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oh-phineas · 3 years

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Emma’s 2020 Questionnaire!

Your Name: Emma Characters: Phineas Flynn, Tiana Truitt, Aquata Triton, Henry Charming, Evelyn Deavor Pick one of your characters and talk about their growth (we recommend choosing an older character, but it’s up to you!) What about their story has surprised you? What are you proud of? How have they changed from their original inception to now? I’m going to talk about Phineas because I’ve had him for the longest and I think he’s the one I’ve been able to spend the most time developing. So basically something I struggled with when I first picked up Phineas was how he deals with people he doesn’t like, because in the show I don’t think he really dislikes anyone. And I feel like this drama with Tony recently has finally helped me crack what Phineas’s deal is when it comes to conflict-- he doesn’t really feel down about it unless he feels like his character is being questioned, and that’s why with Wilbur he’s mostly like whatever while with Tony and Lock (in the past) Phineas has gotten petty and vindictive-- he doesn’t like the role he’s found himself in and he takes that personally if that makes sense. (Also Phineas just way prioritizes his job with Cornelius over getting back at Wilbur, even if he’ll make the occasional jab at Wilbur in Among Us or on Twitter). So that’s been really cool to explore. And I think he’s also gotten a little less finance-bro-y than I originally intended, but I think that side of him will definitely come out once he graduates and goes to uni. I think the thing I’m most proud of with him is kind of maintaining that balance between being totally likeable and fun while also pretty infuriating and obtuse, like he’s a sweet and well-meaning person who’s also really annoying and idk I think I do that balance well.

Pick another character (or the same character if you only have one) and talk a little about where you WANT them to go. What are your plans for them going into the new year? I’m really excited to see where Tiana goes! Ever since I picked her up, I’ve been focused on this goal of getting the restaurant to happen and now that I’ve done that, there are a lot of possibilities. I want to see Tiana burn out from the stress a little bit-- maybe take on more than she can handle because a big part of her arc has been learning to accept help and collaborate with people, and I got to do that a lot with planning Tiana’s Place, but I would also really like to see that continue because those tendencies don’t really go away. I also want LOVE for Tiana even though I keep saying she doesn’t have time for it-- I want her to get a stupid crush that distracts her from work lol I think it could be really fun. And I’m also really excited to keep developing all her friendships, I love all of her Swynlake native connections and PRINCESS HOUSE and other small business owners and now that she really feels like she has put down roots with her restaurant, I want to see her branching out more.

Pick a thread or a plot that you’re proud of and talk about why you loved it. In terms of your own writing, identify 1-3 strengths and talk about why you think it’s one of your strengths. Ok sorry to keep talking about Tiana I promise I have other characters but I’m really proud of all of the different characters I incorporated into the Tiana’s Place opening. My goal was to make a real community effort to show that, no matter how much she wanted to do it on her own, she still has a whole group of people supporting her and who have a stake in it-- from Nuka and Ratigan in the beginning with the financial stuff to Clara and Toulouse and Laszlo with the music/art to Jun and Al for business advice to all the people who donated to the raffle. And the raffle was so fun and I hope people use that for plots!!

I also gotta shout out one more: writing the pirates AU Phineas and Ferb stuff was so much fun and really pushed me as a writer I think. I was a little uneasy going into pirates because action/movement/fights are not my strong suit and I knew there would be a lot of that. But the generated stuff was really helpful in kickstarting some ideas and Sid was so great to work with on that. I thought we got really creative and personally I had so much fun and I hope other people did too.

In terms of strengths for my writing-- I think I’m good with flaws? Like even characters who are really sweet and nice (I’m looking at you Henry) I think I try to show the different sides of them and explore how you can be both really well-meaning and really misguided at the same time. And I think that’s good because it has the potential to cause conflict and drive forward more plots where there’s no clear ~bad guy~ just flawed people trying their best and that’s the most interesting stuff to me. Of course I also love big bads! I think macro plots are really important. I think my niche though is those petty little conflicts and I think I do a good job with them.

I’m adding another too because you know what why not. I think I've gotten pretty creative recently?? Like I’ve done some really weird fun stuff this year-- Henry and Jake’s acapella audition is up there as one of my favorite threads, and I’m really excited about Tiana and Aurora’s fake date and Greg and Q doing Santa’s Workshop and I think Henry’s first open was one of my favorite opens I’ve done. Idk I think one of my insecurities about RP has always been that I worry I don’t bring enough ideas to the table with plotting and I think I’m getting better at letting my brain dream up weird cool stuff.

In terms of your own writing, identify 1-3 areas of improvement.

Like I said, plotting is still something I struggle with-- I spent the majority of my early RP experience in a very gif-chat-heavy open-heavy fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants rp, so coming to BDRP even back during round 1 in 2017, plotting was a big surprise to me. And this is also something that I struggle with in my non-RP writing-- story arc and structure is something I have always wanted to improve. But I think I’m getting better at fleshing out ideas and not putting too much pressure on myself. And I think I’m also getting better at stepping out of my comfort zone and messaging people I don’t write with as often which is important because literally everyone here is so fun and talented! So I want to keep doing that. I know I can be a little shy sometimes (this sounds SO weird I never shut up lol but it’s how I feel) and I don’t want that to hold me back

In terms of actual writing stuff, I’d like to expand my vocabulary a bit more? I think I use certain words and phrasing so often that it annoys me and maybe it annoys no one else and my writing will be worse if I try to throw in unnecessary words but yeah. I think reading more will help with that. And in general I just really want to get better at thinking stuff through and building story arcs.

Pick one of your plots, or even just a character, and come up with a list of 3-5 “mentor texts” where you can look for inspiration or research, then write a short (2-4 sentences) why you picked those texts. (They don’t have to be books, either!)

Ev is the one I feel like I need to do the most development on so here goes!

1. Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, specifically the character Nora

Messy nerd girls! Messy nerd girls! Please recommend me more things with messy nerd girls! Nora is basically Ev’s exterior, the person people know her as. She’s chaotic and fun and relatable, and also kind of a genius.

2. Macbeth, specifically the character Lady Macbeth

This is one I wanna dive into! I’ve seen a heavily abridged version of Macbeth and that’s about it but I have a copy sitting on my desk. I love a villain who likes to stay behind the scenes and pull the strings, and while Ev is in this for “moral reasons” (lol) she’s also in this for #power. I’m not used to playing manipulative villains-- I’m usually more of a henchperson type deal, so the ultimate 4-D chess gal would be some good inspo.

3. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, specifically Professor Quirrell.

Ok I am really sorry to bring Harry Potter into this but I think something that’s important about Ev is that one of the things distracting from her villainy is her vague air of incompetency. We know she’s very smart and she has the whole nutty-professor thing going, but she’s kind of a mess and I want characters to underestimate her. I think Quirrell’s vibe of being nervous about everything is similar to Ev’s messy exterior and I would love a good end-of-the-book villain reveal. And now, a wishlist! Jot down a few themes or stories or genres etc that you want to maybe pursue in the upcoming year! (i.e. a good ol’ fashion forbidden romance, maybe you want to dig deep into racial identity etc) This doesn’t have to necessarily be attached to any characters or stories you have now– it’s just meant to help you see for yourself what kind of stories call to your heart.

Oooh so many things. Generally more romance-- I always hesitate a little with shipping IDK WHY maybe it’s insecurity about jumping into what always feels like a bit plot to me lol. But I wanna take that plunge more-- especially with Tiana! But I’m pretty much open to stuff with anyone, especially really silly rom-com type stuff. I also think that my shipping niche is super complicated stuff with villains (the irony and craziness of the Henleigh situation is so FASCINATING and FUN and I want MORE OF THAT) so just saying a I’m-flirting-with-you-because-you’re-a-good-ally-to-have-on-my-side-oh-no-I’m-actually-falling-for-you thing with Ev could be really fun (LISTEN her entire tag is just shipping content. I scroll through so much of it so of course it gave me some ideas)

I’m also REALLY jazzed about the uni stuff going on right now. Like I’ve said before, I think college is a really interesting place and so much weird shit happens there because you have all these 18-22 year olds living in close quarters and they come up with weird ways to entertain themselves. The secret santa/RA stuff has me loling every day and I just love stuff like that. Like, I’d love to have shenanigans like people sneaking into dorms and staying up until 3 am in the library and all that stuff. I just love that stuff.

Also I am really trying to do big bad stuff with Ev!! As I have mentioned... plotting and story arcs are a major thing I’m trying to work on, so it’s a lot to think about, but I would really just love to do all kinds of things-- I’d love to have her enable small-time villains, or manipulate people who are easily swayed, or to trick people. It’s a new area for me, but it’s something I’m excited about and I want to challenge myself.

OPTIONAL: Why do you RP?

Because I literally can’t stop apparently lol. No but the thing I love about RP is getting to collaborate on a story and getting surprised by people, getting to geek out about something that I can also participate in, and having NO RULES. I think there’s something really special about having an interest that I can’t monetize or market, that I can do for pure fun out of my love of creating and writing. And I love having a community of people on the ride with me. It’s so much fun and I’m so grateful for you guys!

I always end with a gif so here’s my favorite gif it legit makes me laugh out loud

#bdrptask #this is just word vomit #enjoy

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cotillion-the-rope · 4 years

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Not Hollow Chapter Six: Family

I tried really hard to write a proper fight scene, it's why this chapter took so long to come out, but it just wasn't happening. And the harder I tried to force myself through the more frustrated and discouraged I got so I settled on handling the Radiance fight the way you'll see in this chapter. It's not as epic as I wanted it to be but the focus of he story has always been more about their relationships anyway so it's not the end of the world.

Hornet was taking longer to return than she’d said she would, a lot longer. Which should’ve been fine but… Hollow was lonely. Since dragging themself out of the Black Egg, they hadn’t been alone for any significant length of time. Though compared to how long they’d been alone in the Egg, this was nothing. So they were fine, this was fine!

They stood up anyway and walked over to peer out the window. Maybe they should go look for them? Hornet was more than capable of taking care of herself and Grimmchild had to be with her so they should both be perfectly fine. But… if the Pale King could die then so could Hornet. Hollow couldn’t bear the thought of losing her especially after just learning of their father’s death. So… they side stepped to the door and opened it to poke their head out.

Normally they didn’t leave the house unless Hornet brought them out either for a walk or to train with their nail for a bit. But like it or not, they had emotions and thus they were worried about their sister and Grimmchild. They were worried about their chained sibling too as well as the entirety of Hallownest. … They were worried just in general.

So, unable to stay still for any longer, they stepped outside. Now… where to go to find Hornet? She was working on finding a way to access the Dream Realm, where would she go to do that? … Hollow had no idea. Their entire world consisted of the Abyss, the White Palace, the Black Egg, and now Dirtmouth, they’d never been anywhere else except for while passing through. They’d heard of places like the City of Tears and Teacher’s Archive but didn’t have even the faintest clue where they might be or how to get to them. So… the only starting point they had was down the well into Hallownest proper.

They started for it, not letting themself look right or left in an attempt to at least hide their worry from the outside world since they couldn’t bury it within themself. Not that there were many people out and about right now, just Elderbug next to the bench, even Zote was currently inside somewhere.

“Oh, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you out and about all by yourself,” Elderbug said when Hollow inevitably ended up passing by him. They could’ve gone around and snuck past him but they were so used to faking to themself that they didn’t care about such things that the thought not to take the shortest past hadn’t occurred to them until just now. Alas it was far too late.

They gave him a small shrug in response because how else were they expected to respond? They preferred being primarily ignored like how the knights and dignitaries at the White Palace had treated them.

“It’s good to see. Don’t hesitate to rest on the bench if you need it, I wouldn’t mind the company.” … Well at least he was kind, that was honestly kind of nice even if Hollow knew even less how to respond to that.

They nodded at him before moving on.

Upon reaching the well, they looked down it, hoping against hope that maybe Hornet would be down there, about ready to start ascending. Alas, they had no such luck. So, after double checking to make sure that their nail was attached firmly to their back, they vaulted over the edge. They landed at the bottom with a small thunk. Getting back up would be hard with only one arm but that was a problem for the future that hopefully Hornet would be there to help them with like she had when they’d gone up initially. For now, they picked a direction and started walking.

They ended up going to the Black Egg Temple. They hadn’t intended to, it just kind of happened in part because so nearby. Ghost was in the Egg inside, chained and suffering and it was Hollow’s fault. … They should’ve tried to tell Hornet that their sibling wasn’t hollow sooner, insisted that she help them. Then they wouldn’t have been chained up in there alone for so long and maybe they wouldn’t have cracked. It was too late now though but at least Hollow had finally said something.

And now that Hornet knew and was working on the problem, she would fix it. … But then again, Hollow had had that same kind of confidence and unwavering belief in the Pale King and that had turned out like this and with him dead. So… maybe Hornet couldn’t fix it? She was a demi-god but even gods could fail and die as proven by the Pale King. Having complete confidence in her might just lead to more disappointment, sadness, and possibly even suffering. … Hoping she could fix it was fine though, right? Maybe, maybe not, either way it was all Hollow had left. … It wasn’t much.

They turned and left, more eager than before to not be alone with their thoughts. It wasn’t long before they encountered an Infected husk. They cut it down with ease. It actually felt almost good to use their nail for something real for once. Enough that following that, they may have even gone a bit out of their way to find and take down more husks. They didn’t know where they were headed anyway so they might as well relieve some stress along the way.

They’d just finished taking down a group of them when…

“Hollow?!”

They looked over to see Hornet approaching. Good! Their search for her was done and she was safe. But where was Grimmchild?

“What are you doing out here?” she asked. “Besides killing husks.”

They didn’t reply. They’d left the parchment and quill back home so they couldn’t answer properly even if they’d been inclined to. Which they weren’t because admitting they’d been starting to worry about her wasn’t a confession they wanted to make because they weren’t meant to feel anything at all. And it was a rather silly thing to be worried about, Hornet was probably better at taking care of herself than Hollow was.

She looked like she was going to say more but was interrupted by a blue bug and Grimmchild coming around the corner. “You sure do like to go fast, huh?” the blue bug said as caught all the way up. “And ah, the Hollow Knight themself. It is nice to meet you. Your sister has told me a fair bit about you and your sibling’s plight. I’m Quirrel.” He gave Hollow a slight bow.

Hollow bowed back because, judging by the fancy nail at his side, he was a knight and therefore that was the proper response.

“Now,” Quirrel said as both of them straightened. “Let’s go kill the Radiance, shall we?” Oh? He was going to help with that? That also had to mean Hornet had found a way to access the Dream Realm. Good! … Now all they had to do was kill a god. Hopefully both of them were up to it, Hollow certainly wasn’t even if it was possible for them to try.

Hornet nodded before leaping to lead the way back towards the Black Egg Temple.

Quirrel, Grimmchild hovering behind his shoulder, fell in step with Hollow as they started following her. But counter to their expectations, he didn’t say anything. He seemed content to walk beside them in silence. It was a nice change of pace from most people Hollow knew/had known, they liked him already.

It didn’t take long to reach the Temple again; Hollow hadn’t strayed far from it. Hornet was waiting for them inside, standing by the Egg itself.

“This is where you come in,” she said, looking at Hollow. “None of use can afford to spend any significant amount of time in there. So we need you to go in, free Ghost of their chains, incapacitate them and then bring them out here. Do you think you can do that?”

Hollow would rather never go into the Black Egg ever again but… they didn’t have a choice. They were the only one who could go in safely and they had to save Ghost. If was their fault Ghost was in this mess and Ghost had saved them. So, resisting the urge to hesitate, they nodded. They could do this for their sibling.

“Good. I have some thread you can use to tie them up. You’ll probably have to knock them unconscious or at least stun them for a while too.” She pulled out a long string of thread out of one her dress’ inner pockets and held it up towards Hollow. “Once they’re out here, we’ll handle the rest, okay?”

Hollow nodded as they wrapped the thread loosely around their neck so they wouldn’t lose it. They then turned back to face the Black Egg and pulled the door open.

“Good luck,” Quirrel said, his tone strangely cheery when considering the seriousness of what they were all doing here. Grimmchild mewled in seeming agreement, flying a quick circle around all their heads.

Strangely encouraged by such tiny things, Hollow stepped into the Black Egg. The long hall to the center quickly proved to feel much shorter than dragging themself along it had made it seem thus it was far too soon before they were facing Ghost again. Their mask was cracked, their eyes filled with the poison light of Infection. … Hollow couldn’t bear to look at them.

They felt almost sick with shame and sorrow. This was their fault; Ghost shouldn’t have been made to go through that. If Hollow had been as pure as they were supposed to be, as the Pale King had believed them to be, then this wouldn’t have happened. It shouldn’t have! … Despairing about it wouldn’t help fix it though.

Hollow forced themself to look back up at Ghost. If only they had a way to assure them that it would be okay; that Hornet and her new friend Quirrel would do their best to save the day. But even if they had a way to speak, Ghost wouldn’t be able to understand much of their words anyway, their mind was too full of the Radiance’s light.

They unwound the thread from around their neck as they approached at last. With the chains in the way and only one arm to work with, winding it around Ghost proved to be rather difficult. But it was thin enough to fit under the chains when pulled the right way and they were quite used to having only one arm by now so they eventually got something that should be good enough, tying it tight in the back. It wouldn’t do much more than bind Ghost’s arms to their sides but that should be enough to prevent them from attacking at least.

Speaking of that though, Hollow bent down to collect Ghost’s nail on the floor. It was small enough that they could mostly fit it in one of the inner pockets in their cloak. Ghost would probably want it when this was all done, might as well save them a trip back into this wretched place.

Next, after checking once more that Ghost’s arms were bound tight to their sides, Hollow drew their own nail and struck the nearest chain, breaking it. They had vague memories of watching Ghost break with their chains, making this feel a bit weird but they didn’t let that slow them.

After breaking the final chain, Ghost fell to the floor with a loud clatter. The Radiance released a roar from within them, making Hollow flinch and tremble. Ghost at least was thoroughly bound, straining uselessly against Hornet’s thread.

Steeling themself, Hollow approached and crouched down beside them. They hated to do it but it had to be done so… they shifted their grip on their nail so that the butt of its hilt would be pointed straight down. They struck Ghost with it, right where the crack in their mask was. They went still for several moments but alas, only stunned, they soon started struggling again. So, Hollow struck again, a bit harder this time. Thankfully they went limp; thoroughly incapacitated just like how Hornet wanted. How long it would last was impossible to say with the Infection coursing through them, so Hollow should probably hurry.

They quickly hung their nail on their back before grabbing Ghost by a horn. They would’ve preferred to carry Ghost in a more dignified way but there was no way to pick them up like that with one arm that wasn’t slow and awkward and they’d prefer not to have to knock Ghost out again even more. So, holding them close but awkwardly, they straightened and fast walked out.

***

The Radiance’s burning bright light and anger drowned out everything else, especially Ghost’s own thoughts and feelings. So, when much of her attention turned away from them, they noticed. But even with their thoughts back, they were disorientated and thus it took them a bit to realize what was happening.

Hornet was here? So was Quirrel and Grimmchild? … Why though? And how? It didn’t make sense. … The Radiance hated them, she wanted them gone; she was trying to kill them. … Oh no! Ghost needed to help them. … They couldn’t though, the Radiance still had them in her thrall. Which meant Hornet, Grimmchild and Quirrel were going to…

Actually no, they were fighting back. More than holding their own too based off the Radiance’s slowly growing fear and desperation as well as increased anger. She refused to fade away and die and refused to be killed. She was going to kill any bug that got in the way of that.

Despite her determination, she was slowly but surely pushed steadily back. She was losing! Ghost’s joy about that made her angrier, distracting her and causing her to take a slash strong enough to deflate Ummu from Quirrel straight to the face. Half blind now, the wound gushed essence as she retreated but not fast enough to avoid more fire from Grimmchild and a barrage of spiked balls from Hornet.

The three of them chased her, clearly intent on killing her. … That’s what they were here to do, wasn’t it? Kill her and save Ghost. … No one had ever done anything like that for them before, they hadn’t thought anyone ever would either. They probably wouldn’t have believed it if the evidence wasn’t undeniable before them.

The Radiance eventually reached a point she couldn’t retreat any further. There wasn’t much room to fight up here but Hornet and Quirrel somehow managed anyway, taking turns attacking her and dodging with Grimmchild right beside them providing backup via a constant barrage of fireballs.

It was Hornet who delivered the final blow, leaping up high and tossing her needle into the large slash made Quirrel’s nail earlier. The Radiance roared in anger and pain as Hornet dashed forward to push it in deeper, twisting it inside her and pulling it down but not out, making the wound to her core even bigger. Essence poured out of it like a like a geyser, fill the Dreamscape with light as the Radiance died.

The next moment Ghost was awake, staring up at the ceiling of the temple. Their head pounded, making them feel a bit dizzy even before moving. Trying to move a hand up to touch where the pain radiated from resulted in them learning that their arms were bound rather tightly. Why would…

A happy mewl came from beside them a half second before they were engulfed in exceedingly warm wings. It was Grimmchild, he was much bigger and apparently very happy to see them as he nuzzled them while making happy sounds. If only Ghost could return his affections because they were quite pleased to see him again too.

“Grimmchild, I know you’re happy to see them but you need to move so I can untie them.” That was Hornet. She sounded exhausted but relieved.

Grimmchild made a noise of complaint but moved aside, allowing Hornet to lean in and untie whatever was keeping Ghost bound. She helped them sit up so she could unwind it fully. As soon as it was off it though, she… hugged them.

Ghost froze. They’d never been hugged before, what were they supposed to do? And it was Hornet! She was their sister yes but… she wasn’t the type to hug people, even those important to her.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, seemingly unbothered by the fact that they were stone-still in her arms. “I shouldn’t have… let you do that. I just didn’t think there was another way. Or… at least I should’ve done something sooner. I’m sorry.”

Ghost nodded as they relaxed, even returning her hug as they’d seen other bugs do when hugged by a loved one. With another chirp, Grimmchild’s wings were suddenly around them again and Hornet too this time, forcing them a bit closer. It was a bit awkward but… nice; hugs were nice.

***

“Why don’t you join them?” Quirrel whispered to Hollow who was staring at their siblings and Grimmchild hugging. What they were thinking was impossible for him to know but if he had to guess, it’d be that they wanted in on that group hug. They certainly deserved to be included in it.

True to that guess, Hollow only hesitated for a few seconds before crouching down beside them. They had only one arm so it was bit awkward but they managed to pull their family close, the three of them even adjusted themselves to help Hollow join them.

It was honestly one of the most beautiful things Quirrel had ever seen. The dregs of a broken family reunited at last, long overdue for sure. As nice as it was, Quirrel was a bit of an intruder here though. This should be a private family moment.

So, even though he was eager to talk to Ghost again and express he was happy that they were all right and that the Radiance was defeated, he turned and left for now. He, like them, Hornet and Hollow, could finally move on from his past as well as Hallownest’s. All of them were at long last free to do as they pleased. … He had a lot to explain to Lemm first though.

I was contemplating writing an epilogue about how Ghost, Hollow, and Hornet start moving on from all the Radiance stuff as a family (with Grimmchild there too of course) but I think I actually like it being more opened ended. Y'all can imagine for yourselves how they might start putting their lives back together.

#My writing #hollow knight #the radiance #Ghost & the hollow knight #Ghost & Hornet #Ghost & grimmchild #Hornet & the Hollow Knight

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aaaa-mpersand · 4 years

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Why I Love Hollow Knight

aka a super long essay I wrote about why this game is,,,, ridiculously good. Spoilers, though I’ve tried to keep them minor for the most part and as cryptic as possible, if you want to go into this game blind, this is not something you want to read. It’s part prose part essay part me waxing poetic. TW: bugs, minor character death, existential dread some quotes are taken directly from the game. They are usually in bold or italics. - - - Higher beings, these words are for you alone. Beyond this point you enter the land of King and Creator. Step across this threshold and obey our laws. Bear witness to the last and only civilization, the eternal Kingdom Hallownest. It was a long trek to the city, and even the nail that has kept all enemies at bay is starting to feel heavy on your back. You have braved acid lakes, fended off husks gone mad with The Radiance, climbed Crystal Peaks, and fought the Mantis Lords. Now, you are finally here. Past the city gate, into the cavern that houses what was once the heart of a great kingdom. The City of Tears

You stand in one of the city’s large spires, the endless rain pattering like piano notes against the embellished windows. These architectural feats were marvels of their time, a testament to Hallownest’s greatness, an open declaration of defiance against the water pouring down from the lake above the caverns. They were made to stand for eras, a love letter to the eternal kingdom. Now, Hallownest is a rotting corpse, and only the rain cries for it. Zombie soldiers, eyes yellow with Radiance, continue their endless patrols. Husks of citizens sit, glowing eyes unblinking, in their homes, dead enough to rot but alive enough to attack any living thing that comes by. The foundations of the buildings are already starting to wear. One day, they will crumble. One day, the lake above will run dry. One day, the rain will stop, too. You find a bench. There is already someone sitting there, a traveller you met along the road named Quirrel. He is a mysterious but polite fellow, with the simple goal of seeing all the marvellous sights of the world. On his head is a hat that looks more like a mask, black holes for eyes carved into it. On his back is a nail, one that looks much like yours. Travellers do not get far without them. He gestures for you to sit beside him. Even if you could speak, you would be too tired to say your thanks, much less argue. “The capital lies before us, my friend. What a sombre place it seems, and one that holds the answers to many a mystery,” he says, “I, too, have felt the pull of this place, though now I sit before it, I find myself hesitant to descent. Is it fear, I wonder, or something else that holds me back?” The only sound between the two of you is the soft patter of rain. If your silence disturbs him, he does not let it on. “Isn’t this a wonderful place to rest? I so love the sound of the rain upon glass.” You rest your fill, and you move on. At the center of the city, you find a collection of four carved statues. Three smaller ones surrounding a large––far larger than you––horned figure with black, hollow eyes. City of Tears––the rain pouring off of them certainly makes them seem as if they are weeping. Hornet, a spider-like creature with a shell that looks similar to yours, lands in front of you. Unlike your last meeting, her needle is sheathed. ‘Little ghost,’ she calls you. She tells you to seek the Grave in Ash, if you wish to play a part in Hallownest’s perpetuation, knowing the sacrifices that keep its crumbling remains upright. Using a thread of silk as a grapple, she leaps back into the murky shadows of the city.You cannot speak, so you only stare as she leaves. Turning, you read the inscription of the statue. Memorial to the Hollow Knight: In the black vault far above. Through its sacrifice, Hallownest lasts eternal. You look around at the empty streets, the pouring rain, the husk of a Radiance-crazed sentry with a nail driven through it lying on the cobbled pavement. Hallownest is already dead. --- Gameplay and storytelling: Immersion is a large part of every story, but Hollow Knight really takes it a step further. It is a metroidvania game, so immersion and storytelling through settings is pretty much a given in its genre. All things considered, Hollow Knight has a good, but not really amazing, storyline. Rather, it is the way that it tells its story that makes it memorable. Hollow Knight is a videogame first and a story after, utilizing its gameplay to tell its story better than words could. This is why watching let’s plays is enjoyable, definitely a wonderful experience, but there is a difference between dying five times trying to beat a boss or platform through an area versus watching someone die five times trying to beat a boss or platform through an area. There is a moment of surprise you wouldn’t get if you only watched the lore video, to see a character alluded to only by other people in an awed or fearful tone, only to find the hilarious but horrible truth of their fate, and their small stature. However, it is definitely possible for a person to enjoy this game without personally playing it. The setting and music are enrapturing. There are small stories in every new room and every enemy and npc you meet, the love put into every detail is astounding. Evidence of previous battles, the cracked husks of beings that look suspiciously similar to you, a hostile enemy still unaware of your entering, staring out over an endless lake, Hollow Knight makes the player feel like their story is a small part of something bigger, something more than themselves. A good example of this is a minor character named Tiso, a proud warrior who says he wishes to travel into Hallownest and challenge the colosseum there. If you decide to challenge the colosseum yourself, you’ll meet the enemies that he had to face, too––and maybe die more than a couple times trying to do it. If you travel to the Kingdom's Edge, you’ll find his shield and hat with a pile of other remains––all that is left of those who fail the tests of the colosseum. It is possible to go through the whole game and come out knowing not much more story than when you went in. Of course, if you did that, then that’s a whole waste of 15 dollars, and why the hell did you buy this game in the first place. Rather, through the large map and its immersive storytelling, the game makes the player work for the story. A lot of the storytelling is open ended too. Instead of info dumping everything, the game assumes that you are capable of putting the pieces together yourself. It is a strong case of showing and not telling, but it definitely works. This greatly encourages players to go out of their way to find out what happened before. Lore tablets––and text in general––are very sparse in this game. Rather than loading you with information and npcs to talk to, you’ll be overjoyed to find an npc hidden away at the corner of the map. Each one is important, each one has its own story to tell. There are no characters that feel like throwaways or filler. In addition, the player can obtain the Dream Nail, used to reveal any npc or enemy’s true intentions and thoughts. This adds yet another layer to the game; most players immediately go around swinging their Dream Nail at everything they can find after discovering this. In conclusion, Hollow Knight uses a lot of very interesting storytelling elements and tools in the most effective ways possible. Music, characters, text, setting, flashbacks. Nothing ever feels like filler, or something to be disregarded. Instead, there is a joy in discovering and in asking questions. In a way, the playable character is a vessel through which the player can hear the stories of other characters as much as they are going through a journey of their own. --- Story: Hollow Knight’s story is a very interesting take on the “Chosen One” trope, among others. It starts as a story we’ve all heard before, “oceans rise, empires fall.” Maybe it’s for that reason that the game keeps most of the backstory elements secret until the very end of the game, forcing you to dig for it and spend time on it. Meanwhile, you grow attached to the playable character, the characters around them, the world, and the story, so when the curtain finally rises on the hidden secrets of Hallownest, you feel its meaning as if it were your own journey. In the most plain terms, to avoid completely spoiling the game, the story is this. The playable character travels into the remains of a kingdom long fallen: Hallownest. Along the way, you meet characters that tell you more and more about the kingdom and how it got here. The Pale King, a god in and of himself, travelled to this place to build his own eternal kingdom, but in his goal to unite all caverns and areas of the region under his rule, he trampled the already existing gods past recollection. One of these is The Radiance, who in a desperate effort for revenge and self-preservation, sent a sickness upon the kingdom that turns bugs mad. In an effort to combat this, The Pale King created the Pure Vessel, the Hollow Knight, to contain it, and recruited three dreamers to seal it. But when the moment of truth came, and the Radiance was to be sealed away, they found the Pure Vessel was not entirely empty, it was filled with a hope for love and recognition from the Pale King. Hallownest fell to The Radiance. Now, your goal is to find a means to an end for Hallownest, caught in a fate worse than death. Along the way, you will find the truth behind your own creation, the story of the dreamers, and the extent of the sacrifices Pale King made to preserve his eternal kingdom. This story, if not driven by its storytelling, is driven by its characters. You meet, or at least hear of, most of the key characters in the story by the beginning of the game. The Pale King is referred to in one of the lore tablets extremely early in the game. The Temple of the Black Egg, its door sealed, is where you meet Quirrel. The Daughter of Hallownest, Hornet, tries to cut you down, claiming she knows what you mean to do. All of these happen in the first two areas of the game. For the rest of your game, you learn about these characters bit by bit. You interact with them. You find them in corners of the map you wouldn’t expect, and find yourself happy to see them. By the end of the story, you realise that you are much more entangled in this than you realised. The Pure Vessel and the story surrounding him is one of the best ‘chosen ones’ I’ve seen. Even the playable character is technically a ‘chosen one,’ though it takes the role because they are the best candidate, and not because anyone wanted or forced them to. Its fandom has one of the best found families, and the endings are open-ended enough that it doesn’t feel confining. This story has a lot of things to say about imperialism, power, ambition, sacrifice, fate, and relationships, and sometimes all of that can be found in the spires of a city, watching the endless rain patter against the windows as the piano plays in the background. --- My Interpretation: For a large part of my life, I was scared of the dark. I couldn’t bear to go outside to throw the trash out when it got too dark to see. It took me a long time––far longer than most––to learn how to sleep quietly in my own bed. For a long time, I didn’t understand this fear. Nobody around me seemed to understand either, when I asked them for help. Logically, I lived a sheltered life, and my neighborhood was safe. Demons, ghosts, monsters: they didn’t exist. It’s only now I realise that that childhood fear was rooted in this fact: you are a very small person in a very big world. You don’t know what’s going to happen to you. You don’t know what’s out there. You know, instinctively, that you are an ant. The universe is very big, much much bigger than you could ever imagine, and that it doesn’t care for you. Not for your ambitions, your dreams, your fears, your safety. Hollow Knight takes this and deals with it in a way that I love. It’s indicative in the first few moments. Your playable character is smaller than almost every other character in the game. You travel deep into a bug kingdom, much much bigger than you would have dreamed. Everyone around you is a bug too, from the meek to the courageous to the regal. Outside this kingdom is a bigger world, just as harsh as this one, maybe harsher still. All you have is your nail to keep you safe. Travellers before you have fallen. You are the only person left to pick up what’s left of their stories. The world is endless, it stretches in infinity through time and space. People have tried to conquer it before. They have tried to build eternal kingdoms, immortal cities, taking what is not theirs in the hopes that finally, finally, they will be big enough, they will be good enough. They have tried to delay the inevitable––that all things end. Mistakes have been made, evils have been committed. “This place is not a place of honor. No highly-esteemed deeds are commemorated here.” The world is big. Kingdoms are small. You are smaller. Still, you move on. Someone needs to put this coughing, dying part of the world to rest. You will get no lore tablets in your name, no statues to commemorate your deed. Yet you cannot find it in you to be affected. Somewhere, Hornet wakes up and finds herself no longer tied to protect a monstrous ghost of a kingdom, her future now her own. Somewhere, you put your siblings to rest, their lost souls and empty eyes now at peace. Somehow, that is more important, more eternal, than any city or any god. It will follow you even after you are gone. There is strength in being small. There is strength in not knowing where you come from, or where you will go next, but going anyway. There is strength in achieving great things, not because of recognition or greatness or immortality that could brush the stars, but because that is the story you want to live through. That is the footprint you want to make, even if it fades away with time. You enter a large world with a nail on your back, looking for the means to an end, and you leave with less. Perhaps there is wisdom in that. (and can you believe that this is an indie game, made by like, idk 3 people?? And it’s 15 dollars for a game you can spend 48 hours or more in total on. Absolutely insane sksksksks i love this game)

#games #videogames #tw bugs #spoilers #hollow knight #ghost #pure vessel #hornet #silksong #writing?#writing #me waxing poetic #existential dread #i get really passionate about something and then i write 2500 words on it haha #essay #prose

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ganymedesclock · 5 years

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A Headcanon Compilation: Hollow Knight characters and messing up

Ghost: They’re a combination of stubborn, inquisitive, knowledgeable, and naive. Thus, they’re decently likely to cause absolute mayhem by total accident. You will come home and find them dangling upside-down tangled in your blinds, and they’re just staring blankly straight at you, in active defiance of giving you an explanation. Did they miscalculate? Irrelevant. They hacked their way into this situation and they’ll hacked their way out.

This kind of tends to make their problems worse because when all else fails they are really quick to take the ‘death before dishonor’ route. This means that anybody who has known them for a decent amount of time has probably watched them completely lose patience and frenziedly attack....... a random mushroom, or a piece of paper that got stuck to their back, or a branch that they walked into while they were distracted staring at their map.

In short: it’s funny if the property damage that inevitably accrues isn’t something you will have to pay for, or hold dear. It can also be a little sad, though, since Ghost is both impulsive and pretty aggressive- if they get angry enough to basically tantrum with their nail, they might damage something they don’t mean to that’s important to them or one of their friends, and grieve it afterwards.

Hornet: Hornet messing up incidentally looks almost exactly like a cat tripping. She just snaps to attention and, if particularly embarrassed, has this sort of ‘nobody saw me do that’ preening / saunter out of the area. In the face of an enduring problem she’ll just sort of sit there brooding over potential solutions, but stay self-contained and only bark an unnecessarily acerbic “what” if someone tries to talk to her while she’s sulking trying to think of a solution.

Her work ethic means that she’ll just sorta pick herself up, regroup and try again most of the time; if nothing has been going right for a while she’ll probably start shaking, get snappy at small noises, and then eventually just have a meltdown if she feels like she can’t justify walking away and taking a breather. She’s an angry crier when frustrated, much as she hates to admit it.

She’s naturally sensory sensitive / easily irritated by noise, unpleasant textures, or other stimuli, but if she’s especially stressed, she gets snappier at any particular bad stimuli in the environment. If she’s already frustrated about something and Quirrel is sharpening his nail and making a scraping noise about the third pass he makes with that whetstone, she’ll snap about it.

Quirrel: He likes a good puzzle so he’s fairly accustomed to trial-and-error, but expect a lot of progressive “huh”s and small comments to himself. That’s, of course, if this is an interesting thing to be stuck on. If it’s something he feels is stupid or pointless and he’s still stuck on it, he’s actually surprisingly quick to pull a “fuck this I’m out” if he can, and if he can’t for one reason or another, he’ll get pretty exasperated with it. He’ll still have nearly a full conversation with it, but he’s the most likely of the group to incredulously ask an inanimate object “really, now?”

He’s mildly likely to draw his nail on it if he feels like that will get results but he’s not prone to flailing, even if he’s very frustrated. His irritation more just boils down to him increasingly cutting out the middleman and being efficient with his attempts to solve it. Again, if he’s still entertained or sees scholarly value in something he’ll play along in a very minimal-damage manner; if he’s totally out of patience for something, though, that’s about the time he starts breaking out destructive high-caliber spells. It’s rare for him to get so peeved his Soul just starts making little crackles of lightning around him, but it does happen, and it’s usually not a good idea to try and hang onto him if he’s at that point.

Zote: Ironically Zote is pretty used to failure so while he’ll blow a lot of hot air, and, depending on how upset he is, blame literally everything he can think of in short order whether or not it can make sense, he basically just vents all the frustration out of his mouth. He’s the most willing to get down in the trenches scrabbling for success and then, as soon as he gets there, immediately insist that everything up to this point was a calculated plan as part of his success, which naturally, only took a single attempt.

He only really loses his head about it if he runs out of things to blame and/or complain about in which case he’s still griping but he starts instead airing / tying the issue to personal grievances or his general perception the whole world is out to get him, which is a lot less entertaining to listen to and tends to make him angrier rather than feel better. At this point whether or not he has a breakdown depends entirely on if he succeeds or gets distracted before he pulls a thread attached to his emotions.

Worst case scenario, he gets angry, screams at his environment, exhausts himself, gives up, and then either finds another way around, forgets about it, or gets a new idea and comes back.

Pure Vessel/Hollow Knight: They had a very proper upbringing and very precise training. They’re very by-the-book, but that book is a weighty tome on martial tactics and the code of chivalry. Definitely after their failed vigil against the Radiance they’re very tired and fatigue is quicker to take them than anger. Sort of participating in the category of heroic determination, really- they’re more likely to beat themselves up for not being good enough unless it’s a really stupid problem in which case they might actually find it kinda funny, depending. Or just very vexing.

It’d be a rare set of circumstances that could mash their buttons that way, but if sufficiently aggravated by something completely stupid, some irresponsible use of light magic and sharp implements might happen. They’re not incapable of anger, after all, and they were pretty much trained from the cradle. All in all, though, they’re rather clever and their dutiful streak means they’re rarely offended by menial labor as long as they feel like it’s accomplishing something.

Grimm: It’s rare for him to actually get vexed since, simply put, he’s so old, knowledgeable, and powerful that setbacks tend to be novel and interesting to him more than anything. He’s willing to be fairly charitable about something catching him in a pickle, sometimes even playing along with situations he can easily get out of with a minor flexing of godly power. Would-be bandits have held him at nailpoint before.

Of course, there’s limits to how long he’s willing to be entertained, and that tends to be what you’re putting on stake. Even risking fairly personal injury, as functionally a god of mortality, Grimm will even consider something he loses a limb to as all in good fun. Threaten his progeny or his clan in a way that makes him suspect you could genuinely imperil them, however, and you’ve booked a truly horrifying lesson in how much he’s been humoring you.

Radiance: If at first you don’t succeed, burn whatever you perceive as spiting you to ashes.

No, really. She’s pretty bad at this whole ‘patience’ and ‘forgiveness’ thing. The only reason she’s not a complete liability (in contexts where she’s not leveling kingdoms by operating exclusively as a dreamscape psychic death curse) to everything around her is that she’s so powerful that an awful lot of things are basically of no concern to her, from tripping on a root to a would-be godslayer running her through the chest.

Of course, that’s sort of a gamble, because if she interprets it as a challenge, even if she sees you as absurdly beneath her, she might just decide to “honor” you with the immaculate, shining death you’re clearly asking for. That, or if you just subject her to something she feels is undignified enough to be humiliating or annoying.

Most likely to evaporate a maskfly for pooping on her head, in short.

White Lady: She’s a patient sort, at least, superficially. It would be more accurate to say that if something annoys her, she doesn’t often retaliate directly because she’s very comfortable in the knowledge that she can come back in a century or so once it’s rotted beyond all recognition. It’s rare for her to get motivated enough that she decides to hasten entropy’s hand. When she does, the matter tends to be over.

As a result, with a minor problem or tribulation that isn’t time-consuming, she’ll take her own good time teasing out a solution, and not particularly worry about it not happening as quickly as she wants. Something with a looming deadline and serious stakes, she’ll simply continuously evaluate the previous attempts and try again, with an increasing determination. Her anger will build along with it, but she’ll keep that sequestered as best as she can until she makes a decision to do something reckless with all of her roots at once. Even in situations that can be dealt with by a more subtle touch, if she makes up her mind to end a situation, she either will, or she will perish in the attempt.

Pale King: Since he views himself as not really allowed to get mad he’ll try to continue working through his frustration and probably not actually realize how annoyed he’s getting. Likely to just pick himself up and continue going, carefully neatening himself if it’s the first time it’s happened, leaving his raiment in whatever state he hit the ground in if it’s the twentieth or thirtieth.

Like Hornet, he might get slowly snappier, but largely, his tone would remain entirely the same until he hits some kind of wall. Depending on which emotion he’s feeling at the time, this might be funny (you just come into his workshop and find him lying face down on the floor and he just, in completely calm tones, tells you to leave him there, and possibly carries a conversation like that if you have something urgent to say and it really can’t wait), or this might be terrifying (he’s in one of those moods where the entire surrounding area is at subzero temperatures and his eyes are leaking primordial ancient light, and you should probably just quietly excuse yourself and come back when he’s calmed down enough to thaw out)

Because, y’know, he’s the King of Hallownest, and his emotions have basically no outlets besides planking and chilling eldritch divinity. Since he’s such a workaholic, him having artist’s block is... something to deal with, all right.

#Hollow Knight #readmore #these are based on Refuse and Regret's 'verse'#in case you're wondering where I'm getting Sparky Wizard Quirrel or the Pale King expressing his emotions in the Elsa Method

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obaewankenope · 5 years

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IT’S DONE! OMG IT’S DONE! IT’S 6.8K AND IT’S D O N E

Summary:

“An owl, cat, or toad—what the fuck?” Crowley complains and Aziraphale smacks him on the arm for cursing.

“Crowley! Language!” the angel gasps, plucking the letter from the demons hand to read it himself. “Well—that is—it’s a little restrictive, I’ll admit,” he says, frowning a little at the list and specifications. “But if those are the only options—”

“Then we’ll make new options,” Crowley declares and Harry—enjoying the rebelliousness of his uncle Crowley immensely—nods vigorously.

If you don’t wanna read it on AO3 then click the read more and you can read it here :)

Harry’s letter is unsurprising for Crowley and Aziraphale for several reasons: number one) Harry has performed minor feats of magic ever since he began living with them above Aziraphale’s shop[1]. Number two) there are a select number of books in Aziraphale’s shop that are, to put it delicately, not for the mundane[2]. These books have been found and read by Harry with no damaging side-effects except when one specific chapter gave Harry the idea that levitation was a neat idea and thus must be performed at all times[3]. And, lastly, number three) several instances of poorly-disguised wizards appearing in the shop and trying to abscond with Harry only to be thwarted either by Harry himself, Aziraphale miracling them somewhere rather Unpleasant—he still refuses to tell Crowley where—or Crowley himself transforming into a rather terrifying serpent and constricting them to the point of unconsciousness before sending them to a cow field that is particularly pungent-smelling[4].

The requirements for his education, however, leave something to be desired.

“An owl, cat, or toad—what the fuck?” Crowley complains and Aziraphale smacks him on the arm for cursing.

“Then we’ll make new options,” Crowley declares and Harry—enjoying the rebelliousness of his uncle Crowley immensely—nods vigorously.

“It’d be awesome if I could take a dog!” Harry exclaims and Crowley is a little put out since he was considering a snake, but this is Harry and if he wants a dog, then a dog he shall have[5]. “I could take it to class with me!”

Aziraphale laughs lightly. “I don’t think they would allow you to take your dog to class, Harry,” he says, quite reasonably.

“Why not?” Challenges Crowley. “The dog’d[6] be his familiar wouldn’t it? Stands to reason they’d have to let the kids have their animals with them whenever they want.”

Harry beams at this and Aziraphale gives Crowley a Frowny Look—the kind that says “you are being deliberately oppositional now and I know it so stop it”—that makes Crowley smile brightly at him.

“Perhaps,” Aziraphale begrudgingly agrees, letting himself smile a little at the prospect of the type of mischief a boy and his dog can get up to in a classroom. “We’ll see, won’t we?”

Diagon Alley is, in a word, disastrous. Crowley and Aziraphale bracket themselves around Harry like parentheses[7] and act as a tidal wall to break the waves of people milling about the—well-diagonal alley full of wizarding shops and wizarding people.

“Why does he even need a wand? Kid’s got plenty of magic, can just point and click his fingers like we do, can’t he?” Crowley asks for what is probably the dozenth time—it is in fact, the fourteenth time and Aziraphale has been counting—as they reach the wandmakers shop. “Pointless waste of wood if you ask me.”

“Yes, but we’re not asking you,” Aziraphale snips, as he pushes the door to the shop open. “Harry requires a wand to focus his magic, unlike us, now hush. We’re supposed to be normal.”

“Normal, pfft!” Crowley saunters in behind Aziraphale and Harry, shrugging derisively at Aziraphale when the angel gives him a sharp look. “We’re in a shop selling wands, angel. Not exactly normal.”

“I—well—yes but, more normal than—than us,” Aziraphale admits quietly, frowning at Crowley who just smirks at him. “Stop being annoying, Crowley. Now is not the time.”

“Oh I disagree, angel,” Crowley looks around the shop. “Being annoying is a full-time gig.”

Aziraphale ignores the demon, focusing instead on Harry and not giving Crowley what-for in a verbal manner. The shop is rather dusty and dark, obviously in need of a good cleaning, but Aziraphale can recognise the signs of someone who deeply loves their craft in the way the boxes, although dusty, are in perfect condition. This Ollivander fellow is obviously capable, then.

“Ah, Harry Potter.”

And incredibly creepy.

Both angel and demon step up beside Harry, protective and perfectly capable of being creepy and intimidating themselves if needed—though Crowley is skipping both and going for a more terrifying vibe. The old man—wizard—wandmaker steps into view from behind a drab curtain and reveals a head of hair that would rival Albert’s for chaotic[8].

“Yes! Hello there! You must be the—uh—the proprietor of this establishment!” Aziraphale says, pasting on a polite smile that is a little too false and only a little bit obviously fake for that reason. “We’ve come to enquire about a—well—a wand for our nephew here!”

The wandmaker stares at Aziraphale and Crowley stood on either side of Harry—a happy, healthy-looking, completely okay with the protectiveness of them both Harry—and makes a decision.

“Very well, I have a selection for you to choose from.”

Aziraphale relaxes with a floosh of breath but Crowley, ever the paranoid sort, remains alert and wary until they procure a wand for Harry—paying for it with the money the wizarding world has created on its own, a strange currency but Crowley is good with numbers so not a problem really—and escape the wand shop with only a minor bit of weird creepy talk from the wandmaker[9].

The rest of the shops are easy—although they do go to Gringotts in order to enquire about Harry’s family vault—and they are in and out of Diagon Alley by teatime. As a result, they—and by ‘they’ I mean, ‘Aziraphale and Harry’—declare that they really want food and angel cake and thus all of them end up in a little café near to the pub that acts as the entry point to Diagon Alley in London.

All-in-all, it is an enjoyable trip that gives Harry a taste of what the magical world-proper is like. It whets his appetite even more and by the time September rolls around, the eleven-year-old wizard is bouncing around the bookshop and flat like a bouncy ball that’s been flung with considerable strength. He won’t admit it, but Crowley is partly relieved Harry is attending a boarding school for most of the year, but the larger part of him that has grown ruthlessly attached to the child is sad and forlorn.

Thus, it is no surprise that Crowley—having caved and gotten Harry a dog that was a simple mongrel mix but may also, possibly, have had a little bit more wolf in it than is typical—travels to Hogwarts and assumes the position of Care of Magical Creatures at the school in order to keep an eye on his nephew.

It is also no surprise that Aziraphale also heads to Hogwarts to watch over both Harry and Crowley and pretend that he is offering positive guidance to a child with a Great Future for the benefit of heaven[10]. The Sorting Feast is, as a result of this, incredibly amusing for Harry when he recognises both of his uncles have somehow figured out a way to be at Hogwarts even though neither of them are wizards[11].

Harry is pleased to note that he is placed in the same house as his parents—although he doesn’t remember them, having the association of being in the same Hogwarts house as them is comforting for the orphaned child regardless of the fact that he may have been better suited for any of the other houses[12]. Both Aziraphale and Crowley notice the way Albus I’m-so-smart-and-sneaky Dumbledore is pleased by Harry’s sorting and, while they don’t begrudge Harry the connection to his parents, are Displeased by Dumbledore’s shitty attitude.

By the end of Harry’s first night at Hogwarts, Crowley and Aziraphale have firmly cemented in the minds of their fellow staff that they are: “very strange but in a sweet way” (Aziraphale), “very probably evil wizards intent on killing us all” (Crowley), and, lastly, “very much in love but denying it” (both). All of the guesses are somewhat right, though neither Crowley or Aziraphale have any intention of Clearing Things Up since they both enjoy a bit of chaos—even if Aziraphale pretends otherwise, Crowley knows him too well to think the angel would ever pass up a chance at messing with people.

Of their fellow staff members, three are Problematic For Various Reasons. The first is, naturally, Albus Dumbledore; headmaster and stupid prick who leaves orphans with racist, xenophobic, nasty people. The second is Severus Snape; potions master and a Generally Unpleasant Person who Crowley feels would get along well with Hastur and Ligur. Last but not least is Quirinus Quirrell; defence against the dark arts—“the dark arts? How pretentious is that, angel?” Crowley mocks when he hears about it—and absolute chicken who is afraid of his own shadow.

Although Quirrell doesn’t strike them as the type to be dangerous, the DADA professor is far too timid to be of Any Real Use and—as Crowley mentions to Aziraphale under his breath after meeting him—there’s something “strange about his smell; no it’s not the garlic, I know what garlic smells like!”.

Dog-the-mongrel-with-a-bit-of-wolf-in-her[13] has had a ball of a time with Hogwarts but, generally, is seldom seen in the castle. Like most of the pets the students have, she wanders the grounds and enjoys the freedom of Scottish geography in the way any canine with a bit more wolf than most enjoys it; by hunting poor little rabbits and terrorising any cat that crosses her path.

Harry makes friends quickly, befriending a young witch called Hermione Granger—“a lovely name, Hermione! It means ‘princess of Hermes’ you know?” Aziraphale exclaims, smiling brightly at the bushy-haired girl when Harry introduces her to him—with ease after mentioning how his “uncle Aziraphale owns a bookshop in London”, and a young wizard by the name of Ronald “Ron” Weasley—“oh, he has red hair like you, Crowley dear!” Aziraphale grins at the dark look Crowley gives him but both of them are polite enough even when ‘Ron’ gawps at them for being “Harry Potter’s uncles!”[14].

He regularly visits both of them outside of class, towing Hermione and Ron along with him and it reassures both angel and demon to see their de facto son with peers his own age that know about magic and can Understand Him That Way. In London it had been much harder considering they enrolled him in a nearby primary school and had to keep explaining to Harry that regular people—non-magical and non-immortal in this case—don’t understand Harry for his magic and while the children will like it, their parents will—to put it mildly—‘freak the fuck out’[15].

Halloween is, in a word, disastrous. The day starts off like any other day, though the students are more hyped up for the feast later on than on other days. Crowley finds that he’s a surprisingly decent teacher—especially when he ropes in one Rubeus Hagrid as an assistant for practical and theoretical lessons combined[16]—and has no problem exposing the children to creatures that could easily kill them if they’re not careful[17]. It endears him to most of the students if not, naturally, to their parents—or members of staff who think him Unprofessional or Whatever Other Rubbish They Harp On About Him In The Staffroom for actually enjoying the teaching and engaging with his students creatively[18].

By the time lunch comes around on Halloween, there are rumours galore about this and that and Crowley—being the demon he is—helps seed some of his own for the sake of it. It’s quite pleasant, come to think of it, and instantly Crowley knows that it cannot last. Halloween is a day of change, of thinning things and stranger happenings and he’s never known a single Halloween day to go well for him. Not since 1702.

It is for that reason that Crowley is the first to react when Quirrell comes barging through the doors of the Great Hall looking paler than the DADA professor ever has—a feat indeed for the pasty professor who seldom leaves his classroom save for meals—and proclaims “TROLLLLLLLLLLL! TROLLLL IN THE DUNGEOONNNNNNN! Thought you ought to know” and dead-faints in the middle of the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables.

He’s up and over the staff table—legs doing the usual thing they do when he ignores physics and How Legs Work Entirely—and half-way down the gap between the tables before the first scream leaves a students’ throat.

“Not to worry!” He bellows cheerfully, passing the unconscious Quirrell and giving the professor a sly kick in the process. “I’ll handle it! Haven’t had me a fight with a troll in centuries, ha!”

“Crowley don’t you dare!” Aziraphale shouts after him, rising from the staff table, but the demon ignores him with glib glee to head for the troll and beat it senseless—or whatever else he’s going to do to it, no one in the Great Hall rightly knows.

But the sight of the Care of Magical Creatures professor gleefully heading towards the dungeon does a more spectacular job of dissolving the fear and tension Quirrell’s words had elicited in the whole hall. Aziraphale stood glaring at the doors adds a measure of amusement to the whole affair that has Dumbledore trying to save face by declaring that the “feast shall continue but no students are permitted to leave the hall until Professor Crowley returns” before he, McGonagall and Snape all leave.

Aziraphale is curious about where they’re going but, considering that Harry is still in the Great Hall, he remains himself and gives Harry a reassuring smile. Both of them know Crowley will fair better than the troll—no matter what size it is—since he’s a demon and turns into a snake, but they worry regardless.

“Harry, your uncle is mental,” Ron says to Harry who nods and grins.

“He’s a demon, says it’s in his nature,” Harry replies and Ron just shrugs and takes another bite of the chicken drumstick in his hand.

“Fair enuff.”

When Crowley returns to the Great Hall, he’s got a few scratches and his sunglasses are hanging off one ear revealing his eyes, but he’s grinning widely and saunters up to Harry to throw an arm over his shoulder.

“That was brilliant, that was, right laugh!” Crowley declares, enjoying the wide-eyed, awe-filled stares he’s getting from the Gryffindors surrounding Harry. “Never had to tell a Troll to Troll-off before!”

“Crowley you utter fool!” Aziraphale exclaims from behind him, hands coming up to grasp at the edges of the demon’s robes. “Look at the state of you! You didn’t even clean yourself up—have to always make an entrance.”

“You love it, angel,” Crowley says, grinning at Aziraphale who huffs out a little smile of his own.

“Honestly, must I do everything myself?” The angel questions sarcastically, snapping his fingers and Crowley’s robes are miraculously clean and neat, his hair less ruffled, and the scratches healed. The only thing Aziraphale doesn’t fix are Crowley’s sunglasses, which he plucks off instead and pockets in his own robes. “You have such lovely eyes, Crowley, I do wish you wouldn’t hide them away all the time.”

This leaves Crowley wordless long enough for Harry to giggle along with half the table at his shocked expression levelled at the angel. It’s an amusing expression, to be fair.

“Right,” Crowley croaks, clearing his throat and looking away from Aziraphale to give Harry a Look. “Enough of that, you,” he says to Harry who continues to giggle before he and Aziraphale head back to the staff table for the rest of the feast.

By the time Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape return, the feast is again in full swing, Crowley is lounging in Dumbledore’s thro- chair and Aziraphale is sat in McGonagall’s seat nattering away to the demon with a soft smile on his face[19].

Neither of them seem willing to give up their chosen seats for the night and thus Dumbledore is consigned to sitting next to Snape where there is a strained correspondence of Looks and Words while McGonagall enjoys sitting in Aziraphale’s usual seat next to Hagrid and having a lively discussion with the assistant CoMC professor.

Christmas holidays begin with the same sort of fanfare the Christmas season always brings out in people: absolute chaos. Students running around the castle searching for misplaced items, professors all-but pulling their hair out over essays that have to be handed in still, and a librarian on the war path for every unreturned book in the Hogwarts library.

Harry loves every second of it—even if he could do without the essays.

It is, by group consensus, agreed that they shall return to London for the duration of the holiday period, though Harry is allowed to visit his friends as they both are heading home—although Hermione is reluctant as she cannot access the Hogwarts library from home, until Aziraphale mentions his bookshop and how she can study there if she wishes to, then she is single-handedly planning her Christmas holidays for her family to include as much time at the bookshop as possible. Crowley only has one stipulation; he meets their families first[20].

The meeting is short and sweet, mostly owing to Aziraphale’s determined approach to it all, but Crowley and Molly Weasley come to a terse agreement where neither will ruin the other because Harry Likes Them And It Would Upset Harry[21]. Harry enjoys his time at the Weasley home—“it’s called The Burrow, how cool is that?”—but admits that he loves being with his uncles more than with his friend’s family because—“you love me for me, not because of my name”—and that doesn’t make Crowley or Aziraphale burst into tears; except that it does.

Crowley blames it on allergies to Christmas pudding and Aziraphale hits him with a spatula for saying such a cruel thing about pudding. Harry’s laughter makes their Christmas all the more enjoyable but by the time the new term arrives, the three of them are happy to make their way back to Hogwarts for the rest of the school year.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron end up in detention with Draco Malfoy after attempting to have a duel with the young boy. They are caught by Crowley and McGonagall—had it been only Crowley they’d have gotten away with it, but McGonagall is a stickler and thus they were stickled—and their detention is a stint in the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid looking for unicorns. It is, at this point, that Harry discovers a new Fascination that he shares with Hermione and Ron but won’t tell his uncles just yet.

“Not until I’m sure, I don’t want them to think I’m stupid” Harry says to his friends after they return to the tower and settle on one of the couches near the still burning fire. It’s past midnight but it is a weekend and thus they needn’t be up godawful early for classes. Both Hermione and Ron frown at Harry for his stubborn refusal to talk about his scar, the cloaked figure in the forest, and the general number of suspicions he has about Things with his uncles.

“As if they’d think you’re stupid, Harry, they bloody adore you mate” Ron replies, shaking his head at his friend. “Seriously, they’re mental about you.”

Hermione agrees. “Ron’s right Harry, you should tell them”. The look she gives him is very much one she has learnt from Aziraphale and conveys the perfect amount of you-are-being-stupid as well as you’re-lucky-I-love-you that Harry smiles a little.

“Maybe,” Harry hedges, before he distracts them both with talk of their latest essay for potions.

Aziraphale and Crowley are content—mostly—to wait until Harry comes to them and shares his Fascination with them since he’s always done that before. They trust that Harry will come to them if he’s in danger however, they both forget that, although they’ve had Harry for three years now, nine years of his life were spent not trusting adults to Act Particularly Adult and, as such, Harry sometimes lets old habits rule his actions.

Earlier on in the year, Dog-the-mongrel had tried to scare a particularly smug-looking tabby cat only to get the shock of her life when said tabby cat transformed into an unimpressed witch with a pointed hat and even pointier words for her and her owner. At that point, Crowley had introduced Dog-the-mongrel to Hagrid and Fang which had been, overall, the Best Idea Ever. Harry gained a new friend in Hagrid and Fang gained a protective companion that made going into the Forbidden Forest an absolute breeze considering she seemed more terrifying than anything in the forest itself[22].

Summer begins and classes start to wrap up as exams are set up and students begin to stress about revising and passing and failing and which subjects they want to continue with and so on. Crowley tells his classes that anyone who doesn’t kill whatever creature and can at least write their own name is allowed to continue with Care of Magical Creatures. This results in him being buried under a pile of seriously stressed out fifth years who have been panicking over studying for all their classes on top of the suddenly heavy workload CoMC has given then since Crowley took over[23].

Aziraphale takes great pleasure in being able to loan out books laden in charms and spells designed to protect them from students destroying them but with the exam-season, he’s a little frazzled around the edges when certain students test these charms and spells to their limits. Crowley wisely doesn’t irritate the angel for a few days, preferring instead to let Aziraphale focus on not accidentally smiting any of the students who return books that are a little worse for wear[24].

Four days into June, Harry, Ron, and Hermione undertake a truly idiotic task of trying to get the Philosopher’s Stone before a certain evil professor can. They mistakenly think it is Snape who is after the stone when it is, in fact, the snivelling coward Quirrell, but at least they did some pretty good logical thinking to reach their initial conclusions. Ron is side-lined by a giant chess set where he gets walloped by a stone Queen. Hermione outlasts Ron by one more test but can’t get past the rest as it is a One Person Only kind of deal—and also they’re tests that Crowley and Aziraphale designed and Harry knows the Answers but he won’t tell Hermione since she needs to Warn Someone[25].

“But Dumbledore isn’t at the school!” Hermione exclaims, upset and Harry rolls his eyes.

“Forget Dumbledore,” he instructs, holding Hermione by the shoulders to keep her focused on him. “Tell my uncles. They’ll be in the library; uncle Crowley always bothers uncle Zira there because uncle Zira basically lives there.” Harry gives Hermione a reassuring smile. “I’ll be fine. Just tell them. And get Ron some help too.”

Crowley and Aziraphale appear in time to stop Quirrell from trying to kill Harry, though their appearance is a less dramatic than that of Dog-the-mongrel who bursts through a literally wall of fire to savage Quirrell’s legs with the ferocity of a dog intent on protecting its master.

This doesn’t stop both demon and angel from attacking Quirrell, they simply don’t bother to get in Dog-the-mongrel’s way and leave her to Quirrell’s rather tasty and meaty calves. Aziraphale summons a weapon of celestial being—not The Flaming Sword but rather a small Flaming Dagger that is just as effective even if its reach is shorter—to jab at Quirrell with while Crowley goes the traditional route and slams a fist into the side of the DADA professor’s jaw.

This coincidentally reveals the distorted face on the back of Quirrell’s head when his turban is knocked off by the force of Crowley’s punch. Thusly, Aziraphale has a brand-new target for his Flaming Dagger and gleefully slashes at the face of the-once-Lord-Voldemort.

The possessed professor lashes out with wandless magic, disrupting Crowley and Aziraphale long enough to wrap his fingers around Harry’s neck, only to cry out in pain when the fingers begin to sizzle and burn from the contact.

“Oi! Get off him!” Crowley shouts, grabbing the shoulder of Possessed Professor and dragging him away from Harry, accidentally unfurling his wings from his back with the force he has to exert. The wings flare behind him, four instead of two because this isn’t just Crowley-being-a-demon, this is Crowley-who-was-an-Archangel-and-is-Angry and this Crowley will not let someone hurt a kid.

Especially Harry.

Aziraphale takes the opportunity presented by Crowley pulling Possessed Professor away from their adopted son and confusing him with four wings mysteriously sprouting from Crowley’s back, to slam the Flaming Dagger into the chest of Possessed Professor. This elicits a pained shriek from Quirrell and the face on the back of his head—obviously owing to the fact that the face is evil and Quirrell evil-by-association-via-possession—and both Crowley and Aziraphale watch in honest surprise as smokey-dust flakes off of Quirrell’s body, both from the back of his head and his hands.

Before their eyes—and Dog-the-mongrel who has released her hold on Quirrell’s leg now that it’s sort of collapsing in on itself—Harry, Crowley, and Aziraphale watch Quirrell disintegrate until there’s nothing more than a pile of dust and a vaguely face-shaped smoke shadow shouting obscenities at them which Crowley rolls his eyes at and snaps his fingers[26].

The smoke shadow is promptly removed from their vicinity, sent to some random forest in Romania where it can stay for however long it likes so long as it doesn’t come near Harry, just in time for Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, and Severus Snape to burst through the wall of flames, wands drawn.

“What happened?” McGonagall questions, striding over to Harry worriedly, even though she keeps her wand up and has a suspicious expression on her face as she survey Crowley and Aziraphale.

“Harry stopped the now deceased Quirrell from stealing a priceless artefact,” Crowley drawls, rocking on his feet and giving McGonagall a smile. It’s the kind of smile he gives people to try and be appeasing but it’s really just annoying. “You can thank him later, he needs some sleep and fixing up from fighting with a plant earlier.”

“Also flying keys that attacked me,” Harry pipes up, helpfully, and Crowley nods.

“And those.”

Neither Crowley nor Aziraphale are in any mood to explain to the three professors what the fuck just happened—Harry is shaking, the shock hitting after the adrenaline has fled his system, and he is their priority thank you very much—so they simple freeze time and abscond with him to their living space inside the library to get some much-needed rest.

They also, possibly, sit Harry down and have a very Detailed Discussion about how he can come to them with anything; “yes, even if it’s stupid and pointless” Crowley has to reassure Harry that he’s not in trouble but that they’d rather he actually tell them Before The Bad Stuff Happens.

Albus Dumbledore shows up at the door an hour later, supremely unimpressed with their Shenanigans and—in the way that Dumbledore does best—demands an explanation.

Crowley, instead of explaining, happily informs Dumbledore that the only reason neither he nor Aziraphale have murdered the stupid fucking idiot is because “it’d cause way too much paperwork” for their “respective offices” and to “get the fuck out and leave Harry alone”.

Crowley may also tell Dumbledore in no uncertain terms that Harry is staying with them for good and that no wizard is a match for them and also:

“If you think I’m letting him go back to that nasty cow of an aunt of his then you’re absolutely fucking bonkers! He’s staying with us and you’ll have to kill me to take him,” Crowley says and it’s no joke, it’s not an exaggeration. It’s a Fact.

It is a Proclamation.

Heaven couldn’t kill Crowley. Hell couldn’t kill him. Like fuck will a wizard with awful fucking dress-sense manage what those two places cannot. Like. Fuck.

“You will also—I’m afraid—have to go through me,” Aziraphale declares, coming to stand beside Crowley in their little living space where Harry has a room to himself if he ever needs it—like now. “And I’m not a fan of fighting really. But I will! For Harry.”

Dumbledore stares at the both and he’s trying to read their minds but they’re over six thousand years old and no human can possibly understand that sort of scale of existence. He can’t even fathom how they think let alone what they are, and it’s a vexed, put out Dumbledore that leaves them alone twenty minutes later after agreeing to their ‘demands’.

Madam Pomfrey isn’t nearly as easy to deal with when she learns they absconded with her patient. It took Crowley an hour and a half of relentless grilling by the healer—and then a hands-on demonstration of his skill—before she begrudgingly accepted that Harry was Perfectly Okay and Crowley knew what he was doing[27].

The end of year feast is entertaining because Gryffindor wins and Harry is hoisted up by the Weasley twins who are cheering loudly for him. Hermione and Ron are hoisted up as well since they managed to get their house the windfall of points needed to steamroller over Slytherin. Crowley secretly thinks Dumbledore did the points during the feast just to be Dramatic, but he can’t be too mad about it when Harry gives him the biggest smile he’s ever seen on the kids face since that day he took him away from Number Four.

Harry returns to London via the Hogwarts Express while Aziraphale and Crowley just teleport over—though they utilise Crowley’s Bentley for the teleportation as it’s not exactly difficult for him to take a vehicle containing their belongings and themselves as a vessel for transport—to the station and pick him up the moment he’s peeled himself away from the Weasley family and the Granger family.

Together they return to the bookshop and enjoy the summer in London until a large-eyed, very dedicated House-Elf shows up and tries to ruin it all. But that is a story for another time.

[1] His first feat had been magicking himself a plate of rather delicious pink wafers (these are tasty bis- cook- we call them biscuits okay, Americans, accept it) from the cupboard because he was engrossed in watching a documentary about sharks on TV and was hungry at the same time. Aziraphale witnessed the resulting appearance of the delicious snacks and went about miracling himself some as well. Both of them had discovered an entire channel of documentaries and, unfortunately for Crowley, they loved watching them at all times.

[2] Mundane as human without magical abilities and, also, mundane as people who are a little Too Dull to imagine any of the contents of the books as possible even with magical abilities. Harry—being not at all mundane—found the books fascinating.

[3] Crowley found the situation to be hilarious considering the chaos Harry caused up to the point where the child decided to levitate himself up to the skylight and sit on the edging of it precariously with a snack. At that point, Crowley conceded that Aziraphale was right and Harry had to Stop Levitating This Instant. Harry, needless to say, was Not Pleased with this development. He did, however, do as requested and limited his levitating to only a few feet rather than a few hundred.

[4] Naturally, it goes without saying, that Crowley and Aziraphale both modify the memories of these individuals to ensure they don’t return. This, also, allows them information on who keeps sending these people. It is for this reason—and many others—that neither demon nor angel are particularly impressed with one Albus—six-dozen-middle-names-Dumbledore.

[5]Dogs, generally, are not something Crowley particularly likes. They tend to always chew on his trousers and his shoes whenever he leaves them around. However, although he isn’t their greatest fan, Crowley has never left a dog alone or in a bad situation. He has, then, at various points in his life, rescued several hundred canines that he has rehomed with families or individuals who will appreciate them as they ought to be appreciated. This is a fact about Crowley that Aziraphale knows in the Abstract but Crowley will Never Willingly Admit.

[6] This is actually “the dog would be” but Crowley is lazy with pronunciation at times, preferring to squash words and letters together until half of them are missing.

[7] Yes, that is a pun, what of it?

[8] Albert Einstein was a personal friend of Crowley’s and Aziraphale’s at one point or another in time. They both considered his later hairstyle to be, in a word, crazy but the style suited the physicist perfectly; it does not suit Garrick Ollivander.

[9] “The wand chooses the wizard, mister Potter!” Crowley had really wanted to ask how a piece of wood does that when choosing implies sentience and awareness of there being a choice, but the wandmaker distracted him with talk of how the wand Harry now possesses is a twin of the one that gave him the lightning scar on his forehead. The demon has Plans to return to Ollivander’s at a later date to pester the wandmaker but he refuses to take Harry in there ever again. Garrick Ollivander is too creepy for Crowley’s tastes and Harry is not to be exposed to too-creepy-even-for-uncle-Crowley things.

[10] Aziraphale, rather conveniently, replaces a rather unhappy, irritable, librarian who longed for retirement but trusted no one to be able to care for her precious books until she met Aziraphale and met a kindred book-loving-to-the-point-of-violence soul and accepted her generous retirement package from Hogwarts.

[11] They existed long before magic was a thing for humanity and will, hopefully, exist long after humanity also. As such, Harry only calls them wizards when it is necessary. Otherwise, they are ‘angel’ and ‘demon’ respectively.

[12] The Sorting Hat, at one point, all but begs Harry to consider the other houses but, unfortunately for it, it had answered Harry’s question of which houses his parents had been in and—thusly—ruined its own chances of having a bright child in the Smart house, a sly child in the Sly house, a loyal child in the Loyal house, and ended up with a child-who-is-all-of-those-things-and-more-because-children-should-not-be-pidgeon-holed-at-eleven into the Brave house.

[13] Dog-the-mongrel is not to be confused with just Dog who happens to also be a hellhound. This is Harry Potter, not Adam Young, and Harry is the Saviour of the magical world of Britain—because they cannot save themselves apparently—not the antichrist as is the case with Adam Young.

[14] One child that Harry does not make friends with is Draco Malfoy. The Malfoy boy is rude to Ron at just the wrong moment and, although Harry has been raised by Crowley and Aziraphale, this act by Draco results in Harry rejecting Draco’s offer of friendship while publicly scolding the other eleven-year-old for being rude and derisive for no reason other than “for the sake of it”. Ron officially loves Harry after this and is absolutely stoked to be friends with him.

[15] Harry had been most put out by this and had only accepted the necessity of it when the TV miraculously showed a documentary about the witch hunts in Europe and discussed how modern-day witch-hunters still “walk among us”. The irony isn’t lost on Crowley or Aziraphale that they do, in fact, know an actual witch-hunter by the name of Shadwell but they both decided to keep the eccentric man away from Harry at all costs.

[16] Albus Dumbledore had raised a complaint about Crowley’s decision for only as long as he could blink before the demon had told him—rather loudly—to “FUCK RIGHT OFF TELLING ME WHO I CAN HAVE AS MY ASSISTANT YOU COLOUR-CODED DISASTER” and storming out of Dumbledore’s office, taking extra care to cause a lot of chaotic damage to various objects in the magpie nest it was.

[17] Crowley had impressed this upon them all in every class by periodically assuming the form of one of the creatures they were to ‘care’ for and terrorising them with it until he decided They Got The Point and transforming back to his human shape. Oddly enough, the children now looked forward to his lessons and figuring out which of the creatures he was in the group—though none of them tried to figure it out by being rude, mean, or cruel to any of the creatures as they’d received a lot of detentions with the new librarian who was only cheerful until he learned who had sent them to him; then he was Scary.

[18] Crowley is quite certain that if someone told Severus Snape or Minerva McGonagall to approve their lessons with fun in mind, they’d likely explode; the former because he’s a Nasty Nastier and the latter because she is Traditional Teaching Only Thank You Very Much You English Dog. Crowley likes McGonagall for her no-nonsense attitude in life but she could stand to loosen up a little more—let her hair down, hex Snape a few times, chase some birds, that sort of thing.

[19] Quirrell had been left unconscious on the floor between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables as none of the staff or students have any desire to deal with the dramatics of the man.

[20] This is more to do with Ron’s family since they’re magical and if they had half a mind to, they could steal Harry and then he and Aziraphale would have to murder an entire family to get him back because no one is taking their son from them and least of all anyone who apparently thinks the sun shines out of Albus Dumbledore’s fucking arse!

[21] Aziraphale makes no such agreement and is, as such, the much more dangerous party of their little trio family group.

[22] Obviously this isn’t the case, but Crowley had, upon obtaining Dog-the-mongrel for Harry, placed a rather ingenious little demonic miracle on her that made her more terrifying to any mortal creature so that she could better protect Harry. Aziraphale continued to suspect that Dog-the-mongrel was actually a hellhound but Crowley refused to confirm or deny the suspicion—confirming it by doing just that as it happens when Dog-the-mongrel later leaps through a wall of fire to protect Harry from a possessed DADA professor.

[23] Crowley admits to Aziraphale later on that it had been kind of fun but it was really intended to cause a little more chaos for the other members of staff. It did, but Aziraphale isn’t fooled. Crowley is a big old softie when it comes to kids and Aziraphale knows it.

[24] Some of the worst offenders are, as to be expected, the Weasley twins. They seem to be capable of the impossible in regard to what is and is not possible with spells, charms, potions and so on. Aziraphale has an ever-growing list of what the Weasley twins have managed to do to the books they’ve taken out of the library. He has had to issue an ultimatum to them; if they wish to use a book, they cannot take it from the library but instead ask Aziraphale to make a copy of the relevant sections for them to use. Unfortunately for Aziraphale, he was overheard stating this by a group of Ravenclaw’s and now he’s miracling up entire books almost for students to use. It’s a good pastime however and he can include it on his monthly memos to heaven for what miracles he’s performed lately.

[25] Crowley’s test is simple: tell the snake not to eat you. Aziraphale’s is more about logic and books and figuring out which book is the best kind of book to read up about philosophy and philosopher’s stones. Naturally, Hermione would know the answer to Aziraphale’s test but since it is after Crowley’s… well, Harry can refuse to let her go with him since she’d be eaten by a snake that likes to eat people who can’t Talk Snake.

[26] At the same time that Crowley snaps his fingers, his wings curl back within his being and are, once again, no longer visible on the mortal plane. This is a good thing considering what happens next.

[27] Aziraphale, knowing that Crowley was once Raphael and was tricked into Falling by a very dickish brother by the name of Lucifer, smirks at him with that smug look he has when Pomfrey says that. Crowley gives him his best glare but the effect is ruined by the amusement in his serpentine eyes. Eyes he has given up hiding around Hogwarts after he was pestered by a dozen students who were Amazed By Them and thought they were Wicked Cool.

#Good Omens #Good Omens Spoilers #Ineffable husbands #Crowley #Aziraphale #An Angel and a Demon together #HP #Harry Potter #Absconding with Harry verse

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