pull the pillars down.

meta cache for ourpyrrhicvictory.

[fsarch]

HARRY POTTER AGE PROGRESSION EDIT 002 / partners may reblog for character tag.

[fsarch]

HARRY POTTER AGE PROGRESSION EDIT / partners may reblog for character tag.

[ourpyrrhicvictory]

anonymous asked: can you talk about regulus and what he would think of the posthumous clearing of his name as a death eater? also about regulus’s last thoughts about his brother?

first and foremost , i cannot tell you just how much regulus black grew up in the time between deciding to pursue voldemort’s demise and meeting his own. it is insurmountable and important to his ultimate act of rebellion , but he never once wanted vindication. it’s the whole point of him dying. he doesn’t want to be known. he doesn’t want the credit , not until it is too late for voldemort to do a thing about it. he has family in those ranks , and while he knows bella has solid standing with voldemort , that does not mean the rest of his family ( i.e. his mother ) would be safe from the backlash. in fact , regulus wouldn’t be surprised if bellatrix herself delt the punishment if it turned out her cousin was a traitor. so he dragged his chance at being a hero down to the bottom of a lake and never thought twice. under the circumstances of his vindication , he might find some pride in it. he’s a proud guy. it’s in his nature. if he knew they had won the war , that he’d somehow helped defeat voldemort , that he had at least four surviving family members , he might call that a win. he might make peace with that , but at the time of his death , he would want no part of it. 

as for how he feels about sirius at the end , he’s more or less made peace with his feelings about his brother albeit in private and never aloud. he never hated sirius. they both played their roles in the positions they thought were best for them , and while regulus resented him for a long time for leaving him in that house —because surprise surprise , walburga still needed an outlet for her uncontained anger at just being her , and if the favorite son is the only option , well—he accepted that sirius had to escape too for his own sake. regulus matures so much in those months he spends alone , no longer surrounded by friends with identical belief systems who hype him up and enable his cognitive dissonance. his disenchantment is slow and then fast. it’s a mild itch before it’s a full blown fever , and it makes him anxious and distrusting of anyone and everyone he comes in contact with. that remains the same until his death , but he does wish he could tell sirius. he wishes he could just write him a letter and beg for his help , but just because he doesn’t trust voldemort does not mean he trusts his brother’s side either. he is as weary of dumbledore as he is voldemort because he sees the same structure in the way they do things , and he doesn’t like it. 

the point is that he’s forgiven sirius because he knows that when he dies , it won’t matter , and he doesn’t want to hold onto all the shit that has weighed him down his whole life —ironic , considering how he dies— so he lets it go. again , he very much wanted to make amends with sirius in person , but that just wasn’t beneficial to his ultimate goal. the cost outweighed the benefit , and by then , he didn’t even know who his brother was anymore , what he’d seen , and regulus wasn’t entirely convinced sirius wouldn’t kill him on the spot. 

and we obviously know sirius doesn’t ever forgive regulus for choosing to stay within the family. the proof is in the one line regulus is based off of until DH , “ I doubt Regulus was ever important enough to be killed by Voldemort in person. “ , which is obviously just an ignorant and petulant line from a sirius who is still bitter about his family and not an actual fact. regulus would literally be voldemort’s most wanted if voldemort had been smart enough to realize what regulus was doing. the only reason voldemort didn’t hunt down reg? HE DIDN’T KNOW HE HAD TO. so sirius has no idea of the truth —and honestly , who tf in the DE would tell him? he’s a traitor , and the DE of course would write regulus off as being killed by them because they don’t want to answer the question of where he actually is since … they don’t fucking know— meaning he can only downplay regulus’s death to a mere “ the only way out is a box “ scenario. the fact is that regulus was so good at guarding his secrets and himself that literally NO ONE had a clue what he was doing until years later. 

and really , who knows except the trio and kreacher without harry clearing his name publicly ? not a fucking soul , especially not sirius because he’s already dead. it’s just unfortunate that regulus didn’t fulfill the mission he set out to accomplish , and that’s the most frustrating thing for me and it of course would be for him to. i would’ve definitely stayed to watch and make sure i handled the shit to completion. but regulus was still a kid , and he was still too damn proud to admit that he wanted to stop the very machine his parents had fancied him a cog for. so the idea of being placed back in the good graces of society doesn’t appeal to him , ESPECIALLY if his brother doesn’t get to live long enough to see it and know the truth. because that is the only person he would have cared to come clean to. 

but let’s just not forget this. the fact of the matter is that regulus black didn’t go after voldemort out of the goodness of his heart. he didn’t suddenly decide to become one of the good guys. not only did voldemort’s status as a halfblood fuel a specific brand of hypocrisy that made regulus absolutely sick to his stomach , he made a legitimate slight against regulus when he used kreacher , and regulus was already disenchanted with his bullshit. so it was , in true black brother fashion , a petulant move against and an act of defiance. the only difference is regulus is just better at hiding his true emotions and taking his revenge in silence. 

[ourpyrrhicvictory]

anonymous asked: what are the odds caradoc survived? or benjy? is it at all possible considering they don’t come back to try and save their friends? or did an injury maybe cause either to be unable to return?

considering the ambiguity of their only canon lines , it is entirely possible that both caradoc and benjy survived. what we have to understand is that by this point , it’s pretty clear that the resistance is losing the war. they’re losing bodies. they’re recruiting kids , and those kids are dying. the future is dying. and dumb.ledore keeps throwing them to the wolves anyway , but what can he do ? give up ? admit he has no plan and no effective way of prolonging the inevitable ? individually , for different reasons , yes , it is entirely possible that caradoc and benjy survive.

for one , a trace of caradoc is NEVER FOUND. no body , no crime etc etc. and it isn’t about caradoc being able to abandon his friends. it is about his friends being unwilling to allow him to die for a cause that does not care about him. dumble.dore and crouch both spewed pro - muggle rhetoric in order to get more muggleborn students to join their ranks , and caradoc was the first to fall for it headfirst. and he became disenchanted faster than anyone. it became apparent very quickly that heading a task force of hit wizards had nothing to do with his skill but with his expendability. he was the first deployed because he was the last concern , and he always went so willingly. he doesn’t need this war. he doesn’t need their bad blood. and frank would be the first to tell him to get out. ted stayed away from the war just fine. he had other priorities , and while caradoc no longer has his family , it doesn’t make him eager to be a martyr. so the idea that he just disappeared with the help of frank and kingsley is anything but a reach. but it is also possible he was injured. or honestly , frank isn’t above wiping his memory. like i dont think you understand how desperate and on edge frank was by the time alice got pregnant , especially when he’s addicted to potions that do more harm than good. it’s just facts. 

as for benjy , he just doesn’t fucking care. he fights to fight. he likes fighting. he likes drama , and he likes a show , and where better to get all of that than a war ? but again , he has no real loyalty to dumbledore. he has a loyalty to the bastards and no one else , and if frank would have told him to get the hell out of dodge and go join his family in america , it would be hard for him to say no when he realizes that he’s not just fighting to fight anymore. the fights are no longer fun. the war is no longer FUN. he can go back to boxing or bar fights. he doesn’t need to risk his life for men who don’t value it at all. and he does have a family he can take care of. so if you can find bits of peter pettigrew and that motherfucker can survive , you better believe benjy can too. and yeah , dying is super heroic and edgy and benjy likes the folklore that comes with it , but he won’t actually die for it. he’d rather fake that shit , get the folklore , and still get to live a whole other life. benjy’s selfish like that. he’s really not down to die for anyone but his damn self. kingsley and frank both respect and understand that , so it’s not at all wild that these two would send their two ( three , counting ted ) muggleborn friends away from a war that they are obviously going to lose. 

the point is this group of boys turned men loved each other more than the world. frank stayed because he had to try and save a world his son could live in. kingsley stayed because he cares too much about everyone else. doc and benjy just didn’t have those attachments beyond frank and kingsley , who were more than willing to get them out. 

[melaninmuscle]

LAITH ASHLEY

[shesnake]

Dev Patel in The Wedding Guest (2018) dir. Michael Winterbottom

[70seric]

this scene screams otp material part 2

[eerythingisshaka]

O’Shea Jackson Jr. in ‘Ingrid Goes West’

[polishmexican]

O’Shea Jackson Jr. and Aubrey Plaza - Ingrid Goes West - 8/4/2017

[thewinedarksea]

(x)

[midsommars-deactivated20201109]

Looking for Alaska (2019) Created by Josh Schwartz and Ashley Wigfield

[ourpyrrhicvictory]

a small , teeny , tiny reminder that frank struggled with an addiction to certain pep up potions through the last few years of the war and it’s half the reason he was driven to madness so much faster than alice and to a worse extent

[knowshisowna]

META 001 | power 

if rodolphus lestrange wants you dead at his hand , odds are you are dead.

the eldest of the death eaters , arguably the wisest , his strategy employed in full by tom riddle ( not voldemort but tom riddle , which is a very important distinction because tom riddle was much less into delegation and entrusting duties to others than voldemort was , who had no choice really ) , and his skills taught by the same. he didn’t study under tom to the intensity or attention that bellatrix did , but he still worked under the tom the longest , was taught a wide array of dark magic , and was already quite skilled by the time he came under his employ.

now mind you , when we say rodolphus’s and bellatrix’s mentor , we’re talking about tom fucking riddle , who was able to kill his father and grandparents and perform a solid memory modification on his uncle at the age of 16 , who was able to get away with killing myrtle as a school - age boy. tom riddle , whose only real “equal” is albus dumbledore. and by 1980 - 81 , the final stretch of the first war , rodolphus has been under him for 15 - 16 years. not only that , but the triumvirate have been fighting alongside one another and learning one another’s techniques for nearly as long. they are fluid , cogs in the same machine , powerful. and rodolphus , with insurmountable skill , invulnerable tactics , an army at his will , he is one of the most formidable foes in this regime if not the most , edged out only by his wife , though they serve two very distinct purposes.

but rodolphus doesn’t DO dirty work. rodolphus doesn’t wrinkle his suit or stain his collar unless absolutely necessary. it is usually in aid of his brother or bellatrix , and not because they cannot handle themselves but because he is protective. and also , the order knows that whoever is under those masks is going to need their best and more of them. if any member of the triumvirate was ever overwhelmed , it was in quantity rather than quality. it’s just facts.

now bellatrix’s tutelage under tom was far more extensive and for a far different purpose. fitting , because she does love her work. she loves punishment , torture , displaying her skills. rodolphus is more reserved , but she has always been the warrior , the knight , the soldier through and through. he is the wand at her back , but if he can stand back and let her work , he will without question.

as for rabastan , he is not as ruthless as bellatrix nor as refined as rodolphus , but he is RABID. he fights like a trapped animal , relentless , restless. he doesn’t know how to give up , and he will go to the greatest lengths to back his brother and sister - in - law. pre - azkaban , he is at his best. he is a finisher. he is the turn of the tide , the one to come in last minute and tip a scale if need be. he complements them well , and he knows it.

basically considering 9 times out of 10 , you aren’t going to find one without the other two either present or all too close for comfort , you aren’t getting the jump on them. you aren’t overpowering them. you are holding them off long enough to escape. and rodolphus can orchestrate a draw if need be , as in tom riddle wanted someone specific left alive and he had to ensure that , but if you are alive after engaging him , it is most likely because he made it so. most order members are children , younger than them. the marauders ? children. the only three i can see giving rodolphus a run for his money pre - azkaban ( outside of albus ) would be moody , kingsley ( for a time ) , and frank , and we all know how the latter ends , but … let’s talk about it.

bellatrix , rodolphus , and rabastan are able to capture two of the most respected aurors employed by the ministry. not only capture them but torture them into insanity. not kill them , despite the desperation to find voldemort and get answers. they had the sound mind to keep them alive through it all , which is something people tend to overlook because they think bellatrix has always been crazy , and rabastan has always been weak. it just isn’t true. barty was instrumental in capturing the longbottoms due to his inside information as was augustus rookwood , but these three took them down. and honestly , i think between bellatrix and rodolphus , they could have done it on manipulation tactic alone.

and they only need each other. more often than not , if there is something crucial to be handled , they only need each other. barty is a whole other post due to who his father is , who he is to the lestranges , his credit for helping locate the longbottoms etc etc , but these three rely solely on one another , and they had to work for that just as well. 

but like i said , rodolphus delegates A LOT. because he has a lot of faith in the innate need to impress him and evade letting him down by those beneath him. the mckinnons ? many death eaters were sent , and the lestranges weren’t there at all. the bones family ? again , this was a family that could be manipulated because they had children. rodolphus and rabastan won’t hurt defenseless children , but edgar wouldn’t know that. his wife didn’t know that. they only know the masks. they don’t have names. they don’t have faces. so just the THREAT of their presence would have been enough , but it wasn’t necessary. he’s sending teams and factions to handle these missions , and all while he orchestrates a fucking war. he can fight. he can take on the best. but he doesn’t need to. that’s power. tom riddle knows it , and rodolphus does too. because by the end , tom was so focused on his own quest , it was the lestranges in charge of an army.

so again , the odds of overpowering and / or overcoming the triumvirate are slim to fucking none. they aren’t your classmates. they aren’t you peers. they are the first. they are the best. most are just lucky they never have to come across them , and if you do , may the gods be with you.

[aliasgreyback]

PACK HEADCANONS 002 | recruitment & rearing. 

“ raise them away from their parents. raise them to h a t e. ”

fenrir is , at his root , not manipulative in regards to his pack. he is blatantly honest and upfront with his pack. there may be times where he has to be a bit more persuasive and a tad more charismatic than he would like , but lies and deceit are not the game he plays. it has always been his way or death , little in between , but when you are able to garner support and gain loyalty in the way that fenrir is —honest and solid— manipulation is a tool rarely used. he doesn’t care much for talking. he does what he wants to , needs to , to see to it that his species is ahead and well cared for.

however , there is something to be said about the way he teaches the children that he bites , the ones he is able to take from their parents. it may not seem that way , but he is strategic about what children he takes and when he takes them. now there are some children , like remus , that are attacked solely for revenge or to send a message or for simple fun. but when it comes to their recruitment , he will take them at their most vulnerable , when they are angry with their parents or when they feel hopeless or abandoned or when they are battling low self - esteem etc. these are the children he can empower. these are the children he can envelop into his fold.

“ raise them away from their parents. raise them to h a t e. ”

fenrir’s best weapon for young children and teens is “ look at how they treat you now ! did they ever love you ? ” the biggest trick he has ever played is having these children bitten and left in their homes , in homes where he knows the parents are very anti - werewolf. these victims are usually older , old enough to understand discrimination and negligence. he will watch these children , watch their relationships deteriorate , watch their parents all but abandon them , watch them fall within an inch of their life.

and then he will offer an out.

he will offer them a place where they are accepted , where they matter , where they fit in. teaching them to hate is a strategy , a well placed and heavily thought out strategy , and he executes it to perfection time and time again. there is nothing sloppy or careless about the way fenrir has built his pack for decades , the way in which he exercises his influence and utilizes the countless followers across the world that he has gathered and extended to.

you bring runaways and orphans into the fold , and loyalty is easiest to gain. but fenrir understands the difficulty of maintaining it , of ensuring no one thinks themselves capable —or that anyone would feel the need to— usurp his position. and for that , it takes genuine transparency , honesty of the leader. he understands that. he always has , and so while he has his methods of raising these kids , he doesn’t lie. he doesn’t deceive. he doesn’t need to.

[kujjuaarchive]

2. What is/was your character’s relationship with their mother like? 3. What is/was your character’s relationship with their father like? 3.5. What's Ephraim's relationship with his stepmother like?

Dad was answered HERE, and so was stepmom kinda, but i’m gonna keep on keeping on with the relationship with his moms because it is so important. And there will also be some more tidbits about mom and pop.

so ephraim’s mom, kamila, was always a very quiet and reserved woman. she shared her fortunes and foreshadows, and she loved interpreting her children’s dreams and that of the like. her relationship with ephraim was always so very wholesome when he was a boy. she loved to talk about how she had foreseen him being a full wizard, and she loved how bright and curious he was. and he was so loving. he was a mama’s boy to an extent, loved being around his mother, but he of course got swept under his father’s wing pretty quickly being the firstborn son. as abubakar began to spiral, ephraim’s relationship with his mother became strained because ephraim sort of blamed her for allowing his father to become a brute. he felt as though she may have had something to do with his illness and if not, she wasn’t doing anything about it at least. so he resented her a bit, enough really, for a long time in the final months of his father’s life and then after. then aaleyah came in the picture.

so i think it was instinct for ephraim to compare Aaleyah to not only his father but also his mother. when she first entered their lives, his father had only just passed, and she had just come back to the area. she had originally come to his mother about dreams that she’d had, and she started to come quite often within a few months although ephraim was at school for the most part, so he didn’t realize how much time she spent in the asomugha home. when he came home during his winter break to celebrate the incoming year with his family, he found that this woman was still hanging around, helping his mother around the house and even bonding with his sisters. he didn’t mind. he knew it was hard for his family especially without him there to cope with their father’s death. yeah, all of them felt some variation of relief, but there were other ways he left a void. financially was a big one, and his mother was forced to sell her craft again, and she did so many readings and things that she began to neglect the kids. but aaleyah seemed to help alleviate that issue when she was around because she was paying so much attention to ephraim’s siblings, but he still didn’t think much of it. 

regardless, yeah of course he compared aaleyah to abubakar, his father, because the entire family still had trauma to wade through. they still had nightmares and feared  that it was a dream, that he would come back and damn them for moving forward without him. it was hard on all of them, but one thing ephraim didn’t want was to invite another devil into their home, and so he vetted her. god, he did. he asked so many questions, inquired about the most private parts of her life, and questioned her answers even further. in all that time, she urged him to continue. she was firm and fierce but not defensive. she was honest, and she also allowed him to learn some things about himself in her counter-analysis of him. they spent hours going back and forth, matching banter and inquisition alike, and he learned a lot without really meaning to. finding out she was a witch truly gave him a solid foundation too because she taught him so much about different magic in the world. she had worked for the british ministry before coming back, and she gave him a lot of different secrets and tricks about how things worked. at first, he didn’t really appreciate it as much as he could, but as time went on, he understood how crucial it was to him in the long run. 

so beyond all that, aaleyah’s real claim to ephraim’s love and devotion was how she managed to build a bridge between kamila and her oldest son. she helped both of them understand his magic and how powerful he had the means to become because of how advanced he already was. he helped them work out their issues that stemmed from abubakar, and she listened to ephraim’s every word when he could finally pinpoint why he was no longer so close with his mother. she also listened to him speak about his father and how he’d felt guilty about not crying about his death, and ironically, that was the first time he’d cried in years, in front of her. after that, his relationship with kamila improved, and his trust for aaleyah grew, but that took four full years from the time he met her to the moment he let himself break in front of her. still, in that time, he was more honest with her than he had ever been with anyone, and he realized how important that was because she could have ruined him and his mother all over again, but instead, she helped. she brought them closer, and so by the time she proposed to kamila and kamila said yes, he loved her as much as he loved kamila. and so it was easy to accept. still, the fact that aaleyah asked his permission before proposing really solidified how close they were. 

[kujjuaarchive]

26. How does your character behave around children? 27. How does your character normally deal with confrontation?

26. How does your character behave around children?

he sees children as tiny humans that cannot defend themselves, rightfully, and he can have a bit of a hero complex. he likes glory after all, and although he’s never thought of having his own children, he doesn’t mind them. after all, his baby brother is still a kid in many ways, and he loves him more than he loves himself. he would never stand for someone else hurting a child in front of him. he’s above that ( literally his motto ), and so he’ll protect them, but he doesn’t have much attachment to any. his sisters are still yet to have kids, so he has minimal close interaction as it is. 

27. How does your character normally deal with confrontation?

ALSO ANSWERED HERE, BUT

he likes to use his words first of course. the brutal aspect of confrontation really doesn’t please him because he sees himself as above that. that’s also why he looks down on the memory of his father so much, because of how brutal he became. Ephraim sees this as barbaric and primitive, and he likes to think he shouldn’t have to get his hands dirty for anyone. So he will use his words first, and if that doesn’t work, he’ll turn to magic. he is not above forcing someone else to fight to the death though, so there’s that little…speck on his character.

[kujjuaarchive]

19. What is your character’s biggest relationship flaw? Has this flaw destroyed relationships for them before? 20. In what ways does your character compare themselves to others? Do they do this for the sake of self-validation, or self-criticism?

19. What is your character’s biggest relationship flaw? Has this flaw destroyed relationships for them before?

he’s too pragmatic, too analytic, and people tend to hate that. he has to pick and pull everything apart. he has to be certain that these are the types of relationships/connections/etc. that he wants. not to say he’s not a fucking flirt because he is, and he has no qualms about treating sex as something separate from commitment or relationships in general, but when it comes to romantic relationships, he is overly critical of his partner and the way they mesh. he was always told not to settle, but this was so engrained in him that now he is almost terrified ( although he would never use that word ) of doing so. so he drags things out until a) they leave him or b) he decides it’s not worth the risk. thus far, he’s only had one serious relationship, and it did not last long. he ended it as soon as he left school. 

20. In what ways does your character compare themselves to others? Do they do this for the sake of self-validation, or self-criticism?

there are times where he is acutely aware of how different he reacts to things. it happens most with his baby brother or even his sisters at times. especially when his dad died and he didn’t shed a tear, he came to the realization that his emotions were not as easily tapped into as his siblings. not that they do too well either because they endured their dad too, but they definitely feel a bit more deeply than he does. and sometimes he thinks that it’s a flaw, that he’s broken. he’s hurt people, people he’s known for ages, and he knows it is because he can’t open up. and he’s trying so very hard, but everything in him tells him it’s not worth it, so mostly, he compares himself to others in an emotional capacity, and it’s definitely self criticism. everything else, he pretty much sees as self-validation because he does think he’s above a lot of mundane things that others do and feel, and sometimes, he’s even grateful he doesn’t feel like others do. he can’t imagine how he would have crumbled for his father if he could feel as they do.