#how is it possible for them to get along? the students are curious!!! but Marco reminds them gently its none of their business

[xamaxenta]

The pain and suffering never ends

POV: you’re a newly enlisted PPDC Cadet assigned to the SEA Shatterdome to further your training as an upcoming pilot, your first class is physical and combat training with the Fightmaster, LTC. Portgas, you’ve heard many things about this man, that he’s lost someone special to him, that he solo drifted his own jaeger, that he doesn’t fuck around when it comes to his duties, they say LTC Portgas barely smiles and when he does it never really reaches his eyes.

[postmodernbeing]

Shingeki no Kyojin headcanons: 104th training corps (College AU)

Hello, Postmodernbeing here. This time I wanted to write about things that I actually know, since I’m a college student and I’m studing History and Social Sciences I found myself wondering about what would the 104th training corps focus their studies on if all of them had chosen humanities as their career. I hope you find this funny and at least a bit accurate.

IMPORTANT:  I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin, only these HCs are my own. // Might contain a few spoilers from the manga. // English is not my first language and I study uni at Latin America, so scientifical terms/words/concepts may vary. Anyhow, I thank you for reading and for your patience.

Eren Jaeger

He’s passionate about Military History, not to be confused with history of army. Eren’s rather focused in strategies, weapons and semiotics involved in military speech.

First started with books about great wars in modern era. The use of certain weapons took him by surprise due the technological development.

Then he took classes about discourse analysis, semiotics and such, and felt inspired by the discourse reflected in emblems, uniforms, flags, etc.

Eren doesn’t really have a preference between occidental or oriental, North or South, Modern or Ancient settings. He would simply devour all the books that deal with military strategy and warlike conflicts. Although he has more experience and information about great wars in modern era.

He’s fascinated with the inexhaustible human desire of freedom and the extent that it can reach. This fascination might not be very healthy, he concludes.

Also, finds a cruel beauty in violence when showed in freedom and ideals are protected over one’s own life. But he won’t tell his classmates or professors. He knows is a controversial opinion for he’s still aware the implications of massive conflicts and the abuse of power.

One thing led to another, Eren is now taking classes and reading about philosophy in war and anthropological perspectives about violence through time.

He’s so into social movements besides his main interest in college: “No one’s really free until all humanity is”, that’s his life motto pretty much.

Due his readings and researches he decided it was important to develop a political stance about the world’s problems. Eren strongly believes all lives worth the same, but systems and nations had imposed over others and vulnerated other human's lives.

Yes, Eren is anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist.

Mikasa Ackerman

Asian Studies Major / History Minor.

She thinks by studying these degrees, she pays honor to her heritage. Specially to her mother. Her family is the proudest for Mikasa is also the best student in her whole generation.

Mikasa received a scholarship thanks to Azumabito family, who are co-founders of an academic institution dedicated to Asian historical and cultural research. She might as well start working when she graduates.

Although she’s passionate about Japan’s history, she has written a few articles and essays about Asian Studies themselves and the importance of preserving but also divulging by means of art and sciences.

In her essays and research work, she likes to employ tools from many disciplines since she strongly believes all humanities and social sciences serve the very same purpose at scrutinize the social reality all the same. Might as well use demographics, ethnology, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, archeology, and so on. For it proves to bring light into questions that history by itself could answer unsatisfactorily (in Mikasa’s opinion).

Even her professors wonder how she manages to organize that much information and pull it off successfully. She might as well be more brilliant than a few PhD’s students.

Armin Arlert

Prehistoric studies / Archeology

He’s so into the studies about the prehistoric humans and routes of migration.

Passionate about the ocean and natural wonders since kid, Armin believed his career would be environmentalist or geoscience related.

That was the agreement he had with his grandad since middleschool, until he read Paul Rivet’s “The Origins of the American Man” book and captured him thoroughly. The way the book explained logically the diverse theories about global migration and enlisted the challenges of modern archeology -for there are numerous mysteries- simply devoured his conscience.

He knew from the books he’d read that most evidence of the first settlements are deep under dirt or far away in the ocean whose level has risen over the centuries leaving primitive camps – and answers – unreachable. 

That’s the reason he is so eager to study and give his best to contribute both archeology and history disciplines. Also, he’ll forever love the ocean and nature, just leave him do all the fieldwork, please.

Jean Kirstein

History of industry / Industrial heritage / Historical materialism

Jean first started interested in capitalist industries and production development in first world countries. Kind of rejected other visions and explanations since he’d read about positivism studies.

His interest in such matters started when he was a just boy. He often found himself wondering how things were made and that question captured him ever since. As he grew up, he realized that machines and industrial processes were highly involved in the most mundane objects creation.

Nonetheless, he learnt that not always the best machinery was used, nor the best work conditions were available for mass production. From that moment he’d started to read about the First Industrial Revolution and his mind just took off with questions. Invariably, he learned about labour struggle and the transforming power due workforce.

Between his readings and university classes, he’d knew more about labour movements, unions. And in the theoretical aspect, he'd learned about historical materialism analysis.

One could say that Jean possesses a humanistic vision of the implications in mass production under capitalist system along history and nowadays.

Marco Bodt

Royalty's history / Medieval Studies 

I wanted to keep his canonical fascination to royalty and the best way to do that was including Medieval Studies.

Marco would study since the fall of Roman Empire until the latest gossip of royal families all across Europe.

Might get a bit of Eurocentric with his essays but in real life discussions he’s always open to debates about decolonization. He has even read Frantz Fanon books and possesses a critical thinking about colonial countries and their relations with the so named third world.

Nevertheless, Marco finds a strange beauty in the lives of monarchs and he’s interested in study from their education, hobbies, strategies, relationships, everything.

I’d say that his favorite historical period is probably the establishment of the descendants of the barbarian peoples in the new kingdoms such as the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks, Vandals, Huns, Saxons, Angles and Jutes (holy shit, they're a lot).

Because this would transcend as the beginning of his favorite matter of analysis.

Sasha Braus

History of gastronomy, development of cooking, antropology and archeological studies.

Sasha’s interested in the history that shows human development of food and cooking. She finds wonders when she inquires into cultural aspects from the first farming till modern artistic expressions that would involve food.

Such as gastronomy. But her attention got caught in literature’s food representation too, with its symbols and allegories, also in paintings that belong in still life movement, but also Sasha finds interest when food is used as rhetorical devices (for example: the apple in Adam and Eve’s myth).

She’s curious about primitive systems of irrigation, cultivation, food distribution, adaptation of wild species; as well as the domestication of animals, the diversification of the diet and its link with sedentary life, as well as the subsequent division of labor once the need for food was assured in humanity’ first cities.

Sasha’s convinced that alimentation is the pilar of civilization as we know it. For it involves cultural, artistic, economic, emotion and social aspects. Food is a microcosm of analysis of humanity.

Sasha hasn’t a favorite historical period or setting. But she definitely has a special fascination for first civilizations and their link with alimentation. Also, she likes to study the development gastronomy in occident world around different regions, social classes, and time.

Although, let’s be honest, Sasha would devour (lol, couldn’t help it) ANY book about agriculture, cattle raising, cooking or gastronomy. 

Connie Springer

Micro-history / History of everyday life.

Connie loves his hometown, has a deep respect to his family and traditions. That’s why he finds himself wondering about the most ordinary events that developed in his dear Ragako. 

The book “The Cheese and the Worms” by Carlo Ginzburg changed the way he used to understand history and capture him into meaningful discussions about what he learned was called micro-history.

His favorite quote from that book is: “As with language, culture offers to the individual a horizon of latent possibilities—a flexible and invisible cage in which he can exercise his own conditional liberty.”

Once deep into studying the Italian historians and their works, he decided to give it a try, and ever since he’s mesmerized with the mundane vestiges craftsmen that worked in his village left behind.

Connie’s parents are so proud of him and his achivements, but mostly because he became a passionate academic over human and simple matters, (so down to earth our big baby).

His attitude towards his essays and research works truly shows his great heart and humility. Connie is aware that academic works have no use if they are not meant to teach us about ourselves too and current times.

Empathy and hard work, that’s how one could describe the elements that integrate his recently started academic career.

Historia Reiss

Political History / Statistician

Her father’s family pressured Historia since she was a little girl into studying History just like his dad. For he’s a very famous historian that had made important researches and books about the greatest statesmen of Paradis.

She thought in numerous ways that she could sabotage her career or study any other career without her family’s consent and end with her linage of historians. But she ended up enrolling in tuition and so far, she is trying her best in her studies. Historia swears this is the right path for her.

But don’t let the appearances fool you, even thought she studies her father’s career and the very same branch of history’s discipline, she has her own critical sense and she’s so talented on her own, very meticulous with her research papers.

Definitely wants a PhD about women, power and politics. We stand a Gender Studies Queen.

Her complementary disciplines are Political Sciences. Historia also has a talent for philosophy and owns a diary with all her thoughts about them. She hopes one day she would write a book or a manifesto about an innovative methodology for research and teaching History of Politic Thinking.

Ymir 

Religion’s History / Theology

Just like Historia, Ymir was pressured into studying History. And if she’s totally honest, she still has some doubts about it. Even if she couldn’t imagine herself studying anything else.

Anyways, Ymir thought that she could build her career around topics that she enjoys. So, she finally chose theology for unusual reasons.

Her classmates had grown up in religious families or had experience studying the doctrines they practiced. But she, being an agnostic, found satisfaction in unraveling belief systems in different cultures and time periods.

Albeit she studies in Paradis’ University, she currently has the opportunity of taking an academic exchange at Marley’s University. This only made Ymir more conflicted about her future, for she wants to stay (near Historia) but she’s aware that Marley would offer her more academic opportunities for her specialization.

Nowadays she’s working in some collaborative research paper with some people from Mythological Studies from the Literature department. She’s nailing it, writing some historical studies about titans in Greek mythology and its impact in shaping neoclassical poetry. Her brains ugh, love her.

Reiner Braun

Official History / Biographies of heroes and great wars.

His mother convinced him with numerous books about great national heroes, but mostly because she knew that would mean sure job to her son. All political administration in every level requires of an official chronicler. 

When he started his college courses, Reiner felt motivated and he was actually convinced that he had the vocation. But the more he read the less sure he felt that the academic world was for him. He wondered if he made the right choice. If he did it for him or for his mother.

Stories and myths about heroes have always cheered him up. That gave him purpose and consoled him when feeling down. Or at least it was like that when younger. Reiner truly didn’t feel like himself when regretting his choices, but he couldn’t help it for he was changing in more than a way.

That’s why he decided to experiment with other disciplines and with time he would find joy in historical novels. He would analyze them just as good as a litterateur and research about historical context in the written story AND study the artwork’s context itself.

His favorites theorical books are: “Historical Text as Literary Artifact” by Hayden White and Michel de Certeau’ “The Writing of History”.·        

Heroes stories would always accompany him, just differently now.

Bertolt Hoover

History of mentalities / Les Annales

Intimate relationships, basic habits and attitudes. / Culture

Bertie has always been a much reticent and shy guy. As he grew up, he consolidated his sullen personality, but maintained a friendly attitude towards anyone who needed him. That’s why he thought that the priority in his studies was to be at the service of his classmates.

So, although he was passionate about research and was a fan of the French Les Annales current, he considered his mission to be in the Archive. As a cataloger, organizer and curator of ancient documents.

But the ways of History are always mysterious, and Doctor Magath showed him that other way of being was possible. Before Bertolt picked his specialty, he met Theo Magath, a professor who recently had finished writing a book: “The Idea of Death in Liberio’s Ghetto in Marley During its War Against Eldia (Paradis)” (long-ass titles are historians specialty btw). After Magath ended his book’ presentation, Bertolt reached him. They talked for hours and finally, he felt inspired into pursuing his true passion. Magath gifted him “The Historian’s Craft” by Marc Bloch as a way to reminding him his way.

By the time Bertolt took History of Mentalities as optional class, he already had some basic notions about Les Annales, Lucien Febvre, Marc Bloch, Fernand Braudel, Jacques Le Goff and such. 

Being the gentle giant he is, Bertolt finds joy in reading about different lifestyles in diverse cultures. He constantly wonders about the origin of social constructs and the way they shape thinking as much as identity.

This boy is a wonder, he might not be the best in oral presentations or  extracurricular activities but sure as hell he’ll graduate with honors.

Annie Leonhart

Oral history, about institutions. Particularly, police and justice system in early XXs.

Albeit she got into the same University than Bertolt and Reiner, even shared classes and hopes, Annie regularly felt disconnected from her studies. With time she realized it wasn't due her career itself but rather because of the currents that her professors had suggested her taking. Until now.

Talking with Hitch and Marlow about their doubts concerning subjects and departments it came up the topics of history and present time but also oral history. She’d never heard something like that before. So, that very same week, Annie started searching for information about that.

She ended up with more questions: is it all of this just academic journalism? Or maybe sociology? When we can talk about regular history and when it starts being present time? If she introduces interviews due oral history, then that makes it an interdisciplinary work? Which are the best systems for analyzing data? Definitely, she’ll need help from anthropology and sociology departments if she wants to keep going. 

Contrary to her initial prognostic, philosophy and history of historic writing became her new allies, and the text “Le temps présent et l'historiographie contemporaine” (Present Time and Contemporary Historiography) by Bédarida among others, provided Annie another perspective. 

Regarding her favorite topics, she wouldn’t say that she selected them freely. They were just practical preferences. For institutions own extensive archives and numerous functionaries. One way or another, she ended up tangled in judicial system and police issues.

With new tools and object for studying, one could find Annie having a blast as detective too. Even if her academic essays focus on institutions’ history and configuration, she’s also working in corruption and more. She doesn’t do it because she believes it’s the right thing, but besides, the thrill of the tea is spicy. Although she won’t admit it. 

[loveofafangirl]

The Heart of a Hero

[Steve Rogers Masterlist]

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC (teacher) Setting: Post EndGame, Present Day-- Upstate New York Word Count: ~ 1,550

Synopsis: Steve finds himself inexplicably drawn to the small town he stumbled upon a week earlier. His visit leaves him wondering who he is without the shield. This is a sequel to A Chance Encounter.

The sea of trees broke into a blanket of green and brown speckled grass. His pace slowed as he spun in place, letting the memories fade back, and the small town came into view. He jogged lightly; something about the place seemed familiar. As he reached the town center, he realized why. He had come out in a different area but, it was still the same town he had happened upon last week.

He slowed to a walk, studying the people and buildings. It was just like the last time, calm and quaint. People walked and chatted rather than buzz about busily. Before he realized it, he was in view of the same bench.  

A lilting laugh across the street pulled his attention. Something inside of him warmed at the sound; a whispered fluttering threatened to calm the storm raging inside of him. However, the feeling flickered out quickly as his gaze settled upon a woman he had never seen before. 

He shook his head, trying to reconcile that feeling. Walking away and heading back in the direction he had come from, he took one final look back to the bench. He couldn’t help but wonder how in all of the miles and miles of wilderness and small towns, he had happened upon the same one twice. 

“Thank you, Marco.” She proceeded out the door, turning back to pay the elderly shop owner one last goodbye. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” She smiled, taking a sip of her iced pumpkin latte and not looking ahead. “Oof—”

His strong arms steadied her this time, skillfully supporting her drink so that nothing spilled. 

Her gaze settled on his torso, recognizing it as the same as before. (Not many men in her town had abs that even through a shirt, appeared to be cut from the smoothest marble.) Her face couldn’t have warmed more even under the worst sunburn. 

“We have got to stop meeting like this.” 

She expected his tone to be harsh, but it was gentle and even more, had an air of amusement. 

Realizing his arms still held her, he took a step back. The vibrant blue of her dress began to trigger memories as it pulled him back to the shield and that fateful day. It had fractured effortlessly, in a way he hadn’t known possible. 

“I’m so sorry. I swear I’m not usually this clumsy.” 

Her words drew him back. “I was looking for—I was just distracted. It was my fault.”

She closed her eyes for a moment, stealing enough confidence to finally look at the man with whom she had not once, but twice, collided. Confusion swept across her face as she processed what she saw. “Oh my gosh! You’re… You’re, well, you!”

Steve rubbed the back of his neck, a sheepish grin on his face. Words failed as he attempted to explain. He wasn’t that person, not who she thought he was. Not anymore.

She tucked a strand of hair back behind her ear. Her thoughts bounced curiously as to how this was possible. How was he here? And if he was here, were they in danger? 

The awkward silence that fell between them broke as the voices of a small group gathered nearby. Their murmurs grew as their phones flashed, taking photo after photo of the celebrity gracing their streets. 

His previously relaxed gaze darted around him; people drew nearer, begging for his attention. Since bringing back the Infinity Stones and deciding to return to the future, Steve had kept a low profile, rarely going out in public or seeing anyone, choosing instead to occupy his time with building his woodland escape.

She reached out, grazing his arm lightly before recoiling back. “Sorry!” Her face reddened again. “I thought I might have bumped my head, and this was all a dream. My students will never believe I met you.”

“This is real.” His expression was more somber than she anticipated. His focus split between the woman in front of him and the crowd closing in.

“The kids would just—no, sorry! I can’t ask that,” she rambled, covering her face with her hand. She started to turn before deciding to continue. “If you ever want to stop by. I mean—” her fingers fiddled with her ID badge around her neck. “—you don’t have to, I’m sure you’re really busy… it's just, the kids would love to meet you. It would mean a lot to them.”

His brow furrowed as he considered her words. 

“Can I take a picture with you?” 

“Cap, look this way.”

“Quick, take the picture!”

The crowd wedged in, split them apart as Steve reluctantly obliged the townspeople. 

“I’m not who you think I am.” His attention shifted back to her. “I’m not him anymore.”

“I’m sorry,” she said nervously, noting the uncertainty and discomfort on his face, assuming she was the cause. “I shouldn’t have said anything.” Her head hung a little lower as she turned away.

“Wait!” 

She hastened her step, attempting to make a discrete retreat while the crowd demanded his attention. She hadn’t meant to make him feel uncomfortable or presume to think he did not have more important things to do, but why was he there? And twice in such a short period of time. Her stomach turned remembering, that both times she had embarrassed herself. How did she ever let herself imagine she could live in a city and have adventures of her own one day. She could barely handle a conversation on the street.

“I’m sorry. Okay, just one more. Quickly..” Steve attempted to dismiss the crowd. “I’m sorry. I’ve got to go.” The disappointed group attempted to follow him. “I’m sorry,” he offered once more before skillfully maneuvering through the masses. With a few long steps, he had caught up to her. “Can we talk?”

“It’s okay. I overstepped.” She continued hurriedly along.

“It’s not that. It’s just—I’m trying to leave that life behind. I’m not him anymore.”

“I wasn’t asked for Captain America.” She stopped, gazing gently at him and carefully considering her next words. “I asked for Steve Rogers. The man behind the shield and the uniform is more of a hero than the one with it. I’ve attempted to instill in my students that being a hero is more than money, technology, weapons, or even super-soldier abilities. It begins in the heart. The heart of a hero is something that is nurtured, and once established, no one can take it from them. I believe Steve Rogers has a heart such as this. A heart that goes beyond the mask or the shield and beyond the team that stood behind him. A heart that at its core is good, right, courageous, and just. That makes a hero. Choosing kindness, finding ways to help, and noticing the good in others even when it's hard to see. If that doesn’t describe you, then you're not the man I thought you were. But if it does, maybe you need to remember who you were before all of this.” She gestured to the lingering crowd just out of earshot. “I want the man who threw himself on the grenade to protect people that saw him as nothing. That heart. That man. He was always more than enough.”

His countenance softened as he listened to her words. They were so different from the rhetoric he was used to hearing. He knew he wasn’t the symbol people wanted him to be anymore, but he didn’t know if he was still that man anymore either. He had seen more than he ever believed could come to pass, suffered more, lost more. The world wasn’t that simple anymore. There were a lot of shades of grey now. She made being a hero sound like a modern fairytale, where good always won, but the truth was, the world was so much darker than that. A heavy expression grew on his face as the curious crowd moved in once more. “I’m sorry. I just can’t.”

Without another word, he rushed past her, determined to put distance between him and the town, the crowd, and her. He picked up speed, sprinting out of the town and away from all it made him feel. He needed the freedom of the forest and its quietness to quell his thoughts. The memories flooded back, threatening to drown him, so he pushed harder and faster. This had been his only escape. His brow grew moist with the lightest mist of sweat as his body battled the reminders of the past that haunted him and the adrenaline coursing through him, but more so, the anger he had been secretly harboring for all the death and destruction he had helped cause.

Whispers of why the super-soldier had come circulated through the town over the next few days. It was, after all, the most exciting thing that had happened there in a long time. They didn’t get celebrities. They didn’t even get everyday visitors, just the occasional lost traveler. She went about her days, wondering if any of it had happened. It seemed like a dream. Had she really given Steve Rogers a speech on being a hero? She was mortified at the thought. No wonder he had run off. Her cheerful heart sunk a little after that day. What did she know about being a hero? Nothing. That’s what. Perhaps, she was the fraud all along. 

Perma(til the end of the line): @the-soot-sprite​

Let me know if you want to be tagged in future Steve stories. 💖