speech. In early 2010, she won Album of the Year for Fearless at the Grammy Awards, beating out Beyoncé and Lady Gaga.

Her early stardom revolved mostly around the fact that she was a precocious young country artist who wrote her own songs, without the risqué edge or sexy-but-wholesome cognitive dissonance of someone like an early Britney Spears to worry white parents and inspire pearl-clutching tabloid magazine covers. And it wasn’t really until Speak Now — when Swift was already a mainstream star but still categorized as country — that she began teasing the media and her fans about the ways her autobiographical lyrics mapped onto her real life, especially regarding the men she was dating.

People are still wondering whether Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” is about Uncle Joey, so it was startling for a young woman songwriter and musical celebrity of her commercial reach to use her songs to consistently craft such intimate stories about such equally public men, including Joe Jonas, Taylor Lautner, and John Mayer. And there was something uniquely bold about the way Swift started using her confessional songwriting and melodic sensibility to “get the last word” on her relationships, as People magazine framed it in her first cover story.

People hardly batted an eye in 2018 when Ariana Grande’s first No. 1 hit, “Thank U, Next,” literally name-checked her list of ex-boyfriends, and that’s in no small part because of Swift. Because even as reality TV stars like the Kardashians and Real Housewives were figuring out how to create multiplatform storytelling through social media, Swift was already pioneering the strategy in the big pop machine. Yes, she opportunistically used this to shame exes, create fodder for talk shows, and garner magazine covers; and even then, it raised some hackles about the way she was using her power. But it was undeniably compelling theater, and even nonfans were watching.

That multiplatform mixture of music and drama wouldn’t have succeeded without the undeniably catchy earworms Swift’s diary entries were wrapped in, or without the devoted fanbase of Swifties that she cultivated online. This all helped her break chart records with her most explicitly pop albums, including 2012’s Red and 2014’s ’80s-inspired 1989. The latter garnered the biggest first-week sales for a pop album since Britney Spears in 2002, helping Swift keep the tradition of the monocultural pop star alive.

But as Swift’s music saturated airwaves, and her willingness to tease behind-the-scenes details of her life in her songs moved beyond ex-boyfriends like Harry Styles (“Style”) into swatting at other pop stars like Katy Perry (“Bad Blood”) the public began to sour on Swift’s strategic use of her personal life in her music. (To Swift’s credit as a performer, no other pop star could sing the lyrics “Band-Aids don’t fix bullet holes” about a dispute over a backup dancer with a straight face.)

Juxtaposed with Swift’s self-celebrating “girl squad” feminism, her opportunism — and seeming hypocrisy — started to rankle. By 2015, even racist sympathizer and critic Camille Paglia came out of the woodwork to anoint Swift a “Nazi barbie,” calling out her tendency to treat friends as props. And all these contradictions of Swift’s persona would come to a head when Swift’s seemingly buried feud with Kanye came roaring back the following year.

It makes sense that her clash with Kanye and Kim Kardashian West became the first time she experienced a real backlash. Unlike the drama around her dating life or with Perry, it was the first time Swift was up against equally savvy adversaries — celebrities who, like her, were professionals at merging their public and private lives.

The fight was a meta moment by design, inspired by West’s song “Famous,” where he raps: “I made that bitch famous.” In retrospect, it seems clear that West, as much a publicity-seeking pop diva as Swift, was trying to get the last word after going on an apology tour about the interruption heard round the world. Swift claimed to be annoyed over what she saw as the song’s credit-taking message, and she tried to make it part of her own narrative. “I want to say to all the young women out there,” she intoned in her speech accepting a Grammy for Album of the Year in February 2016, “there are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame.”

In another era, Swift’s storyline might have won the day. Her publicist denied that she had approved the line in the song, despite Kanye’s claim that he had checked with her before releasing it. But celebrity narratives, to some degree, were no longer being decided just by white-dominated mainstream media. Black publications were the first to tease out the racial undertones of Swift’s lie in the ensuing “he said, she said,” specifically as a white woman playing on the ingrained sympathy and benefit of the doubt that white women are given in US culture.

Still, it wasn’t until Kim’s Snapchat leak that July — where Swift could be heard approving the song — that the Swift-as-victim narrative became a framework for understanding her entire career. Contemporary white pop stars like Grande and Miley Cyrus had faced musical appropriation backlashes, but this time it was Swift’s entire persona — not just her music — that were under scrutiny.

Swift’s memeable response to the leak — “I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative” — was followed by her own disappearance from the media landscape. By the time the 2016 election happened — amid the chatter about white women’s complicity in electing Trump — Swift’s refusal to take a political stand solidly cast her as a cultural villain, and her symbolism as an icon of toxic white womanhood was sealed.

If the clamor of social media (especially Twitter) was central to the Swift backlash, it was also central to her eventual resurgence. Over the past decade, social media (especially Instagram) has tipped the scales in celebrity coverage and helped celebrities tell their stories on their own terms, almost without intermediaries. Swift knew how to use that to her advantage and decided to play the long game.

By refusing interviews for 18 months, wiping her social media clean, and focusing on cultivating her Tumblr fanbase, Swift removed herself from the cultural conversation for a beat. This kind of brand management helped her keep an ear to the ground while in a self-imposed exile. But it’s as if the culture couldn’t stop conjuring her; rumors about her absence spread, including that she had traveled around inside a suitcase.

In August 2017, she wiped her social media clean and reappeared with a snake video — reclaiming the serpent emojis — in what was ultimately the announcement for her Reputation album, and which remains one of the most iconic social media rollouts ever. “Look What You Made Me Do,” the lead single, was endlessly memed — Swift couldn’t come to the phone, a perfect metaphor for her cultural disappearance and, perhaps, a kind of ghostly remake of the Kanye call. The album succeeded because it seemed as though Swift was finally open to owning her melodrama and messiness. She subsequently broke records with the tour and album sales.

Still, her political silence was affecting her image and music. By 2018, insipid corporate wokeness had become the order of the day, and Swift Inc. again pivoted musically and culturally. Swift came out for the Democratic candidates in the 2018 midterms, framing her support in terms of LGBTQ rights and racial justice. And this year, the second single from her latest album, Lover — “You Need to Calm Down” — was a perfect encapsulation of her politics of messiness, conflating anti-gay prejudice with Twitter drama. (And somehow turning the video into a celebration of pop queens supporting each other). This fall, she has made sure to include über-stan–turned–pop star (and video coproducer) Todrick Hall at her awards show moments, attempting to expand the range of racial and sexual identities included in what used to be her mostly straight white “girl squad” feminism.

For all of Swift’s success at updating her persona, she’s never quite regained her massive radio dominance — but no pop star can depend on the success of singles for over a decade. In fact, Swift is one of the most interesting figures of the decade because her stardom is caught between the old-school era of album buying and our current streaming moment.

And, inevitably, Swift has turned her own industry issues around streaming and artistic ownership into a wider commentary on artists’ rights — which happens to work as a canny form of further brand management. She framed herself as an ethical businesswoman when she called out Apple for not paying artists, and she battled with Spotify over streaming royalties but without really pushing for wider systemic industry change.

Earlier this year, Swift started a new artist-versus-industry fight about her music masters being bought out from under her by nemesis Scooter Braun. It’s a complicated story, one that Swift has framed as being about “toxic male privilege,” and the fact that Braun mocked her during the Kanye era — once again blurring, in her trademark mode, the personal with the public and the systemic with the individual.

Instead of being seen as opportunistic, Swift seems to have succeeded in framing her campaign as a fight for unsigned and less powerful artists’ rights, which has resonated at a moment where content creators are all pitted against the 1% of the tech and corporate worlds. This time, even Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a squad member any star would envy — backed her up.

Swift’s response to being anointed Artist of the Decade by the AMAs and Billboard provides interesting insight into how she sees herself now and where she thinks the next decade is going. She chose Carole King, one of the preeminent symbols of pop music authenticity, to present her AMA, squarely placing herself in a genealogy of great women singer-songwriters. She also enlisted shiny next-gen pop stars Camila Cabello and Halsey to join her during her performance of old hits.

In her Billboard speech, Swift name-checked newer stars like Lizzo, Becky G, and Billie Eilish as the future of the industry. Tellingly, they are women who, so far, have not played into the tabloidy pop dramas that dominated the 2010s. If this decade has shown us anything, it’s that blurring public and private through music can reap big rewards, but it also opens up stars — especially the women of pop — to more intense scrutiny and a higher degree of personal accountability.

In a Billboard interview looking back on the decade, Swift spoke about her relationship to fame and learning to hold things back. “I didn’t quite know what exactly to ... share and what to protect. I think a lot of people go through that, especially in the last decade,” she said. “There was this phase where social media felt fun and casual and quirky and safe. And then it got to the point where everyone has to evaluate their relationship with social media. So I decided that the best thing I have to offer people is my music.”

Like Lana Del Rey denying she ever had a persona, or Lady Gaga stripping down with Joanne, there seems to come a point when white pop divas need to declare themselves authentic and all about the music — as if their ongoing narratives aren’t part of the show. But the way Swift used her image and the never-ending soap opera that swirled around her to make space for her music in an increasingly saturated attention economy was itself a kind of art. ●

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justtheendoftheday · 4 years

Text

Crawl (2019)

“It’s flooded. There’s alligators everywhere. Please send help.”

—————————————

While going to assist her father evacuate during a massive category 5 hurricane a woman winds up trapped by not only the storm, but also by a very ornery alligator that found its way into the basement.

—————————————

Fright: 2 / 5 Dangers of Climate Change

It’s much more of an action-thriller styled horror movie than a particularly frightening one. So it tends to trade more in building and releasing tension/excitement than in generating fright. Lots of jump scares though.

While it might have you gripping the edge of your seat at times, it probably won’t keep you up at night.

Although often the fear in a movie comes from you imagining what it would be like if those things were to happen to you. But since I am a dweller of the Midwest of the USA, I can honestly say that hurricanes and coming across an alligator in my basement are two things that I’ve never had to worry about.

BUT if you live somewhere where either of those things IS a possible concern, feel free to adjust my score accordingly.

Gore: 2.8 / 5 Gator Bites

As one might expect from a movie about gator attacks, you can expect to see some gator bites and a few randos being torn asunder. But honestly if it wasn’t for a couple of gory scenes involving a broken bone, I’d have given it a much lower score.

With that notable exception, the film is actually surprisingly light on gore and any of the handful of scenes involving heavier caliber gore are usually over pretty quickly.

Jump Scares: Frequent

This is one of those movies where if you suspect a scene is gearing up for a jump scare...you’re probably right.

Once things get rolling I’d say you can expect a jump scare every 10-12 minutes until you hit the credits.

—————————————

Review:

Crawl is a fun gator-filled hurricane romp with a strong understanding of the fundamentals of the action-thriller horror movie style. However, it frequently interrupts the thrill ride with its many attempts to shoehorn in some cliched sports/family drama.

Thoughts:

Does anyone else get secretly excited when they hear about an animal-attack horror movie that isn’t about sharks?

I’m just so tired of sharks!

What do all these filmmakers have against sharks anyway? (get a better mayor already, Amity Island!)

But alligators getting into your basement during an epic storm? Color me intrigued.

But for as jazzed as I was to see this one, I have to admit I left the theater with some mixed feelings. And judging from its other reviews, it would seem that I wasn’t the only one.

For me it boils down to this: Crawl is a film that absolutely nails the fundamentals of an enjoyable animal-attack action-thriller movie, yet tends to whiff on its attempts at delivering any sort higher drama. So while it isn’t as good as it could have been, it’s still pretty fun to see someone craft such a solid horror base.

I mean, there’s a lot to like here. The set up for the family drama is actually really well done. I thought Kaya Scodelario did a fantastic job as the leading lady. There are some wonderfully memorable moments and iconic shots that I love. And I just can’t help but be endeared to those big scaly babies of order Crocodilia.

But there I’d be, enjoying some quality Monkey Brain vs. Reptile Brain action, when the movie would suddenly hit the brakes in order to return to its shallow sports drama cliches. And it just always felt so forced.

Drama of any sort is a tricky little beast. You can’t half-ass it. If you want get into tangled web of interpersonal drama you gotta commit the time and energy to it. Gotta set that shit up, develop it, and let it grow into the story naturally. You can’t just play the usual cliché classics set list and then expect the audience to automatically feel something.

And to be fair, Crawl is far from the first movie to try to shoehorn some underdeveloped drama into their story. But because it’s an action-thriller, every forced father-daughter moment or over-dramatic Gotta give 110%!-sports cliche just wound up killing all their built up momentum.

(Also, this is nether here nor there, but I was also hoping that they would make some comments about climate change...and they never touched the topic directly.)

You know what? I’m actually struggling to thing of much to talk about with this one. It’s a pretty basic movie. You'll have to dive into the gritty details of it if you want to find the depth.

Which sounds like I’m ragging on it, but really I have no problem with a movie that first-and-foremost wants to be fun.

Crawl is just the type of movie where your first thoughts immediately go to its failures and it’s only when you allow yourself to past those failures, that you can appreciate all the wonderful things it did right.

Jeeez, that motivational speech? It was straight out of some sports movie! So awkward, amiright?…

Okay, but...but that part where the alligator ******** and so she **************?...that was friggin’ awesome.

—————————————

Content warnings: An animal is killed (a croc) [but the dog remains unharmed!], there’s a bit where a broken bone is set.

After-credits scene?: None

—————————————

Directed by: Alexandre Aja

[The Hills Have Eyes (2006), Piranha 3D (2010), Horns (2013)]

Written by: Michael Rasmussen & Shawn Rasmussen

[The Ward (2010)]

Edited by: Elliot Greenberg

[Quarantine (2008), As Above, So Below (2014), Fantastic Four (2015)]

Cinematography by: Maxime Alexandre

[The Crazies (2010), The Voices (2014), The Nun (2018), Shazam! (2019)]

Country of Origin: USA

[with help from Serbia and Canada]

Language: English

Setting: Coral Lake, Florida, USA

[pretty sure Coral Lake isn’t a real town in Florida?]

If you enjoyed this you might also like: Lake Placid (1999), The Shallows (2016), Piranha 3D (2010)

“Apex predator all day!”

#Crawl #Alexandre Aja #2019 #2010s #Michael Rasmussen #Shawn Rasmussen #Elliot Greenberg #Horror in Florida

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seedserotiny · 6 years

Text

Pyrohydriscence

Rating: Mature

Pairings: Lapidot, past Jaspis

Summary: Human AU. Lapis loses everything. Her car, her apartment, her sense of control over her own life… and then she gains a roommate.

Warnings for this chapter: none

Chapter 5

Peridot was still at work when she got home. Today was Friday, though, so the next two days would be her time off. Lapis wondered if she was going to get anything done with her roommate home. So far she hadn't had any callbacks on her applications. It was really too early to worry about that, but since she was starting to like Peridot, she felt like she should probably definitely get some money coming in sooner rather than later. She had savings still, which would cover the first month, but she didn't have much after that. The responsible part of her wanted to keep on the hunt for a job every day until she landed one.

She wondered how long it would take. Lapis had a decent resume: some college, some job experience, and, thankfully, her DUI didn't count as a felony, so she didn't have to put it on her applications. Of course, she couldn't work anywhere that served alcohol, so her options were limited. Pretty much any kind of restaurant job was off the table, for example.

She half-heartedly submitted her resume to another coffee shop. Lapis was definitely not just sitting around waiting for Peridot to get home. Nope.

The sound of keys in the lock brought her back to attention. Pumpkin scrambled off the beanbag chair and waited by the door. Lapis tried not to think too hard about the fact that she and Peridot's pet seemed to share the same level of excitement about Peridot's impending presence.

She entered behind a stack of pizzas. What a splendid human being. "I hope you like mushrooms," she called out, plopping the boxes on a kitchen counter. Lapis loved mushrooms. Now that her hands were free, she gave Pumpkin a good ear scritch, went to the fridge, and popped open a soda. "Happy Friday!" She announced, making a 'cheers' gesture and heading off for her daily post-grimey-job shower. "By the way, you owe me for one of the pizzas, free-loader!" She shouted through the door before the sound of running water kicked on.

Lapis groaned dramatically. She thought she almost heard her roommates signature nasally snicker through the walls.

When Peridot returned, Lapis was ready on the couch with Pumpkin and two plates of several slices of pizza. "Season 1 finale!!" She yodeled when Peridot joined her on the couch. She was surprised that her vertically challenged roommate had changed right into some comfy pajamas, rather than her usual post-work attire. Her pants had little aliens on them. Lapis coveted them.

"Prepare yourself. Not everyone can survive exposure to the sheer amount of talent that went into this episode," Peridot said ominously.

Lapis clenched her fists and took a deep breath. She closed her eyes for a moment as if she was centering herself. "I think I'm ready."

Peridot nodded solemnly and started the show.

Approximately 44 minutes later, Lapis sat with her arms wrapped around her knees, enraptured, shaken. "What. You mean… this whole time? And that part with Paulette, and Pierre, oh my God."

"I knoooow!"

"We must start season 2 immediately." She began to rummage for the second disc set. She smiled. This was much better therapy than… actual therapy.

"Hey Lapis?"

Oh, maybe not. Peridot's voice sounded serious, and not in the usual hammy way that meant she was playing it up for the effect. Lapis turned around. Her roommates brows were furrowed, and she looked right into Lapis's eyes. "Yeah?"

"Who's your favorite character?"

Lapis punched her in the arm.

"Ow! What was that for!"

"For being such a damn nerd. And hm…" Lapis pondered a moment. "Paulette, I think."

"What!!"

"What."

"Paulette is by far the weakest character. I don't know what Percy sees in that… sobbing magnet of misfortune."

"Well, she is kind of hot."

"Well, yeah, but they have no TRUE compatibility. It's like the writers are forcing the relationship at every turn. Percy wastes SO much of his time protecting Paulette and performing these romantic gestures. I don't think she even comprehends how much he does for her. Take, for example, season 1 episode 4, when they have the archery competition-"

Lapis tried to look like she was absorbing anything Peridot said after that. These speeches tended to have momentum; it was easier to let her finish than it was to try to stop her. Besides, Peridot looked so sad and embarrassed when she realized she'd been ranting. Lapis occupied herself by getting up and putting in the next disc. She found herself enjoying the relaxed atmosphere. Yeah, she sincerely doubted she'd get a lot done this weekend.

By the time Lapis tried to return to the couch, Peridot had worked herself into a lather. She gesticulated, lying on her back, sprawled across the couch. "And then, in episode 7! Blurgh blurgha blurrgh," she said. Or something like that.

The tiny woman was somehow taking up the whole couch.

Lapis responded like a rational adult and flopped backwards onto the middle seat, crushing Peridot underneath her back in a surprisingly comfortable lounging position. Peridot gurgled and sputtered. "Hey, don't let me interrupt. Episode 7, right?" Said Lapis. She grinned as Peridot "Tiny Hands" Pumpkinmom struggled in vain to escape.

"Behemoth!" Peridot screamed, managing to wiggle her torso free and beginning to push on the side of Lapis's head and arm.

"I am 5 foot 3, you hobbit."

Peridot's wriggling and slapping was starting to disturb her lounging. Lapis grabbed both of Peridot's wrist and held them in one hand. This was the first time Lapis had ever had size as an advantage in a tussle. The power was going to her head.

Some of the noises that Peridot made in response were not quite human, but they were quite entertaining. Lapis didn't realize she was laughing gleefully until she snorted. Oh no. She just gave the enemy ammunition.

Peridot inhaled a breath, no doubt locking and loading a sick burn.

"I'll let you go if you don't say whatever it is you're about to say," interrupted Lapis.

Peridot calculated the costs and benefits of that proposal for a moment. "I accept your terms."

Lapis released her, just in time for the theme song to end and the show proper to start. Peridot settled into her usual sitting position with a huff.

Lapis pretended not to notice that they were still technically touching.

----

Yep, Lapis got absolutely nothing productive done that weekend. And she had plans for this one. The fish tank Peridot had given her was all set up now. They were definitely going to have to go to the pet store to pick up some aquatic residents. And Steven wanted to hang out too.

But for now, it was still Friday afternoon, and she still had to finish out her second session with Dr. Garnet.

"It was my fault, really, I initiated casual physical contact first. Now, between Steven, Peridot, and Pumpkin, I get no moments of peace. My space is no longer sacred. Yesterday I was reading in a one person bean bag chair and suddenly I had a rabbit and a house elf reading over my shoulder. Reading is not a team sport. She made me wait to turn the page until she caught up. Who does this?!" Lapis ranted.

Garnet chucked, "I understand completely. But, I have to ask, does this contact really bother you? Communicating boundaries is very important in close relationships."

Close relationship was a little strong. I mean, she'd known this group of people for what… 4 weeks now? Way too soon for close relationship status. For sure. "Well, I don't know, it's different than I'm used to." Honestly, Lapis was more familiar with being touched in a much different context.

"Forgive me if I assume too much, but I think it's possible you're enjoying the affection. Based on what you've shared with me, you're overdue for some healthy friendships."

A tactical strike. Lapis wasn't used to being read so easily either. "I mean, it's not… unpleasant, to be touched. I just. I don't want her to get any ideas or something."

"Hm." The head tilt.

"That just sounds like some awful drama, having to reject Peridot if she makes a move or something. We live in like… the same room."

"Hm-hm."

Lapis looked at the diploma behind Garnet's head. "Now that I say it out loud I feel silly, or like, vain. Like I expect anyone I'm around to want in my pants. God, what am I even talking about? I think Peridot would gnaw off her own arm before making me feel any negative emotion on purpose."

Garnet blinked. Maybe. The glasses made it hard to tell.

"I can't believe I actually wasted time sort of worrying about that. Why am I so uncomfortable with… comfortable situations? It's like I look for some hidden fucked up shit in everything. I mean, most of the time I'm right, but still. Steven trusts so much, and it seems to make him so happy. I kind of envy that."

"You shouldn't."

"Huh? Why?" Lapis was baffled, it didn't seem like a therapist to talk negatively about trusting people.

"You do trust."

Oh, she got it now. Well, kind of. "What do you mean?" Lapis was pretty damn sure that wasn't the case.

"You sincerely believe that Peridot wouldn't hurt you."

"Oh... Oh."

Garnet gave her a small smile.

"I don't know how to feel about that," Lapis admitted.

"Take as long as you need to process. Our session is almost over. We can continue this conversation next week, if that's something you'd like to do."

It was Lapis's turn to hm.

---

Lapis stood at the bus stop outside the clinic. For the first time in a while, she was really craving a drink. She dug her nails into her palms. She felt floaty, off balance, standing there, waiting for the bus. The shitty part of her started mapping out liquor stores that might not card her, bars she might be able to get into without flashing an ID. She wondered which bus lines would take her there. Her phone had a handy app for that sort of thing.

Her phone beeped. She thought of Jasper.

"Tell my baby angel Pumpkin I'm on my way home to him and I have baby spinach. Also hi Lapis, I guess." It was Peridot.

Lapis looked at her phone for a while. The bus pulled up. She got on and rode it home.

----

That stupid therapy session made Lapis start paying attention to her feelings. She didn't want to be caught off guard like that again. She would get so good at emotional self-awareness that that smug therapist wouldn't have anything to hm about. That's right, she would become a paragon of maturity out of pure spite.

But that whole process kind of sucked. If she hadn't been paying attention, she wouldn't have noticed things like the way she would feel a smile bubble up when something happened that she wanted to tell Peridot about later. She wouldn't have noticed how her body relaxed when she leaned into her on the couch, and how much fun she had during their many battles of wits. She wouldn't have noticed how her ridiculous outfits, the way she always spoke with her hands, and her nerdy ass hobbies were becoming sort of endearing despite everything Lapis stood for. When the interviews started coming in, despite the massive amounts of relief she felt every time she got a chance at a job, she felt agitated when they took place while Peridot was off work. Yeah, she would have much preferred to not have noticed any of those things.

She didn't know how she felt about those feelings. Periods of relaxed contentment were punctuated by periods of existential panic. Lapis felt like this all would have been better if it happened several years later, after she had time to untangle all her baggage. But she couldn't just ask Peridot to leave and come back later when she felt ready to interact with someone on a non-superficial level.

And besides, there was one feeling she could easily identify:

She didn't want any of it to change.

#lapidot #steven universe #su #human au #peridot #lapis #pyrohydriscence

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mlw10 · 7 years

Text

So... I Lied...

Here it is everyone, my first fanfic. Bear with me as I’m just getting started so things may be incredibly cliche and maybe not the best they could be, but honestly I’m just proud of myself for putting this out there. The HP community is so supportive and I wouldn’t have been brave enough to do that without all of the lovely people out there, so thank you :)

You can read it below or here.

Hope you enjoy!!!

Prologue

Small lights began floating in the air as the sun set, a dim brightness settling on the patio. Several of the tipsier guests swat at the lights as Sirius Black, best man extraordinaire, rose from the wedding party’s table.

Raising his glass, he began, “So… I lied…”

Remus stood abruptly, his chair squealing. “I was actually the initial liar!”

“Me too!” hiccupped Peter as he hastily stood to be included. Unfortunately, he also knocked over the champagne glass of the woman sitting to his right.

Sirius, mildly irritated that his two friends thought it fit to be a part of his moment, interrupted, “Excoooose me! This is my best man speech, and I would prefer it to be uninterrupted.”

Lily and James laughed, unsure as to where this speech was going. They knew it couldn’t be too awful since Sirius was a softy, but that also meant he could not handle his liquor and many sorts of things tended to spill out whenever he was slightly intoxicated.

“Fine, Sirius, be the drama queen. But please give me the credit I deserve in this story,” huffed Remus.

“Yes yes, Moony, will do will do. Now, on to the juicy bit: we, and by ‘we’ I mean me, Moony — there’s your credit, happy? — Wormy, Mar, and Mary, were far from oblivious to Lily and James’s burning desire to snog each other in a broom cupboard. In fact, we plotted the whole thing.” Sirius slid across the dance floor, and with a spin said, “Buckle up children! Reminisce with me.”

Chapter 1

This is ridiculous.

I can get over Evans.

Just don’t think about her hair. Or her eyes. The way they spark when she’s angry. How she pushes her hair out of her face as she makes last minute edits to her essays outside the classroom doors because she thought of something else she just has to add. When she rests her head on the table after a long day and watches the candle wax dripping down the side and time seems to slow down. How sometimes her sweater rides up a little on her back and there’s a spattering of freckles above her waistline…

No. You are James Fleamont Potter. Time to give up. It’s hopeless.

Hopeless. Hopeless. Hopeless.

James slammed shut Moste Potente Potions in frustration, earning a glare from Madame Pince. Ignoring her, he let his head slide down from his hand until it banged on the table.

“Shhhh!”

With a sigh, James looked up, glared back at Madame Pince, and noticed Marlene McKinnon, one of his Gryffindor quidditch teammates, enter the library. Spotting James, she gave him a wave and plopped herself down in the seat across from him.

“Are you done with that book? I need to use it for Slughorn’s essay. I can’t believe he’s asked for three feet of parchment on one ingredient! How does studying one component of the Polyjuice Potion have any bearing on our understanding of the entire potion? I mean, I suppose that the presentations will help wi—”

“Mar, you’re rambling.”

“Oh, sorry! It’s just this essay has been driving me insane for the past few of weeks, and now that I’ve procrastinated it to the final week, I’m freaked. Lily is supposed to come help me if you’d like to stay for a bit.”

James started at Lily’s name, standing abruptly.

“Nope, I’ve gotta dash!”

"Wait!" yelled Marlene, immediately realizing her loud mistake as Madame Pince sprang into action in her peripheral vision. Marlene quickly got to work behind a pile of books to appease the strict librarian (and hide from her).

It was odd, thought Marlene, that James had run so quickly before Lily got here. Usually he took advantage of every opportunity to chat up her best friend...

I’m fine. Not freaking out. Should I put on the cloak? Nah, that’s a bit overkill, don’t you think, James? If I’m going to get over Evans, I have to at least be able to pass her in the corridor like a normal person. Besides, we’re heads together, I do it all the time. It's agonizing, yes, but doable. Deep breaths. Maybe walk a little faster…

James turned the corner and ran up the stairs, fervently praying that he wouldn’t run into a particular redhead. Once he was in front of the Fat Lady, he breathed a sigh of relief and dashed through the portrait hole after mumbling the password. Refusing to glance around the common room, he continued up the stairs to the dormitory — failing to ignore the flash of red in the far corner of the room.

James swept into the dorm and ran his finger nervously through his hair. “So… I lied…”

James Potter’s two (of three) best friends looked away from their respective tasks — Remus from his Charms paper, and Sirius from staring at the ceiling.

Sirius was the first to respond, “We know, Prongs.”

After a beat, Sirius spoke again. “Uh about what, exactly?”

“Evans,” said James.

“Oh, right!” laughed Sirius. “Well, you can’t just expect us to believe that you’ve suddenly gotten over Evans.”

“But I tried so hard!” cried James. “She despises me. I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong, you know? I thought I ‘matured.’ That being Head Boy would give me a chance to prove it to her. But no. She’s determined to hate me forever.”

James sighed and fell onto his bed, whacking his head on the headboard in the process. Wincing, he turned to his friends. “You’ve got to help me. Evans is a lost cause and one way or another, it’s about time I moved on.”

Remus slowly closed his book, nodding, and finally spoke. “So, we need a plan.”

“Agreed.”

“When’s the next Hogsmeade visit?” questioned Remus.

“Next weekend.”

Sirius shot a piece a balled-up parchment at James. “Aw what a good head boy, knowing all the Hogsmeade dates, staying on top of his homewo—“

Throwing it back, James glared at Sirius. “Shut it, Snuffles.”

“Now now that’s not very nice.”

“Well, you can shove your snide remarks up your arse.”

At that moment, Peter slumped through the door, dropping his book bag. “What are we talking about? New prank?”

“Pffft, I wish. Prongsie here is in the process of getting over Evans,” said Sirius, leaning back in his chair with the classic Sirius smirk on his face that James wanted to smack off him.

Peter laughed. “Not possible.”

“Oy! Is too! Moony has a plan!” James couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Did his friends have no faith in him? He supposed that the past five years of pining after Evans didn’t help his case, but he was determined to move on. Hateful banter was one thing, humiliating insults and a vow to date the giant squid before him even if he was the last man on earth was an entirely different thing.

Remus sighed, “All I did was ask when the next Hogsmeade was.”

“But you were on to something!”

“It’s not exactly a radical idea, mate. Just ask another girl to Hogsmeade. Get used to dating other people and get Lily off your mind.”

James nodded thoughtfully and pulled Remus into a hug. “Moony, that’s brilliant.”

Remus groaned at the unexpected embrace. “Like I said, not a radical idea.”

“Well, we know Prongsie isn’t the brightest of the bunch. Had a crush on the same girl for the past five years, dontchaknow.”

After letting go of Remus, James — noticing how close Sirius’s chair was to falling over — decided to give it a little push for all the snide comments.

Sirius’s face flashed in horror as he felt himself fall to the floor with a bang. James snorted, Sirius glared. “You’re going to regret that, Prongs”

“Hah! Not likely, Padfoot. The look on your face was priceless.”

Sirius lunged for James, tackling him to the ground. Neither Remus nor Peter interfered, used to at least one brotherly wrestling match a week. Instead, they sat on Remus’s bed and cracked open the Honeydukes hoard, waiting for the spat to end.

After a couple of minutes, Sirius’s head popped up. “Fine, Prongs, you win this time, but only because I pity you.”

“Wow. How sincere Padfoot.” While his voice portrayed annoyance, there was a shine in his eyes as he put his glasses on — he could never hold a grudge against his best mate.

“Wormtail, pass me one of those Honeydukes sweets you’ve been hoarding. James just broke my back.”

Throwing one over to Sirius, Peter took several more for himself and turned to James. “Now back to our original discussion: who are you going to ask?”

“No idea, Wormtail, but James Fleamont Potter is officially on the prowl!”

“Prongs, never ever say that in front of a girl. She will run in the other direction.”

James pranced back to the middle of the room after grabbing his own chocolate and pulled Sirius into a headlock. “I beg to differ, Snuffles. Have you seen my good looks?”

Sirius laughed, “Please, they definitely don’t even compare to mine.”

“Should we take a poll?” challenged James.

Smirking, James released Sirius from the headlock and the two of them faced Remus, still stuffing his face with Chocolate Frogs.

“We already know I’ll win, there’s no point, right, Moony?” said Sirius.

“Please leave me out of this.”

“Mooooonyyyyyyyy.”

“Moooonyyyy, you can’t back out.”

“You are both equally handsome,” said Remus as he rolled his eyes. His friends were absolutely ridiculous.

Sirius and James stared at each other with furrowed brows as if a staring contest would determine who was the most eligible bachelor of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (if you must know, the female population of Hogwarts was evenly split). After some time, Peter interrupted the staring contest to inquire as to when they would be heading down for dinner, at which point the three other boys realized how hungry they were and set out for the Great Hall immediately.

#harry potter #fanfiction #jily #so i lied #berzerkeleyravenclawprefect #marauders era #mlw10 #mlw10 writing

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