#Calculus is being taught in Math

[desi-yearning]

I went to college today after deciding that I'll shut my mouth and won't speak to anyone much, worked out till I started answering my Sir's questions right from the first period😭

[astrxealis]

school was really good today :]

[dykeishh]

lessons in lust

ellie williams x fem reader

synopsis: ellie meets with her hot tutor for calculus and somehow ends with an anatomy lesson! 

CW: 18+ MINORS DNI, dealer!ellie (throwback asf), tutor!reader, slightly dom!ellie, cunnilingus, public sex (they don’t get caught tho), a bit of teasing, both reader and ellie are just sluts basically. not proofread :3

a/n: heyyy the way i wrote this in literally 2023 and it's just been in my notes… hence slight dealer!ellie appearance LOL its also barely relevant to the story but I just think tutor!reader x dealer!ellie is a hot pairing. also ellie being lowkey dominant in this is so funny cuz i'm really in my sub!ellie era… but its still hot honestly. anyways hope y'all enjoy!

——————————————————————

ellie sighed as she looked at her current course score, knowing she was about to fail her calculus class if she didn’t start getting decent grades soon. she cursed herself for picking astrophysics as a major, recalling how she ‘thought it sounded cool’ and failed to consider that she would need to take difficult math classes.

she didn’t hate it, but she was falling behind as she allowed her ‘business’ to take up most of her time. it was easy to get caught up, and she was pretty proud of herself once the money really started raking in, but was quickly humbled when she remembered she couldn’t afford to retake a foundational course to her major. 

that was how ellie found herself tapping her shoes against the library chair, waiting for her calculus tutor to arrive. she blew out a sigh from her pursed lips as she scrolled mindlessly through her phone, in a daze—so much so that she hadn’t noticed you walk up to the round table until you said, “hi, are you ellie?”

she looked up, a bit startled by your voice in the quiet library, especially because she had picked a spot in the back, away from other people and their chatters. 

she took a second to respond, partially because she had expected some kind of geeky math nerd to be her tutor--especially since it was through the school. however, the main reason for her delayed response was because she knew you.

well, knew is an overstatement, you were a bit of a crush that ellie had in one of her classes. she had never made a move to talk to you, but she often indulged herself by staring at your legs, barely covered by the short skirts you wore to class, and fantasizing about the sounds you’d make with her face between them. she noticed you were wearing a similar skirt today and her mind already started racing, but she quickly snapped out if it. 

“hi, yeah that’s me.”

“i’m y/n, i’ll be working with you today,” you said, smiling at her. she felt her heart rate increase, but she made sure to play it cool. “oh, nice, thanks.” you gave her a slight smile aam pulled your chair in next to her. 

“so, where should we start?”

—————————

after several minutes of going over the subjects taught in the course, ellie’s mind had started to wander back to your short skirt and your words faded into the background as she wondered how quiet she could be while fucking you in the library. you can feel her eyeing you up as you spoke, and try to keep your voice steady regardless of how nervous she’s making you feel. how are you supposed to teach her while she’s practically undressing you with her eyes?

“so, can you show me how you could solve this kind of problem?”, you ask. after a few moments of silence and ellie scratching her head, you giggle, noticing she looks a bit spaced out.

“jeez, am i that boring of a tutor that you’re zoning out?”, you tease. she chuckles and shakes her head, “no, not at all. these kinds of problems just confuse me is all, i really don’t know where to start.”

you scoot your chair closer to her and aren’t sure if you imagine hearing her breath hitch. 

“okay so, show me exactly where you’re having problems."

—————————

“holy shit. you’re a fucking genius. or a saint. both—whatever. i can’t believe i actually understand this,” ellie scoffs in disbelief. 

you smile at ellie and and shrug, “you had it in you. sometimes it just takes a bit of a push. i’m sure you’ll do great on your tests.”

ellie looks at you with a suddenly soft expression, suddenly realizing her appreciation for your help and being so patient with her. she also realizes that she might have a thing for nerds. she would be lying if she didn’t find your intelligence extremely sexy, as if you weren’t already hot enough.

“so, how am i going to repay you for this, y/n?” she asks, leaning towards you and brushing a hair out of your face. 

you let out a shy laugh at her sudden boldness, caught off guard by the cute girl’s fingers brushing against your skin. 

funnily enough, you had heard about ellie before. there was a small number of queer students on campus, and an even smaller circle of queer girls. and as it usually happens, lots of you knew of each other. in fact, you and ellie were both hooking up with the same girl, which was how you knew about her. just based on this, you assumed she was a bit of a womanizer, and her obvious flirting with you now seemed to align with this idea. 

but you aren’t put off by this—in fact, it only makes her more intriguing to you. behind your studious math-nerd image, you aren’t all that innocent either. 

“please, i already get paid to tutor. i’m just doing my job, so you don’t have to thank me any special way,” you reply, amusement laced in your tone.

“i know i don’t have to,” she states simply, “i want to. you helped me out, and i think it’s only right that i return the favor.” as she says this, ellie places her hand on your thigh, slowly moving it up as she looks into your eyes, waiting for a reaction. 

you raise an eyebrow at her, but once you smirk, ellie knows it’s game over. you lean in forward and lower your voice. “y’know, i think you might be right. i did, after all, save your grade in this class didn’t i?” 

you decide you’ll play along and see where this goes. after all, she was fucking hot. when she smirks at your response, you almost start drooling. 5 minutes ago, you were focused on integrals, but now all your brain can think is how fucking badly you want those long fingers to keep moving up your leg. 

“so how exactly are you going to repay me?” you ask, although you already had an idea of what she had in mind. 

even though ellie was hoping for this situation, she couldn’t believe you were actually down. when she realizes this, it goes straight to her clit. was she really about to fuck her hot tutor? 

ellie suddenly starts lowering herself under the desk.

“i think i can help you better down here.”

you just about come right in that moment, looking down at her mischievous green eyes from beneath you. your breath hitches and you look around to make sure that nobody is watching. 

“fuck. that’s so hot. okay… you just-you have to tell me if i’m being too loud, okay?”

ellie nods and can’t seem to wipe that smirk off her face as she crawls forward and positions her face so she could look under your skirt. you spread your legs slightly for her access and you can immediately feel her hot breath on your inner thighs, causing you to shudder. she looks up at you, making direct eye contact as she leaves wet kisses on your thighs, teasing you, even in this moment where she should be going quickly as to not get caught.

you bite your lip when she drags her middle finger over your clothed heat, then slowly rubs your clit through the pink fabric. you hear her curse to herself and you feel yourself getting wetter as each excruciating moment passes. after a few moments, she pulls your panties to the side to view your soaked pussy. 

“you’re already so wet,” she quietly groans. you almost whine when she brings her mouth so close to your center, looking up at you from her hooded eyelids and just holding herself there to tease you just a little bit longer. 

ellie takes a mental snapshot of your desperate expression as you look down at her, with your lips between your teeth and eyebrows furrowed. but she can’t wait any longer herself. needing to taste you, she licks a long strip from up your pussy and you immediately find yourself choking back a moan. 

ellie seems pleased by your reaction and starts leaving wet kisses on your clit, sucking lightly as she pulls away and alternating with gentle flicks of her tongue. its driving you absolutely crazy how gentle and slow she’s being, and you start to roll your hips to satiate her relentless teasing. she knows that it’s not enough but she’s also aware of how much more wet it’s making you. 

she sucks a little harder on your clit and your head falls back as you gasp in pleasure. then she pulls away, lightly smacking your thigh. 

“uh uh, keep looking at me. i want you to watch me while i make you feel good, baby,” she murmurs before she dives back in.

you pull your head back down to watch her with your mouth slightly agape and see her low-lidded eyes are clouded with lust. your back arches as you feel her the pressure of her tongue increase and watch her bob her head up and down under your skirt. ellie isn’t holding back and you can hear the messy, wet noises her mouth makes against your cunt in the quiet library. everything about the situation was borderline pornographic, and you almost feel dizzy from how much it was turning you on. without stopping her mouth movements, you feel her one of her fingers rub against your entrance before plunging deep into your cunt, causing you to let out a little moan. her eyes flick up back to yours, giving you a dangerous look as a warning. one of your hands clasps over your mouth to muffle your sounds as best you can. 

“feels good, doesn’t it?” she whispers, and you nod in response, causing her to tsk at you. “i want to hear you say it. tell me how good i’m making you feel,” she demands, slipping in a second finger. 

when you remove your hand, you accidentally let out another small whimper, and you respond as best as you can, “it f-feels so good. fuck, it’s too good,” you whisper, eyes rolling back into your skull.

satisfied with your answer, she reattaches her mouth to your clit and sucks harshly, forcing you to bite your fingers to hold back your sounds. her fingers speed up as well, and you can hear the lewd sounds of your wetness even louder now. you’re getting dangerously close, and she can tell by how your insides clench around her fingers. 

“s-shit, i’m close, ellie,” you half-whisper, half-whine. 

“i know, baby.”

she continues her assault with her tongue and fingers, doing her best to drive you crazy. she can feel her own wetness growing between her legs as she listens to your muffled sounds. when she sees your face, all fucked out and desperate, she nearly cums on that alone. “you gonna come for me?”

“mhmm,” you whimper, unable to respond properly as your mind and body are completely clouded with pleasure. your hands find her hair, needing somewhere to grab as the intensity became too much for you, causing her to moan into you, and the vibrations of her voice push you over the edge.

your body freezes up completely for a moment, then jolts as your release hits you, hard. you can’t help but moan and your legs shake as she keeps her pace, prolonging your orgasm for as long as she can. when the overstimulation becomes too much, you push her head away from you causing her lips to detach from you with a pop. you gasp for air and your body trembles as you come down from your high. 

when your vision unblurs, you see her still between your legs, lips and chin covered in a combination of your wetness and her spit, and watch her smirk before she cleans her fingers off with her mouth. it’s the most erotic view you’ve ever seen—you could cum a second time.

she helps you put your panties back on and slowy rises from under the table, looking around to make sure the coast is still clear. she chuckles when she sees you still slumped in your chair, recovering and wraps her arm around your waist to help you up. 

“how was that for repayment?” she teases.

you chuckled, still out of breath, and hoped that she’d be setting up more sessions with you in the future.

[lexsssu]

Naive (Alhaitham)

TAGS: Alhaitham/F!Bunny!reader, friends to lovers, pining, yandere, possessive behavior, obsession, mating cycles/heats, oneshot Ao3 ver. | Ko-fi | Commissions (OPEN)

“Why do we have to learn more math even if our major has nothing to do with it? At this rate, I’m going to flunk and take it again next semester…”

Alhaitham’s fingers twitched unconsciously as your pair of long ears drooped down, hanging by the sides of your face almost as if they were pigtails instead of actual appendages.

“What the heck am I going to need calculus for when I’m trying to develop improved cultivation tools and methods? It’s not like I need to find out the value of X while I’m plowing the fields or something…”

His heartbeat is delayed for a single second at the mention of ‘plowing fields,’ and he has no one else to thank other than the hormonal male Akademiya students who’d made one or two passing unsolicited remarks about Amurta’s only female beastkin student.

He made sure to memorize their faces and names for him to deal with at a later date.

“Alhaitham, help meeee…!” 

Despite being a proud descendant of the Taguel, the way you so easily beg and plead so submissively at him with large watery eyes and a pout formed by a pair of luscious lips has him wondering if you were unconsciously using some sort of secret seduction techniques passed on through your clan. Perhaps you were even secreting some sort of pheromones that made him calmer, more relaxed, and susceptible to your whims…

“Knowledge always comes at a price. I’m willing to tutor you, but you’ll owe me a single favor that you can’t refuse and which I can redeem at any time of my choosing,” bright turquoise orbs darkened as he leaned his head against his curled right fist. “Are you still willing to pursue this knowledge despite the costs?”

“Of course! I trust you, Alhaitham. So why would I be scared about the favor I’ll be owing you for this? Knowing you, you’ll probably make me do some paperwork or help with your research,” you giggle, the fluffy cotton ball of a tail you had wagging at how silly your friend was. 

Why would you ever be afraid of him when he’d been nothing but honest with you? Alhaitham wasn’t some random cur that tricked hapless maidens into his slimy grasp.

If only you knew just how depraved he truly was when it came to you. 

Then again, it is his luck that his adorable little bunny was such an innocent creature that only saw the best in him.

It’s up to him to make sure no one ever takes advantage of your kindness and naivety.

Even if it means he has to carefully plan and wait for the right time to finally express his true desires, he is willing to be patient. Especially when he knows that you are what awaited him at the end.  

You remain blissfully unaware of his thoughts and intentions, not even questioning him or thinking how odd it was for him to have you sit on his lap as he taught you your most dreaded subject.

Alhaitham is a good man and an even greater friend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You both graduate within the same year with, as expected, flying colors, much to the joy of your respective families. It’s a solemn yet joyous affair, one that you invited him to because how could you not when it was with his help that you managed to even graduate with honors?

There is sure to be some teasing courtesy of your family once you get home, but that is the last thing on your mind as you leap into Alhaitham’s strong arms.

Even through the layers of your graduation attire, you feel the wall of solid muscle that is his body, something that always amazed you when he was one of the most brilliant scholars in Sumeru.

“Thank you, Alhaitham. I wouldn’t have been able to get this far without you always having my back,” you don’t notice the way his sandstone-colored irises seem to dilate as you curl around him, your entire body supported by a single arm around your soft waist while another hand settles upon the plushness of your bum.

Being so close to you like this allows him a whiff of your scent, a mix of soft floral and woody notes with a hint of fruity and citrus underneath. He feels his body heating up from the inside as his senses are assaulted by your voice, your body, and even your smell.

He won’t be able to last long if you keep this up.

Don’t you know how much you drive him crazy?

Rational thoughts come second to instincts when it comes to you, something your kind is very much familiar with.

If there aren’t so many people right now, he’ll throw you onto the grassy ground and mount you right here. He’ll put a whole litter of kittens in your belly and take care of you and your new family for the rest of his days—

Somehow, he manages to keep himself from making a scene by fucking you right in front of your family and the entire Amurta faculty, namely your master, Sage Naphis, whose short temper was legendary throughout the Akademiya. 

However, each day that passes and each small action you make only wears his thinning patience and self-control. It’s not a question of ‘if,’ but rather a question of ‘when,’ and only the Archons know when that will be.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So…Acting Grand Sage, huh? I always knew you’d go on to do great things, but Sumeru’s de-facto leader? Makes me wonder why you’re even hanging out with a country bumpkin like me~” Sticking your tongue out playfully and winking at him, you miss the way he swallows seemingly nothing but air.

“Don’t be absurd. Who I associate with of my own volition is no one’s business but my own.” 

Although he may look and sound cold at first glance, you have known Alhaitham long enough to know for sure that he simply has his own ways of showing he cares. He wouldn’t let Kaveh stay at his place if he didn’t care about his friend after all. And even if the scribe wanted to be stubborn about it initially, you simply offered to house Kaveh instead, which ended up with the architect staying at Alhaitham’s in the end.

It’s honestly downright adorable how contradictory he could be at times, seemingly wanting to maintain an unbothered and uncaring attitude when you knew full well how good of a friend he was.

If only you knew that the real reason why he allowed Kaveh room and board was that he’d sooner gut the other man than let him stay in the same house as you. 

He’d gouge the architect’s eyes out if they even settled too long on you.

It’s one of the reasons you’ve come to harbor feelings for him.

He is handsome, he is brilliant, but most of all, he is kind even when you have nothing to give him in return aside from your time and friendship.

You repeatedly stamp down the warm bubbly feelings within you that try to rise to the surface, repeatedly telling yourself that there is no chance that such a fine specimen as Alhaitham would return your affections.

Archons know just how many times you’d fingered yourself to thoughts of him during your heats. How you imagined scenarios of him coming to you in the dead of night, whispering sweet nothings and promises of breeding you full, just as nature had intended.

But there’s no way that could ever happen…right?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"'m sorry…didn't know…it'd come early this…year…!" 

You are a pitiful mess as you lie on the grassy ground, your body overheating from the inside as the symptoms of your heat swiftly overtake all rational thought. According to your calendar, it wasn’t supposed to happen for another few days!

He memorized the exact dates of your cycle, so he knows full well just when you’ll be perfectly ripe and ready for the taking.

Had you not forced his hand in the first place, he’d have gladly waited for your regular heat.

“Don’t l-look at me…Haitham…!” 

How can he not look upon the stunning sight of you looking so hot and disheveled because of your need to be mated and bred? It is a sight he will commit to memory for the rest of his life.

You desperately force down the beastly instincts that urge you to submit to the nearest virile male and present your soaked cunt that begged to be bred. It is humiliating, especially because Alhaitham is forced to watch your lewd and debauched display. 

It brings him such glee at the knowledge that no one will ever get to see you like this. 

Whether it was your upperclassman Tighnari, your friend Cyno, or even Kaveh, none of them will ever have this privilege.

You don’t even want to think about how you’ll face him after this.

Because why would he ever want a mere beast like you?

It is his misfortune that he wasn’t born a beastman like you were. However, he’ll make sure to make up for what he lacked tenfold.

You sniffle, feeling small tears pricking the corners of your eyes as your body and mind fight one another. Your hands move to cover your face, unwilling to let him see any more of the pitiful sight you made.

There’s no need for you to look for a mate from the other beastkin clans.

He’d rather burn Gandharva Ville to the ground than hand you over to the likes of Tighnari. 

Just because the other male was your senior and studied under the same sage didn’t mean that he’ll let that damnable fox sink his claws into you. 

“No. I believe I have a better solution for your plight,” with one hand, he pins both your wrists above you as he settles himself in between your legs.

“Mate with me.”

His words send a shock through your body, floppy bunny ears standing ramrod straight as you gaze up at him with large eyes, heart beating like a drum as the weight of his statement registers in your mind.

“Don’t you see? It’s simply because our bodies are compatible with one another that your heat opted to arrive earlier than expected. Your body already knows what your mind has yet to even comprehend,” Alhaitham’s turquoise orbs seemed like they were almost glowing in the dark as they gazed down at you like a predator eyeing its prey.

You were always the only one meant for him, even if you didn’t realize it at first.

And yet, you don’t feel a single ounce of fear.

Rather, you want to be devoured by him.

You want him to stuff you full with his cum again and again until his seed takes root in your awaiting womb and bears fruit.

You want him and will gladly take everything he’ll give you.

“Alhaitham…mate with me, please?”

[tlou-reid]

spencer!dad with a teen daughter, theyre having an argument (bad grades, behaviour, sassy etc) but in the end she feels bad for her actions and apologises. fluffy/happy ending please <3

the only way to comfort your daughter most of the time was to remind her that spencer was a statistical anomaly.

there was such a small chance of him having such a big, beautiful brain, and it was completely unfair of her to hold herself to the same standards he held himself to. but, she did it anyways. and this caused a lot of tension in the house. especially since she started high school.

claire, your oldest child and only daughter, has been gifted. she was years ahead of her classmates, already taking calculus 1 instead of the algebra her friends were in. but being in these classes came with a lot of work on her part. and you did not mind helping her, but keeping up with the way schools change how they taught or trying to do the hard math she was doing wasn’t going too well.

so, spencer stepped in.

“you’re looking for the derivative here,” spencer spoke, frustrating clear in his voice. “that’s what i just said!” claire exasperated, throwing her arms up and tossing her pencil down the table. “you’re not listening to me!” you could hear the frustration and the hurt in her voice. you wished you could step in, but you knew you’d be no help.

“if you knew that, you shouldn’t have asked for help.” spencer rolled his eyes, growing equally as frustrated. “stop being rude, claire. i’m just trying to help you.” communication had never been spencer’s strong suit.

from your place in the kitchen, you could see the way spencer’s face was getting redder and redder, not liking the way his daughter was talking to him. “hey guys,” you called, quickly hustling around the kitchen to throw together a snack plate, “why don’t we take a break? i have a pre-dinner plate for you guys!” you did your best to cover up the real reason why you were interrupting them. hearing them go back and fourth broke your heart, you knew they didn’t want to argue with each other and it really did upset both of them.

“i gotta get done, mom.” claire deadpanned, once again rolling her eyes. “be kind to your mother.” spencer demanded. “dad!” she shouts, needing spencer to just be quiet.

“claire, go to the living room.” you pushed, shooing her away. they needed space from each other. they were too alike for their own good.

“you didn’t have to do that,” spencer sighs, accepting defeat. “yes, i did, spence. you gotta be nicer when she asks for help.” spencer nods, not really caring for your opinion.

claire had disappeared to her room, working on assignments for other classes. she doesn’t come out until you call everyone down for dinner. she asks her little brother, benny, to switch seats so she could sit next to spencer.

as you’re in the kitchen scooping everyone’s plate, you hear claire talking to her. “dad, i finished the homework.” she says, not elaborating. “yeah, how’d it go?” he smiles at her. the anger he was feeling washed away just as quickly as it came. “yeah, i had mixed up the different variables a few steps up. i had to resolve it like six times.” she explains. “great job, claire bear.” claire smiles.

claire was like her father, never one to apologize despite knowing she was wrong. neither of them would say the words “i’m sorry”, but the way they shared a bowl of chocolate ice cream for dessert was more meaningful anyways.

[jewish-elphaba]

Are Santa's elves being abused?

@cuntvonkrolock and I got into a friendly argument over whether or not Santa was an abusive boss.

Victor's argument was that the elves could not possibly make enough gifts a year, as there are 8 billion people on the planet, and even if he was using Christmas Magic, that would be use of performance enhancing drugs, and therefore still not ok.

My argument was that it entirely depends on how many elves Santa actually has.

Well, I'm autistic, and have taken math through calculus, so I decided to crunch the numbers.

Victor googled it, and apparently Santa has around 110,000 elves. The linked article also states that calculations have been done surrounding this problem, but the calculations are quite flawed in that they are missing some very large numbers.

We decided that around age 15 was when you started receiving gifts not from Santa, but from your guardians, so that is the number we are using.

A quick google search says that there are about 2 billion kids 14 and under on the planet. Now, not all of those kids celebrate Christmas.

According to reindeerland.org, only about 32% of people actually celebrate Christmas. That means that the number of children receiving gifts is now whittled down to 32% of 2 billion: 640 million.

But some kids don't believe in Santa at all, and just get their gifts from loved ones. Google says that about 83% of kids are taught to believe in Santa, so we can shave off 27%. That leaves us with 531,200,000 kids.

But, that doesn't take into account the Naughty List.

You can find Santa's official Naughty and Nice List on the official website for the Department of Christmas Affairs. My autism knows no bounds, so in order to get a full count of how many kids are on the Naughty List, I scrolled through the entire List, ensuring that every name had loaded, and did a search command for how many times the word 'Naughty' was mentioned. I also found some very interesting names along the way.

Exactly 31,700 names are on the List, with each name only occurring once. Exactly 15,350 of these names were on the Naughty List. The word Naughty no longer looks like a word.

Since each name was only listed once, it is obvious that this is a general approximation for the amount of children on the Naughty List. The approximation being, 48.4227129% of children are on the Naughty List. I am never typing the word Naughty again.

Now, we know that 48.4227129% of 531,200,000 is 257,221,450.925 and that 531,200,000 - 257,221,450.925 = 273,978,549.075. Therefore, that is the number of kids receiving gifts from Santa.

Time to bring back my first number, 110,000 elves. 273,978,549.075/110,000 = 2,490.7140825, which gives us about how many gifts an elf makes a year. You should work around 260 days in a year to have a healthy life, so we can divide that by 260.

2,490.7140825/260 = 9.57966954808, which we can round up to 10.

Therefore, in a day, an elf must make around ten gifts.

[mushroominaforest]

Chat, today was my second day as a senior at high school and I am already this close to running away to join the circus and giving up my dreams of being a biologist.

I have AP art, physics, chemistry and regular art IN A ROW. I AM GOING TO DIE.

now, some of you might think that art does not sound like a hard class. But I, dear friends, go to art school. I am a visual art major, (surprise surprise) and that is a lot more work than it sounds like. Going into advanced placement art is a death wish. I didn’t want to, but my mom made me lol. AP art takes up three hours of my school week. Do you know how much time we are expected to spend every week outside of school on our work for that class? Twelve. Hours. (not to mention the five additional out of school hours of expected dedication to regular art 😭)

And then I have chemistry and physics, two very math and homework heavy classes on top of that! (Thank god I my calculus class is next semester because I would actually just die.)

I hope that English does not have a heavy workload, because that’s the only class I think might be somewhat easy. Fabric & fiber (mandatory art class) will probably not be super insane but if it is I’m planning on passing. But not passing the class. I will be passing away. (Still, I think I have a chance, so I won’t dig my grace quite yet.)

(Fabric and fiber is taught by the art teacher who failed me in a grade nine jewelry making class though, so I might be cooked.)

Anyways. The senioritis is setting in fast and I don’t know if I have long to live 😔 (translation: I’m going to have a fuck ton of homework and might have to abandon the ask blog for a bit 😭)

[maybeimamuppet]

Use this post as an excuse to dump all your Cady headcanons into one post. Go nuts dude.

Love your fics btw :)))

ayyyy thank you nonnie!!!!

i for sure have more but i’m just gonna post the list of headcanons i made to base her on when i first started writing

and usual disclaimer this is her 2018 musical version i have not used some of these and they may not still apply etc etc ANYWAY

tw for death mention

-autistic

-special interest in math, specifically calculus

-polyglot, fluent in english, swahili, french, german, spanish, italian, swedish, and american sign language

-can say any word or sentence backwards, taught herself to read backwards when she was first learning

-sensitive to noise and touch

-swears in different languages when frustrated or hurt

-loves skincare, will pin janis down to make her let her do it to her too

-loves to stim with janis’ hair

-loves janis’ jackets

-and shirts

-steals them whenever she gets the slightest opportunity

-weird medical knowledge

-overly prepared for every possible scenario

-love language is touch

-loves to be snuggled

-tries to touch janis at all times, janis just goes with it

-doesn’t like soft touch, too tickly

-teaches janis asl for when one of them is nonverbal (or just for fun)

-loves fruit

-loves tea

-fascinated by american culture

-name is spelled because her dad was trying to be a musician when she was born and wanted to give her a musical name like harmony or rhyme, mother agreed to cadence if it could be cady on her birth certificate

-middle name is allison

-had an older brother named rhys, ten years older, died at 20 in the military

-he joined the military to pay for college, wanted to be a doctor

-was born in oregon

-aquarius, acts more like pisces, birthday february 11

-bisexual

-very organized but has terrible handwriting

-janis buys her chewy necklaces and stim toys and she loves and uses them all

-comes up with a code to help both of them whenever she has a sensory overload or other meltdown

-blunt as hell, honest to a fault

-tutors janis in math for payment of kisses and time as little spoon

-loves all animals

-kind of like a disney princess, can also befriend any animal

-loves to play animal crossing, designs her island to look like kenya, fav villager is rex

-afraid of the dark and big storms

-takes a sleeping bag and camps in the backyard whenever she’s stressed

-loves to let janis paint on her, the texture of the paint gives her good sensory input

-barefoot whenever possible

-hates being tickled

-tries to learn art to impress janis, it doesn’t work but janis loves what she makes anyway

-loves holding hands

-whispering irritates her

-shifts her lips side to side when she’s anxious

-keeps in touch with karen and gretchen throughout senior year, becomes friends with all plastics again once they become decent people in college

-keeps in touch with aaron, decided they were better as friends

-teeny tiny. 5’3 and 120 pounds

-will throw hands for janis

-vegetarian when she can

-sleeps on her tummy, janis thinks it’s adorable

-valedictorian in hs, fast tracks through getting her bachelors and masters in math , gets her phd really young

-becomes a math professor and tries her best to be understanding and fun, channels ms norbury

-they still meet for coffee sometimes

-used to go for walks in the woods alone when she got stressed until she learned how dangerous it was

-can play a little bit of guitar

-sings to herself a lot without realizing, janis is 😍

-goes to all of janis’ art shows and panics if she’s even a little late

-front row at all of damian’s shows too

-loves disney movies and makes janis watch them with her after they watch horror movies so she can sleep

-can and will sleep anywhere but pretends to have trouble sleeping sometimes so janis will cuddle her

-loves having her hair played with

-hates crowds

-certain textures put her off, janis thinks it’s odd but protects her from them nonetheless

-allergic to pollen, spends most of spring sneezing and with a stuffy nose (janis also finds this adorable)

-never wears matching socks

-said i love you first during a tutoring session with the equation thing

-finds signs easier than talking aloud most of the time

-knows all about space and the stars

-doesn’t understand sarcasm or most figures of speech unless it’s very obvious or intuitive

-janis gets her a bunny in college

-she tries to name it janice (but it’s different!)

-janis says no

-she names her pickles instead

-invents names for things and comes up with new swears

-drops shit all the time

-discovers crocs and causes chaos

-has frecklessssssss

-likes mornings, hates waking up to see them

-does not like eye contact but could stare into janis’ for hours

-janis helps her with english, she doesn’t like it because there’s too many exceptions to all the rules

-avoids alcohol at all costs

-can do really good impressions once she’s familiar with how they sound, learns a lot of social stuff through mimicry

-cannot do fashion at all

-doesn’t like surprises, gets anxious if her routine changes or if she doesn’t have enough information about a new situation beforehand

-hyper fixated on the lion king for a while after janis showed it to her

-has little plants she named after her friends, when one isn’t doing well she checks on them

-wants and loves to travel

-weirdly strong opinions about stupid shit

-says little things in her sleep sometimes

-will tell africa stories to someone on the sidewalk if they’d listen to her

-excitable

-lived in kenya from 3-16

-watches inter-species friendship videos all the fucking time

-loves riding in shopping carts

-soft spoken. so soft.

-smells of rose water and cherries

[savventeen]

OOH IF YOU'RE STILL TAKING ASKS FOR THE TROPE THING can i get vernon and like you two are assigned partners on an art project but he's awful at art LMFAO okay thank love you xx

JJ BELOVED HI HELLO I AM FINALLY GETTING AROUND TO THIS <333333

okay first of all i LOVE this idea skfjllkdfl this would definitely be a fun, comedic, romcom nonsense fic hehehe

i'm picturing this being set in like, a fucking calculus class and this project is the professor's way of trying to "bring more creativity to the sciences" or whatever. and vernon's just like. 'dude. how on earth is making a collage...sculpture...thing... supposed to help me learn calculus???' no one in the class really gets it either, since they can just, you know, do the math without having to create anything. but whatever, a little arts n crafts never hurt anyone [spoiler alert: it maybe hurts someone *cough*vernon*cough* a little at some point]

anyway, vernon ends up being partnered up with reader who, thank god, actually has an idea for what they can do for their project and also talks like someone who knows about art. in fact, they seem really into art and like, super pumped for this project. which is great! except, they're also really cute? and like, they're maybe kinda sorta the person he's been lowkey crushing on from afar since last semester???

and because having a crush sometimes makes you say/do stupid things, he tells reader that he can totally help with the art portion, easy peasy. [narrator voice: it was not, in fact, easy peasy] queue montage of the week leading up to when they're supposed to meet up again: - vernon desperately watching all kinds of youtube videos trying to learn how to Art™️ - him walking into a Michael's and just being so lost and overwhelmed that he just. has a bit of an existential crisis in the fabric section - he somehow manages to accidently cut himself with a pair of scissors while trying to do some kind of papercraft thing and has to go to the nurse's office. - his roommate (let's make it chan for funsies) is convinced that he's having some kind of mental breakdown "hyung, i don't know what to do, he's just staring at a pile of children's playdough like it holds the secrets of the universe. or maybe like it killed his pet goldfish. i don't know, he's just being weird."

all of this leads up to when reader and vernon meet up again to present their 'prototypes' of the art part of the project so they can decide which they like better and then start actually working on it. reader is already at the cafe they agreed to meet at, and vernon (sleep deprived and already overly caffeinated) walks up to where reader is sitting, drops his sad attempt at art on the table, and blurts "i lied about being good at art because you're really cute and it broke my brain a little bit and i'm actually really, really bad at it. i'm so sorry." and then he fucking WALKS AWAY because he's a LOSER and you were extra cute today and his brain is still a bit broken and reader ends up having to chase him down the street, his shitty attempt at art clutched in one hand, to tell him that it's fine, they can handle the art part as long as he does his fair share of the math

"and like. maybe i could, teach you? sometime? if you want to learn, that is. and i'm not the best artist, but i've taught some summer camp classes before, and—" / "wait, you'd really wanna do that? after seeing how bad at it i am?" / "well... it means i'd get to spend some extra time with you outside of school, so... yeah"

vernon of course readily agrees, and they start going on little art dates together (and yes, they're Date dates bc vernon finally gets his shit together and asks them out) and they get a solid B- on the project bc while reader is great at art, turns out neither of them are the best at math rip </3

[send me a person and a trope/au and i'll tell you what kind of plot i'd write for them]

[whosmaggy]

downtown girls

yesterday, a warm saturday, me and my friend, h, went downtown. it is usually the place we first think of when a hangout is proposed (mainly by her, because she is not connected to many others). we have been many times. this time we watched a movie, It Ends With Us, went to a market, and got food. kind of like a romantic date.

the movie was alright. we laughed through it, and because she is very scared of being looked down on i will emphasize WE WERE NOT LAUGHING ABOUT THE DV TAKING PLACE! our giggles were reserved for the line delivery and odd characters. i drank my medium pepsi, and then hers too. taking a piss (been trying to act more like a brit lately) afterwards was a necessity. the market didnt offer much. i made her walk around aimlessly until we found a restaurant. we went home (she went to the circus).

my main complaint is her slowness in walking. to me, we must go!!! there are places to be, this is not the time for a stroll! for her, it is always time for a stroll. either she is walking four feet behind me or she is pulling my shoulder out of its socket by dragging me in an effort to make me walk slower.

i went to freshco (my second home) after and got this frozen cheesecake thing from Lithuania! it wasnt cream cheese, instead curd (yogurt). was pretty good though, i just wish the chocolate had been tempered and the yogurt was blended properly because their were small chunks of milk fat solids throughout.

at the restaurant h told me many interesting stories and we talked briefly about the future. i truly will miss going downtown with her. shes one of my only friends (i could end the sentence here) that is always willing and able to hang out with me.

i have been trying to do calculus readiness quizzes. i would like to tell myself i remember much of the information my wonderful calculus teacher taught me, but that would be lying (not something im opposed to, but about math, i am). i do love math though. i started watching more videos about number theory, some equations (and how they were discovered) go in and out, which is fine, because i think the understanding the nature of numbers is the most important part.

goodnight.

Love,

Maggy 🎃

[sp-art-gallery]

New Character, New Ref

Character info below!

-Manny-

A 37 year old Panther who teaches at the Redwood University.

Manny works in the Math department at the University and usually teaches Calculus.

Manny is a very nervous teacher at Redwood. Having been apart of the school system for 7 years, he always feels like he's underprepared and ready to explode from anxiety. Manny teaches his subjects with confidence and elaborates in great detail. His biggest weakness as a teacher is preparing with all different kinds of students at Redwood every year, whether or not most of them would understand the material and behave is a roll of the die for him. Manny does try to lighten up his day at work by being silly. Having fun with the subjects he's teaching helps him and the students understand and ease the confusion of the material being taught. Outside of teaching, Manny's personal life is somewhat more relaxed. He has a family of a wife and a child and tries to provide for them the best he can and be a good example for his family. Manny's best friend around campus is Katrina, as they bounce off each other well and would constantly share class stories with one another. Katrina, being the more confident one, helps out Manny by easing his stress each and everyday at work. 

[haganezukawaifu]

Rosa Dolce Chapter 2

~ Previous ~ Masterlist ~ Next ~

Bella. The same Bella since I was six. The same Bella I use to play with in the park and sleepover. I haven't seen her since she moved to Arizona. I always wonder how she was doing. She looks just like Renee except without short brown hair.

"Now today's topic is themes," Mr. Mason said. 

Everyone in the class groaned, maybe the class anticipated watching a movie based on a book we read. "Now class, themes are significant in English and  literature." I sat up intrigued. "Theme is the idea, concept, or lesson that repeats throughout a story. It relates to the protagonist's journey. It lies deep in their concerns, passions-their soul. Take "The Alchemist" for example, Santiago's desire to seek buried treasure, or in "Lord of the Rings", Frodo's only motivation was to destroy the one ring," Mr. Mason explained. 

"But that's not all, poems also have themes. Give Mr. Poe for example. His work "The Raven." I'm sure someone in the class can quote a line from The Raven," Mr. Mason said. The class was silent. "Come on. Anyone?" No one answers or bothers to raise their hand. I sigh as I fiddle with my pen. As I look down at my desk and said the line;

"Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing." 

 I could feel all eyes were on me at this moment.

"Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;

But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,

And the only word there was spoken was the whisper word, "Lenore?"

This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore?"-

Merely this and nothing more."

Silence fills the room once again as everyone looks at me, some awe. "Very well Ms. Anderson. Now class," Mr. Mason as he continues to teach. I notice that Bella is staring at me, and I turn to look out of the window. After the last 3 to 5 minutes of being in English, you think English class can't end fast enough. In class, I wasn't often outspoken, but only in subjects I was passionate about like literature. Oh, how I adore it. For the last 45 minutes, the bell rang but not before Mr. Mason assign us a book to read for the week. As I gathered my belonging, I heard a sudden and surprising voice.

"Christine."

I looked up and it was Bella right in front of me. "H-Hey," she said. "Hey." "It has been a while since we have last seen each other," Bella said as she grip the strips in her bag. 

'It has been years.'

"Yeah. I thought you were moved to Arizona with Ms.Renée." "Mom got remarried and she couldn't spend much time with Phil so I decided to live here with Charlie," Bella said. I see. Make sense, her father Charlie Swan is the Chief of Police in Forks. "H-How about you? I wasn't aware you were staying here now," she reply. I sigh in response. "It wasn't my idea to move here but Cordelia decided to open up a flower shop here," I said as I gripped my books in my hand. She hmm in response. There was silence between us. We haven't seen in years. Before I could say anything, I was interrupted. 

"You're Isabella Swan, aren't you."

From the sound of it, it sounded like Eric and it was Eric, another classmate of mine.  "Bella," she corrected him as he nod. "Right. Hey Christine," he said. "Right. Um, I guess I will see you around, Bella. Who knows we might have another class together but we should catch up." "Yeah sure," she replies with a nod in response. I smiled before walking out of Mr. Mason's class and heading my way to my Trigonometry and Calculus class taught by Mr. Vanner. Math. Ugh. Mr.Vanner seems to want to make the class harder than it seems, but it isn't. In terms of that, I'm probably the smartest student in the class. If not the first, then maybe the second or third.

As soon as I arrived at my class, I sat in my usual seat. Following the final bell rang, Mr. Vanner announced that there will be a pop quiz.

'A pop quiz on a Monday. How typical to start the day.'

But it was nothing new for Mr. Vanner. Give us a pop quiz on something conceiving or something we don't know, then teach the class about it for four days and then the actual test will be Friday. Mr. Vanner held out the paper and as soon as I took a look at the paper, it was about the Pythagoras Theorem. There were only 5 questions. I already know it.

'This should go by fast as always.'

I answered every equation easily and finished. I stood up and walked to Mr. Vanner's desk but as soon as I place my paper on the desk, another paper was beside mine. And the owner of the paper was Cullen. Edward Cullen. I look at him as he looks at me with those golden eyes and nods his head and walks away. I did the same but with a small smile. Edward and I were always the first to finish. Then it would be Angela. But the crazy part is that I don't know much about him. He's like a closed book in my case. The family moves here two years ago from Alaska, and the moment they came, they became the talk of the town you can say. Our first interaction was quite awkward, the only time we spoke was when we both had a history together and we both were partners. He wasn't much of a talker last year.

'He's not much of a talker this year either.'

Soon as the quiz was finished, Mr. Vanner reviewed the quiz in hand and taught us the formula, as if I didn't know it. After the last 45 minutes in class, the bell rang and it was time for Biology. Then it was Government. When will this day ever end, I thought to myself. And now it's time for lunch. I grabbed my lunch and sat at my usual table... by myself. I always sit at the same table by myself and eat my lunch and read. It's more peaceful that way and I can enjoy my book. I grabbed my book and started reading. It was a classic called "Little Woman." I quite enjoyed it. As I was reading, I saw someone approaching my table and standing there. I looked up and it was Bella.

"Hey," she said. "Hey, Bella." "Umm... You mind if I sit here," she asked. I nod my head in response as she sat down in front of me. "I'm surprised you're not seated with Mike, Jessica, and the rest." "I was until I notice you were seated by yourself and wanted to catch up. So what book are you reading," she asks. I lift the book and say "Little Woman." She nods her head in response before she looks down and starts fiddling with her tray. I close my book and place it on the side. "So, what do you want to catch up about?" "Well, how have you been? How's Cordelia and Anthony," she asked.

'Oh.'

"I have been doing good. Cordelia is doing well. Anthony, he moves out when I turn 14. I haven't heard much from him or seen him since then." Bella nods her head. "And you. How was life in Phoenix." "Phoenix is great. Kinda missing it right now," she said. "Not used to rain and wet weather huh." Bella shook her head. I don't blame her. In California, I was used to the heat and it only rained so often but now I move here, all I see is rain. Boy, do I hate it? "You know Jessica and Mike told me something," she mentions.

'Oh boy.'

Immediately, it caught my attention, I knew what she was saying. "Let me guess. Did they mention I was a witch?" Bella looked a bit surprised when I revealed it before she did. I chuckled at her reaction. "Before you say anything, I'm not. I swear you work in a plant shop and people think you're a witch." "So how come they think you are," Bella said. I sigh at the question. New students are normally warned about me.

'I'm surprised that Jessica and Mike haven't told her why.'

"A girl in my sophomore year climbed a rope during gym class and I watched her while everyone did their own thing. She was climbing so high and my eyes couldn't leave her. Suddenly she stopped, then got dizzy. She start to let go of the rope and fell. Someone caught her, but one person said I probably caused her to fall because I watched. Since then, I was known as the 'witch'. Ridiculous thing if you ask me. Not to mention the cylinder incident." As my head flops down on the table, I sigh. "Everyone thinks I did that when honestly the heat was too high and it exploded." I sigh as I mumble down. I think that is the most I've ever explained myself. Soon I heard Bella sigh. "Well...I don't believe you're a witch." I gave her a soft smile before I nodded. "Thanks."

'At least someone doesn't think I am.'

Then the bell rang. Lunch is over already. "The bell. What's your next class." "Umm biology," she said. "If you like I can take you there. I have Spanish next. And I don't know, maybe after school, I can show you the flower shop. I'm sure Cordelia would be happy to see you." "Uh sure," she responded with a nod. We gather our things and exit the cafeteria. It was nice to talk to someone at lunch. I honestly haven't done that in forever. So maybe things might change.

or will they...

[warendenkform]

Marx and Mathematics

“Engels knew nothing, Marx at least knew a little bit” The historian of science Annette Vogt explains how and why the founders of scientific socialism engaged with mathematics

Interview by Nelli Tügel:

originally published in German in ak 688, 13 December 2022

In order to better understand capitalism, Karl Marx taught himself parts of algebra and calculus. Nevertheless, he was not a mathematical genius. The historian of science and mathematician Annette Vogt explains why the editorial history of Marx’s mathematical manuscripts resembles a detective novel, and how he used math to deal with personal crises.

Professor Vogt, is it true that Karl Marx made numerous mathematical errors in Capital?

Annette Vogt: That’s true, there are all kinds of calculation errors. But that’s human. And Marx was also just a human being.

Only a few people know that Marx left behind mathematical manuscripts numbering almost 1000 pages. Why did he engage with mathematics at all?

One reason was that he wanted to predict economic crises; in the case of the first one, he was rather euphoric that capitalism was now collapsing. He then asked himself: are they regular, for example every five or ten years or – as is actually the case – irregular. Marx was friends with the chemist Carl Schorlemmer, who told him that it might be possible with the aid of calculus – more specifically, with differential calculus – to calculate when the next crisis would come. When Marx attended Gymnasium in Germany, differential and integral calculus were not yet part of the curriculum, that was first the case after 1900. So he had no knowledge of it and did what a scientist does…

Pick up a book first?

Exactly. He went to the library and sought out books that he could learn it from. However, as the Dutch-American historian of mathematics Dirk Struik, who was one of the first to write about the manuscripts, accurately put it: for studying capitalism, Marx was in the right country, England; for studying mathematics, he was in the wrong one. He wasn’t familiar with the newest mathematical literature on calculus, because it was all from continental Europe and was not yet available in England. So he studied the textbooks that were available to him.  The mathematical manuscripts consisted largely of excerpts that he created on the basis of his readings, and his notes on them. That’s how Marx taught himself differential calculus.

Were there further reasons for his engagement with mathematics?

Yes. A further reason was – and I understand it quite well, as a mathematician – that it helped him through personal crises. We know this from letters to Engels: when one of his children died young, he did arithmetic in order to distract himself. That might sound incredible to people who are afraid of mathematics, but of course this way of keeping busy can help somebody not to grieve all the time.

What other areas of mathematics did Marx devote himself to?

He also did a little bit of algebra. Algebra consists of equations, from the most simple 2+2=4 to abstract equations up to those – think of the Pythagorean theorem – that can be illustrated geometrically.

That simply had to do with the fact that there are equations in economics.

So his interest was largely pragmatic?

There are two interpretations regarding Marx and mathematics. One – the hagiographic one, making him into a pillar saint – is that Marx was such a universal genius, that he was also a mathematical genius. That’s simply wrong. The other one is: he was a scientist, and as such, he appropriated knowledge that he needed via self-study. He also wrote geological excerpt notebooks – but luckily, it never occurs to a geologist to claim that Marx was a great geologist. (laughs)

With regard to the editorial history of the excerpt notebooks, the hagiographical element plays a role, however: those who wanted to publish the mathematical manuscripts were disappointed by their content.

Because they didn’t find in them the genius they were hoping for?

Exactly. However, his notes are nonetheless significant, simply because they show us the areas he was concerned with, and because they help us to understand and reconstruct his thought. However, Marx can be a role model for everyone who is afraid of math: there’s no reason for that, anyone can learn it.

In your entry on the manuscripts in the Historisch-kritisches Wörterbuch des Marxismus, you write: “his notes on the history of ‘infintesimal calculus’, that is, of differential and integral calculus, have a charm of their own.” What did he write?

He studied textbooks – for example those of the French mathematicians Lagrange or Cauchy – and attempted to understand what the crux of differential calculus is. One can actually see this quite nicely when looking at its historical development and asking why which thing was done at what time. For example that it started with physics, because people wanted to calculate the speed of something. Well, that’s exactly what Marx did, he chose a historical approach, and asked: why does Lagrange take this step, why does he examine that function, why didn’t somebody else do that – these notes are simply interesting for historians of mathematics. He did that completely correctly, he understood the core of the matter.

What do you know about the period of time in which he concerned himself with that?

There were three phases in which notes were made, each in the British Museum Library. Using the borrowing slips, it was exactly reconstructed when he read which books there, that’s how we know he wasn’t familiar with the most modern literature. He knew French, that helped him to read Lagrange and Cauchy in the original.

To what extend did his concern with mathematics have an influence on Engels’ work?

While Engels was writing Dialectics of Nature, Marx – we know this from letters – had told him a bit about the history of mathematics. I suspect that Engels for that reason also therefore thought that Marx was a talented mathematician, since Engels didn’t know anything about math and Marx at least knew a little bit. Thanks are due to Engels for the fact that the mathematical manuscripts were preserved after Marx’s death. He considered them important. Marx never intended to publish them; they were working material.

Even today, the manuscripts are – despite Engels’ intention – only partially published. Why?

After the victory of the October Revolution, the Marx-Engels-Institut was founded in Moscow, later the Marx-Engels-Lenin-Institut, and charged with the task of publishing a Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe, the MEGA I. The father of this edition was David Borisovich Ryazanov, who later became, along with many other members of the Institut, a victim of Stalin’s persecution. The project of the MEGA I was interrupted. After 1945, the MEGA II began publication, later the project of MEGA III was begun with the participation of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the International Institute of Social History Amsterdam, and collaborators from Moscow. It is not yet completed, and within the framework of MEGA III, the mathematical manuscripts are also supposed to be published completely.

However, there is a volume with part of the manuscripts: in 1968 a special edition was published, which until today is the basis for all engagement with the manuscripts, including the English and French translations and the – strongly abridged – German edition.

Who was responsible for this edition?

It goes back to work by the mathematician and specialist for logic, Sofia Yanovskaya, and Konstantin Rybnikov, who was a professor of history of mathematics at Lomosonov University in Moscow. However, they “forgot to mention” – in scare quotes – the work of Ernst Kolman, a Czech-Soviet Comintern functionary who lectured and published articles on the mathematical manuscripts at international conferences from 1932 on. In 1968, he distanced himself from Soviet leadership due to the Prague Spring, that’s why he isn’t named in Yanovskaya and Rybnikov’s edition. When I first dealt with this in the 1980s and noticed it, I thought: that’s really unfair.

And it is! Yes. But here’s the exciting part. I then found out: Kolman himself had deliberately covered up who had been the person commissioned by Riazanov in the 1920s to prepare the mathematical manuscripts for publication in the MEGA I: the mathematician and political author Emil Julius Gumbel. Gumbel was a co-founder of the modern statistics of extreme values, which are used to calculate extreme events, such as the Corona pandemic. Gumble had basically finished editing the manuscripts, at the end of the 1920s he read the galley proofs, but the publication never happened: work on the MEGA fell victim to the repression under Stalin. Gumbel was later driven from Germany by the Nazis; he worked in Paris and Lyon, and later in American exile.

You see, in a certain way it’s tragic: over the decades, almost a hundred years, a few people have already worked on the editing of these mathematical manuscripts, and many sad stories are involved. If I were a writer of crime novels, I’d write a book about it and call it “The Curse of the Manuscripts.” Annette Vogt has a degree in mathematics and a doctorate in the history of mathematics. From 1994 to 2018, she was a research scholar at the Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte. Since 1997 she has taught at the Humboldt University in Berlin, and since 2014 she has been an honorary professor of the economics faculty of the HU. Among other things, she is co-author of a traveling exhibition on the life and work of Emil J. Gumbels.

Nelli Tügel is an editor at ak.

[ahedderick]

Infinity

   So. When I was in college, I majored in mathematics. One of the things you spend a lot of time thinking about in various calculus classes in infinity; things getting infinitely large, infinitely small, infinitely close to some value but never reaching it.

Number theory classes are great for making you really break down you mental steps in getting from one thing to another. Not just mathematical proofs, but regular ideas as well - you just get more analytical. [Plus Doc. White was an awesome human being who taught the hell out of Number Theory]  And one of the core ideas is that if something has two categories (ie Thing either IS infinite or it is NOT) and you can prove it ISN’T one of those categories, it will sure-as-shootin’ be the other. Yes, I am going somewhere with this.

   Then I left uni and got a Serious Job in an office doing pension plan math. Working with smart, suit-wearing, white-collar folks. It was jarring to say the least. I learned an awful lot, tho; no regrets. One thing that never stopped bothering me, though, was the idea of the Stock Market. The pension plans we oversaw invested money, usually in the stock market, and hoped it would earn a good return before being paid out to retirees as pensions. The Suit-wearing folk lectured me at length about the stock market, returns over time, GrOwTH, etc. And   . . yeah, you can look back over a hundred years of stock market history. There is growth.

   But remember the math concepts? If we say the Stock Market will always continue to grow, however staggered and uneven the pace, we are *technically* saying that economic growth is infinite. If we say instead that there are real-world limits on economic growth and productivity - then we are admitting that growth is NOT infinite. And it can only be infinite or limited, one of those two.

   This was not a popular question/concept with my bosses. But.

But. I think we’re seeing that there is a hard limit on increases to productivity. We increased it with machinery in the mid twentieth century, and with computers and tech in the late 20th/early 21st century. But.

But. Human bodies can only do so much. There is a point where we can no longer increase productivity. Where making the same number of widgets this year as we made last year is going to HAVE to be enough. What then, Suitfolk? What will you do then?

[ranboo5]

Math headcanons because I am sane and normal

- Ranboo (sourced in part from the orphan^2 joke) like, has some handle on arithmetic operations from Being Around, the lab, etc. He would do well in a good math class – they have the analytical/pattern analysis brain enough + are curious in the ~right direction that a well presented/explained could probably teach them without much trouble – but they never got that bc they never had reason to be taught it nor to seek it out, so right now like their knowledge gets mostly fuzzy around exponents etc.. He knows they Exist but doesn't have a solid grasp on their mechanics or purpose. He has a 40% chance of recalling how to do long division at any given time

- Techno on the other hand is canonically ~educated right like even if you take the English major bit as ccbleed joke he still like, directly interacts with and frames himself in character thru the lens of a character that ~has education in Literary Analysis. Techno definitely Went To School and I can pretty easily see him doing OK in math class. He has not retained Any of this though – these days a lot of stuff is like "OK I know there's a way to do this that I learned at some point . But I don't recall what it is ."

- Phil is not fluent in standard math notation at all and was probably never formally taught, certainly not well. If you ask him he will be like Oh I'm fuckin useless at math I'm not smart like that lol. This is because Philza Minecraft undervalues himself as his day job. He has a great intuition for applied math and the lack of notation knowledge is ~a strength for stuff like doing pretty easy conversions between counting bases (esp base 8); he has a great sense of magnitude and some great methods of estimation and a sense for first principle calculus and applied trig in the sense of like He's Observed And Derived a lot of these. He doesn't have them in formulas but like he can sensically estimate distances off trig angles, recognize what ~kind of rate of change he's looking at, etc.. Meanwhile peerpress are trying to calculate the tip and Techno is frowning at the receipt remembering there's a really simple way to do this – maybe another day he would've even remembered the "move the decimal point" thing but it's escaping him rn – and Ranboo is two sheets of scratch paper in to trying to re-derive long division. He is failing.

[robins-den]

Zizel gives the mansion members a math test because i wanted to write these. it goes from simple addition to pre calculus.

Notes: I use terms like advanced math, high level math, and other subjective terms. This is to make it more accessible to someone reading if they don't know different math segments. Just go by vibes.

Claire - gets up to square roots and then begins to struggle. cannot do cube roots or beyond. can do exponents of basic numbers but cannot do things like 12^7. struggles through the whole thing even if her answers are complete nonsense and guesswork once she gets to the more advanced stuff. Went to school and was tutored by the people who took her in in subjects she struggled with, so she did pass high school math. Has an instinctive fear of high level math. However, she is exceptional with graphs as they feel like pictures to her and that makes it easier. Does not check over her answers as it will just depress her.

Ashe - aces it. He has extreme skill in memorization and his goals when he was younger led him to taking advanced math classes. He remembers nearly everything necessary for the test without any prep work. Understands all of the problems. He writes out his work as he's used to that being a requirement. Finds complex math problems almost relaxing. Checks his answers at the end of the test, spending a while on it.

Wilardo - thinks that exponents are just multiplying (ie answers 3^3 as 9 instead of 27). Doesn't understand cube roots and beyond whatsoever. Barely understands square root. Turns in the test with over 3/4th of it blank. Once he stops understanding the questions he doesn't even check the rest of the test. Never actually went to school and was only taught math basics. Chronic tax evader because of the constant movement and fear of math. Turns it in without checking his answers.

Sirius - used a self study program growing up. Can do it without much issue as long as the high level formulas are provided. Otherwise, he mixes a few of them up if he didn't have any study time. Hates graphs as that adds another layer of things complicate the matter. Finds complex math problems satisfying to solve, but he won't do them for no reason. If he has even half an hour to study, he does much better. Takes a while as he takes his time on every question. If he doesn't understand any questions, he gets flustered but tries to solve it. Doesn't write his work on the lower level questions, but he writes his work when he does it outside of his head. He scans his answers before turning it in, but he has confidence in the himself of 20 minutes ago to read the problem correctly.

Noel - rouge made him start filing his demon taxes at age 15. Invective was in charge of his mathematics education, but after a few years of struggling she decided that ensuring he had every useful math formula and function completely memorized was more useful than dragging him through more theoretical and advanced math. However, tests make him panic so he takes much longer on a problem that he could complete easily outside of the test. A lot of the later stuff on the test was never covered by Invective and he doesn't even attempt to figure it out. Spends an extremely long time checking his answers over.

final test scores (with studying & without)

Ashe = Sirius, (large difference), Noel, Claire, (large difference), Wilardo.

Zizel marked only on whether the answer was correct with no thought to the work behind it. If work credit was included, Claire would have edged out Noel with an extra 10%. Ashe and Sirius got nearly perfect scores, Noel and Claire scraped around 50%, and Wilardo got 12%.