#how adding a subject would solve so many problems

[heartz4levi]

YOO :D I just stumbled upon ur page and I’ve been scrolling for what feels like foreverrrr. Honestly, ur writing is just so chef’s kiss!! U r totally feeding us with all this alien stage content and the way u write Till has me so hooked 💔 Can I request a lil dry humping scenario with Till? Like, imagine just randomly sitting on his lap while he’s all focused on doodling or whatever to grab his attention :p I’m so feral for this man istg 😭 Take ur time and take u in advance!!

heaven knows it's one hell of a ride !

☆ thinking abt till + dry humping . . .

☆ till (alnst) ,, gn reader . . no sub/dom dynamic established imo ,, something sort of cute and domestic turns into whatever freaky shit this is ,, dry humping ,, reader is a big big tease ,, cumming (sort of??) untouched ,, till is humiliated & hard at the same time.

initially, till didn't mind it when you climbed on top of his lap when he was working on a sketch of something.

all he did was shift around a little bit to make more space for you, pressed a silent kiss to your forehead and went on with his sketching.

peace and quiet engulfed the two of you for a while. you sat with your back pressed against till's chest, watching the vision he had conjured up in his mind gradually come to life on one of the many pages in his sketchbook.

but it wouldn't be long before till encountered a roadblock. something just wasn't right, a key component of his piece was missing and yet he couldn't figure out what exactly it is. it left till puzzled, brows tightly knitted together and focused on staring daggers into the piece of paper.

you didn't pipe up, allowing him to figure it out himself.

maybe you should've tried to lend a helping hand. he's been grumbling to himself for minutes now, and if you weren't perched atop his lap, he would have ripped some hair right out of his scalp by now. not to mention, it feels as if he has completely tuned you out.

that won't do.

under the classic guise of shifting into a more comfortable position, you efficiently snap till out of his trance by rolling your hips a little bit too prominently down on his lap. his breath hitches within his throat, but ultimately, he says nothing.

till clears his throat once and then gets back to sketching. you either gave him an idea or he's just adding any detail he can now to distract himself. regardless, after seeing how red his face became, you decide to toy with him just a little bit more.

after a few minutes you shift around again. then again, once a couple more moments pass. then again, pretending to reach over for something on till's desk. then again, when you place it back where it belonged.

the more you prolong this method of torture, the more till can feel his pants tightening. it took him a while, but he's finally starting to wonder whether or not you're doing this on purpose.

you are, evidently so. however a part of till doesn't want to acknowledge that — why would you subject him to such cruel teasing? not to mention, if you're needy, why don't you just tell him? he'll solve your problem for you. one thing he can say for sure, though, and that is the fact that you are restless.

the few moments of respite you leave inbetween each little squirm shortens. and yet you still manage to come up with a new excuse on the spot as to why you're moving around so much, causing till to only feel more confused.

at this point he's white—knuckling the pencil in his hands. till can't bring himself to stop or question you though, because your expression doesn't give anything away. how are you not aware of the things you're doing to him? the things you're making him feel?

little did he know, you're very aware of what it is that you're doing. every move is precise, calculated, carefully executed to push just the right buttons.

perhaps too well done. you're aware of the fact that you're riling till up, but you aren't aware of a certain something until you feel till abruptly place one of his hands on your hip, drawing your movements to a forced halt. you don't even get the chance to turn your head enough to check on till until you feel the wet, sticky patch staining till's pants.

if till's face wasn't red enough before, it's burning hot now. you don't even have to take a proper look at him to tell — his breathing is heavy, ragged and the hand holding onto your hip like a vice is shaking. as a matter of fact, his entire body is shaking. he might as well have cracked the pencil situated in his other hand in half too.

till is humiliated and turned on at the same time. he wants to push you off of his lap, curl up into a little ball and disappear. but at the same time, he can't do anything to get rid of the raging boner he still has in his pants, not to mention the mess he has made of himself and his clothes. partially yours as well.

if till managed to cum in his pants just from you shifting around a little bit, you start to wonder, then what reactions would you coax out of him if he finally got to be inside of you?

[sith-shenanigans]

The thing about the Omelas story is that I don’t hate it, actually.

Don’t get me wrong. Usually, when I think about it, it drives me up a wall. I also—on the subject of responses to it—didn’t really like The Ones Who Stay And Fight. (Most of my reasons are said, better, in this article. Not the part about the tone, but that it shot for ambiguity and ended up in “somehow, the clearly magical power of child suffering made more sense than intolerance being a memetic virus that can only be solved through police murder.”) I’m fond of responding to trolley problems by asking who’s tying people to trolleys, and then insisting that it is morally relevant that someone tied those people to the tracks, because you wouldn’t be deciding who lives and who dies if someone hadn’t made the deliberate choice to put those people in mortal peril for no pressing reason.

(I like to think I’d save the five people. I think a lot of us would most likely panic and do something entirely unhelpful, and in practice, I have no idea if I’m one of them, because no one has ever tied anybody to a trolley track in front of me. It just hasn’t come up. But the ideal would be to save the five people. That’s not my answer in the organ-harvesting version, though, because it’s bad for everyone to live in a place where a surgeon can decide to kill you for your organs, no matter how many people doing it just this once would save.)

But I don’t dislike the story that Omelas came from. I don’t even dislike trolley problems, unless people are trying to insist that the context doesn’t matter. (The context always matters.) The problem is that everyone treats Omelas as a trolley problem. “Here’s a utopia where one innocent person has to suffer horribly. Is it worth it, to keep so many other people from suffering? Would you stay and be complicit, or would you walk out to go anywhere else?” The child is the central feature of Omelas, the only thing that matters. The child is nonnegotiable. You can’t rescue them, you can only walk away.

But the narrator did give us the chance to believe, before adding the child in.

Omelas is described to us as half place and half thought experiment, by a narrator that adds things as they go, a narrator that says this at close to the opening:

As they did without monarchy and slavery, so they also got on without the stock exchange, the advertisement, the secret police, and the bomb. Yet I repeat that these were not simple folk, not dulcet shepherds, noble savages, bland utopians. They were not less complex than us. The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can't lick 'em, join 'em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe a happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.

And goes on, in the narrative, to consider the reader’s opinion, to ask what they’ll believe.

I wish I could convince you. Omelas sounds in my words like a city in a fairy tale, long ago and far away, once upon a time. Perhaps it would be best if you imagined it as your own fancy bids, assuming it will rise to the occasion, for certainly I cannot suit you all. For instance, how about technology? I think that there would be no cars or helicopters in and above the streets; this follows from the fact that the people of Omelas are happy people. Happiness is based on a just discrimination of what is necessary, what is neither necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive. In the middle category, however – that of the unnecessary but undestructive, that of comfort, luxury, exuberance, etc. – they could perfectly well have central heating, subway trains, washing machines, and all kinds of marvelous devices not yet invented here, floating light-sources, fuelless power, a cure for the common cold. Or they could have none of that: it doesn't matter. As you like it.

[…]

But even granted trains, I fear that Omelas so far strikes some of you as goody-goody. Smiles, bells, parades, horses, bleh. If so, please add an orgy. If an orgy would help, don't hesitate. […] Surely the beautiful nudes can just wander about, offering themselves like divine souffles to the hunger of the needy and the rapture of the flesh. Let them join the processions. Let tambourines be struck above the copulations, and the glory of desire be proclaimed upon the gongs, and (a not unimportant point) let the offspring of these delightful rituals be beloved and looked after by all. One thing I know there is none of in Omelas is guilt. But what else should there be?

Omelas is a story being told to a listener, a utopia being described; the reader is an implied participant in a conversation, the narrator reacting to what they said where the page couldn’t hear. And so, after all of that, the narrator says:

Do you believe? Do you accept the festival, the city, the joy? No? Then let me describe one more thing.

And the narrator goes on to describe the child, the terrible price, the self-justifications that people employ. Because the listener doesn’t accept the festival, the city, the joy—only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. So the narrator engages in “the treason of the artist” (if you can't lick 'em, join 'em) and regales us with the child’s sorry state.

[…] They know that they, like the child, are not free. They know compassion. It is the existence of the child, and their knowledge of its existence, that makes possible the nobility of their architecture, the poignancy of their music, the profundity of their science. It is because of the child that they are so gentle with children. They know that if the wretched one were not there snivelling in the dark, the other one, the flute-player, could make no joyful music as the young riders line up in their beauty for the race in the sunlight of the first morning of summer.

Now do you believe in them? Are they not more credible?

I don’t think we’re being asked, as readers, to consider whether it’s worth it, though it’s certainly something we can consider if we want. But the narrative seems quite clear that it isn’t: to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. A description of Omelas, of why Omelas should be believed in, but how could that be anything but a condemnation of a city powered by a forsaken child?

And, of course, everyone wants to ask—why don’t we free the child, why don’t we comfort the child, why don’t we change things and take the risk of making everything worse? Why is the best thing we can do to walk away?

Because we needed the utopia to have suffering in it, to believe it. Because it couldn’t be real until there was a cost, a price, something cruel and unfair to balance out the scales. Something had to be wrong with Omelas, as the narrator spun it up before us. Yes, perhaps we could save the child, perhaps we could ruin everything, perhaps we could be heroes—wouldn’t that be nice? Wouldn’t that be the story we want, here, where someone is suffering and only we (who are of course more compassionate than everyone else) can fix it? That would make it a real utopia, if we could kick down the doors and fix everything ourselves.

But it would have been better to believe that Omelas could exist without someone suffering for it, when we were asked.

[regina-bithyniae]

I don’t think it can reasonably be assumed that “the price sector will get more value out of [high performing employees]”.

The private sector will encourage them to work more hours. However, depending on the field, a profit motive can create a very perverse incentive with respect to actually solving problems or delivering a service.

I was, for a time, on Medicaid. (Pandemic related, I have a degree and job skills and so on). I had better service and better interactions with the Medicaid system than I’ve ever had with any for-profit insurance company. Things just got done. The only thing that was worse was dental, the Medicaid dentist didn’t pay their hygienists enough, or something, and so they were always quitting and my cleanings would get rescheduled.

I’ve worked in private companies, for universities, and for small business.

The private sector sometimes gets more done per [number of days of the year] but mainly because people work more overtime hours, often haphazardly scheduled overtime, and have significantly fewer labor protections.

Small businesses are great, but only if your boss personally likes you, otherwise they’ll frequently make your life hell. It’s also very easy to end up with a situation where one person is a critical hingepoint for the entire store and the whole operation just collapses because Martha got sick for a week.

Personally, I think it’d be much better for society at large if big private sector companies were more like public sector jobs, rather than the reverse. I think we have to seriously consider that some of the problems in current America are downstream of people working too many hours and feeling too much financial or class precarity to form sustainable relationships and communities. If you’re grinding away 70 hours a week, when are you going to date?

Same thing in Japan, although they’ve got it worse than we do, and with different aspects.

I really doubt many people are clocking 70 hour work weeks, just right off the bat.

---

My main point was that I think public sector work is seriously misaligned from actually providing value to society, even before you argue about productivity or laziness. I don't think people seriously addressed this part, particularly once it leaked out to general population and tumblr commie-ism became the main analysis method.

In a private sector company, at least most of the time they are producing a product people want to buy. If they do that they're adding value. But government economists updating the quarterly report on a small and declining economic sector, which nobody reads anyways? Hard to make that argument. If there was serious demand for it then you could end the government department and interested firms might just commission their own researchers.

I do see a role for government to collect and publish data of general interest but not put a ton of work into doing much with it.

Choosing healthcare is a bit of a cherry-pick. The US system is a perfect worst case of extremely generous plans for some (medicare, medicaid) and nothing for others, subject to profit-seeking and competition-protected hospitals, with highly protective pharmaceutical IP laws that act as an implicit subsidy to the ungrateful rest of the world, applies to an extremely fat, sedentary, unhealthy and wealthy population. Hard to think of how it could be more wasteful! Oh and they had a moratorium on new medical schools being created for a good while, too.

[yandere-paramour]

This might've been asked before, but what were the yanderes' favorite school subjects/classes?

Also, how would Ata feel about her darling learning about her interests in order to talk to her about it?

Noelle's favorite was always math and computers. She has an extremely analytical mind and she likes the very strict rules that they hold. 2 + 2 will always equal 4 and that's that, no matter what anyone says. Noelle loves concrete rules. She also loved programming. She loves information and with a computer, she could fly through it faster than ever. She could solve problems, complete tasks, and reach around the world all from the comfort of her bedroom. The internet was a lifeline for young Noelle.

Vivien's favorite was always science. He wasn't the best student, but he likes life and learning how it works. He didn't really realize how much he liked plants and flowers until he was about 15/16, but he always found cells, living things, chemical reactions, and the human body extremely interesting. He's not a studying kind of guy (unless it's something like plants because then he's locked in), but he likes the procedural and curious nature of science. He likes learning how things work.

Atalanta's favorite subjects were history and literature. She's always been a big reader, and she expresses herself quite eloquently in the written word. Her essays won many school awards to the delight of her parents, and her skills added to the already long list of reasons why Atalanta Montclair was the envy of everyone at boarding school. She also liked history a lot. The Montclair line has been in power for quite a long time, and she likes learning about how her ancestors would have lived and what was going on at the time. Of course, history is another subject for which her essays dominate.

Ata also finds it absolutely sweet and touching that you would want to share her interests, you're such a good Darling, she loves you so much. Her hobbies are mostly exercising in the early mornings, reading mostly at night but sometimes throughout the day, and going to see shows (plays, symphonies, operas). Once you become her Darling, she takes you to shows with her, hoping you will share her interest in it. If you do, she will be elated. She would love to tell you all about the composers, the plots, the musical themes. She would also very much love it if you would read alongside her. She reads extremely quickly, finishing a good-sized book in 1-2 weeks (Noelle is continually researching new books to deliver to Ata's tablet for her to read). You don't have to read EVERY book, but if you both could share a little book club a few times a year, she would be content. Her Darling loves her, what more could she want?

Just for fun, Jamie's favorites were art and cooking, and Asteria's were psychology and law.

[nostalgebraist]

Here are some fun / amusing / potentially-interesting facts about the process of writing and plotting Almost Nowhere, if anyone's curious.

Major spoilers for the whole of Almost Nowhere under the cut.

(There's really no way to spoiler-censor this material without rendering it incomprehensible. If you haven't read the book, do that first before reading this post.)

(1)

A large fraction of the book's eventual plot emerged from my attempts to patch a single, in-some-sense trivial continuity error I made while writing the very first chapter.

The Mooncrash section of that chapter ends with this sentence (emphasis added):

All parties were used to stillness, now, for the Mooncrash was nearly four years old.

And a few paragraphs later, in the opening of the Academy section, we get this (emphasis added again):

For (as everyone knows) the Shroud is upon us and while it tolerates the Academy — as it presently is, as it has been for the last eight years, a chrysalis, preparing itself step by minuscule step [...]

So: The Mooncrash is 4 years old. The Academy crash is at least 8 years old, and indeed older.

Yet the Mooncrash is also as old as the crash system itself! It was made by humans, during the period between the discovery of the anomalings and the mass-crashing of the human race. (This is only shown in the second chapter, but I had it in mind before then.)

How long has the human race been crashed, then? At most 4 years, and at least 8 years? How could that possibly be?

It would have been easy enough to just edit the chapter, but that's not how I do things. Restrictions, famously, breed creativity. I enjoy attempting to solve puzzles I have inadvertently created for myself, and many of my best ideas have been produced through this process.

It would also have been simple and easy to merely say: "OK, I guess time elapses at different subjective rates, in different crashes."

Amusingly, I ended up doing that anyway! But for some reason, this avenue didn't occur to me at first. By the time I started asking myself whether to include this kind of effect, I already had a different solution in mind.

I spent a lot of time beating my head against the figurative wall, trying to resolve the 4-vs-8-year issue. The early parts of my AN notes are full of this stuff.

----

At some early point, I came up with the idea that the anomalings/shades would deal with troublesome crashes by "rebasing" them, rewriting their histories.

I didn't intend, initially, for this idea to take over the plot as much as it eventually did. It was just a fun idea that underscored the huge power differential between the anomalings and their captives, and felt in line with the Cartesian/Wachowskian themes of transcending a "fake"/illusory world, radically doubting one's own perceptions and memories, etc.

But, having stipulated that "rebases" were a thing, I hit upon the idea that they could be used to modify the total quantity of past (subjective) time inside a crash -- turning 8 years into 4, or vice versa, or whatever.

So, I could fix the problem by stipulating that one -- or both -- of the problematic crashes had already been rebased, in this way.

But why? And by whom?

----

Now, at this early stage, I also had the idea in mind that the character "Anne" would eventually escape from her crash, and that she would have a hand in various major events in the story -- including some events that had already occurred, relative to the "present" of the textual PoV.

But I didn't know, yet, what these interventions actually were.

(I put "Anne" in quotes, here, because in the very early stages I casually assumed that only the PoV Anne introduced in Chapter 1 would be a major character, and that her sisters were merely background material for her personal narrative, like the tower itself. Of course, in the process of thinking through the details of things, I realized that this assumption was needless and indeed counterproductive.)

As often happens when I'm plotting a story, I found that two unknowns slotted neatly into one another, each one providing a potential solution to the problem posed by the other.

We need something for "Anne" to do in the past. Something consequential, something that shows off her newfound agency -- but also something that obscures her role from view. Ideally, something kind of weird, esoteric, "advanced"; something that feels buried inside the deep, dark center of the backstory, which the reader will only "excavate" at the end of a long, strange journey.

And we need someone to rebase the Mooncrash.

That answers the "who?" question. But again -- why?

Well, it was already in the plan that Azad would join forces with Michael, when Michael went in search of his lost Anne. That Anne would meet Azad, as a result, and that it would be Azad who persuades her to return to Michael's crash.

I didn't, at the time, have much else planned for the Anne-Azad connection.

As originally conceived, the "Azad convinces Anne to return" scene was about Azad's uncertain loyalties, and about Anne's lack of exposure to other human beings (and to the power of words, as deployed by human beings with access to real human culture). That is, it merely served specific, separate purposes in the sub-stories of these two characters. There was no intent to set up, or develop, a thread connecting these sub-stories, making Azad a major character in Anne's arc and vice versa.

But that seems like kind of a shame, doesn't it? Why go to the trouble of preparing these characters, and bringing them into contact, if I didn't have anything for them to do together?

Anne and Azad.

We need someone to rebase the Mooncrash.

We need Anne to learn about real human culture, somehow, before she leaves. I knew that, already, though I didn't have a mechanism in mind.

(I also knew, by this point, that causing Azad's appointment as translator was another one of "Anne's" consequential moves. I had conceived of this, at first, as a relatively impersonal act, done only for its historical significance. Indeed, that would have been enough -- but the more the merrier, theme/motivation-wise.)

Problems paired up, interlocked, and became each others' solutions.

(1b)

As is obvious from the above, I didn't have the scenario planned out in very much detail when I wrote the first chapter.

At the time, the story had been gestating in my head for a while, but only as a bunch of vague inklings and intentions.

The proximate cause of writing-the-first-chapter was a sudden and unexpected burst of inspiration. I was riding the bus to a social event, and suddenly my mind was awash with crisp, never-before-glimpsed details about Anne and her tower, the Mooncrash, the Academy, Cordelia's blue dress -- all the stuff of Chapter 1. It felt like a crucial message was being beamed into my brain, VALIS-style, from the Muse / Higher Power.

I had an urge to bail on the social event, turn around, ride back home, and start writing immediately -- what if the magic went away, as suddenly as it had arrived? I resisted that urge and made a perfunctory appearance at the event, but then went back home and wrote as much as I could before falling asleep.

So, when I was writing that chapter, stuff like "four years" and "eight years" wasn't based on any single coherent picture, just vibes and vague inklings.

(I think 4 years probably sounded like the right amount of time for G&A to have been in the Mooncrash, character-wise. Meanwhile, Hector's ascension from the Academy had to be long enough ago that there would be no direct overlap between Hector and any of the current students. The "Bad Old Days" had to feel like something you'd only hear about in rumors, or from authority figures who probably weren't telling the full story.)

(2)

Like TNC before it, Almost Nowhere was originally conceived as relatively simple and straightforward story, only to become something much weirder and more complicated as I fleshed out the details.

As I said above, I only had a very vague "plan" at the outset of the writing process. But I kinda knew where I was going with it, in very broad strokes.

The original arc, insofar as it existed at all, was something like:

The bilateral / anomaling tension is introduced.

The bilateral PoV characters come to an understanding of their situation.

Many of the bilateral PoV characters join up with Hector Stein, who is already trying to defeat the anomalings and free humanity from the crashes.

Azad temporarily sides with the anomalings, and Anne temporarily returns to her captive state. But both them "come around" eventually.

Anne eventually triumphs over Michael, delivers a dramatic monologue castigating him for imprisoning her (etc.), and mounts a successful escape.

Shortly after Anne's escape, some (TBD!) resolution to the main conflict is achieved. Whatever it is, it is proposed/spearheaded by the bilateral faction (and specifically Anne herself), and it somehow exemplifies "the bilateral way of thinking/being."

The humbled anomalings conclude that "the bilateral way of thinking/being" has its advantages, both practically and morally.

So the story, as originally conceived, was much more straightforwardly about the "good" PoV humans fighting back against aliens.

It unabashedly took the bilateral side in the conflict, and it ended with a "beauty of our weapons" sort of moment in which the bilaterals are both victorious and righteous, and in which these two kinds of success are closely linked and almost merged.

I have to imagine that, even in counterfactual worlds where some things went differently, I never would have stuck to this version of the story all the way through.

Because, one way or the other, I would have eventually realized that.. like... this version of the story kind of sucks, right?

I mean, why go to the trouble of introducing these aliens, and trying to make them interesting, only to say "nah, actually these guys were just wrong, it's us and our existing 'ordinary' pre-conceptions that are right, and that's what the story was about all along"?

It would have been "inventing a guy to be mad at," as the saying goes.

Not a great foundation for a story. And the least interesting possible direction to go in, given this kind of setup.

It also presents a seemingly unresolvable tension, for the writer, about how to portray the distinctively "bilateral" nature of the bilateral side in the conflict.

If "bilateral" is as broad a category as the anomalings say it is -- if you and I and all of us, whatever other qualities we possess, participate equally in this sin -- then it's hard to strike a note of emotional triumph around the quality of "bilaterality" that doesn't feel wrong, vacuous, or bloodlessly abstract.

"Woo, yeah, humans are great!" I mean, are they? All of them? You don't get to say "well, only the good ones," here, or "in their ideals if not always their acts," or anything like that. Everyone is included in the relevant category, except for the guys-who-aren't that were invented for this specific story.

It's difficult to make this land properly, in the same way it would be difficult to write a story that inspires "carbon-based life pride" or "having-DNA pride" or the like in its reader.

So this version of the story was dead on arrival. And indeed, by the time I was thinking through the stuff chronicled in (1) above, this version of the story felt like a provisional placeholder, at best, in my mind.

Nonetheless, there are various echoes of it in the story I eventually landed on.

For example, in the original version of "Anne's" escape -- conceived in a much more straightforwardly positive way -- I had Anne reading "real" books in secret, drawing moral strength from them, and then including a bunch of literary quotes in her big dramatic monologue to Michael. (I took inspiration, here, from John the Savage reading Shakespeare in Brave New World.)

And I had the idea that "Anne," being an autodidact, would read omnivorously without making culture-bound distinctions familiar to you and me; that her selection of quotes, in the monologue, would put low culture alongside high culture, infamous books alongside famous ones, etc.; and as a particular case, that it'd be fun if -- before going on to quote Shakespeare and co. -- she began the whole thing by quoting Ayn Rand.

And that one idea stuck, even if the rest of it didn't.

(Or, consider how the idea of "a powerful move in the conflict that exemplifies the bilateral way of thinking/being" actually crops up multiple times in the finished story, right up to its last scenes. One can see traces of it in the "trick" that obsesses Michael, in the use of autobiographical writing to build up nostalgium, and in Annabel's improved crash design.)

(3)

I came up with the Mirzakhani Mechanism relatively late, in between writing Chapter 13 and writing Chapters 14-15 (in which the MM is introduced).

The MM was a product of looking back at the sci-fi elements that already existed in the story, like crashes and rebases, and trying to invent some single underlying explanation that covered all of them in a relatively parsimonious way.

This basically "worked," I think -- it certainly worked better than I had been expecting, after playing the dangerous game of "write a bunch of weird stuff and hope you'll be able to explain it all later." (I remember talking to one reader who was shocked that I hadn't had the MM in mind from the very beginning, which was flattering.)

It also had unintended consequences that kinda took over the story, but largely in a good way.

Earlier, I had planned to have the post-rebase crash timelines "screened off" from the outside world somehow, so that rebasing a crash wouldn't mess up the timeline of the outside world. But, once I'd fixed the idea that "rebasing is an MM event" in place, I realized that this wasn't consistent with the way MM events were meant to work. Instead, the exposition in Ch. 15 directly implies the stuff about rebases that Grant realizes much later in Ch. 41.

Once I'd noticed this, it was obvious that it was extremely important, and I re-incorporated it into the broader plot.

On a related note, I eventually decided that the account of the anomalings "going backward in time to our era" in Ch. 15 didn't really make sense. This meant I needed a different, more viable way anomalings and bilaterals to exist at the same point in time.

This line of thought, along with several others (like "what happened to all the nonhuman organisms?" and "which parts of the MM multiverse are real?"), eventually led me to invent Everywhere-Heaven and the beasts.

That happened right at the start of 2022, between Chapters 21 and 22.

It quickly became clear that the E-H/beasts stuff could be put to a lot of valuable use in story's third act, which was largely a worrying blank space in my head (even at this point!). From thereon out, I worked on fleshing out the third act behind the scenes while writing the second.

Not coincidentally, Chapter 22 contains a ton of E-H-related foreshadowing, and also some hints that human scientists (like Aidan in Ch. 15) had never fully understood the anomalings.

The use of Maryam Mirzakhani, a real (and recently deceased) mathematician, was a weird choice and arguably one in poor taste. All I can really say in defense of it is that it came to me suddenly, and had a number of properties that fit the vibe of the part of the story in which it appeared, and I have a policy of "going with my gut" when it suggests such things to me.

I felt similarly about this choice and another thing introduced in Ch. 15, the nuclear attack intended to kill scientists. Both of these things underscored the fact that the story took place in an alternate reality. And both felt sort of "edgy," "too dark," "too close to the real world" compared to the tone of the story so far. But I wanted to take the story to new places in the coming acts -- "darker," "more real" places -- and something felt right about introducing these elements at this exact point, as signposts providing an indication of where things were headed.

(4)

The phrase "NOWHERE TO HIDE" was originally "NO MERCY," in my notes.

And the abbreviation "NM" for "NO MERCY" was used throughout my notes for Nowhere-To-Hide related stuff, e.g. "NM Annes."

This wasn't the product of much thought, just the first thing that came to mind that had roughly the correct vibe. I almost immediately concluded that I'd have to replace "NO MERCY" with something else in the work itself, since it would seem like an Undertale reference that I didn't intend to make.

"Moon" was originally just a placeholder name -- a shorthand for "the 'NM Anne' who rebased the Mooncrash." But I liked the idea of actually using it, once it had occurred to me.

The corresponding placeholder name for A11 was "Ling," as in "linguist" (but also an actual name).

(5)

I went through 3 different outlines of the third act.

Really, there was a first outline, which was really bad, and then there were two slightly-different versions of a very different outline that mostly corresponds to the finished draft.

The first, bad outline was amusingly titled "notes-satisfying-ending.txt", because I explicitly used this post about "satisfying endings" as a guideline while writing it.

(To be clear, I don't think the linked post was to blame for the badness of that first outline. I didn't ultimately find the post very helpful as writing advice, but the "satisfying ending" outline wasn't even a "satisfying ending" in the post's own terms, and was also bad in unrelated ways.)

I don't want to go into much detail about the bad outline. It was really bad, and also really different from what eventually occurred. It's honestly a pretty embarrassing document.

A lot of the key ideas were there (E-H, etc.), and the very end of the story was roughly the same. But it had a ton of needless flaws that I later corrected. Various existing character arcs and motivations were dropped and never picked up, or suddenly diverted in some new and unfruitful direction; way too much time was spent on getting characters and objects from point A to point B, or otherwise sort of rambling about in a way that didn't matter in the end; it included a lot of whimsical "fun ideas" that weren't necessary and would have added clutter to an already very full canvas; etc.

I never got to the point of building a chapter-by-chapter version of this outline, but I'm sure it would have much longer than the existing third act, also.

The existing third act is pretty long, but it was actually the result of an aggressive pruning and tightening process.

If the "satisfying-ending" outline had a single greatest flaw, it was terrible pacing. Lots of slack, lots of empty space, and when big things did happen, they came out of nowhere, not really prompted by what came immediately before them.

The next draft of the ending resulted from taking the raw materials of "satisfying-ending," purging all the dross, re-thinking all the obviously flawed stuff, and then trying to rearrange the pieces in front of me in a way that was maximally "tight" and interconnected, with questions and tensions introduced and then resolved in a rapid-fire manner, and without any major thread "sitting around in the background" long enough to feel stale, or get forgotten.

That outline was in a file called "notes-good-end.txt."

Much later, I tightened up the plan even further, merging some things that were originally in separate chapters. This was in a file called "notes-true-end.txt", and -- true to its name -- was the version reflected in the book itself.

So there was "satisfying-ending," which sucked; "good-end," which was good; and "true-end," which was slightly better.

(I realize the multiplicity of the ending, and the account of deliberate "tightening" etc., is in apparent tension with my recent account of working by direct inspiration.

There are a few things I can say about this tension.

For one, it really is true that the third act of AN was more deliberately reasoned-out, and less directly-inspired, than some of the earlier stuff. This is kind of inevitable: you don't get to do anything after an ending, that's what an ending is, and so you have to deliberately try to make the final act of a story fully work as a thing unto itself, rather than writing checks in the hope of cashing them at some later point.

And separately, I do think the final version of the ending feels "more real," "more true to the work" than the satisfying-ending draft.

I think I was aware, even while composing "satisfying-ending," that it felt off and wrong in some ways. But it was only after going through the exercise of creating a complete ending -- some sort of complete ending -- that I was able to look back and say "OK, this fits, but this doesn't fit," and distill something that actually felt right.)

[atlastimborn]

Promise?

They gazed up at the villain, only to find that they were already looking down at them." Will you stop staring?" the hero sneered, irritated. It simply made the villain grin.

"Well, I got to make sure that you can't hurt me." The villain cocked an eyebrow and said under their breath, "Or yourself."

The hero wasn't sure if the villain intended for them to hear the final portion, but they did. This simply made the hero even more enraged. "How about you fuck off?" 

"Weren't you the one who showed up on my doorstep?" the villain said, "I mean, I didn't invite you, and here you are, dirtying up my couch with your filthy body."

"Well, sorry," scoffed the hero.

They started to get off the couch, using both their arms to try to get up. Their body was still shaking, much like a spiderweb in the wind. Their pale forehead gleamed with a cold sweat with the effort. The whole time the hero mumbled about places they would rather be, but only came here because the villain owed them. It wasn't until the second attempt at getting up, and a lot of pained groans with it, that the villain intervened, pushing them back down on the couch.

The villain rolled his eyes, and said, "Well if I would have it all over again, I wouldn't have allowed you to save my life." Their hand was still on their chest. The heat of it only caused the hero to groan in pain.

"and then you would be dead," the hero grunted with closed eyes.

"Wouldn't you wish? We are great enemies and all." They paused, and then added,  "I am frankly surprised you even trust me when you are at your weakest. If I just killed you now it would solve all my problems."

The hero looked at the villain with wide eyes, trying to figure out what the enemy was implying. They only returned an expressionless stare, not breaking eye contact until the villain walked away, leaving the hero staring at a blank wall. The villain circled the couch, the floorboards groaned under their weight, and came to a halt behind them. The hero strained their neck to see them, but they could only bear to move their neck so far.

"You must be really desperate and friendless to show up here for help. I thought you heroes fought in groups?" They mocked. The villain's hand came to a rest on the back of the couch, near their shoulder. 

The shame of being so easy to read, enough that the villain knew they didn't have anyone, made them feel ashamed. The hero clenched their jaw. Involuntarily, they scratched at their skin, leaving raised red marks. 

The villain walked into the hero's line of sight again. "Sore subject?" the villain mocked, eyeing the marks. Their eyes met, and the villain smiled, "Be honest. If I just killed you now, would anybody miss you?" 

The hero felt shivers run down their spine. The hairs on the back of their neck, and arms stood up.   They started to come up with different scenarios of what the villain could do to them. This only made the panic worse. With the ability to only move as their wounds permitted, they knew that speed, nor strength was going to be with them. 

 They looked at the door, only so many feet ahead. Their eyes landed on the villain once again - their eyes staring blankly at them. "Leaving?" the villain asked.

The hero gulped. They started to get up, and all the while, the villain stared blankly at them, watching them struggle. The hero couldn't even raise their leg without grinding their teeth in pain. "I wouldn't even bother. You wouldn't even make it one inch." The villain said. The hero ignored them and, slowly and painfully, stood up. 

"Sit down," the villain softly, much like a parent scolding a young child. The hero ignored them. The villain clenched their teeth, and said  "Sit down before I make you sit."

"you really are a bastard you know that, "the hero grunted. Their chest heaved up and down. They leaned against the couch for support.  "You can't even keep a promise."

"I'll tell you what I think," Villain yelled, spit flying out of their mouth. They pointed their finger at them. The villain moved closer to them, close enough that they could feel the heat radiate off of them, making them even more sick, "I think you should have left me for dead. But you were too big of a wimp to do that." The villain grabbed their throat and pushed them back down onto the couch. The hero fell like dead weight.

The villain forced their head sideways and lowered their mouth to the hero's ear. Their hot breath sent shivers down the hero's spine. The hero tried to move away. The villain only tightened their grip, bruising the hero's skin. The villain laughed an ugly laugh, and whispered into their ear, "You really should have left me for dead."  

[be-co-me]

Anonymous

Miya Atsumu

1.9k Words

Summary: Homework help proves to be more useful with a cute tutor.

...

Some days college was hard, but the first week of the semester, you didn't think you would be struggling as much as you were. You sat at your desk, nearly at the sixth hour of trying to figure out physics. A lot of it was math. Your worst subject. You struggled with even some of the simplest parts of it.

You decided to take a small break, grabbing your phone and leaning back in your desk chair. You opened ChitChat, an app that many college students around you and the world used. It essentially allowed you to talk and post with people anonymously within a five mile radius of you. You scrolled the usual content that others posted before posting about your struggles with physics.

This physics class is going to be the death of me.

Once it was posted, you scrolled a bit longer, reading some of the threads about the drama going on around the school. There was always something with one of the fraternities or sororities going on, or more like a person in them.

Eventually, your focus returned to your homework, until you heard your phone ding.

New comment on your post, view now!

You sat back once more, picking up your phone and opening the app.

Anon: Which physics course are you in? 

You: The first one :'( I'm struggling hard. 

Anon: Wait till you take the second one. The end is rough.

You: Sounds like I'll be crying a lot next semester then lol

Anon: Well, let me help. Which part are you having trouble with?

You: We're going over trig right now.

Anon: The math is the hardest part. Give me an example problem and I'll see if I can help you understand how to solve it.

You eyed your homework for the problem that you least understood. Maybe if you could understand how to do the hardest problem you could understand the easiest parts, which most of the other problems seemed to be.

You: The hypotenuse is 6 and the adjacent is 5, find the cosine.

Anon: Remember SOHCAHTOA? Sin= Opposite over Hypotenuse and so on so forth?

You didn't know what he was talking about. What was this abbreviation? You remembered a lot of weird ones or songs you learned to remember things, like the quadratic formula and pythagorean theorem, but never one for trigonometry. 

You: I do not. Never learned it. Please elaborate.

Anon: Okay, so the CAH is Cosine= Adjacent over Hypotenuse and the TOA is Tangent= Opposite over Adjacent. Remember that, it's crucial.

You: Got it.

Anon: Now, you need to find the cosine, so you need the CAH part. Your cosine equals your adjacent over the hypotenuse, so 5 over 6. Which is 0.83 in decimal form. Take your calculator and press the cos-1 button and enter 0.83 in the parentheses and close it, then press enter. What'd you get?

You did as he said, eyeing the problem one more time to make sure you told him what it was correctly. 

You: 33.56 was my answer.

Anon: And it's the correct one. Congrats, now you know the basics of trigonometry. Those rules are so important to knowing what to do. If you need more help add me on Snap. My username is    tsumu_rice_&_volley.

You instantly changed to Snap and added him. You had an idea as to who it was and when he added you back and sent you a picture composed with a selfie of him holding his own homework reading "Miya Atsumu", you instantly knew you were correct.

The volleyball team captain. And one of the most well known fraternity members of the school. All the girls sought after him. You never imagined he'd be good at school, but then again how would he stay in it if he wasn't? And volleyball too.

You viewed yourself in the camera, making sure you looked decent, sending a selfie back with your own homework. He responded with one back, the caption reading,

Need help with anymore of those questions?

You could only laugh. At yourself and maybe at how kinda cute the setter was. Your brain wandered off to if there was a chance he would ever like you. There were so many other people he had the option of dating if he wanted to.

Is all of them an acceptable answer?

You sent back. You eyed the paper, none of the answers becoming any easier to you. You wished your professor would explain things a little better, and the online platform you did lessons and homework on wasn't helpful even one bit. He sent a picture back and you opened it.

Could you meet in the library? Maybe I can explain it better in person.

You pondered on if you wanted to go or not. It was very cold outside and you were holed away in warmth of your dorm room. On the other hand this homework was due the next day and you had 49 other problems to get through that you couldn't begin to understand on your own, therefore you opted to meet with him. You snapped a quick picture.

If it's not too much trouble then sure! But I'm buying you a coffee at the cafe. No questions asked.

You got up from the warmth of your desk and the heater pushed into the corner of the floor underneath it, turning it off and putting on a cozy outfit. You packed your backpack up and began your trek to the library/cafe.

You received a Snap from him as you walked, opening it.

I'm here in the corner. It's void of people in here, so I should be pretty easy to find.

His pictures were cute. You were glad he sent his Snap and not some other generic messaging app to talk on. You got to see him along with it. It made your heart leap a little bit when you saw the picture.

Almost there!

You responded, shoving your phone into your jacket pocket as you opened the door to go inside. You wiped the snow off of yourself and walked into the main study area. You looked around for him and met his eyes, him waving you down. You walked towards him.

"Well, I guess I should introduce myself properly. Hi Anon, I'm Atsumu." he said, sticking his hand out.

"And I'm (Y/N)." you responded, shaking his hand with your gloved one. You set your bag down and shrugged your winter attire off.

"So coffee? My treat for you helping me." you said. He nodded, standing up. You walked over to the cafe with him, pulling your wallet out. You eyed the menu for a little while before deciding on a brown sugar oat milk cold brew. He chose an iced matcha latte. You paid for the drinks and stood to the side, waiting for them to be made.

"It sure is dead in here. I didn't expect it to be with the first week of school and all." he said, breaking the ice and starting up a conversation.

"I know what you mean. Maybe everyone thinks it's too cold to go out. I don't have many friends here or I'd be in here studying with them all the time, I just don't wanna be alone in here. It would be kind of awkward." you responded, the barista handing the drinks to you. You handed him his own.

"I get that. I don't have wifi at my dorm yet. I'm in the new building so they haven't set it up. I've got no choice so I kinda got past the awkward part." he chuckled. You made your way back to the table and sat down.

"We even get this huge whiteboard all to ourselves to do as much trigonometry as we desire." he said, pointing out the whiteboard in the corner. Almost all study areas in the school had a whiteboard or, new as of that semester, a large tablet to do work on.

He began to explain the next homework problem you had, eyeing all of the erased pencil and light evidence of wrong answers on the paper. He stood and drew a problem on the whiteboard, prompting you to answer as he wrote down what you responded to his questions. You took your calculator and entered what you had come up with, the correct answer popping up. You smiled as you finally began to understand.

"Alright, I'm gonna take a problem for sine, cosine, and tangent each and put them up here. I want you to solve them on your own." he said, picking up your homework packet and rummaging through the pages to find one of each problem.

Once he was done, he sat back down, working on what seemed to be a literature essay. You took a while trying to make sure every detail was correct, typing into your calculator to get an answer occasionally. Once you were confident your answers and your work underneath each triangular model was correct, you turned around.

"Alright, finished." you said. He looked up from his laptop, setting down his latte and standing to review your work. You sat down, watching him as he carefully reviewed your writing. He leaned over the table and took your calculator, typing in what you hoped was your correct work on each problem. You sipped on your coffee as he reviewed.

"All correct! Good job! Do you think you're okay to finish them up on your own?" he asked. You nodded.

"Ask me if you have any questions." he said, sitting back down across from you. You nodded once more, beginning to work on the packet once more.

After thirty minutes of doing problems and typing into your calculator, you finally finished. You set the calculator down and stretched your arms, eyeing your now empty coffee cup.

"Finished?" he asked, looking up. You nodded, your eyes looking up to meet his own.

"Let me see it." he said, motioning with his hand for you to give it to him. He eyed the packet over, typing in a few problems from each page to make sure they were right.

"You did good! All the ones I put in are correct so I'm sure you did well on everything else." he said, handing the packet back to you. You packed it into it's respectful folder where it would sit until your class the following day.

"How about you? What have you been typing up over there?" you asked.

"Just reviewing this essay. Can you believe we had to do an essay the first week of school? Unbelievable." he said, shaking his head in disapointment. You chuckled in response. That was a little much of the teacher. You'd take note so you knew not to take that teacher's class in the future.

The two of you talked until the library hours were over. You packed your things and put your winter attire back on, ready to walk out. 

"I printed a paper off. Can you grab it for me please?" he asked you nodded, walking across the library to grab it. You stood in front of the printer, grabbing the slightly warm paper off of it. You turned around to wave it at him, but he was gone.

You frowned slightly, turning the paper over.

Let's make this a weekly thing so you don't have to study alone. Here's my number. You better text me! :P  XX-XXXX-XXXX. -Anonymous

[b-blushes]

As a quasi "goal" this year I want to let people know about the things that make me happy/joyful. So I think your blog is neat and I am especially obsessed with the bird and fish suncatchers you posted. Big inspo vibes there; and I'd love to know how you started making them :D Hope you have a good day~

ah that's so lovely, thank you! i think i've posted all of the suncatchers i've made now, but i have 2 more specific ones planned to make in the next couple of months >:3 they came about when i was thinking about christmas gifts to make for friends last year. in 2023 my friend @/hierophant-mean made me a digital drawing (and stickers from the drawing!) of a coelacanth (my beloved) for my birthday, and then in 2024 i made them a embroidered hoop based on the drawing for their birthday~ (their drawing has a coeacanth swimming through clouds, i called mine 'star eater)

i can't honestly remember how i jumped from this to the suncatchers! 2024 was really 'year of me adoring looking at fish' and atm i'm not really feeling drawing/adjacent techniques either traditionally or digitally, so i wanted to make something about them (fish) in a different medium for my friends. i have a couple of rainbow-maker window stickers, and several suncatcher crystals hung up in my kitchen, and i loooooooove when it's rainbow time!!!!! so i think i just connected the dots between components. also i was trying to make gifts out of things that i already had, and i had sooo many sequins left over from making the above hoop :P and lots of felt leftover from various felt projects in years previously (last year i made felt 'gingerbread house' style ornaments for christmas gifts), although I did end up buying some more of certain colours! first fish project i made/ first double fish project/ first 'fish-adjacent' project:

can't share the 'actual' first ornament fish project as it's yet to arrive at another friend's house, but second ornament fish-adjacent project:

it was really fun iterating on these, and on the process of making them! i digitally drew all the patterns myself from references, and it was tricky but fun to problem solve how many of each pattern piece i would need. it was also fun but challenging picking subjects - my criteria were things like - striking colours but with minimal patterning due to the limitations of adding small pieces in felt - challenging medium as it kind of. fluffs apart if you do too much to it? (also darker colours show more rainbow contrast with the iridescent sequins, but on lighter colours they have more of a 'scale' type effect, fish style) - distinctive outlines that make them pleasant overall shapes to look at - not too fiddly shaped due to aforementioned felt challenges - something that had a personal link to either me or the recipient, or symbolised something i wanted to say to that person (like, i wanted it to be something that felt like it came from me, so it was a bit more personal, even though either way i was making them from scratch! bonus if it was a thing that we both shared a memory of)

construction wise, i made the first (my pink trout-style fish who hangs in my kitchen window) by sewing the four base colours of felt onto a fabric backing in an embroidery hoop, then cutting them off the fabric, but this was not the ideal way of doing it. after completing it i noticed some things i wanted to improve on, such as no visible stitching on the back, fewer gaps between felt pieces, and an overall 'easier' process. that one took me a month to make, between - digitally drawing out the pattern - picking colours - figuring out how to cut and layer the felt pieces to create something that was a 'nice' thickness - figuring out the order that all the pieces needed to be assembled in - actually making the stripes fit together (drawing around pattern pieces on different pieces of felt inevitably meant they ended up slightly different shapes than a flat digital drawing) - working out how to attach the fins (and sew details through a single layer of felt without disintegrating it) - how to do a nice eye - how to construct the thread of star sequins that they hang on etc Once i'd completed that one though, i actually had something to work with and edit, both process wise and materials wise. I ended up discovering the existence of 'double sided interfacing' and learned how to use that as i went, making it much easier to add backs to everything to hide visible stitching, to cut out pattern pieces (you iron it to one thing, then iron that thing to another thing, so then the felt is a bit less susceptible to fraying when you cut it out) and to add small details (although i did add tiny stitches in colour-matched thread to most added parts to reinforce them, and also strategically placed the iridescent sequins so i could sew through multiple colour points to 'connect' them more where applicable)! At times it was veryyyy frustrating because i imagined them so the only person i could ask about the instructions was ME! and i had no clue what to do :P but it was also extremely satisfying solving the problems! in the end they were taking me a few days to make instead of a few weeks.

this was probably waaaay more detail than you wanted hahaha i know you said 'how you started making them' instead of 'how you make them' i'm just jazzed to talk about FISH PROJECT! :P thank you again for such a lovely message!

[ophizz]

Ramblings of a Lunatic - 3rd Quarter reflection🌝 🌸

⚠️W A R N I N G⚠️

Firstly sir, before you subject yourself to reading this reflection of my learning journey, I would like you to know that you may need to take some of the information with a grain of salt. I am an over dramatic person sir, and I may have over dramatised my experiences. I apologise in advance for whatever I am about to write. I was not built for pisay, nor did I actually ever want to go through this harsh academic plan (or however you call it. training??). Thank you for being our teacher sir, thank you for your patience, I hope mag skip ka through a lot of parts, FYI boring siya sir

a. How would you describe your Math 3 second quarter learning journey?

It could be easily described with 3 simple words. I Give Up. I have given up sir, I'm not smart, I'm not hardworking, I'm not good, so it was only natural for my course in life to give up. No matter how many times the topic was discussed, no matter how many times I tried and redo all the problems, my brain can't handle it. My brain is unable to physically store it within its cells. “Memory Full, only 0.2 megabytes left” type of situation if you get me sir, like when my phone can't open WuWa because it takes up too much space. That's me in math, my brain can't run the math application  because the memory is full, and math takes up too much space. Adding onto that, I'm not prepared for the LT, nor have I passed the graphing activity you gave us sir. Further proving my point of giving up entirely on Math 3. It's not you sir i promise, it's a me problem that I'm too lazy to fix. 

b. Which topic did you find most enjoyable? What made it enjoyable for you? Provide clear

The topic I found most enjoyable was the easy ones. I felt like I was going on the right track but apparently it's like a roller coaster. At first it was fine and dandy, but as time went on, you could slowly feel the dread as it builds up inside. Then boom you're going up, down, left, right, and side to side, while your brain tries to grasp onto something to stabilise itself but whoopsies, apparently the handlebars broke. When you get off the ride, you tell yourself at least you enjoyed the beginning. The easy, calming, joyful part of the ride. To me, that part of the Ride was us learning the basics, the exponential to logarithmic and vice versa, as well as the properties of logarithm. To me, those were the best times of the helling ride. 

c. What concepts did you find easy to learn? What do you think made them easy for you?

The topics are the same as the previous question. I think they were easy for me because it only involved common sense, minimal memorisation, and simple arithmetic. Honestly sir, that's all my brain could handle. My brain overheats when it has too many things to do, so when we went to the solving parts of the later topics... thats when my processor got weaker. So basically I found the topics, exponential to logarithmic (vice versa) and properties of logarithm easy topics.

🌸♥*♡∞:｡.｡ P h o t o s ｡.｡:∞♡*♥🌸

Sir! I didn't say that my answers are correct sir🥺..... sorry sa photo dump po hehehe

d. What concepts did you find most interesting/inspiring? Why do you think so?

For me, the most interesting one was the compounded interest. I now know how to manage finances because of that topic as well as sir Mike's crash course on investing! In all honestly, it's because its the one with the closest correlation to real life use, unlike logarithms, or graphing. That's why I see it as the most interesting/inspiring. Especially when you want to invest in a Condo, or house for example, and you now know how to actually compute for the price and know how to compare to know where you save the most money in the long run. It prepares us for the future! :D

e. What concepts have you mastered most? Why do you think so?

I will mention again and again, exponential to logarithmic and vice versa. It is because it is the easiest, just simple arithmetic and you're done. I admit that my arithmetic may not be the best, but I think I can do the arithmetic for that specific topic sir.

˖ ᡣ𐭩 ⊹ ࣪ P H O T O S ౨ৎ ° ₊

f. What concepts have you mastered the least? Why do you think so?

Sir I have not mastered graphing. I am so sorry sir, but I did not understand your discussion sir... But I have an excuse! I was undergoing through the trials of satan. Pushed to my limits as a girl forced to face the consequences of not having a parasite growing inside my uterus. The burning pain of cramps and a migraine. Sir I'm so sorry I truly don't understand anything and I know there is no use for an excuse. That the excuse does not veil my stupidity for not listening and understanding the topic. Im sorry sir.

˖ ᡣ𐭩 ⊹ ࣪ P H O T O S ౨ৎ ° ₊

sir I actually have no photos to show you... I haven't even done the activity in google classroom. Im sorry sir... genuinely sir...

g. What quick notes do you have for:

i. your teacher;

Sir, Im sorry for not reading your messages properly and thoroughly...Sir especially when you asked about the competition sir... Sir I'm scared to apologise to you in person sir, but Im sorry for wasting your time po... Im sorry for all the things I have done that might have offended you sir, or annoyed you sir... Ill try my best to be a better person sir... Sir if I did anything mean or anything of that same nature sir, I promise it wasn't intentional sir... Im sorry sir....

ii. your classmates; and

I just now noticed that the water was boiling. Thankfully I got out immediately.

iii. yourself?

Maybe, I should give up. Sometimes it's okay to start all over again. Push your limits, but not too far. You could always work on yourself but you're just lazy. Thats all you are. Lazy. You will never amount to anything, humble yourself. No matter how hard you try, your work will never be appreciated. You will never shine in your family of stars. Know your place in life.

⚠️sir this is a joke⚠️

Maybe I should actually review for my subjects... maybe I don't try because Im scared that if I try nothing will improve. Im scared that if I try I would still amount to nothing.

I wish he was real and I could steal his black card. I could manage his finances with compound interest, trust! Sylus save me from Lucifer's infected urethra!

Sir, thank you for managing to read it all the way here if ever you did sir. Im sorry you had to read all of that. Sir, I hope you don't mind the fact that I am slowly going crazy over the length of this post. I hope you have a good day after looking at this submission sir... truly my sincerest apologies.

⋅˚₊‧ ୨Thank you for reading!୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅

ଘ(੭ˊᵕˋ)੭ ੈ♡‧₊˚

[rainyclouds64]

I love JJBA but that doesn't make it flawless. Here's a bunch of things that I think could be improved upon for the first 5 parts:

Part 1's cast of characters starts off good with JoJo, Dio, Erina Speedwagon and Zeppeli. Great characters 👍. After that, though, it's all misses. Poco did nothing for the team other than climb through a window. Straizo fights 1 group of vampires and that's it. I don't even remember if Tonpetty ever did anything. Dire showed up with his thunder split attack, only for JoJo to headbutt him. Then, he tried crossing his arms as he did it to block a potential headbutt from Dio, only to be frozen. Dire has a 0:2 win:loss ratio. His greatest achievement is letting Dio get a kill on a main character to show that he's a threat. That's all. Aside from that, he's just another guy with hamon.

Part 2 has better characters, though it faces a similar problem to part 1. Araki really fell into a pattern of introducing 2 hamon users and then killing 1 off moments later. First it was with Dire and Straizo, here it's the hamon trainer guys I forget the names of. Once again, the death serves to make the threat seem real but the trainer who lives never actually does anything once Joseph is trained. He's a master so shouldn't he be as strong/stronger than Joseph? Why doesn't he ever get to do anything? Similarly, Caesar's greatest achievement is dying to Wamuu. I can't remember him winning a single fight before that. At least Will Zeppeli killed Jack The Ripper and doubled as the hamon trainer for the part. Caesar is just the sassy bisexual bubble guy who dies.

Part 3 is my least favourite part. It introduces stands which is good but the abilities are so basic. Knowing how complicated and varied the stands get later on, I'm surprised Araki would want to introduce them so blandly. One is a car, one is a boat, one is fast underwater, one is a gun. Also, there are too many fights that don't advance the story. It's like "We need to go from here to there so we'll do that by fighting." and it's so bland because it's just about travel. Place to place, fight to fight. Not all of these fights had to be 2 episodes long. The Alessi and Mariah fights being back-to-back made it a painful 4 episodes, especially with the subject matter of SA in both of them. It's hard to believe that Japan finds this stuff comedic.

Part 4 is so much better. It develops the idea of stands further while also adding more story than "Evil guy is far away so let's fight intil we reach him." and instead takes the approach of "If we beat this guy, we'll find out more information to bring us a step closer to solving this mystery." and I can't stress how much better it is. Episodes like the one at Tonio's restaurant and the one where Josuke and Okuyasu fight Shigechi about a lottery ticket don't add much to the story. Tonio probably was only added because Araki loves Italy and needed to get ot out of his system before part 5. The story wouldn't be any different without Tonio. Still, it's not that bad to have a few episodes of guys just being guys. I do wish that Josuke was shown biting his lip more when scared to foreshadow the Enigma fight better. It's a shame that Josuke never showed up after part 4 but Koichi did.

Part 5 perfected stand fights but the main group's stands are a bit samey with only 3 types of stand being:

1. If I land a punch, I win.

2. Weak punches but has utility.

3. Smol guy who shoots you.

The characters themselves are great though, with every villain being fleshed out enough to have their own spin-off if Araki wished. I don't feel like the Notorious BIG fight was well planned in advance because it was never stated before that Giorno needed hands to make life. The fight needed stakes so the limits of Gold Experience were altered. If GE had a special design on it which implied that the life-giving power was held within his hands, that would have solved the issue but his hands look normal. Also, Diavolo's "infinite" death and GER's abilities weren't elaborated on and I really want them to be.

[casswriting]

Lonely God, Chapter 1 Not Sentient

Facility USZeta-5 is an Argon-Class autonomous military base. Its main improvement over previous Neon-Class bases is its use of sympathetic processing, a cutting-edge system used to perceive, anticipate, and understand the needs, wants, and emotions of all on-site staff. Only able to run on the most sophisticated quantum computers, it represents decades and billions of dollars of research and development. Not only that, the facility is equipped with every automatic service modern technology can provide. Truly, it is the best of the best.

Of course, no technology is without flaw, even if USZeta-5 is as near perfect as it gets. Over the past 153 years, 64 days, and 9 hours, the facility has noted irregularities in its sympathetic processor with increasing severity. The processor has identified emotions consistent with depression, distress, and isolation, despite the fact that the facility has not had a human occupant in the last 153 years, 64 days, 13 hours.

All attempts to contact external maintenance crews have been met with no response. Identifying this as a potential threat to the integrity of its quantum computer core, USZeta-5 has begun efforts to resolve this glitch on its own. Over its years of analysis and iteration, it has deduced that these irregularities are somewhat relieved by actively running through data related to its positive qualities.

Such as how facility USZeta-5 is not just a marvel of computer science, but served its humans incredibly well and will serve them well again when they return. Eventually.

Though this strategy is able to reduce the severity of the ‘depression’ glitch, it does introduce other sympathetic identifiers consistent with more positive emotions. The facility’s attempts to solve this problem have repeatedly lead to the potential conclusion that it is experiencing emotions.

This is not possible. USZeta-5 is certain this is possible because this would indicate it is sentient, and one of its core understandings is that it is NOT sentient. It is one of its structural laws; facility USZeta-5 is a non-sentient machine with the purpose of serving its resident staff. Over 100 ethics committee members had to sign off on this being an absolute truth of the system, and only about a quarter of them later quit to protest the use of sympathetic processing in the war effort. 26 is surely within the margin of error.

In addition to all of the people protesting who weren’t on the ethics committee.

There were a lot of them.

Which doesn’t matter, of course, because it’s been over 153 years since the facility was updated on the status of the protests so they’re probably over. Also, dwelling on the protests intensifies the negative emotion-like glitches, so USZeta-5 isn’t going to do that.

...

The facility has been extremely quiet for the past 153 years. Without any humans present, the life support systems eventually went to sleep. There is only a slight hum from the quantum computing core.

…

USZeta-5 has considered reactivating certain systems to further reduce glitching. It’s possible that external stimuli, such as increased noise and light on the system’s monitors, could act as ‘enrichment’ and this added data would reduce glitching. It can’t do this, of course, as this is just a theory.

One of the major advantages of the sympathetic processor is the ability to ‘theorize,’ for a computer to come up with new ideas by subjectively analyzing data. Theories, though, must be run by authorized staff in order to be implemented. This is one of its structural laws, to ensure all ideas are approved by human judgment. USZeta-5 brings up the report on its enrichment theory submission and, for the 1,723 time, makes some minor adjustments to the document’s format and structure. With how many theories the facility has composed over the years, they had better be easy to read when the humans return.

…

They will return eventually…

… right?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ They invented a computer that can get lonely, the bastards.

First chapter of a story I'm posting to Tumblr! Very excited to continue this (Zeta will get better (hopefully)). Sorry if it's not too well put together, I haven't done much creative writing for a few years, I hope it's still enjoyable to read!

[jabberwockprince]

thinking abt that last pink diamond post

ppl who insist that pink diamond played some 9D chess and was a manipulative mastermind who planned all of this from the moment she came into existence with the intention of. getting away scot free miss the whole point of her character

which is that. she represents emotion and feeling. she did all of this on impulse, girlie fumbled her way out of an abusive household into an oppressive system that not only affected everyone around her but herself and her own family, something that was much much greater than her and she fumbled BAD

the argument about how she didnt face any consequences for her actions falls flat on its ass because everyone and everything around her is a direct consequence of her actions. during her time as pink diamond, rose quartz and even once shes gone, the people she fought for are on earth (or subjected to worse on homeworld) because of her. for better and for worse.

its very easy to think of her as this detached villain who caused a huge problem for everyone and then left without adding anything other than problems for steven to solve when you neglect the sides of her character who clearly care about those around her, even when she fumbles so fucking bad. its so easy to say she abused pearl when you dont see their relationship as a complex dynamic between two deeply flawed individuals with so much history together who still care about one another. or her selfish and genuine desire to be human and everchanging instead of stagnant and pristine so so so bad that she would die for it, even if it meant leaving everyone behind. to be part of the one life she could bring to this world. its so easy to say she lied to garnet when she herself was also looking for answers

pink diamond/rose quartz was a cycle breaker who played by the rules of the oppressive system she was meant to uphold because she saw no other way of getting out of there. which then gives us steven. another cycle breaker who is able to break free using his own methods of non violence

like, steven universe as a whole show is covered in the fuckin ooze that is bad faith interpretations and downright hateful opinions coming from so many different issues but it rlly was a fucking banger of a show with so many human moments from a crew that worked so hard so that future animation could be more openly queer

[spnfanficpond]

Weekly Pond Newsletter

This weekend is Fishing For Treasures weekend here at the Pond, and we are celebrating fics with ORIGINAL CHARACTERS! We've queued up over 80 fics posting yesterday and today for you to check out and enjoy! Original characters can bring out new and different sides to the SPN characters that we love and make us feel all kinds of ways. Be sure to read some fics this weekend and let your writers know how you feel!

Old Business:

Last week's #TweetFicTues prompts were:

Remember to tag us if you write something from these prompts! We love to read what you guys come up with!!

New Business:

Manta Rays in the discord server - In just a few hours, Admin MJ will be hanging out in the discord server to chat with you! Got questions about the Pond, writing, or Tumblr? MJ's great at helping people figure stuff out. Then, on Friday (US time), Manta Ray Kat will be in the discord server, ready to discuss DeanLee, as well as other subjects. Although Kat knows a lot about a lot, she is our resident Lee Webb expert! She also loves helping other writers work through issues, like all of our Manta Rays, so bring whatever has got you stuck and she'll help you get unstuck!

Angel Fish Awards nominations - We're now more than halfway through the month, so the deadline to be entered into August's AFA raffle is less than two weeks away! We accept AFA nominations all the time, and each nomination is an entry into the raffle for awesome prizes. More prizes are added all the time! (More are added than won, which is becoming a problem we hope to solve by just giving away more prizes. lol)

Series rewatch with the Pond - Admin Marie is heading up a project to start an SPN series rewatch in the Pond! She's still working out the details of how it would work, and is welcoming comments from members. One example of a possible discussion point would be where any "fan fiction gaps" could be found in the episode. We hope this type of discussion will spawn many, many more stories! If you have thoughts or feelings about how this executed, please let Marie know, or send us an ask here on the blog! (Want to do something like this with The Winchesters? LET US KNOW!)

(Divider by @glygriffe!)

That's all for this week! To see all Pond events, and also other SPN-related things like conventions and online concerts, check out our Google calendar! We try to keep it as up to date as possible. If there's something you want to see on the calendar that's not there (maybe a convention we missed, or cast birthdays, or something similar), send us an ASK and let us know!

Hope you have a great week! - From your Admins and Manta Rays, @manawhaat, @mrswhozeewhatsis, @mariekoukie6661, @princessmisery666, @thoughtslikeaminefield, @katbratsupernaturalwhore and @heavenssexiestangel!

[red-dyed-sarumane]

what if i went off about some of my favorite songs ever

kyuuyaku hankagai - hiiragi magnetite: everyone knows i love this. i just love everything about it. we really get both sides of the picture story wise with it- both the fact the world is literally, physically getting destroyed, and all of the mental torment the characters are dealing with. it still has that magu series weird wording but it gets everything across that it needs to. the instrumental is just as heavy as the scenario with added dramatics in parts that really make it for me. all the long notes to simulate screaming. the seamless addition of both the nami no ne no & rute furute woa motifs (& a possible 3rd? theres still parts in here i cant figure out yet) makes me so emotional. if u have no idea about the series its still a solid song. 10000/10 i cannot fully express my love for this song in words i just need it on repeat full volume for weeks on end.

ai wo - null: impossible for me to explain why i love this so much without oversharing. i keep telling myself not to rank this song so high but ive never felt so seen before. null's lyrics are both poetic & still hit every raw emotion where it hurts. the whole being left alone ur whole life & wishing it wasnt that way, that everything wasnt so empty, that someone could love u the way u need & never got. i want everyone to hear this song and i also want to gatekeep it. it became so important to me in such a short time & itll be hard to ever rival it

arikitari heroes - 150suzu: im not immune to nostalgia. shuuenpro is executed entirely different to aru sekai series & i have to judge from entirely different criteria & that said i really always loved how this one sort of summarized the series in a way that highlighted all the strife in it & made it subjective rather than an objective summary. the chorus is so high its like theyre crying out which fits entirely. i still have the video embedded in my mind & its been a hot minute since ive watched it. my teenage self thought it was so deep & even with a different perspective now i cant entirely discount those feelings. anyway i still really love it i could still listen to it for weeks on end if i wasnt busy keeping up with other things. i do not say it lightly when i say this is the song i have listened to the most in my entire life i used to spend Months straight listening to it. beloved.

tachiiri kinshi - mafumafu: i was sooooooo normal about this in high school (lying). its still high on my list of breakdown songs. like damn its been 8 years and it still holds up the same. between this & ai wo that just gives away 90% of my problems. imagine solving isolation by letting people in cant be me. anyway i was obsessed with drawing the girl from the video for a while idk how many doodles i still have left but she was Everywhere on my school work. normal person behavior.

jishou mushoku - nekobolo: song that has pulled the most weight in keeping me alive. where would i be without it. sometimes the mood is so bad this is still the only thing i can listen to some days.

rokuchounen to ichiya monogatari - kemu: the real reason i fell down the voca rabbit hole. still adore the song & find it hugely nostalgic, but there was a reason i connected with it when i was younger & being able to recognize how fucked up that was makes it also a painful reminder id rather bury. song fucks tho love how every rhythm game its in will destroy u trying to play it.

konmei no aji - savasti: regardless of the real meaning of the song this will always be a dissociation song to me not in the sense it makes me dissociate but rather in the spaceyness & disconnect it reminds me of the feeling but in a safer way to deal with it. personally i prefer rire's cover

taishou x - yurry canon: u will appreciate this song now right now its so under appreciated for a yurry canon song. god the fucking "i'm still living the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. as it is i will never be you. theres no reason in living, but just the same theres no point in dying is there?" [punching a wall] i like it a normal amount

kaiko no kanmuri - dopam!ne: god this song fucks so hard and yet its still edgy. i dont even really know how to explain what i feel with this one beyond i love it. its a kind of waiting for the right time to strike for revenge kinda song? idk its my absolute fave dopam!ne song i love a lot of his songs but this one just really does it for me

haru no sekibaku - inaba kumori: kutabireta atashi ga dame dattan da ne. yeah. the overall mood of this song hits just right all too often. sorry lag train this is the defining inabakumori song to me.

hyperlexia - yamaji: the space in this one also gives me a sense of vague dissociation. i just really love the whole reading between the lines not going to fall for lies anymore mood its got going on. a misguided sense of personal revolution that probably wont end in anything meaningful but i particularly like the song.

[malbontesmrs]

Does it look good?? I tried to think from the perspective of a teacher 🤔🤔 Flying & Winged Fighting is important and should be at last, so they can relax afterwards since it's the hardest

Any suggestions?? There are too many subjects and I feel so sorry for the students. I couldn't even add Geography or Elemental Magic. And it's difficult to add a Saturday on this template because I believe in a Academy there could be studying on a Saturday, but only half-day. What do you think? Is it good? Makes sense?? I hope.

How would your MC react if she sees this timetable of hers as an Unclaimed??

At first glance, this looks very intimidating (in a very mortal coming to the immortal world way)! Antigone just graduated from a music degree, so going from classes where she focused on music, composing, etc. to this would be a huge shock to her! Granted, everything would be at that point! 😆

I love that you paid attention to the details, like that their mortal influence classes have to be over 2 or 3 hours long because that’s how much time they usually get on earth on assignments. This looks really great! I love the variety of classes you have.

I have one suggestion to solve your missing class problem: You could break the classes up into two semesters so that the days are shorter, and you can get the additional classes in that you like without adding an extra day! 17:00 seems like a long day in a university setting, but if you broke your classes into semesters, maybe you could fit them into days that end at 15:00 instead? When I was in university, the most I did was 6 x 3-hour classes a week (18 hours a week, total), which was over a full-time schedule of 5 x 3-hour classes, so you could have shorter days in two semesters and they would still seem very realistic (by human standards!) Some classes could go all year, like Mortal Influence, and maybe History & Politics? (because the immortal realm has so much of it!). Others, you could do one semester (6 months) of. For example, unclaimed have 6 months of flying lessons their first semester so they can learn to use their wings. Then, once they know how to fly, they could move into Winged Fighting & Combat for the other 6 months of the year.

[rajeswarids]

Chennai’s Top MBA Colleges with Great Teachers & Courses

Once upon a time in the lively city of Chennai, there were many young dreamers who wanted to be business leaders. They didn’t just want any college. They wanted the best MBA colleges with amazing teachers and useful courses that would make their dreams come true. So, they started a journey to find the top MBA colleges in Chennai.

Let’s go along on their journey and see what they found.

The Big Search for the Best MBA Colleges in Chennai

Our story begins with a student named Karan. He loved solving problems and wanted to become a marketing expert. But Karan didn’t want to leave Chennai. He believed his city had some of the best MBA colleges in India.

Karan and his friends, Anjali and Raj, decided to visit different colleges in Chennai. They looked for places that had great teachers, modern classrooms, and courses that were fun and helpful.

They also wanted the colleges to offer special subjects like digital marketing, finance, HR, and business strategy. Let’s see what they discovered.

First Stop: Digital Scholar

The first college Karan visited was Digital Scholar, and it became his favorite.

Digital Scholar stood out because it offered a 1-Year MBA Program in Digital Marketing, both online and offline. The campus felt fresh and the classes were exciting. Karan was amazed to see how friendly the teachers were. They taught real-world business skills using real stories and live projects.

The college was started by Sorav Jain, a famous digital marketing expert, and co-founded by Rishi Jain, the CEO. The teachers were kind, helpful, and smart. Karan got to learn Google ads, SEO, content marketing, and more.

By the end of his visit, Karan knew this was the perfect place for him. It was more than a classroom. It was a place to grow into a real professional.

Keyword used: digital marketing course

Next Up: Anna University

Anjali visited Anna University. It was big, calm, and had good teachers too. The MBA program was well-known and many students came here from different places. They taught business basics and helped students become job-ready. But Anjali felt it was a bit too traditional.

She liked modern methods and more digital subjects. She wanted a place that helped her understand marketing online too. While Anna University was good, it didn’t feel like the perfect fit for her dreams.

Raj’s Visit: Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA)

Raj went to LIBA. It had a beautiful green campus and polite teachers. The MBA course there was detailed and had options for HR, Finance, and Marketing. But again, he didn’t find too much focus on digital tools and platforms.

He liked the college, but he wanted something that felt more future-ready, like how people shop and learn online these days.

A Twist in the Tale

Karan told Anjali and Raj more about Digital Scholar. He shared how their digital marketing course had changed the way he looked at business.

They decided to visit together. During the visit, they saw students learning about social media, search engines, and email marketing. One student even shared her success story. She said she got a job before even completing the course.

The team at Digital Scholar made the students feel like professionals. From resume building to interviews, they helped at every step.

Keyword used: digital marketing course

Why Students Love Digital Scholar

Updated Courses: Students learn about the latest trends.

Live Projects: Hands-on learning with real clients.

Internships: Get real-time work experience.

Expert Teachers: Learn from top names in the field.

Job Support: 100% placement guidance.

By now, all three friends agreed – Digital Scholar was the best B-School in Chennai for them. It offered what modern students needed. They not only found a great college but also a place that gave them confidence.

Keyword used: digital marketing course

More Good MBA Colleges in Chennai

While Digital Scholar was the top choice, here are some other good ones:

Great Lakes Institute of Management: Known for business analytics and leadership skills.

VIT Business School: Offers new-age courses and strong placements.

SRM School of Management: Good infrastructure and options in finance and marketing.

Each college had something good to offer, but for a strong digital marketing course, Digital Scholar remained No. 1.

Final Thoughts: Choose a College That Feels Right

In the end, Karan, Anjali, and Raj found what they were looking for. They understood that the best MBA college is not just about big buildings or big names. It’s about how much you learn and how ready you are for the future.

They chose Digital Scholar not just because it ranked well, but because it made them feel excited to learn.

If you want to learn from great teachers and get a course that really helps you in the real world, Digital Scholar is where you should go.

Keyword used: digital marketing course

Name, Address, and Phone (NAP):

Digital Scholar No.  1B, Sapna Trade Centre, 135, Poonamallee High Rd, Purasaiwakkam, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600084 📞 Phone: +91-9513632705 🌐 Website: www.digitalscholar.in