#wkwc

[the-dream-team]

Happy Pride!!! Love, the Who Knows Who Cares crew 🏳️‍🌈

[the-dream-team]

"Lily Evans liked girls. Well, she liked boys, too. Bisexual. That was the term she’d settled on." After 22 years spent in the closet, Lily is excited to finally start dating girls. In fact, she's quite determined to make up for a lifetime of relationships with mediocre men, and the messy-haired boy who works at the art museum isn't going to change her plans anytime soon. Definitely not.

Chapter 18: Who Cares

You could let it down Jump into the river baby Easy as it sounds It's never quite as easily done The current has us now, it's okay Take into account that it's all about to change Who knows, who cares

No one's been there But I don't care I know all have been there I don't care I know -Who Knows Who Cares by Local Natives

Read the final chapter on A03

[the-dream-team]

i just wanted to say i'm so so so incredibly grateful for you for writing who knows who cares... i was really struggling with being bi and on the aro/ace spectrum in the past 2 years. especially since some irl people i thought to be my friends were accusing me behind my back of being a lesbian pretending to like men and/or queerbaiting amongst other things. i genuinely think reading your fic changed my life... i'd go as far too say it kinda saved my life too... even when i felt alone and betrayed reading wkwc made me feel seen and like i was able to keep going. the way you wrote lily's character, the way you wrote other characters reacting to her being herself, all the emotions and experiences you showed. everything was perfect for me. this is probably the best representation i've ever felt when seeing someone else's creation. this paragraph in particular is one of my favourite things i've read... like ever:

“This is actually the happiest I’ve been in a long time,” she continued despite James’s look of confusion. “No, really, it’s just… for so long now I’ve felt extremely insecure about myself and my bisexuality. Even before coming out, I was basically obsessed with how people would react to it—how my family would respond, how my friends would see me after they learned… And then after Idid tell people, my worries shifted to how the queer community would see me, if they’d accept me,if I was ticking enough boxes to fit the right definitions. It was exhausting. I basically lost myself trying to be what I thought people wanted me to be. But these last couple of weeks, with the help of my friends, and the community, and even you… I realized how infeasible it was trying to control what other people thought of me. Because, in the end, who cares? The only one who needs to know me... is me.”

^ this paragraph is so incredibly special in ways i can't even describe. i also adore the way you described pandora lovegood's art and the way lily is entranced by it... i love the concept of using mirrors to see yourself as part of beautiful artwork... so much that i wish i could see it in real life:

In front of her, painted in painstaking detail, was the night sky. Or, more accurately, it was the universe. Swirls of violet galaxies overlapped burnt-orange nebulas expanding across the dark blues of the piece. It was nearly identical to one of those pictures NASA released from their extra-fancy telescopes, but as Lily stepped closer to the painting she could pick out the humanity of the brush strokes. Little hand-made squiggles off the ends of a comet, a stroke of paint thicker than the others, a fleck of purple trapped amongst teal.But more importantly, up close, she could see herself. Every dotted star spanning the entire painting was actually a blank space, revealing the mirror on which the piece of art was created on top of. In place of every star, where every glowing sun should have been, Lily saw glimpses of her freckles, of the red in her hair, the greens in her eyes. Her lips mingled with planets, ears flew alongside asteroids, nose made up the moons. She was there, staring into infinity and finding herself staring back. Without warning, a light flipped on somewhere behind her, angled perfectly toward the piece so that every exposed bit of mirror illuminated like glowing embers. The shock of it—the beauty of it all—sent her staggering backward in order to see the full view of its magnificence. With the stars shining, the painting came alive, shimmering and sparkling and bouncing its brilliance around the room. With a gasp, Lily noticed the dots of light reflected onto her dress, her arms, the glare catching in her eye. Like a disco ball, the painting scattered its light. She looked down at herself and saw that she was made of starlight. An amazing laugh escaped her throat, which constricted as she felt a tingling sensation in the corners of her eyes.

the way she feels so much that i could so clearly see and feel everything. i wish i could see the art you imagined... i was wondering are there any specific pieces you thought of when creating these descriptions? i'm in awe of your talent and you really helped me when i was struggling to stick with the things that brought me joy. at the time of reading wkwc (how is it over a year ago now?!) i tried so many times to put into words how much your story means to me... now i've realised that it is impossible to describe how important this has been in the past 2 years of my life. even now i can't help but get emotional even if i reread just one paragraph or even a sentence. thank you so much for sharing your beautiful writing... you truly have a special gift <3 sorry for the rant but i really wanted to let you know how much i appreciate you... thank you!

Wow!! I don't know how to properly respond to such a kind and thoughtful message other than saying thank you thank you thank you a million times over <3 It's such a privilege to have readers like you who can relate to this story and its characters on such a personal level. It means the world to me that wkwc helped you in any way and I so appreciate that you took the time to share this with me :)

I've gotten a lot of questions about Pandora's art in the past, and I wish there was a real life piece I could point to because I'd love to see it! Actually, I'd love to be able to paint it myself, but unfortunately I was not blessed with those skills hahaha

However, I can go into more detail about how I came up with Pandora's art under the cut! (some light spoilers and rambling discussions about themes below)

Okay! So! The main inspiration came from wanting to incorporate mirrors as a motif in the fic, seeing as the story was largely about self-reflection. There's a line where Marlene calls the mirrors heavy-handed—which I agree with to an extent haha—but I wrote the story with a younger audience in mind, so I thought the symbolism should be clear and concise.

Another big theme is representation, so I wanted to really hammer that home by having artwork that Lily could *literally* see herself in. Sometimes that's more direct, like when she sees her and James in the "Car" painting's review mirror or within the faces of the "Happiness" paintings. Sometimes, she just catches glimpses of herself, like in the "Universe" piece.

As for the painting of the universe, this is a little more abstract but I wanted Lily to be able to transcend the whole idea of labels that she'd been really caught up on the entire story. At this point in the fic, she has to let go of her preconceived notions that there's a "correct" way to be bisexual and realize there are infinite ways to be queer and they're all correct! To me, nothing says "infinite" more than the universe hahaha so that's how I brought those three ideas together to come up with the idea for the final painting!

I kinda tried creating the art in this old banner I made for the fic... I blended Lily into this vague universe-esque painting I found on pexels.com and then the words "Who Knows Who Cares" are meant to look like mirrors. I'd like to say I'm better at photoshop now than I was a few years ago lol

Anyway, this is way more than you asked for, but since I've gotten comments and asks about the paintings before, I figured I could include a deeper dive here!

Thank you again for such a lovely message and I hope you continue to find positive representation in all the media and art and life that you experience <3

[the-dream-team]

You guys!!!!

the immensely talented @tremendouspolicestrawberry created this beautiful illustration of Lily from Who Knows Who Cares and I'm completely obsessed with it <3 Look at her little ice skates! The hot chocolate! The little snowflake hearts inside the snow globe! Her bi-flag jacket!!

I haven't stopped smiling since tremendouspolicestrawberry sent this to me, so I had to share it here!! I just love it so much :')

[the-dream-team]

"Lily Evans liked girls. Well, she liked boys, too. Bisexual. That was the term she’d settled on." After 22 years spent in the closet, Lily is excited to finally start dating girls. In fact, she's quite determined to make up for a lifetime of relationships with mediocre men, and the messy-haired boy who works at the art museum isn't going to change her plans anytime soon. Definitely not.

Chapter 17: Who Knows

Anticipation. It hung, thick like fog, ever-expanding inside the little green rental shack standing proudly behind the Godric Park ice rink that chilly New Year’s Eve. Luckily, the overworking minds of Lily Evans and Remus Lupin managed to generate enough anxious heat to keep their workplace nice and toasty with thoughtful deep breaths and impatient fidgeting. They’d barely spoken that afternoon, their jaws too clenched to make proper conversation, personal thoughts about the upcoming evening taking up too much space for much else.

New Year’s Eve meant an extended shift at the ice rink that night. Godric’s Park hosted an end-of-year bash every December 31st, complete with live music, plenty of mulled wine, and—of course—open skate for anyone with a ticket. Lily had questioned whether it was a good idea to send a bunch of drunk tourists and suburbanites onto slippery ice, but the wobbly knees and cartoonish wipe-outs at least provided some entertainment while she and Remus counted down the seconds until midnight. Technically, their shift ended at half past ten… but that wasn’t what they were both counting down to.

Read on AO3

[the-dream-team]

who knows, who cares by the_dream_team

[the-dream-team]

"Lily Evans liked girls. Well, she liked boys, too. Bisexual. That was the term she’d settled on." After 22 years spent in the closet, Lily is excited to finally start dating girls. In fact, she's quite determined to make up for a lifetime of relationships with mediocre men, and the messy-haired boy who works at the art museum isn't going to change her plans anytime soon. Definitely not.

Chapter 11: Even With Your Doubts

Lily Evans played exactly one season of football on her sixth-form’s team. She’d always enjoyed the sport—participating recreationally throughout childhood—and wasn’t awful at it, either. That isn’t to say she was a prodigy by any means, but when Elizabeth Wood had to be sidelined after an unfortunate broken ankle over summer hols, Lily was asked to fill in as defensive midfielder as a last resort.  Much of the season went by in a blur. Their team performed averagely, most game days were rainy and grey, and Lily wouldn’t have had strong feelings about her time playing at all… if it weren’t for the tearaway sweatpants that came along with their kits. She’d gotten a laugh out of the trousers with buttons snapped together down the side, always ready for a situation to arise where quickly removing your pants proved necessary, so she made the decision to bring the sweats with her to university, and then on to her first flat after graduation. In all those years, they never got any use… until that frigid December evening rolled around: the night of the Potter-Black Holiday Jubilee. 

Read on AO3

[the-dream-team]

Also while I’m here… if anyone wants to be the 400th(!!!) kudos for who knows who cares that position is currently up for grabs 👀