It's Time...we're Edging The Sleep

The implications of this, that now that harry has died and come back, defeated death, *mastered it*, everything he touches becomes tinged with death. His very magical makeup has now been laced with Death Magic. I'm going insane

Came back wrong

Readers, make sure you have all your favourite Ao3 fics downloaded.

Writers, make sure you have copies of all the fics you have posted on Ao3.

I don’t want to be alarming, but things could get really bad really fast. OTW shared this today on Twitter, and I'm a bit worried about it 😅

Ao3 is a non-profit organisation. If they have to start paying taxes, I have no idea what will happen.

amazing news for the bisexual community

"oscar isaac" "kristen stewart" "vampire" "thriller" "80s" ???? please

Christmas sucks, because the Camaro is cold.

Billy watches his breath form little clouds. That's the only reason. He's got everything he needs right here. A blanket, a book and a bottle of his best friend Jack. Maybe he'd like a cookie, it's the holidays after all, but he's got to stay in shape anyway and can't give Neil a reason to push him around some more.

There's a knock on his window. It's a tall man with a beard and glasses, wearing an ushanka.

"I know what you're doing, boy."

"What the fuck, dude?" Billy frowns. Christmas sucks, because the wrong people won't leave him alone. There's a little kid inside him that's scared. Scared of strangers, scared of men that are even taller than his dad.

"You're plotting something. I know, I know, they build that fancy ass Starcourt mall, the peak of capitalism and you'd just like to take it down, right?"

Billy blinks. Wonders if he's half asleep already, caught in some weird fever dream. "What?"

The guy laughs. "Sorry, that was just a test."

"A test," Billy echoes. Are there any normal people living in Indiana? "For what?"

"To see if you're safe to talk to," the man says if Billy is the biggest idiot missing the most obvious thing in the world.

It doesn't make any sense to him. Billy hasn't ever been safe, how would he know what that means? And why would a stranger care? He's probably crazy, the kid inside him whispers. He's bigger than Neil and crazy.

"You know, your car is really nice and all. But it's Christmas and you've been here for four days and..."

"Have you been watching me?" Billy sits up, clinging onto the little bit of rage lighting up inside him. It's warming him a little.

"The usual observation of unusual occurrences in the area my friends live in." The man shrugs. "I've got a warehouse in Sesser. It's warm."

"A what?" His rages gets overwritten by more confusion.

"There will be pirozhki." The man seems to think a moment. "You can invite Steve! You like Steve, right?"

The man has been watching him. Steve met him here two days ago. Did he seem them? God, Billy is such an idiot. Meeting at the quarry, thinking no one would see. Billy is so dead.

"It's fine," the man says. "You like Steve, I like Alexei."

"Who's that?" Billy asks. His head is dizzy, like he already drank that bottle of whiskey.

"My..." The guy pauses. "My Steve, I guess."

Oh. He never met anyone who was... like that. Like him. It's a comforting thought. Like a blanket. Billy probably shouldn't go to stranger's warehouses, but Christmas sucks - because the Camaro is cold and he'd really like not to be alone.

"I'll talk to Steve first," Billy says. He doesn't want to end up murdered in some place called Sesser.

The man nods. "It's good not to trust easy."

Billy snorts. Yeah, tell him about that. He wonders if he's about to spend Christmas with a crazy guy and his partner. And whatever pirozhki are.

"I don't even know your name."

"Murray."

Murray stretches out his hand.

"Billy."

Billy takes it.

how does Harry feel about the “I’ve come to collect you from the orphanage” role play?

harry has no proper dramatic sense, i fear, so he ruins the vibe by saying "i love you" and refusing to do the correct voice to be tom riddle sr.

tom riddle jr. has a much finer grasp of theatricality, so he takes his job as sirius in their "once i'm exonerated we can live together" role-play and as cedric in their "gargle my bathwater" role-play seriously.

‘… and mostly researching ways to become immortal,’ Tom hears himself blabbing. He’s absolutely rat-arsed; evidently he’d underestimated Slughorn’s dedication to hedonism. The booze is strong.

‘Why the fuck would you want that?’ Harry mumbles, shoving Tom further into the musty dark of a cramped broom cupboard. Tom doesn’t know how they got here. ‘Not dying? Walking ‘round … but you’re just a fuck pile of zombie bones?’

‘Obviously,’ it takes a few tries for Tom to properly pronounce that word, ‘I’ll have to be healthily immortal. I just don’t know how.’

‘But you’ve already made your first Horcrux. No point denying, Tom, I know you have.’

Tom squints at Harry. In the low light, he can just make out the softened outline of his cheeks; his lips.

Tom forgets what he’s supposed to interrogate Harry about.

‘Dying is bad,’ he settles lamely. ‘Dying is – you’re everything, and then you’re nothing.’

Harry doesn’t speak for a while, he just looks at Tom, his breath ghosting Tom’s skin.

‘Boom – then nothing,’ Tom stresses. He wants Harry to understand.

‘Okay,’ Harry whispers, like he’s letting Tom in on a grand secret, ‘but sometimes you come back because somebody needs you so much.’

Tom shakes his head. ‘No one’s come back for me,’ he says, too drunk not to wallow in self-pity.

And Harry – to his intense dismay – pulls him into a tight hug, fingers digging into his back.

‘No,’ Tom complains, ‘not this.’

Secretly he thinks it’s not all that bad. Harry’s warm, lithe body a comfortable weight against his own. Harry’s hair, soft and springy and tickling his neck. Harry’s clean, masculine scent; of his body soap and the leather gear he wears to Quidditch practice …

‘You’re wrong,’ Harry says softly, his voice sounding muffled against Tom’s pullover. ‘I did.’

15052024 | @microficmay | nothing & everything

@jewishvoiceforpeace

"Today marks one year since the death of the People’s Bubbie Shatzi Weisberger. Before she passed, she said, “I’ll fight like hell for a free Palestine until the day I die. Then I’ll keep fighting. Your queer ancestor is with you.”

If you’ve been rising up in solidarity with Palestine these past two months, your queer ancestor is indeed with you, along with countless other antizionist Jewish ancestors. For many, family and community rifts may be especially painful right now. No matter what, you are not alone. Remember that you have a long lineage of elders and ancestors at your back.

Last night, Israel resumed its brutal bombing of Gaza and has already killed dozens of people. Shatzi would encourage all of us to do everything we can right now for a permanent, lasting ceasefire. To mourn the dead and fight like hell for the living.

Shatzi died on World AIDS Day, which was b’sheret ("destined”) because in addition to being a lifelong organizer, she was a nurse for 47 years who cared for people living and dying with AIDS.

From ACT UP’s organizing to end AIDS to the movement for Palestinian freedom, we honor the ancestors and movements who made us possible."

We will be forever grateful to the ancestors who paved the path before us. May their memories fuel us to work towards freedom for all people — no exceptions."

Favorite Ron Weasley fics?

thank you very much for the ask @thesilverstarling! my king's birthday seemed like the perfect time to drop this...

six ron-centric fic recs

[for the best sixth son in literature]

envy by @floreatcastellumposts

harry potter & ron weasley teen | 8.6k words

why i recommend it:

ron's capacity for jealousy is something which generates a lot of fandom discourse - especially the role it plays in his relationship with hermione. this fic is a look at one of the canon moments which foreground this trait - ron's falling out with harry when his best pal's name comes out of the goblet of fire - and it does a wonderful job of exploring ron's less pleasant characteristics without bashing him.

like a brother would by @wolfpants

harry potter/ron weasley explicit | 5.2k words

why i recommend it:

i have a real weakness for ronarry - largely because i love how ron would give anything in the world to get to take care of his bestie. this fic takes that urge to its natural conclusion...

the english opening by lordrowantree

fleur delacour/ron weasley teen | 55k words

why i recommend it:

because it respects ron’s canonical rizz and asks the very important question: what would happen if fleur said yes when he asked her to the yule ball?

and, in doing so, it also respects all the rest of ron’s canonical traits - his intelligence, his kindness, his big-picture thinking, his sense of daring - and uses them to offer an exploration of fleur’s character which is considerably kinder and more nuanced than the one she receives in canon.

plus, it’ll teach you something about chess, which is a bonus.

ghouls in the attic by speechwriter

tom riddle/ron weasley general | 8.9k

why i recommend it:

because - as the author correctly notes - i have seen your heart and it is mine is an outrageously romantic thing for the horcrux to say to ron [especially because it happens just before voldemort canonically suggests that hermione is mid].

collateral damage by @danpuff-ao3

draco malfoy/ron weasley explicit | 16k words

why i recommend it:

i also have a weakness for dron - above all because the two of them are narrative mirrors, defined by their relationships to their families and their relationships to harry, brought into conflict by their polar differences [draco's wealth versus ron's lack of it, etc.], and possessed of similar personality traits [a desire to be recognised as important and be the centre of attention; a capacity for jealousy]. this fics plays with those similarities - and also with ron and draco's more positive shared traits - in a really striking way. i ship these two losers. i hope they're happy.

some i love who are dead by brightened

hermione granger/ron weasley teen | 2.2k words

why i recommend it:

because it's a lovely, bittersweet look at ron's character from the perspective of hermione's old age - thinking about the man he became and the husband and father he was.

3 components of worldbuilding:

1. The author’s kinks

2. The author’s power fantasy

3. The author’s political agenda

Plot and logic optional