#bs confinement challenge

[biboomerangboi]

More reasons why Zuko being the Firelord is objectively the funniest thing on earth:

HES SEVENTEEN

He hasn’t been civilised in 4 years, his entire teenage experience consists of living on a boat and sleeping rough. The most stable bed he has was probably in Ba Sing Se he probably will just nap anywhere.

He has customer service experience which means he probably uses his customer service voice on his minsters.

Additionally he probably just wanders into to kitchen to get his own snacks and tea because he forgets what servants do.

He probably has no idea why he can’t just chase after an assassin he used to hunt the avatar for Agnis sake why is the captain of the guard demanding he stay in his room he’ll find the guy first (he’s probably right)

Katara probably has a free pass on Eco terrorism because what’s he going to do challenge her, she’ll beat his ass.

If he saw a minster doing something shady he will either invite lady Beifong to detect their BS or commit B&E and look for evidence himself.

He somehow found a baby dragon and raises it.

He will be far to willing to give Kyoshi island anything they want cause he feels bad and Suki scares him.

He randomly insisted on giving some earth kingdom village 100 ostrich horses.

The Avatar will just show up call him Hotman and demand the go on adventures and the Firelord will just dip because he’s been confined to long and has the Zoomies.

He takes far to much advice from Sokka and will genuinely believe if someone doesn’t get Sokkas plans they must be an idiot because Sokka is 16.

Sokka and Zuko also get into a lot of teenage rebellion phases by accident.

Toph just walks in breaks a wall of his palace and demands a field trip that always involves the Firelord having to explain himself to the cops.

He somehow knows every dangerous teen in the world and they all come for tea uninvited.

He has broken into both the NWT and Ba Sing Se.

He has a really well documented facial scar and official portraits but still disappears to be Lee the tea guy like no one knows.

HES SEVENTEEN.

[alexlestar]

Muted!Blue AU part 2

Okay, Reguri fans, it time for more of my mute!Blue headcanons. This time focusing on how he is with other gym leaders and some of the E4 members. This is how he sees them and things that happen while Red is on Mt Silver

Starting with Brock: Blue sees him like an older brother. When Red is away, Blue just wants to communicate to another guy his own age, and Brock is the closest to his age. Because their gyms are close enough, they meet up about once a week to just hang out.

Misty: Blue loves to tease Misty about her fear of bugs (I know that's Anime Misty, but this is my headcanon damn it). By showing her bug, Pokemon. When he isn't being an ass, the two of them have friendly swimming races. The current score is a 75 wins to Misty and 25 to Blue.

One time Misty had enough of Blue's bs, captured a Misdreavus and call it out right in front of him. No one had ever heard Blue scream that loud before and didn't talk to Misty for a month. They apologise to each other and promised to only verbally/sign tease each other about their fears. The older gym leaders do get tried of this and try to stop them, but together they are a pair of gremlins.

Surge: Blue thinks he's an asshole who is too full of himself and only ever talks to him during rematch battles. Surge doesn't know sign at first so Blue insults him in sign to his face. Surge soon learned and gives him a clip around the ear for being a little shit.

Eirka: No strong feelings. When they run into each other they exchange pleasantries but nothing more then that.

Sabrian: Blue loves having Mirror matches with their Alakazams. Despite being an early gym leader, Sabrian tends to win because she has a closer bond with hers while Blue's ace is either his Blastoise or Pigot

Janie: Since she became a gym leader shortly after he did, the two help each other out on tips on how they deal with different kinds of trainers that come to fight them. He jokingly calls her a nepotism baby due to how she got her gym. Red and Blue did hang out a lot with Janie during their journey since the boys would spend a lot of time in the safari so the three of them became friends during this time.

Blaine: Blue enjoys his over the top quiz loving attitude, but hates it when he forces it on Blue to get him to be more verbal.

The only elite four members Blue really knows is Koga and Lance. Koga is often telling Blue off for teasing Janie and Misty but Blue is a little shit and doesn't listen.

He does listen to Lance though who basically adopted Blue when he found out how much of a dick Oak was to him. After Red, Lance was the first person to find out how to tell when Blue is lying. (I'll get to that). Lance is firm with the younger gym leaders to keep them in check and and ensure they are doing a good job.

Now it's time for things Blue does.

1: He signs everything, no matter if he's verbal or not. This is from when he wasnt verbal so it's like second nature to him. Though when he's tired he sign stutters (I looked this up, this is a thing thought I'm not sure if sleep affects it)

2: If he lies his signing is slightly slower then normal. Not by much but Red and Lance have noticed and often calls him out on it. He normally lies about being a little shit to Lance and if he's feeling okay to Red. He can verbally lie just fine though. He has tried not signing while lying but that was a bigger give away. He doesn't know that's how they can tell he's lying. But he expects it.

3: He hates his hands being confined for too long because of point 1. To him it's the same as covering his mouth. He doesn't mind hand holding as long as one hand is free.

4: If he has a challenger on a none verbal day he forces himself to talk if they win. Thankfully for him it doesn't happen often.

5: For the first mouth of being a Gym Leader, he would fall asleep at the gym in his chair so he didn't get enough sleep. Daisy grilled him for this because his sign stutter got so bad during the day. Every so often, Blue does it again, but only for a night

6. He'll never admit it, but he loves it when Lance says he's doing a great job as a gym leader because it makes him realise how much Oak was a dick to him. And having a father figure give a damn about him really boosts Blue's confidence. Lance knows anyway but doesn't make a big deal, so the boost can be more natural.

7. He hums a lot when not speaking. Most of the time, he doesn't notice he does it. Sometimes it's just a small hum while other's it's drawn out. It's low enough that people have to be right next to him to hear.

8. During none verbal days if he wants to get someone's attention and their in the same room. He will grab hold of whatever their wearing and wait for them to notice. If it's important he'd tug hard.

Part 1 Part 3

This would be more polished but my computer has no Internet so I'm using my phone to upload this. I do plan on doing a post like this for Red but not as long.

[thedetectiveofinaba]

Anonymous asked: What are Naoto’s thoughts on each of the Investigation Team members?

I’m going to try to be short & concise about this, as much as I can anyway. These apply to IT in general as a basis what can be plotted more in-depth. This is going to be a long post knowing my girl :'DD

For the squad who wants to see me trying to have a TLDR on each member in one paragraph, you can click the Long Post to see more ✨

Yu Narukami/Souji Seta - Narukami-san/Souji-san: Leader who apparently has the Wild Card and tries to act as the leader of the group of wanna-be teen detectives with their own agendas. By default she’s putting both pressure and trust on him, especially since he’s shown potential to be a mature person who doesn’t judge based on one’s looks or facades they might have and is civil and friendly to most people. Based on if he trusts his teammates equally and acts like a fair leader, she’s going to rely on him on the Phantom Thief case referred by her and use that as a method to try to socialize.

Yosuke Hanamura - Hanamura-san: The second-in-command who seems to act as the brains of the team and the son of the Junes’ store manager. Usually owns brain cells to not act like an idiot and has a long patience for idiot colleagues. Despite his common sense he’s shown that he puts his own selfish, immature and petty goals above the common good and ignores others’ agency to get his way. She sees Yosuke as a normal teenager and as smart and dumb as his peers.

Yukiko Amagi - Amagi-san: The future Amagi Inn heir who has a “honorable” (read: repulsive) challenge based on her reputation. Seems neutral and calm if you ignore her unique sense of humor and love of horror movies and horror stories. Is close to her best friend Chie and seems to hang out with her as often as she can from working in the Inn or studying. Naoto would like to speak with Yukiko more outside Junes HQ meetings but is anxious on if she’s not impressive enough or if she’s the third wheel if Chie is brought along.

Chie Satonaka - Satonaka-san: The tomboy of the group who loves kung-fu movies and steak from Souzai Daigaku. Has a weird dynamic between her and Hanamura-san, it’s not always clear to her if they’re friends or only close aqcuintances. Best friends with Yukiko Amagi and seems to want help people in her close circles. Naoto wants to speak with Chie as well but is afraid she’ll end up as the third wheel in their convos and that she’ll have nothing legitimate to say unless it’s on studying or IT topics. She sees Chie as occasionally immature and not always aware when a joke crosses a line on being funny or legal.

Kanji Tatsumi - Tatsumi-san: The falsely assumed hard-boiled, emotionless punk who helps his grandmother with Tatsumi Textiles. Seems to understand how gender stereotypes and how the mindset that being feminine is supposedly bad is BS. One of the people Naoto has confined in from week one and is one of the closest IT members to her due to showing that he gets her issues at least a bit and cares. She considers him a friend even though the School Festival happened (she puts the whole thing to the tab of guys being idiots and puberty after calming down), even though it gets a bit awkward due to the crush Kanji harbors to her and him acting rashly at times it’s mostly stable. 

Rise Kujikawa - Rise-san: Similarly to Kanji, she considers her to be a close friend of hers from the get-go. Has shown empathy and understanding on how she's not thinking Naoto is a cold-hearted bitch and went to lengths to share information about her Shadow to ensure Naoto she's not an outsider on having a problematic Shadow. Naoto is most protective/prone to hanging out with her and even though Rise has had some out of line comments the disagreements are fairly easy to deal with. Official Fashion Adviser, even though her guidance needs to be reeled in to be not too out there.

[medusinestories]

This is a roundup post to showcase the lovely stories written for the Black Sails Confinement Challenge in April and May 2020. Thanks and Kudos to all the wonderful authors who wrote these stories! <3

Because tumblr hates external links, I’m linking to the collection, where you will find all the stories, as well as instructions on how to join the challenge if you feel like it! Yes, you can still join anytime!

The half-forgotten house by @agarlandoffreshlycuttears (Silver/Miranda + thoughts of Flint, Rated E)

Original prompt: Silver is stranded at Miranda’s house, could be with or w/o the captain. Or Miranda get some slightly less depressing sex and everyone is a bit sad about James Flint. The author included.

Easily Caught by @sunoficarus (Silver/Flint, Rated M)

Original prompt: Silver and Flint are trapped in an elevator in an office building, nobody’s responding and it’s Friday night. Extra: one of them isn’t feeling well because of a medical condition (can be claustrophobia) but is trying to hide it

(Also: Silver is hungry in more ways than one, he really needs to start listening to his therapist, and being trapped in an elevator might be the universe yelling at him to quit his job. Or maybe that's just Flint doing the yelling.)

So You Were Boarded By An Imperial Customs Ship by @mistbastard  (Rackham & Anne & Vane, Rated T)

The Ranger trio gets stuck in space prison and tries to escape.

Or: Jack thinks he's in possession of the group's shared braincell. Vane thinks he can use the Force. Anne thinks the guys are making this escape plan way too complicated.

tell me what you see (a lover or a thief) by @sparrowsfallingfromthesky (Silver/Flint, Rated E)

Written for the Black Sails Confinement Challenge for prompt G25 - "Place: a room in the brothel. Reason: they're hiding from someone/something. Mood: pining, ust. Extra: everyone is having sex around them but they're not (yet) and it's driving them nuts."

Confinement at 201 by @bisexualpirateheart (Silver/Flint, Rated E)

Flint and Silver are neighbours, but haven’t spoken before. They both have gardens and can see each other through gaps in the fence. During the lockdown (because of a disease), Silver and Flint become aware of each other in close proximity but separated by the garden fence. So begins an odd flirtation involving sunbathing and topless gardening and water fights.

[bisexualpirateheart]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Black Sails Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Captain Flint | James McGraw/John Silver Characters: John Silver, Captain Flint | James McGraw Additional Tags: Modern Era, Confinement Challenge, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Voyeurism, Accidental Voyeurism, Sunbathing, Masturbation, Lust at First Sight, Developing Friendships, Flirting, Sexual Tension, Water Balloon Fights, (technically sorta), Masturbation in Shower, Phone Sex, Texting, Late Night Conversations, Anxiety, lockdown worries Summary:

For the prompt: S22 Flint and Silver are neighbours, but haven’t spoken before. They both have gardens and can see each other through gaps in the fence. During the lockdown (because of a disease), Silver and Flint become aware of each other in close proximity but separated by the garden fence. So begins an odd flirtation involving sunbathing and topless gardening and water fights. Mood: Sexual tension. Flirting. Maybe voyeurism?

[doctor--idiot]

let the sea birds cry

AO3

There��ve been times I know I’ll stand up at the bow And the waves of our bodies and the smell of our follies rips into the bark of my bones. – King, The Amazing Devil

Maybe Silver was losing his mind after all. Maybe the hunger and the dehydration were getting to him after all. Maybe Billy had been right.

Although there had been lean times in his life, he couldn’t remember a time where he had been this hungry. If anything, it was a relief that the lack of fresh water would kill them all first.

“He’s conjured us into it,” he had said to Billy, speaking as if Flint was some kind of sea god, knowing the bosun would question his sanity. Sanity had begun to slip from Silver’s grasp more and more since he had decided to stick with this crew. It didn’t much matter.

Maybe he was delirious, maybe they all were. If the wind didn’t pick up soon or they happened upon a miracle, in a few days, it wouldn’t make much of a difference. Strangely, the thought didn’t scare him all that much.

He stood by the bow of the ship, sea salt-dry hands keeping him upright on the railing. The sun was unyielding while the air remained entirely still, barely even moving the hairs that had come loose from the leather band at the back of Silver’s head. Breathing was exhausting but he kept staring across the silent water. Waiting for something. Anything.

If was like the sea had tired itself out, attempting to drag the Walrus and its crew to the bottom of the ocean in a storm wilder than Silver had ever experienced, before simply … giving up. More and more, he had begun to think of the sea as a living, breathing entity. And more and more, he wondered how Flint fit into this.

He seemed like a natural extension of it, born from the waves, appearing and disappearing with them. Relentless, unyielding, miraculous.

Silver pried his lips apart, wet them with a tongue that felt entirely too dry. Most of the crew was strewn across the ship, some seeking shelter from the sun below deck, others simply too exhausted to move. That twinge of guilt in Silver’s chest was back when he thought of the ones with the smallest rations, the least amount of water. The ones Flint had deemed “expendable”. He shuddered.

Silver had never wanted to be a pirate, never wanted to be part of a crew, and most days he barely tolerated half of them, but the coldness in Flint’s eyes, the rational pragmatism of it, had shocked him. Although he didn’t exactly know why it should. Flint had proven nothing if not willing to make sacrifices. His own and those of others.

Silver had no desire to ever be captain and have to make decisions like that. He might not have much pity for Flint but he certainly didn’t envy the man.

Half an hour later, they spotted the bulging whale carcass floating in the distance and, right there, Silver knew what he had to do.

Silver knew that drinking rum on a more than empty stomach was the worst thing he could do, and maybe, on a different day, in another universe, he would actually care that it might kill him.

Flint had been quiet since they got back. Not that Flint was very talkative on other days. Generally, he had little more to offer Silver than a dismissive wave of hand when he didn’t agree with him, or a quirk of his brow when he was vaguely interested in something Silver had to say. He hm’d and hem’d his way through the days where Silver had always talked too much. Talked himself out of trouble. Into trouble, sometimes. He didn’t know why he felt the urge to fill the silence so strongly when Flint always seemed unperturbed by it.

Maybe it was the hunger, the cold sweat that had broken out over his body in the past few days, making him dizzy and cracking his dry skin. The air on the ship smelt stale, as if they weren’t still in the middle of the ocean but already frozen in time, preserved in the moment.

Silver was slipping, he could feel it.

It was satisfying to see Flint, unmovable Flint, startle when Silver stumbled into his cabin, nearly crashing into his desk with how unsteady he was on his feet.

It stoked the fire in him when Flint’s eyes widened, even for just a moment, with concern before narrowing. He looked hesitant, like he wanted to ask, wanted to say something maybe, but then thought better of it.

Good, Silver thought. Whenever Flint started talking, terrible things happened.

And to make sure the Captain didn’t change his mind, Silver kissed him. Leaned all the way over the desk, overbalancing and trusting Flint to catch him, and pressed his dry lips hard against Flint’s.

Catching James Flint off guard wasn’t easily done and Silver reveled in it, even if it didn’t last for long. Flint made an indecipherable sound, in the back of his throat, and he might have pulled away if Silver’s weight hadn’t pushed him down in the chair.

Silver had his eyes screwed shut, head swimming, delirious, he told himself. Otherwise, what was he doing here?

Flint’s hand came up to his throat, resting instead of pushing away, accepting instead of rejecting, and Silver was already lightheaded enough from lack of food and water, he didn’t need this.

Flint’s mouth had barely begun moving against his when he wrenched away, his scalp searing when Flint’s fingers didn’t detangle from his hair fast enough. Silver wanted to shake himself, like a wet dog, clear his head, get rid of the fog, and suddenly the Captain’s cabin was stifling. He stumbled backwards, out the way he had come.

“Progress,” Silver had said to Billy after all of them had eaten more than they had in the past few days combined. He suspected that if half the crew weren’t still on the brink of collapsing, they’d be celebrating.

Silver wasn’t much for celebrating but even he could not help the relief that coursed through him when the wind finally picked up and the sails fluttered for the first time in weeks.

Before most of the crew registered it, a change had come upon Flint. Silver was most likely the only one who noticed it, who had been watching. As everyone sprang into action and Silver made his way painfully to the stern of the ship to sidle up to Flint’s side, where he was slowly learning he belonged, Flint had grown younger somehow, smoother, the exhaustion leaving him in waves as the air swirled around them and ruffled the sea into foam.

It was unlikely that Silver would ever fully understand – Flint, the sea, a life on a run, but he could make do with the moment. He could be content for a while.

Flint turned his head towards him, eyebrow crinkling in silent confusion and Silver smiled for perhaps the first time since they’d left the harbour.

[projectcaramel]

Ambrosia (END) - Obey Me! Barbatos, Lucifer, Diavolo x Reader

NSFW Content ahead.

Part IV

"I just want to get laid."

“Lucifer!” you protest loudly, but Barbatos is already running with you in tow. “Barbatos, this is unnecessary!” 

“Try to understand his feelings, MC,” Barbatos replies gently, even as you pass through a long, dark passageway. 

“I said I don’t want to be protected!” you retort. “I’m a grown-ass woman, and I can make the decision whether or not I want to get laid by the guys I like!” 

“Those weren’t the sentiments I was referring to,” Barbatos replies, and you almost trip and fall into the butler’s back. Not quite. 

“Then what?” 

“He—and my lord as well—don’t want to have sex with you while they’re under the influence of a drug that makes them spiral out of control. To them, it would feel as if they were lying to you.” 

“That’s bull!” you complain, and light finally starts to re-enter your sight as Barbatos pulls you into his room. The labyrinth was connected to his room?

“It may sound ridiculous, but that is their honest feelings.” Barbatos chuckles softly, even as you shake yourself, irritated. 

“And what about you?” you challenge the butler. “Are you going to pull the same BS, or are you just immune?” You wouldn’t have been surprised if someone like Barbatos was immune to the effects of the dessert; he always was the most controlled one out of the three and the least likely to indulge himself. 

“Oh, no,” he replies, as if amused at the very thought. He faces away from you, your hand still clutched in his as he continues, “I’m afraid you’d be quite incorrect on either of those suppositions.” He finally turns to look at you, his chartreuse eyes brightly gleaming in the moonlight afforded by his windows. The look inside them makes you do a double take. “In truth, I should have locked myself inside a room and given someone else the key. Because...” Barbatos smiles sweetly. “Unlike those two, I know exactly what Lussuria chocolate does to me.” 

“...makes you hot and bothered?” you suggest, even as you feel Barbatos toying with your fingers in his hand, the cloth of his gloves sliding gently against your skin. 

“The reaction does produce an aphrodisiac, yes,” Barbatos confirms, even as he captures your other hand. You swallow nervously as he does so, mainly because you can tell he’s not joking about needing to be confined. This quiet butler... isn’t he the real danger here? The sheer fact that he’s warning you with such a sweet expression, all while silently denying you the option to leave, is concerning enough. “However, personally, the only effect such a drug has on me is exposing a part of me I normally choose to keep hidden.”

“Which is?” you ask, although you can already guess the answer.

“The selfish part,” he replies, still smiling at you. “And right now... I don’t mind showing you that part of me.” 

“I didn’t know you could be selfish; I thought that was Diavolo’s job.” Barbatos chuckles at that remark, and for a moment, you see something warped in his gaze. “So, what you’re saying is that you’re going to do exactly what the other two were trying to avoid?” 

“Yes,” he replies, closing his eyes as he smiles. “Come to think of it, I believe my lord locked me inside a closet at my request, but such a thing no longer matters.” Barbatos trails his fingers up your arm, against the side of your neck to weave themselves into your scalp. “Instead... tell me how you’d prefer it.” He’s nearly kissing you at this point, but he hasn’t let your lips meet yet, as if he’s trying to test your patience. 

“With me in control,” you reply, but Barbatos just seems amused by the response, and in the moment that you kiss him, you have the strong feeling that “control” is not something he plans on giving you. He wants to dominate you with a complete power over your pleasure. Wasn’t he supposed to be a sub?!

“MC,” Barbatos says, but just as he opens his mouth to say something else, both Diavolo and Lucifer burst in. 

“Goddammit, what?” you ask. “I swear, if you—” You aren’t able to finish as the three boys attack you at once with their lips and hands. Apparently, all of them have lost their minds, though you’re not complaining. 

And this time, there is no stopping. 

<< PREVIOUS

[ooooo-mcyt]

For real though watching yhs has lead me to the conclusion that despite Grian seemingly has such an active fight instinct....most of the time he actually doesnt respond to situations with half the fight attributed to him.

When faced with a traumatic situation Grian will absolutely bare his teeth at the nearest threat. He's absolutely vitriolic towards Sam at all times without fail and has even initiated physical violence in their confrontations once or twice. He's often on edge, often quick to angry outbursts, just overall rather hostile when faced with a dangerous/frightening/harmful situation. Which definitely indicates his main response to these scenarios is to fight. Hard.

However the more I engaged with fanon the more I faltered. A lot of fanon does portray him as very hostile in the face of trouble. Which should make sense. Canonically Grian knows when to say no, when to argue, and even sometimes when to physically fight back. Any episode with Grian present will likely have examples of him pushing back against harmful situations. And yet something always feels very Off about that being the start and end of it in a lot of fanon. Which led me down an interesting line of thinking.

I honestly suspect that Grian's volatility and will to fight back isn't nearly as strong as one would believe from observing him on surface level. In fact, his on the surface hostility feels like it's borderline a facade altogether to be honest.

I mean look at examples throughout canon of Grian in distressing situations.

Yhs halloween episode. The one where Taurtis got stabbed. And the following situation where Grian is famously forced to dress up like Taurtis. Grian would later be very upset about Sam stabbing Taurtis, however his initial response was to nervously laugh and even give Sam appeasing praise. I mean, Grian says "you weren't supposed to stab him" pretty clearly, but he anxiously laughs before and afterwards and even tells Sam he's proud of him when prompted. Obviously Grian was very upset about the whole thing later on after taking Taurtis to the hospital however in the moment he's mostly silent and when he's not he's just nervously laughing throughout, even agreeing with whatever *Sam* says when he's outright prompted by name for an opinion, then when everyone else tries to play it off casually Grian actually goes along with it almost entirely, even agreeing to let Taurtis drive him home for some reason. Then, according to his own story, he had an opportunity to talk to police at the hospital and he didn't incriminate Sam. He knew they were supicious of *him* but he still didn't incriminate the actual killer. "I told them I found him like that" Grian alleged. Honestly it sounds like he didn't tell them much of *anything* before being released and making the walk back to meet Sam. The next morning Grian was significantly more vocally upset about Taurtis being stabbed and expressed being upset with Sam however he seemed significantly more anxious than he was angry throughout the interaction. Then Grian immediately pretty readily agreed to go with Sam and Yuki to school and willingly put on the Taurtis outfit before the other's even started with the threats in the name of making things 'less awkward'. He certainly objected, however he was once again a lot more anxious than angry, nervously laughing, coming up with really weak unimportant excuses, and agreeing within ten seconds of being asked. Pretty much the rest of his time dressed as Taurtis goes very similarly. He objects to most things he's told to do and brings up Sam stabbing Taurtis multiple times despite the other's not wanting him to but is primarily nervous rather than hostile and he never actuslly puts up enough resistence for it to stick. Even when the other's were stuffing plastic down his throat and he told them he thought it may kill him Grian still did it and told the other's he *liked* it when pushed. Eventually he got out of it by running on Rowan's command and no sooner than being told to get out of there. When Sam found him again Grian immediately even reverted back to doing as he was told and cowering away from him in obvious fear up until Okami and Rowan showed up and shoved Grian behind them. Then he *still went home that night* knowing Sam would be there. When they found Taurtis it was pretty clear that Grian was hoping Taurtis would help him once he got his memory back however when instructed to stop telling Taurtis who he was Grian for the most part did aside from subtle pushing about the familiarity of certain things and then later when Taurtis got his memory back and made it pretty clear he wasn't going to help Grian? Grian conceded. He spent a good few minutes arguing about everything he'd gone through- everything they both had- and insisting it wasn't okay but when Taurtis made it pretty clear he wasn't going to do anything and they collectively agreed Grian was the real problem? Grian kinda...stopped. When Taurtis made it clear he wasn't going to be helping, Grian just kinda fell back into their normal routine with the other's, and when Sam demanded an 'apology soda' from Grian for what he'd apparently done, Grian bought it for him saying "If that's what it takes for things to go back to normal".

Let's also look at Grian's involvement with the law during/shortly-after the Halloween situation. When Sam and Yuki dragged him to join the Yakuza he was upset and objected anxiously but caved as soon as he got pushback. When Sam wanted to steak from the Yakuza he once again got objections from Grian who nervously insisted that it was a terrible idea but once again Sam shoved aside Grian's complaints and once again Grian just kinda fell into place despite being upset. When the police also started threatening the trio's lives to work for them, Grian objected. He questioned if they were allowed to do that and was very openly not happy about any of it, however he very quickly submitted under pressure. Both times Grian was locked in solitary confinement he loudly protested his sanity and both times he voiced how disturbing it was on a really deep level being locked up like that but both times when he was let out he just went with the other two again and let them brush it all off- even knowing full well they let him out to be *death fodder*. He just went with them relatively quietly save for maybe a token remark or two. Honestly the large majority of this bs Grian was involved with was under physical threat and he almost always bent under it. Even down to his fight with Pie over Ellen. Pie showed up and started challenging their relationship. Sam, Taurtis, and Yuki insisted they have a knife fight. Grian said *no*. Pie said yes. Sam, Taurtis, and Yuki affirmed there would be a knife fight. Grian objects more. Everyone else present discusses how the knife fight will work. Grian gets stabbed. Grian suggests they just ask Ellen who they want to date *obviously*. Ellen chooses nobody and leaves. Grian was upset but then just kinda accepts it and goes on with what the whole group was doing before.

And just to round this out with one more example. The Starwars Cosplay Incident. Apparently Sam burst into Grian's room, undressed him, shoved him into Leia Cosplay complete with fake boobs, and locked him in the basement for three days. Grian sits there for three days until Taurtis rescues him.  Grian has a moment of being rightfully very angry and finally even tries to physically attack Sam, demanding to know if Taurtis is aware of what Sam did to him and insisting that they can't expect everything to be fine now. Except it kinda...was. Taurtis stopped Grian from attacking Sam, they both brushed it off as a joke and not a big deal, and then they went to school. And Grian just *went*. He walked with the other two, he wore the outfit Sam put him in, and he just kinda moved on. Grian would later object when the clones tried to pull him out of class, snapping that he just wants to learn and get an education like a normal person and demanding to know why he's not allowed to. But he goes! And when he's released he walks right back to Sam and Taurtis, makes some bitter remarks to them, and let's them shove it all aside as if it's unimportant. Later when it's Grian, Sam, and a member of school staff alone in the closet, some innapropriate remarks are made to Grian. He very quickly says he's reporting the remarks made by school staff but Sam tells him not to be rude and it doesn't seem Grian ever does. Later on when Geode makes a comment about Grian's outfit as well Sam and Taurtis start pondering *giving* Grian to them. Grian repeatedly said *no* but with a lot more despair than defiance and we don't even know if he'd have actually followed through with fighting back if they'd tried to actually give him away because they were interrupted before the situation got to that point. Grian once again just let the other's move on as if that didn't happen and continued following them around, though! And he wore that damn outfit he was very explicitly uncomfortable with. All day.

Which is kinda all to say that when it comes to fighting back Grian is a lot more bark than bite.

Grian throws out a lot of bitter remarks, makes his objections very apparent in most things, and even has more than one vitriolic rant to his abuser(s) throughout the series. But that layer of his responses to things is so fragile that it tends to fall away within minutes- if that, sometimes *seconds*.

Of course ive seen other people take note of this and argue that it means Grian actually *wants* to do these thingd he's objecting to but I think that's silly. If it were just things like group crime or violent acts then id possibly see it but Grian puts up the same kind of response to having plastic shoved down his throat and to being locked in the basement for days which there's no way in hell he was any kind of okay with. The more likely scenario here isn't that he secretly wanted to do any of these things and made his resistence weak so he could pretend he tried while still doing it.

The likely scenario here is that his fight response is much more for show than one would think. Because Grian's strongest most influential response to things really never seems to be to fight. Aggression is really hardly Grian's overall stance on handling a distressing situation.

Much more frequently you see the most influence coming from completely other instinctive responses.

Looking for outside help in adults, friends, and classmates like when Okami and Rowan protected him during his time dressed as Taurtis or when Grian tried desperately to get Taurtis to be on his side and help him after Sam seriously hurt him both when Taurtis first got his memory back after Halloween and when Taurtis found Grian in the basement during the Starwars Cosplay Incident, hell, even during his fight with Pie it can be argued that Grian calling for them to just ask Ellen was an appeal to outside help as he hoped Ellen would agree to end the fight and save him from the situation as a result.

Running away- or trying to at least- from the threat. Most notably seen back during the halloween incident when he quite literally ran out the back of the gym and hid from Sam+Yuki then hiding behind Okami and Rowan when they showed up in an attempt to flee from Sam which is how he got away from the other's at all during that situation. Grian's consistent need to exclaim every so often how much he wants to go back to Europe is a subtler example of this, though, of Grian's urge to get away.

Honestly though being quiet and moving as he's directed seems to be the most common winning response. You see little sparks of reaction from him but most of the time Grian is just quiet, nervously laughing, following Taurtis and Sam around in what they ask of him, and even outright appeasement strategies to maintain a calm environment. This is So common from Grian. This is what usually wins out. His quiet nervous laughter and agreeing with Sam when Taurtis is first stabbed. The fact that he didn't tell the police what Sam did when alone with them during questioning and then immediately walked to meet up with Sam and went to school with Sam+Yuki with literally no objections. The fact that he didn't say no like *at all* to putting on the Taurtis outfit in the name of not making things awkward and complied within seconds of first being asked. How he proceeded to do what he was asked all day and didn't make any move to get away until Rowan outright instructed him to run. The fact that he went back! The fact that he went along with it when they joined the Yakuza and when they stole from the Yakuza and when they joined up with the cops and when they *forced him into a knife fight*. How Grian eventually just lost his spark of defiance after Taurtis first got his memories back and made it clear he wasn't helping Grian, with Grian agreeing to buy Sam a fucking *apology soda* if it meant things would go back to normal after hearing everyone else agree that *he* was the problem in all he'd been put through. The way he just goes back to following Sam and Taurtis after they got him locked in solitary confinement on blatant lies because they *wanted* to. The way he walks around school with the other two while wearing cosplay that made him feel gross and uncomfortable that Sam had literally physically forced onto him and just went along with what he was told in the end.

Grian always puts up a fight but not a good one. He makes side comments, he makes objections, he even has more than one emotional rant about the hell he's put through, however this never wins out in the end and this presenting fight is very frequently just barely holding down much stronger freeze and fawn instincts that usually win out pretty damn quick.

Which!!! In a situation like Grian's it actually makes significantly more sense to have strong freeze and fawn responses than to have a strong fight response! I mean, think about it. A fight response is primarily useful in scenarios in which it's possible to take strong action to remove the threat. You're attacked by a dog so you throw stuff at it till it backs away. You're picked on by an upperclassman so you punch em' in the nose expecting fully that they'll leave you be after. Someone attacks you while you're walking home so you try and stab them with your key. Fighting is an incredibly good response for random/one time attacks. If you're ever kidnapped you wanna scream and punch and kick and make a scene so they can't take you to a secondary location. You fight. Fighting is optimal for unexpected stranger conflicts. That's not the situation Grian's in though. Grian suffers from serious long term physical, emotional, and financial abuse. He's in a country he doesn't have residency or family in, he doesn't have a readily available source of income, he doesn't have his own mode of transportation, it seems that most of the time he doesnt have a clear way home, he's often dealing with long term friends of his and seemingly his biggest source of support prior to this situation, even back in Europe he doesn't have much support system to run to given his parents canonically left him, he's frequently under threat of physical danger, etc. This is not the kind of situation in which an intense primary fight response helps. This is the type of situation in which an intense primary fight response either gets you seriously hurt or wandering the streets with no way to provide for yourself. It would likely be similar if he presented an intense primary flight response to be honest. In long term abuse situations where there's no rational way of escaping safely or no rational place to escape to? Often the primary responses that promote survival are fawn and freeze. Appeasing the aggressor or sinking into the background. Those are your ways to stay alive when you can't expect to 'win' or escape. It absolutely makes more sense for Grian to have primary fawn and freeze responses than a primary fight response.

But then why does he present so much hostility? What's with all the bitter remarks and the attempts to voice objections and the occasional overt insults/screaming? How does a fawn/freeze response present as fight when first pressed at?? Well fun fact, I have experience with that kind of presentation because I *was* that kind of presentation. Oh boy did I try to push strong fight responses towards my abusive father with token resistences and petty remarks even though most of the time I crumpled under the slightest pressure and spent my time ignoring the problem or dissociating or trying very hard to avoid future conflicts. You put up a token front of fight even if that's never going to be your primary response for the sake of your own mental health, really. To assure the world- and *you*- knows that you don't *want* this situation. So you can say you tried. Out of some misguided hope that your attempted bravado won't be seen through and that maybe this time they'll just stop pushing instead of calling the bluff. Which. Makes sense with Grian as well. I mean looking at the times he really truly goes off before reverting back to a more appeasing stance, most notably his rants from when Taurtis first got his memory back as well as from when he got out of the basement during the Starwars Cosplay Incident. Most of those rants were taken up by Grian loudly and passionately reiterating what he'd been through, insisting he was the victim, and calling Sam an awful person before the defiance fades out and he becomes more willing to just go about their day. It's one attempted push hoping the other parties present will vie in his favour and a reassertion that he's not okay with this and that *he* is being hurt which gives way within minutes to a much duller attitude. That's just a painfully familiar format. Adding on Grian's token objections/passive aggressive remarks to many situations that distress him and how quickly those objections give way as dismissed by others. That kind of behaviour feels strongly like an attempt to preserve your own mental wellbeing as much as possible with the knowledge that you tried to some extent and with just generally hearing out loud that you are the victim even if from yourself. Grian's behaviour just really feels like a facade of defiance to cover up general helplessness which makes a Lot of sense for the scenario. Probably more than just plain defiance would.

[rotationalsymmetry]

This is a bit of a spitball, I’m not sure I endorse it I’m just getting it out.

Encanto is about ableism — specifically, the sort of ableism that’s directed at intellectual/academic failure. The Gifts map to academic and professional success: they’re all different, they involve working hard and serving the community, the Madrigal family having Gifts give them an aristocrat-like status in their community. (Not in the sense of like them being dicks, but in a very like noblesse oblige sense, and also having a house that can host the entire damn community when there’s a special occasion.“Gifted” is also the term used for kids who are doing exceptionally well in school.

Mirabel’s family is “gifted”, except for her. And she gets treated like she’s less than, perhaps not even a real part of the family, because she’s not “gifted”.

There is also a direct tie between “being gifted” and stability: Abuela was a refugee, and being gifted is what allowed her to create a decent life for her family even after her husband��s death. Abuela’s fears around her grandchildren possibly not inheriting her gifted status isn’t just snobbery (although, I mean), it’s also a fear of vulnerability, of not having enough material security the next time a major crisis hits, which is a realistic and understandable fear.

At the end of the movie Abuela admits she had her priorities wrong, and was focused too much on what her children and grandchildren could accomplish, and not enough on them as people, “who the Miracle is for.”

Even the members of the Madrigal family who have a functioning Gift are confined or harmed by it: Luisa fears not being enough and is on the edge of burnout, Isabella’s gift conversely is limited by the pressure to be perfect, Tío Bruno got a lot of “shoot the messenger” BS with other people’s reactions to his gift, which is perhaps reminiscent of when a scientist makes a prediction about climate change or an economist predicts a housing bubble bursting —or an epidemiologist predicts that certain measures are necessary to control an infectious disease — and no one wants to hear it because it’s bad news.

There’s a weird duality of a gift being something you have or don’t have, and a gift being something that you do — even before knowing of Bruno’s vision, Abuela is inclined to attribute the failure of other people’s gifts to something Mirabel is doing on purpose — and this mirrors academic success or failure, which can be tied to not trying hard enough but can also be tied to innate abilities or challenges that people do not control. Getting good grades or bad grades is not a volitional act, but is often treated as though it is. Creative work can be very competitive and cutthroat, and many creative professionals come from a family background where they experienced excessive pressure to be “successful”, so it is not implausible that this is a very intentional theme on the part of the writers.

I want to say this is about “former gifted kid” whatever, but technically it’s about “never gifted when your entire family thought you should be”.

[thegyudguy]

Three Things (2016)

Good morning everyone. Kabataang Mula sa K-12, Tagapagdala ng Kaunlaran sa Pilipinas. K-12 is meant to provide options for students of what they want to pursue after high school which includes: 1) Academics for those who wish to pursue higher studies; 2) Technical - Vocational for those who want to acquire employable skills after high school 3) Sports and Arts for those who are inclined in these 2 fields - (taken from Asian Parents Website). Your teachers are more knowledgeable on how this scheme works so I’ll leave it to them. In my own understanding, simple lang, ang K-12 ay ginawa para tulungan kayong magtagumpay sa buhay.

As I go on with my speech, I will be sharing with you 3 things. After this, we will be having a short quiz so be ready.

As introduced, I am Ron, alumnus din ako ng school na ito. Anak nina Ronaldo and Nelia. I graduated in 2000, third honors. Maswerte kayo ngayon at hindi na nasusunog ang noo nyo sa init. Noong panahon ko, parang ayaw kong galingan kasi ‘pag na-honor ako, bibilad na naman ako sa initan. Kidding aside, it’s good to see that my alma mater is consistently improving to provide quality education for pupils. Now you don’t have an excuse not to “BE A GOOD STUDENT”. That’s the first thing. Be a good student. Pero habang bata kayo, it would be good for you to be exposed to activities that will help you choose a career path. Halimbawa, huwag mahihiya kung gusto nyong mag-drawing at hindi pa kayo marunong, o kumanta kung sintunado pa, o tungan ang ama at ina sa negosyo, halimbawa ay tindahan. Moving forward, I finished High School in SPA in which I managed to graduate third honorable mention. Even then, I still did not know what I want to be when I grow old. I could still remember myself looking at a distance and wishing to be working in Makati or somewhere else. I believe situations like these are what K-12 would like to shed light upon. Noong ako ay magkokolehiyo na, gusto ko sanang maging Architect, kasi gustong gusto kong nakakakita ng buildings na magaganda kaya lang wala ng schedule para sa Engineering or Architecture sa NEUST. So sinabi ko sa Mama na magpunta sa CIC tutal may scholarship naman ako ng 1 year. When I looked at the courses being offered, there was no Engineering or Architecture. It was only BS Accountancy that somewhat gave an impression that it’s of the same caliber as Engineering or Architecture. Saka magandang pakinggan, mukhang challenging. Sa sobrang challenging, ilang beses akong umiyak. Awa ng Diyos at mga professros ko, natapos ko naman. But kids, I tell you, being a good student is not confined within the four corners of the classroom only. In our everyday lives we are always faced with situations that test our capacity and ability. Be open to learning from those challenges. Be creative, be resourceful. Answers do not always come handy, oftentimes, they need hard work. Learn to value the time and be respectful of others. Kalabitin nyo nga yung katabi nyo kung gising pa.

After college, tumulak na agad ako sa Manila para magbakasakali at para makakita din ng magagandang buildings. Gusto ko na agad kumita ng pera para makatulong sa mga pangangailangan ng pamilya. That is the second thing, to “Be A GOOD SON / DAUGHTER”. Be someone who always puts his best foot forward. Hindi ako perpekto, per ‘di ba, masarap sa pakiramdam kapag nakakatulong? In my seven or eight years of working, I must say, nakatulong talaga yun para makapagtapos ng kolehiyo ang aking dalawang kapatid. Hanggang ngayon, hindi ako tumitigil sa pagbibigay sa aking pamilya kasi doon ako masaya. Maraming nagsasabi na magtira naman ako sa sarili ko, na mag-ipon habang bata pa, ang sabi ko naman, may ipon naman ako, SSS nga lang. I hope like me, you also won’t get tired of helping your family. Kids, always put your head on top of your shoulders. Mas nakakaproud na proud ang parents mo sa achievements mo, at nakikitang lumaki kang mabuting tao. Try to be fair even when faced with impossible people. Stay away from violence as much as possible. Papaluin ko ang makikipag-away. Just kidding.

We now move on to the third point, “BE A GOOD FOLLOWER OF FAITH”. I’d like to share with you my experience when I was about to take the board exams up to finally getting the license. As I told you, I do not know what I want in life. I did not plan for anything, nor did I seek His guidance on what to do with my life. But then I came to a realization that it’s me who shall propel my life to where I wanted it to be, and a license would help me go further. Nagka-extra-cash ako around this time last year, so pinang-enrol ko na agad sa review. Pagkatapos, mid-May, inalis na ang pasko namin tuwing sabado, so napaka-favorable noon para sa aking review. Nagkaroon din kami ng seminar end of May, at talagang niyanig ang buo kong pagkatao, dun din nawala ang lahat ng hiya ko. I would sometimes lax in reviewing because I alot my entire years up to 30 just to get the license. Pero nung unang pre-board, marami-rami akong nakuhang sagot kahit hindi ako masyadong nag-aaral. So sabi ko, mukhang may chance. So after that, I became focused. I would review during breaktime, I would read theories before I go to sleep. Nung hindi natuloy ang activity namin sa office by the end of August, I immediately filed for leave for the whole month of September, which I was very grateful for. Noong panahong iyon, hirap na hirap ako sa dami ng mga aaralin, bukod sa marami na, sobrang hirap pa. Kapag magsisimba ako noon, hindi lang ako nagdadasal, kundi, nagmamakaawa, at talagang bumabaha ng luha, everytime. When I was about to file for the Notice of Admission, it was raining so hard. I asked for a sign that if that is really my time, the rain will stop. When I woke up after 2 hours, the sun’s up. Kinikilabutan pa din ako everytime maaalala ko ito. Habang nag-eexams, kapag hindi ko na alam, dasal ako nang dasal. Awa ng Diyos, ipinasa nya ako sa Board Exams. This experience has grounded me because despite my lapses in the past, He still gave me this gift. And with that I will always be thankful and humbled. I hope like me, you also seek His guidance and grace, not only during dark times (which I was guilty about) but also in good times. 

So there, the three things that I want to important to you:

Be a Good Student

Be a Good Son / Daughter

Be a Good Follower of Faith

I hope in 20 years, all of you will be invited to share also your experiences and principles in life to help enlighten the minds of young kids like you now.

[mrsarnasdelicious]

Kitty’s Writing Challenge - Omega!Loki

@yespolkadotkitty​ I made this BS for you ^^

“You have got to be shitting me!” Tony all but roars. Loki scoffs. “Does it look like I am, Anthony?” He sneers. “You are a fucking god, you can’t be an Omega.” Tony says. “I am a Jotun, a very small one.” Loki reluctantly admits. “Now bring me an Alpha!” He yells. Tony rolls his eyes, putting his hands up. “Yeah yeah, your royal asswipeness.” He leaves Loki’s chambers.

“Hey Y/N, I need your help.” Tony says. You look up from your paperwork. “What can I do you for, bossman?” You ask. “You have a date with Loki.” Tony replies. You snortle and frown at me. “You are joking.” You say. Tony shakes his head. “Four days, he’s in season.” He replies.”And turns out, he is an Omega.” He smirks. You close your laptop. “Seriously?” You ask. Tony merely nods. “I’ll get you what you need.” He says. “I’ll text when I am hungry or when we need ice cubes.” You say. 

You head over to Loki’s quarters.

You punch in the pass code and the door slides open. You walk right into a wall of pheromones. Those pheromones scream only one thing: Bitch in heat!

“Loki?” You call out. “No, not you!” The Norse God sneers. He rushes for you, skin turning from pale to blue and fangs bared. “Settle down!” You use your Alpha voice. Loki whines and backs off. “It could have been The Captain for all I care for, but why you?” He huffs. “Because I know how to handle you.” You reply. “And because Fury can control you.” Loki accuses. You shake your head. “Nick Fury has nothing to do with this.” You say. 

“How would you like this to go?” You ask, walking up to Loki. He bares his teeth at you, but the blue is withdrawing from his skin again. You shake your head. “I am not here to fight. I am here to soothe your heat. One way or the other.” You say calmly. Loki huffs loudly. “I would have preferred an Alpha more suitable to my predicament.” He says. You roll your eyes. “Someone to punish you while you’re knotted down, huh. Well, that can be arranged.” You retort. Loki backs off a little. He huffs against, showing slight hostility. You shake your head. “No, you don’t want to fight me.” You say. You step closer, into his personal space. You maintain eye contact and wait. Loki is not looking away. You grab his chin. “Don’t be foolish. I am an Alpha.” You growl. Loki lowers his gaze. He knows he does not have the strength to fight. It is already taking all of his residual magic to keep composed, to keep on his feet. 

You lift your hand and cup his cheek. Loki closes his eyes and leans into your touch. He sighs softly. He bites his lip. He is giving in. “Good boy.” You murmur. Loki sinks to his knees, closing his eyes and exposing his throat. He is making this too easy. He must be losing control of himself. 

You inhale of his scent. Immediately you regret that. He smells way too good. 

“Show me to your nest.” You rumble, lacing your tone with your alpha voice. “Yes Alpha.” Loki rises and guides you into the bedroom. The curtains are drawn on his fourpostern, he’s obviously made his nest there. He opens the hanging at the foot end and gestures you to get in. “You first.” You tell him. Loki hangs his head, but oblige.

You climb in after him, into a nest of blankets and pillows. You are enveloped by his scent. You swear under your breath. Nothing has ever smelled so good. 

You’re beginning to feel aroused. 

Loki lays down and looks up at you. “Well?” He asks. “Well what?” You ask him. “What are you waiting for?” The Jotun asks.

You climb on top of him straddling his pelvis. You feel how hard he is in the confines of his slacks. You grind down against his erection. Loki moans and his pelvis rocks upwards. “Very good.” You murmur. He is sizable and needy, everything you are looking for in an Omega. He whines and looks up at you. His jade eyes seek your affirmation. You make a soothing sound and stroke his face. “You are a good Omega, so quick to submit.” You say sweetly. Loki snarls. “I just do what I need.” He sneers. “Of course you do.” You purr. “And it is not like you are a complete stranger.” He shrugs as best he can. “Hm, I guess that is true.” You say softly. 

You lean down. “Now how about a kiss?” You purr. Loki stiffens a little below you. You smell anticipation in him. “Good boy.” You whisper. Then you close the distance and press your lips against his. Loki moans softly. It is a sated little sound. You love to hear it. You lick into his mouth. Loki whimpers and opens himself for you. He accepts your assertion fully. You relish his swift submission and taste of him. His lust is overwhelmingly delicious. Your rutt is awakening. 

Loki begins to claw at your clothes. He is determined to either undress you, or rip the fabric to shreds. You can almost smell the urge in him. You silently wonder for how long he has already been in heat. He must be good at hiding it. Poor thing… How did he get to that point?

“Use your words.” You whisper. Loki lets out a soft snarl. He’ll let you sate him, but not order him, it seems. You growl a little louder, to assert yourself. Loki looks away, his head tilted to the side. You lean in and nip him. Loki moans. “Ask me nicely and you will receive.” You whisper against his feverishly hot skin. Loki huffs and replies with another soft snarl. You nip his ear. Loki moans once more. “You like it, but you are too proud to admit it.” You cooe. “F-fuck you.” Loki hisses. “Isn’t that the point here?” You tease.

He topples you over, his nails elongating as he tears your clothes to ribbons. “Bad omega.” You tell him. But your voice wavers, you’re pinned beneath an actual god and enveloped in his pheromones. You feel the insides of your core throb. Blood is slowly pulsing through your inner walls. “Oh .. by the Old One’s.” Loki curses. He leans down and noses at your jaw. His soft nuzzling stimulates your scent glands. He inhales your scent and moans wantonly. 

His clothes fade away. 

Loki’s scent is overwhelming. His pale unblemished skin is too alluring. You hunger for the taste of him. You thirst for his cock. His pheromones are affecting you too much. Your rutt has sunken in! And all too quickly at that! You are losing your self control. You sacrifice it on Loki’s altar, which is likely exactly what he wants. Gods like Loki thrive on sacrifice. It makes him stronger. The realisation of that does not want to sink in. You are drowned in your hormones and his alike.

You cup his cheeks and pull him down for a kiss. Loki moans softly against your lips. You can’t help a little smirk. You suck on his upper lip and invade his mouth with your tongue. Loki moans and squirms against you. You use his weakness against him, toppling him over. Loki lets out a little yelp in surprise. You smirk down on him. “That is right.” You purr. You lean down to kiss him slowly. Loki whines and kisses you back. His mouth devours yours. He is intensely eager for you. You love the taste of his lust. He is becoming willing to you and you bathe in the scent and flavour of it.

Loki rolls his pelvis. You moan and grind back at him. He’s slick, making the slide of your folds over his cock easy. He groans lustily back at you. 

“Hmm yes, you are going to fuck me.” You purr. “N-now?” Loki stammers. “Would you like that? You can always indulge yourself on my body later.” You purr. Loki’s eyes widen. “I .. I would not mind.. Alpha.” He murmurs. He lifts his hands to your hips. Gingerly he presses you down. You moan and roll your pelvis. More of his slick smears against your folds. “Hmm, Loki.” You purr. You park your folds a little, so Loki can grind against your clit. He bucks up and you squeal in pleasure. He hits just the right spot. 

“Prep me.” You order. “Yes Alpha.” Loki whispers.

His fingers trail from your belly to your core. He begins to carefully caress your core. All the while he keeps rolling his pelvis. You close your eyes and moan. You relish every single slow stroke Loki’s fingers bestow you on your clit. You grow a little wetter, though most of the lubrication shall have to come from Loki. You grind down on him, feeling he is producing slick a plenty. His length is wet and slippery. You can barely wait to have him inside you. Inside your core, your knot is already swelling a tiny bit. You are ready for him. 

You grab Loki by the base of his cock and sink down on him. Loki all but howls is pleasure. This is what he has been needing so badly. “Oh… oh gods.” You moan. “Yes indeed.” Loki whispers. He bucks up at you, making you moan loudly. “Hmmm, ooh good boy.” You praise him. You begin to ride him, firmly. Loki grasps one hip. His other hand he keeps occupied between your thighs. He keeps rubbing at your clit. Your walls clamp down on him, but not harsh enough to lock him down just yet. He will have to make you cum first. You moan lustfully and slow your motions. “F-fuck.” Loki groans. He loves the way you slide down his cock. “It is so good Alpha.” He whimpers. 

All too soon you cum, lowering yourself onto Loki’s cock all the way. As he bottoms out inside you, your knot swells and locks him into place. “Fuck yes!” Loki snarls in utter pleasure. This is exactly what he needed. He spends himself and then resumes rubbing your clit. “Oh! Oh gods!” You howl. You cum again, right away. Loki is so good to you. “Good boy… oh you are such a good boy, Loki.” You whisper. Loki makes a keening noise. He loves your praise. You smirk down on him. “You are being such a good boy for me. Good omega.” You lean in and kiss him slowly. Loki moans against your lips and kisses back. It is very good to kiss him. Loki is good at it and he tastes like ecstasy.

It takes long for your knot to shrink. Slowly, Loki is also growing flaccid. 

He slips out of you, but none of his seed leaks out. 

You roll off of him and lay down beside him. Loki pulls you close against him. “Don’t go yet.” He whispers. You chuckle softly. “I wouldn’t dream of it.” You reply gently. You rest your head on his chest. “Soon enough you will be needy again and I will be here to sate you.” You cooe. “Good.” Loki murmurs.

[queer-crusader]

listen there is one thing that breakdowns are good for and that’s that in order to stave them off i try to distract myself by writing, so im currently not only working on the next chapter of Disconnect, im also continuing my smut fic The Scottish Might Be Onto Something AND im working on a new WIP for the BS confinement challenge!!

[irarelypostanything]

Unnecessary Arguments - Breaking up the FAANG Companies like Facebook

Person #1: Let’s just agree on one thing - Facebook is trash and will lead to the end of society. Facebook content is trash. Facebook ads are trash. The algorithm is trash, everything about it is horrible, and we would all be better suited torching it and starting over

Person #2: You know that we post these on Facebook, right?

Person #1: Speaking of trash, Instagram is also trash. I look forward to seeing the government put its foot down and tell these tech companies that they can’t take control of the world without consequence. This is unregulated capitalism. This is the reason we have things like the horrific treatment of factory workers at the hands of Apple, or the atrocities committed in the Amazon warehouses

Person #2: Do you actually dislike any of these tech companies, or are you just jealous that you came nowhere close to getting job offers from them?

Person #1: I have always advocated for collections of large open source communities. Let’s do away with these large corporations

Person #2: You mean like Google, the company that has arguably done more for the open source community than any other tech company?

Person #1: That’s completely untrue

Person #2: And how much of an idiot are you? Seriously. All you had to do on that Amazon challenge was use the string find function. Check to see if you get npos. And for the love of everything holy, why did you think it was a good idea to use an array of size one billion instead of the standard unordered map?

Person #1: I was implementing my own unordered map

Person #2: That’s like asking a staff member to please grab you 1000 whiteboard markers during the interview, then throwing 999 away in front of him. But let’s be completely honest here. Do you use Google, Amazon, and Facebook?

Person #1: Yeah, because I have no choice

Person #2: What do you mean? You absolutely have a choice. Delete Facebook. I dare you

Person #1: Ugh

Person #2: Yeah, you can’t. Because they’re the best. At the end of the day, and this is an argument you will never win, they have the best products. We use Google because the most searched result on Bing is how to delete Bing. We use Facebook because myspace was a massive pile of garbage. If we demand that these companies produce lower quality products, then Silicon Valley will no longer be Silicon Valley. Another country, perhaps China, will emerge as the new tech giant. Can you imagine a world where the most popular form of social media is TikTok? TikTok is the worst thing to come out of China since-

Person #1: DON’T SAY IT

Person #2: ...I was about to say “The Great Wall,” starring Matt Damon

Person #1: It wasn’t even bad

Person #2: And what about all the good they’ve done? Google, granting access to all the world’s knowledge thanks to a constantly evolving set of search algorithms. Apple, with its improving hardware. Amazon, with its-

Person #1: Amazon, with its rapid conquest for world supremacy. Amazon doesn’t just deliver the products anymore, it strives to be all the products. Did you know that 13% of their revenue is from AWS? 33% of all cloud is on AWS. So now we have these Amazon foot soldiers who control our goods, our means of production, our delivery, our network infrastructure, and pretty soon our media and our banking

Person #2: I don’t know what you’re talking about with the last one

Person #1: You will soon. An investigation uncovered a private email Zuckerberg sent to his team, describing Instagram as a serious threat that needed to be neutralized

Person #2: I’ve heard that, and I don’t see how it’s damning. Shortly before he died, Steve Jobs asked the Dropbox founder to sell the company. When he refused, Jobs said he would destroy him

Person #1: Case in point

Person #2: No, that’s just how business works. You have a big company. Some smaller company emerges and tries to cut into your market. So you eliminate them

Person #1: Sounds pretty evil to me

Person #2: It’s kind of funny...I’m getting Microsoft vibes from this. Why is Microsoft not part of FAANG? Oh, that’s right, because it’s a BS term that has more to do with the stock market than REAL value

Person #1: Wut

Person #2: The government couldn’t stop Microsoft then because they had no case

Person #1: They couldn’t stop Microsoft then because tech companies are now, in this horrible dystopia we’ve allowed to come into being, more powerful than the government. Democrats hate FAANG companies because they’re such large entities. Republicans hate FAANG companies because they censor the truth

Person #2: What do you mean “censor the truth”?

Person #1: Type “What percent of Trump supporters are racist” into google. It will instantly give you back 50%

Person #2: No it won’t

Person #1: Really? Huh. It used to

Person #2: No it didn’t. And tech companies are just that...Facebook isn’t the news. If you get 100% of your news on Facebook, you deserve to believe that Epstein didn’t kill himself

Person #1: Epstein definitely didn’t...okay I’m not touching that one. You may think this is all a joke now, while there are still little start-ups and such. Not for long. These tech companies will buy out the world like the titans leaving the confines of the walls

Person #2: Did you just make a reference to...stop, I haven’t watched any of the new seasons yet. But if I bend down to your level and use the reference, why not just let the titans fight it out?

Person #1: Google tried to do that with Google+

Person #2: What’s Google+?

Person #1: Exactly

Person #2: Have you seen the Facebook campus? I didn’t even really want to go, I was in a bad mood that day...and it lifted my spirits. All-you-can-eat buffet. The campus is modeled after Disneyland. they had their own ice cream parlor...like, just kind of had this 9-5 ice cream parlor employees could go to whenever they wanted with its own hired staff

Person #1: Stop making it sound like I’m jealous

Person #2: You suck at Leetcode. I get it. Well there’s this book called “Cracking the Coding Interview,” you should definitely check it out instead of just complaining that we should destroy the companies that don’t hire you

Person #1: Enough with your personal attacks

Person #2: You’re right. I want to watch that new Netflix original about that talking panda with a drinking problem

Person #1: See? See what’s happened? Tech is in so many places we’ve forgotten what the Internet is supposed to be about

Person #2: Fine...what is the Internet supposed to be about?

Person #1: Free speech! Free information

Person #2: Well it’s succeeded at that. And it’s only going to get better from here

Person #1: The nightmare is just beginning and the only hope we have is that these lawsuits against Facebook and Google will go through

Person #2: I’ll be sure to Google what you’re talking about later

[allwillbeone]

Me, a comic reader vs ABC’s “Marvel’s Inhumans” show ep 1 & 2, a live blogging at Discord(revised version)

Me, watching the cursed Inhumans show in few minutes and Triton got shot while Black Bolt and Medusa are having sexy time: I can't, I can't keep up with the show anymore

This is bad, I can tell the show is bad in these few minutes No I'll finish it in spite

[Under the cut because it’s a long post with a bunch of nonsense, tldr: The X-Men didn’t suffer for this]

And Medusa ignored the important call because they are having sex I can understand why the audience rooted for Maximus at first

Now for 4 minutes? The sexy time is ended but I got really cheap CGI cityscape The show is worse than I expected

The city of Attilan is uglier than any brutalist apartment And the lunascape scene looks like a Play Station 2 game, not even 3, PS2 Maximus' first appearance looks so... basic, if I didn't know he's Max I thought him one of the citizens

I really feel sorry for those actors, they are doing their job amazingly but the writing and costumes and setting and CGI and props are bad, so bad, stupidly bad

The X-Men and the Royal family didn't suffer for this

8 minutes and here we go, eugenics shit against one of their family members? And were you expecting I'm going to root for the royal family, writers?? It's really bad... I'm watching the show only 10 minutes and it already makes me hate the show

I mean, it was 2017? and this shit is worse than in 60s comics

Yeah they can't keep romani people and asian people's ethnicity but keep slavery and eugenics shits I even don't understand why MCU so much loves those facial hairs on non facial hair characters

Gorgon: let's destroy the moon rover Karnak: Wow, how mature Humans: Oh no it looks like a hoof that crushed our rover Medusa and Max: shit... BB: Okay do nothing

Umm... is this why Max thought he has to be in charge...?

Medusa, you ignored a really important call and stopped your husband to answer the call because you gave your priority to sexy time, and now you act like you are a dignified queen with authority This show makes my eyes roll hard

Suddenly Karnak starts bubbling on some nihilistic nonsense in the middle of the terrigenesis ceremony and Gorgon being a eugenicist shit against a family member again. And they'll wonder why one of them revolt against them? I also wonder why...

The scene of Lockjaw's first appearance is something off...  he moves like a bad animatronics Ummm, why Crystal has to cover her hand with a cloth if they just grab terrigen crystal with the bare hand from a box?

I'm not sure I can finish the show... this is worse than what I heard...

Well, no one sans Max willing to engage the boy that seems gets nothing from terrigenesis, even the boy suddenly collapsing and having a seizure on the floor... wow, so cold. While Crystal is fawning over that cheep CGI butterfly wing girl, you are so basic, Crys

They've lost my respect one by one Only Triton and Max keep me have some respect as characters but I'm sure the writing will also screw them Poor Triton

And Triton's makeup is also... bad

The actor of Maximus really had the charisma and the charm in his acting, alas the plot and the writing are so bad

Oh Max starts his "revolution" as a pep talk to lower caste people, and he's smol, smoler than the boy, so smol, they got  the actor that could represent him perfectly but Marvel was stupid so they gave him that boring superhero movie black leather and ugly facial hairs instead of iconic Jack Kirby armors or evil mad scientist lab coat

In dinner or lunch or idk, Karnak is being rude and gross out of nowhere to a female servant, and I can't understand what did the showrunner want to describe by the scene

He and Gorgon are dicks to people without any reason

Yeah, and only asian man being a dick to a white lady out of nowhere.... it seems really... a red flag And only black man being an extremely eugenics scum to his family member is... also... a big red flag

Now Max reveals Triton's death and apparently the mission was secret to even Karnak so BB is getting accused at the dinner table. And BB's excuse is "Oh no you never know he really dead" lmao And he thought it's good to invite nuhumans to the moon because "They are family" while treating your moon people with useless/no power as slaves because of the limitation of the resource? Oh yeah, you go Max, you notice the obvious problem

And BB's answer is "Not now, trust me" Oh yeah, maybe going to Earth is "not now", but "getting nuhumans from earth because they are our family uwu" is also not now imo

It's still over 20 minutes and I can't believe I can find those stupidness from the show easily

I need to eat mushrooms to survive this

Maximus: -Calling out his big bro's BS and storming out of the dining- Karnak: Maximus is dangerous, but I'm loyal to you, trust me

Karnak, it's not a good way to gain people's trust

BB takes a big gun out of Gorgon's hand. Gorgon... a gun... Crystal's dress looks like nipples are showing throw the fabric It's just a fold on the fabric apparently but uh...

Medusa: You can't trust Maximus, we can discuss that BB: -signing, apparently he doesn't want to discuss this-

Oh at least he loves his lil bro to some degree

Everything in the show looks fake af, but yes Medusa's hair is the worst

Oh no I didn't notice the scene is switching to the flashback scene because the switching sequence is bad, and it means oh no that scene

[Flashback scene: BB and Medusa first meeting] aaaaaaaaaa Um, not yet... just a short "first contact" scene...

I'm afraid Max starts wooing Medusa out of nowhere, um...

To be honest it doesn't make any sense in the narrative of the show so far but anything didn't make sense in the show so I can let it go

It's kinda ironic that Max was the one who got precognition power in comics, while he saw the chance in the boy with precog power in the show

Umm, this Iso look-like character is... Auran...?

And Auran got killed by Max(with BB's power) in comics, wow ironic

Attilan in comics: Sci-fi city with a bunch of weird spires and alien buildings Attilan in the show: Are these... maximum-security prisons???

The scene is supposed to be in the rooftop garden on the palace, but it looks like a patio in a prison.

An old guy from the genetic council: It's treason, Auran arrest him, I'm really sorry things become like this Auran: -beat the old man til death-

idk why but it feels kinda comedic...

Then the scene is Oahu island because maybe Triton is there? Wow, nice vacation Triton

While Karnak is playing with a moon rover and guarding people are like "Hey, king Maximus' order, bitch!" and Karnak is like "king Maximus? ... oh shit" lmao

Wow, Max, you are the one who made those humans shoot Triton? And now you are trying to kill Gorgon? ... well, this Gorgon has been an extremely eugenicist scum to you and never stop being a dick, I can't blame you about Gorgon in the narrative, go ahead

And those henchmen are really incompetent, where are the suspense and drama

Karnak: Maximus betrayed us and the royal guards with him Gorgon: wtf I'm the head of the royal guards Wow Gorgon, apparently you have no popularity with them...

Now the royal guards are trying to get Medusa and a fight scene begin... the CGI on her hair is soooo hideous, it's almost comedic And playing "Paint It Black"? Seriously???

Finally someone in the royal guard uses their power to take down the target instead of attacking people like humans that they are disregarding

Max, holding a hair clipper: I have no choice Medusa: If you do this I never forgive you Max: (Surprised Pikachu face meme)

TBH Medusa's line here sounds really... stupid... he's committing a coup against your husband, do you think he would mind of your feelings about your hair??? But apparently, he would mind because idk whatever reason And why they just leave her, at least confine her or do something, you are committing a coup!

Oh no THAT SCENE!!! [Flashback scene: BB killed their parents with "WHY"]

wait, is the man in the left is... younger Max? He looks like an adult man here and much older than younger BB

(No apparently it's the present BB watching his younger self, it's really confusing and I have mild prosopagnosia)

So now, royals get Hawaii vacation, congrats

And BB makes a scene in the middle of Honolulu, and Lockjaw just disappeared before things got into a big mess, bad dog

Medusa: I have to find Black Bolt -riding a bus with tourists- Karnak: I have to find my king -trying to go down a cliff and fall-

Wow, Max is talking Crys about her privilege and propagandas Crys: You make me sick, you are just a human Wow, this Crys is worse than comic Crys

not because of his personality or something, but because he has no power??? Oh yes, she needs a mediocre human's dick even she can be a eugenicist scum to her own family member The show is really bad

They only keep the bad parts of comic canon in the show

It's already over 50 minutes so far, and I can't find any good part in the show... other than those unfortunate actors' acting skills

Gorgon is walking into the sea and battling with crashing waves in vain because he feels emo for Triton

And nice surfers rescue him because... apparently... he can't swim...? And those surfers are too nice and chill, they knew Inhumans already because of plot or something like that and just listening Gorgon's story while sharing beers. They are too nice

Crys can contact Medusa because Auran just dropped her comlink and leave it? Those people are supposed to be elite guards but they are so incompetent, even can't hold their childish princess Oh apparently it was Auran's plot to catch Medusa, much better

Gorgon: You should leave Surfers: Why we have to leave our beach Gorgon: because I challenged my cousin and here will be the battleground

Umm... in that case who has to leave the beach is you, Gorgon...

Oh Eldrac was in the show, I wonder how's he now Max wants to kill BB and Gorgon especially, and not mention to Karnak, he's fine with Karnak being alive... while he's not with Gorgon, lol

[Eldrac, looks like Doh the boss character of a retro video game Arkanoid] ...is this... Eldrac...? What they have done to you, you are boring here

BB feels awkward with his outfit and tries to change to norm clothes is definitely funny, finally I can find a good intentional comedy in the show... And he steals those outfit and hurts security guy, wow

[BB is getting arrested by Honolulu cops] Definitely they should make the show as a superhuman sitcom Like make Max a fabulous mad scientist and let him commit a coup in every week, and BB and co overthrow him and take back the throne at the end of the show. In Every Week.

[BB is running away from the cops and police cruisers] This is definitely a comedy material Marvel, are you telling me this is not a comedy show?

Police officer: Taser! Taser! -shoot taser- BB: Oof -destroying a police car accident because he can't hold his voice-

This BB is a weakass, comic BB has endured far worse, how could you have sexy time with your wife if mere human taser let you lost your control!?

[Police officers are beating the shit out of BB] Wow, be nice to an alien robber, honolulu police officers

Max grabbing his hand makes the boy see those visions, but putting an assuring hand on the boy's shoulder causes nothing and they are just okay...? Hmmm...

[Auran snaps a bus driver's neck] Auran you shouldn't kill a human just because they are trying to stop you entering a bus, people will be suspicious

Auran: -finding Medusa's broken comlink in the empty bus- Me: Oh yeah, Medusa ditched the comlink to hide her whereabouts and went to search BB Medusa: -appears behind the bus and attacking Auran and starts catfighting- Me: wtf

Medusa stubbed Auran with a pocket knife... isn't she supposed to be an elite royal guard!? Why everyone is stupid and weakass Medusa takes a comlink from Auran and tells BB she'll find him and kill Max, with tearful eyes, but I even don't feel any sympathy toward those slave owners... especially to that king who tried to invite more people while many people under his rule are already suffering the overpopulation...

And the mine scene... they are supposed to be a civilization with highly advanced tech, but they have to use their own bare hands and simple tool for mining? What about letting them use more safe and effective machines? Is it too much to ask?

Oh yes, they have no tech guy other than Maximus, apparently. This was why they depend on his technology for their city defense even he'd use it for his future coup(and show!Max is not a tech guy here, so they don't have any tech guy apparently)

Okay, I can see what they wanted to do. Jenkins and Lee's Inhumans second series and Hines' Silent War. I can see many references from those comics. But they couldn't make any coherent plot and story from them.

The showrunner thought their version was "more complicated, more real, and more compelling version" than comic Max and miserably failed because they wanted to do Inhumans vol.2 and Silent War and the very core part of the story is "Max has a point but his twisted mind and impulsiveness made his execution totally bad" It's sad that Once and Future Kings haven't written before their production This is why you are the worst showrunner in the MCU, mister Buck

So... this Auran has healing factor... she doesn't have anything that makes her Auran but okay...

I finished Episode 1 & 2, it feels like eternity

[medusinestories]

Hello, is the BS Confinement Challenge still happening? I just fell for this show hard but I'm not sure how active the fandom still is.

Hello!

We haven’t had entries for the Confinement Challenge for some time, but you’re absolutely welcome to choose a prompt and sign up!

(anyone else interested in the challenge - there’s a link to it in the top menu on my blog)

The fandom is really quite active considering the show ended 4 years ago - none of us want to let it go, and lots of people are still reading and writing fic and producing graphics and lots of discussion and meta! Welcome to the fandom!

[juniperpublishersanatomy-blog]

Integrated Medical Teaching - Current Scenario-Juniper Publishers

JUNIPER PUBLISHERS-OPEN ACCESS ANATOMY PHYSIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL

Objective: To assess the level of success achieved by implementation of integrated teaching in first and second year of medical education.

Study Design: Literature survey based qualitative content analysis

Methodology: Online available literature from 1990 to 2105 was reviewed thoroughly and data/results were studied.

Results: Most of the data was based on the personal views of faculty and the perception of students. Outcome based studies regarding assessment, results, and performance in annual exam were too scarce to reach conclusion.

Conclusion: Keeping in view the requirement of ideal resources, PBL sessions for specific and easily integrated contents of basic and clinical disciplines can be run along with conventional teaching. Total reliance on integrated teaching is not recommended until thorough studies prove a positive long term impact of such system.

Keywords: Curriculum; Horizontal Integration; MITs; Problem Base Learning; Vertical Integration

Introduction

Basic medical sciences have always been considered an integral component of medical teaching. The fundamental role of basic medical sciences i.e. anatomy, physiology and biochemistry was first established in 1910 [1]. This unlatched the door leading us into an era in which the initial two years were tirelessly devoted to the establishment of profound, thorough knowledge of the basic sciences, a foundation upon which clinical comprehension was fortified in the later three years. This “Conventional Teaching System” was opted throughout the world with a clear-cut demarcation among all basic and clinical disciplines. This system of medical education engendered legions of proficient and competent doctors who, with their meticulous skills and meritorious prowess, revolutionized the world of medicine. As years passed by, a need for integration of was felt in order to produce doctors who are sufficiently adept to meet the challenges of the 21st century head on – doctors with an augmented ability to think critically and with apt reasoning. It was emphasized that relevant aspects of clinical subjects should be incorporated into basic medical sciences. In accordance with to enhance the effectiveness of integrated learning. Present review is based on the data and informations gathered from various review reports, research articles, and commentaries published on PubMed, MEDLINE, and Google Scholar.

The main purpose of this review is to evaluate the scope and success of the integration as a learning strategy in the first and second years of medical education in the last 25 years (1990-2015); moreover, this review assess the success this new system has had in these years. Studies focused on integration of biomedical sciences like anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, pathology, pharmacology (horizontal integration), and surgery and allied as well as medicine and allied (vertical integration) in first two years of medical teaching are included in the review. All literature was explored under the guidelines proposed by Goldman [2] who suggested that learning objectives of the medical curriculum can be achieved successfully by applying integration learning strategies at three levels. The first level was labeled as “program”, a framework of curriculum encompassing all learning strategies to be applied throughout the course of medical studies. The second level was “course”, indicating various components of program. The third level of integration was called “session”, which applies to the learning strategies employed on a daily basis to achieve the required level of knowledge. These three levels go hand in hand and determine the actual success of the integrated teaching on the basis of logistics and cognitive domain of learning [3]. Hence, present review aims to analyze the integration extent, methodologies opted and the indicators determining the success or failure of integration. Before the implementation of an innovative idea, the stake holders, i.e. medical students need to be taken under consideration. They are the fertile soil upon which the gardens of knowledge and skill will bloom. The way we nurture the soil will ultimately determine the fruits it will bear. It is difficult to lay down uniform curriculum and learning strategies throughout the world. In developing countries like Pakistan, students enter medical college after 12 years of schooling with typical syllabi with no remote relation to the basic sciences being taught in medical schools [4].

The students are exposed to completely new subjects upon entering medical school. In the first two years, their knowledge has to be built from grass root level up to a stage where they can successfully integrate it with applied clinical sciences. On the other hand, in Canada, North and South America, students have to get BA and BS degrees before qualifying for admission in medical schools. They have already covered a major chunk of basic sciences like biochemistry and physiology of cell in pre medical years [5]; therefore upon entering the course of medical education, they are successfully able to consolidate the basic knowledge with clinical learning. Before the implementation of integration, accurate planning and evaluation of medical curriculum is essential. According to taxonomy of the integration ladder, eleven steps lie between the disciplines based teaching (bottom) and integrated teaching (top) [6]. As we move up the ladder, towards integrated teaching, boundaries of individual disciplines diminish and a fundamentally organized curriculum structure emerges. This highest level of integration requires extensive resources, student selection criteria (including aptitude test), joint contribution from trained faculty members from all disciplines in formulation of curriculum and a friendly, interactive environment between different departments. After mutual consensus, time table for teaching sessions, learning objectives for each session and assessment techniques are finalized accordingly. Displayed time table and contents of curriculum indicate the level of integration. Time tables showing higher level of integration will be no longer highlighting the individual disciplines. Horizontal integration in first and second year of medicine links basic sciences on the basis of practical and philosophical approach, whereas vertical integration bridges basic and clinical sciences, breaking the division between preclinical and clinical teaching, and making learning more meaningful and productive. Both types of integrations are required for formulation of Integrated Curriculum. This main task triggers a debate among faculty members who have their reservations in integrated teaching when compared with discipline based teaching, the reason being the lack of resources and inadequate logistics [7]. To avoid this state of polarization, faculty should be encouraged to discuss and trained to search for integration options within available resources. It would be unjustified to ignore the viewpoints of experienced faculty members, organizational structure of medical college and overall objectives of the curriculum. Transition from conventional discipline based teaching to completely integrated teaching requires major changes [6].

The next step, after formulation of medical curriculum, is the selection of accurate learning methodology which may be large group or small group interactive sessions, problem based learning (PBL) and self-directed learning sessions, to achieve the required objectives of integrated learning. Out of teaching tools, PBL is considered to be the most effective and productive. It was first introduced and implemented at McMaster University, Canada [8]. Later on implementation of PBL sessions along with conventional curricula was done in many countries including New Zealand, Pakistan and India. This was given the name “hybrid system”. Hybrid integrated learning programs (ILP) of small durations were introduced in first year MBBS class in few medical school, as a supplementary tool to conventional teaching, to promote thinking and reasoning skills among students. Results indicated that only a few programs were able to integrate an even fewer number of basic science disciplines (horizontal integration), leaving the rest on regular conventional teaching. Small group laboratory sessions were also organized to integrate with PBL content [9].

Discussion

We, as part of a community are exposed to various forms of integration, like sharing skills and problem solving. The ever growing need for integration demands a change from conventional to integration system. Students almost always gave a positive feedback regarding integrated teaching, both in developed and developing countries [10,11] as this strategy takes them away from rote learning of facts to development of concepts of relevant information. In various studies the outcome was usually determined by faculty feedback, students’ perception, and assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of individual students with the help of questionnaire [12]. It was also noticed in a few studies, that students got themselves confined to their allotted, specific learning objectives, while ignoring the remaining targets; moreover most of them indulged into unnecessary details and lost track of the topics due to lack of understanding of the difference between facts that are “must to know” and those that are to be given less attention at that particular stage. It was also observed that number of absentees also increased in these sessions. Students also considered PBLs insufficient and inadequate when employed as a singular teaching method. They complained of minimal retention of the required knowledge when topics were dealt with under PBLs alone. According to the students, teaching has a stronger impact if done as a continuous process with repetition of facts for knowledge retention, regular assignments and finally, strict assessment for evaluation [13].

Few studies showed that students did not accept PBL teaching sessions as a good learning option due to more burden of work and time consumption [14]. Formulation and implementation of integrated curriculum in initial two years of medical teaching is a complicated process, having various impacts on different scenarios regarding teaching methodologies and course content; however, final deciding factor which determines the success and failure of any learning strategy is the performance of the students in the annual assessment. Thorough literature review revealed that in spite of great appreciation of PBL sessions both by faculty and students, performance of those students who were taught through structured, teacher oriented, conventional curriculum was much better than that of students under integrated problem based curriculum [15]. However, few studies could not find significant difference statistically [8,16]. Apart from one medical school in United States, which claimed better outcome by implementing integrated problem based curriculum, we could not find any study which can statistically prove this innovative learning strategy showing better student performance in annual medical examination when compared to that of conventional methods [17]. Literature review reinforced that integrated sessions are more successful in clinical years as clinical sciences can be integrated at the highest level, but this level of integration does not exist between clinical and basic sciences.

Basic sciences have hidden content that cannot be integrated, but lies in the foundation of the subject, often unexplored by the student [18]. Hence, if only PBL is used as a major learning tool, students might miss that basic core knowledge of physiology, anatomy and biochemistry during initial two years of the course [19]. Moreover PBL trains the students in a particular direction. Facilitators are more focused towards proper organization to conduct PBL session rather than the teaching content; therefore, it is not advisable to rely on PBL methodology alone. Instead, it can be used as supplementary tool, along with large group interactive sessions and traditional didactic lectures [20]. Basic sciences cannot be integrated at a microscopic level, so few systems or learning objectives of anatomy, biochemistry and physiology may be integrated in a PBL session, whereas the rest of the teaching should follow the conventional methodology. The shortcomings observed in PBL sessions can be overcome by ensuring 100% attendance of students, involving each student in all learning objectives and defining the role of facilitators. Moreover the number of large group interactive sessions may be increased to make a PBL more productive by enhancing the level of core knowledge of medical students. Facilitators should be trained to keep a check on students by keeping them on track. Most of the studies showed that in integration sessions in the initial two years of medical schooling, clinical subjects were over emphasized instead of basic sciences because most of the facilitators were from clinical sciences; hence, faculty from basic sciences should be encouraged to participate in these sessions too.

In developing countries, academics, particularly medical education, face a different set of problems. As developing countries have inadequate resource at hand, implementation of integrated teaching in medical colleges is quite challenging. Few private sector medical universities in Pakistan have already switched from conventional to integrated curriculum partially or completely [21]. Unfortunately while reviewing the literature on integration, we could not find statistically significant data that assesses its long term success and impact. It can only be done by evaluating and comparing the conventional and integrated teaching outcomes in the existing local environment, over a specified period of time, in the form of students performance in assessment, both formative and summative [22-25]. To reinforce the basic idea of integration, specific, identified learning objectives of basic medical sciences may be merged with those of clinical sciences, hence continuing teaching of basic disciplines in later years of medical education [26].

Most of the literature revealed that different setups adopted different methodologies and their results were merely the reflection of the personal opinions of the faculty and perception of the students [27]. Our review is based on subjective quality rating and the researchers’ opinions and points of views, making it very hard to reach a decisive conclusion. The issue regarding formulation of integrated medical curriculum, categorization, detail and depth of cognitive domain, and methodologies adopted to integrate basic sciences with clinical subjects are still mysteries of evolving the concept of integration. If integrated learning strategies are applied in true spirit, they will enhance students’ levels and depths of knowledge, perception, motivation, skills and approach towards solving health problems. It requires meaningful connection among various components of curriculum as well as students and facilitators [28]. Studies also revealed that integration is basically characterized by teaching strategies and rearrangement of various curricular contents. Instead of relying on the parameters mentioned above, it is better to focus on cognitive integration within the students. Integrated curriculum alone cannot truly integrate and interrelate various disciplines within the learners. The best way of integration is to build robust, fortified concepts of basic sciences in relevance with clinical sciences within the available resources and learning environment. This should be followed by an assessment to determine the level of comprehension, retention of the content of basic sciences, and its practical application with reasoning and skill [3].

Conclusion

If integration is in accordance with the cognitive domain, then specific learning objectives can be integrated without any extra effort. In order to organize a fruitful PBL session, it is essential to identify and focus on selected and precisely defined learning objectives of basic sciences that easily integrate with clinical sciences. Instead of implementing the highest level of integration at once, small PBL sessions with easily integrated learning objectives can be introduced. This can hone the students’ communicative skills, their ability to access and extract required knowledge and utilize it in practical life; however, further studies on conventional and integrated system are required to evaluate and compare the results based on the performance of students in annual undergraduate examinations as well as post graduate examinations to assess the level of knowledge acquired and retained by the students as well as their ability to apply this knowledge in practical life - our ultimate objective.

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