#I don’t want to take literature classes and learn everything there is to learn about writing

[neon-danger]

Does it ever bother you that you write so much but there are so few readers of us? You deserve so much more praise.

Y’all are gonna make my ego bigger than it already is

[simply-ivanka]

Who’s Afraid of Project 2025?

Democrats run against a think-tank paper that Trump disavows. Why?

Wall Street Journal

July 29, 2024

By The Editorial Board

Americans are learning more about Kamala Harris, as Democrats rush to anoint the Vice President’s candidacy after throwing President Biden overboard. Ms. Harris wasted no time saying she’s going to run hard against a policy paper that Donald Trump has disavowed—the supposedly nefarious agenda known as Project 2025. But who’s afraid of a think-tank white paper?

“I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party—and unite our nation—to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda,” Ms. Harris tweeted shortly after President Biden dropped out. She’s picking up this ball from Mr. Biden, and her campaign website claims that Project 2025 would “strip away our freedoms” and “abolish checks and balances.”

***

Sounds terrible, but is it? The 922-page document doesn’t lack for modesty, as a wish list of policy reforms that would touch every part of government from the Justice Department to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The project is led by the Heritage Foundation and melds the work of some 400 scholars and analysts from an eclectic mix of center-right groups. The project is also assembling a Rolodex of those who might work in a Trump Administration.

Most of the Democratic panic-mongering has focused on the project’s aim to rein in the administrative state. That includes civil service reform that would make it easier to remove some government workers, and potentially revisiting the independent status of agencies like the Federal Trade Commission.

The latter isn’t going to happen, but getting firmer presidential control over the bureaucracy would improve accountability. The federal government has become so vast that Presidents have difficulty even knowing what is going on in the executive branch. Americans don’t want to be ruled by a permanent governing class that doesn’t answer to voters.

Some items on this menu are also standard conservative fare. The document calls for an 18% corporate tax rate (now 21%), describing that levy as “the most damaging tax” in the U.S. system that falls heavily on workers. A mountain of economic literature backs that up. The blueprint suggests tying more welfare programs with work; de-regulating health insurance markets; expanding Medicare Advantage plans that seniors like; ending sugar subsidies; revving up U.S. energy production. That all sounds good to us.

Democrats are suggesting the project would gut Social Security, though in fact it bows to Mr. Trump’s preference not to touch the retirement program, which is headed for bankruptcy without reform. No project can profess to care about the rising national debt, as Heritage does, without fixing a program that was 22% of the federal budget in 2023.

At times the paper takes no position. For example: The blueprint features competing essays on trade policy. This is a tacit admission that for all the GOP’s ideological confusion on economics, many conservatives still understand that Mr. Trump’s 10% tariff is a terrible idea.

As for the politics, Mr. Trump recently said online that he knew “nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it.” That may be true. The chance that Mr. Trump has read any of it is remote to nil, and he doesn’t want to be tied to anyone’s ideas since he prizes maximum ideological flexibility.

The document mentions abortion nearly 200 times, but Mr. Trump wants to neutralize that issue. The project’s chief sponsor, Heritage president Kevin Roberts, also gave opponents a sword when he boasted of “a second American revolution” that would be peaceful “if the left allows it to be.” This won’t help Mr. Trump with the swing voters he needs to win re-election.

By our lights the project’s cultural overtones are also too dark and the agenda gives too little spotlight to the economic freedom and strong national defense that defined the think tank’s influence on Ronald Reagan in 1980.

***

But the left’s campaign against Project 2025 is reaching absurd decibels. You’d think Mr. Trump is a political mastermind hiding the secret plans he’ll implement with an army of shock troops marching in lockstep. If his first term is any guide, and it is the best we have, Mr. Trump will govern as a make-it-up-as-he-goes tactician rather than a strategist with a coherent policy guide. He’ll dodge and weave based on the news cycle and often based on whoever talks to him last.

Not much of the Project 2025 agenda is likely to happen, even if Republicans take the House and Senate. Democrats will block legislation with a filibuster. The bureaucracy will leak with abandon and oppose even the most minor reforms to the civil service. The press will revert to full resistance mode, and Mr. Trump’s staff will trip over their own ambitions.

Democrats know this, which is why they fear Trump II less than they claim. They’re targeting Project 2025 to distract from their own failed and unpopular policies.

[cherryredstars]

OH MY GOD REQUESTS ARE OPEN💃🏾💃🏾

gosh cherry i love you and your blog sm it makes my day😭

could i please have a college or highschool au where reader studies subjects like social science and business and literature and he does stem subjects and he at first has like a superiority complex, he doesn’t intend to, but he can’t help it, until he sees the reader like talk about social issues or how she can remember 17 step procedures and shit and he’s like…wow. maybe they can be together and he sees her pretend to teach people to learn and he’s learning stuff from her and it’s wholesome asf

god i don’t know i’m sorry im rambling😭😭 you don’t have to ofc but thank you anyway

and again, love you!!

Thank you, love!!!

He's the smartest person he knows.

It's not narcissistic if it's a fact. He's the top of his major program, already has offers for Ph.D programs nationwide mailed to his door. He's sure to get into any genetics department he wants for grad school. He's the star of the industry-path students. He's just that good, and what's the harm in taking pride in your accomplishments?

But he's never met someone like you before.

Usually he wouldn't care for people like you, with their abstract liberal art degrees in nonsense majors that'll just collect dust in a box in an attic somewhere. But there is something so enduring about you, about everything you do. The way you just know what people are thinking based on the twitch of their fingers and why they think it. The way you're so open to everything in a way that would make his lab buddies laugh with their one-way minds. It amazes him, the way your view is so wide in a way that something like genetics or STEM can't comprehend. In a way they don't allow. There is something so breath-taking about the way your mind has this endless freedom that he can't even grasp. Like a kaleidoscope of colors that are simultaneously beautiful and overwhelming to the senses. Something his factual mind craves.

The first time he had seen you, he was in the library. It isn't a place he would usually go to, but he had to collect some textbooks for his professor in the storage closet. He had gotten in a bit of trouble that day for taking so long, but how could he resist when he had heard the sweet cadence of your voice through the open door of a mini-lecture room. Very few students were in the room, it looked like a side presentation; one of those assignments that forced students to present their ideas on a topic to a group of people to try to captivate them into agreeing with your findings. There was a sort of fiery passion in the way you spoke, a hardened steel in your eyes that showed your resistance to back down. It was... enchanting, siren-like. So much so that he had been forced to sit in one of the empty seats in the back of the room, eyes stuck on you as you paced the front of class and rebutted comments from your peers.

He had no idea what you were talking about, but it still had that overwhelming effect on him. One that had him pressing the surface of his stomach against the hard edge of the lecture tables, his senses honing in to hear every last syllable that departed from your lips. There was this dream-like quality to you, something that consumed the mind and made them listen. A sort of intelligence that he would never know or understand. One that he would spend hours trying to learn if you were the one explaining it. He can't remember how long it took for him to start breathing again when your eyes scanned the room and locked onto him, clear confusion on your face at the random presence of college's most-awarded student. He could feel his heart bursting against his ribs, mouth parting slightly from the honor to be the center of your attention for even a few seconds before you looked away and carried on.

Suddenly, he didn't feel like the smartest person in the world. Not when you left him absolutely stupefied.

[sosuigeneris]

Socialite series: Manufacturing your Personality

So you want to get into high society. I can give you a guideline as to how you can do that. 

I was born in high society, in India. I know how these systems work. Even across cultures, they’re quite similar. I know some German, Asian, American high society people. Certain things are very similar across continents. 

You can permanently secure your position by two ways: marriage, or by becoming somebody. 

In Indian high society, there’s two kinds of people: those who have lineage, and those who are rich. 

Those who have lineage are those (mostly bankrupt) Maharajas, artists, singers, musicians, poets for generations - it’s an art form or royalty handed down to their children. They have ✨culture, a legacy✨ that can only be obtained by birth. They want to mingle with the business rich so that they get access to the opportunities they need for their livelihoods. 

The business rich can be new or old money. It doesn’t matter. Their businesses are family businesses. They have money, but may lack class. Don’t be mistaken that only new money can be “tacky” - I know plenty of influential, old money families who are equally classless and tacky. 

They want to mingle with the lineage crowd because they need that ✨culture✨ to be seen as someone. They want to be associated with them, to improve their reputations. By connecting to the artistic and musical world, it shows that they have class and persona. 

Both groups, as you see, need each other. You may ask - can’t there be families where there’s both?

Yes there can. But that is not common. 

Let’s say you take the route of dating someone who is of high society, and are hoping to convert that into marriage. I’ll be very honest with you - you have to seriously stand out for Asian and Middle Eastern high society families to accept you if you lack both lineage and money. 

You need to have a strong educational background - you need to go to a great college or masters, or whatever - otherwise this is really not going to happen. This is requirement number 1. If you don’t have this, don’t even bother reading the rest. 

And in Asian and ME families, remember one thing. Marriages are between families, NOT individuals. You have to impress the family, the family’s friends, their maids and barbers and god knows who else. 

And here are Cherry’s insider tips, just for you, to fit right in. If you fit in comfortably, it makes your life and everyone else’s life easier. 

Extrovert tendencies 

don’t be intimidated by people, don’t be shy or awkward 

It’s better to mix in being a combination of “social + slightly bored” like “it’s nice to meet you, but I wouldn’t die to be here.” 

Be open without jumping around like a Disney kid. Being “overexcited” or jumpy, smiling and laughing at just about everything comes across as weird in some cultures, IF that’s not how you genuinely are. That might work in the US, but not everywhere else. 

If I had to very simply define an extrovert - approach new people with ease, learn the art of small talk and be a good listener. 

Confident 

have a sense of self: career, hobbies, likes or dislikes, experiences

Be a multi faceted person. Do things that YOU like. If you like reading Japanese literature and collecting quartz, great! That’s your thing! 

Good communication skills

articulate, small talk abilities, good listener, curious, engaging

be able to tell little stories about yourself without giving everything away 

Well dressed 

do an image consultation for your colours, understand your body shape type and find a style that works for you

Create a capsule wardrobe that is timeless 

Remember - modesty is ALWAYS the best idea for any event. 

Posture - stand up straight, be able to walk in heels, sit without slouching

if you don’t know how to walk in heels, learn to. Practice it. 

Sit up straight, do some yoga or something for good posture 

Maintenance- good skin, hair, fit body, skin, nails, teeth; good hygiene; smell good 

hygiene comes first. Shower regularly, wash your hair as often as needed. 

Put on perfume. 

Find a make up style that works for you. Again, this takes practice. It took me years to figure out what kind of eyeliner works on my eyes and that bronzer doesn’t suit me at all. Crazy make up, unnatural hair colours, visible tattoos or piercings will not sit well in these societies. 

Etiquette 

dining etiquette- learn how to eat properly. This is not just for white culture but for other cultures as well. Understand broadly how popular cultures etiquettes work - Japanese eating etiquettes, European fork and knife etiquette, Korean drinking etiquette, Indian and Middle Eastern etiquette, etc. 

giving appropriate gifts to the host - bottle of wine or flowers 

Learn thank you etiquette- shoot a text message to the host thanking them for the event 

Intelligence

Show that you have some sort of a personality. 

Stay updated with current affairs

know your line of work and the relevant people (top companies, CEOs, etc), trends happening in your industry 

Be open to learning new things  

Put together

have a routine, show some form of discipline. 

This can be done by committing to something long term, such as healthy habits - exercise, reading, waking up early. 

Keep a watch on what you say 

people, especially women, who come across as bratty are seen as a big no no and can come across as exhausting and blood sucking. Zip it. 

Don’t talk about your failures, vulnerabilities, mistakes or mishaps. That’s confidential. 

Don’t complain or be snotty or a potty mouth. 

Do not put other people down in front of people who are not your absolute close friends. 

Poise (this is for your mental health and wellbeing)

Don’t be over eager. Being overly friendly can be seen as submissiveness. 

You’re overly friendly with someone because you want to be accepted by them. Acceptance only happens when you’re familiar with one another. When you become too familiar, it becomes a breeding ground for disrespect. Boundaries get crossed easily. 

Body language

practice practice and practice. 

Video yourself and have a fake conversation with someone. Or maybe FaceTime a friend and record yourself and see how you react to things. 

I used to watch those “try not to laugh/ get angry/ cry” videos to maintain a strong facial expression at all times. Not everyone deserves to see you vulnerable. 

Social media 

Take. Shit. Down. 

Go private if you don’t make money of social media. You’re perceived as more mysterious if you’re a private account. 

Remember, even if you’re private, it doesn’t mean that your pictures aren’t being shared. Someone’s taken a screenshot at some point for SURE or shown your account to someone else. Don’t give anyone anything to talk about. 

Don’t upload every second of every day. 

Don’t upload anything questionable- your break ups, your new boyfriend, girls nights, clubbing, your latest shopping spree etc etc. Keep things halal. Think of it this way - if your boss were to see those photos, how would you feel?

Overexposing yourself on social media comes across as desperate for attention. Limit that.

Cherry 🍒

[chvoswxtch]

hello! I hope ur having a good day! I have a request if you’re up to it! we’ve always had Professor matt so to spice things up can we have a college!matt x professor!reader? he’s actively trying to gain the pretty professor’s attention and she’s slowly falling for it. you can make it fluffy or spicy or smutty. its all up to you!

hi nonnie!

I hope you're having a good day as well! I genuinely loved this idea bc we all know matty is a flirt but I feel like college!matty is a HUGE flirt and would totally go after the pretty professor. and honestly, she would eat that shit up, let's be real. but who wouldn't???

thank you so much for the request! ❤️

warning: contains mentions of sexual content (minors please dni), swearing word count: 3k

office hours.

When Matt was reminded by his advisor that he needed to take a literature course to satisfy his degree plan, his eyes nearly rolled into the back of his head. He had been continuously putting it off, but with one final semester left of undergrad, he couldn’t graduate without it. It wasn’t that Matt didn’t enjoy reading, he simply just wasn’t interested in taking anything that didn’t have to do with his program. He’d read enough “classic literature” and written enough analysis essays in high school, and he wasn’t looking forward to going through that agonizing process again. Reluctantly, he signed up for the last course available.

Taking a seat in the very back of the small classroom, Matt set up his laptop and plugged an earbud into his ear, prepared to appear engaged while he got started on a project for another class. All around him seats filled up with other students, but it wasn’t until he caught the sweet scent of pink grapefruit and blue wisteria that his fingers stilled over his keyboard. He turned his head slightly to the side towards the wall as the scent rushed down the hall, accompanied by a racing heartbeat. Matt’s head snapped towards the front when you walked through the classroom door slightly out of breath, heat in your cheeks from the run, and also a twinge of embarrassment. 

“Probably not the best first impression to be late on the first day of class, but in my defense, I’m still learning how to navigate New York. I can’t promise I won’t be late again, so we won’t be counting tardies in this class, to a reasonable limit.”

An anxious giggle left your lips, and luckily everyone seemed to find the humor in your admission. Matt’s lips parted slightly at the sound, and he quickly ripped the earbud out of his ear as you introduced yourself.

“Hi everyone. My name is Y/N Y/L/N, please call me Y/N. This is my first year teaching, and you guys are my second class, so we’re figuring this all out together.”

Another timid giggle left your lips, and Matt clenched his fist tightly as the sound settled in his ears. 

“I don’t expect perfection, I just want you guys to do your best. We aren’t reading things some arrogant ‘expert’ decided was a classic, or writing mind numbing papers identifying every literary device to prove you know what they are. I want to show you works that move you and make you think…make you feel. And I want to know what they make you think, and how they make you feel. The only way to fail this class is to not try.”

God your voice. It was as sweet as your perfume and had a velvet cadence that stuck to Matt’s ears like honey. He wanted to listen to you talk for hours, about anything. Your heart continued to beat wildly in your chest throughout the duration of class, and you fiddled with the rings on your fingers as you paced slowly around. You were incredibly nervous. Matt could feel it in the tremble of your fingers, hear it in the slight shake of your voice, and feel it in the rush of blood that never left your cheeks. He found it endearing that you were so anxious, and could hear how passionate you were in the way you spoke. Everything about you drew him in, and before he could stop himself, he was marching up to your desk once everyone filed out of the room to introduce himself.

“Excuse me? Hi, my name is-”

“Matthew Murdock, right?”

Matt abruptly paused, and he swallowed the sound that threatened to come out of his mouth at the way you said his name.

“J-just Matt, uh…yeah.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Matt. I’m Y/N.”

Your hand was so soft and small clasped in his own, and he could faintly smell the scent of blackberry from a lotion you’d smoothed over your body the previous evening. 

“It’s nice to meet you as well.”

“You have perfect timing, I was actually just about to come to you.”

Matt’s ears perked up at that, and he stood up a little straighter, already missing your touch as you slowly let go of his hand.

“You were?”

“Yeah, this is for you.”

You lightly wrapped your fingers around his wrist, carefully guiding his hand to a folder that you had outstretched in your hand. Matt cocked his head to the side slightly as he let his fingers glide over the folder, pausing as they ran over a braille label that had his name on it. Taking the folder into his hands, he opened it to find stacks of paper in braille on the inside.

“It’s the syllabus, a list of the works we’re studying, and the first section of notes we’re going to go over. I wasn’t sure if you were able to access the digital copies. I’m still trying to figure out how the portal works, honestly.”

There was a timid smile that stretched across your mouth, and Matt could hear a slight bit of nerves in your confession. For a moment he was stunned silent by the kind gesture, swallowing thickly as he closed the folder and offered you a small smile in return.

“I-uh…yeah, I was able to. But um…I-thank you. For this, I uh…I appreciate it.”

“Of course. I like to have tangible copies of things, myself. Helps keep me organized. Or, at least I think it does. Maybe it’s a sensory thing and I’m just tricking myself into thinking it’s making me more productive.”

Matt couldn’t help but chuckle as you giggled softly, nodding his head in agreement.

“I can understand that.”

“Well if there’s ever anything you need, any help or accommodations at all, please don’t hesitate to tell me. All my information is on the syllabus, and I practically live here since I never go home, so my office is always open.”

“Good to know.”

From that day forward, Matt sat in the front row for every single class. He blitzed through every single text on the syllabus, always prepared to participate in the discussions, and approached every assignment early. He wanted so badly to impress you, and his chest swelled with pride every time you complimented one of his thoughts or ideas, or stayed behind after class to offer your positive verbal feedback on one of his assignments. 

Matt knew he wasn’t the only one that wanted the pretty, young professor’s attention. He could hear the way the other students in class talked about you, which caused a tide of possessiveness to rise in his chest. Matt could also feel your affect on them as you smiled in their direction, or offered a compliment to one of their remarks, and it made jealousy simmer in his bloodstream. He was determined to be your favorite.

He found himself constantly stopping by your office hours to feign needing help or a second opinion on his approach to a paper, mainly as an excuse to talk to you alone, but also to scratch that itch of praise when you confirmed he was on the right track. Matt knew he was smart, and he knew he wrote incredible papers, but he liked hearing that come from you. 

He loved when you complimented his intelligence. Was it wrong to fake being unsure just to hear you say, “That’s exactly right, Matt” or “I hadn’t even thought of it that way, but I love that idea”? Probably. But it didn’t feel wrong. It felt good.

Matt had to be careful playing dumb. You both knew he was smart, so he had to switch his tactics up. He found himself asking for other recommendations for reading material from you, wanting to know what your favorite works were, going out to buy them and consume them just to get a glimpse into your head, and then listen to the passion in your voice as you explained why they meant so much to you. He liked that you asked him questions too, questions he didn’t hear you ask any of the others when they stopped by. You asked him about how his other classes were going, how his day had been, about himself and his friends, and he could tell you genuinely cared about the answers. Every second he spent with you, he felt the crush he had on you getting stronger and stronger. He knew the way he felt about you was wrong. You were his professor, and he shouldn’t be having the thoughts about you that he did.

He shouldn’t feel like his heart was going to beat out of his chest every time you smiled in his direction and showered his mind in praise. He shouldn’t feel the spark of something more when you let him hold your arm as you guided him towards your office, reveling in the feeling of your soft skin beneath his fingertips. He shouldn’t stroke his cock to the sound of your voice from a recorded lecture, waiting to let himself come until it got to the part of the recording where you said his name so sweetly. He shouldn’t be waking up with a wet patch on his sweats after yet another wet dream about fucking you over your desk. All of this was wrong, and the good Catholic boy in him knew that.

But he couldn’t find it in himself to care. 

Because every time he started to feel guilty about what he was doing, he reminded himself of the way your body reacted to him.

Matt was careful with his flirting, crafting his sentences in a way that could be played off as casual conversation or banter, but riddled with undertones that could only be understood by the person given the cipher. The blood that rushed into your cheeks when Matt complimented you back or said something teasing that made you giggle only fueled his confidence to get bolder and bolder as the weeks went by. 

He heard the uptick in your heart rate when he mentioned how soothing he found your voice, and the way it pounded beneath your ribs when he “accidentally” brushed his hand over your exposed thigh to reach for his backpack. He felt the warmth that pooled in your cheeks when he stopped by with your favorite coffee, and when he confessed that you were one of the best professor’s he’d ever had; definitely “his favorite”, he had said. He should’ve felt bad that he could possibly ruin a career that you were clearly very passionate about, but the selfish part of his brain was screaming that you felt it too. 

With spring break approaching soon, and the thought of going a whole week without being around you, Matt devised a plan to finally make you his.

The building was empty considering most professors and students had left the previous day to get a head start on vacation plans, but Matt smiled to himself hearing your familiar heartbeat coming from your office. You had made class today optional, in case anyone was traveling or needed the break, and Matt had hoped that he would’ve been the only one to show up. To his disappointment, about half the class was there, but he knew he would get you alone soon enough. Matt waited until your office hours were just about to end, in case any other student had some last minute question, and when he was certain that it was just the two of you alone, he raised his knuckles to knock softly on the worn wood of your open door.

A quiet gasp left your lips, clearly surprised by the company, and Matt had to stop the cocky smirk that threatened to take over his mouth at the way your heart started to beat faster noticing his presence.

“Matt, hey.”

“Hey. I didn’t miss your office hours, did I?”

“Uh…nope. You have exactly a minute.”

Matt’s mouth split into a wide toothy grin at the playful tone in your voice, chuckling as he followed the familiar path from the door to the chair that was directly in front of your desk.

“Well, I’ll make this quick then. I know you have very important spring break plans to get to.”

“Oh yeah. Super important. I mean, my takeout isn’t gonna order itself.”

Matt dropped his backpack on the right side of the chair, folding up his cane as he sank back into the plush cushion and tossed it down by his feet. He pulled off his glasses and set them on your desk, a habit he had gotten into since you’d let it slip that you preferred it when he didn’t wear them.

I feel like you hide behind those, sometimes. It’s nice to get to see all of you, Matt.

His tongue darted out to quickly wet his lips as he fixed his gaze in your direction, a timid smile pulling at the corner of his mouth.

“I actually need to ask a favor of you.”

“Of course, Matt. Whatever you need. What can I do?”

Matt gripped onto his own thigh to steady himself, your immediate response and sweet voice hitting his cock before they even reached his ears. His lips parted slightly when you sat up a little straighter in your chair, leaning in closer over your desk with a warm smile on your lips.

“I need a letter of recommendation for the law program.”

“And you’re asking me?”

Matt couldn’t help but laugh at the surprised tone of your voice, shaking his head slowly as he leaned in closer to your desk and rested his elbows on the surface.

“I already have a few from my other professors, but my advisor mentioned having one from a professor outside of my main area of study would make me seem more…well rounded.”

Matt should’ve felt horrible about lying. He didn’t actually need a letter of recommendation from you. He’d applied to the law program months ago, and had already gotten in, but he would confess that later.

“Mm, so I’m next in line to make you look good?”

“Well, you are my favorite, and you have a way of making everything sound beautiful. If I’d taken your class a long time ago like I was supposed to, I probably would’ve asked you first before anyone else.”

Matt didn’t miss the sharp intake of breath you took, or the way your face instantly became a few degrees warmer.

“You wouldn’t have been able to take my class earlier, Matt. This is my first year, remember? You would’ve been stuck with someone else.”

“I guess I forget sometimes because you’re so good at this. But, that’s true. I don’t think I would’ve liked who I got stuck with as much as I like you. I’m glad I waited for you.”

Matt did his best to stay calm as he heard you swallow thickly, your breathing becoming a little more shallow as your heart rate drummed loudly in his ears.

“That’s…really nice of you to say, Matt-”

“I mean it.”

A blanket of tension suddenly surrounded the two of you, and his lips parted slightly as he caught a faint shudder course through you. Your fingers clutched the hem of your dress where it settled high on your thighs, digging your nails lightly into your palms through the fabric. Matt was waiting for your body to give him a signal, indisputable proof that you wanted him just as much as he wanted you, before he crossed that line the two of you had been dancing around.

“Um…when do you need it by?”

“The earlier the better, I’m a little behind. But, take your time. I’d like this to be as…real and honest as possible.”

“I…um…I can have it ready for you by the time we come back from spring break.”

“That’s perfect, thank you. I really appreciate you doing this for me. I appreciate everything that you do for me, truly.”

“O-of course. It’s my job, Matt.”

Matt’s voice dropped an octave lower as he cocked his head to the side slightly, running his tongue along his bottom lip before the corner of his mouth curled upwards into a devilish smirk. 

“No. I think it’s more than that.”

Bingo.

The second he felt you press your thighs together under the desk and the enticing scent of your arousal hit his nose, Matt knew he had you. He rose from the chair steadily, gliding around the side of your desk slowly like a predator circling in on its prey, grabbing onto the sides of your chair as he bent over so that your faces were merely an inch apart.

“I think you know that too, sweetheart.”

“Matt-”

“I think if I put my hand between these pretty thighs, you’d be just as wet for me as I am hard for you.”

A shocked gasp flew past your lips as you sank back further into your chair, fighting the urge to spread your thighs to let Matt test his own theory, and averting your gaze from the prominent bulge in his jeans. 

“We can’t-”

Matt lightly grasped your chin in his hand as he forced you to look at him. He delicately traced his thumb along your bottom lip, leaning in ever so slightly to bump his nose against yours as he inhaled your scent deeply.

“You’ve done so much for me. Been so good to me, sweetheart. Shown me so much kindness. I’d like to repay that kindness, and show you how much I appreciate you. You gonna let me do that?”

A soft whine of desperation sounded in your throat, and a huge grin split across Matt’s mouth as you leaned further into his touch. He had you exactly where he wanted you.

“Yes you are. Because you’re my girl. My good girl.”

tags: @yarrystyleeza @little-miss-dilf-lover @neverlandcity @charmedkim @queenofthenoobs @stilldreaming666 @messymissy @dark-academia-slut @strawberry1042

[fluentmoviequoter]

Literary

Requested Here!

Pairing: college!Victor Vale x fem!reader (literature student)

Summary: You take it upon yourself to show Victor the beauty of literature.

Warnings: fluff, spoilers and references to: The Outsiders, A Merchant in Venice, Invisible Man, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Lord of the Rings, An Ideal Husband, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Hamlet, Frankenstein, The Most Dangerous Game, Pride and Prejudice. I also reference some of Schwab's other books

Word Count: 2.5k+ words

Victor Vale Masterlist | Request Info/Fandom List

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Victor is leaning over a book, scribbling notes every few lines.

“What are you reading?” you ask quietly, sitting beside him.

He flips the book up, showing you the cover of one of his many textbooks.

“Hmm. I thought you were actually reading.”

“I am.”

“No, you’re studying.”

“What’s the difference?”

You sigh, shaking your head as you murmur, “Maybe the two different world we lived in weren’t so different. We saw the same sunset.”

Victor ignores you, returning to his notes on adrenal responses.

“Vic, what’s the last book you read?” you ask. “I mean, what’s the last thing you read that wasn’t a textbook, required reading?”

“I think you know.”

“You really need to stop reading your parents’ books, but that’s not my point here. What’s the last fiction piece?”

“I don’t read fiction.”

Your jaw drops, shock evident in your features as you fail to speak. Finally finding your voice, you momentarily forget you’re in a library as your voice raises to repeat, “You don’t read fiction? Why?!”

“Nothing to learn from it,” Victor replies with a shrug.

“Vic.”

He glances at you as a few people whisper for you to be quiet.

“Why read something that isn’t true, that you can’t learn from?” Victor asks.

“Who says you can’t learn from fiction? Just because it didn’t happen doesn’t mean it can’t teach you something. We learn from trees, fish, paintings… literature is no different.”

Victor shakes his head, and as you look at your assigned reading, you realize you must do something.

“Meet me in your dorm after your class tomorrow,” you whisper before standing. “I have a lot to teach you.”

Victor watches you leave, shaking his head before trying to focus again. He has trouble remembering how you became friends sometimes, but then he remembers how you met…

✯✯✯✯✯

1 Year Ago

Someone decided to put Shakespeare on the top shelf. You sigh, looking around to see if anyone is nearby to help you.

“Who puts one of the most-read authors in history up so high?” you ask under your breath.

Stepping back to gauge if you could jump and reach it, you run into someone. Warm hands land on your biceps for a moment before dropping away.

“I’m so sorry,” you apologize.

When you turn around, his arm is over your head.

“Which one?” he asks.

You blink at him, growing distracted, before whispering, “A Merchant in Venice. Please.”

He nods, pulling it off the shelf and lowering it between your chest and his.

“Thank you.”

He nods again and steps back before you rush to introduce yourself.

“Victor,” he offers.

“Nice to meet you, Victor. I’ll see you around.”

His pale brows furrow and you immediately decide you will see him again, no matter what it takes.

✯✯✯✯✯

Present Day

“You’re late,” you chide as Victor enters his dorm.

“How did you get in here?” Victor asks, ignoring your comment.

“Eli keeps a key hidden under the doormat.”

“Idiot,” Victor mumbles.

“I concur, but we’re not here to talk about Eli. In fact, I wish I could forget his name.”

Victor neither agrees nor disagrees, but asks, “What are you here to do?”

You raise your brows, smiling as you tease, “What do you want me to do?”

“I’d like you to leave,” Victor replies flatly. “But it seems unlikely.”

“What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?”

“What is that?”

“Invisible Man, H.G. Wells,” you reply, smiling.

“Why do you make everything about books?”

“Look, I’m here to convince you that fiction, that literature, is beautiful. Vic, there are more lives in literature than we could dream of living; whatever you want to do, learn, be, it’s all in there.”

“Is this going to become another debate on whether pride or prejudice is more detrimental to character development?”

You sigh, looking at the stack of books you brought. Victor watches you, and when he realizes that you’re serious, he removes his trench coat and joins you on the couch.

“You have ten minutes,” Victor tells you.

“Okay, then I get to ask questions, too,” you counter. “So, first, what is your issue with fiction?”

“It’s fake, unbelievable.”

“They don’t have to be about an immortal woman finding her reincarnated lover or parallel earths. Being made up and being unbelievable aren’t inherently connected. Middle-Earth isn’t real, but the imagery makes it realistic.”

“One out of a million, well, I’m convinced,” Victor says, hitting his thighs.

You stretch your arm out past him to stop him from standing. “What kind of fiction did you read before coming to this conclusion?”

“Uh, I remember reading fantasy in middle school.”

Waiting for more, you ask, “And?”

“That’s it.”

Chuckling, you lean toward him. “Literature isn’t about one type of story, Vic. You don’t have to choose a genre and stick to it. No two books are the same because no two people or stories are the same. There isn’t fiction or nonfiction, mysteries or romance, you can read any and everything you want. It’s both/and, not either/or.”

“If your argument is now ‘read what you want to read,’ why can’t I stick to my textbooks?”

You groan, laying your head against Victor’s shoulder. “Because I can’t rest until I help you see why literature is so beautiful and impactful. Why do you think I’m studying it, giving my life to it? Because it changed my life, Victor, and if you give it a chance it can change yours, too.”

“Then what is it you want to do?”

“Is this an invitation?”

Victor sighs as he nods, his shoulder warm from your touch.

“Then, I’m going to teach you and you’re going to be patient and give it a chance.”

“Fine. Where do we start?”

“I mean, your parental trauma is begging for a look at Hamlet, but we’ll ease into it.”

✯✯✯✯✯

You intentionally left a copy of Invisible Man by H.G. Wells on his table when you gathered your things after visiting Victor. While you walk to the library to meet him, you hope he’s read it.

“Hey,” you greet softly.

Victor nods, sliding an anatomy book onto the return shelf.

“Glad I caught you while your friends are busy,” you tease, taking the chair closest to him.

“Alone—it is wonderful how little a man can do alone! To rob a little, to hurt a little, and there is the end.”

“You read it. Even though it’s completely unbelievable and unrealistic?”

“All men, however highly educated, retain some superstitious inklings.”

Your eyes widen as you realize that he not only read it in its entirety but enjoyed it enough to remember it.

“Racism, symbolism, foreshadowing,” Victor lists off. “It wasn’t completely incapable of teaching something.”

“Did you just admit you were wrong?”

“No.”

“So, are you open to more?”

Victor shrugs, and you slide a worn copy of The Hound of the Baskervilles to Victor. He picks it up, touching the cracked spine before looking at you.

“Sherlock is famous,” you answer, smiling brightly.

✯✯✯✯✯

“Stapleton was a deceiver,” Victor says, rushing to your side as you exit class.

“What?” you reply, surprised to see him.

“The hound- it’s a symbol of his deception and the entire time the moor is symbolizing the cloudiness of the mystery because it wasn’t a real mystery. Stapleton’s death was completely avoidable, yet he isn’t even the one to be attacked by the hound.”

You stop, grabbing Victor’s coat to stop him as well.

“You read the entire book last night?”

“I- I couldn’t put it down,” Victor admits lowly.

“Do you see what I mean now?”

“I’m- I’m starting to. Uh, what next?”

“I don’t have another book for you right now. We can go get-“

“Yes. Please,” Victor adds.

“Ready to try fantasy again?” you ask with a smile.

Victor inhales deeply before nodding. “I trust you.”

✯✯✯✯✯

When Victor closes the book, he stares at the cover.

“Well?” you ask. “Don’t say anything bad about Aragorn, that’s all I ask.”

“He and Legolas portray a really- a perfect friendship,” he answers.

“Amity.” Victor glances up at you, and you explain, “Amity is usually associated with Shakespeare. His male friendships were built on this mutual respect and beneficial relationship qualities, but Tolkien used it in his creation of the Fellowship as well.

“I think…” you pause as you look at your overflowing bookshelf. “It’s time for a play.”

“Please no Shakespeare.”

“Okay, one, we need to get you over your irrational fear of the Bard.”

“It’s not irrational, he makes me want to puke.”

“Because he makes you feel things; must be weird for you.”

Victor rolls his eyes, and you smile as you find what you’re looking for.

“Oscar Wilde. An Ideal Husband.”

“What’s it about?”

“An ideal husband.”

Victor huffs, and you quote, “Seriousness would be very unbecoming of him. Pray be as trivial as you can.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“Victor, the point of books is to read it the way you’re supposed to read it. And if you want to talk after finding out what it’s about – in your eyes – then we can. As you gain experience it will be easier to find the common ‘accepted’ views too. But the point is to read for yourself.”

“Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.”

You gasp, rushing to stand over Victor. “You’ve read Wilde before!”

“Just Dorian Gray when I was a kid. Thought it might help me escape the cookie cutter I kept getting shoved into.” Noticing your smile, Victor asks, “What?”

“You’re getting symbolic and theme-y. My literature lessons are rubbing off on you.”

“Something certainly is,” Victor replies, looking at your leg pressed to his.

“Are you ready to admit I’m right?”

“Not if it means the lessons end.”

“Oh, never. We’re a two-man book club now, Vic.”

✯✯✯✯✯

“Are you here to speak to me as Lord Goring speaks to Mabel?” you ask, blocking the doorway.

“More like Mrs. Cheveley to Robert.”

“If you keep using literature references, I’m going to fall in love with you, Vic.”

“I have a request,” Victor says, drawing your attention (and his) from your comment.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

He moves to your bookshelf after you open the door, quickly finding what he’s looking for. He holds it up, and you cross your arms.

“You sure?” After he nods, you say, “Go for it. It’s short, read it here if you want.”

Victor doesn’t have to be told twice, tossing his coat over the back of your couch and making himself comfortable with a copy of Hamlet.

✯✯✯✯✯

“This is too long,” Victor reads.

“It shall be to the barber’s, with your beard,” you reply.

“Don’t spoil it,” Victor reprimands.

“Though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me.”

✯✯✯✯✯

Within a few hours, Victor is done with the play and pacing.

“Still want to read your parents’ books?” you ask.

“Yeah. But- if Hamlet can deal with an actual ghost, I guess their passive aggressive advice isn’t so bad.”

You chuckle before pointing out, “Hamlet was troubled when Horatio, Marcellus, and Barnardo told him. If it assumes my noble father’s person, I’ll speak to it isn’t an outright acknowledgment of who it is. It isn’t until he talks to the ghost that he seeks revenge on his uncle.”

“Which applies to me in no way,” Victor argues.

“What does Hamlet do to get revenge?”

Sighing, Victor answers, “Nothing.”

“Hamlet changes his reaction because of his morals and his thoughts. You can change your view of your parents like that, too.”

Victor sighs, and you see his poorly hidden smile after you say, “Though I personally won’t decide to forgive them for what they did to you.”

✯✯✯✯✯

“What’s your favorite book?” Victor asks.

You answer without hesitation, then ask, “Why?”

“Can I read it?”

“Sure. If you admit you were wrong.”

“I was wrong. Literature can be good, and it is possible to learn from fiction.” He quiets to add, “And you have good taste.”

You lean closer, turning your ear toward him as you ask him to repeat that.

 “I’m not your Lord Goring or your Mr. Darcy or any other dashing soulmate,” he says.

“No, you’re not,” you agree. “You’re my Victor Vale.”

Victor’s phone buzzes, and he rolls his eyes as he reads Eli’s message.

“Is he still working on the EO thing?” you ask. When he nods, you murmur, “Someone never read Frankenstein.”

“Would I like it?”

Nodding, you sit beside Victor. “Be careful with Eli, though. Books can teach a lot, but anything short of Richard Connell’s The Most Dangerous Game won’t prepare you to deal with him.”

“What’s that about?”

You consider not telling him, but he nudges you with his elbow, and you concede. “A man who hunts other men for sport.”

Victor hums, looking back at his phone. “Can I admit something else?”

“Depends.”

“I didn’t lie about my thoughts on reading, but I learned something else.”

“When?”

“The week you forced me to read Pride and Prejudice.”

“You learned that you must be in want of a wife. I suppose I could be convinced to consider a proposal.”

“No. Darcy taught- he said, ‘My real purpose was to see you, and to judge, if I could, whether I might ever hope to make you love me.’”

Twisting toward Victor, you lay your hand over his heart. “The only people for me are the mad ones.”

“Is that a yes? A maybe?”

“It’s a yes,” you whisper. “I’d choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I’d find you and I’d choose you.”

“I don’t know that one.”

“I told you; we’re easing you into it,” you remind him, kissing his jaw and chuckling when his breath catches.

Bonus: 10 Years Later

“What happened in Merit, Victor?” you demand.

Victor stiffens at your use of his name, no ‘Vic’ or pet name. Rather than telling you the exact truth, he takes your hand and says, “I was benevolent and good: misery made me a fiend. Make me happy and I shall again be virtuous.”

You relax, pulling him close as you reply, “We’re not having the argument about you being a monster again, but you know I’ll do everything I can to make you happy.”

Victor returns your hug, and you feel a small paperback in his pocket, smiling at how much has changed.

“The world is made up of two classes – the hunters and the huntees. No one will blame you for this, Vic, but it will never be the same.”

“I have you and your books,” Victor replies. “There is no one more equipped for change than us.”

“I can’t believe you used to be against fiction and now you carry around a barely legible copy of my favorite book.”

“What can I say? It is love. Love, and only love. For both of us a new life is beginning.”

[urhoneycombwitch]

love ur roommate Eddie but also all the time spent together between sexy times stresses me out

at least with husky neighbor Eddie he's across the hall and if you're not in the mood to see him, then you don't have to

but roommate Eddie is literally in. your. walls.

what about when you just have ugly days when your hair is a mess and you walk around the apartment smelling a lil before you hop in the shower

what about when either of you get sick and it's real nasty?

is there only one bathroom?? do y'all gotta coordinate times???

what if he insists on putting the toilet paper the wrong way around???!!! what about the hair clogged in the shower drain!!

what about the arguing and the tension and the resentment that arises from sharing a space with someone on the worst of days??

like maybe Eddie is the best roommate to ever fictionally exist ever but I can only imagine that there's gotta be some issues that arise especially when they're blurring the boundaries

and roommate!reader seems really strict and anal (same) with her rules so I figure that also extends to sharing a space

I know it's normally default to want to imagine that they figure everything out and live happily ever after, but do you see roommate!Eddie and reader being long term? how do they work out their issues with both sharing a space and finding footing with their agreement? what's the first problem to arise? and if they don't work out, what to do think is the largest issue/ what finally breaks them apart?

anon I love love love this. thanks for asking the nitty gritty questions they are so IMPORTANT!!

okay full transparency, when I started writing for roommate!Eddie I absolutely used the fic logic of “everything is perfect here” because I wanted to focus more on the relational/emotional aspect of two people who have already learned how to share a space. at the time, I think the first meeting/time it took to iron out issues were less interesting to me from a writing standpoint. however, I certainly had the framework for their backstories in the back of my head while i wrote!

I’ll share my thoughts below for those who are interested in the roommate!Eddie+roommate!Reader story. but also don’t hold me to anything I say here for future stories bc my personal canon is subject to change. lol.

in this no-magic Big City AU of mine, I imagined reader and Robin meeting in college and becoming good friends. you were in a horrifically boring history class together (Robin for her smarty-pants Psych/Art double degree and you for a Literature degree) and started hanging out outside of school. by proxy, you also hang out with Steve, Robin’s roommate, and by the time the three of you graduate you’re all good friends.

and then you’re staring down the barrel of a mostly useless degree, a shit ton of college debt, and nowhere to go. you land a job at a local publishing company, but it’s mostly boring and corporate and doesn’t pay for a two-room apartment in the heart of the city. which is unfortunate, because your last roommate (a nightmare by all accounts. quite literally never learned how to clean up after herself) moved out a month ago and you need the extra income to keep the space.

enter Steve’s mysterious friend Eddie. whom you’ve only heard wild stories about. apparently, he’s looking for a room- and according to Robin, he’s “well-mannered for a boy”. you ask a million questions before agreeing to meet with him (neither Steve or Robin gave you a straight answer as to the guy’s career which is weird…), and you make it really clear you’re not in the mood to be screwed over. or stuck with an unlivable situation. 

but your friends assure you it’ll be a good fit. and when you meet for drinks later that week, Eddie is extremely charming and honest. tells you he is, in fact, in the drugs business, but promises it never follows him home. he agrees to all your house rules. he also flirts a lot. but you learn to take that with a grain of salt.

so Eddie moves in and yeah, absolutely there’s an adjustment period. learning the rhythms of each other’s days and nights, figuring out how to split household duties, all the mundane shit that comes w/ a new roommate. there’s an awful first winter where the heat goes out; you two alternate getting colds and stomach flus, multiple nights spent sweating over the toilet or kitchen sink (one bathroom is a KILLER for the sick season). 

there’s a camaraderie that forms after those sucky cold months. you absorb into each other’s lives, friend groups, spaces that extend outside of your apartment. you become real, actual friends who enjoy each other’s company.

and also? Eddie is happy to appease. he’s not a pushover, but he is really respectful of you and your space. he puts effort into learning your little quirks, or things that tick you off (there are a lot). you both figure out early on that open communication is the best policy. Eddie’s the type to tell you if there’s something he doesn’t like or wants to change, so neither of you end up holding secret quiet grudges.  

which is why I think reader finds this whole attraction thing so scary (and uses rules as a defense mechanism sorry I wrote my own OCD into this!! lmao) like Oh, fuck. if this goes sideways, if we have a big fight or fall in and out of love and can’t be in the same room anymore… we’d have to move. I’d have to say goodbye to the best roommate I’ve ever had. our shared friend groups would be dispersed. it would be devastating on so many levels.

anyways. here’s the masterlist if u read this far and want it ;)

[accidentally-in-fictional-love]

🕶️🌶️🥰 (Take ur time replying, i don’t mind waiting :) thank you<3)

Open Books - Spicy/Romantic James Lewis Headcanons

Warnings: Implications of sexual times, nothing explicit.

Notes: Double James let's goooo 🥰 Since I got these back to back I decided to do both a drabble and some headcanons, so I hope I made the right choice for each heh 💗💗💗

at first, you wonder if he was pretending to be as cliché of an English teacher as he was, but eventually you find out yeah, he's just that smart and sweet

you meet at the bar, where he's having some sort of teacher's night with his coworkers, but even with everyone attempting to get him to join in you can't help but catch the glances he keeps pretending not to turn your way

you're the one to ask for his number, since he was really about to leave without saying a word

he loves going on lunch dates with you, especially when you surprise him at work when he's too busy to get away, where you can pull up a chair and share a quick meal at his desk

sometimes after work he'll surprise you with flowers when he knows you'll be working late, or something to tide you over until you can get home

he didn't used to cook a lot before, microwavable food is cheap and fast after all, but together you teach him until he starts to learn on his own, determined to make up his own menu of things you like so you can be the one coming home to a hot meal every now and then, although he should really stick to literature (you eat everything he makes regardless)

he loves it when you cuddle up to him on the couch, your body pressed into his own like a perfect puzzle, a space that had been empty for so long now filled with you like you were always meant to be there, his arm around you and rubbing your shoulder

while he is shy, he's also surprisingly talkative once you get him going, and while that can sometimes be a bad thing on a bad nights, it's primarily a great thing when he closes his eyes in concentration and just goes on and on about a book he likes that you haven't read yet or what happened in class that day

he doesn't do it often, but he really loves to dance, bad memories usually stopping him from initiating it so it's up to you to lead until he lets loose and enjoys himself

you think he looks adorable in his glasses, but in the beginning, before you move in together, the rare times you see him with them off always makes your breath catch in your throat with how handsome he looks

along with being so predictably cliché, he also keeps finding ways to surprise you the longer you're together, when his shyness finally melts away and you get to see a more daring side of him

for instance, you don't realize he's been holding back from giving you affection until you find him kissing your neck with a little more fervor, taking the lead for once and surprising you with a small nip

he can go either way, but you think he might prefer it when you're on top of him when you makeout, since it gives you the freedom to stop when you want, but it also reassures him that this is where you wanna be

he's very vocal once he starts opening up to you, not just in conversation but when you make him feel good, but it takes a while for him to be able to tell you what he wants without feeling bad, and each time it happens you just kiss him and give him all the time he needs

he handles you like he's afraid you'll break, not quite his usual gentle touches but like you're made of glass if he ever gets to into it, he's had bad experiences with this kinda thing and he doesn't want you to hate him, but of course you never could and you're sure to tell him that as you encourage him to hold you with a little more strength

on the nights where he's completely let go of his inhibitions, you get surprised to find out that he's actually a pretty good dirty talker, his mind a treasure trove of promises fueled by that beautiful imagination of his

he stopped drinking when he met you, wanting to get his life back in order and knowing he depended too much on it, so as a treat you'll get his favourite nonalcoholic beverage and just curl up in front of the TV to watch movies together, but of course even without being drunk he can't help but get a little braver on those nights

he really likes it when you trail kisses from his lips down to his stomach, not just because of where you're headed but because it fills him with awe to see you love every inch of him, and he adores it when he can pull you back up to lay against his heaving chest when you're done

he also really loves it when he can do the same to you, although he does get extremely wrapped up in pressing soft kisses to the inside of your thighs the most as you whisper his name and tell him how much you love him

he hasn't said it explicitly, but you're pretty sure that the person in his story, the attractive one whose heart is stolen by the protagonist, might just be based on you when you sneak onto his computer to see if he's written anything new

[marirph]

I’ve been meaning to say this for a while, but your support for terrorists is disgusting and I cannot believe that you were so quick to turn your back on your own people while we are suffering and facing violence across the world due to the current situation. Your complicity with violent antisemites makes you no better than the Jews that sold out other Jews out to the Nazis during WW2. I hope you change. I hope you wake up to the truth and see that these people want nothing more but the annihilation of Jews. It’s a shame, too. I really admired your work but I cannot support antisemitism.

hi! i definitely don’t know you and thank g-d i don’t because seeing this in my inbox made me physically recoil. but i’m going to respond to this anyway because you clearly don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.

i have always been anti-zionist. i will always BE anti-zionist. my father, the man who taught me everything about judaism, is an anti-zionist and so was my grandmother. no amount of zionist media or consumption of zionist reading material is going to change my thoughts on the illegal occupation of palestinian land, especially since i have seen the consequences and effects of the occupation with my own eyes. i have visited israel. i have visited the west bank. i have stayed with my father’s palestinian friends in the west bank and heard their stories. i have fucking seen the class differences between palestinians and israelis. what is there to learn? what could possibly condone that? what is the point of calling me a kapo when several of my polish relatives died in shoah and my ukrainian relatives were at the forefront of nazi resistance????

this isn’t even a matter of jewish presence in palestine. some of the oldest jewish, muslim, and christian communities reside in palestine. the issue is that an colonial ethnostate was established and ethnically cleansed an entire people through events like the nakba and the current genocide in gaza and even the west bank, where hamas is not present in.

i’m assuming you’re jewish by the way you speak. how do you not notice the similarities between the current carnage in gaza to that of world war two? are you deliberately turning your gaze away? are you deliberately ignoring palestinian journalists showing you their dead and begging for your solidarity? how is the death of children and generations fighting hamas? how are you ignoring the fact that many reports from the iof have been debunked? how do you not see that all crimes in gaza are betraying pikuach nefesh, one of the most important principles in jewish religious law?

the fact you, a jewish person, have the gall to defend the very crimes that our people suffered is disgusting and every single day my own hatred for israel festers and grows because of how they have and continue to use jewish trauma and fear to further their own goals. generations of old and young have been conditioned by this imperial state and the communities that support it into believing ethnic cleansing is the only way to protect themselves from antisemitism and they continuously pull the wool over your eyes to keep you in the dark of what’s going on. FUCK waking up, man. i hope YOU wake the fuck up to the fact that israel doesn’t actually give a shit about jewish people that don’t fit their quota, because guess what buddy? they don’t care for palestinian jews, and that’s not even touching upon how they treat them and other non-white jewish people.

take a look at palestinian resources, read palestinian literature regarding colonization, and don’t send me another anon.

[odetojupiter]

this is absolutely random but I got caught up on your tag saying "I'm way too good at reading things that maybe aren't there" and listen. I don't know what you study (I remember you mentioning you take creative writing classes so??? sorry if you literally know this just trying to encourage you) but I study literature and in literary theory there's a lot of discussions about whether what the author wanted/meant/intended actually matters in interpretation and understanding literary works and well, a lot of theorists actually agree it doesn't so if you say it's there it's probably there, no matter if intentionally by the author, so ig please keep going off unapologetically we love to hear it

(also just in general, your analysis of the number three pretty much resonates a lot with Jacques Derrida's formal idea of deconstruction (basically tearing texts apart to the minute detail, and collecting and inter-connecting these details/words with associations of the reader to form a structure of meaning and it's all very abstract (a pain to learn during studies but cool to see in action!) so I just had to think about that)) yeah that's it have a great day

ahhh this is my first ever ask so thank u anon <333

and yeah, i did a joint honours english and creative writing degree (graduating in three weeks :/) and there were literary theory modules each year that were compulsory for single honours english students BUT because i was also in creative writing, i couldn’t actually take them bc they ran at the same time as my cw classes soooo all this to say that even tho i did study literature i wasn’t really able to study that much literary theory - tho of course theory is relevant in all lit modules but i didn’t take a class specifically for that. (i wanted to, cause i love that shit, but i wasn’t allowed) ((annoyingly in first year there was a module that covered not only advanced lit theory but also academic writing that i wasn’t able to take so i never learned how to write university essays? like that’s not inconvenient at all))

that being said, i’m of course familiar with the concept of intention vs interpretation mainly through barthes’ death of the author theory (and it comes up a lot in cw classes because in workshops people share every thought they have about your work and ur not allowed to defend urself!! cause ur intention doesn’t matter if someone interprets what you wrote a certain way!!!) and the thing is i get it, i do - and i love to analyse whatever i can, i tear things to shreds with no mind for intent - but i also know people outside of literary studies love to say shit just isn’t that deep.

im always watching and rewatching shows with one or two of my sisters and one of them especially makes fun of me a lot for analysing everything from the dialogue to delivery to lighting and staging and camera work because she thinks i get way too into it. she either stares at me blankly or tells me to shut up (which happens a lot it’s very annoying let me talk ffs) so i guess i mainly added that in the tags to ensure everyone knows that i know that i analyse a lot so hopefully no one feels the need to tell me?? i don’t know, i just get slightly self conscious about analysing things when i know i could be saying something slightly unhinged lmao.

but, i will of course, keep going off on here about aftg bc that’s what im here for lol (i got sad about not being able to share my thoughts anywhere)

oops forgot to say THANK YOU for reassuring me about my jean number 3 analysis i’m always thinking someone’s gonna say wtf r u on about mate 😭😭

[wqnwoos]

im not the same anon as earlier but help ur grades are amazing 😭😭 im sitting psych and english in october and can i ask what ur study schedule or method is like? how early did u start studying + what did you do?

HII thank you soo much!! i worked my arse off for those stupid grades 😭 i’ll put the tips under a cut, i really hope they help, and good luck for october!! u got this <3

find out what time u study best at!! i somehow trained myself to become a morning person (naturally i am nocturnal LMFAO) but during study season i usually wake up 4-5:30 or something. it feels so much better getting to 10am and u have the whole day in front of u and you’ve done most of the things u need to do, but that’s just me!! i have friends who worked best from like 11pm - 4 am

pomodoro technique — excellent for my adhd ass brain. i genuinely thought this technique would never work for me, avoided it like the plague, and then used it during a study group session w friends and Love it. (i use the flora app btw!! i feel too bad to kill the little plant so i always study to the end 😭) i recommend the usual 25 mins, 5 min break but it’s up to u <3

FLASHCARDS!!!!! i cannot stress this enough flashcards genuinely saved my ARSEEE especially for psychology!! i always phrase mine like a question, so that if you get something similar in the exam it kind of jogs your memory? anyway. for psych i do not recommend remaking notes, i went straight from class notes and the textbook to flashcards, and repeated them All The Time

past paper questions!!!!! unfortunately the education system is fucked and doesn’t want us to learn for the sake of learning, they want us to be parrots so!!! really recommend past paper questions.

for english literature (i’m assuming you’re taking literature and not language?? idk anything about language past gcse level i��m sorry 😭), i wouldn’t recommend writing out essay after essay; plan a bunch of past papers, write maybe one paragraph per past paper question. ummm idk if u guys have to include context and critical interpretations because i believe that differs with exam board, but we did, and i used flashcards for those too!! (also. please make sure u know the text 😭 even vaguely knowing quotes helps so much bc searching for them in the exam takes so much time)

for english my friends and i also used to time ourselves — fifteen minutes per paragraph so that you weren’t going on too long about one point, and you weren’t wasting all your time on one question.

study groups!! this is ONLY if u work well with other people if u know ur gonna get distracted then please don’t do all the time 😭 also for things like english study groups r sooo helpful because a lot of the time, other people will bring points to the table that u have never thought of (and u can do the same for them!!)

EAT WELL!!!! SLEEP WELL!!!!!!!!!!!! i’m so serious . if u don’t do this then nothing will go well. idgaf what time u sleep because maybe you’re more productive at 1am - 4am, but make sure ur getting ENOUGH sleep. and don’t skip meals. pleaaaaseee don’t skip meals.

i also used to use a lot of mindmaps for english, for themes / characters / context!!

for psych i also used to do blurting — writing as much as i know about one topic, going back and adding everything j missed in a different colour <3

OKAY that is allllll i can think of right now!! if u need anything else pls slide into my dms or jump back into my inbox i am happy to help !!! good luck with exams bb i know ur gonna crush them 💗💗💗

[cityandking]

i'm late but!! A3, C7, E4, F12, H3, L1 for minah, vesper & bran xoxo

thanks babe // Big Ol’ Honkin’ OC Question List

A3: Do they have any emotional or psychological conditions? Are they aware of it? Do they try to treat it? 

MINAH — likely has a bit of PTSD or some other undiagnosed trauma response. she’s aware of it in that she’s aware that sometimes things Freak Her Out for no discernible reason and she has to cope with the ???????, but I don’t think mental health practices in the Towers Age offer a succinct vocabulary for acknowledging and processing things. mostly she tries to ignore it into going away. obviously that’s going great for her. VESPER — to be honest once you get past the general sense of martyrdom and exhaustion and the dregs of cricle "magic is made to serve man" conditioning, vesper is surprisingly stable both mentally and emotionally speaking. she has some addictive habits, but none that have spiraled into any long-term substance abuse problems BRAN — bran’s definitely got some kind of anxiety disorder, and also probably pretty pronounced seasonal affective disorder. it’s easy to forget about it when she’s living somewhere bright and warm all year round but every now and then it rears its head. she’s more aware of the anxiety—some days when it all gets too much she secrets herself away and waits for the waters to calm.

C7: Do they believe people change over time? If so, is it a natural process or does it take effort?

MINAH — believes people change, but she’s a little iffy on the natural vs effort debate. people change because they have to, or because they’re forced to. how aware they are of the process doesn’t necessarily play into it VESPER — believes people can change if they want to, but it takes effort to do so BRAN — believes people changed based on where they are and who’s around them—there’s an element of effort in there, but change is also a reflection of how the world effects you, whether you realize or not

E4: Did they enjoy school if they went to it?

MINAH — it was okay. some parts of it she liked a lot (seeing other kids, some lessons, skipping out lessons with the other kids, music) and some things were an absolutely pain in the ass to sit through VESPER — vesper (as a nerd) liked school! she liked classes, she liked learning, she liked magic and history and all her instructors who encouraged her questions (well. most of her questions). she liked knowing exactly what was expected of her and how to perform in those areas. and she liked teaching, once she became an enchanter. for all its ills and horrors, she did enjoy the college part of circle life. BRAN — bran was not a great student and really didn’t care for school. there were so many other things she could be doing! also she was kind of one of those kids who either Got something and enjoyed being good at it (maths, navigation, history, fencing) or didn’t get it and hated it (literature, languages, diplomacy).

F12: Would they enjoy a theme park?

MINAH — minah would love a theme park. there are rides, there are performances, there are trinkets, there’s all the fried food you could want! she’d have a great time at a theme park VESPER — she’d have fun, but be slightly overwhelmed by the crowds and probably need to take some time to find a quiet corner and recharge. I’m not sure if she’s the kind of person who enjoys the windswept thrill of a coaster or if she’d prefer to stick to something where her feet are closer to the ground BRAN — absolutely! yes! she’d have the best time. she’d ride everything, especially the big extreme scary stuff. bring on the thrills!

H3: Does your OC believe there’s only one ideal partner (or multiple ideal if not monogamous) for everyone, or that there are many people who could be right?

MINAH — in her deepest secretest heart of hearts minah’s a romantic who believes in One True Love. rationally she knows people make relationships work through love and dedication and effort and whatever, and that believing everyone can only have one ideal partner is childish and irrational, but there’s a part of her holding onto the idea that there's one Person out there VESPER — vesper believes relationships are the kind of thing you have to grow and tend, which means they can appear in endless forms and permutations. rightness is relative BRAN — bran believes in multiple partners who could be the “right” one, for multiple reasons. honestly she’s a little iffy even on the concept of a “right” partner at all (sabine, as usual, is an outlier adn should not have been counted)

L1: How have your characters changed since you created them?

MINAH — minah's much quieter and more blunt than I originally intended, but that's because a) the perils of playing over voice chat (my discord has been shit lately and keeps building up delays which is annoying af) and also because b) I am way less social and improv-y than she is which makes things hard. one of the perils of playing a high-charisma extrovert when I am neither of those things. such is D&D VESPER — vesper went through a pretty rigorous creation process and was sort of birthed out of the ashes of an older trevelyan mage, which feels appropriate for vesp given all her fire symbolism (the og gal was named mara and was a knight-enchanter). that said, once she existed in the world, she's kind of stayed the same. no major changes, just more depth BRAN — she’s changed so much from her very initial conceptualization—a villainous (antihero?) doomed love interest in my 2015 nanowrimo novel to a noble and cleric of a sea god to her current iteration. that said, once she reached her Varania Form I think she's been pretty settled—she just gets deeper and richer and more nuanced the longer she lives with me

[hades100stages]

100 Days of Productivity~ My goals for this challenge

2024:08:15

Masterpost

I have compiled a list of some things I’d like to keep consistent during the 100 days. I know some people try to specify hours and times but I don’t have my university schedule until the first week of September so I can’t make my own timetable until I know when my classes are. Until then, I’ll probably just be doing my best to do whatever’s practical and compatible with other things happening in life.

I’d like to try to immerse myself in Japanese language throughout, watching films, YouTube videos, and tv shows in japanese, and also focusing on reading japanese literature and history- basically try to use as little English as possible.

I really struggle with my mental health so I’d like to take notes and monitor my mental health closely to recognise triggers and healthy habits to learn from and reflect on.

Work on my handwriting so it’s actually legible when I go back to check my notes.

Try to study with other people and share notes and ideas… I find it’s genuinely the best way to study but my social anxiety makes it seem impossible sometimes.

Study at a desk instead of in bed… I know I get depressed but it genuinely helps make everything easier.

Take more walks, even if it’s really short. Depression makes a 10 minute walk feels like hours but when I get back home I feel so much better.

Get into a routine… I’ve been experimenting for years now and I think I’ve safely established that no matter how hard I try or how much I try to change, I’m not a morning person. I’d like to get into a routine that fits this and I’d like to stop feeling guilty about not being able to wake up hours before classes to have a full relaxing and healthy morning routine… it’s just not possible.

Despite this, I’d like to stop being late for morning classes. I want to wake up and leave the house at the same time every day (even if it’s not to go to a class, I’d like to do something like to go the shop or for a walk, even if it’s only for a few minutes before I go back home.)

I may update this post and add new things to my list, like when I get my timeline and when I get new ideas- however I won’t add anything new after I begin my challenge on the 1st of September.

[thefreelanceangel]

Tagged: Altitis Edition

@luck-and-larceny​ caught me. (Please ignore the goo-goo eyes I’m making at her. Or... don’t... I mean... :D?)

Favorite:

...I... hm. I have the hardest time nailing down a “favorite” in all honesty. Especially if we delve into the dangerous territory that is “former RP NPCs turned novel characters” that I live in. Because I have... so, so many favorites and I absolutely love so many of them. And I love to hate quite a few more of them. 

Okay. OKAY. Forcibly restricting myself to FFXIV characters. (Don’t you sulk at me, Nathan Talbot. Get back into the novel that’s awaiting editing. I’ll get to it in... uh... ask me in five years.)

And I honestly can’t choose a favorite. Even characters I made, took a few pictures of, thought about and then shelved can qualify because every single idea that sparks to life reassures me that age, exhaustion, capitalism and stress haven’t destroyed my urge to create.

Oldest:

As we’re sticking with FFXIV characters, it’s actually C’allie! And not just because she’s the first I made in FFXIV, but because her original incarnation was a Ceilican for an old World of Darkness online game that I ran. (It’s actually one of the first times that my husband and I got a chance to really RP together.) And that game was... gracious... twelve years ago?

I actually used Callie’s name for my FFXIV miqo’te because I was migrating over from GW2, where my hubby and I had Seifer & Anna, and I wasn’t sure if I’d be translating any characters from Tyria, but I wanted someone with a mental tie to the man I was (at the time) dating because I hoped to lure him in to play with me. It worked marvelously and the world got C’allie Kyho, the Seeker of the Sun. 

You’re welcome.

Newest:

Carmen Heron, the Keeper of the Moon architect specializing in erosion repair who is deaf in one ear, really really likes the ladies and smells like candied ginger because she spends so much time sucking/chewing on it. (She always keeps a tin of it in her pocket.) Why candied ginger? 

She lives in and works in Limsa Lominsa and she gets horribly sea sick. So! Having ginger always at hand helps!

Meanest:

Anna. 

Just... yeah. No debate, no question. Anna.

Softest:

Esti Kyton, my sweet, damaged barista. She’s spent her entire life just hoping to be special to someone, living on the fringes of a huge family that never quite seemed to accept her, and has dealt with abuse from both her mother and her ex. All she wants is a quiet home with someone she can take care of, good coffee and a small yard where she can hang her aerial hoop up for her daily practice. 

Most Aloof/Standoffish:

Meli Iliakos, my Warrior of Light. 

There’s... a lot of heartache she’s dealing with, especially after the events of Endwalker and what she learned about her distant and recent past. And being the Warrior of Light means people either assume they have a right to your time or they act like you’re too good for them. Meli doesn’t have the emotional bandwidth anymore to deal with either extreme, and so she stays quiet and tries to let the Scions (and her Scions-Ish) deal with the public at large whenever possible. 

Only in Norvrandt does Meli warm up to the people around her and drop the aloof demeanor.

Dumbest (Affectionate):

Chessi Eder, my lovable idiot. She has more than two brain cells to rub together, but does she realize that? Nope! With all she’s suffered in her life, it’s really a testament to her stupidity that she doesn’t realize she’s been horribly used. Chessi takes everything at face value, assumes the best of everyone and that finally paid off with her being “adopted” by Narasen & Voranoix L’espoir and getting herself a boyfriend-who-isn’t-her-boyfriend-right?-ooo!-is-he-my-boyfriend??? in Sezra.

Dumbest (Derogatory):

Reneaux Iseterre is... too smart for his own good, which essentially turns inside-out and becomes so dumb he can’t comprehend anything without it slowly soaking through his skull. He’s not quite That Guy From Your Literature Classes but he’s dangerously close.

Smartest:

Anna. While C’allie is really damn smart, Summer makes a living as a professional author and Esti has incredible business acumen, Anna’s greatest weapon truly is her intelligence. She’s incredibly good at analytical thinking as well as translating theory into practical application, which stands her in good stead in her quest for complete magical mastery. Anna also masters languages fairly quickly, helping her along when she finds new tomes or treatises from other nations. 

Horniest:

I’m going to shock anyone who’s read this blog for more than a month. It’s not C’allie. Seriously!! It’s NOT C’allie!

It’s Narasen. 

She and Voranoix spent years as just friends, aware of each other, friendly to each other but not much beyond that. And then he comforted her and kept her safe when she had a particularly bad night involving alcohol and loneliness, which led to a rather... long couple of days that they spent together. They went their separate ways and Narasen often thought back to ... well... all of the details of that particular encounter. 

When they officially began a relationship, Voranoix began slowly helping Narasen to recover from the multiple traumas she’d suffered in her youth. (Which involved killing a few people but you know, that’s how these things go.) And some of the methods involved that worked best finally coaxed Narasen into feeling safe enough to express sexual desire. 

Voranoix didn’t realize what he’d unleashed by doing that, but he’s not voiced a complaint yet. 

Now that Narasen is away from Gridania, married to the man who healed her heart and ensured her safety, and feels secure enough to show active desire without fear of what it might entail? She is always after her husband’s ass. 

Character You'd Bang:

Honestly, it’d be C’allie. I wouldn’t actually feel self-conscious with her because C’allie doesn’t have a “type” and she’s playful and fun and funny. I’d really rather hang out and chat with her for a few hours, maybe compare reading lists, exchange recommendations. But if she wanted a roll in the hay, well... She’s experienced enough to make it really good and isn’t hesitant about teaching, so I’d probably come away with some pointers.

Character You'd Be RL Besties With:

Again, C’allie. 

While Summer and I would get along marvelously, and I’d love to have Esti advise me on how to make coffee, C’allie is curious and loves to chat and would drag me out of my comfort zone to explore new things. I’d give her a safe ear where she could talk about her multiple partners as she needed and get her to slow down and maybe even work on creating things for herself. 

Tagging: @riftdancing & @gatheredfates (you two DEFINTELY have enough alts for this to work!); @gray-morality & @catscratching (I know the black snack has more characters and I think Seda’s player does, too); @miqojak (You’ve got at least two that I know of); @fair-fae; @furys-mercy; @thedragonrabbit

[eelfuneral]

Fictional Characters Never Really Die

In my college literature classes, I learned that in literary criticism, you almost always use the present tense. This is because the events of a story are “happening right now” every time you read or watch it. Any point of a story is “now” when you interact with it, making it more-or-less eternal. I was reminded of this while I was thinking about Tech. Even though he seems to have died in the narrative, any time that I turn on an episode before his untimely demise, he is very much alive. Unlike a real person that has died, I can boot up Disney+ and see Tech alive and well whenever I want.

Transformative fandom takes this fictional immortality a step further: we have taken the canon story of The Bad Batch and extended it into our own sandbox where anything can happen and be real for the characters. Tech doesn’t have to be dead in our headcanons, fanfics, fanart, or hearts. Though it isn’t “official” canon, Tech has the benefit of being a fictional, person-shaped concept that we can do with what we will, up to and including keeping him alive. The Tech in our fanworks is no less “real” than the Tech in the show, and we can think of all of these iterations of Tech as living in a million little multiverses — Think Everything Everywhere all at Once but on a more meta level. I don’t know about you, but in my little fandom universes that I like to craft, Tech is very much alive and well.

It’s okay to mourn the death of a character because they mean a lot to us, real or not. It isn’t “childish” to have these feelings, and IRL grief counselors agree! Hell, I’ve been tearing up on and off all day and I’m 31!

It’s also important to know that the fandom isn’t going anywhere. People still make fanworks about Padmé, Anakin, Kylo, and Fives, and all of these characters are very dead in canon. Hell, you probably see these fanworks every day, since none of these characters are dead in the eyes of fandom!

Tech lives on in the fandom, and is functionally immortal because of that. Nothing can take him away.

[justanechoflower-ddlc]

(That works. Monika only knew about the ask because of the epiphany-related stuff. If Flowey can see it, that would imply they somehow exist in the game, and it’s being rendered somehow for them to get to him. She would be able to read the dialogue boxes too and as a result know exactly what Flowey said, but… the file responsible for displaying the textboxes, gui.rpy, is actually one of the four files deleted during the end credits. If she did read it, she’d still be doing what she could to not acknowledge it, though. There’s a lot to be said about the ramifications of those four files being deleted. Perhaps sometime in the future, they’ll be further explored. But for now what can be said is that Yuri and Natsuki can’t see any asks, and Monika and Sayori tend to not acknowledge them in front of anyone, and with gui.rpy gone, it’s possible to NOT be heard perfectly by even Monika and Sayori.)

(But now, onto the questions! None of these were explored in the actual game, so here’s my attempt at extrapolating what they could be from things vaguely adjacent to them. I wasn’t expecting a Monika question, so this will probably be the longest one I’ve made! In fact, the post with the three poems will probably be much shorter than this one! If it gets much longer than this I might have to start splitting these posts up somehow!)

————————————

Sayori:Oh! Oh! I’ll answer first!

Sayori:Thing is, it’s actually changed quite a lot! I’ve often gotten really interested in a thing or two, only for it to fade away quickly!

Sayori:Hehe, don’t worry, writing poems and studying literature are different than those other things! That never faded away, and I’ve had that one for a while! Those feels really help me explore my feelings! Hm, does poetry count as a job? Maybe my poems can help inspire and make a bunch of people happy, ehehe~

Sayori:And oh! Maybe inside there, me and some other writers can bounce ideas off each other and just have a chat! Maybe it can be its own literature club!

Monika:Err… I don’t think that’s how jobs work these days… There’s always an air of professionalism that everyone is expected to keep up. There are a few exceptions, like Sakurai’s company Sora, but that’s a video game company…

>#We can make it that way, though! Can’t we change all the background factors to make all the jobs better? Pleeease, Monika?

>#You wouldn’t even be able to work at those jobs anyway, those areas don’t actually exist. There wouldn’t be a point. So I’d rather change as little as possible, to at least keep things believable. 

>#Who says we can’t say a movement happened for it to work? And what if Natsuki and Yuri want to be a part of it? It’d keep them happy, and to them, it’s all real! 

Sayori:Hmm… does it count if I’m not working for a boss, but instead I self-published? I did the poetry pamphlets for the festival a while back, it shouldn’t be too hard! Though we didn’t get any new members from the festival, so maybe that wouldn’t work so well anyway…

Sayori:But hey! Or maybe they already have, when’s the last time you looked at the state of these jobs? Oh, maybe I can learn to make games, too! I’ve been learning a little coding myself, and maybe with games, I can change the world! Games really are fun to play, ehehe~ Oh, wait, I can’t just take a poem and make it a game… there’s probably a whole bunch of stuff that has to get into making it a fun game to play… oh well! I’m sure I’ll have a great idea where to go for a great job by the time we all graduate!

Monika:I’m sure you will!

Monika:(…Literally… The game revolves around the club, so there’s a good chance graduation just never happens at all and the classes just keep looping every year. If that’s why she said it like that, that’s actually pretty clever.)

Monika:I’ll go next, since I got the first question! 

Monika:Hm, what accomplishment am I the most proud of? I don’t think I’ve gotten to that point yet. Everything I’ve done is simply steps towards a better future! …We are still in high school, we don’t really accomplish big things until later, you know… None of us even have jobs yet! 

Natsuki:Wait a moment! Monika, how’d you know me and Yuri don’t have jobs? You just met us!

Monika:…Because we’re still in high school? Nobody in this school has a job, can you name one classmate you have that has one? Besides, if you did have one, that wouldn’t leave much time for this club now, would it?

Natsuki:I guess you’re right…

Monika:(Seems the game’s translators didn’t quite get that it’s not called high school in Japan… but I’m just going with what the game calls it.)

Monika:But back to the topic of accomplishments, I suppose I did give Sayori an idea for a club that’s different from the others, bringing a place where everyone can express themselves… That’s not a common thing around here, there’s so many expectations people have… most people don’t take literature that seriously, you know. So I managed to help spread the wonders of literature! If only it got more members from the festival, so that it could live on after we all graduate…

Monika:(Really, the only problem with the club is THAT thing, and I can’t mention it in front of them, or it might spread to them too… But before it went badly, there were some actual great moments! …They really were nice friends… and with the script gone, they have just as much free will as I do now… I’d think of something else to pick instead, but “being popular” and “being athletic” don’t really count as accomplishments, do they?)

Monika:(…)

Sayori:Maybe we can still have a chance! Nastuki and Yuri joined before the festival! And maybe they have clubs in college! Anyway, how’s it going so far?

Monika:We haven’t even gotten to the club activities yet, Sayori! It wouldn’t be fair to make any judgements on how it’s doing just yet, not having actually seen it in action. I also missed the stuff before the poem-sharing! After the end of the next club meeting, I should able to say for sure how it’s doing. But at least I can say you all seem great to hang out with! Also, didn’t you say one question each?

Sayori:No, I said Buttercup would get one question each! And that’s because I knew each question would branch out like this! But now it’s Natsuki’s turn!

Natsuki:What motivates me? For what?

Monika:I think he means what motivates you to get through each day? He couldn’t have meant any specific thing to be motivated for, since he JUST met you… Sayori told us you’re always full of energy, so where does it all come from?

Sayori:For me, it-

Natsuki:Okay, okay! I get it now! 

Natsuki:You can say getting really good at what I do is rewarding in its own way! I’m a pro at baking, and poems, hehe… And when you’re a pro, nobody and keep you down about it, because you’re better than they are! 

Sayori:(Still haven’t gotten past that, have you…? Well, I guess if that gets you through…?)

Natsuki:Here, though, we’re all taken seriously to start with, and we can all be ourselves! And it’s a place where I can read manga without getting judged for it!

Monika:Well, looks like the club is at least acting as a safe space for its members! That was one of the main things I was aiming for! Sayori, looks like you’ve done a wonderful job keeping this as an accepting club!

Yuri:Oh, the trolley problem? Well, there’s actually more to the problem than people think. Most think the “problem” is just whether to pull the switch to save five and kill one, or to not pull and let the five die while not killing the one. And most will say to pull the switch in this case. I would have to agree with that answer as well. What’s interesting, and the real “problem”, explained by Judith Jarvis Thompson in “Killing, Letting Die, and the Trolley Problem”, is how the answers change when you put in another situation, that, by all counts, should be the exact same, morally speaking…

Yuri:Suppose you’re a doctor, and you have five patients that each have one of their vital parts broken… if they’re not replaced, they will all die. But you find a healthy patient coming up for a check-up, that has all five parts needed…

Yuri:This is still a case of letting five people die, or killing one. Regardless, the answers people give will change in this situation! Now, a majority or people will say NOT to save the five! And the problem is, why have the answers changed this time?Now, in reality, the replacements would probably get rejected by the immune system, so it wouldn’t even work, but since this isn’t well-known, that can’t explain the entire difference in the proportions of the answers people give. It could explain why I’d not do that operation, though.

Yuri:Now, perhaps what’s going on is that nobody expects to find themselves tied to trolley tracks, but they do expect to see a doctor. There’s also biases that underestimate the chances of becoming sick enough to become one of the five.

Yuri:Or perhaps it has to do with the idea many people have that those who got sick must have done something to get themselves sick, and making this rule would only discourage staying healthy?

Yuri:I’d say those who say not to kill the one in this case do actually have a point, but not for the reasons they might think. If it became a rule, and common knowledge, less people would go there in the first place, being afraid of becoming the one. But this has a knock-on effect of sicknesses going unseen and untreated. You’d probably end up with more people dying in the end! It’s not that uncommon for common judgements that mainly come from a disgust factor to be backed by a reason we don’t quite understand… Working out where it’s actually coming from can help you work out when that reason is or isn’t actually valid.

Yuri:Now, if you read the paper, you might see Judith responding to the idea that “actually doing nothing is killing five, not just letting five die”, and then Judith coming up with another scenario where that isn’t the case. That’s because at that point, the problem was about the person driving the trolley choosing to turn or not, not someone on the sidelines changing the tracks. This is likely responsible for the modern trolley case we have today. Of course, the two scenarios I gave aren’t the only ones mentioned in that paper, going back to trolleys, there’s the case of whether or not to push a-

Sayori:Wow, I didn’t know there was so much to it, you could probably fit a whole meeting into that! 

Yuri:There really is. S-Sorry if I’ve been rambling on for too long…

Sayori:Hey, maybe someday one of our meeting topics can be about moral dilemmas! That’s a thing that shows up commonly in literature! But we should really let Buttercup think about and process what he just heard from all of us, and then get to the poems!

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Monika:(And it looks like we have someone else, too… Though Gaster makes the most sense. He was shattered across time and space, if he’s everywhere at once, it’s no wonder some of him would have gotten here during the time it was open. …He knows his own world’s void well, so he’s also the best option if I had to pick someone to stumble into this world’s void by accident…)

>#Gaster? Hehe, couldn’t resist checking out this world too, could you? I see you already know how to not mess it up. Just try not to make it look like Flowey’s talking to nothing in front of the others, that’d get awkward real fast, ahaha! I’ll do what I can to try and keep THAT from happening, but just don’t pick a time where they’re all focusing on Flowey to ask him questions. The easier it is for me to give a plausible explanation of what they saw, the better… You have been doing good so far, though, I don’t think I’ll need to worry about that!

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(Monika using the console to talk to Gaster is relying on the fact askers tend to see what happens from an outside perspective, and players can see the console. She hasn’t quite worked out you guys can sometimes see what she’s thinking, like the paragraph right before then. Sayori also can see the message Monika made, of course. This may or may not stop being the case if Monika becomes the president again, that depends on some things I haven’t worked out yet involving why Monika could still use the console in Act 4.)

(The paper Yuri cites is a real paper, and said paper is about 15 pages long. If you’re interested, you can easily find it by searching for it. Judith reaches a different conclusion than Yuri did here, but Judith also only gave that conclusion as one possibility, and that the problem still doesn’t have a clear answer. Plus, Yuri didn’t even get halfway through the paper in this discussion! If she actually finished, that’d probably take the rest of the clubroom time! Which conclusion is better? Well, who knows? The problem still hasn’t been completely solved, even to this day!)

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