To Die Was An Art, To Live Was Destruction

TW for suicide

So I know that about everyone assumes that Ben died because The Horror ripped him apart. And while that I a completely valid assumption and tbh most likely what happened I’m just going to put out my own Head Cannon before season 2 comes out and we have a chance of finding out the truth.

We know that Ben’s power was a horrible one. We know that he hated it. He hated the killing and the tentacles sprouting from his chest and the dimension in his stomach and being covered with blood and body parts as actual human beings get ripped up in front of him. He hated it. We also know that Klaus sees Ghosts as they died. What they were wearing, how old they were, every injury they have. So consider: 

If Ben was ripped apart by The Horror on a mission or in training...where was his uniform? where were his injuries? He is wearing a hoodie and a leather jacket and jean. We all know Reginald would have never allowed that during training or on a mission. And why is his body not ripped to shreds or at least full of lacerations and blood. 

I propose an alternate theory. What if he killed himself? Its not too far a stretch really. Steal a handgun from ol’ Reggies office, wear normal clothes bc its free time or bc you know what you’re planning and judging by Klaus’ powers don’t want to be stuck in the uniform for eternity. It would be worth the risk for Ben. No more killing. I think he shot himself through the roof of his mouth and back of his skull. We almost always see him with his hood up or only from the front. The few shots we do get of the back of his skull are fleeting or its dark. At that stage of his life Ben would have probably done anything to get rid of The Horror. Why not that?

You know what I would have liked to see in The Hobbit movies? Aragorn as a child, just chilling in Rivendell.

He’s like, what, five, when The Hobbit begins? I would have loved to see him living in Rivendell, and then spotting Bilbo and getting *so excited* to see another child because every other person there is an elf who is like, 1000 years old AT LEAST and “Elrond finally brought someone to hang out with me!”

And Bilbo never bothers to tell him that “actually, I’m a 50 year old hobbit, I just never got taller than you” and when Aragorn asked him to play, he just says “sure”. And suddenly a child is teaching him how to spar and use a sword, and Bilbo is teaching a 5 year old how to blow special smoke rings and appreciate different types of pipe weed.

I like to imagine it’s during this time that Bilbo writes the verses for Aragorn, the “Not all those who wander are lost” lines. Except it’s not meant to be epic, he makes it up as like, a nursery rhyme to make Aragorn GO TO SLEEP so Bilbo can go ice his injuries from learning to spar. And the verses just stuck with Aragorn and spread for the next 80 years until suddenly everyone is reciting them to him and he has to fight back the Pavlovian yawn he gets every time he hears them.

I think this is also why he’s so attached to Frodo. Not only does he have an affinity for hobbits, but Bilbo has been his Best Friend since he was a kid, and he knows if he lets anything happen to Frodo, Bilbo will never forgive him.

thinking about how Johnny and Alex met at a shitty night job and decided a few years later to write an audio drama that literally changed the lives of thousands of people. how Harlan was literally unemployed when he decided to start making malevolent, and now he's singlehandedly revolutionizing the audio drama landscape. or Zach Valenti and Gabriel Urbina being long-time college friends who wanted to make something fun with no expectation that over 20 million people would listen to it....not being hyperbolic at all when I say that some of the best pieces of audio fiction have been made in basements by teams of less than 3 people. wtnv has always been a few friends who wanted to make something interesting after their day job. i am just thinking of artists persevering under the crushing weight of capitalism. .. and great art made out of pure love and curiosity for an emerging medium...

the fact they released a “clean” version of noel’s lament is SO funny to me. the song is about being a slut in postwar france and having sex with a different guy EVERY NIGHT and they think that taking out “fuck” is going to make it family friendly? yeah this song is very explicitly about sex and death but nobody cusses so here let your children listen :)

They are studying us in petri dishes

Thist this all of this!!!!! Sometimes i ship things with large age gaps, where one of the characters may be kind of young by some standards. And sometimes the characters are adopted siblings and sometimes the charcacters have been toxic to eachother in canon and sometimes they are completely ‘normal’ and the same age and fine.

But at this point ive been demonized so much that I barely even talk about it outside of specific cirlces. 

Is it me or is the anti movement... really american? We have that stereotype over here that americans are super uptight about sex and super shy about it and obsessed with purity and hiding it from the children and stuff. Idk as a european it always striked me as a product of american culture

it’s very, very American. While there are certainly antis who aren’t American, many of them are.

I have a lot of theories as to why this is, but a lot of them are covered in this post: anti-shipping as the cool new trend (while it’s mostly about the age bracket of anti-shippers as of June 2017 (this time last year), it’s an americentric post talking almost entirely about US phenomena).

tl;dr version? anti-shipping is:

the natural result of growing up both LGBT+/queer and marinated in American-flavored Puritan Christianity/purity culture 

with a side order of valuing safety over freedom 

b/c you’ve always had freedom of information 

but you’ve never known a sense of security 

thanks to lifelong internet access 

paired with post-9/11 paranoia.

add a dash of radical feminism/exclusionist thinking

never being taught how to think critically, and

zero education on sex of any kind, and

viola: anti-shippers. 

Yessssss!!!!!! I never see anyone in fandom discussing the fact that F&G hospitaized someone so badley to the point they almost died and were unresponsive for months!!!!!!!!!

This anti Fred and George thing that is going on is getting out of control. I am not fond of everything they did, especially when it came to Ron, but these people act like they are psychotic monsters who never did anything good in their life.

Just watched Dead Poets Society. I sobbed really hard and now need to hydrate. Such a beautiful ending and the interspersed quotes.....I need the mantra from the society tattooed on my face.

‘Eat at a local restaurant tonight. Get the cream sauce. Have a cold pint at 4 o'clock in a mostly empty bar. Go somewhere you’ve never been. Listen to someone you think may have nothing in common with you. Order the steak rare. Eat an oyster. Have a negroni. Have two. Be open to a world where you may not understand or agree with the person next to you, but have a drink with them anyways. Eat slowly. Tip your server. Check in on your friends. Check in on yourself. Enjoy the ride.“

— Anthony Bourdain

Miss ya Tony.

Hello! So, this might seem like a weird ask. The whole thing is based on the canon world, that is wizards and stuff. Everything that's going on in the books is still happening! I just don't want you to confuse this with a Muggle/No magic AU.

My question is, if Percy—for some random reason please suspend your disbelief here—decided to become an EMT in the muggle world (without using magic that is), how would his family react to it?

Again, the things that happen in the books are still happening, the only thing is that Percy's decided to go into muggle EMT instead of the Ministry.

Like, would they be kinda mad because Percy is putting muggle stuff/outside stuff over the war they're fighting?

Or would they be much more understanding? Maybe think Percy's cooler? Ngl, I'm asking you this for the sake of my daydreams.

Sorry for taking so long to respond! 🙁

Oh wow! That is a very unique idea/question! 😄

Do you mean that Percy became an EMT right after Hogwarts (instead of working for Barty Crouch)?

That would be super interesting!

Hmm... 🤔 You know, I surprisingly don't think most of them would react badly.

Arthur

Arthur is obsessed with muggles. However, he does not seem to see them as equals. In his mind, muggles are poor fools that need to be protected. It's less like fighting for racial equality and more like people fighting for animal rights.

In Book 2, he states:

“Just Muggle-baiting,” sighed Mr. Weasley. “Sell them a key that keeps shrinking to nothing so they can never find it when they need it.. Of course, it’s very hard to convict anyone because no Muggle would admit their key keeps shrinking — they’ll insist they just keep losing it. Bless them, they’ll go to any lengths to ignore magic, even if it’s staring them in the face…"

Then in Book 4, when Fred gives Dudley Ton-Tongue Toffee, he says:

“It isn’t funny!” Mr. Weasley shouted. “That sort of behavior seriously undermines wizard–Muggle relations! I spend half my life campaigning against the mistreatment of Muggles, and my own sons —”

So he probably doesn't think Percy is making a good decision to actually work in the muggle world, but I don't think he gets too upset about it either. If anything, he may see this as an opportunity for him to learn more about a topic that he clearly enjoys, and it could potentially help his cause by having proof (from Percy's testimony) that muggles deserve to be treated fairly.

Molly

I definitely think Molly reacts the worst out of everyone. She doesn't hate muggles, but she certainly isn't overly fond of them either.

She definitely dislikes Arthur's obsession with them (though in her defense, that probably has more to do with him wasting money on it/focusing on it instead of helping her with the kids/house).

In Book 4, Arthur says,

“Ah yes, I can see the plugs. I collect plugs,” he added to Uncle Vernon. “And batteries. Got a very large collection of batteries. My wife thinks I’m mad, but there you are.”

Also, what's even more telling is that in Book 1, when the Weasleys are at King's Cross Station, Harry overhears her say:

"-- packed with Muggles, of course --"

I know that JKR included this line so that Harry could identify another wizarding family, but she should have used something else (like Platform 9 ¾) instead, because they are literally in a muggle train station, so the comment seems unnecessary and rude. Think about if you went to Chinatown and said "packed with Chinese people, of course."

Plus, Molly wants all of her children to work at the Ministry of Magic. This is a comment in Book 4 (about the twins):

“And then there was this big row,” Ginny said, “because Mum wants them to go into the Ministry of Magic like Dad, and they told her all they want to do is open a joke shop.”

This is the same instance where she literally burned all of their order forms. She seems to have (sort of) accepted Bill & Charlie's choices, as well as Fred & George's joke shop (after they make a lot of money), but Percy is the child that she expected to go into the Ministry the most.

There would definitely be a massive row with her.

Fred & George

They likely wouldn't care much, because they clearly don't mind muggles either. In Book 4, after they gave Dudley the Ton-Tongue Toffee and Arthur yells at them, they say:

“We didn’t give it to him because he’s a Muggle!” said Fred indignantly. “No, we gave it to him because he’s a great bullying git,” said George. “Isn’t he, Harry?”

If anything, I think they love that Percy is now the family "disappointment" because they've spent so long getting yelled at by Molly that this is a nice change of pace. Plus, it takes the pressure off them. Even if they open a joke shop in the wizarding world, Molly still won't be as angry with them as she is with Percy.

Suddenly "Perfect Percy" isn't so perfect anymore, and it probably (ironically) improves their relationship.

Bill, Charlie, Ron, & Ginny

They are probably all rather incredulous about the entire thing and think Percy is mental for not wanting to work in the wizarding world (and Hermione encourages this idea because she clearly wants nothing to do with the muggle world anymore), but I really don't think they treat him badly over it.

They probably just think he's finally cracked under all the pressure he puts on himself, and if this gets him to loosen up, then it's not all bad.

I do think Charlie & Ginny would find it a little cool though, and they're both more likely to actually talk to Percy about his new life, whereas Bill & Ron will probably avoid the topic altogether.

Other Thoughts

One of the most interesting parts about this AU is that is has the potential to drastically change the story. If Percy doesn't work for Barty Crouch, then chances are, whoever is in his position doesn't do as good of a job running the department on their own, so people figure out something is wrong with Mr. Crouch much sooner.

Once that happens, they (i.e. Dumbledore) may very well be able to put the pieces together about Barty Crouch Jr., and then his plan fails, Harry never goes to the graveyard, Cedric never dies, and Voldemort never officially returns in a body. So is the war even going on anymore? Possibly not for a few more years while Voldemort tries to capture Harry!

Even if the war continues in the exact same way as canon, I think Percy's job in the muggle world could actually be beneficial. He could be there to prevent some of the damage & protect the muggles, and he could help muggleborns & their families escape through the muggle world in a way that wouldn't be traced back to them.

There's a lot of potential there for a great fanfic! 😉

Thanks for the ask! 😊