#bc lots of people don't know the term dark academia

[souls-ocs]

the most accurate picrews of the gods' rising protagonists! currently! their designs change with the wind and i'd love some input on them. under the cut bc otherwise this'd clog dashes

picrews used: plant's oc creator, obscured icon maker, djarn's character maker, core gamer maker 2

jakob sullivan. basic white guy, his hair's more styled like a quiff i'd say? idk hair terms. basically pushed up but still a mess lol just like him fr (he/him)

zlatko valerov. not shown are his disability aids (still researching exactly what he'd need) and i'd say he has a bit less stubble and his hair is more squared? idk (he/him)

charlie parker. considering having her have highlights, she very much likes pink so maybe pink or something? she wears a lot of it already though but maybe the clash is very her? (she/her, maybe she/they?)

alex wilson. i also want to dye his hair but idk what colour. its more shaved down too i couldn't get that in the picrew or didn't know how (he/him)

kenna collier. her fit wasn't done justice here, she got the light academia fit and the dark academia vibes (she/her)

klara lullay. the scars aren't so prominent + more spread out and her ponytail is a bit bigger/longer/messier and i might see about giving her a fringe (she/her)

eban valerov. his hair always puzzles me i never know what to do with it? dreads? someone a few years back drew some concepts and they were really helpful. i don't want him to look too much like his brother (he/him)

grace ward. basic white girl. her hair's a bit more wild but otherwise fairly accurate. twins with kai so they look very similar ofc (she/her)

kai ward. his hair is a little darker but this is fairly accurate! twins with grace so they look very similar ofc (he/him)

maddie eyighes. pretty accurate to how i picture her in my head (she/her)

i struggle with designing the other characters a lot more than these guys bc they're supposed to be generally regular people whereas some of the other characters are supposed to be out there. they're all humanoid but they don't all fit in if that makes sense

maybe i'll make some more posts about other characters that have more definitive designs

[mooncurses]

hey huh does anyone here want to make friends? I'm autistic and I guess my special interest is cinema, but I'm also a phil major specializing in moral and political philosophy, and I'm about to get a license as a dog trainer and animal care professional. I'm also vegan, aroace, and have my fair share of trauma and mental illness.

pls interact if:

- you are at least 18!!! (I usually have no problem talking on the internet with minors bc I'm pretty sfw, but I would really feel more comfortable talking to someone I know I don't have to feel responsible for in that sense)

- you have a very specific aesthetic (bonus points if it's not dark academia lol) bc I find that lovely

- you like to read manga and webcomics

- you are not radqueer or transid

- you are not pro or neutral about endogenic systems

- you have niche special interests bc I love to learn very specific stuff I would otherwise never come across

- you read a lot and like poetry

- you are a history nerd

- you are educated on online privacy and understand why corporate social media are a fucking problem

- you are educated on neurodiversity other than autism and adhd (I don't put up with stuff like 'narcissistic abuse' or terms like psycho and schizo being used as derogatory terms)

- you are not a terf obvi

- you like to crochet or make arts and crafts in general

- you want to discuss animal liberation

- you like 90s and 00s cartoons

- you are politically educated and informed

- you are not a judgmental prick because I really cannot with mean people anymore

- you are not chronically online

- you are normal about autistic people

[gxldencity]

1, 2 and 12 for the reading asks :D

1. What are 2-5 already published fiction books you think you want to read in 2023?

Omg I do have a backlog spanning till 2019. The years vary in terms of publishing but 2019 was the year I started reading lots again. So trying to fit this into 5 might be hard

1. Babel by R.F. Kuang - I had my eye on this the moment I saw it was gonna tackle the elitism, colonialism and racism in academia. Books under dark academia don't really explore this as much as they should which is what turned me off from reading them.

The discourse—if you could even call it that bc it really is white people who made reading books and ~academia~ their personality complaining that the book calls them out—that surrounds it is so funny which makes me want to read it even more. The point really just flew over their heads despite having books as their personality.

2. Legendborn by Tracy Deonn - Funnily enough this is another academia book that calls out white academia. I did start on this a year or so ago but wasn't quite in the mood for it (it was YA and written in first person which could get jarring for me) but I do want to return to it. It has an exciting premise and the 2nd book came out a couple of months ago.

3. Gun Dealer's Daughter by Gina Apostol

As I mentioned in a few text posts, I wanna read more modern Filipino literary novels—at least the ones I could access outside of the Philippines lmao and I've seen this get recommended a lot. So I'm gonna read it (and also Apostol's other literary novels)

Gina Apostol also did the intro for the Penguin Classics collection of Nick Joaquin's short stories, The Woman With Two Navels which I also highly highly recommend. Beyond culture, I was drawn to it bc of the tropical gothic lmao.

4. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

So another goal I have this year is to read more classic sci fi (or modern classic in this case but the term classic itself is really muddy). Parable of the Sower is something I've been kinda wanting to read for awhile now. The premise is surely interesting and something that is relevant for us right now with the changing climate.

5. A Restless Truth by Freya Marske

I thought A Marvellous Light was okay. Not a great read but not a bad one either. It was definitely one of those the author wanted to write romance novel with fantasy elements but the books need to be shelved in fantasy so they had to add more fantasy notes on it but still primarily a romance read. And that got so jarring in this book as it reads like it can't decide if it wants to lean fantasy or lean romance.

That being said I do wanna read the sequel featuring wlw lmao. I wanna read a fun sapphic light fantasy novel. Like sapphics do get the hard sf/f novel that's less romance focused which tbh I do like...I just want more variety (likewise I wish to see more hard sf/f mlm novels).

2. What are 2-5 already published nonfiction books you think you want to read in 2023?

Akkfksnfs I wanna read more non-fiction books this year too. I mean one of them is for work so I won't count that.

1. How to Stand Up to a Dictator by Maria Ressa I think everyone needs to read this book and also watch Maria Ressa's PBS documentary (available on Youtube), especially if you're wondering about the rise of authoritarian governments in the last few years (and how socmed plays a hand).

2. Ducks by Kate Beaton. A graphic novel I know but Kate Beaton is someone who I've been kinda following for awhile now. Her memoir of her years working at the Alberta oil sands would be interesting for sure considering how everyone treats Alberta as the province you go to make lots of money in despite of the environmental implications of the tar sands.

3. Travesty by Lillian-Yvonne Bertram - This is a poetry book. I know there is a poetry question in this ask meme. I don't care. Poetry is technically non fiction lmao so I'm counting it. The style of this book is based on programming which as a dev definitely piques my interest.

12. What's your 2023 stance on rating/reviewing books?

I think everyone should be more unhinged in terms of leaving ratings and reviews. Authors don't look at these reviews or at least they aren't supposed to (some do and they are annoying about it). Some books do deserve that 1 star. Sometimes a book doesn't deserve to be rounded up to 4 stars and thank GOD storygraph allows for not only half stars but for .25 and .75 stars as well. (Switch to storygraph im telling you. Don't use goodreads).

I mean I was pretty scathing in terms of the critiques I gave towards the books I read last year. My average rating in 2022 is 3.92. Like I paid for this with my time and money. My library had to order this book AND stock it. My taxes go to my library. I don't like giving pity stars for the sake of writing a book. Fanfic authors could write outstanding novels for FREE. If someone has to spend money on it, then the least you could do is write a good book.

[2023 Reading asks]

[sophielovesbooks]

Sophie’s Exhaustive Dark Academia List

For a while now, since my dark academia rec list was such an unexpected success, I’ve wanted to create a list of all the dark academia books I’m personally aware of, regardless of whether I have already read them, as sort of a resource for the community. I have now done just that!

The titles in bold are the ones I have read. The ones I would especially recommend (which, okay, yeah, are almost all of the ones I’ve read) are in bold and italics. Note that this doesn’t mean I loved absolutely everything about the recommended book, just that I think it was good or worth reading overall. 

If anybody is aware of a dark academia read that didn’t make the list, please leave a comment and I’ll update the list! Thank you! And thank you to everyone who has already recommended titles to me, helping me compile this list! :)

Also, just to be clear: My personal definition of dark academia would be a story that is set at a school or university or focuses heavily on academia otherwise (maybe the characters are in a secret book or debate club, discuss academic topics, something like that) and in which something bad or dark happens. This could be a crime (violent or non-violent), an accidental death, something supernatural going on... Note: Some of the books on the list (meaning of those I haven’t read) might only fit a looser definition of dark academia, e.g. maybe they have a dark subject matter and include some intellectual elements, even if the setting isn’t actually an academic institution. 

And now, without further ado, enjoy!! As I said, I hope this will be a good resource for the dark academia community! And I want to update this list regularly so that it’s as exhaustive as possible! :)

A Beautiful Doom (Laura Pohl)

Academy Gothic (James Tate Hill)

Ace of Spades (Faridah Abike-Ayimide)

A Fatal Inversion (Barbara Vine)

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (Holly Black)

A Great and Terrible Beauty (Libba Bray)

A Lesson in Vengeance (Victoria Lee)

An Education in Ruin (Alexis Bass)

A Question of Holmes (Brittany Cavallaro)

A Separate Peace (John Knowles)

As Good As Dead (Holly Black)

A Student of History (Nina Revoyr)

A Study in Charlotte (Brittany Cavallaro)

All Summer in a Day (Ray Bradbury)

As I Descended (Robin Talley)

Bad Habits (Amy Gentry)

Black Chalk (Christopher J. Yates)

Brideshead Revisited (Evelyn Waugh)

Bunny (Mona Awad)

Cat Among the Pigeons (Agatha Christie)

Catherine House (Elisabeth Thomas)

Different Class (Joanne Harris)

Dismantled (Jennifer McMahon)

D.O.G.S. (M. A. Bennett)

For Your Own Good (Samantha Downing)

F.O.X.E.S. (M. A. Bennett)

Gaudy Night (Dorothy L. Sayers)

Gentleman and Players (Joanna Harris)

Girlhood (Cat Clarke)

Give Me Your Hand (Megan Abbott)

Good Girl, Bad Blood (Holly Black)

Good Girls Lie (J. T. Ellison)

Hex (Rebecca Dinerstein Knight)

House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski)

How We Fall Apart (Katie Zhao)

If We Were Villains (M. L. Rio)

In My Dreams I Hold A Knife (Ashley Winstead)

Kill All Your Darlings (David Bell)

Killing November (Adriana Mather)

Miss Pym Disposes (Josephine Tey)

Murder Scholastic (Janet Caird)

Ninth House (Leigh Bardugo)

Party Girls Die in Pearls (Plum Sykes)

Peace Breaks Out (John Knowles)

People Like Us (Dana Mele)

Picnic at Hanging Rock (Joan Lindsay)

Private (Kate Brian)

Shadow of the Lions (Christopher Swann)

Sleepwalking (Meg Wolitzer)

Special Topics in Calamity Physics (Marisha Pessl)

S.T.A.G.S. (M.A. Bennett)

Summer Sons (Lee Mandelo)

The Basic Eight (Daniel Handler)

The Bellweather Revival (Benjamin Wood)

The Book and the Brotherhood (Iris Murdoch)

The Case for Jamie (Brittany Cavallaro)

The Chandler Legacies (Abdi Nazemian)

The Club (Takis Würger)

The Deceivers (Kristen Simmons)

The Devil Makes Three (Tori Bovalino)

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (E. Lockhart)

The End of Mr. Y (Scarlett Thomas)

The Furies (Katie Lowe)

The Furies (Natalie Haynes)

The Girls Are All So Nice Here (Laurie Elizabeth Flynn)

The Hand on the Wall (Maureen Johnson)

The Ivies (Alexa Donne)

The Lake of Dead Languages (Carol Goodman)

The Last of August (Brittany Cavallaro)

The Lessons (Naomi Alderman)

The Likeness (Tana French)

The Lying Game (Ruth Ware)

The Maidens (Alex Michaelides)

The Mary Shelley Club (Goldy Moldavsky)

The Night Climbers (Ivo Stourton)

The Orchard (David Hopen)

The Secret History (Donna Tartt)

The Secret Place (Tana French)

The Shadow Year (Hannah Richell)

The Swallows (Lisa Lutz)

The Truants (Kate Weinberg)

The Vanishing Stairs (Maureen Johnson)

The Wave (Morton Rhue)

The Wishing Game (Patrick Redmond)

The Wyndham Case (Imogen Quy)

The Year of the Gadfly (Jennifer Miller)

These Violent Delights (Micah Nemerever)

They Never Learn (Layne Fargo)

They Wish They Were Us (Jessica Goodman)

T.I.G.E.R.S. (M. A. Bennett)

Truly Devious (Maureen Johnson)

Trust Exercise (Susan Choi)

Very Bad People (Kit Frick)

White Ivy (Susie Yang)

Without Anette (Jane B. Mason)

[lale-txt]

🍆 online dating headcanons: supernovas

[part 1 w/ Whitebeard pirates]

a/n: i have too much fun roasting your favorite little crime men, so here's part 2! and don't worry, there probably will be a sequel to that, too...

Luffy

this boy has the dating profile of a 67 year old man

it's mostly photos of cool bugs

or him holding the cool bugs, covering half of his face with them (some look a bit arty by accident because they're so blurry bc this boi is fast af when he is excited for something)

i feel like he is someone who overuses emojis A LOT and out of context too. they almost sound cryptic

🦔🧦🤼🔑👁‍🗨🟧🏴‍☠️

WHAT DOES IT MEAN BRO

you'll never know

he doesn't know either

you can keep the conversation going by mentioning that you're a foodie and like some good meat

wink wink

but don't complain if he takes you out to an all you can eat restaurant and the thing getting eaten is everything except you

Zoro

your typical fitness bro

all of his pictures are just mirror selfies from the gym wtf

granted, he knows his good angles

start the conversation maybe with a good recipe for a protein shake? idk i have not once in my life matched a fitness bro so don't take my advice maybe

if you start texting, expect a lot of thirst traps straight from the gym, lots of sweat, a shirt pulled up a bit to show off his 16-pack or whatever (if he even bothers to wear a shirt), a photo from behind to show that his back is very beefy too

but don't be fooled because he will sent them to his whole contact list and his fitness account with 500k followers

you just know he has "no PAINZ no GAINZ 💯" in his bio

so take that to your heart and text him anyway even though it's a pain in the ass, it will be rewarding in the end

if you're looking for a fuck buddy this is your mans

Law

his photos just scream dark academia. they also scream "i'm your thoughtful mystery lover with the sexy finger tattoos" and also "please heal my broken heart while we listen to Evanescence together"

but in reality he is just very tired and people mistake it for a lifestyle

Bepo takes all of his photos and edits them, he has a really good eye

one photo is the doctor posing naked in front of a chimney fire on a bear rug (it's not a regular bear rug but Bepo who is very good at photoshop)

it wasn't even Law himself who created his online dating profile but Penguin & Shachi because they agreed their captain needed a bit of support in those things, Law was just too tired to object (and maybe they were right after all...)

he's a busy man and you need a really good hook up line to make him text you back

"i think you've stolen my heart, give it back" isn't one of them

talk to him about gross medical things maybe or how much you hate bread (even if it's a lie)

just don't try sexting with him because you will get a lot of anatomical terms and a very long paragraph that sounded sexy in his head but reads like an user manual

overall a very nice match if you're into emo boys with tragic backstories that just have written "fix me if you can" all over their face

Kid

ahh yes, the little kinky man

of course you can find him on the naughty online dating sites where you can look for your next fuck buddy, pet or a sugar mommy/daddy/questionable parental figure

his photos are thirst traps of course, half of them mirror selfies with flash on

doesn't care about censoring, his junk is OUT, why hide it

will text you "wyd?" and "send nudes" within two seconds

foolish of you to think that one nude with a tiddie out would satisfy him, this little racoon is greedy af

just know that at one point he accidentally created a group chat with all of his matches, believing he would message them "i'm so hard for u" individually

he never recovered from that

Kid gets matched by mean lesbians A LOT (no wonder, he looks like one too)

it happens so often that he pulls Killer to the side, asking with a stern look on his face: "be honest. is there anything about my appearance that screams 'i want to get pegged' because apparently people feel that way about me"

Killer thinks a little bit too long and almost gets thrown overboard

Killer

the mysterious masked man

usually one would barely get matches without their face revealed, but it's probably his luscious long blonde hair and all the shirtless photos that give him countless matches anyway

who doesn't love a faceless ideal fantasy to project their deepest desires on, isn't that what dating apps were created in the first place

just never jokingly ask what's underneath the mask or else you'll get unmatched immediately

maybe ask him about his hair routine or favorite pasta place in town instead

or his favorite youtube channel Pasta Grannies

he would be the best to have long, meaningful conversations with on the dating apps

until he deletes his profile out of the blue, leaving you wondering forever 'what if...'

that is until you match him again

and again

yes again

he's a serial matcher

[horrorlesbians]

hi hel, do you have any advice about looking for stuff on depop? you post about it sometimes and you always seem to find really cool shit, are there any specific shops you could recommend? or what to search for? i can never seem to find anything worthwhile :p

hi anon, yes i do! the best way to find things on depop is to cast a wide net. if you have a hyper-specific article of clothing where you know the name/brand id recommend looking at poshmark. but here are some tips that i use when shopping on depop

search brands you like/brands whose vibe you like- i search dollskill, unif, killstar, urban outfitters, and hottopic often. find brands you like and just search them as a whole, it can help you find clothes within that similar vibe

search aesthetics you like- i search dark academia often, not because I really like the aesthetic but because I like the earth tones and patterns used within that aesthetic. the bad thing with aesthetics is that a lot of people tag their very basic posts with every aesthetic tag under the sun, but that is the price you pay because depop is so oversaturated.

search often- i use depop about the same amount I use Instagram and tumble, it's the best way to find good things. i window shop OFTEN, too much.

save search terms for things you search often- you can only save about ten terms I'm pretty sure but it makes searching the same term/brand easier

BE AWARE OF DROPSHIPPERS!- dropshippers are people that buy from really cheap fast fashion brands and pretend the listings are their own. look out for weeklong shipping times and listings of a very basic clothing item with multiple sizes listed (especially if the item is not handmade). i may make a whole post about how to spot dropshippers but be aware. a lot of jewelry is dropshipped. if you suspect a shop is a dropshipper you can always message me their username and ill take a look

always look at reviews before buying products- i don't do this as much as i should truthfully but it's a good practice, and always click in the reviews. my depop has 16 five star reviews even tho I've never sold anything, those reviews are sellers rating me (a buyer) 5 stars.

sorting and filtering search results- depop allows you to filter clothes results by sizing, i only do this when searching for shoes bc i don't mind stumbling across clothes that aren't my size. and i always sort results by 'newly listed', especially with terms i search every day

hope these tips help anon, if you have more questions shoot me an another ask!