#like their parents have a huge influence on what they study

[spiders-notagain]

Vulcans dont have novels; a headcanon

As a planet with few trees, Vulcans had less paper. (Also many of the techniques humans use to make paper use water and Vulcans had less of that too) That doesnt mean they had NO paper. After all they did have some small forests. Aside from writing things on clay and sand tablets, ancient vulcans experimented with several different materials for paper. But eventually settled on two main products. A kind of regional variant of cotton and a type of relatively common brittle rock.

Thus Vulcans didnt really have alot of books and relied primarily on paintings and tablets to store information for future use or even future generations. Paper (and especially books) were seen as a certain sign of luxury and only used for important documents. The common people passed down memories and fictional stories by word of mouth/mind melds through generational lines. And it was very common for clans/families to have important traditional stories. In some families, being given the story was an important rite of passage.

There was alot of poetry though as it could be stored on single sheets of paper or immortalized in tablets. Even for the common people, learning about different types of poetry was a sign you were well educated. As well as other types of art forms but especially the rare written word.

Sometime before the nuclear wars they developed technology that allowed them to store large amounts of information digitally. All but removing the reliance on books to store important data. With that freed up, books were more accesible to the common people. Or rather what we would call middle class. Poor people could still not afford books.

And thus the return of the short story and the long short story/novelette. They were about the same product in thickness, except the short story is usually cut in half lengthwise. While there was a standard size, some bookmakers elected to use custom cuts.

A bookmaker did two things, binding and printing. First by hand, later when a simplified font was created, with letterpressing. Except when they were making journals in which case they would leave it blank.

Empowered by their new avenue for creativity, many simply wrote down the stories that had been passed down to them, some wrote fanfiction of their generational stories that nobody in their family wanted to pass down, some wrote brand new stories, some wrote journal entries about their own life or just detailed their family tree, and some wrote fanfiction of their favorite plays.

Most of the stories written in these formats did not have the 3 act story structure and since they had no audience to pander to, personal stories were self indulgent. They were often left open ended or devoid of context. (And some of it was literally just smut with plot)

Really savvy authors would use this gap of information to their advantage the way some human authors do. Others would make historians cry because for example their story is about this guy being enemies with this other guy because he stole his sister from a respectable family so the girls brother is trying to hunt them down and try and figure out some things about the guy but the author never mentions any of that in the story so you dont find out her name till halfway through, theyre running from an unseen enemy, and you dont even get to find out what happens after the brother finally catches them because the story was about the culture clash they experience being on different social statuses and also the weighing of love vs responsibility, and also kind of a rebuttal to a play the author saw 4 years ago that included a subplot that romanticized young love and they thought the premise was stupid. So they imagine both characters dying at the end at the hands of the brother and none of the aforementioned themes are immediately obvious anyway because their writing style was super poetic and flowy and they handled all their mature themes very subtly.

There wasnt really a book industry for published literature nor libraries as we think of our local ones. That did not mean they didnt have long stories. The closest equivalent were plays or interpretive dance which were around for millions of years, even beyond the earliest days of paper. (A handful of classic dance styles were preserved to modern day, not quite as fervently as martial art styles but respected for the cultural value they possess) They were revered as one of the most popular forms of entertainment and since many saw them as a kind of treat, they were drawn out to increase enjoyment with some of the better ones being 4-5 hours long.

They did eventually start adopting a sort of publishing industry. The earliest version of it was during post-reformation when they improved society as a whole. And the technology they used to store information digitally was more readily available than books. (Partially because pre-reformation it was considered a war technology) So the first industry was scientific articles. Particularly after they started going to space and really started learning things.

Although a few vulcan writers had experimented with common fantastical (re: genres that feature impossibilities) human book genres like sci fi and fantasy and to some extent horror, they didn't actually really delve into it till they met humans and those kinds of book genres became normalized throughout the federation.

Well thats not entirely true. Vulcans did have horror in the form of ghost stories. Not that they always included ghosts but urban legends, scary campfire stories and the kind of stories you tell your kids to scare them into behaving. Those had all been around for centuries but no one really wrote them down before the popularity of books so theres a lot of missing context from the various stories that just mutated or merged with other stories over time. Urban legend history is a category almost no vulcan wants to get into. Not necessarily because its full of the distasteful fantastical but because of how 'pointless' and low-payoff it is to comb through artifacts and old texts for hints about what might be relevant to that one story about the mystery le'matya where some texts only describe it as a shadowy unerving figure that doesnt do anything but seriously freak you out. But some texts describe it as three times the size of a normal le'matya and having knife sharp claws and pure white eyes and can kill a grown man with two slashes. One for the neck and one for the poison. And then while youre paralyzed it eats your guts out. If you hear it coming, it means youre already a goner.

But like, that shares a bunch of characteristics with this other nightmare creature so they think at some point someone merged the two stories to make it scarier. But they're not sure because most of the texts they have concerning the terrifying deadly le'matya were written before the ones they have about the mysterious unnerving le'matya. Except there's also this one poem that could be about the other nightmare creature or it could be about the deadly le'matya because the contents sorta fit both. But it does have an extra detail that they used to time date it so if they could figure out which one the poem is about then it would solve that earlier question.

[originalwinnerfanfish]

Well, I did it

Megatron - I love his tfp design. Probably one of the best iteration of Megs. He is huge, heavy armoured, his face covered with scars… He doesn’t looks like an ordinary military leader who is only capable of giving orders, but like real warrior who can destroy any enemy with his bare hands.

So, in the WOF version, he definitely shares some features with Princess Burn, not only because of his might, but also because of his horns shape and dirty-dark scales (that absorbed blood of his enemies)

Starscream - Boy, I hate him so much 🤣… but in the good way, trust me! In my opinion, when the show's creators make you feel such strong negative emotions towards a villain, it means they've done a great job. Also, I think that his animation in the show was absolutely incredible, because even though he's a 3D model, he still manages to move like a 2D character, which is amazing!

I feel that in my design he still looks more like a skywing, than an icewing (which is kinda logical)

Soundwave - This one was tricky. I couldn't figure out what his mask would look like, so I just made his face a really dark color. I think Soundwave has both gifts of the nightwings, and he’s equally great at telepathy and a future vision. So he doesn't really need equipment to predict enemy movements, which makes him an ideal communicator in the WOF setting. His Laserbeak is part of the armor enchanted by Shockwave, and it might also allow him to open portals (but I'm not sure with this one)

Shockwave - My favourite evil genius. He would definitely have animus magic and mind reading. I think Shockwave is the only one who has advanced the study of magic so far, precisely because he combined it with scientific knowledge and created safer methods of using it, that don't damage the mind. It's like if a Mastermind got animus magic in books.

I also like to think that he didn't heal the damaged part of his face just so that his enemies would fear him more)

Dreadwing - This man deserved better! It's really a shame that he was removed from the show so quickly due to financial problems. It would be great if his arc got a proper conclusion in season 3.

Considering that I didn't want to make him a hybrid, it was difficult to choose a suitable color palette. So let’s just say, that I tried my best😅

I don’t think that he would have any nightwing powers, but honestly it doesn’t even matter - this guy can make a bombs, what else does he need to be cool

Arachnid - Did anyone even doubt that she would be a hivewing? Damn, she even got her own “Othermind” virus. Her design was the easiest to work with - just a little poisonous ass (suspiciously similar to Maleficent).

Just like Starscream, I hate her, but in a good way. She's one of the creepiest characters in the entire series, who’s acting like a fucking heartless monster, especially with Arcee, but even so, there's always was something mesmerizing about her. I just really like strong female villains

Knockout - Wery bright and charismatic guy, definitely one of my fav cons!

I tried to draw him as handsome as possible. Worked a lot on the face shape and coloring, and as for me it turned out pretty nice (finally).

Most decepticons think Knockout is as stupid and lazy as all the other rainwings. And it's not like he completely disagrees with that. Of course he’s not stupid and lazy, but if it’s means less dirty work on the battlefield, well, he’ll continue act like a tipical rainwing

(I also believe that Megatron keeps him as an “art”)

Breakdown - Fun fact: "Operation Breakdown" was the very first thing I saw in this series. And it was an interesting experience for 8 year old me. Maybe that's why I'm so scared of eye gouging scenes in movies now…

I think that he didn't have any siblings initially due to his parents nature, and even after meeting Bulkhead, he felt uncomfortable among the other mudwings. And this is why he later chose the side of the decepticons. And maaaaybe because of one cute rainwing influence)

P.s.

I think that, being mostly nightwings and icewings, the decepticons are much more concerned about purity of their blood and rarely accept half-breeds into their ranks.

During the war, there were many animus dragons among decepticons, which is why they have so many artifacts that allowed teleportation and communication at a distance. But, honestly, I still can't imagine what Nemesis would look like in this AU

[packsvlog]

➥ ──── MOMMY MILKERS ‼️ BITCH. ღ

gojo satoru is the greatest mind behind MIB, also know as MU IOTA BETA, although is a inside joke the name Mommy mIlkers Bitch, because he thinks there is a large amount of members with huge breasts. Satoru is filthy rich and spoiled, he was a rainbow baby and an only child for some time, everything he wants he can have. his parents only asked him to go to college for business administration, so one day, gojo’s enterprise can be in his good hands. he doesn’t mind, had no plan of life instead of just enjoying it, but he hopes he can still have a lot of vacations all around the world. that’s actually his favorite thing to do, just get up from the bed and travel. gojo and the MIB were pretty popular on campus, but what took their social medias sky rocketing was the brilliant idea to create a tik tok account for their fraternity, showing their parties and random funny moments. of course, what everyone really wants to see, is their fucking beauty. he is the older adoptive brother of megumi, who is too young for fraternities, but gojo thinks he can bend the rules if megumi wants to get inside (gojo can’t & he doesn’t).

geto suguru is studying graphic designer by his choice, although his parents disagree, they can’t say no to him — after all, they are scared for their son and want him to be happy. truth is, geto and gojo had been best friends since high school, and it’s no secret that suguru tries to hide about his long battle with depression. things are getting better as of lately, specially now that his two younger sisters, mimiko and nanako, are allowed to have a cellphone and had been calling him daily. geto can be found in three different places, besides the MIB’s house — the art room of college, choso’s tattoo parlor and in the garage with sukuna, although for only a few minutes before he himself leave with his bike, that he calls his love. he is the vice-president, and helped gojo with the ideas to create the house, he also is the reason why nanami got inside because suguru knew they would need someone that knows how to be an adult, he got surprised with nanami’s true personality later, but hey, he is doing a good job, no complains. his favorite companions outside of the members are the pets and shoko, he adores her very much, she is also a best friend from high school that cared for him in his most vulnerable depressive episodes.

zen’in toji comes from the respected family zen’in, but unlike his relatives, toji does not give a fuck about reputations and traditions. that has casted him aside, something he is no longer sad about, he actually loves that he can do as he pleases. he study physical education, has always had a talent for fights and training, and likes the idea to be able to teach others some day. his first students was his two little cousins, maki and mai. he used to work as a partial time private trainer, but after tik tok found out, it was getting too uncomfortable with those new clients, so he started to train his friend sukuna and his little brother, yuji, the payment is extraordinary. he has a pitbull puppy named kitana and she is one of the pets at the house, and his pride and joy. he got inside MIB because gojo wanted to have him, toji refused at first, until satoru showed him the private gym of the house and toji was sold right away. he gets weirdly along with megumi whenever the boy comes visit, they bond over their dogs and strangely looking resemblance.

nanami kento is not the MIB’s president, but he stills acts like it, and gojo is more than happy to let him have that unofficial position. gojo makes the parties and pick the box with candidates names, nanami takes care of the expenses and pick the best to get into, to avoid fame seekers and people with bad reputation — some thinks he started that after gojo put sukuna inside the house. nanami takes care of the formal parts, that’s mostly influenced by his finance majoring, he spends most of time inside his room studying or bakery hopping to experiment new pastries. don’t let this take you away from the truth, this man is not a calm, educated and study inclined person, he is half-french and therefore gojo has to be careful, or nanami will start a revolution and put satoru out of the house. he easily gets distracted by his interests and his anger, and since MIB becoming a hit on the internet, he is extremely mad. nanami cares a lot about his private life, he blocked gojo on twitter after satoru quoted kento’s account and he gained a lot of weird followers — he blocked most and went private. nanami is very found of ino, and as the initiation process of complying to the older members’s request, he had to shave his head (suguru demanded as a revenge for cutting his waist long hair to his shoulder) ino was quite sad, but did it, nanami did as well to support the youngest. surprising everyone, because nanami loves his long blonde hair as well. everyone was touched, so gojo cut his as well, kinji dyed on ino’s choosing color (purple) and even sukuna did as well, but red — all was done by kinji’s partner, kirara.

kamo choso is the middle brother of sukuna and itadori, through their shared mother. he is studying computer science, but everyone knows he is doing just to get the degree, give to his mom and go do his own thing — tattoos! ever since high school, he started to work in tattoo shops as receptionists, then he started a course and now he owns his own mini parlor near campus, named garu’s tattoo, because he is often compared with the character (it has absolutely nothing do to with the fact he used to let his younger brother do his hair the same way, everyday for high school). choso doesn’t trust anyone but himself to make his own tattoos, but he folds easily when yuji asks to try, so he has a mini spider-man doing peace signs on his calf. it’s his favorite tattoo. he got into MIB because he started to be friends with his favorite client, geto, and suguru invited him. choso’s mom separated sukuna’s father and got with choso’s dad, then she left and met itadori jin, he accepted all her sons as his, and choso secretly hopes one day jin will adopt him. he likes that MIB went viral because now he has more clients, what he doesn’t like is how everyone views him as a bad boy, when he is clearly a sweetheart.

shiu kong is a transfer student from south korea, and just like nanami, he is majoring in finance, following his dad’s and grandad’s steps. his family is very rich and stoic, but shiu came to the world in a completely different way. he likes to crack jokes, smoke a cigarette every hour, and to make his family hair get white earlier. the last post he has on instagram is a video of him doing hearts, but purposely he posted because it looked like a middle finger. shiu is best friends with everyone, but mostly sukuna and toji, and outside of it he’s friends with shoko and uraume. he thinks it was bound to happen to be a hit on the internet, because of his funny and chaotic way! his twitter is where he shows his true self, actually, the header is his own picture from the day after fucking a neighbor before moving out of the apartment to MIB’s house. it’s been a month and a half and he’s feeling the effects of not getting laid in some time, not because he doesn’t have options, gojo says he wants someone to match his freak while doing a dance — he slapped gojo after that. the reason for he to be in MIB is because he thought it would be funny to piss off his dad, it worked.

hiromi higuruma is the most normal person in the house, which is something to worry about. his free time used to be spend traveling to rural areas of japan, now he stays in the sofa with achilles, his cat. he used his money to make a game room in the house with lots of pool tables and videogame consoles. he likes to bet with everyone, and he keeps winning. talking about that, everyone avoids to argue with him, at first he cared too much and would own all the discussions, specially when he would bring out the projector and show evidence of how he was right — don’t fucking argue with a lawyer. nowadays he is much chill, that’s obviously because he is in exam season and keeps inside the house or library, he left the group chat to focus on his projects and the court hearings he now attends. nanami is the one to send him all the messages he needs to see and to lend his phone in case hiro wants to add something to the chat. hiro was obliged to be part of MIB by his best friend, nanami. oh, the classmate in his twitter’s bio is utahime iori, she doesn’t now his twitter and he doesn’t know hers.

ino takuma is a lucky motherfucker. he is the youngest at the house and the newest member, out of many candidates, nanami chose him, and for that he is eternally grateful for his senior. majoring in history and having a talent for photography, ino likes to be outside all of the time, he takes pictures of every bright thing that seems to copy his happy aura, everyone finds him adorable. nanami tried really hard to keep him away from gojo, but it happened eventually, satoru is the one that matches his freak and they both kept adding fire to the other crazy ideas. they are the ones doing weird challenges and pranks on the tik tok account, and nanami keeps grounding them for it. besides hiro, achilles adores ino and is often on his lap. takuma introduced the movie “house bunny” to the boys once and now gojo wants to have the “sacrifice a virgin” party, after he found out ino is a virgin. he is embarrassed, but still thinks i’ll be awesome to slide down a fake volcano and kiss a pretty girl. . . maybe more.

ryomen sukuna is. . . something. everyone knows that one of the reasons MIB’s tik tok became a hit is thanks to his quick appearance, after all he was already know on social media before, ryomen is a professional boxer, as a way to let his anger issues dissipate and avoid hurting his brothers or friends, he punches sand bags with toji and later, willingly strangers. he is know as “one punch man” because one time he was seriously pissed with his dad, went to the ring and with just one punch, won the fight — he hated it, he needed more punches throw. ryomen is majoring in forensic science, when asked why he says is because he wants to know how to get away with a murder properly, of course he is joking but the stoic face sure scares everyone. adding to his curriculum, he also likes to repair cars, MIB’s garage is filled with everyone’s cars and there is space for sukuna’s three vintage babies, he always finds some problem in them whenever he needs to clear his mind. sukuna’s best friends are uraume, shoko and shiu, because they all don’t give a fuck about his anger issues and treat him normally. he is adored by kinji’s partner, kirara, and he actually adores them as well, but he avoids them because he can’t say no to kira, and they try to make ryomen a model. sukuna is, with choso, the target of people with the “i can change him” mentality, he adores it because it’s fucking funny the desperation. he would rather eat glass than admit, but he’s only in MIB because choso was scared to go alone, and he wants for yuji to come as well when he gets of age, he thinks his younger brother will like it. he is a good brother, he just doesn’t say much, good thing choso and yuji understand him and love him either way.

kinji hakari is the only member who is in a serious relationship, if anything, he is the only one getting any action. he never had any plans of being in college, only following his partner and luckily discovering a talent in fashion school, that was what got gojo satoru’s attention, and he begged for hakari to be part of the MIB. he almost declined, but thought it would be cool, and with his baby’s permission, he accepted. kinji brings more chaos to MIB, he likes to be the cause of his friends headache in the group chat, and also to get blackout drunk in the parties and make out with kirara on every surface. he got a lot of attention on his social media as well, but he does not give a fuck, because he thinks everyone is trying to get into his pants and he is a loyal dog man, so he says no no interactions with anyone besides his friends and love.

✶ 𝐚. 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞: all the appearances, are just for reference, there is no fancast just pics with the characters vibes. you can imagine them as you please. but i did edited sukuna’s hair so applause. i know nanami is half danish, but i want the revolutionary gene of france on him. TOJI’s AND GOJO’s ig has miD instead of miB, pretend you didn’t see it, pls.

✶ 𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭: please comment if you would like to be tagged. all the chapters will be linked in this post and with the first tag @minzxec @d3jecteddoll @shuuji71 @emilyywhyy @ducky1232 @mfcherry

[chelseeebe]

just wanna (get with you).

okkkk i promise i am not neglecting promise (i am) but i just had to get this out before the thought left my mind. this is just to say nancy wheeler i love you and i’m sorry

18+. smut. steve is an adulterer. but it’s okieee bc it’s hot <3

this is very much richboy!steve, he is very cocky and brash and very much not afraid of it

⋆˙⟡♡⟡⋆˙

you had prepared to spend thanksgiving break alone in your room, honestly quite happy not to have to go home and deal with your car crash of a family.

that was until stacy had caught wind of your lonely plans and interjected, offering you an invite to her family’s massive home. now, it’d be rude not to accept, right?

you totally weren’t influenced by the fact that her older brother would definitely be there, not at all.

the drive up was a long slog, hours until you ended up in the middle of buttfuck indiana. it’s not somewhere you ever envisioned yourself spending the holidays but she had ensured that it was nice enough. her parents were.. interesting but as you were there, they’d probably at least try to keep up appearances. there wasn’t much else going on but in this tiny town but it gave you a chance to relax and ogle her brother.

their house is huge, like, ridiculously big. much bigger than their small family needed. from what stacy has confided in you, you can gather that her parents are hardly even home. they like to make a big deal about holidays to give the impression of a well put together family but if anything, they’re on the brink of divorce and only holding it together for the fear of being seen as failures.

not that your family are much better, but at least they don’t pretend to like eachother.

steve is up at the door the moment stacy unlocks it, waiting to see which of her sorority friends she’d decided to bring along.

he grins the second he sees you, taking your bag out of your hand and introducing himself before you can even begin to speak. not that you mind.

‘leave her alone, steve,’ stacy warns, rolling her eyes as she begins up the stairs, motioning for you to follow.

‘why don’t you leave me alone? i’m just being a good host, isn’t that right?’ he smiles at you, lugging your bag up the extravagant staircase and toward the room you’ve been assigned.

it’s not as if there’s a lack of them, a multitude of white doors that probably sat empty. it’s incredible how a house could cost so much and yet lack character despite the ample space to decorate.

she shoves him out of the way the second you make it into the room, ‘don’t you have anything better to do?’

‘uh uh,’ he’s smirking now and it’s making your heart feel funny. it’s wrong, totally wrong. but you can’t help it.

when he’d appeared on move in day you’d been star struck, his caramel coloured hair flopping into his eyes and the way his t-shirt clung to his arms had caught you immediately.

you and the rest of the girls in the house, obviously.

‘well go and find something to do you fucking loser,’ pushing him out of the door and slamming it in his face.

you couldn’t exactly tell her that it was fine and actually you preferred if he stayed.. so you grin and give her a fake chuckle, looking around at the room you were to call home for the next week.

‘i’m sorry,’ she sighs, ‘ignore him.. he’s just like that,’ walking over to the pristine bed. it obviously hadn’t been slept in for a while, you don’t doubt that they rarely have guests.

‘it’s okay,’ you smile, exhilarated for what this week will bring.

-

you don’t see much of the illusive mr. harrington, burrowed away in his office for most of the day with his wife busying around the kitchen, putting on an unnecessarily large spread each day. now you’re not a psychologist but even you can gather that she’s trying to make up for something.

stacy had bundled you into her room under the pretence of studying, both of you sat on her bed with neglected open books. opting to gossip about shit in your house rather than the looming finals.

steve knocks on the door and rushes in without waiting, standing in the doorway with a devilish grin. ‘mom’s drunk again.. you two wanna get out of here before it gets ugly?’ leaning against the doorframe.

he looks extra good today, his grey sweatpants sitting just right. you’re mindful to pull your eyes away when he nears the bed though his eyes never leave you.

‘like what?’ stacy frowns, sitting up and closing the untouched book.

‘i dunno..’ he shrugs, ‘i just don’t wanna be here when he gets back and she’s drunk again,’ fiddling with some trinket on stacy’s shelf.

you can tell that stacy’s not keen on the idea but she doesn’t want to be here for that scene either. you can empathise entirely, which is the exact reason you decided not to go home.

‘okay,’ she turns to you, ‘you okay with that?’

‘yeah.. sounds good,’ smiling at your friend. in your peripheral, you can see steve’s lips twitch into a smirk, cocky bastard.

much to your dismay, the three of you end up bowling. which you wouldn’t usually mind, but the alley was full to the brim with parents and their screaming children, running around the lanes hyped up on copious amounts of sugar.

not to mention the blaring christmas music that was entirely too loud for a tuesday afternoon.

‘you bowl much?’ steve scoots over on the bench, leaning in to whisper of the screeching kids.

‘not really,’ shaking your head innocently, ‘do you?’

‘yeah i’m alright.. i can teach you, if you want?’ ever the opportunist. who were you to deny him that?

‘okay,’ you giggle, blinking up at his chocolate coloured eyes.

it’s pathetic but your knees almost crumble when he walks up behind you, arms coming to envelope yours, large hands perched over yours as stacy tuts and turns away.

‘like this..’ his chest presses against your back, pulling your arm back and letting the ball roll down the lane.

you very nearly groan when he pulls away, hand lingering on your elbow as the pair of you watch the pins knock over. he smiles gently at you without even looking at the pins, he’s already sure he’d won.

‘thanks,’ you nod, keeping your own smile contained as you walk back to the bench, squishing in next to a less than impressed stacy. she’s not stupid but doesn’t dare to say anything and you’re grateful for that at least.

you watch steve take his turn, wondering how much longer you can feign incompetence to get him to touch you.

-

their house is quiet when you get back. eerily quiet. stacy and steve share a look before heading inside and you already know to prepare for the worst.

mr. harrington is sat facing the blank television, sipping on a small glass of what you presume is whiskey. the fire blazing in front of him, crackling loudly in the otherwise silent house.

‘your mother’s in bed,’ is all he says, refusing to turn around to face his children. he’s a stoic man at the best of times but seemed extra cold tonight. you don’t want to think about what had happened while you were out.

the atmosphere brings you crashing down out of your high, the loud bowling alley seemed like a dream compared to the moody room you stood in. at least your family were entertaining in all their madness. this was just depressing and you don’t have to wonder just why stacy is the way she is now.

steve slinks off upstairs without saying a word and stacy follows, head ducked down. they’ve probably been through this exact routine a hundred times before. you follow along silently, assuming that mr. harrington definitely didn’t want you hanging around downstairs.

before stacy slips away into her room, you grab onto her elbow, pulling her round to face you, ‘my mom drinks too.. i know what it’s like,’ offering some meek words of encouragement. it’s not a lot but you can empathise with the sinking feeling you know she’s feeling.

she gives you a small smile, pulling you in for a quick hug as the shower starts in the bathroom to your left. steve hadn’t hung around, disappearing before you even made it up the stairs.

‘night,’ you mutter before entering your own room.

there had been a tiny part of you that had hoped maybe tonight something would happen but with the scene downstairs and steve’s eagerness to get away, you doubt it.

-

there’s an almost silent knock at your door, if you were any sleepier, you would’ve missed it.

you know who it is.. what’s waiting on the other side of that door and for a second, you contemplate it. you could very easily turn over and drift off to sleep without ever finding out what could’ve been.. but, you’re not going to do that. not after you’d optimistically worn your best pajamas, dousing yourself in perfume before you had climbed into bed.

sliding out of the bed to open the door quietly and just as you expected, steve is on the other side with a shit-eating grin plastered across his face.

he doesn’t speak before stepping into the room, shutting the door gently as you stand expectantly before him. your heart is pounding, it’d jump out of your chest if it could.

‘steve,’ you barely whisper, ignoring the growing ache between your thighs. enthralled by the sheer tension in the room, it makes the air heavy, weighing on your shoulders as you practically pant at him.

in one quick move he’s stood in front of you, hands cradling your waist, confidence oozing off of his smile. his hair is still wet, falling onto his face perfectly. it’s almost cruel that someone could look so good so effortlessly.

‘i need you,’ he whispers, his spider-like lashes cascading a shadow over his face in the dull light. he’s so perfect it hurts.

you choose not to reply with words, hastily planting your lips on his, closing the minuscule gap between your bodies as your chest presses to his. you’re walked backwards towards the bed, the excitement is palpable, his hands barely able to contain themselves as they grip and squeeze your flesh.

steve falls backwards onto the bed, pulling you atop of him, clumsily readjusting your knees either side of his hips, gasping into his slack mouth when his grinds upwards, his already erect cock nudging against your core.

pulling your shirt over your head before reconnecting his lips to your jaw, planting hungry kisses to the exposed skin of your neck. this is everything you’ve dreamed of since you arrived, the feel of him desperately moving beneath you becoming entirely too much. you needed him now.

he shimmies his own sweatpants down his thighs, choosing boldly to not wear any underwear. he’s big. his cock springing up against his stomach, gazing down into the space between you, mouth hung open as he works your shorts down with his delicate fingers.

‘what?’ he hushes innocently as if he doesn’t already know. his hand leaves your thigh to wrap around the base of his dick, pumping his fist ever so slowly.

your eyes meet his again, feeling your cheeks flush as the corner of his mouth twitches. if he weren’t so hot, his cockiness would be sickening. but you’re not one to bend to the will of men, brushing off his nerve and instead moving to grip onto his shoulders, positioning yourself above his leaking cock.

‘i know what you sorority girls are like.. you don’t have to- fuck,’ his head rolling back as you lower yourself onto him, gasping quietly at the feeling of fullness that quickly overtakes every other sense.

your fingers clamp around his jaw, pulling his face back up to meet yours, ‘what was that?’ sighing through muffled moans as you begin to rut your hips.

you have him at your mercy, moving your hips antagonistically slow, relishing in the sight of his hooded eyes struggling to stay open, soft pants escaping his lips with every careful movement.

‘ho- shit,’ his fingernails leaving crescent moons into your hips and ass, desperate to cling onto your body in any way he can. guiding your body up and down with the palms of his hands.

‘shh,’ you mutter, connecting your lips to the corner of his mouth in an attempt to quiet his groans. as lavish as this house is, you can bet that it’s not soundproof.

‘you’re so.. fuck- faster baby,’ he whines into your mouth, unappreciative of the calm pace you had set. enjoying the fact that you now held the upper hand, but also acutely aware that the sounds of skin-on-skin are indisputable, paired with his grunts, you’d be caught out in a second.

‘nuhuh,’ shaking your head slightly, face pressed into his sharp jaw, hoping to stifle some of the noises come from your throat.

this is when steve decides he’s had enough, this was his house and if anyone had anything to say then they could. his arm snakes around your waist, holding you in place above him as his legs spread, heels digging into the mattress.

your lips connect once again, in a sloppy kiss that requires minimal effort as his hips begin to thrust up, punching against that soft, spongy spot deep within. and now you’re the one responsible for the too-loud moans, practically screaming into his mouth as his tongue slips into your open mouth. his smirk evident against your lips as his thrusts grow faster.

chasing the same high you can feel growing in the pits of your stomach. you’re not even kissing at this point, lips pressed against the stubble on his cheek as his grip tightens, low grunts rumbling into the minimal space between you with every thrust.

‘oh god,’ you mewl, the all too familiar twist in your gut as his hips begin to stutter, the sound of your bodies connecting was spurring both of you on. not caring about your volume level as you come crashing over the edge.

babbling his name over and over again as you clench around him, shoving your face into his neck as pleasure soars all the way down to your toes, the sensation overwhelming your poor fucked-out brain.

his hands paw at the doughy flesh of your ass, resigning his last bit of energy for his last thrusts, hot spurts of cum paint your walls. steve’s teeth graze against your bare shoulder, suppressing his almighty moan as you collapse into a heap on top of him.

you feel like jelly, unable to lift your head when he pulls out, allowing him to manhandle your body as he shuffles down the bed. you shift slightly, moving to the empty space beside him, reaching down for the blanket, desperate for some modesty despite the explicit scene this room had just witnessed.

that was everything you’d imagined it’d be and more.

‘jesus,’ he sniffs, relaxing into your bed as if he belonged there, ‘anyone ever told you how fucking good you feel?’ his arm reaching out to pull your body into his once more.

‘shut up,’ you mumble, still very much coming back to earth. trying not to get too comfortable with this arrangement but letting your leg slide between his.

his other hand flicks the tiny lamp off, leaving the room in complete darkness. toned arms coming to rest around your waist, chin resting against your head.

‘you can’t sleep in here,’ you warn, though you wouldn’t complain if he did.

‘why not? this is my house, i can sleep wherever i want,’ his fingertips dart around your bare skin, leaving goosebumps in their wake.

you don’t argue, settling into your comfy position nestled into his side. it’s not long before sleep takes over as his fingers trace silly patterns into your back.

-

but you’re rudely awoken at stupid o’clock in the morning, the sun barely rising outside of the tiny window. steve’s grumbling, tapping softly on your shoulder.

‘i’ve gotta go,’ he whispers into your hair, pulling the blanket off of his body and onto yours.

you’re barely coherent enough to understand what he’s saying, nodding along absentmindedly as sleep negs to take over again. ever the gentleman, he places a kiss to your forehead before climbing out of bed and rushing out of the room.

he’s gone before you even wake up fully, not registering what had happened until you wake up again, this time at a more appropriate hour.

it’s only then that fear takes over. had you misjudged how loud you were? what if someone had heard? there’s no way they’d turf you out on thanksgiving.. would they?

yet all seems normal when you slink downstairs, joining stacy at the table as she butters toast without a word to be said about your antics. you pray to every being above that you had gone undetected.

‘morning sleepyhead,’ stacy utters, seemingly in a much better mood than the one you left her in last night, ‘sleep well?’

you stare at her for a moment, deciding if the question is loaded or if she’s genuinely interested in how you slept.

‘yeah.. really good, you?’ testing the waters.

‘yeah not bad,’ she smiles, a genuine smile that allows you to release the breath you didn’t know you were even holding.

phew. you were safe.

‘it’s about to get uh.. tense today so, we can just hang out in my room until dinner,’ she nods assuringly. you trust her, not wanting to bare witness to mr. harrington and his cryptic behaviour.

before you can reply, the front door opens and a small brunette walks in with steve trailing closely. behind her, carrying what looks like a suitcase with the most displeased look plastered on his face.

the woman hangs her coat on the hook, flashing a quick wave towards the kitchen where you sat gawping before heading upstairs quickly.

from here, she looked like a cousin or something, someone you hadn’t been told was attending.

she’s pretty, gorgeous eyes and a polite smile that makes you want to smile.

‘who’s that?’ you ask, perplexed at the sight of this stranger who is obviously so comfortable in their home.

‘oh, that’s nancy,’ stacy continues with her toast, not at all bothered by the new arrival.

‘she’s steve’s fiancée.’

[theiasthesis]

Shifting can be escapism, and that's OK.

Im going to give you a valuable lesson, so stick to the post, dont skip because every word is important. Don't let that small attention span get to you baby, remember that knowledge is power.

My name is Willow! I'm a non-dualist reality shifter, shifting coach and subliminal creator who's a freak for the multiverse and knowledge. Everything I say on here is based on my own personal experiences and research.

This post can help you with:

Escapism, guilt for shifting, realising you're worthy of shifting.

The self determination theory (SDT) is a psychological theory of motivation. It focuses on the degree to which specific human behaviour is for the self ; self motivated and self determined

Basically, what exactly is it that a human being can do, that isn't manipulated by outside influence, but rather their own human nature?

According to the theory these are 3 self motivated human behaviours:

Autonomy

Having the freedom to decide your actions without outside influence.

Example: Being able to go out with your friends, without your parents restricting you.

Competence

The ability to do something effectively and be useful.

Example: You're a very useful employee at your company, this means you are competent for your job.

Relatedness

Being connected or related to someone, or something.

Example: Having a connection with family or friends

OK, so how does any of this apply to shifting and escapism?

When you lack one of any of these 3 behaviours or feelings, this is a disruption your human nature. Naturally by birth, you are within your birth right to recieve all of this.

Each of these behaviours, have extreme importance in your cognitive behaviour

- Cognitive behaviors are thoughts, ideas, and representations of yourself to others.

If you don't have the will or ability to control your actions independently, you are most likely going to feel stuck, and like everything is out of your control. Doing things that make you happy and activities you find meaningful, will become an issue due to your lack of autonomy.

If you don't feel competent in areas of your life, or people aren't competent when it comes to you, this can create low self esteem and a bad self concept, you may think of yourself as "worthless" "useless" or "incompetent"

You may feel less motivated to taking on new challenges and activities, as you feel like you're just going to fail, and mess everything up anyways.

Connection is what makes us human, love and empathy towards overs and receiving it, is what makes human life so special. Relatedness, is what you need to experience caring relationships, to be part of a community, and overall to feel love. Humans need love, that is a fact.

When these basic needs aren't met, a human being can lack the motivation to commit to any one of these factors, which take up a huge part in life.

Lacking these can make you feel, stressed, anxious, self loath and nihilistic.

When you don't have these 3 factors, this causes a lack of motivation to commit to them, which means you don't have them.

So you turn to something else, escapism.

"Escapism is the tendency to distract oneself from real-life problems. It can also be conceived as shutting meanings out of one's mind and freeing oneself from self-awareness for a while . Escapism has been identified as one of the key drivers behind online behaviors, in both adaptive and maladaptive ways"

- PubMed Central®

Link to study

Think of escapism like touching a hot stove. Imagine you place your hand upon a stove. At first its cold, and you're fine.

Then the temperature starts to slowly rise, its currently warm, its still fine you can deal with it. Now, it's getting hotter, and hotter, and hotter...

And you remove your hand.

Not on purpose, but by instinct.

By reflex, your hand immediately moved away from the stove once it got too hot.

Your nervous system felt the pain, which sent a signal to the brain, that something with your hand is wrong.

Biology isn't my strong suit I fear.

Another example.

You're in immediate danger, there's a tsunami coming your way, it's too big for you to face, if you stay where you are, you're going to get crushed by the water, and die on impact. So what do you do?

You run.

Naturally you escape from the dangerous situation, because who in their right mind would test their luck and try to survive a tsunami?

Are you getting it?

When human beings are faced with a situation that is uncomfortable, causes mental, or physical harm, or even death, their first response is to escape.

It is human nature to run, to escape, to not face the dangerous situation. Sometimes it can be a bad move, like ditching a daye you were nervous for, other times it could be skipping school because you constantly run into a group of serious bullies.

Repeat after me.

If you are in a situation where you do not feel loved, worthy, or free, you are allowed to escape.

You are allowed to escape.

Empathise on that baby, nobody is going to tell you off for it.

However, you must be weary of using shifting as escapism.

Shifting is a wonderful phenomenon, it is not something that determines whether you live or not. It doesn't determine your worth either, nor is it something that causes you psychological stress.

If you find yourself having suicidal or self harming thoughts, with shifting as a way to mend these thoughts, I beg of you to take a step back and evaluate these thoughts of yours.

Shifting is a journey, I preach that it's something that can be done on the first go, but that isn't the case for everybody.

It can be as short or as long as you make it, failure in shifting when using it as an escape from serious issues, is a one way road to psychological distress.

With that, I ask that you first deal with your mental health, before anything else.

Find something that makes you feel good and grounded, something you enjoy.

Please remember, that not everything is something you must be good at, if it came from you it's already perfect.

Meditation, painting, dancing, listening to music, writing, exercise. Anything and everything that makes you feel good, nothing is too silly, nobody is going to think you're weird or bad at doing something you love to do.

I found that talking out loud, writing in my journal, mediation and watching anime helped me a lot when I had "life impacting plans" connected to shifting.

LESSON SUMMARY

1. It is natural for human beings to run away when they are faced in a dangerous or uncomfortable situation

2. Shifting being used to run away from a bad situation, isn't negative. It only becomes negative once you prioritise it over your own health

3. Your mental and physical health always comes first before shifting

4. You deserve to be loved, to feel worthy, to not be let down, and to be free, whether that's through shifting or not!

[kairiscorner]

can you do prompt #1 on miles?👉👈

OOOOOOO SURE ANON !! omg i fucking love this

(reblogs are greatly appreciated, it helps get my content out there! if you guys like what you see, please reblog it too <:D)

my favorite study buddy — miles morales x reader

miles grumbled into his mic over the video chat and groaned. "my parents are... man, why don't i get to do anything around here?" he complained as you kept snacking as you listened to him gripe about how his parents refused to let him go out since he had to help out with chores that night. you chuckled through a full mouth as you smiled. "y'know, itch phunni," you said through a full mouth as you chewed your food. "i'm grounded right now, i can't go out tonight either." you said in a clearer voice as you swallowed.

miles perked up from his pillow when he heard you say those words. "how do you still have your phone, then...?" he asked you, confused, since he knew your parents were strict; the last time you were grounded, he couldn't call you for a whole month since they took your phone away, he wondered what changed this time. miles lazily raised an eyebrow at you. "you snuck it away from where they keep it, didn't you?" he asked you as you smiled and nodded, chewing away at your snacks and answered him with a full mouth again, "rife." you said as miles chuckled.

"how are your parents not catching you speaking on the phone...?" he asked you curiously. you rolled your eyes with a grin. "well, they're not here, fortunately. they still think my phone's hidden, but they never bother to check if my phone's on silent or not, so... called from my mom's phone and it rung, took and snuck it away before anyone could catch me." you explained promptly as miles nodded in admiration. "sneaky." he said as you agreed with a, "you bet."

you looked back at him on your screen and smiled wider as you hatched a plan in your mind. "hey, what if... we tell your parents we have a huge project—or, just a test maybe—that we have to study for together because... because i'm the only one with legible notes so you have to come over tonight." you offered as miles raised an eyebrow at you. "you're serious? dude, you know how furious my mom can get, i snuck you out of my house so you wouldn't have to face it the last time she blew her steam off at me, i can't lie to her." miles rambled as you pretended to act scared.

"but it's not technically a lie, okay, we do have a big test next week! we just won't be studying tonight." you reasoned as miles ran a hand across the back of his head. "you're a bad influence on me, y'know that?" he remarked as you nodded slowly with a wide smile. "if being a bad influence means that i'm helping you live life outside of those four walls you're trapped in, i'm the worst influence of them all, then." you said with a grin on your face as miles gulped and smiled nervously. "promise you won't rat me out for this as blackmail?" "if you aren't ratting me out, i see no reason to rat you out." you said as miles nodded and got up from his bed, walking over to his door, telling his mom in spanglish that he needed to see you tonight to... study.

what a wonderful study buddy you were, no?

tags !! @k4tsu3 @fiannee @luvstarrstruck @toneystank-3000 @ii01vq @maxoloqy @solecitoszn

[canonically47]

As a way of saying goodbye to DC, what are your headcanons for where everyone ends up after All Stars?--review anon

ooooo such a cute question!!!!!! tysm for this

yul ends up being cancelled on his socials and he has to start working a regular job, he becomes miserable being yelled at and harassed by customers like he deserves yippee!

riya is also cancelled following the events of DCAS - seriously she CANNOT gain a following after this and she cannot find roles, realistically speaking - but she manages to sustain herself with her prize money for now. however, she does begin job hunting. it goes horrible for her, her digital footprint is too massive to ignore.

ashley continues living her quiet life on the farm with will, occasionally meeting up with lill & nick, as well as with jake, ally, lake and other contestants of DCAS! she even eventually reaches out to season 1 contestants left out, and organizes a get-together for the season 1 cast with everyone :)

ally, hunter & tess all eventually get together after a lot of denial and pining, and co-manage their channels. they become more and more popular, regularly attend cons, & overall just lead the awesome lives they deserve. tess also becomes popular for her art!

lake eventually gets into a qpr & goes to university to study psychology. she keeps in contact with aiden, james and friends she's made on DCAS. she goes on to live with rosa-maria after university, and the two will organize, years later down the line, a meet-up for the cast of season 2, even being kind enough as to invite yul and riya, although neither show up.

miriam gets to enjoy retirement by travelling around the world, sometimes even tagging along with friends, even with the group of james, aiden, lake and rosa-maria. why not :3

james & aiden continue travelling the world together, growing their following on social media, and eventually aiden pursues a career in theatre and earns a lot of success! i mean have you HEARD his VA sing. my god, can he sing.

ellie & gabby lead a happy life with ellie as an artist and gabby carries them with her income by becoming an environmental scientist !!

fiore moves in with alec, alec adopts fiore, and the two unlearn their bad habits together; alec, his bad parenting, and fiore, being this evil gremlin child. she still has her outbursts, but alec stops feeding into this idea that she is a monster or a mistake and pushes her to grow. the two also meet up with some other contestants, and eventually befriend rosa-maria, so she helps a lot with parenting tips :)

grett becomes a gym trainer & fitness influencer and uses her social media platform to encourage and lift up others. my queen

jake and tom begin dating and they talk a lottttttt of things out... and eventually tomjajakeden becomes a thing & they all move in together and it's awesome. tom and aiden aren't dating but the rest of them all are and it's kinda funny actually. tom also realizes he's aroflux and that explains a lot about how his identity has impacted his love life. they're unstoppable

also tom quits his job as a cop and becomes a firefighter instead. and gets an autism diagnosis. also jake gets a BPD diagnosis. and aiden gets a shit ton of piercings. and tom gets fatter. and james also gets a shit ton of piercings. and they're all happy together and they have movie nights and game nights and they love each other a lot

the cast generally meets a lot, the casts even merge at one point despite some of them never having been on DCAS. it's so funny how some of these guys meet. deadass alec and fiore go camping one night only to find they've come at the same camping site as kai and maggy. another time gabellie runs into dan at a bookstore. and so forth. they eventually get a super large groupchat and it's hilarious. they all meet sometimes and they have to book a huge venue it's so funny

also gabgrellie becomes real too why not. i love gabgrellie. grett moves in with them and they're all super cool and awesome and in love

maybe i should write some of these hmmm

[jjuwuni]

shortcut to heaven | yang jungwon x oc

pairings — yang jungwon x reader

genre — fluff, angst, college!au, fake dating trope, drama, occasional smut (minors dni please)

summary —  Two strangers seemingly cross paths, everywhere they go. 

Would they find their heaven among their chaotic lives? 

“ That’s right, I’m talking to you, ” Jungwon, THE Yang Jungwon, with his arm, outstretched, index pointing right at me, “ Do you want to be my girlfriend? Fake girlfriend, that is, so make sure you don't end up falling for me. ” With his right dimple in full view, he smirks at me. 

And that was the day my whole life turned upside down.

warnings — a SOCMED AU but with heavy narrations, fake dating trope with some twist n' turns, compared to my other stuff this one is definitely more on the cute, fluff side hehe so not much warnings in terms of content ! OT7 enha is present, as well as probably other 4th gen idols, will use nwjns minji as the faceclaim for y/n, alcohol, drunken mishaps, profanity, there might be slightly dark themes surrounding family and love, no mnc i assure you, making out, smut etc. will happen so minors 👀 watching you !

[ preview ] | [ 1 ]

A/N: hi there ! back with another update ! enjoy ^^ it's another jam-packed type of update hehe let me know what you guys think of it ! please don't be shy to comment or talk to me or anything, i always love it when i hear from you. also, taglist is OPEN! for this.

taglist: @jwnghyuns, @sparklingsjy

A FEW DAYS LATER .. (party time 🥳)

NARRATION — READER'S POV

Jin could only sigh, she knew her older brother was very protective of her and she couldn’t do anything about it. Her brother used to study in the same school, but later on, dropped out as he decided to pursue his music career. His band, “Spring Memories” got their big break from one of their songs going viral on social media, and he opted to be a full-time musician instead.

As much as their parents were against the idea of him dropping out, they were still supportive of him. Even though the money wasn’t consistently coming in, her parents have always been very encouraging people, showing both their kids their support in whatever it is they want to do.

One thing’s for sure, her older brother had always been there for her, even though they rarely see each other now.

@Vampire 🧛🧛🧛 ft. creepy dude

NARRATION — READER'S POV

To Jinae’s dismay, half of the night was spent trying to run away and hide from people. She wouldn’t say that she was the most popular girl in her school, that was Han Sooyoung’s title, rightfully so. Much like the four guys, she held as much influence as the other guys did – belonging to the top 1% of society, poised to inherit a huge company, beautiful, smart, the works. 

Even so, she would be lying if she said she hadn’t received offers to go out here and there. 

“Ugh, it’s so hard being this pretty, right? I can relate.” Says Sunoo as she sits beside him once people finally leave her alone. Jinae mustered out a grin with a small laugh, happy that her best friend had made light of the situation for her. 

“I just don’t get it, why does this happen?” She responds, her face sullen.

Sunoo could only roll his eyes, sliding a glass full of whatever kind of cocktail they were serving, “How many times do I have to explain this to you?” Sighing out heavily, he leaned over so that they’d be shoulder to shoulder, speaking loud enough over the bass-boosted music so that his best friend would get it through her thick skull, “Why do you think so many people come to watch you dance? You’re the best female dancer out there Jin, it's no question that you have people’s attention.” He couldn’t even fathom how his bestie hadn’t picked up on this all. 

“Plus, you know I have the latest gossip around school, right?” Sunoo takes a small sip before continuing, for dramatic effect, “Well, I heard people have been talking about whether you’re Team Sooyoung or Team Jinae. People talk about you two being the prettiest girls in school. It’s as simple as that.”

Even though Sunoo had laid it out piece by piece and even spelled it out for her, she still couldn’t understand why. Looking back, all her life she has heard that she was pretty, with her parents and friends even trying to convince her to go into acting or being an idol, or even join those survival shows on TV. 

But that just wasn’t her, it wasn’t her thing. As cliche as it was, Jinae didn’t want the attention. 

All she wanted was a quiet university experience, and for her to be able to graduate so she could get a good job to secure her family’s future.

Unable to come up with a response to Sunoo, she proceeds to down the rest of the cocktail in the glass she was holding onto, before reaching for another one.

Minutes passed and the pace at which she was drinking, coupled with the dizzying strobe lights and deafening music all contributed to her feeling intoxicated.

Jake was nowhere to be found, and Sunoo eventually got bored of sitting around and decided to take to the dance floor, being the life of the party as per usual.

Meanwhile, Jinae decided it was time to go to the bathroom.

Given, that she didn’t frequent this particular club much, along the way to the bathroom, she got lost, not knowing where to go. 

But it was there that she was met by something that changed the course of her night, or in this case, someone.

THE FOREVER "WTF HAPPENED LAST NIGHT" QUESTION

THE NIGHT AFTER (ft. the cutest wallpaper)

WHAT HAPPENED??? 👀 (we finally get the answer)

HAPPY MONDAY! 😆

NARRATION — READER'S POV

It was Monday morning and Jin's mind was everywhere but in the present moment. Sitting in class, she was currently in the process of spacing out, caught in her own little world inside of her head.

Truth be told, ever since that night at the club, she had been out of it. She hated it - the fact that she was still ruminating over what happened between her and Jungwon in the janitor's closet.

It all happened so fast, that her intoxicated mind couldn't keep up with it. All she could remember was finding Jungwon somewhat sulking in the closet, then engaging in a conversation with him about the dance club and her spewing out that she hated people like him.

The next memory she had then was her pinned up against the door. She could still remember that moment clearly, Jungwon's arms encasing either side of her head..

"Miss Park.."

His face was so dangerously close to hers. And in that moment she remembered thinking how beautiful the male's eyes were upclose. They were cat-like, almost as if he drew on some cat-eye on himself with an eyeliner.

"Hello?! Earth to Miss Park Jinae?"

And he smelled so damn good, too. Like musky, but with that shower-fresh smell. It was intoxicating, moreso than the god-knows-how-many glasses of cocktails she'd had that night.

Thankfully being pulled out of her trance by someone tapping her on the shoulder, she looked up, mouth slightly agape when she realized that she had been daydreaming this whole time.

Daydreaming about Jungwon, no less.

--

"Well, I'll see you later. I have to drop these off at the student council room." Jinae grumbled with a sulky expression, waving goodbye to Sunoo as best she could while balancing the high stack of papers on both her arms.

Because of her little trip to daydream land a while ago, their professor assigned her to do this as punishment for not listening during the lecture. Their teacher happened to be the student government's adviser, so it was only fair that she was given this task.

And as if her day couldn't get any worse, one second, she was on her way inside the student council room, and the next, she was on the ground, with sheets of paper flying everywhere, hearing a loud WHACKing sound before falling on her back on the floor.

It didn't quite register just yet that Jinae had been hit hard by the wooden door, not until she felt a stinging feeling on her forehead.

"O-ow.. what the fuck..." Was all she could say, trying to get her bearings and propping herself up with one elbow from the floor, while her other hand reached to rub at the painful spot in her head.

You know those teenage romcom movies where things suddenly go into slow-mo mode, as this tall, handsome guy approaches you and kneels down to check on you? Well, that was what Jinae was currently going through.

"Are you okay? I'm so sorry I didn't see you." Said the slender male with white alabaster skin. He had a white button-down on with black slacks, and silver-rimmed glasses to match.

Jinae stared at him, blinking her eyes repeatedly, as it finally dawns on her who the perpetrator was.

Park Sunghoon.

THAT SAME DAY... 😳

THE PLOT THICKEMS...

INTRODUCING ... SUNGHOON'S DUMP ACCT!

ANOTHER EYESEMOJI MOMENT?

[munson-blurbs]

I loveee your blog. I was wondering if you could do a fic about picking Eddie up from a party but he’s really really drunk and he promised his gf he wouldn’t go over board but he did maybe some angst and fluff. You can decide the rest. 🤍😁

Oops this got away from me. Sorry if it’s too rambly.

Warnings: some language, angst to fluff, insecurity

WC: 2.3k lol

--

You wish you could say you're sleeping when the phone ring at 2 AM, but you're still awake, cramming for your history test tomorrow. You've been staring at the review sheet for so long that the words start to go blurry. Eddie was supposed to study with you after his Corroded Coffin gig, but he never showed.

Brrrring!

The ring breaks your focus, and you grab the receiver before your parents wake up. "Hello?" you say cautiously.

"Hey, Y/N," it's Gareth. He sounds exhausted as he relays the message to you. "Eddie got wasted and is refusing to leave the bar until he can see you."

You sigh deeply, riddled with both concern and frustration. Eddie's on track to graduate this year--mostly due to your influence--and he's risking it all to get drunk on a random Tuesday night?

"Can you drive him to my place?" you ask, rubbing the bridge of your nose with your thumb and forefinger.

"Lemme ask," he replies, and you hear him call out: "Ed, we'll take you to Y/N, okay?"

"Noooooo," your boyfriend groans in the background. "Wan' her here nowwwwwww."

Gareth brings the phone back to his ear. "So, uh, that's a no-go."

"I'll be right there," you say through gritted teeth, pulling on your sneakers and grabbing your keys.

~

The Hideout is basically empty except for the members of Corroded Coffin. Eddie was slumped over in a barstool, resting his head on the counter. You march in angrily.

"C'mon, Eddie, let's go," you shake him awake. "We gotta get you home."

"Babyyyyyyy!" he exclaims, a drunken grin slowly stretching across his face. "Missed you s'much."

"You wouldn't have to miss me if you came over to study, like you promised," you counter, but you know there's no use arguing with him when he's this far gone.

Jeff scoots off of his stool and walks to you. "I'll help you drag his ass to the car," he offers, and you gratefully accept the help.

"Thank you guys for keeping him safe," you address the group, and they respond with weary smiles and a smattering of don't mention its.

You and Jeff guide Eddie to your car and usher him into the backseat.

"Wan' sit next to you, baby," he whines. "Wan' hold your pretty little hand and kiss your pretty little face."

You shake your head. "Lay down and just...be quiet, Eddie," you mutter, Jeff closes the door and wishes you good luck, and you thank him again before driving off.

"Y/N," Eddie pipes up from behind you, reaching out to touch your arm. You pull away as much as you can without jerking the wheel, "'re you mad at me?"

"We're not talking about this while you're drunk, Eddie," you respond shortly, annoyance evident in your tone.

He rolls over from his side to his back. "I hate when you're mad at me," he hiccups. "Just' wan' make you happy, sweetheart."

You want to scream at him, tell him that what would make you happy is him actually graduating this year, walking the across the stage to get his diploma, maybe even going to college with you. Instead, you clamp your mouth shut and focus on the road.

You leave your car running while you help Eddie out of the backseat and into the trailer. "You're not gonna stay?" he pouts, practically falling onto you.

"No," you reply tersely, "I have to get up in three hours to get ready for school. You know, that place you've been for six years? Where we have a huge history test second period?"

"Oh, shit," he exhales, and then laughs uncontrollably. "Yeah, fuck that place."

You bring him to his bed and place the garbage pail next to it. "In case you throw up," you remind him, heading for the door.

"You're really gon' leave me?" His laughs cease immediately; now, he looks like he's about to cry.

"Good night, Eddie," is all you can manage, too frustrated and disappointed to think straight.

~

Unsurprisingly, Eddie's not at school the next day. You successfully beg Mrs. Click to let him take the test tomorrow, saying that he has food poisoning. She buys the excuse, probably because of Eddie's newly-decent attendance record.

When he told you that he was determined to graduate, that '86 would be his year, you'd held him to it. You constantly reminded him of his goal, turned dates into study sessions, and had some pretty...fun rewards when he got answers correct. D-minuses and Fs gradually turned into C-pluses and B-minuses (with the exception of the "D" in O'Donnell's class, but you can't win 'em all).

You love seeing him motivated, tongue poking out of his mouth as he wracks his brain for vocabulary word definitions and math formulas. You love when he passes a test and hugs you tight, spinning you around, huge smiles on both of your faces. You love when he shows Wayne his grades with childlike enthusiasm, and the older man gives you a little wink.

You don't love Eddie's self-sabotaging behavior, and you plan to make that known.

That opportunity knocks earlier than you anticipate: he's sitting on your front steps when you pull into your driveway.

He looks up at you with his beautiful brown eyes. “Hey,” he says softly, fidgeting with his rings.

“Hey,” you respond. “Click said you can take the test tomorrow before school.”

“Thanks.” He bites his lower lip. “Can we, uh, can we talk?”

“Go for it. Explain to me why you thought getting plastered last night was a good idea.”

Eddie breathes out, puffing his cheeks. “After our gig, one of the regulars came up to me. He goes, ‘don’t see your girl out here tonight.’ And when I told him you were studying at home, he, um,” his eyes drop in shame, “he asked me what a smart girl was doing with someone like me.”

Your heart pangs with sadness, knowing how sensitive Eddie is about his intelligence, especially compared to yours. Still, it doesn’t excuse his behavior. “So a middle-age drunk makes a stupid comment, and you decide to get wasted?”

“He’s got a point, though,” he says sadly, “and it got me thinking...what if I don’t get into Indiana State with you?”

“First of all, he doesn’t have any point.” You take a seat next to him. “You’re smart; you just need help focusing on the right stuff. And second, we talked about that. You’ll go to Hawkins Community College for two years, get your grades up, and then join me.”

Eddie plows ahead, seemingly ignoring your response. “Or what if I get in, but I flunk out? Or realize that college isn’t for me?”

“Then you’ll figure out what you wanna do, Eds. There’s trial-and-error in it sometimes.”

He sighs. “I miss when I didn’t even try. Couldn’t be disappointed because I already knew I failed.”

You stand up and sling your backpack over your shoulder. “Sorry for ruining your lifelong pity-party.” You start to open the door, but turn around before the key clicks in the lock. “Y’know, Eddie, I really love you. I want you to graduate and experience new things, which is why I’ve pushed you so hard to study and go to class. But I can’t make you want it,” you give him a pointed look. “That has to come from you.”

“Well, maybe I don’t want that,” he shoots back. “And maybe we’re just too different.”

You take a step back. You’d thought this was just a typical argument, one that would be resolved with talking and time. “W-what are you trying to say?”

Eddie can’t even make eye contact with you; if he does, he’ll start to cry. “Thanks for talking to Click for me,” he mumbles, gets in his van, and speeds down the block.

~

Three weeks go by; weeks filled with tears and endless games of what-if that your brain likes to conjure up. Good things happened in that time, though: you found out you were accepted into Indiana State with a full scholarship. The first thought that crossed your mind, before even allowing yourself to celebrate, was I wonder if Eddie got in. That brought on a fresh batch of tears.

School is rough. You used to sit at Eddie’s lunch table, legs stretched out on his lap while he rested his arms on your thighs. You’d steal pretzels from his bag when we wasn’t looking, and he’d pretend to be furious when he’d inevitably catch you. Now you eat lunch alone in the library.

And the classes you have together? You do your best not to look at him, acting like he’s not even there. You’ve felt his eyes glance at you, but he quickly pulls them away. He’s made no attempt to reconcile, and you’re not about to force an unwanted relationship.

Finally, you decided to try and distract yourself, heading to Family Video to grab some movies. You definitely need to raid the comedy section, desperate to laugh after being sad for so long. You walk into the store, greeted by Steve saying, “Speak of the devil!”

He and Robin laugh at your confusion, so Robin explains, “We were just talking about you.”

“I figured,” you say amusedly. “Good things, I hope.”

“Just about how Harrington is going to fling himself off of Skull Rock if he has to hear Munson talk about you one more time.” Her answer is met with a subtle jab to the ribs from Steve.

You try to manage a chuckle. “Well, I’m sure he has nothing nice to say about me, since I ruined his ambitions of doing nothing for the rest of his life.”

Steve raises his eyebrows. “Oh, you don’t...she doesn’t know,” he turns to Robin.

“I don’t know what?” you ask, curiosity piqued.

“Um,” Steve hesitates, “Eddie’s still in love with you. He wants to get back together but he’s convinced himself you’ll say no.”

You roll your eyes. “He has a habit of thinking that, doesn’t he? I’ll reject him, colleges will reject him, the whole damn world will reject him.”

“Y/N,” Robin says softly, “isn’t that how it’s always been for him? His dad, the people at school...why would he think any different?”

Her words sink in, forming a pit in your stomach. “I guess...I just thought I showed him that I wasn’t like that.”

“And you did,” Robin reassures you, “but it’ll take time and patience for him to fully believe it. Right, Steve?” She turns to where Steve had been standing, but no one’s there now. “Uh, Steve?”

“Sorry,” Steve calls out from the break room. “Had to pee.” 

You and Robin share a small laugh. Neither of you realize that he was lying until you hear the familiar rumble of Eddie’s van outside of the store.

“Steve, what did you do?” you hiss as Eddie parks and jumps onto the pavement.

“I’m fixing things,” he says with a shrug, pulling you into the back room. You hear the chime jingle and Robin’s voice saying, “She’s in there,” and before you know it, you’re face to face with Eddie Munson.

“I have something for you.” He reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out a folded piece of paper. You only have to read the first two lines:

Dear Mr. Munson,

We are pleased to offer you admission to Indiana State University beginning in the Fall 1986 term.

“You got in.” A few weeks ago, you would have pulled him in for a kiss so passionate, his legs would’ve turned to Jell-O. Now, you only offer him a small smile. “That’s amazing. Are you gonna go?”

Eddie nods. “Yeah. I won’t know what’ll happen if I don’t try.” He laughs after he says the last part.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothin’,” he averts his gaze, “that’s, uh, that’s what Harrington said to me when I was nervous about asking you out.”

“He’s always been good at meddling,” you mutter, not unkindly.

Eddie steps towards you, his hand softly nudging yours. “As soon as I got this letter, all I wanted was to tell you. I picked up the phone so many times but I could never work up the courage to dial the number.”

“I’m really proud of you,” you tell him. “But you should do what you want to do, not what you think I want you to do.”

He shakes his head. “I want to give college a shot. Don’t get me wrong, I’m scared shitless,” he admits shyly, “but I didn’t work this hard for nothing.”

“Well, then, that’s really good,” you offer weakly. “I’ll, uh, see you around.” You start for the door, but his hand gently grabs your wrist.

“Wait,” he blurts out, “please don’t go.” There are tears in his eyes. “I didn’t come here just to show you that letter. I...I still love you Y/N. So much.”

You swallow the lump in your throat. “I still love you, too. But...you said...”

“I know what I said. And I was being stupid, a coward, running away when things got scary.” You reach over to wipe the tears from his cheeks, and he lets you. “We’re different, yeah, but in a good way. You remind me to keep focused and stay motivated, and I remind you to enjoy yourself and break the rules every once in awhile.”

“We do make a good team,” you concede, allowing yourself to really look into his eyes. They melt you immediately. “But, Eddie, you can’t be getting drunk and blowing off your responsibilities any time you feel insecure.”

He nods. “I know. I don’t want to do that. It hurts me and it hurts you.” He sniffles. “Please, please take me back.” He drops to his knees and wraps his arms around your waist, making you giggle.

“Get up, dingus,” you say between laughs, borrowing Robin’s favorite insult. “I’ll take you back on one condition.”

“Anything,” he says, holding up three fingers. “Scout’s honor.”

“Don’t become that douche on the quad who plays guitar for the sorority girls.”

Eddie leans into you, pressing a smiling kiss to your lips. “That’s easy,” he says as he pulls away. “I only have one girl I wanna impress, anyway.”

--

[darklinaforever]

Ignoring that Laena is their mother and Rhaenys treated them better because you want Daemon to seem like a good father when he’s not

I am aware that Laena is the biological mother of the twins. Here is what I say, as already explained in another post :

I'm not saying that we should completely put aside the fact that the twins are Laena's biological daughters and their Velaryon heritage, but the fact is that they are mostly characterized by the text of Fire and Blood as the children of Daemon, their only living biological parent, and that they simply have the names Targaryen, not Velaryon. And that, yes, Baela was literally the portrait of her father. So it seems ridiculous that the show seems to put aside the fact that the girls are Targaryens, and instead only seems to represent them as Velaryons and associates the girls mainly with Laena, or even Rhaenys, who again times, logically, cannot have as much influence on these girls as a grandmother, as their own father. Not in Westeros society. This is completely ridiculous. Father AKA Daemon who is completely sidelined in HOTD for his daughters. Which again is... stupid. Anyway, HOTD tries to be a feminist show, but completely fails on every point. It's distressing to see this in 2024.

And then sorry to disappoint you, but it's canon that Baela is a female version of Daemon in Fire and Blood. And Rhaenys never had any part in raising the twins either in Fire and Blood. And Daemon was never a bad father to the twins in Fire and Blood either.

And actually, there's no indication that he's a bad or horrible father in HOTD either, especially when we see Corlys, Otto, and Viserys in comparison. Sorry, but the single scene where Rhaena complains about being ignored by Daemon is not the ultimate proof in my eyes.

Especially when we know that the reason would be the lack of dragon and that... well with the character of Daemon who himself did not have a dragon before adolescence and even less of an egg of his own having hatched, and who has in fact studied the past of the Targaryen family which he admires very much, it doesn't make sense for him to ignore his daughter about this.

Rhaena's speech sounds mostly like that of any child with insecurities around siblings for me.

But whatever it is, the writers of this series seem to have a huge problem with the character of Daemon whom they constantly try to demonize.

[edoro]

@nerves-nebula 25m see now im curious about your opinion on her.. idk shit about shit (havent read enough yet)

(in reponse to this post)

my opinion about Elizabeth Loftus is largely negative lmao. i think that her work in the area of recovered memories of sexual abuse has been profoundly damaging on a cultural level.

so, Elizabeth Loftus is a researcher who specializes in the area of memory. she's done a lot of work around the reliability of eyewitness testimony in court cases and how witnesses can be led or influenced, which imo IS very good and valuable, i think it's pretty obvious why

however she is ALSO a major figure in the debate about the validity of recovered memories of sexual abuse (in general and also specifically as admissible evidence in court) and her position is that That Doesn't Happen. she has spent a huge chunk of her career fighting against the idea that people can recover memories of csa that they weren't previously consciously aware of.

she was on the scientific advisory board of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, a group that was created and staffed by people who were accused of sexually abusing their children. notable founding members of the group include the parents of Jennifer Freyd, a researcher who has done a lot of work around repression and recovery of traumatic memories, and who accused her father of having abused her as a child, which spurred him and her mother to found a whole foundation about how anyone who does this is a lying liar who lies.

(check out Freyd's book Betrayal Trauma for her theories about the mechanisms behind repression of childhood abuse)

the False Memory Syndrome Foundation contributed HEAVILY to the still-present social idea that repressed memories are fake, recovered memories are fake, people don't forget trauma, and anyone who claims to have recovered memories of childhood abuse as an adult is either lying on purpose or was misled and had memories implanted into them

(a brief sidebar: there ARE cases where i think it's valid and good to question a therapeutic technique or handling of witnesses. hypnosis therapy is highly unreliable because it puts people into a very suggestible state and then someone they see as an authority figure Suggests Things To Them. a therapist should not try to convince someone they were sexually abused on the basis of vague problems like anxiety and depression. there was a lot of questionable at best handling of child witnesses in the McMartin Satanic ritual abuse case, which is kind of what led to the wider cultural controversy about repressed/recovered memories.

however, i think we can also all see that a group of people who were accused of abusing their children creating a group to invent a syndrome where the primary symptom is "accuses your parents of abusing you EVEN THOUGH WE WOULD NEVER, you lying ungrateful brat" and then being widely believed is, maybe, throwing the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to this sort of thing)

Elizabeth Loftus has done a variety of experiments about the reliability of memory, such as the "lost in the mall" experiment, where researchers were able to get a significant portion of participants to believe a false story about them getting lost in the mall as children, and various ones testing people's ability to reliably recall small details from chaotic or disturbing scenes, like a video of a car crash or the scene of a crime.

she has then extrapolated from the results of these experiments - that people who see a video of a crime, then see a news report of the crime, will mix up facts from both, or that people whose parents tell them they were lost in the mall as a kid will believe they were lost in the mall as a kid - to conclude that it's impossible to accurately remember previously forgotten memories of being abused as a child.

this is all bullshit on a scientific level (i don't think you CAN reasonably extrapolate from her findings to how traumatic memories work, plus there are numerous other studies demonstrating quite clearly that people with 100% externally confirmed histories of sexual abuse can and do forget that it happened)

and also i think it's bullshit on a personal level, because i've had multiple experiences with both suddenly recalling a previously forgotten memory (traumatic AND non-traumatic) at various points in my life without anyone 'suggesting' them to me or 'leading' me to them, AND with getting reliable external confirmation from multiple sources who told the same story quite a while apart that i have forgotten a traumatic event i was present for, and even with being given details about it by multiple people, i still can't remember it happening

[accuratepicuresofanthropologists]

Franz Boas

Franz Boas was not the father of American anthropology. But the fact that so many people think he was shows how thoroughly his relentless energy transformed the discipline as we know it today.

Boas around age four

Boas was born in Germany in 1858. He grew up in the shadow of events that happened a decade earlier: The famous ‘Revolutions of 1848’, when people across Europe demanded an end to imperialism, monarchy, and the poverty caused by the Industrial Revolution. Boas grew up in a household of “forty eighters”, and became deeply committed to the ideals of liberty and progress which drove the revolutions. As a young man, Boas received a rigorous education and spent most of his free time outdoors, exploring the natural world. Like his idol Alexander von Humboldt, Boas combined a romantic wonder at nature's rich diversity with a naturalist's love of science, rigor, and classification.

Boas was Jewish, but not because he wanted to be. His parents were wealthy merchants for whom 'progress' meant shedding the ancient superstitions of the past. He didn't have a choice: Germany had given Jews the right to vote and own property, but remained an antisemitic place. Boas was labeled a Jew by others. So he learned to be fearless: In college when he was insulted he demanded a duel. He and his opponent would don goggles to protect their eyes, and then use their sabers to try to slash open each others’ face. “With the damn Jew baiters this winter one could not survive without quarreling and fighting.” He wrote his worried parents, reassuring them. “I remain unmolested since every student here knows that I would not be shy to defend my affairs with the sword.” He was not exaggerating. "He bears the mark of his German university training literally," the Maori anthropologist Te Rangi Hiroa noted, "in a somewhat disfiguring scar across his face". Indeed, one of the first things people noted about Boas were his scars.

Although he was academically gifted, Boas ended up doing a Ph.D. in the unprepossessing university of Kiel. His sister Toni was ill and the Boas family was tight-knit: He went to go live with her. The result was a miserable experience writing a Ph.D. on the color of seawater. His main discovery was that it was incredibly hard to measure the color of sea water. Later on, when he studied how perception is shaped by culture, these insights would come to help him. At the time, he was miserable.

Then love struck: Boas fell head over heels for Marie Krackowizer, a German-American lady whose family of “Forty Eighters” had fled to the US. She loved him too, but they could not be married until he got a job. For that, Boas needed to “habilitate”, a level of education above a Ph.D. He decided on a trip to the arctic, where he would study the influence of geography on Inuit people. He paid for it by writing an account of his travels for a German newspaper, and with a gift of money from the man who would be his principle benefactor in years to come, his uncle Jacobi. His parents insisted that he take along the gardener, Willie, so that he wouldn't be alone.

Boas posing in a German photography studio for an image to share with people demonstrating what his life had been like in Baffinland.

Boas spent a year in Baffinland, an island in the far, far north of Canada. The trip was unbelievably dangerous: Ships had to dock at the edge of the ice and then people would walk across the ice to the island. In the winter it was -40 degrees. Luckily Boas was energetic, focused, and driven by huge energy. He was the sort of person who was disgusted at himself for only working 20 hour days. He did research during the day and read Kant at night. Above all, he came to see Inuit people as people. "The more I see of their customs, the more I realize that we have no right to look down on them," he wrote to Marie in a letter that was spattered with the blood of the raw seal liver he had been eating.

Boas's trip was a success. He habilitated and married his sweetheart Marie. Together they created a loving and warm family. Professional success eluded him, however. Antisemitism made it difficult for him to find a job in Germany, so he moved to the US, where Marie’s family was — there were more opportunities there and Franz was also attracted to America as a land where his political ideals of liberty and freedom were more realized than they were in Germany.

Franz and Marie's wedding portrait.

Unfortunately, Boas found that there were few good jobs for geographers in the US. What people were interested in was Native Americans. Back in 1879 (when Boas was still in school) anthropology as a modern discipline was born in the United States. The goal was to understand the 'natural history of mankind', which in the US meant the origins of Native Americans. Were had they come from and what were they like? Previous answers -- tenuously derived from the Bible -- were clearly inadequate in light of new theories of evolution.

So Boas retooled himself as an anthropologist. He made multiple trips to the Pacific Northwest, a region that he is most closely associated with today. Still, he struggled. He got a dream job as a professor at Clark, a brand new university — only to have the university close down after a few years. He organized anthropological exhibits at the World's Fair at Chicago, hoping it would lead to a permanent position, but it didn’t. It was a dark time for Boas. His third daughter, Hete, was born in Chicago, caught whooping cough, and died in his arms. She was ten months old. Finally, Boas took a job at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and started teaching part time at Columbia. Finally in 1899, at the age of forty, he got a permanent position: He was now a faculty member at Columbia.

"Boas with the George Hunt family. Left to right, standing: David, George, Lalaxs'a, Mary (Ebbetts), Jonathan and Franz Boas. Sitting: Marion and Lucy. From row: Mary and Stanley" from Franz Boas: An Illustrated Biography

At Columbia, Boas was cutting edge. At a time when Harvard and Yale were just beginning to update their medieval curriculums, he had a Ph.D., the new research-focused degree that had made German universities world famous. Boas made history by being the first person in the US to offer a Ph.D. His students included Ruth Benedict, Edward Sapir, Margaret Mead, Robert Lowie, Alfred Kroeber, and many others.

Boas was also a tireless organizer, sitting on boards of journals, foundations, and associations. These positions allowed him to control funding and direct it to students. He was also a close friend of the millionaire feminist and activist Elsie Clews Parsons, who herself funded an entire generation of anthropological fieldwork. Boas worked his students very, very hard but also showed them tremendous loyalty. Boas not only lent money to students in times of need, in one case he signed on as a guarantor of a student loan, agreeing to pay it if the student defaulted.

Boas around the time he began working at Columbia.

True to his principles, Boas believed in meritocracy: If you could do the work, that was all that mattered. As a result he trained a generation of female students at a time when many universities didn’t accept female students at all. He also had few illusions about how much a white person could learn spending their summers on a reservation. For him, the best anthropologist was an insider with scientific training. As a result, he mentored scholars like William Jones (a Fox Indian) and Zora Neale Hurston.

 “Elsie [Clews Parsons] and colleagues at. Lounsberry, mid-1920s. On the porch, Elsie (in shadow on left) talks with Pliny Goddard; on the steps are Margaret Mead, Esther Goldfrank, Franz Boas, and Mrs. Nelson”. Via Deacon’s Elsie Clews Parsons. This picture illustrates the close ties Boas had with his students.

In fact, Boas was an uncompromising opponent of racism. Famously, in May 1906, he traveled to Atlanta University at the invitation of W.E.B. Du Bois and gave a speech claiming black people were biologically equal to white people. This was not a small thing in the Jim Crow South. Four months later, 25 black people were killed in Atlanta in a riot against black people that turned into a massacre. Then in 1909 Boas and a team of twenty researchers made 13,000 measurements of the children of immigrants to see whether they inherited their parents’ ’racial’ features. To his own surprise, Boas found that they didn't -- height, weight, and other factors were the result of the environment, not heredity. His students did similar research. Margaret Mead wrote a paper demonstrating the black people in the Midwest (where there was a strong public school system) did better on standardized tests than poor southern whites: schooling, not race, seemed to determine intelligence. Southern politicians repressed the study.

Boas’s relationship with indigenous people was more complicated. He was not a champion for Indigenous rights. He considered Native Americans conquered by the US and on the verge of cultural and biological extinction. His goal was 'salvage': to make a record of a disappearing culture the same way we have a record of Ancient Greece and Rome. He worked with many indigenous informants like George Hunt, who he paid to write letters detailing their customs. This relationship remains an object of scrutiny today: Did Boas exploit Hunt? Was Hunt Boas’s teacher and mentor? How much should someone be paid to write descriptions of salmon fishing in 1900 anyway?

Whatever we think of Boas’s relationship with Indigenous people today, at Columbia no one thought Boas was a friend to white people. He was considered a dangerous radical who had to be canceled. Not only did Boas attack the racial foundations of America, but when the US entered World War I, Boas was became a public enemy for opposing the war. Remember, this was a time when people where lynched for being German in the US. Columbia stopped paying him. They kept him from teaching undergraduates. They took space away from the department, leaving him with just his office. Boas was, essentially, canceled by the right.

What’s more, Boas's life was beset by personal tragedy. In addition to the death of his ten month old daughter in 1894, in 1924 his daughter Trudel died of polio. In 1925 his son Heini was killed in a car accident. Then in 1929 his wide died in a hit and run accident - the driver who hit her was never found. Boas's misery was palpable even before Marie's death. In 1927 he wrote to his son Ernst:

"I have not the light spirit of others and when I do not work, or else am intensely occupied with something else I can think of nothing but Trudel and Heini. They are there when I get up in the morning and when I stop work at night they are there… If I do not work these thoughts would destroy me." [L-Z v2 275]

Franz Boas featured on the cover of the 11 May 1936 cover of Time Magazine. In his old age, Boas's fight against racism became popular in America again as the US prepared to fascism in Europe.

Late in life Boas received the recognition he deserved, becoming a world-renowned scientist. In America, his anti-racist thinking became more and more recognized as America geared up to fight fascism. In Germany, an event was scheduled to give him an honorary degree. The degree was canceled and his books were pulled from the library and burnt by the Nazis. His last great work of activism was to help Jewish and leftist scholars flee the Nazis and get visas to come teach in America.

When Boas retired, he handed Columbia a gift: despite its attempts to derail him, he had created perhaps the greatest department of anthropology in the United States. And yet here failure dogged him. He had hoped his students Alfred Kroeber and Edward Sapir would come to Columbia to continue his work. Instead they stayed at Berkeley and Yale. His successor became Ruth Benedict, but she was then pushed aside by the administration and replaced by first Ralph Linton and then Duncan Strong.

Boas suffered many setbacks in his life, but he also overcame many obstacles. He lived an extraordinary life: Born before the Civil War, he lived to see the Pearl Harbor bombings. He trained the anthropologists who went on to start departments at Yale, Berkeley, Oregon, and many other places. He produced his famous “six foot shelf” — enough books on Kwakwakwakw that is longer than I was tall. After his death, his grandchildren and George Hunt’s grandchildren had a family reunion, and Hunt’s great grandchildren study anthropology in University. Despite his incredible age, Boas did not live to see just how influential he would become. Although he did not know it at the time, he became one of the few people Boas did not quite Although he may not have recognized or admitted it, he had in fact become one of the most important anthropologists in the world, and left an indelible imprint on the discipline for generations to come.

Sources: This was drawn from Rosemary Lévy-Zumwalt's two volume biography of Boas. The quote from . The reference to 1879 as the 'founding' date of anthropology comes from https://www.jstor.org/stable/658142?seq=1 . The Te Rangi Hiroa quote is from Na to Hoa Aroha volume 3. The blood stained letter is from George Stocking's "From physics to ethnology", p. 148

[thewayuarent]

Perfect victim Sand

(Except he’s not)

Sand is a quite interesting case to study. There are a lot of things to love about him and trust me I do. But. He is the closest thing we have in this show to the perfect victim idea. I mean, even Force jokes about it (god I love this man).

The thing is, I have a strong feeling that huge part of the fandom literally adopted him. Like you know, compensating him absent mommy and daddy. His mother is great woman, she’s loving and caring, but she is far from an actual parental figure - @emotionallychargedtowel made a great analysis on that topic and how it clearly influenced Sand.

Maybe that’s something about Sand being genuinely loving and caring character himself. Maybe it’s because we spend 5 episodes with him being absolutely adequate and not minding others business and by the moment of episode 6 the idea of Sand was already formed. Maybe it’s about Ray pulling Sand through a lot of shit. Maybe it’s something about First’s babygirl vibes, amazing microexpressions and his big boba eyes that easily penetrates the soul. Maybe it’s all the above and more.

But Sand gets the most I’ll protect him by all cost vibes (I get it, I want to protect him too, he’s my sad stupid baby, how can I not). And while it’s understandable to some degree, it doesn’t mean Sand is a victim in every situation he himself, series or fandom try to apply on him.

And yes, it’s specifically about Sand and Top beef. While we don’t know the full story yet, we know the basis: Sand had a lover, this lover cheated on him with Top. Right? Except that in Sand’s mind this story looks a bit different.

Not once, but twice Sand claims that Top “stole his lover”. And I’m sorry to bring it to you, my precious sad baby with big beautiful eyes, but your lover is a human being. They’re not a car, or watch, or a cow. They are a person. And as a person they make decisions.

Unless we’ll find out that Top literally put a bag on their head and dragged them away into his basement, Top didn’t stole anyone. This person cheated on you. It sucks, I get it (Mew probably gets it even better than me). It hurts a lot. It’s absolutely not Sand’s fault. But it’s not Top’s fault either.

Yes, hitting on someone’s lover is a douche move (if Top knew about Sand and didn’t care and I wouldn’t surprised but we don’t know for sure). Yes, Top is an arrogant jerk who behaves like a toxic bitch with anyone except for Mew. Yes, in that hospital scene I kind of wanted to punch him in his hot smug face.

But Sand’s lover cheating is not his responsibility.

And Sand’s choice of actions is stealing and spreading fucking revenge porn. Where is not only Top he hates so much but also Boston who did to Sand what? Made an ugly scene on his birthday and ruined his whatever it was with Ray? Bitchy behavior 100%, but not on, you know, illegally recorded sex tape level.

He regrets it later, but two people he apologized to - rightfully so - are Ray and Nick. Not, you know, Boston for example.

I mean, how the thing Sand did with Top is different from the thing Mew did with Boston? In details - yes. In motivation and general action - the same shit.

And I know that the majority of saving Sand agenda is directed towards his relationship with Ray. I get it. I feel it (I have a very complicated mix of very complex feelings about that one but I digress). But I do feel that Sand isn’t criticized enough for his actions towards Top (and Boston).

Compare it with the amount of criticism towards:

1. Nick recording and using TopBoston footage;

2. Boston recording and using RayMew footage;

3. Mew stealing and using Boston footage;

The only person I doubt here to criticize hard is Ray cause while he got and resend this fucking sex tape and I do think it was wrong I kind of understand his situation. I mean he did receive it passively not actively and I doubt Mew believed him without proof. It still sucks from his side to use it and I don’t forgetting him but he was kind of a tool not a participant so yeah.

All of them are clearly wrong and deserve discussion about their behavior and all the critique they get. But so as Sand. The thing is, Sand is not a victim of Top.

Top is a victim of Sand.

And it’s absolutely not about Top being good or bad or Sand being good or bad it’s really about humans being complex and depending on that specific situation. It’s always about complexity and context.

Sand is, if generalizing, a good person. But he also selfish by some degree and categorical and has some deep trauma over his ex lover. And he does fucked up stuff.

That’s why I found Sand’s attitude towards Mew especially interesting. With MewTop situation he probably didn’t really care but at some level had a sense of justice. In his eyes, Mew is as victim of Top as he was. So Mew deserves to know the truth.

But with MewRay? And that’s where the fun (and also clear speculations) begins. Sand doesn’t have a beef towards Mew about Ray loving him and prioritizing him over Sand, at least for now. Maybe because he learned something through his last relationship, but with his behavior towards Top I doubt it. It’s probably partially because Ray is technically not his lover or boyfriend or monogamous partner - he doesn’t owe Sand anything and while he’s angry and sad he understands that.

But it may also be about the Mew technically being there first. You know, how Sand was with his lover until Top appeared. Ray loved Mew way before he even knew Sand exists. It’s actually Sand in this analogy who takes Ray away from Mew (not that he knew about it or Mew cared but you get my point). So Sand doesn’t blame Mew for being with Ray. He probably - understandably so - blames Ray for playing with his feelings and also blames himself for falling into it.

And now here is a part when I just speculate about cool plot line we’d probably never get so feel free to stop reading now. Like for real. So Sand is fine with Mew and, honestly, good for him. My question is: if Sand will buy this RayMew relationship thing. And then Ray gets back to him. Will he resist temptation?

We have a small chance that Sand will get some self respect and won’t take Ray back immediately, of course. But in a case of Mew. If Sand is stupid enough to believe there is something happening between Ray and Mew from Mew’s side, will he stay away cause of respect towards Mew and their relationship? Or will he “play Top card” and - how was it? - steal Ray to himself?

Cause oh my lord he wants Ray for himself. He can agree with Nick and his “I don’t want be his first and only it’s enough to be with him” as much as he wants but we all know that even Nick doesn’t really think so. Sand probably also doesn’t want to deal with Ray at all by that point but totally opposite desires can coexist.

It would be really interesting to watch his internal conflict about being better person but still losing to his desire plays out but I really doubt Mew and Ray will last long enough to us see it.

[mbti-notes]

Anon wrote: Helloo, I'm a 24 year old INTP woman. I've been reading your blog for 6 years now. Back then I knew about type but not typology and cognitive functions. Your blog made everything very clear, as well as fascinating, so thank you very much for that.

I was interested in psychology, because I felt inadequate then and had a hard time relating to people. I wanted to achieve a lot so I knew I had to work on my weaknesses first, to balance everything. MBTI theory showed me exactly what those were. The stress was big too at the time, I was alone, abroad for my studies and I'm from a third world country, the adaptation was hard and I struggled a lot with that as well as other hardships due to material conditions.

Anyway, for years I've read some of your recommendations and digged deeper into the human's psyche. Into psychology and social sciences as a whole, even though I'm in a STEM field. I tried my best to work on my emotional intelligence and really choose a career path taking into consideration my type and aspirations, even going against my parents will to do so.

Since I've been working on this for so long and with awareness, I'd like to test my maturity, what can I do to know if I'm well-developed ? If I have a good grasp of my functions ? If I worked through my traumas ? Them, being beaten for the slightest thing as a kid. I'd love to tell myself that I do, but I don't think I have enough perspective to test it objectively, so what do you think?

Thanks a lot in advance, you're really doing an amazing work, stumbling upon your blog felt like finding a hidden treasure in some lost island in the vast ocean. One must be lucky and aware of its value to recognise the remarkable craftsmanship you put into it. You have my admiration for that. Wishing you the best in life 🙌

----------------------

I appreciate your kind compliments. Funnily enough, I also treat my blog as a hidden treasure chest of sorts. It's a place I stash gems and pearls (of wisdom) that I've picked up. I make them rediscoverable rather than just leaving them in the junk drawer of my mind, lol.

The way you frame the question is rather narrow given that "maturity" is quite a big and complex concept. If your question was sparked by reading the ego development section, there are reliable ways to assess it, but doing so isn't likely to provide you with useful information. There are a wide variety of factors that influence maturity, so it's not something that can be changed through sheer force of will. The process of maturation must be respected and allowed to progress at its own pace, rather than forced toward some imagined result.

Because maturity is such a huge topic, I'll limit the discussion to what I believe is relevant to INTPs. One thing I've noticed is that INTPs tend to confuse "development" and "growth". To be fair, these two words are often used interchangeably and their definitions can be quite vague in psychology. I'll explain how I distinguish them:

Development is about improvement of your ability to make good use of the inner resources you already possess. These resources include things like your talents, skills, and constructive traits that help you reach important goals or milestones in life.

Growth is about transformation, which usually involves a dramatic change to your attitude, perspective, worldview, or self-concept. When you "grow as a person", there is a significant shift in how you conduct yourself or live your life.

If you're science oriented, you can think of development as doing things to increase mechanical efficiency and quantifying the progress, whereas growth is like an unpredictable chemical reaction that creates a qualitatively new state of being. To distinguish development and growth in this way is not to say that they are separate. Purposeful self-development is one important factor that contributes to growth, but it is not enough in itself to cause growth. When INTPs believe that development is the same as growth, they hit an invisible wall as soon as they possess enough self-confidence to handle most of life's problems. What are they missing? Making good use of intellectual abilities, materializing talents, and improving skills will certainly help you be a more capable or competent person, but it doesn't necessarily help you grow into a more mature person.

Maturity (as defined by the stages of ego development) isn't a skill you can work on systematically like math or violin, and it isn't even an end goal in itself. Maturity is a side-effect of sustained psychological growth. If you want to know how to become more mature, then a focus on self-development isn't enough, it is also necessary to understand what spurs psychological growth.

If growth is like a chemical reaction that creates a qualitatively new state of being, then an important aspect of growth is actively exposing yourself to new experiences that have the potential to alter your psychology. Such experiences could be as simple as changing up a stale daily routine or as complex as moving to a completely foreign country. The key point is you are continuously learning new and important life lessons. This is why greater maturity also implies greater wisdom. Wisdom isn't just about what you know or how much you know; it's about being able to apply what you know with enough nuance, sophistication, and adaptability to create objectively good or beneficial results in everything you do.

Another difference between development and growth is there could be one method of development that works for many people for self-improvement, but there is no simple formula for growth. A new experience that significantly alters your psychology might have no effect whatsoever on mine. Why? Each person has their own unique lessons to learn based on what's happening deep in their unique psychology.

If you must learn from life experience in order to become mature and wise, then is it worthwhile to control what kinds of life experiences you have? Yes and no. Oftentimes, the experiences that provide the most opportunities for learning are the ones you find most challenging. Challenges usually bring some pain, so people tend to avoid them rather than use them as opportunities for growth. You shouldn't just randomly take on each and every challenge you see, but you also shouldn't exert such extreme control over your life that you miss out on unexpected or fortuitous challenges that would spur growth. The challenges you get to control are things like: pursuing higher education; stepping out of your comfort zones; confronting painful memories; talking to people you disagree with; etc. The challenges you don't get to control are things like being born into a dysfunctional family or suffering a tragic loss. Unexpected challenges are just as, if not more, important because they strongly compel you to build strength and resilience.

The advantage of knowing type theory is you get to know yourself better, especially when it comes to being aware of the challenges that you inflict upon yourself because of flawed perception and judgment. Being able to spot the weaknesses of your personality opens up many opportunities for learning and growth.

Are you able to identify all your patterns of function misuse? What do those patterns tell you about your challenges?

Are you successfully minimizing/mitigating instances of function misuse in your everyday life, i.e., meeting your challenges?

Are you able to use your functions optimally, i.e., to apply them appropriately and wisely to form a healthy relationship between yourself and the world?

Have you built up a healthy sense of self and practice proper self-care through introverted function development?

Have you learned how to adapt well to your environment(s) through extraverted function development?

Are you striking a good balance between the introverted and extraverted sides of your personality (i.e. neither is extreme)?

If you are on the right track in type development, life doesn't necessarily get easier, but you become much more adaptable to life's challenges. The results you get should speak for themselves.

If you are a mentally healthy individual, the desire for progress and growth never really ends, so it's natural to wonder about what more there is for you, especially in times when life is going relatively well. However, asking how to "test" yourself is kind of a suspicious question to me because it makes me wonder what the underlying motivation is. Sometimes, it's an indication that there's something wrong with the approach. A "test" implies there's a formula, but maturity doesn't work that way. You say you don't have the perspective to test yourself objectively? That is precisely how you know you have more maturing to do. When your perspective seems too small, then there's something you need to learn in order to broaden it. But I can't tell you exactly what that something is. You'll know it the next time you experience true growth. To paraphrase Kierkegaard: Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. This is the difficulty of being human.

What I can say is, at 24, you haven't lived much. You've still got much more ahead of you than behind you. You have a lot of lessons yet to learn. Personality type only tells you that some of those lessons have to do with your functions. But the rest is unpredictable. Some lessons come with the mistakes you'll inevitably make throughout life. Yet more lessons will come with the ups and downs of fate. And even more lessons will come as you get much older and gradually lose all the things you hold most dear.

If you want, I can give you some questions to reflect on for building self-awareness. Maybe some of them can lead you toward growth.

What sorts of thoughts frequently run through your head?

What feelings do you frequently experience?

What is your overall mood most of the time?

Are you aware of your needs and do you attend to them well? Are you aware that you have physical, emotional, cognitive, social, esteem, aesthetic, spiritual, and transcendent needs?

Are you aware of your passions and joys and give yourself enough space to experience them regularly?

Are you aware of your wants and desires? Are you able to explain where they come from or what motivates them?

Are you aware of your identity? Are you able to describe the things that define you as an individual? Are you able to explain how those things came to define you?

Are you aware of your worth? Are you able to describe your method of appraising/evaluating yourself, explain why you use that method (and not some other method), and justify that it is a good method?

Are you aware of how you are perceived by others? Are you able to express yourself authentically? Are you able to recognize and respect the authentic expressions of others?

Are you aware of the roles/positions you occupy in society? Are you aware of how those roles/positions affect your relationships with the people around you? Are you aware of all the duties, obligations, and responsibilities you have to yourself and others?

Are you aware of your moral values and how well you abide by them? Are you able to explain how you came to adopt them?

Are you aware of your core beliefs about how the world works? Are you able to explain how they came into being and how they influence your behavior?

Are you aware of the criteria/standards you use to define "success"? Are you able to explain their origin and justify them as being the most appropriate criteria/standards to use?

Are you aware of your aspirations? Are you able to explain why you've set the life goals you have previously pursued, are pursuing now, or will pursue in the future?

Are you aware of your potential? Do you have an ideal self that you wish to become? If so, are you able to explain how you came to construct that image of yourself? Are you able to envision more than one possibility for expressing who you are (other than what you are at present)?

Are you aware of your guiding principle/philosophy of life? Are you able to explain where it came from or why you chose it?

Mature people understand themselves more deeply than the average person. Depth of self-knowledge is necessary for making wise decisions in life. When you have meta-awareness of yourself, such as your needs, desires, preferences, strengths, weaknesses, motivations, biases, etc, you'll eventually be able to transcend your subjectivity as needed in order to operate more objectively. When your perspective seems too small (i.e. subjective) as an INTP, then you ought to use Ne to actively expose yourself to new knowledge/experiences that expand your horizons. By doing this, you should eventually encounter challenges that spark growth reactions.

[archangeldyke-all]

There’s so many things you noticed that I didn’t lol. I think that yes, the guy pulling the chain was ekko. He looks different cuz of no paint and new hairstyle but that him I’ve stared at it for hours.

Okay, I think I’ll just do that lol. It’s just that I prefer to talk with ppl person to person instead of like I’m groups with reboots and stuff. And arcane is going to make me sooo anxious? Excited ? Idk it’s gonna make my heart race and I want to rant about it really well knowing someone is reading yk ? I’m an anxious person and so many things happen in fandom that I barely interact when things are intense. I usually just wait for it to chill. But I can try that; watching as it comes out. It will be good cuz I also won’t be able to keep my excitement at bay hahaha.

This might be annoying, but I’m not a huge fan of Caitlyn, so I get what you mean by how she’ll probably be the character to annoy you the most this new season. I don’t hate her; I just really cannot stand her ignorance and naivety. It really irritates me how she really genuinely has not clue if he reality of things; while being overconfident in her opinions lol (like, “it looks like they bury dead ppl in there” when looking at VI’s home; or “what ? You don’t have parents ?”. Very small examples but the others are too long to talk about lol).

I won’t blame her for wanting to kill Jinx though. But if Ambessa really is manipulating her, I’ll never see her as anything more than a victim. An annoying victim lmao. I don’t know how to ignore abusive behavior, so it’ll be Ambessa then cait cuz despite being manipulated she’ll be doing some horrible shot that won’t help anything at all and it’ll be so frustrating to watch cuz that’s just one of the consequences of her naivety. (Also, how did you get the idea that Ambessa would ? I’ve seen ppl saying that too, but like I don’t notice all these small details all the time :(

And Viiii. There was this physical event organized by like RIOT or sth where they showed an exclusive sneak peak of Vi in her street fighter era (these are not the leaks since they’re official but it was a private viewing and no devices were allowed) and a YouTuber (schnee) that watched it talked about the clip and like made his predictions for the season. I’ve been so excited to see her since I saw his video (again, these are not the leaks but a sneak peak where the vibe was a you-had-to-be-there type vibe). I feel so bad for Vi, she doesn’t deserve anything that’s happening to her😪

I’m not a CaitVi shipper, but yeah I think I’d love to see their kiss too; or like, the start of their relationship being more than yearning. I don’t understand their ship fully but I’d like to see how they decide to be together after all this chaos. It would be very interesting cuz both of ‘em are entangled emotionally in a mostly negative way. What with the whole ‘my sister killed your mother and now you wanna kill her’ thing.

And ouuuu, I know Ambessa is hot but I hope she dies😞. She’s too obsessed with war smh. (I just thought of like, doing a character study on that lol. Like, why didn’t she think to actually do sth peaceful and productive? Why was her first thought ‘they’re must be war for peace to rain’ lol.)

Anyway, ppl were saying on the YouTube video that they aren’t showing Victor, Jayce and Mel to keep ppl in suspense or sth.

I really hope they don’t kill sevika off cuz I will actually also not want to watch much. Though I love the characters so I’d have to take a break if they do that. Even if they do, she’ll never be dead to me.

I don’t have any predictions for the season cuz I hate being wrong about them and wi to bathe way things are going, one can never be so sure tbh. I love your prediction though. It makes sense.

yes!!! i think the most fascinating thing about cait's character is her whole personality is trying to get out from under her parent's control, wealth, and influence-- but she's always falling victim to someone else's control, wealth and influence. whether it's by joining the enforcers-- piltover's military, essentially, where the lower levels are constantly controlled by their bosses, who are controlled by the council-- or by teaming up with ambessa!!! the writers are so fucking good at making characters make sense-- of course a naive rich girl would run from one system of corrupt power to another-- she doesn't know that they're all corrupt, she hasn't been hurt by them enough to see through the different facades because she's rich!! (but she will always have a special place in my heart... that scene where cait's out in the rain talking to jayce and she goes 'i suppose i've always been an outcast too' or something?? gets me everytime. tears streaming down my cheeks. that little lonely rich lesbian :( )

HAHAHAHA i agree with you 100% about ambessa, but i think unfortunately, she's the least likely to die this season. she's just too powerful and domineering and influential. but idk!! we'll see, arcane has a good way of killing off important, powerful characters.

i feel really bad for vi :( i wish she just had a few minutes to, like, breathe. she literally gets busted out of prison after 10ish years just to track down her sister, and the only reason she's not thrown back in is because of her relation to cait, which means she's indebted to her forever, but then cait goes and tries to kill her sister and her sister tries to kill cait and she's only been out of jail for like 72 hours!!! she needs a spa day. and some weed. give her a break omg.

i'm not a super big caitvi shipper either (mostly for the reasons said above, their relationship is so rushed and co-dependent) but i feel like i gotta root for lesbians life gives me lasjdflksa;dlfj. and i think it would be refreshing to see a show with writing like arcane's do a lesbian sex scene (or something intimate)-- because i have confidence the writer's wouldn't make it a cheesy lesbian porno hahaha

[alicenpai]

✨ MY STORIES 💫

(page under construction, check this post occasionally since it will be continuously updated! page created Apr 14 2023, last updated Dec 28 2023.)

Art tag of my characters (all)

Lost and Found Children

The Magician’s Protegee

Both of these stories are near and dear to my heart. Due to life obligations like school in the past, work, convention/merch schedules, I unfortunately haven’t progressed in these stories as I would have liked over the years. My dream is to one day create stories that impact people, as other people’s stories have changed me.

⭐

LOST AND FOUND CHILDREN

Synopsis: A search for their missing parents lead twins Flynn and Nate to fall into a deep darkness, unraveling secrets about their family and the country they once trusted.

Lost and Found Children is a story about mystery, overcoming trauma, blood family vs found family, the fear of growing up even in adulthood, the fear that you are not who you wished to grow up to be. The characters explore their identities in a post-war torn society, and witness their love being tested in that wildly changing world.

The story explores the horrors of war, and is also a study on the horrors of child abuse and when child rearing is left in the wrong hands, which can have devastating lifelong consequences. More importantly, it is a story about how love persists despite all odds.

Fun trivia:

The story has changed settings many times, from a tragic Victorian familial drama, to a modern school mystery, a 1920s crime drama, now it’s a historical fantasy.

This is a story I’ve been writing since I was 13 years old. The current iteration is from 2019, and I started revamping it as part of a school project. As it is a very old story that I literally grew up with, revamping it seriously has been a huge task, finding difficulty in deciding whether I should remove, keep, or add things like themes and characters. As of right now, a number of characters are still very much unrefined!

Flynn and Nate are not actually my oldest OCs.

Inspirations:

Growing up, I consumed a lot of Japanese media, and I mix what I learn from real world history with series that have impacted me a lot, like Fullmetal Alchemist, Pandora Hearts, Violet Evergarden. I draw influences from these periods: the industrial revolution in England & the west, late 1800s England, and early 20th century American history, especially the interwar period.

For the character designs, I'm inspired by historical fashion and JRPG aesthetics. My aim is to design them more simply and more humbly (a la Ryoko Kui style), but I still try for a whimsical old world look, bordering on fantastical. I do want a bit more steampunk look to my story moving forward, and that's an aesthetic I need to experiment with and study in my artwork a lot more often.

🌱

THE MAGICIAN’S PROTEGEE

Synopsis: In a distant, idyllic future where robots and humans coexist - a healthcare android lives day to day with his adoptive daughter, patients, and their ragtag android and human friends.

The story is a light-hearted, slow-paced, slice of life series - but it will also deal with complex topics like artificial intelligence, existentialism, and the fear of outliving the people you care about the most. THE MAGICIAN'S PROTEGEE IS UNDER HIATUS. (as of Nov 2023)

Fun trivia:

This story used to be about the Victorian occult (hence the title), also about a doctor who saves people from the ghouls that plagued Victorian society. However, without a greater purpose to the story, and only using the setting as a cool backdrop, it was a "monster of the week" series that I didn’t have any interest in writing. I scrapped the Victorian setting, in favour of writing a fantasy world I could fully have control of. It’s very different from LaFC, but it’s also a story I wish to tell from my heart. LaFC is like, the moody night story, and TMP is the sunny day story.

The current iteration is from 2020, also developed for a school project. As I was much older (than 13 haha) when creating this series, I had a pretty clear image of the story and its themes compared to writing LaFC.

Inspirations:

The inspiration for the world building comes from series like Eureka Seven, Kino's Journey, and Aria (Kozue Amano). I also draw a lot of inspiration for world building and writing from American post WWII/cold war society and culture, especially the boom in science fiction and spy fiction. I also take inspiration from early-mid 20th century Hong Kong, China, and Japan for worldbuilding and setting - their visual motifs, response to western technology and changing attitudes and culture.