#laurs' academic writing
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oh-snapperss · 8 months ago
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hi guys here's my fanfiction i wrote for my mythology final godbless
Pairing: Ren/Etho (ish??)
Words: 1,178
Warnings: Discussions of mortality/mentioned character death
Summary:
The sky thundered despite the clear as day sky, and Ren had shared a look with the ground before opening his mouth, undoubtedly to beg Etho to take his rash statement back. He had not taken it back, it was a miracle, a gift! Finally, at last, the gods were worth something to Etho. Ren had fallen in battle less than a year later. He’d held Etho’s hand that night, and cried. That was the first time Etho felt the prickle of regret spark in his chest. or, a series of three letters spanning hundreds of years as an exploration of what mortality means, written by immortal etho to his long-lost mortal lover.
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starhvney · 13 days ago
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Hiii, can you write an laurnace x reader about garroth little sister/ Zanes twin who he is dating and the reader is the smart one of the family and because all the ro’Meaves children have there roles she feel like she has to stick to hers or the world with crash/ disappoint her father and she gets a bad grade so Laur comforts her. Please and thank youuuuu
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𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐒𝐌: 𝐓𝐎 𝐀 𝐅𝐀𝐔𝐋𝐓
𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆: pdh laurance x fem!reader
𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘: sometimes the greatest cause of anxiety is something you've built up in your head. luckily, your older brother's best friend happens to care enough to remind you that grades aren't everything.
𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐒: fluff, comfort, garte is not so great at parenting
𝐂𝐖: anxiety and general self-doubt
𝐀/𝐍: as someone who also craves academic validation, this is so real to request. writing this was therapeutic tbh. also hiii sillyteenagegirl ily i hope you're doing good and that you like this :3
𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓
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you have to be perfect.
you have to.
this is something you’ve told yourself since you received your first report card as a young child. in one of those rare occurrences where you were graced with your father’s presence, and after your older brother had gotten enough praises and approving smiles–finally, finally, he turned to you. you remember the look on his face when your tiny hands lifted up your hard work for him to see, and that same proud glint he had in his eyes when he gazed at garroth was directed at you.
somehow, that clicked something in your brain when you were barely half the height you were now. you had to be the smart one. not just the smart one. because your brothers were smart. very rarely did one of them end a semester with a c.
no, you had to be the smartest.
gifted and talented. honor society. a solid 4.0 gpa.
sometimes, you didn’t even have to try to make good grades. you were just smart. it became who you were. who you are. it’s what you’re worth. every time you missed a point on even something small it would chip away at the perfectly polished podium you’d set yourself on. every time you got a good grade the podium grew, leaving you teetering on the top with no escape.
so why?
how is this possible?
you blink, swallowing thickly as you close your eyes. no, it must’ve read ninety-seven… not seventy. it’s too early in the morning and your vision must have blurred.
when you open your eyes, you can feel the blood drain from your face when the numbers seven and zero glare up at you in that damning red ink.
seventy. seventy?!
that was practically a failing grade!
this isn’t right. this isn’t how it’s supposed to go.
garroth is the one who is good at sports. vylad is artistic. zane is smart. but you’re supposed to be the smartest.
you flex your hand next to the paper, swallowing the lump in your throat. the all-nighters you pulled, the dates you skipped, the tears you shed, and this is all you got from it? all of that was for this? the podium under your feet shifts, and you suddenly feel like you’re about to fall.
you think you hear some collective complaints around the room. maybe you even catch a few curious looks in your direction to see what the “smart kid” got. all of it merely was like fuzz beyond your desk as you froze in place. not even the gentle rustling of your hair from the familiar boy behind you could get you to move.
when the bell rings ten minutes later, you can’t move your legs any faster as you shoot up from your desk, beelining straight out the door and right for the back exit. a few strange looks were thrown your way, but it was all so unimportant at the moment.
cold, biting air hits your face as you step out the doors, and it's then that you realize you’ve begun to cry. your tears feel uncomfortably cold against the wind, prickling against your cheeks. you only make it halfway down the steps towards the bleachers before you sit down, burying your face into your knees.
if zane were here right now you’re not sure if he’d scoff at how sensitive you were being or relate. but he’s not in that class, and he’s not here right now. even if he was, he hadn’t been the most optimistic these past few years. you doubt he could do anything to keep the podium from tipping over.
…your stomach hurts. why do you feel like you’re falling?
the school doors squeak as someone runs outside, joining your lonesome pity party in the lovely december air. they seem in a big rush as the footsteps quickly approach the top of the steps, before halting to a stop. a few seconds and a quiet sigh are all you need to know who it is, so despite your embarrassment, you don’t flinch when someone sits directly next to you.
laurance’s leg presses against the side of yours, his familiar cologne giving a small sense of comfort.
“hey, pretty girl.” his voice softly coos, a hand coming up to wrap around your shoulder. “you are aware that it’s freezing outside, right?”
silence suspends over the two of you for a few seconds. your heart drops when he suddenly removes his arm, but before any outlandish thoughts can enter your brain the thick material of his blazer weighs down on your back, giving you extra shelter from the next gust of cold wind.
your head shoots up as you finally look over at him, frowning when you see his torso only shielded by his uniform shirt.
“no, laurance. you’re gonna get a cold.”
“you will, too,” he states with a sense of finality in his tone. “so obviously i can’t let that happen.”
any thoughts to argue fizzle out when laurance’s eyes drift over your face, his eyebrows knitting tightly together when he sees just how distraught you are. his hand comes up to your cheek, sweeping away the tears from your face as if they’d personally attacked him.
“why is my sweet girlfriend crying out in the cold, hm?” he hums in concern, his eyes drifting down to the crumpled page still lodged between your fingers.
his shoulders drop a hair and he sighs, gently reaching to pull away your fingers from the test and get a look at it himself. plump lips gape open, a proud huff visible in the crisp air.
“…wow. you actually passed-“
“-i did awful.”
laurance blinks at your interruption, before completely crumpling up the paper and tossing it down the bottom of the steps. “who cares?”
you gawk. “i do! my family-“
“your family’s opinion shouldn’t matter enough that you break down at a singular grade. you’re a smart girl.” he leans forward on his elbows, catching your line of sight as he leans closer. “so why do you care so much about this one thing?”
“because that’s who i’m supposed to be.” you blurt. “i’m supposed to make perfect grades and be smart. that’s what i have to do.”
“the only thing you’re supposed to be is yourself,” he scoffs, hands wrapping around your clenched ones. “you do know it’s literally impossible to be perfect right?”
“you are.”
“my grades are much lower than yours, and i’m a much less wealthy boy who was just barely lucky enough to have a good experience out of the foster care system. that doesn’t seem too perfect to me.”
“wh- why would you say…? that’s not-“
“you love me anyways, don’t you? you’d say how amazing i am despite those things? that all of that has nothing to do with what kind of person i am or if i’m likable or not?”
“of course!”
he raises his eyebrows, tilts his head, and fixes a direct look at you. you get his point, but the sting of failure still pricks at your eyes and squeezes your lungs.
“it’s just… i studied so hard, and i still did horrible.”
“oh my. if a seventy is bad for you, you’d pass out from my freshman year report cards.” he scoffs jokingly, before his expression grows to something a little more serious, his voice softening. “you did study hard. i know you did because i was there when you were ripping your hair out by your desk instead of paying attention to me.”
he taps your leg, a quiet call for you to look at him fully. he’s staring up at you through his lashes, a small crease of concern still formed between his eyebrows.
“i know it’s disappointing, love. but compared to the rest of the class, you technically aced that. literally everyone else in there flunked. i mean, i made a forty. i’m not as smart as you but i make a’s… most of the time.” you give him a half smile, and his eyes twinkle as he scoots closer. “but you know what? i’m not worried because i can make it up with our other twenty-billion freaking assignments in that class and still make an a. the teach said he’d probably curve or drop the grade anyways.”
he always knew what to say. but what else are you if not the path you’ve paved for yourself?
“i don’t want to be a disappointment. i don’t want dad to think less of me. or mom, or-”
he fully gawks at your words, before furiously shaking his head like you’d just told him the sky was green.
“woah, woah, woah. what are you saying right now? being smart doesn’t make you lovable or not. who told you that??” he demands, squeezing your hands just a small amount tighter.
“no one… i just… it’s the only way he pays attention to me.” you whisper.
there’s no need for elaboration. laurance shuts his eyes as a wave of annoyance flashes across his features, his tongue running along the inside of his cheek.
“no offense to you, my love, but if garte stops loving you because you made a seventy on one test then he can go to hell-”
“laurance!”
he erupts into giggles, dodging the scolding slap you directed at his arm.
“okay, okay!” he grabs ahold of your hands. you frown at the realization that he’s shivering. “my point is that if your dad really only values you on how well you do in school or if you’re the captain of the baseball team or not, then he’s not someone you should be seeking validation from. that’s the truth. it doesn’t matter if he’s blood-related or not.”
your eyes fall, and he starts to gently rub his thumb across the back of your knuckles.
“you know, i have a pretty great dad who really loves you a lot, actually. not even considering your grades,” he murmurs, the next words leaving his mouth in a quick rush. “...and he can be your father-in-law in the future so you won’t have to worry about any of this pressuring crap garte has put on you and your siblings.”
your eyebrows rise, the blood that had left your face back in the classroom rushing back to your cheeks all at once. “laurance…”
his lips quirk into a smug grin. “just saying.”
“i love you.”
his eyes light up as his grin turns into a full-blown smile. his lithe fingers reach up to pinch your cheek, forcing your head to bobble in place before he leaves a soft kiss against your forehead.
“i love you more. and i would really love it if my girlfriend wasn’t crying out in the cold and making her poor cute face all numb.” he sighs forlornly.
“but you’re colder. because of m-”
“don’t even.” his eyes narrow before his expression shifts again as he bites his lips and bats his eyelashes. suddenly he puffs out his chest, leaning into you dramatically. “i’m perfectly warm with my beautiful girlfriend right next to me. your presence could melt the harshest of snowstorms! oh, my light! my love!”
“stop!” you giggle, cutting off his romantic monologuing.
he smiles, wrapping his arms around your shoulders and pulling you into his side.
“i don’t think i can, but i’ll spare you for now,” he presses his cold nose against your cheek, voice ever so soft. “do you want to have dinner and watch a movie at my house?”
you nod, a smile forming on your previously wobbling lips.
“okay, love. it’s a good thing that was our last class, huh? i think my girl needs some well-deserved rest.”
“...did you really make a forty?”
“shhh. not another word.”
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©starhvney 2024. do not plagiarize, feed to any AI, or repost my works to any sites.
taglist: @wasting-away-on-the-internet @angelhyperfixates @valentique @arienic @dazedbydeath @theaquaticplant @starsbrightly @kalegrinch @izzybella1807
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shadowqnights · 8 months ago
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Do you have any like thoughts on or headcannons for MCD Travis?
its funny cause i haven't really gotten around to him in any rewrite stuff yet except for like. AUs where he's a part of the guardboys(tm). so this may be brief but here's my rewrite thoughts so Far on travis.
i feel like most people like sticking with the canon of travis being socially awkward because of his isolation. like yeah. i'm a big fan. social cues are lost on him and his more confident/flirting behaviours are from copying books (even the most extreme or fantastical ones). unspoken social rules are the devil to him. this boy was born to yap his head off.
[clashes most with katelyn and garroth at first because of this BUT finds common ground with them later thanks to his studies.]
speaking of his studies hoo boy hello my freak scientist. let him learn! loves getting his hands dirty and doing experiments. no qualms about going to hold bugs and rolling around in the dirt to try and Figure Shit Out. he's a cartographer, in his spare time he's trying to fully map out gal'ruk. he loooves to read, just you wait until he gets his hands on actual up-to-date books and becomes kenmur and emmalyn's bestie. that's kind of where his common ground with katelyn and garroth comes from because they're all fascinated with history to a degree and Can like . sustain a convo with Just pure infodumping. but garroth's a bit of an academic snob sometimes vs travis is a bit of a freak scientist so.. clash...
in a similar vein god travis journals like a teenage girl trying to get her life back together. he notes down everything. he's interested in biology and geology in particular. he will draw and write about everything he sees, and later begins noting down a Lot of human behaviour to understand it better. even to an invasive degree, since he's incredibly perceptive. what he lacks in social cue knowledge he makes up for in pure Vibe Checks and straightforwardness. he will just say exactly what he's feeling.
emotionally he gets along best with laurance and aph, then later katelyn. also kenmur. he and garroth still have some shit to work through. he and laur start off trying to kill each other a little bit and then become besties. i still have to work on his demon mode but it will happen . hoenstly even though he would tire aaron out, they would probably have a mad good chat about divine grudges and demons. younger dante and travis would probably relate a lot to each other.
he's a little bit odd in the way of like . you know the trope where a character is like. isolated alone in the wilderness and is just. having conversations with animals. that's travis. he's just chatting casually with the island critters a lot , if only to have Some company. but he does genuinely also have a really good bond with the wildlife on gal'ruk. i imagine him with a snake companion.
carries knives and a polearm of some sort as his weapons. despite being like a good fighter and like a core of his life on gal'ruk is literally 'guarding' by technicality, he's not really that big on fighting. he's capable , but similar to aaron he would NEVER think of himself as a guard figure. they're more like . freelancing out of necessity.
i think those are like the Main things ive thought about but again like barely scratching the surface cause i haven't really got to him in rewrite yet. but i will one day. sorry i have a funny way of typing casually in a janky way that my brain would say it irl happy to explain anything further if it doesn't make sense. tee hee
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angara-mfrp · 4 months ago
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Meet the Assistants!
Hi all! We're a little behind on this, and in fact, we kind of didn't think to do it. But just in case someone might have missed it, or for any other reason, we're going to go ahead and introduce our assistants here! Keep in mind also that the assistant gig is only temporary, and that they will become mods in due time!
First, we have Assistant Magpie, known also as Nox or Scryven (he/they). In addition to his modding duties, Nox also writes Himeko and Topaz from Honkai: Star Rail, and Fordola Lupis as well as his Warrior of Light from Final Fantasy XIV. Nox is a cosplayer who is currently doing school (I, Mod Dingo, could literally never) and while academic life and pets don't really mix, he would like to have a pet tortoise someday!
Next, Assistant Quoll, or Laur (they/she/any)! I did not even know what a quoll was until Laur informed me of its existence, now I love these little Bambi-printed critters. Laur first came into ADZ with Cephalon Ordis from Warframe, who has used the synthesis rooms to upgrade from his trash can drone to something more humanoid, as well as the throwback-inducing Aelita Schaeffer from Code Lyoko! Laur does not currently have pets, but they want a cat someday, and I can honestly say I approve.
Finally, Assistant Budgie, or Vega (they/he)! Vega is an enjoyer of TTRPGs, having attended TTRPG conventions previously, and a fan of dog-coded men, as they write Wriothesley from Genshin Impact and Alfred from Fire Emblem Engage, but clearly has some lion fondness, as they write Jing Yuan from Honkai: Star Rail as well. Vega is a creature lover, owning several, including a good pupper, an orange cat, and a cockatiel (that I am aware of, there may be more)!
We are so happy to have these new assistants on board, and they've already proven to be helpful and valuable members of the team! ADZ has grown quite a lot in the past year and several months, and the extra help is no doubt going to make things even better for everyone.
Congrats again to the assistants, and please wish them well as they learn how to run things in ADZ and move toward becoming fully-fledged mods!
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talenlee · 2 months ago
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Alethic Value
I am so sick of the only stuff I enjoy being slice of life bullshit! These past few seasons of anime have not had anything I found even slightly enjoyable that isn’t, somehow, at its base level, a grounded story about a real space told with animation! Why aren’t I watching things where people use laser swords or have shapeshifting raven powers or creep around in dungeons?
Oh, because I tried all those things that include those ideas and I think they’re bad? All of them? That’s rough. Shame. Maybe the people who make anime should get around to making anime I like again.
This isn’t about the anime that are bad and yes, I did try Dungeon Meishi and no, I don’t like it, but this is rather about the realisation that I have a feeling and a preference about the anime that I like to watch and in this moment I am frustrated by the play space of these stories in terms of their unvaried alethic value.
But hey, you may ask, what’s alethic value? What a weird turn of phrase. Does it come from somewhere? Well, yeah, it comes from Greek, which is one of the uniform languages of smartypants and academic terminology. In philosophy, Alethia is used to refer to the idea of truth or disclosure — and here’s our first pause because the person who popularised that term is Martin Heidegger. Heidegger is a dude with a lot of complicated ideas but also any time he comes up I feel the need to share that that guy was a Nazi. This can be upgraded depending on the scenarion into ‘Nazi, well,’ or ‘Nazi, but’ but I feel like if I don’t mention that Marty Heidy’s A Naughty Nazi I’m leaving something important unsaid in the conversation.
Anyway, Alethia isn’t just ‘true’ness, in the philosophical discussion, it’s something else, a secret third thing, but I’m not going to get bogged down in that even though we’re talking about ontology which is a discipline that owes a lot to Martin Heidegger who got promotions at university by reporting on the Jewishness of various people who were directly above him in the organisational structure. Ontology is the philosophical consideration (because it feels weird to call it ‘study’) of being. Like, anything being. The fundamental concept of things existing.
Ontology’s heavy, but don’t worry, we’re not using it, not properly. We’re driving by ontology’s house and throwing a brick, it’s fine.
Anyway, there’s this literary scholar, Marie-Laure Ryan. In her writing about fiction and literature, she has this text called Ontological Rules, in which she describes categorical approaches — a playful approach really — to the consideration of types of stories. It’s a lengthy list and it’s super interesting, including a consideration of the individuals involved — are you literally only using real verifiable people who existed in your story? What kind of natural species exist? Are the natural laws available but subjugated periodically?
But the thing is, the top layer of all of this is a consideration of the alethic values of the world. Alethic values in this context, discusses the idea of the modalities of truth. That is to say, how does the world of the fiction engage with the reality of the primary world. This conversation gets really interesting and weird because of course, reality is as we understand it not subjective, but functionally it is subjective. If I put aliens in a story, that doesn’t necessarily mean the story isn’t historic fiction if I believe that aliens are real and the reader believes aliens are real. But if aliens aren’t real (at least not the way the story is representing them) then suddenly we’re left with a story where the modality of truth has to kind of dial into a mean from a communal whole that nobody can necessarily connect.
If you believe in magic, stories about wizards might well be historical fiction, to you.
Heck, Star Wars represents itself as historic fiction and modern day Jedi believers may well consider it to be the same.
What makes this extra complicated is that there are a lot of normal unrealities that everyone believes in. Hey, what’s Australia like? Wrong! Unless you’re Fox, hearing me say this, or one of the small number of Australian readers I have. But you have a way of seeing Australia represented in your mind and that representation is based on an assumption about what is real that may be just factually wrong.
But here’s the big thing about alethic values as boundaries on what ‘reality’ can include in the context of the storytelling of a universe: We don’t like when alethic values sequence to one another.
If you’re playing Skyrim and someone has a book in that world about hey, these are the stories of the seven starskalds in their space horses that cruise through the skies and travel from world to world and encounter all sorts of monsters of the week and that, people go ‘hey, that’s bullshit.’ Right? Because somehow, the idea that there is fiction in the universe of the fiction of the game, that fiction itself has to be bound within the parameters of that universe. Because the idea that characters who see unicorns have a vision of what normalcy means creates an entirely different relationship of those fantastic characters to the fantastic. To you, unicorns are bullshit, but in their universe, unicorns are real, and how much can you imagine those people having the ability to dream up the Starship Enterprise?
And there’s also just this idea of nonsense gaps; they don’t need to dream up spaceships right, because they have magic and dragons and just go to other worlds. Even worlds that are meant to have a vibrant fictional world, like again, Star Trek, it doesn’t largely represent theatre and the arts except as emulations of our now. There’s a deep indulgence in (human) history, and like, I get the problems of representing the vastness of that alethic gap, where you have to dream up a guy and then dream up that guy’s dreams?
I want deeper alethic value. I want more variety. I want some cool shows about fuckin dragons god damnit.
Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!
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snarkyelf · 8 months ago
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It's that time again for me to put things down in writing to see where my character is and has evolved from. (Template by @alannah-corvaine )
×—ʙᴀꜱɪᴄꜱ—×
ɴᴀᴍᴇ: Laure Sombremont
ɴɪᴄᴋɴᴀᴍᴇ(ꜱ): Professor of Death, Prof. (by his students), giraffe
���ɪᴛʟᴇ(ꜱ): Professor
ɢᴇɴᴅᴇʀ / ʜᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴇʏ ɪᴅᴇɴᴛɪꜰʏ: Male, He/Him
ʀᴀᴄᴇ: Elezen
ᴀɢᴇ: 32
ʙɪʀᴛʜᴅᴀʏ: Winter
ʙɪʀᴛʜᴘʟᴀᴄᴇ: Garlemald
ɢᴜᴀʀᴅɪᴀɴ ꜱɪɢɴ: Indifferent
ɴᴀᴛɪᴏɴᴀʟɪᴛʏ: Garlemald by birth, Ishgardian on paperwork
×—ᴀᴘᴘᴇᴀʀᴀɴᴄᴇ—×
ʜᴇɪɢʜᴛ: 6'9" (no I didn't plan on that number, it just happened to be that when converting to feet from the FFXIV scale)
ᴡᴇɪɢʜᴛ: Average
ʙᴏᴅʏ ᴛʏᴘᴇ: If he weren't so tall, he would look very bulky. Muscular, on the hunky side, but often is covered from head to toe so he looks lean.
ʜᴀɪʀ ᴄᴏʟᴏʀ: Warm brown with hints of amber highlights
ᴇʏᴇ ᴄᴏʟᴏʀ: Green flecked with gold
ᴄᴏᴍᴘʟᴇxɪᴏɴ: Warm-tan, yellow to mid-tone, doesn't burn easily
ʙɪʀᴛʜᴍᴀʀᴋꜱ: None (his blood family is a providence of Garlemald, not from the bloodline so he has no third eye)
ꜱᴄᴀʀꜱ: Nothing major. He's a skilled fighter and always takes care to wear proper armor so battle damage is at a minimal.
ᴛᴀᴛᴛᴏᴏꜱ: None
ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ 🇺​​🇳​​🇮​​🇶​​🇺​​🇪 ꜰᴇᴀᴛᴜʀᴇꜱ: Bite marks from his two Viera mates... in the future (RP of this still happening at the time of this recording writing)
ᴄʟᴇᴀɴʟɪɴᴇꜱꜱ / ɢʀᴏᴏᴍɪɴɢ: Spartan clean, but likes to relax after long days or missions in a long bath. He's not overly fussy, but he keeps his beard well maintained, his face is clean, and his clothing is always pressed (only because there are housekeepers on property that do the laundry, but his military side would force him to make sure he looks sharp).
ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴅᴀʏ ᴄʟᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ ꜱᴛʏʟᴇ: Academic; collared shirts, vests, jackets, slacks, loafers. He adorns many traditional clothing of a man of Ishgardian upper working class, but isn't flashy with it. Although he doesn't have to panic to purchase a new suit when going to a soiree or dinner party; he has a handful that can tide him over through the seasons' different events.
ᴀᴄᴄᴇꜱꜱᴏʀɪᴇꜱ: Wears glasses, prefers gold rims but switches it out not and again, and he always wears a gold ring on each hand. Sometimes he will wear multiple rings and chain bracelets or a watch. Laure has a key on a string around his neck.
×—ʜᴇᴀʟᴛʜ—×
ᴀʟʟᴇʀɢɪᴇꜱ: None that he knows of, but slight aversion to carrots might be an allergy
ɪʟʟɴᴇꜱꜱᴇꜱ: None
ᴅɪꜱᴀʙɪʟɪᴛɪᴇꜱ: None
ᴇɴᴇʀɢʏ ʟᴇᴠᴇʟꜱ: His energy is even leveled, but is better with stamina than short bursts. He can fight for a long period of time utilizing even control of his weapon and magic, and can exhaust himself into the night studying tomes and grading papers yet still able to wake with the sun.
ᴇᴀᴛɪɴɢ ʜᴀʙɪᴛꜱ: Laure doesn't indulge often, and he is fine with coffee, tea, and a sandwich. Understands the benefits of a healthy diet, so will nibble raw fruits and veggies if they're on hand, but doesn't cook often. Has a soft spot for an evening treat while reading of cookies and milk.
ꜱʟᴇᴇᴘɪɴɢ ʜᴀʙɪᴛꜱ: Pops up like a daisy in the morning regardless of how late he has stayed up. While his nights often consist of a ritualistic calm down for the night (hot bath, reading, warm milk) he can just as often end up falling asleep at his desk late into the night when he gets engaged in his work.
ꜰɪᴛɴᴇꜱꜱ: Very healthy. For being as nerdy as he looks, Laure is, in fact, a jock. Laure partakes in the family's training grounds often with the sell swords on property. Enjoys a morning jog.
×—ᴘᴇʀꜱᴏɴᴀʟɪᴛʏ—×
ɪɴᴛʀᴏᴠᴇʀᴛ / ᴇxᴛʀᴏᴠᴇʀᴛ: Introvert, but he has been branching out more as of late. Probably has something to do with two beautiful buns at his side.
ᴛᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴀᴍᴇɴᴛ: Socially he is between calm and anxious but he has been working on overcoming his anxiety. When he's in his element (teaching, an excavation site, training) he is instead a calm-confident. He has surprised himself as of late of a strong confident self that is blooming as he spends more playtime with his fiancés. He is still quick to blush, however. His students have begun to notice the nerdy professor is actually kinda hot with this growing self-confidence which has upped the attendance of his classes. Laure is oblivious as to why, but he's thrilled to have more minds to mold!
ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ꜱᴛʏʟᴇ: Laure is quiet and doesn't approach people without reason. He's dreadful with small talk. While teaching, he is a decent lecturer, keeping the class engaged if only from his own enthusiasm, but when it's chitchat time he doesn't really follow the flow of things. He hasn't exactly caught on to the student's teasing as flirting yet, and get blushy and flustered when they do it in front of everyone.
ɢᴏᴀʟꜱ / ᴅᴇꜱɪʀᴇꜱ: Laure is merely enjoying life and spending time with those he loves, and doing the things he enjoys. He has no hard pressed goals other than watching his family prosper. This can sometimes leave him in a slump and forces his work into the foreground of his mind until he overdoes it.
ᴠɪʀᴛᴜᴇꜱ: Loving; Laure has a big heart and takes care of his family very well. He's the go-to guy when someone needs a ride in the family car or need an errand run. He is gentle in his approach to people, never wanting to harm anyone. And he is kind to strangers. Laure tends to not judge others on first sight, or even what they have done.
ꜰʟᴀᴡꜱ: Laure is riddled with anxiety in a crowded room, and will either freeze up or blather about his work to compensate (which isn't always wise to babble about because his work is about the study of death). Laure also compensates trauma with happiness; when he is triggered, or another person speaks of their own trauma, he moves on to happier thoughts and subjects, so much so this has been accumulating into a sexual deviance. When overcome with emotion, he releases it with desires which, while fun, isn't exactly that best coping mechanism.
ꜱᴛʀᴇɴɢᴛʜꜱ:
ᴡᴇᴀᴋɴᴇꜱꜱᴇꜱ:
ꜰᴇᴀʀꜱ:
ᴏʙꜱᴇꜱꜱɪᴏɴꜱ:
Qᴜɪʀᴋꜱ / ᴛɪᴄꜱ:
ꜱᴇᴄʀᴇᴛꜱ: He used to be ashamed of a certain body part of his. Kids in school used to make fun of him for it, and his first couple of experiences with men, Laure ended up hurting them. So he thought he was gross and deformed for a very long time. While he is still careful of his appendage use around his lovers, he knows better now on how to use it and how to make sure his partners are ready for him.
ʀᴇɢʀᴇᴛꜱ: Staying with his former fiancé for as long as he did. He knew he was cheating when Laure was off with his high education classes or with a mission for the Empire, but he stayed with him anyway. It wasn't until tragedies collided that he had enough.
×—ʀᴇʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱʜɪᴘꜱ ɪ—×
ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀ: Laure's mother sacrificed a lot for he and his brother, to make sure they had enough to eat, and later, an education and a future. Being beaten down from a noble stature, forced to become a street walker to survive, and later exchanging the pleasures in the bedroom to a duke to put her sons into military school. She lives with the rest of the Sombremont family as a secret refugee in Ishgard.
ꜰᴀᴛʜᴇʀ: Unknown, but an likely an Eorzean elezen
ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴘᴀʀᴇɴᴛᴀʟ ꜰɪɢᴜʀᴇ(ꜱ):
ꜱɪʙʟɪɴɢ(ꜱ): Younger brother, deceased. It was his brother's first time leading a squadron, while Laure was leading another. His brother's squad ended up in crossfire and died due to friendly fire from Laure's squad. Logically, Laure knows that it was no one's direct fault, although officially it was blamed on his brother's poor management of the situation. Because the autopsy could not identify the shooter, only that it was from a Garlean bullet, Laure still has nightmares that he was the one that shot him.
ɢʀᴀɴᴅᴘᴀʀᴇɴᴛꜱ: Laure's grandmother is a lovely, delicate woman that will whoop your ass in chess, reads poety, and teaches the children to play piano. She is a well respected matron of the family, and she tries to spend as much time with each family member as she can. She and Laure bond when she asks for him to take her on an afternoon drive in the family car when the weather is nice(Laure is one of the few that can drive).
ᴄʜɪʟᴅʀᴇɴ: Biologically, Laure has a five year old son. He is the spitting image of Laure! Legally, he is his nephew, as Laure donated since his brother could not procreate. Sadly, Laure's brother died shortly after his son was born. Laure maintains himself as his uncle, but the boy is not lied to of how he came into being. Despite not being blood related, when the Sombremont family was pulled from Garlean territory to safety, Laure's sister-in-law came with them and is treated as family.
ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ꜰᴀᴍɪʟʏ: The majority of Laure's living family (to his knowledge) are all living under the same roof at the Sombremont Estate in Ishgard. This includes three aunts, one uncle, and several cousins of various ages. He is closest to his uncle, who is the proprietor of the house until his son comes of age, and his uncle's daughter.
×—ʀᴇʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱʜɪᴘꜱ ɪɪ—×
ʀᴏᴍᴀɴᴛɪᴄ / ꜱᴇxᴜᴀʟ ᴏʀɪᴇɴᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ: Homosexual
ʀᴇʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱʜɪᴘ ꜱᴛᴀᴛᴜꜱ: Engaged to two beautiful viera that make him very, very happy.
ꜱᴘᴏᴜꜱᴇ: SOON!
ᴘᴀʀᴛɴᴇʀ/ ꜱɪɢɴɪꜰɪᴄᴀɴᴛ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ(ꜱ):
ʟᴏᴠᴇʀ(ꜱ): While he and his lovers have an open relationship, Laure isn't as eager to take other lovers. Not that he doesn't enjoy playtime, but he isn't as physically adventurous as his fiancés. He loves it when they are with another man or woman, and likes to hear their stories of conquest. Their only stipulation thus far has been that if one of them wishes to get into a relationship with one of their bed partners, that they discuss it with the trio so they can welcome their partner's new partner!
ᴄʟᴏꜱᴇꜱᴛ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅꜱ: Codex and Cheren
ᴀᴄQᴜᴀɪɴᴛᴀɴᴄᴇꜱ: Laure has a difficult time branching out. He keeps to his home with his family and lovers, and he might know people in time spent at venues, but not too often does he go beyond his comfort zone when meeting people.
ᴄᴏᴡᴏʀᴋᴇʀꜱ/ᴄᴏᴍʀᴀᴅᴇꜱ: Laure gets on fine with his co-workers at the University of Ishgard. Although his own subject of study is taboo, he used to get a lot of flack and upturned noses at the forensics sciences he taught. Lately, however, he has been gaining a new flock of students that is making the others snotty at him. He gets along best with the other science-related teachers.
ʀɪᴠᴀʟꜱ: A professor in the literature department dislikes Laure, and it took Laure a long time to realize why. They got along fondly at first, doting over poetry together in the library and in the faculty lounge. It wasn't until she realized that Laure wasn't going to be more than just friends that she began to give him the cold shoulder. Now that he's gone from shy nerd to attractive nerd with a constant gaggle of doe-eyed students following him does she now scorn him.
ᴇɴᴇᴍɪᴇꜱ: The lunch lady...
×—ʟɪꜰᴇꜱᴛʏʟᴇ—×
ᴏᴄᴄᴜᴘᴀᴛɪᴏɴ: Professor of Thanatology and Forensic Sciences at the University of Ishgard
ꜱᴏᴄɪᴀʟ ᴄʟᴀꜱꜱ: Upper working class, thanks to his own profession and the manipulation of his uncle's, the Sombremont family is seen as well off within the upper crust community, but clearly not nobility.
ᴇᴅᴜᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴ: Laure's mother spent a lot of time making sure he and his brother had the basics of education and taught them herself. Then, at 10, they were put off to military school where they spent the rest of their educated life. Laure did pursue forensic and related sciences through the Garlean military educational programs.
ᴄᴜʀʀᴇɴᴛ ʀᴇꜱɪᴅᴇɴᴄᴇ: Sombremont Estate's guest house. He is the only family member not in the house proper because his work takes him out of sync with the rest of the household. However, he and his fiancés are planning on getting a place together soon.
ʜᴏʙʙɪᴇꜱ: Laure enjoys tinkering with the family car, and his own motorcycle. He likes to play music with his family (preferring brass instruments, although he is learning the guitar and piano). Laure also enjoys putting together model airships. Although it is job related, Laure really enjoys when the local authorities call on his expertise with magick related deaths to help solve homicide cases.
ᴠɪᴄᴇꜱ: Sex is a good thing, normally, but Laure uses it as an emotional shield. He is horny almost all the time these days, turning his anxiety into hormones. It's... frustrating at times. He's also into the idea of prostituting his fiancés, which while fun on the surface with everyone in on the game with joyous consent, it digs deeper into a place of his youth; of watching his mother paraded around by her pimp. Of a power that he doesn't usually hold.
ᴄʀɪᴍɪɴᴀʟ ʀᴇᴄᴏʀᴅ: None
ꜱᴘᴇɴᴅɪɴɢ ʜᴀʙɪᴛꜱ: Most of his money goes into his exhibition dig sites. If it is not university funded, he will often sponsor his own digs to study human remains and the effects magick and society had on their culture (and ultimate demise). He hopes his studies help prevent similar things to happen in the future. Otherwise, he spends what is left on books, tomes, airship model kits, and drinks at venues his fiancés work at work want to visit.
ꜱᴏᴄɪᴀʟ ᴏʀ ʟᴏɴᴇʀ: Leaning loner, but definitely not lonely. He enjoys his quiet time to work on his mind or body, but he isn't adverse to conversation or the company of others. Only his circle of those he will reach out to speak with is very small.
ꜰᴀɪᴛʜ / ʀᴇʟɪɢɪᴏɴ: None
×—ʟɪᴋᴇꜱ & ᴅɪꜱʟɪᴋᴇꜱ—×
ꜰᴏᴏᴅꜱ: Laure isn't big into food in general. Healthy and simple is his philosophy. He doesn't really enjoy sweets but likes his evening milk and cookies. He prefer raw vegetables and fruit over cooked or steamed or having them in a dish (like apple pie). Laure dislikes brussels sprouts and (he has yet to admit to his viera lovers) he dislikes carrots.
ᴄᴏʟᴏʀꜱ: Laure says his favorite color is green. It's the kind of green of a tree in late spring/early summer, where the sun is past midday but not yet into evening, so the light is yellow on the leaves, yet there are grey storm clouds overhead that dampen the brightness of the leaves. That's his favorite color.
ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇꜱ: Laure isn't adverse to many places. He is calm and adaptable when he can blend in. He has dipped his toe into more social events like bars and clubs, but it's not his favorite unless he's with someone he knows. He hates crowds where he is expected to network or socialize.
ꜱᴏᴜɴᴅꜱ: Laure LOVES the sound of the Sombremont house. It's always busy and loud with children and family members and workers. Music is almost always playing in the parlor (either on an orchestration radio or an instrument). He likes the sound of a good engine on a bike or car. But Laure also likes the quiet murmurs of a library, or the light chatter at a cafe near the university. Laure dislikes silence. Even when alone, he tries to have music playing. Silence usually meant hiding from a raid or his mother's pimp or the quiet anticipation before a battle.
ꜱᴍᴇʟʟꜱ: Oil. Yes, Laure likes the smell of oil as in slide/value oil for brass instruments, oil from a vehicle, cooking oil fresh on a pan, or lubricant oil for the use of lovemaking. It might not be the most lovely of scents, but to Laure it's a scent of life and creativity.
ᴛᴇxᴛᴜʀᴇꜱ: He likes the feel of warm skin against the pads of his fingertips.
ᴡᴇᴀᴛʜᴇʀ: When Laure was young he loved the few months that Garlemald had without snow. That's why he loves green, it means warmth and life! But he does have a quiet fondness for fresh snow days that aren't bitterly cold. Being a city dweller in his youth, fresh snow was rarely seen, as it was often brown and grey in the streets.
ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ:
×—ᴄᴏᴍʙᴀᴛ—×
ᴊᴏʙ / ᴄʟᴀꜱꜱ: Red mage
ᴀʀᴍᴏʀ ᴛʏᴘᴇ: Caster
ᴡᴇᴀᴘᴏɴ(ꜱ): Rapier
ꜰɪɢʜᴛɪɴɢ ꜱᴛʏʟᴇ: While Laure is good with a gun, he doesn't touch them anymore. However, his training has made his mage work and aiming a precise practice. With the combination of close contact and far-reaching magic, Laure is able to utilize his many skills and compensate where he lacks. This helps his ability to fight for longer periods of time and use his high stamina trait.
ᴍᴇʟᴇᴇ ᴄᴏᴍʙᴀᴛ ꜱᴋɪʟʟꜱ: Rapiers are not slicing weapon, but ones meant for precise strikes. Laure is very good at this, being a jock in a nerd clothing, he is strong yet smart.
ʀᴀɴɢᴇᴅ ᴄᴏᴍʙᴀᴛ ꜱᴋɪʟʟꜱ: Is all magic based. His magick skills are late bloomed, so he knows he cannot rely fully on those skills.
ᴏꜰꜰᴇɴꜱɪᴠᴇ ᴍᴀɢɪᴄ ꜱᴋɪʟʟꜱ: He is best as elemental magicks and has to build up his attacks before giving a devastating blow, unlike other mages where the first shot can be lethal.
ᴅᴇꜰᴇɴꜱɪᴠᴇ ᴍᴀɢɪᴄ ꜱᴋɪʟʟꜱ: His healing isn't great, but he has the basic abilities to keep one from death unless the wound is too severe.
ꜱɪɢɴᴀᴛᴜʀᴇ ᴀʙɪʟɪᴛʏ: He loves corps-a-corps, in and outside battle. And he keeps his rapier in an eather pocket rather than at his person; it makes him feel cool when he busts that bad boy out of nowhere!
×—ᴍɪꜱᴄᴇʟʟᴀɴᴇᴏᴜꜱ—×
ᴘᴇᴛꜱ / ᴀɴɪᴍᴀʟ ᴄᴏᴍᴘᴀɴɪᴏɴꜱ: Laure has no pets, nor does he want one. Although he does like his fiancé's companions very much.
ᴘʀɪᴢᴇᴅ / ᴘʀᴇᴄɪᴏᴜꜱ ᴘᴏꜱꜱᴇꜱꜱɪᴏɴꜱ: Laure tries not to get too attached to material things as he knows it is fleeting. As a man that studies death and dead civilizations, he knows just how little they will mean in the end. He wears a key around his neck that means something to him, but it might get lost some day. He has first edition books, but knows that they will one day rot and fall apart. The rings on his fingers will denigrate over time. What he cherishes most is time, because it will never be returned to you, so he uses what time he has with those he loves.
ʟᴀɴɢᴜᴀɢᴇꜱ ᴋɴᴏᴡɴ: Although not a linguist, Laure is well versed in many languages, either written or spoke or both. This was first taught to him by his mother, then pushes to keep learning when in military school for negotiation tactics (know thy enemy!), and then when learning old and dying languages.
ꜱᴘᴇᴄɪᴀʟ ᴛᴀʟᴇɴᴛꜱ: He excels at the euphonium, and is very good with trombone. Laure is also... uh... pretty damn good in bed. Like most things he does, he's very passionate in that area.
ᴘʀᴇꜰᴇʀʀᴇᴅ ᴍᴇᴛʜᴏᴅ ᴏꜰ ᴛʀᴀᴠᴇʟ: He enjoys his bike, but he's not offended when others prefer non-mechanical means of transportation. He, himself, isn't fond of long distance travel with aetherits.
ɴᴏᴛᴀʙʟᴇ ᴀᴄᴄᴏᴍᴘʟɪꜱʜᴍᴇɴᴛꜱ: There are several papers published by Laure, and while he's is proud of his magicked findings from his excavation sites and forensic work, and even uncovering a long forgotten civilization, he's also glad that it's such an obscure area of study that people don't hunt him down to do presentations or rub shoulders with the fancy, old money 'scientists' that really just want to network.
ᴀɴ ᴇxᴘᴇʀɪᴇɴᴄᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ꜱʜᴀᴘᴇᴅ ᴡʜᴏ ᴛʜᴇʏ ᴀʀᴇ: When Laure's brother died, Laure was forced off duty because he broke down in front of his squadron. The army tried to keep him on active duty but there was no recovering so he was sent off in disgrace. This brought him home early to his (at the time) fiancé's surprise, who Laure caught in bed with another man. This all accumulated into a turning point; his years of loyalty to the Empire was not returned in his time of need. His love was spat back into his face for a man he devoted his heart to. It was just before this that his Uncle Frederique reached out, finally finding lost family members that were scattered 25 years prior by a bad man's debt, to help him seek out other and get them out of the Garlean Empire and into the safety of a false name and rank in Ishgard. Laure took up that call, and spent years finding and trafficking his family and friends out of a drying Empire's clutches.
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Blog Posts - Pushing Limits
Posthumanism could be the best framework that analyze Virtual Reality (VR) because of the way it looks at how people and technology are able to work together in one system. For example, there is a game called ''Beat Saber'' where the users play with VR game consols to blocks in time with music and in that game posthumanism helps people to see how the player and the system work as a whole. In response the game instruction and the player's body moves, the system adapts to the player's movement and skill level.
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In this game, the players are fully involved both mentally and physically and this demonstrates how Virtual Reality take the experience to the next level by becoming part of the user's movement. Additionally, the VR makes us to see that how the cutting edge technologies are able to change how we think about our bodies and movements and engaging digital world in a more realistic way.
It can also influence the way we are and questioning ourselves in a way that how it changes what can we do or experience. For instance, in the game the system try to train people's skills and movements to make it more natural and right as if it teaches us to develop ourselves. This could raise a question in relation with how much we can rely on technology and the system.
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Lastly, for my work in 3D modeling and VR, posthumanism is very relevant. It helps me think about how to design VR environments where people feel fully connected to the technology, not just as users but as active participants. This ensures the experiences I create feel immersive and meaningful.
Chan, M. (2014) Virtual Reality : Representations in Contemporary Media. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic.
Baudrillard, J. (1988) Selected Writings. Stanford; Stanford University Press
Baudrillard, J. (1983) Simulations. New York: Semiotext(e)
Ryan, Marie Laure, (2003). Narrative as Virtual Reality. The John Hopkins University Press
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vandeoredecastro · 2 years ago
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Post Edsa 1 Article
After president marcos implemented the martial law. The Filipino's way of expressing free writing was very uncontrollable to the point that it made writing different literaries a part of the lives of the Filipinos. Writting under the martial law regime was based on militancy and belligerence. Creative Writing has become a part of the academic institution in where the Writer's Organization makes different symposium and meetings for its memeber for them to get rational ideas about their next crafts. In this period literature has become serious. Non governmental institution helped hand in hand to make a valid recognition for different writers in this period. English and Filipino continues to become a media for literature. Another, literature has become a vehicle for personal thoughts and feelings for most of the Filipinos. Basically as the last period in which martial law was implemented it made a huge impact on our literautre as Filipinos. It made our literary skills much more improved to the point that making philosophical assumption about different opinions and feelings such a sensitive hobby for all of us.
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inklore · 2 years ago
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laur <3 i just wanted to say i love your blog so much! i was wondering: do you have any eddie headcanons that you think about a lot or have wanted to share with us? i always love reading other people’s headcanons. i hope you have a great weekend :)
you’re too sweet, lovey!!! i have a dozen different thoughts and headcanons when it comes to this boy so these are literally all over the place lmao.
tw: eighteen+ content, references to sex, criminal activity, drugs, parental issues.
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he writes on the back of his hands when he needs to remember something: an idea for a campaign, a deal he needs to make later, anything but homework assignments
doesn’t carry a backpack, either finishes his work at school or doesn’t do it at all, never takes work home with him
is incredibly smart, can do math all in his head (he’s a drug dealer ok he’s hella good at it), just doesn’t have that academic incline to be smart in school/struggles in that aspect because he doesn’t care about what he’s being taught
has several fantasy novels scattered around his room, in drawers, in stacks on the floor, with writing in the margins: ‘campaign? henderson would love this!’
his dad is in jail for criminal activity (some of which he taught eddie), his mother left him when he was still little and he hasn’t heard from her since—but who doesn’t care, fuck it, having shitty parents builds character right???
his uncle is the only father figure he really counts in his life (but he still has a touch of the mommy and daddy issues, doesn’t want to turn out like either of them)
would definitely become a mechanic after graduating, or some easy job he’d excel in. but would still try to make it big with his band, would never give up that dream
joseph said that when eddie finds out someone loves him he doesn’t know how to take it/kind of thinks he doesn’t deserve it etc, which makes sense with his family issues, but also means (in my head) that when he finds someone who he shares those equally intense ‘love’ feelings for he’s literally the biggest simp
i’m talking constant mixtapes, letting you touch his guitar (no one touches her!!), play with his hair, lends you his favorite book only because he wants to see your face light up from enjoying it (but is hella nervous you might dislike it), lends you his band shirts because he loves watching you walk around in them (and only them), let’s you play your pop music in the van (will fake grumble about it but loves to watch you dance and sing along, and oh wow are his fingers drumming to the beat?? is he singing along?? no no of course not…)
he’d even let you design one of his tattoos. like he’s literally so smitten he never stops smiling or trying to please and make you happy, hes literally a ‘once i’ve fallen in love that it’s you’re the one forever’ type
i think it’s hard for him to express his feelings so he does it with humor/chaotic behavior/cynical outlooks, since he wasn’t raised by overly passionate and loving parents (literally hesitates a little during hugs because he’s not used to them but loves them, secretly of course)
he’s tried the hard stuff (drugs) once and that was enough for him, isn’t really into anything other than weed and cigarettes, still holds onto it though just in case he can make a sale from it
will put on eyeliner for gigs and gigs only!!
and as cute as he looks with his hair up he would never be caught dead with it up in a pony, unless you batted those cute eyes of course, then maybe, just maybe. only around the house! but he doesn’t like it!!
he’s not the best cook but he’s learned this trick to make microwaveable dinners taste better than they should; says he was high one night and the magic just happened, that it’s his secret recipe he uses (literally just seasoning, or a couple handfuls of shredded cheese)
doesn’t like hard liquor, strictly beer!
only goes to parties to sell to people, other than that he would rather take an arrow to the foot than go to them
when there’s a song he wants to learn he will hold himself up in his room for days, you or wayne literally have to drag him out or force feed him because he has a one track mind, neeeds to get it done, neeeds to learn it (our boy has intense hyper-fixations)
fiddles with his rings when he’s thinking or nervous + sticks his tongue when he’s in deep concentration + messes with strands of his hair when he’s trying to flirt
isn’t super clingy in the sense that he needs to be always touching you, but constantly catches your eye/is caught staring at you, or checking in with you, or playing with your fingers (loves when you play with his rings!!!), or tickling you, or tackling you down on his bed
can’t just give you one kiss, has to press a dozen to your cheek and neck always
isn’t a tit or ass man, loves it all, all of you, every part
loves to please, i’m talking will spend hours…doing things….in the name of pleasure for you
his fav position is any he can see your face, your expressions, can lock eyes with you, see that you’re enjoying it; missionary, or you on top
loves assurance, needs it, craves it in any and all aspects of the word, as much as he hates to admit it
has the biggest heart, hates to show it more often than not but once you’re his: friend, partner, what have you, he’s got you for life, cares about you immensely
doesn’t have a selfish bone in his body
but does have a jealous one and sometimes anger slips into there because he hates the things he gets jealous over
princess, beautiful, sweetheart, and babe (very rarely used), honey when he’s being a little shit, are the only pet names he uses or will ever use!!!
bi bi bi biiiiiiii
has big switch energy, but is the softest!dom you’ll ever meet, and i use the word dom very loosely here
never knows where to put his hands during any sexual act, always wants to touch everywhere and anywhere you’ll let him
talks a lot during, like he’s definitely a fan of lazy high sex that’s filled with a few giggles and weird things being spoken but it never takes the two of you out of it
loves kissing!!!!!
a few kinks i think he’d have: hair pulling, biting, dry humping, marking (with his mouth or a tattoo gun), light choking, voyeurism, a touch of corruption
would literally cream in his pants to see you wearing one of his rings as a necklace
if you bought him something he’d literally treasure it like it was an irreplaceable artifact
he’s literally so patient and encouraging when it comes to teaching anyone anything
loves cheesy ass jokes even if he’ll give you a deadpan look while you’re delivering it
is and will forever be a kid at heart
literally would be the adult playing hide n seek with the trailer park kids
loves proving people wrong (respectfully)
not a morning person, has been late to class so many times because of it. will wrap himself around you in the morning to stop you from getting up
smokes after sex, that good ol after sex cigarette
before he moved in with wayne, wayne was a truck driver which is why all the mugs and hats decorate the living room wall. and a way they bonded when eddie first came to live with him was: he would pick a new mug each day to ask wayne about and he would share his traveling adventures with him
like i said his dad taught him some criminal activity: hotwiring, picking locks, siphoning gas, how to pickpocket, insurance fraud
would tell the best scary stories on the camping trip
can barely grow chest hair
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oh-snapperss · 9 months ago
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Medusa: The Much Needed Shift from Monster to Survivor in Percy Jackson (2023)
I am posting this on request of a couple folks! This is a part of a much bigger portfolio I submitted to my college mythology course, so if anything seems abrupt or short, that's why. Enjoy!
Reader discretion advised: the analysis below includes non-explicit discussion of sexual assault and rape.
From the beginning of the Percy Jackson series recently released on Disney+, it was clear that many changes were going to be made throughout the series both from the book series it derived from, and the myths Riordan first retold in his books. One of the most remarkable changes to the series can be found in episode three, and stood out with the dialogue below:
Percy: “So you’re not a monster, what are you then?”
Medusa: “A survivor.” (“We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium” 23:22)
The decision to portray Medusa in this light is in stark contrast to any other adaptation involving her. Moments before this, Percy tells Grover and Annabeth that he thinks they can trust her, and that his mother had always told him Medusa’s story with the point “She isn’t what people think,” (21:52). This sets the stage for the following conversation, and the idea that Medusa in the myths may have been misunderstood as just another monster of Greek mythology.
In fact, Medusa’s physical appearance in the series is also markedly different from the original myth. Instead of being “monstrous” with wings, tusks of swine, and hair made of hissing snakes (“Medusa in Mythology”), the actress wears a veil over her hairand eyes, a nice dress, and has perfectly done makeup, with red lipstick. Her appearance brings empowerment to Medusa while also humanizing her, and a sense of fear or apprehension to the watcher. The answer to why these changes were made can be found in the relatability Medusa’s story has for today’s victims of rape and a patriarchal society that is unfair to women who have been assaulted.
Myths of Medusa describe her story without much pity: Either Poseidon rapes her in Athena’s temple or they willingly have sex; Athena, enraged, punishes Medusa by turning her into a monster. Poseidon goes unpunished, as he is a god (“Medusa in Mythology.") However, in current day climates, it is impossible not to draw similarities in Medusa’s story to the way victims are treated often in society. The assaulter goes unpunished, while the victim must live with the emotional, physical, and mental harm of such an attack. In fact, from my personal experience and things I have seen in the tattoo parlor I have gotten tattoos from, some victims have chosen to get tattoos of Medusa as a sign of being a survivor of such an assault. Thus, this brings back the director’s choice to portray Medusa differently in Percy Jackson than before.
Another notable difference in Medusa’s behavior is that she does not immediately attack Percy, Annabeth, and Grover (who would be considered the heroes of the story), instead offering them lunch and her perspective on what happened to her originally. By allowing Medusa the chance to speak her perspective on what happened to her, the directors of the show push for a world where women and victims are able to speak. With the show being watched by many younger teens and children, in addition to adults, an important message is carried to watchers, and her story is handled in a way that any victim watching can hear the message that they are not alone.
The director’s decision to show Medusa in this other light comes to a conclusion with Percy refusing the chance to betray his friends for her (28:03) a few minutes later, and from there the story aligns closer to the myth it derived from. The fight between the heroes and Medusa is not long, ending after Annabeth puts her hat of invisibility on Medusa, and Percy beheads her. Visually, this fight is markedly different to the myth—Medusa’s beheading is done with a hat of invisibility on, so there is no blood or gore shown (31:41). This change can easily be explained by the shows rating of TV-PG, combined with the fact that most likely, Disney would not have wanted such a gore filled scene on their platform.
Overall, the changes to Medusa’s story are headed in a positive direction much needed in the current climate of society, despite not staying exactly true to the source material.
Works Cited
“Medusa in Greek Mythology.” Greek Legends and Myths, https://www.greeklegendsandmyths.com/medusa.html. Accessed 20 March 2024.
“We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium.” Percy Jackson and the Olympians, season 1, episode 3, Disney+, December 26, 2023. Disney, https://www.disneyplus.com/play/7a078c8a-2a03-4171-a647-a4f5ed12e738.
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tabellae-rex-in-sui · 4 years ago
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I read an article in the WSJ which said that some people were trying to rehabilitate Sade’s reputation (for context, this was mentioned in the same breath as Robespierre, Henry VIII, and some others being less vilified, and then mocked this supposed trend towards seeing hated historical figures more positively) - is this . . . True? Working? & to what extent?? Maybe I just live in a conservative town but no one seems to like him or is even willing to talk about him
I'm assuming you mean this article, which I'll link in case anyone wants to read it... Although it's less of an article and more of a stand-up comedy routine?
But about Sade, yes, definitely. In the 20th century, there were even people who considered him a progressive visionary; especially those in the surrealist movement, who considered Sade a pioneer of the style. A lot of famous surrealists loved him: Salvador Dalí used him as the inspiration for 25 works, there are quite a bit 'imaginary portraits' of Sade including one by Man Ray, Guillaume Appolinaire famously called Sade "the freest spirit that has ever existed" and wrote a book praising him, the final scene of Dalí and Luis Buñel's film L'Age D'or is a very obvious allusion to 120 Days of Sodom, and... who could forget Marquis (1989) [warning, that one's... disturbing. It's the one with the dick puppet. It used to be on YouTube in it's entirety with Eng subtitles, but it seems to have been removed. It's there with Spanish subtitles tho, so if you can understand French and/or read Spanish and want to be scarred for life, there you go]. Anyway, the surrealists are the ones who dubbed him the "Divine Marquis".
There are also other intellectuals who called for a rehabilitation of Sade's image. George Bataille's "The Use Value of D.A.F. de Sade", Angela Carter's "The Sadeian Woman" (which is a feminist reading of Sade), Simone Beauvoir's "Must We Burn Sade?" There are a lot others, but I'll stop there for brevity, cuz I can tell this is going to be a long answer.
Something else that helped the public image of Sade in the 20th century were his descendants, namely, one descendant, Comte Xavier de Sade, Donatien's great-great-grandson (who I posted about here). Xavier had discovered thousands of Donatien's letters and documents in a walled up family library. In 1947, he and poet Gilbert Lély begun the process of sorting through them. They were eventually published. Though Xavier himself is Catholic, found himself unable to read Donatien's books, and stayed out of the moral debates about him, his discovery led to more intimate biographies, keeping fascination in Donatien alive into this century (not to mention people now knew domestic details, which is always humanizing). While we're talking about descendants, and this is just a fun fact, Marie-Laure Noailles who was close personal friends of the surrealists including Ray, Buñel, and Dalí (and funded L'Age D'or), was a direct descendant of Sade. His great-great-great-granddaughter. She was interviewed by Francine du Plessix-Gray, she's quite the character.
Today, the wild praise for Sade has somewhat died down. I don't see much of it anymore, at least in academic spaces. I do think there are still echos of it though. Some modern bios I find a bit too sympathetic towards him (Du Plessix-Gray's bio and Lever's bio have their moments). His fictional portrayals are also generally kind, making him more of a Joker type character, but not the antagonist (Assassin's Creed is an obvious example, Quills (2000) too). Basically, any work where his inflammatory writing is mentioned, but not his actual crimes like, y'know, rape. He's often used as a martyr for anti-censorship/freedom of speech. Which is odd, cuz, you can morally defend his writing, whatever, it's fiction... but he's also a very real rapist. So, not sure how great a symbol he is on that front. Maybe use someone who isn't the human embodiment of the "slippery slope" argument conservatives love using. And then there's Assassin's Creed... I mean, you don't even have to play the game to see what they were doing. Just look at Sade's character design. The choice to make him younger and thinner says a lot about what audience reaction they were going for. And in gameplay, he's an ally. I think his role in Assassin's Creed is just a great indicator of public perception of him. Especially when compared to Robespierre's portrayal in game... Also a great indicator of public perception. So yeah, the pro-Sade sentiments of the 20th century have not entirely worn off.
I'll leave you with this 2015 review on a Musée d’Orsay exhibition on Sade where the reviewer calls Sade a "badass" in the first paragraph. I think it does a good job of showing how a lot of people view Sade as this anti-establishment, sly, smart, raunchy, rebel.
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the-princess-atta · 3 years ago
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“I’m an essay-writing talent.” 
NAME: Dr. Laur Eaves  FACE CLAIM: Kristen Stewart PRONOUNS: She/her  BIRTHDAY: September 12, 1994 (Libra rising; scorpio moon)  SEXUALITY: Aromantic Pansexual  CURRENT STATUS: Taken 
Character Information
SPOTLIGHT: LAUR EAVES JOINS PRIDE UNIVERSITY’S LITERARY STUDIES DEPARTMENT 
Meet the youngest addition to Pride University: Dr. Laur Eaves, a former adjunct professor who has officially been added as a tenure-track professor for Fall 2021. Eaves holds a peculiar place in contemporary Western culture, as one of the few openly magick professors in a non-magic academic discipline. Many might recognize her name, her crisp, jargon-free style, and even key theories without realizing that she came from magic roots: specifically, the Enchantra Hollow located outside Swynlake. But it’s precisely these roots from which her best known theory of radical animality sprang. The seeds were planted as she studied Hollow lore and literature as a scribe-talent. “Hollows are already radically queer places compared to contemporary human spaces,” said Eaves. “But those ideas have not been static. As I dived deeper into my own cultural history, I realized I had to widen my scope to include exchanges between magic and non-magick communities. That’s what led me to pursue my degrees at Pride U.” 
Eaves quickly completed her undergrad degree in one year, aided by her natural affinity for scholarship; her PhD followed after, her thesis of which focused on radical animality in pop culture, like Adventure Time and Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts. Radical animality seeks to complicate boundaries between subject categories like human, humanoid, animal-- and even magick and mundus. “Radical Animality” draws heavily from queer theorists like Butler and Halberstam. 
“The ways we understand ‘magick��� and its expression is dependent entirely on an assumption that mundus is the fixed default category,” explains Eaves. “And that’s rooted in the same tired narratives that critical theorists have been attempting to deconstruct since the 1970s-- heteronormativity, colonialism, humanist essentialism. All my work does is center magicks and animal identities in the conversation.” Before her academic pursuits, Eaves had not interacted much with Swynlake’s town spaces despite the proximity. Her parents are both garden-talents; she describes them as “human-shy” and her own pre-Pride U past as “boring” and “nothing worth reading about...I was too busy reading myself.”  However, Eaves is eager to further entrench herself in Pride University as a new magick voice. 
“I think there’s a place for my perspective outside the classroom as well,” says Eaves. “I’ve been working the past year as an adjunct with other part-time faculty and grad students to establish a Union. We’ll hopefully win the election, and Pride U can not only attract new talent, but support them with the necessary resources.”
Pride University’s administration declined to comment on efforts to form a union. 
✓ Cerebral, decisive, confident 
✖ Pretentious, isolated, insert the Ben Wyatt “Actually it’s going to bother me if I don’t...” gif 
Character Suggestions
None
Current Relationships
Mocha Chino (best friends; sometimes they hook up)  Belle Acheron (she took one of Laur’s classes)  Suta Shere (professor friend)  Atta Orkney (fairy pals)  Sindri Dyrrson (fairy pals)  Ting-Ting Qin (friends through Mocha)  Phil Knightley (enemy) 
Possible Relationships
None 
Magical Abilities
Fairy
Scribe-talent; responsible for keeping the lore and history of Pixie Hollow safe. Speed reading. Eidetic memory. Can inexplicably pull all-nighters without any adverse risk to her health. 
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addictedforbooksquad · 6 years ago
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P I C K (S)  O F  T H E  M O N T H: O C T O B E R
Lie by Natalia Jaster
Villains series by V.E. Schwab
Wolfsong by TJ Klune
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Fall by Kristen Callihan
Scotland or Bust by Kira Archer
Dating the Enemy by Nicole Williams
Save the Date by Morgan Matson
Lie by Natalia Jaster
Genres: New Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Links: goodreads | amazon
Synopsis:
Once upon a time, there lived a liar... In the Kingdom of Autumn, Aspen is a girl of the trees. She’s a girl who knows her way around a falsehood. She’s the artful liar who steals from the Crown. Once upon a time, there lived a knight... In the shadows of a castle, Aire is a man of the wind. He’s a man who sees through Aspen’s treachery. He’s the relentless knight who pursues her. Once upon a time, there lived two enemies... In a fairytale woodland, a pair of mismatched souls are thrown together—only to find an unexpected bond. Both deceitful and passionate.
Why we love it:
beautiful, poetic prose
interesting, unusual take on Pinocchio
flawed, engaging characters who develop over the course of the book
their banter is entertaining as hell
heroine’s “skin condition” (so to speak) is not magically healed (at least not permanently) - she learns to love herself instead
Trigger warnings: ableism
Villains series by V.E.Schwab
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Science-Fiction
Links: goodreads | bookdepository
Synopsis:
Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?
Why we love it:
memorable cast of characters - likeable and morally grey villains, badass women
anti-hero story
a gripping, twisted tale of jealousy, ambition, murder, revenge and superpowers
interesting narrative style with timeline jumping back and forth fluidly with different perspectives
SO. MUCH. TENSION
Trigger warnings: domestic abuse, suicide, attempted rape, drug abuse, graphic violence
Wolfsong by TJ Klune
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance
Links: goodreads | bookdepository
Synopsis:
Ox was twelve when his daddy taught him a very valuable lesson. He said that Ox wasn’t worth anything and people would never understand him. Then he left. Ox was sixteen when he met the boy on the road, the boy who talked and talked and talked. Ox found out later the boy hadn’t spoken in almost two years before that day, and that the boy belonged to a family who had moved into the house at the end of the lane. Ox was seventeen when he found out the boy’s secret, and it painted the world around him in colors of red and orange and violet, of Alpha and Beta and Omega. Ox was twenty-three when murder came to town and tore a hole in his head and heart. The boy chased after the monster with revenge in his bloodred eyes, leaving Ox behind to pick up the pieces. It’s been three years since that fateful day—and the boy is back. Except now he’s a man, and Ox can no longer ignore the song that howls between them.
Why we love it:
so many family feels!
highlights the importance of friends/family/people in your life that are not blood-related
MATES (we do love a WELL-done mates trope)
werewolves whose sexuality is fluid
angsty but worth it!
Trigger warnings: violence, death, emotional abuse
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Genres: Historical, Historical Fiction
Links: goodreads | bookdepository
Synopsis:
Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.
Why we love it:
beautifully haunting prose
set during WWII
two parallel stories that intertwine briefly towards the end
poetically written and full of rich details
there are so many heartwarming and heartbreaking moments
Trigger warnings: n/a
Fall by Kristen Callihan
Genres: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Links: goodreads | bookdepository
Synopsis:
The first time I met Jax Blackwood things went a little sideways. In my defense, I didn’t know he was Jax Blackwood—who expects a legendary rock star to be shopping for groceries? More importantly, a blizzard was coming and he was about to grab the last carton of mint-chocolate chip. Still, I might have walked away, but then he smugly dared me to try and take the coveted ice cream. So I kissed him. And distracted that mint-chip right out of his hands. Okay, it was a dirty move, but desperate times and all that. Besides, I never expected he’d be my new neighbor. An annoying neighbor who takes great pleasure in reminding me that I owe him ice cream but would happily accept more kisses as payment. An irresistible neighbor who keeps me up while playing guitar naked–spectacularly naked–in his living room. Clearly, avoidance is key. Except nothing about Jax is easy to ignore—not the way he makes me laugh, or that his particular brand of darkness matches mine, or how one look from him melts me faster than butter under a hot sun. Neither of us believes in love or forever. Yet we’re quickly becoming each other’s addiction. But we could be more. We could be everything. All we have to do is trust enough to fall.
Why we love it:
story written with SO MUCH feeling
deals with depression in a realistic way
wonderfully painful and satisfying slow-burn
actual relationship buildup, unlike the usual instalove that we see a lot in contemporaries
characters that feel very real and utterly relatable
“musician” aspect of the story is not just there, it’s a focus of some scenes
interesting and entertaining secondary characters
makes us long for the next installment!
Trigger warnings: mentions of suicide, depression
Scotland or Bust by Kira Archer
Genres: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Links: goodreads | bookdepository
Synopsis:
After dumping her boyfriend, Nicole Franklin impulsively jumps on a plane and heads to Europe. Sure, money and a job would have been nice to line up first. Even a visa, for that matter. So now she has to play tour guide at an Outlander experience for the most obnoxious man on the planet. Until she stumbles into the wrong bed in the middle of the night and wakes up in Harrison’s arms. Now his family thinks they’re engaged, and the entire village is betting on how long before she’ll be running for the hills. Harrison Troy has a reputation in the town for burning through assistants. And the bubbly new one he’s just hired is likely no different. But his family quickly has them “engaged.” He should be upset, but she’s the perfect buffer for his interfering family. She says she doesn’t need another man in her life--even if he comes with a castle--and that’s fine with him. So why can’t he stop thinking about the woman who is charming everyone in the town, and maybe even him?
Why we love it:
fake dating trope
set in Scotland
crazy adorable family
so many outlander and Jamie/Claire references
Trigger warnings: n/a
Dating the Enemy by Nicole Williams
Genres: Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Links: goodreads | bookdepository
Synopsis:
Ms. Romance, Hannah Arden, writes one of the top read relationship advice columns in the nation. Mr. Reality, Brooks North, writes the top read relationship advice column. Ms. Romance believes in true love and soul mates. Mr. Reality believes love is a term humanity has assigned to the primal instinct to procreate. She believes in fate—he in chance. She knows there’s one right person for everyone—he knows there are multiple ones. The two writers couldn’t be more polarized on relationships. They’re professional rivals, and philosophical antagonists. For eight years, their battles have been fought with words and ink. That changes when they apply for the same position at the World Times and find themselves face-to-face for the first time. Brooks isn’t the sour-faced, antiquity of a man Hannah pictured. And Hannah isn’t exactly the middle-aged shrew with cat hair on her housedress that Brooks imagined either. In lieu of competing for the promotion traditional ways, the two writers are presented with playing the leading roles in a social experiment unlike any before. Can a person be tricked into falling in love? Can a relationship be crafted under the right string of circumstances? Hannah knows the answer. So does Brooks. Agreeing to the terms, the two set out on a three-month dating experiment, live-streamed for the world to watch. All Hannah has to do to win is not fall in love with the narcissistic brute. All Brooks has to do is get the starry-eyed dreamer to fall in love with him. Both are so confident in their philosophies, they expect the challenge to be easy. With the world watching, Brooks and Hannah will be forced to confront their beliefs and conclude, once and for all, who’s right. The answer is one neither of them saw coming.
Why we love it:
fake dating (we do have a weakness for this trope!)
interesting dynamic
likeable characters
The-Ugly-Truth-meets-The-Hating-Game premise
Trigger warnings: n/a
Save The Date by Morgan Matson
Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Links: goodreads | bookdepository
Synopsis:
Charlie Grant's older sister is getting married this weekend at their family home, and Charlie can't wait for the first time in years, all four of her older siblings will be under one roof. Charlie is desperate for one last perfect weekend, before the house is sold and everything changes. The house will be filled with jokes and games and laughs again. Making decisions about things like what college to attend and reuniting with longstanding crush Jesse Foster all that can wait. She wants to focus on making the weekend perfect. The only problem? The weekend is shaping up to be an absolute disaster. There's the unexpected dog with a penchant for howling, house alarm that won't stop going off, and a papergirl with a grudge. There are the relatives who aren't speaking, the (awful) girl her favorite brother brought home unannounced, and a missing tuxedo. Not to mention the neighbor who seems to be bent on sabotage and a storm that is bent on drenching everything. The justice of the peace is missing. The band will only play covers. The guests are all crazy. And the wedding planner's nephew is unexpectedly, distractedly cute. Over the course of three ridiculously chaotic days, Charlie will learn more than she ever expected about the family she thought she knew by heart. And she'll realize that sometimes, trying to keep everything like it was in the past means missing out on the future.
Why we love it:
adorable, intriguing and complex dynamic between Grant siblings
Trigger warnings: n/a
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a-wandering-fool · 6 years ago
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by Judith Curry
Reflections on Nic Lewis’ audit of the Resplandy et al. paper.
In response to Nic Lewis’ two blog posts critiquing the Resplandy et al. paper on ocean temperatures, co-author Ralph Keeling acknowledges the paper’s errors with these statements:
Scripps news release:   Note from co-author Ralph Keeling Nov. 9, 2018: I am working with my co-authors to address two problems that came to our attention since publication. These problems, related to incorrectly treating systematic errors in the O2 measurements and the use of a constant land O2:C exchange ratio of 1.1,  do not invalidate the study’s methodology or the new insights into ocean biogeochemistry on which it is based. We expect the combined effect of these two corrections to have a small impact on our calculations of overall heat uptake, but with larger margins of error.  We are redoing the calculations and preparing author corrections for submission to Nature.
From the Washington Post:
“Unfortunately, we made mistakes here,” said Ralph Keeling, a climate scientist at Scripps, who was a co-author of the study. “I think the main lesson is that you work as fast as you can to fix mistakes when you find them.”
“I accept responsibility for what happened because it’s my role to make sure that those kind of details got conveyed,” Keeling said.
“Maintaining the accuracy of the scientific record is of primary importance to us as publishers and we recognize our responsibility to correct errors in papers that we have published,” Nature said in a statement to The Washington Post. “Issues relating to this paper have been brought to Nature’s attention and we are looking into them carefully. We take all concerns related to papers we have published very seriously and will issue an update once further information is available.”
From the San Diego Tribune:
“When we were confronted with his insight it became immediately clear there was an issue there,” he said. “We’re grateful to have it be pointed out quickly so that we could correct it quickly.”
“Our error margins are too big now to really weigh in on the precise amount of warming that’s going on in the ocean,” Keeling said. “We really muffed the error margins.”
Ralph Keeling prepared a guest post at RealClimate, explaining the issues from their perspective.
We would like to thank Nicholas Lewis for first bringing an apparent anomaly in the trend calculation to our attention.
Ralph Keeling behaved with honesty and dignity by publicly admitting these errors and thanking Nic Lewis.
Such behavior shouldn’t be news, however; it is how all scientists should behave, always.
Imagine how the course of climate science and the public debate on climate change would be different if Michael Mann would have behaved in a similar way in response to McIntyre and McKitrick’s identification of problems with the hockey stick analysis.
Hostile environment
In the WaPo article, Gavin Schmidt made the following statement:
“The key is not whether mistakes are made, but how they are dealt with — and the response from Laure and Ralph here is exemplary. No panic, but a careful reexamination of their working — despite a somewhat hostile environment,” he wrote.
“No panic.” Why would anyone panic over something like this? After a big press release, the magnitude of such an error seems substantially magnified. Embarrassing, sure (a risk of issuing a press release), but cause for panic?  Keeling is right, best to fix as quickly as possible.
The Climategate emails revealed a lot of ‘panic’ over criticisms of hockey team research. The motives for the panic appeared to be some combination of fears over threats to careerism ambitions, potential damage to a political agenda, and basic tribal warfare  against climate skeptics that they regarded as threatening their authority.
“Hostile environment.” Exactly what is ‘hostile’ about an independent scientist auditing a published paper, politely contacting the authors for a response and then posting the critique on a blog?
Perhaps Gavin is referring to the minor media attention given to their mistake, after their big press release and substantial MSM attention?  GWPF is bemoaning the lack of attention to this error in the British media [link].
Or perhaps this is a figment of Gavin’s personal sensitivities, and the general strategy of the RC wing of the climate community to circle the wagons in the context of an adversarial relationship with anyone from outside the ‘tribe’ that criticizes their science. I know how this all works, given their ‘help’ during the hurricanes and global warming wars circa 2005/2006. All this made me feel rather paranoid about being criticized by the fossil fuel funded deniers and all that.
Gavin seems to be ‘managing’ the Resplandy situation to some extent (Ralph Keeling has not hitherto posted at RealClimate), and this management does not include any cooperation with Lewis, although Keeling was gracious enough to thank Nic.
Gavin’s views on hostilities is illustrated by Nic’s critique of the Marvel et al. paper,  responded to in a rather contentious blog post with two subsequent updates that admitted that Lewis was partially correct. Two errors in the Marvel et al. paper were subsequently corrected. Was Lewis thanked? No way, he is treated to classic Gavin snark:
But there has also been an ‘appraisal’ of the paper by Nic Lewis that has appeared in no fewer than three other climate blogs (you can guess which).
I should be clear that we are not claiming infallibility and with ever-closer readings of the paper we have found a few errors and typos ourselves which we will have corrected in the final printed version of the paper.
Lewis in subsequent comments has claimed without evidence that land use was not properly included in our historical runs [Update: This was indeed true for one of the forcing calculations]
When there are results that have implications for a broad swath of other papers, it’s only right that the results are examined closely. Lewis’ appraisal has indeed turned up two errors, and suggested further sensitivity experiments.
According to Nic, Gavin’s assertion that Nic’s claim regarding land use forcing in their historical runs was made without evidence was blatantly untrue; Nic had published a detailed statistical analysis indicating, correctly, that land use forcing had been omitted from their total historical run forcing values.
Subsequently, the LC18 paper provided a published critique of key aspects of the Marvel et al. paper.
This blog post by Gavin provides a sense of the ‘hostile environment’ faced by independent scientists who evaluate climate science papers.  Scientists should welcome discussion of their research and being pointed to any errors.  Disagreement should be the spice of academic life; this is what drives science forward.  However, when a political agenda and careerism enters into the equation, we have a different story.  For an overview of the really hostile environment faced by McIntyre and McKitrick re the hockey stick, see Andrew Montford’s book The Hockey Stick Illusion.
So please, lets stop whining about ‘hostile environment’ and get on with our research in an open, honest and collegial way, giving credit where due.
Peer review
From the SD Tribune article:
While papers are peer reviewed before they’re published, new findings must always be reproduced before gaining widespread acceptance throughout the scientific community, said Gerald Meehl, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
“This is how the process works,” he said. “Every paper that comes out is not bulletproof or infallible. If it doesn’t stand up under scrutiny, you review the findings.”
Of course this is how things are supposed to work. This whole episode is being held up as an example of the self-correcting nature of science.
When I first saw the Resplandy paper, it didn’t pass the sniff test from my perspective in terms of a new and inexact method coming up with estimates that exceeded the ranges from analyses of in situ observations of ocean temperatures. Apparently the coauthors and Nature peer reviewers had no such concerns.
The Resplandy paper lists 9 coauthors, presumably all of who read the entire paper and were prepared to defend it. Other than Keeling, I am not familiar with any of these coauthors, but it seems that none have any expertise in data analysis and statistics.
From my own experience, particularly when I have a mentoring role with the first author (e.g. my postdoc or other young scientist), as a co-author I am trying to help them get their paper published preferably in a high profile journal and get some publicity for their work, so that they can advance their career and be successful with their job applications. Young scientists seem to think (probably correctly) that having a senior, well-known coauthor on their paper helps the chances for publication and publicity. I have to say that in my mentoring role as a faculty member, I ended up feeling conflicted about several papers I was coauthor on, with a conflict between my role as a mentor versus my duty to be able to defend all aspects of the paper. At some point, I started declining to add my name as coauthor and donated my time to improving the paper. Career suicide, but at that point I already had one foot out the academia door.
Now for the external reviewers selected by Nature. Imagine if the Resplandy paper identified a smaller trend than identified from conventional observations – the reviewers would have been all over this. Roy Spencer writes:
If the conclusions of the paper support a more alarmist narrative on the seriousness of anthropogenic global warming, the less thorough will be the peer review. I am now totally convinced of that. If the paper is skeptical in tone, it endures levels of criticism that alarmist papers do not experience. I have had at least one paper rejected based upon a single reviewer who obviously didn’t read the paper…he criticized claims not even made in the paper.
Early in my career I spent a great deal of time reviewing papers and grant proposals, and actually put considerable effort into making constructive suggestions to help make the paper/proposal better. Why? Because I wanted to see the outcomes and learn from them, and for science to move forward. I had a cooperative and helpful attitude towards all. In the mid-90’s, my rose-colored glasses got busted, when I was working on a committee and did 90% of work on a major document, only to end up as second author and squeezed out of the major funding. I realized that I was in competition for credit, recognition and funding, and that my ideas and hard work could be effectively stolen. This changed a lot of my attitudes, and looking back this is when I first stopped liking my job as a professor so much.
Frank Jablonsky tweets:
Effective peer review is usually very time consuming & uncomfortable, so it isn’t often done outside of conflicts between keen adversaries.
The ‘keen adversaries’ is key; papers supporting consensus perspectives pretty much get a free ride through the peer review process. Anything challenging the consensus gets either a rigorous review or rejected (or not even sent out for review), often for ancillary reasons not directly related to the substance of the paper.
At this point in my career, I respond to relatively few requests to review journal articles; since I am only publishing ~1 paper per year at this point, I figure I don’t owe the ‘system’ more than a few reviews per year. If I do accept a request to review a paper, it is probably because I know of the author and like their work; I am interested to see what they have to say and happy to help improve the paper if I can.
I probably review more papers for journalists, who send an embargoed copy of a ‘hot’ new paper and ask for my comments. I respond to as many of these requests as I have time for; these requests seem to come in spurts (I haven’t had any in awhile, now that I am ‘retired’). I am typically sent these papers to review since the journalist is interested in an adversarial perspective. And these reviews are prepared after the horse has left the barn (i.e. the paper is already published).
Much has been written about the problems of peer review. There is an interesting new paper: In peer review we (don’t) trust: how peer review’s filtering poses a systemic risk to science.
This article describes how the filtering role played by peer review may actually be harmful rather than helpful to the quality of the scientific literature.
Well, I have to say that I don’t know what is actually accomplished by journal peer review at this point. Academic scientists don’t get any credit or kudos for reviewing, so many  do a quick and shoddy job. The end result in the climate field is gatekeeping and consensus enforcement, which is detrimental to the advancement of science.
Extended peer review
Owing to the relative free ride that consensus supporting and the more alarming climate science papers typically seem to get in the review process, particularly for high profile journals having press embargoes, etc., critical scrutiny is increasingly coming from technically educated individuals outside of the field of professional climate science, most without any academic affiliation.
Of course, the godfather of extended peer review in the climate field is Steve McIntyre. It’s hard to imagine what the field of paleoclimatological reconstructions for the past two millennia would be had not McIntyre & McKitrick happened onto the scene.
Regarding Nic Lewis, the extended peer reviewer du jour, he states it best himself in the WaPo article:
Lewis added that he tends “to read a large number of papers, and, having a mathematics as well as a physics background, I tend to look at them quite carefully, and see if they make sense. And where they don’t make sense — with this one, it’s fairly obvious it didn’t make sense — I look into them more deeply.”
Here is the issue. There are some academic climate scientists that have expertise in statistics comparable to Nic Lewis. However, I will wager that exactly none of them would have the time or inclination to dig into the Resplandy paper in the way that Nic Lewis did. While many scientists may have reacted like I did, thinking the paper failed the sniff test, nothing would have been done about it, and people that liked the result would cite the paper (heck, they ‘found’ Trenberth’s missing heat).
So Nic Lewis’ identification of the problem does not imply that the so-called ‘self-correcting process’ of institutional science is working. It is only working because of the highly-skilled and dedicated efforts of a handful of unpaid and unaffiliated scientists auditing those papers that come to their attention and they have time to investigate. Erroneous papers outside their fields of interest or which do not make the necessary data available are likely to escape detailed scrutiny. Moreover, in many cases it is impracticable to audit a paper’s results unless the computer code used to produce them has been made available, which is very often not the case. The single most important way of making institutional science more self correcting would be for all journals to insist on turnkey code, with all necessary data, being publicly archived by the time the paper is published online by the journal
A large number of articles have been written about this incident (very few in the MSM tho). Nic is referred to as a lukewarmer, a skeptic, a denier, a fringe scientist, etc. There is an apparent need to label Nic with an adversarial moniker, in spite of complimenting him for his work. The same for Steve McIntyre, and anyone else who criticizes a paper that feeds the consensus or alarmist narratives. McKitrick and I are in a slightly different category in terms of labeling owing to our academic positions.
Science as a tribal activity with adversarial tribes fighting for the dominant narrative so as to influence global climate and energy policy is not a healthy narrative for science. Speaking for myself and based on my impressions of Nic Lewis and Steve McIntyre over the past decade, there is no ‘activist’ motivation behind our critical evaluation of climate science in general or auditing of particular papers, beyond a general sense that good policy is based on accurate science and an appropriate assessment of uncertainty.
An interesting comment appeared at RealClimate:
Finally, this episode demonstrates as many others over the last 30 years the role of “gentleman” scientists. In the 18th century most scientists were of this type. As science got bigger, Universities became the preferred profession of those aspiring to be scientists. After WWII science became big business and scientists were often a blend of entrepreneur, public relations flak, and managers of large teams of postdocs and students, with little time left over for actual technical work. The most prolific publishers can not even have read all the papers on which they are authors much less checked any of the results.
Perhaps the scientific community needs to more wisely use the often free services of “gentlemen” scientists, those who are in retirement, and particularly professional statisticians. It continues to amaze me that most science outside medicine seems to avoid placing a professional statistician on the team and listening to him.
Franktoo writes in the CE comments:
IMO, the fact that auditing by Nic Lewis and Steve McIntyre has turned up so many problems (real problems as best this biased individual can tell) suggests that you and the whole climate science community should be deeply concerned about confirmation bias during peer review. However, that is another subject that can’t be publicly discussed without it reaching the conservative press and skeptical blogs.
Virtually all peer reviewers don’t have time to do even a cursory check of the work other than reading it for obvious problems and conflicts with already published papers. If peer reviewers were paid and expected to devote at least a couple of weeks to each review, the quality would be higher. The real problem here is that 90% of what is published is not worthy of the paper its printed on.
That’s why citizen scientists are exceptionally valuable.
The value of such analyses being conducted by independent scientists is substantial. Although the heyday of the technical climate blogs seems past, they remain the essential forum for such discussion and auditing. Efforts to institutionalize this kind of effort with a recognized red team were thwarted by politicization of the issue, and a failure to recognize what really drives the auditing of climate research and what makes it work. The Resplandy et al. paper seems to have revitalized the technical climate blogosphere somewhat; it is been ages since I visited RealClimate.
Fixing it – or not
Resplandy et al. are to be commended for jumping on this and addressing the problems as quickly as they can (apparently, the RealClimate post contains the essence of what they sent to Nature). It remains to be seen how Nature addresses this, particularly as Nic has identified at least one problem not dealt with by the authors in their Corrigendum (Part 3).
While on the topic of ‘fixing it’, I must mention Steve McIntyre’s latest post PAGES2K: North American Tree Ring Proxies. I have long declared CE to be a tree-ring free zone, basically because I have not really delved into this topic and SM has done such a good job. But here is what caught my attention. PAGES  is an international group of paleoclimatologists that is a partner of the World Climate Research Programme and funded by US National Science Foundation and the Swiss Academy of Science. The 2017 PAGES paper  lists about 80 coauthors. After auditing this paper (and the 2013 PAGES paper) and the proxies used, McIntyre concludes the following
PAGES 2013 and PAGES 2017 perpetuate the use of Graybill stripbark chronologies – despite the recommendation of the 2006 NAS Panel that these problematic series be “avoided” in future reconstructions.
There is no hockey stick without the Graybill stripbark chronologies. Without having the background or putting in the effort to personally evaluate any of this, I’m asking if can anyone explain how and why the PAGES team has justified using bristlecone strip bark chronologies, given the 2006 National Academies Panel recommendation that they not be used (not to mention MM criticisms)? If this problem is as bad as stated by SM, the whole field of tree ring paleoclimatology appears to be deluded (or worse).
Conclusions
By quickly admitting mistakes and giving credit where due, Ralph Keeling has done something unusual and laudatory in the field of climate science. If all climate scientists behaved this way, there would be no ‘hostile environment.’
I find it to be a sad state of affairs when a scientist admitting mistakes gets more kudos than the scientist actually finding the mistakes. But given the state of climate science, I guess finding mistakes seems to be a more common story than a publishing scientist actually admitting to mistakes.
Given the importance of auditing climate research  and independent climate scientists working outside of institutional frameworks, I wish there was some way to encourage more of this. In the absence of recognition and funding, I don’t have much to suggest. Other than providing a home for such analyses at Climate Etc.
My huge thanks to Nic Lewis for his efforts, the other guest posters at CE, and to all the denizens who enrich these analysis with their comments and discussion.
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long but interesting...
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snarkyelf · 1 year ago
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Laure Sombremont has yet another makeover. Shut up, it's been 2 years, he's a different man!
He's a big nerd. Dark academia all the way. He remains a Professor of Thanatology and Forensic Science at the University of Ishgard. He is Frederique's nephew, a refugee, the biological father to his legal nephew, former military officer, and big brain nerd with an unnerving obsession with death and decay. Like the rest of the family, he is musically gifted but he has stage fright.
Laure still lives at the Sombremont estate but chooses to live in the guest house with his cousin for space for his research.
He takes students with him into dungeons, escorted by adventurers, so they can study and excavate the ruins. He's like Indiana Jones!
Eventually I would like his class to be reaper, red mage, or bard. I'm still working on relearning the game mechanics and I'm behind two whole expansion packs.
What's different? Not smooth with lovers at all. Gay, not bi. Secret romantic but painfully shy when it comes to those things.
He's quietly strong; he CAN fight through dungeons but would rather research.
Laura is a beanpole, tall and skinny, bit gangly. Brown hair and a mustache. He got the 'stache when starting his dissertation but wasn't given much respect because he was so young and he thought it made him appear older. He just never shaved it off.
He's not a mainstream definition of handsome but he's an academic sort of handsome.
He has British wit. Or we shall see if I can write dry British humor in RP. Less giddy than before; more practical, bit depressed but with a warm heart to those he gets close to.
Laure absolutely loves children. He loves how the Sombremont household has so many children to adore.
Sometimes he is hired on as a consultant by investigators and local authorities for his forensics knowledge.
Character inspirations are from the following:
Harvey from Stardew Valley. Particularly a farmer/Harvey fic I read too many times. Sweet, shy, depressed, with his happiness found in love and community.
Professor Remus Lupin from Harry Potter. Sassy man with a warm heart and a love for chocolate (and short "bad" boys if you believe in wolfstar, which I do).
Professor Palladium from Winx. Don't judge me, he's a handsome elf man that can sometimes be a clutz and doesn't always gain his student's respect because of it. Still a smart, strong, and protective individual.
Aziraphale AND Crowley from Good Omens. Aziraphale's love of the mundane and never in style but thinking he is. Crowley for his unintentional awkward-coolness he provides. And that he never seems to know what to do with his long limbs.
This went on longer than I meant it to. I blame ADHD. Here's some screenshots!
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swissmissficrecs · 2 years ago
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@alexxphoenix42​ has 2 rec lists: Enemies to Lovers Part 1 / Enemies to Lovers Part 2
@cupidford​‘s Enemies to Lovers recs
@inevitably-johnlocked​‘s Rivals/Enemies to Friends to Lovers recs (check the notes on that and this post for more)
And here are mine:
A Further Sea by i_ship_an_armada, ShinySherlock (125K, E, Johnlock) Luckless ship's surgeon John Watson takes a chance, and finds himself eye to eye with The Ghost, the scourge of the seven seas and a definite thorn in the side of the blaggard, James Moriarty. But when John finds there's more to this most cunning pirate than be meetin' the eye, he has to choose--is it a pirate's life for him?
Enemy Number One by lookupkate (15K, E, Johnlock) When Anderson finally crosses a line and gets fired a new pathologist takes his place. Sherlock isn't happy to find that the new doctor is almost as good at his job as Sherlock is. Said new doctor, John Watson, wants to woo the genius until he finds out what a prick he can be. Then he's just amused. And maybe a bit fond. And kind of smitten. Then he falls in love with the prick. Bloody hell.
Gimme Shelter by SinceWhenDoYouCallMe_John (159K, E, Johnlock) All John Watson wants is the feeling of a freshly waxed surfboard under his feet and the hot California sun baking down onto his back. ...That's all he wants, that is, until the hot young phenom taking Oahu and the Hawaiian shores by storm steps up next to him in the sand in the second round of the 1976 International Surf Competition.
How to Sleep with Your Enemy in One Semester by 221b_careful_what_you_wish_for (9K, M, Johnlock) Visiting professors John Watson and Sherlock Holmes are longtime academic rivals — and now unwilling office mates — at a prestigious American university. When their tense arguments give way to an undercurrent of mutual attraction, their war of wits turns into something more personal.
How to Tame Your Dragon by Mad_Maudlin (12K, E, Johnlock) Sorcerer!Sherlock sets out to trap himself a pet dragon. Said dragon turns out to be far more interesting than he initially anticipated.
Off on the Wrong Foot by Unloyal_Olio (31K, E, Johnlock) John and Sherlock aren't flatmates. Instead, John gets a job in Bart's morgue, and Sherlock attempts to abscond with body parts. Which is just not on.
Roommates are for little people by alexxphoenix42 (69K, E, Johnlock) John was looking forward to seeing his friends back at uni, but a new year brings new complications, not the least of which is a dorm room with only one bed, and a stroppy roommate with an utterly spectacular arse. God, John doesn't need the headache.
Synchronicity by Calais_Reno (46K, T, Johnlock) John and Sherlock meet again, years after they were school boys together. John hasn't forgotten why he still hates Sherlock Holmes.
The Low Road by Jupiter_Ash (57K, E, Johnlock) The last thing Sherlock remembers is shooting up in his university room in Cambridge. Now he's miles away, in the middle of nowhere, trapped with a man who wants to have sex with him. Where is he? What's going on? And more importantly, who the hell is John Watson?
The Song Nobody Knows by Laur (78K, E, Johnlock) If Sherlock could take John Watson back to his cave, he would keep him alive as long as possible. He would collect rain water and sea weed and fish to feed him, and he would keep him warm with his soft feathers. In return John Watson would answer all of Sherlock’s questions. Yes, Sherlock would keep him, his own little mystery to unravel. Eventually, though, the human would die, as they always did, and Sherlock would have to eat him, like he always did.
Writer’s Block by lookupkate (27K, E, Johnlock, Mystrade) John has been writing detective novels for years, shitty, romance filled detective novels. That is until his last. Now he can't write a single chapter.When Greg seats him next to an asshole genius he doesn't have the slightest idea that it is exactly what he needs.
And bonus ACD:
Some Power of Selection by wordybirdy (12K, E, Johnlock) John Watson is a struggling doctor in recent practice on London's Upper Wimpole Street.  One dreary Wednesday, an urgent telegram summons him to 221B Baker Street, where he meets a sombre and initially taciturn gentleman by the name of Sherlock Holmes.  Sparks immediately fly – but not of the positive, life-affirming variety...
someone recommend me a good, completed enemies to lovers johnlock or mystrade fic I’m begging you
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