Tag: stories

as-seenon-tv:

I love working at joann fabrics today a guy asked me to show him the fake fur and when I did he goes “noooo… this won’t do” and part of my job is giving advice for projects so I asked him what he was using it for and he looks down at the floor and quietly says “… I wanna make a yeti costume to scare people with when we go skiing…”

redscudery:

saunteringvaguelydownwards:

decemberpaladin:

sizvideos:

Video

I love how she almost drops it until she smells it and that flashbulb memory hits.

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real … Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

― Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

Notice she says “who” it was and not “what” it was.

delladilly:

i’ve been reading for most of the day now about howard ashman, the lyricist for the little mermaid & beauty and the beast. he was one of the biggest creative forces behind both films, helping to shape their characters, narrative arcs, and themes as well as their music; he was also a gay man who was diagnosed with aids during the production of the little mermaid and died shortly after beauty and the beast was finished. alan menken, the composer who collaborated with him on both movies, said that beauty and the beast is heavily influenced by ashman’s experiences and perspective.

and i can’t stop thinking about it. i’ve always considered beauty and the beast to be one of the darkest films in the disney canon, as well as its most beautiful. it’s entirely about monsters, about the ways that people are determined to be wrong and dangerous: there’s the beast alone in his castle in the forest, and belle mocked and sneered at by her village, and even maurice carted off to an asylum. 

and that it was written and conceived of in part by a gay man who, according to his sister, trained himself out of “effeminate” physical mannerisms when he was young because he was bullied for them, and who as he wrote it was dying of an incredibly stigmatized illness— like, god. 

i mean when you just listen to those songs he wrote, the mob song (“the beast is] set to sacrifice our children to his monstrous appetite / he’ll wreak havoc on our village if we let him wander free”), belle (“it’s a pity and a sin / she doesn’t quite fit in”)— and there was a cut song, human again, where the castle servants looked forward to rejoining the world.

like it’s obviously queer, but more than that, it’s the self-identification and self-validation of a man who knew this was this work was probably his last. at the end of the film, the beast is so sad, has succumbed entirely to despair and death. his society is coming to destroy him, and he can’t even be angry, because he doesn’t have anything left. but then he does. and he is still precious, and his life is still meaningful. he’s a person, and he can be loved. he can find happiness.

in the original beauty and the beast, the beast proposes marriage to belle every night and it’s her acquiescence that breaks the spell. in the disney movie, the beast only waits for belle to love him, because he cannot love himself. it’s such an unexpected blessing for both belle and the beast that they can find acceptance in each other, after both are so othered and dehumanized by their communities. their vulnerable joy in each other and themselves is so important, and their love song so wonderingly sweet. at the end, it is only when someone loves and accepts you that you stop being a monster. 

john musker, one of the directors of beauty and the beast, told this story about how ashman cried at disneyland when the little mermaid’s music was integrated into a parade and said that he was glad to know that his music would outlive him. beauty and the beast was my favorite movie when i was young and trying not to be queer, when i felt very wrong and very alone. it has been unbelievably important in my life. and so i am also glad— and so grateful— that howard ashman’s music outlived him, and that he lived at all. 

deheerkonijn:

HYPOTHETICALLY

hogwarts AU where Arthur is NOT sorted into Gryffindor, but is instead made a Hufflepuff to the astonishment of every single person in Britain 

Morgana mocks him for a full week, but it has the opposite effect and it turns Arthur into someone who is Super Aggressive About Hufflepuff Pride

everything is black and yellow. everything

he personally deals with other students harassing first-year Puffs

he inspires the House mantra BADGER BLOOD at quidditch games and when the yellow section get going it sounds like a war chant

his game tactics are ruthless and dangerous, and for the first time in a long time Hufflepuff’s quidditch team is taken seriously

his network of close friends spans all four houses, from Merlin and Morgana in Slytherin, to his fellow Hufflepuff Gwen, to Gryffindors Lancelot and Gwaine, to Ravenclaws Elyan and Leon

and by the time he graduates, no incoming student is ashamed to be sorted into Hufflepuff ever again

solemnlyswearr:

Sirius and Lily have this weird relationship that starts in fifth year when Lily finds Sirius lying on the floor of the common room awake, and when he explains he just had some thinking to do, she’s sort of annoyed because the common room is where she goes to think in the middle of the night, but she’s Lily Evans, so she’s nice to him, and she asks if he wants to talk. And he does, so they do.

the two of them staying up all night talking about their families and the war and how scared they are, and maybe just a little bit about James Potter. 

Sirius trying to talk up James all sixth year and Lily having absolutely none of it, but the more time she spends with him, the more time she spends with James, and he starts to grow on her slowly, and then suddenly “Potter” is a fond sort of nickname and “Evans” Is a teasing term of endearment. 

Lily taking Sirius to Petunia’s wedding when she finds out she needs a date, because Sirius was a Black, and he knows how to act, and also he’s a laugh. Sirius and Lily having a blast together, despite Petunia, and Lily having pictures from that day tacked to her dresser for the rest of her short life. 

Lily meeting James parents for the first time as Sirius’ friend at the train station. James’ parents not realizing she’s THE Lily and teasing Sirius about her on the way home while James fumes silently. 

Lily surprising Sirius on his birthday with a Chudley Canons T-shirt and a new record from “The Muggle Musicians I Like So Much” and Sirius wearing the stupid shirt all day, even though it blatantly breaks dress code, because “I’m Sirius Black, this is the least trouble I could possibly be getting in.”

Lily and James imitating Sirius and laughing like idiots and Sirius pretending to be offended and sort of not really caring because they don’t laugh as much as they should.

Sirius meeting Lily’s family, and her mom not so subtly asking, “Is this the Potter boy Lily?”  and Sirius grinning like crazy and asking, all innocent curiosity, “Who’s this boy Ms. Evans??” And Ms. Evans and Sirius just hardcore gossiping about James and Lily while Lily blushes bright red and “MOM SIRIUS STOP IT.YOU’RE EMBARRASSING ME.” 

Sirius and James staying up all night, throwing a quaffle back and forth between their dorm beds while James analyzes everything Lily has ever said to him, “What does that mean though?? What do you think she was inferring??”  Remus sighing from the bed across the room and through his pillow, “She wasn’t inferring anything Prongs. Now go to sleep you utter twat.”

Lily and Sirius having little meet ups throughout the day where they plot the next thing Lily should say over breakfast that will leave James completely puzzled. “Was that flirting Padfoot?? Was Evans flirting with me just there?” “I have no idea mate.”

James and Lily finally getting together in seventh year and Sirius just being over the moon ecstatic about it, because “They’re my two favorite people in the whole world, except for you, Moony, and Pete of course, and what if they have a baby? God it would be so damn cute. I love it already. So sarcastic, so good at Quidditch, Freckles! It would have fr-” “Please stop Sirius. Charms class is so not the time to talk about James reproducing” 

James having Sirius as his best man, and the best man spends the morning before the bachelor party getting his toes done with the bride. 

Lily and James not even really thinking about anyone but Sirius for Harry’s Godfather, “And besides we’ll have enough kids for Remus and Pete to get their own tiny Potter, right?” “If I don’t leave you for Benjy Fenwick by then, I think that can happen Potter.” 

Sirius wanting the responsibilty of Secret Keeper on his shoulders, because the weight is something he thinks he’s supposed to bear, a testament to his little family, but knowing despite that, it would be safer to just let Pete do it. Sirius reluctantly giving Pete the title of secret keeper and hoping it’s enough to keep the Potter’s safe.

Sirius, who’s family has been Lily and the Marauders for a long time now, taking his Godfather responsibilities very, very, seriously. 

Sirius showing up at the Potter’s early on Halloween afternoon to play with Harry and chase him through the living room while he squeals and shreiks and giggles. Sirius kissing Lily bye with a tiny Harry in his arms, Sirius laughing with James and promising a visit the next day, letting go of his friend too soon, and leaving too soon, and thinking, as he walked from Godrics Hallow, that they were safe. 

officialcollegestudent:

My favorite moment from high school was around 3-4 years ago when the SAME CAT fell through the ceiling tiles in my classes, at three different times and in three completely different classrooms. The custodial crew kept taking him out and putting him outside but it turned out that one of the biology teachers named Mrs. Nutgrass was secretly letting him in and feeding him at night. I don’t know how he found his way up into the ceiling but he had gotten so fat because of Mrs. Nutgrass that he just kept breaking the ceiling tiles and falling through into my classes until finally they made her take him home instead. The funniest time he fell through was the first time it happened because everyone was automatically like “WTF OMG CAT CAT CATCAT CAT” and my teacher Ms. Deckard SCREAMED SO LOUD because he landed RIGHT on her desk. It was amazing

becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys:

Today I went with my Mam into the Black Mountains, which are a real life mountain chain in Wales and not a fantasy novel setting. She needed to double check which mountain is which colour, because that’s what happens with Welsh mountains and she’s doing a painting at the minute. (Turns out, she had the purple mountain and the lobster pink/orange mountain the wrong way around. Good job we caught it. That would have been embarrassing. She had the greens in the right places, though.)

Anyway, this involved climbing halfway up the mountain above Llanthony and then stopping for a while so she could do a preliminary watercolour, so she said I could do what I wanted in the meantime. So naturally I climbed all the way up the damn mountain I mean honestly Tumblrs what would you have done. It’s lush up there. You can see England one way and Wales the other. England is hella flat. I always forget. Wales is just mountains from there. That’s all it is. Mostly purple.

Also there were interesting plants since it was an upland peat bog and anyway I took longer than I meant to before reflecting that I should probably go back down and return to my mother. But I miss-judged? A bit? So she immediately thought I’d probably fallen off the mountain and broken my other leg.

And thus it was, Tumblrs, that as I started vaguely ambling back towards the path down, I suddenly heard my name.

Now, I don’t know how many of you have spent time in mountains? But the acoustics are weird, so you can’t tell where sounds are coming from, and that’s why it took about half a minute of looking around as someone shouted “"Elanor!” repeatedly, until they shouted “Look up!”

In my defence, when on top of a mountain, looking up is not that intuitive. But, in this case, it was the right answer. There was a hang glider above me.

“"Your Mam wants to know if you’re okay?” the hang glider asked.

“"Um,” I called back. “Yes?”

“"Okay,” the hang glider called, and it wheeled away over the mountain side.

“"She’s fine!” I heard distantly.

I have no clue how my mother managed to flag down a passing hang glider, but there we are.