it’s good to be king
The mirror was cracked. Broken. Slashed from one corner to its opposite. From where Draco sat, it cut his face in two. The charm still worked, and he couldn’t pretend it wasn’t the sole reason for his visit. His solemn trek from the small garden shed that was supposed to be temporary, but had been his only lodging for much longer than he cared to admit, was always silent and pitiful.
The magic of the Manor was broken: beyond repair, he feared. He couldn’t bring himself to attempt reparations.The shredded tapestries, cracked walls, and deserted portraits reminded him of that in which he’d taken part. Somewhere, deep inside, relief flared almost like hope at the attestation that he could still feel something, even if it was guilt that sizzled in his blood, and loneliness that pulled his bones apart.
When he reached his childhood bedroom, the now dulled greens and silvers that had once been so comforting whispered their welcome and tempted him never to leave again. To Draco’s credit, the thought made him sick.
He sat in front of the mirror. It had once been so full of joy. He remembered vividly the day it had cracked. He’d escaped to his room, panicked and desperate and scared. He’d stared in the mirror, seeing his reflection there as it always was. Pleasant, rich, royal, crowned. The mirror was charmed to show him as a Prince. As above the rest. No matter how he looked in reality, there in the mirror he was everything his selfish child-self had dreamed. Swathed in silks and velvets, perfectly rested and beautiful. Otherworldly in a way.
That day, the day he’d been marked, he’d stared in the mirror and seen that perfect, unmarred Draco. Smooth skin, not a flaw. But the image had come to represent something he hated. He’d flung a curse at the perfect glass, surrounded in silver and crystal, desperate to see the truth. To see the dark shadows under his eyes and the death permanently branded on his arm.
It hadn’t worked. Prince Draco had stared back, almost smiling. Broken Draco had cried, sobbed, but couldn’t see his own tears.
Now, Draco sat in front of the mirror once again. Once again, relishing in his imaginary reign. Older now, his crown was larger, his robes more intricate.
It was good to be king.
Draco never knew how long he spent in front of the mirror, but was loath to admit that no matter how early he arrived, by the time he escaped the Manor, his cloak was the stars.
He returned to his shed, ate his plain crackers and expiring cheese and laid in his simple bed, willing sleep to take him. He imagined his mirror image, retreating to a banquet of fine foods, courses of delicacies, surrounded by a fawning mass.
When Draco woke, time eluded him. Dark clouds dampened the light filtering in and his bones ached. He yearned, but he didn’t know what for. It was exhausting to sleep and exhausting to be awake.
wip mondeeeee????
im trying to write again for the sake of my soul or perhaps the destruction of it and i thought what a fun place to start but in your own WIPs and then i read them all and idk where the h e double hockey sticks i was going w it but maybe if i post it ill be inspired to pick it up in some sort of direction, correct or not. i dont even remember how harry played into this all, but he’s there in this world somewhere waiting to whisper to me where he lives.
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yknow AI art has ruined an entire genre of painting to me, i saw one of those smooth anime-realism pieces and immidiately thought ''ugh, AI art'' until i noticed it was posted by an established deviantart user 6 years ago. like ive never been a huge fan of that genre but it looks like a pretty difficult style to master and i feel bad for the artists who specialized in anime-realism only to have their entire market jacked by people typing keywords into midjourney.
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no offence but the reason tumblr is “dying” is, well, yes, of course the cursed like/reblog ratio and the change in user behaviour (because of people being used to how instagram and tiktok work) BUT also the lack of weekly shows. i say it with my whole chest, they don't produce captivating and engaging stupid weekly tv shows anymore because streaming killed that so you have spikes of activity here when Something happens in general fandom or up to three days after a new season of whatever drops and then it's a wasteland. this is obviously an old woman yelling at a cloud missing supernatural and the vampire diaries and pretty little liars and all these other shows type of post but honestly give me back weekly tv shows where i have something to watch for 40 minutes almost every day of the week after work so then i can read and reblog it on tumblr give it back for the sake of my sanity
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people are drawing Steamboat Willie Mickey doing all this crazy shit and whatnot, but you could always do that. you can do that now, with current Mickey, just fine. it's fanart and it's legally protected. hell you could take Disney-drawn Mickey and put a caption about unions or whatever on it and it would still be protected under free speech and sometimes even parody law.
what is special about public domain is that you can SELL him. you could take a screenshot and sell it on a tshirt. you can use him to advertise your plumbing business. people have already uploaded and monetized the original film.
you could always have Mickey say what you want, but now you can profit off it.
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Rowling isn't denying holocaust. She just pointed out that burning of transgender health books is a lie as that form of cosmetic surgery didn't exist. But of course you knew that already, didn't you?
I was thinking I'd probably see one of you! You're wrong :) Let's review the history a bit, shall we?
In this case, what we're talking about is the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, or in English, The Institute of Sexology. This Institute was founded and headed by a gay Jewish sexologist named Magnus Hirschfeld. It was founded in July of 1919 as the first sexology research clinic in the world, and was run as a private, non-profit clinic. Hirschfeld and the researchers who worked there would give out consultations, medical advice, and even treatments for free to their poorer clientele, as well as give thousands of lectures and build a unique library full of books on gender, sexuality, and eroticism. Of course, being a gay man, Hirschfeld focused a lot on the gay community and proving that homosexuality was natural and could not be "cured".
Hirschfeld was unique in his time because he believed that nobody's gender was either one or the other. Rather, he contended that everyone is a mixture of both male and female, with every individual having their own unique mix of traits.
This leads into the Institute's work with transgender patients. Hirschfeld was actually the one to coin the term "transsexual" in 1923, though this word didn't become popular phrasing until 30 years later when Harry Benjamin began expanding his research (I'll just be shortening it to trans for this brief overview.) For the Institute, their revolutionary work with gay men eventually began to attract other members of the LGBTA+, including of course trans people.
Contrary to what Anon says, sex reassignment surgery was first tested in 1912. It'd already being used on humans throughout Europe during the 1920's by the time a doctor at the Institute named Ludwig Levy-Lenz began performing it on patients in 1931. Hirschfeld was at first opposed, but he came around quickly because it lowered the rate of suicide among their trans patients. Not only was reassignment performed at the Institute, but both facial feminization and facial masculization surgery were also done.
The Institute employed some of these patients, gave them therapy to help with other issues, even gave some of the mentioned surgeries for free to this who could not afford it! They spoke out on their behalf to the public, even getting Berlin police to help them create "transvestite passes" to allow people to dress however they wanted without the threat of being arrested. They worked together to fight the law, including trying to strike down Paragraph 175, which made it illegal to be homosexual. The picture below is from their holiday party, Magnus Hirschfeld being the gentleman on the right with the fabulous mustache. Many of the other people in this photo are transgender.
[Image ID: A black and white photo of a group of people. Some are smiling at the camera, others have serious expressions. Either way, they all seem to be happy. On the right side, an older gentleman in glasses- Magnus Hirschfeld- is sitting. He has short hair and a bushy mustache. He is resting one hand on the shoulder of the person in front of him. His other hand is being held by a person to his left. Another person to his right is holding his shoulder.]
There was always push back against the Institute, especially from conservatives who saw all of this as a bad thing. But conservatism can't stop progress without destroying it. They weren't willing to go that far for a good while. It all ended in March of 1933, when a new Chancellor was elected. The Nazis did not like homosexuals for several reasons. Chief among them, we break the boundaries of "normal" society. Shortly after the election, on May 6th, the book burnings began. The Jewish, gay, and obviously liberal Magnus Hirschfeld and his library of boundary-breaking literature was one of the very first targets. Thankfully, Hirschfeld was spared by virtue of being in Paris at the time (he would die in 1935, before the Nazis were able to invade France). His library wasn't so lucky.
This famous picture of the book burnings was taken after the Institute of Sexology had been raided. That's their books. Literature on so much about sexuality, eroticism, and gender, yes including their new work on trans people. This is the trans community's Alexandria. We're incredibly lucky that enough of it survived for Harry Benjamin and everyone who came after him was able to build on the Institute's work.
[Image ID: A black and white photo of the May Nazi book burning of the Institute of Sexology's library. A soldier, back facing the camera, is throwing a stack of books into the fire. In the background of the right side, a crowd is watching.]
As the Holocaust went on, the homosexuals of Germany became a targeted group. This did include transgender people, no matter what you say. To deny this reality is Holocaust denial. JK Rowling and everyone else who tries to pretend like this isn't reality is participating in that evil. You're agreeing with the Nazis.
But of course, you knew that already, didn't you?
Edit: Added image IDs. I apologize to those using screen readers for forgetting them. Please reblog this version instead.
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