hi hi hope you're doing well sophie!
i saw your post in which you said you've shifted already. first of all, congrats! that's huge<3
second, since you're open for questions, i was wondering if you'd be up for sharing any fun memories you have of your howl's moving castle dr? stuff from your childhood there or stuff you've experienced?
thanks! (and no worries if not<3)
Hello! Prepare for long Yap session!!
Ohhh you have no idea how thrilled I am that you ask!! I wanted to do a post like this but I was worried if people would be interested haha!
But first, let me just say that my Dr is kind of a mix between the studio Ghibli movie, and the Diana Wynne Jones book (Because I'm not sure if everyone knows this but Howl's moving castle is actually based on a book!!!). I'm a huge fan of both, so I kind of cherry picked some stuff I like from both. That being :
I have two sisters in that Dr, Lettie who Is working at the bakery and Martha studying witchcraft ( in the book they switch appearance temporarily because they want to switch their professions arranged by Fanny. That doesn't really happen in my Dr as I love the movie Lettie that works in the bakery, but I also love Martha so yeah)
Also In the books, Sophie actually can speak life into things. Like enchanting her cane by just speaking to it, or there was also this scene where she was fixing Howl's coat and said "you're built to attract ladies" and then boom, it's enchanted. It reminded me a lot of manifesting so I kept it for myself :P
I kept the aspect from the book, about Howl originally being from "our world" from Wales. (Did you know he played rugby in college) That's also why the circle above the door thingy has 5 not 4 colors, one of them being the portal to Wales. BUT I kind of messed with this concept again because I'm pretty sure in the books Howl was the only one from his family to ever visit the world of ignary, and in my Dr I scripted part of his family has been already living there (as it helps support the plot of the movie with the house Sophie / I visit when going back in time). So basically he met me as a kid when he was visiting some family in ignary and then as he grew up he decided to go back there to find me after the deal with calcifer. I thought for some time if I should also come from "our world" but I decided I'm so done with it I'm not going back. I might change that fact in my Dr one day but who knows
When it comes to the plot that my Dr follows, I kept the movie plot BUT with addition of some book events, as the movie storyline happens a bit too quickly for my liking and I wanted to spend a bit longer in the castle before Howl got his heart back
Okay, holy yap and prepare for even more yapping cuz now we are getting to the good part!! The memories!
So I'm a big BIG Beatles fan, in this and every reality really. In my Howls moving castle dr, I got introduced to them during one of my first visits in Wales with Howl. I remember once when I was cleaning peacefully when suddenly I hear "Do you want to know a secret" from upstairs. At first I thought I'm going crazy, because we're in Ignary. The Beatles don't exist here. So naturally, I drop everything and sprint upstairs only to find the music was coming from Howl's room. I open the door and there he was with the biggest stupidiest grin on his face, next to a record player. Turns out he wanted to surprise me by buying a record and bringing it home. We danced together through the song and God the amount of love I have for him guys. From that day every now and then he would come back with a new record and play it
Okay so this is not so fun memory but I need to share it because I need the world to know the truth. When I first started living in the castle as an old lady, THE ABSOLUTE PIGSTY THAT WAS HAPPENING THERE. You really don't feel it that much through the screen but let me tell you something, being and old woman with pain in her back and scrubbing that God awful bathroom IS NOT OKAY. I have not the slightest idea what all those stains were from but God. And you know what, for someone who cares as much about his appearance as Howl, it's ironic because the mirror was so dirty you could not see anything in it so heavens know how he ensured he looked flawless everyday
Don't play Poker with the Witch of The Waste. In fact, don't play any games with her for that matter. That woman cheats like crazy and we all know that but can never catch her. Howl as the sour loser he is, is the most determined one to catch her out of all of us. I watched the two of them play chess once and I just know Howl proposed it for the sole purpose of catching her red handed. He lost and sulked in his room for the rest of the day. He also found excuses to not play anything with us for two weeks. (The witch lives with us btw. She is an elderly woman after all with no magic left whatsover so yeah)
Late night talks with Calcifer. I love him so much guys, and he is so fun to talk with. We sometimes gang up on Howl and complain about him but that's okay because he lowkey deserves it sometimes
Baking cake for Markls birthday. We wanted it to be special so instead of buying it or asking Lettie to make it (she bakes amazing cakes. She was the one in charge of them for our birthdays growing up) we decided to be ambitious. Lettie gave us the recepie and so Howl and I thought it was easy enough. Turns out Howl pendragon cannot bake to save his life. He cooks yes, but not bakes. I'm not sure he ever even tried to bake something. And it amazes me really, because I don't understand how can you mess something up this badly when you have a detailed step by step instruction. So we wasted about half of our indigrients and had to run to the market to buy the stuff we ran out of, before the vendors go home for the day. Still, despite moments of stress we had a good laugh about it and it was actually fun. We did manage to bake a pretty decent cake at the end, and after decorating it I have to say it looked really well. Markl enjoyed it so we were both relieved but we stayed up late finishing it so we were dead tired.
Having picnic in the garden (you know the one howl takes Sophie to in the movie) with my friends,because obviously I would invite them there. It was just so peaceful and nice, and also a bit crazy because those friends are my friends from this reality since I scripted them in. I think that was the moment it really hit me I made it
While we are talking about my friends, it was kinda funny to explain to them why I randomly dissapeard and now I'm back a few months later with grey hair, having the wizard howl as my lover, as he still had the reputation of the heart eater in my town at that time. They were still a bit sceptical when they met him for the first time
So you know this scene where Howl turns ginger and has this breakdown about how hideous it is. Yeah, so, I don't remember anymore how it is in the movie and I'm to lazy too check, but in my Dr Markl IS ginger. He took that personally. I'm sorry, poor him but it was quite funny to watch Markl being all cold and passive aggressive to Howl for a few days as Howl just was there in pure confusion. "Markl can you open the door?" "sure, but I wouldn't want to drive away our clients because of my hair " "what?" "nothing." At the end he took the hint and apologized to Markl but he had to bribe his forgiveness with some pastries first
So Howls has a very very detailed skincare. He has like a ton of creams, serums, potions and magic powders for the same thing but who am I to judge, apparently I just "don't understand". One morning when we were both getting ready, he was putting on like a third cream I basically said "imagine having to do all that" because I just use water and a normal soap I enchant to keep my skin clear. I was then kicked out of the bathroom and had to wait for another hour before we could go out.
We once went drinking to a Welsh pub with Howl. He was really excited to have me try the Welsh beer and so was I. It was good. Very good. Perhaps too good, because I seemed to completely forget about my low alcohol tolerance. Fun at first, although a bit more for him as it was first time I was drunk near him, and greatly embarrassed myself. Not so fun later when I started running away from him laughing in the middle of the night. Also not so much fun later when I threw up most of what I drunk. Not at all fun later when I woke up the next morning after he had to carry me back to the castle, and had to hear about all the stuff I said and did. I was then reminded about this incident whenever we had wine with dinner. "Easy on the wine dear"How about you shut up
He can't even be talking after that one time he got absolutely wasted (kinda happens in the book btw) during his rugby Club reunion in Wales. "I assure you my friends I am stone cold sober" he says after nearly breaking his nose on the wall, trying to get to his room. After sheer force of determination as well as trial and error and many poorly sang Welsh songs later he did get into his bed, let's applaud ladies and gentlemen
I have many many more memories but I kinda want to see if people aren't too bored by what I wrote for now first. You have no idea how much I enjoyed writing this post though! ♥︎