Post AsX1BOkhYqLkrf2tkW by sbourne@mastodon.social
(DIR) More posts by sbourne@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #AsWrvwdyszPRkySV8q by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-28T23:51:15Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Nothing like sitting here writing to make me think of new story ideas, but ... oooh this one I need to share.A married couple in their 50s are preparing for retirement. They are going to see the world. They have both had jobs they liked and been very successful and will retire early. They love each other very much, but something is just ... off. They get in an argument that they both agree makes no sense about why they moved from they tiny apartment they loved when they first met. 1/
(DIR) Post #AsWsFZUUg5wNjyNboe by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-28T23:54:48Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
20 years ago, just after they married they moved to a larger apartment. Not as nice as the little place they used to live in further downtown. They both blame each other for the move but slowly they both realized that someone has been totally erased from their life.They used to have a daughter. That is why they needed more space. But, there is no evidence she ever existed. Just, the most faint of traces in their memory, and some life and career choices that make no sense otherwise. 2/
(DIR) Post #AsWsLXfyL2yBqib04m by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-28T23:55:51Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Was it the daughter's own doing? Did she not want to be remembered? Did someone else do this to them? Where is she now?Psychological horror. OK back to the grind. 3/3
(DIR) Post #AsWsYNuLy1RVJpRj0K by mavu@mastodon.social
2025-03-28T23:58:09Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird 😬 😱
(DIR) Post #AsWsgciInuQjYQjofI by OldAndCranky@sfba.social
2025-03-28T23:59:38Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird but but but... I want to keep reading!
(DIR) Post #AsWshWGwEpodrmMkmu by johnefrancis@cosocial.ca
2025-03-28T23:59:42Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird one of the Home Alone sequels with a different ending.
(DIR) Post #AsWtt8be9aEHtf9jhw by musiciankate@hcommons.social
2025-03-29T00:13:07Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird maybe their daughter had a child and it was their *grandchild* who managed to wipe their daughter from their memories . . .
(DIR) Post #AsWuIhSDj7T7DPw5ZI by PizzaDemon@mastodon.online
2025-03-29T00:17:44Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird prolly the gummint. She's a secret agent or the world is such that it's not safe for any public figures to have vulnerable attachments.
(DIR) Post #AsWvKIliZsvVBiNpsu by michelestrider@mastodon.social
2025-03-29T00:29:11Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird This is so good
(DIR) Post #AsWvrvPpuTIGbdBIkS by PeterLG@theblower.au
2025-03-29T00:35:08Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird Or a kid's magic story...Hermione held her wand, despair in her eyes."Obliviate," she whispered, the word catching in her throat.As the spell began its work she turned away, knowing she might never see her family again.Mr. and Mrs. Granger paused, feeling ... something. But no, it was nothing. A nothing that grew and left a void in their lives that they failed to notice.Years later, they began to realise that something was ... off.
(DIR) Post #AsWwZmVWOMQJidkjbM by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-29T00:43:13Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@PeterLG Did this happen in Harry Potter? (Never read it)
(DIR) Post #AsWx2s2Uu571H231ou by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-29T00:48:29Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@PizzaDemon I was thinking backrooms stuff...
(DIR) Post #AsWxKQiHEx0Djfxkzg by PeterLG@theblower.au
2025-03-29T00:51:04Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird She did wipe her families memories of her, which deleted her from family photos etc (though that's not part of what the spell does in the Potter-verse ... artistic licence, fantasy, inconsistency, who-cares-I'm-the-author, etc) but the rest is riffing on your concept.The Grangers go looking for her once they realise something is wrong, delving into the wizarding world where danger and intrigue ... etc, etc.Fan fiction says Hermione moved her family to Australia and later restored their memories, but I prefer your version. 😉
(DIR) Post #AsWxwP6nebK9lPXa2C by lienrag@mastodon.tedomum.net
2025-03-29T00:58:26Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird Alas it's very hard to keep these sort of stories coherent and interesting until the end...Hope that you succeed, though !
(DIR) Post #AsWy9D7HYHUUKpsB1M by lienrag@mastodon.tedomum.net
2025-03-29T01:00:45Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird The first four books are quite good, you probably should (if you can put aside your anger at what the author became, of course).@PeterLG
(DIR) Post #AsX1BOkhYqLkrf2tkW by sbourne@mastodon.social
2025-03-29T01:34:02Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@saxbrightwell @futurebird One night, our child was crying in the middle of the night. "I've got this" and went and brought the infant to bed with us. And then my spouse says something and the baby in my arms … disappeared. I could still feel the warmth from its body on my arms.
(DIR) Post #AsX2CF3tAwdJ3NzEYa by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-29T01:46:15Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@saxbrightwell Much more scary if after you hear the cry ... there is still *something* in your arms.
(DIR) Post #AsX2HHo6Oaz5140XuC by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-29T01:47:09Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
"Empty Nest"or"It's been 20 years, do you know where your kids are?"
(DIR) Post #AsX2q8ZGjs9CUqgiJ6 by yomimono@wandering.shop
2025-03-29T01:53:21Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I’m an only child of divorced parents who doesn’t myself have kids, and I kind of feel like I’m the missing daughter you describe. There’s this middle bit in my parents’ lives that doesn’t make sense without me, but neither of them has me in their daily life anymore.
(DIR) Post #AsX3E3W1AvifmDZYdE by LJ@zirk.us
2025-03-29T01:57:40Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird just had ramen with our 27 year old. :)
(DIR) Post #AsX3EwknnfE35zudoO by TobyBartels@mathstodon.xyz
2025-03-29T01:57:54Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebirdI'd read this story. In the right hands, it would also make a good movie.
(DIR) Post #AsX7Tznt8vDUiNmtNY by TobyBartels@mathstodon.xyz
2025-03-29T01:47:57Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@PeterLG @futurebirdThat's not fanfiction; that's what Hermione says in the book. (Well, she says that they moved to Australia and that she'll restore their memories if she survives, and she does survive. Unlike in the movie, you don't actually see her cast the spell on them.)
(DIR) Post #AsX7U0MH54iqR1sLya by PeterLG@theblower.au
2025-03-29T02:29:18Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@TobyBartelsWhoops, sorry, the reference I saw on a fan wiki was so vague I thought it wasn't in the books. I haven't read the last couple, I admit.I must get around to it though. I usually prefer books to their visual adaptions.@futurebird
(DIR) Post #AsX7U0nZRaYZnge9WS by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-29T02:45:26Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@PeterLG @TobyBartels I tried to read the books a long time ago, but I got to that "sorting hat" in the first one and gave up. Such a perfect bit of wish fulfillment for an 11 year old mind. A hat that just *tells* you who you are, who you should hang out with, it knows you. And I was waiting for the obvious lesson: the hat's gotta be wrong. No one can just tell you who you are like that.But I started to realize it wasn't that kind of book. Everyone is who they seem to be and no more.
(DIR) Post #AsX7vbTBD3tNLvGWmm by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-29T02:50:28Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@PeterLG @TobyBartels In all those books and media is the wicked thing ever subverted? I knew that it was supposed to be about a boardings school invaded by evil and on that first reading I was like "it's that hat" terrible idea. Evil hat. NOPE.
(DIR) Post #AsX7xnZFCXYHS79I7U by MichaelTBacon@social.coop
2025-03-29T02:50:34Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird @PeterLG @TobyBartels Well, there is a very deep twist like that (which I won't spoil) but it's a *very* long arc to get there. And given Robert Galbraith's vicious transphobia in the past few years, once you see it you start noticing the other shitty parts of the author's personality poking through, so I'm hardly going to recommend going back and doing them.But yeah, there's someone who they judge immediately and wrongly in part because of what the Sorting Hat says.
(DIR) Post #AsX82Dnvay6Tz07t32 by blp@framapiaf.org
2025-03-29T02:51:37Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird @PeterLG @TobyBartels You might enjoy the sorting hat chapters in HPMOR. They start here: https://hpmor.com/chapter/9
(DIR) Post #AsX8oWnSHkImmpwIca by Rycaut@mastodon.social
2025-03-29T03:00:22Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird @PeterLG @TobyBartels it’s kinda subverted. But in a deeply unsatisfying way (the decision was kinda forced on the hat in one particular case) And now I’ve sold anything I once had by that author and won’t support her in any way. Sad because though flawed I did enjoy them when they came out.
(DIR) Post #AsX95SkwYqBVB6q7U0 by log@mastodon.sdf.org
2025-03-29T03:03:17Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird Granger and Granger, Dentists?
(DIR) Post #AsX9FfEZ1XOwlzYhOa by flyingsaceur@ioc.exchange
2025-03-29T03:05:15Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird @PeterLG @TobyBartels I couldn’t get past the fact that they put on airs like it’s Ivy League but it’s just a trade school stuck in the past turning out hidebound technicians who feel entitled to rule the world. Wizards? More like actuaries
(DIR) Post #AsX9ObjZPDNeWaKHdg by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-29T03:06:52Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@dedicto @PeterLG @TobyBartels I don't know if I'd say "garbage" there is a wish-fulfillment thing that's done very well... that's one way fantasy, especially for kids can unfold. Everything that SUCKS about being a kid in particular and life in general is sort of whisked away with something much more exciting and fun seeming.But this is a set-up as old as fairy tales. Where it went sour for me is that set up ... didn't really go anywhere. And people say Bella in Twilight is a Mary Sue...
(DIR) Post #AsX9VGvZA7NE1O7CAy by log@mastodon.sdf.org
2025-03-29T03:07:41Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird While this was literally done already by Harry Potter's landlady, I would much rather see it done in Charles DeLint style. The story is perfect for Newford.
(DIR) Post #AsX9XRz71TQOtToQwi by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-29T03:08:26Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ashwin @PeterLG @TobyBartels She is very much anti-trans in every way possible. No gray area on that one. It's BAD. I don't think there is anything in the books about this, but she's said nasty things.
(DIR) Post #AsXAS3iTvLhc8L1iKm by log@mastodon.sdf.org
2025-03-29T03:18:33Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@futurebird @PizzaDemon The Backrooms connect to more than just our Earth, our timeline. Get turned around the wrong way, walk down the wrong corridor where time flows the wrong way, and one could actually Marty McFly oneself. But no one disappears like that. The loose end of one's spacetime envelope flops around like an unsecured garden hose, bashing around against walls until someone--an unknown in your memoryless infant years--takes it up, and screws it back in, to wherever they can.
(DIR) Post #AsXAwNt7UVH7NkSkvQ by MichaelTBacon@social.coop
2025-03-29T03:24:10Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird @dedicto @PeterLG @TobyBartels I'd say that the cultural impact in the 90s was important because it was a element of, "there's a place where being weird like you is totally normal and celebrated, and it's awesome and magical." And the structure is basically that of a mystery novel.The first bit is now far more available in other forms than it was then and RG/JKR has ruined her cred with her rancid anti-trans shit. The suspense/mystery writing is still very good tho.
(DIR) Post #AsXCLuVhRIAZkgFBNQ by coolcoder360@mastodon.gamedev.place
2025-03-29T03:40:01Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird @PeterLG @TobyBartels I read the Harry Potter books when I was a kid, and it seemed decent enough at the time (always preferred the first few books, and watching the first few movies)But recently my wife got me into a different children's book series that's better than Harry Potter: the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage.Harry Potter always seems to have plot holes, but Septimus Heap consistently follows it's rules.
(DIR) Post #AsXKYmSjTIFoBpVIzQ by sabik@rants.au
2025-03-29T05:11:57Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird @PeterLG @TobyBartels @futurebird A related question is to what extent Hogwarts is one school, and to what extent it's really four schools, uneasily under one roof, whose founders had fundamentally incompatible ideas about, well, pretty much everything of any importanceThat would massively change the role of the Sorting HatNever really explored; occasional hints that suggest complexity, but there's no "there" there
(DIR) Post #AsXKYuyDq6CEZoIZBQ by sabik@rants.au
2025-03-29T05:11:57Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird @PeterLG @TobyBartels @futurebird Part of the problem is that Rowling never really grew the narrative voice past that of an 11 year old, which gets increasingly ridiculous in the later books and the spin-offs, where everyone is an young adult or an adult, but they're narrated like they were 11Complete, I guess, with an 11 year old's understanding of the world
(DIR) Post #AsXfpE0muSktIr7ELQ by 3TomatoesShort@disabled.social
2025-03-29T09:09:17Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@sbourneOk yikes, I can't compete with that one 😳However the hormonal changes messed with my brain so much -as soon as I got back from the hospital with my first baby, my dog looked different: bigger, less soft, less cuddly. And then with both babies, I could feel a moment when my postnatal depression was lifting, because I glanced in the mirror and I looked like myself again. I can't say how my reflection had changed, but I recognised myself coming back.@saxbrightwell @futurebird
(DIR) Post #AsY3VH91wwFI7zzWIS by llewelly@sauropods.win
2025-03-29T13:35:36Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird 1/2I have complicated feelings about this.On the one hand, I grew up reading tons of novels in which a child finds a gateway to a fantasy world, and escapes to it, and this could be the other side of such a story.
(DIR) Post #AsY4QmryfZSZ1lRFnk by llewelly@sauropods.win
2025-03-29T13:35:51Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird 2/2But, I also grew up surrounded by adults who had a "there's more where you came from" attitude towards children, and many of whom thought it was completely acceptable, even laudable, to permanantly disown a child for being gay, or for being "too anti-mormon". And that's the other, much more realistic explanation for the scenario you've described.
(DIR) Post #AsY4QndpndjzQBpTOa by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-29T13:45:59Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@llewelly It could be about the parents coming to terms with what they did to force the child to leave, they find their school, people who used to know them, but don't remember them now (because they hurt them) start to understand how they caused similar harm, and maybe one parent is able to find them, but the other is not, and their worlds must part ways.
(DIR) Post #AsY9DQHjpIfyzNw0lU by llewelly@sauropods.win
2025-03-29T14:39:36Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird @PeterLG @TobyBartels the mechanism for dividing people up into easy stereotypes being evil is a actually a great basis for a novel. In fact, I'm sure I've read a few novels like that, but the mechanism was never a hat. I'm thinking at some point I read one where the mechanism was an aptitude test. Like the kind education bureaucrats are obsessed with. Unfortunately I can't recall the title or the author.
(DIR) Post #AsYJivxX6zvDk99FMe by KanaMauna@sauropods.win
2025-03-29T16:37:20Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird Interesting idea. However, my experience has been that the kids will always periodically show up to borrow one of my expensive tools.
(DIR) Post #AsZBORV62eaf0iWcUa by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-30T02:38:36Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ashwin @TobyBartels @PeterLG There has been too much discourse about this author. Too much wasted breath a nuance and I'm assuming you aren't aware of it? It's a really odd person to pick to say "no no no we need to look at all angles" about anymore. There was some shock and confusing about her 8 years ago, but by now she's told everyone what she thinks. It's transphobic.