Dark Corners

So, I have a bit of a treat for you today. It’s like nothing I’ve ever posted on the blog before, and I’ll be honest, I’m a bit nervous about publishing it. I posted a rough draft on my Tumblr this morning, writing as I was inspired, but the tenses were a mess, and it was just what I woke up with out of my dream. I’ve rewritten it, fixed everything, added some. I’ve never written anything like this before, but I quite like it. For those of you unfamiliar with fanfiction, Drarry is a combination of Draco and Harry from Harry Potter. It’s a pretty common mashup, and one I’ve recently begun following.

This isn’t to everyone’s taste, but read on if your interested! Oh, and it’s pretty mellow. No R rated stuff here.

OK. Deep breath. Here goes.

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“Look, let’s just get this over with, ok? I’m about as thrilled about this study partner thing as you are.”

“Deal. I can’t believe old McGonagall is making us do this.”

Harry and Draco find a quiet spot deep in the library stacks, settle down, and start passing books back and forth. They definitely aren’t happy about it, and fight the whole time at first. Not much gets accomplished besides quarreling, as per the usual.

Then something cruel is said about families, and Harry gets really upset and quiet. Draco, used to him fighting back, is concerned, so he makes some asshole comment about Harry giving up the fight.

Harry looks up with wet cheeks and said, “My parents are dead, Draco. Don’t you ever remember that?”

He gets up to leave, and as he’s gathering his things, Draco takes his hands and pulls him close. “I’m sorry, I’ve been an idiot.”

Harry is stiff at first, but then just sort of sags into Draco with relief and even though there is no music, they sort of sway together in the dark corner of the stacks.

“Draco, what are we doing?” Harry asks after a moment, pulling away slightly. This is nice, but he realizes what he’s doing, and with whom…and suddenly he feels…odd.

“Dancing in the stacks after curfew.” Draco dares, his lip slightly curled.

“No, I mean…we hate each other. We’ve always hated each other…” Harry trails off, feeling slightly silly now, but he doesn’t know what else to say.

“Have we though? Or has it just been easier to keep fighting like we were still kids, pretending we don’t care about every single look?”

Harry looks at Draco, his arch nemesis since they were boys. There’s always been such a strange pull, but yet… “We are on opposite sides of this war, Draco. You’re playing a very dangerous game.”

The smirk disappears from Draco’s face and it turns suddenly serious, a crease forming between his brows. “…dangerous game indeed…”

Draco pulls Harry hard toward him, and covers Harry’s mouth with his.

Harry feels all the breath go out of him at once, the way he did when the dementors attacked, and for a moment he fears he’s about to lose his soul.

But it isn’t a dementor. It is Draco. And it’s not his soul that Harry loses, it’s his heart, all at once, and completely. He grasps the back of Draco’s neck and kisses back hard, until they both need air, and when they stop, it’s Draco who has tears on cheeks.

Harry, short of breath, tries to hang onto him, knowing Draco is going to slip away. “You have to try and get out. He doesn’t need you. I need you. Don’t do whatever He’s asked you to do.”

Draco lays his head, just for a moment, on Harry’s shoulder, and whispers, “It’s too late.”

And then he’s gone. And Harry is alone.

 

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Fandom Crazy

I inadvertently chose a really bad day to do the Fandom Crazy post.

Why?

Because today people are boycotting Tumblr. Oops. Tumblr did an update last week and changed all the formatting. Now, I don’t create gifs, I don’t code, I don’t pretend to understand any of the issues that people are upset about. On one hand, I like the wider pictures–everything seems bigger, bolder, prettier. I don’t so much like the posts where everyone is trying to match the blue Tumblr background and those weeble woble posts that mess with my post of reference.

But, the reason I’m staying off Tumblr today is because I know there are so many talented artists whose work went to absolute shit last week. That website is a spectacular place for geeks, nerds, and really everyone who is passionate about ANYTHING, to come together about that THING, and talk about it, post about it, create art about it. Graphic artists, designers, and just talented kids with a flair for turning TV clips into 5 second gifs have been posting things on this website more and more frequently over the years, all for our amusement (and maybe a little notoriety).

All of the sudden, with this update, Their artwork is glitchy and cut off. Again, I don’t understand the technical details, but something in the formatting has changed. There’s a petition going around, but the main jist–it’s not working. And like the Facebook updates…they probably won’t change it back no matter how much we complain about it. I hate to see all of my favorites leave the site or give up, so I hope things get figured out, but right now it doesn’t seem hopeful. From what I’ve read, there hasn’t been a lot of response from the staff.

So today, as hard as it is to stay off such an addicting site, and I sure do miss my friends…No Tumblr for me today.

 

 

This was supposed to be a completely different post, but about Sherlock and Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, but this seemed way more important. If you want to support the petition whose work has been affected, click here. There’s been about 48,000 signatures so far.

American Gods

I’ll be honest. After reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane I was not super excited to read another Neil Gaiman novel. That book was just very strange, and not really my cup of tea. So when my book club moderator chose this one, after reading 3 other Sci-Fi books…I was less than enthusiastic.

I was wrong.

American Gods is such a different book from Ocean. Ok, so I can see the author’s influence in both, but the perspectives are just in such a completely opposite spectrum. Ocean is written in a child’s dreamlike wonder, and AG is about a massive ex-con. Kudos to Gaiman to be able to do that.

Speaking of the perspective–the writing here is marvelous. You really get into Shadow’s head. There is a lot of confusion and frustration and pain, and you feel every bit of it. I will say, that unfortunately, for me, the ending was a little bit meh. Gaiman does a really great job of building up to what is going to happen, and then it just kind of drops off into blahness. That said, I was really tired when I finished this last night…so maybe I need to reread it again. I don’t want to believe it was that mundane.

What I liked best about this book were the gods. If you are into mythology at all, you are going to recognize a LOT of characters in this. And they are going to pop-up in random places. Think Men in Black, only with Greek, Roman, Norse mythological characters.

Oh, and because I feel like I should warn my fellow Marvel Fangirls. Beware. Loki looks more like Morgan Freeman than Tom Hiddleston. Just be prepared. I’m sorry. I had to let you know.

This book is going on my To Buy list for sure, even with the so-so ending. I want to reread it, because the rest of it was just that great. The storyline was so intricate, and I know there are details that I missed on the first read-through. Pick this up–you won’t be sorry.

Favorite Character to Actor Depiction

British Television, you are a cruel, cruel master.

I will admit, I am a bit of a anglophile. I think I’ve read more on British history, literature, etc than I have American. I don’t know why. There’s just something romantic about that culture.

And the men. Oh the men. They don’t make men like that here. We have pretty boys, hipsters, country boys.

But we don’t have classic British men. Unconventional, cultured, educated. Yes please.

OK, Haley, back on topic.

I think everyone reads pieces of Sir Arthur Conon Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes at some point, if not the actual books themselves. We grow up hearing about the Sherlockian adventures. They are so archetypal in our culture today. And because Doyle wrote the adventures as short stories, teachers and their textbooks can break them apart individually.

Not only that, but the Sherlockian archetype has been morphed into multiple characters in different shows and movies. Of course you have the actual Sherlock shows through the years, but then you also have characters like House and Gil Grissom (from CSI) that follow his same personality traits.

I’ve always been drawn to that mysterious, introverted character. He’s brilliant in his observations, and so exceedingly aware of it.

I started seeing references to the BBC show Sherlock on Pinterest, and became hooked before I even watched my first episode. When I found out it was on Netflix, well, it was over before it began. And now I am 100% a part of the fandom. And once you’re in….oh man. There’s no turning back is there?

 

Benedict Cumberbatch is just as brilliant as the character he plays. The curly-haired manic genius he becomes takes your breath away as he dashes facts all over your screen. You will have a hard time keeping up as he connects the dots, and makes things make absolute perfect sense.

And I would be remiss if I left out his relationship John Watson. Now, we are in hiatus at the moment, and the fandom has quite lost its mind. While I enjoy the ship…I doubt the show itself will actually go too extreme in that direction. However, I do think Sherlock loves Watson deeply and the little pieces of affection, and watching him barely contain control is so interesting. Cumberbatch is so good at just giving enough there. A little tweak or brush. A crinkle of his eyes when he smiles, and Sherlock almost never really smiles. But just enough. You guys know what I’m talking about, especially the shippers, because oh how you screen shot EVERYTHING. I love it!

Like all of you fans, I cannot wait for Season 4. Hopefully they don’t make us wait too long. His hair sure is getting curly. Think he’s growing it out? One can only hope…