Bromeo, Bromeo, Wherefore Art Thou Bromeo?

there was once a little boy.

he is born disabled. his body hurts, and he can’t walk properly the way the other children do. he doesn’t understand why. he’s a little boy. but he plays with wooden boats and pulls toys on a string.

somebody makes him a tunic. they sew ducks onto it in red and green and yellow and blue. the bright colours of a child.

the little boy is eight years old, and he’s going to be king now. there’s a big ceremony about it. he doesn’t really fully understand what’s going on, because he’s eight, but he wears the tunic with the brightly coloured ducks for the occasion because he loves it. look at his ducks! aren’t they great?

he is a child. the adults around him manipulate and coax him to gain more power for themselves. he still plays with toys.

as a teenager, not yet an adult, he fathers children. they do not survive. he’s not even old enough to have full agency in his job and is still being manipulated, but he had babies and they died.

he does not make it to his twenties. at eighteen or nineteen years old he dies, and is buried. his babies, so tiny, are buried with him.

and so is his tunic with the little ducks that he loved so much he kept it long after it no longer fit.

yeah i think that like. especially with historical figures in your mind people who were kings and queens or important nobles were adults. even if you know how old they were it doesn’t really click. it doesn’t seem real

but then you get something like a little tunic with brightly coloured ducks on it and it hits you like a fucking truck that this really was a little kid and no matter how far removed you are a little kid is still a little kid. their brains didn’t develop any quicker back then. he was just as developed/mature mentally as any 8 year old now. he had cartoonish animals on his clothes and he played with toy boats and probably terrorised the local cat population.

tutankhamun was a child and he didn’t make it to adulthood because he was unfortunate enough to be a very important child

his dad died when he was 8. he saw his own babies die when he was still just a boy himself.

tutankhamun had a little pair of sandals with ducks on them. he had earrings decorated with ducks. he kept those, and other items of childhood clothing. some toys. keepsakes. things he loved, and treasured. he kept them all in a little wooden chest. the chest… was carved with ducks.

and that little duck chest, filled with things he kept from his childhood, was buried with him. maybe he was keeping them for the little babies who did not make it. maybe they just reminded him of good days and fun times.

WITH PLEASURE

(greyscale makes it hard but the duck head is on the right above the toe strap. always takes me a while to find it too)

 Like you might have to do slightly (slightly) more for tighter clothes or different fabrics but like… ya don’t need to tape yourself every day… or ever… and gaffs are good but unless you’re wearing something tight n thin cotton boyshorts or some other strong underwear will do the trick.

@violets-and-books

@tlhrfanfic

@made-of-anxiety-and-stardust

@just-some-thembo

@milk-kinda-draws

@cooki-dough

@almost-correct-quotes

@imma-potatoo

@asterpaw-2006

@augyshit

@lilspoonsebastian

@kailiet

@reeliet

@outro-bromeo

I want James hexing the lonely kids in the halls because they're less likely to be able to defend themselves, I want Sirius always ready to join in and egging him on and Regulus doing that exact same shit but with the future death eaters. I want Snape who creates spells with the intention to hurt people, I want McGonagall to play favourites and dismiss bullying if it's her favourite students doing it, I want Lily to express the same classism we got from Petunia in the main series, I want Remus who uses his prefect status to bail hir friends out of trouble, I want Dumbledore who tries to manipulate Remus into punishing his friends because he lets him attend school as a werewolf, I even want Mary MacDonald to be a bitch who, idk, dismisses James's behaviour as "boys will be boys" or something.

Please

I love that I get to retell this story every couple of years

Picture it, it's 2009, Rickrolling is at its cultural peak such that even my father has heard of it. My father, who is 52 years old, otherwise out of touch with meme culture, and works as the manager for an entire branch of one of NASA's research facilities

Picture it, my father is on an Earth Day panel at a local event where NASA is repping and explaining climate change. An Earth Day panel which I told him several days later I recorded, then sent him the YouTube link for

YOU THINK JUST THE NOISE IS FUNNY AND FITS WITH THE GIF REALLY WELL

BUT THEN

THEN

THE LYRICS START