#the once and future nerd is a period piece

[incorrectonceandfuturenerd]

Happy 10 Years of The Once and Future Nerd!

[asexualchloe]

[lamentable-comedy]

Sept 13: 2013 Things Billy Does Unironically

Is Gangnam Style technically from 2012? Yes. But it was still popular enough in 2013 that Billy would absolutely still be referencing it.

Bonus:

[standardissueplottwist]

Iorden's Sexiest Man Alive

[lasirenatarot]

What makes your Future Spouse get jealous and how they express their jealousy?

Pick a picture:

1-2

3-4

Pile 1:

(Cards: 6 chalices; judgement; 4swords; 2swords; 5 of air; 7 of earth; 8 of air; the emperor)

- Honestly, this pile’s Future spouse seems like a very confident person, very sure of themselves, there are not much things that can make them jealous or question their own worth. Because of that, normally they would not even be considered as a person who gets jealous at all. They like giving you your freedom, they don’t seem like an obsessive person, they do have their set of standards when it comes to relationships and loyalty tho.

However, they do have their moments like all of us and you should not be fooled by their detached demeanor or purposely try to make them jealous, because what can happen is that they may simply leave and never come back.

Situations in which they may feel jealousy is if they see you have a deeper emotional connection with someone else, also when you’re blindly defending someone, it can make them think something like « why does my partner defend that person if they really feel nothing for them? » and that would make them suspicious of you..

They may get slightly annoyed if you constantly post pictures of yourself with a person that has a visible crush on you or is maybe too touchy with you (Or someone posts pics with you..), but this is not entirely jealousy, annoyance is the correct word here.

How do they express their jealousy?

- They seem like a mature and confident person so they definitely won’t be throwing tantrums or being childish. This is mostly due to their pride and ego.

They will check every piece of information before they even ask you sth.. they may even go through your phone to check if there is anything they should actually worry about when it comes to you and a certain person they are suspicious of. I feel like they may be the type of person to give you an ultimatum if you’ve crossed some of their boundaries,but regardless of everything I just wrote (which may seem pretty toxic) I don’t think they will be unreasonable when they get jealous.

If someone is getting a bit too « close » to you, they will expect you to draw a line and make it known you’re in a relationship. If your future spouse feels their standards are not met and feels disrespected they may even leave you. They seem pretty cut throat when it comes to loyalty. They won’t loose time arguing with you or asking you multiple times to do something they want you to do, they may have a big ego so they wouldn’t want to feel like a beggar.

Briefly, if they feel jealous, they may check your phone and all the information available and then talk to you once or twice, if something you do is really bothering them, and expect you to keep your distance from people who are interested in you.

Pile 2

(Cards: knight of wands; ace of chalices; queen of wands; the high priestess; 10 of water;the world;the empress;7 of air;the fool)

- Right off the bat, I feel like you would be the more confident, outgoing and successful one of the pair, not your future spouse. Or at least this may be true for a certain period of time during your relationship. You may be more fiery, what I am getting for you is absolutely the embodiment of the « naturally popular girl » when we were in highschool, stereotypically they would be the « nerd » and they may feel intimidated and a bit insecure around you. Your confidence may be the main reason for their jealousy. Since you may be a person who easily attracts people’s attention, your future spouse may feel like you can have pretty much everyone and that they’re easily replacable, whether or not this is actually true..

Do not get me wrong tho, you do not need to dim your light in order for them to be less insecure- this is their own problem to solve. What you can do in this situation, is to give them compliments which can uplift them and try not to give them reasons to be jealous, reassure them that they are the one for you, this may be important to them even if they don’t admit this openly.

How they express their jealousy?

- How they would show you they are jealous is a tricky question to answer honestly. They may not show you or tell you at all, you may need to figure this out on your own. They may start asking you random questions, as well as being almost « too nice » with you and fulfilling all your desires even the ones that may be at their expense, the important thing here is to not walk all over them since they may have a people pleasing tendency when it comes to you, so they can make sure they are so perfect that you wouldn’t leave them. They may become more clingy than usual.

As we all know, perfection is an illusion and it does not exist, so this perfect partner image they try to portray for you may be tiring for them to maintain.

If you notice some of their behaviors I just mentioned, talk to them and be honest with them.

Pile 3

(Cards: tower; 3of pentacles; 8wands; death; 3 of fire; the chariot; the tower; knight of earth; the hanged man)

- You will definitely know if your partner gets jealous, they wouldn’t hide it at all, they may have fire sign energy and easily get angry if someone touches what they deem as « theirs » (you). They may find you to be really physically attractive and that may make them want to keep you to themselves and be a little posessive.

They may get jealous if someone approaches you in front of them or when someone disrespects the fact that you are in a relationship with them and makes moves on you anyways..

Another thing which can make them jealous is if someone who they find to be similar to them (when it comes to qualities and what they can offer, not looks) shows interest in you in front of them.

How they express their jealousy?

- They may be pretty dramatic to be honest. This may be a drastic change from their normal behavior, normally they may be a really calm person, but if they feel someone is a threat to your relationship they may get very defensive and may even start an argument with the person who expresses interest in you in front of them.

In moments like this they get a little « primal » and don’t think things through, they may get more aggressive because when they see a threat they feel hopeless, like there is nothing else to do rather than confront the other person directly, they feel like they have to get rid of the « threat » immediately.

If they do actually have a tendency to cause scenes due to their jealousy, try talking it out with them and making them sure you would make the boundaries known if someone else approaches you.

Pile 4

(Cards: knave of air; queen of air; the magician; the priestess; the sun; 5 of water; 10 of pentacles; 10 of wands; knave of wands; knave of pentacles; 7 of swords)

- In situations where they feel jealous they may feel really hurt, even if they do not show it, it may remind them of past experiences and kind of « open an old wound » they tought they have gotten over.

Just like in one of the previous piles, they may view you as very beautiful and confident and sometimes they may feel as if they are not worthy of being with a person like you. They may be less experienced than you which can also make them paranoid you would leave them for someone more experienced.

How they express their jealousy?

- When they feel jealousy they really feel it. This can make them look a bit closed off and they may get really quiet all of a sudden, that’s how you would know that something is affecting them.

I don’t think this person will cause scenes or throw tantrums when they feel jealous at all. They are much more rational and mature. They may get some time away from you to clear their toughts and only after that they may adress the situation which made them feel jealous with you. Whenever they feel jealous, they may distract themselves with their hobbies, go out with their friends, go clubbing in order not to overthink every bit of what is bothering them. They may also get pro-active with you, give you gifts, pay more attention to you than normal, be more romantic with you..

My only advice to this pile is to be fully honest with them and try not to keep secrets from them, as this may intensify it if they do have trust issues due to their past.

thank you for reading! Hope it resonated, comment if it did.💞 Don’t forget to follow for more.

- La Sirena💋.

Decks used: ‘$£xual magic’ oracle deck by Lo Scarabeo; ‘Manara’ €rotic tarot deck by Milo Manara/ Lo Scarabeo;

[vraisetzen]

Your ‘Notte Stellata’ is honestly super awesome. It’s one of the best written fan fictions that I’ve ever read for sure.

You are SO talented at plotting! This story was planned out and written so, so well. I can really tell that you’ve put a lot of thought into this story.

And you did the period justice! My gosh, that is honestly so rare! But you did such a good job — I think that’s super cool.

You are SO GOOD at characterising Kokushibo. I think that was honestly the best characterisation of Kokushibo that I’ve ever seen! I know it sounds silly, but I almost lament the fact that I’m done with this story because I’d love to go through this journey again with fresh eyes.

I must say — you have used some of the most interesting and stimulating descriptions that I’ve seen in a long while. I had to pause multiple times while rereading and reread passages because you’ve included such gorgeous thoughts and imagery.

And the way you write dialogue is phenomenal. Can I just say — isn’t it so cool that you’re able to tackle almost any character from ‘Demon Slayer’ and pay them due deference? You make them sound like themselves. I thought that Tengen was such a clever addition to the story.

But also… when I saw Kagaya and read his dialogue, it just cemented in my mind the fact that you really get these characters. Because yes, that is exactly what he would say.

Your story really bumped up Kokushibo to the top of my favourite characters from ‘Demon Slayer’ list. I think it’s incredibly cool how you gave him more depth and made him almost even more interesting than he is in the source material.

You are an awesome writer, truly. I would sincerely love to read more works by you if you choose to share your works with us.

Thank you for allowing me the chance to read and think about your story!! You are AWESOME! Wishing you only the very best.

Thank you for your lovely words! It's wonderful knowing that you enjoyed Notte Stellata!

Staying true to the time period is something with which I was especially insistent; it was important that the Reader's mannerisms and personal beliefs reflected fleeting, but pivotal time period that was the Taisho era. I'm a huge history nerd, so doing research for this fic was a lot of fun! And most of all, I'm glad that it helped with establishing a sense of realism throughout the fic.

Likewise, it's glad knowing that I captured the characters and their dialogue properly! In the case of this fic, which basically poses the question, How would Kokushibo, as the first Upper Moon, respond to falling in love with a human Slayer?, it was fun dancing the delicate line between personal headcanons and going back to the manga to understand how Gotouge would have done it. The same went for Ubuyashiki as well — although it was tempting to have him dismiss the Reader from the Corps, it seemed much more apt for him to do something entirely different from what the Reader expected.

And with that, the dialogue came in very naturally; I was initially concerned about sounding too Joss Whedon-ish, since Tengen and the Reader were quite quippy with each other, so I needed to make sure that there was an element of sincerity and honesty with these two older members of the Corps.

Lastly, I'm delighted to have bumped Kokushibo on to the top of your list of favourite KnY characters! He's my definite favourite for sure, and I think he is such a complex character that is often reduced to his worst aspects. In that sense, the Reader was a proxy for him to reexamine those human parts of himself that he gave up too easily in the pursuit of power and strength.

Thank you once more for sending this ask and for your kind, thoughtful review! I will definitely be writing more in future, with a Muzan fic in the works (though nothing too official), and I hope to do as well, if not better, in that piece. All the best to you too!

xoxo, V ♥️

[sanguinesorcery]

@}~ Shout-Outs ~{@ and such

An expansion to this post from earlier, since I was at work when I reblogged it and I loathe writing on mobile Tumblr, app or not. So! Because I reblogged that from the source, I chose a small handful of partners I've kept in relative contact with or who have influenced me greatly while being here thus far to absolutely annoy gush over. So here we go!

@uramii || @red-man-of-mustache

Pasta! You're one of my favorite people here! Not only were you instrumental in my developing this whole lore for Tumblr consumption years ago, you've done nothing but show me kindness and indulged my dumbest ideas. It means a lot to me we've been friends all these years, even with that one period of absence, and it means more that after that you'd still welcome me back and continue to enable me in the best ways of course. I probably would not have found the drive to come back if it wasn't for your influences. I'm forever obsessed with our story together and I can't wait for it to develop more. We've always meshed super well, I think, and our writing styles have always bounced off one another incredibly easily. I continue to look forward to our future roleplay partnership and friendship together!

@dragmirc

Bunyip! Fifteen years is a long time, buddy. How have you put up with me this long! Most people would have ducked out by now but you've not only stuck around, but kept the most upbeat attitude I've met in a person. I probably wouldn't be here on this blog if it wasn't for you to begin with. You held my hand and told me to keep going when everything crashed and I felt like it was all for naught, and this whole thing was going to never see the light of day again. Thank you for pushing, and thank you for being supportive in all the other ways I needed. I'm super happy to have been the enabler for once, and it's been an absolute joy to watch you finally feel like you can stretch and work out your own ideas and interpretations without restraint. I'm always looking forward to our interactions, even with your weird schedules, and our bantering shortforms have me in absolute fits, no matter how long or short they are. It's also really nice to have another geologist nerd I can scream at, I hope your current dirt analysis is going well. 'lil golden shit' still lives rent free in my head, thanks for that.

@obraveyouth

Rinni! I have known you for about as long as it takes me to finish a bag of chips. Which is actually about a month. It's a really big bag of chips, okay. But, I feel like we've already been friends for so much longer than that! To find out we have a lot of the same tastes in a lot of things makes everything super fun, and I love that you are always asking me things to vomit details on you like the doofus I actually am. It really helps me keep my lore-weaving up to date and I'm always happy to see your interest in it and its deeper dealings. I know we've only just started interacting, but it's always such a delight to see what you have developed, and I love your personal interpretations! They add a flavor that makes your Link truly unique and super fun to read and write against. I can't wait to keep writing with you!

@askganondorftobadragmire

Lightning! We always said worldbuilders just find each other. And that is super true in our case, isn't it! I absolutely love what you've done with the world of your AU, it's been a delight to learn and understand all the neat little details you toil over. The fact that you were super nice right out of the gate sold me to wanting to keep talking to you, and I'm happy I did! I know we don't talk a whole lot outside of casually projectiling details back and forth, but I'm always happy with our pokings regardless, it makes me happy to see you around. I'm having an absolute blast mashing our worlds together. They fit in so nicely, it's like puzzle pieces falling into place. It's super fun bouncing ideas around and what little is actually planned, I'm excited for! It's great fun to tell a story with you, and I'm looking forward to our future shenanigans for sure.

[gods-no-longer-tread-here]

Hello my sweet beloved fellow nerds, I have received my grade (176/200 because I put it in APA instead of MLA, fuck my life) and thus I am Free to share with you my magnum opus,

You Will Appreciate Linen By The End Of This Essay Or I Will Eat My Favorite Hat

(available to read for free on my patreon, along with the list of sources!)

Linen’s place in human history is unmistakable. The flax plants from which it is derived were some of the first to be domesticated by human beings, and linen has been made and worn across Asia, Europe, and northern Africa since neolithic times. Royalty have been buried with bolts of fine linen, communities have thrived and died on the trade of various linen fabric types, and today’s uses of linen have expanded into creating specially-treated fabrics that can prevent the spread of deadly diseases and actively eliminate microbes. It is an incredible fibre with a fascinating hold on our species’ past. Hopefully, we’ll bring it forward with us into the future.

A Primer on Europe’s Favorite Fibre

Flax, or linum usitatissimum, “is an annual herbaceous plant grown today for fibres as well as for oil, which is extracted from the seeds” (Kislev, 2011). There are many species in the linum genus—approximately 200, in fact—but for the purposes of this essay, we shall focus on l. usitatissimum and its ancestors. It is of note that flax is a dual-purpose plant, though many farmers specialize in either fibre or oil. Linseed oil has been in use in industry and the arts for as long as flax fibres have been spun and woven; unprocessed flax seeds are often eaten whole. Indeed, there is debate on whether flax was domesticated solely as an edible crop in many regions of the world, especially northern European countries like those of Scandinavia, before its capacity to be cloth was discovered. While flax seeds and their nutrient compounds are fascinating, they are not the main focus of this essay, and so we shall now set them aside.

The earliest recordings we have of flax fibre are in Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent, but as previously stated, the plant has a wide natural range, further extended by trade and travel. For the majority of linen’s history, its processing method has been largely unchanged—below I have laid out the steps as given by the website for Ulster Linen, an Ireland-based company, with additional details as deemed necessary.

Producing fibers

The process of creating linen fabric is more involved than that of cotton or wool. Whilst the latter two only require cleaning and carding in preparation for spinning, flax must be prepared in stages that take more than a week to complete.

Flax was traditionally harvested through pulling the stalks from the earth rather than reaping with a scythe. This enabled the harvesters to retain as much length and durability as possible, maximizing the amount of product each yield. After pulling, the stalks are tied into bundles, or ‘beets’, and stood on end to dry in a process called stooking. Bundles dried more evenly this way than simply being laid out in the sun. Once dried, the bundles went through rippling; the tops of each bundle were run through a comb fashioned out of nails embedded in a piece of wood, to separate the seeds from the stems. Seeds were then collected and stored for later planting.

The fourth stage of processing flax, retting, required large amounts of warm, still water in which to soak the stalks. Bacteria in the water would rot the pectin binding the fibers together, allowing them to be separated. The water was changed or the flax rinsed periodically. Many northern European communities, such as those in Sweden, may have used bogs or lakes to rett their flax before turning to artificial containers and ponds (Viklund, 2011).

Once retting was complete, the flax was dried thoroughly before moving on to breaking. Stalks have a tough, woody exterior that must be stripped off to use the fibre; this was done by pulling the flax through a set of wooden ‘blades’, root to tip, and beating it until the woody bits were removed. A wooden scotching knife was used to scrape out any shives that remain; this process is called scutching. The final step, hackling, is similar to rippling in that the stems are combed through nails in wood, but as it was the final refining, the nails were more numerous and closer together. Inferior strands caught in the nails were used for lower grade linen.

For a long time, archaebotanists considered seeds, pollen, and other plant-matter found at the sites of former flax fields to be from weeds—unwanted but inevitable products of early agriculture, that left clues on the biological makeup of our landscapes (Latalowa, 1998). However, as further research has been done, some botanists have made note of which ‘weed’ is most prevalent, and a new theory has been proposed: the plant gold of pleasure was a deliberate addition to the fields (Larsson, 2013). Its seeds have been found in similar states as flax, discarded in pits after accidents rendered them inedible or pressed into cakes. This indicates that both plants were appreciated for their oil- and nutrient-rich seeds, though flax, as a dual-purpose crop, has certainly generated more evidence of its historical use.

Sacred and Sturdy

The utility of flax led it to have a status much like wheat, rice, or corn: it was powerful, a connection to the divine, a plant that was with most humans from the day they were wiped clean of their mother’s blood to the day they were buried. Sometimes even after that, in some traditions; much like how the spilling of salt was said to be a powerful protection against the Fair Folk, who would be forced to count every individual grain, flax seeds were sprinkled in coffins to keep the dead bound to their graves (Viklund, 2011). Flax was linked to the Norse goddess Freya, deity of hearth and home, and is mentioned several times in the Torah and associated holy texts. Egyptian pharaohs were entombed with bolts of linen to clothe them in the afterlife. The nobility of many nations dressed in fine linen bleached to a true white, to signal their easy lives and enormous wealth. In Ireland, the linen trade was so important to their economy that the Navigation Act laws of 1660 dealt the country a heavy blow.

And yet… there are hardly any linen clothes in stores or available affordably online. A fabric that’s strong enough to be made into sails for ships that circumnavigate the globe, yet soft enough that royalty swathed their newborns in it, that was with us for thousands of years, is simply unavailable. It is reserved for expensive formal wear and $50 ‘vacation shirts’, unless it is cut in a blend with another fibre. Why? What happened to flax?

Well, like with all global trade, it came down to money.

Fallen from Favor

Flax is an intense plant. It was general knowledge that, after one harvest of flax, it was best to use a field for some other crop for at least six years, lest the soil become depleted of necessary nutrients (Kislev, 2011). The procedures that must be followed to make it comfortable to wear are long and tiring. Linen does not dye easily, and natural dyes fade quickly. Flax grown for fibre prefers cooler, temperate climates and clay-rich soils. And though the fabric is hard-wearing and can even take being washed in a river with lye-soap and beaten with rocks, laborers and farmers couldn’t afford the light stuff that the wealthy could.

Laborers and farmers could, however, afford cotton.

It is speculated that the cotton boom started in India and China, in the 13th century (Styles, 2022). Cotton is not a fussy plant, and is easy to clean and spin. It is usually lighter than linen, takes dyes well, and can mimic linen texture. It is also a weaker fibre, and does not have the same properties as linen. As people who dwell in a cooler climate, we often hear that denim jeans are the worst cold-weather gear; this is because cotton conducts heat away from the body, and if dampened by sweat or melted snow, it can actively hasten the process of hypothermia. Linen is not as good as wool or fur in the cold and wet, but it is certainly better than cotton, and is to this day the second-most recommended fabric for inner layers when spending time outdoors, directly behind wool.

Of course, few people in 13th century India ever had to deal with blizzards and treacherous ice; they had monsoon season and summer. Cotton, though inferior, was quite possibly life-saving. It grows better in the heat than fibre flax, as well, thus making it economically worthwhile.

The problem is that, as cotton became the norm in much of Asia, European countries began to bring it further west along the Silk Roads as a luxury good. Cotton does not grow well in Europe, but that hardly matters when there’s money to be made and luxuries to flaunt. It took quite some time, and quite some work in the Americas from kidnapped and enslaved peoples, for cotton to flood the market and drown out flax; but it happened.

Enduring Threads

Despite the setbacks, linen survives. It is still a luxury good, and the standard for many homegoods—there’s a reason household goods stores have so many different sections for “linens”. In medical settings, such as hospitals, linen is preferred because of the fibre’s natural antibacterial properties. Research is being done on treating linen with microcapsules of thyme oil to repel mosquitoes that carry diseases (Nagender, 2021), or certain metals to increase its resistance to bacteria and microbes (Abo, et al, 2023; Fan, et al, 2020). Compound materials utilizing flax fibres are being proposed for many different industries as sustainable alternatives. Linen yet lives.

So, though we no longer consider linen a fact of life, we are still surrounded by it. It is in our history, our present, and hopefully, our future. There will always be room on this planet for the genus linum and its many bounties. It is my sincere hope that I have managed to convey even a fraction of my admiration for this building block of humanity, and that my readers may come away with a new interest in fibres of all kinds. Vive le linum.

[foreverinpanicmode]

💭 HEADCANNONS ABOUT PERCY WEASLEY

that i one hundred precent believe in and will forever protect.

let's start off with the fact that as a child he most certainly was one of the smallest. in his first year, he most definitely was four feet and two inches or something like that.

he didn't hit puberty until he was thirteen, he believed it was purely evolution and that he just simply grew overnight. however, if you had asked anyone else? they'd tell you that merlin took pity on him.

percy is afraid of failure. much like little hermione granger, percy fears that if he doesn't do well in anything he does that he'll be thrown out of school or rejected consistently by his peers.

he's a straight 'o' student, which is nothing new... except he's only a straight 'o' student because one time his brother fred told him that he was gonna grow up to be the stupidest person ever to exist ( out of anger of course.. fred was like five at the time and percy had blabbed to mummy ). and percy just had to prove his brother wrong.

percy absolutely loves music, and not classical music like most of the classic typical nerds either, but he enjoys listening to the weird sisters, and the hobgoblins. he's also a huge fan of a muggle band called coldplay.

percy is actually a very good cook and can cook just about anything you ask for, his mother began teach him when he was young and the hobby just kinda stuck around. he frequently cooked when his mother and father would leave for short periods of time and couldn't make it back in time to cook dinners.

percy hates nicknames, he only tolerates them from his family because he generally doesn't have a say in anything at all. he doesn't mind his friends giving him one but generally he just likes going by his name or at least the shortened version of it.

he loves cats. he would absolutely adore having a cat of his own, he's jealous of those around him because they get to be with a cat who loves and adores them on a daily basis while he gets a shitty owl who is on his last legs and can barely keep itself upright while flying.

percy was once a prankster like his younger twin brothers, he would go around playing pranks on his family and the family friends but after fred said those words to him once, he decided to put pranking aside and focus on school.

percy is an amazing writer and attempts to write his own novel about what it's like being a wizard in a family of seven wizards and not having a single space to just be alone in without someone needing something from him.

he never wanted to become a ministry worker, but several people made insults towards him about his career choice, so he chose something more attainable and easier to achieve.

percy is a lover at heart, but because of the way his peers reacted to love, he became the quiet lover who does things behind closed doors and prefers no pda out in public. but he isn't opposed to a kiss on the cheek or a peck on the lips here or there.

percy adores animals. any animal, domestic or non-domestic. he gets it from his brother charlie who spent a good chunk of his own childhood learning all he can about magical creatures and how ti care for them. percy actually had aspirations to become a magizoologist when he was very young but chose a very different path ( as seen above ).

percy and his parents have an odd relationship, while they both love all of their children the same, they tend to overlook him due to him being the middle child and the smartest out of the seven. arthur was the one who got him into the possibility of being a ministry worker as that would definitely pay the bills and help make life a bit easier for the future. while molly attempted to show percy every ounce of love she had for her children.

percy weasley despises his siblings on various different levels. he tolerates william and ron purely because they are the less chaotic of the bunch ( minus the seven years ron attended school). he loves charlie to pieces because charlie is the only one who ever truly cared or even bothered to take his thoughts into consideration. but charlie does get overbearing sometimes and tends to helicopter percy when they were children, which travels well into their teen and young adult years. william is just... too aloof for percy to follow through with, he never knows what he's doing or what he'll be doing. ginny and ron are constantly screaming at each other which makes studying or just relaxing to be very hard and stressful. fred and george are the bane of percy's existence, constantly pranking him every chance they got and never ever considered the consequences of their actions. they always belittled him and told him to calm down when he was simply just explaining how they should be careful. he loves how open-minded and carefree they are, plus they're rather smart and have a knack for charms and stuff.

[vaspider]

At the risk of imposing on more of your time, could you point me in the direction of some of the places you learned these things re: Jesus & the way of life in the temples and such? I don’t know if there’s an easy answer for that, but it’s a perspective I’ve never seen on that story (and interesting insights into life at the time that I’ve rarely heard as a Christian raised westerner who never actively studied history) and would love to read more on it from reliable books/sources that you seem like you’d be able to point me towards!

Unfortunately I don't have a good single source for this, because a lot of it comes from having been fed a lot of garbage as a kid, having to memorize a lot of Bible crap, and then being able to pull those random facts out of my ass when I'm reading other things so that i can either challenge those facts or put them into new context. Plus I have a brain that likes dates and likes making connections, which is how I noticed the death of Paul and then the writing of Mark and the first Jewish-Roman War happened in like a 2 year period. No one really pointed that out to me, I just... like... history. You know?

I will say that a lot of me putting some of these pieces together came from when I worked in banking and one of the few sites that wasn't banned was Wikipedia. (This is also why I know an almost unfortunate amount about the English monarchy. I literally would read an article on one King and then click on the link for his predecessor, all the way back to Mercia and so on.) I didn't just read the articles themselves though, I read the articles and the source links and considered where they were from and whose agenda they might be pushing.

I find Jewish Virtual Library interesting as a place to get lost in (and actually some stuff I read there will show up in Scion: Once & Future when it comes out) and I watch a lot of documentaries (again, consider your sources and their agenda, we all have one). A lot of stuff (like knowing who Hillel and Shammai are) came from just... becoming a Jew and hanging around Jews. I follow lots of rabbis on Twitter and read both them and their sources.

I dunno. I just... am a nerd.

[incorrectonceandfuturenerd]

Happy Ten Year Anniversary @onceandfuturenerd! A few of us over on the discord server put together an audio compilation of us talking about how much we love the podcast and what it means to us. There's a transcript below the cut that also has the names of who's speaking in each clip.

Thank you so much for making this wonderful podcast, and congratulations on ten years!

Kat: I love most things about The Once and Future Nerd. The characters, the setting, the genre awareness, the humor. It’s my favourite podcast for a reason, and that’s saying something as I’ve listened to over a hundred. I remember listening to the show for the first time in late 2016, it was... Christmas concert season and I was walking back and forth pretty much exclusively between my dorm, rehearsal, class, and the dining hall. Um. But somehow, despite that very limited time, I managed to listen to all of The Once and Future Nerd over the course of approximately two days, and fell in love with it pretty much immediately. Um, at the time, all of book one was out, which was, uh, less than there is now, but still a significant amount of podcast to listen to over the course of 48 hours. Um. Aside from how wonderful I continue to find the podcast, The Once and Future Nerd has also allowed me to have access to a community I never would have had otherwise. After creating the discord to talk more about the show with a few other folks, I met some of my closest friends. As of sending this message, I have sent-- and I checked right before- before I did this-- in the server alone, 28,638 messages. That is not including direct messages to my friends, that is just directly in the server. Um, the server has also had a long-running Dungeons and Dragons game that’s been going since spring of 2019, and has had multiple bl- book clubs, including one that meets weekly has consistently since spring of 2020. It’s been one of the most fulfilling community experiences of my life, and it all ties back to The Once and Future Nerd. Creating stupid inside jokes like Gy’y Fy’ryy and Elves Have Fur and Antonin being the sexiest the character no matter what any polls say, he better win this last one, I swear... um, it’s been one of the great joys of my life over the last five years. Thank you so much for all the love and joy, humor, tears, and so much more that The Once and Future Nerd has brought to my life and to the lives of many others. The story’s been wonderful, y’all are wonderful, and I hope you continue for many years to come. Happy ten year anniversary.

Nicole: What do I love about The Once and Future Nerd? This is going to sound weird, but I love how specific it is. The Once and Future Nerd is such a peculiar blend of genre and humor and social commentary, that it’s a near perfect filter for finding like-minded people. I’ve met some of my best friends through this podcast and I’m so grateful I found it back in 2016. At the time, it was so hard to find fantasy audio dramas, so I was immediately drawn to The Once and Future Nerd for that alone, uh, when I was trying to search for some. I really liked the concept, enough to make me listen until Monsters, because that’s the chapter that hooked me. I devoured the rest of book one after that, only pausing to sleep and attend lectures... and sometimes listening to it during lectures. Sorry, not sorry to my stats prof. If I had to pick a favourite moment, I would have to say Yllowyyn’s confrontation with Ry’y lo-Th’yyt in Bridges. I think that one is burned into my brain because I was a crowded train trying not to freak out at the time. This podcast means a lot to me as a source of connection with others and it’s just a plain fun story. Thank you, Zach and Christian and everyone who works so hard on it. It’s been going for ten years, and I don’t care if it takes ten more.

RJ: I found The Once and Future Nerd in February of 2017 as a depressed 18-year-old in my first year of university, and I think I listened to everything that had been released at that point in about a week? I love it because of the genre subversion and genre awareness, I love the characters, I love the way it challenges expectations and engages with complex topics with care... I really, really like listening to this podcast, but more than that, I like talking about this podcast. The main thing that makes me keep coming back to The Once and Future Nerd, keep listening, and that makes it important to me, is the community I’ve found in listening to it. I joined the discord server two days after it was created, and that remains the only fandom space where I’ve successfully made actually close online friends. To the point where the friendship has expanded beyond just our shared enjoyment of the podcast into just... being friends. It’s really great to get to know these people, to plan things like this anniversary event with them, to have things like a weekly book club, or collaborations on projects, or just conversations about silly and serious things related to the podcast, and unrelated to the podcast. And none of that would have happened without The Once and Future Nerd so, thank you. Thank you for being the reason that I know these people, thank you for being the reason that I have been inspired to make creative things, from fanart to videos to what have you, uh... I love your show so much, congratulations on ten years, and I can’t wait to hear what comes next.

Dirk: Hey, this is Dirk. Uh, I don’t remember when I started listening to this podcast, it was years ago-- but I do remember being immediately drawn in by the brief and tragic tale of Mr. Fluffy Toes. The mix of humor and sass and sincerity, it immediately struck me. As the story went on, I delighted in Nelson being shockingly genre-savvy about this fantasy world and, honestly? I really enjoyed the fact that the world at large ignored the kids at first. That’s not something you often get in portal fantasies. Uh, I’ve also always deeply enjoyed the queer representation and tongue-in-cheek political commentary... As if that wasn’t enough, you all gave me a chance to write for your podcast. I had so much fun with the Bailey sisters short, and with making up a whole-ass holiday! It was so much fun. And even though I had to recuse myself from the later plotline, I’m still here to listen to how it goes. My inability to write for it has absolutely no bearing on your grace and kindness to me, and even though I dread how it will make me feel because of my own personal issues, I know that I can trust whatever it turns out to be. Like so many pod- things in this podcast, it’s gonna be sensitive, sometimes funny, sometimes deeply tragic, or terrifying, and it will never punch down. Because that’s the kind of podcast you have made. Happy ten year anniversary, thank you so much for all that you’ve given us. And I hope you can continue making whatcha love for as long as you want to be making it. And like... Let’s be real. As long as you’re making this, we’re gonna be here for it, so... Thank you.

Oriana: I had the podcast recommended to me by a friend who was very active on the reddit at the time. I love that The Once and Future Nerd is not afraid to look long and hard at The Implications of a lot of fantasy tropes. I kept listening because I wanted to know what new ideas would be explored next. One of my favorite moments is the speech that Traft gives about how the Princes of Iorden do alchemy. The Once and Future Nerd is the first thing that I got to write for that has an established audience and... that was very cool. Thank you for everything.

Aja: Hey guys my name is Aja, and I just wanted to say congrats on ten years of a fantastic podcast. I started listening to The Once and Future Nerd back in 2017, 2016, not long after I’d gotten my bachelor’s degree from college and right as I was starting to realize that I wanted to go back to school to get my teaching degree. So it- it came at a really special time in my life. What kept me coming back over all these years is the fantastic character development, especially for the kids, uh, in the story, but also for everybody else, and I’ve also just really appreciated the, uh, subversion, I guess, of fantasy tropes. I think it’s kept the story really interesting and really relevant, and it’s- it’s so real, despite being a fantasy story, so. Thank you so much for all of your hard work, and I look forward to listening for... as long as you keep making this podcast. Thanks guys.

Aster: The Once and Future Nerd is one on an ever-growing list of podcasts that I deeply love despite being upwards of a year behind on, and every time I am able to get back to listening to it, I am in awe of the incredible world that it shows. And a special thanks to the podcast for finally, really, dragging me down into the incredible world of audio drama fandoms.

Teddy: Well, first of all congrats on ten years, that is a tremendously long time to work on a project, and it’s an excellent project to have been worked on. I’ve loved the podcast for... a while. I’m not quite as into it as I used to be, but I still listen to the episodes whenever they come out. Uh... I first listened to the podcast all the way back in, I believe 2016? Uh, when I was in college. One of my friends was listening to it at a DnD session and I heard just one clip of it-- I think it was the scene where Regan had a threesome with the barkeep and his partner? I don’t remember exactly what happened in that scene but, uh... [laughs] it was interesting enough to draw my attention, and I talked to my friend about what the podcast was about, and I decided to go ahead listen to it, and so I listened to it. It hit all the right notes for me. I really loved the emphasis on diversity, and the science that went into it. I thought the science... um, the way science and magic integrated in the show was really fantastic and clever. You know, I really loved the characters. I think I listened to the entire podcast, up until the beginning of covid, about... three or four times through, and then since the pandemic when everything’s slowed down I’ve only listened to it another couple times since then. But, even though it’s no longer quite my main fandom or anything... But I think that I’m going to continue listening to it for as long as it comes out. Even if it’s never my big passion, it’s gonna be one of those quiet, comfortable, familiar things that will be a thread woven throughout the path of the rest of my life. Or not the rest of my life, but, you know, a good portion of it. However long- however much longer it goes, um. But, yeah, uh, congrats again on ten years of The Once and Future Nerd, and thank you for creating it. It’s really fantastic, I love it so much.

Rachel: So I found The Once and Future Nerd shortly after the pandemic started. A friend reached out to me who, um, I had met in college, and she asked to connect and we started calling every week, and we eventually started listening to this podcast together because she was already a fan, and she thought I would love it-- she was totally right. Um [small laugh], and we listened to this for almost a year, almost like a book club. Um, and we talked about it, and we got deep into the themes which was really enriching for me, that’s one of my passions, I got a degree in it. Uh, in, um, literature, so just picking apart stories and I-I was- I’ve always been impressed by how crunchy it is. How the characters feel fleshed out and stood apart from each other, and how so many tropes you think you understand and then you guys subverted them. Um. And then, while I don’t listen to The Once and Future Nerd right now, I have other podcasts that I do listen to, and before listening to The Once and Future Nerd with Kat I was not a podcast person. So, because of this podcast I actually have maintained a friendship, and I’ve gained a whole new ways to access stories, and it’s been pretty marvellous. And I’ve loved that a lot. So I’d like to thank the creators for those two sparks of joy in my life.

Kellie: Congrats on ten years! Um. I have not been listening to The Once and Future Nerd for ten years, I’ve been listening more like the past, like, one and half or so years, um, and I am so glad that I started listening. This podcast means a lot to me, it is one of my favourites, and not only is it just individually enjoyable for me, it’s also brought me closer to a lot of people, um, the existence of the podcast itself has brought me into a community that I value so deeply, and brought me close to so many people who I just love and adore. So, I mean, you know, obviously you’re doing something really right if, uh, you’re bringing people close together for lifetime friendships, uh, by making, you know, content. And that’s amazing in and of itself. But also, just, the podcast itself is so good. I mean, first of all, it’s great quality, it’s, you know, these... these wonderful little stories that are so, so gay. [laughs] And that analyze interesting topics in a really nuanced way. I can’t express the appreciation that I have for the way that y’all talk about these topics cause they’re always- they’re handled so well. Um. So, instead... [laughs] so instead of trying to express that, um, I will instead express that I just love how... I love when Arlene and Gwen are gay. Like, that’s just great. You know? It’s fantastic. And they’re so, so gay, and it’s so, so wonderful every single time. [sighs] And also Regan is just so hot. You know? Like. Uh, I... [sighs] Good for her, you know? Good for her. And good for y’all for- for having this podcast be- be going on for so long and still going strong. It’s- it’s so much fun and I’m so excited to keep listening to it. I’m not all the way caught up! But I’m working on it and I’m r- just enjoying every moment along the way. Thank you for what you do, cause what you do is so great. It’s incredible. Thank you.

Drak: The Once and Future Nerd. Um. What it means to me. So I had really bad migraines a couple years ago. Uh, to the point of, I had to blindfold myself for days and weeks at a time, uh, in order to avoid a debilitating migraine. And, um, so I found myself suddenly having to navigate the world without being able to see. The worst part of it was the boredom because I couldn’t read fanfiction, I couldn’t, uh, do most of my crafting hobbies, I couldn’t play video games. Um, obviously there are, you know, ways that people can do those things while blind, but I did not have any of those accommodations at the time. And so I started listening to podcasts, and I found The Once and Future Nerd and while listening to it, sitting in my room, by myself, uh, blind and in pain, The Once and Future Nerd took me away from my loneliness and my boredom and my pain and, you know, kind of, uh, saved my life. Uh, because I had something to help me get through a difficult period of my life, and, um. On top of that, you know, I-I love how much care and thought the crew and the cast and everyone involved puts into the story, um, in terms of being, like, sensitive about topics and as well as, like, trying to, um, provide good representation for, uh, marginalized voices, and um. I just. God, I love this podcast so much. Thank you, thank you so much for everything y’all do. The Once and Future Nerd is... I-I recommend it to everyone I know, even if they don’t like podcasts because I-I really think it’s that good. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Sen: I love this podcast for its tapestry of fantasy tropes, the funny takes, and the moments of awesome. For multifaceted, diverse characters that I hadn’t encountered in other mediums before, and [sighs] well, for a gorgeous sound design that brings it all together. I found this podcast back in the middle of 2018. I was in a really, really bad place then, I was failing my classes, um, due to depression and anxiety for which I had begun taking medications too, which was not easy to adjust to. I just- I couldn’t concentrate on anything at all. So, I ended up searching for, uh, podcasts, and specifically what I would do back then is I would read the scripts and then I’d decide to listen to the whole thing later, you know. I read the first two episodes, then I just decided fuck it. I’m gonna listen. This podcast, and a few others, they were what got me through a really difficult time, but, you know, what made me keep listening then after that was just that it keeps on getting better. Personally, my favourite moment in TOaFN is, uh, episode three of I’ve Been Working on the Whale Road. Because, okay, yes, there are the pilot- uh, pirates, and there is Maddy Groves, but then there is also Bryce’s death. An ignoble death, nobly done. I get emotional thinking about it, but I think the way that Bryce died, it touches you, I think. And I think that... that balance between the humor and the silliness and the sincerity, and the love, I think, uh, it’s always- it touches you. I love this show for its emphasis on storytelling, the words “people are the stories they tell, power is who gets to tell those stories” th-they’re ingrained in my mind at this point. I resonate with the philosophy so much, and I’m so grateful to this show for getting me through tough times and for teaching me things about storytelling, about myself. And for the people that I have met through this show. In the discord server, the long-running DnD game, um, those people that, like, I got close to, and the book club folks, er, that I get to chat with on occasion. They make me laugh and they make me smile and I can confide in them, they’re always there and... I just- I- Thank you so much, for giving me all of that.

CJ: Congrats on ten years!

[asexualchloe]

jen in 2023 would have a tiktok channel where she filmed herself doing makeup while talking about gossip at school. billy would also have a tiktok channel but his only followers would be from his school. nelson would be deep into reddit and be snooty about not being on tiktok because he doesn’t trust the algorithms.

[lamentable-comedy]

i'm working on something for wednesday so i don't have much time to make memes, but here's my best shot at today's prompt

[standardissueplottwist]

Monday: cringefail 2013 memes Nelson would make if he had internet access when they got to Iorden

[licensedqueerio]

IK u've already done Fred Benson x GN reader confession stuff but...more please?? maybe reader leaving Fred anonymous love letters until the truth comes out??😳😳

I'm obsessed with Fred x jock reader. Apparently, I'm a sucker for the nerd/jock trope. I thought I was more interesting than this!

Also, this is different from my usual works. I kind of just want to see how it does in comparison to all my other pieces that have happy endings. This was fun to write anyhow :) I think I’ll write a part two eventually. Just depends tho if anyone wants one.

(also I’m kinda in a romance slump if that makes sense. I need to read more romance books, so if anyone’s got any recs, lemme know)

—

Word count: 2.7k

Pairing: Fred Benson x Reader

Warnings: N/A

Request Here

—

It started small. A slip of notebook paper shoved into his locker during passing period. 

Dear Fred, your hair looks really nice today.

It wasn't anything romantic. It was barely even a compliment. And it definitely told nothing about your identity, you wanted to stay anonymous. Especially when you kept doing it.

It wasn't a daily thing. It wasn't even a weekly thing at the beginning. But sometimes you thought he looked extra nice, or that something he said in class was really funny. Sometimes you didn't even compliment him, you just said something pointless about your day and asked him about his.

It was a fun little thing you got some serotonin from doing. And you didn't have to face the awkwardness of ever saying any of it in person. It's why you started writing the notes in the first place, words came more freely when you wrote them down. Something to do with not having to see the person's reaction to your words. It’s why you'd never said more than a word to Fred.

You knew how he was. You heard he once made a newspaper kid cry without even touching him. You didn't want to risk being torn to shreds with just a few words, so you stayed anonymous and just shoved the notes in his locker for him to find.

But one week he disappeared and something…changed with you. You began writing him more. Every day he was missing you slipped a note in his locker. Saying you missed seeing him around. Or that you missed his witty remarks in class. You were secretly worried about his well being.

Dear Fred,

You probably don't want to hear from me considering I've left you about six notes this week alone. It's the most I've written to you, actually. I guess I was worried. Not I guess. I was worried. A lot. You just disappeared off the face of the earth for a week.I suppose that’s your business though.

I really did miss you in class, I didn't lie about that. It's boring without you picking fights with everyone. But you're back. I saw you in the hall earlier. You looked like actual hell, no offense. I think I saw a cut on your face but I’m not sure, you walk too fast. Are you okay? Getting into actual fights after school too now?

I'm glad you're back anyhow. And I'm glad you're in one piece.

It was longer than usual, but you slipped it in your locker like normal and that was the end of it.

Until it wasn't. That single note seemed to open some sort of door in your mind that green lit a different sort of note.

Dear Fred

So that cut scarred. I noticed it in class. If I'm being honest, I couldn't stop looking at you. Even with a scar, you're beautiful to look at. I couldn't tear my eyes away from you, the way people can’t look away from the TV or something. Not in the way someone looks at a car wreck or something.

You distracted me in a way I enjoyed, like the TV. Consequently, I’m definitely going to bomb out next test, but tis a small price to pay. One I’m likely going to keep making in the foreseeable future.

I don't know how I ever got work done in the past with you sitting in the same room as me. It's as though my eyes are finally open and I can see you for how attractive you really are.

You distract me in the best possible way, Fred Benson.

You hesitated to send that one, so you nearly got caught. You kept turning it over in your hands as you walked back and forth in front of his locker. Debating on if you should leave it or not. Weighing the pro’s and con’s and taking into account the heightened risks.

"Can you move?"

You turned, staring at Fred with wide eyes. And wow was it nice to actually look him in the face. You were usually stuck staring at his side profile because of where he sat and where you sat.

"Uh, hello? You're pacing in front of my locker. So if you could go have an existential crisis about—" he looked you up and down, eyes lingering on your letterman jacket, "some brainless sport, I'd appreciate it."

You blinked. Wow. "Uh, yeah," you intelligently said, stepping to the side. "My bad," you added and very quickly walked away before you could further humiliate yourself.

After a few paces, you looked over your shoulder to find him already staring at you, eyes narrowed and firmly fixed on you. You whipped your head around and walked faster.

You left the note in his locker later, but stopped for about a week and a half. You didn't want to run the risk of him suspecting it was you who was leaving the notes. So, you stopped leaving them for a bit.

When Fred finally stopped giving you looks in the hall, you slipped a new note in his locker. You even taunted him and asked him who he thought was leaving him these notes.

After that one, you waited another week before leaving the riskiest one yet.

Dear Fred

I have a crush on you now. Fuck you and your irresistible seduction techniques, I feel like a middle schooler who just learned what a crush is. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I was just supposed to leave you notes on occasion to maybe make you smile because you always look so grumpy.

But it was inevitable, really; all that time spent staring at you. If I had a type in people, you would fit it like a glove.

You're incredibly smart, passionate and driven, witty, (kind of mean), and very nice to look at. You're a catch. At least in my book.

I get butterflies when you walk in the room, I can barely stand to look you in the eyes without feeling warm and fuzzy. Even though you don't realize the impact you have on me, I can't help but hope for even a small chance with you.

I want to get to really know you. I want to know what makes you, you. I wanna know what gets you going and what you hate. I want to know you.

But alas. Here we are. Maybe one day I'll scrounge up the courage to sign my name at the end of one of these notes.

—

Fred slammed the piece of paper against the table with a loud smack that echoed through the empty paper room. "Look."

Nancy looked up from her lunch and stepped away from the counter she was leaning against. It was then he saw Robin, sitting on the floor next to her. She sprang up though when Nancy walked away.

"What's going on?" She asked as Nancy took the piece of paper from Fred. "Ooh, what's that?" She asked, hooking her chin over Nancy's shoulder to read over her shoulder.

Fred scowled at her. He wouldn't have brought it up if he knew she was in here. It was bad enough Nancy knew. (Actually, it was nice Nancy knew. He could talk about it with her). Robin on the other hand, was a whole other story.

"Fred's been getting notes in his locker all semester," Nancy filled in. "He's got a secret admirer," she teased with a smile.

"Fun," Robin nodded. "Oh wow. 'I get butterflies when you walk in the room', they're so into you!" She excitedly exclaimed, hooking her arms around Nancy's middle.

Fred ignored that. No way was that possible. It was a prank. Some douchebag who thought it was funny to mess with him. He was getting sick of it.

He very firmly ignored the part of him that hoped it was genuine. That whoever was leaving these notes in his locker genuinely liked him.

He didn't like to listen to that part of his brain. It usually led him to crushing disappointment, so he learned it was best to just shove those feelings down until they dissipated. They would, eventually.

"You still have no clue who's giving you these?' Nancy asked, handing Robin the note when she made a grab for it when she tried to give it back to Fred. Robin pressed a kiss to her cheek in gratitude.

"Nope," Fred answered. "One of my English classmates. Or maybe math, that's usually when I find the notes," he shrugged.

"You don't have anyone who seems the type to do this?" Nancy pressed. She was very involved in trying to find Fred someone so he didn't have to always third wheel her and Robin.

Fred did, actually. You. He didn't think you would be the type to write anything as sappy as a love letter considering your jock reputation, but that day you'd been lingering around his locker was suspicious. Plus he didn't get a note til later in the day. It made sense, but also, it confused him a lot more.

Why would you write him a love letter? Was he right? Were you just screwing around with him and you and your other jock buddies were getting a good laugh?

"No," he answered anyway. "No one. I don't even talk to anyone besides you two."

"That's sad," Robin deadpanned. "You don't have any friends? I think that's worse than Steve," she jested, jostling Nancy with a grin.

"Steve has friends," Nancy began, distracted from the topic at hand.

"That are children," Robin finished. "Anyways. Freddie, we need to find you friends. Besides us, because while we are wonderful company…"

Nancy elbowed her with a tight smile.

“Fred,” he corrected for the umpteenth time.

The door suddenly slammed open, making Nancy and Robin jump away from each other. When Fred looked up to see who had arrived, he found himself staring at you, frozen in the doorway. Your hand was still on the doorknob. You quickly hid your other hand behind your back.

When your eyes met his, you very quickly broke eye contact and looked at Nancy and Robin instead. Then your eyes found the paper in Robin’s hands. You opened and closed your mouth a few times before managing a choked, “sorry.”

“Oh, hey, Y/N,” Nancy politely greeted and Fred suddenly remembered that you two were friendly with each other. You had a mutual friend: Steve Harrington.

“Nancy,” you said with a nod of acknowledgement. You stepped back, safely out of the room.

Fred watched you, making eye contact again and frowned when you immediately avoided it. But he said nothing.

“I’m gonna…go,” you said, taking another step backwards and letting the door close as you walked away.

It was silent between the trio for a few moments.

“Dude,” Robin exclaimed. “It was them. They’re writing the letters, one hundred percent. I mean—did you see the way they looked at you!?”

“No,” Fred denied. “Why would it be them? Have you seen them? They hate people like me. Them and their buddies make fun of people like me on a daily basis.”

“Not all jocks are Jason Carver,” said Nancy with a ‘for-your-information’ tone. “I think it could be them, just based on their behavior. They were really avoiding eye contact."

"Maybe they just hate me and don’t want to look at me,” Fred countered. “Maybe they were doing something they’re not supposed to and that's why they were avoiding eye contact. Why would they be here?"

"Maybe they were gonna deliver another letter," Robin suggested with a grin. “And then they seen you and you like, totally ruined their plans.”

“No,” Fred denied again. “Can we stop talking about this now? It wasn’t them. They’re a stupid jock who would mkae fun of me the first chance they got,” he said sourly, snatching the letter back and haphazardly stuffing it into his back pocket.

—

“Ow, what the fuck!?” You furiously hissed, rubbing the back of your head that had just been rudely knocked against the wall. You squinted at whoever had just pulled you into the paper room and proceeded to shove you against the door. You found yourself staring at none other than Fred Benson. You blinked at him. That was unexpected.

“Sorry,” he said, but didn’t at all sound apologetic. “But it’s not easy to find you without your jock buddies and I need answers. Now.”

“Y’know, Benson, you could have just asked to speak with me. No need to assault me,” you said calmly, straightening up and fixing your jacket. You folded your arms across your chest and stared at him. “So? What do you want?”

Your heart was pounding inside your chest and you felt warm low in your gut. Just being this close in proximity to the boy you’d developed a crush on was driving you crazy. But you had to seem calm and collected so he didn’t suspect anything.

“You did it,” he said bluntly. “Didn’t you? The notes in my locker?” He thrust the newly written letter in your face.

Your facade cracked as you forced a laugh, “am I supposed to know what that is?” you asked, glancing at the paper then staring back at him, ignoring the heat rushing to your face in embarrassment. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t lie,” Fred said with a frown, lowering his hand. You could see the doubt crawling into his expression though. “You’ve been writing them for the past few months, haven’t you? You’re the only person who makes sense.”

“I haven’t written anything,” you denied, stronger this time. “Why would I leave notes in your locker? That’s just ridiculous,” you forced out, even though it hurt to say because it wasn’t ridiculous and fuck, you didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

Fred’s frown turned into a scowl.

“I have to go,” you said, clearing your throat and twisting to open the door. But before you could, Fred's voice stopped you.

"Wait."

You paused with a quiet sigh. You turned back around to face him. "What?" You expectantly asked.

You weren't expecting Fred to press his lips against yours and keep them there in a lingering kiss. And you weren't expecting to like it so much.

You pulled away abruptly, your arms coming apart to hold his shoulders. "What was that?!" You exclaimed, shaking him a little. You were just surprised and flustered. And happy it finally happened.

Fred's eyes went wide and fearful. He tensed up beneath your hands and tried to shy away from you.

In an instant, you dropped your hands, stepping back and bumping into the door, but you didn’t care. You showed him your hands, palms out, “shit, Fred, I’m not gonna hit you or anything,” you said quietly, unable to raise your voice.

Fred didn’t look confident that you wouldn’t as he stepped backwards. “I’ve been beat up by your friends before,” he said, finding his voice. “Look, just go. Clearly I was mistaken.”

“No—”

“Go!” He said louder, turning his back on you.

You opened your mouth, but no words came out. So you sighed in defeat and turned around. With your hand on the door knob, you glanced back at him. You watched as he rubbed at his face before turning around. You turned the knob and opened the door, stuffing your free hand into your pocket where it crushed the letter folded up inside. You walked out of the paper room and didn’t look back.

[rotworld]

i’ve always loved your worldbuilding (everything weyer and luxuria related is my favorite atm) so i was wondering what inspires you or helps you create such rich worlds? what does ur process of worldbuilding even look like if that’s not being too nosy lol. just love your writing a lot so sometimes i’ll even go back for the lore.

thank you so much!! \(;A;)/ like most things for me, it seems to be a very messy, disorganized process lol sometimes i plan a lot, sometimes i don’t plan at all, and sometimes i do a bit of both. the luxuria series involved both so that’ll be the main example. nerd rambling below.

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single-use settings like the majority of my october prompts or other one shot stuff is done impulsively. i figure out my starting concept and then wing it from there. there are some that get more planning than others if i want to do something complicated (decadence had a more complex core story, even if all of that didn’t actually make it into the piece) but even then, there’s a lot of stuff that gets added because i think it would make good scene dressing as i’m writing lol.

on the other hand, there are times when i plan a lot, even without having a clear story in mind. periodically i get the urge to make a new setting and characters to go in it, usually just for fun/personal use, although i have developed some of these into things that i share. sometimes it’s related to stuff i’ve been reading or watching, even if only tangentially (i’ve been getting into wh40k and that made me want to do a far-future sci fi setting with an emphasis on the human aspect of big political decisions, although it ended up very different in tone and overall direction) and sometimes it’s just a vague concept that i want to explore more (i wanted to write about robots one time, so i made a setting about humans and androids). my inspiration is whatever i’m into lately, so i make these, set them aside, and then pick them up again when the mood strikes me. the setting from eternal night is something i started working on for myself back in 2019 with a big soulsborne influence, but it came to mind for that prompt so i revisited it.

weyer academy was something i developed a while ago. it actually predates the character luxuria and originally, it was the primary focus of the story i wanted to tell there. i liked the idea of blending unhealthy academic culture with the concept of a magic school, so the school itself, the basic concepts of a lot of professors and a few students were already established. when i started writing third time’s a charm and realized i wanted to use these characters more than once, i thought it could be a good time to finally use that setting, so i started thinking of ways to tie them together. 

outside of that, the rest of the world developed spontaneously. the infernal plane versus the temporal plane, the different ways humans handle magic, specific types of demons, all of this stuff was done on the fly when i wrote third time’s a charm. i would think “it’d be cool if they had this” lol and i would add a line or scene, and that gave me some fun stuff to think about and expand on later. now some of those things are much more developed than when i first mentioned them. by this point, things have coalesced enough that there’s less spontaneity, although it looks like i didn’t start keeping track of things on a worldbuilding document until a little after finishing zivian’s piece lmfao

i’ll briefly talk about what my worldbuilding documents actually have on them but like i said, it’s a bit of a mess lol the first thing i write down is the core story or idea. for luxuria triplicate, this is “the deal,” the fact that the reader made a contract with a powerful demon and that they have one year before payment is owed. after that, i start listing important parts of the setting and expand on them. some of these are kind of general, like just talking about the relationship between demons and humans or some basic stuff i want to remember about different types of demons. other things are very specific, like how specific types of magic work, or what kinds of final exams weyer has. i don’t figure out absolutely every detail, so anything i write down, i’m assuming i’ll need it later, although some of the more detailed stuff will probably not make it in beyond implication lol i just need to know for my own reference in steering the story. 

while it’s not strictly a part of the worldbuilding, something i also add to these documents, especially when i have a lot of characters to manage, is listing all of the important ones and what’s driving them or what they want. this is where most of the plot comes from in my writing, so it’s just as important to keep track of as everything else.