#are much improved by this book (although you can basically figure out which ones i like vs. don’t based on which book they first appeared in

[imaginarypasta]

one of the things i’ve noticed that changes between this series and the last is the newfound emphasis on diplomacy & decorum. i do understand why, both in how the narrative changes w the introduction of new ideas and frameworks as well as how it might want to adapt to have its own voice, themes, etc. but gone are the days of yes-anding oneself into strange situations and in are those of yet another scene highlighting the importance of a letter of introduction—and that was personally a huge reason why i liked the original series so much. i don’t even mind like diplomacy as a narrative device when it’s equipped in interesting ways but when it’s constant introductions to new characters that go relatively similarly every time & a very clear narrative voice insisting that original solution wouldn’t work when it’s 1. more interesting to me personally and 2. not even working any better practically, then that starts to get super boring

[endlessthxxghts]

congrats on hitting 1.5k!!🥳

💭 may I ask what your everyday is like with your disability? (also if this is badly worded, could you please tell me how I could word myself better?)

again, congrats on your milestone, it is so well deserved!💞💞

Hi, friend!! Thank you!! 🥹 I wouldn’t be where I am without you, so I appreciate you very much.

Your question is perfectly worded! Thank you for double checking on that :) and also thank you for giving me a chance to talk about this/educate!!! Honestly, this question is beautiful. I guess I’ll start by describing what I’ve got going on physically!!

My disability is something that I was born with. It’s called Arthrogryposis (this is the short name lol), and the basic definition is a lack of muscle. But at a more technical sense, when I was in my mother’s womb, the womb didn’t have enough amniotic fluid to let my lil fetus self move around like your “typical” fetus would. So that lack of movement caused the muscles that should’ve formed in the womb to not form at all— which, because they never developed, they don’t have much room for improvement now that I’m out into the world.

Now, as far as functionality, I’m pretty limited. But in places that I’m limited, I fortunately have the privilege of having a certain strength in place of that. For instance, although I can’t use my hands/arms, I can write with my mouth. I do everything with my mouth. I’m answering this ask on my phone right now, and I’m typing it with my lips! Thus, my hands are the weakness, but I luckily have been able to figure out where in my body does have the ability for improvement. Another example would be that I can’t use my legs, but I’m able to use my core and trunk strength to be able to scoot my body over when I need to. This gives me the ability to be able to transfer myself in and out of my bed! I do need people to carry me for other things though (bless the buff motherfuckers in my life🙏). So, although I am 100% dependent on another person for self-care (eating, toileting, showering, etc.), there’s a good chunk of aspects in my life where I can have that independence.

I get around places in my power wheelchair, and I have a wheelchair accessible van that I drive into. I cannot drive it myself, but having this accessible van makes transportation one hundred times easier because all my companion needs to do is buckle my chair in— they don’t have to carry me or anything.

Additionally, this is hard to explain, but I have a stick that I put one end in my mouth, and it’s long enough to where I can hook my fingers to the other end of it and it allows me to use my laptop, hold books open, manipulate papers, etc. I use this stick in tandem with my hand, but again, my hand has zero control. If I’m “using” my hands or legs or anything, it’s purely through momentum (throwing my body in random directions) and me hoping for the best LMAO.

I hope this helps!! I love love love answering questions like this because it teaches people! It teaches different perspectives, different lifestyles, and understanding these things are so so important to our everyday lives as a diverse species (because that’s what we are.. diverse!!).

So much love for all of you. Please feel free to ask me more questions like this🩶

Come celebrate 1.5k followers with me! ->

[cjcraziness]

Fe OC Week - Day 2 - Relationships and Friendships @fe-oc-week

Name: Regulus

Basic Info here and picture:

Regulus has Supports with ten individuals that are part of the Divine Dragon's Army (as well as with the Divine One), he has particularly close friendships with Boucheron and Lindon. He has 6 paired-endings (both romantic and platonic).

His two main relationships are with Boucheron or Ivy. (I prefer him with Boucheron the most)

Due to Regulus often seeming big-headed, brash and sometimes hyper-fixated on planning, strategy and his hobbies when people first meet him, he does struggle when making friends. Yet, as people get to know him they will see he does these things to help others, he is passionate about improving the lives of the people around him and in the future those of his Hometown and Country.

Boucheron

Boucheron and Regulus share a love of reading and the outdoors (although Regulus likes cold places). The Mage has a soft spot for romance and rom-com novels, which he usually hides under the covers of magic texts and has told no one, but Boucheron knows of this secret.

While Regulus isn't the biggest fan of hiking (not much for exercise) he does enjoy it with Boucheron and always ensures they have the area well-mapped out and the route is planned to a tee.

The two start a weekly Book Club where they spend time reading a (usually romance) novel in the Orchard together, it is just the two of them most of the time, though occasionally others will join them.

The two have unique mealtime dialogue mentioning this.

Dining with Boucheron:

Regulus - “Remember we have Book Club later, in the orchard. Do you want me to draw a map for you to get there again?”

Boucheron - "Oh, I'm pretty sure I can make it there on my own this time. But I'll remember to bring the book this time..."

Regulus also has unique dialogue if Boucheron died in battle.

If Boucheron died – “A gentle giant with a love of books... I’ll miss our reading sessions. But maybe not the tears. Goodbye, Boucheron.”

They have a romantic pair-ending together.

Ivy

Regulus bonds with Ivy over their shared views of Elusia, the want to rebuild and better their Country, problematic family and being against the Sombron doctrine. Regulus is rather amazed that the Crown Princess of the Country he holds dear regards him as someone with important opinions and not a simple Commoner.

Ivy is a bit exasperated by the fellow Mage at first, but they open up to one another and become close confidents. Regulus swears his loyalty to the Crown Princess and that he will do everything he his power to help his Country after the War.

In their spare time, they are both found wandering the Somniel gardens together with Regulus fussing how Ivy is not cold in her (definitely not winter) dresses.

Dining with Ivy:

Regulus - “I’m dining with the Crown Princess of Elusia! Is everything to your liking? Do you need anything, your Highness?”

Ivy - "Oh... Please calm down, Regulus... You should be more excited about the Divine One than myself."

Post Battle Exploration for Chapter 11 -

Regulus – “I am happy a member of Elusian Royalty has joined us. I hear Princess Ivy is a powerful Mage and will aid us well.”

They have a romantic pair-ending together.

Lindon

Regulus and the elthunder-obsessed Sage, Lindon, have much in common when it comes to a shared interest in magic and using it to do new things. The two do some experiments together, though Regulus is more theoretical and focussed on magic that could assist people, than the randomness Lindon usually causes.

Some of the others on the Somniel mention that the two should not be left alone together. Regulus sees the older Mage as a sort of mentor/ parent-like figure, one that encourages his magical abilities that he never got while at home.

The two have unique mealtime dialogue.

Dining with Lindon:

Regulus - “Please don't use elthunder on this meal, Lindon. I do not want a repeat of last time!”

Lindon - "But what about the effects it could cause? Where is your sense of magical adventure young Mage?"

Regulus also has unique dialogue if Lindon died in battle.

If Lindon died – “For all his magical prowess, it was not enough... But at least he will be reunited with his dear wife. I'm sorry, Lindon. I'll miss you.”

They have a platonic pair-ending together.

Other Close Friendships and Relationships

Regulus has close friendships with Alcryst and Zelkov (and the Divine One), and paired-ending with them both. Alcryst's is platonic while Zelkov's can be seen as romantic (not specified).

[oneefin]

let me preface this post by saying i know nothing about watership down.

"watership down" is an earlygame puzzle from the 2022 mit mystery hunt written by aaron fuegi and susan glass on palindrome, the winning team of the 2021 mit mystery hunt. in it, two groups of five rabbits play gimmicked rounds of their "liebste" (german for "favorite") word game called "simply single". it's one of those hunt puzzles where the mechanic isn't hard to understand, but figuring out all of the pieces of wordplay is a considerable challenge.

when attempting it, i came across words i didn't recognize, like silflay or Frith or hrududu. i googled these and found out that they're part of a language called lapine, supposedly spoken by rabbits, in which they have cool words for things that are important only from a rabbit's perspective, like a word for aboveground grazing or an onomatopoeia term for any motor vehicle. they have this word "hrair" which refers to "any number greater than four, probably a thousand" which is super cute, but even better is that one of the characters is named Hrairoo, which they translate into English as "Fiver". the idea of lapine is awesome and these words are awesome.

again, i know nothing about watership down.

"watership down" is actually a novel by richard adams about some bunnies going on some sort of adventure. i guess it's named after the place the bunnies are camping at, or maybe it's the place the bunnies left before their adventure, or maybe it's the place the bunnies are trying to go to, not sure. either way it's a strange and cute name for a burrow

fiction about animals doing cool and interesting things tends to pique my interest, stuff like pokemon mystery dungeon or bug fables or night in the woods or etc. i really don't think there's a single story out there that i enjoy which couldn't be improved by swapping out the characters with some non-human thing. so intrinsically, the conceit of watership down has a lot of potential. it's too bad it's a book.

again, i know nothing about watership down.

"watership down" is actually an indie game called "LAPIN" made by studio doodal in which you play as Liebe (german for "love"), a rabbit in a pack of 5 leaving their now-being-bulldozed home in search of a new one.

at least, they're the same in my head.

i played LAPIN and although it has a lot of obvious lack-of-polish issues, i found it extremely pleasant and comforting and cute and wuffy and fluffy and other rabbit words. it spends half of its time being a quick-paced platformer in the vein of celeste, and the other half of its time telling a slow-paced at-home narrative about how liebe got along with the rest of their adpoted-into rabbit family. it made a mark in my head, and so upon learning that watership down basically has the same premise, i can't help but imagine it as being exactly like LAPIN.

that is to say: i don't know how much the novel inspired LAPIN, but in my head, it was definitely LAPIN that inspired the novel.

again, i know NOTHING about watership down.

"watership down" is the subject of a question from um, actually, the dropout.tv game show hosted by mike trapp. i'm not the kind of nerd that knows about the stuff they typically ask about on the show, but when this appeared i perked up in recognition. and hey, it's about lapine! the part of the whole thing that was actually relevant for the mystery hunt puzzle.

i confidently guessed that the answer was going to be "um actually, hrududu doesn't just mean "car", it can refer to any motor vehicle, like a truck, or the bulldozers from LAPIN. far from these rabbits' liebste thing, you know". this wasn't the answer. no one even mentioned it. brennan lee mulligan has the entire novel memorized.

again, i know. NOTHING. about watership down.

"watership down" is the source of the word "lapine". at least, presumably. @nivrad00 was explaining to me about how in the furry community, "lapine" is used to mean "rabbit-like", in the same linguistic sense as "canine" or "feline" or "vulpine". but it's unclear whether richard adams ever used the word this way—as far as we could understand, it's just the name of the aforementioned rabbit language. probably some furry saw it, thought "oh, it looks like all those other words! must mean it", and then it spread. linguistic reanalysis!, we cried.

the proper word, "lagomorph", is the name of the taxonomic order that includes rabbits. it's a bit boring, yeah? it's not wuffy-fluffy like lapine is. maybe we could take the latin word for rabbit, which (sounds of me googling) is "lepus", so. that would have been "lepine"? i guess it's not an improvement either.

i did a poll about "the best christmas tree" earlier in the month. i omitted "lapine" from the answer choices because it looked too much like "alpine", but if i had included it, it would have been my favorite. it would have beat benzo.

AGAIN. I. KNOW. NOTHING. ABOUT. WATERSHIP DOWN.

i'll end this post with this screenshot, which is apparently from the graphic novel adaptation of watership down, and it doesn't look too bad honestly. certainly better than screenshots i've seen of the movie, or the 4-episode tv series.

i do genuinely know nothing about watership down though.

Liebe is such a good name for a rabbit.

[loregoddess]

Ok I'm curious, could you elaborate on art school education when you have the time?

Mainly because my friend went to art high school and feels she wasted all the years there while I've been self-teaching myself for a few months by just messing around, so I was wondering just how different the two approaches are :0

Oh, I have lots and lots of thoughts on art education. I do feel that I need to preface this with the whole "my experience is not universal", bc all my feelings about art and art education stem from my own experiences of being self-taught and then getting actual formal college degrees in art.

The shortest version of my long rant, under the cut, is that there isn't a superior way to learn art. With art education, you run the risk of getting bad teachers who don't teach the subject well, and you can also run into teachers who aren't open-minded about approaches to art that differ too much from their own--the flipside, of course, is that there are sometimes amazing teachers who can challenge you to try new things you'd never had thought of on your own, or who have already made a lot of mistakes that they can tell you about so you don't have to make them yourself. With being self-taught, you have to figure out everything on your own, and sifting through online tutorials or reading books can be difficult to find "actually useful and well-explained" advice, but you do also get the freedom of doing literally whatever you want and really focusing what you learn based on what you're actually interested in. Each has it's pros and cons, but neither is technically better or worse, per se, although education of any sort comes down a lot to each person's situation in life, as not everyone has access to education or even the tools for making art.

For the long, long expansion of my thoughts and some of my personal experiences with art education specifically...

In short, I'm technically entirely self-taught, despite holding two different art degrees. Aside from some feedback I got from my 8th grade art teacher (who had agreed to look at my hobby art in her own spare time outside of class), I basically taught myself to draw entirely on my own, using various "how to draw" books, online tutorials, and just a lot of general experimentation and continued drawing on my own. Which meant I made a lot of mistakes, or didn't try out certain things, or got frustrated bc I couldn't figure out how to do something, but overall I had a lot of fun. The actual art classes I took in middle and high school? Well, I took a life drawing class in high school that taught me how to draw from life, a skill I never would have acquired on my own bc the process for learning that skill requires a lot of patience, and personally, I find life drawing to be extremely boring. My high school art teacher was also allowing blatant copyright infringements to occur in her class, which was something I learned years later when taking a media law class in college to learn about copyright law specifically, so I guess I learned what to not do as a teacher if I manage to become one, but I didn't learn a whole lot of actual art skills or even really improve my art in any significant way. I never actually learned anything like the elements of art and how to use them, or color theory, or any of that, in class or even on my own, but because I was constantly looking at lots of art online, and making art on my own and experimenting with new things, I ended up learning all of the "essentials of art" intuitively, sort of like how children learn the grammar of whichever language(s) they grow up speaking without learning the actual formal grammar of the language. Which I think a lot of artists actually do as they continue to make art, even if they don't realize it.

Anyhow, moving on. I personally really enjoyed my undergrad illustration degree. Now, to be fair, if someone was willing to pay me to attend college for the rest of my life as my actual career, that is what I would do bc I love learning, and I love the challenge presented by college courses. But do I feel like I learned anything new about art in those classes? Yes and no. I took a lot of art history classes bc I had never had any art history before college, and found I loved the topic a lot. The life drawing classes I was required to take felt like a waste of time bc I already had that skill from the one high school class, and I spent most of those classes fighting the teachers about why we should have less nude models (bc nudes are super easy to draw from life, but clothing is very, very difficult, and I wanted to learn how to draw clothing as a challenge bc I was bored in those classes). I spent one class teaching the entire class how to use Photoshop bc the teacher's method was absolute BS and I could do everything faster and easier than what we were being taught bc I had been using the program for years (the teacher even joked about how I had hijacked the class, to which I'm still not sure was meant to be friendly or malicious). The "Anatomy for the Artist" class I took was one of the most useful classes I've ever taken, and really helped me with drawing not only humans, but anything with a skeleton and muscles, since the teacher's approach made it so I learned the skill of using actual real-life anatomy as a means of creating art from the knowledge of anatomy (and I lucked out for this class bc I had an adjunct who was there to cover the actual teacher who was on sabbatical, and from what I heard from classmates I would have learned nothing from the usual teacher's approach to the class; I hope the teacher I did have found a good stable job bc she was amazing). Most of the actual core illustration classes helped me improve my art a great deal, but not bc they taught me anything--more so, it was that I had to create a lot of art for them, and find creative solutions to the challenges the projects would present (there were lots of "illustrate this abstract concept without using x, y, or z imagery" or "create an illustration within these specific parameters" which really required me to think about how to plan and go about completing the final project). Somehow, the actual "foundations classes" that I took--where I was supposed to learn things like design theory, the elements and principles of art, color theory, etc.--well, let's just say the teacher was on his way to retirement, and didn't teach any of that really well, so I still ended up going through my undergrad more or less on intuition and the art skills I had cultivated on my own. Mostly, college art classes were useful in helping me to improve my art, not because I learned new things (although I did learn some new things), but rather because I needed to make lots and lots of art in a relatively short time, and making art constantly is the fastest way to improve.

That all said, I still never really got the point of things that I kept seeing or hearing as common art advice. For example: "Use references." Okay? What does that mean? What does that look like? How do I do that? I was never taught that once, and it was only partway through college that I figured out that people meant "look at a photo of a real person to figure out a pose or something" and not "learn about the subject you're trying to draw so you have an understanding of that subject that allows you to draw it from your imagination how you want". And honestly the former advice is useful but...only useful to a point, so I'm kinda glad I never learned it bc it would have stunted my development and presented a roadblock. In either case, I was never taught how to use a ref or what "use a ref" meant in my formal art education, and by the time I figured it out on my own, my repertoire of art skills made the advice moot.

So what's all the long and short of this? Is art education a sham and useless? Well, not entirely, but maybe sort of. It really comes down to which teachers are teaching the subject, and how they do it. I only had a handful of art teachers who were really able to get me to think about art differently and push me to learn more and improve. But I also had a friend in my undergrad class who had never drawn in his life and he found most of the classes super useful bc he wasn't coming in being self-taught and already drawing. We were at different places in our art journeys, and so we got different things out of the college classes.

I do feel overall that the focus of my college classes was more productive than the lack of focus from my high school classes. Would I tell everyone who wants to get better at art to go to art school? Hell no. I got a degree in art because I love it, and because I had hoped to work as a video game concept artist (for which one does need at least a BFA to get hired by most companies). Of course, by the end of my degree I had figured out the video game industry in America was absolutely not a place I wanted to be working for my own health, but my frustrations with how my art education had been structured, paired with the fact that I spent a few classes actually teaching my classmates things, made me think I might make an okay art teacher. But even my wanting to be an art teacher still comes from a place of deep love for art. For those who just want to take up art as a hobby, self-taught is fine, and sometimes it will be better than getting stuck with a bad teacher who'll crush the enjoyment of art. Yes, I think a well-structured art course could help someone learn art and become confident in their art, which is part of the reason I want to try teaching it (esp. bc it took me years to learn some things that a good teacher would have just like, covered in a core class), but like...self-taught or school-taught, there isn't a superior way to learn art. They're both just very different approaches.

[ahiddenpath]

Ideas for Approaching Sharing Fanfics

I've been trying to think of my ongoing issues with sharing my work online in a more constructive way, instead of being Big Sad about it! Ideas beneath the cut.

This is 100% spitballing, I have made 0 decisions. Heck, the most likely outcome is that I take a long break and then return to what I was doing with sharing my fics. Don't take these ideas as a threat or a promise, lol!

I do think these are interesting ideas, though, and I'm so curious what people might make of them, especially writers and fic enthusiasts!

-The simplest idea is to continue writing as I am now and share my work with mutuals/friends. I suppose this way, at least I know my writing IS being read and enjoyed, and there will be no AI scraping/misuse shenanigans.

-Practice Editing Completed Works

I've made great progress developing my writing as ahiddenpath. That's even more valuable than my stories themselves, which is a reassurance; there's no way I wasted my time. However, something I haven't done is edit an entire, completed work as a single unit. Fanfics are released on a chapter basis, and while I've learned to edit chapters, I haven't gone back over a completed work.

Basically, my work is all completed first drafts or in-progress first drafts. And that's fine, but if I'm going to seriously pursue becoming a novelist, then I 100% need the skill of refining completed drafts. The fact that I haven't is a bit alarming.

That's the next thing I want to do. I've referenced a "secret project" a few times, now. That project is a completely edited Growing Up with You, something I've been picking at off and on for a while, now. My initial plan was to edit it and release the new chapters on AO3, while leaving the FFN version alone for anyone who enjoyed that and doesn't want to see it change. As you know, I've also been working on an edited Four Years, although the GUWY project is much more ambitious, with new content. I especially wanted to fill in some spots (like the Chosen first meeting in early Adventure and some parts of 02) and add content about Galemon.

But with my recent feelings about sharing my work online, you can see where sharing an improved product is uhhh... Something I'm reluctant to do. So I guess that begs the question... What would I do with these edited fanfics, other than use them for practice?

-Sell epub files of my edited fics to any interested trusted individuals

I've recently been uploading my fics to Kindle and exploring Scrivener's file export options. It's so convenient to read fics on kindle instead of online! Obviously, while fanart creators can sell their wares, fanfic writers face additional/different challenges, so I'd have to figure that out/do a benefit/risk analysis.

-Start a patreon with epub files as rewards

This one seems kind of overly complicated/overkill to me, but I guess it's an option. It's also a way to share art if I want to continue making it??? Same issues as the previous suggestion, though, and no guarantee of protecting my work, really???

-Book bind complete/edited fics

Tbh, because of material costs and how long it takes to make a book, I'd have to charge so much for book binding that I'm not sure anyone would be interested (as opposed to epub files, which would only be a few dollars). I enjoy doing it, however, so this would be a great personal project.

-Change my fanfics and try to publish them

I'm a big AU gal, so it's possible that I might be able to edit some of my fics with publishing in mind. I have no idea how that would go, but regardless, it might be meaningful practice.

-Write and try to publish an original short story collection

I have a few short stories (many based on dreams) that I haven't shared, mostly because they're just a bit... Hm, they're just different than my fics, so I figured the reception would be pretty meh. These would likely be the most conducive items for publishing

-Work on an original novel

I've been working on a series of novels off and on since I was 14, and man, does the 14 part show, lmao! I'm not sure how viable this novel series would be, especially because some of the ideas I thought were so cool and unique when I was 14... Um. Honey. No, they're not. But you have a big heart and passion, young miss, and that's worth a lot!!!!

If you ask what my dream is, I'd say to be a novelist. But I also 100% assume that my stuff would never get off the ground, and statistically, that's likely. Still, my husband tells me that I'll regret it if I never try. I don't have dreams of grandeur, but I do know how to put the work in on something. Maybe it's time?

Those are my current thoughts! Keep in mind that I still would like to finish my ongoing fics, especially Puits d'Amour. I do think that editing a complete fic would be developmentally meaningful, so I imagine I will put more time into that.

For now, I'm not making any decisions, since I suspect I might just be burnt out and struggling with... You know... Existing in 2023. We'll see how it goes! Take care, and let me know if you think any of these ideas are interesting!

[prophedis-stiction]

Writing Initiative #6

Which piece did you present to the class today? How does it relate to the other pieces previously presented?

I presented process for my Mitten (4D project). This project relates more to my reflective piece than my 2D or my 3D because while those projects are extremely abstract ways of experiencing stiction. I went a little more literally with this project by taking a fashion object that has specific usage and added stiction in various ways to deliver my narrative.

Describe 2–3 specific strengths your classmates found in your work and their reasons for identifying them.

Gaia and Sonya talked about how they enjoyed my mitten because Gaia actually had marking on her skin from putting the glove on.

Describe 1–2 specific ways your classmates thought you could improve this work going forward.

I remember showing this to someone and they suggested that I try to download patterns from online and cut my materials accordingly because my mittens were more oven mitt like than anything else.

I was stubborn and wanted to go through the process of figuring it out so I did not follow this advice. I would definitely get some patterns for the next time I will be making anything because it only make sense. Especially as a beginner, those patterns were made by people who understand garments so much more than I do.

Consider the remaining outcome yet to be presented in a couple of weeks; why have you put it off the longest? Describe your reasons for presenting this outcome last.

I have been putting off my 3D and reflective piece for very specific reasons that vary from each other

I have been putting off my 3D because I basically have one shot at doing this because I am ruining a white crewneck if I fail. So I wanted to make sure I was taking the right decisions in terms of composition colour and making sure the stiction aspect was strong enough.

I have been putting off my reflective piece because I was spending a lot of time wondering how I an be purposefully redundant in the ways that my viewer will be experiencing stiction. I was also spending a lot of time wondering how I can bind my book unconventionally.

All my pieces are grounded in how humans are with themselves and how their interconnectivity. My 2D is about mental health and the loss of mind, my 3D is about how we are the sum of the people we are closest to and how the people that touch our souls impact the way we are. Literally leaving imprints on us. My 4D is about how we need to move away from situations that make us feel uncomfortable and get rid of the people that hurt us.

With that logic, I wanted my reflective piece to reflect on the ephemeral relationships that happen in our lives. Some relationships wether they are significant or not live and die for very short periods of time. Those relationships also give meaning and importance to relationships that are ever lasting kind of like how the bad days give meaning and some kind of wonderful feeling to those beautiful euphoric days.

Finally, you have now had a chance to present each of your projects (2D, 3D, 4D, Reflective) in process to the class. Produce an image of each one and describe how an aspect of your word is manifested in each piece.

I think that I gave meaning to the stiction relationship narrative in the previous question but to resume,

2D: The relationship of stiction between the body and the mind if the body had material characteristics.

Stiction and Van Deer Waals forces

3D: What is leftover from surfaces interacting with each other

4D: increasing the stiction between two objects by adding the latching system of velcro to items that we are very accustomed to so that they can communicate a story

Reflective: although I previously wanted my piece to be ephemeral, I changed it into showing various ways of experiencing stiction or augmenting the stiction between surfaces

[osferth]

love's a strong word - chapter two

pairing: osferth x oc

tagging: @lauwrite1225 @lannisterdaddyissues @othermoony (if u would like to be tagged/removed lmk!)

chapter one

Roseburh had been relishing the chance to have a lazy morning for a while now, but living with a hyperactive seven-year-old boy meant that could never be more than a dream. At what felt like the crack of dawn, Eadwin was shaking her awake.

“Rose!” he repeated insistently, “Rose, get up!”

Exhausted from work the previous night, Roseburh groaned. “Whatever for?”

“I want to play,” said Eadwin firmly.

His sister stared incredulously at him for a moment.

“It’s hardly dawn!” she protested, sitting up. “And from what Baldwin told me, that was all you did yesterday. You promised me you’d study.” Eadwin looked up at her in an act of convincing remorse, but she shook her head. “Don’t give me that, Eadwin, it won’t work on me anymore. Come on, out.”

But the boy persisted, determined to convince her against it. “I have a headache,” he said, changing tack.

“You shouldn’t be playing if you have a headache, then, should you?”

Eadwin scowled, clearly not having thought his strategy through. “Fine,” he muttered, sloping off to find his book.

Their mother, Eadignes, had been the youngest daughter of a noble Centish family before her marriage, and although her children did not have the same status, she had wanted the best for them. Despite their father Rowe’s initial misgivings, she taught them the basics of reading and writing, to broaden what little opportunities they had.

He had eventually come around to the idea, seeing a chance to improve the family’s social standing in the future. The only problem was that none of the children were interested in books or learning, save for Roseburh.

After Eadniges passed away, Roseburh shouldered the responsibility of teaching Eadwin, albeit without the support of her older brothers. Their priority was training; had Rowe not supported his daughter’s endeavour, Eadwin may well have been raised as a fighter too.

It was certainly not in vain - he was proving to be incredibly adept, faster than any of his siblings had been at picking things up. The only issue remaining was his interest, or lack thereof. Rowe would regularly remind his daughter to be strict with the boy to overcome this, but Roseburh sometimes found it difficult.

So much so that when his friend Derian came knocking ten minutes later, inviting Eadwin to break his fast at their house and spend the rest of the day there to play, she decided to let him leave his book on the table and go.

Of course, that left Roseburh alone in the house, and with nothing else to do, she elected to wander around the markets of Coccham, basket in hand. There was little she actually needed to buy, but she figured she would treat herself with the money she had earned the night before.

After half an hour or so, her basket remained relatively light… as did her purse. A beautiful copper necklace had caught her eye earlier, which she impulsively bought before she changed her mind. It went well with the earrings her mother had given her, she justified to herself.

Not wanting to continue spending frivolously, as Erian would put it, Roseburh moved away from the market towards the dock. Sitting on the edge, she carefully drew the necklace out from her pocket and clasped it around her neck with a little smile.

The dock was where she could enjoy the relative quiet of the morning before midday brought the bustle and noise. She much preferred being alone by the water than at home.

However, it seemed her solitude would not last for long.

The sound of wood creaking behind her snapped Roseburh out of her thoughts. Turning around, she saw with a jolt of surprise that it was the boy she had bumped into from the night before… and by the look on his face, he hadn’t expected to see her, either.

“Sorry,” he said, “I didn’t know you were sitting here. I’ll just be going-”

“No, no, it’s alright,” Roseburh said quickly. “You can stay, if you like.”

The boy fidgeted with his hands for a moment before deciding to do just that. As he sat down beside her, Roseburh got a good look at him for the first time. The darkness of the previous night had cloaked much of what he was wearing, so it was only then that she properly noticed.

“Are you a monk?” she asked curiously, taking in his robes.

He shook his head. “No, Lady, not anymore. I was a novice in Winchester, but I left to become a warrior.”

She raised an eyebrow. “I’ve never heard of anything like that before. How are you finding it?”

“It’s only been a few weeks,” he admitted, “so it’s tough. But I’m learning a lot,” he added quickly. “Lord Uhtred is a good teacher… if a little hard on me.”

“Lord Uhtred is training you?” Roseburh repeated in surprise.

“Yes, Lady,” the boy said. “My uncle fought alongside him, so I went to find him so that I might do the same one day.”

Roseburh hummed in appreciation. “What’s your name?”

“Osferth. What about you?”

“Roseburh.”

“You have a lovely name, Lady,” Osferth said a little shyly.

The sweet compliment brought a small smile to her own face. “Then I would like you to use it,” she said. “I am hardly a lady, Osferth.”

“Alright, la- Roseburh,” he quickly amended. It made her chuckle, which in turn emboldened him enough to smile back.

He had a lovely smile, she thought briefly… before remembering what it was she had intended to ask. “Do you not have training today? I would’ve thought with Lord Uhtred being so strict…”

She had seen for herself once the harsh training that his men underwent, albeit in passing on her way to visit a friend some weeks before. If Osferth was here to escape it for a while, she would not blame him.

He grimaced. “Don’t remind me. By now I would’ve been on those grounds for an hour already had they not been drinking last night.”

Now that he mentioned it, Roseburh dimly remembered leaving the alehouse at the same time as several of his men entered, although he had not been with them at the time. “You weren’t there when I left.”

“You were there?” he exclaimed.

“I work there,” Roseburh laughed. “I’m a barmaid. But I had to leave to collect my brother, that’s when they arrived.”

“And that’s when I nearly sent you sprawling,” Osferth finished sheepishly, making her laugh. “You have a brother?” he added out of interest.

Roseburh grinned. “I have three. Ealdian and Erian are my elder brothers, but they’re usually off fighting. Eadwin’s the youngest, he’s seven. You’ve probably seen him running around with his friend Derian. He spends more time with him than with us, I think.”

“Is he with him now?”

“Correct,” she smiled. “But I don’t mind much. If I’m not working, it means I get a lie-in, or I can come down here before it gets busy.”

He gave her a smile of his own. “It’s lovely here. Is this your spot, then?”

“I s’pose, yeah,” she said, “although you’re welcome to join me whenever you like… or whenever you’re free,” she added, raising an eyebrow as she looked up.

Osferth’s smile faded as he realised what had caught her attention.

“So this is where ‘yer hidin’!” exclaimed the burly Irishman Roseburh recalled seeing the night before, stopping just behind Osferth. He grinned at her and raised a hand in greeting. “Good mornin’ to you, lady!” he said cheerfully.

“Morning,” she said, giving him a polite smile. He seemed nice enough, although she still sent Osferth an apologetic look when he was all but dragged away to the training grounds. “It was nice meeting you!” she called after him.

“You too, lady!”

Roseburh supposed she could forgive his slip-up just the one time as she watched the Irishman guffaw and throw an arm around him.

~~

“Was she the girl from yesterday, then?” asked Sihtric as he sharpened his sword.

They were taking a break after an hour's training, which meant Osferth was being subjected to a thorough grilling from his friends.

“���Course she was,” he muttered.

“He likes her,” Finan grinned.

“She’s - we’re hardly friends!” Osferth protested, although clearly in vain.

“Doesn’t mean you can’t like her.”

“Like who?”

Osferth grimaced as Uhtred appeared, his daughter Stiorra in his arms. “No one, Lord,” he mumbled.

Sihtric snorted. “What I told you about this morning, Lord.”

A look of recognition passed across Uhtred’s face. “Oh, I remember now,” he said and, much to Osferth’s chagrin, smirked. “Who is she, baby monk?”

“She’s called Roseburh, Lord,” he finally admitted. “But there is nothing of the sort that they imply is going on.”

They completely disregarded that last sentence.

Sihtric smiled. “You got her name, though.”

“Yeah, the silly bastard forgot to ask last night,” Finan supplied.

Seeing Osferth roll his eyes for the hundredth time, Uhtred decided to ease all the questioning. “You’ve relaxed long enough,” he said, handing Stiorra to a maid and grabbing his sword, “let’s continue. Come on, all of you.”

Although Osferth did not particularly enjoy the thought of being knocked on his arse by Finan for the fifth time in a row, he greatly preferred it over the embarrassment he was facing. Training would help to clear his mind, especially now that it was being filled with thoughts of the girl on the dock.

[britishth0t]

Hyperactive (With slight homicide)

This is my first post on Tumblr (not my first post overall as I have Wattpad, but I'll post my username here when I've added my Klarion one-shots on there unless people want it lmao

You grabbed his interest when you were hanging out with your friends near the old cinema.

He seemed intrigued at first when even Teekl became slightly amused by your hyper personality.

Klarion may or may not have stalked you for a bit because of that

Eventually, Klarion did admit you seemed fun to Teekl, and wanted to get to you know you better in person.

Both of you finally met each other when you were walking around the harbour, taking photos of the sea and the horizon even if you knew you would delete them later.

Teekl thought this would be a great time for Klarion to introduce himself to you.

She half prayed that Klarion wouldn't freak you out, and the other half wanting you to not make Klarion too annoyed.

Somehow, it went really well.... A bit too well, as you two then talked as if you had known each other for years

Lets just say, you're both extremely hyper. I mean, it's Klarion.

You being a hyperactive person and him having chaos magic while also wanting mischief? It's a perfect yet dangerous match.

Teekl rethinks her choice about you two being together, as she now has to deal with two children and not one.

This also means that the Light have to deal with another 'kid' as well, since Klarion will definitely bring you to at least one meeting.

They're a bit cautious about you on first impression, not too sure if you're using Klarion to get information about the Light

But after a while, they see how much you deal with when you're with Klarion, and figure out that no one can put up a façade for that long

Yeah, even the Light know that you're one hyper son-of-a-b*tch

I wouldn't say you're obnoxiously loud, it's just being in a Light meeting no one is really talking except you, so it's dead quiet other than that. Nevertheless, you can be extremely deafening without realising it

Klarion's magical powers gives you a lot more freedom when being with him. Like, a lot more freedom, he's a lord of Chaos, you basically have no limits.

You can now do all the crazy sh*t you've ever wanted to do with Klarion by your side, and he's more than willing to join you in whatever ideas you have

A couple of times Teekl has to warn him that you're still a mortal, so he does lay off a bit from time to time to avoid getting you seriously injured

If you do get hurt, Klarion is gunna freak tf out, trying to play it off cool but failing

All adventures go out the window if you get hurt. And if you try to get up saying "I'm fine", he'll magically trap you in your bed to rest.

Don't test him, he will do it

A lot of things may break, and it's whether or not Klarion will fix it with his powers or not after... Probably not, it's not like either of you really care

If the Young Justice team do meet you, it's because you were in a forest with Klarion, messing around while climbing from branch to branch in the trees while Klarion floated next to you

The two of you were ambushed by the team, as Zatanna had sensed Klarion's power in that area while the team were nearby

They would have saved you, but you're surprisingly very good at climbing trees for any of them to grab hold of you, something that actually made them impressed

Klarion was very unhappy, so unhappy that you had to mention about going back home to hang out there to calm him down

Couple of times you'd wander off too far that Klarion isn't able to find you and would have to teleport you to him in order to know where you are, the only big thing that does get him slightly annoyed.

^ If you can make Klarion take responsibility (other than over Teekl) and act like a parent, my respect goes to you

You two don't have any rules apart from when you're injured, although there is one thing that bugs you both

2 hyper devils + "Calm down"= Death stare with Klarion hexing whoever said that

No one is allowed to tell you guys to calm down

Klarion x homicidal hyper reader ⚠️Mentions death⚠️

You met each other like the first one, except that you seemed more wanting to go into danger and edge your friends into doing bad things than actually have fun

This time, Klarion was intrigued before Teekl

He noticed your cold yet intense gaze on everyone that was near you

Something about you was odd. Klarion knew that but he didn't know what was making you seem so odd

It's not until you become best friends that he finally realises your love for murder

While you got along with Klarion before him knowing this, wow he's ecstatic that he finally knows what seemed off with you

He tempts you into murder as well, seeing that you showed to be very refrained from not doing anything about your homicidal thoughts

Catches on very quickly how manipulative you can be with your friends, friends that Klarion now wants to be your first kills

Unsurprisingly, it doesn't take that much convincing from Klarion to make you agree to killing your soon-to-be-dead mates

He helps of course, trapping them all and giving you all sorts of weapons to use on them

It's like a holiday for both of you

You even asked Klarion at one point to make their screams quieter since they were annoying you

And after you had finishing butchering your friends, Klarion realised that he like-liked you and confessed right there

Yep, Klarion did just admit to liking you while standing in the middle of dead bodies scattered around at your feet

Soon after that, you both start doing more destruction together

Limits? F*ck no

Hell, if you asked for half of the moon to be destroyed, Klarion would snap his fingers and bam, moon gone.

One time you asked Klarion to give you powers like superman, just so you could fly and mess around in the city

It started off as just throwing cars as far as you could, not exactly caring if people were inside or not

Which then turned into full blown 'lemme jump/crash into one sky scrapper to another', looking like a monkey swinging from vines in a jungle

While the heroes didn't enjoy your hyper and destructive personality nor Klarion, the news loved you. The amount of reports you and Klarion got in the news just boosted both of your ego's

"Double trouble strikes again!" "Witch boy causes havoc with anonymous villain" "League fail to stop villains, have they met their match?" "Criminals cause devastating downfall on the city" "61 lives lost in under an hour" You felt prideful in the last one, a new record in your books

If you two ever go out to have dates, it'll 100% always end with something, mostly a building, being completely destroyed

Whenever the 'kiddie' team as Klarion calls them, or the Justice League come; they're always too late to stop you two

Even if Batman claims they were so close to stopping you, he's wrong. The heroes don't even manage to get you two to notice them arriving, already going off to have some fun somewhere else

You've mentioned about wanting to kill at least one of the heroes out of spite and because you felt like it on multiple occasions

Klarion would love to snap his fingers to have every hero there for you to choose from, yet he couldn't do that because of Vandal wanting some of them alive. Especially Lex with Superboy.

You get along nicely with the Light, as they trust you enough to know that you can calm Klarion down and that you're classed as a criminal

Occasionally, you have unnerved them with the gory deaths about some of your kills, Klarion kissing your cheek out of pure happiness from hearing the defined details

Teekl doesn't really care about it as long as you get the blood off her fur if you get any on her later.

A lot of lives are lost when you two are together... Which is all the time

(Secretly, the young justice team have envied how much freedom you get when with Klarion-> This is after they have to tidy up the mess you two make)

Sorry if this isn't very good, literally made this and posted it the same day. I've loved Klarion's character for quite a long time now and saw that, although the fanfics are good, there isn't a lot of them. I'm down for requests, but right now I don't think I can do many. You can send me stuff and I'll write it down, just don't be upset if I don't post it in the next week or two. If this isn't up to your standards then srry aha, I realise I don't add much fluff and focus more on the storyline, but there's always room for improvement tho✌️

[clue-can-writes]

Inspiration

Twice 10th Member

Fever Era

Hua hasn’t been able to write a good song in over 2 weeks, so she goes to see the person who gives her the most inspiration

Based on this ask!

Hua looked at her lyric book in front of her, cursing herself for letting her get this far. She had been writing for so long that she lost every ounce of creativity she had. Hua quite literally had a writing credit on every single one of Twice’s songs, as well as some for other JYP artists, like Stray Kids and Got7. She knew the obvious difference between good and bad songs, the problem was she couldn’t seem to write any more good songs!

She did the normal things that gave her inspiration. She went for walks, watched every sad movie she could think of, and even asked Jihyo if she could watch one of her and Daniel’s conversations to see what lovers talk about! Jihyo didn’t like that at all, so Hua was stuck trying to get the feel from videos and movies!

She had stayed late at her studio the past few months, writing their latest album, Fever, with the title track of the same name. She had written every song on the album, only getting help from Nayeon on 1! However, that drained her to the point she could barely keep her eyes open during music shows. Not having Mina there also didn’t help Hua’s sanity.

Hua looked over and saw the time, seeing how late it was. Or early? It was 2 in the morning and she had been there since 8 the previous night! She debated on whether she should go see Chan or not, knowing that he would most likely still be here and awake. But he also might be asleep, which would cause Hua to accidently wake him up and then feel bad about it!

She decided to go make herself some coffee, making an extra for Chan just in case he was awake, and Hua started walked to Chan’s studio. She stopped by his door to see if she could hear anything, and luckily for Hua, he seemed to be talking to himself. She pushed open the door and walked in.

“For you it could be anything. It could be food. It could be screaming out loud inside your room, or burying your pillow. I mean burying your face in your pillow and,” Chan started screaming in his hands the exact second Hua walked through the door. 

Hua stood at the door for a minute. “Did I come in at a bad time?”

Chan looked up and smiled at her, “No! No, definitely not! Do you want to come say hi to Stays!”

“Oh sorry, I didn’t realise you were on a live. I’ll come back later.”

“No, you can stay! I’m sure our fans would like to ask you some questions too! Hey, did you guys know that Hua actually wrote almost the entire song of Miroh! She also choreographed the chorus and helped us with our presence a lot that era!”

Hua was a bit reluctant, seeing as she didn’t want to get bad press for Twice or Stray Kids, but she could also use a break. It also helped that Chan seemed genuinely excited to have her there!

She walked over to the couch next to Chan, handing him the coffee she got him. “I figured you would want something to drink.”

“Thanks, Hua!” Chan said, gladly taking the drink from her. “Is this decaf?”

Hua nodded. She made Chan’s decaf, but she made hers regular. She didn’t care about her own sleep schedule, but she did care about Chans.

“Should I talk in English now? I know you always talk in english on your lives and in interviews and basically anytime you can,” Hua asked him in Korean, already guessing the answer. 

“YEAH!” Chan yelled, only to be quieted by Hua shushing him. “You should definitely start speaking English! You’ve improved so much!”

“Ok.”

“...”

“...”

“Alright, so does anyone have any questions for Hua? She will tell you anything about her career as an idol, so feel free to ask any questions you want to!”

“I won’t tell them anything,” Hua mumbled, although it seemed to go unnoticed by Chan, who had already found a few questions for her.

“Do you like writing songs for Twice or Stray Kids more?”

“Hmm, that’s a good question,” Hua said, thinking. “I like writing Twice songs more because I actually get to perform with Twice and I get to decide the parts that I want to sing! But I also definitely like writing the raps for Stray Kids songs, because I don’t ever get to write that for Twice!”

“Have you ever written a faster rap for Twice?” Chan asked.

“Yes, a few. But most of the time they get split between Chaeyoung and Dahyun which takes away the fast parts of them.”

“What raps did they do that with?”

Hua thought for a moment, trying to remember the main ones they split. “Like Ooh Ahh, Cheer Up, TT, Likey, and Yes or Yes.”

“Huh. I didn’t realize they did that. I just figured that Chaeyoung couldn’t rap the whole thing!”

Hua nodded and gestured towards the screen, “Are there any more questions?”

Chan looked at the screen in front of him, as Hua took a sip of her coffee. She wondered if Chan was going through the good and the bad comments or if no one asked an actual question yet.

“Here’s one. Do you guys hang out often? To answer that, yes, we do!”

“Most JYP artists do! I hang out with Got7 members...”

“and I hang out with Twice and Itzy! It’s great to be able to interact with other groups without having our company breathing down our backs!”

Hua snorted, “That’s so true! One time, I was going to hang out with Dino and one of the executives literally followed me there!”

“I remember that! When he approached you, you actually punched him!”

“To be fair, he grabbed my arm and began to drag me away! I thought he was trying to kidnap me!”

Hua and Chan laughed at the memory, knowing that it could have been a lot worse for both Hua. Luckily, Jackson defended her, saying that she told the entire company she would hit them if they grabbed her without a warning. It wasn’t her fault, it was just...a reflex.

“I have a question for you,” Chan said, directly to Hua.

“Go ahead. It’s not like I have to lie to you.”

Chan cleared his throat before asking, “You only come to my studio to show me a song or when you need inspiration. And since you clearly don’t have your computer with you, I’ll assume the latter.”

“You assume a ladder?”

“NO,” Chan yelled at her, as he burst out laughing. Obviously, since Hua was not  a fluent english speaker she still made some mistakes. But everyone thought it was so cute!

“I meant, I assume that you have no inspiration or you hit a writer block!”

Hua looked down at her cup, remembering why she was in here in the first place. “I don’t know why I can’t write anything. It feels like,” She stops herself, trying to find the correct english words. “It feels like the only songs I can write are sad songs!”

“Those can be good songs.”

“I wrote Twice’s disbandment song yesterday!”

“But Twice Aren’t Disbanding?” Chan asked Hua, questioning where she was going with this.

“Exactly! We aren’t set for disbandment for at least another 3 years, but I can not stop writing songs like that! And the few happy songs I write are actually bad! This is honestly the worst writer’s block I’ve ever had and I don’t know how to get out of it!”

Hua fell back on the couch, to Chan’s apparent amusement. Hua was the least dramatic person in Twice, so when she acted like this, it felt fake! (At least to Chan!)

“Can I make a suggestion?”

“Well, That’s why I’m here!”

Chan chuckled at her and pushed her leg, so she would look up at him. Once she did, he continued. “You put too much pressure on yourself, despite not actually needing to. Twice have been successful with your contributions, but if you keep working yourself to the limit, Twice will eventually lose you.”

Hua thought about what he said, and he was right. Mina pushed herself to the limit and now she’s in Japan, only keeping in contact with Chaeyoung and Hua.

“I think you need to take a break, focus on making yourself happy again, and then you can go back to writing. Trust me, you’ll have more inspiration than you have before!”

Hua smiled at him. Chan felt like an older brother to her and she really trusted him. She knew that Chan was right and she needed to focus on herself long enough to be ok again.

“Thanks, Chan!” Hua said, getting up to hug him. “You give better advice than anyone I know!”

“And when you start writing again, you should dedicate the song to Mina! You know she appreciated your writing more than anyone!”

She pulled away, then she realized they were still on a live. 

“I’m sorry for taking up your time. Please feel free to ask Chan all the questions you want, but I’m going to go sleep and hopefully write Twice’s next hit song! Thank you for having me!” 

Hua bowed to the camera and started walking towards the door. She wasn’t going to go to sleep like she said, instead she was going to write a song for Mina. One that would make her feel better and know that even if she isn’t with us, we will always love her!

“HUA! WE HAVE 10 MILLION VIEWS ON THIS LIVE! WE ARE DOING THIS MORE OFTEN!”

[words-writ-in-starlight]

where's the essay op

Okay so bayonets.  I don't know why I ever pretend that I want to talk about anything but military history and battlefield medicine.  I checked all my sources in the waiting room of a doctor's office so you're just going to have to trust me because they are Gone.  I’m pretty sure this can all be found on a few Wiki dives, though.

First of all, to recap, let me clarify a common misconception.  The triangular bayonet was NOT outlawed in the 1949 Geneva Convention, nor any future revisions—as it was originally a musket weapon, it was fading out of use by World War II and the subsequent Convention.  However, you'll notice that I opted to use to word "violates" rather than "were banned by," which is a fine semantical hair to split and, I suppose, debatable.  Most bayonets were not explicitly banned in the GC, in that there is not an article in the GC saying you can't use them.  However there IS an article in the GC, adopted from the earlier 1899 Hague Regulations, stating that it is prohibited to "employ weapons...of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering" (originally part of Article 23 of the HR, now Article 35 of the GC, expanded in 1977).  Personally, as someone who knows a lot about how a lot of weapons impact the human body, I think that is a more expansive statement than most people would expect, and should be treated accordingly.  Regrettably I do not work for the UN.

Point is, triangular blades specifically are known to cause wounds that are difficult to heal, highly prone to infection, and extremely likely to never fully recover, while also having a relatively low mortality rate.  This is because the axes of a triangular wound, which is shaped sort of like a Y, make it very hard to stitch closed, and very easy for any "twisting" of the blade to create a large hole with ragged edges that's functionally impossible to stitch closed.  As an added bonus, because of the way scar tissue forms, it's possible for one "line" of a triangular wound to pull open other parts of the puncture while the scar tissue forms and pulls on the skin.  Even by standards in the 1700s, triangular bayonet wounds were phenomenally likely to infect and consistently difficult to repair, and modern medicine has made only limited improvements on that situation.  As such, cases have been made that certain types of bayonet/triangular blades in general are therefore in violation of this article, despite not being explicitly banned.

(Side note: yes, the American military violates the GC on the regular.  The American police violate the GC.  I am excruciatingly aware.  The GC is interesting reading generally, but especially if you're an American and you ever feel like being appalled for a few hours.)

Anyway, with that covered again, let's actually talk about the development of triangular bayonets, which might've been out of use by the time of the GC but DEFINITELY violated that article in a big way for a good two centuries prior and are also a fascinating insight into the fact that humanity, as a whole, is really determined to do things in the dumbest way possible.

The first thing you have to understand about bayonets is that they were originally invented as a way to integrate pikes with guns, not knives or even swords.  When arquebuses and muskets were first invented, you were lucky to get a rate of fire around one round per minute, and you still had to protect your army while they were reloading their clunky black powder guns.  Therefore, most infantries between like...the invention of the gun and the late 1600s were comprised of soldiers equipped with muskets, and also soldiers equipped with pikes (a type of spear).  The idea of a bayonet was "what if we put a pike and a musket TOGETHER and then we could give everyone THAT and have way more guns in our army because we don't need pikemen anymore." Which makes sense when you think about it.

What makes less sense is that the initial effort at bayonets was something called a plug bayonet.  You'll never fucking guess what these geniuses (first record is Chinese infantry around-abouts 1600, popular use of plug bayonets recorded in Europe around the 1630s) figured out for their first try at a bayonet.  Here's a hint!  There's not a lot of places on a gun where you can "plug in" a sword. 

Obviously plug bayonets did not exactly catch on as a fantastic solution, because these guns were either a gun OR a short spear and neither was especially good at their jobs.  A bunch of battles hinged on this problem. Which brings us to the end of the 1600s, when English forces in Scotland got absolutely obliterated by a bunch of Highlanders in 1689 because the English were so busy trying to fix their bayonets that the Highlanders literally just charged them, fired one volley, and cut them down with swords and axes. The English took that one very personally (which, you know what, fair, it was a humiliating defeat, especially since the Highlanders had been using that tactic very successfully for a while) and started developing better bayonets.

This is where we get to socket bayonets, AKA what you would probably recognize as a bayonet from a period TV series or a museum.  Socket bayonets have a metal sleeve that gets attached around the barrel of a gun (in this case a musket), so that you can still theoretically use the damn gun while it's attached.  There were problems with the development of socket bayonets (notably, it took a while to figure out how to keep them from falling off the gun during battle), but overall they worked much better and armies started getting rid of pikemen. This was also when bayonets were shortened to a little over a foot, which isn't really important but made them much easier to maneuver.  Socket bayonets were the European order of the day by the early 1700s, and mostly came in three flavors: single edge (like a knife), double edge (like a sword), and spike (like a...spike).  There were pros and cons to all of these (single edge wasn't great for stabbing, spike was ONLY good for stabbing, and double edge was kind of okay at stabbing and kind of okay at slashing), but most importantly, both single and double edged bayonets were fragile.  The heads of polearms were shaped on patterns other than "sword on a stick" for a reason, and it's because "sword on a stick" is not very sturdy.

Triangular bayonets were the solution to this problem.  Triangular bayonets are basically a single piece of metal creased long-ways, with both edges sharpened and the top fluted to form a third edge at the crease.  This makes a much more resilient weapon than a flat blade, because a twisting motion doesn’t risk snapping the blade in the middle.  It also means that now you have three edges, and human nature is to figure “more knife better.”

And don’t get me wrong, as a weapon of war, the triangular bayonet was a great one.  It was introduced in the 1710s and then got used regularly to maim and terrify through the start of the 1900s.  In fact, the triangular bayonet worked so well that it only began to get phased out of use when the style of war itself started to change dramatically during the World Wars.  When warfare was focused on pitched battle (your old school “two armies enter, one army leaves” kind of warfare), the emphasis of a bayonet was on extending the reach of a gun.  A bayonet lets a soldier have a weapon for closer range combat, where a gun—especially a long gun like a musket—is not as effective.  So when you had two armies on the field and a bayonet was first and foremost a way to keep the enemy at least gun-length away, longer bayonets were better.  

But World War I was the advent of trench warfare, which was a terrible idea and also meant that a long weapon, like a gun with an extra foot and a half of sword on top, was much, MUCH harder to work with.  Either fighting took place in no man’s land, where you probably weren’t going to get close enough to use a bayonet anyway, or in a trench, where a weapon as long as you were tall was just impossible to work with.  

(If you know anything about WWI, you’re probably asking me about bayonet charges right now, specifically the concept of “going over the top.”  Contrary to every media representation of WWI ever, “going over the top” of a trench faded out of use pretty quickly.  It was a type of bayonet charge where the soldiers in ONE trench fixed their bayonets and tried to charge no man’s land in an effort to reach the OTHER trench, but it was basically never effective because no man’s land was often heavily trapped and strafed with gunfire and mortar shells.  Also, it was the kind of battle tactic that military history books talk about with phrases like “total annihilation of whole attacking battalions,” so that’s the kind of mortality rate we’re talking about here.  The Battle of the Somme featured a good number of bayonet charges by the British, for context, so people learned and started using other tactics.)

So, since bayonets were only useful in trenches, suddenly everyone was scrambling to shorten bayonets and guns so that their soldiers could get ANYTHING DONE.  And THEN soldiers started admitting that they were literally taking their bayonets off their guns and using them as knives instead, because for trench fighting that was way more useful, and so everyone just decided fuck it, let’s just make bayonet-knives, which is why WWI weapons with bayonets usually look, very literally, like someone duct taped a short knife to the front of a gun.  This was the start of the decline of the triangular bayonet, a full two hundred years after it hit the battlefield, which is a frankly spectacular run for any weapon since the invention of the gun.  Triangular bayonets held on, here and there, through part of WWII, but they were almost entirely gone by the time of the Geneva Convention being ratified in 1949.  However, spike or knife bayonets are still issued to many armies as a weapon of last resort to this day, although they aren’t often used in actual attacks.  Now we have bigger, worse weapons for actual attacks.

 TL;DR, the development of bayonets went like this:

“What if we put a pike ON a gun?  …oh wait, you still want to use the gun?  Sucks to be you, I guess.”

“What if we put a sword on the gun instead?  Then we could put it somewhere where we can still use the gun!  Good luck keeping it on there, though.”

“What if we actually made something designed to get put on a gun and stab people effectively?  Like, what if we designed something with that purpose in mind?  Perhaps?” SMASH CUT TWO CENTURIES

“Well if you’re just gonna take your bayonet off and stab someone with it anyway, can we just go back to giving you knives, then?”

And now you’re caught up on all the dubiously successful ways we’ve tried to mutilate people with a knife-gun.

[palmett-hoes]

per your post "every single one of the monsters is autistic and/or adhd" will you elaborate on that?, if you do i will love you forever (not that i wont if you dont do it)

oh boy i would love to!!! unironically nothing brings me more joy than writing long, convoluted character analysis posts

---

okay so i’ve written several posts before about why andrew is autistic. his moral code, the roundabout way he communicates, his body language, his stimulation-seeking behavior, his strict adherence to transactional deals, the emphasis on honesty, and a dozen other details. at this point i just take andrew being autistic as fact, not just an interpretation

h o w e v e r  i also hc that andrew is dyslexic, which is also a neurodiverse condition

- - -

similarly, i’ve seen more than one person interpret kevin as autistic, and i absolutely agree that it fits. not just the hyperfocus on exy but mostly the way he communicates. he’s very indirect, especially in his affection but very direct with his opinions. he tries to be helpful in a material way to the people he cares about, even if he comes off as negative. he wants the people he cares about to be safe and successful so he pushes them to work hard and reminds them in measurable ways how to stay healthy. he doesn’t factor in a lot of room for emotions, so instead he focuses on quantifiable things that he can improve. i personally act very similarly. approaching someone emotionally is hard for me, so when the people i care about have problems all i can think to do is try offering solutions, check up on their well-being, etc. practicality instead of conventional sentiment is extremely common with asd

- - -

so now let’s talk about neil. i had to think on this one for a WHILE but ultimately came to the conclusion that neil is adhd, probably hyperactive type. 

like obviously neil is high energy. i would say he probably does the most exercise of anyone on the team. morning run, morning practice, afternoon practice, night practice with kevin and andrew, plus he doesn’t have a car so he runs to class (on a BIG ass campus), and goes for an extra run when he feels stressed. that’s... insane, honestly.

neil reminds me SO MUCH of this post that goes:

“Was just informed by my mom that I do in fact have ADHD and the reason I thought I didn’t was because ever since I was seven whenever I got super energetic my mom would have me go chop wood so now when I’m feeling The ADHD I go chop wood”

(phenomenal post) and that’s neil to a t. tell me this isn’t exactly how neil handles his problems and also exactly what mary would have had to do to keep her unmedicated and very energetic son focused on the task of staying alive

neil also definitely has that ADHD on/off switch with his interest. the obvious being exy which is like the definition of a hyperfixation, but you can see it in other things: the way he runs totally hot or totally cold with people, his complete disinterest in his schoolwork, the way he can’t seem to sit still long enough to follow movies. but then there’s also the hyperfocus. doing the same drill for hours on end. watching exy game after exy game. staring at andrew until time falls away

what’s more, neil on many occasions shows racing thoughts, both in an anxiety way (and anxiety often goes hand-and-hand with adhd) but also as a way to quickly and accurately take in details about people to build a character profile of them. this is what allows him to connect with the foxes, how he manages to get through andrew’s puzzles, and even how he knows what to say in order to knock riko down a peg. his brain just works so fast and it takes in a lot of very specific details and disparate information to make connections.

but also like,, neil has a HUGE problem with time blindness. like the instant he didn’t have his mother around to manage and direct him anymore he lost all sense of time. he stayed in Millport for a YEAR. and what did he keep telling himself during that time? basically “i really need to move on, but not just yet.” for a YEAR! then he gets to palmetto and he’s like “i’ll cut and run in a month or two” then he doesn’t “i’ll be gone by halloween” wrong again “i’ll leave by the raven’s game” nope. like,, the boy just has NO sense of time and he can’t seem to make himself DO anything outside of an externally enforced schedule. and even then,,, HE HAD 48 FUCKING DAYS TO FIGURE OUT SOMETHING TO DO TO NOT GET MURDERED! 48 WHOLE DAYS. he didn’t make a plan, he didn’t write down any letters with goodbyes, he didn’t GO TO THE FBI LIKE HE’D INTENDED TO THE WHOLE TIME! nah he just made out with andrew and when he finally got to zero he was just like “ah shit, that was fast. oh well guess i’ll die” and that’s time blindness, babey!

---

let’s move on to nicky. 

now i think it would be really easy to say nicky is just adhd because he’s high energy and forgetful but tbh,, i don’t think that’s all of it. like if you really look at nicky’s character and especially at his problems, he has asd problems just as much as he has adhd problems.

so nicky is dual diagnosis asd and adhd. also nicky reminds me a lot of a girl i used to know who was autistic/adhd

so, adhd:

very generally speaking, ppl with adhd will struggle with sitting still, listening to and following instructions, planning/organization, following a schedule, and some social boundaries like “appropriate” times and topics of conversation

i would say you see hints of this with nicky. he’s definitely a rambunctious personality, constantly on the move, constantly stimulation seeking. he’s very tactile. he likes to dance, he likes to party, he complains about it but he’s an elite-level athlete. he’s also decidedly very chatty, and doesn’t seem to really pay attention to what he’s saying. he distracts himself and the people around him have to keep him on track. he has some trouble with boundaries. he’s a little all over the place. he’s almost a bit of an adhd stereotype

also one thing i find interesting is that when neil sees him in the library doing work neil is surprised to see he’s capable of that, especially bc when we see the upperclassmen doing work they generally do it in their dorms or on the bus and/or with other people around. that hyper-social nicky would be alone in a quiet place is weird. but this is like the most common tip for dealing with adhd. don’t do it in a familiar space. have a designated space and time to do work. limit distractions. just a lil detail

so now, asd:

in all honesty, most of nicky’s actual problems in the narrative could be viewed as stemming from asd symptoms. his number one issue being that he has a lot of trouble with nonverbal cues (and tbh, verbal ones too). the twins are mostly quiet. andrew especially (when he’s sober) communicates primarily nonverbally, and nicky seems to have a lot of trouble with this. despite knowing them for the longest on the team, nicky honestly seems to have the least insight into the way either of the twins actually thinks or processes things. he loves them, and he’s very forgiving of them, but he fundamentally doesn’t understand them. 

the twins, andrew especially, put up a LOT of nonverbal boundaries, and nicky sort of inadvertently keeps trampling all over them. he’s touchy in a way they don’t like. he talks a lot about their personal lives to other people. he treats them like they’re joking when they’re serious. etc. and like,,, you kind of get the sense that the upperclassmen feel similarly about him. beyond the homophobia, beyond the fact that he’s loyal to andrew, the upperclassmen still treat him with this sense of,, bafflement, i suppose? it’s clear that they don’t really understand him and he doesn’t really understand them. although, nicky IS curious about the upperclassmen, while the upperclassmen are pretty dismissive of him. it reminds me of when my sweet, floppy dog tries to play with my cat. their body language is different; they’re each receiving different signals than they believe they’re sending out

only,, nicky loves people!! he likes being around them, he likes talking to them. he’s interested in their lives and stories, but it’s very clear that he can’t read between the lines on people. he has an incredibly hard time with people who expect their actions to speak for them, which is most people, but is especially his cousins.

actually this is very much also an issue that i have: things need to be spelled out for me. the way i deal with it is i ask a lot of questions. ‘how do you want me to react to this potential situation?’ ‘what are specific things that make you most comfortable?’ ‘please explain to me exactly how you feel and what has prompted those feelings?’ and i’m always communicating vice versa like that with other people. a lot of specifics in both questions and answers

and the interesting thing is, when i was skimming through the books reviewing dialogue styles for another ask, i noticed that, actually, nicky DOES do this. with neil and the upperclassmen, nicky asks a LOT of quick, clarifying questions. things that ask after tone, that ask after intent. it’s kinda sad that he does this for communicating with acquaintances, but with the twins, the people he’s closest to, he makes a lot more assumptions. and i’m really proud of nicky for having this coping skill, because i can’t imagine it’s something he grew up doing. there’s no way he was raised in an environment that fostered this kind of open communication so it must have been something he learned about much later, probably in germany with the kloses, which would also explain why he’s a lil imperfect about it

---

now last but not least, aaron

this is another one i had to think through for a long time before it felt like it fit

much like how i felt that it would be easy to read nicky as simply adhd rather than also asd, i think it would be easy to say aaron is autistic simply because he is quieter, less rambunctious. however, i actually think he’s adhd, likely primarily inattentive type

in all honesty, aaron’s #1 character trait for the first two books is basically that he’s disconnected. detached. separated both from his family and his team. not in the same forcefully apathetic way that andrew is, more,, spaced out. he’s just kind,, there. not really paying attention to what’s going on, tuning in every once in a while only if something really catches his eye/ear then tuning right back out again. just sits in his corner and plays on his phone. and the thing is, from the moments when he does tune in, you can tell that he actually does care. he backs nicky when seth insults him in tfc, and we know he cares deeply about andrew even if he’s become disillusioned with their fraught relationship. he even hangs with his family, doesn’t seem to really try and slip away to other friends besides katelyn, he’s fine spending his leisure time with the monsters. so it’s not totally apathy, he’s just,,, tuned out most of the time

and, yea, that sounds like adhd. it’s not the type that most people are familiar with, and for a lot of people this causes it to slip under the radar. it can make it hard to get help or a dx because it doesn’t fit with how adhd “should” look or how someone “should” act, but difficulty focusing your thoughts and staying in tune with the current moment is absolutely part of adhd

addiction is also a huge problem for people with adhd. a lot of stimulants affect people with adhd very differently than neurotypicals, especially in small doses, and an adhd kid who’s struggled their whole lives with the disorder might try speed or god-forbid meth or fuck even coffee and suddenly find that things are a lot easier for them. they start to self-medicate, they don’t actually know what they’re doing, and then they’re addicted, and everything spirals out of control. we don’t know too many details about aaron’s addiction other than that his mother enabled him, but wouldn’t this fit? it’s also an explanation for aaron still taking drugs at eden’s, given that cracker dust seems to be a mild amphetamine. (aaron talk to betsy about the neurocog and get an actual prescription please)

(total throw away but aaron plays videogames and videogames are like,, adhd culture)

[dropofgoldensun]

omg hiiiii i am here from cat (@luvdsc) wondering if you could offer any advice about college apps 🙏 especially about the uc piqs? thank you so much i hope ur doing well!!!!!!!!

yes yes hello friend !! 💝 miss cat directed you to me because i did my college apps last year !!! (yikes one year passed already?? why does that feel ages ago 🤧)

first of all, congratulations on making the decision to apply to college !! i know it’s been hard for a lot of people our age to figure out the college situation recently, so i’m proud of you for choosing to take the extra step this summer to buckle up and write those essays 💞

i’ve compiled a few tips on answering the PIQs (i was actually in the middle of typing this up when i received your ask haha), but some of them can be applied to other essays, as well !! they’re all under the cut (because, unfortunately, being brief is not my forte) 😊

(and for reference, the prompts i chose were #2 (creativity), #6 (subject), #7 (community), and #8 (anything) !!)

tip #1: understand the prompt.

before you even begin writing, it’s important to understand what the question is really asking. for the UC PIQs, this will look different depending on which four prompts you decide to do.

in question one, for example, they want to know about your skills in leading others, but notice that they’re also curious about your resolution abilities and teamwork experience. or in question two, they don’t want to know that you paint and that you love painting—they could be asking how resourceful you are, how you think outside the box when you have an idea.

once you know the question you’re going to be answering, you can move on to brainstorming!

tip #2: write down three (3) key takeaways.

these are like the most basic, not-even-a-sentence answers you would give to each question. so for me, in response to question eight (“what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong candidate for the UCs?”), my answers were perseverance, courage, and character. i had a story about that, so i wrote about my experience with martial arts.

i recommend you do something similar. decide on three things that you want to communicate to your audience, and write them in the footnote of your document. your goal is to cover all three points so that, if anyone were to read your essay, they would walk away understanding those three things about you.

i found this strategy really helpful for keeping my essay streamlined while writing—if a sentence didn’t relate to any of those main points, i would cut it since those words would take up valuable space in the word count. stay focused on what needs to be in this essay, and if you have extra words left in the word count later, you can add those details back in.

and once you’re done with your essay, make sure to refer back to your takeaways and check that you covered all of them sufficiently!

tip #3: highlight your stories.

i sent cat an ask a couple days ago with a few pictures of my response to an end-of-year college counseling survey that referenced this tip (you can find it here). basically i said that, when choosing what topics to write about, pick things that interest you! if you get excited talking about it, your audience should get excited about reading it, because they’ll pick up on the passions you have and then everyone’s excited !!! :D

i’ll tell you a secret: everyone you meet, everyone you see, has countless unique experiences that few others may have. me? i spend hours making mashups out of kpop songs. i earned my black belt years after a traumatizing experience during training. i get russian harry potter and spanish dr. seuss books from the library. and i created a collaborative online google photos album for my classmates that now has thousands of entries. although these aren’t necessarily unique to only me, they’re still special enough to the point where, when you put them all together, you get a better image of the person i am, and what i value.

so find a story, a habit, a hobby that makes you different, because i believe that everyone has them. give them some food for thought, or that one-liner that sticks in their brain and won’t go away. and remember: these stories don’t all have to be extraordinary—they should be about people or moments of special value to you, because that’s what matters.

personal tip: when i was brainstorming ideas, i decided that the best way to get ideas out there was to go on a rant (because sometimes it helps to just have a conversation with yourself !!) and i recorded myself, so i could replay what i said !! this was so so crucial to me finding my own voice for writing essays. notice the way you word things when you talk—a good line or two may make it into the final draft :)

i found it helpful to read sample essays as well! they give a lot of great ideas on the kinds of topics people write about. (also, it’s kind of fun, because who doesn’t love a good story?)

but the people reading your essay won’t be there to just enjoy your story; what they really want you to do is to tell them what you learned from your experience. they want to know whether you’re teachable and willing to grow both as a student and as a young adult. so make sure to take note of the life lessons you learned, experience you gained, character you built, etc.

minor tip on ending your essay: if you’re telling a story that happened in the past, then close with what you learned and how you can apply that to your life moving forward. if you’re telling a story that has no definite end yet (like a passion or dream you have), you probably don’t have everything figured out (and you can say that in your essay!), so it might be better to close with your hopes for the future.

tip #4: ask your family for help.

peer-editing is one of the most effective ways to detect errors and inconsistencies in your writing, because, after staring at your essay for so long, you might gloss over glaring contradictions. for all of my essays, i printed them out and asked my parents to help me revise them. we’d meet every other night (or every night, depending on how much time was left) to review and discuss improvements.

i actually kept some of those printed drafts (only the first and the final ones for comparison), and let me tell you from experience—you’re probably going to have a lot of drafts (i think the most i did was seven? but you don’t need to go that far!). this part of the process does take some time, so remember to be patient and kind to yourself :) these essays won’t happen overnight!

enlisting the help of others also helps keep you accountable. one of the struggles many seniors face while writing essays is just... setting aside time to do them. and even though the constant reminders from your parents will definitely get repetitive and a bit stress-inducing, i can tell you from personal experience that i’m so glad they did; otherwise, i don’t think i’d have my essays done in time :’)

while writing college essays is challenging, your family will be there supporting you each step of the way. chances are that they’ll have their own pointers to pass on to you, since they probably remember doing this process themselves! and, out of everyone in your life, they probably remember the most about you (because you probably don’t remember much when you were four or five), so they might have a couple starter ideas for topics when brainstorming. you can rely on them for their advice and their experience.

tip #5: self-editing.

here’s the part that takes the longest time.

use action words. this is probably something you’ve heard all throughout elementary school where they didn’t like you to say “said” because it was “boring”… but honestly, the difference between “doing my own version” and “infusing it with my personality” could go a long way. also, use words that you would actually use in an essay—then it’ll have your own special flair, and not sound like it’s taken from some stuffy 80s textbook!

here are some of the words i used (once again, you shouldn’t use these words if they don’t sound like something you’d write/say): potential, overlay, wrestle, launch, analogous, weave, infuse, experiment, outlet, revel, fascinate, satisfaction, pursue, expand, distinction, capture, range, archive, engage, beyond, build, adversity, cultivate, preserve, commit, explore, convey, naturally

also, be on the lookout for repeated words. i once wrote an essay without noticing that i used “hope” three times in the same paragraph. don’t do that! use synonyms :) personally, i tended to run short on synonyms, so i always kept a tab or two open on my computer reserved for searching up new words.

side note: unfortunately, during my search for synonyms, i discovered that thesaurus.com just didn’t give me what i was looking for. i highly recommend using wordhippo instead; it has so many more options and they’re grouped by the different definitions of your word! i found the synonyms i needed really quickly and it was very satisfying!

avoid the passive voice! my teacher gave me this tip for theses or any other college-level writing. here’s an example of the passive voice: “there was a large part of me that wanted to turn back.” that’s twelve words taking up precious space in your word count! instead, say something like, “i considered turning back.” you’ve just freed up eight words :)

tip #6: final revisions.

this is the step where you fine-tune your essays. meet that word count.

read your writing out loud. does it sound like you? it should. every writer has a different voice, and you need to ensure that yours is pervasive throughout your essay. feel free to use contractions—not only do they reduce your word count (this was a good thing for me, since i had a problem with getting under 350 words), but they also give a more casual tone to your essay, as if you’re telling a story to someone in the room.

next, pretend to be an admissions officer and have someone else read your essay to you. do you get excited hearing about this student who shares your name? if you do, there’s a good chance the real admissions officers will love your essays, too. this also gives you a chance to review to your essay as a whole. pay attention to the overall flow. is there a clear beginning and end? do you resolve the issues and overcome the trials you brought up? listen to it as if it’s a story, and take this time to enjoy what you’ve written. you worked hard!

final thoughts / encouragements.

oh my goodness, did we make it to the end? honestly if you did, thank you so much 🥺

okay but despite my relatively optimistic tone throughout this post, i’m still going to be honest with you—the college essay writing process is difficult. it requires you to look inside yourself and analyze the “why” behind some of the things that you love, and that isn’t easy to do at all. it’s intellectually and emotionally challenging, because not only do you need to use so much energy writing, but you also have to dig deeper to understand yourself, and that’s not easy, either.

but i wanted to encourage you, too. no matter what you may think of yourself at 12am, 2am, 4am writing these essays, believe you have a personality that others love and will love when they meet you. you are an interesting person with unique experiences who deserves to share your thoughts with others. you have so many people behind you, supporting you during these next few months. and when you find that you can’t write any more, remember to take time to care for yourself. have a warm shower. go to bed early. i could go on and on about why sleep is good for your brain but i’ll spare you the details in this post 😉

one last thing: keep the bigger picture in focus. remember, by december or january, you will be finished with most of the application process. that’s no small accomplishment. you can do it. 💝

i really hope you found tips that you were looking for, and that they’re applicable to your own PIQs and other essays !! if you have any other questions, feel free to send in another ask (i promise my response won’t be this lengthy LOL) 💘💓

oh, and if you feel comfortable enough reaching out about anything in particular, i’m only a DM away 💕 i wish you the best of luck on writing your essays and i hope you enjoy your final year of high school !! 💗🌸💟💖

[anxiouslyfred]

Edited Lesson Plans

for @dukexietyweek‘s day 5 prompt ‘School’

Summary: The science experiments Remus includes in his lessons baffle most of the staff for how he’s able to get them past health and safety concerns. Virgil is just glad he hasn’t been questioned over stealing the plans to add precautions to them yet.

Warnings: elusions to chemical accidents, vauge mentions of bad lab safety, explosion mentions

/\/\/\

“Again? He's managed to get these major experiments in his work plan again?”

“Who the hell is he bribing to be allowed to do this stuff? Even I couldn't get a risk assessment thorough enough to do these things!”

“Remus has to be like dating the headmasters daughter. That's the only way Mr stick-up-his-arse Read would be letting him do these experiments. They're just too dangerous.”

“I think that's why Remus is doing them. Have you seen him mope when one is rejected?”

The talk in the staff room had once again returned to Mr Remus Cethalapod as the lessons plans and class schedules were shared among the teams, including the weeks where teachers should expect delays from students leaving specific classes. Virgil was sat working on fine tuning his own quietly, listening in, but never expected to join in with their talk.

That was the other certainty he knew the other teachers and faculty held, Remus would include science experiments no sane person would demonstrate to their teenage students, and Virgil would only speak up about issues with lesson plans if he saw classes overlapping with his that could be risky. The only exception to his demands to see the risk assessments were Remus's despite those classes following or precluding his own most often.

He smirked, making a few quick notes on a plan for the woodworking module. If the class picked up the skills in a different time period to expected a few classes might be moved around which would help with when Remus had chosen one of the few repeated experiments to be done.

“What is up, Bitches! Have I convinced any of you to give up repeating the same old plans and get something interesting in those classes?” Remus yelled, barging in to check the schedules for next semester.

“Why would we need to include something interesting when your lesson plans could well blow up the school?” Nate scoffed, shaking his head, and clearly unhappy that his classroom designation for the next semester was beside Remus's.

Virgil was tempted to speak up at that, defend his risk assessments except he wouldn't even acknowledge to Remus that he'd regularly steal the other teacher's lesson plans to make sure they're safe, or at a minimum have all possible and extremely necessary safety measures in place. He was certain that his input was known about though.

Remus just beamed at the veiled criticism. “My fairy health and safety agent says every class I do is safe as long as I follow the purple ink. Can you say the same?”

“You're creating fantasy creatures? You're meant to be a science teacher!” Nate's protesting was cut off as the first school bus arrived and everyone refocused back on this semester rather than the next.

/VR\

Teaching Engineering and Resistant materials had always been Virgil's main interest, and a lot of that relied on science not only to improve and progress but to remain safe for the people who practised it. Getting a few journals on Chemistry added to his reading list wasn't too difficult to do after Virgil first met Remus.

He'd loved the passion and energy when he'd heard Mr Cethalapod teaching during a free period in the first year they'd worked together at the school. Discovering that the class had been mixing dangerous chemicals without enough safety precautions however had him basically panicking for 20 minutes before he forced himself calm if only to focus on his next class and the teenagers about to be playing with fire as much as soldering some metal together could be called that.

After that day Virgil would steal Remus's lesson plans, originally just to satisfy himself that they wouldn't be putting students or teacher in danger, but all too soon he was adding sheets with safety instructions and getting risk assessments filled out. Enough of the things he did could cross over, although temperatures in chemistry got higher than they ever would in resistant materials and the chemical element rarely impacted engineering to the degree it would of course inspire a chemistry class.

Remus even seemed to accommodate his lesson plans getting stolen, once when they were first written, once soon before the start of each subject and finally the week before he'd teach the class. When Virgil had first realised that pattern had been deliberately made he tried to hide more, put the things back exactly as he'd found them, terrified there'd be some consequence for his interfering. Remus had after all once made a class where a parent had complained over his teaching style only read their books for a term, conducting the experiments he'd planned to show or have them do silently at the front of class, and another time brought in a mobile lab so he could walk his class around behind the PE class after the teachers were disparaging his class loudly at the end of the day.

Instead nothing had happened, except occasionally his additions would have more corrections added. Of course the corrections were usually only on the severity of the injuries that could occur if one of the safety risks wasn't followed, but it was an acceptance of his guidelines regardless. Even Virgil's students had mentioned feeling calmer and safer during experiments with Remus bringing new precautions in, all of which had been his own additions.

Honestly, being called a 'fairy health and safety agent' had Virgil snickering for the rest of his day. He had the powers of magic and way too much fear on his side and with it would save the school from dangerous experiments. That sounded like a lot more fun than screaming and lecturing the headmaster whenever one of the other teachers blatantly failed to follow even the basic health and safety precautions.

When Virgil gets the lesson plans at the end of that week a tiny part of him was tempted to put fairy wings on of something while taking them. He wouldn't do that for fear of having to explain why if another teacher spotted him, but it was a thought.

A thought that vanished along with everything else that night when in green highlighter, covering the last page of lesson plans Remus had scrawled

Dear H&S Fairy, I'll clap all the times I can to make sure you exist if only you come with me on a date next Friday. Love and other Goopy Stuffs, Remus xoxoxo

Please, Virgil could only pray, please say Remus actually had figured out he was the one doing these plans, because he wanted, but could not face turning up only to find out Remus thought it was some other teacher or administrator.

Before he could worry about that any further he scribbled a reply just underneath the note, signed with a doodle of a fairy.

/VR\

Now it wasn't that Remus had forgotten asking the Engineering teacher out on his lesson plans, or that he hadn't seen the response once they were returned to his desk. It's that he absolutely hated planning ahead any more than was necessary and his dreams were just of inspiration striking for the perfect date the minute they met up at his car.

Only as he was setting out the lesson and getting the students ready to carry it out did he finally think that someone so concerned with safety they'd steal his lesson plans might actually feel better if he had a plan in place. Remus couldn't exactly create a plan while teaching though, so it really would just be up to the evening and the thoughts it might bring to do.

He couldn't imagine a date being as full of risk as playing with low level acids though.

Virgil was already leant against Remus's car by the time he reached it and all Remus could do was beam. “I actually got it right! Damn, and Mr Read always says I can't figure out anything except explosions.”

“Glad to be who you wanted, should I even ask if you have a plan for tonight or just accept you're making this up as we go along?” Virgil snorted, pushing himself up as Remus rounded the car.

“I can at least guarantee lower chances of injury than I might find if you weren't with me.” Remus countered.

Perhaps they'd only really communicated via lesson plans and occasionally crossing paths around the school up until this point, but Remus couldn't wait to see where this first date might take them.

[wondereads]

Personal Recommendation (05/23/21)

Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg by Gail Carson Levine

Why am I recommending this book?

This one is a trip to my childhood. The Tinkerbell movies were great and all, but the Pixie Hollow books were truly on another level. I loved this whole trilogy when I was younger, and it's the perfect book for 4th-7th graders or a comfort book for older age groups. This was probably the root of my obsession with fairies.

Want something quick and short? Check out my tiktok

Plot 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

There's a new Arrival in Pixie Hollow, but Prilla is a bit different from the other fairies. Not only does she use phrases like "nice to meet you" and "I'm sorry" rather than the fairy equivalent, but she doesn't know what her talent is. Before Prilla can even begin to start figuring herself out, the Mother Dove's egg, the talisman that keeps all of Neverland young, is broken in a violent hurricane. Prilla is chosen to go on a quest to restore the egg along with water-talent Rani and fast-flying-talent Vidia.

This book has a very classic complete-the-quest sort of plot. It would normally be boring, but it's very fast-paced and the worldbuilding really fleshes it out. The worldbuilding is incredibly thorough; it explains a lot while still keeping a sort of magical, mysterious air to Neverland. There are mentions of the greater wanded fairies and spell-casting fairies, establishing that Never fairies are not the only fairies out there and also plays into the plot of the next book. The explanation of Pixie Hollow's social structure (which is most definitely a communist utopia) is simple enough for younger kids but is still intriguing. For context, these books were specifically written in order to promote the upcoming Tinkerbell movies, so worldbuilding and characters were way more important than the plot.

Despite that, it's actually pretty good. It's a kid's book in the purest sense and still incorporates the struggle to fit in, self-sacrifice, and the importance of belief. The issue of Prilla's talent, which while it may not be as important as restoring the egg, is never forgotten, and it's obvious that there's something going on with her, but if you haven't read the book before there's no way you know what her talent is. The quest itself provides a lot of good situations for character development.

Characters 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Ugh, the characters are so good and so easy to get attached to. Prilla, the main character, is a good lens for the audience. Born from a laugh with a bit of Clumsy (or human) attached to it, she has more humanistic mannerisms that make it easy to introduce fairy standards to the readers. She's also absolutely adorable.

I also have to talk about Rani, the true hero of the story. A water-talent fairy, Rani has always wanted to swim, but fairy wings absorb water and cause them to sink. Rani makes one of the biggest sacrifices a Never fairy could make, and then does it again. She really is just a wonderful person that serves as an amazing role model to young girls.

In terms of character development, Tinker Bell and Vidia are the best. Tinker Bell is particularly important because, especially since these books were meant to promote her movies, she needs to be different from the stuck-up, jealous, and downright mean Tinker Bell from Disney's Peter Pan. And she is characterized so well. She's obsessed with her work and isn't the nicest fairy, but Tinker Bell is also shown to be incredibly kind and caring through her scenes with Mother Dove. It also helps explain her behavior in Peter Pan, and it becomes much easier to like her.

Finally, Vidia is such a good character. She's a hero of the story. She goes on the quest with Rani and Prilla. But she is, fundamentally, selfish. She makes decisions that benefit herself, and she's outright rude to most of the characters at some point. As the quest progresses, there are so many good scenes where she comes to realize the consequences of her behavior, most notably the plucking scene. In the end, although she rationalizes it as something to improve her own situation, she makes the selfless choice and ultimately ends up saving the quest.

Also, Vidia and Prilla's relationship is perfect because it is the epitome of grumpy social outcast and the one (1) person they will tolerate.

Writing Style 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

I'll just get it out there–Gail Carson Levine is one of my favorite authors, especially when it comes to children's literature. She has an amazing talent for writing intricate fantasy stories that still keep the feel and atmosphere of a fairy tale. In case you weren't aware, she also wrote Ella Enchanted, Fairest, and The Two Princesses of Bamarre, which are all basically the best fairy tale-based fantasy books for children. She is an amazing writer, and this book is no different. Her method of using third-person-limited perspectives and jumping around from narrator to narrator is I think what really keeps that classic fantasy vibe.

Of course, I also have to talk about the masterful illustrations of David Christiana. Yeah, the Tinkerbell movies were great and all, but I would pay good money to see a 2D animated movie in Christiana's style. The fairies are all so ethereal, and the amount of detail is absolutely stunning.

Meaning 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg, keeping true to the new fairy tale aesthetic it has, has a moral of course. I think that this book is all about the importance of belief. Of course, fairies need Clumsies (humans) to believe in them, or they die, but it's also about the belief that the fairies themselves need in order to overcome their obstacles. Towards the end of the quest, it seems all is lost, and the fairies lose their belief. It is only when Prilla shows them that there is still something to believe in that the problem is truly solved. It is not just about believing in yourself, but also believing in others and the goodness of the world.

Overall 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

This one is a childhood favorite of mine. In my opinion, everyone should give it a go. It's got a classic quest storyline, great characters, and a good meaning. However, it is aimed at last elementary schoolers. Maybe suggest it to your younger cousin. But, if you're ever in the mood for a light-hearted children's book that's really only a children's book because it's short and had illustrations, give this one a shot! I would recommend this book to people who like fairies, fairy tales, and are of the firm belief that there will always be good in the world.

The Author

Gail Carson Levine: Russian-American, 73, also wrote The Princess Tales, Ever, and A Tale of Two Castles

David Christiana: American, 61, also illustrated for A Tooth Fairy's Tale, The First Snow, and Drawer in a Drawer

The Reviewer

My name is Wonderose; I try to post a review every two weeks, and I take recommendations. Check out my about me post for more!

[bibbykins]

can u give us a glimpse into what arguing w/ the princes would be like? love ur work btw!!

You bet! I actually had something written about this ages ago but never finished it so I’ll paste it here and add some more!

Warnings: 18+ (just like my whole page and all my works are)This is where the toxicity and unhealthiness of these relationships show, manipulation, yelling, lying, mentions of sex, mentions of rough sex, mentions of various sexual acts (cunnilingus, fellatio, exhibition) I beg of you to not put up with any of this shit irl let fiction stay in the fictional world yknow? I always ramble in my fics about this but I figured I should add it here for good measure

Jin:

Where the other boys rarely ever just “argue” and it is either a fight or nothing, you guys just argue sometimes, never rlly fight

This ties back to the fierce honesty policy you have between each other, but you both are so stubborn so arguing does happen

You both usually start by saying snarky things until one of you breaks and says what is really bothering them, which doesn’t take long at all

If you cry, congrats, you automatically won bc Jin not only does not know how to deal with a woman’s tears, he cannot fathom his one true love crying

Although you usually try to continue explaining your reasoning bc you don’t wanna win by crying, you wanna win bc you’re right

Jin, similar to Jimin, respects you a lot, so the other girls seldom ever catch him acting like a clown’

His downfall is just being bad at expressing his feelings bc he thinks you just know, like you read minds or something

Jin usually apologizes by asking what you want after he forfeits his pride so if it’s a gift, he’s on it, sex? say less. 

He usually prefers to pamper you for a night, not even cumming during sex unless you tell him to

You’re the one who threatens the other fellas when they’re disrespecting their s/o, intentionally or not, and boy are they frightened. You rlly have a way with insults

Yoongi:

Bickers with you, but doesn't fight and everyone does not understand how bc he’s so standoffish to everyone else

Bc your relationship has the most public eyes on it, gossip columns are floored when they cannot find flaws or rumors of fights, and most are too intimidated by Yoongi to just make them up

You both read each other like a book, so the only time anything comes up is if you don’t like what you’re reading at that moment and vice versa, then a fight might start but it is shockingly rare

If he makes you cry, the fight is over, he lost. Yes, this is a running theme among the guys bc they are all whipped dummies

Very perceptive of your feelings, so never really worries about fighting with you or you hiding anything from him

You know how to get him to fess up so it's not the worst system of communication (still not healthy in the slightest but that’s the yandere life here)

He doesn't really try to lie to you or hide anything since you're also pretty bonkers so if he destroyed someone’s career bc he thought they looked at funny, you just roll your eyes and tell him he’s silly

You are the one that Jungkook and Taehyung are terrified of (It’s just about all the hyungline gf’s they are rlly scared of)

You’re usually so bubbly and energetic, but if you get pissed off, you’re as frightening if not more frightening than Yoongi

I should add Yoongi prefers to make up by marathon eating you out, at some point, it feels like he’s getting a kick out of it, but you’re in no place to complain tbh

Hoseok:

Not a lot of fighting here tbh bc you are still healing and your talent is in deescalating situations and telling people’s feeling

Your job is literally a behavior analyst so you will just deadass be like, “I can tell you’re getting frustrated to a point where effective communication won’t be possible, so how can I help calm you down?”

Makes him go silent real quick and reevaluate everything he has ever thought or done

For this reason, he just sighs and apologizes, genuinely bc you can absolutely tell when he’s just saying it to shut you up

He is the only one that will allow you to leave (the room, not the house) not that you want to leave the building considering the dangers you know are out there

Once you both cool off, you’ll have him state what he thought about and vice versa

You give advice to all the girls on how to do this, but not all of them are brave enough to try

So you go full mama bear mediator and step in when you feel the need

You genuinely frighten these guys bc you have this innate ability to make them feel dumb as fuck

Namjoon:

No fights rlly but misunderstandings happen that makes Joon go manic

You get frustrated bc he does this instead of just talking to you, but he’s learning little by little

The moment you aren’t smiling or trying to make a light joke with him, fight over, you won, he is worried

Bc he knows if you’re not smiling, you’re almost definitely going to cry and when you cry, he cries

You actually implement Angel’s tips and see some improvement with communication as time goes on

Namjoon’s love language in making up is grand gestures, so he’ll rent out a whole restaurant, or take you on a shopping spree to an art supply store, anything that will bring a smile to your face

You intimidate the other guys when they fight with their darlings bc you keep a smile the whole time you are threatening them and holy fuck is it eerie. You usually try to distract the upset girls post-argument with a craft or fun art facts

Jimin:

What makes the relationship work are your selfish tendencies working in tandem with his more sinister ones, but it can’t always work that way

You both test each other all the time despite agreeing on almost everything because the relationship is not a fight for dominance, but control-control you usually win 

The closest you get to real fighting is rough sex, most of the time you have disagreements that you resolve with conversation

It's the most “healthy” (it’s not all that healthy tbh) thing about the relationship and it blows everyone's minds, but it only happens bc Jimin has always respected you, and he genuinely knows that you don’t need him as much as he needs you

But on the extremely rare occasion there is a fight it is never in front of anyone and all hell breaks loose: screaming, yelling, slamming doors, it all seems like endless hell bc you both are too stubborn to say when you’re wrong

Until you cry

He really can't stand the sight of you crying, bc you rarely ever cry. He sees you as really tough and his whole perception of the world shatters once he realizes he’s the cause of your tears

Making up includes, you guessed it, sex. Like calling into work bc you can’t walk sex (Jimin cries during this sex bc he feels undeserving but by round 2 he stops)

The girls come to you post-argument to rant bc you live to talk shit with them to vent

Taehyung:

Rarely ever fights with you, because he absolutely despises doing so and you typically do what he says without question

But when you do fight, it always ends with both of you crying and hugging

During the argument though, he can say some seriously out of pocket shit, bc he lacks impulse control and you take that shit to hear bc who wouldn’t 

The fights are nightmarish and hard to watch bc at some point it just becomes Taehyung losing his mind while you cower until he realizes how much of an asshole he’s being or until you try to leave mid convo

Bless him if he were to ever make you cry in front of the other MC’s, my guy would be ripped to shreds bc the other girls do not fuck around

Hates to ever be the cause of your tears so you both are very quick to makeup and he can spend up to weeks making up for it

I’m talking gifts, money, food, dates, clothes, he is basically your personal assistant that pays you when he feels bad

The girl’s come to you after an argument for quiet time or some cute embroidery time

Jungkook:

You don't fight often, but when you do it's disastrous bc he is wildly paranoid and you are wildly insecure

You almost always go into a panic attack, fearing he'll leave you and he immediately loses all fight in him and feels like shit

And he is absolutely crushed seeing you hyperventilate or clutch your chest while he's yelling so he just stops like mid yell will just close his mouth and take a deep breath before going to you 

Immediately apologizes when it happens

Usually cries with you while he holds you

Another fella that will get torn to shreds by the other girls if they even catch a whiff of him being anything other than sunshine and rainbows to you rip jungkook tbh

He makes it up to you the same way Taehyung makes it up, by shutting his mouth and doing whatever you want, and giving you whatever you want

When the other girls get into an argument with their guy, they come to you for a hug and some quality time distraction