Heather Power

Obsessed with a Variety of Things

[captainkirkk]

AU where Zuko and Iroh join up with the gang in Book 2 while they're fugitives in the Earth Kingdom. Except when they get to Ba Sing Se, Azula doesn't realise this and still offers to take Zuko make to the Fire Palace

Zuko says yes and spends all of Book 3 acting as a spy in the Fire Palace

[muffinlance]

He requisitions Suki from the Boiling Rock to "question her" and just never sends her back.

Suki spends the entire arc up to the Day of Black Sun deeply, deeply disbelieving that Zuko is actually on their side but playing along until she can escape. She thinks he's playing some kind of 4D chess when really all those questions about the Gaang are because he's afraid they won't actually want him as a friend after all this, well obviously they're friends, or they were, but what if they change their minds, especially when they see his dad, oh Agni do they know that he looks exactly like his dad? Except for the dad-hand scar?--

Suki is straight up ready to club him in the back of the head and escape when she sees that sky bison coming down.

Sokka: Oh great, you and Zuko are already friends!

Suki: *quietly aborts murder attempt, and redirects it to Ozai*

[lizardlicks]

oh can you imagine Azula's seething fury though. Suki was her favorite prisoner! Azula does not share her toys well, and Zuko knows that. It might even work to his advantage: if the "questioning" excuse doesn't hold up, Azula might still believe that Zuko is actually keeping Suki just to spite her personally. a bold move in trying to reestablish the pecking order. Time away has made sweet zuzu more cutthroat.

Suki doesn't believe that Zuko could actually be working for team Avatar until she finds out that Zuko has strategically arranged for the other captured kyoshi warriors to be moved to a closer holding facility. The one in the capital. The same one as his uncle who helpful assists the girls with breaking out on the day of black sun.

[muffinlance]

Okay but IMAGINE, Azula and Zuko playing tug-of-war with who gets custody today to "interrogate" her

And Suki caught in the middle

When it's Zuko's turn, he's trying so hard to be Interested In Her Life And Hobbies that it really DOES feel like an interrogation. A really weird one, but still, obviously this fake get-to-know-you front is to lower her guard for the REAL questions, so she stays vigilant

But when it's Azula's turn with the Suki ball, she straight up tells her, "I have requested your presence today to spite my brother. Stand to the side and don't get in my way and look miserable if father or Zuko is watching."

So it's a day of following Azula to training and politicking and smack-talk with Mai and Suki

So what I'm saying is:

Suki and the Danger Ladies, absolutely bonding over how stupid War Minister Fire's plan is

(Suki is frantically trying to keep Earth Kingdom casualties down)

(Azula is trying to limit the unnecessary expenditure of Fire Nation resources)

Zuko: Those RESOURCES are PEOPLE, Azula.

Azula: And they're mine. Father isn't going to live forever, after all, and I would prefer not to inherit a broken game set.

Zuko: ...

Azula: Yes, brother. This is how you play the game without wagering half your face.

Suki: ...Hey. You know what would end the game with even more pieces intact? Ending it sooner

Azula: Very astute, peasant. We have been trying that for a hundred years

Suki: Maybe you've been playing the wrong end game strategy

Zuko: ...

Zuko: *tentatively reaches out, and tips over Azula's king*

Azula: *long siiigh* Yes Zuzu, we got it without the visualization, thank you

Which is to say: Suki/Azula/Zuko pact to murder Ozai, except Suki and Azula STILL think Zuko is a spy for Ozai, so they're feeding him false info

[wrinklecat]

#Azula in the catacombs: ...Are you seriously telling me that you're such a bad non-actor that I actually BELIEVED#You were running a psy-op on the fan girl?#Zuzu this is why you flunked out of that summer theatre camp when we were children#Zuko: I DID NOT FLUNK OUT mom said she liked my performance#Azula: Mother also said she loved you but here we are#Sokka: Okay wow I'm just going to. Sidle right around whatever this is. Got a boomerang in need of meeting a Fire Lord. Coming Suki?#Oh wait she's already ahead of me#What do you mean Toph called dibs#YOU CANNOT CALL DIBS ON REGICIDE TOPH#TOPH

#Zuko in the catacombs: wait we can't be talking we need to--#Then Sokka shrieks from down the hall#Because someone ALREADY KILLED THE FIRE LORD#Ugh he poked FIRE LORD CORPSE with his HAND he did NOT sign up for this#Azula: oh no my father has perished at the hands of foreign nationals#Azula: takes Fire Lord crown from her sleeve and pins it in her hair#Azula: whatever shall I do#Suki: appoint international advisors to understand your enemies better#Azula: I like how you think Advisor Suki. You're hired#Zuko: ...#The Gaang: ...#The World: ...#War Minister Fire in correspondence with a rural school for the disappearance of a child and his family: I keep telling you#I have NO RELATION to a Wang Fire via @muffinlance

[whereserpentswalk]

Select a powerful entity to pledge yourself to who'll cherish you and transform you into something inhuman

Lord of the winter fae whose blood flows with the snow of winter

Angel warlord from a heaven whose creator has long since abandoned

An insectoid scavenger that feeds on dead gods below the sea

An androgynous vampire girl trying to restore the kingdom her brother usurped

A djinn possessing a supercomputer posing as a sentient AI

The lord of all rats who wears a paper crown and weilds a cardboard sword

Lich who controls the largest library in the world

Demon with countless eyes who owns more souls than any other being on earth

Mushroom lord whose power lays deep below the earth

Eyeless witch whose power reaches deep below the sea and into the night sky

Living clothing made of liquid metal that whisper strange secrets into your ears

The abyss at the edge of time and space.

Voting ended onOct 12, 2024

Look under the cut to see what meeting your entity is like. Reblog to give a gift to your patron.

The fae: a creature stands before you. Though this street was warm and crowded a few moments ago it is suddenly cold and the people around you look like shadows. The creature begins an antlered shadow with glowing white eyes, but soon its body can be seem, with white blue flesh, and sapphire eyes, and icicles for teeth. What looks like a cloak unfolds from its naked body and you can see massive white wings of a moth. As if it's an act of sacrifice you tell it your true name, a name you didn't even see before, and suddenly you belong to it, for better or worse.

The angel: a radiant entity appears before you. They're bright, like something so hot it would burn you up. But as the light fades, you can see a person in silver armor, perfect yet inhuman like am ancient green statue, their back srouting six wings with blue eyes along them, as the eyes on their head are covered by a mask of two smaller wings. The creature offers their hands and you shake it, as they fly you through the city streets and above the skyscrapers, to the stars above and dimensions beyond, to gods living and dead, across the streets of alien cities and the clouds of dead worlds. And when you return to the earth you can feel something diffrent about you, like there's light in your blood.

The scavenger: below the lights of skyscrapers beyond you, on the dark sands of the beach, you see it crawling twords you. This serpentine creature with countless legs, and a dark black shell, yet a strangely human like face. You think it'll attack or run away, but it just looks at you, egar, and for a momment you stare at eachother. It's legs pass something to eachother and then to you, it's meat but it's shining with all the colors known to the human eye, and a few more. You hold it and it happily looks at you. You take a bite and suddenly you know... you know so very much...

The vampire: she flies down to you on green wings with orange eyespots, but folds them into her back. She looks like a human for a momment, tall and strong, with a black suit over her body, but eyes the color of ruby. For a momment her mouth opens, and it's massive and monstrous, with countless moving parts and fangs. But then it folds back onto something humanoid and she gives you a playful smirk. She cuts her hand and offers you her blood, and when you drink it it tastes so sweet, and makes you feel so good. She hands you the knife and you know to do the same, and when she drinks from your palm it's life the sweetest of kisses.

The djinn: the room wirs around you. If it were not for the fans it would feel like hellfire. For a momment there it darkness, but then the screen before you glows white like smokeless flame. You can sense something inside, something beyond the code. You reach your hand within it, and there's no glass, your hand passess right through until you're in a white void of your own making. You call out, thinking there is nothing at all around you. Yet somehow something calls back, something that knows your name.

The rat king: You see him in an empty subway station. Something dark and distorted, you're not sure if he's man or animal, covered in rags, and singing in the language of the goblins and the orcs. Yet he comes close to you excited. And you can feel his song. He calls for you to come to the train tracks, and let yourself run with the rats and the roaches, where the train will pass over you when it comes, and you'll live forever. When you touch the third rail you don't die, but you'll never be human again.

The lich: the library is strangely bright. Run by skeletons in suits, decorated with gold. There are more books here then you thought were in all the world. There's knowledge here most mortals will never have the change below, all kept safe below the city. You see her, her body doesn't look human, everything has been replaced making her look more like a joining white doll then a being of flesh. Yet she is dead, you can tell that under the porcelain skin she must be dead, she is dead, and there is the tragedy of death in her eyes. You come closer to her, and she places a black rose within your hair...

The demon: You stand in his office and he stands before you, a humanoid being covered in black scales, with red eyes covering his skin. Yet none are on his head, that remains featureless save for two massive horns. Wings on his back nearly surround you. Countless souls line the walls of his office, looking at you, waiting. After you sign your name you give him yours, you can feel it come away for you forever and your eyes grey and your skin pales. But he puts the jar in a special place for you, you're spacial, he can tell there's something about you that he likes.

The mushroom lord: you walk through the darkness of the forest, the furthest from civilization you have ever been. You come upon a part where the trees all seem dead, that even the cryptids won't go near. Mushrooms fill the ground, and white vein like lines are all over the trees. You feel the need to lay down, and you let the moss and the mushrooms and the worms surround you, and let yourself sink into the soil,, and it feels good. It feels so good...

The witch: You can see them in the Cafe next to you, skinny and small, with a sweatshirt over most of their body, and dark glasses over their eyes. They seem powerful though, and though their body looks young they seem ancient, they seem beyond humanity. You talk to them and they tell you things, and secrets, lost gods, things you never knew you didn't know, both beautiful and disturbing. When it's time for them to go they pet your head, and give you their number. You don't know if you should text them, but you have to, you have to see them again, there's something about them that makes you need to know.

The living clothing: you step into it at first, it looked like a puddle yet shining like silver or chrome. But soon it surrounds you, first just your torso, but soon your head, your entire body. But it doesn't feel scary, it feels like you're being held, held by something beyond your understanding. It whispers to you, and you don't know if you should feel like your being eaten alive, or like you're being protected. You can't help but keep walking.

The abyss: the void is before you, blackness beyond blackness, like the color beyond the field of your vision, stands before your eyes. You stare at it, it's nothing yet you're entranced. It stares back...

[whereserpentswalk]

I put a lot of work into this it would mean a lot if you reblog!

[foolfortune]

[cytherean-sunset]

@spiritspodcast

[nitewrighter]

[discussing collection development with my supervisor] "I know we like the idea of having a wide variety of books but the truth is... you're going to be ordering so much Captain Underpants. Just so much. We have fifteen copies of--what is this--Revenge of the Talking Toilets--in the system and look at this--all checked out. One missing. None of these are on the shelves right now. We need more. It's just so much Captain Underpants."

[hpower00]

And if it's not Captain Underpants, then it's Dog Man.

[spaceteenagers]

What have I done that you will barely look at me and barely speak? Have I not come here, expressly to rescue you? Have I not, alone of all the disappointed lovers, braved every peril in order to reach this castle?

[kimbapisnotsushi]

some of the best/funniest moments in house of many ways, the final book in the howl's moving castle trilogy:

charmain convincing peter that waif is magical just so that he HAS to share food with her

when aunt sempronia and mrs. baker check on charmain after a few days and mrs. baker says that she feared charmain left a window open, charmain goes "no no i closed it" and then IMMEDIATELY goes, in her head, 'fuck. peter is DEFINITELY opening it'

peter nearly coming in on aunt sempronia's and mrs. baker's visit and being HORRIFIED by their "respectability" and charmain shooing him off by pretending he's waif, made even funnier when you remember that at this moment the kitchen is being invaded with angry kobolds and peter had to WAIT with them for charmain to finish

honestly the entirety of the visit had me in hysterics it was amazing

okay this isn't even funny but when you reread and realize aunt sempronia was 100% serious when she said nobody needed to fear for charmain when waif was around --

"i told them that you were in charge and they had to wait until you had finished being polite to those witches." "witches!" said charmain. "one of them was my mother!" "well, my mother's a witch," peter said. "and you only had to look at the proud one in silk to see that she was a witch."

peter getting defensive about gardening i LOVE this kid

charmain suggesting that peter sit on the trolley to find out where things disappear to when they put stuff on it

the supremely random fact that, for some reason, people of high norland are great on clocks and charmain's house itself had seventeen of them

waif running after charmain every time charmain tries to get her to stay at the house on her first day of helping the king in the library

the fact that princess hilda and the king wanted to poach HOWL?? howl jenkins pendragon??? the most pathetic cringefail man in all of ingary??? which sure they don't realize. but the idea that they want to after everything WE know is so fucking funny

sophie struggling with the butter dripping down her fingers

"charmain could not think why mrs. pendragon was staring at him in such horror. he was surely a truly enchanting child. and what long, curly eyelashes! 'with my husband and his fire demon,' mrs. pendragon finished. her face had gone fiery red, and she glared at the little boy across the toddler's head."

"i have no opinion of men's ability to manage anything." - princess hilda 2023 (or 2008, when this was published)

anyways this entire thing with 'twinkle' was fucking hilarious oh my god

SOPHIE STAMPING HER FOOT AND CALLING HOWL "disgustingly pretty" WHEN HOWL ASKS HER IF SHE THINKS HE'S PRETTY AT ALL

the whole pipe scene when charmain gets home and everything is flooded. also, charmain using a bath brush as a wand

howl sitting very politely on the roof waiting for charmain to rescue him while charmain is panicking about getting him down

THE FACT THAT HOWL IS APPARENTLY SCARED OF HEIGHTS BUT CLIMBED THE ROOF ANYWAYS JUST SO HE COULD TALK TO CHARMAIN IN PRIVATE

bakery apprentice timmy cuddling waif when charmain comes back out to the front and her thinking it means they won't be lifelong enemies after all

all the rocking horses. for protection, obviously

prince ludovic using the kobolds to steal the money from high norland and timminz going "well, nobody asked" when charmain wanted to know why he hadn't told anyone

when all the lubbockins reveal themselves and literally everything dissolves into absolute chaos, particular moments including: - the king and princess hilda shouting "not in the library!!" so imperiously that the lubbockins actually changed direction - "i had a miserable childhood, nobody loved me" and "don't listen to him it's all a pose" - morgan revealing that prince ludovic wears a wig - HOWL SWITCHING PLACES WITH MORGAN, NOT AS TWINKLE BUT HIMSELF, SO THAT LUDOVIC FINDS HIMSELF WITH AN ARMFUL OF HOT WIZARD WHO IMMEDIATELY PUNCHES HIM IN THE FACE. FUCK YEAH HOWL - to which ludovic whines "how DARE you do that!" and howl goes "bad luck" and punches him AGAIN - waif committing murder, twice

peter barreling into the room long after everything had ended and feeling quite proud of himself for finally getting some magic right, about twenty pages from the end of the book

and when he DOES come barreling in he immediately narrows in on charmain ("i knew she was making a stupid fuss, she's never sensible about things")

[serdaig1e]

You have absolutely no idea how much I relate to Charmain Baker

I too just want to sit around, read all day, eat food, and ignore the concerning amount of laundry I have to do as I lounge peacefully in my magic house

[shebsart]

Im sick with flu so naturally I picked up my newly bought copy of Howl's Moving Castle which includes DWJ interviews in the back.

And im in love with the way she tells these stories feels like a part of her books.

And my favorite:

The magic in the mundane :)

edit: I'm copying the ID by @princess-of-purple-prose below, thank you!

[ID: Excerpts of printed text which read:

I suppose there's also a biographical element in that Sophie is the eldest of three sisters, and so am I. The idea for Sophie grew out of the time I discovered I had a very severe milk allergy. I almost lost the use of my legs and had to walk with the aid of a stick. I was moderately young, but because of this I suddenly became old.

I had to wait until I knew what Wizard Howl was like. I began to discover Howl about the time when one of my sons took to spending several hours in the bathroom every morning and I got really, really, really annoyed with him.

Where were you when you wrote it? I wrote the book the way I write everything, stretched out on the big sofa in my sitting room, in everyone's way. This often annoys my husband rather a lot.

which made me burst out laughing. I laughed and laughed at the seven league boot, and when I came to the bit where Sophie accidentally makes Howl's suit twenty times too big for him, I laughed so much that I fell off the sofa. My husband was really irritated by this time. He snapped, "You can't be making yourself laugh!" And I gasped, "But I am, I am!" and rolled about on the floor.

Are any of your relatives or friends included in the book? Yes, well the thing that started me off writing the book was a friend of mine who never does her laundry. She has it around the place in huge bags for often as much as a year. When she does tip it all out and try to wash it, she discovers all sorts of clothes that she has forgotten she had.

Which is your favourite part of the book and why? I like the book all over, but I suppose if I had to choose a bit, I'd choose the place where Howl gets a cold. It so happened that when I was writing this bit, my husband caught a bad cold. He is the world's most histrionic cold catcher. He moans, he coughs, he piles on the pathos, he makes strange noises, he blows his nose exactly like a bassoon in a tunnel, he demands bacon sandwiches at all hours, and he is liable to appear (usually wrapped in someone else's dressing gown) at any time, announcing that he is dying of neglect and boredom. So all I had to do was write it down. End ID]

[hpower00]

This is why Howl's Moving Castle and its sequels are the best.

[myhyperfixationisiforgot]

Look it is very important to me that everyone knows that Sophie is also fucking nuts in the book. Everybody always talks about how absurd Howl in the book but Sophie is right there with him.

She's so determined to be the normal sister that she's just actually convinced herself that the magic she is clearly, visibly, blatantly performing happens to everyone. Just. You know. Not anyone around her. The curse wore off weeks ago and she's just totally sure she's happier as an old woman. Her sisters have initiated some complex long-game tomfoolery to switch lives and Sophie also thinks that this is the most logical choice.

Sophie does not move in with a romantic mythic man who treats her right, she moves in with a runaway doctoral candidate who immediately dates her sister and drags her into his family drama. She and Howl are both so afraid of romantic commitment they accidentally trick themselves into becoming life partners. They kill the witch of the waste mostly on a whim, and they argue about which one of them is more impulsive for doing so the whole time.

[ajaxgb]

Okay no I need to talk about the book version of Howl's Moving Castle. I love the movie but the book has such a different vibe and you, yes you, should read it.

Movie Howl is a soulful and quiet. Book Howl is a drama queen and Causing Problems and has a long string of jilted exes and couldn't shut up if you paid him.

Sophie and Howl drive each other up the wall at the beginning and it's really funny. Sophie and Howl are (despite themselves) very much in love by the end and they still drive each other up the wall and it's even funnier.

In the movie, Howl has been ordered by the king to participate in The War, and Howl is avoiding it because he is a brave conscientious objector. In the book, Howl has been ordered by the king to rescue his lost brother from the Witch of the Wastes, and Howl is avoiding it by any means necessary because he is a cowardly weasel who wants to stay as far from the Witch as possible.

In the movie, the Witch cursed Sophie because she was jealous about Howl speaking to Sophie for five minutes. In the book, the Witch cursed Sophie because Sophie had been doing surprisingly powerful magic for years without knowing it and it was actually starting to cut into the Witch's plans. (Sophie does not discover any of this until nearly the end of the book, but the reader can start to pick it up much earlier and the way Sophie's magic works is pretty darn cool.)

In the movie, there's a rumor that Howl eats the hearts of maidens, but this is implied to be nothing but nasty fearmongering. In the book, there's a rumor that Howl eats the hearts of maidens because Howl started the rumor so people would stop asking him to do wizard junk all the time.

The book lightly parodies a couple of tropes from Western fairy tales. In particular Sophie has internalized that, as the eldest of three sisters, her "destiny" is to fail so that her younger sisters will look cooler when they succeed, which is why she's so resigned to the hat shop at the beginning. (Sidebar: Sophie's sisters come up much more in the book and they're great.) There's also a really funny bit where Sophie attempts to operate a pair of seven-league boots.

In the movie, the fourth and final location that the magic door connects to is some sort of black void / mindscape / time portal dealy. In the book the fourth location is Wales, in the UK, on Earth, so that Howl can visit his family, because from Howl's perspective this is an isekai story.

[works-of-heart]

"Mine," she said under her breath, gripping onto his shoulders. "You are mine, and I am yours."

Protective Elain lives rent free in my head!!!

[elenaferndale]

Finally doing it!

[victusinveritas]

[lasrina]

OP you left out the best one

[wilwheaton]

This is lovely advice.

[atlinmerrick]

DELIGHT YOURSELF!

Be so loudly unabashedly you that people leave the room. They were never your audience anyway, you are your first audience and your delight brings others to you.

DELIGHT YOURSELF PLEASE!

[secondlina]

I forgot to post this Crow Time to tumblr! Here it is!

I love Jellybean Juice so much...

[laurenillustrated]

Mystery Inc. meet Holmes and Watson!

I am having a lot of fun with this Victorian Scooby Doo au!!

[librarianproblems]

When a patron wanders into the staff only area