#for the students that are prepared to like dig into this stuff it could be a very engaging experience

[beloved-child-of-the-house]

so i'm writing an 8th year fic and h&d are taking a muggle studies class together in which they read one of shakespeare's plays, and i'm trying to write a final project (for which they are partners) but like. hogwarts academics don't seem all that uhhhhh rigorous to me (like we see the students complaining about having to write a foot of parchment which is essentially ONE PAGE HANDWRITTEN) and i'm a little worried that my assignment is too rigorous.

it involves a lot of like. thinking analytically and using your imagination wrt the motivations of people unlike yourself, and that's not rlly something they do much at hogwarts as far as i can see. BUT it is muggle studies, and like. they could definitely all use some practice at those skills, following the recent implosion of their society.

[urgardenandmine]

good little boy ❆ - s. park (pt. i)

summary: sunghoon is a major fuckboy (emphasis on fuck) with a camera kink ⚠️‼️WARNING: strong language and this work is like NASTY (by tinashe) so read if you are able to handle dirty stuff⚠️‼️ genre: dirty and NASTY (NSFW) pairing: m!reader x park sunghoon word count: 2.8K

requested by @acidangel-fromasia

“look who came crawling back…”

the voice immediately gave you a headache, yet he wasn’t wrong. i mean you were now on his doorstep, wearing your decorated crocs, your camo-green sweats and a baggy black hoodie. you grumbled softly, staring at the man in front of you who wore nothing but his grey sweatpants and flashed his chiseled body. he had no care for who saw him, though probably no one did as it was the morning and everyone was now at work in school.

as you two stared at one another, being dumb college students, you both had nothing to do in your free time. you could be studying or maybe even just going to the gym and catch up on working out since class has made things out of whack for you but you decided to answer a stupid booty call from a jerk wad (who knew how to make you c-). 

the very attractive man, sunghoon, eyed you up and down. he pouted, stepping closer to you as he wrapped his arms around your waist as he looked into your eyes. he tilted his head, whining.

“aw, love~, you aren’t wearing your choker.” he stated, causing you to look away as the tip of your ears began to feel warmer. you didn’t want to give into his cute antics, just wanted some good pounding then leave. you got stiff, making sure he couldn’t lower your guard because every time you did, all you ended up with was trust issues and even more piled on. sighing, you gently removed his arms from you and glared up at him. 

“i don’t wanna wear that, park.” you spat back, causing him to whine even more as he slouched and pressed his forehead against yours. the mention of his last name caused him to feel a bit fiery inside, hearing how the boy who grips the sheets under him was gaining a backbone. sunghoon chuckled softly as he stood up right and kissed your temple, before wrapping his hand around your neck. you gulped softly, feeling his digits slightly dig on where they met your neck. he removed your hoodie, revealing your freshly washed fluffy hair and grazed his teeth on your ear.

“i guess this will have to work…” he whispered, before biting your ear softly. you tried to hold back your feelings of immense attraction yet it was evident you were getting a bit stiffer somewhere else. removing his veined, warm hands from your throat, he smiled and leaned against his door frame. exhaling happily, he smiled at you as he took in the sight in front of him. in front of him, he saw a hot and bothered fuck toy who he couldn’t wait to strip and just ruin. 

“well, come on in! why don’t we get comfortable.” he inviting teased, grabbing your hands as he led you into his house. you and sunghoon were both students who commuted and both lived at  home. the fun thing though was that his parents were rarely home, so he had the place all to himself. you took in the sight of his living room, seeing the usual couch and the coffee table. what was new was the notebooks on the table, which was weird as you knew sunghoon to be the type of boy to never study since. only time you ever saw him study was when he tried to get your attention from school and it worked, considering this is your dozen time being here in a month. 

following sunghoon up to his room, you took a small breath to prepare yourself for what was about to happen. in reality, sunghoon was a great bed partner. you couldn’t remember a time when he gave you a rough pounding or a sensual one to where you couldn’t walk. as much as you didn’t want to, you were always screaming his name and always scratching his back to where his friends thought he had a secret girlfriend. though in reality, sunghoon was the typical DL guy who just knew how to use his tool. 

walking into his room, you were met with the blinds drawn yet the sheer blinds left over the windows, letting in some light and not too much for people to see the mess about to be made in a couple minutes. his bed sheets were the usual navy blue silk linen, while his pillows were a dark blue and white flannel pattern. the rest of the room was dark, the only light source being the window. sunghoon stood by the door, letting you in to get situated as he chuckled and spanked you gently. you jumped a bit, looking back at him as you groaned. closing the door behind him, he slowly slinked off his sweats to reveal his black boxers. you looked back and saw his bulge, blushing as you rolled your eyes and stuck your hands in the hem of your sweatpants before you felt a hand grab yours, stopping you. 

looking over your shoulder, you saw sunghoon smile as he kissed your cheek and then had you take your hands out. he turned you around, lifting your chin with his soft hands as he planted his coral lips onto yours. closing your eyes, he kissed gently before turning it into a whole make out session. within a second, he wrapped both arms around your waist again as he rubbed his now solid bulge against yours, eliciting soft moans from you both as you had your arms around his neck. sunghoon began to bite your lips, moving down to your neck leaving marks, regardless of the pain he brought you. you whimpered, head rolling back as he then licked his bite marks. chuckling softly, sunghoon then pushed you onto the bed. 

crashing onto the bed, you looked down to see him now slowly undressing you. feeling the soft cotton slowly slide down your legs, you began to feel sunghoon kiss your thighs as he got closer to your clothed throbbing member. shivering, you tried to push him off you as he then glared at you, swiping your hand away as he bit your thigh gently. while on his knees, sunghoon slowly brought one hand down into his boxers and began to slowly tease himself as he teased you. 

sunghoon took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of your body wash and you yourself. feeling impatient, sunghoon then used his one free hand and slowly yanked off your own boxers, seeing your rock hard dick spring into the air. though you yourself weren’t the biggest, you were palatable. sunghoon smirked, looking at you as he then used both hands and slinked both arms under your thighs, propping you up as he brought his mouth closer to your pulsing member. feeling his breath reach your tip and more, you closed your eyes and felt embarrassed as you had never seen this side of him. well, you have but you don’t remember much. seeing you not look at him, sunghoon pinched your thighs and caused you to squeak a bit. you looked down and saw him glaring at you.

“look at me, bitch.” sunghoon demanded, before having his tongue lick your tip. gulping, you made sure to make eye contact with the brown eyed boy. sunghoon took a small breath, trying to pace himself. he wanted to enjoy how he was going to ruin you. one thing about sunghoon being a fuckboy was he was a fun one, as he knew how to make sure you got close to the edge but never finished before him. looking up at you, sunghoon then engulfed your whole dick into his warm, wet mouth before moaning around you, sending vibrations throughout your lower member. you groaned, arching your back as you were sensitive. being the usual submissive person in most situations, you were barely tasted down there. with sunghoon, he owned every part of you and wanted to make sure you knew only he could make you feel this good. 

he began to bob his head up and down, his eyes now closed as he began to slobber all over your crotch as your dick hit the back of his warm throat. though sunghoon was strictly a top and you had rarely gotten head, to you both, it felt perfect with one another. though sunghoon had multiple bodies and people to choose from, he chose you every day and when he couldn’t, he didn’t mind whipping out his cock to jerk and send you videos throughout the day till you caved in. 

as sunghoon bobbed up and down, he slowly removed his mouth and began to lap at your balls, causing you to shake and hold onto his head. he saw you biting your lip and trying not to be too loud, making him annoyed. in retaliation, he began to suck on your balls, causing you to let out a loud and long moan as he smirked and then spat on your cock, stroking you softly. 

“f-fuck! sunghoon~.” you whimpered, causing him to smirk as he then removed his hand. he then lifted you up gently, seeing your hole now in front of him. in an instant, sunghoon began to kiss that area as you moaned. having both arms hold you up, he began to devour you as he moaned into your opening. you gripped the bed sheets, the silk ruffling into your hands. sunghoon then removed one hand, staring at the puckering hole in front of him as you could see his face covered in spit. he laughed, spitting on you as he then ran a finger onto you. as you looked at him, you were met with the eyes of a boy who wanted to drag you to heaven and back. slipping a finger into you, sunghoon moaned as he entered you. moaning loudly, you threw your head back as he began to stir your insides.

after what seemed to be a year of teasing (when in reality it was possibly only fifteen minutes) of sunghoon’s fingers inside your warm insides, he was now matching his tip against your hole. as you were ready to brace yourself, you heard a small beep and click. looking at him, you saaw sunghoon holding your leg and now a camcorder in his hand. bunching up your hoodie and covering your privates, sunghoon looked down at you. 

“what’s wrong little pet, shy?” he teased, spanking you as you whined softly. 

“just wondering what’s that for…” you asked, scared of upsetting him. whenever he was angry, he fucked your brains out till you were a rambling mess. sunghoon smiled, turning on the camera as he then angled it to your face and held your face in his hand. he then bent down and kissed you sloppily, moaning into your mouth as his tongue slipped into your mouth. pulling away, he showed the camera your flushed face as he grinned from ear to ear.

“just something for me to watch later, bunny. don’t be shy.” he reassured, standing back up and then pulling you closer to the edge of the bed. he slapped his hard cock onto yours, making you feel needy for it. he then tugged on your hoodie, signaling he wanted this off immediately. understanding his signal, you sat up and removed your hoodie, tossing it off to the side. he inhaled deeply, breathing slowly as he panned the camera to your body and ran a hand down your body. 

“look at my little fuck toy…” he trailed, rubbing his hard eight inch cock against your skin. setting the camera near your head, he then made sure he was in frame as he grabbed a condom and some lube. though sunghoon was rough, he wasn’t careless with you or his health. though his other partners and him were always safe and clean, sunghoon did a little more for you. he made sure he shaved, didn’t smell and as well, made sure the mood was just right. there was music playing in the back yet it wasn’t too loud as the only music he chose to listen to was your grunts and whines. along with that, he had lit a scented candle you mentioned was your favorite when you two had first met. 

grabbing your thighs and placing them around his waist, sunghoon bent down, his face close to yours as he stroked his lubed and covered cock. he lined up his dick with your hole, licking his lips as he saw how needy you were yet were trying to cover it up. he rolled his eyes, kissing you gently as he then slipped his tip in. sucking in a breath, you winced as sunghoon slowly made his way into you. not pushing any further, letting you get used to his girth once more, he lubed up his hand and began to stroke you slowly. you moaned, looking up at sunghoon. he closed his eyes, listening deeply to your noises. 

as he continued to stroke you, he began to push a little deeper in. though it hurt a bit, it felt amazing as sunghoon’s soft and now slick hands  were tugging on your hard cock. as he was halfway in, sunghoon began to kiss your neck. feeling him in you, it was a feeling you missed. you found yourself playing with your back door a lot more frequently ever since you guys began hooking up and it felt like nothing. as he was halfway inside you, you could feel the veins throbbing and how full you were. sunghoon groaned, feeling himself slip into your warm hole. kissing your neck as well as he stroked you, sunghoon then pushed himself in slowly all the way. whining, you wrapped your arms around his burly shoulders. he laughed softly, leaving a small hickey. 

after being adjusted to him, he began to move without any notice. your eyes widened, as you began to let out a string of moans as he began to do shallow strokes. you closed your eyes, feeling sunghoon throb as he began to pump you gently. turning your head towards his neck, he could feel you breathe onto him. lifting his lips from your neck, your eyes locked. in the next second, you began locking lips and making a mess of one another’s lips. 

after five minutes of slow strokes, sunghoon then placed his hands onto the sides of your ass as he began to thrust deeper and harder. 

“fuck! sunghoon!” you yelped, feeling him hit your prostate in an instant. since you two were constant fuck buddies, sunghoon knew you better than you knew yourself. smirking to himself, he looked into the camera and began to demolish your hole. being taller, he rested his head on top of yours as his chin was on your crown. as he stared into the camera, he moaned and smiled at the sight before him. he saw your legs wrapped around him as the bed was shaking. reaching over to grab the camera, he then lifted himself enough to film your face that was filled with lust and pleasure.

“good little faggot, take my cock.” he groaned, shoving it harder to where you began to shake. 

“good fucking slut~.” sunghoon sang, spitting on your face as he then took his other fingers and shoved it into your mouth. you began to suck on them instinctively, making sunghoon happy as he ruined your insides to the point where you were gripping the sheets once again. sunghoon held the camera and began to thrust into you like there was no tomorrow, grinning once more as he could feel how loose you were getting.

bringing one hand to your throat, sunghoon then began to choke you slightly. he knew it wasn’t your favorite but he loved the sight of seeing you under him and whining.

“look at my bitch with his choker. fucking perfect.” the taller man huffed out. changing the pace of his thrusts, sunghoon then slowed down and began to do deeper strokes. he pulled out till only his tip was left inside, then ramming it in. as he did so, he had elicited a loud whine from you, filling the room with only your moans and his deep low grunts. your hands began to hold onto his arm as he choked you, feeling something soon pooling in your lower area. 

“oh, f-fuck! fuck, fuck!” you rambled, arching your back as you came all over yourself. sunghoon tightened his grip on your throat, smiling as he then filmed your shaking legs and what seemed to be your never ending cumshot. he filmed a closeup of your hard cock trembling, as it spewed it’s milk.

setting down the camera, he slowed down his thrusts as he then sped up. he gripped one leg with his other free arm, still choking you as he then pressed his forehead against yours. 

“god, fucking love you, [y/n].” he mumbled, before he got back to fucking your brains out.

and he continued to do so, till you painted his sheets and yourself white and made yourself wetter than ever. sunghoon kept the camera rolling, forgetting it was ever there as he lost himself in you…

⋆｡°✩

dis shit is LONG

sorry if it got rushed at the end but SURPRISE, this is a two-parter

hope y'all enjoy my first ever smut/nsfw story!

[australianwomensnews]

Teenage girls know a lot more about democracy and what makes it tick than teenage boys, but when it comes to political ambition the boys win hands down.

A global study of 82,000 teenagers from 22 countries showed that almost without exception girls had a greater engagement with and understanding of government, equality, public trust, voting and representation, than their male peers.

But boys were more likely to say they were interested in becoming a politician

“Australian girls are outperforming boys on knowledge, attitudes and values that support a greater competency when it comes to participation in civic life,” said Rachel Parker, from the Australian Council of Educational Research, who worked on the study.

“One of the few areas where boys outperform girls in the study is the intention to be politically active.”

The report, Education for Citizenship in Times of Global Challenge, found that girls were far more knowledgeable about how parliament works, globalisation, independence of statutory authorities and voting and representation.

Girls were also far more likely than boys to support gender equality and equal rights for migrants and cultural groups to access education, employment and political participation.

They were more engaged with big issues such as environmental protection and more likely to participate in civic activities.

However, girls were less likely to report expecting to join a political party or a trade union or stand as a candidate in an election.

The study did not dig into the reasons why, but previous research identified parental influence and societal expectations as feeding gender norms relating to political ambition, as well as widely held perceptions that politics is a man’s world.

Indeed, 40 per cent of boys thought men are better suited to being political leaders than women, while 25 per cent agreed with the statement that women should stay out of politics.

Ella Curran, 18, harboured an ambition to become a politician when she was in Year 9, but a school excursion to Canberra cured her of that notion.

“I started to think more realistically about the sort of lifestyle I wanted for myself. And we did a legal studies excursion to Parliament House and watched question time,” she told AFR Weekend.

“I felt it was so aggressive and personal in the insults that were being thrown about that I just thought it was not the sort of workplace I could feel comfortable in,” said Ms Curran, a first-year arts and philosophy student at the University of Sydney.

“I’m just not prepared to face that kind of abuse or have my appearance or relationship status mocked in public rather than focus on what I am actually doing.”

Ms Curran’s two great passions are climate change and gender equality.

“I’m concerned about climate change, particularly Australia’s response to that because we are one of the worst countries in the world for our emissions,” she said.

Lulu Hamilton, 16, who counts women’s rights and climate change as her two greatest passions, also harboured a fleeting ambition to become a politician when she was younger but abandoned it without any fanfare.

“I thought it was the best platform to make change because if I could have power, I could make my goals become a reality,” Ms Hamilton said.

Having spent the first 12 years of her life in China, seeing democracy in action, including the free exchange of information and ideas, was a head-spinning affair.

“It was such a jarring difference. I never would have spoken to my friends in China about climate change, gender or politics. Even our textbooks had stuff whited out because the Chinese government didn’t want us to read about Tibet and Taiwan. We had very limited access to media.”

As for a future in politics? That’s out of the question.

“I feel the negatives outweigh the positives.”

[nosyp]

Parents With a Twist

Photocreds = @/charluiu

Warnings = friends w benefits, no smut srry, sex before marriage, girl & boy bestfriends, fem! reader, pregnant reader, angsty stuff, jealous friend

Pairing = Michael Afton x fem! reader

Summary = The aftermath of the fight lead to the both of you distancing yourselves from each other. Will you eventually figure it out in the end?

Word count = 4.2k words

Part 1

Nothing was said for a while. None of you bothered to even say anything. Michael and you just stood there, wide-eyed and shocked.

“H-holy shit… this is… this is… fine!” he says. You can tell by his expression that it wasn’t fine though. It was so very clear that he was not fine with it. He was angry. But he was trying to cover it up, you could tell since he wasn’t doing too well of a job in hiding it.

“W-what…? Is that a joke?” you open your mouth to ask, looking at him in concern.

He grasps the pregnancy test hard in his hand, his nails starting to dig into his palms. “No! No! B-but we haven’t even got married though…”

The words register in your head. Wait. Marriage?

“What? Since when did you care about that stuff?” you ask.

“Since… uhm… right. I don’t care. My bad…” he replies, following a huge pause. “W-we haven’t even told our parents about each other, and we haven’t prepared anything for the baby, and we haven’t even-”

“Michael, stop. You're just making it worse.” you interrupt him. “And it’s not like we’re underage or something, we’re college students.”

“College students who are SUPPOSED busy studying by the way,” he adds with emphasis.

“Shut up. I’ve never seen you study even a minute,” you mention.

Michael lets out a shaky laugh, running a hand through his hair. Your words clearly flew over his head. "College students who are busy not having kids," he corrects, his voice tight.

Your stomach twists. "And whose fault is that, Michael?"

His head snaps up. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

You crossed your arms and glared at him. "You’re acting like this just happened out of nowhere. Like we weren’t both involved."

"I'm not saying that!" He throws his hands up. "I'm just saying— fuck, this is insane! We can’t handle this! We’re not ready!"

"And you think I am?" Your voice rises, shaking with frustration. "You think I wanted to find out like this? That I planned this?!"

Michael exhales loudly while pacing back and forth, seemingly looking for a solution. "We— we have options."

Silence. Your chest tightens.

"Oh," you say coldly. "So that’s where you’re going with this."

His jaw visibly clenches and he opens his mouth. "I don’t know what I’m saying, okay? I just— fuck. We don’t even know if we should— if we can—"

"Finish that sentence, Michael." you demand him. "Go on."

He doesn’t dare to. All he can do is stare, faint flashes of guilt in his eyes, and it makes your blood boil.

"Actually, y’know what?" You scoff, turning away. "Forget it. I should've known you’d react like this."

Michael takes a step forward, he’s desperate. "I’m not— just listen—"

"No, you listen!" You whirl around. "You don’t get to crash out like you’re the only victim here. And you definitely don’t get to talk about options like this isn’t real! Like I’m not standing here, actually trying to hold it together!"

His breathing is heavy, erratic. "I’m scared too." The words come out strangled, like he barely forces them out.

And that— that— is what makes you pause.

Because behind all his frustration, under the panic, there’s something else. Something… that shows he looks lost.

And for the first time since this started, you realize that maybe you’re not the only one who feels like their world just shattered.

But right now? Right now, you’re too angry to care.

"Yeah," you say bitterly. "Join the fucking club."

And then you leave him standing there, test still clenched in his fist, door slamming shut behind you.

—

This thing is weird. This whole thing is weird.

It had been a few days since the fight, if you could even call it that. During those days, he spent them at his friend’s dorm rather than your shared one so you’ve never had the opportunity to talk to him again.

So far, the only updates you’ve been getting about him was from your friends. Right now, the friend group was practically torn into two after you two decided to distance yourselves from each other.

And now?

Now Michael is gone. Not physically because he’s still on campus, still breathing the same air, but he may as well have disappeared off the face of the earth. 

And you’re not sure if you want to see him anyway.

Because the last time you spoke, it ended with you storming out and him looking at you as if you were a stranger he just met.

“Have you talked to him?”

Emma’s voice pulls you out of your thoughts. She’s watching you carefully, her fingers wrapping around her coffee cup as she brings it towards her face to take a sip.

You scoff. “What do you think?”

She sighs, expecting that answer. “He’s… not handling this well.”

Oh?

You almost laugh. He’s not handling this well? He’s the one who brought up the idea of getting rid of it. The one who distanced himself from you like you were something ruined. The one who—

You exhale slowly, letting yourself calm down. Your hands gripped the edge of the table tightly, nails starting to leave marks on the wood. “Neither am I.”

Emma looks away. “Yeah.”

Silence stretches between you two. It’s heavy and suffocating. You were expecting your friends to be a getaway from the feeling but it’s the same feeling anyway— you can’t escape it.

Because that’s the truth, isn’t it?

Neither of you are handling this well. Both of you are running in opposite directions, pretending you don’t hear the sound of something shattering between you. You two were like perpendicular lines, meeting once at a point and getting distant after it.

But sooner or later, one of you is going to have to pick up the pieces.

And you don’t know if you’re going to have to be the one to do it.

“So… what are you planning to do about uhm… this?” your lovely friend asks. You aren’t mad at her but you are kinda mad at everyone right now.

You stare down at your hands, fiddling with them as if that would help the situation.

What are you planning to do?

It’s the question that’s been looming in your head since that night. Since you stormed out. Since you realized Michael wasn’t ready for this and/or maybe he never would be.

But neither were you so not now.

Your throat tightens. But it’s not suffocating, only a bit maybe. “I don’t know,” you admit.

Emma stares at you for a while before nodding lightly. It’s almost like she understands, but there’s a flicker of something in her eyes. You don’t know if it was hesitation, or maybe pity. But it makes you feel small.

You exhale the breath you didn’t know you were holding and leaned back on your chair. “Are you gonna tell me I should talk to him?”

She frowns. “Shouldn’t you?”

You scoff. “What’s the point? He made himself very clear.”

“That he’s scared?”

The words hit like a slap. Like a hard punch.

You clench your jaw this time. “That he doesn’t want this,” you correct, a lump starting to form in your throat.

Emma doesn’t say anything right away. Instead, she stirs her coffee by shaking the mug ever so softly, letting the liquid swirl. Then, quietly, she says, “I think he’s just scared of losing you.”

Your breath catches.

And for a moment, something inside you falters.

Losing you?

That night, all you saw was his frustration— his anger, his panic. But maybe, underneath all of that, was fear.

Fear of what this meant for both of you.

Fear of what it meant for him.

And maybe… fear of what it meant for you together.

You shake your head, trying to push away the annoying thoughts. 

“Well, he has a very funny way of showing it,” you mutter, shoving your hands into your jacket pockets in an attempt to find warmth.

Emma only sighs, knowing that arguing with you is only going to make it worser than it already is.

The two of you sit in silence for a while, the cafe’s soft hum filling the gaps of silence between you two. 

In your mind, you think you should probably head back to the dorm soon… back to your mess, your thoughts, your unanswered questions.

But as you glance out the window, you freeze.

Michael is there.

Standing across the street, hands shoved into his hoodie pockets, there is Michael. He looks like he's been standing there for a while.

Watching you.

Your stomach twists.

Emma follows your gaze and exhales. “Hmm, I guess it’s not just you who doesn’t know what to do.”

You swallow hard. Because suddenly, for the first time since this all started, you’re not sure if you want to run away.

Or if you’re finally ready to face him.

—

Michael’s POV

It’s been a few days and I’ve just been hiding away rather than owning up to our mistake. I don’t blame Y/N for being mad at all, bringing up the idea of abortion probably wasn’t the best idea.

I just needed some time away from everything, I’m sure she’d understand right?

She will. She will.

I try to convince myself.

I’m standing across the street from the cafe she’s in. It’s quiet, pretty much no one there besides her and Emma. It’s probably a good spot to talk.

Swallowing the lump of guilt in my throat, I took a step forward. And another. And another.

Now I’m here in front of her table. 

—

Back to your POV

“Mind if I sit here?” Michael asks, hand already seated on the top of the chair back.

“Yes, of course.” Emma is quick to reply. “Anyways! I’ve got to get going now, my uhhh other friends are calling. See ya! Bye!”

You expected her to dip as soon as she found an opportunity to let you two talk and she not-so-gracefully did so.

She abruptly gets up from her chair and picks up her purse to dash out the front door of the cafe, leaving Michael and her bill with you. She sends you a quick wink on her way out, that you wished you missed.

Moving on, you finally get the courage to look at Michael.

“So… how are you?” you ask awkwardly, following it with a small laugh. 

He shifts in his seat uncomfortably, eyes avoiding yours. “It’s… okay… I guess” he replies with his hand rubbing the back of his head as he tries to put on a smile. 

It doesn’t mean anything. You felt as if you were back to the day you two first met. The day you two first met was in high school when he had just entered. You were assigned with the task of touring him around school, and you did so gladly. He was polite— as he usually was with new people.

From the first meeting, you knew you were meant to be. Even though it sounds cheesy, it was sweet.

But you digress.

The air was thick and unpleasant. Both of you sat there exchanging glances, waiting for the other to start talking.

…

“It’s uhmm… a nice day today,” Michael says all of a sudden. A little small talk wouldn’t hurt you figured, could be a way to warm the atmosphere.

Your head perks up at him and you respond, “Yep, quite nice today. Even though it’s been…”. You stop talking, letting him fill in the gaps in your speech.

“Raining? The rain just does that to people sometimes.” He continues. It wasn’t what you wanted to say at all.

“I— uhm… yeah,” you say, ultimately letting the conversation die again. You debate with yourself whether you should discuss the elephant in the room or let you two simmer in the awkwardness. Nevertheless, you wait for a few moments before opening your mouth. “So—”

“We have to—” he coincidentally says at the same time you started. “Y-you can go first.”

You let out an exhausted sigh (whether it was of relief or fear, you don’t know). “I-I-I… I aborted the baby…”

.

..

…

“What?” is the only thing he says in concern before he starts. “W-why would you do that?!?! I thought we were going to talk before doing anything!”

“W-what? You literally suggested it first!” You exclaim

“That doesn’t mean I wanted you to do it!” He answers angrily.

—

“Y/N!!!!” A voice starts to fade in. “Come out!! It’s been a long time since you came out of that little cave of yours!”

“Hmm?” You sit up on your bed, still groggy. “What the hell?” You murmur to yourself as you start to get out of bed.

It was just a dream. That was one hell of a realistic dream—- hit a bit too close to home. Because you would’ve never done something like that without thinking. That was just a dream right?

Everything felt so real. From the way he talked to the way the surroundings moved. But that’s the thing about dreams, you really never know if it’s one.

You peeped through the peephole in your door to see who was outside; it was Nicole. She was another good friend of yours aside from Emma. 

The soft click of the door was followed with an unexpected but kind of expected hug from her. She embraced you just like a good friend would, sending courses of warmth into your bloodstreams.

“It’s been a while. W-what brings you here?” You mutter sleepily.

She lets go of the hug and wraps her hand around your arms. “I’m here to talk to you.”

You ushered her into the living room to let her sit down while you prepared a drink for her. “Hey, what would you like to drink? Coffee… tea? Anything?”

“Hmmm,” she hums as she taps her finger on her chin. “I’d like some coffee actually. Pure black, no milk or sugar.”

She was never one to drink black coffee, especially without any milk or sugar, so why so sudden? Has it been that long since you two last met? 

Nonetheless, you still replied with your usual, “Alright,” before starting on her drink.

Once you finished, the coffee was placed on her side of the table and you sat down beside her on the couch. 

“So… what did you come here for? To talk about what exactly?” You finally ask her, sparing no time to mess around.

“Hmm, it has come to my attention that you are… pregnant.” She starts.

Your body perks up once you hear the word “pregnant”. 

How does she know? She lives in a completely different area, with a different time zone, with different norms, with different cultures… So how the hell does she know?

“H-how do you know…?” you ask. 

“Heard it from someone. Anyways, is Michael here?” she asks, eyes scanning the room for any sign of him.

“No, we’re currently arguing about the… y’know…” your words drift. “He’s not here.”

“Mmm, whatever, I just wanted to tell you that I really really think you should abor- I mean shouldn’t go through with the baby. I wouldn’t want you experiencing teenage pregnancy.” she continues.

“I-I- Wait- First of all, who told you? Secondly, why? And last, I’m not a teenager.” you stutter a bit in your answer.

“Yes I know, but I do feel like you are way too young to be tying the knot and having a baby y’know?” She replies, voice laced with a sweet venom. 

Her words hit you like a backhanded compliment. Like advice with an underlying meaning. 

“I-I can take care of myse—” you try to say before she hovers her finger on your lips to signal for you to stop.

“Nonono, if you really do end up bounding yourself to Michael forever, just think about what might happen. You’re both young, you have so so so much time left in your life. You can’t spend it on a baby,” she interrupts you.

“Listen, I really do love Michael and you. A-and I appreciate you coming here b-but this might also be my chance to open a new chapter. Plus, I think this should be a Michael and me thing. This is not your problem Nicky,” you argue back.

Her facial expressions start to twist as she listens to you, then she opens her mouth to speak: “I understand that you two know each other for a while already but this feels way too much for something so feeble like this. Please listen to me too.”

“W-what are you saying?” you ask for reassurance. 

“I’m saying… you shouldn’t do this. Especially not with Michael. How are you so sure he’s the right guy for you? And your baby?” she adds.

She seems way too adamant about her place on this. She’s pretty much convinced that getting rid of your baby and Michael is the best choice. 

“You’ve already met Michael, it’s not like he’s a bad person or anything either.” you try to convince her otherwise.

“I’m suggesting what’s best for you Y/N. I’m your friend of how many years? To my knowledge, it’s way more than you’ve known Michael.” she returns, her hands placed atop yours… her finger slowly stroking yours in false comfort.

“I get what you’re trying to say but please let us figure it out. This Michael and I’s baby, not yours. This isn’t your responsibility as much as it is mine.” you say.

“Gosh darn it. You’ve always been stubborn like this. I’m TRYING to help you but it seems you still think I can’t give good advice.” she spits.

“Stubborn? Excuse me?” you scoff. “I’m not stubborn; you’ve just never given good advice. Everytime I do listen to you, everything bad that can happen happens.” 

“That was because you did it wrong!” her voice starts to get louder.

“Wrong? I listened to your advice and followed it. Even if it wasn’t perfect, it shouldn’t have affected me as harshly as it did.” you say, almost on the verge of losing your mind.

It always felt like she had something against you, as if she was always trying to ruin your life in every way possible. 

She sighs loudly and harshly before facing you again. “I just want to help you!”

“N-no no no! This is MY problem, please let me figure this out for myself. I don’t need another person barging in to dictate everything and make this way harder than it should be. Please just get out and leave me be.” You start to get tired of her bullshit. Sure she was your friend of a long time but you couldn’t deal with it.

She looks at you in a fake shock. “Woah calm down, do you have some kind of animosity towards me?”

“No no! Just leave. I’m not in the best state of mind right now.” You start to usher her into the front door of your apartment.

“We’ve been friends for years, you can’t do this Y/N.” she states.

Is she messing with you? Was she genuinely worried for you or does she want something else from you?

“My goodness, just go away!” you whisper-shouted following by slamming the door right in front of her.

She hits the door violently with the palm of her hand. “HEY! You can’t do this! C’mon, let’s just talk like how we used to!” she yells from the other side of the door.

You put your hands over your ears to subdue her voice, and it does help, temporarily.

—

You were walking down the roads on your way back to your place. Then, you spotted your group of friends from the distance. They were at the local cafe that you always used to go with them to. 

They fortunately spotted you too and gestured for you to come to them. 

Ring!

The bell rang when you entered past the threshold. 

“Hey guys!” you greeted them cheerfully. That was before you spotted her. “And hey… Nicole.”

“Hey Y/N, Nicole’s here. She said she wanted to surprise us, and here she is.” Emma says.

“Come sit,” Cody, another friend of yours, invites. He taps the seat next to him.

Sighing, you take the seat. Then silence. None of you had anything to say, so none of you did.

Then, Nicole speaks up. “Soo… what are your guys' opinions on being parents?”

All of their heads turned to look at Nicole. Some in curiosity. Some in concern.

“What brought up that question?” Cody asks, raising up one eyebrow in suspicion.

Emma looked as if she’d seen a ghost. To your knowledge, only Emma, Nicole, Michael and some other friends knew about it. They, the whole friend group, knew something was up but you’ve only bothered to tell the three people. 

“Are you pregnant, Nicole?” asked Emma. Nicole and Emma were close but not as close as you were with Emma.

Nicole’s back stiffened and she scoffed loudly, visibly taken aback by the question. “Excuse me? Not me but someone here.”

“Ohh sure.” Emma hums, disappointment present in her voice.

You half expected Nicole to straight up announce it to everyone, but fortunately for you though, she didn’t. Despite wanting to keep it private, you’d much prefer for someone else to break the news honestly.

They stared each other down, none of them breaking eye contact. The air started to get tense, thick with an intense feeling. It started to feel suffocating, choking.

Nicole forces a small smile. “I was just curious, y’know? I mean… we’re not getting any younger. Right?” she says, her tone is soft, but the way her eyes move to you is anything but.

Emma tilts her head slightly upon hearing her words. “Right but the thing is… you never cared about any of this stuff before.”

Nicole shrugs and responds with, “People change.”

You feel your stomach turn. Her words are too aggressive. She wants someone to say it for her, but no one does. Not yet.

“I honestly think being a parent sounds hard, especially for people who just reached adulthood like us.” Cody finally says, breaking the silence with a nervous laugh. “Like… why would we trap ourselves with children when we’ve just earned the freedom to live alone…”

“Or,” Emma cuts in, “it could be an accident which I’m sure you guys would understand right?”

Nicole snorts. “Right. But this is probably not a mistake. Kids aren’t mistakes.”

Your fists clench beneath the table. You don’t even notice the marks your nails put on your palms until Emma gently places her hand over yours.

“She’s not gonna say it,” Emma whispers close to your ear.

You whisper back, “Good. I don’t need her to.”

Nicole sits back, arms crossed, and eyes you with a smirk. “Anyway, just something to think about is the responsibility and commitment. Who’s really ready for that, right?”

You look up. This time, you meet her gaze firmly.

“Mistakes happen,” you say firmly. “Some of us just can’t run from it because it’s hard.”

Everyone goes quiet again. Cody awkwardly sips his coffee.

Emma nudges you. “You wanna get out of here?”

You nod. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

You stand up, and Emma’s already gathering her things. Nicole’s eyes follow you, her expression unreadable.

“Wait— Y/N,” Nicole says, hand reaching out for you.

“You okay?” Emma asks softly.

You exhale. “I will be.”

And just as you’re about to cross the street—

There’s a soft buzz from your phone in your pocket.

Michael [6:00 PM]: can we talk?

You stare at the screen.

Then look up at the sky. You can’t run away from it now.

—

You’re sitting down in the apartment now; Yes, the same apartment you share with him. This time, you guarantee you’re getting some sort of results.

Click.

The door is open.

“Michael…” you breathe. “Let’s talk.”

He finally turns around to look at you, finally not facing the door. “Right.”

You gesture at him to take a seat across from you at the dinner table and he does so. The atmosphere was very tense, very thick.

“I— I think we should keep it…” you start the conversation off, sparing no time messing around.

His eyes widen slightly and his jaw clenches. “I- uh- why exactly…?”

“It’s a sin according to religion if we get rid of it, plus, maybe this will actually… be good for us. Y’know… like learning responsibility and we’ve only got a few years left of college anyway.” you explain.

He lets out a sigh that you can tell he’s been holding in. “I-I’ll do anything you want. You’re the one holding it, I’ll support anything. If you want to keep it, let’s do it.”

And just like that, it was finished. Or was it?

Nicole [8:34 PM]: what the fuck is wrong with you?

[kaymarie-bell]

Diasomnia Spoilers - summary bullet points edition because what the hell is going on

.

.

.

.

.

.

Continuation of the Dreams/Visions from Yuu, where Maleficent covers the castle in thorns and Prince Philip faces off against her dragon form

MALLEUS TRUE FORM! So far no dragon sprite but he's described as huge

STAFF ASSAMBLED TO EVACUATE THE STUDENTS! They're losing badly tho (😭)

FIRST YEAR GANG MY BELOVEDS!!! They're all prepared to fight together

WE'RE TRAPPED IN THE THORNS AGAIN! We've been separated from the others

our friends are reluctant to leave us (Yuu, Grim, and Lilia) behind, however Ortho convinced them to get ready with Idia's plan. Silver says to wait for him

Cut to Idia

He's freaking out. He knows he's awake because a mountain of comic books fell on him and it hurts. He's trying to lock in and run outside the school barrier to pick up what he needs but my boy is not a runner 💔

So far he's been hit by his comic books and he's stepped on board game pieces while putting on shoes. Poor Idia is fighting for his life rn

Charon has arrived for the drop off, however Mrs. Shroud has them waiting for Idia to arrive to deliver the things safely

Idia is still halfway through his dorm. He's tired. His body is too frail for this (😭) He still has to run outside, pick up the stuff, and go to Diasomnia

He says NRC is unnecessarily spacious, he hopes they can add some chariots to the school grounds to make transportation easier

The other Ignihyde shut-ins who did not attend the party are here, Ortho has informed them of the plan while they were still dreaming and they saw Idia's "Update Notice." They know that having Idia cross those distances in such a short time will be difficult so they prepared the custom Magic Wheel from the festival for him

This is the true power of the hikikomori

Idia doesn't have a license to drive this but it's okay since it's private property

the Ignihyde students came through with the assist

Charon has confirmed that Idia arrived at the drop off location

The Shroud parents are relived to see him okay, and his mom thinks he looks cool like a Prince on a white -actually, steel- steed coming to save everyone

Legendary Equipment acquired

Idia thinks that he definitely wouldn't have been able to carry the box by himself without the Magic Wheel. He's off to Diasomnia now

The Dorm Leaders' second in commands (+Kalim) are helping with the evacuation. The Dorm Leaders and Jamil are still in Diasomnia, Crowley is with them. Idia drives past them in his way to Diasomnia and they seem relieved

The Dorm Leaders are confirming everyone has evacuated, the last ones to arrive are the First Years group and Silver

Jamil asks about the Prefect and Grim, and Silver says that Lilia and us are still trapped

Dorm Leaders are concerned, and Leona confronts Crowley. Crowley says that Malleus' magic infused flames are unstoppable even to him, the only thing that could block them is a Mystium shield (like the one Idia is carrying)

Azul just realized that Idia has to carry all that stuff by himself and worries if he'll make it. Ortho says that magic can help carry it, but Jamil says that even if Idia carries the package with magic he can't picture him being good at running or flying (😭😭😭)

Ortho:...right

lmao nobody has faith in Idia 💔

Malleus is flying around in his dragon form. Riddle says those not participating in the operation should evacuate right now

Malleus' flapping wings create winds strong enough to blow them away if they're not careful

Malleus taunts the group asking if they'll stop him. Silver says yes, even if it costs his life. The boys prepare for battle outside Diasomnia

Malleus laughs and tells them to fight him

Inside Diasomnia, Grim has been trying to burn the thorns but it isn't working at all, and he can't dig the floor because it's all stone, he's worried about what to do (my poor son)

Yuu hears someone muttering, Lilia is awake

Lilia is shocked at the state of the place, we hear Malleus roaring in the distance. Grim tells him that everyone else is facing against his dragon form

Lilia wants to stop Malleus, he tries to get rid of the thorns but his magic is too weak. He's using a broken candelabra (?) to cut down the thorns. If he can't use magic, this will have to do

Lilia says that he will not let the tragedy of Malenoa happen again (okay I'm crying as I type this. He's so worried rn)

Outside the dorm, there's flames everywhere. Malleus is mocking the other boys because they can't do much against him. They're all in defensive mode because their attacks don't land, Riddle says that the blot accumulation is nearing its limit and if things keep on going like this, another overblot is a possibility

Crowley tells them to be careful. Vil says that their OB forms were safe to use only while in their dreams, it is forbidden in real life

Ortho calls for Idia to hurry up

We hear a rumbling coming from the mirror entrance

(insert the I Need a Hero scene from Shrek 2 lmfao)

FIRST BATTLE IN THE UPDATE

Idia has arrived

Crowley leaves to do something about the protective barrier (idk I'm speeding through this)

The other Dorm Leaders are beginning to evacuate too, Jamil lets Idia know that we (Ramshackle duo + Lilia) are still trapped inside. Vil tells him that we shouldn't be hurt, but to make sure to rescue us. They leave with the others

Idia is like "damn so many orders, first I gotta tame Lighting¹ Boy " (¹he uses イナズマ / Inazuma)

Malleus: Did you just say "tame" me? Even though you've woken up from the dream you still can't seem to see reality. What could such a frail and brittle human possibly do?

Damn Malleus you didn't have to do Idia like that 😔

Idia just laughs and opens the box. The armour immediately wraps around Silver perfectly. He looks just like the Knight of Dawn (😭😭😭)

Sebek gets an armour too! It's just like the one he got from his grandfather inside the dream

Silver and Sebek are going to face Malleus while wearing their ancestors armours. I'm not okay

They prepare for battle. Malleus attacks them directly with his flames, but Sebek says it isn't hot. Malleus realizes that the armours are made of Mystium. He asks them where did they get that.

Sebek lets him know it was made in collaboration between the fae and human engineering, by order of Queen Maleficia

Malleus: By Grandmother's order...? Why...? Why is she on the side of the humans? Is my grandmother also my enemy?

Sebek tells him he's wrong, the Queen and the Valley of Thorns are his allies

Silver says their only goal is to prevent a tragedy from repeating itself, while a flashback to Malenoa vs KoD plays

Silver will stop him from becoming an enemy to humanity

Silver: Father, Mother....Dad! Please give me strength! (He calls out to both the Knight and Lilia...I'm in pain)

Battle time

Sebek is down. It's Silver vs Malleus showdown. Lilia comes between them. Idia gives support from the sidelines.

MONOLOGUE TIME

[flamingpudding]

Drake's family secret #2

Previous Part

Tim was prepared, he had done as much research / digging as he could squeeze in between meetings, even going so far as rescheduling some of them to get more time until the tour guide would lead the high school students to his office.

Some things he had found were worrying even to the point of wanting to just take Danny and move him permanently to Gotham. Even if he knew that Gotham wasn't the safest city either. He had seen the other boy's interest in the aerospace department through the cameras, but with his digging he had found that Danny had been on a fast track for a Junior Space Program with the grades to support it.

Diggin that information up had made Tim proud, thinking that if there was something good about the Drake family it was that both Danny and him appear to have a very good set of brain cells. Though that proud feeling didn't last long when he dug further.

Because then an accident happened to him, leaving him with his last medical record stating a heart condition. After that there were no more dated medical records. In addition the timing of the accident lined up with when Danny's grades pummeled. He went from a A student to a C student in the month following the accident. Not only that but it also appeared that he racked up quite the number of teacher complaints to which he then got labeled as a delinquent student in his files.

Tim had narrowed his eyes at the screen as he lined up the timeline, with some additional information he had found about Amity Park. That information had not been easy to dig up, he had rescheduled at least two meetings so he could work uninterrupted on the strange firewalls that were protecting it, and even then he only got a handful of newspaper clips out of it. But that had been enough, for now.

Because Danny Fenton's accident and declining grades lined up with the appearance of a ghost menace hero Invis-o-Bill. A coincidence? Definitely not. Looked like hero-ing wasn't just a Wayne family thing.

Either way Tim had dug up a lot in a short amount of time about his possible brother. He was still missing a lot of puzzle pieces but he figured he could probably get that information once he made a successful first contact with Danny.

Which was about to happen in a little more than 5 minutes.

His eyes flicked to the door, then to the live security camera feet on his laptop. Yep they were right outside his door. Taking a deep breath and closing his laptop Tim moved to lean on his desk from the front, facing the door.

His plan was easy. give the kids a little motivational speech, spout some inspiring nonsense of 'you too can achieve great things' before dismissing cheerfully but hold Danny back, because his last name was Fenton and Tim 'recognised' it from a list of potential scientist to investment. Have a successful talk and show some interest in the - weird he actually didn't want to touch on but probably will have to consider because Danny had an accident that gave him meta powers that made him decide to go out as meta hero - stuff Danny's foster parents were researching. Ruffle his hair and subtitle pluck one of his hairs in that motion.

For a first DNA test that would be enough. Even if blood or spit would definitely be better, since he had no guarantee to also get the hair root if he just plucked one.

When the knock on his door resounded he cheerfully told them to come in and started phase one of his grand first contact plan. If anyone asked him what he told the students afterwards, he probably wouldn't be able to recount anything he told them as 'motivational speech'. He did his best though to not let his eyes constantly wander over towards the boy.

He took a little satisfaction in the fact that one of the two close friends his possible brother had appeared to be starry eyed at the fact that they got to meet him. That definitely would come in handy later on.

When some of the students started to look rather bored with their attention wandering, Tim thought that this was probably the best timing to enter phase two. Dismissing them with some scripted farewell words, he waited a little. As he expected Danny and his two friends lacked behind when the students left his office.

He cleared his throat, catching their attention. "Mr. Fenton?"

Danny looked at him wide eyed as he turned around to stare at him and Tim internally laughed. "Your parents are on our list of Scientists for possible investment. If you have the time, would it be possible to have a little chat right now?"

He noted how Danny exchanged a look with his friends and the girl among them instantly started to glare at him suspiciously as Danny's seemed to narrow. He cleared his throat once more. "I will ensure that you will get safely back to the hotel your school is staying at. I just think this would be the perfect chance to learn a bit more about ecto-science? That was what they called it, right?"

Okay, plan was not going as hoped as Danny was now full on glaring, not as heated as the girl but still glaring. His other friends had now also lost the starry eyed look in his eyes and was watching him with clear suspicion.

Damage control, damage control! Stop sounding so formal! His mind screamed as Tim once more cleared his throat nervously. "If now is inconvenient, maybe we could meet for a coffee later? I really am hoping to learn a bit more than what's written in stuffy reports."

"We got some free exploring time tomorrow afternoon. It's Tim Drake! We could at least hear him out." One of his friends stage whispered to Danny who continued to watch him with narrowed, glaring eyes.

"Tucker, no." Danny whispered back before addressing Tim. "Sorry, I have no interest in my parents work."

Before Tim could say anything else Danny dragged his friends out of his office to catch up with the other students. Leaving Tim stunned before he dragged a hand down his face. So much for phase two of his first contact plan.

"Okay noted, his parents' research is not the best way to open up contact." Tim muttered before walking around his desk and opening his laptop again. He needed to readjust his plans. Luckily one of Danny's friends, Tucker, gave him some valuable information.

Maybe he could convince Steph or Duke to go to the mall with him to make it appear more natural. Dick could also be an option, he was in town at the moment. But either way that would also risk further questions, when he 'coincidentally' ran into Danny Fenton. He didn't think reasoning with Dick about some good old brotherly bonds would distract his eldest brother long enough.

Maybe it was about time to get at least one of his siblings in on the Drake's family secret.

Or not depending, he could also check their exploring route via the city cameras and then just go coincidentally into the same coffee or food place Danny and his friends happened to go to.

Yeah that sounded better than getting his siblings involved already.

[rigelmejo]

The grammar guide summary I read through when starting to learn Chinese was cinese-grammar.com. The url has changed since then to hskcourse.com, and unfortunately the site is less simple and the guide less short now. So while I read through probably only 4 hours total or something, on my down time at work, then reread bits of it as quick references later... I don't know if it would take longer to read through now. What I did is I went through and read each Beginner lesson, then each Intermediate lesson, then each Advanced lesson on the site. I just read through, trying to understand what I could, not trying to memorize or anything, and moved on. I felt it was easy to understand, and was a nice overview to prepare me for what I was going to be seeing often. It was a nice prep to read through before trying to read chinese stuff, and gave me an idea of what the grammar points were if I needed to look up more information on them later when reading.

I reread the guide several months later after some Graded Readers and trying to read some webnovel chapters, to refresh my memory and maybe understand some grammar better that I just didn't grasp before reading a lot.

If looking for a book instead, Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar is a nice short summary book on important basis stuff, and points out some places students make common mistakes.

My favorite grammar guide for looking up in depth information on grammar points, since I started reading, has been AllSetLearning's Chinese Grammar Wiki. It's super long so it's not good to try and read as a "quick initial overview" as a beginner, it's a wonderful resource for digging into specific grammar points that are confusing you, and for people who'd like to read something much more in depth.

[dayntee]

[Fic] That Year at Arlathan University - Ch.12: Developments

Available on AO3 or below the cut as usual.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/61923295/chapters/161454133

(Don’t know why preview isn’t working. Blame mobile.)

Summary: In which Ellana gets more than she bargained for (and also a burger).

Why are chapters getting longer? Why did I spend 6 hours and 500 words of this figuring out how cars work in a crack universe? The world may never know.

*****

She awoke with a hand down her pajama pants, covers thrown off of the bed, and a heat emanating from… well, pretty much everywhere.

‘That is the last time I read the Randy Dowager before bed,’

Ellana took a moment to center herself before turning off her alarm and preparing for the morning. It was hard to chase the very vivid dream from her memory; everything had just felt so real. His mouth on hers, the heat of his skin, the way he’d crushed her body to his and ran his hands up her thigh…

It was a good thing the water in her shower was running cold anyway.

As she brushed her teeth, she ran over the events of the previous day. She hadn’t seen Solas at all, now that she thought about it—particularly not after she left the printed email on his desk. It was just as well; this conversation was going to be awkward as hell no matter what. At this point, though, the ball was really in his court; she’d done her part of alerting him to any potential problems. Hopefully he hadn’t found it too embarrassing.

Worst case scenario, she would make it clear no harm was done and they could move on with their day like normal.

She put a quick breakfast of oatmeal and fruit together and opened her laptop to check her email ahead of the work day. She didn’t need to be in any earlier than lunch, but she and Solas had made a habit of grabbing a meal together before their first afternoon class, and it was easier to simply meet him in the office while grading papers or working on one of her research topics. Today, though, she might have to have a change of plans.

There was an email from Josephine Montilyet on behalf of the Dean’s office. She opened it and skimmed over the contents quickly, and felt her heart rate begin to increase and a smile grow on her face. One of the side projects handled by the arrangement between Arlathan University, the Chantry, and the Veil Jumpers was the excavation of the major Arlathan ruins, located outside the city proper. Students could often volunteer for credit, but occasionally, teachers would also be tasked to assist with particular ruins of note or significant importance.

One such site had been found and the Dean’s office was extending her an offer to be the cultural resource consultant on the dig; resources were still being allocated and ground would not be broken until after the new year, but all that meant was she had time to prepare if she accepted.

She skimmed the high level information; until she gave her answer, details were scarce. All that was indicated was that it was some kind of small temple, and her insight into modern Dalish traditions and beliefs was likely to be relevant to these findings.

‘How could I possibly say no?’ she responded to the email immediately, wasting no time at all, and spun on her little kitchen barstool with excitement.

This was the real stuff! She hadn’t even been here a full year and already she was being looked to as an expert in her field. Sure, maybe it was a smaller site, one where she could simply find her footing. That made it no less exciting.

Everything else on her mind was instantly forgotten; all she could think about was how she couldn’t wait to tell Solas.

*****

She practically skipped her way into the office. It was empty, given that Solas was usually teaching other courses through the majority of the morning, but she figured she’d settle in anyway and get some grading done before he arrived. She flicked on the light, dropped her bag onto her desk, took off her jacket and scarf, and was just about to settle in when she saw it.

Her wolf figurine was facing her. Again.

The last time this had happened, the rest of her day had gone atrociously (at least up until part way through dinner). She supposed, in retrospect, it wasn’t all bad… But she still wasn’t going to risk it, either. Looking around, as though she’d be caught by some omnipresent, invisible force, she reached forward and turned it quickly to face the door once more.

Surely she wasn’t imagining things, right? She had definitely properly arranged the figure to face the door twice now, once when she had been talking to Solas and once that Friday afternoon. Maybe a student coming in for open office hours was moving it. Or the cleaning staff while they did their work?

It couldn’t be an omen or anything. ‘That would be ridiculous,’

She set up her laptop in her docking station and tried her best not to keep glancing at the thing. There were things to do, papers to grade, and literally anything else to think about.

Her email chimed again; Josie had responded to her acceptance of the offer.

Professor Ellana Levellan,

We are thrilled to hear you are excited for this opportunity! This effort will be funded in part by a new benefactor to our university. To welcome them to this partnership and unveil several of their projects, a formal dinner will be held next Thursday, kicking off the Satinalia festivities to be held the next day. Please note that Satinalia is observed by all students and faculty, so no classes will be held.

Your invitation is attached; please RSVP at your earliest convenience and indicate your attendance, dining preference, allergy indications, and whether you will be accompanied by a plus one.

Kind Regards,

Josephine Montilyet

AU Finance Officer

Ellana raised her eyebrows; first a new opportunity, and now a fancy dinner? This was… a lot. Like, a lot a lot. She’d been to feasts, of course, but they’d largely been for Dalish celebrations like the Arlathvhen or clan wedding rites. Nothing quite like this.

She took one breath in, then one breath out in a long exhale. Obviously she’d need to attend, but where did she even start?

“Maybe I could ask Harding,” she mumbled to herself, opening a web browser and starting a poorly worded search for ‘how to attend a fancy party.’

“Ask Harding what?” the voice startled her and she slammed her laptop closed with a yelp. Solas cocked an eyebrow at her curiously from the door, glancing purposefully at her laptop before back up to her again.

“O-oh. Hi Solas. Nothing. Just… Hm,” her thoughts stuttered out, and suddenly all she could think about was a wildly inappropriate dream from the night before. She hadn’t been doing anything that embarrassing or inappropriate, but by the gods, it sure looked like it now.

‘What the fuck is wrong you?!’

Solas gave her a curious look, a slight smile twinging his lips as she fumbled, and she could tell he was doing everything in his ability to not laugh at her.

“I… see. Informative,” his tone was teasing and he gave her a nod before moving past, and she swore he stifled a chuckle outside her view. She could feel the tips of her ears warming and did her best to ignore it.

She took a deep breath as he unpacked his own bag and settled into his desk, docking his own laptop to work on something or other, and once she felt herself calm, she turned in her seat to look at him. He raised an eyebrow again questioningly.

“I got a digsite offer,” she said quietly with a smile, and as he clocked the words, she saw his eyes brighten in recognition.

“Really? What will you be overseeing?”

“I don’t know yet. Apparently I have to attend some fancy shindig for a briefing on it,” she shrugged.

“That is unusual protocol. Normally they would simply send you the details once you have accepted the offer,”

“Josie said it’s because some new financial partner has made a deal with the school. There weren’t a ton of details, just an invitation and-“ she had noticed he stiffened and seemed to be lost in thought. “Is something wrong?”

“…She did not indicate who the beneficiary is?”

“No, just that they will be funding several projects. I’d guess I’m not the only one invited,” she shrugged again. His brows were knit together and he appeared lost in thought.

“Ellana, there are…” he stopped, and brought his hands up, tenting them in front of him. “Actually, I would rather speak of this elsewhere. Perhaps we take our meal off campus today, if you are amenable?”

“Sure,” she agreed tentatively; Solas was acting weird. She hadn’t often seen him unnerved, finding that it made her nervous in turn. He began shutting his laptop down and packing it away. “Wait, do you mean now?”

He nodded. “I can drive, if you like,”

That was a surprise. “You have a car?” Personal vehicles were generally rare, though not entirely unheard of; if anything, it was simply because they were often expensive to keep and maintain.

He gave a small smile. “I would consider it more of a collectible,”

*****

She had so many questions on the drive to lunch.

It turned out that Solas was one of a handful of owners of a very rare, very old type of vehicle dating back to the tail end of the Blessed Age, in the midst of what was now viewed as the Dalish industrial revolution. As Nevarra and Orlais had busied themselves with war and conflict, the Dalish had taken the opportunity of their oppressors turning a blind eye to establish their cultural preservation society, the group that would one day evolve into the Veil Jumpers. Their discovery of several archaeological artifacts during this time initiated a technological race with other nations, and one clan particularly dedicated to June had experimented with enhancing their aravels with magically powered travel.

Personal vehicles were rare, as the cost was expensive. Fueling them for long spans came at a cost of either heavily refined lyrium or the active supply of a mage’s mana. It had been easy to forget that Solas was a mage, given there was little need for day-to-day use of magic without a present threat of a blight or war.

“Is this an authentic Aragavira?” she wondered, taking a close look and almost afraid to touch the antique herself. It was a smaller roadster, only suitable for two passengers including the driver, but it’s compact design and sleek frame suggested it could travel move quite fast. “I’ve only heard about them, I’ve never seen one up close before,”

“It is,” he had confirmed, seemingly amused by her nearly child-like wonder. “An 8:72 Morlyn model, to be precise.”

“8:72?! It’s in such nice condition!” she gasped, and the look she threw him was practically scandalized. “You just drive an almost 70 year old antique around?”

“That is what it was built to do,” he shrugged, and he moved past her to open the passenger seat, gesturing for her to get in. The seats were plush, treated halla leather, and the rest of the interior was paneled with a lacquered, treated wood.

He closed the door behind her, moving to and entering the driver’s seat.

“I feel like this thing is worth more than my life savings,”

“To an appropriate buyer, it probably is,” he admitted with another shrug. “I did not procure it recently; it is somewhat of an heirloom,”

Solas didn’t often talk about where he was from or what his family or clan was like; she had assumed from the get-go he was not Dalish, given his lack of vallaslin, and he had confirmed as much. Still, to have such a historically important piece of Dalish history in his possession was simply astounding.

She asked him a number of questions along the way; how it felt to drive it, how often he used it, how far or how fast it could go. He happily answered all her questions, and they both found that the drive to a small, dingy burger shack on the outskirts of town as over sooner than either expected. A poorly maintained sign showing traces of building rust read “Tasty’s” on the outside, and after he parked, she couldn’t help but stare for a moment.

“I know how it may look, but I promise you will be surprised. If you have never had a proper Feralden burger, there is no better place,”

A middle-aged, stocky Feralden woman with a dour look but cheery disposition ran the small shack, barely large enough to hold the kitchen inside. Several picnic tables were set up outside for seating, as there was certainly no room in the shack for it. There were few other business within immediate distance; while the restaurant (if it could be called such) was not in the middle of nowhere, it may as well have been on the edge of it.

After they had acquired their food and taken up at a table, she noticed he waited for her to eat first, as if he was evaluating her approval. In all honesty, it smelled incredible, and after she took her first bite, she realized he’d been entirely correct.

“Gods, this is good,”

“I am glad you approve,”

They ate more or less in silence, as one often does when presented with a meal that’s too delicious to put down, and as their main course was finished and they moved on to the fried fingerling potatoes, he spoke again.

“I believe we can return to our previous conversation now,” he started.

“Oh, sure, now that I want to fall into a food coma,” she exaggeratedly groaned in response and ignored his smirk. “Anyway, it seemed like this situation’s pretty unusual?”

Solas’ expression grew more serious and he nodded. “They must be significant persons of note if they are being celebrated in such a manner. By now, you should have been sent a full debrief of the intended site and what to expect.”

“The e-mail did say they wouldn’t break ground until the new year.”

“While that could account for the delay in details, it does not account for the pomp and circumstance. Do you recall the research and investigation I have been pursuing?”

Ellana started; it was such a different subject, she wasn’t sure how it was related.

“You mean your theory on the elvhen pantheon being mortals?”

“Indeed. I…” he hesitated, thinking carefully over his words. “I have reason to believe at least one of the Evanuris walks among us in the present,”

Ellana was halfway to eating another potato when it dropped unceremoniously from her mouth. “Excuse me?”

“I warned you my investigations might seem… rather unbelievable,”

“Solas, you just told me one of my gods is a mortal being that’s also been alive for thousands of years. How is that not unbelievable?”

“Perhaps I should start from the beginning. I may not believe in the ancient elven gods as your people do, but I do believe something existed to start the legends. Spirits, or perhaps powerful mages. What is a god if not a being of power who leaves behind a legacy of faith?”

“That is a broad definition,”

“Is it no different than the raising of Andraste as the Maker’s Herald? We have proof Andraste was a living, breathing person, one who commanded power and whose legends have stood for centuries. What we do not have proof of is her actual divinity,”

“I see why you didn’t want to have this conversation on campus,”

He chuckled, “One of many, yes.” There was a softer look in his eyes with that statement, and she felt her heart skip a beat. She didn’t press further.

“Okay, so… for the sake of argument, say this mortal god walks among us. How have they survived for thousands of years?”

“How much do you know of Ancient Elvhenan?”

“Most of what you’ve published in at least your public papers, and the little more you’ve told me since I started here,”

“Then you know your stories are at least half right. Elves were immortal once. The Evanuris were simply the strongest of the most ancient of us,”

“I thought our people lost our immortality when the humans arrived?”

“A coincidence, I suspect. My current theory suggests another event occurred prior to the humans’ arrival that is the actual culprit. But forgive me, we have strayed from the topic. What I am about to share with you I have only shared with a select few at the University. I ask for your discretion in this matter,” he was deathly serious. Before she realized what she was doing, she reached across the table and put her hand atop his. She felt him flinch for a moment before relaxing again.

“I would never betray your trust, Solas,”

A small smile. He took another deep breath, as though he were preparing to release a weight from his shoulders.

“The Evanuris are not dead, but rather trapped, specifically in the Fade. At least, most of them. I have… friends who have witnessed their resurgence, and I believe they will soon be making a play to reclaim their power in the waking world, as gods amongst men,”

“That is… a lot,”

“What it should be is terrifying,” his eyebrows knot together and he turned his hand up, taking hers gently in his. “They are playing ancient games with modern tactics, which suggests they are not alone in their efforts. Financial investments are but one of the strategies we’ve observed, and I…” his hand squeezed hers softly, a thumb running over her knuckles. He grew quieter, softer. “I would not see you in harm’s way.”

Ellana did her best to ignore the butterflies threatening to burst from her chest, swallowing down emotion and not insignificant amount of panic. “You think these new investments in the University are from them?”

“I have reason to believe so,”

“What…” she took a steadying breath, realizing she was trembling. “What should I do?”

“Well, you have already accepted the position. I am afraid that means you are involved regardless,”

“So I should just continue on as if everything is perfectly normal?” she was incredulous at the notion; was the work she was going to be doing for or against her people? She honestly wasn’t sure, and the latter notion sickened her.

“I do have thoughts on how to proceed, if you are willing,”

“I mean, shoot. I might already be at the behest of a god’s whims, how much worse can it get?”

“Indeed,” he grinned lopsidedly for a moment, and released her hand; she found she missed the warmth already. “Would you be willing to report back your findings to me separately? In addition to your expected duties, of course.”

“Spy for you?” she inhaled, bringing her hands back to hug herself. This day was going all kinds of sideways from the moment she woke up. “I… I trust you, Solas. We might have gotten off on the wrong foot when we met, but…” she smiled gently at him. “I’d like to think you’re my friend, and I appreciate that you’re looking out for me.”

“Yes, well,” he seemed to break her gaze intentionally. “What are friends for, after all?” he stood, adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose, and began gathering the remnants of their meal to dispose of it. “We should probably head back before we are late for our lectures.”

Ellana felt like she had missed an opportune moment, but he was right; their talking had gotten the best of them, as it often did. She helped him clean up and they made their way back.

The ride back was quiet this time, Ellana deep in thought about all the information Solas had shared with her. It was life altering. No, world altering. And he was right—it was also terrifying. Just as many of the tales of her gods were about their righteous anger as they were their care or protection, and given the way Solas had framed the conversation, she was willing to bet there was more truth in the former stories than the latter.

He pulled into his parking spot, but paused before exiting the vehicle. Ellana sensed his hesitation and turned to look at him.

“I know this is… a lot to take in. I am sure there will only be more in the coming months. But I am here if you need me. For anything,”

Perhaps she had a moment after all.

“Actually,” she started. “I did have one thing. You see, I’ve never really been to this kind of function before… Dalish parties aren’t exactly… well, you know. Would you like to come with me?” Ellana realized, of course, she was basically asking him out on a date, but the guise of a work function proved enough of a safety net to get the question out.

There was a pause and a moment of surprise crossed his face fleetingly.

“If that would make you feel more comfortable with the matter, of course,”

She exhaled a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “That’s good, because I really have no idea what I’m doing,” she laughed in spite of herself, raising a hand to her forehead in a steadying manner.

He smiled and indicated they should start their walk, both leaving the vehicle and Solas locking it up as they headed to the Halamshiral Hall.

“I would be happy to brief you on function expectations; I have been to a few similar events in the past,”

“That would be amazing. Thank you,” she was so much more relaxed as they reached the crossing of two hallways where their paths would divide, taking them to their intended destinations. As she turned to leave his side and say goodbye, she caught what she believed to be a smirk, only to be confirmed as he leaned in close and murmured quietly.

“I could not possibly turn down a request to lend an extra hand, least of all from you,”

His breath was hot on her ear for but a moment. Then he was gone, turned and headed in the opposite direction as though nothing at all had transpired, leaving a bright red, flustered Ellana who was coming to grips with a number of puzzle pieces suddenly fitting uncomfortably together.

She wasn’t sure what was was worse—knowing that the next few days would be in his close proximity while knowing he knew what he knew, or the overwhelming panic of needing to prepare herself for an event that was certainly out of her depth.

*****

Notes:

Aragavira - (made up word in el’vhen) - a play on Aravel, meaning “a path to here/a place to go”

HE KNOWS. SHE KNOWS. THEY BOTH KNOW!

Now just make out already, jeez.

I think ya’ll can see where I’m going now with plot, at least somewhat. Solas still has some secrets he’s keeping close, but this version of him is a little more trusting than others.

Special thanks to my husband for helping me figure out the most pretentious car I could give this guy, and to Kai for her incredible El'vhen Dictionary that helped me name the stupid thing (ya'll have no idea how long I spent on car stuff writing this). I appreciate you so much for your feedback and this amazing resource! (For real, writers and linguistic nerds should really check it out).

Fun fact - this is the longest chapter so far. How do you prefer longer chapters? Better? Worse? Prefer the bite-sized ones more? Let me know!

[nowimembarrassed]

ROMANTIC NOVEL: BLACK X ASIAN OC

Title: The Dandelion and The Flame

Narrator POV

Madelaine is startled awake by her daily alarm just as she is about to see the face of the man in her dreams. She has been having this similar dream for years now, but every time she is about to see his face, she wakes up, or if she does see it, she cannot remember it. What she does remember is the warmth and familiarity of the person. The dream always goes similarly; she is being held in the arms of someone she doesn’t know but understands is her partner, married, or dating. Sometimes, they are on a date, in an intimate space like a bedroom, getting married, or even with their children. At some point, she started looking forward to it. Though she has a boyfriend, it is a different feeling — a feeling of comfort and closeness that she has not been able to replicate when she is awake with anyone. She has had these dreams for so long that it has become a joke in her friend group, and Madelaine's friends refer to him as the ���dream man.”

She brushed off the frustration of not seeing his face yet again and grabbed her phone off the charger to check for a text from her boyfriend of six months, Chris. Sure enough, the text message was there, along with a reminder.

“Remember that you agreed to go with me to the party”

“I’m gonna pick you up”

-Chris

Chris is a part of her university’s basketball team and a fraternity. His frat decided to throw a pre-game party before the team had a homecoming game. Madelaine isn’t a usual fan of frat parties. As a law student, she understands many illegal things happen there, and it’s easy to get caught up. Though her focus is business and financial law and not criminal law, she has studied many cases involving college students getting drunk and making almost irreversible mistakes. Almost irreversible because she believes that if someone has enough money, anything is reversible. She decided to send a quick reply before getting dressed.

“I got some stuff to do, so I’ll text you when Joyce and I are ready” -Madelaine

“I don’t need you waiting on me and then rushing me” - Chris

Joyce is one of Madelaine’s roommates, along with Paige and Kelani. She met Joyce during freshman year in a law class and met Kelani and her best friend last year when she joined an on-campus debate club. They now share a college apartment meant for upperclassmen. Paige and Kelani did not want to come to the frat party because they had a lot to do. Paige is studying chemical engineering, and Kelani is a women’s studies and public affairs double major. They are piled in work at the time.

Madelaine had already attended her classes for the day in the morning and decided to return to the apartment to take a nap and get ready before heading out again. When she walked into the kitchen and living room area, there was no one in the apartment. She decided to do something thoughtful for everyone and prepare a meal that everyone could enjoy when they returned.

Done cooking, she quickly took a shower before anyone returned. Since there is one shared bathroom, using the shower can be very competitive.

She entered her bedroom with her towel firmly wrapped around her chest and headed over to her tall closet. She began sifting through all the clothes she had brought with her on campus. Moving on-campus was hard for many reasons, but the hardest adjustment she had to make was leaving her extensive closet and only taking what was necessary. After digging and putting different pieces together, she made up her mind to wear a bubblegum pink cami top with thick straps linked by silver rings that she had gotten from the thrift store years ago. She paired the top with a pair of light-wash jeans that fell far past her ankles, almost dragging on the floor whenever she walked. For the final touches, she added her pink DIY crochet hat and an oversized jean jacket that matched her pants.

Once her outfit was thoroughly planned, Madelaine walked over to her vanity and began to get ready. Ever so often keeping her eye on her phone and the time. She pulled her hat snuggly over her old box braids before digging through her jewelry box. She hadn't had time to re-do her hair since the semester started. She searched for any pieces of jewelry that could take this outfit up a notch. She finally found one of Chris’ gold link chains that he left when he stayed over. She gently placed it around her neck, careful not to break it. Once wearing the chain, she added other gold pieces then stood in the mirror and admired how it complimented her dark skin.

The sound of the front door of the apartment outfit snapped her gaze to her bedroom door. She carefully listened to the footsteps for a minute before deducing it was one of her roommates.

“Joyce! Hurry up and shower”, Madelaine called out.

She received no response from the other person so she turned down her music and went silent waiting for a response but still there was none. Instead, there was a knock on her room door before it opened.

“Sorry, It’s me”

“Oh, Hi Paige, what you doing back so soon?” Madelaine asked. Usually, Paige came back later in the day, around 7 or 8.

“I became overstimulated and needed to come back,” Paige answered before walking out of the room and making her way to her room. Madelaine follows her out, “did you need anything?” Madelaine asked confused.

“Nope, just wanted to let you know I was home” Paige turns to Madelaine to reply with a shrug.

“Okay”, Madelaine replied before heading back to her room.

Madelaine later received a message from Joyce.

“Hey gurl, I’m going to head to the party later with Fuhad” -Joyce

Madelaine lets out a chuckle. She had a feeling that they had been hanging out again. They have had an on-and-off relationship for some time. Fuhad is also in the Frat but on the soccer team instead of the basketball team. Madelaine met Chris one day when she went with Joyce to meet Fuhad.

“Mhm text me when you get to the party” -Madelaine

Once Madelaine was ready, she called Chris and told him to pick her up. She did not have a car at the moment because she couldn’t afford it, so Chris has been driving her everywhere.

“Where is Joyce?”

Chris asked once Madelaine got in the car.

“She is going with Fuhad”.

He says nothing in response because he is also aware of their situationship

“Let's go get some food before going so we don’t fuck our stomachs up”, Chris said as he drove out of the parking lot

The thumping music spilled out from the frat house, and the front yard was packed with folks, some wearing shirts and others going shirtless. Chris slung his arm casually around Madelaine's shoulder as they walked in, exchanging greetings with friends scattered across the lively scene.

Once inside, the party vibe continued to buzz. Chris's frat friends, familiar with his relationship but not particularly close to Madelaine, greeted them. The couple was quickly ushered into the bustling kitchen, where one of Chris's friends eagerly pulled them aside to grab the first round of drinks.

Amidst the clatter of cups and chatter, Madelaine couldn't help but notice the distinct smell wafting from the iconic red solo cup. Playing it safe, she recognized the need to pace herself and not go overboard with whatever was in that cup. As the night unfolded, she embraced the mix of excitement and caution at the frat house gathering.

“Okay, Miss Thing! You all dressed up”, Chris’s friend yelled over the music as he dapped them both up.

“Fuhad is coming with Joyce,” Chris told his friend, which caused the man to roll his eyes.

Everyone in the Frat knew exactly what was going on with the two.

After standing with Chris and chatting with him and his friends, Madelaine decided that she wanted to hit the dance floor. She started to feel a little tipsy and wanted to distract herself from drinking. Most of the people at the party were from the frat and their friends. She felt somewhat safe but not entirely secure; after all, it was a frat party. While dancing, she met a few women on the dance floor who complimented her makeup and outfit, and she began dancing with them, forming new connections. Chris remained within sight, keeping a watchful eye on her.

After dancing energetically until fatigue set in, Madelaine chose to retreat to a dingy couch close by, accompanied by some newfound female acquaintances. Across from her sat an Asian girl with bone-straight, shiny black hair that swayed effortlessly as she bobbed her head to the music. The room was dimly lit, making it hard for Madelaine to discern the details of the girl's outfit, but from the ripped red mesh stockings and her boots, Madelaine knew that her ensemble was stunning.

As if she could sense Madelaine analyzing her outfit, the girl turned her head and gave Madelaine a gentle smile, which Madelaine returned. Wasting no time, Madelaine mouthed across to her, “I love your boots,” then pointed to her Demonia Camel 311s. The girl's gaze followed Madelaine's pointing finger to her shoes before looking back up at Madelaine and mouthing a, “Thank you,” in response. The girl returned to aimlessly listening to music, and Madelaine carried on her conversation with the other girls.

As the lively discussion continued, Madelaine's attention shifted when a man strolled over and took a seat beside the Asian girl. Nonchalantly draping his arm around her, they exuded a comfortable familiarity that caught Madelaine's peripheral gaze.

The girl seemed preoccupied by whatever the man was whispering in her ear, completely unaware that he had secretly dropped something into her drink. While others remained oblivious, Madelaine, ever watchful, caught onto the concerning act. Reacting swiftly, she rose from her seat on the couch and approached, choosing to sit next to the girl.

With a keen eye, Madelaine decided to take immediate action. Pretending to accidentally knock over the drink, she skillfully diverted attention from the potentially harmful situation. The liquid spilled, creating a distraction and allowing Madelaine to discreetly intervene without arousing suspicion.

“Oh I’m so sorry I’m drunk,” Madelaine says to the clearly furious man.

Madelaine continued to feign intoxication, wrapping her arms and legs around the girl. Concerned that Madelaine might topple over in her seemingly inebriated state, the girl instinctively secured her with an arm to provide stability. Sensing that his deceit was exposed, the man abruptly stood up and stormed off in anger.

“Girl, he was trying to drug you” Madelaine whispered as she unwrapped her hands and legs.

Upon realizing Madelaine wasn't drunk, the Asian girl raised her eyebrows in shock.

“Thank you” The girl replied.

Madelaine is shocked by the deep voice because they look so feminine yet their voice is so manly.

“I’m so sorry,” Madelaine quickly apologized

“It’s okay, I’m Jodi! My pronouns are whatever I look like to you.” Jodi says with a smile, reaching their hand out for a handshake.

Taking a better look, Madelaine could understand how she easily mistook them for a woman. The corset, skirt, and mesh top they wore only added to this misunderstanding. Madelaine decided to not think much of how others choose to express themselves.

“I’m Madelaine,” Madelaine replied, shaking Jodi’s hand.

“Nice to meet you, Madelaine”

“Nice to meet you too, Jodi”

[boldlymysticsky]

Best Low-Cost Digital Marketing Training in Dubai That Works

Let’s have a little heart-to-heart today. You’ve probably heard this word a lot lately—digital marketing. It sounds like a big, fancy term, doesn’t it? But trust me, it’s something really cool and not that hard once you get into it!

Now, maybe you’re here because you’ve been googling digital marketing courses in Dubai, and you’ve seen courses that cost a LOT of money. You’re probably wondering…

“Can I find a digital marketing course that actually works and doesn’t burn my wallet?”

Good news? Yes, you can! 🎉 And the best part? You don’t even need to be super techy or smart to get started.

Let’s walk through it, step by step—and I promise, by the end of this article, you’ll feel confident, excited, and ready to begin your digital journey with a super affordable and effective program—Digital Scholar.

🌍 So, What is Digital Marketing?

Okay, let’s make this easy.

Digital marketing is just a fancy way of saying, “telling people about stuff online so they want to buy it.”

Imagine this…

You love baking. You post pictures of your cupcakes on Instagram. People see your posts and want to buy them.

BOOM! You’ve just done digital marketing.

Now imagine if you could do this for businesses. You help them get seen on Google, Instagram, YouTube, and more. Businesses pay you for that help—and that’s a career.

Yes, you can turn this skill into a job, a freelance gig, or even your own business.

💸 Why Are Some Courses So Expensive?

You may have seen many digital marketing courses in Dubai, but they come with price tags that make you go “WHOA!”

But expensive doesn’t always mean better.

What you need is a course that:

✅ Teaches you the RIGHT skills ✅ Helps you PRACTICE those skills ✅ Prepares you for REAL jobs ✅ Doesn’t make your bank account cry 😢

And guess what? There’s one name that ticks all the boxes: Digital Scholar.

🏆 Meet Digital Scholar: Your Learning Superpower

Digital Scholar isn’t just another course. It’s a full-blown digital marketing training platform that works—and it works really, really well.

And here’s the magic part—it’s super affordable.

Digital Scholar was created so that anyone—yes, anyone—can learn digital marketing, without worrying about money or feeling left out.

Let’s dig deeper into why this training is the best low-cost digital marketing course in Dubai that actually gives you real results.

🎒 What Will You Learn at Digital Scholar?

Alright, let’s talk about the fun stuff.

Digital Scholar teaches you real-world digital marketing. You’ll learn:

SEO (how to make websites appear on Google)

Facebook & Instagram ads

Google Ads

Social media content creation

Email marketing

Website building (using WordPress)

Blogging

Affiliate marketing

Influencer marketing

Personal branding

AI tools like ChatGPT

Freelancing tips

And a LOT more!

Sounds like a lot? Don’t worry—they break it down into bite-sized lessons, with examples, videos, and fun projects.

Even a 10-year-old can understand it. Yes, it’s that friendly.

🧑‍💻 Who Can Join This Course?

Are you...

A student in high school or college?

A stay-at-home mom or dad?

A working professional looking to grow?

Someone looking to earn from home?

A business owner wanting to promote your brand?

If you said yes to any of these, Digital Scholar is made for you.

And guess what? You don’t need a computer science degree or marketing background. Just your time, a laptop or phone, and your willingness to learn.

🏡 100% Online. 100% Flexible.

One of the best parts? You can learn from ANYWHERE in Dubai—or even outside.

Whether you live in Bur Dubai, Downtown, Deira, or JLT—you don’t need to travel. Classes happen online, so you can learn from your cozy couch or your favorite coffee shop.

And if you have a job or classes? No worries! Digital Scholar offers flexible timings so you can learn at your pace.

✨ Real Practice. Not Just Theory.

Here’s the difference between a boring course and Digital Scholar.

Other places give you theory.

Digital Scholar gives you experience.

You’ll run real ads, design posts, write blogs, and analyze real data. You’ll work on projects and get feedback—so by the time you finish, you’re already job-ready.

Think of it like learning to ride a bicycle. You don’t just read how to ride—you actually get on and ride. 🚲

That’s what Digital Scholar does for digital marketing.

📜 Certificates? You Bet!

Once you finish the course, you’ll receive certifications that help you show off your skills.

You’ll get:

Google Certification

Meta (Facebook + Insta) Certification

HubSpot Certification

Digital Scholar Certification

Semrush Certification

These certificates are recognized around the world. You can show them on your LinkedIn, resume, or even on freelance job websites!

💼 What About Jobs?

One word: plenty!

Digital Scholar gives you everything you need to land digital marketing jobs in Dubai and beyond:

Help with building a resume

Interview training

Access to job openings

Help getting freelance clients

Career coaching sessions

So whether you want to work for a company or work for yourself, you’re supported all the way.

🏙️ Why Dubai Needs Digital Marketers

Let’s get real.

Dubai is a city that LOVES growth. New businesses, restaurants, tech companies, influencers—everyone is online.

And all of them need digital marketers. If you know how to market online, you’ll never be out of work.

Start learning now, and by the time you're done, you’ll be ready to grab those amazing jobs waiting just for you.

❤️ What Makes Digital Scholar So Special?

Here’s a quick recap of what makes it the best:

Low cost (affordable even for students)

100% online (learn from anywhere in Dubai)

Real projects (not just theory)

Expert mentors (real marketers teaching you)

Job-ready training

Flexible learning

Globally recognized certificates

And guess what? Students LOVE it. The reviews, success stories, and job placements speak for themselves.

🌟 You Can Start Right Now!

You don’t need to wait for the “perfect moment.” There’s no need to save up for years or wait until “someday.”

Today is the day you say YES to your dreams.

If you’ve been searching for low-cost digital marketing courses in Dubai, look no further.

Choose a course that works. Choose a course that supports you. Choose Digital Scholar.

📍Contact Digital Scholar Today!

Name: Digital Scholar Address: Sapna Trade Center, Poonamallee High Road, Chennai – Online learning available across Dubai Phone: +91 91692 11113

💡 Affordable. Powerful. Life-changing. That’s Digital Scholar. Let your journey begin today!

[nithiyanantha]

Best Mobile Apps for IAS Preparation

Preparing for the Indian Administrative Service examination is no small feat. First of all, one needs a wellstructured plan of preparation coupled with consistent efforts and the right resources. In a digital era like this, a mobile application plays a very important role in helping aspirants. With such applications, studying material, current affairs, and other stuff like mock tests within easy reach.

These mobile apps are supplements to classroom learning for students preparing at distinguished coaching centers like PM IAS Academy, Coimbatore, and provide them with that extra mile in preparation. Let's know more about the best IAS mobile applications in helping your study plan in the blog below.

Why Mobile Apps Are Essential for IAS Preparation With the fast information and technology world, mobile applications make learning easier. Here are a few reasons why these mobile applications are required for IAS aspirants:

Access is not necessary to be at one place to access study materials, news, or lectures. You could do it anywhere and at any time, thus optimizing your study time even during short breaks.

One can opt for customized study plans and track progress in some mobile applications. Thus, a student will focus on his areas of weakness and improve accordingly.

Diverse Content: These have every possible study material, right from current affairs to mock tests, video lectures, and so on, which helps aspirants cover the entire IAS syllabus.

It is cost-effective. Although the courses for IAS preparation are costly, the mobile apps are relatively free and cost-friendly, ensuring that everyone gets to access the best education. Let's dig deeper into the best mobile apps available for IAS aspirants, especially from PM IAS Academy in Coimbatore, to enhance their preparation.

Top Mobile Apps for IAS Preparation

Comprehensive Current Affairs App Keeping oneself updated with current affairs is an essential part of IAS preparation. Apps related to current affairs provide news at the national and international levels, policies by governments, and the condition of society. These apps provide the following:

News summary on a daily basis. Editorials from leading newspapers. Monthly current affairs capsules. Quizzes and practice tests based on current events. For aspirants at PM IAS Academy in Coimbatore, these apps can work as supplements to your learning in the classrooms by providing current news update and analysis important both for Prelims and Mains.

Mock Test and Practice App Mocking tests and practice exams are the best ways to know where you stand and which part of the exam pattern is to be understood. These apps provide:

Timed Prelims and Mains Mock Tests. Detailed Performance Analysis. Sectional Tests General Studies, CSAT and Optional subjects. Practice through Mock Test Apps. So you may catch where you are going wrong, and you may concentrate on areas of improvement. The students of PM IAS Academy in Coimbatore find these apps to be very handy for simulating the actual exam atmosphere.

Interactive Learning and Video Lecture App For the student who is a visual learner, interactive video lecture apps would come as a gift. These include:

Video lectures by experts on multiple topics within the syllabus of the IAS. Interactive quizzes and discussions. Topic-wise segregation. The ease of accessing video lectures at any time makes it simpler for the aspirants in revisiting a topic or clearing doubts. Video lectures supplemented with learning in classes at PM IAS Academy here in Coimbatore cover all complexities in topics.

Previous Year Papers and Question Bank App Understanding the kind of question paper used in previous years' examinations would help crack IAS. A multitude of question papers from previous years and huge question banks are available on these apps that offer access to: Question papers of Preliminary and Mains for the last 10+ years. Questions available topic-wise and subject-wise for practice. Answer explanation and analysis for enhanced understanding. These apps can be used in conjunction with classroom coaching to ensure that the students are well exposed to question patterns and adequately rehearsed.

NCERT and Standard Books App NCERT books form the backbone of IAS preparation. Having easy access to NCERT books and other standard reference material on your mobile is very invaluable. Apps give the user: Free access to all NCERT books from Class 6 to 12. Summary of main points from standard reference books. The ability to highlight and bookmark sections which may need to be revisited again. To the PM IAS Academy aspirant at Coimbatore, these apps have turned out to be an excellent quick reference tool, carrying their textbooks wherever they want.

Note Taking and Revision App The art of note-taking is always good and with these apps, you can coordinate your revision process with: Tools that enable you to create and organize your notes. Ability to share notes with classmates or gurus. Accessing notes on any device. Capture of lecture notes and highlights taken at PM IAS Academy, Coimbatore and it will always be ready for revision on the go.

Time Management and Planner App Time management forms one of the biggest challenges an IAS aspirant faces. In addition to planner and time management apps, you can:

Schedule study time and reminders for your timetable. Divide the IAS syllabus into smaller sections. Marking daily, weekly, and monthly progress. You can thus monitor your study materials with proper time management apps along with these scheduled pre-planned study times given for CSAT preparation by PM IAS Academy in Coimbatore. CSAT is a part of IAS Prelims and there are specific apps that help aspirants prepare for the CSAT paper. They offer:

Logical reasoning and comprehension exercises Quantitative aptitude practice tests Detailed explanations and performance tracking For PM IAS Academy students in Coimbatore, these apps come as a supplement to help them feel better prepared for the CSAT paper, which usually acts as a decider for clearing Prelims.

How to Leverage these Applications while Preparing IAS It is nice to use these mobile applications, but it needs strategic use in order to get the maximum benefits from them. Here are a few tips on how one should integrate these apps into one's IAS study plan:

That can be used as complements of and not to replace the classroom learnings under PM IAS Academy in Coimbatore: Also, these apps should be used as a supplement to those guidances and resources received from the academy. Classroom training has the backdrop of an institution, while mobile applications provide flexibility and resource supplemented as well.

Maintain a Balanced Study Plan: Do not spend all your time on any app or subject. Use apps for current affairs in the morning, mock test in the day, and revision in the evening such that you are studying everything.

Fix Time Limitations: Mobile applications tend to be addictive. See that you don't spend too much time on them. Ensure you have fixed time limits for each app so that you balance your study routine.

Regularly assess your progress: Utilize the performance analytics provided by mock test applications to monitor your progress and then modify your plan of study. Share the results with the mentors at PM IAS Academy, Coimbatore, and get tailored feedback based on it.

Conclusion The mobile apps for IAS preparation are excellent tools to help you enhance your learning experience. Above all, such applications are easily availed, which further enhances your overall performance. It may clear up emergency current affairs, practice mock tests, or revise vital topics while focusing on a specific area of improvement.

However, these apps can be used only in combination with structured coaching from experts. For students at PM IAS Academy in Coimbatore, mobile apps thus provide greater access to more resources and more flexibility to meet their dreams of becoming an IAS officer.

By integrating mobile apps in your strategy of preparation, you get a step ahead in the competition, keep things organized, and move fearlessly closer to becoming an IAS officer.

IASPreparation #UPSCJourney #MobileAppsForIAS #BestIASCoaching

[toptrendson]

Article: School's In, Style's On: Fresh Looks for Every Vibe

The school bells are ringing, and it’s time to step into a new year with confidence and style. Whether you’re hitting the books or catching up with friends, your backpack is more than just a bag—it’s a statement. Let's explore the freshest looks that will keep you in style, no matter your vibe.

Effective Theme Your backpack sets the tone for your year. Choose a theme that reflects your personality, whether it's sleek and modern or colorful and playful. This is your chance to express who you are, even before you say a word.

Color Color speaks volumes. Go for bold hues if you want to stand out, or soft pastels for a more laid-back vibe. Neutral tones like black, gray, and navy are timeless, fitting seamlessly into any wardrobe.

Durability School life is tough on bags, so durability is key. Look for backpacks made from high-quality materials like nylon or polyester. Reinforced stitching and water-resistant fabrics will ensure your bag lasts all year long.

Size A good backpack should be spacious enough to hold all your essentials without overwhelming you. Consider the size and what you’ll need to carry daily—books, a laptop, maybe a lunch box.

Dimensions Think about the dimensions of the backpack, especially if you have specific storage needs. A slimmer profile might be ideal for a light day, while a more expansive bag could be perfect for those carrying more gear.

Mobility Mobility matters, especially when you're darting from class to class. Padded straps and ergonomic designs can make a huge difference, offering comfort during those long school days.

Expandability A little extra space can go a long way. Backpacks with expandable compartments give you the flexibility to pack more when needed, without compromising on style.

Security Features In today's world, security is more important than ever. Look for bags with anti-theft features like hidden zippers or RFID-blocking pockets to keep your belongings safe.

Security Weight Balance is crucial. Your backpack should distribute weight evenly to avoid strain on your shoulders and back. Look for padded back panels and adjustable straps to customize the fit.

Modern Touch Tech-savvy students need a bag that keeps up with them. Modern backpacks often come with built-in USB ports or headphone slots, blending style with convenience.

Design Design isn't just about looks—it's about functionality too. Sleek lines, multiple compartments, and smart layouts can make organizing your gear a breeze.

Packing Power A well-designed backpack maximizes packing power. Multiple pockets and compartments help you stay organized, so you can quickly grab what you need.

Ample Space Space is everything. A roomy main compartment with additional pockets for smaller items will keep everything in its place. You don't want to be digging around for a pen at the bottom of your bag.

Made Of The material your backpack is made of will affect its durability and style. Canvas, leather, or recycled materials—each offers something unique. Choose one that aligns with your style and needs.

Convenience Convenience is king. Easy-to-access pockets, quick-release buckles, and smooth zippers all add up to a hassle-free experience, especially when you're on the go.

Material The material impacts not just the look but the longevity of your backpack. Choose one that can withstand daily wear and tear, like ballistic nylon or eco-friendly fabrics.

Warranty A good warranty is a sign of confidence from the manufacturer. It’s worth considering, especially if you’re investing in a higher-end backpack.

Special Features Some backpacks come with special features that set them apart—built-in rain covers, detachable pouches, or even solar panels for charging devices. Think about what features would make your life easier.

Conclusion This school year, don’t just carry your stuff—carry your style. With the right backpack, you’ll not only be prepared but also ready to make a statement. Choose wisely, and let your bag do the talking.

BackToSchooloutfits

[tech-insides]

How does Einstein Copilot Analytics support data exploration?

Imagine you’re at a family dinner, and someone asks you how your day was. You probably don’t pull out a spreadsheet and start listing all the tasks you completed, right? You give them the highlights, the interesting stuff, the “Oh, you won’t believe what happened!” moments. That’s kind of what Einstein Copilot Analytics does for data exploration—it helps you get to the good stuff without wading through all the boring bits.

Einstein Copilot Analytics is like having a super smart buddy who knows everything about your data and can give you the insights you need without you having to dig for them. Think of it as the Google Maps of your data world. You tell it where you want to go or what you want to find out, and it gets you there quickly and efficiently.

Let’s break it down with a few key points:

1. Instant Insights

Remember the last time you wanted to find a great place to eat and your friend just knew the perfect spot without you spending hours on Yelp? That’s Einstein Copilot Analytics. It uses AI to give you instant insights from your data. No more spending hours crunching numbers or creating charts. Just ask it a question, and bam, there’s your answer. Easy peasy!

2. Natural Language Queries

Ever wish you could just talk to your data? Like, “Hey, how did our sales do last quarter?” With Einstein Copilot, you can. It understands plain English, so you don’t have to learn any complicated coding or formulas. Just type in your question like you’re chatting with a friend, and it’ll pull up the info you need. It’s like having a conversation with your data—super friendly and straightforward.

3. Visual and Interactive Dashboards

Think of this as the Instagram of data analysis. You know how a picture can tell a thousand words? Einstein Copilot creates visual and interactive dashboards that make your data look like a masterpiece. You can see trends, patterns, and anomalies at a glance. It’s like turning your raw data into a beautiful story that anyone can understand, even if they’re not a data geek.

4. Predictive Analytics

Okay, here’s where it gets really cool—like predicting the plot twist in your favorite TV show. Einstein Copilot doesn’t just tell you what’s happening now; it can predict what might happen in the future. It’s like having a crystal ball for your business. You can make better decisions because you’re not just reacting to what’s already happened, but planning for what’s coming next.

5. Collaboration and Sharing

We all know teamwork makes the dream work, right? Einstein Copilot makes it super easy to share your findings with your team. You can collaborate in real-time, share insights, and make decisions together, even if you’re miles apart. It’s like having a virtual huddle with your colleagues anytime you need it.

6. Customization

Lastly, just like you customize your phone or your social media profiles, Einstein Copilot Analytics can be tailored to fit your specific needs. Whether you’re in marketing, sales, finance, or any other field, you can set it up to track the metrics that matter most to you. It’s your personal data assistant, customized to help you shine in your role.

So, there you have it—Einstein Copilot Analytics is like that super knowledgeable friend who’s always there to help you navigate through your data jungle, making everything clear, simple, and actionable. Whether you’re making big business decisions or just trying to figure out what’s going on with your latest project, this tool has got your back. If you’re interested in becoming a data scientist or want to stay ahead in this evolving field, there are excellent resources out there to help you. One such resource is Interview Kickstart. They specialize in preparing students for careers in data science and helping them ace their interviews at top tech companies. You can check them out here. They offer comprehensive courses and training programs that can give you the edge you need to succeed in this competitive field.

[georgegraphys]

not that hate anon but give me interview tips?!!!!?!

You're fast 😭 But it depends on which job you're aiming for, which industry, what type of company (governmental firms/strict ass corporates/start ups?) you signed up for, how is the work culture in your country, any insights on the organizational culture of the company you applied for, what's their value/goals/image/etc,.how the interviews would go, and many more!

Your answers mostly depend on those things. So other than knowing your achievement, you need to learn thoroughly about those things so you will appear prepared in front of the HR Managers. These things are important as a) it gives you more insight about the company (gives you a chance to step back if you feel like you won't fit) b) predict the flow of your interview a bit and give insight to what you would answer during the interview. These things work as well for students who want to do internship/join an organization/etc!

And the most important thing is you need to learn about yourself. That is a basic thing that you need to fulfill when you are about to do interviews. You need to acknowledge your weakness and know what you could do to cover them up so they don't get seen as a hindrance and could be useful to yourself! You get to know how to help yourself 💥 You need to know your soft skills and hard skills. Anything could work and you need to dig deep into yourself or ask other people because sometimes we don't realize it as sometimes it comes off as a blind spot in our life. Know yourself. Your strength. Weakness. Achievements. Soft or hard skills. Personality. What you like and dislike. Basically EVERYTHING so that it prepares you for things ahead of you and things you like or dislike. Why is this important? Because this is you committing yourself into something that requires strong commitment. Know your limits. Know yourself. That will make you feel at ease, let you know yourself more, figure out new passions and be more prepared. This is honestly the most important part because as you know yourself, you're able to bring the best out of yourself, show confidence and convince the people who interviewed you to hire you.

Lastly, prepare yourself mentally. I can't say shits like "don't overthink, don't stress" WE ALL DO and it's okay. Acknowledge that feeling and turn it into encouragement. You've prepared so far, you've sent your CVs, you've spent your time filling those up with your experiences and stuff. That shows you are ready and you should be ready. Keep yourself happy, sleep enough the day before, drink well, eat well and just go on with your daily life like usual. Personally, I'd find some things to motivate myself before going to an interview. I always treat myself to some yummy foods afterwards as self rewards. That'll ease up your nerves as you wait for the announcements. Self rewards don't have to be big. It could be the smallest thing like walking in the park or drinking coffee. It can be something small that comforts you or you enjoy doing. You don't need big things to make you happy. It's the small things that matters 😚

Anon, I hope you'll do well with whatever interview you have in the future 🩵 I hope you'll find a great job that pays you well and grants you nice facilities as well as a healthy work culture, office space, friendly co-workers and higher ups and many more! I wish all good things for you anon! Have a nice day 🥂

[judetesta]

The Making of 'The Surrey Job'

First Thoughts

As a follow-on from our previous screenwriting module, our first major film brief at UCA bared one challenge in particular - no dialogue. This, for pretty much every other role of production, seemed limiting: a writer might wonder how to fill the gaps in their page that lines might've once taken up, a director on how to motivate their actors without speech, and so on...

…But as I'd bagged my first role in sound (as the rather non-specific 'HOD Sound' which we later resolved as me doing post-production whilst my peer Chloe handled the on-set stuff) I instead felt liberated by how creative I could be. It helps that I'm one of, well, one for those actually interested in the audio side of filmmaking so far - which meant I could pick any film I wanted out of the eight laid out.

One stood out, though - 'The Surrey Job' (TSJ henceforth) was a heist film about a group of middle aged/classed women, and their exclusion of one in their midday binge drinking that escalates into an escapade of slapstick thievery, Mission Impossible style, to heist a bottle of expensive wine. Paying homage to an existing kind of film meant I could dip my feet into a new workflow safely by following in other's footsteps, allowing me to experiment with the details instead. I signed on, and we got to talking out a plan:

Pre-Production

Quickly - and this is pretty normal at a student level - we realised our ambitions dwarfed our budget. Multiple locations and enlisting actual adults with jobs wouldn't be as easy as, say, rebranding the film to be more youth-centric. And that was what Jack, our writer, did. Instead, we'd follow a young girl's not-so-warm welcome to her student digs as a fresher, excluded from her more popular flatmates and their pompous wine-drinking - which she'd then, of course, go on to rob. I got a party scene out of this, which sounded really exciting to dub over - but also a line in the script describing a couple snogging, which I wasn't so excited to dub.

Still, it was time to sit down with Director Luke Sage and figure out how to approach the sound. As the mute nature of the film removed most of the hassle, we settled on most of the sound-work being an extension of some PDR we'd grab on-set, as the more comedic feel wouldn't (always) suit pure realism anyway.

I laid out my plans for an 'arc of realities' wherein our lead's awkward entry to the flat would be met with a realistic soundscape, and then into the more heightened during the heist planning and execution - before she's thrown right back into the realistic kind when her plan spills over. I annotated a script with highlights of every type of recording approach I'd need for every sound, with comments on the more specific thing to look at, and after hashing out the details, prepared ourselves for a week of shooting.

On-Set

After an early rise and a packed lunch, I met with the crew to head over to our shooting location - a nice suburban home that had been kindly lent to us by a colleague of the producer, Lucy - who was also named Lucy. Immediately though, there was an issue: the sound equipment I had requested as part of the booking list, for whatever reason, hadn't been booked out, leaving Chloe and I in a pretty difficult position. Not one to give up, we returned to UCA and went over our options with EHD, who kindly let us book out an ATR-55 and a Zoom H5 which whilst not what I personally would've chosen, seemed to get the job done well enough.

After tinkering with the Zoom and figuring out on the fly how to get up and running, we got to work. Truthfully there wasn't a great deal of expertise on display over those three days of shooting; we didn't have to record any dialogue - the silver lining to not having a boom pole for our boom op! - which meant the meat of our work was capturing those more intricate sounds like the rummaging of boxes or ambiences. As I didn't have much to do and didn't want to step on Chloe's toes either, for the second and third days of shooting I instead went ahead and recorded BTS footage using my personal rig, which was great experience for me in terms of recording subjects that don't necessarily have the time to accommodate for you. I found a groove in weaving through people's limbs and gaps in the equipment to discover intricately framed looks at my subjects, which I'll definitely be incorporating into my future work. I had underestimated the value of depth in my cinematography skillset and won't be doing that again! Between that and weighing in on how to record each sequence with post-production in mind - as well as the odd job such as holding up cardboard to keep light out of the interior of the house, my role on-set was quite straightforward. I'll dub it the calm before the storm, as I imagine the work after would be quite intense. Here's how that went...

Post-Production

Post-shoot and post-Easter (I went home to visit family and tie up loose ends in my coursework, plus a rather unconventional Sunday Bolognese) I was back in Farnham and with Rowan - our editor - handing me a rough draft, it was time to get back to work.

Over the course of the next few weeks, I'd interlace foley sessions - which would go through a list of sounds I'd highlighted into groups from the script and then categorised using Trello - with Pro Tools editing. I figured this out by sitting in on some sessions from Luke and Albert from the higher years in W107, which also helped me learn to operate the various inputs and outputs of the room and how to set up the microphones. I invited some of the crew to come and help me record footsteps using foley pits, props from on-set, as well as some from the huge shelves of miscellaneous stuff in the room itself. A typical take would involve us practising the sound whilst I set the gain to create a nice ceiling and prevent peaking, before running through it a few times (the person in the booth would be able to see a meter as well as the video track to mimic the actions). I initially recorded in mono, before realising my mistake and switching to a stereo layout with two mics 'overlapping' each other. This gave a greater sense of depth - although I understand this isn't a catch-all method and in cases like ADR you'd want mono. I also had the pleasure of creating a fake Sci-Fi radio-drama type scene with Luke and Beau to go in the background for one of the scenes, which involved squeezing tomatoes and snapping celery whilst waving around shakers and typing on keyboards to create the sounds of aliens and tech.

This was admist the difficult, but rewarding process of learning how to edit for sound with Avid Pro Tools. Post a series of online tutorials and trial-and-error practise, I began to lay out the .OMF file as sent to me by Rowan and crack on with the edit. A key moment for me was learning to automate plugins to dynamically alter things like reverb and EQ on the fly - this helped to make the environments feel more reactive to things like doors opening or closing or rising tensions. There was a back and forth between numerous cuts, which involved tweaking things slightly or reorganising the edit to accomodate for the score as it came through, but eventually, I was blessed with a finished edit that I then mastered and limited the master track to prevent additional peaking from the sounds as all overlapped - and then I was finished!

Reflection

This was definitely a challenging brief, but also one I found really rewarding, and I've come so far in my understanding of my role that I finally feel ready to take on some higher year projects and really get myself out there. I hope this is just the start of my Sound Design career, and I hope to look back at some of the mistakes I made with organisation and formatting and laugh in the future.

[pacificworldschoolnoida]

The Ultimate Guide to Class 12th Board Exam Preparation in 2024

If you’re a student of class 12th or currently preparing for class 12th board exams already, you must know the heat of pressure, right? But don’t worry, you’re not alone on this journey. This year 2024 might seem scary, but with the right plan and strategies, you can totally smash those exams with good grades. Read on the blog below to know in-depth about the tips for class 12th board exams 2024 to make you a master of knowledge in a few times.

1. Know Your Syllabus

Before you dig yourself into endless books, figure out what’s ahead of you and go through your syllabus. Analyze how much weight each topic carries and the weightage of marks according to the question. This first step will help you make a strategic plan on how to initiate first and then, you can attack the tough stuff first making enough time for understanding.

2. Make a Strict Study Plan

Now that you know how to proceed first, it would be the best time to build your study plan. That is a 2024 board exam preparation guide for class 12th guide in a way that will help you ace through the subjects and score well. Identify the areas where you find yourself challenging, focus on them first, followed by the easiest ones in the end. Read below on how you can make a good study plan:

Be fair to yourself – Every student thinks they can grasp everything at once but it’s better not to cram all the information in one day. Set achievable daily or weekly goals.

Hit the hard stuff first – Start with the subjects you find tricky or ones with more marks.

Take breaks in between – Don’t get burned out at once. You can schedule short breaks to keep your brain fresh and active when it comes to retaining new information.

3. Gather your best buddies

Below are the best study resources for 2024 class 12th board exams:

NCERT Books – First and foremost, these are your best friends. Without using any additional help books, understand everything about what is there in them well.

Class Notes – Revisit your teacher’s explanations for an extra boost. For this, make notes of everything taught in the class.

·Old question papers – Practice, practice, practice! All what teachers could say is get used to the exam format and question styles.

Extra helpful books (additional guides) - If you are finding any certain topic tricky or difficult to read and understand on your own you can go through a good guide and find easy solutions to it to understand something better.

4. Master the techniques

You know that just memorizing the stuff doesn’t mean you get it, and it won’t always work. Here are some class 12th board exam study tips 2024 to sharpen your skills:

Understand the concept first – instead of juggling things up and trying to memorize, understand the concept and information what you’re learning, not just repeat it.

Practice solving question papers – do lots of practice and solve problems to get good at applying what you know.

Learn from your mistakes – figure out why you got something wrong, so you don’t repeat it again.

5. Become the Master by doing effective revision

We all know that revision is a key to memorizing everything. Here’s how to revise like a pro:

Make short notes – summarize the important points and formulas for a quick review.

Flashcard fun – Test yourself on key concepts using the flashcards.

Practice under pressure – do timed practice papers to get used to the exam conditions. This will help you save time for later things you lack in.

6. Maintain a Healthy Routine

Exams seem like a long game. Below are some tips to stay motivated throughout:

Eat healthy food – your brain needs good fuel to work its best.

Get enough sleep – A tired brain can’t learn well. Take alteast 7-8 hours of sleep to get that fresh and comforting memory.

Exercise as much as you can – physical activity helps you focus and reduces stress.

Take mini breaks – in the heat of exams, most students forget to take breaks and go on a long study schedule which seems kind of hectic, but what they can do is take mini breaks in between and have fun.

Find your study zone – some students love quiet, while others prefer to study with friends. Experiment and find what works best for you. Maybe it’s a cozy corner in your room, or maybe it's the library at Pacific World School, one of the best leading schools in Greater Noida West. Having a dedicated study space can help you focus.

Located in Greater Noida, Pacific World School is the top CBSE School in Greater Noida known for its excellent academics and focus on well-being. They provide a supportive environment that helps students grow and give them the tools they need to ace their board exams.

Students need to understand that with hard work, the right approach, and a bit of belief in yourself, you can crush those class 12th board exams. Parents who want to enroll their kid in this best and top school in Greater Noida west, can check out the website: www.pacificworldschool.com or download the brochure to learn more about the school and its facilities and amenities.