#part one of four

[greyeyedmonster-18]

the pact (pt. 1)

what if james had been the only one to die on October 31st? what if Lily did as he said and took harry and ran?

sirius attempts to reconcile with the weight of raising james's kid(s) and the weight of doing this life without his best friend.

(a belated sad-sirius sunday series; similar to fault lines, mercy, and the best worst thing to have ever happened, will be told in installments, only for tumblr.)

about 2k.

They made a pact.

At seventeen when they went to the seaside Sirius’s second summer at the Potters, the two of them sneaking off to the rocks on the side of the shore. Barefoot and balancing on sharp edges of stone, laughing and nudging one another to see if the other would fall, until they were able to sit on a flat one together.

“Mum’s going to kill us…” James said, though his tone wasn’t particularly worried, even as the bottom of his foot was bleeding. Sirius dabbed at it with the sweatshirt he had thrown around his shoulders, prepared to make a makeshift bandage if he had to.

“Which one of us first?” he asked, grinning.

“Probably me.”

“So I’ll have to survive a whole 5 minutes without you? That’s not on.”

“And you think its okay for me? No way.”

“She’ll have to kill us both at the same time then. Is that possible?”

“You’re the one with the creepy family, shouldn’t you know?”

“I wasn’t exactly invited to their creepy meetings, nor was that conversation over the dinner table.”

“I think it would’ve been acceptable though,” James teased, and Sirius rolled his eyes.

“Father, is it possible to produce a killing curse so powerful it kills two people at once?” Sirius mocked, pretending he was sitting at his parents’ dinner table, adopting a posher accent than usual, consonants all clipped and neatly organized.

James snorted, “I don’t think Mum would do that…Probably hang us out upside down by our ankles…”

“That’s a slow death. Cruel. And in that scenario, you’d die first too because of your fat head.”

“Oi!” James reached over to nudge him, and Sirius laughed, stopping his ministrations on James’s foot that had finally started to clot. He put the sweatshirt down and looked out at the sea, light reflecting off the water. “You’ll probably go first though, won’t you? With all that smoking…”

“This is morbid, babe.”

“And we all know I’m pants at healing spells…I’ll step on something in the woods, and it’ll get infected and I’m a goner…”

Sirius rolled his eyes turning his attention back to his best friend, the talk of death and dying suddenly dampening a cheery disposition. No longer joking because James, like Sirius, had been reading the papers in the morning. James, like Sirius, had been eaves dropping on conversations had by his parents and Slytherins around school. Everything was changing.

Sirius put his hand on the side of James face, “Hey, idiot. We’ll…make a pact.”

“Yeah?”

“We die at the same time. That’s just how it’ll work.”

“Mum will actually kill us if we make an unbreakable vow, Sirius,”

“A metaphorical pact,” Sirius clarified, “You know, I’ve read in…some weird healing texts that sometimes people die of broken hearts…like sometimes with older wizards? One goes, the other follows after….I think we’ll be like that.”

“If I die first your heart will break? That’s almost sentimental, Pads,” James teased, with a smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes.

“You worry so much…”

“You think it’ll work like that? You and me?”

“Yeah. Merlin knows I wouldn’t make it a day without you. Who else am I going to talk to about my day?”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

“Promise.”

But like all other promises made at sixteen (like the one made at 3am that stipulated James would never wear dress robes again, and the one made not three minutes later that Sirius would never fall in love) this one was broken too. Because Sirius was very much alive when he arrived to Godric’s Hollow. The safe house now in cmplete shambles, Sirius tiptoeing around fallen concreate and ruptured floorboards the same way he had balanced on the rocks of the sore. He had boots on this time though.

And he was too late to save James.

Sirius knew what to do when there was blood and bruises.

He could manage tears and sweat and dehydration.

But James, his perpetually moving, best friend lying still and lifeless in what once was a sitting room…Sirius had no idea what to do with.

Lily and Harry where nowhere to be found. Sirius had frantically gone through the rubble after noticing the crib was empty and the wall that Sirius had painted a fantasy mural on had been torn down, only to find nothing. Heart racing for no reason, because the worst had happened.

Sirius couldn’t decide if it would’ve been better to arrive to the scene after the patronus came and find Harry screaming in his crib with Lily on the floor, or to have all three of them lying still in front of him. But as it was, it was just his James, in the ruins, and if there was a chance that somehow the curse didn’t work, Sirius wasn’t going to let James wake up from his deep, deep, deep, sleep alone. He made his way carefully to the sitting room, and sat down on the floor, pulling James’s dead weight over to him so his head could rest in his lap.

Like James liked to do when he got hurt from a Quidditch game.

Or when James had finally fallen apart over the reality of the war and cried in Sirius’s lap out of earshot of Lily.

Sirius sat, and stroked his hair, tears streaming down his face. Wasn’t there a muggle fairytale like that? Some Brothers or Some Other where Tears were Magic. Or was it a kiss? Sirius leaned forward and kissed James on top of the forehead, just in case.

Nothing.

“Fuck you…” Sirius muttered, “I was supposed to go first…”

--

Sirius laid there, taking James’s head out of his lap and choosing to lie next to him instead, staring catatonic at open hazel eyes and glasses that were askew. No charms. Wand, merlin knows where; if someone found him, they could kill him. If someone returned to Godric’s Hollow, maybe they would step over Sirius’s body as well, or else take him to Azkaban because he was the secret keeper. Dementors could suck out his soul, and Sirius wouldn’t have a single memory of thought of James for the rest of his existence—that could be quite nice.

“Sirius?”

Maybe if he didn’t move, no one would know.

“Sirius...Siri—baby…” Remus came into Sirius’s eyeline on the opposite side of James. It wasn’t the preferred order. See, Sirius liked being in the middle. At meals in the Great Hall, during sleepovers in the dormitory, at the end of the aisle where Sirius stood as Best Man. James was in the middle now and Remus was trying to reach across a body to get to Sirius.

“He’s dead.”

“Have you been here all night?”

“I dunno.”

“Let’s get you—”

“No.”

“Sirius, it’s not safe—”

“I’m not leaving.”

“Sirius, you have to. Lily and Harry are—”

“Dead?”

“Safe. They’re at Number 12, with the Order. James went to fend Voldemort off, and Lily took Harry and ran. Peter—”

“Fucking rat.”

“Yes, I know, I’m sorry, but they’re safe and we have to go. I came to look for you, everyone thought you were going to hunt Peter down and—”

“I don’t want to go anywhere. I’ll stay here.”

“Baby, look at me,” Remus said calmly, though there was a wavering to his voice giving away tell tale signs of nerves. It wasn’t safe here, Remus was risking everything to go find Sirius, to be out in the open like this. Sirius lifted his eyes up away from James’s face to look at his boyfriend. Eyes bloodshot and dark circles deeper in morning light. “We need to go. Someone else will come here, they’ll make sure that James gets a proper burial—”

“He wanted to be next to his parents. That was the plan. We talked about it.”

“Okay,” Remus nodded, “We’ll make sure, but you are not going to be any use to that kid of his if you say here. Both his kids.”

“What?”

“Lily’s pregnant, that’s….that’s why she left. They were waiting to tell us until…I dunno. Some time when it felt better.”

Sirius closed his eyes and took a breath.

This wasn’t the plan.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

Sirius wasn’t supposed to be doing this life without James, and James was supposed to be the one with the stupid big family and Sirius was supposed to be the one who folded their laundry and squandered his inheritance. Sirius was named Godfather and up until that moment hadn’t planned on taking the title seriously (unless it meant seriously spoiling every Potter that emerged with gifts and affection). He kissed James on the cheek quickly, whispering an apology into messy curly hair before standing up, body aching from having been lying on rough terrain the entire night, lost and vacant.

“Alright,” Sirius nodded, watching as Remus stretched out his hand for the first time in months. Olive branches. White flags.

Everything else seemed so petty now.

“See you later, Prongs…I have another pact to make good on.”

I need you to promise me that you’ll make sure my kid is okay. That Lily is okay. Give them a good life, make sure Harry knows how to cook and...remembers his grandparents, okay? Do the morning shift so Lily can sleep and she’ll take the afternoon and…you’ll love them, right? I know you will…I just…need to hear you promise.

Promise.

part two

#sad sirius sunday #the pact #sirius black #james potter #lily evans potter #harry potter #remus lupin #part one of four #i would say updating sunday but im a lying liar who lies and it'll be updated when i want it to be updated

[ask-a-clock-and-others]

what things do you associate with each of your fellow teachers? like, a song or an item or something.

This took so long… pt. 1

#dhmis #dhmis askblog #dhmis tony #tony the talking clock #dhmis clock #art #part one of four #Ask a talking clock and others

[beastwhimsy]

some pieces I've done for my exhibition! do not repost or reupload without my permission. image descriptions in alt text

#this is part of one piece!! I plan to make at least four more #as many as I can in the time I've been given really #I'm still refining these ones!!!!! #artists on tumblr #art #surrealism #my theme is surrealism as a mechanism to turn the mundane/familiar into the bizarre and beautiful #I'm still figuring out the wording #described art #accessible art #surreal art #angels

[acrowseye]

part 2 of my experiment: what english-speaking country are you from, what region and what do you call the following images? if you don't know what the first image is please try to guess i'd love to see it

#ex: australia > victoria > bread #please rb so more people can see #american english #australian english #british english #canadian english #english #english language #dialects #accents #american accent #australian accent #british accent #canadian accent #english accent #america #australia #england #canada #those four are my target audience but all answers from around the world are welcome!! #tumblr #discourse #experiment #click the link for part one

[dreameroftheblue]

And guilty I may be But don't give up on me In the wake of the Odyssey We will still be thick as thieves You and me, still thick as thieves

#desperate creatures #lyrics pulled from one of the many songs I associate with them via my four hour+ playlist. shinedown my beloved #also as usual I used this art as a reward for getting actual Responsibilities™ done #“spent an hour on Important Owed Art! time for some gay old men :)” #showed my mom and she doesn't know a thing about this show other than what I've splurged about... but she wants it on a shirt LOL #actually I'd really like some kind of print with it too. with the gold foil parts all shiny or holographic somehow? might look into it #good omens #good omens fanart #aziraphale x crowley #aziracrow #david tennant #ineffable spouses #michael sheen #screentone #angel wings #winged humanoid #feathered wings #PS I used a chain brush for aziraphale's robes #like heaven's bonds he's currently latched to

[coquelicoq]

if you're wondering what the big deal is about the louis-philippe sentence in les misérables, it is, in the original french, 760 words long. the subject of the sentence doesn't appear until 95% of the way through, at word #711; the main verb is word #712. the sentence contains 91 commas and 49 semicolons and is almost entirely a list of laudatory adjectival phrases describing the erstwhile king of france. this is perhaps especially notable because les mis is, shall we say, not known for being particularly gung-ho about the monarchy.

this sentence copied and pasted into Word takes up more than one page single-spaced. in the 1800-page folio classique edition, it is fully two and a half of those 1800 pages. that means that les mis is 0.14% this single sentence. more of les mis is made up of this sentence than earth's atmosphere is made up of carbon dioxide (0.04%). if the page count of les mis stayed the same but every sentence was the length of this one, les mis would consist of only 720 sentences total.

incidentally, guess who named hugo a peer of france 17 years before the publication of les mis?

#he also goes on for another six pages after this but by then he has remembered the existence of the full stop #the endnotes say that hugo 'se devait de faire [ce portrait] aussi favorable que possible à la personnalité de l'homme #qui avait favorisé sa carrière' (had to make this portrait as favorable as possible to the character of the man who had favored his career) #in fairness to hugo it's not like louis-philippe was alive to read this. so he wasn't just sucking up to get something out of it #he says at the end of the chapter that this description is 'entirely disinterested'. which like on the one hand i get #bc like i said louis-philippe was not in power and reading this. but otoh victor 'ancien pair de france' hugo u r not exactly unbiased. lol #les mis #lm 4.1.3 #i just looked up the english translation and gasp! hapgood turned it into four separate sentences!!!! #so i think y'all who are reading it via les mis letters (which uses hapgood i think?) are gonna miss out on the full experience :/ #my posts #linked to #syntax #idk if i got this across but the worst part is that the subject of the sentence - the beginning of the independent clause - #doesn't occur until the very end. so for the first 95% of the sentence you're just waiting for the bass to drop!!! #like reading it out loud you have to raise your pitch at the end of every dependent clause because you haven't gotten to the subject yet #AND THERE ARE SO MANY CLAUSES!! 49 SEMICOLONS PEOPLE!!! FORTY-NINE!!!! #victor hugo would be TERRIBLE as a hype man. he would take so long that the crowd would tear him to pieces with their fingernails #before louis-philippe could come out on stage. and then they'd be so mad at louis-philippe for inspiring him that they'd tear LP apart too #actually i think i'm using hype man wrong. i'm thinking of the guy that gets the crowd hyped up for the main guy before the main guy #makes an appearance. a hype man is the guy who makes interjections during a song. victor hugo would be bad at both of these #like just imagine the announcer at the beginning of a basketball game. and now...your starting lineup...at power forward... #and then he just says the 760-word louis-philippe sentence. #dead. murdered at the hands of the fans. microphone shoved down his trachea.

[recalled11]

Directionless Pt. 4

Pt. 1/ Pt. 2/ Pt. 3/ Pt. 4/ next part coming soon!

#recalled #recalled update #Recalled Directionless #part four is here! #also known as the part where 'oh no everyone's hot--' #that's partially why it took a while #the rest was just backgrounds #cause OH MY GOSH #Lookout landing is a real pain in the butt to draw #BUT YEH #and we've got two new companions here! #this was honestly one of the first scenes I came up with when starting Recalled XD #recalled wild #recalled captain #recalled flower #recalled sky #recalled sun #recalled Time #recalled malon

[kingofthering]

endless list of random motogp things - being the gayest motorsport out there (part three)

#motogp #marc marquez #valentino rossi #jorge lorenzo #fabio quartararo #tony arbolino #aron canet #(and others) #motogpthings #my gifs #* #here it finally is #we'll probably be able to have a part four if I dig more / reuse other stuff #also depends about how well this one does too I guess #gm #100

[bastart13]

I might have controversial opinions on the "Faerghus Four." Mostly that it doesn't exist, and at worst, it exists to exclude Dedue.

Yes, Dimitri, Ingrid, Sylvain, and Felix grew up together, but that was as children. While that history is significant to their relationships, it ignores everything after. With the tragedy of Duscur, Dimitri and Dedue became inseparable while Felix was sickened by them, Ingrid couldn't overlook Dedue's connection to the tragedy, and Sylvain's apathy grew.

Past the age of ~15, you can't ignore how Dedue and the tragedy affects their relationships. I don't see just the four of them as a friend group, especially not without him because he's so important to Dimitri and the themes of Faerghus.

#fe3h #fire emblem #fire emblem three houses #dimitri blaiddyd #dedue molinaro #ingrid galatea #sylvain gautier #felix fraldarius #faerghus four #art #i love fe3h and the blue lions but holy shit i have my issues with how the writers and the fandom treat dedue #eg. why the hell was he replaced by gilbert post timeskip?? #dimitri and dedue's relationship is so important to both of their characters #dimitri can't stand people ignoring or insulting dedue #including ingrid or felix #and even though sylvain is the one who respects dedue #then it's dimitri who finds the way he treats women uncomfortable #i love the idea of them all as a group becoming friends after character development #but then that includes dedue because again he's very important to the themes and story surrounding faerghus #he deserves friendship and respect and that's part of what he has to learn so he can live freely

[kelocitta]

Wonder what I’ll do for Year 4....

#rain world #part of me feels like i should do another shape thing for a set of four (one twitter posts worth i guess) but i was also thinking about a #little more... messy idea #guess it'll come down to what im doing then lol i would not have been able to much fancier this year

[thelilylav]

We only see each other at funerals

(On Jason, Thalia, Nico, Bianca, and their parallels/connections)

The Titan's Curse (Rick Riordan), @/anxiousmaya_, Right Now (Gracie Abrams), The Battle of the Labyrinth (Rick Riordan), Joan of Arc (Mary Gordon), The Lost Hero (Rick Riordan), Episodes Toward and Elegy for Halley's Comet (Lindsey Drager), Jason Grace (Riordan Wiki), The Gods Show Up (Michael Kinnucan), The House of Hades (Rick Riordan), What the Living Do (Marie Howe), The House of Hades (Rick Riordan), Planet of Love (Richard Siken), The Blood of Olympus (Rick Riordan), Tangerine (Nolune), The Blood of Olympus (Rick Riordan), The Blood of Olympus (Rick Riordan), I Bet On Losing Dogs (Mitski), The Burning Maze (Rick Riordan), @/abhorarchive (Twitter), The Burning Maze (Rick Riordan), Seventeen (MARINA), The Burning Maze (Rick Riordan), @/rollercoasterwords, The Tyrant's Tomb (Rick Riordan), @/the-overanalyst, Where Things Come Back (John Corey Whaley), Grit (Silas Denver Martin), Softcore (The Neighbourhood), The Tower of Nero (Rick Riordan), Frost (Mitski), @/moonbends, I'm Your Man (Mitski), Sun Bleached Flies (Ethel Cain), The Tower of Nero (Rick Riordan), Three (Sleeping At Last), My Art

#nono you don't understand it's about the siblings #it's about how thalia lost jason once only to get him back and lose him again #it's how jason and bianca both walked into their deaths with their eyes wide open #it's about zeus trying to kill nico and bianca and him doing nothing to stop jason from dying #it's about thalia being in the hunters and nico hating her but he knows how to grieve with that kind of loss #so he'll help her. for jason. for bianca. because no one deserves to mourn a sibling alone #like these four barely interact but they're soooo connected i could go on forever #i'm so sad thalia and nico never actually got a scene together after the burning maze #and ALSO #it's about the fact that reyna is one of the most (if not the most) important people left in their lives #LIKE #do you think thalia found out how close nico and reyna were and started watching her more closely #because every person the two of them have shared has ended up six feet under #so reyna gets annoyed with how protective thalia is but she doesn't stop her bc part of her can tell thalia needs it #and nico constantly checks to make sure reyna's life force is still strong #bc he never wants to be caught off guard by a death again #ok im done now i promise #the trials of apollo #trials of apollo #nico di angelo #reyna ramirez arellano #reyna avila ramirez arellano #web weaving #fanart #my art tag #thalia grace #jason grace #percy jackson #percy jackson fanart #bianca di angelo

[b4kuch1n]

yay! I drew these quite literally three years ago. dragonheart!milo and raihan! a knight on a doomed dragon hunt being lifted out of his station by a small village medicine man. together they become magic lawyers and overthrow the government

the main details in these do survive into the iterations I’ve drawn (instead of these actual designs I spent time to make el oh el): the “leaf” diamond quilt/gambeson and the plaited coattail for milo, the “atypical” weapons, long coat, and large number of scattered fake gold trims and accessories for raihan. I think I lost raihan the hat and added a cape for milo further down the line because like this their general silhouettes are too similar for my liking lol

#pokemon #swsh #applinshipping #dragonheart AU #gym leader raihan #gym leader milo #leon is the puppet king in this one (I never made a design for him lol. lmao) (its not about him!!!!) (it is just a tiny bit #sonia actually disappeared out to sea like just the year before raihan got sent off too. and the shows up where raihan and milo are later on #as usual the everything between those three are messy in a way that makes every one of them embarrassed to bring it up lmao #if u remember one of the october pieces I did last year. the applinshipping one. yeap thats from this AU too #lmao. also remembering the swordsman AU. in every AU where I bring up a king you can TELL I cant WAIT to get rid of that guy #(its usually leon) #anyways it's not about him this is about raihan and milo!!! iirc everyone in the village knows milo is Something. bc he has literally not #aged at all for four generations #he's like doing his therapy away from the dragon hierarchy out here and raihan crash lands nearby #laughs this is so hallmark movie romance I just realized. except the city girl is trying to #extract her family from the palace before stealing the declaration of independence #oh yeah the AU is named that Specifically because the 'artifact' the whole plot runs around is supposedly a 'calcified' heart of a dragon #and the magic lawyer part is so raihan will seize the right to the throne by haha. winning a living dragon's heart instead #I'm actually surprised I remember this much abt this AU lmao it's literally been three years! I don't even remember what Im #supposed to do tomorrow #it's gettign a USB stick isnt it. Im doin a canadian horror triple feature with the senpai #I gotta remember that. well I remember This so. maybe there's a chance #man there are actually a number of applinshipping things I wanna draw... theyre my Fuckin BoyS #well! there's this at least. have a good night lads! I'll have cake soon #it's time to put cinnamon in things.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

I'm in love with your drawing of Wally and Howdy fighting over the arm. I love how mad Poppy is. Her saying "is2g" gave me the idea that she starts cussing more the longer she has to deal with this bs. And I'm also imagining Frank leaning against Eddie's hat saying "oh Eddie we're really in it now"

10 out of 10 artwork. Good job. No notes.

it has been Well Received it seems! i'm very pleased, i was hoping i wouldn't be the only one who found it funny ahaha

and i couldn't resist:

#if poppy knew swears she would probably end up using them yeah #but none of them know swears! if i scribble them swearing its for Comedic Effect! #because children's show puppets saying 'fuck' is peak humor imo #thinking very hard about the four of them and their experiences together #wh lights out au #scribble salad #rambles from the bog #god. one day i want to fuckin Write this au. #because i dont have it in me to plan out scribbles and draw 'comics' for it In Order #so yall are just getting bits and pieces from random parts #i do want to write it though #i need to know them i need to Know Them for that #their speech patterns their likes their dislikes their vernacular their voices their emotions their opinions and quirks #hopefully this desire to write for it persists through that point #i suppose i could... write a shitty rough draft #a very bland rough draft that would just be the basics... #that could make it easier for future me to edit and tweak and ReWrite #i am Considering.... #hopefully i manage to write the Actual au and not just the aftermath which takes up 90% of the au's room in my head #but that is something i won't be talking about! #if the au gets written it'd be a Massive Spoiler! plus i'd probably write th aftermath as a companion sequel! maybe two! #for the different perspectives of course. or it would be a bonus fic where each chapter is a snapshot... hm thinking Thinking...

[teddyedwards]

Here's my resignation, I'll serve it in drag! / All rock and roll is homosexual

Manic Street Preachers and My Chemical Romance on defying gender and sexuality norms

nicky wire photographed by mick hudson / gerard way at Riotfest / mama by mcr / born a girl by msp / richey edwards / gerard way by kenneth capello / frank iero / james dean bradfield / a version of reason by rob jovanovic / interview with gerard way / frank iero's pansy guitar / richey edwards fairy t-shirt

#shh i know they are very different bands but they four guys from working class towns who used books and movies and creativity to escape #who were downright bored with the lack of glamour on the scene and explored gender and sexuality #who had an insane belief in their art and never shunned the idea of being a huge band #i had sooo many parallels i want to make a part two lmao #also tried to include as many sources as possible but its hard with older stuff and this has a target audience of like .. one person #mcr #my chemical romance #manic street preachers #msp #f slur #ps if anyone has any tips on how people actually find photographer credits hmu like my google skills are not what i thought

[the-real-list-of-ominous-threats]

Happy Halloween everyone!!! It's me!

#the lollipop was not originally part of the costume but my club was giving them out so i had to take one for the VIBE #also the group photo was the top four of a costume contest i entered. yes the guy in normal clothes was one of the top four. #he rightfully won the applause vote but the judge could not bring himself to give him first place #he was going as “a puerto rican” (he is puerto rican) #i might post another photo later that better shows my boots #draculaura #cosplay #halloween costumes #draculaura cosplay #oh look my face #monster high #not a threat #read the tags

[anonymous-tals]

So, you know, back in the 80s, George Sr. would get Gob and Michael to fight each other and record it, plus a Baby Buster short, to get in on the home video market.

Which made me think: if the timeline was shifted and the Bluth siblings were born in the 2000s, George Sr. would’ve run a particularly problematic family Youtube channel.

#the secondhand embarrassment I felt from these thumbnails… #how did this take me over 50 hours #oy gevalt #this was originally just gonna be #like #four thumbnails #one of each kid #but then it just…kept going from there #i’m really bad at doing simple things #that’s also a part of why I did a lineless artstyle for this #it was originally gonna be simple and blocky but then it turned out to be a lot more detailed sooo yeah #also credit to theflannelwizard for the first thumbnail concept #gob bluth #michael bluth #lindsay bluth #buster bluth #george bluth sr. #lucille bluth #arrested development #arrested development fanart #also why did the jonas brothers dress like that i love it