a muggle AU where hinny is in a band together and ginny is the singer and harry plays guitar or bass, and they play at a bar sirus owns.
Low End
Harry's always been good at staying in the background — keeping time, making space, letting Ginny take the light. One Thursday night at Sirius's bar, watching her laugh at someone else's jokes, he realises that might be the problem.
The Stag had that specific smell of old wood and spilled beer that Sirius had never bothered to fix, and Harry had stopped noticing it about six months ago. Now it just smelled like Thursday nights.
He was running through the set on a barstool before doors opened, not plugged in, just fingers moving through muscle memory on the neck of his bass while the others set levels. The monitor feedback whined and Seamus swore at it from behind the drum kit. Dean was coiling cables near the stage stairs with the particular focused patience that made him good at it, and Ginny was—
Harry's fingers stopped.
Ginny was standing at the edge of the stage, shoes off, one foot tucked under her on the monitor wedge, reading something on her phone with her hair falling across her face. She was mouthing words. Lyrics, probably. She did this before every set — went somewhere private in her own head while the rest of them made noise around her. He'd watched her do it for two years and still couldn't quite explain why it made him feel like he'd walked into a room and forgotten why.
"Intonation on the D string," she said, without looking up.
He hadn't been playing.
He plucked the string. It was slightly flat. He adjusted the tuner peg without comment.
She still didn't look up.
***
By the time doors opened the bar had filled the way it always did — slowly, then suddenly, people appearing in coats they hadn't checked, ordering drinks they'd carry until the lights changed. Harry recognised the regulars. The couple who slow-danced badly no matter the tempo. The guy who always stood too close to the left speaker despite obviously hating it. Sirius, behind the bar, already pouring with both hands and talking without pause, that particular grin that meant someone had made the mistake of asking about the '03 motorcycle he'd supposedly driven across Scotland on a dare.
They opened with two quieter songs to let the room settle. Then Ginny stepped up to the microphone and said, very simply, "Hi," and Harry felt the room shift the way it always did.
She had that thing. He'd tried to name it once and given up. Presence, maybe, but that wasn't quite right — it wasn't loudness or performance, it was more like gravity. She didn't demand attention, she just made it so that looking away felt like a small loss. She sang like she was thinking it out for the first time and had no idea you were listening, and yet every word landed.
Harry played. The bass settled underneath her voice, underneath Dean's guitar lines, underneath Seamus's ride cymbal, and Harry stayed where he was supposed to be: in the low end, keeping time, making space. He was good at that. He liked it, actually. He didn't need to be looked at.
***
The break came after the sixth song.
Harry was unscrewing his water bottle at the side of the stage when Dean dropped down next to Ginny at the edge of the monitors and said something that made her laugh — sudden, unguarded, the one that crinkked up the corner of her left eye. She shoved Dean's shoulder. Dean said something else and she laughed again and put her face briefly in her hand, shaking her head.
Harry took a drink of water.
They looked easy together, that was the thing. Dean was like that with everyone — warm, unhurried, casually funny. Harry had always liked him. He liked him now, even, in the same removed way you like weather that isn't doing anything particularly wrong.
He just also couldn't stop watching.
Ginny tucked her hair behind her ear and looked up at something Dean said and Harry thought, plainly, like the thought belonged to someone else: she's it. Not in a dramatic way. In the way of finally solving an equation you'd been carrying wrong for months. Just a quiet, dreadful click.
He looked down at his bass.
He looked back up.
She was looking at him. Not for any particular reason — just the casual way people look at people they know well, checking in, existing in the same space. Her expression didn't change. She just looked, and then she looked back at Dean.
Harry's chest did something he was going to pretend it didn't do.
He went to get another water from the bar.
***
"You alright, kid?"
Sirius was already leaning on the bar when Harry got there, in the way that suggested he'd been watching for a while and had simply decided not to pretend otherwise.
"Fine," Harry said. "Just grabbing water."
"Mm." Sirius pulled a bottle from under the bar without being asked. Then he looked, with absolutely no subtlety, across the room at where Ginny and Dean were still talking. Then he looked back at Harry. "How long have you been fine?"
"I don't know what you're—"
"Kid." Sirius put both elbows on the bar. "I have been watching you stare at Ginny Weasley with the face of a man who has just been informed of his own execution for the better part of forty-five minutes. You were doing it during Disappear Slowly. It was not subtle. Seamus noticed. I noticed. The couple who can't waltz noticed."
Harry said nothing.
"She looked at you," Sirius said, helpfully. "You looked like someone had removed your spinal cord."
"Can I just have the water?"
"You can have the water." Sirius pushed it across. Then, still very pleasant: "You're in love with her, by the way. In case you were workshopping other explanations. I know you're thorough."
Harry unscrewed the cap.
"I'm just saying," Sirius continued, at no one in particular, now apparently wiping down the bar for something to do, "I own this establishment. I see things. It's basically my job. And what I see is a guitarist—"
"Bass."
"—bass player, sure, who has the emotional self-awareness of a very talented houseplant, standing at my bar while the girl he's clearly—"
"Sirius."
"—clearly gone on for God knows how long laughs at someone else's jokes and he's over here getting water."
Harry looked across the bar.
Ginny was climbing back onto the stage now, rolling her shoulders back, checking the mic with one tap of her finger. She glanced out at the room the way she always did before the second half — not nervous, just looking, taking stock. Her eyes found Harry at the bar and she tilted her head slightly. Coming?
He held up the water bottle.
She made a face like obviously, and turned back to the mic.
He was already moving toward the stage.
"That's what I thought," Sirius said, to no one, and went back to pouring drinks.
bro use krita or something to make your gifs it's free. whatever shitty website you're using that's compressing the colours into bands is not it
ahh I don't mean to embarrass you, anon, but it's actually spelled:
"hey I know you don't know me so feel free to ignore but I noticed a bit of colour banding on some of your gifs and there's a free app called krita that might be able to help if you wanna check it out?"
... or wait. hang on. it might be spelled:
"hey i've been hired by krita to promote their app that's basically useless to gif makers bc it doesn't let you upload video files! can you post this anon hate to spread the idea that only idiots don't use our app?"
either way, I really hope this helped, anon!! <3
and be sure to check out the terrible colour banding that's been ruining tumblr's enjoyment of my gifs for the past 5 years, everyone! ↓↓↓
💬 25 🔁 65108 ❤️ 63451 · IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) • JIMMY STEWART as George Bailey and LIONEL BARRYMORE as Mr. Potter
Adding onto a "parent that stepped up" hc i saw someone else do about noli: he's a really supportive parent but in a way that when c00lkidd started showing signs of being an arsonist noli was just like "whatever makes him happy" and bought him like a ton of lighters and a bottle of gasoline,, 007n7 was NOT happy
Very quick and late-night impulse questions (because apparently I prefer that over sleep /j)
SO, for Saviour, the worldbuilsing for the heroes and their powers and stuff is that it’s a closely guarded secret and all that, right? And that powers are activated in the stress way like Mistbrom magic or something, right?
With that said, are there any cases of someone manifesting powers outside of the agency “training” program and just randomly discovering they have powers? Maybe the traumatic event was witnessed by one of the cities heroes causing something catastrophic to happen, say accidentally collapsing a building on someone or something?
Wait, who are the “villains” the Saviour agency fights? Because sending superpowered individuals to wipe the floor with regular ‘ol’ civilians doesn’t seem very, uh, heroic.
WAIT DAMN IT MY BRAIN IS COMING UP WITH NON-CANON LORE FUUU— are the villains given a choice once they’re captured to change and become “heroes” via training? Does that mean some of them could break free and escape and start a rebel secret agency? Does that actually happen? Are the “villains” just escaped heroes who banded together to try and bring them down?
Because, and sorry for even more words that aren’t necessarily related, I have a character/OC who essentially gained their powers by the very powered people abusing them (I am not explaining that well. I somewhat based it off how Odin learned magic from Norse Mythology. Really interesting and also hardcore, hanged himself on the world tree with a spear in his side for 9 days until the magic revealed itself to him. Excuse the infodumping lol) so maybe there’s that?
Do they share how heroes are made? I NEED ANSWERS AND QUESTIONS KEEP FORMING HELP—
Very curious to know your thoughts! If you want to share them that is. Also sorry for the wall of text lol. Also, do let me know if the ask goes through, because I am unsure if my asks are getting eaten or if I hallucinated them at night if it’s not too much trouble
Before this gets astronomically long, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day/night and are taking care of yourself and staying hydrated and all that jazz :]
-idk
I’m embarrassed that it took me so long to respond. I’m so sorry 😭😭
So yeah, in Savior, activation of powers is a close guarded secret. The public is just told “These people have always had abilities and we helped them on their path” and that kind of soft bullshit. And also yeah, activation is a stress thing where their body goes into overdrive like in a fight or flight response and when there’s no escape, some last ditch response is triggered— abilities
So for the villains >:) ok well, I’d say yeah people have activated powers under catastrophic circumstances but they’d have to be very specific to their dormant abilities. If a building falls on someone, their dormant power would have to be regeneration or super strength. Otherwise it won’t click, if that makes sense? Like Teddy, a pianist, was only able to activate his visions until his fingers were broken. A crucial part of his identity was attached to his piano skills and when that was taken— anxiety overload— he can now see worst case scenario situations all the time. Am I making sense here idk let me know if I’m not
Oh and yeah, the “villains” are heroes who’ve deflected and they attack funding plants and such. But they’d superpowered individuals also patrol for high tech theives and fight against organized crime. They don’t do zero good. It’s just all messed up and intertwined. Like they’ve definitely saved the lives of civilians— as long as it’s being filmed or acknowledged. It’s a huge publicity stunt after all.
Your character sounds sick as hell I hope you post more abt them!!
Random update, figured it out, I just have night zoomies from staying up to late and that’s why I’m going mentally deranged with my words. Hope that’s alright
Hope you’re doing well and that this update, uh, updates you with new ramblings I’ve shared because night zoomies my god I do not know how to end run in sentences and all that jazz :]
-idk
Haha, we all get like that sometimes! (at least, I certainly do!)
Thank you so much for your ask! I will absolutely answer, might take me a bit to get my thoughts together because my brain is NOT cooperating lately (I still have ask games to answer 🫣) I just wanted to let you know that I'm not ignoring it, I'm excited to answer :)
I hope you are keeping well too anon, and thanks again for your interest, I really appreciate it!
Random question you can feel free to ignore, but alongside Norse Mythology, do you have any other favorites? Off the top of my head, there’s Egyptian, Norse (already mentioned but eh), Greek/Roman, Aztec/Mayan, Hindu, Celtic, Filipino, Korean, Chinese, African, the one Moana is based off of (Polynesian that’s what it was) and German (I think that one’s more folktales but it works).
Also also, while on the topic, any favorite myths or stories or facts (?) you know of? All off the top of my head because google is for cowards (I’m lazy), there’s the myth of Loki giving birth to a horse (yes that’s an actual thing), the Titan Kronos eating his children, something about Osiris not being able to piece together his body and return to the living because a body part was missing (I forget which one), gambling moonlight,
a monkey demigod mistaking the sun for a mango and trying to eat it, churning the milk ocean for immortality (actual thing. Also Hindu mythology), poison women, something from Celtic mythology about fighting over bulls and pregnancy cramps sent by a goddess out of spite (think I saw that one on Ted ed), and there’s a lot more, but if I kept going, probably would write a research essay.
Mythology is just really fascinating because (excuse me rambling) it’s how people explain how they believe certain things come to existence, to explain lessons in an easier to grasp way
(like Sisyphus or German folktales about not eating vegetables and being punished by death. Most of the Greek ones can be summed up “don’t be better than the gods, on accident or purpose, they will smite you)
There are more, my brain did a reset, sorry), speculation and imagination and creativity passed down through these stories and I just think that’s really hecking fascinating (also great worldbuilding inspo for stuff!) and I can’t explain it fully it’s just really cool.
Hope the rambling wasn’t too incoherent and that me info dumping about mythology isn’t annoying, ANYWAYS hope you’re having a wonderful day/night and are taking care of yourself and staying hydrated and all that jazz :]
-idk
Ps also, not sure if it’s strange, but if I randomly remember/find non-human Esq creatures (I don’t know what there name would be sorry), perchance I could share them? Idk I just remember your blog and writing is centric to non-human blorbos so, uh, yeah. Really hope that’s not somehow strange, best I can explain it is like finding a cool rock and showing it to friends
I am always interested in learning about other mythologies ! My all-time favourites are North and Greek pantheons, for very different reasons. Also, they have a lottt of potential in whump ! Especially North gods since they, unlike most mythological gods, are mortals 🔥
When I was younger and didn't know about whump, I used to read soooo many fics on ao3 about Loki, lmao. Both the marvel and the mythical one.
Also do feel free to tell me about whumpable nonhumans ! I can whump everyone as long as they're male/non-binary, adult (for their species), and have a humanish body. Like face and limbs.
asia, the prophet, please tell us what dream's new upcoming video on April 1st is about ? because i might think he will pull another prank on us
hmmmm part of me actually thinks this one may be the video that was supposed to come out on march 1st. because i think he said that video got delayed due to sponsor issues right? and the hostage video didnt have a sponsorship
