#found a new MSc I think I'd LOVE

[becca-e-barnes]

any chance you could write stepdad!steve catching you sneak back in from a party?

Pleaseeeeee 🤤 This is a lil short one but I might give it a second part

"What time do you call this?" You knew you were fucked when the taxi dropped you home and the light in your kitchen illuminated the drive way. Your mum made a habit of turning it off every night and you were only getting away with this if everyone was asleep.

It was well past the time your mum and stepdad usually went to bed. Hell, it was well past the time you usually went to bed yourself. You didn't often stay up to 2:37am and you absolutely never stayed out that late. Despite the fact you're in your 20's, your new stepdad had set the rule that you were to be home by 1am every night. No exceptions. Asshole.

It usually wasn't hard to follow his rules. No boys in your bedroom. Don't stay out late. Fill up the fuel you use in the car. Nothing really out of the ordinary. But then again, he kept telling you that you weren't the rule breaking type anyway.

"Sorry, I lost track of time." You did your best to avoid looking at your stepfather while you lied through your teeth. You'd known damn well what time it was and you'd had every intention of staying out until the lights in the club came back on. You just didn't think you'd get caught.

"Mhm." Steve's hum almost sounded convincing, pausing while he folded his arms, his navy blue pyjama top straining around his biceps. "You expect me to believe that? You're a bright girl, sweetheart. I know you can tell the time."

Damn your own body for betraying you like this. His praise makes your tummy flutter and you know it's so damn wrong.

"I know you want to be a good girl, don't you?" He pauses again, waiting for your response and he seems satisfied when you nod. "Always so well behaved for me. You know what? I'll let you pick your own punishment. Just this once." His eyes are trained on your face, watching for any sign of discomfort at the way things are progressing.

"Option 1. I confiscate your car keys." Fair enough but that would be really inconvenient. "Option 2. I confiscate your phone." Oh no, absolutely not. "Option 3. I confiscate that shitty little vibrator you keep in the drawer beside your bed."

How does he even know you have that? It's mortifying enough that he feels able to punish you but this is a step further than you were expecting.

"No need to be shy about it, honey. I get it. You've got needs. Nothing to be embarrassed about. And if it makes you feel better, I could show you how a real man should touch you. You'll forget that little plastic thing even exists."

Fuck, that's an offer you could only ever have dreamed of. In fact, it's painfully close to what you imagine while you're frantically rolling the vibrator in question over your own clit.

"If you'd rather lose your car keys or your phone, feel free. Choice is yours." Steve sounds awfully nonchalant for someone who's just made a proposal like that but there's no chance you're turning down his offer.

"Option 3." Your voice is barely a squeak and you almost think you've made the wrong decision when Steve raises an eyebrow.

"Good girl. Go get it."

[nimuetheseawitch]

☕️ academia

send me a ☕️ and a topic and i’ll talk about how i feel about it

Ooh, boy, academia. I have a complicated relationship with academia. Before I get really into it, a disclaimer: I studied physical oceanography before leaving for the informal education world, and I'm aware that other fields have completely different issues. But some of them are relatable across the board.

My upbringing really glamorized academia and intellectualism in a way I now see as detrimental. My extended family was full of advanced degrees in scientific fields, and although I valued education as a field, every time someone told me I'd make a great teacher someday I scoffed and said I was going to be a scientist, as if that was somehow better. I threw myself into physics and math and found my niche in oceanography (I won't get too specific because mine was a very small field). I'd spent so much time absolutely certain that academia was the right place for me that I was entirely unprepared for the reality.

Things I loved about academia: field work, conferences, learning really cool new shit, my colleagues, grad school friends, the union (we had such a good union - we had excellent benefits and supported other graduate students trying to unionize).

Things I hated about academia: my windowless office, the grind of grant proposals, sexism and sexual harassment in field work, complete lack of work life balance, attitudes around hard science/soft science (which is some bull shit), constant imposter syndrome (even though I was actually really fucking good at some shit), feeling like I couldn't speak up about climate change without compromising my reputation as a scientist, competition instead of collaboration, the absurdity of finding and securing tenure track positions, watching my friends scramble to secure basic funding and battle credit card debt to do the things they loved.

Overall, I think a lot of the problems with academia are around elitism and gatekeeping and expectations of what it means to be successful, and that's common in a lot of spaces. I also think it's improving, a lot. But I couldn't see myself doing that any longer.

I still kind of wish I had had the energy to finish my PhD (I would love to be addressed as Doctor), but my research was scooped by someone we had reached out to multiple times to collaborate with, and I absolutely did not want to try to get three papers published after that. And I wouldn't be using the PhD for anything, just like how I'm not using my MSc for anything. I'm still super proud of myself for passing my PhD exams though.

I figured a lot out about myself in grad school, the biggest one being that academia is absolutely the wrong place for me. I also learned a lot about privilege and how ultimately inequitable academia is.

[inkabelledesigns]

Today we have a general art and doll update.

I've been at it for a few hours now, I think this is as far as I'm gonna get it with colored pencils. I suppose it's time to move onto acrylics and just hope my line work stays in place. I also took some time to brush out some yarn wefts for her hair. Still figuring that part out. I'm not unhappy with it, just disappointed. I'd really like to one day do the stuff that artists do with MSC, but it's gonna take a while to get there. Maybe once I've practiced more with this, I'll save up for the materials.

In other news, part of the mail came! I now have pendant backs, because dammit your girl wants to make pendants to go with her prints for the convention. They're about an inch wide, I'm gonna have to take some time to get used to working that small. I'm super pumped though, these are gonna be so pretty.

And lastly, this. While I was going through my drawers to assess my supply run list for Friday (since I need more Modge Podge), I found this underneath my sketchbooks. I forgot I even had it, never actually installed it when I got this thing years ago. With @startistdoodles recently streaming 4, I'm tempted to fire this baby up and see if I like it. I mean I love games where I can make cool stuff, but this is more than that. I dunno, maybe we'll try it soon. That's all for today's art update, I'll see you later! Remember to floss!