Latest Posts by 0-0malik - Page 3

Fanfiction Club: The Rules

This idea came to me when I woke up first thing this morning.

A master post of Thomas Romain’s art tutorials.

There’s not enough space to post all of them, SO here’s links to everything he has posted (on twitter) so far : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. 

Now that new semesters have started, I thought people might need these. Enjoy your lessons!

I was talking over dinner over the HP world building / plot, mainly missed opportunities, and I feel like sharing one main point here: the wizards already live in a dystopia.

Wizard dystopia evidence:

Small society with little cultural diversity. There are other cultures referenced but they never play a large role, there’s this sense of Brit wizard exceptionalism that infects not only their relations with muggles but with foreign wizards too. Even when shit gets dire they don’t really call in allies for help or anything.

They have slaves and defend it as something the house elves prefer (+ Hermione is given the villain-with-a-point treatment in her efforts to free them; she is well meaning but her methods are Too Much and she doesn’t really Get It)

Second class citizens (particularly thinking goblins) are looked down upon and there is an extended history of them attempting to rise up and being defeated. This also goes for squibs (well, not the rising up, but).

Widespread racism - towards goblins, werewolves, centaurs, muggles… a lot of this is institutionalized or supported by society at large even if not officially approved of (think goblin statue in MoM lobby, werewolf treatment, the emphasis on being pureblood even in ‘nicer’ families).

Lack of proper education - the ‘best school’ has a lot of unqualified teachers working there but even beyond that there doesn’t appear to be any further education after 17, and especially with regards to the muggle world even so-called enthusiasts like Mr. Weasley and the Muggle Studies teacher don’t seem to know what the hell they’re talking about

Resistance to new ideas - goes hand in hand with some others here, but their world is steeped in tradition at the cost of innovation. They use candles and quills and fear of the Other is a major part of everyone’s life. They are highly selective about who can know about them and limit what change they can make.

Only ONE real source of news. No other newspapers we really hear of besides the universally-derided Quibbler. We also know for a fact the government has their hands firmly in the Daily Prophet.

Corrupt government - shows up strong in later books but is present from the start via the Malfoys clearly buying their way and also through the…

Harsh punishments for lawbreakers - Azkaban is pretty brutal and there is not much evidence of a more minor punishment beyond like… fines. We know from that the government has just skipped trials when it wanted to, and even the trials it gives don’t seem especially fair or thorough

At the very least, this society is highly flawed. And honestly, there’s nothing wrong with this set up. It’s great, even. Except for one detail…

Voldemort represents change. And he is the enemy.

What I mean by this is that he shakes up the status quo. Everyone seems horrified at him killing Muggles because of a combination of patronizing pity (“those poor helpless muggles can’t defend themselves”) and xenophobic fear (“if he reveals us to them we could all die”). There isn’t widespread societal hatred of his message that wizards are superior so much as there is to his methods. Some of which include things like giving power to second-class citizens like werewolves, for example. Sure, our heroes all know that his message is Wrong, not just his methods.

But Harry was abused by muggles and dives right into the escape of the Wizarding world. Hermione longs to be accepted and her hangups tend to get punished by the story (making them character flaws or moments of humor), until there’s even a scene where she fully cuts ties with her roots. Even exceptions to the rule (werewolves are horrible predators, but Lupin is a great guy. Giants are seen as violent beasts and half-giants discriminated against, but Hagrid is a true friend.) seem to only emphasize the rule itself by being the only exception and even having reinforcing events around those 'good’ characters. (Fenrir Grayback revels in being a beast and leads a whole pack of like-minded werewolves, and even Lupin has put people in danger multiple times. The giants sided with Voldemort/beat up Hagrid with even his brother being so dangerous he had to be tied up, and Hagrid himself has an affinity to dangerous creatures that has put being in danger several times.) These aren’t one to one comparisons but overall the impression you get is of exceptions while the norm isn’t really challenged.

And since Voldemort, who breaks the rules of the Wizarding society, is the villain, our heroes become representatives of returning the world to the way it was before he ruined everything. Their grand victory in the end is nothing more than a return to the status quo, at least on a textual level. Maybe Hermione becomes Minister of Magic but as far as I recall we don’t hear about all the house elves being freed or the goblins getting a fair shake.

And since the world is already pretty much a dystopia, albeit one with fun magic flavoring, this victory doesn’t make anyone really better off. If they had defeated Voldemort using Muggle tech or unconventional thinking or something, that would have helped to lead to a story of change. But they instead used old magic, pretty much, and let things go back to the way they used to be. There is no forward progress in the end. No true overhauling of the corrupt system.

Soukoku is probably the only ship that gives me immense happiness and pain at the same time.

Okay, I'm rambling BUT

I think people forget that Chuuya is one of the very few people who know Dazai. Like, actually know him past his masks. That Dazai isn't the only one who can hurt Chuuya, that Chuuya can hurt Dazai just as much. Because Chuuya knows Dazai. Knows what makes him angry and what makes him act in certain ways to some extent and can understand his plans with no words sometimes

People focus on Dazai hurting Chuuya. But nobody thinks Chuuya can strike back just as hard. You really think Chuuya didn't at some point absolutely made Dazai feel like shit to the point it made his mind spin for nights? You really think Chuuya hasn't made Dazai feel guilty at least once?

I headcanon that when Chuuya is so pissed he becomes serious his words are pure poison. I headcanon that Chuuya can hurt Dazai more than anyone else could think. I headcanon that Chuuya even has said some very hurtful things to Dazai from time to time and has regretted them terribly. That there were points when Chuuya broke Dazai right back.

Soukoku are equals in ways not many would think. They are soulmates. I'm pretty sure if there's someone who could hurt Dazai for real, it isn't even Mori, but Chuuya.

I bet they struggled at some points to understand when their bickering was okay and when it actually came too far and one or both got genuinely hurt.

Chuuya keeps much to himself, so I think everyone should be absolutely terrified for the moment he actually bursts. Genuinely bursts.

Ladies, gentle men, and everything in between I present to you yet another idea born from the depths of my mind an extremely tiring day. This one has been bouncing around my poor head for a little over a week and at long last I know how to word it in a way that makes sense. Hopefully.

So we all know that Dazai doesn't particularly like dogs. Some people think it is do to some kind of trauma. I am not one of those people. Not everything to do with a person or character is linked to a past experience sometimes that's just how they are. Personally I don't think Dazai has any experience with a dog that traumatized and made him hate them. I just think he has never liked them.

Now sometimes people who don't like dogs will accidentally and to their shock come across a dog that completely steals their heart and they absolutely love. They won't like any other dog. They aren't suddenly a dog person but they would gladly kill for that one specific dog. This idea stems from that.

I'm thinking this would most likely happen a few weeks to about 2-3 months after Dazai leaves the Port Mafia. So he's alone and in hiding. One day he goes out for groceries, because food and bandages, and there's this group of kids in an ally, they're maybe a year or two younger than Dazai would be at the time, and are surrounded a small creature. Dazai doesn't think much off it till he hears whining from the animals followed by what sounds like someone intentionally harming it.

Dazai, against his better judgment, decided to get involved. He scares these kids off and finds a small red nosed pitbull puppy that is a few months old. She is easily less than a year old. She's banged up but not hurt so bad that he need to take her to the vet. Once more against his better judgement he brings this puppy back to where ever he is staying at the time. He plans to only keep her around till she is finished healing then take her to an animal shelter.

It takes him less than a week to decide to keep the puppy. He then proceeds to name her Ember. Ember becomes the only exception to his hatred for dogs. Fat forward to him joining the agency and Ember now has separation anxiety because he barely left her alone for the last two years. He bring Ember with him to the agency every day. Ember, being the sweetheart she is, learns rather quickly how to do things that protect Dazai while in the field.

Throughout the time he is with Ember he starts to do better mental at least marginally because she is reliant on him being alive to survive and he doesn't want his puppy to die. Essentially Ember is his unofficial emotional support animal.

Due to that him meeting Atsushi would probably go different. Possibly him walking Ember or something like that.

Later on when he reunites with Chuuya officially during the Guild arc he naturally brought Ember and that would be the first time Chuuya meets her. Ember instantly loves him which is good because Chuuya also adores her.

Dazai uses that as an excuse to spend time with Chuuya because "Obviously I can't deprive my sweet Ember of time with her second favorite person". Somewhere along the line they start unofficially dating and about a week after dead apple would have taken place they make things official and Dazai moves into Chuuya's place.

Ember is very happy with that development because that means more time with her favorite humans.

Also Ember has a wonky ear due to what happened when Dazai found her. It's nothing bad it's just wonky and makes her look like an adorable little dork.

Pink suits Chuuya.

holy shit, I can’t believe how pink r e a l l y suits him

One of my resolution for 2022 is to post daily (no matter if they’re sketches or works in progress) but it seems with this resolution, my daily sketches of DaChuu will be revealed =.=;

Have a sketch of my fem!Dazai and fem!Chuuya uwu

Chuuya and Dazai DO NOT hate each other

These two do not hate each other! Yes, they hate each other to a degree or to an extent but most of it is superficial and an example of that is empty death threats. If they truly hated each other, Chuuya wouldn't trust Dazai to stop him every time he uses corruption and Dazai wouldn't save Chuuya every time he uses corruption. I'm not saying they're lovers, friends, or anything for that matter! But calling their relationship toxic would be an understatement and so does calling it a love-hate relationship. Their relationship is very very complicated to comprehend to someone's brain.

How to learn a language when you don’t know where to start:

General Plan:

Weeks 1 and 2: Purpose:

Learn the fundamentals sentence construction

Learn how to spell and count

Start building a phrase stockpile with basic greetings

The Alphabet

Numbers 1 - 100

Subject Pronouns

Common Greetings

Conjugate the Two Most Important Verbs: to be and to have

Basic Definite and Indefinite Articles

Weeks 3 and 4: Purpose:

Learn essential vocabulary for the day-to-day

Start conjugating regular verbs

Days of the Week and Months of the Year

How to tell the time

How to talk about the weather

Family Vocabulary

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Weeks 5 and 6: Purpose:

Warm up with the last of the day-to-day vocabulary

Add more complex types of sentences to your grammar

Colours

House vocabulary

How to ask questions

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Forming negatives

Weeks 7 and 8: Purpose:

Learn how to navigate basic situations in a region of your target language country

Finish memorising regular conjugation rules

Food Vocabulary and Ordering at Restaurants

Money and Shopping Phrases

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Weeks 9 and 10: Purpose:

Start constructing descriptive and more complex sentences

Adjectives

Reflective verbs

Places vocabulary

Weeks 11 and 12: Purpose:

Add more complex descriptions to your sentences with adverbs

Wrap up vocabulary essentials

Adverbs

Parts of the body and medical vocabulary

Tips for Learning a Foreign Language:

Learning Vocabulary:

What vocabulary should I be learning?

There are hundreds of thousands of words in every language, and the large majority of them won’t be immediately relevant to you when you’re starting out.Typically, the most frequent 3000 words make up 90% of the language that a native speaker uses on any given day. Instead try to learn the most useful words in a language, and then expand outwards from there according to your needs and interests.

Choose the words you want/need to learn.

Relate them to what you already know.

Review them until they’ve reached your long-term memory.

Record them so learning is never lost.

Use them in meaningful human conversation and communication.

How should I record the vocabulary?

Learners need to see and/or hear a new word of phrase 6 to 17 times before they really know a piece of vocabulary.

Keep a careful record of new vocabulary.

Record the vocabulary in a way that is helpful to you and will ensure that you will practice the vocabulary, e.g. flashcards.

Vocabulary should be organised so that words are easier to find, e.g. alphabetically or according to topic.

Ideally when noting vocabulary you should write down not only the meaning, but the grammatical class, and example in a sentence, and where needed information about structure.

How should I practice using the vocabulary?

Look, Say, Cover, Write and Check - Use this method for learning and remembering vocabulary. This method is really good for learning spellings.

Make flashcards. Write the vocabulary on the front with the definition and examples on the back.

Draw mind maps or make visual representations of the new vocabulary groups.

Stick labels or post it notes on corresponding objects, e.g when learning kitchen vocabulary you could label items in your house.

How often should I be practising vocabulary?

A valuable technique is ‘the principle of expanding rehearsal’. This means reviewing vocabulary shortly after first learning them then at increasingly longer intervals.

Ideally, words should be reviewed:

5-10 minutes later

24 hours later

One week later

1-2 months later

6 months later

Knowing a vocabulary item well enough to use it productively means knowing:

Its written and spoken forms (spelling and pronunciation).

Its grammatical category and other grammatical information

Related words and word families, e.g. adjective, adverb, verb, noun.

Common collocations (Words that often come before or after it).

Receptive Skills: Listening and Reading

Reading is probably one of the most effective ways of building vocabulary knowledge.

Listening is also important because it occupies a big chunk of the time we spend communicating.

Tips for reading in a foreign language:

Start basic and small.  Children’s books are great practice for beginners. Don’t try to dive into a novel or newspaper too early, since it can be discouraging and time consuming if you have to look up every other word.

Read things you’ve already read in your native language. The fact that you at least know the gist of the story will help you to pick up context clues, learn new vocabulary and grammatical constructions.

Read books with their accompanying audio books. Reading a book while listening to the accompanying audio will improve your “ear training”. It will also help you to learn the pronunciation of words.

Tips for listening in a foreign language:

Watch films in your target language.

Read a book while also listening along to the audio book version.

Listen to the radio in your target language.

Watch videos online in your target language.

Activities to do to show that you’ve understood what you’ve been listening to:

Try drawing a picture of what was said.

Ask yourself some questions about it and try to answer them.

Provide a summary of what was said.

Suggest what might come next in the “story.”

Translate what was said into another language.

“Talk back” to the speaker to engage in imaginary conversation.

Productive Skills: Speaking and Writing

Tips for speaking in a foreign language:

If you can, try to speak the language every day either out loud to yourself or chat to another native speaker whether it is a colleague, a friend, a tutor or a language exchange partner. 

Write a list of topics and think about what you could say about each one. First you could write out your thoughts and then read them out loud. Look up the words you don’t know. You could also come up with questions at the end to ask someone else.

A really good way to improve your own speaking is to listen to how native speakers talk and imitate their accent, their rhythm of speech and tone of voice. Watch how their lips move and pay attention to the stressed sounds. You could watch interviews on YouTube or online news websites and pause every so often to copy what you have just heard. You could even sing along to songs sung in the target language.

Walk around the house and describe what you say. Say what you like or dislike about the room or the furniture or the decor. Talk about what you want to change.This gets you to practise every day vocabulary.

Tips for writing in a foreign language:

Practice writing in your target language. Keep it simple to start with. Beginner vocabulary and grammar concepts are generally very descriptive and concrete.

Practice writing by hand. Here are some things you can write out by hand:

Diary entries

Shopping lists

Reminders

What could I write about?

Write about your day, an interesting event, how you’re feeling, or what you’re thinking.

Make up a conversation between two people. 

Write a letter to a friend, yourself, or a celebrity. You don’t need to send it; just writing it will be helpful.

Translate a text you’ve written in your native language into your foreign language.

Write a review or a book you’ve recently read or a film you’ve recently watched.

Write Facebook statuses, Tweets or Tumblr posts (whether you post them or not will be up to you).

Write a short story or poem.

Writing is one of the hardest things to do well as a non-native speaker of a language, because there’s no room to hide. 

There are lots of ways to improve your writing ability, but they can be essentially boiled down to three key components:

Read a lot

Write a lot

Get your writing corrected

Apparently asshole cannot be removed from anywhere

Greek Mythology: Unfortunately, Zeus was horny.

Norse Mythology: Unfortunately, Loki was bored.

Egyptian Mythology: Unfortunately, Set was envious.

Japanese Mythology: Unfortunately, Susanoo was rude.

Japanese child actress Mana Ashida (little Mako) was embarrassed that she couldn’t pronounce Guillermo Del Toro’s name so he gave her special permission to call him “Totoro-san” instead.

My Neighbor Guillermo Del Toro.

Please do not let debt collectors play in your face.

Pando, also known as The Trembling Giant, is a clonal colony of a single quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) determined to be a single living organism by identical genetic markers and assumed to have one massive underground root system. The plant is estimated to weigh collectively 6,000,000 kg (6,600 short tons). The root system of Pando, at an estimated 80,000 years old, is among the oldest known living organisms. Pando is located 1 mile southwest of Fish Lake on Utah’s Route 25, in the Fremont River Ranger District of the Fishlake National Forest, at the western edge of the Colorado Plateau in South-Central Utah,

(Fact Source/Read more about it HERE)

Follow Ultrafacts for more facts

geisha are absolutely not prostitutes btw

They are the equivalent to strippers here. They never engaged in sex acts but if you look throughout their history they were not treated well. Most being sold into that profession.

My latest comic for The Nib was written by my friend Mike Thompson- it’s his first published comics work! 

The Nib has been a steady source of income and a huge support to me and many other indie cartoonists for years. They publish amazing work, but will be cut loose by their financial backer in July. You can read the official post about it from editor Matt Bors here.  They are still running their kickstarter-funded print magazine, but have to put digital publishing on hiatus until they figure out their next steps. If you’ve been thinking about supporting their membership program, now would be a good time. They have levels from $2 to $40 per month. I really don’t want this to be my last Nib piece! 

instagram / patreon / portfolio / the nib / etsy

BSD STORMBRINGER SPOILERS

I JUST RAN AROUND THE SOFA MULTIPLE TIMES UNTIL I GOT EXHAUSTED JUST BECAUSE OF THIS SCENE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

In commemoration of BSD BEAST’s volume 3 release. Have not read it yet, but damn, the cover.

the c O v e R     UvU

Yea, the cover really got me.

The Fates (Maleficent AU)

"M–my Lord," a rat-faced man speaks, knees sinking to the floor. "I know where he is, I know where Harry Potter is."

The Lord on his throne laughs. A cold, hollow sound that could shake the fear out of the ground.

"It would seem," Voldemort smiles, "the Fates are on my side."

(As the Lord sits and prowls on his glory of grandeur, above the clouds, the Fates snicker with shaking heads for they are not, in fact, on his side)

They have done well to hide his location.

Kept in the deepest, most dangerous parts of the woods. Secured under a barrier of protective magic. It takes a while for Voldemort to pierce through the wall. That fool, Dumbledore did his homework.

Slowly, he lurks closer to the crib. He is disgusted to find the thing already staring at him.

With big eyes that shone the type of innocence only seen by youths, this thing, his would-be destroyer, looks nothing more than a common baby with an oversized head. Offended, he is, that the majority of townsfolk considers this to be their ungodly savior.

Either way, Voldemort would gladly crush their hopes once he encloses his claws around his neck and squeezes.

His oversized head tilts to the side, curiously staring at the face of his soon-to-be killer.

Then, softly, he smiles. A wide grin displaying multiple gaps and small teeth that has yet to mature.

The oversized thing raises a hand, fingers dwindling in a silent plea to come closer. Amused by the request, Voldemort reaches out a hand of his own.

His palm and fingers are significantly longer, both in length and width, dwarfing the oversized thing's own hand. With this, he could easily crush his wrist, and finally be rid of this thing.

"A–are you going to kill him yet my lord?" the rat asks, and for a blissful minute there, Voldemort nearly forgets his existence

He looks back at the oversized thing. His would-be killer. Then smiles wickedly, "Not yet."

(Voldemort is curious—

What would the boy become? Does the prophecy hold any relevance? Is this boy just an oversized thing with an oversized head and oversized eyes?

To not be careless, he'd send Barty watch over the boy. In case the prophecy indeed holds some truth.

Perhaps some day he'd visit that cottage himself)

"My Lord," his servant bows his head. "I have returned, and came to report you per usual."

"Speak, Barty."

"Harry Potter will be turning eight next week. He does his morning routine as follows; fetching water on a well, baking or tidying the garden, rolling down grassy hills, speaking to faeries and sometimes disregarding his godfathers' warnings or commands." He clears his throat. "He is a curious boy, indeed. It seems he has no knowledge of what lurks outside the barrier, and I believe, some day, he would be killed by wild beasts lurking on those murky woods if he ever tries to indulge on his curiosity."

Of course. A sigh almost escapes Voldemort's lips. Every year, as he grows, his young would-be destroyer becomes bolder and braver and perhaps losing braincells along the way. "Keep an eye out. That boy would die and seal his own fate before I could."

"My Lord, do you mean I simply observe... Or do I find a way to stop it?"

"Let no harm come to him. He must not perish." Not yet.

Many years

come to

a pass,

Voldemort decides to visit.

"How old is he?"

"Eleven, my Lord."

Voldemort hums.

That oversized thing— is not oversized anymore. His head shrunk, his eyes no longer overtaking most of the space on his face, and the child-like innocence he's come to notice before is mostly gone.

He's taller now. The softer lines of his face disappears, emerging harsher features that showed his maturity.

"Is this a normal occurrence?" Voldemort asks, frowning at the obscured sight of a raven-haired boy sleeping beneath the thick, long grasses.

"Yes." Barty presses his mouth, biting an amused snort. "He usually sleeps here in this time of day. The friendlier creatures has deemed him Sleeping Beauty because of it."

"Hm."

(The boy slumbers, plays, runs and laughs. Unbeknownst to a crow and a Lord watching him beneath the shadows.)

Unbeknownst to a Lord who has taken too much interest in a way this boy smiles)

The boy left the barrier.

Voldemort seethes through his gritted fangs. Perhaps he'd finally get rid of his misfortunes and end him. One less stupid thing in this world filled of stupid things.

He encounters a galavanting grey-hound wolf, and decides to threaten question him.

"Where is he?"

The hound whines from his wrenching grip around its hairy neck. Voldemort has no time for this, for all he knows, that boy could be slaughtered and his organs are left dangling somewhere in the trees.

He tears through the hound's mind, ignoring its cry of protest, and peers into his earlier memories.

In his search, he finds a glimpse of memory, a boy going inside a house built in saccharine sweets, fooled by its false illusion of secutiy, and there, he is invited inside by a kind-looking witch.

That same witch, from what Voldemort knows, has a penchant for green-eyed boys who smelled of summer breeze and freshly rolled grass.

He growls.

Voldemort arrives right in the moment that the witch is ready to stew herself a next meal, pushing a white-stricken Harry Potter into her blazing oven.

Behind her, she is unaware of the hellfire she brought on herself.

(I knew it, was the first words that left the boy's mouth once the gag on his mouth is released.

Knew what?

You're real, he breathes out, disbelief. The faeries warned me that a stranger watches me in secret. I had my suspicion... I remembered red eyes staring at me when I was a baby and for a while, I thought it was simply a weird dream. Was that you?

Yes.

You're real.

I am.

They stare. And the boy visibly swallows. What's your name?

I'm not sure you want to know.

He laughs like the hum of summer breeze. Why wouldn't I want to know the name of my protector?

When Voldemort provides no reply, the boy frowns. Oh. You really won't tell me? Fine, I'll just call you Fairy Godmother, that's what I call you to the faeries anyways.

Cheeky boy.

Fine, he says in final.)

"I was wondering when you'll appear again."

"I was unaware that you were waiting for me at all."

"It's my birthday," he says. "Is that why you came? Have you returned to me with a gift?"

Yes. "No, of course not."

Harry sits on his bed, legs crossed against the other. The snores of his godfathers hum behind thin, cracking walls. If Harry would scream, his guardians would wake instantly.

But Voldemort could easily lure Harry outside, far away where no one could hear him at all. He'd believe anything, this naive, stupid thing.

Harry blinks, moon-lit glasses glinting behind glittering green eyes. "Fairy Godmother?"

Voldemort scowls. "You insist on calling me that? I am neither a fairy nor a mother."

His lips quirk into a sly smirk. "I wouldn't have to if you simply gave me your name."

With a sudden prickle of annoyance, his hand itches to—

Hold him?

Kill him?

Is there a difference?

He ignores this feeling.

"How old are you?"

"Thirteen."

Already. Voldemort observes Harry and finds the image of a stupid, oversized thing inside balled up blanket too distant. "Come."

"Where are we going?" Harry whispers, hastily following Voldemort out the front door, and only then does he notice how the boy walks barefoot, wearing nothing more than a billowing sleeping dress made of white cotton, his tanned legs underneath seemingly wore nothing.

When cold late morning wind blows, Harry shivers. Voldemort refrains to mention it. He continues to dash forward as Harry struggles to follow along his longer strides.

At some point, they reach the end of the barrier. Harry freezes.

"...will it be alright?"

"You doubt yourself now? This is not the first time you stepped out of boundary."

"Yeah, but that was before! I'm not stupid to risk it again. Who knows what's in there at this time of day..."

"I'm here," Voldemort claims. "No creature would dare cross us."

"And you're so sure of this because...?"

"I just am," Voldemort responds coolly. "Unless you want to go back—"

"No!" the boy cuts in. "Fine. I'll come with you."

How remarkably easy that Voldemort nearly laughs.

("Is that...?"

Voldemort watches Harry gape, stunned. His moon-lit glasses glinting behind star-struck eyes. "Indeed. It's a unicorn."

Harry laughs, and Voldemort steps back when the creature of light threads closer to the boy. Watching the young thing with intelligent eyes. Its head bows, and Harry's jaw hinges free. Then with a shaky hand, touches its forehead, his hand engulfing through pure, vivid brightness.

Harry looks to his side. Grinning at him with all of his teeth present.)

"Will you come back?"

Without hesitation, he responds, "No."

"But you will, right?" Harry says, ignoring what his first reply. "You've been watching me for a long time. I know that crow who spies on me at a basis somehow involves you, I've been seeing it since I was a baby. Now, I can see you."

"Listen here, brat." He points a claw on the sharp edge of his jaw, an inch away from piercing the skin. "I have other matters to attend, more important than playing tea party with a kid like you."

Harry remains motionless. Then, softly, adds with a cheeky smile, "...but you will, right?"

Voldemort Apparates.

(Every time he comes back, he thinks this time, I'll kill him this time.

Only to come back to his castle, annoyed at this boy who easily slept on his presence, who's moon-glasses hid the starlight of his eyes, who's scent of summer wind and sunlight follows him everywhere.

It repeats the next year.

Then the next.

And the next—)

How old is he? Somehow, Voldemort always forget. And each time, he asks—

"Fifteen. He's turning sixteen tonight," Barty answers. Staring at him intently. "Will this be the year, my Lord?"

The crow-animagus looks at him in question, withholding his breathes as if praying for something.

Voldemort knows Barty, throughout the years of being the boy's observer, has grown weak for him.

"We shall see."

Barty isn't pleased at the vague response, but he smartly keeps it to himself.

( Harry brightens at the sight of Voldemort. "You're here," he says, a little shyly. "You said something about a party?"

"I did." Voldemort's scarlet eyes slides at the boy's form. "You're wearing that?"

"What?" Harry pouts. "Is there something wrong with it?"

It isn't, but it's rather... revealing.

His dress shirt hangs loosely on his frame, collar hanging free to expose cold collarbones and long expanse of Harry's neck. If Voldemort observes any close, he could almost see the silhouette of his chest and nipples under the thin sheen material of his shirt.

"Nothing," Voldemort says a tinge too quickly. His voice drier than it should be. "Let's just go.")

Voldemort disappears the moment they step into the festivity.

With lanterns hanging above twisty twigs, with people, vampires, ghosts, faeries and a few centaurs all gather together to dance. All gaudy lights and loud music, Voldemort hates it in the same amount as Harry loves it.

Harry drinks a variety of liquor, from cherries, pumpkin and carrots. He explores the food he hasn't eaten, and glances discreetly to the creatures he's never seen up close before.

A vampire even asks him to dance, his eyes, for a brief second, lingering to the wide space of Harry's neck.

Harry cocks his head, considering, then nods, letting an arm curve around his waist and taking him to a moving crowd.

Voldemort does not care. He does not care when anger licks his temper, and the flames rise out to burn the vestiges of control he has left. The burning desire coils in his bones and he wants to—

To steal him away

To lick the teasing skin of his neck

To explore his hands under his shirt and watch him writhe under his touch

What he wants does not matter.

That boy will die, he swears to it, he swears—

( "I'm returning you to your godfathers—"

A tipsy Harry Potter pouts— pouts with fruit-scented lips, high off in the colour of his cheeks, and his dress shirt somehow draws looser and looser. "But I'm still dancing."

Voldemort then shoots a glare at Harry's partner from behind. "Not anymore. He left."

His partner pales, and does, in fact, leaves before disappearing out of sight.

Harry is stubborn, and wretches away his arm, folding his arms like a brat. "You didn't dance with me."

Irritable, Voldemort answers back, "You never spoke interest for it."

"That's because you left before I could," Harry grumbles, his dragon boot stomping on the ground.

"Next time."

The boy peers at his face, unconvinced. "You won't leave this time?"

"I promise."

And that seems enough to break Harry's dampened mood, he smiles, not to its usual cheerful extent, but its there, and it's still bright. Like his moon-lit glasses and starlight eyes. "Okay."

He grabs Voldemort's hand, tight and trustful.)

This is it.

Kill him.

Apparate to the furthest parts of the woods and kill him

Kill

Him

The boy is near-asleep, his fluttering eyelids and hazy irises, and gently, Voldemort places him to bed.

It never fails to surprise him of how his prophecy boy falls asleep lighter than a feather. And the boy is awake, only barely. "...will you ever tell me your name?"

"Not yet."

He lets out a quiet chuckle. "You said yet. Does this mean you'll tell me one day?"

"Maybe."

"You always seem to keep secrets from me. Will I never know or is that also a not yet?"

"Will you ever stop asking meaningless questions?

"And are they?" Harry whispers. "Are they really meaningless?"

Voldemort plucks the glasses out of the boy's face, ignoring how Harry's face seems softer without them. "For now, they are. Go to sleep."

He looks tired, his body sprawled in a position that could could sing a siren out to lure. And for a moment, he remembers Harry's earlier instance with the vampire. The beast inside of him bares its teeth, and so Voldemort bares his.

He sucks a small, pale mark on his neck.

Harry is fast asleep. And tomorrow he'd wake up with the sting of his fangs.

The boy, now aged sixteen at the stroke of midnight, lies asleep, neck claimed by a love bite and Voldemort watching him still, thinks next year, he will kill him, for sure.

(He is not aware the Fates above him shake their heads at the man who's not aware he has already fallen)

Do you sometimes read a fic writer’s work, and just… thank all the gods this person managed to get obsessed with the same fictional people you did?

Seriously, curse me for always not finishing my pieces. =_=;

So I may have did a (most likely to never be finished) BSD comic of soukoku.

hope you guys like it. 

Another WIP that’ll never be finished U-U

I’m so lazy. lols.

hello! i really like your blog, but can I suggest that could you make a masterlist for it? It's just to hard for me to scroll forever in your blog to find the chapters I want. But if you don't want to, it's fine! It's just my suggestion, thank you very much for your time <33

Hi, you can find our master list of chapters here: https://rof-scans.tumblr.com/current You can also find the link located on the bottom right of our blog by clicking on the bookmark icon. Hope that helps!

Can I ask for advice my dear?

Like, you know how you write fics and you have an idea of where you want it to go.

I have an exposition and an ending ready but how do you guys bridge that? Like there is a plot but also how do you connect and make sense of the whole thing? I dunno if it makes sense but I hope it does 😅

Sorry it took me so long to get to this - I was thinking about how best to answer!

From what I understand, you have a general plot and the ending of your story worked out? You know the rough beats and the main overarching 'this is what the story will be about'?

Since I'm not sure how much experience you have writing, I might cover some things you're already aware of - if so, sorry about that. I'm just going to bring in some of the basics.

So, while I believe there is no 'one way' to design and plan your plot, there are a few good structures you can use to help put your ideas in some semblance of order. I use both of these frequently when setting out a plot, or even when just planning out a scene. These story cycles are usually pretty scalable, which is great!

Story Cycle 1 - Hero Arc

This is a very basic explanation of the hero cycle. There are some more broken down versions that go into the in-between steps, but these are the main beats that I tend to drift towards, and this is a graphic I made that helps me remember the rough stages.

Now, I mainly use this cycle when it comes to longer, drawn out stories, like CS, or my own original novels. This is one of the most well known and most used in story writing.

I really encourage people to try and use this cycle. It is a very popular and strong way to structure a long story because it works.

Story Cycle 2 - Regular Arc

This second cycle is a favourite of mine because it's applicable for both a story as a whole and on a scene-by-scene basis. I've often used this model to craft specific scenes in my stories.

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Structuring a plot can be a very laborious and frustrating task, but where your story is short or long, I really do think these two cycles can help you.

Depending on the length of your story, take one of the models above (or heck, look up another if you think these aren't quite suited to your style), and start to categorise your ideas beneath the main titles.

Ask yourself questions like: 'where does this scene fit?', 'what is this scene accomplishing in the story, is it before or after the climax?', or 'how would it affect the flow if I put it *here*?', and go from there.

Remember that this outline isn't set in stone either. You can chop and change where you want ideas to come into your story as you write it.

This is how I go about linking my ideas up into a coherent plot. After you do it for long enough, you stop consciously realising that you even do this anymore. You pick up a natural feel for things. So long as you just start somewhere - whether it's a vague idea or the final scene in a story - you're already doing fantastic!

Hope this helps!

headcanon that while Dazai happily flirts with people and finds it amusing, when that energy is matched and they flirt back his brain just shuts down.

Definitely happened with Chuuya when he asked to sit in his lap or made a joking response or something and Dazai just stared blankly at him, he literally never recovered from it.