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sylvienerevarine · 4 months

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Sophrine Aulette's Skyrim Encyclopedia (Part 1)

Ok, an explanation: my brother bought me Philomena Cunk's hilarious reference book for Christmas, and it inspired me to write this goofy semi-fic. It's now Sylvieverse canon that Soph writes a humorous guide to Skyrim and it's a bestseller for years.

Atmora

Atmora is sometimes called the “old country,” largely because everyone from there had beards, which made them look quite a bit older. It’s also called that because the original Nords came from there thousands of years ago in search of better weather. Why they stopped at Skyrim is anyone’s guess. One of the most famous people from Atmora was Ysgramor, who was fond of killing elves and living in an upturned boat.

No one’s heard anything from the Atmorans in a while, which means they all either froze to death or their postal service is terrible.

Automatons

Dwemer Automatons are creatures made of metal that run on magic and steam. You can find them lurking around old Dwarven ruins waiting for treasure hunters to show up, and then slicing them to ribbons. This is the only game they seem to know.

There are four main types of automatons: spiders, spheres, ballistas, and centurions. Actually they’re all called centurions, but that’s confusing, so here we are. Spiders are the ones that look like spiders and are sort of cute. Spheres are the ones that look almost human on top, but roll around on a big metal ball, in which they possibly store lightning. Ballistas resemble an angry fish with legs and are horrible. Centurions look like metal giants and use a huge amount of energy, which is why they sleep in big magic arches that don’t look very comfortable.

Dwemer automatons don’t seem to work outside their ruins, which is a relief, because can you imagine running into one at the market? On the other hand, it would be very funny to have a mechanical butler.

Cheese

Cheese is basically milk, but solid. It’s also the best food to ever be invented, and features in all the best dishes: cheesecakes, cheese souffles, cheese straws, cheese omelets, and fondue. My aunt Sacha, who lives in the Shivering Isles, once taught me how to make a kind of cheese that turns all colors inside-out, but I don’t usually attempt that one.

Most cheese in Skyrim comes from goats or cows. Giants have been known to make mammoth cheese, but they’re not very good about sharing it. I swiped some once and it was remarkably chewy, but very good.

Dragonborn

A Dragonborn is a person who, through no fault of their own, was born with the wrong type of soul. Generally speaking, humans have human souls, elves have elf souls, Nords have alcohol, and so on. A Dragonborn, on the other hand, has a normal person-type body with a dragon’s soul stuffed inside.

The main job of a Dragonborn is to slay evil dragons and boss around the less evil ones. For a long time, though, there were very few dragons around, so Dragonborns had to occupy their time by becoming emperors. This lasted right up until the time Martin Septim exploded.

I am currently the only living Dragonborn, which is a very fun position to be in. There was another one hiding out in Oblivion named Miraak, but he tragically perished for reasons that were only partially my fault.

Things Dragonborns Can Do:

Absorb dragon souls

Use aforementioned souls to quickly learn Words of Power

Scream at things

Read dragon language without taking lessons

Get free garlic bread at the Frostfruit Inn in Rorikstead

Kyne

Kyne is the Nordic goddess of wind, sky, the outdoors, and probably camping. You might know her as Kynareth, Khenarthi, Tava, or Kenny (though I’ve only met one person who called her that, and he was very drunk).

In Nord tradition, Kyne was married to Shor (aka Lorkhan) and rain is the result of her crying because her husband tragically died from having his heart stuck under a volcano. It follows that the best way to get rain for your crops is to shout things like: “Missus Kyne, remember how much you loved your husband? Wasn’t it tragic how badly he was murdered?” That usually does the trick.

Kyne is also supposedly the one who taught the Dragon Voice to humans, to which I would like to respond “thank you” and also “why.”

Mead

Mead is the primary beverage, export, and religion in Skyrim. It’s made out of honey, and is therefore sweet enough that you don’t realize for a while just how strong it is, and then you’re in a bar fight with a racist old man in Windhelm. Not that that’s ever happened to me.

My husband is something of an expert on mead, and it’s his most cherished belief that happy bees make the drink taste better. I’m not quite sure how you can tell a bee’s emotional state, but I’m sure there’s a knack to it.

#skyrim #tes #my writing #oc: sophrine #hehehe #i may add more to this later

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atmilliways · 8 months

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Wrong On The Money (34)

part 34 of ?? | 534 words | Teen+

Blackmail fic on Ao3 | on tumblr

(I'm tired of updating the link list on every post whenever I put up a new chapter. 🥲 Here's a link to my "Steddie Blackmail Fic" tag instead.)

Summary:

He doesn’t buy that Steve had ‘forgotten’ he was supposed to go over to Robin’s tonight, and it’s weird that he cooked a meal that he didn’t even stay for. The guy didn’t have to do that. They could’ve ordered a pizza or something.

They are going to kiss in part 42 or so help me.

Anyway, enjoy Wayne calling Eddie tf out and Eddie is just like,

34.

“Nice of Steve to make dinner even though he had other plans,” Wayne says.

“Yeah,” Eddie mumbles, dragging a piece of garlic bread through some of the orange-y red sauce on his plate. He doesn’t buy that Steve had ‘forgotten’ he was supposed to go over to Robin’s tonight, and it’s weird that he cooked a meal that he didn’t even stay for.

The guy didn’t have to do that. They could’ve ordered a pizza or something.

His uncle sighs and spears another bite of pasta with his fork. “Ed, are you going to quit finger painting with your food, or are you gonna say what’s on your mind?”

“No,” Eddie scoffs.

“Your sides hurting?”

“No.”

Wayne gives him a Look. “Is it about Steve?”

“Jesus H. Christ.” Eddie drops the garlic bread and scrubs both hands across his face, getting his cheek greasy in the process. “Yeah, fine, I think he’s avoiding me.”

“This got anything to do with why you look like a puppy that tracked shit in the house around him?” Wayne frowns. “I thought you talked to him about that money.”

“I did,” Eddie grumbles. He’d also talked to himself about killing the crush before it got any worse, for all the good that had done him. “I told you, we agreed that he could move in and we’d call it even, it’s fine. He's . . . a busy guy.”

Translation: too good to spend one on one time with Eddie. Which, truce or no truce, Eddie morosely figures he deserves.

Things like this have been happening ever since the Hellfire rising seniors and alumni came to the house a few days ago. Eddie hopes that he hadn’t overheard some of the guys’ King Steve comments.

But . . . the only other explanation he can think of is that Steve is going on dates. And the way Eddie’s stomach twists whenever he contemplates that possibility tells him that he’s done a terrible job of weeding out that crush.

Is it just a crush when it’s on someone who has literally saved your life?

Fuck. Oooooh fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck, it’s not a crush. It’s so much more than a crush, when the fuck did that happen?

He’s falling in love with Steve Harrington. Not the one everyone in Hawkins knows from school, but the Steve who helps him hang band posters and bakes amazing chocolate chip cookies. Who painted his own bedroom a soft, buttery yellow after admitting that he’d always hated the wallpaper his mom picked out for him when he was little. Who gave away basically all his paycheck for months trying to give a sad story a happy ending, and keeps playing the tank for a bunch of kids who can’t seem to shake their dangerous adventuring habit even away from the D&D table.

Who will never like him back, because Steve is good and Eddie is a human cockroach. Even though sometimes, sometimes, Eddie almost thinks. . . . But that’s just from looking through hopeful, falling-in-love goggles. Jesus H. Christ, Eddie thinks as he feels Wayne’s questioning gaze still on him, he should have realized how utterly gone he is for Steve much, much earlier than this.

Fuck.

#they're dumb your honor #steddie blackmail fic #eddie munson #wayne munson #good uncle wayne #steve harrington #steddie #steddie fic #my fic #eddie is a messy eater #in a coming chapter steve gets him a plate for his pizza and he's like 'ooo fancy'

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luonnon-varainen · 1 year

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"The feast of gods"

I always wanted to make picture like this. Since I was a child I had this weird and eerie thoughts about food I eat and how it gets on my plate(especially when I exactly knew how it happeneds, because I was very curious and often watched grandparents preparing it). Humans force other animals to sacrifice their lives for our life and pleasure - I thought and it stayed with me whose this time till now.

And now this thought very well imply to collectors-titans relationship and whole The Collector attitude to their position in nature as an "apex predator". That's the reason why their petrified watching elder eating belly part of a titan like it is just one meatball, why they hug tightly and with their leg separates King from the tabel - preventing hin from the same fate as other, who ended up on this feast tabel as one of fancy food. But also why their plates are already empty and why it says "it was delicious" - because it was a guilty pleasure. Something so fine, so good, something they could do over and over, but something that makes them feel guilty, sorrow and causing sort of aversion to their own action and motives.

Was my pleasure worth somebody's greatest sacrifice? Was my pleasure worth more than someone's life? Was my pleasure so important, that I could sacrifice my beliefs and friends to earn it?...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Late hi hi 👉👉 Day 3/4: feast

Sadly, my phone doesn't cooperate with me and it looks pretty messy, but still it has a proper vibe and maybe it's good that it is chaotic and blured and dark. I've put a lot of work in it and lot of searching for meaning in what is on the table so I'm kinda proud of myself.

In the alternative text is a description of the picture, because I'm aware of how terribly blurred it and

And here is symbolism of food on the table(good luck with guessing which of these symbols belong to titans and which to collectors) :

Apples: knowledge, immortality, temptation and discord

Pomegranate: death, abundance, longevity and underground/place where humans go after death

Citrus: luxury, hope of resurrection, sun light, purification

Tomatos: emotions, sacrifice life for somebody else

Strawberries: sensuality, perfect goodness, humility

Spices: warmth, stability, dignity

Eggs: resurrection, the genesis of gods and earth

Bread and cake: gift from gods, hunger, war and peace

Blood: opposites( life/death, death/redemption, eternal life, innocence/massacre)

Ps. If you find any mistakes(especially in the description), please inform me politely about it(explanation and/or things i should replace a mistake would be welcome). Sadly, I often make mistakes, but I really want to improve my English, so no one will suffer during reading my posts.

Thank you in advance💛

#platinum bones week 2023 #platinum bones #platinum bones week #toh king #collector toh #toh

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areyoudoingthis · 6 months

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Ed makes his way back to Stede after watching the ships burn. - Something settles into place within him as he hacks and slashes his way back to Stede. He doesn't want to do this anymore, he's certain of that. But maybe he doesn't have to burn his bridges to get to where he's going. Maybe everything he's capable of can serve him well sometimes, maybe there's some middle ground between fisherman and pirate.

Stede.

The panic sets in like a sudden tropical storm that's caught him leagues from shore with full sails unfurled, sending his brain into a tailspin.

He fucked up. He fucked up so badly. He asked to take it slow and then he let himself get carried away. Everything was so nightmarishly terrible all of a sudden. The quiet ease he was slipping into turning poison into positivity shattered into pieces by that fucking joker with an axe to grind, and then Stede... Stede pushing a man overboard, sweet, gentle Stede embodying the fucked up caricature of violence he showed Ed in that book when they first met, like it was fucking aspirational. He remembers the words to this day. "If I could be just be like Blackbeard, even just for a moment, honestly I would give all of this away." He never wanted Stede to give up a single fucking thing for him. The fine fabrics and the books and the two chandeliers made him happy, and Ed's wanted to be happy with him in a world full of soft things ever since that first morning they woke up together, high above the horizon and the shit that was dragging them both down for years, bathed in golden light and eager promises.

And after everything they both went through last night, after watching Low stick a hot poker in him and thinking this was it for them, after the fear and the adrenaline and the boundless amounts of love and sorrow he felt when he knocked on the cabin door... When Stede sought his comfort in Ed's body by pushing him against a wall and asking without words to kiss him, eyes full of unshed tears, Ed couldn't deny him. It's not like he wasn't dying for it himself, not like he hasn't wanted to allow himself to come apart with Stede since bread with marmalade on the crow's nest.

But he still doesn't know who he is or who he wants to become, where the fuck he fits in this world, in Stede's life. He knows he doesn't want to be a pirate anymore, and Stede becoming all the things he once claimed not to like in Ed... it messed him up to watch that happen.

Having sex with Stede the way they did was a mistake, but not for the reasons Stede probably thought he meant when he said it. He thinks about having to hear those same words from Stede without an explanation and he wants to run on water to get back to the Republic as soon as possible, find him and actually try to explain this time. Loving him isn't a mistake, it's taking such a huge step and making himself vulnerable like that when he was dying three days ago and he still feels lost all the time that was a fuck up.

And then he fucking panicked, and he told Stede - fuck, he started that conversation out okay and spiraled out of control within two sentences, rambling about fishermen and pirates without ever actually saying the words that were eating up at his insides, gnawing on his heart like hungry moths. I gave myself over to you. I'm ready for us to build a life together. I don't want to put you in danger again. I don't want to be a monster. I don't want you to become like me.

He's never actually told Stede how he feels, has he? Stede was so sweet at Anne and Mary's, and Ed never said it back. He wasn't ready to stay it, still isn't sure he is, even after everything. But he's ready to say something, ready to promise to stay and ask for time to say the rest when he can.

If Stede is even there to be found. What the fuck is going on, why is the entire bay on fire? Is the Revenge among the burning ships. Are their friends safe. Where is Stede. Please let him be okay. Please let him still be alive so Ed can explain to him, so he can hold his hands and give all the warmth he has brought to Ed's life back to him, so he can try to get his words to come out right this time. Give him one more chance. He won't waste it again.

Finding the leathers he does on purpose. Finding the letter is a surprise. Stede told him he'd sent him messages in bottles, but what were the fucking odds of ever finding them in the immensity of the ocean. Slim, apparently. Just like their chances of ever finding each other. And yet they did, and they keep doing it again and again like there's a string pulling them together across the vastness of the sea.

He finds out from the letter that Stede was always thinking about him, even when he left, even when he ran away and took Ed's heart with him. He came back to find him. Not to find piracy, but to find Ed. He stands in the surf reading it over and over, wet leathers back on and pulling heavily on his limbs for what he hopes will be one last time, and makes the decision to give his heart over to Stede for good.

He's all in for real this time. No more running away, no more panicking. He will find Stede and he will be alive and they will talk and work things out and they will never be separated again. Fuck the British and the Spanish and the French, fuck every navy in the world and every washed out pirate with a grudge. Fuck his own fears that live in a huge chasm inside him and claw at his throat and make the words he needs to say get stuck there like knives.

Stede is it for him. He will ask him for space to figure himself out, but he wants that space to be by Stede's side, in Stede's arms, in the home they will share every day and every night for their remaining years. He will be better at asking for what he needs. He can't lose Stede.

There is no Ed without Stede anymore. It has been too late for that for a while.

He makes his way to Stede mostly on instinct, trusting his legs to carry him and his arms to fight for him and his heart not to stop beating the second he emerges on the shore and sees him surrounded by British uniforms on the beach, fighting five to one.

Something settles into place within him as he hacks and slashes his way back to him. He doesn't want to do this anymore, he's certain of that. But maybe he doesn't have to burn his bridges to get to where he's going. Maybe everything he's capable of can serve him well sometimes, maybe there's some middle ground between fisherman and pirate. Maybe the man and the monster are one and the same and it doesn't matter, because the monster has always been just a man doing his best to stay afloat, a man kicking and screaming against the weights dragging him down into the deep black waters, and he can let go of him now without hating him for keeping him alive all these years. He brought him to where he is now and to Stede, after all.

Hasn't Stede seen him for the entirety of who he is since the early days of their relationship? He thinks as he slides on one knee across the black sand, every slice of his sword bringing him closer to the man he loves. Hasn't he been trying to tell Ed that he loves everything about him all along? Maybe it's time Ed learned to say those things to himself, too.

He crashes into Stede the second the last soldier is down, drags him into his arms with a desperation that could put a hurricane to shame.

"Ed!" Stede's voice floods into him and he soars.

"I'm sorry. You're okay. I'm sorry," he says, breathless, clings to him like he will run out of air and his lungs will collapse if every inch of them isn't touching.

"You came back."

"Never left, mate. Or no - I did. I'm sorry. This was the last time, I promise. I don't want to be anywhere else." His entire body knows this, his bones and his muscles and his marrow. He could never take a permanent step away from Stede again without coming undone.

Stede holds him tight, like he too was afraid they'd never see each other again and the hurtful things they flung at each other would be the last words they ever exchanged, like he was afraid that their life together would end before it even had a chance to start.

"I'm sorry I called you a coward."

Ed winces. That one stung a little, probably because it was true.

"I'm sorry I told you that night was a mistake without explaining what I meant." He feels Stede tense and then relax, like those words have been weighing on him as much as Ed feared they might have.

"Sorry I called your fish whatever," Stede says, voice soft and tender. "I loved the fish."

Ed smiles against his chest. They're going to be okay. He wasn't too late and they're going to be okay. Stede is safe and they're talking and everything is going to be fine. The world can burn and they will find a way to make it out of the inferno as long as they're together.

"Sorry I didn't stay to celebrate your first immolation," he jokes.

"Fuck that. Turned out to be a fickle crowd, too."

Ed suspects there's more there that he isn't saying, but perhaps a beach littered with dead and wounded British isn't the place to be discussing this. They'll have time. They're not leaving again, no more running off for either of them. This time it's for good.

"Tell me later?" He slides his hands down Stede's chest, draws in for a welcome back kiss that he can already taste sweet on his lips.

Stede runs his hand down his arm, caresses his elbow delicately with his warm palm and leans into him and they're finally going to kiss again when they hear a shout.

"Help, guys!" a voice calls out from across the beach. Stede turns and groans when he spots the woman slashing into soldiers like they're butter, but still covered in them like sharp spikes.

"Who's your friend?" Ed asks. "Should we go help?"

Stede closes his eyes, sighs and nods.

"Yeah, we'd better."

When they run this time, it's together.

#blackbonnet #gentlebeard #our flag means death #ofmd #edward teach #my fic #today has been all about ed for me #this is the fic version of the meta

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twisted-wonderland-shenanigans · 2 years

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for the twst monster au:

ok so i have like major nausea attacks due to stress thanks to chronic untreated anxiety, where i feel super sick and cant sit upright without wanting to throw up, and although they're rare now, they still cause problems and i generally have a lessened appetite thanks to it. so what if yuu also had that

so like yuu, terribly nauseous and lacking fucks to give, having to explain to these guys (who are panicking) that the fight or flight response basically remokes the digestive system's blood privileges and due to theirs happening so fucking often, their stomach basically nerfed itself and now has a meltdown every time they get antsy.

and then having to explain it was worse when they were like 11-12 because (true story) it would happen literally every day and the episodes would last like 3 hours minimum for months on end.

these poor dudes are gonna be so concerned for yuu's health

Oof, I’m so sorry you have to deal with that, Nonny. It sounds awful, rare or not. >A< I really hope you can get some form of treatment to help make it easier to manage. ;;^;; Also, sorry this took so long to answer, but I hope you're feeling somewhat better!

Now, regarding Yuu having this problem…hoo boy, I can already imagine that their arrival to Twisted Wonderland would have already caused quite the anxiety attack in anyone, but couple that with severe nausea? Mild concern over a possible ill student would bloom into full-blown panic once it comes to light that Yuu is in fact the only known living human in existence—and they’re already dying? On school grounds?! Oh Great Merciful Seven, how are they going to explain this if word gets out to the press?!

Calm down, Crowley, your feathers are starting to get bent out of shape. >.>

Anyway, it might take a bit before the anxiety over being in a new world—let alone one filled with magic and monsters—can settle down enough for Yuu to breathe. The staff and even some of the more concerned students would feel relieved to see Yuu eat something light, be it crackers or bread or soup, though the school nurse would express concern over their health once they hear Yuu’s explanation.

Once the research institutions come along, Yuu had already pack-bonded with Ace, Deuce, and Grim by that point and—despite concerns over preservation and health—was decided it was unwise to separate them and cause unnecessary stress. Depending on how well Yuu does with normal doctor visits, the researchers are likely going to go to great lengths to minimize the stressful environment and invasive procedures while working on a solution to ease or relieve their symptoms.

Meanwhile, the other students have no idea what to make of this situation. The first few times were ‘meh’ or ‘ew, gross’ (I mean, they are still going to have the personalities of their game selves, which means they also have some of the same attitudes towards things), but the more frequent or longer it becomes, the more it sinks in that something is very wrong. Riddle and Azul read up on the subject and looking into ways to ease anxiety or even find ways to salvage their appetite after the nausea attack. Trey and Jamil make sure that Yuu has access to foods that are easy and light on their stomach, while Vil searches for soothing fragrances that calm anxiety and relieve stress. Cater has even been looking into gifs and songs he can find on Magicam to help ground Yuu during their episodes.

At this point some of them have learned how to sense when Yuu’s about to have a panic attack, with Grim being able to sense it early enough to get them away from the stressor or get help from the other first years.

Eventually when the researchers are able to find a regiment (be it therapy sessions or medication or both) that works for Yuu, their friends and classmates make sure to help them stay on track and remind them when it’s time to take the medicine given to them or to go to their appointment. Of course, cuddle sessions also help and feel nice, so while it takes time, they’ll do their best to make sure Yuu feels better and can experience life without the nausea!

(As a side note, if anyone is dealing with anxiety, here's a video that has been designed to help reduce it by at least 65%. A friend of mine once recommended it to me, and it's helped me calm down on days when I need it, so I hope it helps someone else too 💝)

#twisted wonderland #twst #twisted wonderland monster au #twst monster au #twisted wonderland Yuu

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emblemxeno · 1 month

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Legend of Korra First Watch: Book 2 Thoughts

Decided on doing just overall thoughts instead of posting about every episode like I did with Book 1. Anyway, I... don't hate this Book (it's really hard for me to hate something), but it made lots of decisions that I really dislike.

Full list under the cut.

------Unalaq is a terrible antagonist. He has none of Tarrlok's charisma, and none of Amon's threatening presence. I understand his motivations from just a "okay I get what he's trying to do" standpoint, but, I don't quite understand why exactly this is something he himself wanted to do. The only reason I can think of is that he's more attuned to the spiritual world, and therefore he wants to reconnect it with the material world. Now, that makes sense, but IMO it's simply... not enough? The things he did to accomplish the goal seem so damn overboard when weighed against the goal itself. Why not just hammer the spiritual training into Korra? Was he just that far gone after having a hand in banishing his brother that he felt all he could do was take extremes? And why try to use Vaatu specifically to accomplish this feat when, as a spiritual man, Unalaq should know how destructive Vaatu is? Is it because Unalaq is so spiritual that he came to resent Wan's decision to close off the material world and spiritual world, and therefore resent the Avatar as a concept due to being Wan's reincarnation?

That last question is honestly the conclusion I'm sticking to, unless someone else can possibly grant other insight without spoiling Books 3 and 4. I'm a thinker, and I've thought out as many avenues as I can when trying to give this slightly above average waterbender with a white-bread personality a deeper reason as to why he's such a cunt.

------From what I've seen, the most controversial aspect of this season is the backstory of the Avatar, how bending was obtained/cultivated, and the existence of Raava and Vaatu.

I myself don't dislike the Avatar concept having a backstory-but, I'm the type of person where I don't need constant exposition, lore dumps, or over explanations of anything. If they are to be included, I really, really want them done well or else what's honestly the point?

The Wan episodes are artistically breathtaking, seriously, shoutout to the animators and whoever was the animation director or decision maker, cuz those episodes looked beautiful. Wan as a character I have no qualms with. He seemed to have started what I consider a "cardinal Avatar sin" where he jumps to conclusions and makes a decision that results in disastrous consequences. Korra does it, Aang did, and Roku did it (from what I've heard, Kyoshi, Kuruk, and Yangchen did stuff like that too). No issue here, I think having consistent Avatar-ness to a person's character-no matter how otherwise different their personality is to their past lives-is neat.

The bending thing is... half-baked. Apparently a point of ire among the Avatar audience is that TLOK retcons bending's origins from being taught by natural sources (dragons/badger moles/sky bison/the moon+the spirit koi) to being something that the lion turtles grant. I see the issue, though from what I understand, it's that the tion turtles give the power of elements to people, but spirits and animals teach the form (e.g. the difference between Wan bending fire as he learned from a dragon spirit versus how his friends from the city use it). So technically at once both a retcon and not one, though retcons themselves aren't inherently bad. My issue is that this revelation is a bit half baked, same as how ATLA introduced energy bending in Book 3. It comes and goes with fanfare, but little substance given how important it is.

------Raava and Vaatu get their own bullet point cuz maaaaaan, I don't like what these two are whatsoever.

On paper, having the Avatar be a fusion of a person and a spirit makes sense given their role as the bridge between worlds, and serves as a... fine enough explanation as to why they can bend all elements.

What I take umbrage with is that it seems their existence is inherently contradictory to what the story's trying to say. Raava kept Vaatu under wraps for 10,000 years to "maintain balance" but.... balance isn't one spirit dominating the other? One being light and the other being darkness isn't an issue (cuz light isn't always good and darkness isn't always evil), but one being chaos and the other being peace is an issue IMO. Peace is not a neat opposite of chaos, order is. Peace's opposite is war, peace can be orderly or chaotic and war can as well. Changing that one line of Raava's would've saved me a headache, though it still wouldn't change my problem with how they're fucking fighting for control of one another instead of trying to balance each other out. It's a mess, and it's one of the things of this season that should've been deconstructed and reconstructed some more before being released.

------Korra losing her connection to her past lives is certainly something. Definitely a thing that happened. Yeah.

Being serious for a second, I don't hold this against Korra whatsoever and never will. Much like Book 1 (and honestly what I expect for the next two seasons unfortunately), Book 2 is written as if the only way to beat Korra is to throw the unexpected at her. And that can work... for the first time. But subsequent times in a new season reads as cheap. IMO, it doesn't become a "oh they made Korra too strong and don't know how to actually give her a proper challenge to overcome and grow" situation, it becomes a "they don't know how to actually construct a challenge period without raising the stakes." Now those things sound like the same, but the difference is that Korra isn't strong in many defineable ways; she's impatient and hotheaded, spiritually inept, and has serious identity issues as a result of not being able to separate herself from being the Avatar. So those weaknesses are taken advantage of in both Book 1 and Book 2. But the difference is that Book 2 suddenly raises the stakes and consequences seemingly out of nowhere.

Amon taking away her bending is palpable and meaningful cuz we've seen it done many times before in Book 1 and that itself is a grand consequence. Raava getting ripped from Korra and being defeated, is also itself a grand consequence. It means Korra goes through a deeper identity crisis by not having her Avatar powers anymore, failing in her duty to maintain balance with her spiritual side, and not being able to stop the spirit and material worlds from destroying each other. That was enough.

So why now, does she also lose her connection the past lives? Raava was already established as being unable to be completely destroyed by Vaatu, so why does her defeat mean the past 10,000 years of Avatars are erased? Did I miss something? It doesn't make sense to me, and there's no reason for its inclusion other than to give more baggae onto Korra when the girl has already been through so fucking much. It feels tacked on and cheap, a shallow attempt to introduce consquences that ends up coming off as superfluous.

------Okay, even though I spent the previous paragraphs criticizing how the spiritual aspect of this season was done, I gotta say this: idk if this is an unpopular opinion, but I greatly disliked every moment in the show where it wasn't directly related to the spirit world.

Varrick's jokes fall flat for me half the time, and being a war profiteer is objectively interesting, but doesn't make me like him any more.

The relationship stuff again in this show is just so uncomfortable to watch since the dichotomy between the show attempting to tackle serious subjects and philosophy while simultaneously having the cast being terrible communicators is jarring and not a fun watch, and I'm happy that Korra and Mako broke up at the end.

Speaking of Mako, god fuuuuuuuck, I was so tempted to fast forward every time there was a police force scene. Now, I hate the police irl a lot, but this is a TV show and unless a show is attempting commentary on irl police, I don't bother to bring my own dislike into media criticism. However, this is still a TV show meant to entertain, and nothing about police is entertaining when you don't do anything with them. It's paperwork, lazy cops who are bad at their jobs, bureaucracy, taking advantage of people, refusal of other perspectives, infighting, etc. That shit's not fun to hear about or watch in real life, and it certainly isn't better in animated form either. Mako seems devoid of any character beyond the archetypal "troublemaker becomes law enforcement" and not getting believed, Lin is almost nonexistent which is a shame given how cool she was in Book 1, and every attempt at humor with the police and the gangs does not land cuz they're not likeable in any way. At least Varrick, though I didn't care for his quips half the time, had charm and was fun to watch! Nothing about the police force was fun to watch, and it was only as interesting as a "Rookie Detective B Plot" can be.

Now, Bolin's stint as an actor works in the grand scheme of what the Book's entire message/theme was, that being finding what you want to do and detaching yourself from what's expected/enforced upon you. I just found myself getting bored with watching his acting stuff. And yeah he's cute in the outfit, but honestly? I don't quite get the internet hullabaloo about him as Nuktuk. As a Gay™️ Lover of Men™️, he's certainly attractive, but he just doesn't do anything for me. Muscles are great, but idk, I'm not a fan of round faces or the Cute Excited flavor of Himbo. Maybe it's also cuz he's a teenager, and I've always found physical maturity to be extremely hot.

He also lowkey sexually assaulted his co-star, so he's not making my favorite character list anytime soon. I won't forget that he did this, though I do hope the next two Books give him something that pulls him out of the trench, cuz I'd hate to dislike him at the end of this.

------Uh, anyway. Themes! Characterization! Development! Yay! I liked it all. I think the message of finding yourself for who you are rather than what you think you're meant to be is inspiring and a good thing for younger audiences to hear. Korra obviously is the most significant example of this, but maaaaaan, I knew I was right to love Tenzin so much. He tries so hard to be Aang that he lacks identity for himself. It reminds me of when Iroh told Zuko, "Who are you? And what do you want?" And I think the emotional throughline from ATLA to this show was shining and it paid off. Tenzin didn't need to be shackled by Aang's legacy, he just needed to be himself. The mini instances of this while him and his family are vacactioning are great set ups to this; how he interacts with his siblings, trying to teach Meelo to lead through strict and isolating methods, and being almost envious or jealous that Jinora is so spiritually gifted while he's not. Ugh, he's just so great.

Like I said earlier, Bolin's moments in the season also fall neatly into this theme, and even Desna and Eska showed some growth from being their dad's lackeys to doing what they think they need to do rather than just what's expected from Unalaq. Bumi and Kya show promise in this regard, though there hasn't been a resolution. They've showcased baggage about being lowkey neglected by Aang in comparison to Tenzin, but beyond the siblings resolving their own differences, there wasn't anything else said about it. Maybe it's cuz they're both older, and don't feel the need to do the things Tenzin does, but eh. IMO there's always room for older characters to have well developed stories!

All of this makes it more confusing why Mako and Asami are kind of... not like this. They show shades of it (Mako being something other than Korra's boyfriend, and Asami being more than just Future Industries new owner), but nothing has come of it since there was so much focus on the police investigations rather than their characters. It's very disappointing, especially since in Book 1 Asami had a great showing in spite of the small time she had, and I felt Mako had potential.

That's about it I think. Deffo a step down from Book 1 to me, though I didn't find it absolutely terrible. Just sloppy. There's salvageable things here, but for the most part I find myself thinking "why couldn't this be done better?"

I heard that Book 3 is considered the best, or at least is a big fan favorite of the entire series. I have high expectations then. See you on the other side.

#tlok #tlok first watch #the legend of korra #tlok korra #tlok unalaq #tlok tenzin

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jmrothwell · 8 months

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Anything for We Run Together / the werewolf AU? 👀

Oooooh.

-Not sure if I explicitly stated it yet, definitley have alluded to it, but Julie still lives in her Dad's house during the events of the story written so far.

-The morning after this event is incredibly awkward for several reasons. All the guys being embarassed it happened(though they have theories as to how/why it did when they learned Julie went to bed with the window open). Anyway the following morning is just filled with awkward apologies, Julie trying to find them all clothes, then awkwardly trying to come up with explanations when her dad and Carlos catch them all. This is probably when Reggie first gets his hands on the grey hoodie he and julie swap for months.

-Which I guess, additional follow up to the linked ficlet. The rest of the guys are on the floor of her room. She ends up tip toeing her way out and sleeping on the couch.

-The guys are terrible at keeping track of the timing of the full moon. If they remember with enough time, they usually try to get a little further out of the city. This does not always happen.

-Their eating habits are absolutley frightening post transformation. Have a snippet: Reggie attempts to swat Luke’s hand away, his small glower belied by the vibrant flush spreading down his neck. Opens his mouth like he wants to say something then thinks better of it, ducking his head down focusing his attention back on the ridiculous sandwich he's making. Sandwich may be generous as it looks like he’s absentmindedly thrown various leftovers from throughout the week onto some bread, Bobby swears he can even spy some spaghetti. It’s very reminiscent of the way they eat the first day or two after a transformation

#AUs are awesome #We Run Together #Werewolf AU #julie and the phantoms

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drama-rebellion · 8 days

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Just a normal day

(A short insight of a usual day in my life with bpd, depression, ED and alcohol abuse and what I do to get through it...)

It’s a cold February morning. Pitch black, the dying night encloses the world. The freezing wind blows through the open window, where I lean on the sill, a cigarette in my trembling hand. I shiver despite my fluffy morning gown. Damn, how I hate the winter. Except some distant streetlights and the glowing of the cigarette, it is dark. A car passes by in the distance now and then, the only sign of life in this forsaken town. I dump the cig in the improvised ashtray and close the window.

I look at the clock. Half past six. A deep sigh escapes my throat. In the bathroom, I dare to glance at the mirror. I look horrible. Filthy hair, eyes sunken in, pale skin. I should shower, but I don’t want to. I don’t remember when my skin has seen water the last time. Must be days. I feel deep disgust towards my reflection and quickly turn around. I scrape together the tiny shards of my motivation and get some clean clothes out of my closet. Nothing fits together, but at least they are clean and warm. Back in the bathroom, I get rid of my dirty t-shirt and sweatpants. It feels like forever until the water in the shower gets warm. Quickly, I rub shampoo in my hair and soap on my body to get rid of the sticky sweat from the night. I skip conditioner and shaving, I just want this to be over as fast as possible. I wash it all off and am already out again. Didn’t take me longer than a minute. The cold air hits and covers me instantly in goosebumps. Once clothed, I sigh again. This tiny act of self-care was exhausting.

For a while, I just sit on my bed, waiting for my heart to calm down again. It’s too quiet, so I put on my “fucked up”-Playlist. It basically always fits. My room is a mess, but I don’t really care. Maybe later I will have the energy to clean a little. In the kitchen I make myself some coffee, although I don’t really feel like it. But that’s what normal people do in the morning, right? Take a shower, drink coffee…the fridge is almost empty. Only some sad fruit eke out of their existence. I put the steaming cup on my nightstand and get half a bottle of wine from the drawer. Leftovers from the night before. I have to hold my breath once I open it, the smell is nauseating. I gulp it down and have to focus on not puking. It tastes terrible. Quickly I drink a few sips of coffee. Disgusting combination. I put the empty bottle in the bag where I collect them. Got to expose of them later.

The minutes pass and the clock hits 7am. My clue. I pull myself together, put on shoes and jacket. Armed with my backpack and blaring headphones in my ears, I grab my keys and wallet, put my beanie on. Once outside, I curse the winter again. I ignore my shaking legs and haste down the sidewalk. It’s not far to the store, but yet I get out of breath. My stamina has decreased rapidly during the last few months. Another thing I don’t care about. On my way I see a lot of kids on their way to school, it’s in the same street as the supermarket. I keep my head down, eyes on the pavement, never looking at anyone directly. The shop has just opened, and I am almost alone. Without hesitation, I aim towards the lane with the alcohol and put four bottles of wine in the cart. I add a big coke zero, then stand there a little lost. I should eat something. But what? I don’t feel like anything. In the end, I chose natural yogurt and one plain full grain bread roll, although I know I probably won’t eat it. At the checkout, I put my stuff on the counter. The woman behind it looks at me with a pitiful smile, but doesn’t say anything. My product choosing doesn’t need any explanation. I am here almost every morning. I pay, stuff everything in my backpack and am already on my way home again. The short wals feels longer and my body heavier. The first slur of dawn shows at the horizon, the streets are full of people on their way to work. Finally in my apartment, I close the door not very gently and drop the bag on the floor next to my bed. My heart races due the stairs. I don’t even allow myself to think, before I open one of the bottles, take a few sips and flush it down with coke. Now I wait. I lay back and look at the white ceiling. The music hovers through the room, but I barely hear it. Slowly, my trembling and the nervousness get better as the alcohol starts working. Even a hint of motivation overcomes me, and I take the chance to get a broom and trash bag. I clean the dirt from the ground and throw my splattered clothes in the laundry. Damn it, I need to do laundry. It’s been piling up, but I don’t have a washing machine of my own, I need to go to the next town to do that, and I absolutely don’t feel like it. I still have enough to wear, but the old stuff starts to smell. Also, I need to change my sheets urgently. They are covered in wine spots. My energy has already left me again, so I just turn the blanket over. I will tend to that later, I lie to myself. Since I barely use the kitchen, at least that is clean, but there is still so much stuff that need to be done. Instead, I make myself comfortable in bed, the wine bottle next to me and power up the TV. Without even checking the rest of the program, I instantly skip to the only channel I actually watch besides Netflix and Amazon Video. It only shows documentaries and no advertisement. I have seen most of them at least once, but I like the voice of the commentator, it’s very calming. So I let myself relax to a report about ancient civilizations. My stomach keeps grumbling, I numb it with more liquid calories, and my anxiety about the future is numbed too.

After a while, I get up to smoke one. Except for one window, I keep my blinds down constantly. Although it’s around 9am now, the morning isn’t much brighter. Gray clouds in a gray sky. It starts raining while I exhale the smoke into the cold air. I feel okay. Not happy, not utterly depressed, but comfortably melancholic. I don’t know what’s gonna be tomorrow or in a week or a few months. I don’t care about it either. I only think about getting through today. My phone rings and I hesitate to pick up once I see the name of my counselor on the display. Damn, I forgot our appointment. I moan and take the call. Luckily it’s short, she only asks me how I am (I lie confidently, like always), she informs me about a meeting with a psychiatrist next week and a doctor’s appointment tomorrow to get a prescription for my meds. We didn’t even talk for two minutes, yet I am glad once she finally hangs up. My phone tells me, I got 5 new emails and 3 unread messages. I ignore them, don’t even open my inbox. Reminds me I haven’t checked my mail in days. Don’t care. Instead, I finish the first bottle. I feel warm and comfy in a sick way. My stomach grumbles again. In the end I get the yoghurt from the fridge, a spoon from the kitchen. After I put some liquid sweetener in it, I eat about half and put the rest back. I can eat it later (haha!). I don’t remember when I had a real meal the last time. But alcohol contains enough calories and no matter how much I drink, I’ve never gained weight because of it. Somehow I still care about the number on the scale, although I don’t take care of my body at all. I only destroy it. It’s a paradox. Noon passes by. I don’t even know what the documentaries were about, but it doesn’t matter. At half past 1, my alarm goes off, reminding me that my supervisor from assisted living will be here in half an hour. I totally forgot. I drink the last bit of the second bottle and hide it in my drawer. I collect the three empty ones that are still stashed under my bed. I check the room for any other dangerous indications about my current condition. Except for the usual chaos, everything suspicious is out of sight. I open the window because of the smell and start chewing gum, which I spit out the moment the bell rings. I can hear the steps on the stairs and greet the woman at the door. She’s around fifty and very kind, but not easily fooled. By now I have a very high tolerance, so despite the amount of wine, I am still talking clearly and don’t show any physical signs of drunkenness. In my room we both sit down, talk for a short while. She praises me for cleaning up a bit and taking a shower, she knows how hard these things are for me. I tell her the usual. That I feel a bit sick and depressed, don’t eat much and sleep crappy. None of it is a lie. I just leave out a few things. I stay polite, but try to get rid of her as quickly as possible. She seems to realize it and says that if I am not feeling well, she will leave me alone now. After she closes the door behind her, I feel drained by the short visit. I get back into bed and let the time pass by. Now and then I smoke one, drink more, watch the shadows crawl over the ground. I am fairly drunk when the night sets in and this normal day comes to an end only to repeat itself tomorrow. I don’t care.

#drama rebellion stories #dark #bpd #borderline personality disorder #tw ed but not sheeran #tw edtwt #tw alcohol #mental illness #mine

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dinotoaster · 5 months

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I'd absorb these books into my soul if I could.

I'm so glad my boys are alright and the cult got stopped and that got done without a genocide (THANK YOU TALLYND I LOVE YOU) and Koesha killed a fucking god because of course she did, he was rude and lied to her.

What I love most about them is how very human every character seems.

Dervan just wanting to enjoy his goddamn toast in the morning, annoyed that Rölly keeps making people interrupt his breakfast. His friendship with Fintan, growing ever so slowly because the other might be a spy and trust needs to be earned.

Dervan falling into every trap ever because he didn't ask to become a spy, didn't want anything to do with it and his friend made him. Rölly manipulating Dervan, knowing how much he'd hurt him, having to make a hard choice for the safety of the people in his city, perhaps the whole continent. Not knowing if it was the right choice but having to continue nontheless. Dervan forgiving him, in the end, after everything, because he understands. He's hurt, still. But he forgives.

Abhi and Tamhan, not knowing if the other is alive for a whole fucking book. Months apart, knowing the other is in danger, not knowing how the other feels about them. Parting ways with a handshake because that's the thing you do. Sending one message. A single fucking message. Tamhan having a city to organise while his crush is on the other side of the world trying to save it from a god who decided that creating a cult would be a good idea to escape the prison his siblings put him in. Abhi coming back to the place where he lost his family to see Tamhan again. Them taking like half a day to talk about fucking politics and organising a home for Abhi before FINALLY daring to say it out loud. The fact that they hug each other and then ask before they kiss. I love them.

Gondel being the messiest linguist to ever exist. His husband having OPINIONS about tea. Gondel lovingt mustard and cheese. That becoming the equivalent of a meme Pelenym and Kauria.

The whole Sage and Sprout thing???? Pen Yas ben Min? Nel Kit ben Sah??? The whole Pen having to cope with her cousing being a) dead and b) a fucking legend????????

The explanation for "breathe peace". The priest surprising my favourite firelord (who actually prefers cooking incredible meals to torching people but caused 8 deaths which she feels incredibly guilty about) by actually admitting to something terrible he did once.

Fintan asking Hollit to use her Kenning and make four slices of toast with the last bread they have. Koesha using thermal winds to bring it to Dervan on the other ship. "I had Magic Toast for breakfast. It tasted like love and friendship."

The fact that when Hollit comes home still feeling guilty and terrible her husband has the sweetest idea and it STILL doesn't work out perfectly because they are people and of course Hollit assumes the worst when he isn't home and it takes her some time to check their restaurant and she's angry but they talk about it and he explains his thought process and it's sweet even though it hurt her because she thought he'd left.

I love how imperfect everything is. There is no "and then everyone was happy". There is still work to be done. Conversations to have. Peace is a good start but they still have to rebuild relationships and cities and EVERYTHING.

#the seven kennings #the seven kennings spoilers #I have so many feelings #all the feelings

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wellpresseddaisy · 2 years

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Long Ago (and far away) P.14

Silly it may have been, but Severus changed into his Master's robes from Narcissa before meeting with Minerva. The heavy wool of the long coat settled his nerves just as well as his usual teaching garb, with the added benefit of no trousers. Now he was out of them for two days together he was loathe to go back. A risk, perhaps, allowing Minerva in like that, but he trusted her enough to try. He left his hair, as well, though he spent several long minutes staring at the tub of Sleakeazy's on his dressing table.

Perhaps it was time for a different solution. He rooted about in the dressing table drawers until he found one of the caps he'd worn through his Mastery studies. His master would never allow anyone with potion-soaked hair in the laboratory. The runic embroidery around the edge of the cap protected both the hair and the wearer without interfering with potions. He'd try it, at least. And if anyone showed interest...no, he would have his classes making and embroidering their own. He'd made scores of them alongside his fellow apprentices and learning those skills served him well. And perhaps he could get Babbling to assist with an explanation of the runes.

He set the cap on the table and stood, smoothing his hair one last time before leaving his room. Mother would have called it appalling vanity, but he found he didn't much care. Narcissa taught him decades ago how to care for himself and now he had reason to want to. Part of him regretted how he neglected himself for years, but he could change going forward. Small things, perhaps, but knowing Dare supported him gave him the courage to try.

He left his room then, having dawdled long enough. He wouldn't leave the man to face Minerva alone. Not on their technically first meeting. They'd put the sitting room to rights as soon as they returned, moving the stacks and bundles of documents and files to the kitchen and up to Severus' office. They still had much to sort, which assuaged some of Severus' guilt at having to leave Dare to his own devices come the morning.

Not that he felt he should forever dance attendance on his husband, but their bond was still so new. At least Dare would have things to do, and a home to open once again. He'd never been homesick before, but he could easily be for Sinclair House. Severus found himself drifting through the sitting room, fluffing pillows and straightening his already tidy secretary, before he wandered into the kitchen. He pulled his watch from the cleverly concealed watch pocket at his waist and checked the time.

Five minutes until Minerva arrived. He tamped down on nerves...he would have to stop relying so heavily on Occlumency, he supposed. Eventually. But until then, he could use the techniques to calm and order his thoughts.

The kitchen smelled warmly of freshly baked bread, buttery shortbread, and oatcake. Tea they would have, but nothing terribly fancy. Minerva would appreciate the shortbread, in any case. He puttered in the kitchen, poking through his tea tins until he came up with an assertive Assam. Minerva preferred stronger teas, and he felt the need for a pick-me-up.

The doorbell chimed through the first floor and Severus bobbled the tea tin. He gave it and a grinning Dare a filthy look before he swept out of the kitchen. He swept back in a moment later, flushing, and set the tin sharply on the counter before sweeping out again. It was only a few steps to the front door. Severus calmed himself before he opened it to Minerva, Dare a comforting presence just behind him.

"Welcome, Minerva." They stood aside so she could enter and lay her hat on the small console table. It was a bit of a squish making introductions in the small foyer, but they would have to manage. "It is my honor to introduce Darius Riddle-Sinclair, my newly Bonded husband."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Professor McGonagall." Dare bowed slightly.

Severus never thought he would see Minerva McGonagall at a loss for words. She stared at them, as if his introduction didn't quite make sense.

"Well." She paused and took a deep breath. "This will certainly set the kneazels among the pigeons. I trust that there was no coercion?" Her wand settled into her hand.

Severus was only happy her glare centered on Dare. He forgot, sometimes, how formidable an opponent she was. If they got her blessing…well, introductions would go much more smoothly.

"Minerva, no one has ever coerced me into doing anything I haven't fully wished to do, no matter the inducement." He spoke sharply, perhaps too sharply, and amended his statement more gently. "Except once. There was a contract between our families and I could have refused had I wished. Please, come sit and have some tea?"

"I have some questions for you, young man." Minerva sniffed in the direction of his husband and preceded Severus into the sitting room. She chose one of the arm chairs.

Dare brought in the tea tray bearing the more delicate set. He set the shortbread closest to Minerva, with the piping hot scones and oatcakes bracketed by butter and jam pots. He handed her a steaming cup of tea before he sat next to Severus on the settee.

"I don't recall the Sinclairs, either of them, having a child?" She took a sip of her tea and paused, nodding at the cup after she swallowed. "You make a decent cup of tea, though."

"I was adopted. I'm rather distant kin to them, and they were very kind to my mother and me." He answered easily.

"You didn't attend Hogwarts, though? I don't remember you as a student, and I would have taught you."

"It was safer for me to be home educated, Professor. My father was not the sort you want within five miles of a child." Well, no one would want either reality's Voldemort near children.

"Hmm. I must remind you, Mr. Riddle-Sinclair, that Severus is dear to many of us at Hogwarts. Any untoward behavior toward him will see you facing quite a few wands. Not least of which are the ones belonging to his Slytherins." Minerva spoke firmly as she set a few delicate squares of shortbread on her plate.

"He can care for himself." Severus resisted the urge to disappear into the settee cushions.

"I completely understand, Professor McGonagall. I do hope that if I ever seem to be interfering in Severus' work, someone will tell me. I wish to support his career, not hinder it." The charming smile, which turned Severus' knees to water, had less of an impact on Minerva.

"You will be informed, sir." She answered slowly. "Now, Severus, what else did you need to discuss? Living arrangements?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Professor's spouses are allowed to live in, Severus, should you both wish. I can have appropriate alterations made to your quarters."

"Not that, Minerva. We have more pressing issues than where my bonded is stored."

"Severus! For shame," Minerva scolded, the corner of her mouth twitching. "That is hardly an appropriate way to speak."

"I'm going to go store myself in the kitchen." Dare chuckled as he rose from the settee, taking a cup of tea with him. "I have a great deal of work still to do. And Professor?"

"Yes?"

"If you wish, you're more than welcome to stay and share our evening meal."

"As much as I appreciate the invitation, I do have duties this evening. Thank you and congratulations, Mr. Riddle-Sinclair. Do take care to remember that Severus is very dear to us at Hogwarts."

Severus felt his cheeks and ears flush. Sometimes, being the youngest House Head had more downsides than upsides.

"I'll leave you to your business. Severus, I'll just be in the kitchen if I'm needed."

He felt the loss of Dare's bolstering presence. He had nothing to be nervous over; it was just Minerva, someone he'd trusted for a decade. They'd worked out their differences years ago and she was a friend. But still, he felt slightly unsettled.

"Now, if it isn't living arrangements you wanted to discuss and you wished to talk out of Hogwarts…which of my Lions is it, Severus?"

This wasn't the first time they'd had this conversation, unfortunately. But the child in question made it so much more difficult.

"It's Potter, Minerva." No use beating about the bush.

Minerva set her teacup down with a click and sat back, closing her eyes. She looked suddenly exhausted, haggard at the news.

"I told him they were the worst sort." Her voice came low and strained. "Well, you'd best tell me the worst of it."

"Miss Granger brought it to my attention. She apparently tried to speak to you a few weeks ago after considering what she knew of his life." He tried not to sound accusatory. Minerva did her best, but she was one woman trying to fill three roles.

Her mouth twitched into a thin line, but she schooled her features and folded her hands over her knee.

"Minerva, it is not your fault. You did not place him there, nor did you send him back. Did he ask you to remain over the summer?" Because there were enough problems awaiting them without stewing in guilt. "Has he ever spoken to anyone of his home life?"

"No, he's never said anything, Severus. He was small for his age, but it does happen. If I had more time with them, though…"

"If ifs and ands were pots and pans, Minerva. You do the best you can. You knew he was given into Petunia's care?"

"I knew it was Lily's sister and a Muggle household. He seems so...normal. He's made friends and he's generally well-liked. He's polite, as well. Mostly." She twitched a smile at him over the edge of her teacup. "And the friends are despite what his father got up to. I ought to have done more, there, too."

"Some children manage to come out the other side of a difficult childhood like Potter. Many don't." Severus stared down into his teacup.

"And we're lucky we have you to ferret out the needed information." Minerva patted his knee.

Severus steeled himself to give his report. The next few minutes wouldn't be pleasant. For all her stern demeanor, Minerva cared and cared deeply.

"It seems as if the worst is criminal neglect and overwork. I spoke to Petunia Dursley and she freely admits to using him like a house elf and not feeding him. He does much of the gardening and cooking in the household, in addition to a good deal of cleaning. His room, until his Hogwarts letter arrived, was the cupboard under the stairs. After that, he was given his cousin's second bedroom. After the incident over the summer, they installed numerous locks on the outside of the door and a cat flap. There were bars over the window until the Weasley children quite literally broke him out. He wasn't being fed appropriately, again. The uncle left bruises when he tried to drag the boy back into his room." He paused to collect himself. "The cousin is encouraged to be as rough as possible with him. Other adults have seen the bruises and have noticed his build."

"Poppy gave me his file for you. She wanted you to have it immediately. I had hoped…I think I knew when she handed it to me." Minerva broke in before he could keep going and pulled a shrunken file from her pocket. She enlarged it and handed it over. "I read it, but I was unfamiliar with one of the results. It may well have something to do with his home life."

Severus flipped it open, his stomach dropping as he read. Poppy's report was as succinct as ever, detailing the results of the health scans done on Potter. The extremely thorough scans, including one he rarely saw used and only recognized due to personal experience.

"Who brought Healer Blydh into this?" he asked, his voice shaking.

"Poppy mentioned that it was Prefect Borley who had some concerns. Mr. Potter attempted an Infirmary-break last night. Borley brought him back." Minerva kept her own voice level.

"I see." Severus locked his hands on the file to keep them from shaking as well. "We'll have to ask Mr. Potter what happened when he was eight. The underlying health problems are more concerning when seen in one place. The untreated dragon pox alone…"

"What is this one, Severus?" She leaned over and pointed to the result marked CMT scan: Positive. "It's the only scan I haven't seen before."

"Poppy went looking for Complex Magical Trauma. It occurs when a young magic user experiences something so profoundly traumatic that they are, for lack of a better explanation, arrested in that moment or state. It is usually when one's magic has reason to believe remaining in that state is safest. When the child feels safe again, they will move out of that state. Mr. Potter's growth arrested, so I would assume his magic believed he would be safer smaller. It is also part and parcel to the malnutrition."

"So when he was about eight…" Minerva swallowed hard. "Have you found any other family who could take him?"

"I'll speak to the Weasley boys and Mr. Potter first, Minerva. I'll also look for any way we can have him moved. As far as I know, he has no other family, and it could prove difficult to send him to, say, the Weasley family."

"I don't see why. I know Arthur and Molly would take him in a moment. Molly's said as much." Minerva bristled like her animagus form at the imagined slight.

"Except that there are others who are better off who may make such a transfer difficult. Most won't care about Potter's preferences or happiness."

"You don't think…you are friends with the Malfoys, Severus."

"I was a convenient project and cover for Lucius. Whilst Narcissa and I have forged a friendship, they remain extremely selfish people. I would not have Potter turned into another Draco Malfoy or male Pansy Parkinson. Or used for political gain. He'd be at risk from more than the Malfoys."

"But if the Weasleys have him first…"

"The Malfoys and others have closer ties to him through the Blacks. And the Weasleys, however good a family and however strong their ties to him, are not supported by those who hold power. When he is moved, it will have to be in a way that gives no room for argument." Severus closed the file, stomach turning a bit, and folded his hands over it.

"Which means we have seven months to find him a new home." Minerva's hands shook slightly as she sipped her tea. "One that will bear the scrutiny."

He had never been more thankful that he and Minerva had their differences out his second year teaching. Granted, it only came about due to Pomona sparking an argument and locking them in the staff room, but screaming every injustice from his first moments in the magical world back at her lanced some of the festering pain of his school years. Sometimes, casting an authority figure's failings up to them helped. And she'd apologized to him. She'd listened and apologized and that allowed them to move forward as colleagues.

"We've faced more insurmountable tasks, Minerva. We moved Theo Nott to his uncle. And this gives us more time to make certain Mr. Potter's health improves. I can..."

"Yes, Severus?"

"I'm having the seventh years brew geneaology potions in two weeks. I can...hmm…could be moved up to next week if…"

"What are you...Severus I can hear the gears turning."

"Would you give permission for me to upend the curriculum for the first and second years?"

"Upend it how, precisely?"

"If I switch the curriculum to something firmly skills-based for the first two years...it's honestly not required for using the seventh year students' brews, but it is something I've been considering. If I spend two years teaching the skills--safety and cleaning and knife skills and tool care and basic brewing--I think more students will find success. I noticed how much trouble some children have, especially as many non-magical parents no longer allow their children to help with meal preparation." He'd been asking for years and had been refused, but if he got Minerva onside, she'd slip it in.

"Are these the changes you've been asking for every July for the past five years?" Minerva asked tartly.

"Perhaps?"

"Well, I feel that two years of foundational learning before beginning more challenging brews is a wonderful idea. You will allow some brewing during this time?"

"Yes. We'll attempt simpler potions like boil cures and will investigate the interaction of ingredients based on preparation. They'll stay on track for their OWLs."

"Do you have a syllabus?" Minerva sounded as excited as he felt. They hadn't had such a change in decades.

"I have a book." He rose, setting Potter's file on the table, and went to the secretary. He unlocked it and removed a thick folio. "I had it typeset, so there should be no complaints about my hand."

Crossing the room, he handed it to Minerva. She flipped through, taking in the delicate, moving line drawings that accompanied the text.

"Did you do the illustration as well?"

"I created the runic array that translated what my hands were doing into an illustration. It took a bit of doing." Severus fidgeted as she paged through.

"You ought to be very proud, Severus. This is fine work. Do you have a copy? If I drop by the printer on my way back, I can arrange for copies to be available for first and second years by Wednesday." Minerva smiled, a thin thing, but her pride and approval shone through.

"I...yes. I do. You're approving it, just like that?" He couldn't help the question.

"As Hogwarts Deputy Head, I can make this decision. This will bring Hogwarts in line with other magical institutions and will serve our students well. Sometimes…" she stopped and sighed. "Sometimes I wonder if we're wasting that brain of yours, keeping you locked away teaching when you revolutionize scientific illustration in your spare time. You're going to have to show me this array. I can see how useful this can be…and you may need to dodge Bathsheda for a good long while. She's going to be livid that you pipped her to the post. She's been working on something like that for years."

"Bathsheda already knows. She reviewed some of my earlier attempts and we're writing a paper together." He admitted. "I'm hardly a damsel in a tower, Minerva. I didn't have the connections it would take to start my own laboratory or even an apothecary and Dumbledore took a great chance on me. I've found some peace in teaching."

"Had found, more likely, with the way Mr. Potter gets about." Minerva sniffed. "What force in the universe catapulted him into acquaintance with a Weasley and then added Miss Granger's brain to the mix I'd very much like to know."

"Try a Malfoy and a Fitzroy together." He shot back. "Half the nonsense the lower school gets up to is instigated by those two. Bulstrode has yet to find her footing."

"We all have our crosses to bear, Severus." Minerva responded tartly. "I taught Fudge."

He couldn't help the laugh that bubbled up at that.

"You're quite right." Oddly, he found the bitterness usually stirred by thinking of the Potter child gone. "Minerva, we will find a new home for him. It's why I want his family tree; the curriculum change is an unexpected bonus. And I'll admit that getting one over on the board is…satisfying."

"Well, if you don't ask you won't be given permission. Why don't you and Poppy speak to him? She's keeping him in the infirmary. I can send the Weasley boys down to you directly after classes tomorrow. You'll want to speak to them, I assume?"

"I would like to, yes. Tomorrow after classes will be fine. Do you think about eight o'clock to speak to Potter? You'll want to be there."

"I have a responsibility to him." Minerva agreed. "I can only shudder to think of what Lily would say about this."

"Most likely 'Why did you give him to Pisstunia, Albus?'" He'd timed it for when she took a sip of her tea. Only by years of experience did she not choke.

"Did you just call her...Severus, you're supposed to be an adult." Minerva scolded after she swallowed, but amusement glimmered in her eyes.

"Haven't you heard that I'm a wretched bat?" He teased gently.

"Oh, Severus. A wretched brat, more like." Her face softened, eyes losing their mirth when she looked at him. "And you've managed all this time, alone."

"As if all of us aren't managing alone? You don't miss what you've never had, Minerva. I grew used to the workload. It helped, to be so busy." He stared at his hands instead of facing her concern.

"It does help. Just like the company helps, when you're senior staff." She agreed, and he knew she thought of Elphinstone. "I'm going to do something, as a friend, that you are likely going to hate. Mr. Riddle-Sinclair, could you join us?" She raised her voice just enough to carry.

Dare joined them in just a moment, holding a sheaf of parchment.

"Yes, Professor?"

"I'm going to stick my oar in. You will be joining Severus in his quarters as his Bonded. Your bond is too new for you to be separated for long periods." Minerva spoke firmly and Severus recognized the tone.

"Of course, Professor." Dare acquiesced. Severus wondered if he'd been plotting for this. "I agree with you. It is a bit too soon to be away."

Conflicting emotions washed through him. He hadn't wanted to leave in the morning, but he valued his independence so intensely.

"Do I get an opinion?" He tried to keep his tone light, but it came out brittle.

"Severus, if we had the cover and weren't in the middle of another Potter-based crisis, I'd give you a honeymoon starting now. I'm terribly sorry I can't." She reached over and covered one of his hands with her own. "As soon as I can manage it, you're going to have your month, and not during summer holidays. For the moment, this is the best I can do for you."

And now he felt like a heel for his jolt of bad temper.

"Thank you, Minerva. I am sorry. I'm not quite myself at the…"

"Absolute rot, Severus. You have nothing to apologize over. You've had several shocks and you life has, quite frankly, been turned upside down in the last few days, including discovering Potter's home situation. If you were absolutely your normal self I'd be worried."

Her crisp, sensible speech cut through his recrimination. Would he ever have governance over his sharp tongue? Or over his life? He was Bonded, and he'd have to make the best of it, which gave his…guardianship into Riddle-Sinclair's hands. Oh, he wasn't property, not legally, but some of this was why he'd kept himself to himself.

Socially, some would think they could talk over him and make decisions for him. He wanted people to respect him and his opinions, not treat him like an irresponsible child. He'd seen too many Society marriages like that and now he was in one. Possibly.

Well, probably not. Dare really didn't seem the sort. And Minerva was only trying to be a friend, giving him what it was in her power to give.

"You don't deserve my ill temper, in any case, Minerva. Thank you for your concern."

"Now, I'm going to let you enjoy your afternoon." She set down her cup and rose. "Severus, thank you for bringing Harry's home life to me. We will get all of this mess cleared away. I'll arrange meetings with Poppy and the Weasley boys. And I'll have an extra room added to your quarters."

Severus rose, Dare following, to see Minerva out.

"Thank you, Minerva. And please, take a tin of the shortbread?" He offered while Dare held out the tin.

"Thank you, Severus. I'll expect the both of you for breakfast tomorrow. We'll have an announcement for the general student body. I assume the advert will be in the papers before then?"

"Yes." Dare answered. "Gringotts arranged for one, er, about me to go in the evening papers today and one about the marriage for tomorrow, both editions."

"It should prove an interesting few days, gentlemen. I may steal Albus' papers so he can have a nice surprise." She smiled wickedly. "He hasn't been wrong footed often enough lately and it doesn't do to get complacent."

"I ought never have introduced you two." Severus groaned.

"Don't worry yourself, Severus. It will all come out just fine." And with that, they were alone again.

#long ago and far away #hp society/the ton #hp the season au #hp the season/the ton au #severus snape #not!tom riddle #minerva mcgonagall

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atopearth · 2 years

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The Fruit of Grisaia Part 4 - Matsushima Michiru Route

A Michiru that talks without being super loud is so...weird LOL. I was surprised when the other Michiru kissed Yuuji because she wanted to try it and see how it feels. LMAO when Michiru was making all the sound effects of baseball to tell Yuuji she knows what going to first base means🤣🤣 I legit laughed out loud, she's so silly and funny🤣 I knew Yuuji was really going to kiss Michiru to show her what she did to him the other day but omggg, poor Michiru lol!! The shock of her life lmao. On the other hand, I'm just squealing at how they've already kissed 5 minutes into this route🥲🥲 Honestly, props to Michiru's voice actress because her munching on too many ramune candies and all the sound effects she makes is hilarious, I can't stop laughing🤣🤣 I feel so bad for Michiru. She agonised over the kiss for so long and now Yuuji just tells her to forget about it with no explanation at all! It was her "first kiss" so she obviously needed time to digest it and wonder why he did that! Poor girl.

Lolll at the miscommunication Amane had with Sachi, it's really cute how Michiru helped resolve it when Sachi was about to go through a breakdown. On the other hand, Michiru going through her own little meltdown actually brought some tears to my eyes because I think Michiru's VA really expressed her feelings very well. When she kept saying sorry she didn't mean to shout at Amane like that and stuff, I couldn't help but understand those feelings, it was sad to see how distraught she was. Glad the other Michiru saved the day. But it seems like Michiru is much more fearful of herself than I thought. She was honestly so adorable when she shared her fears with Yuuji and held his hand and even hugged him for comfort. I'm just glad the other Michiru seems to genuinely care for her and want to protect her. Anyway, I can't imagine how terrible it must feel to literally have obvious gaps in your memories and basically never knowing the resolution to the "bad" situations she faces because the other Michiru always comes out when she's too distressed to handle her emotions. It must be so scary. I'm glad she could at least share a bit of her feelings with Yuuji.

Lmaoo when Michiru told Yumiko cats don't exist in order to protect the cat she's feeding (since cats aren't allowed in the dorm), and proceeded to say only dogs exist in this world as the cat meowed🤣🤣🤣 It's actually pretty funny how the cat is basically an extension of Michiru at this point🤣 Lmaoo, I love Makina, it was so funny when she was saying how she'll miss Yuuji and Sachi (since she's going to Amane's place during summer vacation), be okay with not seeing Yumiko and didn't mention Michiru at all🤣 Then when they're like how about Michiru, she's like who's that🤣 Awww Yuuji and Michiru are going to be alone in the dorm for two weeks because everyone is going on vacation. I'm so excited!! Lmaoo at Michiru doing spitting noises🤣 Michiru is so cuteee trying to ask Yuuji out on a date lol, and then omg, he tells her to go training with her the next day and she's dressed in a date outfit and is 3 hours early?! She's so silly but adorable. HAHAHA, I died when Michiru took out her "sandwich" for their picnic and it was literally a loaf of bread stuffed with salad 🤣 Michiru is so funny, I love how she immediately woke up when Yuuji saw her sleeping, so he said he'll cancel today's date and she bounced right up🤣🤣 LMAO that Yuuji kept on giving Michiru rocks as presents and she kept crying while saying she's so happy🤣🤣 They're both such idiots lmao🤣🤣 Sometimes Yuuji goes a bit overboard that I feel sorry for Michiru, but she's quite resilient so I'm all for their silly relationship. LOL when Michiru did the "come catch me" thing they always do on typical beach dates, and Yuuji literally does a full-on dash towards her and then tackles her too🤣🤣🤣 Yuuji rubbing sunscreen on Michiru is quite hot lmao, I love how they address leg hair though!! I've never seen fictional characters talk much about hair anywhere so hearing Yuuji and Michiru talk about it, and Yuuji saying a little hair is of no concern and she can do what she wants is so nice🥺🥺 I love how despite Yuuji's protests and a bit of confusion on why he's so soft towards Michiru, he can't refute her that he is actually having fun on their pretend dates, it's so cute🥲

Michiru feeling like everything is a dream and getting worried that everything will disappear is so saddening. My heart broke when she asked Yuuji if she was still her, and whether she was holding herself together. Yuuji hugging Michiru to comfort her was really nice. The other Michiru is very overprotective but I guess I can see why she's so concerned. Michiru really needs to be protected, especially since she's so scared of being left behind by anything and everyone she cares for. Aww, Michiru is so brave to ask Yuuji for a kiss even though it's just part of the pretend dating thing. Yuuji was awfully compliant haha, but it's nice that he let her prepare her heart and only went for it when she said she was ready. Aww I feel bad for Michiru that straight after that, Yuuji said there was no need to continue their play dates anymore because the others are coming back tomorrow😭😭 Yuuji, you idioooot!😭 Seeing Michiru slowly break down was really killing me, but I think what really destroyed me and just made me uncontrollably cry was when Yuuji told her the truth that there's another her, and Michiru kept realising that alot of the things Yuuji did was because he listened to the other her, and Michiru couldn't help but think that maybe the other her should just take care of her life full-time and she can just disappear instead. I think it really broke me because her feelings were so relatable. Sometimes when you're so tired of living, and you know you can leave things to another person's capable hands and that will do things better than you, it can't be helped that you would think maybe it's better to just disappear and let that happen, and I guess Michiru's feelings just hit a bit too close to home for me. The last straw was Meowmel (Michiru's pet cat) dying in Michiru's arms. I just couldn't stop crying seeing how thoroughly heartbroken Michiru was and how much she blamed herself. Anyway, I just wanted to say that Yuuji was pretty ruthless. I know he's more logical or whatever, but in Yumiko and Sachi's routes, he was definitely much more empathetic and understanding, so seeing him like this to her made it feel kinda terrible imo. Honestly, I'm not surprised Michiru attempted suicide because there's just way too many things happening at the same time and she can't take it, but I'm more surprised that she hasn't completely shut herself in and let the other Michiru deal with everything. There's so many instances I thought the other Michiru would appear considering how much she probably can't take, but she hasn't appeared at all, so I'm kinda confused on what exactly makes her appear now lol.

Aww I feel so bad for Yumiko! She's trying to give Michiru those pennants she bought for her as souvenirs, but she's always trying to give it to her at a time when she's anxious and not in the mood😭 I feel like Michiru is going to end up exploding on her and that will make me cry because Yumiko is so cute and sincere. I didn't expect Yuuji to sleep with Michiru at such a vulnerable time tbh, but I guess it really did help her... I didn't expect Michiru to be from a wealthy family. I'm so sad that Michiru was physically and mentally abused by her tutors that hated her because she couldn't produce results her parents were satisfied with. Her parents treated them badly so they treated her badly, and that's just terrible. She was just a kid. I found it really saddening how they gave up on her though. I mean it's great that they're not pressuring her anymore knowing she has an illness, but seeing them not care about her reaffirmed to her what her tutors always said about her being useless and being garbage, and that just breaks my heart. I honestly really liked Michiru's first meeting with the "girl". They met in an awkward moment, the girl wanted to suicide and Michiru just happened to be there. I liked that what motivated Michiru to talk to her was because she felt that it was unfair. Unfair that this girl was planning to end her life so "easily" just like this, when Michiru could never steel herself to get over the fence and jump off the roof, unfair that she had the "courage" to jump and leave everything whilst Michiru had to continue to live. It was motivated from selfish reasons, but it was nice to see that Michiru's existence and words ended up stopping the girl from killing herself. It was pretty funny how after all that, Michiru just introduced herself to the girl lol. It was so sweet to see the girl introduce so many new things Michiru never knew about to her. It's just too bad that regardless of how much fun you can have with a friend, when they're not the reason you are living for, you still end up going back to that desire of wanting to die. I guess I can kinda see why Michiru was so insistent on kissing Yuuji and sleeping with him before telling him her story. I think she wanted to understand that girl, her best friend's feelings. The girl gave up on living because her abusive "boyfriend" didn't love her anymore. She was "okay" with the abuse and the lies of him saying he'll leave his wife as long as he loved her, but once he didn't, she didn't want to live anymore, and I guess that's why Michiru wanted to experience love. Maybe she wanted to experience how reliant and dependent someone can get when it comes to love, maybe she wanted to understand how you could love a person so much that when they didn't love you anymore, you would end up wanting to leave this world instead, and I guess she wanted to know how it would feel to love someone to such an extent. The worst thing was Michiru having to see the girl kill herself right in front of her eyes but not be able to even say anything to her about her own feelings or anything at all. Would it have been better if the girl was friends with someone who wasn't "broken"? Would the girl have come back if Michiru was able to say something? Would she have stopped if Michiru said she would die with her? In the end, what someone chooses to do with their life is a choice of their own and the feelings of others can't always save them if they don't want to be saved, and it's sad to think about it all, it's just so sad to think about how difficult it is sometimes to just live.

How scary is that... The other Michiru helped Michiru make friends, do good in her studies etc enough that she was the normal, cheerful Michiru whereas she was the sick Michiru, I don't think I could take that... It's like basically saying her life was wrong, and that she's not normal. Knowing that the silly Michiru who clowns around is the Michiru she created to make others happy and let herself have something to live for makes me so sad. She knew that no one liked the real her who was always "sad", so she decided to be "silly" so others wouldn't think she's weird. It's actually really nice to see Yuuji tell her she needs to go to the hospital to help herself because sooo many characters that need therapy or something in fiction just kinda "let it go" no matter how crazy they get lol, so it's nice to see Michiru agree with him and actually decide to make changes to her situation and not just roll with it. Wellll, glad to know Michiru was actually ready to just disappear forever and that's why she agreed, I kinda wondered where those feelings went so it's nice to know that sleeping with Yuuji just made her more prepared to give up everything to the other Michiru. Guess we gotta thank Sachi for being insistent on opening this random box and letting Yuuji find her diary haha.

I guess I should get used to Yuuji using the most dramatic and crazy way to "save" every girl in their route lol. Now I'm starting to think Yumiko getting saved by a turkey was probably the most mild one. Anyway, I'm glad Michiru realised that she didn't really want to die, and also discovered how much everyone loves her. Kinda crazy to think Michiru spent 11 hours in a coffin and Yuuji sat there waiting for her to go crazy enough to break out, I guess he was really determined to not help her lol. Nice to see them happy I guess. On the other hand, I didn't actually realise the other Michiru was actually the real owner of the heart and that she has her memories, feelings and everything. Honestly, I found it kinda awkward because I pretty much assumed that this personality was created to be the stand-in best friend Michiru lost but no, she's actually her own person. I found them going to visit the other Michiru's parents and stuff pretty random tbh even though I was happy for her. Anyway, because of that, I honestly felt quite dissatisfied with Michiru's ending because it felt like we went through so many things but didn't really get enough of a happy and romantic ending for Yuuji and Michiru, and instead we had to accept the other Michiru third wheeling all the time now too lol. I mean, it's cool I guess, but I'm kinda disappointed lol.

Overall, I definitely liked Michiru's route the most. I thought it was very interesting and engaging in terms of romance and plot even though I feel like everything kinda fell off near the end. However, I really enjoyed the portrayal of Michiru's emotions because I honestly felt them so strongly that I cried. I loved how cute Yuuji and Michiru were with the pretend dates. I loved how we got to really see how much pain Michiru was in through the love and lost of Meowmel and I love how her VA showed her vulnerabilities so well in her voice whenever she opened up to Yuuji about losing herself. 10/10 for emotional pain. But I do kinda find Yuuji "weird" in this route, like I'm not sure what the exact problem is, since he is kinda cold, but I feel like he was less "kind" and understanding towards Michiru in her route than he was in others. I also found his love he developed for her rather awkward near the end, I think I liked it more when he always went easy on her by leaving his door unlocked etc during the play date times rather than the lackluster ending we got lol. I also think the other Michiru's story being shoved at the end was kinda frustrating because by that time I didn't really care much about her story and really would have liked to see Yuuji and Michiru bonding more instead since they haven't had much "real" couple interaction after saving her, so yeah it was disappointing. So really, I liked Michiru's story and I loved how tormented she was, and how well expressed it was throughout the route, but the ending was quite disappointing for me tbh. Amane time!

#grisaia #the fruit of grisaia #grisaia no kajitsu

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tilbageidanmark · 17 days

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Movies I watched this week (#170):

2 with French-Algerian actor Ramzy Bedia:

🍿 Youssef Salem Is Successful is a broad French comedy about a failed Algerian writer, who suddenly becomes famous when his tell-all book about his family wins The Prix Goncourt for literature. I liked the score made up of electronic Berber beats, and the two strong female characters, unorthodox and feisty. 7/10.

/ Female Director

🍿 Pecan pie is a 2003 Michel Gondry short-short, made at the same time as 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'. Jim Carrey in pajamas drives a bedmobile while singing an Elvis tune.

🍿

2 more by unique Austrian documentarian Nikolaus Geyrhalter:

🍿 Homo Sapiens (2016) is an eerie, wordless and scoreless vision of post-human abandonment. Without explanations and with a static camera, it visits deserted locations around the world years after the people had given up on them. Derelict concert halls, prison cells, bank vaults and train cabins, from Fukushima, and Chernobyl, and the many other disaster areas people have left behind, surrounding them to the elements, letting the birds and the rain and the weeds take over again. It's hypnotic and transcendental.

It's as if Edward Burtynsky and the Koyaanisqatsi guys had sex with Werner Herzog, but decided not to give the new baby any clues. 💯 score on Rotten Tomatoes. 9/10.

🍿 His 2005 Our daily bread was similar: Without voice over narration or subjectivity, it looks at the insides of giant agriculture factories, massive industrialized farms and high-tech conveyor belt food processing. How do the packages on the supermarket shelves get there? Who picks the tomatoes, the olives, the apples and peaches? Who inseminates the pigs, slaughters the cows, guts the salmons, collects the chickens and the salt in the ginormous mines? Endlessly fascinating. Makes you want to stop eating food.

🍿

Steve Martin X 6:

🍿 STEVE! (Martin), the new 2-part in-depth documentary about this smart and melancholic comedian-musician. A warm and wonderful run-down through his rich life. He accomplished so much during his extraordinary career, and much of it so well. 9/10.

🍿 My third re-watch of his warm and funny An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life again, a riff on friendship. With friend Martin Short (Excellent in his 'Stepbrother to Jesus' number!). Impeccable comic timing. ♻️

🍿 Shopgirl, a wistful love-triangle, based on his novella and script, about class and romance. A lonely woman living in a Silverlake apartment, works at the glove counter of Saks Fifth Avenue. She is being wooed by two different men, an immature slacker and a sophisticated older Martin. Jason Schwartzman is generally unbearable to watch, but here he is an insufferable loser. Eventually, it's too slight, a perverted fantasy of a rich, white, old man. However, it's always nice to find Screenwriting Symmetry 101 touches, f. ex. when Martin kisses Claire Danes for the first time, it happens exactly at 46:00, one hour before the end of the story. 5/10.

🍿"Excuse me. May I go to the bathroom first?..." Another re-watch: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, an old-fashioned story with 60's sensibilities, which was indeed faithfully re-made of a 1964 Marlon Brando / David Niven vehicle. Mick Jagger and David Bowie were originally supposed to play the Steve Martin and Michael Caine roles. ♻️

🍿 The Absent Minded Waiter short (1977) was his first produced screenplay, directed by his friend and 'Jaws' co-writer Carl Gottlieb.

🍿 All of me, a lame "comedy" that aged poorly. Were the supernatural-themed 1980's nonsense the worst decade for movies? Just terrible. 1/10.

🍿

2 more by Jean Vigo:

🍿 First watch: L'Atalante, the classic enigma about barge dwellers and incompatible newly-weds and an old skipper who loves cats. I'll need to watch it a second time in order to fully appreciate its beauty. 💯 score on Rotten Tomatoes.

🍿 Jean Vigo directed only 4 movies before dying of TB at the age of 29. His Jean Taris, Swimming Champion was an innovative documentary that introduced some poetic avant-garde effects, slow-mo, underwater reverse shots, innovative freeze frames. (Photo Above).

🍿

2 Eastern European classics from 1965:

🍿 The Oscar-winning WW2 drama The Shop on Main Street, still considered one of the best Czechoslovakian films. A dim-witted, henpecked carpenter in the Fascist Slovak State is appointed "Aryan controller" of a Jewish widow's store. With Ida Kamińska as the confused old lady. Another 💯 score on Rotten Tomatoes.

🍿 Operation Y and Shurik's Other Adventures was the highest-grossing Soviet comedy in 1965, with 70 million tickets sold. 3 unrelated episodes of weird slapstick featuring some nerdy student named 'Shurik'. Tom & Jerry meet Richard Lester meet The Three Stooges. 2/10.

🍿

2 thrillers with lovely Paraguayan actress Lali González:

🍿 Rest in peace, a new, engaging Argentinian thriller about a debt-ridden industrialist who leaves his loving family behind in order to escape from a dangerous loan shark. Here Lali González plays a sexy young widow. The fancy Jewish wedding reminded me of a similar one in Damián Szifron's terrific film 'Wild Tales'. The ending was weak. 💯 score on Rotten Tomatoes. 7/10.

🍿 "Run, Victor, run!" 7 Boxes (2012), my first thriller from Paraguay. Like the Brazilian 'City of God', it describes a world of acute poverty, which made it a tense watch. It tells of a young pushcart boy at the sprawling Asunción market who has to deliver some wooden boxes with unknown content. This Lali González was a cute teenager here. 6/10.

🍿

3 Temporal Loops:

🍿 Instead of watching my favorite rom-com 'Palm Spring' for the 14th or 15th time, I tried the other acclaimed time-loop story Russian doll, my first anything with Natasha Lyonne. But there was no comparison. The tired NYC hipster atmosphere didn't hold a candle to the sunny flow of Tala and Abe's wedding, and none of the characters were as lovable as Sarah & Nyles. Not even Greta Lee! The first season was hard enough to stay awake through. 2/10.

/ Female Director

🍿 Repeat Performance (1947) is the earliest film featuring the Time Loop Trop. But it works more with the Hollywood concept of 'Destiny', the idea that "If you wish upon a star, all your dreams will become true", no matter how unlikely. However, it's based on a second rate Noir script, made by an unremarkable director, and with uninspiring actors. 3/10.

🍿 12:01 PM came out before 'Groundhog Day', and set up many of the rules for playing 'Time Bounces' from that point forward. An ordinary office Nobody gets stuck but only during the one hour of his lunch break. It was nominated for the 1991 Oscars. 4/10.

🍿

3 shorts by surrealist Kansas City artist Suzan Pitt:

🍿 Asparagus, an avant-garde feminist film, which was shown together with Lynch's Eraserhead. Strangely erotic, psychedelically-fetishist, and politically-ambiguous. A 'Planète sauvage' / R. Crumb sensual nightmare, full of (literal) shit and swallowed phallus symbols.

🍿 Joy Street (1995), a journey of a depressed woman from suicide to a colorful healing.

🍿 Pinball (2013), a drug induced, dissonant, nearly-abstract headache, played fast to the discordant Ballet Mecanique (1952 revision).

/ Female Director

🍿

My second (after 'The Bigamist') directed by film pioneer Ida Lupino, The Hitch-Hiker. It was "the first American mainstream film noir directed by a woman" and, interestingly, portrayed the two men who were taken hostages by a psychotic killer as helpless and emasculated.

/ Female Director

🍿

2 directed by Demetri Martin:

🍿 "Crest Atheist Formula..." Demetri Martin: Demetri Deconstructed, his latest stand up. The first five minutes were weak, but the rest was hilarious and funny.

🍿 Dean, his 2016 directorial debut, a low-key comedy about overcoming loss, was apparently a semi-biographical attempt to deal with the death of his father. Similar Indie vibes to 'People, Places, Things' and many other stories about young Brooklynite illustrators grappling with love, parents, and growing up. His clever drawings (here and elsewhere) are really lovely. 7/10.

🍿

2 Danish Oscar contender shorts:

🍿 This Charming Man won the 2003 Oscar for best shorts. It's a terribly outdated comedy of errors about racism and micro-aggressions and about a Dane who got mistaken for an Pakistani immigrant. 1/10.

🍿 The sentimental On my mind was nominated in 2022 for the Best Live Action Short. I actually forgot that I've seen it before. ♻️

🍿

The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob, my second (and last!) flimsy, nervous comedy with Louis de Funès. When I was 10, I thought he was the funniest man alive, but in hindsight, he's just not. 1/10.

🍿

The Orchard End Murder (1981), a uneasy and unpleasant English story about two weirdos complicit in the senseless murder of an innocent girl on top of a heap of apples. 1/10.

🍿

(My complete movie list is here)

#jean vigo #movies

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lumine-no-hikari · 4 months

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Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #18

It is another day of trying to stay one step ahead of the beast. So today I made ranch spinach dip! Check it out:

Once more, this is a thing that I wish I could share with you, but alas, I cannot. I can maybe at least tell you how it's made, though. It's very easy. You just take 16 ounces of sour cream, 8 ounces of softened cream cheese, 20 ounces of thawed frozen spinach (you gotta squish the water out of it with a cheesecloth, though!), and between one and two packets of powdered ranch dressing mix, depending on your tastes. Mix it all up, and voila! Easy peasy delicious dip!

Normally, what you do with it is you put it into a hollowed-out round bread loaf (I really like to use marble rye for this), and then you cut the part that was pulled out into bite-sized pieces to dunk into the dip. But you can also dunk veggies in it, or crackers, or whatever else you like!

Today, I filled some mini bell peppers with the stuff, like this:

I also put it on some crackers!

If you can believe it, this recipe comes from my stepmother - the woman who my father has been with for the last… goodness, almost 30 years now.

As you might guess, this is yet another example of me trying to weave something beautiful from a terrible circumstance. If abuse is a trigger for you, you might want to avoid reading the rest of this paragraph. My stepmother hated my brother and I; the simplest explanation I can give you is that she was very insecure, and my brother and I were reminders that my father had a woman before her. She hated what we represented, and she felt powerless to do anything about the fact that we existed; we have laws here against killing your partner's children, you see, and my father wanted control of us in order to punish our mother for leaving him.

You may want to skip this paragraph, too, if abuse is a trigger for you. In any case, given her circumstances, she coped with her situation by making sure my brother and I knew how much she despised and resented us anytime we did anything. She'd beat us viciously for any small thing and scream vitriolic things at us while doing it - if she didn't like the expression on our face, or if we walked too loudly or too quickly in the house, or if we were sick and she was annoyed that we were coughing or sniffling, and so many more things… she could weave anything into an excuse, really. The fact of the matter was that she enjoyed hurting us very much - it made her feel powerful and in control.

This is yet another paragraph you might want to skip if abuse is a trigger for you. Anyway, as such, she went to great lengths to make sure my brother and I felt small and worthless, and she went to great lengths to hide what she was doing to us from other people - she started by systematically destroying our credibility by asserting to anyone who would listen, including our father, that we were bad children, so that if we tried to get help, we wouldn't be believed. Given that children occupy a very low position on the social ladder in my world, that part was very easy to do. She made sure not to be cruel to us when our father was home (but he had a job as a truck driver, that had him out from 5 in the morning until around 8 or 9 at night, so…), and when she was in public with people who weren't her own family members, she was careful to make it look like she loved and doted on us. The only thing she couldn't do was take away the bruises and welts she left on us. We wore long sleeves and long pants often and were instructed to say that we fell down, but not all of our injuries could be explained like that, so eventually people started getting suspicious.

We didn't have to live like this for too long - only 3 years or so. Or, well… rather… I didn't. My brother got sent back to live there. But I'll save that explanation for another time. For one thing, she couldn't put her hands on us anymore without going to jail. But for another thing… I might argue that some of the things she used to say to us were even more damaging. And there are no laws in my country against verbal abuse, as far as I know. And even if there were such laws, it's not as though they are enforceable at all, really. It is what it is. And the results were the results…

…Still, I don't hate her (not anymore, anyway; younger me was VERY bitter at the time, though…), and I can't say that she's a bad person; she very much isn't. If you're a person she loves, then she'll do just about anything for you - bear any burden, overcome any hardship. She is staunchly loyal to the people she considers her family - good or bad, right or wrong. She is very resilient in a lot of ways, and she has the kind of grit that most people can only dream of. And she's astoundingly intelligent. She's just lost, that's all. Her upbringing makes mine look laughably easy, and as far as I know, she never got a kind of help that works for her. The mechanics of the situation are simple enough to understand, and the results are… well… as expected.. and people are left to deal with the aftermath of things she's done before.

Sadly, none of her good qualities translate to me being able to be anywhere near her; as far as I've been made aware, her disgust and her resentment towards me and my brother are still very much alive and raging even after years of no contact. There's not a whole lot I can do about that; no amount of trying to be "good" can change her attitude towards us - believe me… I tried as hard as I could for a number of years. She refuses to unlearn old things and make room for new things, and there's nothing that I can do about that.

The only thing for it is to stay very far away. But I'll still be over here wishing upon her some kind of peace and contentment. And I'll still be grateful for the few good things I got from her. Like this spinach dip! Which I can now make for myself or for other people, because it's delicious! I know it's not exactly a consolation prize, but… it's still better than absolutely nothing, right? You get beaten down, but then you find reasons to get back up, no matter how small.

…I think I might have tired myself out a bit, trying to explain all this stuff. Still, I hope that you've found any of it relatable; maybe within all of that, you can find inspiration for your own resilience and your own resolve to remain gentle even in a world as weird as this. Like my stepmother was to me, I know that Hojo was cruel to you, and like how my father was with me, Lucrecia didn't step up to protect you, either because she underestimated the danger, didn't have the ability, or was too afraid to make a change. All the same, I hope that you can still find some way to weave beauty from all that, even if it's something simple like, "I've decided that this is how I will not be," or "I have incredible capacity to endure things," or even, "I can use these experiences to understand and try to help others who are going through similar things."

I'll leave it here. Please stay safe out there in the world. Please stay safe within your own mind. Please understand that for some people, your very existence is reason enough to get back up and fight on no matter how tired one is or how heavy things get or how much one's soul aches from the strain of it all. You are that reason for at least one person, anyway. Go ahead and guess how I know; I'll give you three tries! ;P I'll write again tomorrow.

Your friend, Lumine

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aava9099 · 1 year

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Best way for Frozen Fried Chicken

Seared chicken is perhaps of the most legitimate American dish you can eat. Something doesn't add up about it that makes it lick your fingers each time you eat it.

Seared chicken can require a ton of work and work to make, however it's not unexpected worth the effort.

A decent aspect concerning broiled chicken is that you can freeze it subsequent to searing and save it for some other time. It's an extraordinary method for saving extras or even make a major bunch of seared chicken and have some for a later dinner.

How would you Reheat Frozen Fried Chicken without making it wet?

The most Best way for Frozen Fried Chicken is through a two-step process that utilizes the microwave and stove. In any case, you can get by utilizing only the stove or microwave, with some penance of value.

In this aide, we'll walk you through the most ideal choices for warming frozen seared chicken. There is more than one method for doing this and you might find that you have an inclination or gain some new useful knowledge about your warming choices.

Peruse on to figure out about how to warm frozen broiled chicken and considerably more.

Complete Manual for Warming Frozen Broiled Chicken At the point when broiled chicken is frozen, it's continuously anguishing to ponder how it will warm up in the future. The seared chicken is made for certain sort of layers that hold the breading and the prompt idea is how might you keep up with the quality when you warm it?

In any event, when you warm broiled chicken that hasn't been frozen, it tends to be somewhat extreme, correct?

It's valid. It tends to be confounded.

Be that as it may, with the right tips and cycle, you can effectively warm broiled chicken and not stress as a lot over terrible aftereffects. A portion of the more normal secondary effects are loss of breading and spongy breading.

Warm Frozen Broiled Chicken - The Most effective Way This is our suggested interaction for warming frozen broiled chicken. This is the most effective way to warm frozen broiled chicken for the best outcomes. Notwithstanding, we will likewise share a couple more choices that you can attempt.

For the best warmed frozen chicken, follow these means:

Defrost frozen broiled chicken in the microwave. Carry the chicken to an inside temperature of 165 degrees utilizing this strategy. When this part is finished, move the chicken to a baking dish or some likeness thereof. We suggest fixing the baking sheet with aluminum foil for best outcomes. Covering the chicken right now in the game isn't required. Heat the broiled chicken in the broiler at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for around 10 minutes. This interaction is the most effective way to warm chicken without managing the saturated breading of the cycle.

This will warm and fresh the chicken to keep up with similar flavor and surface we as a whole love from new broiled chicken.

Elective Choices for Warming Frozen Broiled Chicken There are two or three distinct choices you can attempt if you would rather not microwave.

What we have found however is that microwaving along these lines, as made sense of above, really creates the best generally speaking outcomes and you don't need to sit tight for thaw out time.

We think this works best on the grounds that the fundamental explanation breading is soaked is dampness that develops during the defrosting system. Thus, we suggest that you don't totally defrost the chicken prior to warming it.

To utilize the broiler or microwave to warm seared chicken, here are the best advances.

Kindly note that the warming time might be longer on the grounds that the chicken is frozen in the accompanying cases. Check the chicken frequently and really look at the inward temperature of the chicken to ensure it is completely cooked prior to serving once more.

Warm Frozen Broiled Chicken Just in the Stove Preheat broiler to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a broiler plate or a form with aluminum foil. Place the frozen broiled chicken in the dish. Cover the plate with one more layer of aluminum foil. Heat at this temperature for around 30 minutes. Mind the chicken frequently and feel free to it part of the way through. At the point when the chicken has arrived at 165 degrees, eliminate the foil and heat another 5-10 minutes for a last fresh impact. Warm Frozen Seared Chicken in the Microwave With the microwave, we believe you should realize that meat is bound to dry out utilizing this strategy. You certainly will not get the firm skin and breading you're utilized to with broiled chicken.

All things being equal, you'll get somewhat dry chicken with a marginally soggy breading . Generally speaking, the taste is as yet delightful, however we believe you should realize that the outcomes may not be as wanted.

To warm frozen chicken in the microwave, follow this cycle.

Leave the chicken at room temperature for 30-an hour after you remove it from the cooler. This will assist with carrying the chicken nearer to room temperature. Cover the chicken with a paper towel, this will assist with eliminating overabundance dampness that makes the breading be spongy. Microwave seared chicken at first for 1 entire moment. Then, at that point, microwave in 30-second stretches, turning chicken at every span. Heat until wanted heat is reached. Recollect that it is best that the inside temperature arrives at 165 degrees. With this technique, it's ideal in the event that you're just warming two or three bits of chicken. Assuming that you're warming numerous pieces, we suggest attempting another strategy.

How Warming Influences Frozen Broiled Chicken This occurs. We maintain that you should be completely educated and completely mindful of what every one of these techniques can mean for your chicken.

Assuming you will warm the chicken, the best strategy is the two-section process that defrosts in the microwave and afterward crisps in the stove. This will give the best outcomes giving you the nearest seared chicken to when it was new.

Microwaving is a final retreat choice, yet it's accessible when you want something other than a warming cycle in the stove.

How about we take a gander at certain upsides and downsides of warming frozen seared chicken.

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