#it's organized a bit like an essay collection

[libraryleopard]

Adult nonfiction

Memoir by a British gay, trans man

Discusses navigating gay culture and dating as a trans man, healthcare, queer history, transphobia, and trans joy

[drdemonprince]

don’t know if this is relevant to your ask box, but I thought you might find it interesting.

I’m a 20 yr old trans man who’s just started an ongoing thing with a new Dom, who is over twice my age. I’m currently finishing up my second year at uni, and he’s, you guessed it, also the, uh…. academic sort.

He’s a busy guy so obviously we can only meet up every once and a while, but we text almost every day. From the beginning he was always curious about my school endeavours, but recently it’s become more of a thing.

He won’t let us meet until certain assignments are done. He’s flexible and understanding, like any good dom, but holy shit this man had me at a cafe for ten hours on 40mg of vyvanse writing my final essay like my life depended on it. I didn’t even know who I was, motivated by the pure need to please and, quite frankly, desperate desire to be absolutely taken and used. This man has “cured” my ADHD (not really, but damn well is he fucking helping it).

I think the point I’m getting at here it that I can’t believe it took the motivation of my D/s relationship to get me to get shit done. Like, I’m done DAYS before the deadline for things I usually would have left last minute. I’ve been honest with my struggles with motivation and difficulties taking care of myself, and he is genuinely invested in my well-being so I know it all comes from a place of care and respect.

At the moment I’m working on my final short film for a class, and he told me to make a list of all the foley sounds I thought would help drive the narrative (he knows I love making lists, it’s also the autism), and as probably one of the best rewards for my good behaviour, he shared with me a collection of audio files (he dabbles in audio mixing) that were relevant to the list I shared. Can you believe this??!!

All these studentxprof fics are getting it wrong. Sometimes nothing comes between a teacher’s genuinely investment in student learning (if they enjoy what they do, like he does) and that is absolutely true in this case. Absolutely unbelievable this is my life right now. Would love to hear your thoughts on this!

This sounds so fucking sweet and HOT anon! I'm so glad you're having an exciting time with an older dom who cares about you and helps you meet your goals! And the phrasing of this guy making you write for hours on vyvanse is especially titilating...making it sound like an intox scene omg drool

ADHDers are generally very socially motivated, which is not rare for human beings at all. It makes sense that having the external structure that an outside observe can provide and the sense that your actions actually matter to other people and that people care about you would help facilitate you focusing on shit and getting organized! Not to mention how much fuckin easier it is to perform any kind of household task or bit of drudgery once it becomes sexual service. Shit gives boring regular life a charge of excitement, and the abdication of power gives you the discipline to actually follow through, because you're not the only one on the hook for everything and that's less scary!

I have nothing much more to say other than this rules and I hope you keep having a fun time!

[centrally-unplanned]

I saw this slightly-old post making the rounds recently by former alt-right memelord Walt Bismark, on how the alt-right "won" in the late 2010's - positing that as the cause of why it generally vanished. I agree overall with the vanishing part, its not gone-gone ofc but it waned as a cohesive movement. But I saw a lot of people (and generally not alt-right figures) agreeing with its conclusion and I am a bit more skeptical of those.

Its largely a personal essay so I wont address most of it, but it has a summary of five main points that outline essentially "the agenda of the Alt Right at the beginning" to evaluate success upon. Bismark thinks they won on all five, but overall I think this is playing a trick of inventing an enemy to claim you defeated. Anyway, the points:

1: Shift the “Overton Window” of acceptable public discourse to make it politically viable to openly discuss the interests of white people in mainstream politics, in the same way black people or Jewish people discuss their collective interests. 

This one I will grant a partial victory - there was a legitimate intensification of "white as identity" in politics, a making explicit what was implicit in the 2010's. Now ofc I consider this to be a classic horseshoe moment; the hard left at the time was also extremely interested in abandoning race neutrality and valorizing racial identity as an organizing principle, and did it in a very ham-fisted way that the right capitalized on, so it was an easy battle to win - but that is what it is, ofc the wider environment defined the goals & strategy. I mention it however because I do think this is only partial, and the gap between implicit and explicit isn't that relevant. He mentions as an example of this success:

Affirmative action was of course squashed by SCOTUS and the necessary legal infrastructure is being deployed to burn it down. Mainstream conservatives are mobilizing a lot of resources and energy to this end.

But conservatives have been fighting affirmative action for 20+ years, easily. Here is a 1999 article on precisely such a campaign, I literally just googled "conservatives affirmative action [year]" and I get results each time, 2003 had big cases (the Bollinger cases) on AA, etc. I remember "affirmative action bake sale" memes from like 2006 at my uni! What changed between Bollinger and 2023's Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard is that conservatives had just had enough time to stack courts, and wait for Supreme Court justices to die. That just...takes time to do! The strategy hadn't changed between 2003 and 2023. And meanwhile, did they win? They won that court case, sure. What do you...think the ethic makeup of the next Harvard class is gonna be? Wanna take some bets?

His other listed victories are things like:

"Vivek defended the Great Replacement Theory on national television and remained a major Trump surrogate. The SPLC would have marginalized him for that 10 years ago. Today because of polarization and MAGA closing ranks they can’t do shit."

And like, the Southern Poverty Law Center would have successfully marginalized a Republican politician in idk 2003 are you completely high right now? Strom Fucking Thurmond was an active Senator in 2003! This is the repeated tactic here, the imagined enemies - there was never a time where liberal institutions could consistently force conservative politicians to kowtow, so you can't claim it as a change.

This is why I mention the social justice horseshoe, because he has this point here:

These days you can complain about quotas etc. being unfair to you as a white man and it’s not inflammatory or low status among centrists and conservatives. Even non-woke liberals won’t really hate you for it, just quietly think you’re a bit of a chud. This was not the case in 2015. 

And this is partially correct, I agree there was some norm shift. But that is because in ~2010 there really weren't any quotas against white men, it wasn't a thing almost anywhere outside of university applications, so the complaint would make no sense. What happened was that starting in ~2012 a huge left cultural movement started that just openly supported active discrimination against whites, Asians and men. They were a small minority of course, and never had much power, but they got enough power in certain institutions like non-profits and universities that there was a string of just very obvious cases of clear racial discrimination against in particular whites & asians (both men and women, white women often got it very bad in this wave). And the large majority of people just saw that and went "uh yeah racism is still bad?" and so now you can say that because its actually relevant to say. From that lens, is this a successful cultural victory on the part of the alt-right? In some sense sure, but really its more a cultural failure of the hard left. The status quo just kept on chugging along.

Ugh that point went long, the others repeat so we will go through them quicker.

2: Elevate identity issues like anti-immigration and the promotion of traditional gender norms to the center of Republican politics. 

A fake enemy here - anti-immigration was already a huge issue for Republicans in the 2000's. It had a huge wave under Obama actually, it goes in cycles like that. And it responds to material conditions; it's a big issue again right now because the immigration numbers spiked massively under Biden, its just way worse of a problem now (primarily due to the booming economy of course). Again a partial victory for the first part, I agree its more salient due to Trump platforming it, but I'm skeptical that it is a big shift - people are memory-holing the Tea Party movement really badly here for example.

And the second point is just obviously false, Republicans always cared about that, and they care about it less now, giving up the ghost on gay marriage for example. The Alt-Right coincided with a decline of the influence of the Religious Right, and it shows on this issue, 0 points.

3: Make it socially acceptable to discuss HBD and the resulting moral implications for leveling mechanisms like affirmative action. 

Peak "log off" moment, it was always acceptable to discuss this outside of liberal/professional circles and there it still isn't acceptable to discuss it. Charles Murray wrote the Bell Curve in 1994 and his been an American Enterprise Institute Scholar for this entire span of time. This is confusing churn for change - the mid-2010's had a bunch of big, mainly online fights about HBD, and then everyone just sort of moved on with the status quo pretty much unchanged. Nothing like education policy, even in Republican circles, has shifted over this.

4: Convince conservatives to stop ceding moral authority to liberals and allowing them to determine who on the Right is verboten or beyond the pale. Make it unacceptable among conservatives to “punch Right” or purge people for wrongthink. 

Sigh, again when have Republicans ever ceded moral authority to liberals? Harvard University could not condemn Newt Gingrich in ~2009 and make him change his mind about anything. And "Republicans don't self-criticize while Liberals eat themselves alive" has been a complaint for literally decades, you would hear that as far back as say Clinton and things like the 1999 WTO protests. Its both true and exaggerated - the Tea Party primaried Republican candidates for wrongthink in 2010, and Trump did the same thing! With disastrous results for the Republicans in 2022. I really, really don't think you can look at Trump's Republican party and say they solved the Wrongthink problem.

5: Expose and dismantle the hypocritical attitude that allows neocons to militantly support Israeli ethnonationalism while brutally repressing any white identity politics domestically.

This one is just a lolwut moment, "brutally repressing any white identity politics domestically", like what does that even mean? Name the concrete policy proposals George Bush implemented in 2007 than Donald Trump didn't in 2018 around this topic. Again a fake enemy, they were never repressed by the right, and ofc are still hated by liberal institutions like universities.

Moving on from any specific point, I think its very telling that very little about free trade vs protectionism or isolationism/support of autocracy abroad enters this list. Because beyond immigration those are the big shifts the Trump movement (which is the mechanism the alt-right has to claim for making its impact) has ushered into the party. They didn't change its stance on sexual politics or "race & IQ" or anything, those haven't changed, but meanwhile the party has completely flipped on things like tariffs or opposition to Russian military expansion. But of course those don't align neatly at all with the issues the Alt-Right fought about in 2015.

The reality the Alt-Right can't escape is that they used Trump as their mechanism for change, and Trump never really cared about any of their goals beyond immigration. He used them and then pursued either bog-standard Republican policy or his own mercurial, autocratic whims, eventually channeling all of this energy into election denialism. I really don't think if you pulled aside frikkin Ryan Faulk in 2014, asked him to put down his graphs about Raven's Progressive Matrices of black Caribbean students, and said "Hey 10 years from now all of this energy is being channeled into pretending that a failed real estate mogul didn't lose the 2020 presidential election", that he would look at that outcome and think Mission Accomplished.

I don't want to fully oversell, there are for example wins Bismark doesn't mention (School choice comes to mind, the biggest conservative win of the past decade besides the protectionist swing). The Alt Right was an influential movement, it earned its place in history. But I do not think it is an example of being a "victim of its own success". I think instead it should be understood as part of the "radical froth" of the 2010's, that bubbled over and then evaporated like its more intense leftwing peers did. It made some mark and then got left in the dust.

Net ranking of the 5 points: 0.5 for Point 1, 0.25 for Point 2, 0 for the rest, 1.25/5.

[dewlight-doodles]

“Want some help? Yes, no, maybe so?”

“Something you wish to report? Go on, you have my undivided attention.”

This one’s special, this one’s different. This one’s a self-insert. ✨🫠

The prompt is:

What would you do if you were cornered by Arlecchino and Sylus? 👀

That’s what’s represented here. And the “you” is me. And yes, I am that short 🤣

But hey, these two are supposed to be very tall!

(I am summoning) two different fandoms here, so let me introduce these characters just in case: on the left is Arlecchino from the open-world anime gacha RPG Genshin Impact, and the one on the right is Sylus from the dating sim Love and Deepspace.

I have been playing Love and Deepspace quite a bit recently. I started the game because I thought Sylus seemed like a cool character (and he’s … well, hot). It was worth it. And I have been obsessed with Arlecchino ever since she was introduced in Fontaine (and again, she’s… hot).

I was thinking about how they not only have visual similarities, but they also have very similar personalities, stories, and overall vibe…

I clearly have a type. 😅

They are both high-ranking individuals in “ambiguously-aligned” organizations, leaders of their own factions — loved and deeply respected by those who know them. People assume the worst about them, but they are just calm and collected, self-made, powerful individuals with strong beliefs.

They seem arrogant and power-hungry control freaks at first glance, but they are caring and affectionate when you get to know them.

These two even share that lovely, sarcastic tone in every voice line.

Anywho, I could go on, but this is supposed to be an art blog. 🥲

I hope you can excuse the essay in the description and still enjoy the artwork ✨

Thanks for bearing with me. Follow me on X (Twitter) if you like: @dewlight_dreamr

And my AO3 account where I write fanfic is here !

[starshower1215]

Hange Zoë and the Vets Headcanons: University/Modern AU

Though many are unaware, Hange is an artist. They like to go out and find interesting buildings, sit down for a good view and sketch it into their sketchpad. They do this for other things as well; a nicely shaped leaf, a lost shoe, an interesting rock.

Sometimes, they collect cool stones or sticks off the paths on the way to class and then gives them to Mike for a sniff test.

Walking to and from classes, Hange plays podcasts or listens to the audios of various educational videos.

They have a very cool room/dormitory. Yes, it is messy almost all of the time, but it is an organized mess. Hange has plant shaped pillows, terrariums, a touch-activated moon lamp that they use for late nights, walls of shelves filled with the textbooks and novels collected over the years, pinned up sketches of the things they see, plants hanging from their ceiling, a soft carpet because they love working on the floor, a corner desk... just a lot of stuff.

I imagine Hange is actually quite fond of stuffed animals as well. They find them useless, yes, but they make nice friends and study buddies. (I think Erwin would have gifted them a stuffed lizard). They line them up on the bed so that they can watch them study, and sometimes they practice their speeches, verbalize their essay outlines, or simply present their discoveries and ideas to the pretend audience.

On Friday nights, Hange is dragged away from their work by Nanaba and Mike to then go drag Erwin and Levi to go drinking.

Levi hauls Hange back to their dorm room every Friday night, where they pass out on the stuffed animals. Levi tries to sleep there, too, sometimes, if it is too late to get back to his place. Unfortunately, the stuffed animals' eyes disturb him. He may make a late night call to Petra for company, since they're usually the only ones at least a little bit sober. Petra complains to him about Gelgar vomiting on her shoes.

Hange takes a lot of pride in keeping their lab coat in good condition. The more surprising fact is that it is in good condition, and affectionately adorned with colorful pins and brooches.

While prodding from Levi to tidy up their room usually results in fondly irritated sighs and grumbling, Mike's invitation-like demands for them to tag along with him to the gym are met with much more positivity.

Every now and then, a full group hangout is called and they — Hange, Erwin, Levi, Nanaba, Mike, Petra, Oluo, Gelgar, Nifa, Moblit, who am I missing? — pick somewhere to go for the day. Usually it's the park or the beach, because few public places can handle their level of chaos and volume, so they kick a ball around, race one other, arm wrestle one other on park tables, and just enjoy the sun.

Hange's shoes always wear out quickly from all the walking around that they do. Their clothes always end up being torn or stained by the things they pick up, and they spend an unnecessary amount of time trying to clean them. They've taken to wearing Erwin's shoes when they're waiting for theirs to be delivered (much to his distaste).

Speaking of clothing, the heavy duty of being Fashion Police falls upon the capable shoulders of Mike, Levi, and Nanaba. Levi likes to check the material of the fabric for quality, Mike likes to make sure the outfit is coordinated by style and in style, and Nanaba likes to coordinate the colors, finding the things that compliment eyes and complexion. They are scrupulous with this, they'll take Hange and Erwin around the stores, have them fitted into clothing, turn them around and around in circles to scrutinize. Hange appreciates the help, and probably just reads while they make comments to one another. Erwin does not need the help, but finds it amusing and indulges them.

While Hange draws still life, Moblit loves drawing people. He follows his friends around and sketches them from life— the motion of muscle beneath Erwin's skin on a run or during a workout, the subtlety of the shifts in Levi's expressions during classes from confusion to intrigue to awe, the swift movements of Hange's body when they're excited about something. He also likes to sit at cafes and sketch strangers.

Levi has a part time job at a cafe. Hange often stops by with Erwin and Mike, and the three of them tease him at the counter before buying their morning drinks and breakfast. I feel like Hange and Erwin would like blueberry muffins.

Nanaba does not indulge their teasing for oddly private reasons, and goes to say hello to Levi on her own. They chat at the counter for long enough to make Levi's coworkers curious about the nature of their relationship, and then Nanaba buys herself a coffee and Levi a cup of tea and a pastry. He likes to slip her a free cookie or pastry puff every now and then, too, and if a bit of his money ends up in the cash box, well, it's no one else's business.

Hange is overwhelmed a lot, and easily. They are a free spirit, not to be held down by the demands of school life, but alas, society calls for discipline in order to obtain survival. Therefore, Grandmother Levi made them a quilt to use as a picnic blanket/meditation mat on the grass to protect their pants from grass stains. Hange uses it every day, between lectures to eat their lunch, to watch the sunset, to stargaze, to just feel the earth beneath their back and watch the clouds float by.

When all the other veterans, ahem, graduate from the school, Hange lies beside Levi on the quilt and, to cure their sudden, mutual dislike for the new quiet of their days, invites him to share an apartment with them.

Hange is terrible at checking messages. They are the most inactive member in every group chat and they respond maybe once every couple of days. Not only because they're busy often, but because of the overwhelming factor as well.

Erwin likes to ruin his outfits by wearing crazy socks. He may have on the most elegant, dapped outfit ever known to mankind, but the moment he sits down and the ankle of his bottoms ride up, there are his cup noodle print socks, or his frilly strawberry socks from Mike the Bully, or rainbow socks that everyone looks into a bit too much. He has a collection, mind you, an entire display of silly socks and an abundant lack of shame.

This was much longer than intended, but my favorite one of these was definitely the one about Levi and Nanaba.

[thelamentknight]

Rosarine Lapin-Blanc

Male/17 years old

French

Rabbit Beastman

Virgo

Gay

Hometown is the Kingdom of Roses

Twisted from the White Rabbit

Heartslabyul

2nd Year

His best subject is Magic Analysis 

He is in the Book club

His Favorite Food is Rose Lychee Macarons 

His Least Favorite Food is Prunes

Dislikes Loud Noises

Hobbies include: Reading, collecting stationary supplies, gardening, watercolor painting, and shopping at antique stores and bookshops

Talent: Horse Riding

Unique Magic: “Running from Time.” When Rosarine uses his UM, he is temporarily able to stop time. He tends to use his UM a lot to make to class or unbirthday parties on time. He can add however many minutes he wants to his time stopping, but there’s a catch: when he exceeds 10 minutes, blot begins to form. Rosarine can only have a maximum of 10 minutes of frozen time to be safe from gathering blot.

Rosarine is an introverted and studious boy. He takes his studies quite seriously, and aces his classes. While he is very organized for some things, he can be clumsy and forgetful about other things. He is organized with his supplies and desks, but is forgetful about times and due dates. He can stress out quite easily. He is kind of jittery, and secretly on the verge of breaking down.

Background: Rosarine’s Father is a merchant while his Mother is Florist. The Lapin-Blanc house is a wealthy house of nobility, so Rosarine is a noble. Rosarine is the middle child of 5 boys. His older brothers already run successful businesses, and Rosarine and his younger brothers are expected to do the same. 

Fun facts:

Reading Books while drinking tea and eating pastries tends to help Rosarine calm down

He loves taking care of the flowers in Heartslabyul and the Botanical Gardens

Likes to use a typewriter for his essays instead of typing them on a computer

He tends to run late, which causes him great stress

(Warning as this mentions s**cide) Has considered drowning himself to end his misery and stress

When he gets mad, he’ll stomp one foot

He speaks rather formally for a 17 year old (he had a private tutor who gave him etiquette classes). Even in texts, he never uses slang.

DESPISES the PE classes. Why are they even there? To make him more miserable? 

Thinks Silver is SUCH a dreamboat. Now he gets the appeal of Prince Charmings

Watches and reads Bridgerton

He wants to write a Regency Era Romance book series

He carries around a parasol and fan that he pulls out of thin air

He’s a bit of a people pleaser. Tends to say “I’m sorry” or “my apologies” a lot

He has bad eyesight. He would wear regular glasses, but he likes the heart glasses too much to NOT wear them. So he wears contacts

He’s scared of just about everyone

He can shapeshift into a little white rabbit. He tends to shapeshift when he’s alone, as he’s scared of others picking on him

He has Hearing Sensitivity 

He has crippling low self esteem. He kind of thinks he’s worthless 

Rosarine considered the Science Club, but then sprinted for it when he found out Rook was in it

The Library is his favorite hiding spot

[creedslove]

STUDYING

Pedro Pascal x f!reader

A/N: I got the inspiration for this piece during my own spanish class this week, I was supposed to be paying attention but I was thinking of him and my upcoming test and got distracted. Also, it's worth to mention that reader studies Spanish in a language school that teaches adults foreign languages just like I do in real life (and I'm 26) which means there's NOTHING to do with highschool or underage reader at all. If this kind of school isn't a thing in your country then it's too bad, lol!

Summary: Pedro helps you study and get your Spanish essay done on time but you get distracted by your personal tutor at home

Warnings: fluff, sweet boyfriend Pedro and a tiny bit of smut towards the end

1.2k words

It was about your third or fourth sigh that caught Pedro's attention. He knew you were having your moment of studying and he always made sure to give you your space, so you could focus, do your tasks, spread all your pens and papers with endless notes across the table and finish everything on time.

However, this time he could tell by the times you ripped pages off your notebook and crumpled it things weren't going so smoothly. He'd borrowed one of your highlighters to highlight his lines in the new script he was engaging into, being comfortable in the living room when he heard you mumbling something about 'fucking that shit'

He frowned curiously as he knew you absolutely adored studying Spanish, you enjoyed it so much you often spent hours making cute and colorful vocabulary summaries you'd learned in class, and you were nerdy to the point of writing essays without the teacher requesting them, just for fun, writing about random topics you enjoyed.

And Pedro was also aware you didn't study Spanish because of him. You'd been studying it for at least a year before you two met, knowing it had to do with the possibility of getting a better position, or a new job, or a nice trip abroad or even understanding movies and series. As he knew, you loved studying languages and that was one of the things he loved about you. And also the fact he could practice it at home with you, enjoying the fact you very often got his internal jokes or pet names you called each other.

In reality, he knew he wasn't the reason why you started learning Spanish, but he knew he was the reason why you kept studying it and made sure to get good results. And he loved it.

One thing you really enjoyed about Pedro was that he never intruded in your business. He knew you were smart enough to learn it by yourself and only if you needed help he would offer some. You avoided asking him for help as much as you could, you just wanted to do things on your own and you also loved his proud face when you were able to carry full conversations on different topics or understand a whole movie without having to rely on subtitles. But that essay was driving you insane.

Your test was coming up and it made you nervous. For the first time, you began feeling the difficulties in the language as the grammar was becoming harder and harder and you didn't know what else you could do to memorize that. Your essay, or composición as your boyfriend would say, was stressing you out, as nothing seemed good enough, you've written better, hell, even Pedro had told you many times how good your writing was and he wouldn't lie to you, that's for sure. But yet, you weren't convinced and when you finished that piece of shit you called a text you were already exhausted.

You began collecting your pens and pencils and organizing them back into the case and cleaning up the table when Pedro walked towards you. He had a sweet smile on his face and gently stroked your cheek, his curious brown eyes scanned the place until they fell onto your work.

"¿Qué pasa mi amor?" He asked in his beautiful, sexy accent and pulled a chair, sitting next to you. "I know you can do everything, but if you want, I can help you" he offered gently, not really thinking you'd agree with it, but when you handed him your text he grabbed his reading glasses, those black ones you loved and that always distracted you. At that point, you didn't give one single shit about tests, grades or evaluations, you would love to climb his lap and ride your handsome boyfriend while he dirty talked in spanish into your ear until exhaustion.

You barely noticed him talking to you, you were too busy looking at him, his tight sweater looking great on him, his messy soft hair, the way he softly bit his lips unconsciously when he focused on reading and those damn glasses.

"Y/N? Princesa? Are you listening to me?" He raised his brow and stared at you, waiting for you to reply. You swallowed hard and looked at him, feeling your cheeks flushing as you were caught fantasizing about your boyfriend.

"Y-yeah, I am, sorry cariño, I was just thinking of the test" you lied and looked at what he was pointing out in the paper. Pedro had taken a red pen and circled some words, you had either misspelled those or just put them in the wrong place, but overall your text was pretty decent. He gently explained you what you got wrong and how you could fix it better, though he could also tell you weren't really caring about that at the moment and knowing his sweet little puta very well, he knew whatever was on your mind had nothing to do with tests or school.

"Are you having wet dreams about your Spanish teacher, Y/N?" He folded his arms and looked at you "because I can just tell your mind is miles away from your studies and by the way you are clenching your thighs together you are probably very wet now" he smirked and loved how red you got. You knew there was no way you could fight that and lying would be just stupid. You bit your lips and chuckled, placing your hand on his thigh "I would have these if they fired that annoying cunt and hired you instead, though I can't complain about my private tutor" you whispered and leaned into his body, kissing his exposed neck gently and before he had any other action, you got up and immediately sat on his lap, facing him and pecking his soft lips gently, feeling his facial hair tickling you. His hands immediately wrapped around your waist, pulling you closer, at the same time you raised your ass lifting your skirt up and feeling the contact of his rough jeans against your thin panties, moving your hips slowly against his, the friction on your core sending shivers down your spine just as Pedro felt his pants tightening at how hard he got.

"I know you want to help me, but we both agree this isn't my best work, so I can even rewrite it later if you want, but now…" you kissed him deeper this time and you felt how Pedro bucked his hips against yours, looking for more touch, more exposure of your skin on his.

"Y/N… you're teasing me" he groaned and only got a smirk as a reply

"Lo que quiero decir és que podríamos hacer otras cosas ahora, papi… ¿Qué te parece?" You whispered against his ear knowing it drove him insane when you spoke with him like that.

Pedro pulled your panties to the side and ran his thumb up and down your hard clit, feeling how wet you were and nodded.

"Sí, pero si no te vayas bien and la prueba, voy a darte un castigo" he whispered back against your lips and slapped your ass hard, making you whimper and feel your cheek burn, as you definitely knew what kind of punishment he'd give you.

______

A/N: this is my first one shot after years of not writing. I hope it wasn't so bad and there might be a second part to it because I still have many Spanish tasks to carry out which means there might be more ideas, hopefully a little bit more smut this time. Also I posted it through the app and it somehow got worse when it comes to editing posts 🤌

Anyway, feedback = life

[baileylockheart]

My personal brand of chaotic academia:

Messy handwriting and hands that cramp from writing too long, but have no problems with typing

Three different notes apps with specific and set purposes

Enjoying classical literature, but mainly the children's books, and only owning the cheap paperbacks

Speed reading articles in the browser on your Nintendo switch

Shirts that look like a button up layered with a sweater vest but are actually only one piece

Printing and binding fanfictions for personal collection, never to be shown or sold to anyone else

Having four or five different diaries, all incomplete and all from different times

Not having immediate access to a library, but having an epub reader to cope

Iced chai tea lattes with way too much sugar

Painstakingly learning the "right" way to do something, only to do it your way instead

Preferring songwriting and lyricism to other forms of poetry

Looking up the required texts for a college course and getting them, but not actually enrolling in said college course

Having a bookshelf full of books, some you've read and some that you haven't, and there's also a microscope on there somewhere

A laptop from 2018 that gets a little too warm on the bottom

Collecting notebooks but being nervous to start any of them because you used to rip out pages when you decided to do something new with your notebooks

Having a little cactus because it's the only plant you know you won't kill by accident

Watching video essays about games and shows you've never played/watched

Preferring to learn HOW to do something rather than only learning the history of it but never the process

Citing a reuploaded twitch vod in an essay

Feeling neutral about classical music, not hating it but not seeking it out, but still giggling a little bit at Haydn's Symphony No. 94

Writing a ten page essay about a fictional character that was introduced one episode ago and you know nothing about

A very extensive notion layout and even more extensive file organization

Getting the small binder and paper used to make bullet journals, and carrying that around with you, since you can add and remove pages as you please

Knowing bits and pieces of lots of languages but not being fluent in any of them

[dizzymoods]

one of the the things that black liberals do is erase/whitewash not only Black reds (Langston Hughes, Assata Shakur, BPP, Henry Winston, Claudia Jones etc) but also the work nonBlack communists did.

Like today i found a pdf of Ho Chi Minh’s writings. In 1924 he opens his essay “Lynching” with

It is a well known fact that the black race is the most oppressed and most exploited of the human family

He also has an essay in the same year examining the resurgence of the Klan! Literally just now found a collection of writings on race he did I'm gonna read tomorrow

I didn’t know until late last year that Marx organized with english workers against the crown intervening on behalf of the Confederacy during the Civil War (to help its own textile industry), a turn which would likely have changed the tide of emancipation. Famously Marx says that as long as long as Black people are bonded in slavery that no worker can be free.

But! Also, Black liberals don’t ever talk about how our interest in communism and therefore anti-imperialism paved the way for the civil rights movement.

Attorney General McGraney brief to the Supreme Court for Brown v Board had the following:

It is in the context of the present world struggle between freedom and tyranny that the problem of racial discrimination must be viewed. The United States is trying to prove to the people of the world, of every nationality, race, and color, that a free democracy is the most civilized and most secure form of government yet devised by man. We must set an example for others by showing firm determination to remove existing flaws in our democracy. The existence of discrimination against minority groups in the United States has an adverse effect upon our relations with other countries. Racial discrimination furnishes grist for the Communist propaganda mills, and it raises doubts even among friendly nations as to the intensity of our devotion to the democratic faith.

a sentiment Baldwin would describe a decade later in The Fire Next Time.

Anyway earlier today I was reading Losurdo's lecture on Western Marxism (in the appendix of his newly translated book on the subject) and he spends a bit of time talking about how Eastern Marxists talked about Black Americans. Did you know Robert F. Williams (author of Negroes with Guns) met with Chairman Mao?

The more I read (about) communists the more apparent that the liberal race mongering that "communists don't think, theorize, or work for the Black struggle" is a big fucking lie. Remember folks the Klan are anticommunists for a reason:

[why-is-thinking-so-hard]

more superhero cadina au

this time its regina, once again it gets long, but this time because I got distracted while researching sharks and decided to add so many shark facts

⚠️spoilers for mean girls as always⚠️

I feel like vampire regina has been done a lot and I wanted to try something different so after throwing some stuff around with my friend, we've come to the conclusion of: siren!regina.

I wanted her to have an influential power over people like she does in canon, but, like I said, I didn't want to make her a vampire. this also removes the immortality problem.

general regina superhero cadina au details:

so, regina is a siren from a family of sirens on her dads side, Kylie exists in this au and is also a siren, her mother is not a siren(clearly). she has the classic hypnotizing siren voice, shriek, water breathing, human/mermaid physiology(especially when she touches water, so like she has internal fish stuff all the time but when she wants to have external fish stuff/touches water she can get it h2o style), and manipulation of water

in her h2o mermaid form, Reginas fishform is shark. shark regina. because of apex predator and also because I like sharks and I wants regina to have electroreceptors which sharks do have but we can leave that for a different essay/post

false actually, I cannot keep my mouth shut when ive learned new things and as I said above, I spent an entire afternoon researching sharks. I know that the point of her powers in this au is that she's a siren, but part of that is the whole mermaid physiology bit, so hear we go: ive decided regina would be a bull shark because I realized that if she was a shark, she would need to be near saltwater so she wouldn't fucking die UNLESS her shark part was euryhaline, which bull sharks are, and they've actually been spotted as far as Illinois when going up the Mississippi.

bite force of 5,914 newtons, jaws aren't attached to the cranium so imagine the shenanigans regina pulls to freak people out by moving her jaw in weird ass ways and snatching food without moving her head. sharks have multiple rows of teeth and regularly shed and replace their teeth with no rhyme or reason, so regina will randomly lose teeth with the new ones just immediately popping right up behind it, sometimes she spit them at people who annoy her(Gretchen secretly collects them). her scales reduce drag when swimming so when rubbed the wrong way they're extremely rough so she can literally rub people the wrong way. shark siren form regina is 13ft long. less fun, when food is scarce, sharks can slow their digestion, regina would do this when her mother makes comments about her body. bull sharks are more likely to bite humans than most sharks. extremely good sense of smell, like some sharks can smell one part per million of blood in water and they can determine the direction of a smell the way we can with sound and they're more attracted to the chemicals in the intestines of many species and shark hearing is extremely sharp and they can hear prey from miles away(their hearing sensitivity is in the range of 20 to 1000 Hz), so I can only imagine the migraines regina gets from being around teenagers,

night vision, nictating membrane, sharks have the greatest electrical sensitivity of any animal as they have electroreceptor organs numbering in the thousands that allow them to sense the electromagnetic field of their prey as well as orient and navigate using the magnetic field of the earth and the ocean currents moving within it and creating electrical fields, lateral line tactile sensory system allows sharks to detect changes in water speed and pressure nearby and frequencies in the range of 25 to 50 Hz and lets them distinguish the currents around them, obstacles in their periphery, and struggling prey out of view.

im not sure how some of those would help regina, maybe they help her rule the school, they'd definitely help in superhero situations, but they'd definitely end up with her being hella overstimulated at school and might be why she's so frustrated with people all the time. I get that. anyway, sharks that need to continuously swim in order to breathe do something called sleep swimming, in order for them to actually get some sleep, its their spinal cord that controls the action, not their brain, seeing as regina would be able to breathe like a human and not need to constantly move she wouldn't need to do this, but I think she would have this habit of sleep walking and sometimes she does end up in the pool and sleep swims.

while she's not proud of it because it was prompted by her mothers comments, regina has used her siren powers to curate her popularity at school but no one knows she's a siren so they dont realize that

recurring h2o jokes with regina getting pelted with water and running off screaming "DONT LOOK AT ME" while you hear the h2o theme play faintly in the distance along with a splash will happen be warned. like. the homecoming scene where she gets the water sprayed on her is the same, she does the hair flip and everything and then. realizes. so she runs off screaming DONT LOOK AT ME and in the distance you can hear the h2o theme playing faintly

Regina's "janitor caught cady with a mouse in her mouth" was back in middle school, she, janis, Gretchen, and Karen went to the aquarium and she got distracted at one tank because she was listening to fish gossip and then later they went to the dolphin show and regina had to be forcibly removed from the premises after she started picking a fight with one of the dolphins(it called her 3 different slurs and insulted her clothing) and is no longer allowed at the Chicago aquarium. luckily her mother has a friend that was able to keep, "middle schooler has mad beef with dolphin," out of the headlines.

is regina a superhero herself before cady shows up in Evanston? yes actually. I did think about making her a villain but I want to have faith in regina having even a a molecule of a soul before cady shows up, she does have a younger sister after all and how can regina not have a soul when even my older sister does? just usual sisters giving each other, shit you know, I love her tho 🫶

I may have just written miraculous ladybug minus the bullshit love triangle, so um, there's that... but it's a superHERO cadina au and I wanted them to both be heroes.

Reginas dad runs some shady shit, ive yet to figure out exactly what it is, but the point is it's shady enough that even regina takes issue with it and decides to do something about it(little does she know, her dad is not directly involved in what happened to cadys dad but he has connections and that's how cady eventually gets involved with regina). so she adopts the hero persona of shark girl, it was gonna be a placeholder until I came up with the lore that she was inspired by the classic movie shark boy and lava girl, so as shark girl she fucks with her dads criminal shit and if she's extra pissed off, she will beat people within an inch of their life because she's not a saint. she focuses mainly on her dads business, feels guilty when she watches the news and sees things she could've easily stopped and maybe she helps where she can if she has time but she doesn't make a habit of it, not til cady comes around.

this got extremely long because of the shark facts, which I hope you enjoyed, so um, have some all over the place hcs as a reward for making it this far, even though these make it even longer

because sharks are hunted not only for their fins and meat, but also for the oil in their livers(not exactly a fun fact, but a true one nonetheless), I think regina would joke about just how much her liver would go for on the black market

regina has tried to break back into the aquarium to kill that dolphin, she had the sense to do it with her shark girl suit on so the "shark girl has major beef with Chicago aquarium dolphin" headline did make it to print this time

bull sharks will also hunt birds and terrestrial animals they can get too, as they are opportunistic feeders, so I can see cady and regina going after birds and small animals together while their friends regret not bringing leashes

regina tells cady she's a siren by asking, "would you still love me if I was a fish?" on a random Tuesday morning

I just know that bitch reenacts little mermaid any chance she gets

if you read this far, thank you for indulging all of. this. you've probably just learned more about sharks than you ever thought you would. and I did this for fun. anyway, so these posts were just to get the basic details of their powers out there, the next post should be getting into where the actual canon starts. keep reading, dont, either way, I will be writing more of this and I think the spidey au will be separate from this one. goodnight, y'all

[childofthenightuwu]

What Is The Soul?

An essay by Onyx (warning very long post ahead)

First, I must ask, what is life?

Well, I believe life is when molecules and particles come together to form a body, or in a sense, a machine that can metaphorically open its eyes.

When I look at plants I know they are alive by the way they react. They feel the vibration of my voice, the stroke of my hand along their leaves, or even the bustling fellow life around them, and react to it. That is what I describe as life. No matter how rudimentary or “simple” it may be in comparison to us or life forms more complex than us, it is in fact life.

Life can not purely exist as one thing, for example one particle. That particle needs to combine with other particles to create an atom, which then creates matter and energy which combine into let’s say a heart. That heart needs blood and veins and nerves to operate. Once it reaches that full state, where all the pieces come together, it can fully open its eyes.

Our entire universe is made of systems

Atoms are formed by a mixing of multiple particles or rather specks. Matter is formed by a system of multiple atoms. Our bodies are made of organs. Earth's ecosystem is made up of life, and the galaxy is a system formed by all the planets spinning around our sun. Our sun being the nucleus, being the heart, being the oxygen that keeps our system going. If you were to kill the heart, you would kill the whole system. By killing it, you would remove the vital essence from the system. The vital essence or soul must be part of a system to operate just as everything in this world. I believe this vital essence is a part of the system of our body, just like the heart and the organs, only on a different plane of existence.

The Mind

Now, look at the mind, emotions, and sensations. The mind-meaning our thoughts and conscience rather than the brain, is still a very mystical and metaphysical idea. Yet, just like dark matter and the electromagnetic field, it is something we know exists but do not know how it works. It must exist, as a collective experience we all know as thinking and feeling. Even other animals who do not speak our languages have been able to communicate emotion, the reaction of thought. Hell, even plants have exhibited reactions to stimuli similar to emotion, showing they may have minds as well. The mind is simply not controlled by the brain itself but is rather something affected by the whole reality and the whole body of a system. Something that reacts to stimuli and expresses emotion as a result. All thoughts have a root in emotion, and all emotions have a root in thought.

If thought and our own ability to identify ourselves is our soul then the mind would be the soul. But then where is the mind? It is not something we can physically touch or interact with but it is influenced by our physical existence. We can picture ourselves in our mind but we can't identify where we are when picturing ourselves there. We simply see the world through our eyes and input that information into the mind where we remember it and transform it into something new. The brain is the mind but the mind is not the brain. The mind takes the information from the brain and asks who am I? Who is this body I occupy and where are my thoughts when I am thinking? What is the emotion that floods through me and influences my everyday life? Is it simply neurons firing in my brain or is it something more metaphysical?

Electricity and the Electromagnetic Field

So, how about the electric current running throughout an organism's body? That could be described as the vital force, the soul.

Let's begin with a human. Human bodies have an electric current which runs through our entire body, stemming from the heart or more specifically the Sinus node.

The Sinus node is a small bit of mass located in the upper right chamber (or atria) of the heart. It generates an electrical stimulus about 60-100 times per minute, this activates the atria and travels through the conduction pathways. This electrical stimulus is made up of electrically charged particles. This electrical current generates the electromagnetic field surrounding our bodies.

One explanation for what the soul could be is it is this vital energy in the sinus node. In this explanation, when we die this energy escapes our bodies and our soul leaves with it. Since energy cannot be created or destroyed it is decomposes when we die and is eaten by bacteria, similar to our flesh and organs. Assuming the body was buried or died on the ground and stayed there post mortem. If the body is burned or cremated, the energy will be used to generate heat, sound, kinetic energy, light, and chemical byproducts in the surrounding area.

Regardless, our electrical current will be spread apart in different states of existence rather than in the form of one system. This may be evidence in favor of the idea that we all came from one source and have been splitting ever since into separate sources. Much like how the familial tree of all our human ancestors and non-human ancestors came to be. This does lack a certain individuality of the soul, though, and also does not account for the mind state, which produces thought and emotion.

The Planes Of Existence

For this I look at the planes of existence. This is an incredibly confusing and difficult topic to research so most of this section will be based on my own UPG and belief system in traditional witchcraft based in Celtic, Greek and Egyptian folklore as well as animism and pagan folk witchcraft.

So, personally I believe in five planes of existence. The physical plane, the mental plane, the electric plane, the otherworld or underworld plane, and the astral plane.

The physical plane is anything we can physically touch and observe in our current state. The densest of the planes consisting mostly of matter.

Next is the mental plane where the mind lives. Where thoughts, emotions, dreams, and our sense of self are formed. This plane is completely subjective to the being who owns it and is their personal realm or existence. In other words, a person's mind palace. A place where we can escape to where anything can be real. It is not based in the material world but may be influenced by it in the form of thoughts and dreams. The brain is the hub of this existence and generates the mental plane from the moment of activation, forming a world for the being in which they can contemplate the world around them. It is not wholly physical through neurons but is the result of those neurons, hence why it isn't a universal plane anyone can join. It is only a place accessible by the system containing those neurons.

Then is the electric plane where electrons reside and influence the electromagnetic field. This is where the vital essence that creates life exists. It travels through electricity-or rather is electricity-to kickstart a heart and bring about a brain to gain consciousness. The reason the electric plane is not in the physical plane is because it is not visible or usually touchable. We can be shocked by electricity like in lighting, but we can't exactly see it or touch it in its plain state as electrons. Therefore, it exists on another plane or in another field, being the electromagnetic field.

Next is the otherworld/underworld. The otherworld is often seen as below our current world but also overlapping it as a sort of double to our world. I will mix these two planes for better understanding but there are many worlds inside the double or other world and the underworld which can be considered their own planes of existence. I might explain more about these in a later work but as for right now we will use this label to explain planes of existence other than the astral plane, electric plane, mental plane, and physical plane.

In these planes time and space work differently. Different systems and beings exist there. The umbrella term of otherworld describes the Fae realm in Irish mythology for example.

And finally the astral world, where dark matter resides. The black abyss we know as our universe is the ruler of this plane. The astral plane is both above us and below us, it is all around us. It is the dark matter in our bodies and the space in which our souls reside. The great source which travels through all of us is indeed this great blackness. It is the Chaos the universe was born from and will die in.

I believe that the soul cannot be defined as one thing. We are a system, a collection of forms across all of the planes. In every plane we can be a part of, we have a form. The soul is simply the metaphysical form of us we cannot see with our two eyes.

I like to view the soul like the Egyptians did. They too saw the soul as a system, various different parts all making one whole who a person is. The first soul was the physical body or the Khet, the second was the spiritual body or Sah, then the identity or Ren, the personality as Ba, the double as Ka, the heart as Ib, the shadow as Shuyet, and the power as Sekhem.

The entirety of the soul becomes the Akh, or more specifically the Ba and Ka combined becomes the Akh. It was seen as consciousness or mind, the more intellectual idea of the soul I mentioned at the beginning. The whole in one form who upon death descends into the Underworld.

The physical body

This concept is pretty much the same in Egyptian mythology as the Khet. The body which we experience the physical plane through.

The astral body

I identify the astral body with Shuyet and Sekhem.

The Shuyet or shadow is the absence of light or electricity. The neurons to our electrons. The dark matter inside and outside of us. Our internal darkness is reflected in the physical world in the form of the shadow. I feel this aspect of the soul is both in the physical plane and the Astral plane.

The Sekhem is the power of one's astral body. If the light life essence is Ib (which I will speak on later) than the dark life essence is Sekhem. It is the dark energy which affects the things visible in the light. The power formed by the chaos of the beginning of the world, the primordial darkness that exists within everything. It is am incredibly strong power that exists in us all but is only used by very strong magic users, those who work with the primordial darkness and chaos. It is strongest in the underworld once we have died yet through ritual we can connect with the underworld and our Sekhem.

The otherworld body

I identify the otherworld body with Sah and Ka.

The Sah or spiritual body was what left the physical body after death and went into the Underworld. The part of us which I would identify with the classical soul, being the metaphysical essence which lives inside of us. This is one of the three essences inside of us being the light, dark and metaphysical. The Sah may also be a descriptor term for what we would call a ghost, what comes back from death go haunt people. Meaning that the Sah and Ka would be one in the same but Sah would be the dead person when they came back to the world of the living. It's impossible to know due to these ideas changing over the thousands of years.

The Ka being the double or the body which co-exists in the otherworld or doubleworld. This is what we enter when we traverse through the under/otherworld in ritual. When we jump over the hedge as said in traditional witchcraft.

The electrical body

The electrical body or electrical current is Ib or the heart. As I said, the Sinus node inside the heart is what starts the electrical current through our bodies, creating our brain and other aspects needed for existence. Without this we simply wouldn't be able to exist in the physical world. It is both part of the physical plane and the electrical plane.

The ib like the physical body was incredibly important to the Egyptians as it was said to be judged in the afterlife. I believe this is because with energy we take actions, if the underworld gods do not agree with the actions you took in life they will simply not allow you into the Underworld or world of the dead. To the ancient Egyptians the person was then said to be eaten by Ammit, an underworld god, and be spread into multiple pieces like the physical body. The morality of this was mostly based around truth, though it changed depending on the era and became more like Egyptian law than anything. I believe in a more ancient form of this being the respect for every being on this earth. After all, if a being does not tell the truth and does not respect other animals and creatures or even the earth and abyss they are born from, why should the underworld gods allow them into their world to live until they return to the physical world? It's not that there is an innate morality to the world, one can do what they want when they want, but they have to take the consequences of that. Like for example the underworld gods of whomever you believe may not like you, and that definitely has consequences considering they rule over your own damn death.

The mental body

The mental body to me is the Ba and the Ren.

The Ba being what makes us us. What makes us unique. I feel that this is formed in the mental plane but is influenced by the other planes as well, varying in degrees depending on the person and their connection to these planes. It is our philosophy and our interests, what others like in us and what we know as ourselves. It is also our reputation and what proceeds us after we die in the minds of the living.

The Ren is the name or identity of a person. It is what they claim as themselves through mental contemplation. This aspect is influenced by the Ba, being what we call ourselves based on who we are.

Here is a rough diagram of what I mean:

All this to say, I think the concept of the soul is extremely complex and more diverse than the current modern explanation would suggest. The word "soul" does not do justice in describing what makes us us.

I hope my explanations of what I think of the soul has encouraged you to analyse just what makes you who you are and how that can influence your spiritual practice.

[bizarrequazar]

GJ and ZZH Updates — March 3-9

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This is part of a weekly series collecting updates from and relating to Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan.

This post is not wholly comprehensive and is intended as an overview, links provided lead to further details. Dates are in accordance with China Standard Time, the organization is chronological. My own biases on some things are reflected here. Anything I include that is not concretely known is indicated as such, and you’re welcome to do your own research and draw your own conclusions as you see fit. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or additions. :)

[Glossary of names and terms] [Masterlist of my posts about the situation with Zhang Zhehan]

03-03 → The whaler MistyRose posted a screenshot of account stats that can only be seen by the account holder for the official Ranyi Music YouTube channel (associated with the Zhang Sanjian songs.) This suggests that at the least she has some insider connection with the scam that allowed her to receive the screenshot personally, and it's possible that she's the one running the account herself.

→ 361° posted two photo ads featuring Gong Jun. (1129 kadian)

→ Za posted another teaser photo ad featuring Gong Jun. (1129 kadian)

→ The Instagram posted six photos of "Zhang Zhehan" and "Zhang Mama" and four of an aquarium.

03-04 → Gong Jun posted a commercial for the makeup brand Za, announcing that he is their new global spokesperson. This was reposted by his studio.

→ Za posted five photo ads featuring Gong Jun. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] (1129 kadian on the first)

→ The Instagram posted a video of the most recent scam concert.

→ Za held a livestream to promote the new endorsement with Gong Jun. During this, a number of people with obviously CPF usernames won several giveaways, and the streamer reportedly said "Oh [you're] also a fan of Zhehan" to one of them. Sources: [1] [2]

→ 361° posted a promotional video featuring Gong Jun. Fan Observation: The video shows him colouring flowers in with red. In the final shot one flower is still left uncoloured, recalling Zhou Zishu's plum blossom mural in Word of Honor.

03-05 → Za posted a promotional video (1129 kadian) and two photo ads [1] [2] featuring Gong Jun.

→ 361° posted three photo ads featuring Gong Jun.

→ Za posted three wallpapers featuring Gong Jun.

03-06 → Gong Jun posted five photos ads of himself for L'Oreal.

→ Za posted a promotional video featuring Gong Jun.

→ Some of the old essays posted by Zhang Sanjian at the very beginning of the scam (early 2022) were reposted, but edited to remove the implications against Gong Jun and CPFs. It's been discussed quite bit by now that trying to appeal to solo fans at the expense of CPFs so early on was the scam's biggest mistake, as it caused CPFs to become sceptical and begin investigations. This is not the first time that the scam has shown signs of wanting to backtrack on that move.

03-07 → The Fox Spirit Matchmaker Weibo posted a promotional image of Gong Jun's character to celebrate the show reaching 4 million viewer reservations. Caption: "Refreshing and clear, with eyebrows like poetry. Dongfang Yuechu @ Gong Jun Simon seems to be the person in the painting."

→ Gong Jun posted a short commercial for Za to his Douyin. Fan Observation: The product is called Magnetic (贴贴, tietie) Powder, the same word fans use for how Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan would often bump against each other when they were working together. I could be wrong, but I couldn't find any evidence of this product existing prior to Gong Jun's endorsement.

→ Gong Jun's studio posted a little video celebrating Fox Spirit Matchmaker's milestone. Caption: "Pure fire is invincible🔥Candied haws never leaves the hand✌️ #Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Red Moon Chapter has more than 4 million reservations#, @ Gong Jun Simon's new mission props are now distributed!" The same was also posted to the studio's Douyin.

→ Za posted a photo ad featuring Gong Jun.

03-08 → Gong Jun posted four photo ads he did for L'Oreal to his Xiao Hong Shu.

→ GXG posted a photo ad featuring Gong Jun.

→ 361° posted a video voiced by Gong Jun for International Women's Day. (1129 kadian)

→ Za posted a behind the scenes video of their commercial featuring Gong Jun. (1129 kadian)

→ Gong Jun posted four photos of himself. Caption: "Happy holidays! Also share my half-day leisure 😌"

→ Za posted a photo ad featuring Gong Jun.

→ Gong Jun posted a silly video of himself to his Douyin. Caption: "I heard that this is how millions of people move their mirrors 🤳" BGM is What You Won't Do For Love by Bobby Caldwell.

03-09 → The scam announced a short film entitled "August" directed by "Zhang Zhehan", using footage that the scam gang took during the bike trip in August 2022. The intention of this is very obviously to have search results for the film come up with information about 813.

Additional Reading: → N/A

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[drdemonprince]

Any recommended reading for a newbie to anarchism?

David Graeber truly is the best entry point into the pipeline i feel. Reading his work doesn't feel like "reading theory", it feels like learning more about a specific aspect of the world from an engaging, open-minded author who makes history and anthropology accessible, and then simply realizing somewhere along the line that you've become a lot more radical than you realized you'd always been.

Bullshit Jobs is his easiest and most approachable read -- start with this if you're not a big reader of dense books, or if my book Laziness Does Not Exist particularly spoke to you. It's about how the majority of reasonably well-paying jobs today are completely meaningless, and why important, fulfilling jobs that are actually necessary to run society are so often thankless and poorly paid.

If you have student loan or credit card debt out the ass or you grew up hearing the myth that the earliest human societies relied on trading and bartering, pick up Debt: The First 5000 Years. This one is a bit of a tougher read than Bullshit Jobs, but still approachable, talking about the history of human commerce, debt forgiveness, enslavement, and where that history has left us today. You'll learn a lot about history but Graeber will also always lead you back to the present.

If you were a follower of the Occupy Wallstreet movement and wonder why it failed (or whether it failed), pick up The Democracy Project. This is a slimmer, faster read! And it focuses a lot more on the practical tactics and bylaws of Occupy organizing. In it, Graeber illustrates how human groups can be run without hierarchy and just how well that can work! It's perhaps the most explicitly anarchist book of his in that sense at least, yet it's also very conversational and easy to follow, with lots of lessons learned and specific examples from real-life organizing meetings.

If you hate rules and bureaucracy, pick up Utopia of Rules. What Debt is for bursting basic, widespread myths about economics, Utopia of Rules is for challenging mainstream knowledge about the role of the state. This one is actually an essay collection, and that makes it a quicker, easier read than many of the others -- in each chapter, Graeber tackles one specific aspect of irritating modern-day bureaucracy, and its full of relatable gripes about going to the DMV or applying for unemployment, but then it zooms out to make a larger point about how societies now function (and fail to function).

If you're interested in Indigenous cultures and how various human societies have approached governance, start with Dawn of Everything, which he co-wrote with David Wengrow. Now this is a MUCH denser book that I recommend taking chapter by chapter, pausing to savor all the new information and paradigm-busting that they've just showered you with. A chapter before bed each night and then some time laying down and simply reflecting about the diversity of human social potential is a great way to slowly work your way through it.

If you read any of these, you'll be left with a lot of ideas as to where to look next -- Graeber was widely read in a great many fields himself, so he'll leave you a trail of breadcrumbs to follow.

The Anarchist Library online is also a great place to find shorter, more explicitly anarchist theory work, once you're ready to delve in. The r/debateanarchism subreddit is also something you should subscribe to and thumb through every once in a while!

[lesharl-eclair]

lewis ot3 fic recs

for @f1ot3fest !! i promised myself i wouldn't ramble but this turned out ridiculously long so ... i actually need to learn to shut up

all fics below the cut; if you enjoyed these fics, please show the authors comment and kudo love; should you be the author of a fic that's here, and don't want to be here, please reach out to me and your wish is my command :)

NO this is so funny bcs half of this is fics by the creator/recced by the creator BUT ITS OK. THESE LITERALLY ARE SO DEAR TO ME *clutches to chest* please go read please go read

***

heist AU by @sionisjaune (sebcedes)

on golden sands (T, 6.2k)

Mark rolls his eyes. “Skip the crap, Jense. Who’s the mark.” Jenson lifts his whiskey and swallows the dregs. “One Baron Nico Rosberg. Currently installed in Greece, inherited the title from his mother. His father—” “Keke Rosberg. 1982 Formula One World Drivers Champion,” says Seb. The others look at him like he’s just materialized out of thin air. Lewis cocks his head thoughtfully, and the bizarre sleeves of his jacket rustle with the movement.

the ships that go sailing (E, 11.7k)

As it turns out, threesomes are not especially logistically challenging when two of the participants are experienced organizers of high-profile heists, and the third is determinedly horny.

err okay i think this was something i read before i had the concept of sebcedes or like ot3s. so it was a pure yOU CAN DO THAT??? visceral reaction the first time i read on golden sands. i was quaking in my seat. anyway upon sufficient rereads i have apparently collected my thoughts enough to say that the first part of the series is nothing like the second in terms of content (i read all the way to the middle of the ships that go sailing and suddenly realised that it was a sequel and uh. had a very violent reaction.)

the premise is wonderful, oceans 11 is great to begin with and the way every detail is taken care of in the au!! the characterisation of it all... the tangled mess of interpersonal relationship... it feels like every character has their space to shine, and this on top of a quasi-convoluted plot is quite incredible. aND THE SEBCEDES OH MY GOD THE SEBCEDES. the denouement. the start of something that seb can;t even begin to imagine. lewis and nico both being batshit crazy. sex retirement fic. somehow you managed to capture all the nuances (brocedes + seb + the emotional push pull + the competition?? a bit of quiet almost fragile sico? the boat scene hello??? brocedes being so chaotic it gives me whiplash?????) i actually cannot get enough of the way you write them

i can probably write so much more about this but i will stop here :0 maybe one day i will rereview this and end up with a five page essay or something. who knows.

***

Circle Endless by @antimonyandthyme (E, 2k) (brocedes + seb)

“It’s a two-for-one deal,” Nico said, very salesman like, as if he sensed Sebastian just needed an extra push.

the vibes here are so horrifically good. lowkey unhealthy. probably one of THE defining brocedes + seb fics - it's set up and played out as a 2v1 (in 2016!!), and the toxicity of it all is so asasasandsjfadjsfasdfs . there's so much conflict everywhere: within seb, the way brocedes also fight for dominance on the bed (bc of course they do), seb needing more despite whatever it's doing to him... that scene with kimi is pure poetry. so much to unpack in so little, and excellent excellent sex

***

made a hundred good stories by @red-flagging (E, 24.6k) (for a kinkmeme prompt) (alex + sewis)

“That problem you were telling me about,” Seb says, giving Alex a meaningful look. “I wanted to know if you wanted us to help you take care of it. Lewis and I.” This isn’t happening. Alex is having the most stressful, least erotic wet dream of all time. Helmut has gotten bored of subtle nudges and has graduated to full-on psychological warfare to get Alex to quit on his own and save the team from having to buy out his contract. Lewis actually did give him a concussion in Austria, and the long-term brain damage is only now starting to set in. "...You can't be serious," Alex says weakly. Seb shrugs. “You don’t have to say yes,” he says. “But if you’re just looking to have some fun–it might as well be with people who know what they’re doing.”

ok claire. coherence.

I CANNOT BE NORMAL ABOUT THIS FIC LIKE AT ALL??? i have tried so many times

the alex characterisation. the hellhole that is redbull. the exhaustion. so much DETAIL that it's painful to look at

the galex? the galex. oh my god the way it meanders in all the little spaces between alex's frankly ridiculously busy life, the LAYERS. the so much unsaid & the way they dance around each other even in texts. the way alex holds himself back but still wants.

alex/seb. seb being an all round menace to society (Quite honestly, he sort of forgets the conversation with Lewis even happened up until Bahrain, when Seb sidles up to him on some balcony on Thursday and says, casually, “So, gay cruising, eh?”) ?????? ? ? ? ? the perfect timing of seb's proposition. so much else but the deviousness of it all..

that little bit with alex and lewis. the painful awkwardness of that conversation (but also how much lewis eventually got out of it). seb's retirement & lewis' instant protectiveness!! ^^

the racing metaphors are so apt somehow (and even more fitting because alex has basically been consumed by the redbull grind........) this is a detail i personally really really enjoyed

THE SEX bro i cannot even?????? ???? i cannot do it justice here but um. the sewis is clearly there and framed so strikingly against a hesitant tired alex. the games sewis play. LEWIS GUIDING ALEX.SFSHHGSHGHHHHGG the car's still spinning and the walls that don't exist...... how at the end of it all it's still only glimpses of sewis that alex gets but how it's enough for him to maybe start figuring things out with georgie.... the post sex clarity....

oh this was so damn incoherent wasn't it. this fic made me, to quote @kritischetheologie, reconsider everything i thought i knew about alex albon.

***

a bedroom where your heart is by @hungerpunch (M, 1.5k) (vasewis)

“Someone will have to go for ingredients,” Valtteri says. He does not happen to keep vegan cheese stocked. “I vote the youngest,” Sebastian says, grin sly. Valtteri blinks. “Wait—” “Sorry,” Sebastian says, affecting a suspiciously convincing faux innocence, as if he’s truly apologetic but his hands are simply tied. “Seniority rules.”

closing this with some good achingly wholesome content. FOOD AS LOVE and i am so so so here for it oh my goddddd ... val taking care of sewis and finding the greatest satisfaction from it/it not being always about the sex (though the sex IS good!) and finding contentment in those small domestic-bliss moments/the scene-setting, the food described as lovingly as it's prepared, the quiet early-hour moments and seb in a way the middleground between val's discipline and lewis' indulgence when it comes to mornings... there's so much to just revel in and enjoy here!! a comfort fic in the truest senst of the word. :)

***

that was long. and probably extremely incoherent. oh well. thanks for reading till the end and remember to show the authors some love!!

as always, if you enjoyed this, or if i missed any fic, please let me know :) drop me an ask mayhaps if you would like more fic recs, and i will try my best to give timely unqualified opinions <3

[reasoningdaily]

The Black Panther Party [Reconsidered]

This FREE BOOK DOWNLOAD is from THE BLACK TRUEBRARY

The Black Panther Party [Reconsidered]

A collection of essays written by scholars and former Panthers incorporates participant-observer perspectives in an exploration of the party's organization, gender dynamics, and legacy

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Here is a searing, illuminating and unapologetic look at the Black Panther Party, whose 1966-1982 history is one of the most controversial and dynamic political dramas of our time.

Georgia State University African American studies professor Jones uses original writings from insiders, including former officials like former communication secretary Kathleen Neal Cleaver (who now teaches law in N.Y.C.), who writes about the Algerian exile she and her then-husband Eldridge Cleaver experienced during that era; and rank-and-filers like Steve D. McCutchen, whose Panther-era diary makes engrossing reading. The 18 chapters include original essays and memoirs by, and interviews with, former Panthers.

Contributors include scholars of Panther history like Stanford's Angela D. LeBlanc-Ernest, Nakhil Pal Singh of N.Y.U., Clarence Lusane of American University and Trayce Mathews, a Chicago-based political activist whose dissertation explores gender dynamics in the Black Panther Party. Founded in Oakland, Calif., by Bobby Seale and the late Huey P. Newton to promote armed self-defense of the black community from an allegedly brutal police force, the Panthers soon grew into a national force.

The Panthers, argues contributor Chris Booker, "embodied the highest aspirations of a generation of radical African American youth." These essays are mainly sympathetic to the Panthers' aims, and there lingers among some of them a bit of uncritical nostalgia. But contributors also critically investigate the party's complex attitude toward violence (police reprisals and inner-party conflict killed over two dozen Panthers from 1967 to 1969), inner-party gender relations, the consequences of the unstable membership mix of political activists and quasi-criminal types, and the group's romantic notions of social revolution.

From Library Journal

Revisiting the revolutionary reputation of the Black Panther Party (BPP) of the turbulent 1960s, political scientist Jones (African American studies, Georgia State Univ.) contributes a six-part, 18-chapter probe of the reality behind the rhetoric and the substance behind the much-maligned Panther image.

The anthology mixes interviews with analysis, reflections, and recollections. Former BPP members such as Kathleen Neal Cleaver, Regina Jennings, and Melvin E. Lewis and others delve into the contextual landscape of the BPP's founding in October 1966, recruitment of rank and file, organizational and gender dynamics, decline, and complex legacy.

This work provokes serious thought about how authority in government and media manipulate public perception of black protest. But even more, it unfolds dimensions of the BPP as a base of black nationalism and a bridge to intercommunalism, signaling a move beyond mere memoir to helpful scholarship on the BPP's integrity and interactions.

THIS BOOK IS PROVIDED FREE COURTESY OF THE BLACK TRUEBRARY here on Tumblr

[tricoloured-cat]

what better way to procrastinate than to write random stuff

reviewing the works that the abilities were based on

Part 1: Armed Detective Agency

I just realized that I've finally read all the works attributed to the abilities of the author's BSD counterparts, at least for the ADA. I plan to do this for all organizations in the BSD universe so I can direct my reading and actually finish something HAHA

DISCLAIMER: I am not an expert on literature, let alone Japanese literature, and my short reviews are solely my opinion as a casual reader. These are all for fun so please don't take these so seriously!

Nakajima Atsushi Ability: Beast Beneath the Moonlight Original Work: Moon Over the Mountain

This short story has the vibes of a folktale but with existential dread sprinkled throughout. The prose is calm but the agony still reverberates. I liked this more than I though I would, perhaps because of how clean it felt. Honestly this would be one of the OG works I'd recommend to a BSD fan who wants to try classic Japanese literature.

Dazai Osamu Ability/Original Work: No Longer Human

This is probably the one novel/work most BSD fans would pick up first - and for a good reason. The themes are pretty universal albeit heavy, the tone of the narrator throughout the entire novel is gripping, the translation by Donald Keene is very readable, and it's just in the most general sense a summary of Dazai-sensei's own life. The last point must be taken with a grain of salt, however, as he's a master liar - something you'll find out if you dig more into his life and other works. If you'd like to see depression in book form, this is for you.

Kunikida Doppo Ability: Doppo Poet Original Work: Doppo Collection (probably)

Here's a case of "I can't really find the original work so I'll be reviewing something else instead"

Reviewing: Those Unforgettable People

I chose to talk about this one since it's the one found in the Penguin Anthology. It's an interesting mix of forms: technically, it's a short story. However, the elements of poetry and even of the essay are present - mostly the latter, tbh. Of course the whole "ideal" thing is such a Kunikida-sensei thing that it appears it almost every story he wrote, yet somehow in this one you'll have to squint a little bit more to see it. The point of this story-essay-poem thing is at the very end (the first half is quite dragging imo) is what gives it a little oomph, but honestly I much prefer his other works (specifically Old Gen and Death).

Tanizaki Jun'ichirou Ability/Original Work: Sasameyuki

You like a slow burn? You like pain? Familial drama? Maybe you'll like this. Maybe you won't. It's a mammoth of a book that feels like a series of extremely detailed telenovela episodes - not that it's necessarily a bad thing. I enjoyed it despite the length because the way it ends, although hardly strong at all, ties the themes and messages of the novel cleanly into a single scene.

Miyazawa Kenji Ability/Original Work: Be Not Defeated by the Rain

It's a poem every Japanese elementary student would know. The message and style is so simple yet beautiful (I read Sulz's translation). It's joyful and so sunny... until I read the background on it. I cried over his work. Again. (Night on the Galactic Railroad PLS) Man I just love this author so much. But I'm not really a poem person to begin with, so take this review with a grain of salt HAHA

Yosano Akiko Ability/Original Work: Thou Shalt Not Die

The only complete translation I could find is written in painfully archaic English, so I won't comment on the style HAHA. But I do think the original was just as pointed in its words and message; its anti-war sentiments and middle finger to the Japanese emperor and military (at the time) so characteristically Yosano-sensei. It's sad she'd support WW2 later on - come on sensei WHY

Personally, however, I prefer her shorter poems, specifically the ones from River of Stars. But I'm not really a poem person to begin with, so take this review with a grain of salt HAHA

Izumi Kyouka Ability: Demon Snow Original Work: Demon Pond

It's been a while since I've read a play, and perhaps that's why I had a hard time getting through the first half - either that or it was quite lackluster as most of the actual story happens in the second half. Its influences from folktales and traditional Japanese theater (i.e. kabuki and noh) are very apparent - I wish I could have seen it instead of read it because of that. I think this is the first work of Kyouka's that I actually liked (I've read some of his short stories and one of his other plays) so I'll definitely recommend this one if you want to start with this author. There's also a movie adaptation of it that I haven't watched yet (but I do plan to). I think it could be much better than just reading it as is because of the visuals and mood setting, but a review on that soon. Maybe.

Fukuzawa Yukichi Ability: All Men Are Created Equal Original Work: An Encouragement of Learning (Sec. 1-2)

I couldn't be bothered to read the whole thing, but the essence of the ability only comes from the first two sections (which I'll be reviewing).

It's an essay that imo serves as a good introduction to Fukuzawa's philosophy. His views and arguments are built primarily on morality with logic acting mostly as a way to expound on his points. It's interesting, nothing really new for a contemporary reader, but at least it gives a nice background on the changing environment during the early years of Meiji-era Japan. Of course there are personal biases here (specifically the one with China - one of the greatest criticisms against Fukuzawa, even though he was supposedly progressive for his time) but imo that reflects some views of many Japanese at the time - not that they're right, of course.

But what about our special non-gifted boi?

I guess let's look at what one of the episodes was based on instead lol

Edogawa Ranpo Episode: The Murder on D. Street (S01E05) Original Work: The Case on D. Hill

I will tell you now: they have almost NO similarities whatsoever. Doesn't mean it's bad tho...

Okay ngl I was pretty disappointed HAHA. It's the same type of disappointment I had with Poe's Murders on the Rue Morgue (which was ironically referenced in the story) but it at least had some sense to it. I blame myself for not seeing it coming tho, given that this story is very typical of Edogawa-sensei. If you do plan to read it, however, be warned that there are implicit (?) themes that may be uncomfortable for some readers (this warning applies to most of Edogawa-sensei's work not made specifically for children HAHA).