#math is fun imo

[clementine-thedestroyer]

Exponential improvement - Miguel O’Hara x reader

Warnings/tags: Tutor!Miguel, college AU. Reader is bad at math. Reader and Miguel aren’t actually together, it’s more of a first meeting type thing.

In which, Miguel finds a hill to die on.

Unfortunately for you, that hill is teaching you how to graph Logarithmic equations.

You had made it through highschool math, but just barely- and at the cost of more than a few all-nighters and tear filled study sessions. Math was never your best subject, to say the least. But to be fair, was it anyone’s?

You told yourself this class would be different, that you wouldn’t let yourself get behind, that you’d study, that you’d buckle down and do what you needed to do to get a good grade in the class. But none of that mattered, because despite your best efforts, you were failing.

And god, it felt horrible. You were too embarrassed to ask for help- it was the easiest math class there was- the one considered so basic and fundamental that it was required for every degree track. You knew others were failing, you even knew some had dropped the class in the first week. But that didn’t stop the steady build of shame and self hate that slowly but surely wore you down and left you hanging by a thread.

Then, that thread snapped. You had put blood, sweat, and tears into studying for this test. You stayed up nearly all night going over your notes and the test review. You practiced graphing and crammed every available scrap of information on quadratics, polynomials, and rationals into your head. You even spent the morning of the test watching YouTube videos over your weakest subjects- endlessly reviewing in the hope it would make some sort of difference.

But it didn’t matter. You failed the second test. Barely, yes- you got a 68, but that was still a failing grade, and now you’re halfway through the semester with a 64 and feeling completely helpless about your situation.

You tried, you had studied so hard- and yes, the 68 brought your grade up, but you couldn’t help but feel defeated. Was it so bad that you had expected a little more pay off than a 68? You had ran yourself ragged for that grade, how in the world were you going to get anything higher?

So, you gave in and admitted you needed help.

The campus had a tutoring program that you had known about for a while. Maybe it was embarrassment over needing help, maybe it was your own pride, or maybe it was just plain stubbornness, but you had held out in the hope you could raise your grades without help. But after the latest test, you gave in and signed up for the program.

So here you were, sitting in the tutoring room, waiting for your assigned tutor to show up.

The room was about half full- with each student-tutor pair spread out across the room. The company of others helped calm your nerves, but you couldn’t stop your leg’s anxious jittering. You hardly knew anything about the guy, just that he was in the process of obtaining a masters degree in genetics- and good enough at math to tutor it.

You’re scrolling through your phone- only half paying attention to TikTok as you watch the doorway out of your peripherals, waiting for your tutor to arrive.

5 minutes to 6:00, a man walks into the classroom and sits down at your desk, holding out his hand and introducing himself as Miguel O’Hara. You take his hand, making your best attempt at a strong, confident handshake as you introduce yourself in turn.

You didn’t know who you were expecting, but it definitely wasn’t this. The man, Miguel, is massive: built like a quarterback and taller than everyone else in the room by a long shot. He’s wearing jeans and a simple sweatshirt with the college’s logo. His face is set in a blank, slightly judging look, and his presence just feels straight up intimidating.

You already had your notes and worksheets out and waiting on the table, and Miguel takes notice. He sits down next to you, tugging the top paper in front of him and clicking his mechanical pencil as he scans over the homework.

Before you have a chance to say anything else, Miguel starts, speaking quickly and in a level tone. “Logs? That’s understandable. It’s really quite simple once you get it.”

You open your mouth to respond, but before you can, Miguel scoots closer to you and slides the paper in front of you, tapping the eraser of his pencil on the first problem.

“Go ahead and do this one for me so I know where you’re at.”

He’s pressed close to you, close enough that you can hear his breathing and feel the heat radiating off his body. Miguel seems completely unbothered, his eyes focused on the problem as he waits for you to start.

You pick up your pencil, hovering over the paper as you stare at the problem and urge yourself to think in the hopes you’ll not make yourself out to be a complete idiot immediately.

Graph the following functions. Find the x-intercept, the vertical asymptote, domain, range, and end behavior of each.

1) f(x) = log3(x + 3) + 1

You struggle to work out the problem, and you try your best. But, Miguel hovering over your shoulder and watching you like a hawk as you work out the problem is really not helpful. If anything, it’s stressing you out. Especially with how close the two of you are- with his thigh pressing against yours under the table. You know he doesn’t mean it like that- that he’s not trying to do anything. But if anything, that just makes it worse.

In the end, you give up, setting your pencil down and letting your eyes fall to the floor. “I don’t know where to start…” you say, sitting back in your chair, trying to ignore the creeping build of defeat and embarrassment from the depths of your mind.

Miguel nods, clicking his pencil again and getting the lead to the length he wants it. He leans forward, taking the pencil to the paper and scribbling numbers in barely legible chicken-scratch as he talks you through how to solve the problem.

“Well, looking at this, we know the asymptote is at -3 and we know b is 3…”

Miguel trails off as he draws a dotted line to the left of the y axis. You’re sure there’s a stupid look on your face right now, because Miguel has barely said anything and you’re already lost. You lean foreward, sitting up straighter in your chair in order to look over his shoulder and see what he’s writing. But all that dose is confuse you more, because Miguel’s handwriting

“Then, we can just graph the 1 0, b 1, and 1/b -1 points and move them around…” Miguel pauses again, this time to draw 6 points on the graph, then connect 3 of them with one line and the other 3 with a second line.

“And once you have it graphed, the rest is easy. We already found the asymptote, you can plug numbers in to find your x-intercept, the range is all real numbers, the domain is the asymptote to infinity, and your end behavior is just the same as the parent function.” Miguel finishes speaking and filling in the blanks on the worksheet, looking towards you and nudging the paper in your direction so you can see it easier. “Ready to try the next one?” He asks.

You stare blankly at the worksheet in front of you, still trying to catch up with Miguel and figure out what the fuck he had just done, but the mess of poorly written numbers and lines did nothing but confuse you further.

Miguel watched you for a second before sighing and nodding. “… you don’t get it, do you?”

And that’s how you found yourself still sitting in the now empty tutoring room with Miguel over 2 hours after you were supposed to have finished.

Not that it was your fault. You tried to give up after the 6th time one of Miguel’s explanations left you more confused than you had been before, but the man wouldn’t let you leave. When you tried to gather your stuff to call it a night, Miguel grabbed your wrist, pulling you back down to your seat and stating that “he was going to teach you how to graph logarithms if it was the last thing he’d do.”

And by god, it might be the last thing he ever does, because Miguel was looking worse for wear at this point.

Dark circles underlined his eyes and dark wayward strands of hair framed his face. About an hour ago, he’d pulled out his glasses- stating that the eye strain was bringing on a headache. He was hunched over the mess of worksheets and scratch paper between you- his phone propped up against his water bottle and playing a YouTube video that tried to explain logarithmic transformations to you for the nth time of the night.

You were trying your best to pay attention- you really were- and Miguel was doing everything he could to help. He’d pause the video often to ask whether the way the person explained it made sense or to peek over at the problem you were attempting to solve and make sure you were on the right track.

You’ve made progress- you actually knew what a logarithm was now, so that was good. And Miguel had related logarithmic functions to exponential functions in a way that just barely made sense- the only hurdle left to clear was being able to graph them.

And god- it was a big one. At this point, you were ready to give up- and were just waiting for Miguel to let you.

Your eyes drift back down to the YouTube video playing on Miguel’s phone. The words playing from the phone’s speakers go in one ear and out the other. You can hear them, but they sound more like a foreign language to you than a subject that you’ve spent the past two hours trying to grasp.

You narrow your eyes- trying to focus on the words of the man in the video- willing to do just about anything just be done and be allowed to go home- you’re considering faking a family emergency when all of a sudden, it clicks.

Maybe it’s the caffeine from the soda you got from the vending machine, maybe it’s the way the YouTube video explained it, or maybe it was your dead-tired brain being so desperate to be done with math today, that it simply manifested an understanding of logarithms into itself.

Regardless, you got it.

The secrets of the universe had been revealed to you. The power of the mathematical cosmos was at your fingertips. You felt on top of the world, and you couldn’t help the giddy smile that spread across your face as you ducked down, working out one of the problems on your worksheet in an effort to test your theory.

Miguel hardly noticed as you started working through the problem. The poor guy looked half asleep as he blankly stared ahead at the video playing on his phone.

You finish the problem, grinning wide as you hold the paper up and tug on the shoulder of Miguel’s sweater. “Miguel! I did it!”

When Miguel turns to you, his face lights up. “You did it?” He asks excitedly- his normally stern, or at the very least calm, expression is split by a massive smile as

“Yeah! I understand it now!!” You reply proudly- beaming as you stand up and hold your hand up for a high five.

Miguel stands- nearly sending his chair toppling backwards as does- and you quickly realize your mistake as his open hand hits yours with a loud smack that sends a stinging pain across your palm. Miguel doesn’t seem to notice how you wince. “See! I told you it wasn’t hard!” He says, still grinning wildly as he pulls his glasses off and folds them, hanging them from the collar of his sweater.

“Oh shush.” You scoff- the tension from the rest of the evening no more than a distant memory now.

Miguel laughs- the kind of deep, light hearted laugh that makes everyone else nearby smile- and he runs his hand through his hair, getting the wayward strands out of his face as he picks up the worksheet you’d solved the problem on, looking over it. “Yeah- you got it right.” He confirms.

“I still need some more practice with it I think…” you add, trailing off.

“Well, not tonight.” Miguel says, nodding. Starting to pack up his stuff as he clicks the power button on his phone and checks the time, cringing at how late it’s gotten. “I kept you pretty late… sorry about that.”

You laugh, nodding. “Yeah. Definitely not tonight…” you pause, trying to keep your voice level as you speak your next words. “But, I’m free Tuesday?” You say, more as a question than a statement.

Miguel looks down at you- the remnants of his earlier excitement settling as a soft smile as he speaks. “How about the coffee shop by the residence halls? Around 4?”

You nod, a giddy feeling bubbling in your chest at the thought of seeing Miguel again- outside of the tutoring room too.

“I really am sorry I kept you so late. I didn’t realize how long we’d been at it.” Miguel says, his eyes flickering to the side for a minute- but the split second of nervousness is practically over before it even begins. “We’re probably heading the same way so… I’ll walk you to your car or the residence halls- or wherever you’re headed.”

You grin, packing up your own things before slinging your backpack over your shoulder.

“I’d like that.”

[therosebunpost]

Idea:

The helping Bully!Eddie study trope, but Reader is average in school so they're confused on why he even wants them to help. Hell, he's better then them in some subjects, like math. (They only know that because Eddie talks about the math involved in DND, and how he frustratingly had to explain how he got a math question right to them because he did it all in his head.)

Eddie, thinking he's being so smooth with asking them to help study, only to have the reverse card pulled on him when HE is the one who has to explain a concept to Reader. Sure, he uses this to help bargin for kisses, or more time together, but still he wasn't expecting to be the one playing teacher. He kinda likes it though. Even if he pretends that it's a big burden on him.

[the-manderville-mambo]

It occurs to me that my deliberately running the Ivalice/NieR raids just for fun may say something about me

[driftwooddestiel]

today was actually pretty great ngl. for example in french this morning someone im sorta friends with encouraged their friend to arrange their desks to sit next to me instead of how their friend was proposing to move them and then we had a genuinely good time in french class ‼️ and that was very cool

[cheeses-ib]

Just took my last SAT and by last SAT I mean that even if I totally bombed it I am never stepping foot in an SAT testing room again

(I do actually think I did really well though Athena + Khan Academy really pulled through with that one)

[kalloway]

I'm just gonna up and admit it:

Main reason I have been slacking on Android AU stuff (im like 95% sure) is because I wanted to make Miriam be smart with math/number stuff, but........ I an extremely not good with math, so I'm just like :///////

also androids kinda make that an obsolete skill so it's like why would I do this to myself

[i4oba]

haechan as… 💭 / your study buddy ⊹◞✿

haechan as your study buddy sounds like a complete nightmare

I KNOWWWW

but hear me out… Hear!!!!! me out I swear

when he’s determined, he can focus, it just takes … a bit too much in him to do that

not because he’s stupid, he’s super super smart when he’s actually trying

but you know… there are courses that are pain in the ass and you cannot even deny that

and as complete opposites.. you Do care about it, meanwhile he Does NOT give a shit about those

like he couldn’t care less if he failed introduction to philosophy

he doesn’t even know why he has to complete that course. like what’s the fucking point..

FUCK HEGEL???likeee

but you were hella determined to help him out and kind of motivate him

i mean, he wouldn’t mind a little extra cash as a scolarship either ???The least he can do is just sit down and study

that’s how it always have been anyways, ever since middle school

studying together at the library, solving math problems and talking shit in between two of these sessions

the latter part was hyuck’s favourite honestly, he’s such a shittalker fr (i get it, i am too)

he knows basically every gossip… that’s how it always have been! (he knew about the crush jisung had on one of the seniors back in high school and was sooooo into this little affair he singlehandedly ruined his chances… by accidentally spilling it all to the girlie… Oops was all he said too like LMFAO)

he starts and ends all of your uni study sessions with gossips as well honestly

he says it should be a sandwich (or some bullshit idk)–one nasty rumour, some molecular biology and one lighthearted gossip as a way to finish

letting some steam off

he’s not even sorry about it.. at least he has something to look forward to everytime you meet

he’s such a big gossiper it’s actually crazy

and when he gets soooo into it, his voice gets all squeaky and shit lol

him studying journalism doesn’t even help at all, like why is he so fucking interested in this

he says he wants to work at atlantic but… what are the chances? HE SHOULD STUDY

and that’s why you two were there!!! nose should be buried in books!!!!!!!

but his is… well, behind the screen of his phone, going through his instagram dms and showing off other girl’s messages

some extremely cute ones and some embarrassing love confessions as well

you cannot help but laugh when you see someone replying to his thirst trap stories with heart eyed emojis and shit

especially when you can recall how you literally called him a loser in your reply

i mean, you were right after all Lmfao

he knows you’re joking though.. he knows he’s hot as fuck and the most important: he knows that you know

but let’s get back to our main point ???Duh

you were Sat at one of the lesser crowded corners of the campus library, surrounded by a couple of notebooks, one half cup of coffee that has long gone cold, and your laptop–meanwhile hyuck only had one, pretty small notebook he used for every lecture he had, and it had been…

through a lot (as if a dog chewed on it or something but really it’s just that he didn’t care about it)

but anywaaaaays… in the first like, ten minutes he was actually working??? studying his stuff???? Even telling you some fun facts he could remember

like that’s how he is naturally, his method of learning is teaching at the same time as well

which is actually such a useful way imo, that’s how i do as well lmfao

but then you had to avert your attention and do the rest of your research paper to finally finish the project.. it had been ages since you’ve started and you were nowhere near the finish line

so he just.. went on his phone instead. he thrives on attention and when you’re not giving it to him… well YEAAAHHH

he intentionally puts the volume of his phone pretty high so he can annoy you with the sound of him typing and shit

going through tiktok and all

he’s such an asshole for that

but you like the presence of him. it’s soothing kinda that he’s .. there?? clearly not studying but keeping you company

i mean, doing this all alone would be rather depressing, isn’t it? You’re not a big fan of that

so he stays. because he’s aware.

and maybe, with some extra help, he could learn his material.. you just gotta take break more frequent so he can act like as if he was a lecturer ahah

mansplaining and shit ijbol

and at the end??? at the crack of the night??? walking you back to your dorm???? he’s the one offering you two should do this again soon

not tomorrow, he adds–there’s a frat party he’s expected to attend

but after that????He’s excited to do it again :P

[devilscastle69]

wake me up next time (j/jk itaf/ushi)

heyy here's a small j/jk fic in the fun like haha everyones thriving in the future,they all made it to 2023 2024 and are grown and most of the characters are in love au. theyre about 23 here if the math is mathing (it might not be but theyre early-mid 20s) and probs were the last couple to get together imo bc theyre kinda dumb.

minors do not interact tyty~

Yuji gasped and jolted out of his sleep. Something had shattered loudly. 

Megumi’s side of the bed was abandoned and cold, but the sounds of the footsteps from down the hall were so distinctly his. He groaned at himself—that’s what he got for lying under the covers and believing he’d stay awake. Yuji squinted at the clock on his phone and found it wasn’t even six in the morning yet. What could he be doing up at this hour?

Yuji found his boyfriend picking up shards of glass with a dish towel before depositing them into a plastic bag.

“Morning. Wow, can’t believe you’re already up,” Yuji greeted with a smile that quickly dissolved into a yawn. Megumi flinched for a fraction of a second before he hummed and rose to dispose of the broken ceramic. “Oh sorry, didn’t mean to startle you! What time did you end up coming back?”

Megumi shrugged. “Dunno. Didn’t sleep much, honestly. Be careful. I broke a cup.” He gestured at the floor vaguely and sighed like talking had sapped him of all energy, 

“You look exhausted.” Yuji noted, frowning. He left out the addition that he sounded exhausted too. “Was it really rough?

Megumi shook his head and cleared his throat.”Nah. The only thing that was really a pain was the flight getting delayed.”

“Ah,” Yuji said, giving him a once over; his hair was unkempt as it always was in the mornings, but the dark shadows under his eyes only made their appearances when he’d been sleep deprived for at least a few days. “That sucks. Are you all jet lagged? I know you don’t sleep on planes.” He put his hand on Megumi’s shoulder. He got a confirmatory nod before Megumi shrugged his touch off and faced him. 

“I made tea if you want some.” He nudged his head in the direction of the tea kettle. Usually he has a few cups of black coffee in the morning, but if Megumi was planning on going back to sleep anytime soon, tea would be more forgiving. Yuji nodded and Megumi pulled two cups from the cabinet without issue and poured a helping of tea in each and set them down on the table. 

“Thank you.” Yuji smiled and scooted closer to his boyfriend and wrapped an arm around him. He’d forgotten to claim his welcome back hug, but he didn’t want to make his tired boyfriend stand up again, so this would have to suffice for now. 

Megumi shook his head but didn’t turn to face him. “Wait…d-dohh h-hihh- eh’cshht!”  He ducked into his inner elbow and shook against Yuji’s grasp. 

“Bless you.”

“tzssht! h’Kxxt! ndh-- KXxsh’uh!” 

“Bless you!” 

“heh’eISHschh’tuh!” He kept his arm up and sniffled and rubbed his nose with his hoodie sleeve as a buffer between his nose and wrist. “Excuse mbe.”  It was normal for him to sneeze in multiples on occasion, but that last one had been particularly harsh and left his throat feeling raw. He coughed briefly against the cuff of his sleeve and took a small sip of tea. A small tear escaped when he closed his eyes and trickled down his cheek. 

“You alright?” Yuji rubbed his back. Megumi pulled his sleeve down after a moment and nodded. The spray was extremely visible, but Yuji pretended like he didn't notice. 

Instead, he kissed his temple and frowned at the unnatural heat coming from his boyfriend. “Oh.” He put his lips there again, the back of his hand moving to both feel his boyfriend’s cheek and to prompt him to make eye contact.  “You’re really warm.” He brushed away the stray tear that’d continued marking a trail down to his chin. 

“Figured.” Megumi sniffled and took a slow sip of his tea. “You shouldn’t be this close.” 

“Why don’t you go back to bed while I make you some breakfast?”

“It’s not that serious.”

Yuji cupped Megumi’s cheek to turn him so he could see the pout directed at him. “That’s not fair. You had me stay in bed when I was sick last month and I didn’t even have a fever.”

“That’s different.” Megumi said, cheeks flushing as he turned away, distracting himself with the warm beverage in front of him.  

“I mean, not that I’m complaining. I think about all that time in bed a lot.” Yuji waggled his eyebrows. 

Megumi choked on his sip of tea. Coughing was better than attempting to respond to that in his current state.

“Please?”

“I’m not really hungry.” He sniffled again. And again. And then he pawed at his nose slightly with the back of his sleeve in an attempt to discreetly sop up any lingering moisture. 

Yuji nodded and passed him a napkin that’d been out of reach. “Hm. We could break out those massage oils Nobara gave us. I bet your neck is all stiff. Especially if you were sleeping on the couch.” The hurt seeped in just a bit in the last remark. 

“It was the middle of the …night,” Megumi said, scrubbing at his nose with the napkin before crumpling into it entirely, “hihhtx!”

Yuji may not have shared Megumi’s affinity for sneezing, but there was something adorable about Megumi’s little fits: from the way the bridge of his nose creased with a few small wrinkles to the frustrated sounds he’d make trying to stifle them, to the way he always looked frustrated with himself if he knew people were watching. 

“C‘mon, you can let them out. It’s just me,” he said when Megumi didn’t put the napkin down and continued his silent but uneven breathing pattern. 

“I-it’s not that.” He turned and blew his nose slightly. 

“Oh it got stuck?”

He confirmed with a nod. 

“Well, when it comes back don’t hold back.” Yuji patted his shoulder and gave him a thumbs up. “Do your best.”

The color rushed back to Megumi’s face and the distraction gave the tickle a chance to respawn stronger than before. “Ihh’tshh! TZtshh!  TsChh’eh! ihdtShhu! H-hih…hDjtSHhh’uh!”

“Bless you,” Yuji murmured as Megumi tended to his nose again. He handed him another napkin, noting that the original one looked spent. “Good job.”

A few years ago this would’ve earned him a smack, but instead Megumi sighed and leaned into Yuji’s hold, temple meeting shoulder in a way he only did when they were alone. Yuji combed through his hair, content to stay like this for as long as Megumi needed. 

“You shouldn’t let me be all over you, you know.”

Yuji easily  pulled him into his lap and then into the proper hug he'd wanted before. “I’m not gonna catch anything from you.”

“Uh…”

“I’m gonna take your cold from you!” Yuji announced before quickly closing the gap between them and kissed softly on his lips that’d gotten cracked during his time away. When he pulled away, he noted that Megumi’s feverish flush had deepened and he knew exactly why but would definitely bring it up later. He put his forehead to Megumi’s. “Wake me up next time.”

[fannyyann]

Hey, hope you're doing okay. I hope you don't mind me asking, but I am rather new to the mattdrai fandom and I couldn't help but wonder:

Was Matthew really as bad as a lot of fic lead to believe in his earlier hockey years in Calgary? And was he really disliked in the room - where there rumours like that? So many fics build on this premise, and seeing him now in Florida and hearing all the nice things his teammates say about him and seeing the things he does himself and the insane good hockey he plays... it's hard to believe.

It's so strange also that it's so rarely mentioned that Leon was the one to be sent down to the minors, not Matthew.

Plus what I don't get: matthew is a lot hotter than Leon? why is it always told like Leon is the hottest dude on earth while Matthew is nothing? comparing early pics and pics from now... it's just not true? Leon looks good, a bit bland IMO, but Matthew is and was just hot in a very unique and special way. maybe because he isn't that bland generic good looking Leon is? But good looking in a special way? so that got a lot longer than I thought it would, hope you don't mind the ask.

i don't mind you asking at all! this is basically my roman empire so MY apologies if this gets unwieldy but i have FEELINGS about matthew's early fic portrayal lmao

in his six years on the flames, matthew was always one of the top five scorers.

his rookie year, he was sixth in rookie scoring

the season he was picked for his first ASG, the flames were 16th in the league at the time all star rosters were announced and matthew was their top scorer.

so it's not like he was the best player from a bottom of the league team or going because he was the home town boy, he was a playoff team's best player (both at the asg break and when the season was eventually suspended because of covid).

and even in his career worst year (2020-2022), he ended the year as their third best scorer and only six points behind johnny (the leader). and as one of calgary's beat reporters said in his end of the year review, Matthew was "good, but not quite as good as the Flames needed him to be."

so i've never really understood why people were portraying him like that either and still haven't figure out if most of it was unreliable narrator kind of stuff or if some authors actually thought he was bad before he had his breakout season, but it doesn't reflect reality.

as for him being disliked in calgary, that all stems from jake muzzin flipping the puck at him, and the subsequent players only meeting that took place after it, in which matthew allegedly told the team he was upset they didn't join him in the scrum after and he was then told him it can't be a riot every night.

before that there were never any rumors that i'm aware of that he was unliked in the room, and in 2019 gio, who most people tend to think is the one who told matthew to tone it down, said this about another players only meeting:

so while the 2021 players only meeting was a story because matthew wasn't playing like his usual self afterward, i've never thought it was indicative of him not being liked by his teammates. and honestly, you have to take it all with a grain of salt anyway because while guys obviously bullshit the media, at the practice after the players only meeting guys talked about how there was a general lack of emotion, and how they came out there trying to have fun with each other and put it behind them, and in the postgame the next night, gio specifically sites getting into scrums and mixing it up when asked how much more emotion they played with in that win compared to earlier losses, so if mixing it up was good the very next night, the math doesn't quite add up, yk?

but johnny did confirm in his spittin chiclets appearance about two weeks after the muzzin incident that matthew was pissed after they left him out to dry that night, and when asked about matthew's struggles that season darryl sutter said matthew needed to, and would, get back to playing to his identity, so the whole cause and effect of the muzzin incident on matthew's play that season isn't completely unfounded, but i do think multiple guys saying the team needed to play with more emotion, johnny saying in the chiclets episode that the guys skating off didn't find out about the puck flip until they saw it on sportsnet and saying he felt bad about it, and the new coach coming in and getting matthew to play back to his style shows that it wasn't as personal as it was made out to be.

anyway, the flames may not have be as tight knit as the panthers are, but matthew had his people there. he's bffs with hanifin and his friendship with sam bennett is part of what drew him to florida. johnny always says great things about him, blake coleman called him the heartbeat of the team, and was such an important voice in the room that the flames suffered when he and gudbranson were no longer around to tell sutter to chill the fuck out when he was being too hard on guys in the room.

he probably wasn't close with every teammate, most people aren't friends with all their coworkers, but he wasn't some sort of loner in that locker room.

as for the looks, that's all down to personal preference. leon is definitely very conventionally attractive and while matthew has definitely glowed up in the last few seasons, he was by no means ugly. i wouldn't even say he's really unconventionally attractive either. he's got a good face and was a cute teen and people who are like "oh no i find matthew tkachuk attractive now" have literally never made sense to me. but again! personal preference and all that.

again, my apologies if you weren't looking for THIS MUCH of an answer to your question but this isn't even all the sources i pulled up when i first got this ask so i did TRY to keep it short lol

[were--ralph]

also genuinely thinking about becoming a math major down the road. college math is so much more fun and interesting and practical than it ever felt in 1-12 grade. i find myself thinking about limits and tangents and integrals a lot lately and its like. very cool to see it in real world applications.

like in high school it was just "you'll use this someday" which, imo, is a bad way of explaining the situation; in high school you can't account for which students will be mechanics, scientists, developers, etc or which ones will live out their lives in retail, or fast food service, ow whatever. neither thing is worse than the other, but the point is you don't know who will use trig in daily lives so you teach everyone. i don't remember a thing about chemistry and never suffered for it but i have a friend who is a nuclear engineer (insane) and its like the basis for his life.

all that aside, i went from "math is whatever" to "im genuinely thinking about this half of my day and using it in the most nonsensical and probably incorrect ways, but its so fun to do" and i enjoy it

[spicybylerpolls]

Here me out, I am not against a byler sex scene cause I don’t think it would be anything remotely explicit anyways so discussing it in depth for me feels pointless, but I have issues with tying a sex scene into the character arcs of mike and will as if it’s the only logical way to wrap up their story, only because had there not been a pandemic and multiple delays, byler would have happened while at least one of them was still a MINOR (maybe both I would have to do the math) and there’s no way the show woulda had a sex scene in those circumstances so it’s more likely to me that having a sex scene—while it would be interesting to go there now that the actors are older—it is not the end all be all for their character arcs and not something that *has* to happen for their end narrative to make sense, since it probably was not going to happen in the first place. So maybe let’s reframe the discussion away from “they have to bone or else all the build up and such makes no sense it’s the only way to end things because blah blah blah” and more as it would be fun/cool/hot to see something more adult now that they ARE actual adults, and it would feel satisfying to their story, but that’s it. cause some people are starting to feel so passionate about the idea that i am concerned they are going to make themselves very angry if there isn’t one …

Hmm, I kinda see your point, but I also feel like there's no real point in speculating about what might have happened in the hypothetical past where the pandemic and the strikes didn't happen because A) we don't live in that timeline lol, and B) the Duffers have always had the ending in the show in mind from the jump and many/most of the beats they knew they needed to hit along the way, BUT I personally don't think they've planned out literally every single detail from the start with no wiggle room.

The writers have said as much, like for example when they tweeted all the crazy things that were supposed to happen in season 2 like possessed Will killing Bob or El mercy killing her mom. They've definitely added and subtracted some things along the way.

Beyond that, regardless of the ages of Finn and Noah, it's not outlandish to argue that sex is still thematically connected to the characters and their arcs. Byler is a story about sexuality, of which sexual attraction and, well, sex play a huge role.

And ST is a coming-of-age show, of which sex often plays a huge role regardless of the age of the actors. During S3, the writers didn't shy away from including sexual themes such as Max's happy screams comment, and the actors were still minors then. Every season has progressed these themes further. The writers and filmmakers are the ones putting the sexual symbolism and jokes into the story, and we're just picking up what they're putting down, right?

Like, I don't think Murray using the phrase "experiment sexually" was accidental, nor was hosegate, nor was Mike checking out Will's ass lol. It's all fair game when you're telling this kind of story (as long as you're creating a safe and comfortable set, of course). Because of this, IMO, there's a high chance the ST writers would've still at least implied that Byler had sex even in your hypothetical scenario. There actually isn't a hard-and-fast rule that prevents actors who aren't legal adults yet from acting out light, non-explicit sex scenes.

You say that, "byler would have happened while at least one of them was still a MINOR (maybe both I would have to do the math) and there’s no way the show woulda had a sex scene in those circumstances," and I understand why you'd say this, but if you look closer at films and shows in media history, that's not always true. I can name several shows and films that call this theory into question.

While it's true that most modern shows with teen sex scenes do tend to also have adults already playing teenagers- there's a whole page on TV Tropes about this phenomenon called Dawson Casting- (and these tend to show a lot of skin, i.e. Euphoria), which makes it easier to explore sexual storylines, that's not the case across the board.

In your hypothetical scenario, the Byler sex scene obviously wouldn't have been an explicit one (and no one's saying it will absolutely be that way now either), but that doesn't really mean it wouldn't have existed in some form. There are many examples of coming-of-age shows/movies where the actors were technically still underage at the time of filming, and it showed them making out intensely before cutting out (and sex was implied) or it showed something slightly more (closer to Stancy) but still not anywhere near HBO-level.

McLovin's sex scene in Superbad comes to mind (his actor was still 17 at the time, and his mother had to watch while it was being filmed). Thora Birch was 16 when American Beauty was filmed. More recently, there was the Jevon sex scene in Chucky this season. Devon's actor recently turned 18, but Jake's actor is still 17. And yet the season was non-subtly building up to the scene, it was 100% tastefully done, and it cut away before anything super specific happened.

Now that both Finn and Noah ARE adults, and we know there will definitely be a time jump, this hypothetical is extra meaningless. And if the Duffers want to go further and bolder with a Byler sex scene, they can, even if this wasn't the original plan. And there's lots of brilliant analysis that argues the Duffers have been planting the seeds for a while for at least some kind of sexual resolution.

But your assertion that, "some people are starting to feel so passionate about the idea that i am concerned they are going to make themselves very angry if there isn’t one" doesn't seem based in reality either. Spicy bylers might want a sex scene, and many might believe there at least will be something implied like Jancy, but I don't think anyone will actually be angry if there isn't one. Correct me if I'm wrong? I think most people are just happy there's a space to talk about Byler in unfiltered ways, to analyze the mature themes of the show, and also to have fun while doing so, especially since the season is still a ways away. It's not like people will actually fist fight the Duffers if Mike isn't moaning and giving Will backshots in S5 💀.

What do y'all think?

[thedreadvampy]

god I'm so mad about PE ALL THE TIME

for a long time I felt bad about being mad about PE bc I was like. oh it's just that as an overachiever academically I Could Not Cope with not being good at a subject. how silly. this is probably how maths class feels for people who are bad at maths etc.

but I really don't think it is. because the goal of a maths teacher is to teach you maths. the standard they're being held to is to give you the tools to get better at it. if they don't we understand that as a failure of teaching, at least conceptually.

PE/gym teachers do not seem to be held to the same standard. the main role of PE teachers seems to be to Force Children To Exercise rather than to Teach Them How. it's like if the full extent of maths class was just giving you pages of equations and saying 'do these until you know how to' and if you say 'I don't understand this' they say 'try harder' and at no point do they even briefly explain what an equation is, the basic idea of how to do it, or what success would look like. and when they do a test they don't mark your answers individually or tell you where you went wrong or the right answer, you just get told 'you're bad at this.' (tbh not even 'you're bad at this do better' honestly just 'you're bad at this and will never be good at it')

I've talked to so many ppl from so many different school settings who are like 'I was awful at sports and then after I left school someone pointed out one very simple and obvious thing I was doing wrong and suddenly I found it super easy'.

if somebody can't do a pushup, teaching doesn't mean yelling at them to try harder, it means taking them through the process of building up to a pushup. if someone sucks at running, teaching means saying 'you're wasting all your energy on kicking your heels up, you need to be pushing down into the ground' not 'haha this guy sucks at running everyone look how slow they are'. if somebody has an asthma attack every time they play football, teaching probably looks more like 'here are some lower-impact exercises you can do on the side of the pitch while we play' not 'ugh fine sit out'

the point of PE being a compulsory subject is a) to keep kids active and b) to instill habits of exercise they can take into adult life. possibly c) to play Team Sports and develop socially from that.

but almost everyone I know who is afraid of or doesn't think they can do exercise learnt that at school. because the way PE tends to be taught consistently prioritises people who are already good at sports, and tells everyone who isn't that that's something inherent to them.

I tell this anecdote a lot but my mum was a world class athlete in the 70s and 80s. literally she has 3 world championships in women's rowing under her belt. she was invited to compete at the Olympics. she's good. but she spent her whole school career being told she couldn't do sports, couldn't run, was only good in hockey for standing at the back looking threatening etc. she found PE miserable and she was fully convinced sports just wasn't it for her. then she discovered archery and slapped at it. then she went to uni, joined the rowing team and within her first term learnt from other rowers how to fix her running, how to do pushups and situps in a way that worked for her, how to get to a place where she could comfortably do weights - because her teammates were working with her, not getting mad that she didn't fit the PE box made for her.

it's just fucked imo how much of a site of misery PE is for so many of us. and we're made to feel like that's a reflection on us being Unfit Lazy Sloths who Don't Want To Exercise and not a reflection on how it's taught. most kids want to exercise if you help them find an exercise that's fun for them and a way to do it that meets their needs. most of us like to be active. it feels good.

but PE teachers en masse, and I'm sure there are plenty of exceptions but in general, aren't interested in fitting the exercise to the child but in fitting the child to the exercise. and so exercise becomes this site of shame and inadequacy and anxiety.

I'M NEARLY 30 AND I KEEP DISCOVERING EXERCISE I LIKE! stuff that I have done before and hated! but in a setting where I'm being encouraged and guided towards succeeding instead of shamed for failing I'm having a whale of a time! I've learnt to like swimming again, dancing, climbing, running (still bad at it though), straight up working out (situps and pushups still injure me so I talked to a PT and they helped me design around that instead of telling me to do it more)

it is fucking insane. that the vast majority of us found specifically PE this immense site of trauma and distress and overwhelming negativity and yet. we're just fine with that as a society? we're like hmmm yes sounds like it's the kids' fault for being lazy and unfit and not instinctual athletes. all of them, including ones who are very fit out of school or later in life, and despite the fact that this is so much more across the board than hatred of literally any other single subject. yes. it's the children who are wrong.

[eyesfromhell]

Leverage: Redemption S2E10 "The Work Study Job" could've and maybe even should've been way more intimate

(That's the episode about the grad student whose research was stolen by her professor)

The episode begins with a student accusing her professor of stealing and publishing her research, and him using her severe anxiety to publicly humiliate her.

Pretty good start, right? No need for a sob story, we already despise the Bad Guy, great directing. But most importantly: it's extremely low stakes, and yet the emotional stakes are so very high. If the team fails, a very nice girl is upset, loses 2 years of her life. She says that she'll have to drop out of her PhD program, that it will ruin her life, but we also learn throughout the episode that she's very smart and underestimates herself, maybe she could build herself back up. But also, if the team fails, this really nice person with no evil in her heart - who was betrayed by a man she trusted, was humiliated publicly, and had her biggest work yet stolen - would be incredibly upset. The stakes are the feelings of a girl who the episode makes us deeply sympathize with in 150 seconds.

And then it turns out the research is gonna be the anti-oil or whatever. It turns out the Bad Guy wants to steal it and sell it to Big Oil so they could bury it. And now it's a whole thing, they need to stop climate change, they need space Hardison. This very grounded episode about a guy everyone knows abusing his power became a larger than life heist.

This episode could've been so many things: What if her research was just fun math? What if the Bad Guy just really wanted attention? It could've been enough to get him to steal bogus research and spend the rest of the episode showing Emma (the Victim) how to believe in herself (which they already did, but it was kinda sidetracked by the high stakes heist they were doing).

Some of the best episodes of both shows are, imo, the ones where it's just about helping some guy stuck in trouble - The Bank Shot Job where they help the most helpless bank robbers, The Carnival Job where Elliot teaches the Mark's daughter to love herself, The Order 23 Job which is an ok episode except when Elliot saves a kid from abuse from his cop father, The Rollin' On The River Job which is an ok episode except when Elliot befriends a security guard, The DB Cooper Job.

In general Elliot has huge Big Brother Energy and every episode where he interacts with someone is elevated.

My (barely supported) conclusion: the episode didn't need elevated stakes, it set up great stakes in the first 2:30 minutes, and I think that's enough.

[helluvapurf]

Oop, almost forgot to post this here as well the other day glkjk Buuut guess who finally got to finishing another Reimagined AU design?~ This time of everyone's favorite icy brother-in-law, Andrealphus 💙❄️as a nice lil follow-up to the previous set of redesigns I did for Stolas & his family.

Now, keep in mind I by no means "hate" Andre's canon design as-is (*mainly thanks to all the pretty fanart I've seen from other fans*)... buuut at the same time, it just kinda stumps me how its meant to work as a sibling concept for Stella? .w.; From the heart-shaped face shape & pupiless eyes, I legit thought he was meant to be Stolas' brother before I read his initial intro description lol. Not to say siblings have to look 100% alike, mind you... buuut just a lil more visual clarity could've went a long way to distinguish them as 'family' imo. That along with the... weird "Evil Elsa"-inspired hair, robe & a whole crown (when he's not even a royal himself...?) on top of everything else... ehhhhh .w.;; the vibe together didn't really do it for me, I'm afraid 🤷‍♀️

-Soooo yeah, tangent aside here's my own personal take on Andre's look in my AU~. Made him physically a mix between a Snowy Owl & a Peacock (*I HC him and Stella as half-siblings btw, as she had a Swan mother herself*), gave him more of a "fancy mathmetician" vibes with the pointer stick & glasses ('cause his OG demon lore had him involved with alot of math, apparently? :o), styled up his face markings & hair to resemble more to his sister, aaaand just for fun I decided to give him some green accents to contrast from the rest of his icy/blue colors... 'cause yknow, "Green with Envy"~ lol ;p

[veliseraptor]

when in canon do you think xue yang realises he loves xiao xingchen and/or when do you think would be most interesting for him to realise. I like to think it's just after he dies when xue yang realises he can't resurrect him like he planned because that adds an even more painful layer to the situation imo.

the thing about Xue Yang and feelings realizations though, particularly feelings realizations about loving Xiao Xingchen, is that...Xue Yang does not examine his own feelings very much, and he is absolute shit at identifying them. thinking a lot about that one text post meme that has him with the "*realizes I'm experiencing a genuine human emotion* ok, troubling" and like. that's it! it is not that Xue Yang does not have human emotions it is that Xue Yang doesn't spend much if any time introspecting on his human emotions, what they are, and what they mean, on, like, a specific, articulate level.

so all of this is to say that I don't know that Xue Yang ever realizes that he loved Xiao Xingchen, per se. I think Xue Yang's emotional journey around Xiao Xingchen transitioned from "nemesis I'm going to destroy emotionally and physically" to "nemesis I will destroy emotionally and physically, eventually, when this stops being fun" to "person whose company makes me happy apparently so we'll roll with this until that stops being the case" to "person whose company makes me happy and I'd like to keep it that way" and, after Xiao Xingchen dies, more or less a blue screen of "wait what this isn't what I wanted and now I feel bad about it D: and I really really really want him back and would do a lot to make that happen and will not stop trying, ever."

but I don't think he looks at any of those and goes "huh, guess I'm in love with Xiao Xingchen" because I just don't think that's something he thinks of himself as doing. it's not a part of his emotional vocabulary; it's something other people do, or so he has read. and he doesn't have a sense of what it would feel like for him in order to identify it as such.

slfskdjfls to quote my own fic I wrote in our love would live a half-life on the surface Xue Yang thinking:

I loved you, Xiao Xingchen had said. Xue Yang didn’t know what that meant, or what it was supposed to feel like, but he knew nobody else had ever mattered like Xiao Xingchen did, nobody else was real like Xiao Xingchen was, that he’d never felt like this about someone else, like he wanted to never let him go, like he wanted to open up his ribcage and keep him inside. Like he wanted to tear them both into strips and weave the pieces together so every part of him would be touching every part of Xiao Xingchen all the time.

So maybe it was like that.

and that's kind of what I think he would come to, eventually, if he thought about it. but while I think before Xiao Xingchen dies he gets as far as "I want to keep this and I don't want it to end and I like spending time with Xiao Xingchen and living with him, weird but okay" and after Xiao Xingchen dies he gets "oh this is bad, this feels real bad and I don't like it and I want him back and I'm more miserable than I have ever been in my entire life" I don't think he necessarily does the precise math to articulate that into "I loved Xiao Xingchen."

but I definitely don't think he realized just how much Xiao Xingchen mattered to him until after he was gone and not coming back; before that I think somewhere Xue Yang had still convinced himself that he had an exit strategy and could always end this whenever he wanted and walk away. after that...not so much.

[an-au-blog]

Thinking about Shuggy college au and got to thinking about the relative ages of other characters and now I’m thinking of end of High school aged Frobin. Robin is that loner goth girl turned popular goth girl that is still seen as a bit odd but she’s smart and helpful and has a slightly morbid sense of humor that just endears her to her classmates. Franky is that loud jock who comes to school in way too short shorts even when the weather doesn’t permit for it. You’d think he’s a huge dumbass from the way he acts sometimes but he actually knows a lot of stuff and gets decent grades and is pretty nifty with machines (Also sometimes babysitting his kid neighbor Usopp and teaching him how to not hit his thumb with a hammer). Both of them having this kind of „end of a slow burn“ relationship where Franky is trying to gather his nerves and tell his long term friend that he has feelings for her and it’s completely fine if she doesn’t, but also she’s going to move to college after the end of this school year and he’s afraid about what that means for them and not to mention he’s „smart“ but Robin is like „SMART smart“ and is going to study history and oh GOD what if this is the thing that makes them loose contact and Oh god, oh no, oh fuck.

… probably ends with her just spontaneously taking his hand and asking HIM out, completely oblivious that he has been fretting over this for almost an entire school year. Just felt like the right thing to do to her. A decision she made right that moment.

I... I never really calculated her years in the college au and at first I thought, pft, she won't be that old but then... like she IS around 10/11 years older than Luffy and assuming he's around 5/6 she'd be in her last years of school omg D:' I'm supposed to be good at math how did I not see this???

Also you have no idea how happy I am, this is my first frobin ask I was so happy when I saw it and then my happiness doubled because it's the college au hahaha :')

If I haven't given you a name, can I call you Franon? Or Fronan?? (haha cuz frobin + anon...)

(Edit: by the time I was halfway through writing this post, I realized I've written an entire subplot lol':))

Robin is definitely that weird kid in school that's a bit too smart for her own good and most teachers just think she's a smartass. The type that even though she moved schools and now she's pretty (and still a bit weird, just hides it better), she still has the outcast mentality. She doesn't know how to be herself and she definitely doesn't know what to do, react or even comprehend that someone wants to be friends with her. Let alone to be interested in her romantically.

Franky on the other hand is so outgoing because he's so weird. People will see him in a blizzard in his short shorts and sunglasses and go "how the heck are you not cold". He'd respond with "oh, I'm freezing! I have a parka and two cotton shirts under there!" and people would laugh along. The type to high-five and greet random people he's talked to once as if they've been friends for ages. I feel like he'd also kinda be the class clown but in a somewhat respectful way. There's a meme about someone calling Prometheus a mad lad and then Hermes a Chad, and I feel like that would be his vibe.

Also, I'm sorry Fronan/Franon, but I'm absolutely stealing the idea that Franky babysits Usopp and they have fun arts and crafts type of bonding. He'll need it for the stuff I've been planning for him and Yasopp >:]]]

Everyone assumes he's a moron, but it's until Robin sees him in one of his extracurricular advanced classes that she realizes he's not only smart but funny and fun to be around. It turns out that they also have a lot in common and quickly become friends.

Also him overthinking it and her asking him out is so on brand imo and I absolutely love it. And maybe here comes into play the fact that he's so friendly with everyone so he automatically assumes people like him so he doesn't know what signs for romantic feelings look like? And how she doesn't think anyone could like her in that way? I can imagine him trying to talk himself out of it because she's going places and what could he give her to make her be with him anyway. While she's sitting next to him already planning a schedule for their talks for their long distance relationship.

And of course, their long distance relationship works very well. They both love each other so much they try their best to have at least two or three nights to talk. In fact, their relationship has a very strong foundation of getting to know each other because of the physical separation.

Or so I'd like to think hehe :')