I love writing fantasy, and I’m a sucker for the kings and gods and swords and sorcery as much as the next person, but one of the things I think deeply influenced me from the incarnations of the genre I started with, is the idea that all of those things are inevitably made of the mundane context that surrounds them.

A quest means something because of the place you left and the food you eat along the way. A sword means something because of the metal it was excised from and the hands that it was forged with and the forging culture of how that person assembled it.

Because very often, we’re presented with the opposite. The hero comes from a small town that is framed as boring and meaningless, to be transcended on their way to date much cooler people, do much cooler things, and probably end up an aristocrat. (but they’re better than the extant aristocrats, because they have the mythologizable Ruggedness of a presumed everyman)

The sword is born perfect, made by the gods in a single plume of light, and there is no methodology or implications to the how and why and from-what.

It makes sense. Fantasy is fantasy. And one of the conflicts of fantasy, bone-deep, is that the umbrella of fantasy accommodates both a love of life, and a resentment of it.

You can like fantasy because you think of the world as beautiful and painful and terrifying and dark and by all accounts worth telling a story about, and the language of magic and myth are ways that you talk about the wonder of the world that we live in.

You can like fantasy because you think of the world as dreary and meaningless and you wish to escape it to a better one, and the magic is as far away from reality as you can make it. That one has always been some degree of popular; I think it makes sense when things are as scary as they are right now.

I don’t strictly think there’s a right or wrong answer; I think that different people need different things, but when I was younger, I valued escapism far more, and as an adult, I now want to believe in a fantasy where elements of reality anchor it down to allow it to spiral ever higher.

I know these changes happened a long time back:

Remember when the standard size of a Tetra Pak juice box was 250 mL rather than 200 mL? Just like when the standard size of pop cans (at least here in Canada) was 280 mL rather than 355mL.

What are some of things bun and mic do together as a couple :0?

just happy little side character stuff :v

mic belongs to @duckroulette <3

Thirty One Ruminations

Written for @microficmay​ 2022 : [ Draco POV + 50 word prompts ] Prompt 24: Serenity | Dramione | Read on AO3

He's used to articles that follow Potter's coterie. 

 Draco discovers Rita Skeeter in his garden, harassed by peacocks, chasing a story. She hands him hastily snapped pictures of Granger, looking pensively through the Manor gates. 

Staring at them, he's overcome with a strange serenity. 

 Later, he'll send an honest letter.

That evening he walked Farley to a greensward that they never went to in the mornings, and on the side of a hill, he and Farley lay down on the grass and Jacob, thinking about what had happened to his childhood friend, looked straight up into the blue sky where, as the sun was descending, its rays going horizontal, chimney swifts were gamboling in the light, chasing each other and soaring higher and higher until they were so high that, Jacob realized, there was no reason for them to be up there. There was nothing for them to eat — insects don't fly that high — and swifts aren't raptors that need a predator's vantage on the ground below. They could only be caracoling that high for the pleasure of it. In exaltation. Because swirling and wheeling in the sky made them feel alive. Who wouldn't want to feel that, if you could? There are species of birds capable of living decades, Jacob had read, but most individuals only live a year or two, because of the odds against them.

Caleb Crain, Walks

i never grew up with the n64 so i kinda just don’t know very much about its generation? so lots of my early games are from snes

Thirty One Ruminations

Written for @microficmay​ 2022 : [ Draco POV + 50 word prompts ] Prompt 23: Progress | Dramione | Read on AO3

The hardest part of having taken the wrong road, Draco finds, is the long walk back.

Lucius only ever taught him to look forward. Momentum, therefore progress.

But back he must go, unpicking all he knows, wishing he'd turned back sooner.

Granger surprises him. Her testimony is merciful.

He weeps.

hngh i just want. to think about hannibal thinking consumption could fix things. hannibal and his insatiable greed and hannibal knowing that honoring something through a meal (read: an act of love and devotion) is the kindest most graceful way to undo the gross act of killing unless of course the act of killing in itself is beautiful, but it's the only! it's- killing, as will graham so succintly put it, would be the ugliest thing in the world and that would make hannibal himself the enabler of something ugly but Hannibal Cannot Be That, or he can't stand it, so he bends over backwards to make something beautiful to satiate both his hunger for blood and his distaste for the graceless i just. how much of his heart is the heart on his plate. i am putting rocks in my mouth and chewing while staring out the window. how much is the act of preparing a meal simultaneous with his forgiveness for himself, how much is each meal just an apology in honor of his sister- like yeah i know it's a fraction, but a fraction is still a portion, however small. an impurity may be fractional but as it exists, it's still an impurity. hannibal hannibal why do you do this to me. why did you need another to remind you that killing would be beautiful when you yourself elevated it to a performance art. why won't you allow yourself to eat in order to sustain something physical instead of a performance that must be measured to perfection each time. sink your teeth into raw flesh and just chew, your beautiful standards don't absolve you of your self-flagellating disgust, you're so full of love hannibal why are you full of love. just be the monster you are hannibal, even if you can't be. even if you still want to be loved, after all is said and done. you sick sick man. i love you dude.

im not fighting my demons im having a debate competition against them

ok actually very funny that i watched We Need To Talk About Kevin and Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood back to back because they’re both ostensibly movies about mental illness, abuse, and motherhood. except they are SO WILDLY different lmaoooo

and i really liked We Need To Talk About Kevin a lot because even tho eva is the POV character, i don’t think you’re supposed to sympathize with her. it doesn’t shy away from the fact that her and kevin are very similar. they morph in scenes. he even point blank says “wonder where i get it from?” when she mentions that he’s being rough. and there’s a transference: his crimes become her crimes just like her life begets his life. 

but i didn’t like Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood because there’s supposed to be this sharing of information over the scrapbook and sidda learning about her mother and coming to an understanding but it completely glosses over the fact that regardless of if there was a quote unquote reason for the abuse that it still happened. she says “wow i always thought it was me but i guess not” and like.. that’s it??? it’s so anticlimactic and frankly a little uncomfortable. even though it’s not supposed to be uncomfortable. 

i get that they are drastically different genres and have drastically different goals but like... i just think sometimes difficult themes are handled in much more interesting and nuanced ways when you allow the story to get -- and stay -- dark and irredeemable. 

oh god oh fuck [conceptualising a hornet + quirrel encounter]

i talk a lot more on twitter so if you want to interact with me more you can request at @/dawnofsorrow ;w; but i’ll try to talk on tumblr more

ah yes firetrucks, piss, and the fourth of july; happy summer

its just me, my singular hour of sleep, and the 15 different half-baked aus i have dancing in my head

genie starter for @coffee-stains-and-migraines​

Another day, another time someone comes upon the mysterious desire-granting lamp. The Genie was well used to the masters being run of the mill or the usual kind of jerks, but he always ended up being overly optimistic and hoping that this one will surely be better than the last.

Starting with a joke always set the tone, so of course, he’s going to be as dramatic as possible.

When the lamp is first rubbed, immediately the lights flicker and go out, leaving the room in darkness. A quick pause for tension, and then...

A dim light comes from before the new master, accentuating a large, intimidating-looking shadow and plumes of red smoke. The shadow speaks in a deep, booming voice:

“Mortal, the object you hold contains immeasurable power, yet also chains a creature comparable to a god... In order to gain the benefits of its magic, you must appease it...”

With that, the lights turn back on and the shadow’s revealed to be coming from a thin humanoid spirit with white hair and strange clothes, holding a red flashlight up to their face and still putting on the deep voice.

“The creature prefers cash and most sweet desserts- oh, uh.” At realizing they’ve been caught making a show, they give a sheepish smile. “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...?”

After that joke, they laugh, and with a wave of their hand all the props and smoke and lighting go back to normal.

“I’m kidding. Not kidding about the whole power thing, though, that part about the magic is all real.

It’s nice to meet ya, master! I’m a Genie, and what you’ve got right there is a ticket to achieving three of your wildest dreams! In short, I grant wishes. Cool, right?”

Thirty One Ruminations

Written for @microficmay​ 2022 : [ Draco POV + 50 word prompts ] Prompt 22: Invincible | Dramione | Read on AO3

Battle rages.

Loud, blinding chaos. Many colours of magic thrown.

It's hard to tell who's who. He can't remember their masks.

All Draco knows is the terror of Hogwarts being torn apart.

Granger disarms somebody behind him and continues running through.

She looks invincible. He hopes that thought holds true.

genie starter for @viviskull​

Maybe Genie - or GG, as Vivi’s taken to calling him - wouldn’t have been so excited to socialize like a human if he knew that hanging out usually included violence.

He’d literally jumped at the offer to go somewhere with her, and as quick as a flash, he’d had a quick costume change. White hair became black and glowing golden eyes became a stormy gray. The odd clothes had to go, and so he’d given himself a blue hoodie (emblazoned with the same V insignia that was on the lamp) and a pair of jeans. He couldn’t get rid of the shackles, but GG tried hiding them as best he could. The lamp, something he unfortunately couldn’t get too far away from, was in a backpack he’d made for himself.

They aren’t too sure how the fight exactly started, but they were busy paying attention to other things. The bar she had taken them to was noisy and full of people, and GG mainly either stared in awe at the cacophony of noise and color, unused to it after so many years alone, or pestering Vi and the people around them with questions.

Maybe Vi got mad because someone said something, maybe they annoyed someone with another dumb question, but it didn’t take long for arguing to turn into bottles being thrown, and GG stands protectively by their charge.

“What do we do, Vi...?”

He can’t make his magic too obvious. When someone approaches towards them, looking like they were about to take a swing at Vivi, Genie acts on impulse, and with only the slightest show of a spell, ties their shoelaces together and they crumple on the floor.

“...Maybe we could take ‘em?”

it's so humiliating when people realise you need help but it's so frightening when they don't

okay dean i've gotta ask if your wip involves the pond-williams-song family or if you're somehow in ANOTHER fandom involving THAT convoluted of a family dynamic and also jail XD

that's Hilarious I see exactly how u got that but no it's a critical role fanfic ft. two characters that were never actually onscreen, I just think they have potential,