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kuro-gossips · 5 years

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Splashes of Colour

Chapter 6: Shades of Red

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5

Theseus collapses to his knees, tears streaming down his face -- thinking either Newt has disintegrated in the fire or that the Dark Lord has him in his possession -- and he’s not entirely sure which situation is worse. Leta is by his side immediately, a delicate arm wrapped around his shoulders and whispering comforting things -- there are tear tracks on her cheeks too. Even if they had been estranged since Newt’s expulsion from Hogwarts, they were best friends at one point.

“Oh, Theseus…” She buries her head in his shoulder and they hold each other in dire need of comfort. His arm is still reaching out for his brother, the air cruelly cold compared to the heat from before.

“He-- he can’t have--” Theseus sobs messily -- he’s not even sure what he’s trying to convey at this point, but his fiancée is there and she needs no words to understand what he is going through. Queenie is off to the side, Jacob and her sniffling quietly. The American Auror looks catatonic, brown eyes still staring at the spot where Newt had been only mere minutes ago.

Suddenly, she snaps out of her reverie, fists clenching and teeth gritting. “What could Grindelwald want Newt for? It doesn’t make any sense.” Tina thinks that after that display of ‘affection’ from the Dark Lord, there is no way he would have killed Newt. The man does everything for a reason, even if it’s not blatantly obvious to them now.

Unfortunately, everyone present is just as confused as she is. Theseus can’t help but remember how tender the Dark Lord had seemed with Newt. The man’s reputation most definitely precedes him and he thinks it’s too odd for Grindelwald to act so far out of character. He mutters, “Did you notice Grindelwald’s behaviour? It seemed… off.”

“I agree. Grindelwald definitely had something planned for Newt. But I don’t think any of us realized what those plans were.” The Lestrange witch admits; she feels slightly guilty she didn’t act on her intuition. And now Newt is gone. “He managed to weasel his way into Newt’s mind somehow; he must have promised something.”

Theseus hears the quiet shuffling and a squeak of a small creature nearby in the grass. Newt’s Niffler pops out; the black furred beast is limping, one leg charred and bleeding. He looks sadly up at the elder Scamander, as if he knows exactly how the human is feeling. His small clawed paws reach into the pouch of his stomach and pulls out a small silver trinket. The Niffler offers it to Theseus, almost in consolation. The wizard sweeps the creature up because it is his last reminder of Newt and takes the proffered pendant. Theseus whispers a small healing spell for the creature’s burned leg. At the centre is a glass sphere with two drops of what appears to be blood. Heart clenching, he concludes that this must be a blood pact and he realizes that this is the reason why Dumbledore hasn’t been able to join the fight against the Dark Lord. He needs to confront the Hogwarts professor with the newly discovered information. He knows that the two men had a deep connection at when they were teenagers. Theseus dangles the pendant in front of his fiancée’s gaze.

Chestnut eyes squint as she inspects the intricate silver piece. “Impossible… Is that-- is that a blood pact? This is very complex magic, Theseus.”

“Yes, it is. I think Newt’s Niffler grabbed it off Grindelwald. I recall seeing it attached to his coat.” The British wizard informs her. The rest of them stew in reticence, wondering about Newt’s fate -- there is nothing left to do, but to pick up the shattered remains of their emotions.

***

Gellert and Newt appear in the heart of the Nurmengard castle; Vinda is waiting to greet them, “Welcome, my Lord, Mr. Scamander.”

Newt’s face flushes at the attention from Grindelwald’s second-in-command -- it further reddens when he realizes that his soulmate’s fingers are still interlaced with his. He lightly pulls back his hand, something that garners Grindelwald’s attention for a split second, before his gaze returns back to Vinda.

“Please prepare a room for Mr. Scamander.” Vinda nods her assent and leaves with a curt bow.

Newt mouths out, “Newt.” The other wizard turns to look at him, confusion colouring his face. “I would prefer to be called ‘Newt’ or ‘Newton,’ if you must.”

“Ah, of course. I suppose you’ve never had a penchant for authority.” The man with mismatched eyes smiles gently -- more gently than the magizoologist has ever seen and perhaps he did make the right choice of coming with his soulmate -- Grindelwald leads the way to the kitchen with a light hand on the younger’s elbow. Newt’s stomach does a small flip at the sensation. “This way… Newton. Would you care for some tea?”

The redhead perks up at the mention of his beverage of choice, “That would be lovely. I don’t suppose you have some ginger lemon?” It feels oddly natural for him to slip into a comfortable pace with Grindelwald. He thinks he understands what Theseus and Leta meant by the soulmate bond being profound. His thoughts take an abrupt halt. His brother and his friends had completely slipped from his mind. Tears well up in the corner of his emerald eyes slightly. He wonders what they must think of him; whether they’re confused or upset, maybe both. The palm on his elbow trails to his lower back and nudges him out of his thoughts.

“I know this must be difficult for you to come to terms with, Newton; leaving your friends and family behind is no easy feat. You know it had to be done though.” Newt slowly nods his head. He’s glad that his soulmate is able to grasp his inner conflict with such ease. He flashes an appreciative lilt of lips at Grindelwald, whose face softens at the sight. He waves his hand, performing wandless magic to heat up some water and to retrieve a tea set from the cupboard lining the side of the room.

Grindelwald seems to have a new fondness for lightly caressing Newt because he takes every opportunity to initiate physical contact; Newt can’t figure out his motivations for it for the life of him, but a pleased hum of magic runs through him every time it happens. In a scant couple of minutes, the two of them are sipping on some ginger lemon tea, soothing Newt’s stomach that keeps coiling like an angry snake has settled within it.

The light-haired man interrupts the peace, “Would it be too forward to ask more about my soulmate?”

Newt starts at the sudden noise. His gaze darts back and forth, skillfully avoiding making eye contact. “There’s not much to know.” He confesses with a mumble, but Grindelwald has read his file and he knows that the truth is quite the contrary.

“Nonsense. Tell me about your expulsion from Hogwarts.” Grindelwald prompts, clasping his hands on the table. “It’s not everyday that an expelled student gets to keep their wand and regardless, to be able to perform such intricately woven magic like I’ve seen in your suitcase.”

The British wizard hesitantly begins his tale of the incident with a magical creature under his and Leta’s care, that the witch had let loose onto one of the girl’s that had gone a step too far with bullying Newt. He tells how she passed all the blame on him, after they had agreed to split the burden between them. He tells of how hurt he felt when he realized that his only friend had betrayed him in such a way. Bitter tears gather, his face wrinkling to match the ache in his heart, even after all the years that have passed, the blow has not lessened in any way. His soulmate’s hands grasp his in comfort, enveloping him in a warmth that he’s rarely felt. Although Newt has never been one for physical contact, he can’t help but take a liking to the other man’s touch. He’s never been comfortable with affection, even within his own family.

He details how Dumbledore had stepped in and advocated his case, which ultimately allowed him to keep his wand and how he had excelled under private tutelage outside of Hogwarts, more so than he ever had at the school.

“I do apologize for taking things too much at face value last year in New York. I do hope you understand my urgency with pursuing Credence at the time.” Grindelwald murmurs, voice a bit cautious as he broaches the topic. The redhead is mildly surprised that the man has shown remorse about the brutal magic he had cast in the subway tunnels, but it is not the first time that the famed Dark wizard has shocked him tonight. Suddenly, his eyes are met head on with green ones -- it is the one time that Newt has made to match his gaze.

“If I may ask, what exactly are you plans in regards to Credence?” The copper haired man’s face does nothing to hide his concern regarding the Obscurial boy. His eyebrows are drawn up and recede underneath his fringe, eyes wide and assessing the man in front of him. “I thought you sought him merely for his power as an Obscurus, but you mentioned knowing his identity in Paris.”

“Ah, yes. It is a little complicated with Credence. I was hoping you would come with me for this reason -- you are a much gentler hand than I.” Grindelwald starts, pale blue and deep chestnut eyes staring imploringly at him. Newt is confused, but he awaits further explanation. “I am not sure how aware you are of my past with Albus, but this story begins there…”

It is the Dark Lord’s turn to share his backstory with the magizoologist. Newt learns about the intimate details of their relationship and it’s almost unbelievable how deep their connection ran. He learns about their tragic fallout and the death of Dumbledore’s younger sister, who also happened to be an Obscurial. She had suppressed her magic to fit in with the local children, only for it to turn inwards on her. Gellert reveals that he believes Credence has the potential to be an incredibly powerful wizard due to his lineage as a Dumbledore.

“What?” The younger man exclaims, emerald eyes wide in disbelief. “You think him related to Albus?”

Grindelwald lets out a sound of agreement, “Not in the typical manner. When Ariana passed, her magic lashed out viciously and went rampant. I know it sounds incredulous, but it shot up into the sky like a beam after destroying the Dumbledore home. We have no idea of its fate, but when I set my eyes upon Credence’s Obscurus form in New York… Somehow, I knew. It had the same signature as Ariana’s.”

“So you believe that Credence is a manifestation of Ariana’s magical core?”

“Very intuitive, Newton. Yes, that is exactly what I believe. But Credence is his own person now and with all the abuse at the hands of the Barebones, the Obscurus festered and grew in strength even more. It thrives in the darkest of places, after all.”

“And what could you possibly need me for, in regards to Credence’s care?” Newt asks, confused about his part in the whole situation.

“You are a natural nurturer. You have a mother’s touch.” The magizoologist blushes at the compliment. Grindelwald continues, “Credence needs a guiding hand, but not my own. I am afraid I am not suitable for that role. Newton, you are the perfect person to foster a healthy environment for him -- trust me.”

The redhead is in awe that Grindelwald has so much faith in him, a meagre magizoologist with very little credit to his name. He almost feels like crying because no one -- no one -- has ever done so before. Theseus always berated him for his antics with beasts, Leta took advantage of his kindness, his parents disapproved of everything he had ever done. A tear drops from the corner of his eye and the blond-haired man is quick to wipe it away with a thumb. Viridian eyes flicker up and there is such a tender moment that passes between the two wizards. Grindelwald’s palm cups his cheek and Newt enjoys the warmth.

“Not many people are willing to delve deeper than the surface, are they?” More tears gather in Newt’s eyes and all of a sudden, he feels like he understands his soulmate infinitely more. They are kindred spirits in the most rudimentary sense. “I, too, was expelled from Durmstrang. I was a curious boy; I wanted to experiment with Dark magic and instead of steering me in the appropriate direction, the Headmaster decided that I was beyond saving. I know of the struggles you’ve experienced, Newton. I have been in your shoes.”

This time, it is Newt who initiates the contact by grasping Grindelwald’s hand, still on his face. He leans into the other’s touch and his eyes close.

***

The ragtag group of people gather at the foot of the bridge that crosses over the canyon into Hogwarts. They are joined by Travers, the British equivalent of the Director of Magical Law Enforcement. Queenie’s hand is gripping Jacob’s with surprising strength as she watches Britain’s Head Auror walk towards the middle-aged professor, glancing nervously at Travers standing a couple of feet away.

“Dumbledore.” Theseus and Albus had never gotten along as well as Newt and the professor had, but the elder Scamander had been a good student and had enjoyed learning.

“It is good to see you again, my boy. I assume there is a reason for your visit today?” The man questions, the twinkle in his blue eyes ever present. Theseus doesn’t give a direct answer, but he pulls out the silver trinket from his pocket and hands it over to the older man.

“This is a blood pact, isn’t it? This is the reason you refused to join in the fight against Grindelwald. You couldn’t.” Theseus surmises.

“How-- how did you get a hold of this?” The professor steals the pendant away, looking at it in shock. He never thought he would see this again. The Auror ruefully presents the mischievous Niffler from within the confines of his coat. An amused grin spreads across the man’s lips. Dumbledore finally takes notice that a certain redhead is missing from the group. “And where is Newt?”

“You were the one who sent Newt to Paris, aren’t you? This is all your fault…” Theseus grits his teeth, nearly grinding them together, his voice tainted with bitterness. Dumbledore only looks lost in the face of his accusations.

“Theseus, what-- what happened to Newt?” The professor’s voice trembles slightly when he speaks.

Without any warning, a hand is clutching the collar of his vest, the light brown-haired man’s face is nearly purple with rage, his knuckles a stark white in comparison. He takes a deep inhale, grip slackening slightly. “... Grindelwald has him.”

Dumbledore makes a sound of disbelief. “But why would Grindelwald want Newt?” Except that is the question all of them have been asking themselves for hours and no one has come up with an answer. Theseus averts his gaze, looking longingly into the distance.

“No one knows.” His face takes on a sense of forlornness as he admits this. Dumbledore looks pensive as he considers the possibilities. Theseus snaps out of his thoughts to ask, trying to focus on the matter at hand, “Can you break the blood pact?”

“Maybe.” Dumbledore’s response is unsure, but there is a glimmer of hope in his sapphire eyes. Theseus knows that they will have a better chance at winning with the man on their side.

And maybe -- just maybe -- they can get Newt back with his help.

***

Later that day, Grindelwald takes Newt o the study, which is currently occupied by Credence. The young man is staring out the large window overlooking the snowy mountaintops with a degree of fascination at the sight. The Dark Lord breaks the black-haired male out of his reverie, “Credence, my boy.”

The Obscurial swirls around, a little startled by his sudden appearance. “Mr. Grindelwald… I didn’t hear you come in.” A shaky and unsure smile graces his lips, but when he notices another presence in the room, the smile melts away. Newt steps out from behind Grindelwald and offers the Barebone boy a comforting look. The other loses some of the tension in his shoulders when he vaguely recognizes the redhead.

“This is Newton. I believe you’ve met before, however brief it may have been. He’s a world-renowned magizoologist--” Newt flushes prettily at this statement. The pale-haired wizard notes the look of confusion on Credence’s face and is quick to append, “--someone who studies magical creatures, but Newton is unique even amongst his peers. You see, he also rescues abandoned and abused creatures, rehabilitates them, then sets them free when possible.”

At Grindelwald’s explanation, Newt is surprised his soulmate knows so much of what he does -- it’s a pleasant surprise. He swears he feels a twinge of faint amusement, but he’s not the one experiencing that emotion, which is perplexing to say the least; he’ll figure it out later, but his focus is solely on Credence now.

“Credence, it’s good to see you well. I thought you had been lost in New York.”

“Mister… Scamander, right?” Black brows are slightly furrowed as he attempts to recall the man’s full name out of politeness, something instilled in him by his adoptive mother. At the other’s affirmation, a small grin spreads over Credence’s lips again.

“G-Gellert told me that you found a baby bird of some sort? May I take a look?” Newt stumbles over his soulmate’s first name, as the Dark wizard had insisted he be called. It flusters the freckled man every time he utters the name. Credence brightens up at the mention of the tiny, grey-feathered bird. He guides the magizoologist to the cardboard box sitting on a nearby table. The redhead peers into the mouth of the box and scoops up the fledgling. It chirps happily as a thumb strokes the top of its head. “Well, aren’t you just a sweetheart? I can tell someone’s been taking good care of you…”

Credence shies away at the older wizard’s nonchalant comment, but the others can see how pleased he is to receive such praise. Newt feels a hint of sadness for the amount of pride that decorates the boy’s face from such a small gesture from a stranger. The dark-haired male mutters a soft ‘thank you’ to the magizoologist. Credence feels slightly awkward with new people and he doesn’t have the comforting presence of Nagini at his side as a buffer. Newt is also not particularly nuanced in social interactions, so he decides to continue on the topic of something more comfortable, “Would you like to meet my creatures?”

The boy is in awe at the question, a lingering disbelief colours his voice. “Can I? Where are they?”

The redhead’s eyes glow as he explains the intricate workings of his suitcase to Credence; his excitement is contagious. The two descend into the brown leather case, wandering through the various habitats as Newt chatters brightly. Credence greedily absorbs all the new information being presented to him. Both of them are so engrossed that they never notice Grindelwald leaving; the Dark Lord is glad to see his judgment regarding Newt and Credence is correct. As the hours tick by, dinnertime approaches and neither of them are anywhere to be found.

When Grindelwald does stumble upon them, the two are lying on the grassy plains with the Mooncalves cuddled up next to them, faces content as they sleep. The blonde begrudgingly nudges Newt awake; Grindelwald says with bemusement, “You fell asleep, Newton.”

His curly copper hair is mussed up and his eyes are slightly out of focus as he stares blankly at his soulmate for a couple of moments before his brain processes what was said. “Oh!” He exclaims as he jumps to his feet and looks around for Credence. The Demiguise had taken an unusually fast liking to the boy and is currently curled up in the crook of his neck. Green eyes soften at the sight. Grindelwald slips his hand into Newt’s, slotting together like lock and key.

“I knew you would be perfect for getting him settled in. You truly do have a talent.” The magizoologist is taken off guard once again by the unexpected compliment. The man with dual coloured eyes mentally notes to dole out more so he becomes well-acquainted with some semblance of confidence. It’s actually ironic that Newt is unable to grasp the parallels between himself and the Obscurial boy. “Credence, it’s time for dinner.”

The wizards can see wisps of black smoke coiling around the edges of his figure as he regains consciousness. He flails around a bit -- a bad habit from his days with Mary Lou -- when he realizes that he fell asleep. Dougal makes a slightly disgruntled noise as he is disturbed from his slumber. Credence cradles the creature close to his body and strokes his fur soothingly. Newt has such a tender look on his face at the young man warming up and acting more carefree. He thinks that perhaps there may be some merit to Grindelwald’s views and methods after all. The redhead’s cheeks redden when he notices Grindelwald staring unabashedly at him. The three men finally head off to fill their empty stomachs; dinner is spent in mostly companionable silence, with spatters of light conversation.

#gellert grindelwald #newt scamander #theseus scamander #leta lestrange #albus dumbledore #grindelnewt #grindelnewt fanfiction #fantastic beasts and where to find them #fantastic beats and where to find them #fantastic beasts fanfiction #fbawtft #fbatcog #soulmate!au #soulmate!au where you see black and white until meeting them #fanfiction #fanfic #my writing #splashes of colour

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quartusbellum-blog · 5 years

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ARCHIE for the role of SIRIUS BLACK, using the faceclaim BLAIR REDFORD.

Your application for Sirius is stunning, and incorporates lots of little details which flesh out the character wonderfully. You’ve portrayed the complexity of Sirius’ current situation so well, and there is some truly beautiful writing here. I am very excited to welcome you to Quartus Bellum!

ooc details

Name: Archie

Age: Twenty five

Pronouns: She/her

Activity Level: I’m a current PhD candidate, so my time is pretty strapped. I am also coming out of a writing hiatus, so I’m a little rusty, but this game was so alluring I just thought I’d be an idiot to pass up some world building and exploring. I can probably be online a few times a week, but I can promise lengthy replies in lieu of my absence. I hope that’s okay. I would definitely like to keep the mod team updated on things if I’m away for whatever reason, just so we’re on the same page and everything!

Other: No triggers! But thank you very much for asking. I’m just extremely motivated and intrigued by this plot, so I have to give major kudos to such an arresting idea. Please also note that I am applying from a mockblog I have created for the purpose of this application.

Acknowledgement: I acknowledge that the themes of this game may include triggering elements. I also acknowledge that my character may be harmed, coerced, or even killed (with player’s consent) during paras/events or may cause harm to or kill others during paras/events.

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general ic details

Name: Sirius Orion Black

Age: Twenty one (November 3rd, 1959)

Ships: Chemistry. Full disclosure, the biography given for Sirius gave me a lot of Sirius/James feelings (like, a lot), but I also really ship Sirius/Remus. I write Sirius as gay, but overall I’m pretty relaxed about writing relationships provided they’re realistically depicted and well-paced.

Gender/Pronouns: Genderfluid (he/him or they/them)

Face Claim: Blair Redford (x), Luke Pasqualino, Sean Teale * * I’ve gone back and forth between these three for ages... Ordinarily I write the Black family as POC, so after a Great Struggle™ in which I seriously admired Luke Pasqualino in “Snatch”, I decided to do something different and go with Blair Redford. Now, I do have a possible headcanon around Sirius and Regulus being half-brothers, so that can give the Regulus player some freedom around choosing a faceclaim, as I know matching ethnicities can be tricky (especially as Blair is half unspecified Native American). I will say, however, that I am open to discussing Sirius’ faceclaim, so if you’re unsure I’m happy to talk about it with you.

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biography:

Sirius wasn’t supposed to live past twenty one.

It’s a morbid, private thought, one best left for murmuring into the black velvet of late nights, supine with firewhiskey and muggle cigarettes. See, Sirius never expected to make it to sixteen, but then a certain shaggy-haired idiot named James F. Potter happened, and Sirius’ fears went out the window (literally – have you ever tried to pry open the latch of a very old semi-sentient house that doesn’t want its heir to escape? Harder than it looks). When the war started, Sirius accepted the likelihood of his imminent death with little fanfare. It was easier, anyway, to throw himself into missions and the gutsy bravado that gripped 1979 like a fever. The city was alive: subtropical clubs; the tongues of strangers; heady muggle music; the Order laughing, packed into some tiny apartment, drunk off their tits. And even before that haze dissipated, they all felt immortal. The war was real, of course, but so were they, and Sirius was young, and dumb, and he was one of the best duelers by far, so why shouldn’t he take to the streets, Doc Martens smacking the pavement, dodging after some Death Eater? The Black household was one shrouded in death, what with the dusty portraits of forgotten ancestors, their eyes following you in the gloom, and his own mother’s obsession with mortality, as if the Pox that claimed their father was a mere token of magic’s cruel whim to give and take away. The Marauders filled him with hope; the Order stoked those embers to flames. But there was always something within him, some stoic knowledge, that this was too good too last. He was a Black: his blood ran thick as oil.

If anyone asks (which they don’t, because despite his newfound control, Sirius can still be frightening), losing James was more than a sucker punch to the gut. The Order had lost so many brave witches and wizards at the height of the war, but those terrible deaths were nothing compared to James’ disappearance. No, not disappearance. Kidnapping. Theft. They stole Prongs from Sirius’ useless fingers, swept him away for good, and Sirius was powerless. Maybe that was what hurt most of all: knowing that no matter how deeply he felt for James, how fortifying and achingly tender their friendship was, it just wasn’t enough. Sirius thought he was incapable of love before he met James. But where did that get him? The yawning dark of an empty flat; shaking hands in the cold dawn light; the blood-pound of fear in his jugular, drumming hard enough to make his eyes spot black. Sirius didn’t give himself a chance to mourn, to wonder, to do anything other than drown himself in the rescue effort. The loss of Dumbledore was similarly shattering, but Dumbledore was more figurehead than individual: a manifestation of everything the Order wanted to be. James was real: he was blood and bone. He was laughter and the glossy gold of a snitch, he was private jokes and intense bravery. He was Sirius’ counterbalance. And then he was gone.

Sirius isn’t the same. None of them are. Everything they’d fought for was extinguished in twenty four hours. That might partly explain Sirius’ habitual visits to the muggle world. Disguised as Padfoot is as good as being invisible. He can slip through their ordered, ordinary world, and feel, at least for a few hours, that his pathetic excuse for an existence hasn’t been obliterated close beyond repair. Sirius tells himself they’ll claw it all back. Dumbledore, James, the Ministry. There is a terrible anger within him that is beyond anything he has ever felt. It is cavernous, infinite, far darker and bruised than any reservoir of loathing for his family. It is so intense that he cannot even speak about it. Sirius has always been a little frightened of how deeply he feels, but this redraws those boundaries. That feeling that his life is on a countdown has compounded. Sirius is willing to do anything to take back what is rightfully theirs. He spent his youth at war. It makes sense he’ll die at war too. He’s ready to throw open his arms and embrace the abyss, laughing in delirium, Is that all you’ve got? Well come on then!

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my character is:

HOW IS YOUR CHARACTER LYING TO THEMSELVES (AND HOW IS THIS SHOWN EXTERNALLY)?

Everything is fine. Everything is, of course, not fine, and is in fact irreparably fucked. But the alternative to Sirius’ externally calm demeanour is Sirius totally losing his bottle, and no one can have that, mainly because it would be the least useful thing he could do for the cause. Sirius is used to being someone people admire – there was no shortage of that in school, and even in the early period of the war: someone catching his eye hopefully, waiting for his go ahead; the mere recollection warms him with a rare, near-forgotten sense of purpose – but it’s quite another to have the final say in something. Sirius doubts himself so much. He’s not exactly a rational thinker. His vengeance is cold and cruel, that is certain, but even that type of behaviour is inherently emotional. Sirius revels in disorder: he enjoys feeling unmoored, likes not knowing. He’s not like Moony or Peter, who needed some semblance of routine to feel comfortable. Sirius quite likes feeling out of his depth; discomfort demands action. But he’s not good at communicating that, and he struggles with giving solace to someone who very badly needs to know that things are under control. Sirius hasn’t quite stooped to going, “There, there,” and patting someone awkwardly on the shoulder, but it’s close to it. He’s the first to loudly suggest a drink at some muggle pub after a disastrous mission, and he’s the last to leave, still nursing his beer long after everyone else has straggled home. Sirius isn’t eloquent like James; he isn’t calm like Moony. Hell, he doesn’t even have Wormtail’s pragmatism (before he betrayed them all, the absolute fucking bastard). Sirius is waiting for someone to catch him out. He’s not built to be a leader. The only thing he’s good for is a shag and a fun time. Right? He’s not… he’s not what they think he is. He’s useless. He’s a joke. It’s a joke. But it’s a fine joke. Ergo: everything is fine. It has to be. Otherwise he’ll drag everyone else into the flames with him, and if there’s anything Sirius is truly frightened of, it’s someone else recognizing just how deep the streak of darkness within him runs.

YOUR CHARACTER’S JOB (WHAT DO THEY DO AND HOW DO THEY FEEL ABOUT IT?)

Sirius is dedicated to the Ashen Phoenix. Even when the Order of the Phoenix still existed, when it was little more than a ragged group of idealistic Hogwarts graduates and wayward aurors, when Dumbledore’s vague effluence alternately inspired or infuriated them, back when the war seemed – well, not winnable, but certainly surmountable – even then, Sirius was too much. Too brash, too rough, too much of a muchness that made people like old Mad Eye growl under his breath about upstart sprogs. There was something to be admired in Sirius’ explosive determination, even as his reckless behaviour and breathless duels with Death Eaters was more exasperating than useful. “What?” he’d retort defensively, to a room of tired Order members. “They were asking for it.”

Sirius had always been too much. When everything – when James – when it all went to utter shite, it’s probably no wonder that Sirius lost whatever loose grip on sanity he’d ever had, and tossed it all in to band up with Mary and Lily. Lily, whom he could barely stand on a good day, who suddenly became one of the most important people standing stalwart against the uncertain scaffolding containing his so-called life. Was it really that surprising? Sirius has always privately regarded his grip on reality to be tenuous at best. Combine that with a deep, unwavering streak of hatred for blood purists, and you’ve got a terrible combination. Successful, sure; but dangerous. He can’t afford to be the rambunctious “upstart” that once semi-terrorized the Order of the Phoenix, nor can he sit about on his laurels, skulking in espionage or plotting elaborate shadowy schemes. Sirius’ patience runs thin at the best of times. No, instead he’s squashed himself into a rather uncomfortable box between “probably could be classified as a war crime” and “slightly morally questionable but still alright enough to make Evans begrudgingly admit that was a good idea”. It’s not a comfortable fit, and Sirius still isn’t sure how he ended up growing up so bloody fast, but he’ll do anything to turn back the tide of the darkness that now laps menacingly against their throats.

Aside from that, he spends quite a lot of time inadvertently posing as a muggle homeless person. Or a big shaggy dog. In comparison to being a magical fugitive, it’s almost like going on holiday.

ADDRESS THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WHAT YOUR CHARACTER IS CURRENTLY DOING AND WHAT THEY WOULD PREFER TO DO.

Sirius does not like responsibility. It smacks of adulthood, and Sirius never thought he’d live to see that, let alone become a ruddy pillar of virtue. It’s not that he intensely dislikes fussing over details for the Phoenixes, but it does not come naturally to him – he’s no James, put it that way (James, who was forever buzzing around them all in a manner simultaneously carefree and watchful, who’d jokingly suggest you get a jumper otherwise you’d get a cold, you bellend, so just go grab one, oh, and would you get him a chocolate frog on the way, thanks). Sirius actually doesn’t like people looking up to him. What does he know? He’s just some irresponsible dog who’d much, much rather zip away on his motorbike to blast You-Know-Who’s bits off, and sod the consequences. If he didn’t have Mary and Lily keeping him in check, Merlin knew where he’d be. Probably sharing a cell with Dumbledore. Knitting scarves and gossiping. Some lark like that. Instead he’s relegated to asking mundane questions like, “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” and, “Wait, try this healing charm.” Sirius listens to his own blather and wants to be sick. He feels the words can no one see I don’t know what I’m doing! burning every inch of him, pounding against the underside of his skin, flaring across his pained expression. “I want James back,” he said (thoughtlessly) to Lily once; and she’d shot him a look and said, “We all do.” You don’t get it, Sirius thought. I want him back because I need him. I can’t do this on my own. I need him.

Sirius does not want to turn back the clock. Despite his irreverent mindset, Sirius isn’t a fantasist. He’s emotionally charged and often irrational, but he doesn’t indulge in make-believe. There is no way things are going back to normal. There’s not even a fragment of what they left behind: those few months after school ended and before the war began, when London was besieged by an oppressive summer humidity, and the Marauders tumbled in and out of parties, drinking and laughing, carefree and stupid; the sanctity of Hogwarts, and how innocent they’d been; even old Regulus, with his pinched, shrewd expression, but the way his eyes would loosen and warm whenever Sirius ruffled his hair and affectionately called him a tosspot. Sirius cherishes these slivers of the past, counting them out like his last coins, weighing their treasure in the palm of his hand. The memories he makes now are bleak. Undernourished effigies of a world devolved. Sirius might feel beset with fear about the future, but he is still… adaptable. He was at sixteen, when he left home on a wing and a prayer, and he is now, at twenty one. No more clever, and a great deal more out of control, but able to adapt, change, mold, mend. Sirius recognizes the strange surrounding landscape and has vowed, if silently, to learn its routes, to memorize its violent topography. Survival. That was what his parents had always taught him, right? That pure blood dominates. The Marauders taught him that too, albeit in compassionate terms of friendship and trust, things Sirius had to re-learn at eleven and still is, in a way. The Order drilled him in guerrilla warfare. Dumbledore’s capture stripped him of complacency. And James… Well, survival demands vigilance. Survival turned him into something else: someone sharper, more serious, blackened around the edges. Sirius doesn’t want to turn back the clock because that would mean leaving this new version of himself behind. And like it or not, this is the only version of Sirius sodding Black that could ever make it out the other end. So, tits up to you, Voldy. This bitch ain’t going nowhere.

OOC QUESTIONS

WRITING SAMPLE:

[ REDACTED ]

EXPLORATION:

A LONG-AWAITED REUNION — One of the major subplots for this group is, of course, the return or recapture of James. From Sirius’ perspective, I think James returning to his life would signal a number of critical things – it might even be a turning point in his characterization. I see Sirius at the moment as barely hanging on. Stress exacerbates his pre-existing feelings of insufficiency and vulnerability, so he is at a stage as a member of Ashen Phoenix where he’s strung out and exhausted, burning the midnight oil, hollow-eyed and discomfortingly stoic. The loss of James was an enormously heavy blow, and that’s no overstatement. If James was somehow returned, I think that would fill Sirius’ sails with the winds of renewal and hope. He and James were a double act; they were shadows of each other. Without him, Sirius feels like a fraud.

PLAYING NICE — Sirius has never been good at pretending. His emotions run close to the surface, flashing in his quicksilver eyes at the slightest provocation. It never used to take much for him to plunge from a euphoric high to a turbulent anger, his moodiness as tempestuous as a tide. But that’s not how you lead people. You can’t expect people to see past your thunderstorm behaviour to the reality of the situation: that Sirius has always felt a split second away from free-fall. Most people aren’t like James, or Moony, or even bloody Wormtail – they can’t see that it’s all an act; that Sirius’ vulnerabilities run swift and deep, and his bravado is just a reliable way to deflect unwanted probing. Since Mouldy Voldy started swinging his shriveled old cock around, Sirius has had an abrupt about-face. It’s never easy, and he often forgets that he’s supposed to be playing nice. In fact, one could make the argument that he hasn’t changed much at all: he’s still a moody bastard. But sometimes he takes a deep breath instead of bursting in rage; sometimes he clenches his fists instead of flying for his wand. I would like to explore Sirius working hard to keep a lid on his temper, particularly given the success of Ashen Phoenix relies, at least in part, on him keeping it together for a little while longer.

THE IMMORTALITY OF REGULUS ARCTURUS BLACK — Reuniting Sirius and Regulus is a massively important subplot for me, and I think it could have powerful consequences in this group. I’m not sure how Sirius will take Regulus’ vampirism – it’ll certainly be interesting to find out. In another context I could see him falling about in horrified laughter, because now Regulus will get to hang around with Walburga forever. But I wonder now if their prolonged absence from each other will stir within Sirius a long-buried sense of responsibility. He’ll probably start worrying about Regulus, terrified that the new Dark Ministry will hunt his brother down and exterminate him. He might even (gasp!) become horribly over-protective, hating himself all the while for needling Regulus about “feeding” and all that dosh (”Shut up!” Sirius snaps as Regulus raises a single eyebrow. “It’s not like there’s a manual about becoming a bleeding vampire, is there?” A pause. “No pun intended.”) No doubt there’s a degree of irony in an ex-Death Eater suddenly becoming the prey of his old buddies, but Sirius isn’t a masochist. As stupid as Regulus has behaved, they’re still brothers. Even before the war turned for the worst, Sirius still missed him. Yearned for him to be back. Regulus was the biggest idiot in Britain, but he was Sirius’ idiot, and if Sirius had heard more than a whisper about his brother he would have probably done something very stupid to rush to his side. Call Sirius a lot of things, but being disloyal could never be one of them.

EXTRAS:

I have created a mockblog for this group, which is the account I am submitting from. You can find it here. I have also written some general headcanons, which you can find below!

Sirius started getting muggle tattoos during the war. The first war, that is, back when they all thought it’d be over by Christmas. He’s got about seventeen, possibly a few more, all in black ink, most of them done in poky muggle tattoo parlours buried in the heart of London, but a couple of them are magical: the dragon across his left shoulder blade, for example, which sneezes fire when you tickle it just right. It’s an eclectic collection that illustrate Sirius’ natural whimsy: a series of ancient runes that Moony told him meant something cool (although Sirius has since suspected Moony was an absolute tosser, and the runes in fact spell “totally gullible gobshite”); an elaborate diagram of the planets in the middle of his back; a broom that zips around his arm (James’ fault, that one); an anatomically dubious pin-up girl (Sirius wanted a guy, but the tattoo artist looked frightening, and Sirius wasn’t in the mood to go toe-to-toe about his sexual preferences); and, for reasons best left alone, ancient constellations scattered most of his chest. There are some other tattoos squashed in here and there – a Gryffindor lion, a protection symbol that Moony literally laughed aloud at when Sirius showed it off – that are mainly impulse decisions. Sirius loves them all. The ink is so black against his brown skin, the magical designs flickering in the corner of his eye, and it all gives the illusion of him appearing alive, ever in motion, an intricate living illustration.

Sirius still owns his motorbike, although it’s too dangerous to ride it. Some arsehole (Bellatrix, probably) ratted him out, and now everyone and their mother is on the hunt for a sleek black motorbike. He isn’t stupid enough to ride it, no matter how burning the urge, although sometimes he does go out to Clapham, where he’d parked it in a muggle garage, just to linger over it for a few stolen moments. One day he’ll blaze it right over London, preferably in celebration of Balding Voldy’s bloody demise. One day. He will.

Sirius is gay. The revelation came unobtrusively. He’d always known there was… something awry. You’d have to be blind, deaf, and dumb not to be surrounded by all of those posh pureblood birds growing up and feel nothing more than resignation at their proximity (their brothers were far more intriguing). Sirius played along for a bit at school, going out with a few girls, making out with McKinnon at more than a few parties. It was all serviceable, except for the fact it was tremendously boring, and if there was anything Sirius resented, it was feeling confined. He came out (very loudly) in his sixth year (in the middle of the Great Hall; it was quite the gossip for a week or so), and has since been perfectly content with advertising his sexuality at the nearest opportunity. He’s no blushing violet, put it that way. While Wizarding society is more or less accepting of sexuality (his parents notwithstanding: Sirius was still expected to marry and produce an heir; and that thought, of dragging some brat into the world through duty alone, turned his stomach), the fragmentation in muggle society is something else. Sirius is still too enthusiastic about muggle life to ever really fit in – he’s been asked innumerable times if he’s a tourist, which absolutely delights him – but the gay and lesbian rights movements in recent years has captured his attention. He’s kept up with the news about protests, and once apparated into an alley adjacent to a march for queer liberation. We’re here, the muggles chanted, we’re queer! We won’t disappear! The feeling was incredible. Wixen didn’t have anything like this – it was all just taken for granted. But the fight of the muggles. Their determination; their spirit. Their strength in demanding what was theirs. It left him breathless, and for the first time in his life, proud.

Sirius spends a lot of time as Padfoot these days. It’s just easier. He’s a dab hand at disguise charms – had to be, when the war started to turn truly dark and a Black blood traitor head on a spit was a coveted prize – but outside of a handful of people, Sirius’ animagus form is a secret. Lily knows, of course, as does Macdonald, but they have to. Slinking around London as a dog makes for surreptitious travel, even if he’s taken on some bad habits as a human. Fleas genuinely are the worst, alright? He can’t help scratching himself fiercely at the slightest itch.

The way Sirius dresses now is a diluted version of the summer of 1979. Back then, London was a heaving cesspool of cramped, humid clubs, gigs outfitted in leather and gelled spikes, tight chokers, and a casual, careless androgyny that made Sirius’ heart beat fast. Back then he didn’t give a toss. Now, of course, he’s no longer a naive graduate, and the world has grown dim. He usually wears a leather jacket over some band t-shirt, a pair of black ripped jeans, Doc Martens. That’s toned down, for him. While a lot of the jewellery has gone, Sirius’ fingers are still bejewelled with rows of heavy silver rings, and a dragon tooth earring swings from his left ear. His eyes, once glittering with flirtatious humour, are ringed dark with wariness; and his cutting bone structure has sharpened with one too many missed meals. Sirius is probably physically bulkier than he was at school, simply because sleeping rough and hauling arse after a dozen Death Eaters tends to fill you out, but his body is still lean, with an echo of that languid grace that whispered of pureblood ballrooms and charity galas. Sirius’ hair has grown long, and he usually ties it sloppily away from his face, but he stays clean shaven… most of the time. Lily once said he looked like a Lennon on a bad trip after Sirius reappeared after a rendezvous in Dublin for four weeks. He’s still trying to figure out if that was an insult.

#marauders rp #skeleton rp #lsrpg #marauders era rp #sirius black #quartusbellumaccept

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professordorian-blog · 6 years

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Snape, Dumbledore, and Judgement. [Meta]

I’m sure this has been said by greater literary analysts than myself, but I deeply enjoy the inverse parallel of Snape and Dumbledore’s progressions in Harry’s regard.

Part of what draws us to these books is the journey through Harry’s maturing perspective. The early books sparkle with the naive gossamer of childhood, which slowly melts away as Harry ages. But this is not a story of the descent into cynicism. Rather, it’s about the bittersweet nuance of reality. Snape and Dumbledore are the equal and inverse literary tools that illustrate this concept.

Take Dumbledore: He begins the series as a saintly, fatherly archetype who can do no wrong in Harry’s eyes. He seems to embody everything that is good and selfless, and child-Harry attaches his loyalty to the man so completely that he’s able to summon Fawkes.

As the books progress, Harry finds his early assumptions challenged. He finds out that Dumbledore has left a trail of mistakes in his life. That his good intentions were sometimes executed with morally questionable methods, or were tainted by ulterior motives. Overall, Harry’s image of Dumbledore emerges as something complex. He sees that Dumbledore tried to do good in the world, but sometimes went about it in the wrong way; that he gave Harry a foundation of care and support, but failed him emotionally in other ways; that Dumbledore served the political ideals Harry fights for, but sometimes put ideology above people.

Then take Snape: He begins the series as a veritable Vaudeville villain in Harry’s eyes. All he needs to go with his bat-like wardrobe and sallow sneer is a well-greased mustache to twirl. Harry has hardly spent ten minutes in the same room as the man before Snape becomes Suspect #1 in his Scooby Gang shenanigans.

This viewpoint, too, is challenged later on. Harry discovers that once upon a time, Snape was the victim and his father the villain. Although Snape became the Death Eater that Harry always condemned him to be, Harry leans that Snape also experienced deep remorse and shifted his path to one of atonement. His image of Snape becomes one of a tortured man who struggled against his own mistakes. He sees that Snape took his pain out on others interpersonally, but also that Snape was putting his very life on the line for the same people he tormented. That Snape's apparent selflessness is complicated, though not invalidated, by obsession. That Snape lives the life of someone who cannot escape the fact that he has done unforgivable things, which both motivates him to be bravely self-sacrificial and degrades his empathy.

What both these evolutions in viewpoint have in common is that they arrive in the middle. Snape starts in the black, Dumbledore starts in the white, and they both arrive in the gray.

This is true maturation: a departure from the mindset where people are easily boxed into extremes. A departure from the illusion that there is such a thing as a "good person." Although neither mentor can live up to the "white" end of the spectrum, Harry concludes that he admires them both in the end, because he sees that their shades of gray are as good as it gets. They were imperfect actors, struggling to make a difference in a hostile, tricky world.

This ultimate maturation and revelation is embodied in the fact that Harry names his son Albus Severus Potter. This gesture shows that Harry has absorbed the lesson in its completeness: that the people we judge to be good are often flawed, and that the people we judge to be evil are often more sympathetic than we realize. That it is the bravery of people who try to do good despite their own demons that is worthy of our admiration. Not the flawless execution of the morally perfect, because those people do not exist.

I would add that this authorly appeal to the importance of nuance is the precise reason why Snape and Dumbledore are such uniquely divisive characters in the fandom. Strict criterion for good or evil, where a person is only allowed to occupy one definition or the other, is as old as time; it was not invented by this generation of progressive youths any more than it was by the generation of progressive youths before them. Nor before them. Nor them.

To a mind that can only oscillate between outright condemnation and idolizing admiration, Snape and Dumbledore would both fall firmly in the "black" category. Any attempt to discuss the complexity of their actions or motivations would seem a defense of their most unforgivable qualities and mistakes. To such a mind, the lesson of the Harry Potter books is not one of moderating one's reflex to judge, but one of disillusionment and cynicism. To such a mind, Harry's instinct to vilify was correct, and his instinct to admire was a regrettable naivety that had to be shattered.

I don't want to live in such a mind. I imagine it is a rather bleak place to be.

The last thing I will say is that Harry donned a note of compassion when discussing both Snape and Dumbledore, in the end. The quality of compassion is to human flaws as bravery is to fear. It is not an emotion to lock away behind a maze of superhuman criteria, but rather an emotion that exists to meet those who don't live up to our conceptions of what a perfect recipient "should" be. The ability to give it in spite of our own disappointment is what makes it compassion.

I hope more people in the fandom will absorb the underlying message of this narrative as they grow, mature, and evolve.

#Harry Potter #Albus Dumbledore #Severus Snape #Dumbledore #Snape #meta

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hotelconcierge · 6 years

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YOUNG ADULT FICTIONS

Slate Star Codex, “Some groups of people who may not 100% deserve our eternal scorn,” defending Harry Potter political analogies:

Comparing politics to your favorite legends is as old as politics and legends. Herodotus used an extended metaphor between the Persian invasions of his own time and the Trojan War. When King Edward IV took the English throne in 1461, all anybody could talk about was how it reminded them of King Arthur. John Dryden’s famous poem Absalom and Achitophel is a bizarrely complicated analogy of 17th-century English politics to an obscure Biblical story. Throughout American history people have compared King George to Pharaoh, Benedict Arnold to Judas, Abraham Lincoln to Moses, et cetera.

Well, how many people know who Achitophel is these days? Even Achilles is kind of pushing it. So we stick to what we know – and more important, what we expect everyone else will know too. And so we get Harry Potter.

“But a children’s book?” Look, guys, fantasy is what the masses actually like. They liked it in Classical Greece, where they had stories like Bellerophon riding a flying horse and fighting the Chimera. They liked it in medieval Britain, where they would talk about the Knights of the Round Table slaying dragons as they searched for the Holy Grail. The cultural norm where only kids are allowed to read fantasy guilt-free and everybody else has to read James Joyce is a weird blip in the literary record which is already being corrected. Besides, James Joyce makes for a much less interesting source of political metaphors (“The 2016 election was a lot like Finnegan’s Wake: I have no idea what just happened”)

Hoo boy did he walk into that one.

Plebeians have been plebeian forever, granted, although the age of SSC’s examples (Medieval Britain?) is telling: contra the above, the distinction between highbrow and lowbrow literature exists whenever the majority of the population is literate.

But regardless, SSC (for the record, mostly Good) is being fooled by branding. No one compares the “fantasy” elements of Harry Potter to the U.S. political system. The fantasy elements are irrelevant, which is why Hamilton works just as well. Wannabe pundits compare the characters. And it is the characters, their psyches, the ambiguity that persists after two millennia of debate, that has made The Iliad stand the test of time. As clever as Artemis Fowl may be, it’s naive to pretend there’s no difference.

What makes it obvious that Deadpool (rating: R) is a kid’s movie while 2001: A Space Odyssey (rating: G) is not? Turn on the TV and flip through a few kids shows—nothing educational, I’m talking epilepsy triggers. After a couple, you’ll notice a unifying theme: everything is turned up to the max. All the characters are live/laugh/loving, fighting, crying; the soundtrack goes major or minor for every ephemeral mood. The characters have saucer eyes and exaggerated movements, The Emoji Movie being the logical conclusion of the genre, every motivation gets a musical number, these shows are MAXIMALLY EXPRESSIVE, leaving no doubt as to what emotion you are supposed to feel by the microsecond.

Please hear that I mean no disrespect when I say that this is why people with autism like Disney.

Q: Why did it feel good to watch [Disney movies] over and over again, that you kept wanting to? Watch them over and over again? How did that feel to you?

A: It felt comforting.

Q: Comforting.

A: It felt comforting.

Q: Why?

A: Because it would help me with...reducing my autism. (Radiolab)

Nothing wrong with that. Partisan bullshit aside, Harry Potter is great. But it’s important to recognize the limitations. Young adult fiction can have complex characters, worldbuilding, and rules of magic/ethics/rationality as long as the complexity is spelled out for you. “Snape was mean to Harry...but [flashback] that’s because, deep down, he was still in love with Lily...” What such stories will never ask you to do is intuit that Snape had tribulations, they assume that you have no instinct for cognitive empathy, which you don’t, which is why your politics are vapid.

(When fiction deprives you of access to any character’s mind or explanation of events, you feel the opposite of comfort: horror. Saw is not a scary film because it is nothing but explanations; a Kafka story feels “off” even before shit goes down because the world and the characters refuse to show their work.)

Young adult fiction is a stepping stone, good if it helps you get better at understanding people without a Wes Anderson narrator whispering in your ear. Unfortunately, the ability to parrot accepted opinions is often taken for the ability to derive judgments of one’s own. I’m thinking of a homestuck 13 year old who is constantly told that he/she is “so mature” for getting straight A’s and being well-spoken with the dinner guests and not ditching class to smoke brick weed with Devin. Whether or not those behaviors are good, the kid isn’t mature, he or she is well-trained, and if you keep claiming maturity then you are going to stunt development. Sorry: not having an adolescent rebellion means you didn’t complete adolescence. The result is neotenous adults who are not overly sensitive—as conservative media would claim—but rather overly dependent on external rules. Cards Against Humanity is so funny, right? You get to say bad words, but it’s only a game.

“Help, I was a gifted kid and now I’m a normal adult!” Different adjective, same problem. Once Hal Incandenza is typecast as “gifted,” everyone will find it convenient to grade him (praise/no praise) on whether he is living up to his label. How do you look gifted? You can solve P vs. NP......or you can read the dictionary. I’ll bet that every ex-gifted kid who now uses “adulting” as a verb is a fan of those faux-pretentious memes, “mfw she confuses epistemics and ontology,” fitting Wikipedia philosophy into preformed joke structures, lowbrow expressions of highbrow concepts, a few college words to suggest immeasurable depths. You do what you know: exert the minimum necessary effort to convince other people of your intelligence. But you can’t convince yourself.

The consequences are predictable. Imposter syndrome. Scrupulosity. Sexual fetishes suffixed with -play. Gushing compassion ruined by the inability to picture how one appears to the outside world. Neediness. Ill-fitting jeans. Trouble with romance, and not because they don’t know how—deep down they do—but because they cling to a rulebook (“milady”) instead of trusting instinct. They were never allowed to have instincts. For that matter they’ve never really wanted, never felt a desire that wasn’t assigned, which is why: open relationships, switched majors, medicated anxiety, and ambivalence, ambivalence, ambivalence.

I know how heavy lies the burden of wasted potential. So please take this in the gentlest possible way: you were never that great. Greatness is a meaningless thing to apply to a kid, or a college student, or any idea that hasn’t forced it’s way onto paper. The only path is forward. “It’s our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” I think that’s Dumbledore, take it or leave it—there’s a time and a place for young adult fiction.

Coming soon:

THE FALSE POSITIVES

THE FALSE NEGATIVES

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brandxspandex · 7 years

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now do transformers :D

I'm assuming this is a follow up to the shipping question. Well alright lets do this.

My top five Transformers ships:

1. Megatron/Starscream - It’s dark as all fuck but in the most fascinating way possible. So many volatile and contradictory emotions and twisted motivations can be read into their bizarre interactions and it’s all so...horrifyingly juicy. It’s at the top because it’s a ship between my favourite character and second favourite character, it was the first relationship in the franchise that really piqued my interest, and it’s just so damn complex and intense. That being said, it’s not the ship I look to when I want something actually romantic and loving, because although I think it involves a lot of ambivalent emotions, the way I see it the negative elements of the relationship, like the fear and hate, ultimately dominate it.

2. Starscream/Bumblebee - One the major things that appeals to me when it comes to shipping is really deep familiarity and emotional intimacy, as in characters who really truly know each other’s most intimate selves. The situation Starscream and Bumblebee have somehow found themselves in hits that button so hard for me. I also love it when characters start off hating each other but gradually grow more and more fond as they get to know each other, and again this ship is perfect for that. Plus there’s the parallels between them where they were each struggling to lead their respective factions in the shadows of their absent leaders, which gives them grounds to relate to each other now. It’s just so easy to read so much affection into their more recent interactions and it makes me melt.

3. Starscream/Windblade - I love how they’ve been set up as foils who have been forced to work together and in doing so have prompted each other to grow as people and reveal things they have in common. There’s so much potential for fascinating relationship and character growth there, some of which we’ve already seen realised. I hope their relationship continues to grow increasingly intense and interesting, serving their character development in turn.

4. Optimus Prime/Megatron - This relationship is at the core of a 4 million year civil war so it would be pretty hard for it to be uninteresting. Their interactions in Chaos Theory were juicy as all hell and just so...blatantly canon. Honestly it’s amazing how canon they got away with making this in the comics. I mean I could tell myself I’ve been in fandom for too long and my perspective is skewed, but last time I thought that I was reading the Dumbledore/Grindelwald scenes in Deathly Hallows.

5. Thundercracker/Marissa Faireborn - It’s just so fricking funny and cute. Marissa is a great straight man for Thundercracker to bounce his weirdness off and the fact that Marissa actually feels some affection for Thundercracker softens up her character and makes her more deeply likeable for me. Also a human and a giant alien space plane is just an intrinsically hilarious coupling.

#MEGATRON #Starscream #Bumblebee #Windblade #OPTIMUS PRIME #Thundercracker #Marissa Faireborn #Transformers #Maccadam #Transformers IDW #asks #meme #Anonymous

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darkwinterchild · 7 years

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Tommy Merlyn - Slytherin

Albus Dumbledore: You happen to have many qualities Salazar Slytherin prized in his hand-picked students. His own very rare gift, Parseltongue... resourcefulness... determination... a certain disregard for rules.

So from what I’ve seen, Tommy Merlyn is usually sorted in Hufflepuff. I respectfully disagree? I think he’s a Slytherin, just like his best buddy Oliver, and Hufflepuff is actually the house that fits him the least (the puppy eyes are made to fool you!). Tommy is a troublemaker, he is resourceful and determined, he puts a lot of value on family and brotherhood but not on loyalty in general, and he definitely has a lot of potential for greatness. Ergo Slytherin.

Long post under the cut! Consider yourself warned.

I’m just going to go over the major Slytherin traits and values and how they relate to Tommy. Talk about the other houses is at the end.

“A certain disregard for rules”

Tommy: I wish we had just met, and that all this was just beginning and there wasn't so much of me I wish you'd forget.

- 1x07

Both Oliver and Tommy were rebellious playboys: it’s almost their entire backstory. It seems to have been even more the case with Tommy if possible - at least we hear about him getting Ollie in trouble more than the reverse (“Don’t let him get you into too much trouble” from 1x01, or “Tommy had me out a little bit later than maybe I should have been, and I'm wiped” from the 2x20 flashbacks, or how he got Oliver to go with him to Max Fuller’s club in 1x03, or even that story in 5x09 about how Oliver once tried to land a helicopter on the grounds of the US Open because Tommy wanted to impress some girl named Maria Sharapova). An early Arrow promo even describes Oliver hanging with Tommy as “running with the bad crowd”.

If that’s true, it could be because of their different relationships with their parents. Ollie was a bad boy, but he was very close to his mother and hero-worshiped his father. So he did bad things, but that’s because they let him (as Oliver himself said). He probably never intentionally disrespected them or did things that he knew would really upset them. It was different with Tommy. His relationship with his dad was disastrous, and I think this meant he could get even more out of control than Ollie in his own way. Tommy’s parties were apparently legendary (“I never left one of Tommy's parties with my memory intact.”) and prompt to get broken up by the cops. He filled his dad’s pool with beer (roughly a thousand kegs or so), majorly pissed him off, and didn’t care. Heck, even years later as a 24 year-old adult, he stole Malcolm’s private jet to fly to Hong Kong without warning or permission, and when he called him Tommy literally told his father to fuck off (“No, I didn't tell you I was taking the jet because I knew you would freak out like this” and “Look, why don't you just go back to banging your Pilates instructor, ok?”). I do think it’s kind of telling of his mindset.

Point: insubordination toward authority and a love for mischief are Slytherin qualities and Tommy Merlyn certainly qualifies.

Brotherhood

Unlike Gryffs and Claws, Slyths are team players. It’s a group-oriented house, where “you’ll make your real friends.” They stick together and protect one another. Tommy is all about brotherhood and family. We know that he’d sometimes look after Thea in his best friend’s stead after the Gambit sank, that he posed an alert on Oliver’s e-mail account just in case, and went looking for him in Hong Kong when it went off. We know he had a really strong friendship code:

Tommy: No, man, you were with Laurel. And whether you were dead, or as it turns out, alive on a deserted island, you are my friend. And me being with Laurel violated that friendship in about 50 different ways.

-1x03

This code included keeping your friends’ secrets no matter what. As early as the pilot, we saw that he was ready to lie to the police to support his best friend’s story without even being asked beforehand. This is reinforced after 1x16: Tommy chose to keep Oliver’s secret against his own morals. No matter what he thought of him, he didn’t give him up to the police, he didn’t ask Oliver to stop, he didn’t even tell Laurel when it started to put some strain on their relationship. When Detective Lance almost discovered the lair in 1x19, he actively helped him escape the authorities, by lying to an officer of law and his girlfriend’s father, making himself his accomplice. He didn’t have to: he saw the Hood as a murderer, wanted nothing to do with his crusade, and Oliver never even asked for his help. But Tommy protected him anyway. Helping a friend when you think what he is doing is wrong is a very Slytherin thing to do. In general, they’re the ones who’d help you cheat at an exam or bury the bodies, whereas Hufflepuffs’ strong beliefs in justice and fairness would conflict with their sense of loyalty.

Speaking of loyalty, another difference between Slyths and Puffs is that Slyths are loyal to their people, but not necessarily very dependable in general. Just like Tommy used to be:

Tommy: Lying, keeping secrets about who she’s spending time with… Does that remind you of anybody we know? Oliver: Me, in every relationship that I’ve been in. Tommy: Me too. Except this one.

-1x13

Tommy was that guy who’d do anything for the people he loved, but prior to his character development, he wasn’t the most trustworthy person out there.

It’s also interesting to note that despite being a very extroverted person who spent a lot of time outside with other people, he didn’t seem to have any close friends apart from Oliver and Laurel (by season 1 anyway, he seemed a bit lonely on that front). I think he was rather detached from all the people he spent time with - he was their host, their entertainer, even their lover for the ladies. But he couldn’t relate to them like he and Ollie could relate to each other. Here again, this way of living with people - a few very close friends and a giant network of contacts - is very slytherinish.

Ambition and determination

Tommy doesn’t seem very ambitious at first glance, but one has to consider the fact that he’s been drowning in money since birth. For all his life, he could get everything he wanted whenever he wanted (even girls, thanks to his good looks). We know he and Oliver used to talk about going into business together since forever (like opening a ski-lodge), but he never felt the push to go on and make these ideas a reality. He was already Prince of Starling, why bother? In a way, he never needed to be ambitious until his father cut him off.

Oliver: Why didn't you say anything? Tommy: Embarrassment, shame, jealousy. Probably a few other emotions I'm not used to feeling.

-1x08

Tommy never felt threatened before. But after Malcolm froze his funds, it became another story. There was Laurel, whom he was trying to impress, Oliver, his best friend for whom she still had deep and complicated feelings, and then there was him, now forced to work for said best friend. I doubt Tommy left the club and went to work for his father only because Oliver refused to see him for the man he’d become. There was probably a lot of complex reasons behind that choice, and one of them was definitely that he was trying to reclaim his place in the universe as one of the elite, on equal if not superior footing to Oliver Queen (not just in terms of money, but also in terms of power and position - executive at Merlyn Global Group versus manager of a small nightclub in the Glades). He was born with power and prestige, and jumped back into that world without hesitation. But this isn’t even the primary reason I think Tommy was more ambitious than he let on:

Tommy: I'm trying to change. Not sure into what yet but I don't wanna be what I was anymore.

-1x08

This strong desire to be more than what he was, as soon as he realized that it was no longer enough and that there was more, to become someone worthy of Laurel’s love, that makes him pretty ambitious. He started the show a useless playboy and man-child, became a great boyfriend, a successful businessman, and ended the season as a hero.

And I think this is important about Tommy: once he’d find a goal, something for which he was really motivated, then he was driven to the hilt and did whatever he could to succeed. The club, Laurel (winning her heart, becoming a person she’d want to be with, building something with her), even his job at Merlyn Global. It didn’t even have to be something huge that would demand a lot of effort, it could be just another goofy idea, like filling his parents’ pool with beer or playing strip kickball with models on a pro football stadium - Tommy had a tendency to go big with his projects. He was capable of following through an idea to the end even when it became difficult. So he proved he had plenty of determination, the kind Salazar Slytherin would have loved.

Leadership

Tommy was shown to be able to assume leadership positions with ease. Before the start of the show, he seemed to have been a leader in troublemaking around Starling - the guy who knew how to have fun, the guy who hosted the biggest parties, even the guy with the shady contacts (“Before I left, you played hard. You played with bad people who were into bad stuff!” - 1x19). During season 1, we saw him effortlessly falling into his role as nightclub manager - he immediately took charge of the construction process, made sure everyone was doing their job, and showed his willingness and ability to be an authoritative boss (1x10 and 1x11). We saw him do an excellent job at Verdant, and then we saw him comfortably assume a leadership role at Merlyn Global Group for the short period of time he was working there. Tommy was a natural leader, like his father.

Cunning and resourcefulness

We haven’t seen much in terms of cunning and ruthlessness from Tommy in the show per-se - which is why I think he wasn’t as perfect a Slytherin as other characters like Moira or Malcolm - but it was suggested that he was capable of that to some degree. Pre- character development, Tommy was a playboy, a charmer who cheated and kept secrets in every relationship he’d been in. He wasn’t shown as manipulative or anything, but as we’ve seen with Laurel, he knew how to win people over. He was also no stranger to deceit and evasion, and used them to achieve his ends whenever he felt it was necessary. E.g. when he had to keep Detective Lance from discovering the Arrow cave in 1x19. This episode also showcased how resourceful he could be: in very little time, he was able to clean up and hide all the evidence of the Hood’s activities in the basement without anybody realizing it. We also learned he had no problem using illegal solutions to his problems, like bribing a city inspector.

Concerning the other houses

Hufflepuff is in my opinion the house that suits him the least. Honesty and loyalty we’ve seen weren’t really Tommy’s forte. And he hated the idea of hard work. He was called lazy by several characters including himself. Before Malcolm decided to “jolt his son into adulthood” in some late parental awakening, it seems Tommy planned on keeping up his life of debauchery forever, living off daddy’s money (bless inheritance). People expected Oliver to eventually get his act together and take his place in his father’s company, but everyone seemed to think Tommy would always be Tommy. In general, he also didn’t really seem to care all that much about ideals of justice and fairness. As the son of the most powerful billionaire in Starling City, he was extremely privileged, knew it, and loved it (“Isn't that place ridiculously expensive?” “Everywhere worth going is.” -1x08). He was raised in an upper-class environment with rich people values and the understanding that the rules do not apply to him the way they do other people. The fact that Malcolm regularly had to bail him out is one of the three things that came to mind when he described his distant relationship with his father. Tommy actually literally used to laugh in the face of justice. He loved whenever he and/or Oliver would break the law and get away with it (“I just picked up a new sports car. I'm thinking, we can open her up, pick up a few speeding tickets…” -1x06). So yeah, I don’t think Hufflepuff fits.

Gryffindor is not a bad house for him, but not a good one either. Bravery, boldness, recklessness… Tommy didn’t seem to have ever been particularly action-oriented (Oliver was the one doing the crazy taxi or helicopter stealing stuff). He was certainly capable of immense bravery (the way he stood up to the Hood in 1x16, the way he protected Taylor in 1x20, or his final sacrifice in 1x23), but he wasn’t particularly into grand showings of strength, daring or heroism à la Gryffindor. Among the main characters, he was one of the less enthusiastic (utterly unimpressed) about the Hood’s exploits (he saw him as a crazy murderer - see 1x13, 1x17 or 1x19). In fact it’s interesting to compare his opinion to Laurel’s, a true Gryffindor.

Ravenclaw I think would actually be a good sorting for him. Tommy was clever (the way he was quickly able to learn the ropes of club management). The show seemed to hint at a rather developed pop-culture geeky side (just small stuff like his talking about Lost, he read movie reviews, his wanting to name his dog “Arthur” as a kid because he was a “Merlyn”, etc.). He was charming, talkative and witty, even just a little bit eccentric in the way he could tell shameless jokes and be totally inappropriate. He was also very creative - in deeds (I mean, the beer-pool and strip-kickball game with models were certainly original ideas) and in speech (he doesn’t just say “I love you”, he says “I have finally figured out why poets have been in business for the last few thousand years”). So, if he wasn’t a Slytherin, I could see him making a pretty good Ravenclaw.

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istartedbelievinginitmyself · 7 years

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Why Harry is not a bad father in cursed child

So on the Harry Potter amino i had a quite “nasty” discussion (when you can actually call it that as for a discussion both persons actually have to use arguments, not just one person) with a very thin skinned person (when you spread around cc hate, be prepared that some cc fans may actually argue against you, especially when you don’t use any real arguments whatsover) about Harry in cursed child and cursed child in general. He/she made a blog about his/her arguments after i “rudely forced him” to actually give me some things to back up his /her opinion, but well it is actually amazing how you can make a full blog without giving any actual arguments and just keep repeating “Harry just wouldn’t do that” (you may remember my blog about his/her dealthy hallows argument) all the time without using any quotes or explanations.So i made a blog in respond. Well he/she told me that he/she doesn’t care about my opinion, but i wrote and published this anyway!(When i made effort to write it, why not post it on Tumblr as well?)So here we go! As i structured this based on his/her blog, this is the structure i came up with:

1) Why cursed child is canon

2) Why Harry isn’t out of character in cursed child

3) Why Harry is not a bad father

This will be quite long, so be prepared xD

1) Why cursed child is canon

I heard a lot of people saying that cc isn’t canon, because Rowling didn’t completely write it. It is true that she got help by John Tiffany and Jack Thorne and that she didn’t completely write it on her own. The reasons are clear: She is not a playwriter, she hasn’t done this before and she didn’t think she could pull off a play script on her own.And i agree, writing novels and movie scripts is very different from writing a play script as this medium works different in some ways.

But this doesn’t mean cc isn’t canon. The inventing process was a close cooperation between these three and Rowling had the last say about her characters.

QUOTE: „The collaborators she approved were Thorne and Tiffany. They emphasized that Rowling made sure they stayed true to HER VISION of the characters“

„It took about six months to really map the whole thing out. (…) Jo would say `This feels right, this doesn’t´ - Jack Thorne

„And we didn’t start writing the play as such-or Jack didn’t-until we agreed on what that story was. Jack produced an AMAZING script“ - J.K. Rowling

Do you really think she would agree on a play to be published, if she would disagree with the things that are in it?

Our queen herself stated that cc is 100% canon and when someone can define canon, then it’s her. She wouldn’t have published cc, if she wouldn’t see the story to continue like this and i trust her to know best how HER characters, she invented, would behave.

So yes cursed child is canon, if you like it or not. Of course you are free to dislike the new developement as much as you want, but just because it destroyed your personal headcanons, it’s not less canon. Creators don’t owe us anything, especially not our headcanons, and this is how she sees HER characters. We as a fandom can’t claim to know her characters better than she does and we shouldn’t, which leads me to my next point.

2) Why Harry wasn’t out of character in cc

First of all (a point i actually agree on) cursed child is not a novel. It’s not written in Harry’s perspective and we have an objective look at Harry’s character. And no it’s not Albus‘ perspective, a play unlike a novel isn’t written out of anyone’s perpective.We are no longer influenced by Harry’s subjective opinion, but see everything a little bit more objective, especially Harry’s character. I think due to the perspective used in the novels it’s harder for some people to see Harry’s flaws in the original series.

In cc Harry of course grew up and got older, but he still has a lot of his original character traits.

I think a big problem for a big part of the fandom is that they forgot book Harry, because they watched the movies too often. The movies showed a very different and more bland, perfect and boring version of him.

Here are some things movie Harry didn’t do or did different:

-books Harry had quite a temper and anger issues at times. In book 5 he totally destroyed Dumbledore’s office in a big anger burst and he loses control over himself, when he is under emotional stress (sounds familiar, right?)

-book Harry sucessfully uses crucio (yes an unforgivable torture curse) on a death eater and doesn’t even regret it

-book Harry didn’t hide Snape’s book in halfblood prince, because he thought it was dangerous or wrong to use it, he hid it so Snape wouldn’t find it and he could continue using it

-book Harry said pretty mean stuff to Lupin in Dealthy Hallows. When he is under a lot of emotional pressure, he tends to say things to loved ones, he regrets afterwards (sounds VERY familiar, does it?)

There is more, but i stop now. (and no this has nothing to do with the epilouge from dealthy hallows as this scene is in the books, the movies and cursed child). I love complex and flawed book Harry and they did a very poor job adapting his personality to the screen.

Harry is not a „perfect“ human in cc and he never was in the original series. No well written and realistic and relatable character is „perfect“. The headcanons some people create for Harry are simply unrealistic and don’t fit his flawed personality at all. I am happy Rowling decided to stay with her vision of the characters and didn’t give in to the unrealistic, glorified Harry headcanons.

This doesn’t mean Harry lost his amazing and great characteristics in cc!

He is still the adventurous and brave and caring Harry we know from the books. Although he is indeed an office/ministry worker now, he actually isn’t in his office a lot. Harry still hates paper work and he still loves to explore the danger personally instead of reading about it.

„HERMIONE: (…) – thought i’d check whether you’d kept your promise and were on top of your paperwork.

HARRY: Ah. Turns out i’m not.

(…)

HARRY: Great, let’s get out there. I’ll get the team together.

HERMIONE: Harry, i get it. Paperwork’s boring…“

He is still the brave, charming and adventurous Harry we know so well and love from the books and he wants to be right in the action. He is also still very caring about his loved ones, but i will get to that at my next point.

3) Why Harry isn’t a bad father

As i said Harry is not a perfect human being and he is not a perfect father, which doesn’t mean that he is a bad one!

In the play it gets clear that Harry is still very traumatised by the war, the dead people, his parent’s death and his abusive childhood. It is very hard for him to connect to people and to open up to another person.

You always have to look at both parts of a relationship to understand the motives why characters are acting like they do.

a) Blanket scene

In this scene we have the infamous „I wish you weren’t my son “ line, which so many people take out of context and totally ignore the circumstances of.

The blanket scene is VERY important as it shows the basic misunderstanding between Harry and Albus, which leads to their difficult relationship.

In this scene we have proof of how much Harry cares for Albus. He knows that they distant themselve from each other and Harry wants to change that, because he loves Albus. So he decides to give Albus his most precious possession, the only thing he has left from his mother. It is clear how much this blanket means to Harry and that he wants to give it to Albus shows how caring Harry in cc is.

But when Albus rejects the blanket and distants himself more from him, of course Harry feels horribly hurt. This blanket means everything to him and that Albus rejects his kind gesture, really breaks his heart.

Parents are humans too and they are not immune to feelings and pain of rejection, especially not Harry who always had a bad temper. As in the original series Harry is portrayed very human and realistic in cc.

People who just look at this line out of context, mostly forget Albus‘ line immediately before Harry’s:

ALBUS: No! I just wish you weren’t my dad.

Here is where the essence of the play lies, the reason their relationship is so difficult.

Here lies the big misunderstanding between Harry and Albus. Everyone expects Harry to be perfect. Everyone just sees him as the „hero“ without any flaws, noone sees the human Harry, the frightened and flawed and realistic human being and person.

So Albus suffers under the unrealistically high expectations people set for him and he gets bullied at school. So of course he understandably projects his anger and pain on to Harry. He blames Harry for his suffering, but he actually doesn’t mean Harry as a person, but Harry’s fame and the high expectations that come with it. So with „i wish you weren’t my dad“ deep down he didn’t mean that Harry personally shouldn’t be his father, but that the famous Harry Potter shouldn’t be his father.

Harry of course is heartbroken, because he feels rejected by Albus and the line escapes his mouth. It is VERY clear, that he immediately regrets it and he tries the whole play to make up for it.

And their relationship wasn’t always like that. At the beginning of the play their relationship is portrayed as very close and friendly. Albus is open about his fears and Harry is as open to him. Their relationship just went in the wrong direction after Albus gets bullied at school. Harry didn’t do anything wrong or different, it was Albus who (understandably) changed because of his father’s fame. We don’t see any problems between Harry and his other children, it’s just between Albus and him. The problem of their relationship isn’t based on what Harry did wrong as a parent, it’s based on what happened in his past and how his fame affects the way people treat Albus. They are both complex and interesting characters, who i can both understand very well. I can see why both of them feel how they feel and i feel bad for both of them. That’s why their relationship is so interesting and amazingly written, because you can understand both parts of this difficult relationship and you are rooting for them to overcome their problems.

b) Seperating Albus and Scorpius

You can say what you want, but you can’t say that Harry doesn’t love his son and that he doesn’t care for him. Every mistake he makes is based on his desperate need to protect Albus.

When Harry hears about the „black cloud“, he feels such a big need to protect his son that he loses his sense of reality. He never met Scorpius and he doesn’t know him. He just connects the black cloud to Scorpius (isn’t the first time his mistery solving attempts went wrong…Snape and Quirell *cough).

Is it illogical and wrong to do this? Of course! But it is also understandable in Harry’s situation as he is put under a lot of emotional pressure and all he wants is to see his son safe. I’m pretty sure he never really believed in what he was saying. He was so easily convinced by Ginny and Draco and he very easily regrets it and apologizes to Albus for it.

Harry is not a perfect dad in cursed child and like any real parent he makes mistakes, but he is by no means a bad father.

„Love blinds“ is a theme of the play and yes, his love for Albus does blind him. But you can’t argue that he doesn’t love or care for Albus. He would do everything to keep his son safe – he throws himself in front of a killing curse for Albus – and his love and his caring make him a pretty good dad actually. Their relationship started of with difficulties because of Harry’s fame, but he never gave up on Albus and it is beautiful to see them finally finding each other at the end of the play. They finally show their love for one another and Albus can finally see Harry as a human, not as a famous hero. This is why the pidgeon line is so important. Harry admits his flaws and his fears to Albus and shows him that he is human. I love how Harry puts his arm around Albus in the last scene on stage. It’s such a beautiful and hopeful ending to the play.

Thanks @bounding-heart (i always take inspiration for my blogs from your page :))and @mrsellacott (the blogs you posted lately about Harry as a father really helped me writing this!)

#cursed child #harry potter #play #father #albus #albus severus potter #I hate mindless haters who don't even know the basic rules of a discussion #and try to blame you for making this too big and force them to answer you #like it should be normal when you spread hate #actually to back it up with arguments #you don't have to spread hate #but if you do be prepared for a discussion when you decide to publically post this #i should stop my rant now xD #cursed child love

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