#literacy might be dying after all

[stormoflina]

I just went to twitter and it's actually insane how hateful people are towards Dominik for that joke.

It's one thing to be stupid, but to be loud AND stupid? That's a whole other violation.

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

dual-part fic prompt: first a moment where nikolai ran across the darkling as a little boy, potentially even a scene where he'd broken into his private rooms and was hiding or something, and then a moment where he's mocking nikolai sometime circa R&R or KOS just before the monster takes over again (can be real or a hallucination)

Not the exact same concept but I was already working on a one shot with vaguely similar elements! Pre KoS I had a lot of thoughts about the Darkling resurfacing as basically a voice in Nikolai’s head. So I’m leaning into that with this.

***

At first, Nikolai thinks he is going mad. Ever since that fateful night, where he plummeted from the sky, still more monster than man, the Darkling’s power rapidly fading from him, but not quickly enough, he’s felt it. There’s an ice in his chest, always with him, an invasive presence chilling him to the bone. There are thoughts, urges, he doesn’t quite understand, that don’t quite feel like his own. When he dreams, even his nightmares aren’t fully his.

He might dream of meat, of sprouting talons and wings again, of losing sanity and taking flight. Or see his family dying at that last wretched dinner in his honor, gruesome memories from the army, from his time at sea. Those things are horrible, but they’re familiar. They’re not foreign things lodged into his mind.

Other nights though, he dreams of traveling endlessly, changing names with every village and city, always looking over his shoulder for fear of being discovered. Of hands holding him underwater, in an iced over lake. But in the most frequent dreams, he is only terrified of being alone in the all-consuming dark.

Then there are the dreams of Alina. Her hands, her neck, the feel of her. The way her face betrays her every single emotion. And the collar. Always the collar. Mine, a quiet, resentful voice whispers to him. She should have been mine. Mine to shape, mine to guide. My balance. My right.

It would be simpler to call it madness. But of course, Nikolai would never have such good fortune.

He’d hoped it— whatever it was— would go away with time, that it was just a matter of readjusting to life as a mere mortal again. That it was only the simple business of becoming reacquainted with trivial civilities such as speech, and literacy, and complex thought. But no, even as his monstrous foray feels more and more like a dream, Nikolai continues to feel distinctly altered.

Sobachka, he’ll hear the ghost of the Darkling say in his head. In the dark of night, half-ensared by sleep, when he will not fully remember. Usurper, he calls him. Thief. You foolish, boy-king. Your life is like a flicker of a candle, snuffed out before it’s begun.

The voice persists, grows stronger with each passing day, seeping into his waking moments. A nagging, bitter thing, a wound he cannot help but worry at, and feel it grow even more painful, inflamed.

Sometimes when the nightmares are at their worst, they’ll leave him thrashing in his bed, stumbling out of it with a will he doesn’t fully understand. Sometimes he’ll come to in the halls of the Little Palace, having slipped past multiple sets of guards, and through the wooded tunnel in his sleep. Usually he wakes before he gets too far— after all it’s always the same route, to Alina’s door.

This time, he wakes with his fingers— always stained with black, he still shudders at the sight of them— curled around the cool metal door handle. He recoils, almost stumbles, and he is about to turn away, but then the door opens a crack and he can see her peering out at him.

“Nikolai?” Alina says, voice raspy like she’s been asleep or perhaps crying. He can see the warm glow of lamplight behind her. She’s told him she cannot stand the dark anymore. That makes two of them.

He runs a hand through his hair, not quite fully awake yet. That dreaming urge to be near her still eating at him. “I’m sorry, did I wake you?”

“Is something wrong?”

Tell her you’re pathetic, a drowning child, foolish enough to wade out into the sea. Instead he blinks, tries to smile. “I couldn’t sleep.”

She finally opens the door all the way, gesturing for him to come in. His gaze flickers to the antlers at her neck, the scales at her wrist, and the second fetter, bone white but delicately carved into the shape of talons clasped around her other wrist.

He always wonders if she’d requested that bit of obfuscation, or perhaps David had been feeling artistic. It’s weakness. Even now she refuses to face difficult truths.

She ushers him through the impersonal audience chamber and to the hexagonal bedroom all in shades of black. He wonders idly if she’ll ever change it.

She fusses over him to sit by the fire. He hadn’t realized he was shaking.

“I’d ring for tea,” she says. “But you hate it, and it is unreasonably late.”

“It is an abominable hour isn’t it? I’m sorry for disturbing you.”

She smiles faintly, fetching glasses and a bottle of brandy instead. He takes his own glass gratefully, tries not to spill it. He wonders how drunk he’d have to be before he stops hearing that cool voice in his head, trickling through his own thoughts like meltwater.

It hasn’t quite been a year since the Shadow Fold was destroyed. Since she drove a dagger in the Darkling’s heart to do it.

Nikolai doesn’t remember this part, or well, he shouldn’t remember, he wasn’t back to himself by then. But somehow he knows. The roiling, cold thing, whatever remnant of the Darkling still exists inside him, it remembers. How could I forget? When I was so close to my purpose, so close to lifting this country out of its misery.

After all was said and done, Alina had quietly accompanied him back to the capital. The Saint at his side to bolster his claim. She’d weathered the coronation with him and the chaos of drawing Ravka back from civil war.

But mostly she just sequesters herself in this room and its funerary elegance. He wonders if she likes it because it’s so miserable, or simply because it belonged to the Darkling. It’s a strange shrine to a dead man.

He’d proposed to Alina yet again, after everything, and she’d rejected him firmly enough that he’s resolved that it will be the final time. It had stung though, so much that he doesn’t like to think about it.

Even an orphan girl that comes from nothing will not have you. How humiliating.

Nikolai wants to say, if certain dreams are anything to go by, then it appears you’re in the same boat. But he catches himself before he does.

The most frustrating part of this, beyond the confusion and the unnerving distraction of having a foreign voice nattering in his head, is that more often than not he cannot reply. Nikolai has always been uniquely terrible at keeping his mouth shut. Over the years he’s become very adept at knowing the right thing to say, but simply staying silent is not one of his strengths. It’ll be just what he needs, walking around arguing with an invisible adversary.

He can see it now. Mad King Nikolai, remembered for his good looks and the pesky habit of interrupting nearly every conversation with entirely irrelevant, but admittedly clever, insults.

Alina lets him drink in silence, waiting for him to collect himself long enough to speak.

“There’s something wrong with me,” he says finally, more bluntly than he’d like.

“What do you mean?”

There’s too much open concern in her eyes, startlingly dark next to the rest of her face. This close he can tell that she has been crying. For her tracker no doubt. Wasted tears on an otkazat’sya who was only ever born to die.

He must really look wretched, because she touches his face gently. It’s meant in simple comfort but for a helpless moment he wonders if she’s trying to hurt him.

That’s pity on her face. She sees you for the broken, repulsively frail thing you are. A clock with a missing cog, a puppet with cut strings. Pathetic.

The firelight catches in her pale hair, makes it into a halo. It gleams off the amplifiers too, turning the bone white of them to a warm gold. He doesn’t like the way his eyes keep catching on them. And the place on her shoulder, where beneath the nightdress, he shouldn’t know she has a scar.

He pulls away, looking to the fire, the rest of the room, anything but her.

Despite everything, his wounded pride and his wounded heart, he’s glad now that she knew better than to accept his hand. Perhaps she sensed it somehow. How he is still stained by the Darkling’s mark.

“I’m not entirely certain yet,” he tells her, attempting for a light tone and failing miserably. “There’s a few possibilities, I don’t much like any of them.”

“Well, what are they?”

He remembers, as a child, in his rowdier days before anyone had come close to mastering the art of making him sit through an entire lesson at a time, he’d actually snuck in here. It’s virtually unchanged since then, the same carved forest on the walls, the same chips of pearls on the ceiling. He’d known no tutor would dare to look for him in the storied Darkling’s quarters. And he’d been right.

Unfortunately the room’s occupant himself had the audacity to be there, sitting by the same fireside with a book. Nikolai still remembers how towering the Darkling had seemed to his child’s eyes, gazing down at him with a bemused expression. The smoothness of his gestures nearly uncanny, almost serpentine as he approached him and crouched to nearly eye level.

“Moi tsarevich, it’s an honor,” he’d said, too seriously.

Nikolai had only backed towards the door, unnerved.

“I assume you have very important business.”

He’d nodded. “I snuck a live lizard in tutor Mitkin’s lunch and now he’s very cross with me.”

“Hm, a noble endeavor. Stay out of my way and tutor Mitkin needn’t know where you’ve taken refuge for the moment.”

And then the Darkling had offered him cake.

It’s an odd memory he can’t quite reconcile with everything that came after. Far too ordinary.

Should I have poisoned you? I believe that’s your brother’s wheelhouse though.

“Insanity,” he tells Alina, moving to stand. He feels restless in this confined space. His skin itches, feels too tight, ill fitting and wrong. “Which would certainly be a very interesting way to start a reign.”

Alina lets him pace, watching him quietly. “The other options?”

“A very creative imagination. Rather unlikely, I would say.”

“And?”

“The Darkling has taken up residence in my mind. Somehow.”

“What’s it like?”

“It’s like he’s whispering in my ear. Like I can feel him, taking root inside me.” He still vividly remembers the shadows pouring down his throat. The strange wrenching feeling in those moments before he’d turned into the Darkling’s creature. “Unfortunately he fancies himself a conversationalist.”

“Oh. That sounds unpleasant.”

“It is.” He sits down beside her again. Feeling rather defeated and sorry for himself.

“Aleksander,” she whispers.

And the voice that answers is not his own. “My Alina.”

“I killed you,” she breathes. But she’s also drifting closer, like she wants to touch him— the Darkling, not Nikolai, he knows that— but is afraid to.

“And I’ll haunt you for it.”

Alina takes a shuddering breath. It looks like she might cry again.

He doesn’t expect her to kiss him. He barely feels it, though his body responds regardless, hungry, possessive. At least for now, the Darkling’s voice is blessedly silent.

[stranger-rants]

I don't want to sound like a bitch, but I never understood Max's reaction to Billy in season 4. Not because I don't understand the situation she might find herself in of distress and guilt, but because that is not what was conveyed to me on screen by the Duffers in season 3. Throughout season 3, Max did not seem traumatized, abused, or tormented by Billy. She just seemed a little annoyed as is usual between two siblings. When talking about Billy, or, for example, when explaining Billy's habits to El, she simply seemed delighted and snarky or mildly annoyed at best. Even Lucas does not seem traumatized by him. In fact, he even makes the joke that Billy never wears a shirt. This does not suggest abuse or trauma, but that he even occasionally sees him on peaceful terms enough to note that he does not wear T-shirts often. In season 3 what was presented to me on the screen was a situation that had calmed down after season 2 and everyone was living together without major problems. So from going from season 3 where there were no major issues to season 4 where all of a sudden it seemed like Max was super mega-tormented by Billy so much that she wanted him to die, it seemed very strange to me. It seems like the order of the seasons was mixed up. I don't know if it makes sense what I'm trying to explain, but that always bothered me. If season 4 had happened right after season 2 I might have believed it, but not after season 3. This lack of a consistency in the characters annoys me

She wasn’t being tormented by Billy as much as people like to argue that point, because even when Billy was “in charge” at home she repeatedly defied him without much consequence to her. I don’t think Max was trying to express that Billy was abusing her when she said Billy made her life a “living hell.” Living with an unstable family member can be tough and traumatizing even if they’re not the primary reason the family is dysfunctional. So, Billy’s behavior traumatizing her? I believe that. Billy being her “monster,” though? Absolutely not. The point of her second letter was to draw Vecna out, but I think The Duffers used it in bad faith uncaring of what it would do to Billy’s narrative (as an explicit example of someone surviving abuse) and The Antis took that and ran with it ignoring any and all context including Max’s own expressed thoughts and feelings that aren’t just “Billy is terrible.”

Also, I feel like the thoughts and feelings of these children are taken way too literally when children are notorious for being hyperbolic and clumsy with their words. Like, when Max says Billy’s going to kill them? That is hyperbole, but from then on The Antis have taken those scenes at face value claiming Billy was going to murder Lucas and Steve. (Ignoring Billy telling Lucas to stay away from her…) Also when Max says he made her life a living hell, she clearly means he wasn’t very nice nor was it easy to be around him - not that he was stalking her or beating her or worse, as some delusional folks have convinced themselves of. Max never truly wanted him to die. Vecna preyed on her anxiety over their living situation and how those negative feelings were projected into Billy, as if him leaving one way or another would fix everything. People have passing thoughts about death fixing their problems all the time. Doesn’t mean that they mean it.

Max has a lot of grief and guilt over everything, especially because yeah - maybe at one point she wanted Billy to go away, but that summer there was enough of a change in their relationship that Max mourns the fact that she could never solidify that sibling bond with Billy because he died before that could happen. The possibility was there, and the possibility was lost. However, people who do not care about nuance view Max’s second letter as empowering even though it directly resulted in Max “dying.” Talk about a lack of media literacy there, but whatever. The Duffer are only partially to blame with the way they frame things, but people outright refusing to recognize Max’s more complicated feelings about Billy… that’s their fault.

[normal-sea-urchin]

ok so you guys know how everyone is talking about how media literacy is dead/dying? it's my turn

so basically i was watching mutant mayhem with my sister and she kept complaining about how shallow it was of april to use the turtles to get popular and yeah, while it was shallow, to me it seemed that my sister was pretty much complaining about the fact that it was even in the movie. cause even after april genuinely befriended the turtled and recognized that what she was doing was wrong, my sister was still all "well yeah but it was mean that she did that" and it bothers me so much that my sister is actively choosing not to recognize that april's shallowness was a huge part of her character arc!

media literacy is flat out dead with the way people in fandoms will see anything in a story that isn't good or nice and immediately assume that the story is promoting it as a good thing. and im beginning to think my sister might be one of those people.

anyways this isn't super relevant to what everyone was saying it was really just me complaining about my sister so yeah k bye

[ollieyeti]

you gotta take care of your health you gotta eat right and buy raw and fresh and organic instead of prepackaged and you gotta figure out how to budget that since the price of everything has gone up threefold and you gotta go to the gym and work out to look nice and fix your mental heath and the chronic health problems you've already developed that limit how you can work out and you gotta go to work for 8 hours a day and you gotta find time for your hobbies and your friends and regularly cleaning the house and you gotta save money and you gotta buy skincare products and makeup and nice clothes sp you look like you taje care of yourself and be employable and you gotta read better books to develop your media literacy and you gotta know about their creators so you don't end up helping them fund a destruction campaign against a group of people and you gotta educate yourself on every systemic problem in your country and every other so you can get involved with fixing them even if you believe deep in your soul that you can't do shit about it but you do know public pressure has worked sometimes so you gotta try anyway and also fix the planet and don't get overwhelmed by the fact that it's on fire amd the air you breathe is poisonous and we're in the middle of one of the biggest extinction events in earth's history and cherry trees are blooming in winter and we might have a severe shortage of drinking water in a few decades but be grateful about this entire list bc the only reason you're even worrying about this is because you're not amongst the group of people dying from war, genocide, poverty, starvation, diseases etc so be grateful and keep those people in your heart and mind at all times and do everything you can to help them and this list is literally the bare minimum bc it doesn't include taking care of kids or other family members or pets or navigating a dating and/or social life and don't forget to spend a couple of hours on your phone every day laughing with internet strangers about how tired all of you get after completing a single task in a day

[your-friendly-neighbourh00d-fag]

Asking 3, 4, 5, 6, and 17 for the stranger things ask game (Thats kind of a lot, sorry)

dont worry nons, i lovre doing these ask games :)

3- favourite scene in the entire series?

well that's hard. there are a. lot.

ok i'll do one as a viewer and one as a crazy insane totally un-normal cinematography nerd. as a viewer: holy fucking fuck fuck max's scene in dear billy. WHAT THE FUCKCKCJFJ. its cliche, i know, but the SONG, the LETTER, the LIGHTING, the DRAMATICS, thE FUCKIGN MEMORIES!?!@?1 MADWHEELER CAMEOO!:!>!>>!?@?!@/ IT S ITS SO FUCKING PERFECT AND I LOVE EVERYTHHIGN ABOUT IT. god its just. everything.

as a cinematography nerd and professional gay, THE FUCKING RAIN FIGHT. holy hell. where do i start. the dramatic lighting. the amazing fucking camera work. the car between them. the way we can feel will's absence after he leaves. the RAIN. mike wearing a yellow polo (pssst its will's colour pssst he's projecting) AND AND AND AND the colouring of the shot being blue because HE'S PROJECTING!!!! the way will tears up oh i want to hug him. the most iconic lines ever, confirmed gay will (if you have basic media literacy), and the way mike is jus. so distraguht. :((( (also compare it to mlvn break up its EMBARRASSING how much sadder it is lmaoooo)

4- saddest death for you?

well this one is hard. because does max count (i totally think she's coming back alive btw) im saying she counts. I CAN'T F-FEEL OR SEE ANYTHITGN. I DONT WANT TO DIE IM NOT READY. AFTER HER BEING FUCKING SUICIDAL AND ANXIOUS DISTANCING HERSELF FROM EVERYONE ALL SEASON AND HER CLUTCHING ON TO LUCAS SAYING SHE DOES WANT TO LIVE SHE DOES SHE DOESN'T WANT TO DIE SHE WANTS TO KEEP FIGHTING I- RHAHHHHHHHH. her arc is about finding the will to live and then they. fucking. killed her. (maybe). rahhghh.

max.

5. should eddie have died in s4 or should it have been steve?

eddie fulfilled his purpose. he absolutely should have died in s4 (as in, the options are eddie never existed and steve dies or what we got in the show, that bitch was not living till s5) and im happy with the choice. i think steve dying in season 5 is a much better choice, because we've bonded with him, we like him (despite his fans), and he means so much to the kids. it'll hit harder in s5. from a screenwriting perspective, i think steve dying in s5 is better than in s4.

but on the other hand, i dont think they should have emphasised dustin and eddie's relationship that much. it should have been like a 'he was innocent, he didn't deserve this' death and not a 'oh no my best friend/older brother figure' death. bc the second one is steve.

so yes, i like eddie dying in s4 as long as steve dies in s5

6. Death predictions in s5?

oh. haha. steve. he's a fucking goner. for sure. i think steve confesses his uNdYiNg LoVe to nance, dies, and then everyone freaks out bc 'omg st3ddie are in heaven together.'

i do think all of the kids are safe, re: will, mike, lucas, dustin, el and max. they have specifically said its ending happy, and any of the main party dying is not happy. that said im a little scared for dustin. just like. 1%. if you told me one of the kids was out, i think its him. but im pretty sure they're all good.

robins safe, #diversity, nance is safe #love triangle security, argyle might be in danger, but he kind of doesn't feel important enough to die (i love him but dude doesn't even have a last name ffs), if steve dies then jonathan is safe, but if steve lives, jon's in trouble,

i think both joyce and hop are safe, hop especially, they did not fake him out in s3, then have him be gone for alllll of s4 just to kill him off in s5. fucking pointless (i do wish he died in s3 though. im a hopper hater, fight me.)

vickie is also safe, #diversity and also she's too clueless, max is double super duper safe (because why save her from such a good and epic and sad death just to kill her later), i do think murray is in trouble, its been a good long game death and he (sadly) isn't that much of a fan fav. erica may be in a bit of hot water. she's a fan fav and her death would be hard on both viewers and characters

also im hoping dreaming and praying for lonnie to come back so jonathan can kill him with either his bare fucking hands or (and this one i like) a chainsaw. please. please. PLEASE GIVE JON A CHAINSAW IN SEASON 5 I BEG YOU DUFFERS.

so steve, murray, erica and (🤞) lonnie are the only ones i think im sure enough to predict are dying, in that order of likeliness.

17. What song is saving you from vecna?

oh. well. any mcr, obviously. but i do have loads. specifically:

cemetery drive because the sheer power of the funniest thing ever would get my ass in the air (mikey falling on the way down im so sorry but 😭😭😭 my fav video on youtube) /j

you know what they do to guys like us in prison but it has to be live and frank's vocals have to be boosted to high heaven

planetary (GO!), because i need to get up and go back. to safety (i think im funny :,)

DESTROYA. be serious a second.

and finally, kids from yesterday or wttbp would do the trick. this is probably my nmost serious answer, because the raspy vocals in either of those songs are enough to make me sob my eyes out and they are the anthem songs of the respective albums.

[focsle]

do you ever think about how the crew of this one whaling ship had possibly been forgotten for a while? Like there might have been 50 years or more where no one ever thought about some of them, until you started reading the journals, and now they are in the thoughts of all your followers every day, possibly in the thoughts of more people than knew them in life?

Ohh I think about that a lot. Particularly in the context of lads like William Buel. Because unlike his journal, with most of these sources their existence usually implies both rank and survival—in that most of the journals that are preserved are logbooks kept by mates and captains, and most of the keepers you see go on to like, live fairly long lives afterwards and build a life and social network that expands beyond their time on a whaleship—finding stability ashore, having children, etc.. I greatly enjoy being privy to their stories, but I also know that many others were too.

So finding the journal of a greenhand, Buel, who…seemed quite lonely, who also wanted people to read his journal, and who wanted to make something of himself through the voyage, and then seeing his life end at 21ish and his story conclude (to my knowledge thus far) in…a single sentence death notice in a newspaper a year after his death that doesn’t even list his proper name REALLY…..really does something to me. So it’s people like him that I keep in my thoughts the most and want to share with others beyond finding their words an interesting primary source. Which I guess is why I transcribed Buel’s entire journal over the course of 3 days like I was in a fever dream lol. As opposed to William Abbe’s journal which is thus far my favorite primary source I’ve come across (in its function as a Excellent Resource)—but I don’t feel the same need to have people know him like Buel. Like Abbe went on to be a mayor, he did fine on paper.

I think a lot about the men who were just a few lines in someone else’s log, who died young or who (like Antonio Xavier) were sent ashore ill and dying on the other side of the world. Whose journals didn’t survive or who didn’t have the literacy to keep a journal in the first place. I wish I knew them and could let other people know them. I’m happy to do so with one of them, at least.

[oncedied]

Thoughts About Destiny's End, The Witness, and Others

Thinking about how Destiny's storyline feels like it's coming to an end. We have Lightfall, then The Final Shape, and then... what next? On one hand I feel like they might find some way to continue the storyline, like a big post-story or maybe delving into certain parts of the lore we haven't yet explored, or something like that. But everything, since D1, has been building up to Lightfall. I remember playing D1 and one of the first motifs we were given is "the Witness is coming." It's the overarching plotline of Destiny and by extension Destiny 2.

Now the Witness is here. The tagline is literally "Our End Begins." There is one more DLC before... what now?

Destiny is a 10-year-long storyline. I only got here in the August of 2022. I haven't been able to experience the best of it, the height of it. The Golden Age, so to speak. Even though we're approaching what feels like the Silver Age of Destiny 2 with Lightfall's incoming release. It makes my chest hurt in a weird, heartbroken way that I'm arriving several years much too late even though we're entering a new exciting time. I don't want it to be over so soon.

Not only am I a literacy nerd, I am also able to recognize patterns and string patterns together with extreme efficiency (see: Autism). I see the signs, I hear the death knell of Destiny's storyline with the arrival of the Witness. The story feels like it's almost over -- and I can only ask, "What now?"

I can hope that they'll try to continue it. Explore ideas not yet seen. Or maybe even that's it, end of, roll credits, no more story because there's no sound logical way to continue the story when the Big Bad has been defeated if that ever happens considering the Witness is basically an omnipotent god. Maybe The Final Shape ends with us losing, or perhaps accepting. Death is as unavoidable as Life, the Light as unavoidable as the Dark, the Night as unavoidable as the Day. Maybe that would be the concluding motif of Destiny. It would be cool.

Maybe they will play with the idea of the cyclical nature of all things, of the universe. Stars are born, stars die. The sun rises, the sun sets. People die, people are born. Life moves on even long after you're gone. Could the Witness and the Traveler ever live in peace, as two halves of one whole? The spontaneous and the inevitable. The planned and the sudden. Light and dark, Yin and Yang. Maybe we will get a fairytale-esque "And they lived happily ever after" ending. Maybe not.

Maybe it will never end. Maybe there's some survivors of species thought to be extinct, like the Lubreans. Maybe there's some Stone Ocean-esque universal collapse and everything resets back to the beginning. Maybe the screen fades from black to a ride in a horse carriage surrounded by wintery pines and the words, "Hey, you, you're finally awake." Maybe the inevitable happens and the Witness wins, and we're treated to a "bad ending." Realistically there should be no way to defeat what is essentially a god. Even if Guardians are god-slayers. Trembling before something truly unstoppable.

Maybe we have an ending that can be comparable in motif to my favorite poem -- Do Not Go Gentle by Dylan Thomas. Rage, rage against the dying of the Light. It's a poem about death, how death comes for us all, but that we should not be upset by it. We should make the most of life while we're still here. Carpe diem, memento mori.

Maybe we see the Collapse in action. Maybe the old is thrown away to give rise to the new. Is there acceptance? Is there anger? Is there grief? Or is it ended with a smile? Do we gladly do it all again, would we gladly do it all again?

Would we go gentle into that good night? Or would we rage against the dying of the Light?

Would the end of Destiny's storyline teach us that the end is inevitable alongside many other lessons the games' storylines have taught us? About emotions, about people, about letting go, about moving on. About ourselves and the world around us. Would the final goodbye be bittersweet or gentle and satisfying?

Would we cry in protest, or would Destiny leave us for the last time with a smile on all of our faces and a warmth in our chest from time well wasted, which is not time wasted at all?

Will Destiny remind us that we are alive, here and now?

How will it all end? With a bang, a whimper? A cheer?

What would Bungie do afterwards? Would they release Destiny 2 in one big package with all the DLCs (hopefully including Forsaken and the vanilla game) just like D1 was released? Or would it just... disappear?

I'm not ready to let go.

But maybe letting go is what The Final Shape is going to teach us.

Carpe Diem. Memento Mori. Do not go gentle into that good night; rage, rage against the dying of the light. Folding was never an option.

You are alive, Guardian.

Fight like it.

[findroleplay]

Hello, I'm returning here after a hot minute. This ad is not to replace either of my current RP partners, I'm simply open to finding one more. I have two work days ahead of me, so the earliest I'll be responding to anyone will be July 22nd, 2023.

I'm Writer, and I'm a 22 year old nonbinary- I will be looking for fellow of-age mates, mainly because I don't feel comfortable RP'ing double-up RPs with minors.

Literacy: I'm literate-advanced literate. I write anywhere from eight paragraphs to fifteen per reply, and I ask that you be willing to write at least eight (roughly 4,000 characters/600 words or so in length). I will be asking for a writing sample up front, for both our sakes.

Fandom: My Hero Academia - Soulmate AU (in which the first words said to you by your soulmate are printed somewhere on your body- that's a very basic description, there's a lot more depth to it- but if you're interested, feel free to ask for more details!).

Pair: OC x CC/SI x CC. I'll be doubling- so you RP a character for me, I RP a character for you. I'm looking for someone to RP Toshinori Yagi/All Might for me, and I will be RP'ing a character of your choice for you (alongside my self-insert, who is paired/shipped with Yagi in the RP).

Character(s): Finley Well | The Quirkless Hero (my SI), Toshinori Yagi | All Might (Canon), 2 x your characters (one will be canon, if you want a canon x canon ship just let me know and I will portray one of the canons for your side!).

Ship(s): Finley Well x Toshinori Yagi, your ship!

Triggers: This RP will feature a bit of an age gap between Fin and Yagi, and may delve into (from time to time) topics of recovery from abuse, PTSD, depression, anxiety, and the like- so be prepared! I don't like RP'ing insane amounts of angst (like- characters breaking up or dying), so if you're looking for a tasty angst RP, this isn't the ad for you (I do wish you luck, though!).

Genres: Romance, Action, Adventure, Fluff.

Plot ideas: The plot would be following the majority of MHA's canon, alongside the twists and turns that would come from having our characters involved.

Where: I RP mostly on Discord, but I wouldn't be against RP'ing in E-Mails, Google Docs, or trying to RP on DeviantArt. I would still like to make a Discord server, though!

Other:

If you're interested, feel free to DM me here, or add me on Discord- I'm wr1t3r. And feel free to read the doc linked at the end of this request, so you have a more full idea of what you'd be getting in to!

RP Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lOHqNhRHDsWvW-8NngLFbwwYJ-KH2lwDzIKfx5kRV8Q/edit?usp=sharing

-

[matt0044]

Remember when liking Harry Potter didn’t coincide with liking J.K. Rowling?

The general idea was that the books were better left well enough alone, warts and all, while Rowling’s later additions were either nonsensical at best such as a Wizard’s toiletry troubles or lycanthropy apparently being a metaphor for AIDS. When she pulled these out of her butt, the fandom would often go, “Hell the fuck no” in unison.

Bare in mind the words: “later additions” in terms of companion books, interviews and media WAY after The Deathly Hallows was penned, let alone adapted for the big screen. A narrative that seems to be pushed in the inevitable conversations of Rowling is that her book always had these problematic stuff when... no.

Did it have problematic elements be it malicious or ignorant? Well, it was made in the late nineties to the mid-2000s. That era of entertainment was defined by a “take no prisoners” type of humor that believed it could “offend everybody.” I just viewed Scary Movie 4, a perfect encapsulation of what was allowed of the time because it wasn’t allowed at the time.

This is to say that between the Goblins running the banks and the House Elves, a lot of it wasn’t firmly questions both due to the reader’s age as well as general ignorant pre-Social Media. Say what you will about Tumblr but I’ve been learning about this dogwhistle or that microaggression each day that nobody ever told me about.

And yes, I recall “Cho Chang” very much unfortunately.

People try hard to paint Harry Potter as being this stealthy TERF book series all along rather than a series that has endured the the time for a pretty darn good reason and has plenty of questionable elements due to the era it was conceived in. They try to claim that open fans of Harry Potter today are blind to this when the fandom I once grew up with knew that Rowling was anything but perfect.

Maybe some kissed her feet then but it was agreed she wasn’t a good look for the series between the Cursed Child (it was cursed alright) and the Crimes of Grindlewald dropping the ball on Dumbledore’s sexuality along with Nagini being an enslaved Asian woman actually.

What’s different now? Well, as I’ve been going around in circles over, this was well before Rowling didn’t just become any problematic book writer but THE problematic book writer. Her platform is big enough to enthrall any body against the idea of being transgender along from a lowly senator to Vladamir Godforsaken Putin.

Thus a line’s been drawn in the sand. Many still like Harry Potter and feel like they’re being dogged around for the very thing that honestly keeps the going, having split it from J.K. Rowling’s harmful beliefs. Some of them, yes, may actually have closeted beliefs that coincide with J.K.’s and might use HP as a smokescreen... but that’s a conspiracy theory I’ll only entertain with evidence.

Others will recognize that there’s a lot to unpack... and choose to toss the suitcase into the river. They reason that we don’t have the luxury of analyzing HP “fairly” when residuals of the franchise are funneled to J.K. who funnels them into anti-transgender movements. If dragging a book series through the mud is what it takes, for the greater good it is then.

And I can’t wag my finger at them in good conscious. Yet I also feel less than easy about it in this age of media literacy dying a slow and painful death.

[alsjeblieft-zeg]

070 of 2023

What’s your definition of weird?

Beautiful.

Do you use shaving cream?

I mean, I only shave my face and maybe somewhere else, but sure.

When was the last time you cleaned your room? Is your room clean?

Yesterday and nope, but it looks better already.

Have you ever personally known any girl who shaved their head?

I know one who had to have her head shaved for the same reason as me. I met her in the hospital last year.

Have you ever known anyone who committed suicide?

Yes. It’s a painful story, he was only 16, but severely mentally ill.

Have you ever tried to commit suicide?

No, but I used to think about it.

Have you ever coughed up blood?

No, never.

How do you wish you could die?

Dying is overrated, I want to be immortal.

What’s the longest phone conversation you’ve had lately?

Five minutes, no kidding. Too long for me already.

Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?

My husband.

What were the last words you said?

“Ik hou van je” ^.^

Who was the last person you hugged?

Also my husband.

Do you have any apps on your Facebook? If so, what?

I don’t use Facebook.

What’s some of the worst pain you’ve ever felt?

Pain after surgeries. Horrible.

What kind of mouse pad do you have?

The green one, from ACV.

What color is your mouse?

White and grey, it’s wireless.

Do you or have you ever had an eating disorder?

Yeah, I do. Sadly.

Do you think you’re fat?

All the time.

Do you know any who might be anorexic? Do you know anyone who has bulimia?

Some people over the internet forums, but no one in person. I do have EDNOS, though.

Did you ever want a pony when you were little?

Yeah, I used to. But when I was very little.

What’s your favorite cheese?

Gouda, but young. Dutch chreese ftw.

What’s your favorite cake?

Cheesecake, but I’m not a big fan of cakes.

What are you having/what did you have for dinner tonight?

Chicken wings and fries.

What’s your favorite dessert food?

I don’t like dessert.

What’s your favorite candy?

I don’t like sweets.

Have you ever had a Nos?

What’s that even? A olish word for nose? If so, then everybody does, I suppose.

How long have you been taking this survey?

Too long already.

What are you listening to right now?

There’s TV in the background, as usual.

What is the closest thing to you right now that is alive?

My older cat.

What’s your worst fear?

Failure and losing.

Are you an outcast?

Kind of, but not 100%, I’d say.

Do you exercise?

Every day. I walk a lot and I work on my arms.

Do you hate it when people repeat themselves?

Nah. I do it as well XD

Do you say like a lot?

Yeah, like... You see :P

What’s your favorite carnival food? (cotton candy, corn dogs, funnel cake)

Fries and frikandels, but you can get them in every fries shop. We don’t have anything separate for carnivals :P

Do you have a good memory?

Nah, my memory is horrible. At least short-term. My long-term memory, as in things I’ve been studying, is great.

Do you dislike writing school essays?

I hate it. I have no literacy skills, really.

Are you a very open-minded person?

I am. In my eyes, everyone is equal. I’m not judgemental either.

Are you modest?

More than I should be, possibly.

What kind of guys/girls do you usually fall for?

With good personalities. For appearance, I don’t seem to have a type. All I need is beautiful, expressive eyes.

Do you skate?

I don’t, but it sounds fun.

Are you in a band?

Nope. It was my dream when I was, like, 12.

Can you play the guitar? If not, what other instrument do you play?

I don’t. You need two good hands for it, and I’m physically disabled.

If you were to make it big with your own band, what would its name be?

Mzake it big... that’s commercial. No.

What’s your favorite kind of pasta?

Penne. But most of all, I like that mushroom tomato one from Bavet.

Would you rather a friend come over to your house or you go over there?

Either. Both sound fun.

What’s the perfect first date?

Guys night in a pub, with lots of beer.

Have you ever had rabies?

It’s deadly, I wouldn’t be tyoping here if I had it.

Do you know anyone who ever had to get a rabies shot?

My mum because she got bitten by a dog.

Have you ever gone hunting?

No, but it doesn’t sound appealing to me.

Ever eaten deer? Duck? Squirrel? How about lamb?

Duck and lamb. Duck is okay, lamb I difdn’t like much.

Are you a vegetarian?

As close to it as possible. Not fully, though.

Do you know any vegetarians? What about vegans?

I do, but not in person.

Do you know what a vegan is? How about fruititarian?

Do you think people are stupid?

What’s your favorite search engine?

Google by default, but it doesn’t mean I like it.

Internet Explorer or Firefox? Safari or Firefox?

Opera, yup.

Do you have hair in your nose?

Doesn’t everyone to some extent?

How long, in miles, is the width of your fingernail?

In miles? Maybe in kilometres?

Are you a math wiz?

Yeah, but I prefer physics anyway.

What’s your favorite subject?

Physics, as I said.

What is your locker number at school? Do you have a lock on your locker?

I’m not in school, I do work, our work lockers don’t have numbers and my uni doesn’t have lockers. Yeah, all my work lockers have locks.

Have you ever received a note in your locker?

Yeah, long ago.

Do you like to laugh?

I do. I laugh a lot, actually.

[stillmonsterz]

god i love u fr

anw so— birds of a feather quite literally fucked up my day (in a good way) like im so invested into this story and im just in awe of the level of literacy in the way u write and im kinda taking some notes and learning from u in a way?? i mean that in a very appreciative way and i think ur genuinely one of a kind absolutely gem writer on this app like i could go on and on abt the way you write your characters and their chemistry w each other like ugh im eating it up im so full

so onto the actual fic, WHAT THE FUCK RIKI?? when i catch u riki istg, my heart SANK at that last part like i knew something was up bc he hasn't caused anything in a while and that was like a bullet sized dagger straight through my heart jfc. he had me all bamboozled and im actually feeling rage at the way mc showed vulnerability to him only to be backstabbed by him and now he's like dragging her w a noose around her neck— it's insane how he immediately dismissed mc and jumped the gun at how she could only be lying like that part just made him go from my fav character to my most loathed character. also suddenly the few mentions of riki being 'cute and evil' compared to everyone else makes so much sense, and tbh i don't trust that he'd stay quiet abt those ss he's just gonna be bored and leak them after a while i feel like.

oh and i cant forget abt the jay scene in the hotel GOD i had such a viceral emotional reaction to every dialogue they said— my brain is thoroughly jumbled, a smut scene on ecstasy could never compare to the gut wrenching situationship break up that was. if i may be honest, jay's a pussy lmao wdym you can't be wrong and admit you're not even half as bad as u thought lol anw he's going straight into the complicated men box. sorry that was me trying to cope w the fact that all of the progress jay and mc made was just gone like that and it's all back to square one now, i can't deal w that loss rn im fr mourning over it. there's just a lot to say abt that scene it might be my all time favorite piece of fanfic i've read in my life, im losing my mind at the contrast between mc wanting to savor the moment and make it last longer while jay's trying to get it over with bc i know that he knows if he takes as much time as he'd like, he'd actually realize he loves her and that's just too much of big boy feelings for him (im bullying him too much bc im so sour rn)

also the reveal w jake dealing w addiction was eye opening, like now im rethinking back to all the times he's been fidgety and including that recent scene w mc when he comes out of the restrooms, god i was dying for the mc to just get in there and ivestigate around BUT SHE DIDN'T im so pissed. jake's definitely shown some cracks in this part and i can't wait to see him be vulnerable to mc and be honest for once, he's hiding too much and i still don't trust him i can't lie.

and i think we might be only skimming the surface w the other members, i weirdly adore sunoo lmao he's such a cryptid being, and tbh the only good thing that came out of this was sunghoon and lily being a maybe healthy couple, i love love that scene w him and lily it's such a sweet and cute moment in between all the shit mc's digging herself in lmao. i don't think i have an opinion on heeseung yet other than he obviously cares for his members, or at least the kc's reputation, and has his bearings together enough to tell the mc straight up abt all of that. also jungwon.... why do i hear boss music.... LMAO but honestly the bit where it mentioned that he got shit on everyone combined w the ending had me clawing at the walls, he's gonna be important later on and im feeling the nerves crawl up my spine even though he's never shown up once in this part, im that scared of him 😭

im terrified at what's to come, like actual dread on if riki's abt to spill everything to jay and if jay will find out and— this is too overwhelming and my mind's so cluttered lol. anw im not gonna speculate anything rn for my health but im gonna write this last paragraph in appreciation for the way you write morally gray characters, like just completely blown away by how complex and unpleasant they were written, and i mean unpleasant bc i fr know some ppl who'd act this way, it's bone chilling. granted not to the extent these characters are but it's still enough to take me back into the headspace and social circle in my younger years, just the deep regret crashing all over me again lol. not to say this was horrible no no quite the exact opposite this is the most fun and absorbed i've got from a fic in a long time, this left such an impression on me that it sneaks into the back of my mind all the time, which amplifies everytime i open this app just to scroll and i always unconsciously search ur user to see if you've updated or not.

last one i promise, thank u sm for writing this fic and all ur other fics, i know and i can tell when a writer has literacy in their heart ur up there w my forever favorites. can't wait to see it all unfolds and im hoping the mc have some sort of a good ending, fingers crossed 🥲 (sorry for this wall of text also lol)

Putting my answer under a read-more

First of all, please don't apologize for sending large asks like this. I honestly love it when people have a lot of things to say about my works. It makes me feel as though I've created something rich enough that it can be discussed.

like im so invested into this story and im just in awe of the level of literacy in the way u write and im kinda taking some notes and learning from u in a way??

Thank you so much for this...I think I can attribute this to me reading. I read almost every day, and I only read things that I enjoy.

also suddenly the few mentions of riki being 'cute and evil' compared to everyone else makes so much sense, and tbh i don't trust that he'd stay quiet abt those ss he's just gonna be bored and leak them after a while i feel like.

I sort of wanted to emphasize that anyone who would join the Karma Club would inherently be predisposed to doing horrible things for their own enjoyment. Also, as in real life, sometimes the nicest people can do horrible things. People are far more contradictory than we give them credit for. That being said, no spoilers on what he'll do with the screenshots. It's been fascinating to see the revulsion towards Riki's actions compared to what Jay has done to the MC.

if i may be honest, jay's a pussy lmao wdym you can't be wrong and admit you're not even half as bad as u thought lol anw he's going straight into the complicated men box. sorry that was me trying to cope w the fact that all of the progress jay and mc made was just gone like that and it's all back to square one now, i can't deal w that loss rn im fr mourning over it.

If it makes you feel any better, they aren't really at square one. Square one was Jay harassing her nonstop because he truly was disgusted by her, in as equal measure as he was fascinated by her. Like he said, he now doesn't even know if he hates her anymore. So even though it seems like they've gone to the beginning, this is new territory for both of them. Jay is a huge pussy, though. He calls Jake a pussy, but Jake has made more genuine attempts to get close to Y/N than him LOL

god i was dying for the mc to just get in there and ivestigate around BUT SHE DIDN'T im so pissed. jake's definitely shown some cracks in this part and i can't wait to see him be vulnerable to mc and be honest for once, he's hiding too much and i still don't trust him i can't lie.

It's good that you don't trust him. At that point, Heeseung had already told Y/N to just be nice to Jake, so she didn't want to bother him. Heeseung essentially told her that she was part of the reason why Jake relapsed, so she doesn't want to toe the line.

i don't think i have an opinion on heeseung yet other than he obviously cares for his members, or at least the kc's reputation, and has his bearings together enough to tell the mc straight up abt all of that. also jungwon.... why do i hear boss music.... LMAO but honestly the bit where it mentioned that he got shit on everyone combined w the ending had me clawing at the walls

No spoilers, but Jungwon will come into play. Something happened in the earlier part of birds of a feather that will have an effect on what happens in Part 3.

im gonna write this last paragraph in appreciation for the way you write morally gray characters, like just completely blown away by how complex and unpleasant they were written, and i mean unpleasant bc i fr know some ppl who'd act this way, it's bone chilling. granted not to the extent these characters are but it's still enough to take me back into the headspace and social circle in my younger years, just the deep regret crashing all over me again lol.

Thank you so much! And yeah, I definitely drew from my high school experience for some of this. The only other time I've ever done that is for Tired of What We Are, and I think you can see some of the parallels. Not to say that fluff is unnecessary (I do plan on writing something cute) but it's just fun to play round with people who are morally questionable, and who revel in their bad traits at times. Not so fun to experience it yourself, though.

thank u sm for writing this fic and all ur other fics, i know and i can tell when a writer has literacy in their heart ur up there w my forever favorites. can't wait to see it all unfolds and im hoping the mc have some sort of a good ending, fingers crossed

Thank you so so much. I took a long time to answer this because I wanted to keep this ask to myself. Whenever someone sends me a longer ask, I read it over and over again. I wanted to hold onto it for as long as possible. I really do love writing fics, and I'm grateful that people are willing to read them. Thank you for all of the kind words you've written, and for taking the time to read my fic!

[tok-blog878]

Prompt 1 - Sharks are good

The ‘interviews’ conducted in this article are entirely fictional. 

“‘After the COVID shutdown, there was less traffic in the water, there was less fishing, fewer restaurants needing food. And now, with the water being warmer, it’s just bringing different patterns of movement.’ There were five reported possible shark bites on Long Island in one week this summer; last Monday, a woman was bitten in the Rockaways, the first confirmed shark bite in New York City since the fifties”   

- The New Yorker

“FIVE THINGS MORE LIKELY TO KILL YOU THAN A SHARK. A vending machine; Two people are crushed to death every year in the United States alone trying to tilt faulty vending machines.”

- The Guardian

         Come October, a tigerlike ardor is needed to manage the back-to-school agitation of students across the country, from those vaping in school bathrooms to those interrogating their guidance counselors about Summer courses. Students of the latter variety are likely to be found in Theory of Knowledge classrooms, where any given highschool’s near-graduates can acquire a university credit, all the while letting off some steam; “The vibe here is very much this: If you say something that seems a little biased, or devoid of critical thought, expect to get pounced on” said one student (who will remain anonymous) enrolled in such a class. 

        On a recent morning, TOK students at Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School watched - through eyes red enough to have been dipped in saline - a twenty-second clip of a diver making contact, head-on, with a Great White Shark. Some believed the diver was lucky not to have died, while others suggested that, statistically speaking, the diver’s risk of dying had been very low. “More people are crushed to death by vending machines, every year, than killed by sharks,” claimed one Soren Long, under the torrent of voices which filled the room. Few could think of a rebuke.

      According to the International Baccalaureate’s official website, Theory of Knowledge “aims to make students aware of the interpretative nature of knowledge, including personal ideological biases.” Such was the goal, claims Mr. Bertrand (Lo-Ellen’s very own TOK teacher), of the shark clip; “I’m not saying sharks are these super cuddly creatures. It’s just that movies like ‘Jaws’ have led us to believe that they are much more aggressive than any real data might suggest. They’re actually an endangered species, but we’re all indifferent. The same can’t be said about koalas.” 

          During lessons - which Mr. Bertrand conducts from an Adirondack chair at the front of his classroom - the children discuss concepts such as the anchoring effect, a bias which causes humans to disproportionately rely on the first piece of information they receive. In recent years, courses focused on questioning the information we receive, as well as the way this information is processed, have gained in popularity; Media literacy is part of Canada’s English curriculum, and a growing number of corporations are sending workers to inclusion workshops, where unconscious biases are addressed. 

            The Lighthouse, a company founded in 2009, has provided bias-training services to over 1,500 Canadian businesses. Last Monday, The Lighthouse’s CEO, Michelle Urchin, had this to say about it; “When we’re sent into a new workplace, most employees have never heard of terms like ‘heuristics’ and ‘attribution bias’. We shed light on these issues, but at the end of the day, it’s up to them to dive deep into their personal oceans, and into how these concepts manifest in their own work environment.” During our interview, Urchin spoke passionately and optimistically, pausing only to take sips from her cup of organic Golden Milk. 

          Few cognitive psychologists - or modern, media-consuming adults, for that matter - share Bertrand’s and Urchin’s hippy ideals. Daniel Kahneman, one of the leading figures in the world of cognitive bias, has expressed skepticism in regards to the thought that one can change their biases. Parents of children taking Theory of Knowledge classes worry for their kids’ sanity; “The other day, I told my daughter that it was her turn to do the dishes. She responded with ‘How do you know?’ I can never tell if she’s being insolent, or genuine. I went through an existentialist phase when I was around her age. My friends and I tried to smoke ayahuasca and the next day I woke up in a peacock cage, at our local zoo… Hopefully she’s being insolent.”  

        After sitting in on a few of Mr. Bertrand's lessons, I decided to sign up for a bias course on Coursera.com; the conclusion, it seemed, was simply that I should go against all of my initial instincts. But one day, Mr. Bertrand showed the class a TED talk by one Gerd Gigerenzer; clad in a blue dress-shirt and lowball glasses, the German psychologist told me to trust my instincts, especially in a world where probabilities were not known. “Maybe sharks are bad,” I caught myself thinking.  

      I later shared this with a group of students in the class. One girl, who usually remained quiet during class discussions, said, “TOK is like when you get in an argument, and you can’t think of a comeback in the moment, but later you think up a great reply and it just makes you more angry. Like Soren’s comment about the sharks; how many million people are within a meter of a vending machine, in a day, compared to the hundred people getting within, say, 50 meters of a shark? If the numbers were more comparable, way more people would die from shark attacks.” 

       After a particularly heated class discussion, one in which a kid stormed out of class, Mr. Bertrand pulled me aside. “A lot of kids think this is a debate class. It’s not. People say that if a shark attacks you, you should punch them in the nose. The same is not true of children. Believe me.” 

Prompt 2 - Analogical reasoning is gold       

 Every morning, Kinder’s dreams would fill with the smell of warm toast, and she would promptly get up, letting herself be greeted by a yolk-yellow sun. Light seemed to ooze, in Kinder’s room. It oozed from outside and into her mind, washing it of a night’s drowsiness.      

         Downstairs, Kinder’s father would be reading the paper, slippered feet on the dining-room table, and Kinder’s mother would be sitting on the counter - legs flailing back and forth, bowl of cereal in hand, while the radio’s sounds reverberated out of what could’ve only been, by the sound of it, the entirety of the room. 

         It was often unclear, to Kinder, whether her dad was listening to the radio or reading the paper; From the moment Kinder came downstairs to the moment she left for school, her father’s eyes would remain glued to the paper. Tiny cracks of focus. And yet, all of his “hmms” and “ahas” were timed in accordance with the pauses of the radio. There was a certain wisdom in those sounds of understanding, Kinder thought, a wisdom which eluded children her age. 

“Someday you’ll understand. When you’re older, I mean,” her mom said. 

         Kinder was still crying by the time they arrived at school. She wiped her nose down the length of her forearm, and braced herself out of the door. Ahead of her, the sound of laughter, high-pitched and birdlike, pierced the sky. Behind her, a car screeched into motion. 

       In class, Kinder could not concentrate. She stared out the window, at the leaves which fluttered from treetops, and thought of fish - of  tiny, swarm-bound fish. 

“Kinder. Square root of 64, please.”

The whole class stared at Kinder, at the little fish stuck in her eyes. 

“What” she responded, still in a daze though aware of the looks aimed her way. 

“If you’re not going to pay attention,” replied Ms. Hannigan, beady-eyed, “Then you may as well make yourself useful.” Ms. Hannigan raised her forefinger as she said this, and finally it settled on a stiff, dusty broom at the front of the class. Such was the context  in which Kinder was made to sweep the school’s floors, for the rest of the afternoon. 

         Tommy and Kinder got off the bus at the same stop. “My brother says she’s a witch. He says that, on really clear nights, she can be seen flying that broomstick past the moon and the stars. Sometimes, if a child is really bad, she brings them along with her, all the way to the end of the universe, and drops them over the edge of it. Their screams and cries turn into thunderstorms.”

          “Your brother’s a dimwit,” responded Kinder, even though she half-believed Tommy; He was the brightest boy in her class, and it was true that his brother, Sam, had a telescope with which he could see things like flying witches. Tommy didn’t mind Kinder calling his brother a dimwit. He still waved seeya as Kinder walked up her driveway, slouching forward under the weight of her backpack. 

           Kinder shut the door behind her, out of breath. She unzipped her backpack, being careful not to let the zipper pull get stuck in her backpack’s cloth. At the bottom of it sat a big, golden book. A buried treasure. 

           There once upon a time was a sea that men could only dream of meeting , for to get to it meant crossing other seas made topsy-turvy by lashing winds and whip-tailed beasts. This sea, which was unaffected by waves, carried sound miles and miles around, such that at any given spot on its surface, a cacophony of birdsong, surface tension and splashes could be heard.  It served as home for many strange creatures; there were the Apatows; in morphology, these were the closest this sea got to human beings, though Apatows were much more stout, and short, and apart from the soles of their feet were made from scales. The Apatows were amphibians, and inhabited the rivers which this sea had shoveled for itself; most of their time was spent in shallow water, resting on their backs and at the bottom of the rivers. There, little fish would eat their dead scales, and the tough skin off their feet. If the Apatows were not resting, they were socializing with one another, through rituals, games and etiquette which had evolved over millions of years. As the Apatows got older, socializing became a way to find a mate, for this was an important part of Apatow livelihood; Apatows who remained mateless for too long were known to crawl out of the water, weep themselves dry and die. An impending fear of becoming a shriveled, Earth-bound Apatow drove much of the young, single Apatows’ behavior. Once any given Apatow found a mate, a ceremony would be held for the couple, and the youngs would play music by tapping on the river’s surface, and the elders would prepare a feast of crustaceans and small fish.  For the next few weeks, the newlyweds would retreat to some hidden corner of the river, and once they came back out, would only speak in rhyming couplets; 

 “We’re off to get ourselves chewed bare,” one Apatow might say, 

“Like fruit you’d just as quickly pare,” their partner would add, before the couple went to lie at the bottom of a river. 

      Over time, however, it was not uncommon for the couples’ rhymes to lose eloquence; one Apatow might try to rhyme the word “bull” with the word “bowl,” which had moments ago been uttered by their partner, leaving one partner red with shame and the other apologetic, angry and disappointed. It was often the case, too, that one partner would become too slow at thinking of rhymes, making the Apatow-couple's life less efficient. In such an instance, the couple would often resort to muteness and isolation. Couples of the sort would develop a sort of dement—

– Kinder slammed the book shut, and ambled her way to the living room, where both of her parents sat, hands in laps. Her dad cleared his throat. Her mother fiddled with the cloth of her shirt. Both looked up at Kinder, as though hanging, stuck, in some space between all of their questions and Kinder’s words of reply. 

Kinder opened her mouth. 

“Obviously, it’ll be difficult for me. But hey, we’ll adjust. I just want you guys to be happy.” 

“Oh, we’re so very proud of you sweetie,” replied her mother.  

“Yes. We were scared you wouldn’t be ready,” said her dad. 

Kinder looked for a hint of shame in her mother’s face, but it was not there. She smiled. 

Prompt 3 - Soren vs. Soren’s dad, who ya got?

       Helen Keller is an American author and activist who at 19 months old contracted a disease which left her blind and deaf. She is best known for works which veer on the autobiographical, such as “The Story of My Life,” a novel which I recently read. While reading this work, which is essentially a retelling of Keller’s life, I couldn’t help but think of Aristotle, and his ideas of how knowledge is produced, or acquired. According to Aristotle, who was an avid knowledge seeker, humans were born with this innate desire to understand the world around them. In other words, Aristotle believed that all humans were avid knowledge seekers. To Aristotle, humans acquired their beliefs through external input; most notably - in Ancient Greece, at least - through sensory information, and that these beliefs became knowledge (or true)  if they were justifiable and devoid of subjectivity. For example, a woman selling apples can only determine that her apples are sweeter than another vendor’s by asking someone to taste both varieties and report back to her. Even so, the woman’s belief may be iffy, since the taster could be biased. In order for the woman’s belief to be justified and true, a full-fledged apple degustation would have to ensue. While the example above deals with taste as the sense being used to acquire knowledge, humans are much more likely to use their vision and their hearing as sources of information. This is in large part what makes Helen Keller’s story so fascinating; As a blind, deaf toddler, Kellen had to find unconventional ways of learning about the world. One of my favorite excerpts from “The Story of My Life” depicts a young Helen and her father; “My earliest distinct memory of my father is making my way through great drifts of newspapers to his side and finding him alone, holding a sheet of paper before his face. I was greatly puzzled to know what he was doing. I imitated this action, even wearing his spectacles, thinking they might help solve the mystery. But I did not find out the secret for several years. Then I learned what those papers were, and that my father edited one of them.” If the average child was perplexed by their father’s newspaper-reading habits, there are two strategies which would champion all others, in any given child’s quest to rid themselves of confusion. The child may take a stab at reading the paper themselves, if they can read; the child may then think to themselves “Oh, dad is reading this because he wants to find out  about the expected results of the next election,” or they may be entertained by the stories themselves, which would serve as an explanation, too. An alternative strategy would be for the child to question the father about his newspaper-reading habits. Neither strategy was available to Helen, such that she had to resort to another method, which was much less effective. I am now almost at the 500-word limit on this blog, so I will speed things up now. Basically, Helen Keller was sent to a school for the blind and deaf, as a young child. There, she met Anne Sullivan, who became her full-time teacher/nanny. Helen Keller has often described a time when Anne poured liquid on Helen Keller’s hand, and proceeded to spell out the word “water” on her wet palm. Helen describes this as a pivotal moment for her, a moment when the world seemed to gain a semblance of clarity, reason and order which it had never had before. While Helen Keller’s story has not convinced me that Aristotle is completely right, it has convinced me that Plato is NOT completely right; if knowledge was fully innate, as he says, Helen Keller would not have felt so disoriented in the world. But of course knowledge is not fully innate, and before Keller acquired strategies (about ways she could use her senses to gain information about the world), she was really struggling. 

Prompt 4 - Foxes and Hedgehogs

Dear journal,

        It’s been a while since I last wrote, and frankly, there is just a lot to fill you in on. We landed in Berlin on Monday, ‘round 3 AM in EST. Although long, the flight had not been wholly unpleasant; there had been a mix-up at the Pearson airport, such that we boarded our plane two hours late. As a sort of remediation, all passengers were offered free drinks. I managed to find four people who did not want theirs. Thus, the plane ride went down smoothly, at least for me. Lydia did not seem so pleased. It was only once we’d landed, and gotten our luggage, and walked to the front of the airport - where a plump, blond woman stood waiting for us with a sign that said our names - that I realized the drinks would not be going down smoothly. We had to call a new taxi, after I puked on our cab driver, whose name turned out to be Ilse. 

          We went to bed and woke up at 4 PM CET. The first day was taken as a sort of acclimation. We walked down Unter den Linden, and ate some bratwurst, but the rest of our day consisted of resting for the week ahead. As you know, dear journal, I was sent to Berlin to study the effects of zoo-life of mammalian species. I was meant to begin my work the day after our arrival, at the Berlin Zoological Garden, and I anticipated a tedious day of taking blood tests, measuring lengths or weights, and observing behavior. There was one animal I was particularly excited to see, and this was the red fox, or rather the V. Vulpes. My colleagues had all told me about this fox, for it was known that his behavior was rather divergent. I was excited to see these anomalies for myself, and see them materialized, with MRI scans. 

        On Wednesday, I put on my work slacks and biked over to the Zoo. A young man named Wilhelm was there to greet me; “Auf wiedersehen,” he said, and I responded in broken German. The young man walked me through the Zoo, introducing me to every animal. When we got to the fox, he said something about how this is where the real scientific development would happen. I asked him what he meant by it. Wilhelm went into this shack, and pulled out two varieties of dead rodent. He unlocked the gate to the fox (whose name, I later found out, was Max) and laid the two rodents down on a rock. Max, who had been pacing back and forth in his cage, stopped. He looked up at Wilhelm, looked down at the two pieces of rodent, and began tilting his head back and forth. For the rest of the visit, it seemed, Max walked between the two pieces of rodent, each time staring at one and stopping, tilting his head back and forth, and even, it seemed to me, shrugging. Over the next few days, I realized that Max was, shall we say, indecisive. Any time a choice would be posed him- where to urinate, where to eat, what to eat, etc. - he would begin to pace back and forth. This could last hours, or days, before Max resorted to action. The brain scans showed that his brain was normal. Perfectly average, for a red fox. 

       There is no doubt that, in wildlife, foxes have a great many decisions to make. They must find a mate, a suitable spot for their burrows and new food sources everyday. They must decide where to explore, they must know how to get back to their burrows. It seems that, in captivation, the ability to be conscious of many factors at once has not left. However, the number of factors has. Thus, the fox creates nuance and uncertainty, for itself, where there is none.

[australianinternationalschool]

What is it like to begin Elementary School at AIS?

Celebrating 100 Days in Prep What is it like to begin Elementary School at AIS?

Celebrating the first 100 days of Elementary School is an exciting and momentous occasion at AIS. The entire Prep cohort counts the days until they reach this milestone, dressing up and engaging in a range of activities that are connected to the number 100.

But there is so much more to celebrate and recognise in the lead up to this day!

Transition is the vital first step towards starting Prep at AIS. Our teachers begin to connect with their incoming students for the next year from early in Semester 2. Establishing relationships and a sense of connection is incredibly important to foster a sense of belonging, curiosity and safety. This might involve the Prep teachers visiting our P4 friends in the Early Learning Village, inviting them to visit Prep tor read together, or meeting with families. Handover conversations between staff also allow teachers to begin the year with a strong understanding of the needs and interests of their new class.

In Semester 1, the focus is on establishing routines and relationships. Developing self management skills is a significant and important shift, with students taking responsibility for a variety of things from managing their own belongings to considering their mindset and how they get along with others.

Learning is at the forefront of all experiences, with a multitude of opportunities for explicit instruction and learning along the way through inquiry. Perhaps this is best explained through an analogy.

Imagine you enter an incredible garden. There is so much to see, smell, hear, taste, feel and think! You begin with curiosity and excitement, dying to explore this incredible area. Your guide leads you to certain areas to observe and explore, taking you ever deeper. After a time, you notice particular things about this environment, such as plants and animals and you start to ask questions. This is the perfect time for your guide to sit you down and explicitly tell you about these things.

Teaching and learning is like this garden experience, particularly in Prep. We need a balance of open-ended learning opportunities to build curiosity and develop questions along with explicit instruction, practice and application of early literacy and numeracy skills. Along the way, students learn to apply the Learner Profile attributes: caring, reflective, open minded, risk-takers, knowledgeable, principled, open-minded.

Photo: The students count down the days in anticipation of their 100th day of school. When they finally reach the milestone they celebrate the occasion as a whole year with a range of activities that connect to the number 100.

But What’s Next for Our Elementary School Students?

The second semester of Prep marks the shift towards greater independence and the journey towards Year 1. As they prepare for this transition, the students enjoy being role models and sharing their expertise with the incoming Prep students. The cycle begins again, as they also have the opportunity to play in the Lower Elementary playground and visit the Year 1 teachers and classrooms.

“One of my favourite parts of the year as an educator, is facilitating and observing the growth of students in their first year of school. There are so many milestones, such as learning to read and count, developing important lifelong skills such as thinking, research, communication, self management and social skills as well as developing confidence and independence within themselves. There is nothing else quite like this special time!”

Tips and Tricks for the first 100 Days of School

Explore the alphabet and numbers in real life

Read regularly with your child – make it an enjoyable, special time together

Encourage independent dressing

Practise packing and unpacking their school bag

Practise tying shoelaces or consider velcro fasteners to start

Talk about the difference between munch and crunch, lunch and recess foods

Ensure your child can easily open and access their food containers

Take on jobs at home e.g. setting the table

Positive conversations about the year ahead

Talk about new routines as the time approaches

Our aim is to make the beginning of Prep a positive, welcoming experience where you and your child have the opportunity to build relationships with both classmates, other students and teachers. We are excited to share the journey ahead with you!

Book a tour today

If your looking for a change or your child is about to start Elementary school, booking an on-site tour is a great way to experience the Australian International School campus. Feel free to contact us at admissions@ais.com.sg or call 6517 0247.

https://www.ais.com.sg/elementary-school-at-ais/

[fanonical]

there's an interesting subtext in a series of unfortunate events regarding how the series treats literacy and the idea of being 'well-read'

we get the impression from early on that well-read people are virtuous, and less well-read people are villains. the baudelaires and associates all quote classic literature and poetry, whereas olaf and his ilk don't seem to care and scorn the idea, making a point to burn libraries. this is best seen in the grim grotto, where the good-aligned characters wear uniforms with herman melville's image on them, who the narration explains is a good author. the villais wear uniforms with edward guest on them, who both lemony and klaus disparage.

olaf, too, is this idea to the extreme. we see him have trouble with spelling, in penultimate peril in particular he tries to spell poison as 'poyzon'. he mocks klaus' literary tastes, and doesn't care much for the more high-minded interests of the kids and volunteers he fights.

and yet. olaf goes out quoting phillip larkin off the top of his head. and he has a pretty good vocabulary. he's not stupid, not really.

is it possible that olaf just has dyslexia, or something similar, that bars him from reading classic literature? if so, what does that say about vfd's treatment of him? could his struggles to engage with literature have alienated him from the volunteer side of the schism and driven him into the arms of the villains? it's not hard to see how a kid treated like he was lesser than the others of his generation might turn away from them and want to strike back at the organisation that hurt him (we see this more explicitly in the netflix canon, where we see the aftermath of the night at the opera)

and i think that if this point is being made, it's intentionally as a point on the 'vfd isn't always morally good' column. after all, the baudelaire parents and kit snicket are well-read, and we know they have done some things that range from kinda questionable to outright morally reprehensible. and that seems to be part of the subtext of kit and olaf's death scenes - that they are not so different, that they were forged in the fire of vfd in exactly the same way, that both of them did some pretty messed up stuff in the name of the organisation that practically raised them, regardless of which side of the schism they were on. it chewed them up and spat them out and led to them dying alone and distraught on the same beach, beside each other, casualties of a pointless war.

in the end, it's not how much you've read that makes the difference. it's the person you are and what you do with the knowledge you've attained.

[spokelseskladden]

What is with two written Norwegian languages (if I got this correctly)? I'm so intrigued

Oh yes! Norway does have two quite different written languages! I'm a history/language/literature nerd so I'm gonna try not to go too in detail when answering this, but basically. To understand why Norway have two written languages, I'm going to give you a very brief and simplified look at Norwegian history (that got. quite long. I'm so sorry please bear with me).

Back in the 1300s most of Norway's population was wiped out by the bubonic plague, and this included the wealthy aristocrats and the clergymen. In this case, there are two relevant causes. 1. The middle-Norwegian written(and spoken) language disappeared, because most of the literate people died, and 2. Norway was kiiiinda forced into a union with Denmark due to the majority of the government officials dying. So with Denmark being the central power, most of the new government officials and clergy were Danes, that spoke and wrote in Danish. Due to this, Danish became "the" language. Everyone in power spoke/wrote Danish, and thus the dialects in the central places in Norway were affected by this. (and the written language became Danish, cause what other choice did anyone have?). Now the Danes were in power all the way until the Napoleonic wars, where Denmark-Norway sided with Napoleon. As they were on the losing side, Denmark lost the Norwegian territory to Sweden. In Norway however, Officials were working on a Norwegian Constitution in an attempt at gaining Norwegian independence (they decided to just go into a new, slightly looser union with Sweden after all, but that's not really suuuper relevant. Just a bit relevant. idk.).

Now this happened in 1814, so Norway had been under Danish rule for nearly 500 years. That's quite some time, and it means that Danish influence definitely had set it's roots in Norwegian society. Now however, Norway had gained more political power in this new union with Sweden, and the idea of finding a proper Norwegian identity really grew. It turned into a movement, where artists and writers produced art, poetry, novels, everything and anything to define what it meant to be Norwegian. A lot of the things Norway is known for to this day stems from this movement actually, lol.

But yeah, one of the more important ways to define the Norwegian identity was language. Norway was at the time at the top when it came to literacy in Europe (at least I think so, I could be wrong here), this was a people who read. A lot. But they still read in Danish. So in the 1830s the language debate started, how could we possibly gain our own language? Most people fell in line with the idea of simply "Norwegifying" Danish slowly, easy as that. switch out a few things here and there, but mainly keep the language as it is. The problem with this though, was that Danish as a language mainly fell in line with the way people spoke in the cities, it was the language of the elites. Norway has a vast variety of dialects, and it was even wider back in the 19th century! It varied from city to city, but if you went out to the countryside it could nearly sound like a different language at times. An example of the variety is the many ways Norwegian people say "I":

Jeg, eg, e, æ (that's what I say :D), jeh, jæ, æg, i, jag. (And there are probably more that I didn't think of!)

So yes, there's some variety here. And if the language were to only represent the elite, reading and writing would be less representative of, as well as accessible to those who lived in rural Norway. But how does one solve this? Well, a crazy person might suggest walking all over Norway (on fucking foot), and talk to people, record what they're all saying in different places, and then make multiple diagrams to figure out the general similarities and the common ground in all these different dialects and create a whole. new. language. basically from scrap. But no one was mad enough to do that, right? WRONG! Ivar Aasen, an absolute KING decided that he was going to do this on his own. He quite literally walked all over Norway (except for the far North where I live. Which fair enough I guess, we're used to not being included) and collected words from nearly all corners of the country. It was completely insane, like I'd recommend reading about him if you can, I can't emphasize enough how hard he worked to make a language for the people. He's my hero lol. And so you'd think that was that, cause this was ater all the language closest to the way most people spoke, but it really wasn't that clear cut. It stood between Aasen's Nynorsk (New Norwegian) and Bokmål (book tongue, the Norwegification of Danish). But they never really chose one? Like they decided to just keep both. And both are taught in school today.

I grew up learning Bokmål, and then had some Nynorsk in middle school and High School. And I'm gonna be honest, while I love Nynorsk politically and also as a poetic language (it's way more aesthetic and beautiful than Bokmål) I suck at it. I can read it with no problem (cause they're very similar), but writing it is difficult for me cause the way you conjugate verbs and stuff is different. And it's really sad that it's like this, cause I really would love to learn it properly! Sadly the most common view on it is. Absolute hatred. And it's so sad, and I blame it on the way the Norwegian School system goes about teaching it. There are places in Norway where it's the other way around (Kids who learn Nynorsk from preschool and have a bit of Bokmål in middle/high school) but the most popular opinion is sadly to hate on Nynorsk :( But yeah Hope that answered your question! If you want me to elaborate on anything, please ask me! I absolutely love this topic, and I love talking about it!!!