#also i should probably get back to writing my actual essay for school instead of this now

[ardienothesieno]

OC Writing

idk im bored and procrastinating and the guys wont get out of my head

uhhhhhh tw mildly suggestive

lesbian robot and their cool girlfriend have a conversation and some not-so-cool shit happens

angst angst angst angst angst--

They were interrupted from their writing by the sudden entrance of someone into their chamber. They dismissed the screen hovering in front of them, spinning towards the access shaft to find--

"Hey Ash," Fireflies said, head poking out of the tunnel.

If Ashes from Above had been built with a mouth, they would be beaming. They slowly released the zero gravity in their chamber, gently lowering Fireflies to the floor, and brought their puppet in close. Fireflies laughed, grabbed the sides of Ash's face, and booped the tip of her mask against their forehead. "Morning, love."

Ash let out a giggle, and threw their arms around her. "You haven't come to visit for 4 cycles! I was starting to get worried." "Your overseers follow me constantly! You could have checked in any time." "I did!!" Ash huffed. "But you said you don't like being watched all the time, so I tried to leave you alone. Mostly."

They pulled away from the embrace, wheeling away to hover over Fireflies. "So what brings you to finally break your solitude?" They teased. "Ran out of groceries? Wanted to come lecture me on my lack of work as of late?" "Am I not allowed to just come talk to a friend?" "Friend??" Ash kneed Fireflies in the side of the face (gently) and spun away to a higher height. "We're just friends now, you say?" Fireflies laughed. "Sorry. Best friend." Ash scoffed, causing Fireflies to laugh even harder. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Best of best friends who is such a bestest best friend that I commit unthinkable karmic sins for them." "Better," they responded, looping around their mechanical arm in mid-air.

"But seriously, why today? I thought you usually took the first of the week to paint." "Um. Usually, yes. But, I, um... I... I'm just having a bad day."

Ash stopped spinning and immediately brought their puppet up to her, reaching behind her head to unclasp and gently lift off her intricate golden mask. Fireflies did look more tired then usual. Dark circles surrounded her drooping eyelids, and her lips were dry and cracked. Ash took her face in their hands, tenderly. "...Is this about Blanket?"

It had been a little over one year-cycle since the mass ascension, when their friend and Fireflies' cousin A Blanket, 32 Stitches per Row had ascended with the majority of society. Ash had tried to convince him to stay behind. They had tried to convince all of them to stay behind. Only 152 of their citizens had listened. Who had trusted in Ash's abilities to care for them after the collapse of society. And they were doing a mighty fine job, if they were to say for themself!

"I... Sort of. It's partially about Blanket, but there are some... some other things." "Do you want to talk about any of it?" Fireflies looked away, pursing her lips. "Maybe later." "Can I do anything, then? To make you feel better?" "Just... sit. And talk to me. Please?"

And so they did. They curled up with Fireflies in a corner of their chamber, Fireflies fidgeting with a pearl, Ash talking about everything that had happened in the past 4 cycles. They talked about their conversations with Lingering Fog and Smoke upon Droplets of Rain, their ongoing argument with East of Eden. They talked about how Calling Voids had been rambling about philosophy in the group channel, and how it had gotten so annoying they had to mute it. They talked about their remaining citizens, and all of the weird things that they had caught on their overseers.

"I've noticed some people acting a bit strange. Not noticeable enough to be a concern, but a good portion of my inhabitants have been... quieter, lately. Some of them have been visiting the temples more often. I know it's irrational... but I do worry that some of them intend to ascend sometime in the near future."

Fireflies tensed, hand curling around the pearl in her grasp. "I... will admit that there are... rumors." "Rumors?? Of people wishing to ascend????" "Yeah. Some... some people have been talking about how you don't have the resources to keep the colony going. That we need to ascend before it's too late and we all starve to death." "But that's nonsense!" Ash cried, sitting up straight, Fireflies sliding off of their lap with a grunt. "Did no one read my sustainability proposals?? I have solutions for all of that!! There are enough stores to last two and half year-cycles, and I have plans for when they run out! Purposed organisms, to hunt lizards and other wild creatures in lower altitudes! Factories that could be repurposed into greenhouses and mills! I have everything planned out, and backup plans for if those plans don't work!!" Fireflies grabbed Ash's hands, lowering them and squeezing gently. "I know, I know love, I'm sorry. I trust you. I know you'll keep us all safe. But not everyone has the same faith in you as I do." "I just don't... I've worked so hard..." "I know. I know. I'm so sorry. It's going to be okay." "Should I rewrite my proposals? Make them clearer, make my ideas more palatable? Make sure there's nothing I missed, that I can keep everyone happy and alive and safe and--" "Ash!" Fireflies grasped their hands tighter and yanked their attention to her face, her dark eyes, the small stripes on her snout. "Shhh. It's okay." There was a beat of silence. "Promise me," Ash whispered. "That even if everyone else leaves, that you won't. That you'll stay with me until you can't anymore." Fireflies paused. "I... okay. Yes. I- I won't leave you behind, Ash."

Ash stared at Fireflies before slowly nodding and slumping back against their arm. "Let's... talk about something else. Anything else." Fireflies whispered, snuggling up to Ash's shoulder. "Anything?" "Anything."

Ash thought for a second. "Um. I have a routine maintenance check today? My two remaining mechanics should be going through my structure around now, and will send me any repair orders that need to be executed in the future." "Mmmm. Anything else?" "My overseers have reported 72 yeek sightings over the past 20 cycles." Fireflies chuckled. "That is pretty random." "You said anything."

They laid there for several minutes in silence, enjoying each other's company. Quietly holding each other close. Ash received 17 alerts while they were lying there with Fireflies, of which they all ignored. The only thing more important then this moment would be something completely catastrophic, like a system failure. And the chances of that happening were so slim...

They were beginning to think that Fireflies had fallen asleep when her citizen drone beeped and she sat up with a start. They turned away as Fireflies opened her messages. One of the main rules of their relationship was privacy. Fireflies didn't want Ash peeking through her private conversations and files, and Ash didn't want Fireflies wandering through their memory complexes without permission.

"I. Um. P-probably have to go soon." Ash turned back to Fireflies, and noticed how panicked they looked from reading whatever message they had gotten. "Are you okay?" "Yeah. Uh- yeah. Just... have to go to a meeting. Sort of. It's... complicated. I don't know." Fireflies looked more and more stressed with each passing second. "...Alright. You should probably get going then." "No!! No, I- I have a few more minutes," Fireflies blurted, grabbing Ash's hands again. "...Besides, there's something else I want to do first." "Oh?"

Fireflies pressed her lips to Ash's face. "Oh..." Fireflies laughed, breathily, and wrapped her arms around Ash. "It's been too long since we did anything like this." "Agreed," Ash whispered, burying their hands in Fireflies' hair-tentacles and pulling her forehead against theirs.

Another alert popped up. They dismissed it.

Fireflies made a small noise and pulled Ash even closer, pressing them against her. Her breath was warm and fast on Ash's artificial skin as she frantically whispered, "I love you. I love you so much, Ash. I love--"

- - -

13 Fireflies Amongst Falling Leaves let out a sob as Ash's puppet went limp in her arms. As the chamber lights went out. As the structure around her shuddered and went silent.

She clutched the avatar of the person she loved as the machinery that made up that person deactivated. As the temperature around her started to drop. As Ashes from Above died.

And Fireflies cried.

Her sobs were broken minutes later by a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Hundreds of Birds Trapped in a Vortex, one of Ash's mechanics... and the ringleader of the shutdown.

Ash had been right in their suspicions. A good portion of people were worried, and wanted to ascend. Almost all of them did, at that point.

Many of the remaining citizens had spent the last hundred cycles working on raising their karma. Slowly packing things away, shutting down factories and machines, desperately trying to avoid Ash's notice. It would break their heart to see them all to leave, the ringleaders had said. It was kindest for them not to know, the ringleaders had said.

Fireflies was told to distract Ash while the mechanics shut down their systems. And here she was, Ash's puppet lying dead in her arms.

She would have stayed. If they hadn't made the decision to kill Ash when they left. She would have stayed with the iterator she loved until the day she died.

She had no choice, now.

"I'm sorry," Vortex whispered. "I'm so sorry, Fireflies. It was the kindest thing we could do." He grabbed her arm and pulled her to standing, Ash's body falling to the ground with a clang. "Come on, we should get going." "I-- but--" "They're in a better place now, Fireflies. Perhaps we will meet them again in the Great Beyond. Come along now." "W-wait."

Fireflies twisted out of his grasp and stumbled over to Ash's body. She knelt down and shakily removed her scarf, wrapping it around their neck. Their hands trembled as they reached up to slide Ash's metallic eyelids shut. She pressed one last kiss to their forehead, choking out a goodbye to unhearing sound sensors.

Fireflies stood back up and walked over to Vortex, who was standing by the main access door.

The rest of the city was waiting in the mines, ready to venture down to the golden ocean at the bottom of the world.

13 Fireflies Amongst Falling Leaves left the puppet chamber of Ashes from Above for the last time.

Goodbye, my love. I'll see you in the Great Beyond.

[drdemonprince]

At one point he was down in between my legs, fingering me, and he made a throwaway comment about probably being Autistic. 

I leaned back, trying to relish what pleasure I was getting. “Well, we can talk about that subject, if you like,” I said vaguely, not really wanting to bring my professional life into things. 

He kept working away at my body, kissing between my lips and thighs. “Oh I know who you are,” he said suddenly. “Your book changed my life. In a way, I guess this is me thanking you.” 

I made him exit my body and we went to the kitchen to hash it out. It turned out he was a big fan of many things I’d written. 

“I’ve seen you around the neighborhood many times,” he confessed. “But you posted online that you don’t like when people come up to you, and so I always decided to leave you alone.” 

He said, “Your book is the reason I got divorced, actually. My ex-husband was a therapist, and when I showed him your book and said I thought I might be Autistic, he didn’t believe me. We have been separated for a year.” 

He asked, “Did I just make this weird, telling you when I did that I was a fan?” I told him that if he’d said it sooner, I would have never fucked him at all. 

People never realize that when they approach me, what they are doing is dragging me into work. It doesn’t matter whether I was at breakfast, or an orgy. I was just some guy standing there, enjoying his beer, but now they have made me the known scholar and author. And sure, my job might be meaningful, but that doesn’t mean I like to work. 

I tell my friend that I no longer want to be a public figure, and that I am planning how to make it all end. She tells me, “You’ve got to do what is the best for you, even if it’s something that the rest of us wants and can’t imagine giving up.” 

I ask myself, did I want this? It would be more flattering to say I didn’t, and play the role of the hermetic author whose work developed its own life purely because it was so good. But that isn’t true. 

From the moment I got a Myspace account in high school, I was publishing essays about my political views. I serialized multiple novels on Tumblr, guerilla marketing them with giveaways and custom-made images until they hit the Kindle sales charts. I have made memes, tried starting viral trends, coined phrases, and given hundreds of hours’ worth of media interviews. I write prescriptive nonfiction, for Christ’s sake. Of course people seek guidance from me. I offer it up! 

I have been strategic about how I dress, and my video backdrops, and retaken clips of myself speaking over and over again until they sounded right. I’ve hosted debates with my most vicious critics while I’m in the shower, started public beef with creators who had larger accounts than I did, and rushed to my keyboard when upsetting news broke, because I alone was possessed of the most correct take on it.

I wanted this. I didn’t know what this was, this internet fame I was chasing, but I did all I could to make it mine. I thought that by writing so much, I would one day be able to escape myself, maybe really feel connected to other people. Instead it has meant never being able to stop thinking about myself: how I am seen, what I am working on, how it all fits together, what comes next. It has also meant being spoken about, theorized about, and criticized, and developing a firm exoskeleton of disdain between myself and the world. 

I believe now that that it is immoral for any person to be listened to by ninety thousand other people. Holding authority and status like that runs counter to my anarchic ideals. I am not more important or correct than anyone. I should not be trusted to tell people which commodities to buy, which companies not to support, what to read, what to think, what words to use, or how to conduct their lives. 

All the other animals know there is no one way that a creature “should” live. There is only the way that it does. The world has no consciousness, no beliefs. It cannot pass judgment. We only feel so watched and evaluated because we have covered the planet with so many millions of our eyes. But we can stop performing dignified human goodness at any moment. 

I think that celebrity is an evil, corrupting force that pits the human instinct for bonding against itself. Instead of appreciating the singing of our friends around the fire, we stream Chappell Roan until stalkers break into her house. Rather than playing card games together, we stan Twitch streamers, filling up their chats with highlighted messages until they acknowledge us. We long to be famous novelists because then we would have the social permission to write, and we don’t have the money or time to enjoy the activity on its own. 

I wrote about Chappell Roan, stalker stans, and how turning art into content creation ruins the work, and the creator's life. It's free to read in full (or have narrated to you by the app!) on Substack.

[pippin-katz]

Reference To Heathers In Dead Boy Detectives

I was going through some of my notebooks and journals yesterday, and I found a composition notebook I got from a concert-style performance of Heathers: The Musical. It has yellow typewriter-style stickers on it that says the very first line of the show.

"September 1st, 1989: Dear Diary..."

My brain buffered so hard I gasped out loud. Obviously, that's the same year Charles died. At first, I was like, "Oh that's a cool coincidence!"

But then my brain went deeper, because I have seen and reblogged a piece of fanart of the Dead Boys with a caption referencing a quote from the film that was turned into a musical number: "I love my dead, gay son."

For those who are confused as hell, probably cause you're unfamiliar with the film/show, this is when I started to think it might not be a coincidence, and I'll explain why!

Brad & Hunter = Ram & Kurt

Anyone who knows Heathers is probably starting to be like, "OMG that's a great comparison!" But I'm not sure if this is just a comparison, or actually a hidden reference to Heathers.

⚠️ Warning! ⚠️ Heathers is a black comedy, also referred to as a dark comedy or morbid humor, meaning it makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discuss. TW: suicide, murder, attempted nonconsensual sex, homophobia Short Synopsis of Heathers: Veronica tries to join a toxic clique of three girls named Heather who rule high school. A new bad boy named Jason Dean, JD for short, arrives at the school. The two of them develop a relationship that leads to the murders and coverups of several of their incredibly toxic classmates.

(For those who want more specifics, to better understand the movie, keep reading. For those who don't need or want to read it, skip down to where the text turns back to the end of the parathesis and the text goes back to normal size.

Veronica was a nobody, but is gradually being inducted into the Heathers group. There are three Heathers: Heather Chandler, Heather Duke, and Heather McNamara. Veronica is an excellent forger, able to replicate hand writing. JD is new to school and gets sought out at lunch by the two biggest jocks, Ram and Kurt. They try to intimidate him, but it backfires because he pulls out a handgun. He shoots at them with blank bullets, scaring the shit out of them.

JD is a deeply traumatized and troubled person due to his shitty father, and the fact that his mother committed suicide in front of him when he was a kid by entering a building she knew was about to be demolished by her husband's construction company. His view on humanity is skewed and grim, and he can get violent when provoked or angered. He believes in extreme action to a sociopathic level, in this case, removing the problematic people who are the root of the toxicity in order to make a happier society.

Veronica and JD get into a relationship after she fights with Heather Chandler at a party. They go over to her house in the morning to suck up to her, but it ends in her death (will be explained). To cover it up, Veronica forges a suicide note.

JD sees it as a win, because with her gone and the contents of her fake suicide note, everyone is starting to be nicer to each other and be more open about their feelings. Veronica is torn up because she accidentally killed her "best friend" and "worst enemy", and also sees JD's point.

It spirals from there, but that should be enough specifics of the plot and characters for you to understand the rest of the essay better, at least in the sense of the tone of the film.)

Heather Chandler, the first victim, was killed because Veronica accidentally gave her toxic sink cleaner JD had joked about giving her instead of the hangover cure they're concocting. They stage it as a suicide so they don't get in trouble, but Veronica is a bit shaken, obviously. It was an accident, at least for her; JD saw her pick up the wrong mug and chose not to tell her.

The next victim, or victims, is a pair of jocks who are the coolest guys on the football team, Ram Sweeney and Kurt Kelly. They sexually assault Veronica (unsuccessfully), lie about it to the school newspaper, claiming they had a threesome to humiliate her. She's upset, JD is furious, and they are the most toxic guys in the school. JD comes up with the idea to "prank" them; they'll "shoot" them and make it look like a gay suicide pact with a note and stereotypical gay items, humiliating them when they wake up. This is the '80s, so homophobia was super common.

Veronica thinks they're going to use fake bullets on them, but JD obviously lies and puts real bullets in the guns. They do the "prank", JD kills Ram, but Veronica misses Kurt. She's laughing because they scared the shit out of them, but JD chases him down to finish the job. She realizes Ram is not unconscious, but dead, and JD kills Kurt as well. They stage it as a gay suicide pact in order not to get caught, again.

A funeral is held for the two boys, and in the film, one of their father's goes up to the casket and tearfully declares he's not going to be homophobic anymore, ending with the line: "I love my dead, gay son."

A line so iconic that it got an entire musical number in the musical adaptation, with the line being the title and part of the chorus. It is absolutely hilarious.

Now, let's break that down into a simplified list:

two jocks who the coolest members on their team

said jocks have a reputation of mistreating girls

said mistreatment of girls leads to their murder

said murder is covered up by making it look like something self-induced

said murder is also committed unintentionally with the goal simply to make them unconscious

The fifth episode of Dead Boy Detectives is the same thing in a different font! Brad and Hunter were to two most popular jocks, on the baseball team rather than football team. They treated girls horribly, something Ram and Kurt were also notorious for. It's because of the way they treated Maren that they end up being killed, just like Ram and Kurt's treatment of Veronica is the cause for their deaths. Both of the murders are made to look self-induced, an intentional suicide pact for Ram and Kurt, and an accidental alcohol poisoning for Brad and Hunter. Both murders are also not intended to be murders by the girls behind them; Veronica and Maren both believe that they will only be knocking them out, not killing them.

That is a lot of specific parallels!

But what makes me even more suspicious of it being intentional is the fact that Twitchy Richie literally says, "But I also heard they died in a secret gay suicide pact."

Back in the '80s? Unfortunately somewhat common, that's why they used in Heathers. It was made in the '80s and takes place in the '80s. Veronica and JD used it because it was easy to believe, and unlikely to draw suspicion. Back then, if something looked like a suicide, complete with a forged note, props, and whatnot, they tended not to bother investigating further; that's especially believable for a gay suicide since homophobia was so high.

Now? Definitely wouldn't be one of the first explanations you would think of. If a pair of guys died in a car accident, or surfing, or an activity they are doing together, and they did not have any indicators of it being suicide and/or queer (straight dudes Brad and Hunter's alcohol poisoning), I'm pretty sure "secret gay suicide pact" would not come up in the conversation by anyone other than conspiracy theorists, or dickheads like Richie. Crystal even refers to him bringing it up and making the "giving each other hand jobs" comment as him making "gay jokes". It's not even remotely considered to be an actual theory. He said it just to be an asshole.

There's also a small correlation that the only other victim in Heathers is Heather Chandler. Of the three victims, she's the only girl, and she also "commits suicide", at least in the eyes of the public. There is a third death relating to Brad and Hunter's case: Shelby. She's the singular female victim who actually commits suicide.

That is just too many similarities and parallels for it to be a coincidence, right? This all has to be an intentional nod to Heathers, right??

(ko-fi)

[henchy5824]

19 for ask game meme?

Ohoho! *rubs grubby paws*

This might be a little bit of an odd one, but bear with me.

So my background is in IT, and during my schooling we unsurprisingly had to write essays about various topics. Those topics were, unsurprisingly, sometimes only loosely connected to what would count as "IT". Among which was telecommunications. The essays I had to write on that were long, contrived, technical in ways I don't even want to think about anymore (or maybe I do but that's because I'm a masochistic degnereate, lol) and most of all: I was in absolute agony researching them. It were those kinds of essays that had to meet a certain word count and hit certain key points.... you know... The most unimaginable shit any teacher could possibly come up with.

But ob boy, did it make me AWARE of what radio waves are and how much shit actually works via those... which is 100%... the answer is 100% of all our modern technology runs off of that shit.

I think you can guess where I'm going with this...

Did you know that the most modern types of frequency bands we have managed to harness for our convenience are ALSO very short? At least for home applications.. So if you buy a router that boasts 60 GHz tech, it's going to work within about 10ft (3m) of unobstructed space and then the signal just farts out of existence because the wavelenght is SO SHORT. This is also the reason why 5G technology is such a big fucking deal and it has been one of the biggest innovations in that field since at least the early 2000s (if not earlier) because it is true fast broadband that is affordable for the average consumer.

The nature of how all of this stuff works is inherently fascinating.

And even though when I had to write those essays back in the day, my partner had to actively stop me from trying to chew my fingers into bloody nubs, I nevertheless had some fun recently revisiting those previously written words for reasons I will elaborate upon shortly:

Which brings me neatly to our favourite strawberry pimp! Alastor.

Seriously, NOBODY is talking about how this guy should be frequency manipulation GOD. Probably because this is kinda very niche and technical and I wouldn't expect anyone to actually sink that much though into a fictional OC character back in 2005-2010 (I only thought about that stuff because I was forced to, after all, lol).

Injecting this very real and technical mumbo jumbo with some hellish magic and you have the perfect vehicle for a whole range of cool things that could be achieved.

Including, but not limited to:

-Control computers and any device that allows inputs via radio waves. Imitating yourself as a human interface device (bluetooth/2.4GHz/5GHz wifi/etc.) so you could type and use the mouse cursor with your mind? Yes. Flipping channels on a tv without a remote like that one kid in the X-Men movie? Yes, that. Sending and recieving text and/or voice messages on your phone without having to hold it in your hands? VERY Yes. Also: VERY on brand for this magnificent bastard.

-Attack people with the various ways our squishy and inadequate nervous system runs off of electrical impulses. For example: You can make people's hearts beat unevenly if you attack the (roughly) 10 Hz range. You can also give people something akin to barotrauma using something similar only attacking certain parts of the lungs...

So when people on social media go: Oh Alastor is sooo evil and Charlie is being manipulated because she doesn't see it.... Nononono, bitches. YOU don't understand. The man is actively shying away from all the really hideous and sadistic shit. Almost all of which would be 100% invisible to Charlie. Imagine the loan sharks instead of getting ripped appart by eldritch tentacles and a giant monster man, they just....dropped because their hearts had stopped beating. Or they lost all sense of self and wandered off because they forgot what they came here for. Charlie would go: "Huh. Weird, but ok. Conflict avoided."

Of course, Alastor could probably also do something like liquify someone's eyeballs by spiking a high frequency pulse towards that and then laugh at them until they grow new ones... but that would be telling.

So whenever someone tries to pull bullshit on you like that: you pull out the frequency manipulation and how Alastor is decidedly not doing all that.

You can basically win stupid prizes by playing stupid games. Hooray!

[astronnova]

Okay but I wouldn't purely blame LMK for the flanderization of Tripitaka. All the flanderized depictions in fan works I've seen are from people who actually read the book and made fan art of the original source. And both versions of Trip develop into better people, anyways. Also, it's a little hurtful to say that most people don't analyze what they read, no? Granted, it's a kids show so much of the fanbase are minors, but like...kids will be kids.

my bad that it came across as hurtful! thats not my intention, i meant it as more of an objective viewpoint on something that's become widespread online and irl then just an insult to people.

unfortunately, a lot of people within the uhhh lets say 15-early 20s range dont... dive as deep into literature as they should. you ever heard of that one meme about "the door is blue because the author liked the color blue" ?

this is just one of many, and you couldnt go anywhere online without seeing somebody make this kind of joke. schools dont even really teach deep analysis of literature recently (i should know, ive been in multiple english lit classes and most of them don't dive as deep as you could and should. the only one that does that is with my most recent professor), and this stuff happens in highschool. yknow, during students most formative years of learnin stuff.

kids shouldnt just get a free pass on choosing to ignore the main point of a piece of literature because "kids will be kids". literature is the backbone of critical thinking, most people develop that skill through reading, and stories have a greater purpose, especially classical ones, than just "heres a show that provides constant stimulation with no reason".

i probably sound a little crazy or something, and im not articulating this as well as i could due to me taking *checks notes* two melatonin like 30 minutes ago BUT anyway tldr for that section is that a lot of people just dont dive deep into literature and its true meaning. a lot of folks like only looking at the surface level bits because its so much easier and simplier than writing an 1000 word essay about the importance of a certain theme within a piece of classical literature or something

steering this back to monkie kid,

the thing i explained above i think is one of the sources as to tripitaka, and sun wukong's, flanderization within the monkie kid fandom. instead of looking at the characters with the original intent of the religious text, its looked at as more of a "well he did X so he's a bad person". its too literal for a religious allegory. trying to apply strict "real world black & white morals" onto characters like this just wont work and will end with every character from the original jttw with the label of "bad person".

i could go onto a whole rant about how the recent decline of deep analysis of literature is the reason so many people seem to prefer "childrens cartoons" (because of the easier to understand morality/lessons) over, say, classical work or hell even some modern classics. this isnt an insult towards ppl that like "kids cartoons" btw, like look at my whole blog its just about cartoons LOL . i think theres more than just that one reason as to why people, at least online, gravitate towards childrens cartoons (likely because theyre more fantastical rather than trying to cater towards "adult gritty realism" and are animated, which is hard to find nowadays with all this "live action remake" junk), but i do think its one reason.

again, my bad if i sound like an ass or something or if i dont make sense, its like 12 am and i shouldve been asleep like an hour ago but im easily distracted LOLOL . but yeah, i think the source of the flanderization is just people misunderstanding the point of the original text and trying to apply modern storytelling conventions to something thats meant to be a big ass metaphor for enlightenment

[hildred-rex]

Hello, I love Hildred Castaigne! He’s such a fucked up unreliable narrator and he also reminds me so much of myself in middle school and I love him for it. What do you like about him?

First off, apologies for taking absolutely ages to answer this! Life happened and I promptly forgot tumblr existed for almost a month. Yay.

Anyhow, I think my love of Hildred is a combination of the factors you mentioned and the absolute state I got into shortly after I found The King in Yellow -- aaand here comes an essay. The last version of this got deleted, and apparently I've taken it upon myself to make its replacement even lengthier.

Hildred is a fascinating character to read and to write, and his opinions on things are (or would be) so different from mine that it's fun to try to puzzle them out. I keep a bevy of fictional characters that I can simulate reasonably well as a way to make myself consider how people get to opinions that differ from mine, and naturally he's among them.

Beyond that, I'm an absolute sucker for hints at a greater world, but only narrow viewpoints from which to try to figure out what's going on in that world.

The weird bits of The King in Yellow as a whole are superb at tantalizing you with smug allusions and tiny scraps of information about what, exactly, it is that the book is named for.

Is it a play? Is it an entity? What happened to the author? ...was the author Boris? (I don't think the author was Boris, but I won't lie that I've considered writing a fic where he was.)

I got hooked on Lovecraft for the same reason, and it's actually what put me on to Arthur Machen (favorite author) and The King in Yellow (favorite book).

Even with all that, I think my King in Yellow interest would have been a passing thing that returned occasionally, if it hadn't been the last thing I got into before my first set of high school final exams kicked my ass.

The tl;dr of freshman year is that I picked the wrong math class and it spent the semester wrecking my self-confidence (and my sleep schedule) before I finally managed to transfer to a better one. (Then I spent second semester picking myself back up.)

Hildred, notably, is self-confident to the point of it backfiring catastrophically on him. He absolutely should not have gloated to Louis, tactically speaking; in this essay I will-

Anyway. Stress is weird, so during finals season and its leadup I had quite a lot of unmarshalled energy that refused to work on what I actually needed it to do and that instead directed itself at my idle pokings at Hildred and his world.

Probably better than worrying about how my abysmal math grade was going to ruin my life.

It didn't, and I came out of the crucible with rather extensive additional worldbuilding. Since I essentially speedran getting invested in the project, I came away wanting to do more of it and... it just kind of stuck?

I mean, here we are several years later and my first impulse is still to name my tumblr blog for him. I've got a rough idea of his extended family back three generations. I have a design for that spring suit Hawberk had that was mentioned exactly once. I am the embodiment of

when it comes to this lol

_____

I couldn't find a good place to fit this in above, but Hildred was also the first time I encountered a story with an obviously intentional unreliable narrator after I'd encountered the term. Not sure how I missed it that long, lol. I spent probably half a decade looking askance at various authors and going "...do you know what you're writing there???"

I also couldn't integrate it anywhere, but I absolutely adore "The Mask." I have Thoughts on Chambers's ability to write romance more generally, the short version being that he writes Lovers™ and not characters and they're thus so wooden they're hard to read, but that he must have been in a position like the beginning of "The Mask" because holy god that is exactly how it feels.

[dancergurl3000]

Book review time! “Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.” A love story between two people who were right for each other but were I guess just meant to make video games together and not have sex? An essay.

This book I will say took me over three months to read. It took me literally all summer to read this book, and while it is sad as much it is true, I found it dizzyingly frustrating that the two main characters never end up together. It tells of the story of two childhood sweethearts: Miss Sadie Green and Sam Mazer, two programming students at MIT who find each other after a long time of just not wanting to talk and or see each other. Sam’s college room mate Marx also offers his apartment in the beginning of the book because Sam and Marx start off playing video games that Sadie has made as a joke; and then they start to realize not unlike the founders of Facebook that they should all go into business together to make video games, for real. They all move to Los Angeles to pursue this dream for real, and to Sam’s dismay, Marx and Sadie start seriously seeing each other and sleeping with each other. Their video game company is called “Unfair”, and the two co executives find two more cochairs Simon and Ant, a gay male couple in love who write their own high school experiences into an actual video game, brilliant! Called “Counterpart High.” Sam and Sadie made “Ichigo” and “Ichigo two” together, a Japanese children video game in which the player has to survive a massive tsunami and find his parents. I liked the quality of the friendship that Sadie and Sam have, but one of the reasons I guess the book depicts the two of them never becoming lovers are their ultimate grievances with each other getting in the way of let’s say a workplace romance. Sam was angry with Sadie in childhood, he finds out that he was merely nothing more than community service to Sadie, not really a friend, she was only pretending to be Sam’s friend because he was seen as “charity” to Sadie. They don’t speak for twelve years after that. Then Sadie at MIT falls for an abusive professor, he handcuffs her to his bed whenever she refuses to tell him anything he doesn’t want to hear, and Sadie stops speaking to Sam and proceeds to make video games of her own when she finds out that Sam all along has been playing the video games of her abusive ex boyfriend’s, and that it meant to Sadie that Sam knew that she was in an abusive relationship and did nothing. Then Marx, their cofounder is shot during a mass shooting with two gun men looking for Sam when Sam and Sadie are traveling for a work conference. Sadie is pregnant at this time with Marx’s baby and doesn’t even know it. It was brave, and courageous but ultimately dumb in my opinion for Marx to put himself in front of his openly gay employees but was deeply personal to me: if someone had come in with a shot gun looking for my gay ex boyfriend from my high school? I would have put myself in front of that shooter and probably done exactly what Marx did: put myself in front of someone trying to kill someone they hate. Marx is shot three times in the stomach and lasts almost a month on life support. Hangs on in a coma. Then Sadie takes him off of life support, and retreats into her home; has the baby and has postpartum depression. What I didn’t like was the distance the book I guess had to write about with Sam and Sadie, but it made the book drag on and on. I would never want my work life partner to feel like they should go back to work, but I also wouldn’t want to continue working at my company, even if I had started it after a mass shooting. The book should have written more about how the survivors should have gotten professional counseling and support, instead they all disappear more and more into their work. I would change the ending of this book if I had to direct it into a film. It ends with Sam and Sadie promising each other to be more openly communicating even though the book has them hating each other privately and personally I was getting a little tired of that. Instead of promising something to your best friend that obviously is a lie, I would have asked Sam to be braver. “Maybe I want to start over again back at MIT.” I couldn’t see Sam staying in LA. Especially if Sadie was teaching at MIT.

[scienter]

Hi,I'm the anon with the Defan asks.Instead of retiring,I lurked around stalking your blog and ended up re-reading your "Klefanoline & Pop Culture" essay and, let me tell you, it was so good that I rewatched the s3 Klefan scenes (ep1-11) last night.

Here's a little story about what happend during my rewatch.My partner, who apparently remembered me watching TVD back in the day,was in the room & caught a glimpse of Klaus on the screen.Of course, he didn't know his name but he did remember him as (& I quote) the "pony painter guy who went after a school kid" 💀.He wasn't obviously bothered though when I told him klaus died but then I actually made him watch some of the KC scenes since that's what he remembered about Mr. "Pony Painter". And here's when things got interesting because he said he had some questions for me.

Q1. Why was Klaus going around carrying so many women's dresses along with him?Did he dry clean them on his own?

Q2. How did Klaus know what size would fit on Caroline?

At first ,I thought he was trolling me in a pfft-cringe-teen-romance-way for making him sit through KC scenes but he's actually really serious.I told him, I never gave it that much thought and instead asked whether he liked KC but he's insisting on getting the answers.😭But if you think about it,he ain't wrong though.These questions are legit! Was Mr.Pony Painter a tailor at some point?Did Mr.Pony Painter run a women's dress shop as his side hustle?Should we tweet to Julie Plec for an answer?

Hi, anon!

Glad that you enjoyed reading my Klefanoline & Pop Culture meta! It was one of my favorite ones to write.

"pony painter guy who went after a school kid"

💀 💀 Where is the lie?

Mr. Pony Painter.

😂 Thank you for sharing that. You just made my day.

Q1. Why was Klaus going around carrying so many women's dresses along with him? Did he dry-clean them on his own? Q2. How did Klaus know what size would fit on Caroline?

🤔

Q1 - My serious answer: Klaus collected a bunch of women's clothes in Caroline's size as a part of his plan to seduce her. However, I much prefer your theory because it's much more entertaining so let's go with that. Klaus was running a woman's dress shop as a side hustle.

Q2 - Klaus's passion for art required him to develop a thorough understanding of perspective and gauge of size. Also, after living with Rebekah for 1,000 years he probably mesmerized her measurements and used them as a baseline for other women (i.e. Caroline's size relative to Rebekah).

[redafi]

So I’ve been gone for a while

Hi!

Sort-of-life-update:

School is being evil but it ends soon so there is freedom on the horizon

My teacher did not like my essay recently, still devastated over this (it was supposed to be about an aspect of a culture in the middle east. Because we were in our middle east unit. I went “oh I’ll write about common themes and symbolism in Israel!” And then found myself drowning in information about the history of Judaism instead… and when I learn something in the course of a project I have a habit of including what I’ve learned in my essay. It’s because I don’t outline properly.)

I am unwillingly being forced to face the fact that maybe everyone doesn’t have to like. have a council meeting with themselves in their head in order to convince themselves into brushing their teeth. May need to up my antidepressants, because GOD do I want my mom’s energy levels and she’s getting them SOMEHOW. Can’t imagine not living on a tiny energy budget. @ Universe GIVE ME A BIGGER ALLOWANCE

Watched a new anime with my younger sibling recently. We were taking care of the house while my parents took a three-day vacation to Las Vegas, and we watched an anime called “I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss”. Absolutely hilarious to watch my younger sibling be seduced by an anime character, the poor dear.

I have been playing so much minecraft with Lex (younger sibling) that it’s actually kind of impressive. Normally I get burned out on a world within a few days, but I’ve managed to play on our current one to the point where I couldn’t convince Lex to let me put off the whole “ender dragon” thing. I was dragged along to defeat “Her Majesty, The Tyrant Of The End” like a very disgruntled cat on a leash: I just want to build farms and trade with villagers. Let me live my small town farm dreams. (The fact that I got a cat early in the game in this world definitely contributed to my not-yet-being-burnt-out. Minecraft dogs are adorable but I’m used to losing them because they fight. Cats? Not so much.) I’ll show you guys some stuff I’ve done later: I don’t make masterpieces, but I’m happy with my work regardless.

I read an amazing Harry Potter fic recently that I think was recced to me by a friend (and that reminds me that I should let them know that I finished it). I’ve never been a big fan of Snape, especially after growing more attached to the idea of becoming a teacher, but Snape in this fic? Harry is like “yes he’s a jerk but also he’s my favorite teacher because ~Potions~” Draco becomes a friend: he doesn’t get a choice in the matter. Sirius is alive and this is Important to me. (A Harry Potter fix-it fic is what began my adventure into fanfiction, actually. A fic about an OC, Lupin’s daughter, who likes to knit with her wand. Lupin does not know for a while, I don’t think. I can’t remember when she—Eleanor?—figures it out. The love imbued in her crafts gives people a one-time defense against the killing curse. It wasn’t the first fic I read, that was probably pjo and I was very careful about not revealing my presence on fan websites to family members, but it was recced to me by my older sister back when I was 8 or so and I asked her for the title about a year after joining Wattpad, which I did almost immediately after getting that rec) I will share the fic link soon, my dear friends, but I have more to say first

I finished a coloring page I was working on digitally, and I think it looks nice! I’ll show you guys soon, but I’m thinking I might add some lighting effects first—I shaded the lady in the picture with no clear direction for the light source because it was easier to think about at first. I think I planned to add a specific light direction after getting all of the details down, so that’s what I’m going to do! And then I’ll show you, of course.

I am planning on attempting to turn my closet space into an office space (my room was originally supposed to be two rooms, so the closet space is actually big enough to do this if I take some stuff out)

I got caught up on Lore Olympus! Love that story.

I’m attempting to draw some patches for a friends jacket: I warned him that I’m really not that great of an artist, but he doesnt appear to care so flowers it is

[bonmonjour]

Re: Anti-Theism

So, “anti-theism” seems to be the discourse du jour on Twitter and I’ve had the misfortune of seeing many takes about it on my timeline. Some are favorable, some are lacking, and some are just dismissive or dishonest. I usually don’t weigh in on these fleeting arguments, but this time I think I actually know enough to throw my take into the ring as well. Basically, I think that atheism -- the lack of belief in a deity -- is fine and cool and good. However, anti-theism -- being against religion -- has some problems. Maybe someone out there has had a better social media feed than me and has seen actually good, well-explained stances, but I have not been so lucky.

From what I’ve seen, many anti-theists still cling to a fundamentalist, or at least culturally Christian, mindset that colors how they view religion as a concept. Their criticisms often lack depth and come from a very specific, narrow view. That’s not to say there aren’t aspects worthy of scathing critique. I don’t for a second defend CSA or the residential school system. But from my experiences, many anti-theists or NüAtheists don’t go that route. Finally, even if you personally think that religion is false, or whatever your specific position might be, I think that you should still consider a leftist engagement with religion to be worthwhile.

Before I start, I have some caveats. I have done minimal research for this since I know the discourse is probably going to change tomorrow and I don’t have enough hours to write a formal essay. This is mostly just my opinions and thoughts; it's bad to let them fester so here they are in words. Also, the only religion I know in-depth enough is Christianity, so any examples I might bring up will definitely lean in that direction. This is not to say none of this applies to other religions; I simply have not done the research and don’t feel qualified to talk about it.

Anti-Theism is not Atheism

Fundamentalist Mindset

From what I’ve seen, so many self-proclaimed atheists have remarkably American fundamentalist mentalities. And I don’t simply mean the type that somehow treats atheism as its own religion with beliefs and practices when it is really the lack of belief in that, but whatever. What I mean is that, from the way that these anti-theists talk about religions (Christian or not) reveals that the literalism, dismissiveness, and proselytizing elements are still there.

Back in the heyday of atheism on YouTube, I was an avid watcher of many such channels. Looking back, I realize that so many of their refutations concede a literalist interpretation of scripture. Arguments like

“It says God created everything in seven days, but the universe is actually 13 billion years old.”

“There’s no way Noah could have fit all the animals on the ark. Imagine the logistics.”

“There’s no archeological evidence of a Flood.”

“It says being gay is a sin right there in Leviticus.”

“Did you know the Bible has lots of contradictions?!"

were/are prolific. This is nearly identical to the fundamentalist interpretation. The only difference is that instead of “The Bible says this; and it’s good,” the common ‘skeptic’ argument goes “The Bible says this; and it’s bad.”

And then there’s the utterly dismissive rhetoric of centering one’s own views and denying the possibility that others have their merits. This goes hand-in-hand with proselytizing. I lived in a small, conservative, majority-white, majority-Christian town for 8 years of my schooling. Not once was I ever preached to by anyone of any denomination. Of the two times anybody ever invited me to church, one was for a movie and the other was for a benefit concert. My point is that not all Christians, and certainly not all religions, flagrantly preach their own beliefs loudly to any passersby. The only people I have ever encountered like that have been fundamentalist, literalist bigots. Now, for some reason, and maybe this is a quirk of my feed, a lot of anti-theists love to get in people’s mentions or comments or make their own content espousing their beliefs to any passersby.

One more thing I’d like to bring up is the propensity for illiteracy among anti-theists. This is, granted, a much smaller crowd. But the way that fundamentalists (don’t) read the thing they’re talking about is mirrored by this bunch.

The OP makes this bold claim but doesn’t even bother to do maybe 5 minutes of ctrl+F ing. Had he done so, he would’ve found the verses John 13:34, 15:9 very quickly.

Another example, this r/atheism post title. Like, maybe go read some scholarship on the matter before deciding on that opinion?

Little known fun fact: literalism is not the only way to interpret scripture. Nor is it the most common way. Don’t concede to fundamentalists.

Cultural Christianity

Though maybe I shouldn’t be surprised by any of this. Many anti-theists were once theists raised with bad theology, or they were some other religion or maybe they were always atheist and their perceptions and notions of other religions came from absorbing pop culture. In any case, we all exist in this milieu of background Cultural Christianity, and that informs our mindsets and ways of thinking even if we don’t realize it. So many preconceptions about religion broadly are through these Culturally Christian glasses, and with Islam or Buddhism, Orientalism might play a part too.

The Whole of Religion

My absolute favorite mark of anti-theists is their absolute abuse of language. When they say “religion,” they are more often than not referring to a) right-wing White American evangelicalism and/or b) orientalist caricatures of Islam. Not every religion is about belief or faith. Not every religion has an authoritarian God. Not every religion even has a deity. Not every religion has hell. Not every religion is forced or congregational. Not every religion has texts or scripture. Not every religion is supernatural. Not every religion proselytizes. And I could keep going.

There is also the flip side where some atheists claim that somehow Christianity is uniquely bad and other religions don’t have that. The most common example I’ve seen this with is the belief that Hell only exists in Christianity and ‘better,’ ‘eastern’ (orientalism 🤮), like Buddhism, have no concept of hell. Religions are not monolithic and there are no objective value judgements.

Let me be clear, right-wing American Christianity and Islamists are absolutely deserving of scathing criticism. But when anti-theists say “religion is mind control” (real post on r/atheism) or things like that, they are casting that negative value judgment on the entirety of human religion -- a facet of every society since before written records. My firm belief is that there are very, very few things you can say that generalize to all of religion -- over billions of people and thousands of years -- and absolutely none of them are value judgments.

Criticism

In my Anthropology class, on the last day, my professor went on somewhat of a tangent about criticism and cultural relativism. It’s very easy, she said, to fall into either the trap of criticizing the culture of another from a place of superiority or the trap of not criticizing it at all. Just because they are the beliefs and practices of another culture (and by culture here, I am not restricting myself to ethnic groups or whatever. Even Wall Street bankers have their own culture) does not mean they are immune to criticism. At the same time, the criticism should not come from a mindset of “my beliefs are inherently better” or “we need to civilize those backward savages.”

In regard to the practice of honor killing, distressingly common in some areas of Pakistan, she outright denounced it. We can’t just throw up our hands and say “it’s their culture” and ignore the deplorable practice. However, the criticism ideally should not be one that treats Western ideals, rights, principles etc. as somehow morally superior or inherently or objectively better.

Instead, she said, we should pay attention to criticism that is coming from within the community. Honor killing is common in some parts of Pakistan, yes, but there are many people in those communities, both men and women, that are vehemently opposed to it.

With religion, go ahead and criticize, no one is stopping you, but don’t be stupid about it. Don’t work with just whatever preconceptions of religion or theists you might have but instead engage those people and their scholarship to find out what the actual state of things is. And when criticizing, don’t be like this commenter and act like your own beliefs are inherently morally superior.

Pay attention to internal struggles. Religions are not monolithic. The major religions have a billion or more adherents, and at least a few hundred different positionalities. There are Christian critiques of fundamentalism, Muslim critiques of jihad, Hindu critiques of hindutva, and so on.

Finally, be specific about your criticism. There is a very, very fine line between criticizing the beliefs or practices of a religion, the religion itself, and the people who practice that religion. And all too often, atheists cross these lines. Even Bakunin was pretty anti-semitic in his critiques. There is a difference between criticizing some belief of Islamic theology, Islam, and Arab, North African, South Asian, and South-East Asian muslims. Judaism and Hinduism present their own challenges by the fact that they are largely ethnic religions with deep ties to a specific people group from a specific geographic region and specific histories. If criticizing, be very specific otherwise you might end up being a tinge anti-semitic or sounding like a late-1800s British anthropologist.

Edit (making my position a bit more clear here): It is racist to claim that atheism is a uniquely western imposition onto inherently spiritual non-Whites. That sounds like a claim from Lévi-Strauss or any other racist old anthropologist. Non-white atheisms and critiques of religion obviously exist and it's important to listen to them. However, if your a(nti-)theism is advocating for the abolition of religion, then what about all the people who are perfectly happy with their religion? Abolishing religion would mean making them give up their religion, no? That sounds like a familiar foreign imposition.

(While I'm on the abolition of religion, I just need to point out how laughable that position feels to me. Like, you know that thing that's been an important aspect of pretty much every human society since at least Ice Age times? Yeah, we're gonna get rid of it, somehow.)

Common Arguments

Politics

The idea that religion shouldn’t be political is a really stupid one. I am sympathetic to separation of Church and State, but enforcing that is nigh impossible. Fundamentally, religion informs the way people live, who they interact with, what and how they think, what they practice, and so on. People do politics. Leakage is inevitable. There’s also the fact that religions, or at least religious-ish systems, pop up all the time. America has its own civil religion and you could even describe some views on AI and the Singularity as downright apocalyptic.

Religion has been around since before writing existed; since before cities existed. It has always had a role in politics, from the very earliest days of Egypt and Sumeria, through the Pax Deorum, the Mandate of Heaven, the Divine Right of Kings, and all the way up to today. You cannot dismiss the importance of religion when discussing political matters.

Science

The idea that religion is “unscientific” is, in a sense, true and also completely meaningless. Science, however much we love it, is a method for ascertaining information about the world we live in. It depends on measuring physical data about phenomena, coming up with hypotheses, and repeatedly testing those hypotheses to find the best one. Science does not prove; science comes up with better and better descriptions of reality with the understanding that better descriptions yet exist and what we are doing is not the objective truth of reality but our best guess at understanding it.

There are entire fields where science is not that effective. “How should we act towards each other?” is an important ethics question that readily applies to our lives but science is completely useless here. How can we measure data? How can we operationalize? What do we even measure? How can we test our hypotheses? Philosophy may not be scientific, but it’s not unimportant. Clearly, science is but a tool, and not the tool.

Logic and Truth

This one I’ve seen so many times: religion is false and illogical (or some variation of that.)

Where to even begin? My main criticism here is this opinion is simply too shallow to properly respond to. Flawed under what logic? Under what axioms? Flawed how? There is no universal logic that all of knowledge must abide by; there are many different systems of logic. In the end, logic is a way of arriving at conclusions from a set of axioms. If you change the axioms, you change what conclusions you can reach, you change what conclusions are valid or invalid.

Euclidean geometry takes as an axiom the parallel postulate (parallel lines stay the same distance away) and reaches a set of conclusions with that, e.g. the internal angles of a triangle add up to 180°. Hyperbolic geometry ditches that and instead says parallel lines diverge. This leads to the conclusion that the angles of a triangle add up to <180°. Both are entirely valid systems of logic (here, geometry); neither one is more objective or true than the other. A sum of 180° is wrong in hyperbolic geometry, while <180° is wrong in Euclidean geometry, but each conclusion is perfectly right in its own system of logic. Therefore, if you think of a religion’s philosophy having, as an axiom, the existence of a deity, then the conclusions reached in that philosophy are not illogical.

Furthermore, if the ‘flaws’ you’re criticizing are contradictions in the propositions, realize that contradictions are fundamentally unavoidable. This is just Gödel’s theorem. Even in mathematics, probably one of humanity’s best [group of] systems of logic ever invented, there are plenty of contradictory scenarios. The general guideline is that if a step doesn’t make sense under a set of axioms (e.g. what is 0^0?) then the solution is not to throw away the axioms.

As for the assertion that religion is ‘false’? Again, this is too shallow to properly address. Something important that I learned in Anthropology was that there is no objective truth. Every bit of truth came from someone, for someone, by someone, in a particular time and place; it’s all contextual. And of course, like Ehrman talks about, there are multiple levels of truth. In the end, it doesn’t matter if certain beliefs are literally, physically true, if it’s true for the people involved. And that belief has very material effects on the world. Quid est veritas indeed.

Finally, here are some of my opinions and arguments I wish I saw more of on my feed. The Church is undeniably involved in en masse child sex abuse, and some churches are well known for their cultish practices. The Catholic and Anglican churches did support the colonization of the Americas, genocide of Indigenous peoples, and the residential school system. That is blood on their hands. Missionaries are horrible people who perpetuate colonialism, prey on innocent people, and spread bad theology–killing Indigenous expressions in favor of homogenized European practices. Stoning, beheading, honor killings, and child marriages are deplorable practices that are found throughout the Islamic world, and jihadist theology just shouldn’t exist. (Note that none of these implicate “religion” in general.)

Blight of Evangelicalism

And let’s not forget the American special, evangelicalism. It’s been around since the First Great Awakening, well known for such theology as Jonathan Edwards’ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, and has unfortunately enjoyed a resurgence in America currently (and thanks to American global dominance and missionaries, globally). I don’t want to dwell on this upsetting subject matter, but yes, evangelicalism (especially the more explicitly right-wing/televangelist/megachurch type) has an abhorrent theology that preys on innocent people, traps them in cultish environments, spews vitriol towards anyone on the ‘outside,’ queer people being the main target in today’s political climate, and has an absolutely deranged fascination with the end of the world. Any explanation of US’ support for Israel would not be satisfactory without mentioning that the existence of the state of Israel is, in this evangelical cosmology, a necessary prerequisite for God to bring about the end times when they will be victorious and their enemies defeated. It is because of these kinds of people and their influence on the rest of Christianity that no amount of religious leftists will dissuade the majority of other leftists from being a bit wary, and rightfully so.

Important Front

Almost finally, there’s the undeniable fact that a majority of the world’s population are in some way, shape, or form, religious. Regardless of your personal views on religion, it's a terrible move to just abandon such a powerful tool for organizing people to right-wingers. One of the reasons (there are many) why Christianity is so heavily associated with right-wing politics in the US is because of the Cold-War era polarization between America's "christian capitalism" and the USSR's "godless communism." Neither the motto nor the pledge mentioned God until it became politically convenient for the capitalists to do so during the Cold War. And this is not just an American phenomenon. For example, in India, the right-wing is capitalizing on similarly uncontested religious fronts to advance their centralizing hindutva agenda. Not only is it deeply Islamophobic, it also affects "deviants," people who have been practicing their own religious practices for hundreds of years which are non-orthodox. As I previously talked about, religion and politics are deeply tied and always have been. As such, I feel it’s the height of foolishness to abandon an entire front for rallying people towards the goal of communism to reactionaries.

And it’s not like leftism and religion are fundamentally opposed. When two superficially contradictory things come into contact, there is the potential for great innovation. There are some prominent leftist streaks in the history of Christianity, though very few of the examples I’m about to give could be properly termed “leftist” since the left/right system came from 1700s France where the establishment monarchists sat on the right and the upstart capitalists sat on the left. After the capitalist revolutions (American, French) and the economic domination of capitalism, it became the right-wing and socialism and anarchism became the left wing. Other religions have similar streaks too, but I will only talk about things I have comfortable knowledge of.

A Few Thoughts on "Discourse"

As you can see, most of my complaints have not been against the idea of atheism or critiquing religion, but instead with the terminology and methods used. Far too often these takes are shallow and (accidentally? intentionally?) poorly worded. This makes for perfect discourse fuel, where lots of people see a fairly normal, if a shortcoming, take, get mad, and the whole community has a meltdown.

I also suspect a lingering element of yesteryear's cringe culture is behind these annoying discourses that always pop up. This anti-theism discourse apparently started when one user made a harmless little buzzfeed-quiz type of poll for her and her community. This image quickly leaked into the wider leftist community on Twitter, some people made a few (annoying) snide remarks and one-liners. And this led to my timeline being run over with just take after take. Anything something someone doesn't like gets labeled as cringe, and if it's cringe, then it somehow (to some people) justifies endless derision and harassment. It was like that with furries a few years ago; I don't understand this subculture therefore I make memes about shooting furries. On Twitter I guess it's more like, I don't like this lukewarm take therefore I must harass OP until they deactivate.

Further Reading

If you made it this far, congrats! These focus pretty much exclusively on Christianity, as that’s what I’ve delved into, but I’m sure you can find similar sources for Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, etc.

Podcasts

The Magnificast Ep. 216: Why Christianity and Socialism?

The Magnificast Ep. 230: An Episode for your Atheist Communist Mom

Videos

Sixty Symbols. “The Pope’s Astronomer.”

Tobiah. “The Left needs a Religious Strategy.”

Tobiah. “Sabbath as a Revolutionary Principle.”

Tobiah. “The Theological Case for LANDBACK.”

Books

Saba Mahmood. Politics of Piety.

Richard Holloway. A Little History of Religion.

Alexandre Christoyannopoulos. Christian Anarchism.

James Cone. The Cross and the Lynching Tree.

Cheryl Evans. What Does God Think? Transgender People and the Bible.

Damon Garcia. The God Who Riots.

Bradley Jersak. A More Christlike God.

Eugene McCarraher. Enchantments of Mammon.

Roman Montero. All Things in Common.

—. Jesus’s Manifesto.

Sarah Ruden. Paul Among the People.

Kathryn Tanner. Christianity and the New Spirit of Capitalism.

Gerrard Winstanley. Law of Freedom and Other Writings.

Basil the Great. On Social Justice.

Quotedump

Ambrose of Milan

How far, O rich, do you extend your senseless avarice? Do you intend to be the sole inhabitants of the earth? Why do you drive out the fellow sharers of nature, and claim it all for yourselves? The earth was made for all, rich and poor, in common. Why do you rich claim it as your exclusive right? The soil was given to the rich and poor in common—wherefore, oh, ye rich, do you unjustly claim it for yourselves alone? Nature gave all things in common for the use of all; usurpation created private rights. Property hath no rights. The earth is the Lord's, and we are his offspring. The pagans hold earth as property. They do blaspheme God.

John Chrysostom

…to grow rich without injustice is impossible… "But what if he succeeded to his father’s inheritance?” Then he received what had been gathered by injustice. For his ancestor did not inherit riches from Adam; some one of his many ancestors must probably have unjustly taken and enjoyed the goods of others… Tell me, then, what is the source of your wealth? From whom did you receive it, and from whom the one who transmitted it to you? “From his father and his grandfather.” But can you go back through the many generations and show the acquisition just? It cannot be. The root and origin of it must have been injustice. Why? Because God in the beginning did not make one man rich and another poor. Nor did he later show one treasures of gold and deny the other the right of to search for it. He left the earth free to all alike. Why then, if it is common, do you have so many acres of land, while your neighbor has no portion of it?

Gregory of Nyssa

“I got me slaves and slave-girls.” You are condemning to slavery human beings whose nature is free and characterised by free will. You are making laws that rival the law of God, overturning the law appropriate for humankind. Human beings were created specifically to have dominion over the earth; it was determined by their creator that they should exercise authority. Yet you place them under the yoke of slavery, as though you are opposing and fighting against the divine decree. Have you forgotten the limits of your authority? Your rule is limited to control of irrational creatures. In scripture we read: “let them rule over birds and fish and four-footed creatures”. (Gen 1.26) How then do you go beyond what is subject to you and exalt yourself against a nature which is free, counting people like you among four-footed or footless creatures. “You subjected everything to humankind” declares the scripture through prophecy and it goes on to list what is under human control: domestic animals, cattle and sheep. (Psalm 8/7.8) Surely human beings have not been born to you from domestic animals? Surely cattle have not given birth to human offspring? Irrational creatures alone are subject to humankind. “He makes grass grow for animals and green plants for people’s slaves”. (Psalm 104/103.14) . But you have torn apart the nature of slavery and lordship and made the same thing at one and the same time enslaved to itself and lord of itself. “I got me slaves and slave-girls.” Tell me what sort of price you paid. What did you find in creation with a value corresponding to the nature of your purchase? What price did you put on rationality? For how many obols did you value the image of God? For how many coins did you sell this nature formed by God? God said: “Let us make human beings in our own image and likeness” (Gen 1.26). When we are talking about one who is in the image of God, who has dominion over the whole earth and who has been granted by God authority over everything on the earth, tell me, who is the seller and who the buyer? Only God has this kind of power, or, one might almost say, not even God. For scripture says that the gifts of God are irrevocable (Romans 11.29). God would not make a slave of humankind. It was God who, through his own will, called us back to freedom when we were slaves of sin. If God does not enslave a free person, then who would consider their own authority higher than God’s?

Basil the Great

Petr Chelčický

It was then and there that the net became greatly torn, when the two great whales had entered it, that is, the Supreme Priest wielding royal power with honor superior to the Emperor, and the second whale being the Emperor who, with his rule and offices, smuggled pagan power and violence beneath the skin of faith. And when these two monstrous whales began to turn about in the net, they rent it to such an extent that very little of it has remained intact. From these two whales so destructive of Peter’s net there were spawned many scheming schools by which that net is also so greatly torn that nothing but tatters and false names remain. They were first of all the hordes of monks in all manner of costumes and diversified colors; these were followed by hordes of university students and hordes of pastors; after them came the unlearned hordes with multiform coats-of-arms, and with them those of the wicked burghers. The whole world and its wretchedness have entered Peter's net of faith with these evil hordes.

Gerrard Winstanley

What are the greatest sins in the world? I answer. These two; First for a man to lock up the treasuries of the Earth in Chests and houses; and suffer it to rust or mold[er], while others starve for want to whom it belongs, and it belongs to all; This is the greatest sin against universal Love; this is the destroying sin, this is Achan’s sin; this is the action of Covetousness.  The second sin is like to this, and is the same in nature with the other; And this is for any man, or men, first to take the Earth by the power of the murdering sword from others; and then by the Laws of their own making, do hang, or put to death any who takes the fruits of the Earth to supply his necessaries, from places or persons where there is more then can be made use of by that particular family, where it is hoarded up.

In the beginning of Time, the great Creator... made the Earth to be a Common Treasury, to preserve Beasts, Birds, Fishes, and Man, the lord that was to govern this Creation; for Man had Domination given to him, over the Beasts, Birds, and Fishes; but not one word was spoken at the beginning that one branch of mankind should rule over another, but selfish imaginations did set up one man to teach and rule over another.

Was the Earth made to preserve a few covetous, proud men to live at ease, and for them to bag and barn up the treasures of the Earth from others, that these may beg or starve in a fruitful land; or was it made to preserve all her children?

I demand whether all wars, bloodshed and misery came not upon the creation when one man endeavored to be a lord over another? …And whether this misery shall not remove …when all the branches of mankind shall look upon the earth as one common treasury to all.

The power of enclosing land and owning property was brought into the creation by your ancestors by the sword; which first did murder their fellow creatures, men, and after plunder or steal away their land, and left this land successively to you, their children. And therefore, though you did not kill or thieve, yet you hold that cursed thing in your hand by the power of the sword; and so you justify the wicked deeds of your fathers, and that sin of your fathers shall be visited upon the head of you and your children to the third and fourth generation, and longer too, till your bloody and thieving power be rooted out of the land.

For what you call the Law is but a club of the rich over the lowest of men, sanctifying the conquest of the earth by a few and making their theft the way of things. But over and above these pitiful statutes of yours that enclose the common land and reduce us to poverty to make you fat stands the Law of Creation, which renders judgment on rich and poor alike, making them one. For freedom is the man who will thus turn the world upside down, therefore no wonder he has enemies.

Leo Tolstoy

In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful.

If people would but understand that they are not the sons of some fatherland or other, nor of Governments, but are sons of God, and can therefore neither be slaves nor enemies one to another - those insane, unnecessary, worn-out, pernicious organizations called Governments, and all the sufferings, violations, humiliations and crimes which they occasion, would cease.

Simone Weil

Religion in so far as it is a source of consolation is a hindrance to true faith; and in this sense atheism is a purification. I have to be an atheist with that part of myself which is not made for God. Among those in whom the supernatural part of themselves has not been awakened, the atheists are right and the believers wrong.

No human being escapes the necessity of conceiving some good outside himself towards which his thought turns in a movement of desire, supplication, and hope. consequently, the only choice is between worshipping the true God or an idol. Every atheist is an idolater — unless he is worshipping the true God in his impersonal aspect. The majority of the pious are idolaters.

Eugene Debbs

During the brief span of three years, embracing the whole period of his active life, from the time he began to stir up the people until “the scarlet robe and crown of thorns were put on him and he was crucified between two thieves,” Jesus devoted all his time and all his matchless ability and energies to the suffering poor, and it would have been passing strange if they had not “heard him gladly.” He himself had no fixed abode and like the wretched, motley throng to whom he preached and poured out his great and loving heart, he was a poor wanderer on the face of the earth and “had not where to lay his head.” Pure communism was the economic and social gospel preached by Jesus Christ, and every act and utterance which may properly be ascribed to him conclusively affirms it. Private property was to his elevated mind and exalted soul a sacrilege and a horror; an insult to God and a crime against man. The economic basis of his doctrine of brotherhood and love is clearly demonstrated in the fact that under his leadership and teaching all his disciples “sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need,” and that they “had all things in common.”

James Cone

Christ is black, therefore, not because of some cultural or psychological need of black people, but because and only because Christ really enters into our world where the poor, the despised, and the black are, disclosing that he is with them, enduring their humiliation and pain and transforming oppressed slaves into liberated servants. … The “blackness of Christ, ”therefore, is not simply a statement about skin color, but rather, the transcendent affirmation that God has not ever, no not ever, left the oppressed alone in struggle. He was with them in Pharaoh’s Egypt, is with them in America, Africa and Latin America, and will come in the end of time to consummate fully their human freedom.

According to the Bible, the cross and resurrection of Jesus are God’s decisive acts against injustice, against the humiliation and suffering of the little ones. Indeed, it is because God disclosed himself as the Oppressed One in Jesus that the oppressed now know that their suffering is not only wrong but has been overcome. This new knowledge of God in Jesus grants the oppressed the freedom of fighting against the political structures of servitude which make for pain and suffering.

Gustavo Gutiérrez

The underdevelopment of the poor countries, as an overall social fact, appears in its true light: as the historical by-product of the development of other countries. The dynamics of the capitalist economy lead to the establishment of a center and a periphery, simultaneously generating progress and growing wealth for the few and social imbalances, political tensions, and poverty for the many.

In the Bible poverty is a scandalous condition inimical to human dignity and therefore contrary to the will of God.

Leonardo Boff

“In liberation theology, Marxism is never treated as a subject on its own but always from and in relation to the poor. Placing themselves firmly on the side of the poor, liberation theologians ask Marx: 'What can you tell us about the situation of poverty and ways of overcoming it?' Here Marxists are submitted to the judgment of the poor and their cause, and not the other way around.”

[honestlywtfisgoingon]

When You Weren’t Looking — pt. 1/?

PROFESSOR!OBI-WAN x READER

an au where you and you literature professor realize you both have things to learn about love, and yourselves, outside of class. (as we all know, this can only be done through a big scoop of angst and a smutty cherry on top) playlist

summary: you pretty much end up stealing anakin’s job

warnings: language maybe? mention of what i read in my horrific junior year

a/n: ok ok so some of you might be thinking that obi-wants being a little bitchy but padawan obi in tpm was kind of a stickler and i kind of wanted him to grow into rots obi (bc of y/n) he does have the rots hair tho (rip jedi mullet i still love you)

word count: 1,246 so pretty short for the beginning

Your eyes were following him as he walked back and forth across the front of the small lecture hall. He was talking about troubadour poetry, or was at least supposed to be, but he ended up talking enthusiastically about his philosophies and fascination with medieval literature and their cultural ideals, etc.. His eyes were lit up and his arms making animated gestures in an almost boyish excitement. That’s why most people took this class (besides the small fact that he was one of the more attractive professors). He always clearly and concisely explained the subject in the beginning, probably because he knew he had to get it all in before he fell into his usual habit of sharing his love of literature. Even if you didn’t care about the same things, it was mesmerizing the way he put all of it, and his passion made it so it was never boring. He somehow made it all sound like a story and you were the children gathered around his campfire.

Many other students also secretly enjoyed what happened to be one of your favorite parts of the class: taking note of the way his sleeves always got rolled up when he decided to write on the board or the way he would rub the back of his neck when he was thinking, unintentionally baring his biceps. Sometimes you felt as though you should feel guilty, but you weren’t being demeaning or anything, in fact, you were admiring him.

If he didn’t want you to gaze he shouldn’t have been so handsome.

But no, this time you were staring because he was the one who gave you a 62% on your last essay. You still had a good enough grade to pass, but if you wanted to transfer to your dream school, you would have to look pretty damn good on paper. It was an art school, but a very prestigious one that wanted to see if you were going to work hard, even in your non-art-related classes. You had messed up a bit with your grades freshman year of college (missing out on many classes simply because you could), but that could be compensated for if you could show growth in the following years. That was going to take a lot of A’s if you were going to make up for your slacking off. You had worked hard on your essay, putting in the same effort that you had put into the ones that got handed back to you with 90% written on the top, and it’s not like he was the easiest grader you’ve had.

The lecture had ended, and the room echoed with heavy footsteps of students heading out, along with the comments that had been held in for the last hour. You instead stayed seated, running the dialogue you had prepared for starting a conversation with Professor Kenobi in your head one more time.

You rose from your seat, whispering “fuck it,” and headed down the stairs towards the lowest floor of the classroom.

“Professor?” you said in your most polite yet assertive voice.

“y/n is it? Is there anything I can do for you?” he responded, lifting his eyes to see you as he leaned over his desk to shuffle some papers.

“It is actually. But I was wondering if we could discuss my last essay,” You cleared your throat, trying not to show that his blue eyes of all things were making you nervous, “specifically my grade on it actually,” you added.

“Ah I see,” He folded his hands as he put down the now neat stack of papers and sat back down in his chair.

“You gave me a 62% and I’ve always gotten good grades in this class but I didn’t do anything different. I wouldn’t turn in anything that I didn’t feel was at least well written,”

“It was well written, but that’s not the point”

“I’m sorry professor, but how is that not the point?” you said, brows furrowing

“The way you write is beautiful but it’s what you’re writing about. You completely missed the prompt” He didn’t say it harshly, but rather as though it was a casual fact that he figured you already knew.

“How do the relationships in troubadour poems reflect personal and real-world relationships?” You repeated the prompt for clarity.

“Yes. You gave me a description of a dynamic based on false idealism, but there was nothing personal, nothing real to you. I could have read an article on the facts of those dynamics if I really wanted to, but this isn’t psychology class,”

“So it should have been personal?”

It may not be psychology class but it is an essay, not a diary.

He could see the confusion on your face was still present so he elaborated, “It should have meaning. I want this class to push you into reflection. We can’t just read other people's experiences without applying them to our own. What would be the point? I asked for something personal. You don’t have to address anything wildly uncomfortable, but I graded them based on if you could tell someone actually tried to discover something by the end of the essay,” you could admire his intentions, but it was just an essay to you.

“So I got this grade because I didn't do some soul searching,” you deadpanned, no longer confused, but more irked.

His brows raised at your forwardness. He didn’t seem offended, but rather surprised.

“If you truly are unhappy with your grade, I’ll allow you to redo the essay,”

Well, you could redo it and fluff it all up now that you knew what he wanted. At the end of the day, you would do whatever just to take anything higher.

“Thank you I—“

“But I can only raise it 10% because it is after the fact,”

“Professor really?” you said exasperated. You actually stood up straight after that comment, hoping you didn’t sound disrespectful or rude. Thankfully, his reaction, or lack thereof, was exactly what you were hoping for.

“Well, let’s see… there’s a lot of filing and other tasks that I need done, they’re all menial i’m afraid, but I’d be willing to give you extra credit for it,”

Your face turned into a more pleasant expression, and then a confused one once more.

“Don’t you have a TA for that?”

“Anakin? Oh yes, well he’s…he likes to do everything at his own leisure” he sighed but didn’t seem too down about it, more like he was used to it.

“So, may I ask, why’s he your TA?”

“It was a favor to a friend, Professor Qui Gonn Jinn. Please don’t mention it but Anakin's actually his godson. Although I’m British, I’m not a huge supporter of nepotism,- don’t worry,” he smiled. “It’s really because he believes he has a lot of potential, and I agree— but practically he’s not very helpful” you laughed a little at his comment and he had a slightly amused face as well.

There was a slight pause before you said, “I’d like to take you up on your offer,” nodding firmly.

“I’ll see you in my office after every class starting tomorrow? Does that work with your classes?”

“Yes,” you said after taking a moment to think about your schedule.

“Wonderful. I look forward to it,” he smiled, getting up and slinging his work bag over his shoulder.

Spending that much time with a professor? If I go bored out of my mind…

PART 2

[writing-with-olive]

How to write essays fast

I've been writing a lot of papers, so that's what's on my mind.

So this mostly applies to your standard 5-paragraph paper, though it's fairly straightforward to adapt it to longer (or sometimes shorter) assignments.

One of the main things to note is that essays are VERY formulaic, so knowing the formula and being able to write down your ideas in a way that fit into the formula is probably the number one way to get stuff done fast. Because of that, most of what I’m covering is breaking down the formulas so they’re more accessable.

Also this got very long. If there’s anything you want me to expand on just let me know in the comments or send me an ask/DM and I’ll make another post that goes more in-depth about it.

Structure (I hate this step, so I’ve figured out how to do it very fast becuase it’s still important)

The first thing to consider is prewriting and structure. To start, there are two major paper structures I usually consider. The first goes

Introduction

Main point #1

Main point #2

Main point #3

Conclusion

This is good if you have a lot to say on the topic, or if it's something closer to a summary essay where there's not really an opposing side. In something where there are distinct sides, (or if you have less to say to support your own side), you may want something that looks like

Introduction

Main point #1

Main point #2

Why the other side is wrong

Conclusion

The "why the other side is wrong" side is involves thinking through the MOST credible arguments the other side might make, and methodically breaking them down to show how they don't work. The stronger the argument you choose, the more effective this is.

Since I personally hate prewriting with a passion, I usually do this step very fast and end up with an outline that looks like

Intro [insert thesis statement]

P1: [three word summary]

P2: [three word summary]

P3: [three word summary]

Conclusion

(thesis statement, introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion tips are all below the cut)

Usually, this is enough so when I look at my outline, I can see what I'm trying to focus on for each paragraph - and do so without straying from my main point.

For the prewriting, the main things to do are identify with basic structure of the two will serve your purposes better, and write a thesis statement that solidly supports your argument.

Thesis Statement

There are so many guides about creating thesis statements that are powerful, but I'm just going to quickly go over how to be fast about it.

The first thing to know is that a thesis statement is usually a complex sentence: it's your entire essay distilled down to a single line. The general formula I follow goes something like this:

"In their [media type] [name of specific piece], [creator's full name] explored/demonstrated/other verb [theme you're going to be arguing about] demonstrated/using/as evidenced/as shown by [example 1], [example 2], and [optional example 3]."

For example, a thesis statement that follows this format might go

“In his short film Job at Place, David Davidson explored the manifestations of human stupidity through the absurdity of the main character’s home, school, and office.”

Or, if you're writing a historical piece, it might look something like this:

"In [place/time period], [thing you're arguing was happening]: they had to/the conditions were such that/other thing to set up a list [example 1], [example 2], and [example 3]."

For example, a thesis statement that follows this format might go

“During the Tusken Invasion of 32nd century Tatooine, it was the lives of the children that were most affected, from their social development and connections with others to more personal struggles they didn’t yet have the tools to overcome.”

The examples you give are going to correlate to your paragraphs - example 1 is for body paragraph 1, and so on. 

Introduction

I like to think of the introduction as a funnel that gets more and more specific.

First, write a broad statement that touches on whatever theme you’re referencing. 

Job at Place is about human stupidity, so something like “while great minds have flourished throughout the ages, so have the not-so-great.”

Tatooine is about war, and about child development, so something like “children’s development has always been impacted by the state of the world around them.” or “war has many effects, many of which impact those not directly involved with the conflict.”

The idea is that it’s a broad statement that can almost be looked at like a universal truth.

Next, you’re going to go deeper - two sentences that narrow down the time and place you’re talking about specifically, and how that time and place fit into your universal statement. 

The fourth sentence gets even more specific - introducing how the thesis sentence fits into your first three sentences.

Then the last line is your thesis statements. 

Body Paragraphs

Your three main body paragraphs all follow the same formula. (I’ll get to the “why the other side is wrong” paragraph in a minute)

The first sentence you’re going to want is a topic sentence. For this, you’re going to want to look at the example you gave in your thesis statement that corresponds to this paragraph, and see how it relates to your central claim. 

If we’re going with the Job at Place example from above, for the second paragraph, you might open with a line like:

“A striking characteristic of Davidson’s short film was the abnormality of the main character’s school, used to showcase exactly what happens when poor decisions get taken too far.”

Everything within the paragraph will then back up the claim you’re making in the topic sentence (which in turn is backing up your thesis). 

For each paragraph, you’re probably going to want about three pieces of evidence, either in the form of direct quotes (plucking words directly from the source) or paraphrased quotes (summarizing what happened in your own words). The quote should be used to directly support your argument.

After each piece of evidence, you’re going to want about... twoish lines of analysis (this number can change as you need it to, but two lines is something solid to fall back to). 

While analysis can take all kinds of forms, one pattern you can use if you’re stuck is

evidence sentence 

what it means

how that meaning ties back into your main point

Following this pattern, a piece of analysis of Job at Place might look like:

“One of the first images of the private school is that it’s a tall spire with creaking stairs and loose floorboards. Despite this, the principal has eight personal cars parked outside on full display. While the first glimpse of the school might indicate that there is little money to care for the structural integrity, the notion is directly negated by the principal’s actions. By using these two images, Davidson demonstrates what can happen to the youth when those in power let greed carry them away.”

After you write your analysis, include some kind of transition phrase, and go onto the next piece of evidence.

The last line of your paragraph is going to transition into the next paragraph while also summing up the main point of what you talked about in the current one. (This line can also get moved down and tacked onto the beginning of the next paragraph, before the topic sentence, but I have found it tends to look less cohesive that way).

You might choose something like:

“While the school was a disaster in its own right, it wasn’t the only example of human folly.”

If you’re writing a “this is why the other side is wrong” you’re going to want to think about the MOST compelling arguments the other side could make. Take the top one (or two), and figure out ways to crack them apart using evidence from your source material.

In this case, your topic sentence might start off with something like

“While opponents might say [insert compelling counterargument], their reasoning breaks down when one takes into account the evidence.”

At this point, you’re going to follow the same formula as above. The main thing to keep in mind is that for the duration of this paragraph, your point is that the other side’s claim of X is wrong.

Conclusion!

If you know what you’re doing, this is actually the easiest part.

(wait, what??????)

The thing is, you NEVER want to introduce new ideas into your conclusion. Instead, you’re summarizing your main points.

The formula I follow per sentence is:

Thesis statement but reworded (you can change the sentence structure too)

Topic sentence for paragraph 2 or 3, but reworded (I’ll explain why you shouldn’t do the sentence for P1 in just a sec)

Topic sentence for paragraph 1 or 3 but reworded

Topic sentence for paragraph 1 or 2 but reworded

Wow sentence or question (i’ll get to this too)

The idea for the middle three sentences is you don’t want them to read as repetitive, so you’re going to mix up the order so it doesn’t match the order of the rest of the essay. This will help to keep it fresh.

The wow sentence is basically the last impression you get to make. I find it’s usually a good idea to go just a tad dramatic (it sounds dumb, but it has never failed me). If I can’t think of anything, a declarative statement on whatever major theme was being discussed throughout the essay usually does the trick.

Examples:

All of this shows that in the absence of friendships and platonic love, humanity will falter.

Fiction may seem far fetched now, but if the world falls into those same mistakes, it’s only a matter of time until it becomes a reality.

Art has existed for as long as humans have populated the earth; it’s not going away any time soon.

A lesson everyone must understand is the most powerful weapon isn’t anything physical or tangeable: it’s the ideas that exist in the minds of those who care.

(I told you they were going to be dramatic) A way I look at it is if you can’t imagine dropping the mic on the last line, it needs to be stronger (yes I found that plagiarized with not even a whisper of credit on Pinterest, but it works).

If you wrote a SOLID essay, consider ending with a question aimed at the reader (this will push your essay in the direction of either the positive or negative extreme: a strong essay will become stronger, a weak essay will become weaker). Questions can be a call to action or rhetorical as a means to drive home your final point. Becuase they’re more nuanced to the content of the essay, I don’t really have great examples to give you though (sorry).

Hopefully this is useful to at least some of you - good luck!

++++

Tagging:@candlemouse

If you want to be added to or removed from any of my taglists (found pinned to the top of my blog) just let me know :)

[lunarfly]

Essay: Harry and Hermione’s chemistry

We all know that Emma and Daniel had excellent chemistry so Harry and Hermione naturally had great chemistry in the movies. It was quite obviously visible. But many book readers have claimed that Harry and Hermione’s chemistry only exists in the movies and they felt they lacked chemistry in the books. It can be quite tricky at first since the book scenes are only imagined in our heads and we can’t see the author’s imagination and her views on the scenes and interactions. But, luckily, canon has provided us with plenty of evidence that Harry and Hermione had excellent chemistry, visible to many people around them. Let’s take a look:

“That was a really horrible trick of Hermione Granger’s,” said Cho fiercely. “She should have told us she’d jinxed that list —” 

“I think it was a brilliant idea,” said Harry coldly. Cho flushed and her eyes grew brighter. 

“Oh yes, I forgot — of course, if it was darling Hermione’s idea —” 

“Don’t start crying again,” said Harry warningly.

It’s very obvious that Cho has noticed how close Harry and Hermione are and she’s jealous, even suspicious that there’s something going on between them. It’s clear that whatever interaction between Harry and Hermione Cho has witnessed, they had chemistry. 

If this was all of our evidence of H/Hr’s chemistry, I’d ignore it and assume Cho was only jealous because of their disastrous date when Harry left Cho to see Hermione. Perhaps most of her jealousy came from that scene. But this isn’t all of our evidence. We see even more people being jealous and getting suspicious about H/Hr’s relationship:

When at last they had reached a quiet stretch of ground a short way from the Beauxbatons horses’ paddock, Krum stopped in the shade of the trees and turned to face Harry. 

“I vant to know,” he said, glowering, “vot there is between you and Hermyown-ninny.” 

Harry, who from Krum’s secretive manner had expected something much more serious than this, stared up at Krum in amazement. 

“Nothing,” he said. But Krum glowered at him, and Harry, somehow struck anew by how tall Krum was, elaborated. 

“We’re friends. She’s not my girlfriend and she never has been. It’s just that Skeeter woman making things up.” 

“Hermy-own-ninny talks about you very often,” said Krum, looking suspiciously at Harry. 

“Yeah,” said Harry, “because we’re friends.” 

He couldn’t quite believe he was having this conversation with Viktor Krum, the famous International Quidditch player. It was as though the eighteen-year-old Krum thought he, Harry, was an equal — a real rival —

Very interesting indeed. Not only is Krum so jealous that he’s “glowering” (”have an angry or sullen look on one's face; scowl”) at Harry, he also doesn’t believe Harry that he’s just friends with Hermione, even after he explained it very clearly. He still adds how much Hermione talks about Harry, he’s looking suspicious and feels the need of a reconfirmation that H/Hr are not dating. It’s possible that Rita Skeeter’s articles are influencing his thoughts and sure, Hermione talks about Harry a lot (already indicating that she’s very passionate about Harry, we talk about things we like, or feel strong emotions about) and that could be the only thing that makes Krum “suspicious” about H/Hr but would he really still be that jealous if there was absolutely no chemistry between Harry and Hermione? This is definitely a clue on Harry and Hermione’s chemistry in the books.

 Another extremely interesting detail is that Harry is enjoying this. He likes the idea of Krum being his equal, a rival! This has nothing to do with their chemistry, of course, but it’s definitely suspicious...

Still think there’s no chemistry between them? Here’s another person who noticed that Harry and Hermione were very close, a little too close:

Harry has at last found love at Hogwarts. His close friend, Colin Creevey, says that Harry is rarely seen out of the company of one Hermione Granger, a stunningly pretty Muggle-born girl who, like Harry, is one of the top students in the school.

So Colin Creevey noticed how much time they spend together, but I just can’t believe that’s the only thing making him believe they’re in love! There has to be some noticeable chemistry between them to come to this conclusion.

I know it’s Rita Skeeter assuming that H/Hr are so close only because they’re dating, but Colin probably told her more than it’s written here. Would Rita believe Colin that Harry and Hermione are boyfriend and girlfriend merely because he said they hang out often? I don’t think so. I think Colin elaborated on his suspicions of H/Hr. But maybe it was just one of Rita Skeeter’s exaggerations. Either way, there’s more proof of their chemistry:

“Are you going to tell us — ?” 

Hermione shook her head warningly and glanced at Mrs. Weasley. 

“Hello, Hermione,” said Mrs. Weasley, much more stiffly than usual. 

“Hello,” said Hermione, her smile faltering at the cold expression on Mrs. Weasley’s face. 

Harry looked between them, then said, “Mrs. Weasley, you didn’t believe that rubbish Rita Skeeter wrote in Witch Weekly, did you? Because Hermione’s not my girlfriend.” 

“Oh!” said Mrs. Weasley. “No — of course I didn’t!” 

But she became considerably warmer toward Hermione after that.

So even Molly believed that Harry and Hermione were boyfriend and girlfriend (and Hermione had ‘broken Harry’s heart’)? Come on, their chemistry was so noticeable that even Molly thought it was believable enough. ...Although Molly does believe everything that newspapers and magazines say. And maybe she didn’t know them well enough because she assumed Hermione could break Harry’s heart.

Still don’t believe that Harry and Hermione had lots of chemistry in the books? Maybe you’re right, we need to actually see the chemistry, not just have others notice it. And guess what? We do get to see their chemistry. This often happens when Ron becomes suspicious of a possible H/Hr relationship. Ron, their closest friend who knows basically everything about them, suspects that Harry and Hermione are secretly in love. And he is quite rightly suspicious of them when we have moments like these demonstrating their perfect chemistry in the books:

“We’ll go down after Quidditch,” Harry assured her. He too was missing Hagrid, although like Ron he thought that they were better off without Grawp in their lives. “But trials might take all morning, the number of people who have applied.” He felt slightly nervous at confronting the first hurdle of his Captaincy. “I dunno why the team’s this popular all of a sudden.” 

“Oh, come on, Harry,” said Hermione, suddenly impatient. “It’s not Quidditch that’s popular, it’s you! You’ve never been more interesting, and frankly, you’ve never been more fanciable.” 

Ron gagged on a large piece of kipper. Hermione spared him one look of disdain before turning back to Harry. 

“Everyone knows you’ve been telling the truth now, don’t they? The whole Wizarding world has had to admit that you were right about Voldemort being back and that you really have fought him twice in the last two years and escaped both times. And now they’re calling you ‘the Chosen One’ — well, come on, can’t you see why people are fascinated by you?” 

Harry was finding the Great Hall very hot all of a sudden, even though the ceiling still looked cold and rainy. 

“And you’ve been through all that persecution from the Ministry when they were trying to make out you were unstable and a liar. You can still see the marks on the back of your hand where that evil woman made you write with your own blood, but you stuck to your story anyway. . . .” 

“You can still see where those brains got hold of me in the Ministry, look,” said Ron, shaking back his sleeves. 

“And it doesn’t hurt that you’ve grown about a foot over the summer either,” Hermione finished, ignoring Ron. 

“I’m tall,” said Ron inconsequentially.

Wow. Hermione really made up a whole monologue about Harry being fanciable and attractive! If this conversation doesn’t convince you that there was chemistry between them, probably nothing will. Let’s analyze this scene:

Hermione starts talking about Harry and how fanciable he is, how interesting he is, how attractive looks and qualities he has, going on and on... Hermione is clearly showing her interest in Harry and basically flirting with him. But what interests me is this moment:

Harry was finding the Great Hall very hot all of a sudden, even though the ceiling still looked cold and rainy.

He’s actually blushing. Hermione’s compliments have a very obvious effect on him. But something that fascinates me more is the way this is written. He isn’t just blushing, no. Harry never said something like:

Harry was feeling his face growing very hot all of a sudden.

Instead, we have the Great Hall going “very hot”. It isn’t just his face and his blush, it’s the whole hall. This indicates clear tension between Harry and Hermione. 

You could say that all of these compliments that Hermione is giving Harry are just facts and reasons why other girls find him attractive. But this isn’t the case. There’s obvious romantic tension between them.

Another thing to note is Ron’s jealousy. He “gags on a large piece of kipper” and he keeps interrupting Hermione, saying and showing why he is fanciable too. The chemistry is undeniable at this point. 

You could argue that Hermione was complimenting Harry to make Ron jealous, that his suspicions were expected and intended. And it does seem so at first sight: Hermione compliments Harry in front of Ron, also being very impatient as if she had been planning this conversation, as well as pointing out lots of “fanciable” things that apply to Ron as well (the scars, the height), ignoring Ron to make him more jealous. You may be tricked into thinking so. But this isn’t the case. 

First of all, if she wanted to make Ron jealous, don’t you think Hermione would’ve been enjoying the reaction? Why is she giving him these “looks of disdain”(note that this isn’t the first time she has given him nasty looks)? Wouldn’t she be looking away from him, smiling to herself? At least looking a little pleased? 

And if she really wanted to make Ron jealous, why would she use Harry of everyone? Maybe because he and Ron had a lot of similarities that could be convenient for making him jealous? But this isn’t like Hermione at all. This isn’t her technique of making people jealous. 

“What’s happened to you?” asked Harry, for Hermione looked distinctly disheveled, rather as though she had just fought her way out of a thicket of Devil’s Snare. 

“Oh, I’ve just escaped — I mean, I’ve just left Cormac,” she said. “Under the mistletoe,” she added in explanation, as Harry continued to look questioningly at her. 

“Serves you right for coming with him,” he told her severely. 

“I thought he’d annoy Ron most,” said Hermione dispassionately. “I debated for a while about Zacharias Smith, but I thought, on the whole —” 

“You considered Smith?” said Harry, revolted. 

“Yes, I did, and I’m starting to wish I’d chosen him, McLaggen makes Grawp look a gentleman. Let’s go this way, we’ll be able to see him coming, he’s so tall. . . .”

Hermione picks the people Ron despises the most to make him jealous - like Cormac McLaggen and Zacharias Smith. Hermione had no reason to use Harry to make Ron jealous. She had no reason to make Ron jealous at all. So that argument is definitely debunked. 

Could Hermione have told Harry all of these things because she really didn’t mean them and was just pointing them out from a different teenage girl’s point of view? That just can’t be the case. Otherwise she would’ve been complimenting Ron too. If the only purpose for this speech was to show Harry his attractive traits, she would’ve laughed at Ron’s remarks and agreed that he was fanciable too in other girls’ eyes because he had many of the same “fanciable” traits. 

So Hermione was definitely showing her attraction towards Harry which is also made obvious by Harry’s reaction to it and the romantic tension between them that even Ron couldn’t deny.

Believe it or not, this isn’t the only moment when Harry and Hermione are literally flirting. Take a look at another scene of Ron third wheeling Harry and Hermione and looking suspicious:

As they came into the castle they spotted Cormac McLaggen entering the Great Hall. It took him two attempts to get through the doors; he ricocheted off the frame on the first attempt. Ron merely guffawed gloatingly and strode off into the Hall after him, but Harry caught Hermione’s arm and held her back. 

“What?” said Hermione defensively. 

“If you ask me,” said Harry quietly, “McLaggen looks like he was Confunded this morning. And he was standing right in front of where you were sitting.” Hermione blushed. 

“Oh, all right then, I did it,” she whispered. “But you should have heard the way he was talking about Ron and Ginny! Anyway, he’s got a nasty temper, you saw how he reacted when he didn’t get in — you wouldn’t have wanted someone like that on the team.” 

“No,” said Harry. “No, I suppose that’s true. But wasn’t that dishonest, Hermione? I mean, you’re a prefect, aren’t you?” 

“Oh, be quiet,” she snapped, as he smirked. 

“What are you two doing?” demanded Ron, reappearing in the doorway to the Great Hall and looking suspicious. 

“Nothing,” said Harry and Hermione together, and they hurried after Ron. The smell of roast beef made Harry’s stomach ache with hunger, but they had barely taken three steps toward the Gryffindor table when Professor Slughorn appeared in front of them, blocking their path.

Try denying their chemistry here.

Just imagine two (straight) friends of the opposite gender, the boy grabbing the girl’s arm and turning her around (the tension!!!) and her acting all defensive, and then the boy telling her something that makes her blush and admit something while whispering. Then the boy jokingly teasing her about it and smirking while the girl tells him to be quiet playfully. Yeah, that’s called flirting and they have extremely obvious chemistry. 

The funnier part is Ron noticing this and suspiciously confronting Harry and Hermione while they quickly say “nothing” at the same time and catch up with him.

I don’t think an explanation is even necessary, anyone who denies their chemistry in this scene is basically lying to themselves and is willingly blinding themselves.

Here’s another interesting scene from HBP with Ron getting jealous of H/Hr’s chemistry once again:

Malfoy looked rather as he had done the time Hermione had punched him in the face. Hermione turned to Harry with a radiant expression and whispered, “Did you really tell him I’m the best in the year? Oh, Harry!” 

“Well, what’s so impressive about that?” whispered Ron, who for some reason looked annoyed. “You are the best in the year — I’d’ve told him so if he’d asked me!” 

Hermione smiled but made a “shhing” gesture, so that they could hear what Slughorn was saying. Ron looked slightly disgruntled.

Here Harry and Hermione’s chemistry isn’t really made clear but just look at the way Hermione turns to Harry. He literally sees her expression as “radiant” (this adjective has also been used to describe Ginny’s smile) and Hermione looks simply delighted. They were clearly having a great moment here, so good, in fact, that Ron becomes jealous and annoyed and tries to pretend Harry’s compliment wasn’t a big deal. He compliments Hermione the same way as Harry did but she doesn’t have such a “radiant” smile this time, does she? Instead she shushes him(poor Ron just wanted attention from his future wife!). Ron has every right to be disgruntled in this scene.

This is the third time in HBP that Ron is third-wheeling Harry and Hermione. Whether anti-H/Hrs want to admit it or not, Ron is a third-wheel to Harry and Hermione very often and becomes very jealous of their chemistry. JKR, it really isn’t funny, where are the R/Hr flirting moments? They’re supposed to be the endgame couple, aren’t they? Why do you have so many moments between Harry and Hermione when they’re clearly flirting and demonstrating what excellent chemistry looks like?

Apparently, Harry and Hermione have had such chemistry in the past that, even when they’re not flirting, Ron still becomes suspicious of Harry and Hermione’s ‘possible secret relationship’:

“Because she was crying,” Harry continued heavily. 

“Oh,” said Ron, his smile fading slightly. “Are you that bad at kissing?” 

“Dunno,” said Harry, who hadn’t considered this, and immediately felt rather worried. “Maybe I am.” 

“Of course you’re not,” said Hermione absently, still scribbling away at her letter. 

“How do you know?” said Ron in a sharp voice. 

“Because Cho spends half her time crying these days,” said Hermione vaguely. “She does it at mealtimes, in the loos, all over the place.”

Ron suspected that Harry and Hermione had kissed before. His suspects are quite obvious, judging from the tone of his voice. No matter how insecure Ron is, he is still their best friend, he should know that they’re not interested into each other romantically. But it seems like it’s so apparent to everyone that Harry and Hermione have something going on.

Here’s another moment showing us Harry and Hermione’s chemistry:

“Harry!” Hermione cried. 

“I know!” Harry shouted. Unable to contain himself, he punched the air; it was more than he had dared to hope for. He strode up and down the tent, feeling that he could have run a mile; he did not even feel hungry anymore. Hermione was squashing Phineas Nigellus’s portrait back into the beaded bag; when she had fastened the clasp she threw the bag aside and raised a shining face to Harry.

 “The sword can destroy Horcruxes! Goblin-made blades imbibe only that which strengthen them — Harry, that sword’s impregnated with basilisk venom!” 

“And Dumbledore didn’t give it to me because he still needed it, he wanted to use it on the locket —” 

“— and he must have realized they wouldn’t let you have it if he put it in his will —” 

“— so he made a copy —” 

“— and put a fake in the glass case —” 

“— and he left the real one — where?” 

They gazed at each other; Harry felt that the answer was dangling invisibly in the air above them, tantalizingly close. Why hadn’t Dumbledore told him? Or had he, in fact, told Harry, but Harry had not realized it at the time? 

“Think!” whispered Hermione. “Think! Where would he have left it?” 

“Not at Hogwarts,” said Harry, resuming his pacing. 

“Somewhere in Hogsmeade?” suggested Hermione. 

“The Shrieking Shack?” said Harry. “Nobody ever goes in there.” 

“But Snape knows how to get in, wouldn’t that be a bit risky?” 

“Dumbledore trusted Snape,” Harry reminded her. 

“Not enough to tell him that he had swapped the swords,” said Hermione. 

“Yeah, you’re right!” said Harry, and he felt even more cheered at the thought that Dumbledore had had some reservations, however faint, about Snape’s trustworthiness. “So, would he have hidden the sword well away from Hogsmeade, then? What d’you reckon, Ron? Ron?” 

Harry looked around. For one bewildered moment he thought that Ron had left the tent, then realized that Ron was lying in the shadow of a lower bunk, looking stony.

 Just look at the intensity of this scene!

Firstly, when Harry and Hermione find out exciting news, they figure it out themselves and alone, they didn’t even think of Ron. Then look at how happy Harry and Hermione are feeling, their hopes high, their spirits lifted, their excitement causing the tension! Hermione’s face is “shining”!

Then they start discussing, knowing what the other is thinking and finishing each other’s sentences! The way they interact is precious, they’re “gazing” at each other, feeling something “tantalizingly close.” They start whispering. It’s so intense and full of tension and chemistry. They’re so excited. They even completely forgot about Ron(I feel so bad for him), Harry even thought that he had left.

This is one of the strongest Harmione scenes ever, the chemistry between them is incomparable to anyone else’s. Just imagine being Ron right now, watching the love of your life have this intense conversation with your and her best friend, sharing this exciting moment, experiencing all of this without you. And you just sit there and watch. Just watch. Ron’s jealousy, intensified by the horcrux, was the one thing that made him leave Harry and Hermione in the tent. And Ron did have a reason to be jealous. 

So they do have chemistry in the books, everyone sees it, including Harry and Hermione’s dates, their closest friend, their “families”, their fans. Everyone except for anti-Harmiones. I tried making up excuses for why others assume Harry and Hermione are together, that maybe I’m misinterpreting something and it’s not because of their chemistry. But when you put everything together, it should become obvious. You have to be insanely biased and willingly ignore everything to come to the conclusion that they don’t have any chemistry. 

I’m not even going in detail about physical contact between them. It would take too long. They grab each other’s hand/arm, they hold onto each other for strength and protect each other, they’re very comfortable with hugs and kisses and their physical connection is another piece of proof of their undeniable chemistry. 

Even JKR has admitted that they had some “charged moments” in DH in the tent, which is her way of saying that they had intense chemistry:

[Kloves] felt a certain pulll between them at that point. And I think he's right. There are moments when [Harry and Hermione] touch, which are charged moments. One when she touches his hair as he sits on the hiltop reading about Dumbledore and Grindelwald, and [two] the moment when they walk out of the graveyard with their arms around each other. Now the fact is that Hermione shares moments with Harry that Ron will never be able to participate in. He walked out. She shared something very intense with Harry. So I think it could have gone that way.

In conclusion, Harry and Hermione have excellent chemistry in the books, even better and stronger than in the movies. None of the movie scenes showed their chemistry with this intensity. Their romantic tension was much better in the books. Harry and Hermione have chemistry.

[thomas-the-tank-engene]

best-best friend

pairing: heeseung x (f)reader,

Genre: angst and fluff ig?

wc: 1.1k

warnings: mentions of cheating and a swear word or two, also horrible writing but that’s nothing unusual

a/n: ahhhh hello, i worked every night this long weekend so this is probably really badly written beacuse i’m so tired but i wanted to post this anyway because why not? also im defiently not writing this when im supposed to be writing my history essay pffffftttt

summary: heeseung finds out your bf cheated on you and is not very happy >:(

 When Heeseung heard the news going around school that your boyfriend of two years had cheated on you, he was very confused. He sat in disbelief for a few seconds. Only being able to respond with a simple “huh?”, as the older girl nodded her head. 

“Yeah, we saw him with a girl from the year below us in town the other day. Holding hands, and kissing n shit. We followed him round and got some photos if you wanna see?” Jake and Sunghoon squinted as the phone was placed in front of their faces. The girls were right, that was definitely y/n’s boyfriend and definitely not y/n. 

The two boys felt a pang of hurt in their chest, cautiously glancing towards Heeseung, who was already looking at them expectantly. Hoping that it was just a prank and that they weren’t actually telling the truth.

Jake grimaced, offering a tight lipped smile to the boy.

“We already told y/n, just thought you guys should know too cause you’re friends or whatever,”

Heeseung remained still for a little while longer, unable to comprehend that one of his friends would cheat on the most amazing girl he had the honor of knowing. The boy was lucky to get along with his best friend's boyfriend. They had similar interests and hobbies, which made it easy to form a friendship rather quickly. However, Heeseung felt no shame in throwing it all away as soon as he heard the truth.

The boy abruptly got up from his lunch table, his friends not bothering to stop him but instead throwing him sympathetic looks as he turned away. His fists were clenched tightly at his sides as he hunted your boyfriend- or ex boyfriend- down. 

Heeseung was beyond pissed.

He knew where your ex liked to hang out at lunch, and it wasn’t long before Heeseung had him pinned against a wall with his shirt bunched tightly within his fist. Heeseung wasn’t often violent, and he put a conscious effort into not letting his anger, or emotions, get the better of him. However when it came to you, it was a different story. The boy was quick to abandon his morals in order to find the truth. Heeseung’s eyes were dark and murky as he glared at the pathetic boy before him.

“Did you do it?” Heeseung asked, voice low and husky. He didn’t need to clarify what he meant, the boy knew. 

Your ex gulped loudly, eyes darting back to his friends who avoided eye contact. They were not going to get in the way of Heeseung. 

“How long have you been doing it for?” Heeseung prompted, waiting expectantly for a response. 

“I-i not too long, I mean-not with this one-” The older boy pushed the stuttering kid into the wall once more, a little harder, causing him to groan in pain. Heeseung showed no remorse.

“What do you mean ‘not with this one’” He growled, finding himself growing angrier as seconds passed. He was a ticking time-bomb bound to go off any minute.

Heeseung soon found a soft hand on his back, and he turned around, finding the warm eyes of Sunoo.

“Leave him alone hyung, go find her.” The boy couldn’t move. He wanted to know the truth. Wanted to make the kid hurt. But one more look from Sunoo was enough to knock some sense into him and reluctantly, Heeseung let go of your ex (not without a small shove to make him stumble a bit).

The older boy nodded at Sunoo, who patted his back lightly.

Heeseung then took off to begin his search around the school. He had no clue where you would be. The school was abnormally large, and you could be anywhere. The boy was lucky, however, that you wanted to see him as much as he wanted to see you. He pulled out his phone to see a text message from you. Simply reading, ‘T67’.

As he ran through the school, his heart was beating fast. His breath was ragged and he felt his cheeks growing warm. Not because he was unfit or tired (the boy was hella fit iykwim), but because the thought of you drove him mad. 

He wanted to hold you in his arms and never let go. He wanted to protect you from all the dangers of the world. Your smile was like the sun to him. It brightened not only his day, but his entire life. He needed you. You were his oxygen.

Opening the door to the classroom, he found you curled up in a ball, back leaning against the sidewall of the classroom. He felt his heart melt at the sight, and he wasted no more time and quickly made his way towards you. Heeseung knelt down in front of you, eyes sparkling with love.

“How are you my dear?” He whispered softly. Your head slowly moved up, allowing heeseung to see your black stained cheeks and redshot eyes.

“I’ve been better,” You mumbled in response, attempting to laugh it off. Heeseung pouted slightly.

“Be honest love,” You glanced away as he spoke, not being able to make eye contact with him and not start crying again.

“This kinda sucks I guess,” He laughed at that, causing a smile to bloom on your own face too.

“It really does,” He whispered back. His deep voice catching your attention.

You looked back at him, holding his gaze. The two of you sat frozen for a few seconds, before the tears began to build up in your eyes once more and you burst all over again.

The boy was quick to pull you into his arms. Rubbing your back soothingly. Whispering sweet nothings while kissing the crown of your head.

“It’s okay love, you’re okay. He’s an absolute dick.” 

Your fists clung onto his school sweater tightly as you sobbed into his chest. The two of you stayed there for a while longer. Not moving as the bell rang signalling the end of lunch and the beginning of last period. Eventually, when you gained your composure, Heeseung took you out of school, driving you to the nearest cafe and ordering your favourite drink for you, as well as some chicken nuggets (because who doesn’t like chicken nuggets? I deeply apologize if you don’t because you are missing out, idc what they’re made from they taste good).

The boy stayed with you for the rest of the day, thinking of ways to make you laugh and smile. You didn’t know where you would be without him. He really was the best-best friend.

tehe uwu i want heeseung to be my best friend plz <3

[sparkliingcrown]

— my worst nightmare.

Summary: You know the saying that goes 'Keep your friends close but your enemies closer?' How much closer can you get to your enemy than being roommates?

Request: Brownies + Dark Irish Coffee 

Genre: Roommates AU, College AU, Enemies to Lovers

Words: 6.1k

Warnings: Lots of swearing. I didn’t hold back in that aspect. Uhm, mentions of drinking, yn kinda panics at one point... I think that should be all! If not, pls notify me ^^

Note: An Eishi Café special. Yes, this is because it was last minute requests and it took too long for me to get to and open up the café again. ALSO TO THE ANON THAT REQUESTED THIS, I’M SORRY I MISREAD THE ORDER AND WROTE IT AS A LIGHT REQUEST! I hope you still like it nonetheless... Sorry it took so long T^T Also, this is my first time writing something like this so I really hope that it fits.

You were hauling your bags and boxes up to your new dorm room by yourself. That wasn’t exactly the greatest way to start the day, considering you had to stay up packing the last of your stuff, rushing to the nearest train station, riding the train, and then driving all the way to your new dorm room for college yesterday. You didn’t even get to sleep a wink on the train and you sure as hell can’t sleep while on the road. So, in short, you were tired, hungry, and really fucking pissed.

You mocked your naive and excited self, making faces as you tugged your bags closer to your body, pulling the strap of your backpack higher up your shoulder to keep it from falling on the floor. Go to college, they said. You'll have the time of your life, they said. Who's they? The many, many movies you watched growing up. And where exactly were you now?

"Can you at least try to help me move my stuff inside?" You drop your bags at the door, stretching your arms out.

"Lemme think about it." He closes his eyes for a second, letting out a deep breath. "No."

That's right. You were stuck with him. Choi Seungcheol. The bane of your existence.

That motherfucker.

His majesty was sitting comfortably on the couch, a cup of boba in his hand. Oh, how you wish you could just reach out there and squeeze it to make it explode in his face. Instead, you huff. You turned away and stomped your way down to the elevator to get the rest of your luggage. Muttering to yourself, you hauled the last of your luggage in, just wanting to collapse onto your bed for the day having barely gotten any rest the previous day.

You were expecting your best friend, Jiwoo, to greet you at the door. You were expecting her to greet you with that enthusiastic squeal when she sees you. You were expecting her to give you a warm hug that would last probably longer than 5 minutes. Alas, the universe decided to be rude to you and give you your worst nightmare.

Seungcheol stares as you drag your bags and feet to the nearest room, raising an eyebrow when he thinks he heard you utter his name. He did not help whatsoever. Asshole. Once you get to your room, you don't even bother cleaning up and unpacking. You sank to the floor with a loud whine, not caring at all if Seungcheol could hear you from outside.

You were so excited to live out your college dream. Going to the library, going to parties you know Jiwoo would drag you to, midnight talks with your roommate, binging series you’ve been eyeing for a while. The universe just really had to ruin it for you by placing him as your roommate. You didn’t even know he was enrolled in Hybe University. It seemed like he didn’t know either. You recall the shocked look on his face when he opened the door.

“You’re my roommate?!” You both exclaim in unison.

You feel your lifespan shorten by 30 years when it fully sinks in that you’re stuck with him for a full school year. If it wasn’t enough that the bags you carried were heavy, the ones under your eyes felt even heavier. Seungcheol frowns.

“You look like shit,” he states, taking a long sip out of his cup.

You manage to send your iciest glare at him, chucking the heavy luggage inside to make him  move. “No shit, Sherlock-”

“The name’s Seungcheol.”

You ignore him. “I just drove a fucking half hour just to get here.”

You kick the bag, moving it to a corner then go to get a smaller one waiting by the door. Seungcheol moves out of your way, walking back to the couch. “Don’t fucking test me, Choi.”

He puts one of his hands up in a surrendering gesture. You sigh, closing the door behind you to get the rest of your things.

You let out a groan, deciding to unpack your things a little later. Eyeing your bed, you get up to move to your bed. You easily drift off into sleep. You would’ve loved to say it was dreamless but you actually quite enjoyed the chaos of it all. You awoke at 2 in the morning, lost and confused. You frown at your waste of half the day yesterday, smacking random items in your room to figure out where you had placed your phone.

Once you located it, the screen lit up your face - blinding you a little in the process. Jiwoo had excitedly messaged you. Well, excited was an understatement when she sent you 102 messages in the span of one hour and 17 missed calls for the rest of the time you were unconscious on your bed.

Your stomach growls, shocking you. “Yeah, I should get some food then start unpacking. Probably message her back as well…” you mutter to the air, dusting off your jeans as you finish up the process of fully moving into your new home for the next school year.

You sigh, “Fuck, this is going to be a long year.”

You bury your head in the reference book that you picked out to help with your assignment. It wasn’t doing it’s job of helping. You shifted in your seat. With a groan, you lean back in your seat, not understanding any of the material so far. Jiwoo pats your back encouragingly, nuzzling her cheek on your shoulder.

"There, there," she says, running a hand through your hair. "Hold on, I'll just return this book because it didn't have what I was looking for."

With a solemn nod, Jiwoo rises from her seat. She skips away with the book in your hands leaving you suffering all alone. You mentally slap yourself for sulking when it's literally only the second month of college. Living in the dorms has not been any easier ever since you arrived. Seungcheol took any opportunity to get a rise out of you and you would bite back with just as much sass.

It was like a competition between you both. Over what exactly? No one could really tell. Jiwoo came over often so she's very much used to seeing the two of you bicker like little children out of the smallest things. This was the reason as to why she dragged you out of the dorm.

"Come on, ever since you've arrived, you're either staying in your room or going to that boba place!" Jiwoo was tugging you by your wrist while you used your other hand to cling onto your bedpost. "You need to live! To breathe!"

"I do that just fine over here!" you complain.

Then, it was just a competition of whining. Jiwoo won that one easily. Her bright, sparkling puppy eyes were too much to resist. You sighed. You were too soft for Jiwoo sometimes. You mumble, cursing the professors for giving a bunch of work already. It was to the point that you could barely keep track of any of your subjects anymore.

You stare at your laptop screen, a half blank essay staring back at you with a menacing aura. You turn your head. An open textbook sat atop several other books of the same subject stared at you too. You could hear it calling for you, yelling at you to study for the test next week. With a silent cry, you drop your head down onto the table. You hear a snicker from behind you. One that you've heard way too many times that you didn't even need to turn around to see who it was.

"Hello to you too, Choi." You let out a tired sigh, head rising from the table.

"You look pitiful like that," he comments, eyeing the multitude of books surrounding your laptop. "You need any help?"

You raise an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"Do you need help?"

"The Choi Seungcheol is offering me help?"

"Ah, good, so your ears can work," he gives you that shit eating grin that you just want to punch off his face. You can already feel the fire burning inside just ready to burst. You feel like a boiling kettle to say the least. It's his turn to raise an eyebrow now.

"Well?"

"No way," you huff like a child, turning your back on him.

He sat across from you. It really just had to be the only fucking unoccupied seat left. You mentally cursed all the students who came to the library. Then you felt bad and instead cursed Seungcheol who just had to come to the library when you were at the peak of the stress rollercoaster, just ready to dive into the depths of despair and bad grades.

Your eyes flutter back and forth between the laptop, the books and Seungcheol himself. With a defeated sigh, you turn the laptop so the screen could face him. "Please."

That same grin never left his face, he tauntingly cups a hand around his ear. "What's that? I can't hear you."

"Old man," you retort with a snicker. Just as he was going to open his mouth to protest, you repeat yourself a little louder. "Please help me with this damn assignment so I can finish it already."

"That's more like it." He pulls out the chair next to you, pushing away the books to help you.

You would never admit it out loud but you were actually grateful that Seungcheol had offered his help. With every small pointer he gave you, you were able to fly through all of your workload like a breeze. He even lent you his notes for that test you were so worried about. You leaned back, tipping your head back as the most relieved sigh anyone could muster slipped past your lips.

“What? No ‘Thank you’?” he asked, a small pout on his lips.

“I didn’t kill you. Is that enough?” He rolls his eyes at you, returning to his own seat. Guilt started to take form in the pit of your stomach. You sighed. “I gotta go. Thanks. I’ll see you at the dorm.”

You didn’t see it. He didn’t want you to see it. He didn’t even want to acknowledge it; the heat rising up and painting his cheeks pink from when you sent him that small smile before leaving. Seungcheol mentally slapped himself, shaking his head and trying to focus on his own essay he put off while helping you. Safe to say, he never really did finish that stupid essay.

"Joo, do I have to go?" you complained, tugging your shirt downwards. It's a little too much for your taste.

"You deserve it, babe," Jiwoo replied. "You got good grades after studying for so long! Loosen up a little! Please?"

You give her a skeptical look.

"Just this once?" She gives you her best puppy dog eyes that shimmered under the light of her dorm room. She puts up a finger and juts out her bottom lip in a pout, ultimately stealing your heart with how cute she is. "For me?"

"Ugh, fine. You're too cute not to."

"Yay!" she wraps her arms around you and gives you a light kiss on your cheek, dragging you out of her dorm and to her car.

She drove you to the party, that sweet smile never leaving her face. She talked about a blend of many topics she was interested in. You heard her mention something about talking to that girl in her class. You only stared out the window, humming in response as you dreaded arriving at the party.

Alcohol. It reeked of alcohol. You just arrived but there were already so many people that just smelled like sweat and whatever was served in the kitchen. Jiwoo took you to the dance floor, which was clearly just the living room of the house with the couches pushed to the side so there's space. She introduced you to a couple of her friends. You give them a small wave. It probably wasn't the best idea to try and have a conversation this close to the speakers.

After just a few minutes of walking in, you already lost Jiwoo. She was probably just with one of her friends. Come to think of it, she was clinging on to one of them really tightly and just being very clingy. But she was almost always like that with anyone. You brush it off your mind, heading to the kitchen to get something to drink.

"They look pretty," Seokmin stated, sipping from his cup and making a slight face at the bitterness. "Wait... Is that Y/n?"

Seungcheol's ears seem to perk up at the mention of your name. He turns to the direction his friend was staring at, seeing you hover over the kitchen island with a drink in your hand. You looked bored. A little lonely too. He deduced that your friend had left you to fend for yourself. He snickers to himself.

"Oh yeah, I think that is," Jeonghan was suddenly by his side, eyeing Seungcheol for his reaction. Seungcheol pulls a face.

"What are you looking at?" he sneers.

"Don't you think they're pretty, Cheollie?" Jeonghan giggled, obviously already a little tipsy. Seungcheol scowls. An old conversation flashed by his eyes.

"Where are you going?"

You raise an eyebrow. "And why do you care about where I'm going?"

"Because I'm your roommate? What if something happens to you?"

"Awh, does Seungcheollie actually care about me?" You jut your lip out in an exaggerated pout.

"No, I- Wait..." He takes in the outfit you decided to wear, and breathes in the scent of that perfume you always wear on special occasions. "Don't tell me... You're going out with that guy again, aren't you?"

You roll your eyes, adjusting the straps of your shoes with a groan. "So?"

"Are you that blind that I have to fucking tell you? He's not good for you!"

"Why do you give a damn about who I go out with? Why would I give a damn about who you think I should go out with?"

"That's not the point- Stop going out with him!"

"What are you? My dad? Fuck off, Cheol."

"That guy is not good for you." He crosses his arms against his chest. "Hell, even I would be better for you and I'm your enemy."

“Yeah, you’re my enemy. That doesn’t explain why you’re butting into my love life like this. Literally, just fuck off!” you exclaim, losing your cool with a stomp of your foot.

You fall silent. He falls silent. Seungcheol is worried for that second that passes. He didn’t know why. The silence was uncomfortable. It was like the chill of realizing there’s a spider in the shower with you. He felt chills run down his spine. He didn’t even know why.

You say nothing more, picking up your purse. The silence was odd. It was new. Especially to the both of you. Seungcheol was just about to speak up again, voicing his opposition to you going out with the sketchy guy you met when you walked out and slammed the door on him.

His mouth hung ajar, disbelief spread all over his features. He scoffs, “Ugh, whatever.”

He turns to look at you again. You were by the dance floor now, the neon lights surrounding you. He always thought you were pretty whenever you two wouldn't be bickering until the day's end. Seeing you next to the lights, seeing you like this, it made his heart race a little. He blames it on the alcohol.

Seungcheol ignores the way the rest of his friends start teasing him. It was mostly Joshua and Jeonghan ganging up on him but it was teasing nonetheless. He rolled his eyes, shoving them off him when Jeonghan started giggling a little too close to his face. Sure, he thinks you look pretty, and sure, he doesn't deny that he did find you attractive when he first met you after the summer. That doesn't matter, though, right? Right?

So, what was this feeling festering in his heart when he saw another guy walk up to you and ask you for a dance?

Seungcheol watches as the anonymous guy takes your hand and graciously leads you to the dance floor. His friends would be dramatic and say that he glared daggers at the dude. To be fair, he was. Seungcheol wasn't going to admit to that, however. He crushes his cup in his hand, startling the rest of his group but leading to only more teasing from all of them. With a roll of his eyes, he decides to shift his attention elsewhere.

Your weight shifts from one foot to the other. Maybe situating yourself near the dance floor wasn't the best idea you ever got but you needed to search for Jiwoo in the sea of sweaty, horny, drunk people. What better option than to sit right next to the speaker? You mentally facepalm yourself when the neon lights blinded you from identifying anyone. You blink once. Twice.

Who is this stranger in front of you?

Alarms blare in your head, telling you to get away. Your grip tightens on your cup, anxiety filling your stomach. He notices your worried expression and immediately flashes a smile. "You don't come here often, do you? I'm Eungwang."

He extends a hand out to you, asking you to join him on the dance floor. You shyly follow him, his hand never leaving yours. He twirls you around, telling you to smile a little bit and relax. You could feel all eyes on you, the blinding neon lights and booming music slowly becoming unbearable with each passing second.

"You okay?" You nearly didn't hear Eungwang calling out your name. "You look stressed. Are you okay?" You did your best to shake your head no, breath stuck in your throat.

A worried look passes his eyes, the corners of his lips turning downwards. It was becoming too much. You knew you shouldn't have come to this party. Jiwoo just had to bring you along. Jiwoo... You still haven't found her. The pounding in your heart and ears were getting worse, getting louder. You twist your head, trying your best to scan the crowd for a glimpse of your best friend.

"Get your hands off of her," a more familiar voice speaks up. With wide eyes, you see Seungcheol with his hand on Eungwang's shoulder.

Without an answer, Seungcheol rips him away from you and grabs your wrist to pull you into a more open space. It was weird. You always thought Seungcheol's hands would be rough, yet his touch felt so light. It felt like feathers. It was almost as if he was afraid to break you in your state. If you weren't too occupied with panicking, maybe you would've been trying to fight your way out of his grip.

You hadn't even noticed. Within minutes, the two of you were seated in the front lawn. The cool air brushed your cheeks, slowly pulling you out of your trance. Seungcheol tosses you a water bottle which you catch with trembling fingers. You take a sip and let out a breath. With pursed lips, you turn to look at him.

"Sorry.”

"What for?"

"I probably ruined the mood, right?"

He rolls his eyes, tucking his hands in his jacket pocket. "Whatever. The party was shit anyway. We should get you back to the dorm."

"But Jiwoo--"

"Your friend will be fine." He tosses his jacket to you. "Wear that. It's cold."

"I will not."

"Suits you." He snatches it out of your hands almost immediately. "Don't come crying to me when you get a cold."

Like a child, you stuck out your tongue.

You're sick.

You don't know if it's fate trying to trick you or something. Whatever it was, it definitely isn't funny. Thank goodness, it was still the weekend. You definitely would have lost it if you got sick in the middle of the week. Good news was Jiwoo got back to her own dorm safely because her roommates dragged her back. That made you feel a little better.

Swaddled in your blanket, you begin your travel to the faraway land of the living room where you met your roommate looking at you amusedly. You sent him the best glare you could muster with a bit of snot dripping down your face. He only snickered.

"I told you, you should've worn-"

"Shut it. I'd rather be sick than wear that sweaty jacket of yours."

"Oi!" He stands up, pointing at you who was rummaging through the fridge. "I'll have you know my jacket isn't at all sweaty and gross! I wash it often!"

You let out a snicker, taking some leftovers out of the fridge and shutting it close with your hips. Seungcheol drops his plate in the sink. He stares at you for a fleeting moment; your hair was a mess and there was a bit of snot running down your nose. Nonetheless, you were wrapped up tightly in your blanket that reached the floor. You peek your head to see what's playing on the TV when you see a familiar character.

"You watch...Link Clink?" You sniffle slightly, bringing your blanket back up to rest on your shoulders.

"Oh? You know this show?" Cute. He shakes the thought out of his head immediately.

"Yeah...It was on my watch list." You didn't think that he'd watch something like that. "Not like you need to know."

He rolls his eyes at you, ignoring your last comment. "You wanna watch it together sometime?"

What in the fuck? You don't know if it was your cold, if it was just the air conditioning or literal chills went down your spine at his offer. Maybe it was just the first option. Caught off guard, you stare at him. His eyebrow was raised at you while waiting for your response.

"Uhm...yeah, sure... why not?"

"Oh, yeah." He opens up a cabinet, your curious eyes following his form as he searches through the cupboard. He pulls out a green plastic and hands it over to you. "I figured you would get sick, so I bought some stuff this morning that could probably help."

"Oh, uh, thanks..."

"Don't mention it." You weren't too sure but you thought you saw him blush a little. Perhaps it was your brain playing tricks on you. Nonetheless, despite being your enemy, he was nice enough to buy you something. Though, it really was just a small cold.

He clears his throat, snapping you out of your trance. "Get some rest. Jiwoo will probably drop by here later."

"Yeah, okay."

“You’re telling me he took care of you while you were sick?”

“And you’re telling me you didn’t threaten him at all to take care of me while I was sick?”

Jiwoo takes a long sip of her bubble tea, taking her time to chew the pearls while you wait for an answer. She simply shakes her head no. You sigh.

“It’s not like he, like, took care of me. It was more of, like, he just made living together less of a living hell, I guess,” you state, taking your own sip of your tea.

“Less? What do you mean?”

“I mean, he still teased and taunted me. Like, he kept bringing his friends over. You know how loud all of them could get. Finished a bunch of my snacks even though they had my name on it. He broke my third favorite mug, too. One time, he placed my shit on top of the cabinet when he knew I couldn’t really reach it.”

You almost let out a laugh when you remember it.

“Awh, you need me in your life after all."

"Shut up, I can replace you with a step ladder."

"Too bad you won't. You love me too much."

You hadn’t even noticed the rosy pink that started to bloom on your cheeks and creep up to your ears. Jiwoo did, however, and would not let you live. Her eyes grew wide, dramatically placing her cup down. She shook you. A big grin was plastered on her face once you turned to look at her.

“Oh my goodness, it all makes sense now,” she cheered, enthusiastically shaking you around like a maraca. “You guys have been talking a lot lately… When I visited there was no sign of chaos anywhere.... And you were just giggling!”

“Giggling?”

“Giggling, Y/n, giggling! You!” she squeals. “Oh my god, you’re blushing! They’re blushing! Don’t tell me… you actually like him, do you?”

You let out a snort. “Me? Like him? Jiwoo, love, he makes my college life a lot less bearable. My petty ass won’t even let that go by, either. There’s no way I like that asshole.”

Okay, maybe you liked him a little bit.

It would be hard not to like a guy who stops in the middle of a walk just to pet some dogs he saw on the way. It would be hard to ignore the way he smiles whenever you see him with his friends. It was most definitely hard to pretend like your heart wasn’t racing at all when your drunk roommate, also known as your enemy, snuggled closer to you on your way to the couch.

“Seungcheol.” A groan. Try again.

“Seungcheol.” Same response. What is this bitch on?

“Choi Seungcheol.” A loud whine escapes his lips. “How much did you drink? You reek.”

“Just a lil’ bit,” he hiccuped, swaying back and forth on his feet. “We were having so much fun I didn’t even notice the time!”

You softly threw him onto the couch as he started to flail his arms. You rush to the kitchen to get him a glass of water. He throws his arms around the pillows and tightly squeezes them as he starts babbling nonsense you couldn’t quite make out. You hear something along the lines of peaches, weird foods they tried, and someone jumping into the pool. You smiled. They always were such a rowdy bunch. All 13 of them. You would know. They trashed your room once and ate your leftover ice cream.

“You look pretty.” You snorted, covering your mouth with your free hand. “You look just like my roomie, you know. They’re like-” A hiccup interrupts him. “They’re the prettiest person I’ve ever seen,” he slurred.

“Oh? Is that so?” You make him sit up properly and hand the cup over to him. “Here, drink some of this.”

He gulps down the water. “You're really kind, too! Ah, just like Y/n~ But they have a little- no, no- a huge temper.” Oh, wow. The audacity. He giggles and you suppress the urge to smile. Failing, you laugh along with him, shaking your head.

“Come on, let’s get you to your room, you ass,” you say, slinging an arm around him to try and get him up. “Why are you so damn heavy?”

“Because of my love~ for Y/n~!”

“Why are you cheesy when you’re drunk-”

You finally arrive at his room, which took a lot longer than expected because of dragging a very intoxicated Seungcheol around who would not stop trying to cuddle you. You struggle to open his door, ignoring the loud beating of your heart. Wanting to go back to sleep as quickly as possible, you let him crawl onto his own bed, turning around to leave.”

“Get some sleep.”

A hand wraps around your wrist, preventing you from leaving. He pulls you closer. You lose your balance. Oh look, now you're on top of him. You hold your breath. You try to push yourself away from him but to no avail. You were trapped.

“Where’s my goodnight kiss?” He croaked out, quickly leaning up to peck you on the lips.

“You kissed?!”

“Shh! Joo, not so loud!” Your eyes darted around the area, several heads turned to look your and Jiwoo’s way. “Everyone’s looking at us. I don’t even know what to say, Joo. I haven’t seen him at all for the past few days.” “You haven’t seen him or you’re avoiding him?” She raised a skeptical brow at you, popping some food in her mouth. She points one of her chopsticks at you with a big grin that makes you want to hide in a hole and never come out. “I think… you’re just avoiding him.”

“Well, what are you supposed to do when-” you lower your volume, casting your eyes to the ground. “I’m not finishing that sentence. Argh!” You hide your face in your hands, Jiwoo’s thrilled laughter coming from beside you.

You spent the following week trying to evade Seungcheol’s presence. You’ve been getting out of the dorm far earlier than you used to and he could never catch you anywhere. He seemed more than eager to talk to you nowadays, usually looking for you in the hallways or trying to spot a glimpse of you in your favorite spots. The library, the boba place, outside your classes. Nothing. It always seemed like you were one step faster than he was, one second too late for him.

He went around the campus grounds one last time. He even asked his friends if he’s seen you to which they replied with skeptical looks for fair reasons. He even tried to ask your friend, Jiwoo, to no avail. He retreats back to the dorm in defeat. His shoulders slumped over as he fished the keys out of his pocket. The door clicks and he becomes visibly confused. He still has his keys in his hand. The door opens wide and Seungcheol yelps, faced with none other than the roommate he was looking for.

Without thinking, he grabs a hold of your wrist as you go to shut the door on him. You snap yourself out of your thoughts from that night. "You're coming with me."

"What the fuck?" You tug your wrist back. His grip only tightens. "Yah! What the hell do you think you're doing?! I'm going to miss the next episode of-"

"Mmm, don't really care."

"Tch." You look down, suddenly ashamed of your get-up. He opens his car door for you. "Did Jiwoo put you up to this?"

Seungcheol smiles. Your heart... Did it skip a beat? Woah. Maybe he actually doesn't look too bad when he's not being a dick to you. Maybe he actually, dare you say it, looks cute when the two of you aren't at each other's throats every 5 seconds. You reluctantly get in, buckling your seatbelt while you wait for him to start up the car.

You look out the window, appreciating the beauty of the night. It's serene. It was still pretty bright with all the lights and buildings yet it looked beautiful. You opted not to speak to Seungcheol for the rest of the drive. You still didn't even know why he dragged you out of your room. You don't even know why you actually got in his car.

Realization hits you.

You're in his car. Seungcheol's car. You willingly got into Seungcheol's car. A small gasp leaves your lips, calling his attention.

"Is something wrong?"

You look at him. "Uh, no... No, I'm fine." The car suddenly holts, snapping you out of your daze. 7/11. Your eyebrows furrow. What?

"You dragged me out of my room... to go to 7/11? This late at night?" you asked, disbelief laced in your tone. He only chuckles at you, getting out of the car while leaving you bewildered and still strapped to your seat.

"Technically, it's like morning but sure." You unbuckle the seatbelt and step out, the cold breeze hitting your skin. Right, you still looked like a mess in the middle of a crisis. "I owe you ice cream since Soonyoung couldn't control himself the other day."

You narrow your eyes at him, suspicious of why he decided to be nice to you today. Before you could open your mouth to speak, he interrupts you, "This is just so you won't bitch about your lost ice cream."

"Hey!" you huff, crossing your arms over your chest. He picks up a few items and checks them out, you follow behind him like a lost puppy. "I thought we were just getting ice cream... why are you-"

"Can you just enjoy this quiet we have right now?" That made you shut up for the rest of the night. Not really. You started complaining about the cold a few minutes later while he laughed at your misery.

"Your fault for not bringing a coat, idiot."

"You fuckin- You dragged me out here!" you exclaimed, exasperated. "The audacity of this bitch, I swear."

Now sitting outside the 7/11, you rub your arms in a feeble attempt to warm yourself up. Not much luck. He slams a cup of instant ramen in front of you. You jumped slightly at the noise and he sent you a sheepish grin. "Enjoy, loser." You stick your tongue out at him yet pick up the cup nonetheless.

A sizzle breaks the silence between the both of you. He has a cheeky grin plastered all over his face as he teases you with the sight of the can of beer. He tosses one in your direction. You caught it, thankfully. You take a sip after opening it, letting out a content sigh. You searched your brain for something to say to fill the silence. It wasn't exactly everyday you get to sit quietly under the night sky on a school night with your worst enemy.

“I...uh... also wanted to apologize if I weirded you out while I was shit-faced drunk that one time. I didn’t- the words… they just slipped out,” he says.

“That’s it?” you ask. “You don’t remember anything else?”

Seungcheol shakes his head. “I don’t remember anything other than babbling nonsense. Why? Did I do something?” Your cheeks flare up, memories flooding back in that you’ve tried so hard to avoid. He stops and looks at you, noticing how you wouldn’t look him in the eye. Your eyes were trained on something else, your cheeks burning crimson. He blinks once, twice, trying to recollect the events of that night. All he remembers was you pissed and greeting him at the door, muttering some embarrassing shit, and being dropped onto his bed. Everything else was a blur.

“We should… Let’s get going. It’s getting really late,” you say, turning your head so you’d stop staring. The two of you finish up your ramen and drinks, heading back to Seungcheol’s car after discarding the trash.

On the way home, he recalls a few memories. The day you first met, the time you embarrassed him in front of the whole 8th grade, the time he gave you an oreo cookie filled with toothpaste. A good trip down memory lane later, the two of you were laughing obnoxiously in the wee hours of the morning. The laughter dies down as Seungcheol unlocks your dorm door.

“Come to think of it, why are we enemies again? We didn’t really do too much to hate each other,” you say, removing your shoes by the door.

“Do we hate each other?” You shrug. He laughs. “Why don’t we start over then? We’re not too different, apparently.”

“Yeah. Sure, why not?”

He sticks out his hand. “Hi, I’m Seungcheol.”

You gaze lingers on it for a few seconds. You never thought you’d be doing this ever. You look up at him and back at his hand. There’s a chance you’ll regret your next move but you doubt you will.

With a simple, soft kiss, everything felt like it changed yet stayed the same. The feeling of his lips on yours felt like a simple gift from the universe as a sorry for everything the two of you went through together. Seungcheol was frozen in his spot, eyes fluttering shut as he slowly pulled you closer. His memories start getting clearer. He slowly pieces together what happened that night. You pull away with a grin, completely red in the face.

“Hi, I’m Y/n. Seungcheol’s worst nightmare.”

“Is that what I get for making you suffer in silence when I couldn’t remember anything?”

“Oh, so you remember now? Damn, you really are old.”

“We’re the same age!”

“To answer your question, yes. Yes, it is.”

For the second time that night, you kissed.

[izchone]

nct dream when you struggle with schoolwork!

genre: fluff!

info: school is on my head😕 tw// yelling, mentions of food, implementation of stress, annoying schoolwork

MARK! thinks you can handle your work until he hears you yelling at your computer because it keeps glitching, but then he comes into your room and sees your face smashed into your notebook. he would come next to you and give you a popsicle. “you want one? it’s a bit hot in your room and.. you look like you’re struggling so eat up🙏”

RENJUN! noticed something was up right after you said you’d rather wash dry and fold the clothes by hand instead of doing your essay. he literally turned to look at you and said “then do it😐. JUST KIDDING he knew you were doing some heavy duty work so he asked you if you needed any help. if you said yes, he would help you as best as he could to complete that essay with quality.

JENO! he would literally switch from resting face to worried and shocked face in like 0.2 seconds when he heard you yell. goes into your room and asks for you to take a small break while you almost collapsed on his chest right there and then. he laid you down on the couch and put on a good movie and gave you a pack of gummies. “don’t work for that long next time okay? it’s bad for you.”

HAECHAN! he thought you were yelling at a bug, but then heard the words homework and math and scurried to your room. quite literally dragged you to the kitchen and gave you an orange. “let’s eat some vitamin c together, hm? oranges like these make me feel refreshed.” he probably scolded you for not asking for help first as well.

JAEMIN! the prompt for your essay was so vague you literally didn’t know what to write about. when jaemin came downstairs to get a snack, he saw you in front of your computer on the kitchen table with your hands covering your face. “what’s this?” he asked you. he then saw the blank google doc and the slip of paper the teacher wrote the prompt on. “oh.. im sorry baby. but i really can’t help you with this, the prompt is literally three words.”

CHENLE! didn’t know you were in the library doing work until like three hours later. “you actually go here??” he exclaimed. “wtf i should be the one asking you that question🤨” you said back. then he told you about his stupid science homework that was so incredibly long. apparently, you were also doing that stupid science homework, so you helped each other (maybe).

JISUNG! he was the one who finished all his work first and left you to play video games. you rolled your eyes as you tried to finish your history project. “so you couldn’t even bother to stay with me jisung🙄” he would hear you say from across the hall. he thought you were talking to yourself so he shrugged it off. but then it actually got to him that you were complaining about him, so he went up to you and sat in a chair next to you. “watcha working on?” he would ask kindly, brushing his hand over yours.