The Ramblings Of A Creature Of Hobbit

For prompts relating to superstition:

Eating one grape for every stroke of midnight on New Year’s will bring you a happy year. (Spain.) (Riverdale - Veronica's family tradition brings no one luck)

“What’s the deal with the grapes?” Archie had asked at Veronica’s New Year’s party. He’d never seen quite so many grapes in one place before.

“Oh, it’s a Spanish tradition,” Hermione Lodge had explained. “Supposedly, if you eat one grape for each stroke of midnight at New Year, it brings you luck. My mother always swore by it.”

“Hermione’s mother swore by a lot of things,” Hiram continued. “But this one always seemed harmless, so we kind of continued the tradition.”

“How about it, Reggie?” Josie asked. “Think some of these will bring you luck on the football field?”

“It’s about talent, not luck,” Reggie smirked, “you’ve either got it or you haven’t. Superstition’s dumb.” However Reggie did help himself to the grapes, followed by Josie who said they might bring her luck in her singing career.

“You don’t need something like that to bring you luck, Josie,” Cheryl chimed in, although she did also accept the grapes when Josie offered them.

“Betty?” Veronica asked, handing her the plate.

“Yeah, I think I will,” Betty said. “I could use a little luck right now.” Archie wondered whether this was in reference to her on-off relationship with Jughead, who had opted not to go, saying he wanted to spend the evening with his father and the Serpents, or whether it related to what she had confided in him about her intention to seek out her long lost brother, but he wasn’t going to ask her in front of everyone. Kevin smiled and accepted the plate from her, and then passed it to Veronica.

“What do you say, Archikins? Think we need a little luck for the coming year?” Veronica grinned as she passed the plate to Archie.

“Sure, why the hell not?” Archie laughed as he helped himself as the clock began to chime, ringing in 2018.


Looking around at his friends now, at Cheryl who had become estranged from her family, at Josie and Kevin who had learned uncomfortable truths about theirs, at Betty who had come to regret tracing her brother, at Veronica who had become ostracised by so many of her former friends after Ethel had outed her knowledge of the plans for the prison to the whole school, Archie was beginning to think Reggie was right, it was dumb, and the grapes had brought none of them any luck at all.



Wear new clothes on Easter for good luck. (Pretty Little Liars, Hanna - Hanna's attempt to impress Sean Ackard in freshman year at the Easter party backfires.)



She knew it was just some stupid superstition about a new dress for Easter.

But it was Sean Ackard, hosting a party for everyone in their grade while his parents were away, and Hanna wondered if maybe this was going to be the day he was finally going to realise he liked her. She’d probably have bought something new anyway, or at the very least wanted to. So she’d dragged Emily to the mall especially to pick out something new, tried on about a hundred dresses before finally fixing on the one she liked.

Why is it that everything looks so much better on the mannequins than on me? Hanna wondered to herself as she put the new dress on on the night of Sean’s party. It hadn’t looked this bad in the store. But now, looking at herself in the mirror at home, she looked…fat. Fat and disgusting and ugly.

Remember the saying, she told herself. New clothes on Easter bring you luck. And with Aria, Emily and Spencer beside her telling her she looked great as she got ready together, Hanna chose not to worry about it.

“Ta-dah!” Alison DiLaurentis, the fifth member of their group walked in, carrying an armful of bags, doing a twirl as she showed off her new dress.

The exact same dress Hanna was wearing. And looking a hundred times better in it.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Hanna!” Ali exclaimed, in that fake tone of voice which told Hanna she was anything but. “I didn’t realise this was the one you bought, sweetie.”

“But…” Emily began, and Alison gave her a ferocious glare, and in that instant Hanna knew what had happened, that Emily had told Ali what she had chosen and Ali had decided to upstage her by buying the same outfit for herself.

“I’d offer you something of mine to change into,” Alison smiled sweetly, “but I’m not sure I have anything quite the right size.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Hanna snapped, yanking the dress over her head, throwing it to the floor and grabbing an old black one that everyone had seen several times over. “It looks better on you anyway.”

Whoever said new clothes at Easter brought you luck was an ass.

Title: Strange Things Did Happen Here, No Stranger Would It Be
Fandom: Pretty Little Liars
Characters: Emily, Alison, Spencer, Aria, Hanna.
Rating: PG-13 for hanging reference
Pairing: implied one-sided Emily/Alison
Summary: For the weekend challenge at 1_million_words. kitmerlot1213 gave me the prompt "We would all link arms and walk to the middle of the tunnel where the girl hung herself." This became pre-series Pretty Little Liars. Alison dares the girls to walk through a supposedly haunted tunnel at midnight.

( It was Ali who had told them the story )

Title: T is for Toxic
Fandom: Pretty Little Liars
Characters: Shana, Alison, Jenna, Mona, Paige, Emily.
Pairings: Shana/Jenna, implied one-sided Shana/Ali, Shana/Paige.
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers up to 5x1
Notes: I know it looked like A had ripped up that photo, but I'm going with the interpretation that Shana had done that herself.
Summary: As Shana falls for Jenna, she comes to the conclusion that her past friendship with Alison was toxic.

( In a way it was as if it was Shana who had been blind the entire time, blind to the true nature of her former best friend )

Title: N is for Nightmares
Fandom: Pretty Little Liars
Characters: Emily, Paige, Lyndon, Maya, Dr. Anne Sullivan, Caleb, Hanna, Alison.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Spoilers for 3x12. Nightmares of character deaths.
Pairings: Emily/Paige, Emily/Maya, Emily/Alison
Summary: Nightmares have haunted Emily's sleep since the night she killed Lyndon. Sometimes he kills Paige, sometimes Maya, sometimes Caleb. But why does she also dream that he kills Alison?

( Sometimes, when Emily closes her eyes, it's not Paige tied up in the cupboard, but Maya )

Title: The One and Only
Fandom: Pretty Little Liars
Characters: Alison DiLaurentis. Mentions of Emily, Paige, Spencer, Hanna, Mike, Aria, Noel, Jessica, Kenneth, Jason, Ian, Melissa.
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers up through S4.
Pairings: Alison/Ian
Summary: Written for the numbers challenge at 1_million_words. (Yes, I am clearly a glutton for punishment attempting the numbers series as well as the alphabet series.) Alison had always been determined to be Number 1 with everyone in her life - until the day she realised that it shouldn't matter.

( Pigskin was history, she was never gonna come near Emily again, and Ali would still come first in her affections )