#from the working class as opposed to private school kids

[toenzy]

People in the public eye speaking about these sorts of things can be so helpful, and it’s pretty brave of Dele Alli to be so open. Good lad.

[yanyanobsessed]

continuing on my yandere vampire fics from a while ago.. I figured the best way to expand on it would be to go back to the beginning.

Note: Theres a lot of worldbuilding here lol, Probably my heaviest work yet, contentwise (not in a dark sense, this post is just hefty when it comes to her word count)

Grace Addams (she/her)

Yandere type: Worshipper, obsessive

Grace was adopted quite young, raised by a wealthy couple with her every need met and accounted for by leaps and bounds. Anything she wanted, her dads did their best to accommodate- which thankfully was relatively easy for them, given that they were in no short supply of funds.

As a child, Grace was very quiet for the most part- almost too quiet, save for the occasions where she was left hungry or with a stomach ache, in the time prior to her vampiric nature coming to light. Her parents discovered quite early on that she was not exactly human, delightfully greeted by quite a number of little fang-marks when she went through teething as a toddler.

Vampires weren't unheard of by any means, but the couple lived in a rather wealthy rural area, and they had never in their lives encountered one in the flesh. However, having discovered the nature in their precious daughter, they felt it would be most appropriate to reach out online, finding comfort in the form of a number of forums and online communities centered on vampiric parenting and resources. They adapted their routines for her, swapping the baby food and solids that had caused her many a stomach ache with meats and iron-enriched tomato juice, which they had read online served as a temporary substitute for blood in the time it would take them to get in contact with a vampiric supply center for her. They abandoned the practice of using garlic in their cooking, so on and so forth, and with time Grace became a much quieter child, content and enriched.

As Grace grew, she remained very silent in her movements- thanks to her supernatural nature, she was able to move much faster than the average child, soundlessly darting around the manor she was raised in. Well, soundless aside from the occasional giggle when she was particularly giddy, or the wailing cries that followed her bumping into something in her fun. Despite her stealth and speed, she proved to be quite clutsy at times, running into things quite frequently even when she was moving at a normal speed.

When it came time for Grace to enter schooling, her parents debated quite a bit, before resolving that it would be good to enroll her at a school in the city, as opposed to one in the rural area they inhabited. They remained in their manor, but began arranging to take Grace to and from school each day, making the hour drive each direction in order to allow her the chance to meet other kids who might not judge her as harshly as those in the rural lands were almost guaranteed to.

This went on for years, with Grace attending class with other kids, packing her little blood pack and tupperware of meat each day to class, shifting to just a thermostat full of blood as she got older. By 7th grade, she had grown accustomed to this routine quite perfectly- She now was brought to school and back home by a private driver her parents hired, but that change aside, things remained relatively unchanged. Grace was silent in her classes, hardly ever talking with her classmates unless it was required, preferring to spend her time studying or reading. It was in one of these such moments, where she had her nose in her latest reading, on the day when everything changed.

Mrs. Lorella called everyone's attention to the front of the room, interrupting the chatters of first period with an introduction. A new student would be joining them. Grace looked you over without much intrigue, simply wishing to acquaint herself visually with you so that she would know your name if it came necessary- and yet, she was surprised when you met her eyes perfectly, honed in on her out of all the students present.

After introducing yourself, as soon as Mrs. Lorella let you go, you made your way straight to Grace's desk, smiling at her. "Is this seat taken?" Grace shyly shook her head, and you eagerly plopped your things down, scooting in right next to her with a smile that rivaled the sun in brightness.

It was that way for the rest of your classes- There was only one period in which the seat next to Grace was not available, and in every other opportunity you didn't hesitate to take the one which was, even looking a little saddened when you saw that one taken seat. Grace was slightly put off by you at first- She didn't dislike you by any means, but you were strange to her. She had always been naturally avoided or picked on by other kids, and although she shut that down quite quick to the best of her ability, that didn't mean she searched for companionship in her classmates. She thought she had more than enough of the stuff with her fathers, whom she was incredibly fond of. And yet, as time went on, and you continued to insert yourself into her life, she found it hard to deny that she enjoyed your company.

Within the next few weeks, her walls had begun to come down, and she found herself increasingly giddy when she was around you. One day at lunch hour, without even consciously realizing it, she offered for you to come over to her house after school. It was an offhand remark, in reply to you asking her about her driver, and yet the way your face lit up in response made her heart flutter in a way that was completely alien to her. You eagerly agreed, happy to spend time with her as she found herself smiling in response.

Thus began a routine of sorts- Most days after classes, you would go to Grace's house, as your parents were busy with work and made no complaint to the extra hours afforded by not having to drive you home, and you and Grace would spend the afternoon together. By the time you had to go home, Grace would accompany you, and listen to your ramblings the entire car ride to your home, spending the drive back in silence, dreamily looking out the window.

Grace's parents were quick to catch on to her fondness for you, welcoming you as one of their own in a way.

Over the years, you and Grace became attached at the hip - anywhere you went, Grace followed, and vice versa. Any time you had to spend apart, Grace found herself lamenting the distance, eagerly texting you in efforts to close the gap electronically, which proved comforting to her worries. However, it was noticable that any time you were apart from her, she became visibly antsy. She would tap her foot, fidget with her family rings, look around as if she could spot you nearby- and don't forget checking her phone often, debating whether to call you or not. As the attachment between you grew, so did her protectiveness, to a very obvious degree.

Now, on the nature of Grace's vampirism- While the school she went to wasn't necessarily hostile to her kind, her parents were instructed when she was first enrolled to teach her to keep it under wraps. While being a vampire wouldn't get you hunted openly like in the olden days, government intervention didn't prevent the prejudice that still ran deep in some people, and they found that it would be safer for their little girl if she didn't rampantly go around showing off her vampirism.

Grace had been very good about this rule of her parents' for her entire schooling- and yet, like most of her outward shell, it unraveled quite easily when it came to you.

One day, when you were at her house, you questioned her about her fidgeting. She bit her lip, continuing to twist her rings as her eyes flitted around the empty library you two presently occupied your time in.

"..Can I tell you a secret, Y/N?"

"Of course! You can tell me anything- I'm very good at keeping secrets, my mom says."

Grace took a deep breath.

"..I'm a vampire." She blurted out, cheeks rosy as she watched your reaction with fearful eyes.

A moment passed, and she just about felt her stomach drop, when you suddenly smiled, your entire body language brightening with intrigue.

You eagerly questioned her about it, taking the news in stride as you rattled off all your curiosities, holding both of her hands in yours as you did so, a habit of yours that Grace found herself quite fond of.

From that day onward, Grace found her attachment to you growing- She had never before even considered draining someone, and yet these days she found her eyes drifting to your neck dangerously often. She always managed to catch herself, although it was in the private moments that the urge came strongest. She always reeled herself in however, and was able to restrain herself.

That was, until sometime in the summer after your highschool years had finished, when a blood shortage had been wearing her thin, and you had been teasing her privately at every turn regarding her fangs, and how you would let her bite you if she wanted (which never failed to fluster her immensely, might I add.)

(Stopping here for now, lemme know what y'all think and any ideas you might have regarding Grace!)

[thesharktanksdriver]

Academic Achievements (romantic)

Requested by - can i request an academic rivals to lovers w/ damian? :) maybe a dash of angst >:)

Angst heh? Ha ahhahahhahahahhahahhahahahhahahha yes~

Btw some topics of bullying, class division and Damien kinda being a little shit at the beginning (but we all expected that)

Damien Wayne was a stuck up snooty brat who didn’t work for anything that came his way

Controversial opinion but it was one held by you and the handful of other kids of Gotham academy that came from blue collar or lower class families

Everything came to him with a flick of a finger whether that be his lunch on a silver platter or the attention of others. It was effortless, truly and utterly effortless

He never truly had to work for what he’s gotten in your eyes

Just another rich kid at this academy that’s populated by them

What makes him different though is that he’s a Wayne, a breed of rich all on its own

Practically royalty to Gotham society

He and them get in on money and name alone while you and a handful of others have to work their asses off to get in

It isn’t fair but you’ve accepted that at this point

It’s why you dedicated yourself to studying, to be better than them, than him for once

All students at this school were given a somewhat level playing ground when it came to actual grades

Sure, some had tutors and private fancy teaches at home to help but unless they actually cared they could not buy their way to victory

This in itself gave you enough edge to be head of class academic wise

Well not before the Wayne whom was your age had to stick his nose where it doesn’t belong and had decided he’d try to outsmart you

It started off small at first, projects in which he’d try to constantly one up you

Sending you snide smirks from across the class

You never acknowledged them but perhaps that’s what made him more determined. More pissed off that it didn’t aggravate you like he had intended

So he moves into trying to answer questions faster than you

Raising his hand up high as to be picked first

And so on and so fourth with his attempts

It was getting annoying but you’d put up with worse, much worse at this school

But he just didn’t seem to get any hints

Especially not when he one day tracked you down at lunch while you were in the art room

It was one of your only sanctuaries here. You are in peace without the threat of getting food or a drink dumped on you by some prissy girl again for not agreeing to give her the answers she wanted for homework

You just want to be left in peace but he doesn’t get that

No, he had to stick his nose where he shouldn’t have

He tells you to give up, that he’ll win and it’ll just be easier for you accept that

You almost punch him but hold back knowing you’d be fucked if you did that

You tell him to fuck off

And that leads to the two of you arguing loudly though fortunately no one was around

Rose white statues are the only ones that see and hear the carnage

Words are thrown back and forth, like a rocking ship before it crashes bow first into the waves

Sinking deep into ice cold murky waters as neither of you back down

For him it was his pride that kept him going, for you it was your stubbornness and determination that pushed you

Two opposing forces, an unstoppable force meeting an unmovable object

A fiery red rage vs seething cold fury

“You just can’t let anyone be better at you than anything huh?. That’s the problem here, you just won’t let anyone else win. You already have everything, for once stop being selfish and just give others that chance at victory, you get it enough as it is for just waving a hand in a certain direction”

“Why do you even care so much!?, does your self esteem really hang so much on your position as the top of class?”

“Damien, I’ve had to work MY ass off to get into this school along with my friends. We fucking cried when the acceptance letters came in, and it’s a miracle that the school was merciful enough to pay for me!. You don’t have to worry about that!, you probably didn’t even bat an fucking eye when that letter came because it didn’t matter to you but it does for ME!. It matters to me cause it’s the only thing I can do that everyone else can’t just pay to win”

You leave after that, grabbing your book bag and slinging it over your shoulder as you storm past him to go to your next class. Tears lining your eyes that you hold back and push away

You wouldn’t cry, not in this jungle where the moment you show weakness they’ll descend upon you like vultures to pick away at your self esteem even more

He doesn’t move oddly enough but you don’t pay attention to it much

That night when you barely catch the bus home and then have to walk for at least another 15 minutes with your hands gripping a small pocket knife as you get home.

It’s late, dinner is cold but you don’t have the effort to place it in the microwave

You go to study for the missed time at lunch from your altercation

Your tired and cold from the walk, cheeks still red and nose stuffy but you don’t care

You pull out your notebook and begin to answer equations as best you can

The words from before playing in your mind before you drowned it out with the soundtrack of howls moving castle

As Damien returns home though he’s…shaken so to say

He kinda realizes he may have gone a step too far, a line crossed in the sand that he bounded over in pursuit of something

It also makes him realize how in some ways you were right, which he didn’t want to admit aloud

He didn’t think much about that initial letter, he tossed it away noting giving it the time of day

He knew he was smart and would’ve passed the test to get in but his fathers money had paid for him not to go through that effort

And you were right, he didn’t let others win

He always thought that was a good trait, but perhaps in cases like this it wasn’t as good as initially perceived to be

He would usually go to Dick or his father for advice but instead he goes to Todd for it

Knowing how he had a better grip on what it was like to not live rich in Gotham

And well…

“Wow ok…yeah kinda dick thing to do. You came at them unprovoked and then tried to take a crack at self esteem…good going”

And that’s when the guilt begins to set in the longer he talks to his older adoptive brother

And it hits bad especially when he knows a simple apology won’t likely cut it

It’s during the next couple of days that he watches you in a new light

Compared to him and everyone else who had large social groups your relatively alone

Only one or two friends who come to your side

It’s also here he now notices the divide that he for some reason never caught onto while at the school

Damien is a loner yes, but if he wanted friends he had people who would flock to him at a heartbeat. People who seemed to adore his every breath, a single wave getting a few cheering at getting his attention

But for you and your friends there is disdain and disgust. Like seeing a bug crawled it’s way on your table before swatting it away

But you can’t be swatted, no matter how many times someone pours water or attempts to trip you it ends up with you walking it off

Giving a glare that sends them running off with giggles as they hide a smirk behind a small “oh I’m sorry! I didn’t see you there”

You never say anything about it though, you never go to a teacher or report it at all

You just take it and it makes him confused as to why you stood up to him and not them

It’s why he returns to you after a week or so of observations

Once again interrupting your lunch as you worked on a new painting

“Oh…your back.”

“I’ve…” he pauses for a moment trying to find the right words, pride be damned “I’ve come to say I’m sorry”

You stop your painting at that, mid-stroke as you put down your brush and turn back to look at him. “I don’t believe that” it comes out your mouth and he’s left to stare

“And how would I make you do so?”

“If you really want that then show me change. Show me that you work for what you get just like I do, then I’ll respect you, then I’ll accept your apology”

That seems to hit something in him since he pauses whatever response he had

And surprisingly enough he nods

It’s from that point on you notice that there’s a shift in the young Wayne

One that others also begin to catch onto

It’s a slow process but you begin having lunch with him…well more like he joins you for lunch as you either study or continue your paintings

He shows his notebooks when your stuck and how a truck into solving a question

When others are jeering at you or your friends he steps in, glaring them down

At some point he even reported on a few students after one had poured a drink on your friend purposely

For once the report wasn’t brushed aside

There are definitely jealous glared from others about how he seemed keen on spending time with you but you don’t pay it any mind

Especially not when your working on a history project about the Ottoman Empire which he had extensive knowledge about

You…begin to enjoy his presence

At first you tolerated it but now you genuinely enjoy when he meets up at lunch and integrates himself into your small group of friends

He seems happier, more content and not scowling all the time

In class the two of you start a playful competition, not like before which was motivated by bitterness and pride

Now it’s just for the hell of it as mrs.smith can only watch as the two of you fling your hands up to answer

Afterwards depending who answered the most you’d both do a dare

He begins to actually seem like a kid and not a self-centered robot

You both begin to partner up for projects

He ends up at your small house since you don’t feel quite comfortable yet going to his place, partially in fear of being out of place

He doesn’t seem to mind but tells you that his family would love you

You wave the comment off but it does help ease your nerves slightly

In your home he finds a certain sense of normalcy he’d never really experienced

This feels like what a normal home should be like, small and cozy

Fruit left out by your mom with a note saying to have a snack

He enjoys it wholeheartedly and can’t help but smile when he keeps returning to work with you on the project

Perhaps with a bit more eagerness than he’d like to admit which makes Alfred smile knowingly

Eventually you end up at the manor with him

Your nervous and clutching your bag as your fingers fidgeted

He sees this and takes your hand

Squeezing it in a silent gesture of “it’s alright” and “your gonna be ok”

You swear your heart skips a beat yet you ignore the feeling as you step out a the car with him

The large building and its gates seeming to look over you before your attention is taken away at the sight of a dog

He smiles as the dog comes bounding forwards, stopping for a moment to sniff you before he seemingly gave you permission to pet him

“What’s his name?”

“This is Titus. He’s my dog, and resident best friend”

You giggle a bit at that as Titus pushed his snout into your hand

Tail wagging back and forth before he followed the two of you into the large home

It feels grandiose and elegant

You’d only ever see bits and pieces from magazines or on tv but seeing it in person felt like something else

Almost like walking into a book or painting

Damien guides you through the old halls and into their private library

There are a few stacked books left on a table, all of which are related to your shared project

Honestly this placed seemed like heaven

The two of you work on the project but it’s intercepted by moments of the two of you just passionately talking about the subject

Neither of you had seen it before but both of you are overwhelmingly passionate and headstrong

A reason why you’d both clashed heads before but now seemingly brung you both together

At some point he asks about your art and you somewhat shyly tell him of your hobby

How you sell your pieces on the side to make some extra money since your parents only make enough to get by

Surprisingly he compliments your skill, the techniques you’d learned over years of trial and error

And it’s…nice

You feel warm and fuzzy on the inside just as he does when you ask him to tell you more about his pets or about his roots

Eventually you have to leave but you come back soon after to confine the project

The two of you making a schedule where you sometimes go to your house or his

It’s through this you meet his kind butler who is nothing but kind and caring as he delivers cookies

Along with brief instances of Damien’s older brothers who are seemingly shocked

Especially the slightly (in your eyes) infamous Dick Grayson who peaks in as you both study

Well…before Damien hucks a book at his head yelling for him to leave

The king of Gotham himself, Bruce Wayne even stops by when your about to leave to talk to you

He thanks you for having such a positive change on Damien and your left a bit flustered by it

Especially since the man says your always welcome in their home and that your always welcome if you need help

Things seem better for both you and Damien

You’d been selling more paintings as he actually gained a group of tight knit friends who were just as nerdy as he was

Things are good

So good in-fact that Damien ends up inviting you to a gala him and his family were invited too as his plus one

Aomehow he ends up convincing you to join, even helping you find something appropriate for the occasion at a new exhibit at the Gotham art museum

A place you’d visited before for a couple feudal trips yet never saw in its actual capacity

As the celebrations start the tow of you quickly end up wandering the empty halls, admiring the art

You were both the only kids there so it was only natural to do so, besides, the adults were all mingling with one another

There are countless classics and styles of all kinds ranging from paintings to sculptures

All of which lead to the two of you talking of your interpretations of the meaning

Before you both end up at a painting with a black dot in the middle

Nothing else, just a blank white canvas with a dot

The sight of which makes you giggle

the sound makes his eyes widen and heart race, it sounds like the chimes that would happen from a light summer’s breeze or the fluttering of petals in the wind

And then he joins along in your giggles as the two of you stare at the hoity toity painting of a plane black dot on a white canvas

“I think I make better works than that” you joke

“Think?, no you definitely make better stuff than this. I don’t buy bad art”

Wait what?

You turn to him and he seems to catch what he had said

You notice that his avoids eye contact and how turns to face slightly away from you

“You…your the person who bought my art?. Why?”

“Like I said, I don’t buy bad art. Yours is much better than some of the stuff here, father even thought so”

Now it’s your turn to be flustered as you feel butterflies in your stomach

Off in the distance the two of you can hear the sound of classical music

It’s muffled and too slow for your taste so you pull out your phone and AirPods

“Wanna dance to some real tunes?”

He smiles and takes the AirPod as you press shuffle on your playlist

The sound of “lovesong” by the cure playing conveniently in both your ears

Damien takes your hand and you both take turns leading the dance

He can’t help but grin happily

Neither of you notice his family pealing into the room watching with happy smiles

Nor how Tim had kinds maybe hacked your phone to play that song

[possiblyunhinged]

So I've been thinking about Rishi's National Service bullshit and I have some thoughts... I'm sorry... My brain is struggling right now and I don't want to bore the people I love anymore.

So buckle in, lads.

The thing with national service is old folk are going to be creaming themselves over it because, in my view, they believe this will emulate their unfounded 'pride' in their country into younger generations. I think they think the decline of national pride is somehow a design flaw of newer generations as opposed to being the result of a government that actively shows disdain for their future.

The problem is that it clearly isn't going to fucking work, is it?

And yeah, whatever, you can pick to go into a military position for a year or volunteer in the community every weekend. However, how will this induce pride and how will this induce a sense of community when most of these people will NEVER own a home and can't afford a fat wad of Cathedral City or tub of Lurpack?

Frankly, you'd assume it's blatantly obvious that any contempt that younger folk hold for the UK comes from the government's contempt for them and their future.

Even when young people speak of the desire to own a home or be paid adequately for their work, they are told they are simply spunking too much money on avocados and not working enough hours...

Why the fuck would young people like this country when it's quite clear the people who run it fucking hate them?

You're going to have a hard time telling a generation of young people who grew up on the internet that it's just to go to another country and murder people for a bunch of rich pricks in suits. Especially when they're growing up seeing the government's complete disinterest in the suffering of select groups of people...

Whilst not popular for the 'voting class', perhaps monitoring the private rental system, and building more social housing as opposed to just letting private developers build flammable buildings wherever the fuck they want might be a shout.

Making higher education free and not limiting universities' international intake might be a shout too. Abolishing private schools would be DELICIOUS, as opposed to having a two-class system of people who are given the majority of opportunities and those who aren't. Taxing corporations despite the fact they're your 'mates' and you'd reaaaaaaally like to go on their yachts and ask whether you can 'jump in on the line'.... Gove I'm looking at you.

It'd be really nice if the shame was removed from families' struggles and there were free school meals for every child. It'd be even nice if it wasn't a fucking debacle that just makes kids feel worse and aware of their difference. Another idea might be to not fucking close down community hubs that support young people regardless of what is going on with their home lives, they know they have a network of people who gives a shit about them.

Popping more pink men in police uniforms isn't going to reduce crime... because everybody fucking knows rises in crime almost always correlates with a rise in poverty. It's fucking obvious why crime is going up.

This is a very unfleshed-out opinion at this point, but I also can't help but feel the grave disdain for politicians and media isn't helped by the fact we know what's going on.

Yet if we turn on the TV or have a gander at mainstream news, they're more concerned with talking about Eamon and Ruth's divorce... It's maddening and also makes you feel like you are living in the Truman Show.

Anyway, this has been a bullshit hour with me... living exhibit of why mental health waiting lists should be reduced xoxo

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 8/29/2023

my ENTIRE SUMMER has been either worrying about moving or actually moving. ALL OF IT. however an incredibly hot butch milf on the gay community bulletin board/dating app lex has finally answered my piteous call for gun safety classes with an invitation to her private range. unfortunately she is a landlord who owns a VERY large apartment complex. houston is a land of contrasts

listening

more joywave! one of my favorite bands bc they are best listened to in full album format, and i did a fuck of a lot of driving this weekend. little lies you’re told has an opening like a big machine warming up while you are in a control room way high up on a gantry somewhere. spotify

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reading (2x bonus round)

All The Trimmings by Tesni Morgan (published 2001 in the UK) is a gift from @believerindaydreams. it is “erotic fiction written by women for women” (debatable) and “the publishers recommend that this book should be sold only to adults”. also, “Black Lace novels contain sexual fantasies. In real life, make sure you practise safe sex.” idk i’ve ever seen that kind of notation on an american novel before? fascinating precursor to the saccharine little “stay safe kids” ao3 authors notes

i do find the premise genuinely fun and compelling— two divorced milfs opening a hotel/bordello with historically themed rooms. i have had to look up a lot of british purple prose and i refuse to believe anyone says “rogering” in real life.

im being edged with glimmerings of bisexuality. every time one of the milfs gets turned on and goes out roaming to distract herself from being turned on, i go “oh?” like at a pokemon go egg, but so far all the dalliances and encounters have been dudes.

had a very strange experience with cormac mccarthy's blood meridian. i don’t normally interrogate whether or not i am the intended audience for a work except when it’s literally made for children, bc i as a modern bisexual woman am the intended audience for vanishingly few works. for example, many entire genres (westerns) are very challenging to enjoy.

a western has never made me go "wait so why DO i like westerns at all" so hard. like, what AM i doing here in this genre that is often deeply fucking uncomfortable to consume as a woman, and where the most foundational american and european works of the genre often uncritically embrace the worst parts of the american mythos in the most violent way possible? i do believe critics when they say mccarthy is not embracing violence for the sake of, and in fact has something to say with his revisionist western, but my god is it hard to wade through. anyway, dad media will not fuck me and i still have only a tenuous grasp on why i try so hard to glean enjoyment from it.

i know what mccarthy is trying to do and the overall tone of “weird old maybe-uncle” spinning a yarn to a big group of you and your cousins around a fire somewhere is pretty effective. unfortunately I have less tolerance for mccarthy’s style now than when I read The Road thirteen years ago in high school. i was immediately super invested in The Road’s single dad and how he and his kid were surviving, which does not need a lot of interiority.

blood meridian also has very little interiority. the first five chapters are a teen falling in and out of various fights. i was not, and am still not invested. if im reading A Man Goes On A Journey western (as opposed to A Stranger Comes to Town western) i would like to know two or three things about the man, especially if it seems to be angling at a bildungsroman. i don't typically care for third-person objective narration when it is this closely focused on one guy, and i really don't care for loving descriptions of maggots. comforting to know a lot of critics were also squicked out by this book. so it goes.

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watching

finished watching s1 of spy x family! a Legally Not West German spy in Legally Not East Berlin has to go into deep cover and pose as a family man in order to gain access to Legally Not Erich Honecker, because the only social events Legally Not Erich Honecker goes to are the ones at his son's elite prep school.

this man FLINGS himself into being the absolute best husband and father possible. for the mission, of course.

i found the first few episodes the best, which is generally the opposite of my normal anime experience. i think it does a really good job of balancing high-octane spy hijinks and chases and explosions with very domestic concerns (he PROPOSES. with a THE RING OFF A HAND GRENADE. AFTER THROWING IT), and once you're really hooked on these characters it turns into a bit of a curtainfic. curtainanime? i had fun with all of it and anxiously await season two, but the actual applied spycraft does drop off significantly as the series goes on.

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playing

we're going to continue with out of context genshin screencaps for the duration. the watery land of fontaine has a neat smorgsabord of visual style-- freshwater but also saltwater but also the aquarium section at petsmart.

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making

unpacking mostly. acquired this coffee table and its mother. needs a very deep cleaning and some touchups but is intact. the individual tables are a bit large for like individual party drinks tables but all six together are QUITE large. four tigether would be a comfortable coffee table size for many apartments imo but! bc everything truly is bigger in Texas including my apartment it works for right now. for the first time in my life i am considering a sectional sofa bc the living/dining room is that dang big.

[simslegacy5083]

NSB (Straud Legacy) Gen 9 Ep 92: A Captainly Conversation

While Luigi and Noemi were telling her family about their pregnancy, his co-captain’s gestation ended with the delivery of a healthy baby boy. 

The two had long ago arranged for Luigi to pick up the slack as sole team leader while his friend was recovering from surgery. Even though the extra work and his own baby prep stole the very last dregs of his free time, he jumped wholeheartedly into running the team. 

Luigi was feeling quite proud of his preparations, wishing that Beau was there to see how well his first solo meeting was going, when a text arrived. He followed the instructions for adding his buddy's laptop to the LAN remotely and soon his co-captain was spectating matches over voice chat.

It was clear Beau wasn’t just “phoning it in” either, as he popped in and out of games and private chats, mentoring their newest players all night.

“He certainly isn’t acting like someone still on painkillers” Luigi thought, right before another message popped up, this time asking for “the honor of an audience with His Highness tonight in my chambers (Post Birth Recovery Ward, Suite 3).” Sighing, Luigi let Noemi know he’d be home late.

Thanking his past self for the Seldom Sleepy trait that made that night’s visit bearable and the following day less of a concern, Luigi found Room 3 at last. He was surprised to see Beau still hard at play, rapidly pounding the life out of the opposing team of some random internet matchup.

“Your pardon, your grace, I’ll be with you as soon as these guys realize they’re completely outmatched and surrender.”

Sure enough, the game soon wrapped up, and Beau hit the restroom before gingerly lowering himself to join his friend on the small visitor couch.

Luigi couldn’t keep his curiosity in check. “Aren’t you supposed to be taking it easy? I thought they just got done gutting you like a fish!?”

“Eh, the surgery went off without a hitch, and honestly, the recovery isn’t nearly as painful as the BOREDOM! I’m stuck in this stupid room, and my wife is too busy between her job, her candle making, and taking care of baby Bruce to come visit. I’m dying in here!”, his friend whined.

Luigi suppressed a surge of annoyance. They could easily have caught up virtually, but clearly Beau was starved for company. Besides, now that he was here, with a new father eager to talk, maybe he could gain some insight into his own concerns about becoming a dad.

“Actually, since we’ve got some time to chat, I did have something I wanted your advice on.” Beau was by no means the first sim that came to Luigi’s mind as someone to confide in or dispense wisdom, but he did just get direct experience in juggling the demands of school, e-sports, and pregnancy. 

“Noemi and I haven’t told many folks other than our families yet, but…” he was interrupted by a sudden explosion of laughter as his friend exclaimed

“Oh my stars! You… I mean Noemi’s pregnant, isn’t she? His highness is going to have a little heir to the throne running around soon, huh?"

At Luigi’s confirming nod, Beau told him in a more serious tone “Well congratulations to you both, then. Adding a pregnancy on top of everything else was challenging, but nothing worth doing is ever easy. One foot in front of the other, over and over, is the only way to get to the finish line.”

He went on “Thanks for stepping up with all the prep work for tonight’s practice by the way. I’ll do the same for you when your little one comes.”

Luigi replied, “We’ll all be graduated before my baby arrives, but that’s the thing. I know how to prep for a game, for a class, for a meeting, but I feel lost when it comes to prepping for a child. I’m going from being a pro to being a complete noob, and I hate it. I don’t want to be a failure as a dad.”

“Well, I’ve only gotten to hold Bruce for a few hours so far, but you know he’s not really my first kid. When I married Brianne, I became a father to her daughter Bailey, much to her embarrassment. Parenting a teen isn’t easy, but I have a good partner, and got great advice.”

He looked firmly at Luigi and continued: “The number one thing you need to remember is that it isn’t about YOU. The only victory condition in parenting is when THEY win, and the best you can do is to help them along and don’t let your pride make it harder on them.”

They chatted a bit longer before Luigi eventually took his leave, thanking Beau for his advice and wishing him a speedy recovery. 

As he headed towards the exit, he reflected on what Beau had said. It wasn't all about him anymore, and Luigi realized why hearing that had hit a nerve. Although he'd always been happiest when he was in a relationship, managing to put his significant others first or, to be honest, even reliably near the top of his priority list, had always been a struggle. Someone brand new to the world would need a lot more from him! 

Could he shift his focus enough to provide his son or daughter with the care and attention they deserved and required? He honestly wasn't sure, but he knew that whether he liked it or not the time was fast approaching when he would have to give it his best shot.

View The Full Story of My Not So Berry Challenge Here

[beardedmrbean]

One of trumps campaign promises is an free online American University. HE IS OFFERING FREE COLLEGE, and people will probably be pissed about it and say it isn’t free college because it doesn’t pay for them to get a useless degree at an overpriced university

Completely forgot American University existed, had to look them up and see what they're about.

Pretty basic, standard degrees you can take just about anywhere

Those are all things that are going to be Swiss Army Knife type departments, get a basic degree if you want to go further you can.

international and unknown would probably flatten those numbers out, except the last two.

Impressive list of graduates too.

people will probably be pissed about it and say it isn’t free college because it doesn’t pay for them to get a useless degree at an overpriced university

Nailed it in one, likely be people saying the classes are indoctrination as well, several other things they'll complain about.

Not free anyhow, wish they would be honest and call it taxpayer funded, which the average person with a degree will in the end contribute more in tax revenue than the education they got cost from a financial standpoint I don't entirely oppose taxpayer funded higher ed.

Just has to be limited to degrees that will actually be things people use and can make a living with, which if you look you can find a list of degrees that qualify for student loan forgiveness after X amount of time making minimum payments provided you work in the public sector with them.

My brother got $250,000 in student loans and such most of which will go poof soon because he's been working in various public defenders offices and similar.

This is going to be similar to him trying to get various countries on board with a pressure campaign on countries around the world in an effort to get them to decriminalize homosexuality, can't toss people in jail for being gay anymore, people said he was racist for doing that or it was only to stick it to Iran,

which who fucking cares if it was or not, you'd rather people in jail or executed for being gay

Nothing any president does will be terribly popular with a fair sized portion of the people, the hope they can have is that history vindicates them.

With this it could be 'here's your option, your other option includes a bill that will need to be payed now instead of over your working life, and you'll also be helping to pay tuition for people going to American University too with your taxes.

Much like people that send their kids to private school still pay the taxes that go to the public ones.

[leam1983]

Designing Better Fantasy Schools - A Compromise

Let's say you don't care about the associated politics and the baggage that comes with the Wizarding World. Let's say you're willing to more or less commit social suicide by saying you don't much care about J. K. Rowling's politics and just want to focus on all things Harry Potter. How can you still improve on the basic framework without leaving it behind?

I've already mentioned Marvel's X-Men as a more cogent example and Ursula K. LeGuin's Tales of Earthsea need no introduction either, but let's play Devil's Advocate and figure you want to write Potterverse fanfic that strips away all that Meritocratic, Neoliberal, Boy's School for Billionaires feeling the franchise has. What's your best bet?

I'd suggest looking elsewhere around the world - and specifically, while ignoring the other named schools in the canon. The way they're presented, we can assume that every other institution from Beauxbâtons (a terrible name thought up by someone who doesn't speak French) and Uagadou (Wow, Joanne, did you just look at an Atlas map of Africa and pick the capital of Burkina Faso at random, and just strip one syllable?) all follow the same basic setup as Hogwarts - or at least the same basic setup as other paid-for, private schools.

My advice? Go public. A well-thought-out Wizarding World should have included the notion that not every kid will have the chance to make it to an independently-financed institution, and that several will, in fact, be forced to attend wizarding classes in the same Brutalist hallways as their Muggle peers.

It does strip the setting of its Neoliberal undertones, as wizards and witches can't simply Hammerspace their entire society into Non-Euclidian streets and byways the Muggles can't access. It requires closer coordination with Muggle governing bodies and strips magic of its status of a golden goose that has to inexplicably be kept out of Muggle hands.

As that's another thing: for how Edwardian JKR's wizards and school headmasters are, they're still resolutely Medieval in their anticipation of Muggle rejection and persecution. Assuming magic, in this universe, is in some way tied to natural forces, then you'd figure Muggle scientists would've accidentally discovered the ability to Apparate without a wand or a spell, and would've just labeled it as teleportation. You'd figure that someone born without magic would have seen some spell-casting take place at some point and would've said "Hey, this is neat! Paired with some of our own tech, this could solve so many problems!"

Enmeshing both worlds closer also fixes several worldbuilding problems. Let's say Rowling's gonzo bit of lore about wizards and witches dropping deuces on the spot and then whisking them away with a spell is canon, don't you think most of them would actually welcome the addition of modern plumbing? Legacy includes toilets in the student lavatories, but the professors have no definable living spaces!

Setting your story in the public sector fixes that issue. Teachers only work in their professional spaces, and go home after classroom hours, just like the students would.

Then again, this raises another question: why cling to the Potterverse at all? Politics aside, the setting reflects something that even the most skilled fanfic authors don't bother reckoning with, which is that it really is meant for a tiny sliver of its total readership. The Canadian kid with parents working a nine-to-five won't ever receive a letter, not when there's hazy, improperly-defined "other local schools" that serve as Budget Hogwarts. The American kid who grew up on everything Potter isn't a potential target either, the American concept of a boarding school tends to evoke places like West Point Academy, as opposed to refurbed mansions packed with kids.

Do a little research, and you'll realize that British boarding schools are, more often than not, looked back onto with regret. Youtuber Lindybeige has a very lukewarm summary of his boarding school years, with the general sense being that it had a stultifying feeling. Compare and contrast with early-2000s fanfic that present Mall Goth Hogwarts students as surviving in this context, and you're left rolling your eyes. All these 'sonas crapped out after an overdose on My Chemical Romance wouldn't have lasted a week at Eton College during the heyday of British boarding schools.

So - destroy the concept altogether and rebuild it from scratch. You're an underprivileged inner-city kid with a weird scar on your forehead, and a class trip to the zoo takes a turn for the worse. In the days that follow, the principal asks to meet with you more often than usual, and offers that you'll start to work with "specialized educators".

There's an unusual trip to the hardware store for some cookware and some Chemistry sets you associate to late High School classes, and an introduction to new classmates. To the School Board, you're moved to a different class of student - the Arcane Enabled. Common-subject classes are still with your old classmates, only now you've got new classes that enmesh spellcasting with core disciplines you're still in need of learning. Defense Against the Dark Arts with a side of Ethics, Potion-making with a side of Chemistry...

In this new version of the setting, identitarian politics are a non-issue. Trans students are shown that there are ways for them to use magic to alter their gender, some merely Veil-based for Enbies in the lot, and others more permanent. Goblins are entirely emancipated and "House Elf" is now a paid position that's rapidly growing out of fashion - and Wizards, crucially, have evolved in tandem with the Muggle world. Your educators all drive cars and own smartphones and tablets, they all can work their way around a computer - but they're also able to do slightly more with these things than a Muggle can. You realize that being a wizard doesn't shut you out from the wider world, and finally figure out what was so special about particular channels, TV shows, movies or other media productions your parents love; as the Muggles aren't shy about mythologizing their magic-slinging peers.

At that point, you again have to ask yourself the all-important question: why cling to Potter at all? The concept of a second secret and shadowy world comes complete with so many risks of added toxicity and of enshrining elements that might seem quaint or antiquated but that actually hide their lot of relational or sociopolitical conflicts; that you're left wondering why Modern Fantasy clings to it at all.

Wouldn't things be simpler, fairer, even, if the Ordinary People always knew?

[sculptural-renaissance]

SGU Week Day 2 (I promise I can count; I'm just behind!!): Favorite Character

Leave it to me to get fixated on a character who only shows up in 4 episodes of a show that got cancelled 12 years ago. 😫 I thoroughly enjoyed SGU from its inception, but Amanda Perry is what took the show from something I really enjoyed to my current hyperfixation (yes, it's her fault I'm here, this fictional lady). She lives rent-free in my head. 💖

(Also fair warning this is gonna be long as hell)

I'm aware that her primary function is that of "love interest," but her character resonated with me on a much deeper level. Maybe I didn't travel a billion light-years to be with the person I love, but I did move 1,000 miles away from everything I knew to make a life with the man who became my husband. I know what it's like to feel rejected because the person you love shows their love differently (though I've been married for almost 6 years now after 3.5 years of long-distance, and then a lengthy engagement, so I know from experience that loving differently doesn't mean loving less). I know what it's like to feel like I'm not valued as a person, though in my case, I was mistreated because I'm autistic as opposed to being paralyzed, and I was regularly used and taken advantage of for my musical abilities, with little respect for my health or needs. I wasn't a person, I was a thing. I've been targeted by people I couldn't fight back against, even for things I didn't do. I know what it's like to be left behind for a lot of social milestones (driving, dating, etc.) I know what it's like to finally find that one safe person who sees you for you.

Amanda is relatable as hell to me. I do want to focus on her specifically in this post, though obviously her romantic endeavors are a factor. Tbh one of the main reasons I like her so much is, in addition to all the other stuff I just mentioned, is that she was the one to initiate things with Rush. I have little dating experience, myself, but I was the instigator in most of my relationships, especially with my husband. Gotta love those ladies who are active instead of waiting around for a guy to make up his mind!

Anyway, I make a lot of SGU memes and dumb lil comics that I share on Facebook, and a decent chunk of them are about Amanda (she even has her own multi-episode arc!!), so I'll share some of them here. I guess if people like them, I can put them on tumblr. I'll add that the vast majority of my content takes place post-stasis, so this Amanda inhabits her own meat body, cloned from DNA the SGC had on file, and is not a computer ghost or a body-swapper with questionable ethics. 😂

I have generated A LOT of memes lmao

Well that didn't turn out to be a metaphor for anything... 😏 I didn't catch this the first time, but I ugly-laughed on my second watch-through.

When the lockdowns were first imposed in my town, I had no idea what that meant, and I was literally about to get in my car and commit a crime because I thought my husband was going to be trapped at work for 2 weeks. Obviously, that wasn't the case, but I felt this scene.

Since my brain has chosen to attach itself to a character with minimal backstory, I'm obligated to fill in the blanks. One thing I find disappointing in media is that even the nerdy women tend not to have nerdy interests, which absolutely is not what I've experienced in real life. My thought is that Amanda was already something of a prodigy ("Little Miss Brilliant" probably isn't a nickname you get for being a regular genius lmao) before her accident, probably skipped a grade or two in school, private tutors in math and science, that kind of thing, and was later homeschooled before starting college as a teen. She was probably pretty lonely because of that. I'm not quite a "genius" (I have a Master's in music and an Etsy shop, and I uhhhhh make memes about an old TV show for fun), but I am a former gifted kid. Even though I took gifted classes from 4th-12th grade (academics, not that pull-out enrichment crap), I felt very lonely even among my gifted classmates, and I struggled with making friends throughout school because I was just too different. I was weird. I liked weird stuff. The girls were mean. The boys that were my friends didn't like the girly stuff I enjoyed, so I had to lock that part of myself away to fit in. The kids a grade ahead of me obviously left, and the kids a grade below me didn't want to keep in touch when I moved on to high school or college. It was lonely. I see similar things in Amanda's brief appearances. She's on the Destiny for 3 weeks, and she pretty much just sticks to Rush because he's "safe." She tries to be friendly with Eli, but he ends up making fun of her, and he's not very nice to her later on, either (sometimes for good reason; she's my fave but she's no saint). TJ isn't exactly in a position to be socializing during a complicated surgery, so she gets a pass. 😉

This was rambly, but my point is that a lot of lonely nerds are drawn to sci-fi, even the girls. I know for a fact that I'm projecting, but come on, she designs hyperdrives. You really gonna sit there and tell me she never watched Star Trek? 😂

As a side note (oh boy even more rambling), in my fan content, she and Eli have a very sweet friendship based on their shared nerd interests. I really don't think they'd get along in canon as things were left.

Speaking of sci-fi, I like to think that, after getting recruited for the Stargate program, Amanda watched all of Wormhole X-treme to prepare herself. I also like to think that no one else on Destiny's crew has seen it except Eli, who saw a handful of episodes randomly. I just really need him to see a stargate for the first time and be all like WOW JUST LIKE WORMHOLE X-TREME 😂 These are two separate excerpts, one mentioning the show and tying it back to actual events in SG-1, and the other showing a snippet of an episode. Replicators are kinda like Legos, so of course the humanoid Wormhole X-treme versions would be Lego people (I'm not creative, I'm just silly).

Going back to feeling lonely, I do think Amanda would be pretty imaginative, even if she's kinda one-note. In a fic I'm working on, she confesses that all of her fantasies involve Rush and having working legs (disclaimer that there's obviously nothing wrong with using a wheelchair and that disabled people can and do have fulfilling romantic relationships and sex lives, but it seems clear in the show that she would like to be able to walk again, so I have stuck to that for this particular story), and the narrative quality of her fantasies is very much on par with dollar store romance novels. She reminds me a little of Tina from Bob's Burgers and her "erotic friendfiction," so I made a few crossover memes. That's Tina's copy of "Buttloose" in the 4th panel. Panel 3 is also a borrowed quote from Tina. I do think Amanda might struggle with tidiness since she spent a good 25 years not being able to pick up after herself at all. I also struggle with this due to executive dysfunction and growing up in a borderline hoarder environment, so I guess I'm projecting again RIP 😅

No, really, Camile, what do you mean????

I guess in Amanda's defense, she doesn't find Rush off-putting in any way since he's not unnecessarily mean to her. 😂

I'm not sure if I'll ever complete my fic, but one thing I'm exploring, both there and, to a less complicated degree, in my memes, is Amanda's use of the neural link while she's a computer ghost. In Seizure, she seemed to use it with ease (apart from that one colossal fuckup lmaooooo), and I'd really like to see what she could do with it after her file is no longer quarantined. I've done a lot of cringe rambling and infodumping (congrats to anyone who's actually made it this far), so I won't go into detail, but she does work on expanding use of the link so she and Ginn can use it at the same time and connect to multiple people so they can socialize and function more as crew members instead of something like a guardian angel or familiar spirit. I'd also like, as mentioned in a previous post for this event, if she could help Lisa "see" again via the neural link. Another possibility, as alluded to in the above photo, is making "holograms," which aren't really holograms, but are more like skins for the ship's AI. What's cooler, accessing a medical database in the infirmary, or asking the EMH from Voyager to give you the info you need? If you're a loser like me, it's absolutely the second one.

More backstory!! My hc is that Amanda's parents were killed in the accident that paralyzed her (on the way to some math tournament with the high school mathletes or something idk I'm a musician I don't know what STEM people do for fun), and she was raised by her grandparents. We all love to make our faves suffer, and I'm no exception. This is just a silly little comic, but there is a certain sadness of being intellectually advanced but emotionally immature, something common among gifted kids and neurodivergent people (and I'm both, wheeeee). Things are thankfully getting better now. I love seeing more acceptance. But it was difficult in the early 00s when I was a teen, and I'm sure it would have been harder for Amanda in the '80s and '90s. It's also difficult when you have to rely on someone else for transportation, but they are unwilling to take you places (I went nowhere in college except school and church and my parents were still always mad at me, which is weird of them because they actively discouraged me from driving and would not teach me or help me get over my fears, so uhhhh yeah).

Last one~

So yes, I'm definitely salty that my top 2 SGU ladies got fridged twice (Ginn's my second fave because of course she is). I do think it opened up a lot of interesting possibilities for both characters, but as the show was tragically cut short, we have to rely on fan content. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make here is that Amanda and Ginn would have been fine had Amanda simply studied Bobby Hill's Guide to Self-Defense. Yes, it's bad, but I am a bad person and I generate irreverent things.

If you made it this far, then congratulations, you're an obsessed weirdo like me!! I know Amanda isn't exactly popular, nor is SGU, especially not so long after the fact, so I don't really expect anyone to read all this. If you do, I hope I was able to convey why she is so special to me. If nothing else, I hope you enjoyed the memes.

Also this took me like 5 hours to write, Jesus Christ I need to sleep

[ravenloftgm]

Faith Meade

Backstory of the best worst Ventrue.

As promised I'm gonna do big posts about all of my OCs and hyperlink them in my big OC post, and the one I've got brainrot about right now is Faith, so here we fucking go:

In life, Faith was the only child of an incredibly, incredibly mentally ill single mother. Her mum was a devout Catholic, but some sort of schizoaffective disorder or straight up schizophrenia led her to frequent episodes of believing her daughter was possessed by the devil, a sinner, an angel, etc. She was often punished severely, being deprived of things or even, on rare occasions, beaten.

Faith has an eidetic memory. She's a character in a text-based chronicle, so it's nice and simple to roleplay this, as opposed to in a tabletop game. She was the "weird kid" at her school - not being allowed to see 'satanic' movies or play video games, or generally experience anything normal, as well as remembering everything perfectly and often explaining things in too much detail, she wound up often taking lessons aside from the rest of her class, which did not help her to make friends.

While I don't have an eidetic memory, this is borrowed from my real life. I was hyperlexic and very good at math as a kid, and distinctly remember reading Anne Frank's diary in P5 while the rest of the class read with the teacher, and studying maths with the special education teacher in a private room rather than staying in the classroom. Unlike Faith, though, I had some solid friends despite this.

She did a little better in high school, but not much. She wasn't allowed to hang out with her friends outside of school, so she missed out on partying and sleepovers and such, and her relationships with the girls in her friend group just weren't as deep as the ones the other girls shared with each other. She continued to study at an advanced level, and was able to apply for, and get into, university at just 16 years old.

Faith did her best at university. She lived in student accommodation, rather than with her mother, so she had a lot more freedom. She made a few friends and mastered her social skills, and while she still couldn't go drinking with them all at clubs, she managed to secure her first boyfriend, get into video games, and catch up on some media she missed. She prioritised her studies, though, determined to wind up in a high-paying job so she could get her mother into some sort of mental health facility, and enjoy an independent life away from her forever.

Faith maintained her Catholicism throughout her life. While her mother wasn't well, she had grown reliant on religion to get her through her experiences, and she just wasn't willing to give it up. She tried not to think too much about whether or not she actually believed in it all - her faith was a choice she was making. She ended up finding a church that she liked, rather than the one her mother attended - one with an evening mass, so she could juggle studying and part time work with her religion. The priest, a rather attractive man, considering your average priest, was someone she felt quite drawn to. She regularly went for confession, as someone who is quite self-pitying and self-deprecating, but she also ended up helping out with fundraisers and community projects, really finding something to live for between this community and purpose, her new friendships, and her career prospects.

She graduated and started working as a Sales Trader, the youngest in her company, and proved to have an incredible knack for it. Nobody can predict patterns quite like everyone who has seen and remembered every pattern, after all.

It is worth noting now, that Faith is a naturally very curious person - she often managed to find out things she shouldn't know. Occasionally, she would share this information with clients - and this bad behaviour came up in confession from time to time.

How was she to know that her beloved local priest was a kindred? And a Ventrue at that? Watching her develop over her teenage years from a strange, yet intelligent teenager, into a perfectly amiable young woman with a highly profitable set of skills?

The worst part, really, is that isn't even the real reason he killed her. Perhaps she could have understood, if it had been.

[truly-quirkless]

Anonymous asked:

So, do you have a favorite part about teaching? | To both muses

[Unprompted. || Accepting!]

"I just enjoy seeing my students grow!!! There's nothing quite as rewarding as watching the jagged edges get smoothed out, and seeing their progress from start to finish!! If I were better at editing, I'd probably try to make a video about it!"

"Not---- really....I love th' kids, don't get me wrong- but I'm always afraid that I'm not good enough when it comes t'teachin' 'em. N' that fear usually results in me not eating the entire day, leading up to the lesson in question...n' my hands being borderline unfeeling ice-bricks from worry." They let out a breath. "...'m not really suited for teachin'...."

"Don't listen to that! They love being able to help students one-on-one! The Quirkless Hero here may be able to handle their stage fright when they have to, but they prefer when they can give students advice in private, as opposed to having to speak to all of them at once!"

[MUN | ✏]

I actually like to think that Yagi and Fin both work better teaching students one-on-one, but thanks to Yagi having to be impartial as All Might, he can't do it as much. And Fin,...well. They can act comfortable teaching a class (as need be, thank theatre in high school for that) but it freaks them out. Mate does not do well with crowds (F in the chat for socially anxious bitch dating Earth's literal No. 1). They are way better at one-on-one with the students, but they don't really think of that as 'teaching'...despite the fact that if students asked, Fin would absolutely give them advice, if they could think of any. I like to think Fin would even help the kids with their homework, if asked- not doing it for them, but guiding them through the process (if they're having trouble) and then just letting them apply the formula they spoke of on the rest of the homework. Would not surprise me if Fin felt most comfortable holding study sessions for the students. They'd absolutely make games out of it.

Yagi in one-on-one would have less solid advice, more so life advice. He's experienced and knows what life can throw at you- so he could definitely poke holes in combat strategies and the like like nobody's business. Unlike Fin,...he's not going to beat around the bush about one's shortcomings.

[wwarborday]

Project 2025 isn’t gonna throw you into a concentration camp day 1, but it does want to get rid of the entire department of education, make schooling a state issue, give free school vouchers to anyone who asks (essentially paying state money to send kids to religious and private school, rather than pay public teachers better), and uh. Ban? Free? Lunch? Programs?

The forward says that the Constitution’s “pursuit of happiness” should be interpreted as “pursuit of blessedness,” and, “an individual must be free to live as his creator ordained.”

You? Making no money and living paycheck to paycheck? They want you taxed at 30%. They want corporate taxes to be lowered to 18%. They want work requirements for people on SNAP/food stamps. Abortion will be officially declassified as healthcare, and federal insurance will not cover it.

There are, currently, tens of thousands of federal civil servants—post office workers, White House staff (staff, like cleaners, security, gardeners), EPA workers, NASA, Social Security—people who work in federal government, in what are, hypothetically, non-partisan positions. Current policy is to, uh, keep those people around through administrative changes, so that they can do their jobs.

Project 2025 would re-instate what Trump did in his first term, and class many of these jobs as “Schedule F” workers. (Biden eliminated this in his first term.) The administration would then, uh, fire those people, and rehire people who pass a “loyalty test,” because if government works too well, then we have socialism, and big business can’t thrive. Deporting illegal immigrants would become a top priority, but seeking fees from asylum seekers would become top priority, which the project calls “an opportunity for a significant influx of money.”

Jesus Christ.

Related to the above, but last month, June 2024, 2025 launched “Project Sovereignty 2025,” which aims to list 100 people who would oppose Trump. (Not project 2025, or a hypothetical candidate; Trump.) These names will apparently be listed publicly.

The DOJ would, I shit you not, “prosecute all state and local governments, institutions of higher education, corporations, and any other private employers” who participate in DEI or affirmative action programs, since those are anti-white racism.

Like—even if you take away the, yes, idea that trans people are inherently pornographic, this is a plan designed to, essentially, kill the government. The issue isn’t “big government,” the issue is fucking OSHA, and the EPA, and protections for queer people and POC, because what conservatives really want, is the ability to make as much money as possible, by exploiting as many people as they can.

“Trump hasn’t said he’s gonna do project 2025” yeah my bad man, it’s just made by people like Jeffrey Clark (from Trump’s DOJ), Stephen Miller (created immigration policy for Trump), and Russel Vought (policy director for the Republican National Committee).

If you want to scoff at the idea of the military being deployed against civilians on day one, sure, fine, kinda outlandish, but like. This is still, bad? This is still really bad? “The white liberals are scared of the bogeyman” is something I keep seeing, “oh, project 2025, it’s soooo scary,” dude! You should be fucking concerned about anyone wanting to dismantle public education and implement a loyalty test before you can work at the post office!

I find it consistently and endless frustrating, this condescending idea of, “Oh, okay, sure, just one more vote and we’ll defeat fascism…. Why do we still have to vote, then? Idiots .” My guy!! My man!! My dude!! I love having food and safety laws! Big fan of environmental laws that keep lead out of my water! I want OSHA to exist forever! I will kiss social security on the mouth! People wanna get rid of them forever!! I’d love that to not happen!! Gonna vote about it!! If these fuckers would stop trying to dismantle the current government so that they can work me to death, I wouldn’t have to keep asking people to vote!!

“The Democrats should be doing more and Biden sucks” yup!! Gonna vote anyway! Super quick and easy way to keep this from happening in a year! Gives me time to organize with others and create a more systemic solution!

[songs-about-girls-like-me]

chapter 5: the school camp pt.1, the girls dorm

(Author's note: this is a longer one)

A month later, I was moving stuff around inside of my Barbie suitcase on the floor of the girls bedroom: a big room with a bunch of bunk beds with a view to the woods filled with my classmates. We had driven a hundred and something kilometers south to get to this camp in a school bus, and outside it was slowly getting dark. The disco night was tonight and we were getting ready. It is this kind of things that make me realise I really went to a lofty private school.

It wasn't my first Time there. Last Time we'd been, I was in 3rd grade and had worn a sick outfit to this disco party dance: black capris-length leggings, a tunic top from zara in my favorite color (turquoise) and sneakers. Tonight I didn't really know what to wear though. I had prepared something with my mom but wasn't really feeling it. I kept digging through my stuff while the million girls around me were throwing clothes around, talking very loudly. Ella was somewhere near, changing clothes and Liv hadn't come to the camp because her mom told her she was either paying for the camp or Jazz, and we all thought Jazz was a better choice, since it lasted the entire school year as opposed to one weekend.

"Girls! Gather around!" Our instructor was asking for silence from one of the bunk beds. I found Ella and sat on the floor with her. "Before the disco, we're announcing which bunk bed level each of you achieved based on your team work and spirit today, alright?"

Then she called all our names in order, asigning each girl the 1st, 2nd or 3rd level. "Ella _____, 2nd level". I hugged Ella, feeling super happy for her. Barely anyone would make 3rd level on the first night, and she totally deserved it. All day she had been making points in our team and she was a big hero in one of the games where we had to balance on a tree trunk. She was also congratulated by some of the girls near us and I was happy to see her finally having a cool place at school. She hadn't had the best year last year (cause the boys were such bullies for no reason) but she was finally breaking the spell. She was not the new kid anymore. I was smiling proudly looking at my friend, in a Justice tshirt and messy big curls, being accepted by the other girls.

"Rees _______, 1st level"

???? What the fuck? I had been good all day, what had I done wrong?! I sighed out my confussion. I just had to be more enthusiastic tomorrow, I guessed, a bit frustrated. Ella nudged me in the ribs about it, getting a laugh from me. I didn't mind sleeping on the first level, I didn't even take it personally, I figured someone had to sleep there. The problem was that I would have to find someone else to pair with instead of Ella, cause most beds were placed in pairs. I told myself it didn't matter: the real problem was finding what to wear for tonight.

There was something in the air, with the expectation for this disco night, like a vague promise for romantic interactions between these 10/11 year olds. And even if I didn't have feelings like that for anyone, I could still feel it bubbling as a hope for drama inside my heart.

And yes, maybe I had someone in mind.

The only boy I had ever liked in my life was now in my class for the first Time since 2006. He was the one I pushed out of my way the day the popular kids ambushed me to tell me Rome liked me. His name was Brody and he was part of the popular clique, despite him not being popular: he was the sidekick to Miles, that actually popular boy. I found him a bit lame now but we still had an inevitable vibe going on between us, due to our past friendship. He used to like me when we were 6. It was a fact, not confirmed by him, but I had no doubts, not even when I was 6. The context was: we became friends in class in literal kindergarten and I guess we pulled a sk8ter boi by Avril Lavigne cause, he was a boy and I was a girl, could it be any more obvious? And, I mean, he was fairly funny and nice. But he had cried this one Time they sent us to the prinipal's office when we were 7 (his fault, may I add, and he blamed it all on me!), and once he ate my lunch when we were 5 (cookies that had melted in the sun, disgusting) and now at 10, he was a sidekick instead of a person. Despite aaaaall that and the fact that I had lost all my feelings for him by 2006, there was still something in the air whenever we talked these days cause, at the end of the day, he also knew I had liked him.

"Whatever" I shrugged, remembering I cared more about the dancing tonight, and not the boys. The contents of my suitcase weren't cutting it for me, and so I decided to wear whatever I was already wearing. Blue skinny jeans and a polo style shirt with stripes in a blue-yellow-white colorway. I didn't like the weird length of the top but it would have to do. I took my hair brush out of my Barbie suitcase and decided on just taking my hair out of my ponytail and brushing it out, getting just a glimpse of my reflection on the window glass. I always looked good enough anyway, so I decided on taking a rest before the disco started. I climbed up to a second level bed to brush out my hair and chill. The room felt like a rainforest with how high the bunk beds were, and the chaos of clothes, body mist and chatter just added to it.

"Girls! Stop!" The voice of one of my classmates stood out. She was giggling somewhere near.

I stopped brushing my hair, finding literal twigs from the trees tangled in it, to look over the edge of the bed to the floor.

"Guys, stop!!! Aaaa!" She was giggling, surrounded by three or four of her friends while she was changing clothes in this corner of the room. "Stop! I just want to get changed!!" Her tone was playful, a little attention seeking, but mostly funny. Her name was Poppy and I had barely ever talked to her. She had dark hair, slightly slanted eyes and a naturally flirty personality. She was in Jazz with us, and she wasn't new in school but I had just met her this school year. We sat on the same team in class and she was constantly talking over the teacher, but I didn't find her that irritating. Who I found annoying were two of her friends who sat next to me too, and were now trying to get in her way while she was taking off her top.

"Is that a Victoria's Secret bra???!" one of her friends shouted, making the scene bigger on purpose, making some other girls turn heads.

"It's sexy, isn't it?" Poppy said while laughing, but then screamed when her friend tried to lift her top. "No. Stop! Let me get changed." She was giggling a little so I decided to mind my own business.

"That IS Victoria's Secret!"

"Stop, guys!" I couldn't help but look over again. Poppy was now covering herself with a blanket.

"Stop, can you help me while I get changed? I don't want everyone to see me." She was asking them to hold the blanket up to get dressed properly. These two friends grabbed the blanket while she changed and I was 100% sure they were going to keep teasing her, and they did. Poppy screamed when she was out for the public's eyes again, and tried covering her torso with her top. "No. Now I'm being serious." She said it with an air of silliness. "Stop it guys." But I felt despite trying to seem chill, she actually was trying to stop it. Her friends were now just being mean, being loud and laughing as if being friendly, while giving her shit for wearing a patterened bra. I decided to come down to the floor.

"Do you need me to hold that up?" I got in between the other girls and got the blanket.

"Could you?! Yes!!"

I held it up giving her a corner to change. When I looked over my shoulder, it was more than only her friends, some other girls were also talking about her.

"What?" I asked.

"Seriously, Poppy!! What are you weari

"A cute bra!" shouted Poppy behind the blanket. I giggled.

"Grow up, guys" I said while having to fight this one girl who was trying to lower the blanket.

"Yes, listen to her, girls!" Said Poppy backing me up, topless and still giggling. "Grow some!!... Boobs!" We both laughed, and looked at each other with an air of having topped everyone. I shrugged, looking into her friend's eyes and they finally left. "Thanks, Rees. Those girls act like real bitches sometimes." Poppy was a rare type of trouble maker that I found amusing instead of annoying. "You're a real one." She was able to get the new top on and then looked at me with a smile. "I lowkey can't stand them. Thanks girl, that was real cool of you"

"Sure" I said tossing the blanket away, knowing I loved playing the hero.

"You're cool, Rees! Hell yeah." I laughed at that and fired back another compliment along the lines of "you're also sick" trying to mimic her way of sepaking.

"See you around"

I went looking for Ella who had gotten ready in another side of the jungle. She now had her hair down, like me, and we were pondering on whether we should take our jackets or not. The disco was being held at the lobby/hall which was indoors so we figured we wouldn't need them. Our instructor told us we had to brush our teeth at the outdoors bathroom, and then: it was Disco Time.

[miutonium]

Just curious, what do you learn in college?? Since I see you mention you're in an art school. I want to go there when I finish high school so any advice?? I love your art and I just want to be as good as you in the future as well ✨️

Hi hi! Yes I do and I am suffering every second of it 🥰

Just kidding! I love doing what I do in school, I get to learn tons of new stuff and step out of my comfort zone! I am currently taking Visual Communication since I'm aiming to work in ad agencies (or just an in-house designer for any companies) in the future!

Here's the thing though, art school doesn't actually teach you to draw from scratch. You have to know the fundamentals like how to draw and basic design knowledge if you want to have an okay time in school because most classes I had they expect us to have a basic knowledge on certain mediums and software. I struggled in my first semester because idk how to use Adobe Illustrator (which is actually so funny to me since most of my artwork are lineless and looked vector) and I cried because I cant figure out how to use the fuckin pen tool. I am okay with using AI now though after being forced to use it for 2 years but I still prefer PS and InDesign over any other day. I admit that I have an easier time at school as oppose to my classmates because while they entered art school right after graduating high school (public schools here deemed art to be unimportant and it's common that the timeslot for art class is used as replacement class for other subject so students graduating from public school almost learn art through self studies), I came from an art vocational school and also went to a private uni for graphic design briefly so I have a bit of prior experience unlike my classmates just started tinkering into digital media in art school.

Experience may vary from countries and schools but from what I can gather and generalize from my experience being in art school for 2 years, if you can afford being in an art school, can afford to pour your time in school, passionate about your craft and want to pursue working in the creative industry, please totally go for it! You don't only learn how to draw but also learn how to organises your work and prep your work for professional settings! For example idk shit about printing and packaging before going to school and it sounded like a minor thing here sure but there's much more logic and black magic fuckery that goes behind the scene to make a single magazine (look up reader vs printer spread!). I get to learn tons a cool stuff about mass production and making designs for those purposes. You don't get to know those things through self-learning. Art school has taught me a lot on how to design for others to see and perceive and not just for me and I just think this is neat for me especially when I always want to make cool ads for people.

Hopefully this doesn't sound too complicated and deter you from being in art school (especially when all i do these days is moaning about wanting school to be over. Im just burnt out tbh lol but i swear i love what im doing in school lol). I hope you get to make a good choice for yourself and whatever you pursue in the future will be good for you💕💕💕

[jiujitsunewyorkcity2221]

Unbeatable Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Courses about the Top Eastern side Side

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[beardedmrbean]

One Georgia Democrat is fed up with some members of her own party, accusing them of prioritizing illegal immigrants over Black children as kids struggle to stay afloat academically and economically. 

State Rep. Mesha Mainor, a Democrat, is a staunch supporter of school choice, and she torched Georgia Democrats on "Fox & Friends" Monday for aiding migrant families while poor residents struggle with necessities.

"I was speaking to someone that works with migrants the other day, and when I was talking about my constituents, she said, ‘well, what about this program?’ And then she had to… step back a second," Mainor told Ainsley Earhardt Monday morning.

"And she said, ‘Oh, but those are just for migrants.’ And so there are so many services that… from a humanitarian aspect, sure. Give them those humanitarian aspects. But if you walk down the street in Atlanta, Georgia, right now, you are going to see kids on the corner selling water because they are trying to make money for their households."

GEORGIA GOV. BRIAN KEMP ENDORSES $6,500 PRIVATE SCHOOL VOUCHER BILL

"They don't have lights on… to do homework, and this is just a much broader issue than people are realizing," she continued. 

Mainor garnered attention on the issue after she posted a video on Twitter over the weekend accusing her colleagues of trying to oust her over her stance on school choice. 

"It's ironic. I'll say every election year, I hear ‘Black Lives Matter.’ But do they? I see every other minority being prioritized except Black children living in poverty that can't read," Mainor said in the video. 

"We'll send $1,000,000 to the border for immigrant services, but Black communities, not even a shout-out. I'm sorry, I don't agree with this," she added. "I'm not backing down and I'm actually just getting started."

BLUE STATE COVID LEARNING LOSS WIDENED RACIAL ACHIEVEMENT GAPS RELATIVE TO RED STATES: STUDY

She even accused some fellow lawmakers of offering $1,000 checks "to anyone that will run against" her. 

Mainor's deep-blue 56th House District stretches from southwest Atlanta up into the Midtown area and includes schools in dire need of improvement. She said some schools in her area have low single-digit proficiency levels in math and/or reading. 

Additionally, politicians are not doing enough to counter the sliding academic achievement gap, she argued. 

"We are acting like we care about Black people, and in my opinion, we are doing very little for Black people, and when you're talking about something like school choice, it really helps Black people. It helps children that are disabled," Mainor said. 

"And so we put priorities on lots of other minorities, and I'm not saying that these other minorities are not important, but I feel like we are putting Black people at the very bottom of the totem pole," she continued. 

School choice advocates also support expansion of charter schools, which have grown greatly in Georgia in recent years and many of which count minority students as a majority of their enrollments. 

Charter schools are publicly funded schools that are independently run and include students who are not in the immediate area; teachers unions often oppose them as well since their teachers generally are not unionized.

Mainor said parents in her district are in favor of school choice, and the backlash from her colleagues on the issue is a "slap" in the face to anyone who supports their right to choose where their children attend class.

"My parents want school choice," Mainor said. "I have the most charter schools in my district than any other district in the state of Georgia, and so for my party, my colleagues, to say that all these parents that have chosen charter schools and are choosing school choice options are irrelevant and not important, it's not only a slap in my face, but they're slapping every single parent in my district that uses these services in the face as well."

According to the NAEP Report Card, average math and reading scores dropped 9.8 points and 6.3 points respectively, in Georgia, from 2017 to 2022.