#what went wrong

"記憶の欠片"

This took several years out of my life

hope you like it

written for the @exquisitetomarrymortcorpse server's purge, with 24 hours to write for the prompt 🐈 cat 🐈

“It’s the new generation that’s the problem,” ranted Voldemort, glaring up at the ceiling. “They don’t care about anything. I can’t get them to come to any of our recruitment meetings or read any of our flyers, let alone get them to actually understand my great, noble cause.” Sharing dreams with Voldemort had been horribly unpleasant at first, Harry’s worst nightmares come to life. Voldemort was a master of manipulation, well-versed in the Mind Arts and freakishly fixated on Harry, and he’d taken every opportunity to taunt and threaten him, trapping the two of them in tense, exhausting arguments. Who knew what horrors he’d be able to inflict from within Harry’s head? But after a few years of dream-sharing, the novelty had worn off, and though they spent most of their days preparing to vanquish each other, their nights together were peaceful, almost relaxing. Harry found himself looking forward to sharing his sleep with Voldemort, gathering stories he’d enjoy throughout the day just for the joy of retelling them to an engaged audience, and Voldemort seemed to similarly relish the opportunity to vent about the difficulties of being a big, scary Dark Lord. Harry could’ve never imagined Voldemort lying on a sofa with his legs sprawled over the sofa’s velvet-covered arms, kicking his feet and bitching about how kids these days weren’t reading his flyers, but he found that he liked Voldemort better like this — relaxed, honest, and so human.   “We’ve got cellphones now,” said Harry, grinning widely back at Voldemort from his own armchair. “Your flyers don’t hold attention anymore, old man. Try posting online. Film a TikTok dance. Post a cat meme. Prank people.” Harry expected Voldemort to scoff, but to his surprise, Voldemort’s irate expression turned contemplative. 

“You think I’d reach the youth if I simply spoke to them through the Internet?” asked Voldemort, shifting awkwardly on the couch to face Harry with a strange shimmy. “That it could embolden my recruitment efforts?” Harry shrugged, doing his best to keep a straight face. If he could pull this off, if he could get Voldemort to make a social media account… nothing could be more hilarious. “Depends on the content. Just don’t post cringe.” Voldemort hummed consideringly. “You’ve given me much to think about, Harry.” Holy shit.  With a slight smile, Harry changed the subject; for once, he couldn’t wait to wake up, to see if the new day would bring Voldemort posting thirst traps on Instagram or vlogging on YouTube. Whatever he tried, there was just no way the 71 year old man could possibly pull it off, and Harry would relish in laughing at whatever he tried.

~~~

“I’ll join your Order,” sniffed Draco Malfoy, haughty even in his attempt at friendliness. “I just can’t join the Dark Lord, not anymore.” Harry blinked, baffled. “What changed?” With a deep, heavy sigh, Draco held his phone out to Harry. “Just look.”

Lord Voldemort @TheRealLordVoldemort  ·  1h

Join the Death Eaters today!

Lord Voldemort @TheRealLordVoldemort  ·  40m

Join the Death Eaters today!

Lord Voldemort @TheRealLordVoldemort  ·  26m

Join the Death Eaters today!

Lord Voldemort @TheRealLordVoldemort  ·  10m

Join the Death Eaters today!

This was created because while reading the book by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, I was so into it that I forgot it was a fictional movie and wanted the podcast about what happens on the set of movies to cover 'The Seventh Veil.' Thanks to everyone who cheerleaded and encouraged it along the way. @rosedawsontyler

--

Chris: I grew up watching this on TCM every spring. It seemed like the movie channel aired this, The Ten Commandments, and Ben-Hur all the time around Easter and I can kind of see why. It’s sprawling, the sets and costumes are amazing and plus it kills like, an afternoon of air time with all three movies. And plus it fits with that time-period; it has John the Baptist in it and even though it’s Hollywood’s version of a Bible epic, it’s still entertaining. I hadn’t watched it in the longest time so rewatching it for this episode…you know what? It still holds up as being entertaining. The big piece is still the dance towards the end of the film and it’s still amazing. You can definitely see that Vera has a dancing background, in just how she moves and just holds your attention plus the way she looks at the camera at points. Especially during the big dance sequence, which is still amazing in how it’s shot as well as the choreography.

Lizzie: Exactly. I would always catch this at random points when it was airing, so I don’t think I saw the whole thing in sequence until I watched it for this episode. The dance sequence is my favorite part as well, you can tell how much work went into filming it. And Orlando Beckett is an Old Hollywood favorite of mine, so it was a treat to watch him as John the Baptist. The film as a whole is a good watch. The acting, some of it is that Classic Hollywood ham (muttering) especially with Clifford Collins… (speaking regularly) but the rest is pretty good. I can see why it got nominated for Best Score as well as Best Filmography.

Lizzie: (slightly laughing) My sister and I would sometimes, if this was on and it was just us in the room, try to mimic Salome’s dance as the music was playing. I can tell you that our version wasn’t as good, but still fun to do. I also really love the dungeon scene, it gave me vibes of that scene with Joseph and Miriam in The Ten Commandments.