No Clue What Gave Them The Idea.

Love, A.

Happy birthday to His Royal Highness Prince Henry George Edward James Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor ✨💕

gay books u need to read rn

hello shawties it has come to my attention that not enough people know enough gay books and in honour of my RWRB shirt finally arriving, i have a list.

Red, White, and Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston 

I Wish You All The Best - Mason Deaver

The Art of Being Normal - Lisa Williamson

Wilder Girls - Rory Power

Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda - Becky Abertalli

One Last Stop - Casey McQuiston

They Both Die At The End - Adam Silvera

Melissa’s Story - Alex Gino

Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green and David Levithan

On A Sunbeam - Tille Walden

Gender Queer: A Memoir - Maia Kobabe (if you are trans or just not cis, READ THIS BOOK!!)

“My Safe Place” series

(Include 5 fics for 5 different ships)

1. Haven’s Taste - Pansmione (Pansy x Hermione)

Summary: The only thing Hermione had wanted was to work on her problems, but suddenly she found herself sitting opposite Slytherin's mean girl™ Pansy Parkinson revealing herself in more than one sense.

Rating: Explicit

Chapter: 15/15

Word count: 43752

Tags: Mind Healer Pansy Parkinson, Ministry of Magic Employee Hermione Granger, Minister for Magic Hermione Granger, Auction, Slow Burn, Light Angst, Fluff, Smut, Explicit Sexual Content, Happy Ending

READ HERE ON AO3

2. Cherry Stem And Liquid Luck - Theville (Neville x Theodore)

Summary: Theodore’s life changes when he sees a soaking wet man standing in front of his shop. He doesn’t expect that guy to be anything important to him or his life, but he isn’t a Seer.

Rating: Mature

Chapter: 1/1

Word count: 4297

Tags: Post-War, Post-Hogwarts, Auror Neville Longbottom, Tailor Theodore Nott, Fluff, Choking, Tooth-Rooting Fluff

READ HERE ON AO3

3. Baby, Baby - Linny (Ginny x Luna)

Summary: Ginny and Luna’s married life truly begins when they decide to have a baby.

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Chapter: 1/1

Word count: 2034

Tags: Post-War, Post-Hogwarts, Kid Fic, Family Fluff, Tooth-Rooting Fluff, Babies

READ HERE ON AO3

4. The Warmest Place Is You - Drarry (Harry x Draco)

Summary: Draco Malfoy is always cold even with the help of charms, so he has every right to freak out when Harry Potter is the only one that can make him warm.

Rating: Mature

Chapter: 9/9

Word count: 14876

Tags: Post-War, Hogwarts Eighth Year, Tooth-Rooting Fluff, Auror Harry Potter, Healer Draco Malfoy, Enemies To Friends To Lovers, Coming Out, Attempt At Humour

READ HERE ON AO3

5. Cigarette Kisses After Sex - Blairon (Blaise x Ron)

Summary: Ron Weasley may be bisexual and Blaise Zabini might be the hottest bloke to have ever lived and yes, he kisses like a God, but Ron surely doesn't have feelings for him. It's just friends helping friends out. Who doesn't kiss their friends every day. On the mouth. With tongue.

Rating: Explicit

Chapter: 18/18

Word count: 39416

Tags: Roommates, Auror Ron Weasley, Draco Malfoy & Ron Weasley Friendship, Slow Burn, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Explicit Sexual Content, BDSM, Daddy Kink, Top Blaise Zabini, Bottom Ron Weasley, Cigarettes, Kissing, Breathplay, Choking, Ball Gag, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Sex Toys, Butt Plugs Spanking, Bondage, Whipping, Flogging, Mirror Sex, Face-Fucking, Handcuffs, Pillow Talk, Hung Blaise Zabini, Coming Untouched (so many other tags)

READ HERE ON AO3

Noelle Build Guide

Noelle is a character that everyone has access to and is a fan favorite. She’s also been on several rate ups recently so I figured I’d go ahead and do a guide for everyone’s favorite shield maiden.

Role

Noelle is an interesting case because when you read her talents and kit she screams support, but she’s actually much better as a DPS....if built right. This is in large part due to her not regenerating energy well on her own. Generally, supports need good ER to be effective at their role. It’s one of the main reasons Bennett is so good at what he does. When a support can’t contribute energy particles to the rest of the team it makes them feel very clunky to play and outclassed by other supports.

Basically, Noelle is a support character that needs to be supported, so it’s honestly easier just to build her as a DPS.

She can be a bit challenging to build at c0 for this role, but doable. If your Noelle is c6 then she’s a monster.

Noelle can still be a great support, especially at c1+. She just needs other supports that can help her regenerate energy so she can keep her ult up.

Gameplay tip: When using her to heal use her spin charge attack to get the most healing per second

Talents

As a DPS prioritize Noelles normal attacks first, her Burst second and her shield last. As a support do the exact opposite!

Noelle’s talents ascend with books of Resistance, Hilichurl Masks and at higher levels, Dvalin’s Claw.

As a support Noelle is fine to stop at Lv70/80. As a DPS take her to Lv90

Weapons

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Redhorn Stonethresher; The Unforged; Wolf’s Gravestone; Skyward Pride

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Serpent Spine; Whiteblind; Blackcliff Slasher; Litchic Blade;

Redhorn Stonethresher is BiS. If your energy recharge is high enough, the BP weapon Serpent Spine is second best for main carry Noelle because she can abuse its passive. If ER is low Skyward Pride can be better than SS. If you don’t want to spend the $10 and don’t have any of the 5⭐️ listed above there are other options in the blackcliff and litchic claymores. Keep in mind that Atk% claymores like the Unforged and WGS are better than *most* 4 star options, but not as effective as the other options listed since Noelle scales off Defense, especially with c6.

The craftable weapon Whiteblind is BiS for support Noelle. It’s not really recommended for DPS as much as the other listed options though.

Artifacts

Overview - DPS

(4pc) Husk of Opulent Dreams; (2pc) Husk, (2pc) Archaic Petra; (4pc) Retracing Bolide; (4pc) Gladiator

If your Noelle is c6 Husk of Opulent Dreams is without a doubt the best set bonus to go for. Even prior to c6 It’s still the most consistent option.

Stats

Timepiece: Atk% or Def%

*Run Atk% unless your Noelle is c6, then run Def%

Goblet: Geo Dmg Bonus

Circlet: Crit

Sub Stat Priority

(~180%) Energy Recharge > Crit > Def% > Atk% > Def > Atk

Overview - Support

(4pc) Maiden Beloved; (2pc) Maiden, (2pc) Husk of Opulent Dreams; (2pc) Maiden, (2pc) Retracing Bolide

Any of the above sets can work depending on what you want to get out of Noelle. For more healing, Maiden is the best bet but it can also be paired with Husk for stronger shield or retracing Bolide to make her more tanky during sweeping time. 🧹

Note: Defenders is better for overall stronger shield whereas Bolide is better if Noelle is on the field a lot. Bolide only affects the wearer, not the entire team.

Stats

Timepiece: Def %

Goblet: Def%

Circlet: Healing Bonus

Sub Stat Priority

Def% > Energy Recharge > Def

Support Noelle keeps it simple with stats. Stack DEF% and ER and she’s good to go. Shoot for at least 180% ER

Team Comps

BiS teammates for Noelle are other geo characters that can help her regenerate energy particles. This is almost a necessity as a DPS to keep the uptime of her ult. Gorou is her best support as DPS.

Beyond Geo Resonance Noelle doesn’t really have too many limitations as far as team comps go. As a DPS she pairs well with sub DPS who can battery her to keep her ult up. Gorou, Zhongli and Albedo are amazing options if you have them. Bennett and Fischl are good partners for their shield breaking capabilities and Fischl’s off-field damage. Xingqiu is also a great battery. As a support you just swap Noelle in to tank damage and heal her your teammates with her charged attacks so really she works with anyone, but she will need a battery.

Team Samples

F2P - DPS

Noelle + Geo MC + Xiangling + Fischl

DPS

Noelle + Zhongli + Albedo + Gorou

Noelle + Geo + Bennett + Fischl

F2P - Support

Geo MC + Noelle + Xiangling + Fischl

Kaeya + Noelle + Fischl + Geo MC

Support

Ningguang + Bennett + Noelle + Xiangling

Zhongli + Bennett + Noelle + Fischl

TLDR

Noelle is a really cute character that comes in clutch if she’s built right. She is much better overall with her constellations but still viable even at c0. Her talents ascend with books of Resistance, Hilichurl Masks, and Dvalin’s Claw. Serpent Spine and Whiteblind are her best weapons for DPS and Support respectively. Husk of Opulent Dreams is her best artifact set.She relies on her teammates to regenerate energy for her since she can’t do it on her own.

If you’re a Noelle stan hopefully this guide was a bit useful :)

Beidou and Xinyan are up next!

they don’t have to jump anymore :(((

HP theory: Salazar Slytherin left the basilisk to help the students, not attack them.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about Salazar lately, and his Chamber of Secrets, and the basilisk. And I think it’s possible that the common perception of why he built the Chamber might be way off base. 

First, let’s start with what we are told about the Chamber. I’ll preface this by saying that I’m discounting information from the movie and focusing on the book because…well, movie. In then second book, Prof Binns tells the class that “Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic.”

This has always struck me as odd–the founder of a school wanting to kill children? Yes, he argued against admitting Muggleborns, which he saw as a serious security risk for the other children. But killing them is a very different thing altogether. In fact, on this same page, Binns dismisses the tale as “ludicrous.” There is no written evidence of Salazar’s reasoning; instead, all that’s left is a legend that has traveled by word of mouth, supposedly for a thousand years. Students are likely to twist even the most banal stories into legend, so the idea of “purging the unworthy” doesn’t seem very reliable. Plus, most important of all–who’s the one student who knew most about the Chamber, who talked about it to other students? Tom Riddle. It seems to me that there is a very good chance that “purging the unworthy” was really HIS motive, not Salazar’s. 

Next, let’s look at the animal itself. The basilisk is an incredibly unusual animal, and not because of its ability to kill. There are literally countless other ways to kill wizards, especially wizard children, a large number of which are much easier and would arouse less suspicion. Additionally, the basilisk can only kill or petrify a limited number of people at a time–assuming only one person can look it directly in either eye at once, that means it can only kill a maximum of two students at a time. This is highly ineffective for a large school. Spells would have been better! Blood curses would have been better! Simply jinxing the sorting hat to mark muggleborns would have been better. But he doesn’t do that. His reasoning can’t be because he’s a Parselmouth and can speak to snakes, because, remember, he never planned to use the basilisk himself. He never DID use it himself. In addition, the attacks are easy to prevent: looking through lenses or using reflections can foil an attack, and a 50-foot long snake is easy to see and attack (don’t forget that at the time of Hogwarts’ founding, there were no pipes for the snake to move around in. It COULD NOT have been Salazar’s plan for it to use the pipes.) This thing would never have been able to kill many students before the professors found it and stopped it. A “purge” of a large portion of the student body seems almost impossible. 

In addition, we know that basilisks do not answer to every Parselmouth. This is clear in book 2, for while Harry can understand the basilisk, it does not answer to him at all. Leaving a creature behind that might not respond to his own Parselmouth descendants, and could therefore attack even purebloods, is completely illogical and out of character. Everything that we have seen of Salazar speaks of him striving to create a safe place for his chosen students, not put them in danger.

Then there’s the fact that the basilisk had been put into a kind of suspended animation. It had lain dormant for centuries. Put that into Salazar’s own timeline. We know he had children, because we know he has heirs. We know they were magical. We can be reasonably sure they attended Hogwarts, as it was the only school in existence at the time. If Salazar really intended for his heirs to purge the school…why didn’t they? If that were his intention, he absolutely would have told his own children or grandchildren about it. Even if we try to explain that away by saying he feared the other founders, there’s no reason why his grandchildren wouldn’t have taken up the cause. But they don’t. For TEN CENTURIES. His descendants spread far and wide, they even go on to found magical schools in other countries (!), and not a single one opens the chamber until Tom, who was raised not by wizard parents, but in an orphanage. 

To me, there is only one explanation: Salazar did not intend to wipe out Muggleborns. He did not tell his descendants to awaken the basilisk and purge the school. That cannot have been his plan. If it had been, why on earth wouldn’t they have done it, and why would he have have chosen an animal that even his own children had at best a 50/50 chance of being able to control? Why not a curse, or a jinx, or an animal that would kill of its own accord? Why take this animal and deliberately put it into a stasis in which it can’t hurt anyone?

Because there’s another important characteristic of basilisks: their venom. It can destroy horcruxes. Basilisk venom is one of only two things in the entire wizarding world that can do so. This makes it incredibly important in the fight against dark magic, perhaps the most important tool there is. Out of Voldemort’s seven horcruxes, a whopping five of them were destroyed by basilisk venom–the cup and the diary with fangs, and the locket, ring and Nagini with a sword that had been imbued with the venom. The fight against Voldemort could NEVER have been won without that basilisk and its venom, especially since basilisks had not been seen in England since the 16th century. Without Salazar’s basilisk, there is a very good chance they would not have found another one. And that venom could even have been extracted from the basilisk while still dormant. 

It is because of Salazar Slytherin and his basilisk that Voldemort was defeated. Because Salazar did not purge the school of muggleborns; because he did not instruct his children or grandchildren to do so; because he did not place a conscious monster in the school. Instead, he took the most valuable tool in the fight against the dark arts, placed it in the safest stasis he could, and stored it in the safest place in the wizarding world. He left that tool as a precaution against any dark wizards that would ever threaten Hogwarts. 

And it goddamned worked. 

idk what to say

I have dirt on BTS and I don't know what to do with it.

don’t tell it. I don’t care. 

“That’s not love” she tells me. “You don’t have to beg for someone to stay. You don’t have to beg for someone to live with you. You don’t beg for them to commit to you and you don’t have to beg for a title. When it’s love, you don’t even think about those things. They happen naturally. This boy is the epitome of everything that love is not. And what a heartbreaking yet wonderful experience to have at a young age, for it opens up more room for the right sort of love to appear”

— my mothers pep talks (ms, 2019)

Parktown Themes

#1

Did you ever had an experience where you wanted to say something, but afraid you'll be hurt?

We've all been there. I tell you right now, Let out your feelings. Tell them what you feel, from the bottom of your heart. Don't keep your feelings inside a bottle that you know you'll never open. Now you ask me, what about the consequences?

If I do this, will my feelings be hurt from what I will do? Oh, sweetie. It will. It will and it will hurt badly. But if you say what you want to say, you'll be free from the bottle you kept to yourself.