Latest Posts by raysreads - Page 9

Also, lets just keep the 100s of gigantic man eating spiders in a forest right next to a school full of students who are obviously going to take the name ‘forbidden forest’ as a challenge.

Lets also keep a three headed dog, who is locked in a tiny room unable to run around or go for walks (and other things, this is animal abuse), in a castle of teenagers, who again will take ‘third floor corridor is out of bounds to anyone who does not wish to die a very painful death’ as a challenge. And then lets only keep it behind a first year spell!!!!

Oh! we can add having literal teenagers face their deepest darkest fears on the spot in front of their classmates. “oh they’re just children it cant be that bad!” you say! Disregarding that children can also have trauma. Harry was abused (which no one knew) his fear could’ve revealed that to the whole class!!! And Lupin was expecting Voldemort to show up, WHY WOULD HE HAVE THEM FACE THE BOGGART IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE CLASS WHEN HE WAS EXPECTING THE PERSON WHO KILLED THESE CHILDRENS FAMILY MEMBERS AND FAMILY FRIENDS TO SHOW UP IN A CLASSROOM. This was the war generation!!! They grew up on horror stories and nightmare fuel by just hearing what happened to relatives and friends!!! It would have made perfect sense for Bellatrix Lestrange to show up for Neville, and he knew what happened to his parents!!!! Common sense oh my god!!!! Don’t have teenagers possibly face serial killers, genocidal maniacs, abusive relatives, monsters, and warlords!!!! 

Yes, we also give no counseling to students who were petrified, or the students whos friends and classmates were basically dying.

Ginny was possessed, forced to kill roosters and try to murder her classmates, mind controlled, violated on the deepest level, and had her soul drained??? Let’s warm her up and send her on her merry way, of course there’s no aftereffects!! She’s fine.

Harry: Bitten by as Basilisk and literally feels his life force draining away before being healed by Fawkes Harry: *on his way to the hospital wing because he just had the most deadly venom in the world coursing through his veins* Dumbledore: Harry stay behind will you? Harry: NEVER ENDS UP GOING TO THE HOSPITAL AFTER BEING BITTEN BY THE MOST DEADLY CREATURE IN THE WORLD WHICH NO ONE HAS SURVIVED BEFORE

No one tells the parents their children are Petrified and students are almost dying because of something that has KILLED A STUDENT BEFORE

Lets also keep a mirror with obsessive powers so strong its had ‘grown men waste away before it’ in an empty classroom with no protection in a school of students!!!!

We also keep murder magic, and mind control magic in our library that is easy to break into!!!! And we teach students how to make date rape drugs in our potions classes!!!! And its very easy to get books on illegal identity theft potions and steal the ingredients and brew it in secret!!! And we completely condone drugging your classmates and locking them in a broom cupboard after stealing some of their hair and clothes!!!

We also give powerful magical artifacts of invisibility to 11 year olds in a school full of terrifying dangers!!!

The mediwitch will never report you for things, not to the teachers or authorities!!! Weather that be an obvious venomous dragon bite, or the obvious effects of an illegal identity theft potion gone wrong, or if you (a teacher) vanished a students bones!!!

ALSO THERE WAS A DRAGON IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!! How did Dumbledore not know???!!!! He had to’ve.

Did anyone report Lockhart to the Aurors and have all those poor peoples memories fixed??? He had to have wiped/altered the memories of whole cities and villages!!!!

On top of the who Werewolf thing, Lupin was completely negligent with his potion just saying

And i don’t think this is Dumbledore’s fault (and i’m trying to keep this list to things him and the staff did in the first 3 books) but Hagrid got take to Azkaban without a trial or so much as a by you leave

And also!!!! Once exonerated he was never given his wand and education back!!!!

Also McGonnagal didn’t even check on the students concerns with the stone, they may be children but they’re not stupid

Serial killer slashed a portrait?? its fine!!! Serial killer hovers over a student with a knife??? Its fine!!! Also McGonnagal says he’s being ridiculous for claiming such.

Does the whole school/whole house shun select students because: a) you took a ridiculous amount of points for a minor infraction and thus targeted them and did nothing about it? b) they displayed an ability with a lot of stigma and you did nothing about it?

A student was constantly harassed by a teacher (lockhart) and used for demonstrations and manhandled and slammed/dragged around and no one did anything!!!

He released creatures that hung a student from a chandelier and he fled!!!!

Filch choke-slammed Harry into a wall, feet not touching the ground. in front of the whole school!!! And no one did anything!!!!

Students constantly use slurs without punishment and bullying is ignored!!!!

DEMENTORS!!!! DEMENTORS AT A SCHOOL!!! A SCHOOL WITH CHILDREN WHO COME FROM THE WAR GENERATIONS!!! A SCHOOL WITH CHILDREN WHO HAVE THEIR OWN MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES!!! A SCHOOL THAT DEFINITELY HAS CHILDREN WHO WER ABUSED OR OTHERWISE HURT!!!! AND ONLY HARRY GETS TAUGHT THE DEFENSIVE SPELL AGAINST THEM!!!! worst reaction my ass he isnt the only one with trauma, nor is he probably not the only one who saw his parents die, there was a war and older students probably watched their parents die or get torture too and probably remember it better as well. That just plain favoritism.

Okay i cant thing of anything else, ill add things if i remember

harry potter and the year a literal teenager was blamed for not noticing his new boss was acting weird and was given loads of shit and was held responsible but staff of the safest place and the best school in wizarding world and the best wizard failed to notice the man they knew very well was actually a death eater in disguise and got away without a single complaint aka the year nobody got a haircut.

I will live the rest of my life strongly believing (with no evidence) that their names are Dorothy and Leopold. The names just sprung into my brain one day and wont leave. 

Also Snape/Hermione’s dad? i’m so here for it!!!!

i don't want jkr to speak ever again unless it's to tell us the canonical names of hermione's parents so that i know what to call my truest and most beloved ship, snape/hermione's dad. they're perfect for each other bc i said so and no one has any conflicting evidence ty.

Reblog if you've ever read a fic that was better than published books

Teen Wolf Character Scents

Okay this might sound weird, but I’ve been reading a lot of Teen Wolf fic lately and it always puts a heavy emphasis on what the character smells like. Because...werewolf senses and everyone has a natural scent. I personally love this so here are my headcanons for what each characters natural scent would be!!!!!

(I give reasons for why I went with those things but some of the reasons themselves are headcanons, and some just came to me and have no reason at all besides that fact that i love it that way)

So background info: I headcanon some scents are from birth, while some are added/change based on experiences, temperament and emotions. You have your own scent and it does its own thing, even when you’re human. Humans cant smell them since they aren’t necessarily real, they are more a smell supernaturals pick up that’s a cryptic reflection of ones personality.

Stiles: Gotta start with the main boi!!!! He smells like spicy chili peppers, honey and everything spicy. He is wild and loud and so so sharp. He uses cutting anger and snark and sarcasm as a defense mechanism, this reflects in a scent that burns your nose. But he cares and loves a lot and is super soft, hence the honey. If you focus on his scent too much your eyes water with the chili. When he gets angry he send tears down everyone’s faces and even reddens the cheeks and burns the tongues of the supernatural pack members in his anger, his scent becoming physical as his spark acts up.

Peter: He smells like cold. Like cold, and petrichor and mint toothpaste. He always has. He smells like the cold of ice, the cold you smell when you open a freezer in the cold isle of the grocery store and like Vick’s Vaporub but 10x as strong. As the left hand of the pack it was his job to kill, to eliminate threats, his job to bear all the blood on his hands, to have his hands permanently stained sticky red and his eyes glow blue, so that no one else in the pack has to live with the guilt of murder, even when justified. His first kill was at 8 years old and he would never forgive the fact that he had been given that burden. So he became unmovable ice and unending cold. With the thick smell of rain for the warmth he would always keep hidden.

Theo: His scent is that of fresh, right off the smoker, BBQ sauce-soaked ribs and apple juice. Its a scent he was born with, one that reflects the gooey warmth of his soul and his innocence before he was manipulated and tortured. His scent always throws people off since it usually reflects ones personality and he’s not a good person by any means, he is amoral and cruel; and such a warm, soft scent doesn’t make sense. But his soul (though no longer pure) would always hold his original innocence. The apple juice isn’t actually his scent, but his sisters, her heart such a part of him that his guilt manifested her soul in his scent. And if you focus hard enough, underneath all that you can find the sting of bleach. His time with the dread doctors (and the fact that he was surgically tortured into being a chimera) leaving part of his scent mangled and altered into the artificial tang of bleach. The fact that he forced his scent to remain mostly unchanged throughout his life (which was worse than hell on earth) is Very Very Impressive, even more so when in the beginning he wasn’t even supernatural.

Scott: Our ever-sweet true alpha. He smells like overly sweet pink and blue cotton candy and hot, buttered, movie theater popcorn. He’s literally sugar and spice and everything nice. His morals and warmth translating to the hot popcorn and his perpetual smiling and niceness coming though as cotton candy. He smells like fairgrounds and the laughter of children. Underneath all that he bears the subtle scent of rust,  a permanent reminder of his forced change to the supernatural and permanent resentment of the burden he must bear (and the guilt about that resentment)

Derek: He smells of Sandalwood, Patchouli, and Frankincense. He always smells like incense and spices, like the inside of a stereotypical fortune tellers shop. He becomes heat, warmth, and flame. Something that pulls at his soul since the fire. Something that is a comfort to the wolves around him. He also smells heavily of smoke (something that makes Peter unable to be in the same room as him for longer than 30 minutes unless forced) because of his never-ending guilt about his family, something that seared the event into his scent. When he’s angry (which is a lot) his scent gets stronger and the incense smell becomes extremely heady and makes his betas lethargic.

Lydia: She smells like metal, like your hands after handling handfuls of change. She smells like she bathed in pennies, her standoffish coldness bringing the bitter smell to her scent. Since she became a banshee she also smells strongly of spider lilies (also know as hell flowers), japans flower of death. You would think the contrast between bitter metal and floral scents, so strong you choke, would be bad but its actually strangely comforting. And while bitter its the only thing that can get Jackson to relax some days. The scent of the only person there for him for over a decade-and-a-half sometimes even more comforting than the scent of his boyfriend.

Isaac: His scent is of strong cologne even though he never wears any, he smells like he bathed in the Mahogany Teakwood candle from Bath and Body Works, or lived in an Abercrombie & Fitch for 50 years. He always had that smell, even as a child, but it just gets stronger the more confidence he gains. His childhood innocence and cleanliness of soul translates as a strong laundry soap smell. But hidden underneath there's an undertone of metal, plastic, and cold; that takes over his scent when he's scared and overwhelmes everything in a mile radius. It takes the Pack far too long to realize it smells like a freezer and metal chains.

Allison: She smells strongly of ozone and static (not rain though, never rain). Her anger and righteous fury making her scent like electricity and making the static-y-ness tingle in everyone's nose - sometimes making Scott sneeze. Nothing in her scent is pleasant or comforting to everyone's confusion. Its only when she feels negative emotions that she smells like roses and summer. Its like a warning but in reverse, the opposite of what it should be. Bad scents usually mean bad emotions or feelings or memories, and good scents mean good moods and positive things but for her its the opposite. Just like how she took the opposite path then what was laid out for her.

Jackson: He smells very very heavily of cherries, his scent so strong and sweet its like he took a bath in a hot tub filled with cherry cough medicine, chloraseptic cherry sore throat spray, cherry pie, cherry starburst, cherry Jell-O, and maraschino cherries. Its thick and sticky and strong enough to drown out the scent and stick for hours on anyone standing near him or touching him and it lingers on the Pack members even if they haven’t seen each other for years. Case-in-point: Jackson left for England after the kanima thing and Isaac left for France not long after. When Isaac came back 6 years later (2 years after Jackson came back) he still had the smell on him pretty strongly. Why cherries? No one knows. But its thick as hell and stronger than epoxy when it binds to things together forever. The Pack thinks it stems with his identity and abandonment issues, but once he claims you he wont let go, not even his scent. He is very self conscious and embarrassed about it so its never discussed, and he’s been friends with Danny for so long that his scent almost drowns out Danny’s own. 

Ethan: Ethan’s scent is subtle and barely there. He was the one who always stood in front of Aiden to protect them, and took the beatings when possible so his scent became as bland and barely-there as possible. The Pack can only smell his scent with intense focus and at least an hours meditation (unless you’re Aiden). He smells of freshly baked bread and homemade jam, comforting smells that easily calm Aiden down. In times of distress he smells of burnt toast, he scent twisting with negative memories. A reminder that all good things have eventually turned bad for him and his twin.

Aiden: Aiden on the other hand smells strongly like curry and lavender. An odd combination but one that speaks of his guarded- but angry, headstrong and stubborn- nature. The abuse left him angry and twitchy and paranoid, everything setting him off and his moods turning on a dime. His scent fluctuated wildly between spicy curry and calming lavender which indicated his mood and Ethan was the only one able to calm him down, doing so with a single touch between his shoulder blades where they merged.

Danny: Danny smells like he lived in a Eucalyptus oil factory for 50 years, the scent soothing and calm like he is. Its always the same and never changes, not even when his emotions do. It was concerning at first, since everyone else’s scents changed throughout the day, even when their mood didn't (the only other scent that barely changed was Peter’s but that was because the man hand an iron grip over his emotions, even in his scent. Which is super impressive). He was just that calm at all times, even when annoyed. The one time he got angry- and I mean really angry not just the pretenses he kept when ‘annoyed’ with Stiles who he more endeared with than anything- his scent overwhelmed the entire apartment complex ( the one Derek had bought out for his loft) with the horrible, strong, pungent scent of burnt rubber. No one angered him again.

But they did have a chat about his witch ancestry.

Erica: Her scent was that of a bonfire. A blazing bonfire, gasoline, and the smell of the world when it was so hot outside the air above the tar street shimmered. She was competitive, and fierce, and pure heat and burning. If she wanted something, she would take it she had always been that way, even when she was sick. And while her sickness may be gone she had a subtle distortion to her scent, one like poison, that made her always smell slightly sick. (Peter almost had a panic attack when he first met her because of her scent, he now never came within 10 feet of her).

Boyd: He smelled like a flower garden. He was so stoic that the floral scent took many by surprise. He had always smelled like soil and dirt, his down to earth personality manifesting as a calming and grounding scent. He also smelled like the ocean, like salt and brine, and waves. But that was all drowned out by the overwhelming smell of flowers, a scent that used to be his sisters, one that he subconsciously adopted after her death when he was still human. He empathized with Theo and would exchange heavy glances when the pack discussed their natural scents as a ‘pack bonding exercise’, they were both drowned in guilt for different reasons, but both over lost sisters. They never discussed it. That was all folks!!! Feel free to add on to this and/or use it as a fanfic reference!!! Do you agree??? What are your headcanons???

Draco: I'm 99% certain Professor Snape is having an affair with one of my parents. I just don't know which one

just had the sudden image of draco malfoy in black lipstick and eyeliner pop into my head while reading a fic with like 7 goth characters, it lives in my brain now and i can get rid of it, its too damn attractive

I do like him with his wife but i love ares too much XD. I would love if you would read my fic!!!! Its a Percy Jackson one bc i needed the base to write the pantheon as I see them. Its a ‘reading the books’ fic thats trying to solve the mystery of why the gods are some wierd hollowed out shells of their mythical selves(sorry Rick but you did my favs dirty) with a heavy focus on the gods who were super bashed in the books. Lots of Apollo/Dionysus bc they are my children. Im planning on updating soon.

I see your Ares/Hermes but I raise you Ares/Aphrodite/Hephaestus with Ares/Hermes also in an open and consensual (non-cheating) relationship. Lmao this is what I wrote in a fic and I loved their dynamics so here you go. Also Apollo/Dionysus all the way!!!

I'm more into Hephaestus/Aglaia (his wife), but i argee that Ares/Hephaestus/Aphrodite would have been a cool solution to the messy affair drama :) Also I would love to read your fic!!

Just listen until the end, ok?

And then drown in feels.

(Listening with earphones/turning volume up will help)

Writing Advice Posts: A Handy Reference Guide

(Updated 12/25/20) Hey all, I’ve got quite a few writing advice posts & answered Asks on my blog at this point, so I’m making this reference guide to make it easier to find what you’re looking for. Hope it helps!

Free Downloads

Get access to my free Fiction Writing Toolkit on my website.

Free Writing Advice Emails

Join my email list and get free writing advice emails sent straight to your inbox. You’ll also get early notification of any discounts or giveaways, and direct access to me to ask questions about writing. It’s totally free and you can unsubscribe anytime!

General

8 Ways to Improve Your Writing

10 Best Books About Writing Fiction

How to Spot Bad Writing Advice: 6 Red Flags to Look For

“Show Don’t Tell”? Not Always. Here’s When to Use Summary

How to start a story

More about starting stories

The first sentence

Weak words

Why Just About Every Published Book in the World Does 57 Things That Just About Every Book About Writing Tells You Not to Do

Creative Nonfiction Cliches to Avoid

How to Read Like a Writer

How to Write During a Pandemic

The Writing Process, Writer’s Block, & Inspiration

To all the Writers Suffering from Depression

How to Train Yourself to Write Faster

Just a friendly reminder that creativity is difficult to quantify.

Quick Writing Tip: Make a Note to Your Future Self in Your WIP

Quick Writing Tip: Take Notes!

Just a friendly reminder that writing is not always a linear process.

Quick Cure for Writer’s Block: Lower Your Expectations

Set Realistic Goals

Your Skills May Need Time to Catch Up to Your Vision

It’s Okay to Experiment and Be Weird As Fuck

Surround Yourself With Supporters

It’s okay to take a break.

Your First Draft is Raw Material

Getting into “The Zone”

Vomit Brain

Writing from Your Imagination vs. Reality

Dealing with Criticism

Getting Bored with Your Own Writing

Getting past a block

Doing research on topics you don’t have first-hand experience with

Journalling about your writing

How to Keep Yourself From Editing As You Write

Advice for Getting Over a Writing Slump

Dealing with Procrastination

How to Write Like You Used to, Before You Learned Stuff that Fucked Up Your Natural Creative Flow and Turned Your Writing into Boring, Stilted Garbage

Concept: Maybe Your First Draft DOESN’T Suck

How to Deal with Post-Writing Depression

Character Development

Creating Character Arcs with the DCAST Method

What Does Your Main Character Want?

How to Activate Your Passive Characters, One Verb at a Time

How to Use Description to Show Character Development

How to Create a Non-Cliched First-Meeting Scene

The “It Depends” Post

Shifting internal goals

When to identify your character’s goal

Writing about normal people with normal problems

If you’re worried about your character being too similar to someone else’s character 

Describing your characters without messing up your pacing

Story, Plot, & Pacing

Quick Plotting Tip: Write Your Story Backwards

Pause at the Threshold

How to Spot an “Info-dump”

Slowing Down the Pace of Your Story Without Boring Your Reader

Time Transitions

How to Create a Non-Cliched First-Meeting Scene

Creating Conflict

When & how to cut a scene

If you’re good at creating characters but awful at creating plot

When you’ve plotted your story but can’t get started

En Media Res

Writing to Your Ideal Reader

Deus Ex Machina

Foreshadowing

Finding an Ending

What to write between moments of conflict

Starting a story with waking-up scene

How to Know When You’re Done Outlining

Doing a Structural Overhaul on Your Story

How to Find an Ending from a Beginning

Editing Tip: How to Speed Up or Slow Down Your Pacing

Description, Setting, & Worldbuilding

How to Make Your Descriptions Less Boring

How to Spot an “Info-dump”

Adding Descriptions to Intense Scenes Without Messing Up Your Story’s Flow

How to Use Description to Show Character Development

Worldbuilding: How much is too much?

Modeling your fantasy world from stuff in the real world

Internal Consistency

Utilizing Sound

How to Do World-Building Research

Point of View

How to Choose the Right Point of View for Your Story

A Beginner’s Guide to Multiple Point of View

6 Questions to Ask About Your Point of View

How to decide if you should use first person or third person

More point of view basics

Head hopping

How to Head Hop without Head Hopping

What to Do When You’re Halfway Through Your Story and Realize Your POV Isn’t Working

3 Tips to Avoid Overusing “I” in a First Person Story

Dialogue

How to Improve Your Dialogue

3 Ways to Make Your Dialogue More Interesting

Starting a story with dialogue

Are You Using Too Much Stage Direction?

Which is Better: Exposition or Expository Dialogue?

Publishing & Sharing Your Work

7 Tips to Build an Audience for Your Writing

Pros and Cons of Self Publishing

Quick Publishing Tip: Don’t Bury Your Gold

How to Properly Format Your Manuscript for Publication

A warning about posting writing online that you intend to publish later

Advice for writers who are worried about people stealing their work or ideas

Getting feedback on your writing

How to Create a Cover Letter for a Literary Magazine or Journal

How to Make a 3D Mockup of Your Book for Free

Editing

10 Questions to Ask an Editor Before Hiring Them

Quick Revision Tip: Read Your Writing Out Loud

How to Keep Yourself From Editing As You Write

Cut the fidgeting

Are you suffering from -ing disease?

Are you Using Too Much Stage Direction?

What “Editing” Really Means

Quick Editing Tip: “That”

Quick Revision Tip: Read Faster

Editing Tip: Dialogue

Tips for Editing a Story

Should You Use a Contract When Hiring an Editor?

Quick Tip: Up & Down

Pre-Editing Checklist

Miscellaneous

The Difference Between a Semi-Colon and an Em-Dash

…if you find any broken links please let me know and I will fix them! xo

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The Literary Architect is a writing advice blog run by me, Bucket Siler. For more writing help, get my FREE Fiction Writing Toolkit or The Complete Guide to Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. xoxo

The 2021 Fanfic Reading Challenge is now live!

Happy New Year everyone! May this year be better than… whatever 2020 was. *side-eyes it* To that aim, I propose a little bit of fun with the fanfic reading I know we’ll all be doing this year anyway!

Remember: this is open to ALL fandoms and ALL ships and ALL topics.

Spreadsheet format found here. Simply save a copy off of this link, and then you can edit it (except for goals) to your heart’s content. The Rules are listed as a page on the Spreadsheet for your convenience but I will be adding that to the Tumblr as I work on it.

PDF version. For if you wish to print it out and manually mark it up.

A Google Docs version, which is just a list of the goals.

I can make more simplified versions of the list if someone needs it, within reason.

The rest of the Tumblr is not quite complete as I have only so many spoons (I’m working on it though! :D), but I wanted to get this out to you as soon as possible so you could start on it/plan for it ASAP! I know I’ve been chomping at the bit to get started on this, myself. ^_^

Though the Tumblr is not quite finished, the Ask box is certainly open, and if you can’t find your answer on the Rules page of the spreadsheet, ask away!

Have fun, and get to reading! (I already know you are. :P) Juulna

Please signal boost and share this post, as this is a new blog and it has very little reach—also, I only have reach into a bare few fandoms, so please share with any and all shippers and fandom-lovers and fic-readers you know! Share the fun. ;)

P.S. I’d love to have two, maybe three, badges for this event near the end of 2021. One for completing the main challenge, one for completing everything, and a participation badge as the third ‘maybe’. I could muddle my way through making them but they wouldn’t be very fancy, so if anyone’s interested in creating some for this event, that would be amazing. I’d even consider negotiating a commission at a later date, depending on how much interest there is in this event! :)

Reactions to tragedy

In real life, pretty much everybody reacts to tragedy differently. So why is it that every author has their pet reaction to tragedy that all their characters use? Not only is it unrealistic, but it takes away the chance for the characters’ different reactions to reveal things about themselves.

Possible reactions to tragedy (not an exhaustive list):

Distracting oneself with mindless activities

Distracting oneself with others’ humor

Distracting oneself by making jokes

Distracting oneself by reading/watching/playing stories

Distracting oneself with hard mental work

Distracting oneself with hard physical work

Distracting oneself with creative endeavors

Distracting oneself by chatting with friends about normal things

Talking to friends about the tragedy

Talking to authority figures about the tragedy

Talking anonymously with strangers about the tragedy (if possible)

Getting wrapped up in others’ problems

Staying unusually silent

Screaming

Crying loudly

Crying silently

Doing everything possible not to cry

Pacing

Taking unhealthy risks

Going for revenge against whoever one can blame

Punching random objects

Throwing random objects

Lashing out against friends and family members

Trying to prevent a similar tragedy from happening

Eating more than usual

Not eating

Taking mind-altering substances

Getting in unhealthy relationships

Isolating oneself

Obsessing over routine

Numbness combined with apathy

Numbness combined with going through one’s normal motions

Trying to get things back the way they were

Denial

No reaction at first but a reaction hits later in greater force

No reaction at all. Emotions relating to the tragedy just fail to load. Note that this can happen to anybody and does not mark a character as a sociopath.

Characters can have more than one reaction at the same time, one reaction after another, or different reactions to different tragedies.

Question: Why didnt they just cut off Dumbledore’s arm when cursed with the withering curse? Is there an actual in-world explanation or was it just for the plot and the drama of Dumbledore asking Snape to kill him?

I saw the handprint through my streaming tears (i was sobbing my eyes out like a baby) and i cried so much harder. That handprint was the turning point for so much in the show. It was a turning point for Sam and Dean's relationship. It was a turning point for the forces and lore of the world. It was a turning point with Castiel showing up. It was the beginning of their relationship.... And it being there when Cas was sacrificing himself? Even if it wasn't burned into Deans skin? It hurt worse than if my heart was ripped out of my body and burned in front of me.

Ok, I’ll admit it: the hand print got me.

Hey guys!

So my family just bought property in Arizona, it's in the middle of nowhere, dozens of miles from people. And while I grew up in the forest and knew the typical customs (dont step in fairy rings, avert your gaze from the glowing eyes in the woods, thank the trees) I have no idea of desert customs when it comes to ghosts and fae and the supernatural. I've never really visited the desert, so any advice would be nice!

Dionysus and Apollo

My biggest Rick Riordan pet peeve (I love his books but I have many many gripes with some things…)

Uh Apollo isn’t the god of fucking rock n roll stars and ‘bad’ poetry. That’s Dionysus. Apollo is the god of ballet, of studied poetry, the kind that has rules and form while Dionysus is poetry that says ‘fuck you’ to all that and scribbles on a page. Apollo is the god of ballet, a type of dance so grueling and studied that there are schools recognized for their disipline all over the world… Dionysus is the god of breakdance and dubstep not becaus they are any less hard but because it was born on the streets and taught there still. Apollo is the god that showed Michael Angelo wisdom while Dionysus drove Van Gogh to paint a night with stars no one had ever seen before and who drove Pollock mad with drink and who showed Dali that dreams could be painted. Apollo might have inspired Mozart to learn piano and read musi but it was Dionysus who drove him mad with creation. 

Apollo and Dionysus are two sides of a coin, of art and genius, of academia and emperial learning.  Apollo is the god of rational thinking and order, appealing to prudence and purity. On the other hand, Dionysus is the god of irrationality and chaos, appealing to emotions and instincts. The Greeks did not consider the two gods to be opposites or rivals, although often the two deities were entwined by nature. In fact, Dionysus’ temples were always built next to Apollo’s as you cannot have one without the other. 

Also, it is Dionysus who is the literal god of theatre, not Apollo. 

Preach!!!! I live breath and die for Valdangelo and am not the biggest fan of Percabeth and have been torn apart by canon shippers in the past. Ship what you want and move on. 

Non-Canon Ships in the Percy Jackson Fandom

One thing I really hate about a loud minority of people in the Percy Jackson fandom (which needs to be addressed, so I’ll address it) is that they’re so intolerant to non-canon ships. Most of the other fandoms I’m in either don’t have canon ships in the first place, or are completely open to all ships. A loud minority of people in the Percy Jackson fandom are just so stuck on P3rcabeth, S0langelo, etc. that they’re completely closed-minded when it comes to other ships, like Percico or Valdangelo or Piperbeth. And I don’t mind that they don’t ship these non-canon ships, I mind that they constantly hate on them (“I hate Percico so much, S0langelo and P3rcabeth for life”, “Lol, Percico sucks”, “I’m glad Percico never happened” on Percico fanart and videos and fics, like wtf even is your reason for hating it?? Cuz it’s not canon??).

They bash ships constantly just because it challenges their own ship. Not even because it’s ~problematic~ or anything, just simply because it’s not their own ship. It’s like they try to find excuses to hate on these ships, because they’re such control freaks and they think everyone should only stick with the canon ships, or that the canon ships are somehow superior to the non-canon ones (despite the various issues with the canon ships tbh, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make). Anyway, I don’t think any of them have actually grasped the point of fandom yet……it’s simply annoying that they go on posts of other ships specifically to hate on them, when they could ignore it and move on with their lives and their canon ships. Like God, just let non-canon shippers have some fun, let them ship what they want. It’s not threatening your ship in canon, and it’s not forcing you to ship non-canon ships, so just leave them alone.

(Note: Also, in case any S0langelo or P3rcabeth shipper/non-canon ships anti comes across this, let it be known that I tagged this appropriately, and I haven’t crosstagged at all……go in the “tagged” section to find posts with your specific tags.)

TW for suicide

So I know that about everyone assumes that Ben died because The Horror ripped him apart. And while that I a completely valid assumption and tbh most likely what happened I’m just going to put out my own Head Cannon before season 2 comes out and we have a chance of finding out the truth.

We know that Ben’s power was a horrible one. We know that he hated it. He hated the killing and the tentacles sprouting from his chest and the dimension in his stomach and being covered with blood and body parts as actual human beings get ripped up in front of him. He hated it. We also know that Klaus sees Ghosts as they died. What they were wearing, how old they were, every injury they have. So consider: 

If Ben was ripped apart by The Horror on a mission or in training...where was his uniform? where were his injuries? He is wearing a hoodie and a leather jacket and jean. We all know Reginald would have never allowed that during training or on a mission. And why is his body not ripped to shreds or at least full of lacerations and blood. 

I propose an alternate theory. What if he killed himself? Its not too far a stretch really. Steal a handgun from ol’ Reggies office, wear normal clothes bc its free time or bc you know what you’re planning and judging by Klaus’ powers don’t want to be stuck in the uniform for eternity. It would be worth the risk for Ben. No more killing. I think he shot himself through the roof of his mouth and back of his skull. We almost always see him with his hood up or only from the front. The few shots we do get of the back of his skull are fleeting or its dark. At that stage of his life Ben would have probably done anything to get rid of The Horror. Why not that?

Pink Gauze & Glitter Glue

In season 2 I want them to reappear as kids.

I want them to get up and for Ben to be alive. I want Ben to be angry at everyone because of how they treated Klaus, and shrug off everyone's hugs and greetings. Smiling and nodding towards Vanya and Diego as Klaus is clinging onto him like hes his only lifeline (he might as well be).

I want Klaus to step back.

I want him to instinctively reach for dog tags that should be around his neck, a habit developed over 10 long months for whenever he felt anything remotely negative.

I want him to feel nothing and look down in panic as his siblings have a stare off in the background. Allison and Luther pushing Ben for answers on why hes so cold.

I want Ben to turn towards Klaus and I want to see the exact moment Ben realizes something is wrong.

I want Klaus to start hyperventilating as his world zeros in on the fact that they're in the past, that his clothes didn't transfer through time travel, that hes stuck in his old academy uniform and that he's missing Dave's dog tags.

Hes missing Dave's dog tags.

He's missing Dave's dog tags.

They're gone.

They didn’t transfer through time travel.

I want Klaus to realize. I want Ben to realize.

And then.

I want.

To see him...

break.

Klaus has gone through so much and I want him to sob, I want him to claw at his chest and release blood curdling screams of emotional agony as his last connection to Dave is severed.

I want Ben to pull him in his arms and hold him as Klaus shatters.

Klaus, already a pile of shards, already only held together by pink gauze and glitter glue.

And in that moment he changes.

As Ben screams at his siblings in righteous fury, finally cracking under their accusing stares. Every wrong they’ve ever committed towards Klaus spilling past his lips like a never ending stream of poison.

I want Klaus to go blank.

A blankness that Five is intimately aware of, one that is part of him still. A blankness that he never would wish on any of his siblings, one that he came back to prevent.

I want him to go blank. The blank of someone who has forgotten happiness. I want him to stand up and wipe his face, I want him to stare at his siblings, zeroing in on Luther, and turn.

I want a dark Klaus. One who suffers from extreme PTSD and anxiety. One who can stand in the middle of a battlefield and calmly load a revolver and shoot every person perfectly in the forehead. One who still makes dirty jokes (now twisted and macbre and no longer finny) and wears extravagant clothes (only in pitch black). One who still does his nails in neon colors and smudges his eyeliner everywhere (now only a routine force of habit and not because it brings happiness), but also one who is a shadow of his former self.

I want a Klaus who is broken, bruised, shattered, torn. I want a Klaus whose pieces have turned to shards. Whose gauze is now barbed wire and whose glitter glue is now acid.

I want a Klaus who has an obvious, terrifying, plastic smile. I want him to willingly torture, hurt, kill and maim. I want him cold, cynical, apathetic, harsh, downright cruel.

And then

I want him to get better. I want him to change, to learn to let go, to free himself. And in the very last season I want him to smile; a bright, sunny, happy thing; crack a very Klaus joke; don his feather boa; grab his pink rimmed umbrella; shimmy into his tight lace up pants, sheer crop top, black coat and 6 inch death wish heels; and I want him to stroll into the sunset dancing to music on his I pod and singing a happy little tune.

I want Allison to whisper, with tears in her eyes that that was his first real smile in years (hell maybe decades) as she shares a grin with her siblings.

Because recovery is part of the journey, and they deserve to be happy too.

No matter how twisted their family is.

Imagine. 1/2 The war has ended & the Wizengamot are currently holding court & reviewing Dumbledore's memories that he saved. In the span of months they find many containing Death Eater spy Severus Snape, & Ministry spy Percy Weasley. With one dead & the other Missing the British wizarding world is thrown upside down as they review the Memories & realise just how much Percy Weasley was a Mastermind Schemer in saving the lives of many Muggle Borns, Goblins, Half-Blood's and Blood Traitors.

2/2 The Wizarding world are looking for where war hero Percy Weasley is. Especially his family (In this story Percy saves Fred's life & then vanishes). They see that Percy Weasley had worked as an informant during his entire Ministry career, also being the one who thought out Dumbledore's death (Shocking the courthouse) "You're already dying Albus, why not have Severus strengthen his position with the Death Eaters by being your killer?" 'He used every situation to his advantage to end the war'

Ah, the reveal of the wronged hero, what a simple and satisfying trope. It gives us angst, the bitter taste of not being appreciated mixed with the sweet sauce of late recognition and regret.  

But Percy doesn’t care about that or any other tropes because he is exhausted. Winning a war is a tiring job and he was being doing more than winning. So as soon as Voldemort keels over and dies, Percy checks that his family is alive (they all are, good job there, Percival) and he makes himself a portkey and goes away.

One wizard can’t make a portkey, you say? It takes at least four? Barty Crouch Jr had to imperius three other wizards to enchant the Goblet of Fire? And portkeys don’t work in Hogwarts under normal circumstances? Well, these are not normal circumstances, there was a battle and Percy has a lot of practice making portkeys, all right? A lot.

(There are less than twenty goblins in Britain right now and it is all Percy’s doing).

He goes to East Asia because Percy is vaguely aware that a single white man in need of enlightenment and self-discovery should go climb a mountain on Asia. Percy doesn’t climb any mountains, though, because he can never do things as he is supposed to. There must always be a twist. In this case, he gets food poisoning twice and spends over a month trying to learn how to play a plucked string instrument. He is harassed by a flock of geese and meets a talking dragon. He fails to realize that there are no accounts of talking dragons in history (at least the history badly learned and repeated in wizarding Britain). Dragons do not talk nor do they speak. Your brother works in a freaking dragon reserve, for Merlin’s sake, Percy. You should know this.

After that Percy goes to the Caribbean, because he feels that his stress-relief and self-discovery journey should also involve a stay in a tropical beach. He doesn’t particularly enjoy the experience because he is a red-head. Also, sand is annoying. He freckles all over, eats a lot of pork, learns to play the maracas, to the locals’ amusement, and leaves.

By the time Dumbledore’s memories are uncovered Percy has made his way to a Greek island. He dresses almost exclusively with a t-shirt tied around his waist like a loincloth and a pair of trainers. He also carries with him a bag made from a t-shirt like some sort of wild instagrammer. He carries all kind of knick-knacks in his bag that he uses to create himself a house at night, as if transfiguring a nutshell into a bed were a normal thing, Percy, you utter maniac.

From time to time he goes to a wizarding community and offers to do some chores or magic in exchange of goods. If a goblin woman sees him, she will give Percy a loaf of bread. He has no idea why they do that but it’s very good bread, so Percy is happy to take it. One time Percy met a male goblin and he gave Percy some salt, that he still carries with him. It is possible that for the last seven months Percy had been eating goblin bread and whatever fresh produce the Greek witches offer him in exchange of doing chores.

It is at this time that the Puddlemere United goes to Greece to do some pre-season training.

(This is something that football teams around Europe do. Go somewhere outside the country to train for a month or two in different conditions. The Manchester United often goes to Malaga, in Spain, for a warm-weather training. I don’t even like football, I don’t know why I know this.)

When Oliver Wood sees Percy Weasley standing around in little more than a loincloth he naturally assumes that he is having a hallucination, a combination of the relentless training under the hot and punishing sun, the hours spent fighting the wind (they don’t know what it is with the wind there, but it will try to kick you off the broom. They are all coming out of this with iron abs) and the constant stories in The Prophet about yet another plot Percival Weasley had conducted, saving a dozen lives.

“Percy?” Oliver asks, sweaty and thirsty and half mad from training.

“Oh, hi, Oliver!” Percy answers, and then, because Percy is simultaneously the cleverest and dumbest wizard alive, “oh shit”.

*

Percy has not been reading the news. He refuses to. He is on vacation, he is still tired and he has a white hair on his temple. Just the one hair, but Percy is twenty-two and far too young for white hair.

Oliver nods. He gets it. He is still telling the Weasley family that he has seen Percy and that he is not dead at all, only slightly insane. But he will wait until he is back in England. Oliver doesn’t know if all the things in the paper are true, but even if Percy has only rescued one thousand five hundred goblins instead of the fifteen thousand the papers claim, he is still entitled to a nice quiet vacation in which clothes are optional.

Did Percy Weasley stop a goblin genocide in his free time? Does he not realize it? How dumb is this boy?

Come September the owls start to arrive. Letters from the Ministry, from the papers, from his family. Percy watches the owl fly around and doesn’t allow himself to be found. He does read Oliver’s letters and even answers explaining that no, his family is not heart-broken. They were heart-broken five years ago when Percy very publicly acted like an asshole. They got used to it, so there is no need for this new sentimentality now that Percy is on vacation.

Percy might be acting a bit like an asshole now, but he has very complicated and ugly feelings over his family and he would rather not think about them. Mostly, he is irked by the fact that they were so quick to follow Dumbledore’s lead. Perhaps because Percy never worked for Dumbledore, he worked with Dumbledore and had the distinct pleasure of pointing to his face, on multiple occasions, what a sly bastard he was. He has little respect for people who never confronted Dumbledore.

(So basically Percy only respects Aberforth Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall).

Also, Percy always did what he was supposed to: he washed his hands, minded his siblings, got good grades and he yet he was not the favourite son. This is all subconscious, of course, but he resents it.

Oliver keeps writing so Percy keeps writing back.

 “Did you actually side-apparate a family with twelve members?” writes Oliver.

“I have no idea.” Percy writes back. “Wait, do you mean the Johnsons? How are they?”

 “They are going to give you an Order of Merlin, 1st Class”.

“Surely they realise I don’t want one.”

“I think it is evident they realise nothing, Percy.”

 By October it’s getting cold and Percy finds that he doesn’t particularly care about wearing clothes, so he is getting ready to portkey himself to Argentina when Ginny arrives. She has such a driven and purposeful look around her that Percy assumes that she must be in the middle of a very important quest, so he hangs back and follows her as she treks all over the island and vanishes a thousand year old monster. It doesn’t occur to Percy that her quest is finding him and that the monster was merely an unfortunate bystander.

Eventually he reveals himself to Ginny because she is screaming incoherently at the sky and Percy thinks that she might be suffering hypoxia and dehydration. Ginny throws the water bottler at his head.

“I’m not the jerk here.” Percy says. “I needed a vacation and if you hadn’t seen those stupid memories you would have been fine with me being out of the country indefinitely.”

Ginny hexes him seven times, but afterwards she lies on the beach next to Percy and they look at the clouds. They spend a week together, nicely quiet and wild. They go for walks, play on the beach, make a house at night out of random transfigured things (Percy doesn’t notice Ginny’s look of utter bafflement and awe) and eat goblin bread (this time Percy does notice the look but assumes it’s because Ginny loves the taste).

Percy refuses to go back with her but he promises Ginny that he will be there for Christmas. Two days later he does go back to England, the bastard. His correspondence with Oliver has become… heated, to put it some way, and waiting a week for the owl to arrive is intolerable.  

Percy thinks this might be some sort of penance. It’s nippy in England and he can’t be dressed in a t-shirt/loincloth anymore. There is a flock of owls permanently following him, trying to deliver their messages from the Ministry and the papers and maybe, even now, from his family. Worst of all, Oliver writes him all kind of randy letters but refuses to shag Percy, even though he is right there, because of sports. Something about turning frustration into spectacular athletic performance, Percy doesn’t know. He is so frustrated that he goes and stops a plan to assassinate Potter all by himself.

On Christmas Eve Percy goes home and he is yelled at, cursed at, cried at and loved, very loved, it’s embarrassing. He is rescued from the madness by Potter who easily admits he has been fuelling the newspapers infatuation with Percy because that way they left him slightly in peace.

(And on Boxing Day he moves in with Oliver).

Just watched Dead Poets Society. I sobbed really hard and now need to hydrate. Such a beautiful ending and the interspersed quotes.....I need the mantra from the society tattooed on my face.

i think what’s on a person’s nightstand is very telling so reblog this and put in the tags the things you have on your nightstand

Criminal Minds: A Tribute

After having finally watched the season 15 finale last night, I cannot believe that this amazing show is finally over. I haven’t watched this show since it began airing like some people, nor have I ever watched it episode by episode as it slowly came out on CBS, and some would say that that makes me ‘not a real fan’ but I digress. I have been watching this show for over two and a half years now and it has been some of the best moments of my life.

It all started with two episodes I watched on a whim when they were on cable in a little hotel room in white salmon, Washington. I had already gotten a taste of police procedurals at that point through NCIS (which I have still not finished) and had previously seen criminal minds on my recommended list on Netflix so i thought ‘why not?’ and turned it on. This was still one of the best decisions of my life to date. That might seem super dramatic but the two episodes i watched (10x16 ‘Lockdown’ and 10x17 ‘Breath Play’) were amazing to me. They were just the right amount of creepy and haunting with that dash of genius and psychology and action....it was just perfection in every way. 

So I decided to go back to the beginning and start the whole show from the top.

At first I was confused, the cast was different in season 10, and in season 1 there were all these people i didn't know, but I soon caught up and watched the first few seasons with my mom.It was slow going, I admit, I got home form school and had to quickly watch anywhere from 1 to 3 episodes before my stepdad came home as he didn't like the show but I soon watched all 12 seasons available on Netflix. It was the most bizarre moment when i finished them and sat there for a while with no way to access the rest of the show. Months passed, it seemed to me that the heretofore 2 years of watching the show was over, that I would never finish it. But after 8 months of moving around and waiting, I finally got my hands on the remaining 3 seasons. I binge watched 13 and half of 14 before I procrastinated another 2 months, because I was not ready for it to end.

When I think of Criminal Minds, the first episode that comes to mind is an unusual one. Season 1 episode 14 ‘Ride The Lightning’, I barely remember anything from the earlier season but Ride the Lightning sticks out to me as one of the most heartbreaking episodes on the show. The Woman asking to stay on death row and the car driving away at the end hurts my soul. It has been so long but that episode will forever be seared in my brain.

The second episode that always sporadically comes back to me is the season 2 episode ‘North Mammon’. The idea of 3 girls having to choose whom to kill, is one that shoots shivers down my spine. It was an ugly and tragic episode that will always hurt to watch.

I have loved almost every member in the BAU at some point, some more than others, but my favorite is Dr Spencer Reid. This is probably a typical choice but I don’t care at all. His character arc from a shy and awkward sweater wearing genius to a badass and confident agent is one that is amazing, tragic and sweet all at the same time. In season 1 he cant even shoot a gun but in season 15 he get a 100 on his shooting examination. In the same way, he was often a scrawny ‘pipe cleaner with eyes’ early in the show but in season 14 he swiftly takes down a suspect who lightly shoves Tara. I love how he becomes confident and strong willed but most of this is due to torture, prison, drug addiction, and his girlfriend being shot in front of him which makes his character development horrifying but no less satisfying.

This team...they’re a family. They’ve been blown up, shot, tortured, killed, electrocuted, chased by dogs, hunted down, kidnapped, falsely accused, drugged, imprisoned, and psychologically tormented. They would hurt for each other, kill for each other, die for each other. They were each others mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. They were more than friends and family in every way that counted. And now it’s....over.

I’m am so blessed that I was able to go on this journey with this amazing cast of characters and they will forever be in my heart, I will never, ever forget the agents of the BAU and I will always list this show as one of the top ten best of all time.

Wheels Up,

Forever.

Guys!!!! GUys!!!!!

I just got my copy of the Secret History in the mail!!!!!!!! I am So HyPeD!!!!! I hope its as good as i think it’ll be!!!!

Ok, people who adapt classic literature (or any literature) to cinema PLEASE repeat after me:

I will not omit half of the book on behalf of the love story I think will give me more public

Because Emily Brontë did not write Wuthering Heights to be disrespected by you eliminating literally 200/400 pages of the book because you think that half was unimportant. I'm not exaggerating

And Charlotte Brontë also did not write a beautiful story focusing on the spiritual growth of the protagonist who also happens to be a woman so you could erase the whole Moor House part (another 200 pages) which is so important for the story of Jane Eyre

And so mamy other examples. Just stop deciding that a part of a story is unimportant just because it's not romantic because you're just making yourselves look like buffoons

A Being of Grand Design

I wear a dress made of stars, galaxies swirling along the bodice, nebulae lining the fringe. i am made of every life ever lived and every soul that ever will be. 

My skin is covered in words. Every poem, every novel, every classic i’ve ever read. Words melding together and covering my skin in ink. 50 thousand fonts and letters melding together in a grotesque mockery of a tattoo. My favorites excerpts are printed in bloody red.

Every breath I breath in is made of stories. Novels, plays, movies, ballet, tv shows, opera, music, art. It fills my veins and fuels my body. Carrying thoughts and dreams as they make my muscles move.

My hair is thousands of memories strung together. Ever moment filled with emotion. Sadness drowns me as Rage burns bright. Love floats me to the highest clouds as happiness brings me down to earth where I can dig my toes in fresh soil.

Seas of tears fill my eyes. Every one I’ve ever shed and every one I haven’t. Just because something isn’t real doesn’t mean I can’t scream for it. Tear filled wails shake my body as I sob for lives never lived and souls reaped to soon. Dreams drown as I cry for every person alive and those already in the grave and those who will be and those only found within stories.

My heart pumps ink through my veins. Never replacing blood  but trying to take a humanity to whom it’s claim had always been staked. The ghostly hands of authors long dead and characters fated to be, caress my bones as I crawl to my grave of pages.

I start as a film reel replaces my brain. Love and Loss and Pain and Worship not mine control me like a marionette. Every emotion from this earth and beyond dig their claws into the inside of my skull as ideas framed as people recite lines lost to time.

I cut my arms open with a sharp shard of glass. I spill blood red as dusk as I don every bad thought, every bad day , every tragedy and heartbreak, every scream and fear fraught day my family has ever had. I soak them in my ink streaked blood and make every familial woe mine. I wear boots made of death and tights of betrayal. My shawl is of fear and my belt made of financial doubt. I wear a headband of hate and bangles of loss as prejudice is smeared around my lips like lipstick.

They ask me what it’s like to be a writer.

I say it’s like turning yourself into fates marionette as you become Frankenstein’s monster.

aesthetic:

ancient universities, dark or dead flowers, aging books, handwritten letters and messy journal entries, heartfelt poetry, sentimentality, melancholy piano or cello, sweaters, coffee, old libraries, ivy on brick walls, Augustine prayers, holding hands, walking by the water on a gloomy day while the wind blows through your hair, studying by lamplight, lighting candles, getting lost in the woods, soft music playing in a sunlit room, tea cups, plants that can thrive on little sunlight, rainy days, cuddling peacefully while a storm rages outside, a leather bound Bible that’s falling apart, learning Greek or Latin and reading Shakespeare for pleasure, laying on the ground in the sun and staring at the sky, coffeehouse and book store dates, sincere and passionate love, believing vulnerability is strength, being kind because ‘you never meet a mere mortal,’ feeling everything, an awareness of the supernatural, walking wistfully through long dark halls, an unassuming but enduring faith in something bigger, book shelves and sculptures and paintings, reading out loud while your lover lays their head in your lap, star gazing, leather analog watches, dramatic expressions of love, preferring intimate one-on-ones over coffee to big and loud parties, a fine glass of wine, quoting those long dead, having a thing for intellectuals and Europeans, a subtle wanderlust under being content at home with a book and a cup of tea, longing to wander Scottish castles and moors, wishing you had an accent, the haunting sound of monks singing in cathedrals, knowing you’d do anything to let your loved ones know you love them and just how deeply you do

Fractured Gravestones

The best stories are made of shattered glass.

They’re beautiful, they’re tragic, they’re sad, they’re hopeful, they’re so very bittersweet.

Whenever I experience a new story I always focus on the tragic side of it. Not because I like the despair, though that does play some distant and twisted role, it’s because of what the tragedy brings out in the characters. I love following their path, how they start as innocent children and slowly come to the horrific realization of what sentient beings can do. How even with the darkness they still fight, they still love, they still bleed...all for what they believe in, because they won’t just give up. 

No. 

They fight for life and freedom because it is right, and because no one else will. 

Maybe that's why my favorite stories are so sad sometimes.

An alien who travels across time, galaxies, universes and multiverses. Who has loved and lost more than anyone should. Who cannot be alone because he might become exactly what he fights. Who fell in love with a woman who became trapped and married a woman he met completely out of order and died upon their meeting. A man who saves and sacrifices and hurts and bleeds and asks for nothing in return. When will his time run out? When will it stop being ‘one last miracle’?

An Ice cold detective and his doctor, who run around solving crimes that no one else can. A genius who feels so fiercely that he shuts off all emotion to avoid getting hurt - again. A soldier who came home empty and is horrified to find that he misses the war. He faked his death once, who says it won't be real next time?

Two brothers and their angel who travel across the country in an old impala, fighting things of nightmares that most believe to be myth and legend. Going against all odds, against their own people, for what they believe is right. An angel always willing to bleed for them, family that would end the world for each other. They’ve died many times. when will it be permanent?

A boy drafted into a war before he was even born, who had a lightning bolt scar and a destiny he couldn't fight, and blood on his hands before he was twelve. One who grew up too fast and learned too quickly that magic wasn't always the stuff of childish dreams. His best friend who thinks he's not enough, youngest of 6 brothers who feels like his achievements don't matter. And the Brightest witch of her age, quick as a whip who saved her boys again and again. They are all drowning in blood before they are legally adults, red-stained hands leaving sticky smears in their wake, staining everything they touch. They were child soldiers, willing or not. When will the nightmares stop?

A hero of godly parentage who went to war at 16 and then was put through another before he became an adult. A boy with a loving mother who never gave up on him, an amazing half-goat best friend who would face the worst of his fears to save his life, and a girlfriend who he would bend heaven and earth for. He’s faced gods and monsters that grown men would fear, killed things that have devoured men thrice his age, bested those terrifying things repeatedly. When will the Gods leave him alone?

A group from the FBI who have been shot at, cut, imprisoned, isolated, blown up, and tortured. A genius who became addicted, a media liaison who lost a child, an ex-lawyer who lost a wife, an author dragged from retirement, a man forced to confront his traumatic past, an interpol agent made to fake her death, a bright and happy technical analyst made to see horrors before her screens every day. They are beaten, bruised and broken. How many horrific ways can someone think of killing. Why must their lives be paved with the bodies of victims never saved?

The MCRT from NCIS who have been betrayed, manipulated and hurt. Who have seen teammates die and families burn. A marine whose wife and child were murdered, an agent with a frat boy mask who almost died from the plague, an ex-mossad agent of a cracked family, an MIT graduate who was woken to real life too soon, a peppy forensic scientist whose optimism became dull, a medical examiner with a sick mother and his insecure assistant. How will they move on if everything they love keeps withering away?

A team of enhanced human beings; some with magic, some with power, some with pure skill; who help people. The universe was full of aliens and monsters and horrors untold. They kill them and incarcerate them and save the earth again and again and again from people much smarter, stronger and way more powerful than themselves. How much luck do they have? When will they go on a mission and not come back?

A Demon and an Angel in a bookshop in Soho who prevented the apocalypse. A Demon who loves plants and stares at galaxies that he helped create, never able to visit again. An angel with a love of books and food who must ‘always obey’ ‘never fail’. Two celestial beings who gave up everything for humanity and each other, and would do so again in a heartbeat. When will that not be enough? When must they let go?

There are many more stories; some popular, some obscure; but it always comes down to loving something or someone so much that you would sacrifice anything, even your own life, for it. 

And I love that.

Sure it’s sad, Kids killed. Dreams squandered. Hearts shattered. Souls bruised. Hope broken… But it has a sort of beauty, the fact that they keep fighting and loving and dreaming and helping despite that, because of that. 

Because no one deserves to go through the same pain they did.

To die was an art, To live was destruction

An angel

in a sea of devils

is a terrifying

prospect to those

who only

know

pain

- My soul is shattered glass but i am not unfix-able

Permanent Damage

If you look long enough into the void, the void begins to look back through you.

Draco Malfoy will never be able to hold anything for long. Constant crucios over 3 years has damaged his nerves.Voldemort was most displeased with his inability to finish his task, the Carrow’s annoyed with his refusal to torture students for their detentions. His hands shake and shiver, nerves constantly shaking with invisible, imaginary pain that stopped years ago. He yells in frustration as his shaking body repeatedly clinks his teacup loudly against its saucer, another futile attempt to keep his hands steady, and smashes it against the floor, a thousand white shards glittering against the black tile.

Harry Potter breaks down every time he gets a headache. Hand clapping to his forehead as the pain sets on, muttering to himself that ‘hes not back.’ ‘I killed him.’ ‘Its over’ as he scans the room; flinching at too pale skin, hand twitching towards his wand as brown eyes reflect red in the flickering, fluorescent light. The cold tile beneath his fingers grounds him as he tries to convince himself that he’s okay. The feeling that some part of him died that day in the forest, surrendering before Voldemort’s wand never leaves, the hollow feeling leaving an aching, painful hole in its wake.

Ron Weasley finds himself scanning rooms over and over again. Planning exit strategies and ways to take out everyone in the room in order to escape. He imagines everyone as an enemy in disguise, subconsciously moving people like chess pieces and picking his small flat, not because it was cheap or because the neighborhood was good (its dismal really) but because it had the best strategic advantage in regards to the city and places around him, in order to hide in case of attacks. He once again comes to his senses after a nightmare and sighs as he realizes that in his delirium he once again had filled pages upon pages of his notebook with battle tactics and the floor plans of places hes been and fought (Hogwarts, the Ministry, the Burrow...). He rips them out and adds them to a growing folder before making a cup of tea.

Hermione Granger finds herself hording food, slipping apples into pockets and bread into her purse. She comes home to find herself with pockets of tarts and a bag of crackers, handfuls of berries slipped between pages of paperwork and cereal bars snuck into file folders. The months of hiding and foraging have made her paranoid and hyper aware of how much food she’ll need to get through the day. She’ll find herself counting calories and balancing proteins, carbs and fats before she can stop herself and measuring how much she eats, intuitively leaving some over for Harry and Ron, forgetting that they are no longer on the run, having to ration food.

Luna is no longer as carefree and dreamy as she was. Her creatures turn from whimsical and delicate to horrifying. Claws and teeth grow to protect and attack. She won’t leave the house for days, wandering around inside with closed eyes to avoid Blibbering Humdingers who now have poisonous spines and Nargles with razor teeth, her mind having twisted them from cures for loneliness to share with her father, to weapons of destruction to protect her from the outside world. They are real enough to her that she convinces herself they’ve locked her inside her house and won’t let her leave, she thinks they’ve kidnapped and hurt her friends because ‘It’s  to protect you’ ‘They are spies’ ‘It’s not real Luna’ ‘They only want to hurt you’. The whispers follow everywhere and consume her, dragging her into the void. It’s when she locks Hermione in her basement under the influence of her broken mind, twisted by false images and under the guise of Hermione being someone else using polyjuice, that she gets a room in the Janus Thickney ward of St Mungos. She has moments of clarity but they are few and far between. her mind crumbled, her spirit broken, a twisted shadow of the young, bright girl who hummed happily as she waltzed barefoot through the halls.

Dennis Creevey perpetually has a broken, cracked, dirty camera on a shelf in his bedroom, never to be touched.

George Weasley has smashed every mirror in his flat and refuses to repair them

Percy Weasley takes to straight vodka and tequila out of the bottle because his guilt over Fred.

Kreacher forever wears a cracked and blood stained locket till the day he dies.

Teddy Lupin spends hours staring at pictures of his parents, shifting into one or the other or trying for the perfect mixture of both, never getting it quite right.

Minerva McGonnagal finds a dusty box under Severus Snape’s bed filled with cracked records; a flaky leather jacket; old Polaroids of a girl with a head of flames and eyes of shattered emerald, smiling, arms wrapped tight around a boy with inky hair and sharp, onyx eyes; a fractured glass figurine of a lily lying carefully on top of the pile; folded within an old letter. She sobs over a life spent hating and being hated as she pats the scratched lacquer on a string-less bass guitar

There will always be an empty seat at many tables all over the country as people mourn lives lost unfairly.

You can take people out of the war, but can you take the war out of people?