#like i was doing a research paper and my prof when this sounds too my like an argumentative essay Oops

[meili-sheep]

I like it when people write about Fucked up Diluc. But some of the stories I read, kind of lacked nuance.

I've encountered some fics where it's like 'Diluc is a horrible person, the fatui isn't so bad! Look at how much of a monster diluc is!'

Completely forgetting it's the Fatui who made him this way.

There's few stories where both the characters are criticised equally. Also, some authors don't acknowledge some of the fucked up things the fatui have done to Mondstadt.

(No hate to any author, this is just something i noticed)

Ok so I think genshin is really pretty good at showing nuisance because as I expected the Fatui are getting a lot of development like the Doctor is still a massive piece of shit. And after this last quest, they are going to have to work their ASSES off to get me to like him. But I think experimenting on kids put you in redeemable territory.

But ya. Diluc is a little fucked up, but he means well. So is Kaeya. The Fatui isn't good…. The not everyone in it is inherently bad.

And I think a lot of that is hard to work with sometimes if you don't like... enjoy when stories are like that. Or having to break down complexities like that. And that's OK.

You do get under my skin a bit when you start acting like your interruption is canon. That's what really grinds my gears. Because, like nothing, no one says but Mihoyo says is canon. Like, anything outside of what is physically writing into the game/manga is not canon.

Like you can bring all the evidence you want to prove Diluc is a pos, and it's still just gonna be an interruption. Like... dude, all you did is make an argument? Maybe soild one. But it's still just an argument. It's not canon or "right". But to that it also means what I say isn't canon or right either. And I will never treat my opinion like it's canon.

(And let's not forget, Diluc came out sword ready when he thought people were sexual harassing his staff. That is canon)

The beauty of this all tho is I don't have to pay attention or read fics that don't work for me. It's great!

[yuyusuyu]

the law of attraction!

pairing. non idol! uni student! choi san x non idol! fem! uni student! reader

synopsis. is it a blessing or curse in disguise that you and your best friend are in the same psych 340 class? you're not quite sure and you don't want to know either because you get to spend time with your favorite in this entire world - until it starts becoming too hard to control the feelings you have for him. choi san is everything and more to you and you desperately need to be away from him before you accidentally end up kissing him one of these days. except, your prof seems to have different plans when he assigns you and san to be partners for a project... on the law of attraction.

warnings. a little kiss, cursing, a little jealousy, a dt (someone save wooyo!), food/eating

genres. fluff, comedy, romance, friends to lovers, mutual pining

ft. non idol! yeosang, non idol! wooyoung

wc. 3.2k

reblogs and comments are appreciated! helps with not getting shadowbanned!

TRUTH be told, if someone were to tell you that your professor would assign your best friend as your partner to do a research paper on the law of attraction, you’d laugh in their face. why would you do that? it’s simple really: you’d been trying for years (three to be exact) to get choi san to look at you in a romantic way, but nothing ever happened. so why now? why did the universe suddenly do this to you after you swore you’d try moving on from that man? what’s worse is that you have to work on this paper for half of the semester, and you think you’d rather go insane than to work on the paper with choi san.

but that’s how you find yourself sitting across from san at the table in your apartment, laptops open as you both type away what research you find, piping up once in a while to talk about what you’ve found. your mouth runs dry each time you look up to peer at san, taking notice of how his glasses would sometimes fall down the bridge of his nose only for him to push them back, taking notice of how he’d run his hand through his newly-dyed red hair, taking notice of how he’d furrowed his eyebrows when reading something on the screen. eventually, san stretches in his seat, eyes flickering over to you and finding you already staring at him.

he blinks at you, tilting his head. “is there something on my face?”

you shake your head, looking back at the screen in front of you. “no, i was just thinking,” you mumble, already typing away. “you know i have a bad habit of staring at anything when i’m thinking.”

san chuckles softly. “you’re right,” he says, sighing. “have you found anything new?”

snorting, you look up at him. “besides the usual? like attracts like? positive thinking only?” you close your eyes. “i think i’ve hit a dead end over here, what about you?” you open an eye to look at him.

the male also shakes his head, a small smile on his lips. “i’ve basically found the same. how about we start sorting out what we want to include?”

“sounds like a plan,” you groan, stretching your fingers out. “but can we take a break first? i think my ass is numb.”

san laughs. it’s a hearty sound, something that makes you feel warm and fuzzy on the inside knowing that you’re the reason behind the dimpled grin on his lips. eventually, he calms down and nods, standing up and disappearing into your kitchen. “do you want something to eat?”

“are you asking that as you raid my fridge?” you stare in amusement as san pops his head out from the kitchen, sticking his tongue out at you before retreating back inside.

“yes,” he calls out, followed by the sound of him rummaging through whatever you have. “but i’m also asking in case you’re hungry and want something to eat.”

you think for a moment before replying. “i guess,” you drawl out. “or do you want to order take out?”

“take out!” san says, emerging out from the kitchen. “dude, you have absolutely nothing in your kitchen.”

grimacing, you take out your phone. “i guess that means i have to go grocery shopping on wednesday,” you glance up from your phone, looking at san through your eyelashes. “what do you want to order?”

“a pizza is fine,” he replies. “or fried chicken? i don’t know, you pick.”

“but sannie,” you whine. “you know i can’t choose!”

“okay, okay,” he says, holding out his hand. “i’ll choose, and we’ll split the bill.”

“thank you,” you sing, kissing his cheek and skipping over to the couch where you fall face-first into the cushions.

san laughs before you feel that he’s standing on the other end of the couch, lifting your legs up so he could sit and letting them drop on his lap. “here,” he says, tapping your back with your phone. “i ordered from that pizza place down the street. it should be here in half an hour because they got a lot of orders today.”

“damn,” you say, your voice muffled. “i guess that means we’re going to have an hour-long break.”

“um, no,” san says, chuckling. “we’re going to have a thirty minute break, talk about the project, eat and talk about the project, and then work on the project.”

“project this, project that!” you shuffle around so you can look at san, your cheek pressed against the couch as you reach out to grab your phone. “how about we work on it tomorrow? it’s getting pretty late, you know.”

humming, the male pats your legs, taking out his phone to scroll through whatever he opened. “nice try, yn. but we are going to finish what we started.”

“yessir,” you mumbled, turning to face away from him and going on your phone. it’s then that you see that you have an unread message from someone. tapping on the icon, you see that yeosang, a childhood friend of yours that san has yet to meet, sent you something. yeosang’s humor was a little different from yours, but you found everything funny, so you start laughing at what he sent, shooting up to sit straighter. “you’re stupid,” you laugh, recording what you had just said before typing something else.

san leans over, peering down at your phone. “yeo?” he says, his eyebrows furrowed. “who’s that?”

“yeosang,” you say, your laughter subsiding into giggles, continuing to type as yeosang immediately replies to your message. “you know, my childhood friend.”

“ah,” he hums, nodding. “the one who goes to the uni on the other side of town?”

you nod. “that’s the one! i think he’ll be dropping by to visit. said he’s free this whole week because he finished all of his assignments last week. oh my gosh,” you gasp, turning around and smiling at him. “you two can finally meet each other!”

san laughs softly. “right,” he says. “finally meeting the guy you grew up with.”

“yup! yeo is kind of awkward, by the way,” you say, going back to texting said person. “but he’s a great guy once he gets comfortable with you.”

“is that so…” san mumbles, glancing at you before turning his attention back on his phone. “well, i can’t wait ‘till then.”

it’s then that the doorbell rings. you stand up, heading over towards the door. san jumps up when you squeal, only coming face-to-face with you hugging some guy like your life depended on it.

“yeo, i thought you weren’t stopping by until thursday?”

san feels his stomach drop to the ground as he realizes that the guy you were just hugging, the guy who looks way too handsome for his own good, the guy who is making you smile so much that you seem to be glowing, is none other than this kang yeosang guy he’s been hearing so much about since he meet you in your first year of college together. it’s funny that it’s taken so long for him to meet yeosang, having befriended you instantly after meeting each other at orientation three years ago. he kind of wishes this moment never happened because damn is he feeling so insecure right now.

“yeo, yeo!” you grab his hand, a bounce in your steps as you lead him inside your apartment, yeosang clutching onto the pizza box as he lets you lead him inside your humble abode. you stop when you’re standing in front of san, still grinning. “this is san, the guy i talk to you about. san, this is yeosang, also the guy i talk to you about.”

yeosang places the pizza box you two had ordered on the table next to him, turning around and awkwardly sticking his hand out. “nice to meet you,” he says.

san looks down at his hand, staring at it before slowly reaching out to shake it. he accidentally ends up using a little too much strength because when he looks up to face yeosang, he finds that yeosang is taken aback. he’s confused for a second before yeosang’s grip becomes stronger, taking san aback this time because wow is yeosang strong.

“oh, uh,” yeosang is the first to pull his hand away, sending san a weirded out look of sorts before gesturing towards the pizza box that sits on your table with a nod of his head. “i got this from the delivery guy before ringing the doorbell.”

“thank you, yeo.”

when san glances at you, he’s surprised to see you and yeosang already standing next to each other, looming over the pizza box as you open it. you glance back at san as yeosang holds out a slice for himself and you, motioning him over with a wave of your hand. as he grabs a slice, you whisper something into yeosang’s ear, the male nodding and going over to sit in a chair while you grasp san’s arm, gently pulling him away and into the corridor that leads to your room and the guest bedroom on the opposite end.

“what’s wrong?” you ask, effectively snapping san out of his thoughts.

he clears his throat, pushing his glasses up his nose and then rubbing the back of his neck. “nothing,” he says. “why?”

you narrow your eyes at him, shifting your weight onto your right leg. “because you’re acting weird,” you huff. “listen, if you feel uncomfortable with yeo, tell me, san. i want both of my favorite people in this world to get along with each other.”

favorite people. he, choi san, is one of your favorite people. he hopes it’s just him and mr kang yeosang that’s sitting at your dining table eating away at the pizza he paid for the both of you… regardless of the elephant in the room (in his mind, that being yeosang), san still feels giddy because you just said he is one of your favorite people in this world.

so he nods, following you back into the living room only to deflate when you and yeosang are basically in your own little world.

this, he realizes, was going to be a long night and you two probably won’t be able to finish the goal at hand: the research paper on the law of attraction.

“i’m telling you man,” san huffs into the phone, glancing out of the corridor to see you and yeosang chatting away. “yeosang and yn are attached to the hip… and quite literally!”

he hears wooyoung cackle through other line, wincing at the sound and lifting his phone away from his ear. “dude,” he says. “i told you time and time and time again that you should just make a move on her already!”

san barely gets to reply while he’s busy glaring holes at the back of yeosang’s head, almost choking on air at wooyoung’s next words.

“yn is so in love with you!”

coughing, san glances back to see you turn your head in his direction, worry written all over your features. he quickly hides behind the wall, his back pressed against it as you call out his name.

“i’m fine!” he says. “wooyoung just told me a really funny joke.”

you ah. “okay! tell wooyoung i said hi, by the way!”

“will do!” san waits a couple seconds before angrily whispering into his phone, “jung wooyoung, i am going to kill you next time i see you, you hear me? you’re a dead man.”

“uh-huh,” wooyoung dryly replies. “you’re probably going to die from jealousy before you can even lay a finger on me to be honest. which is why you should probably just confess already!”

san groans, running a hand down his face. “wooyoung, for the millionth time already,” he says. “she does not like me. if anything, she’s probably in love with kang yeosang.”

wooyoung hums. “yeah, keep lying to yourself. listen man,” he pauses for a few seconds, and san can hear some shuffling going on from wooyoung’s end. “i know what i’m saying. that girl is so in love you.”

“woo—”

“shut up and let me finish,” wooyoung snaps. “yn looks at you like you hung the entire galaxy for her, she is that in love with you. yeosang’s probably just like a brother to her, so just man up already and confess to her! i’m getting tired of you two pining over each other, it’s sickening. now,” he clears his throat, “i have to go because i have a date.”

“you have a date?” san asks. “with who—”

“bye, sannie~”

while san was busy talking with wooyoung, you were busy trying to deflect the obvious elephant in the room that yeosang kept bringing up.

“yn,” yeosang sighs. “you need to confess already.”

“wow,” you gasp. “will you look at that?”

yeosang furrows his eyebrows, prompting you to continue. “it looks like i don’t give a fuck!”

he groans at your response. “listen here, missy,” he says, huffing in annoyance. “i’m getting annoyed with his constant glaring and i’m getting annoyed at you, too.”

“what?” you ask, pointing at yourself. “how the heck am i annoying you?”

“you’re literally always complaining to me about trying to move on from him when you keep doing the opposite! either do something or i will.”

you scoff, narrowing your eyes. “you wouldn't dare.”

“oh,” yeosang throws his head back, laughing before he rolls his head to the side, looking at you dead in the eye. “i would.”

his phone rings, making him take his phone out. he unlocks it, reading whatever he was seeing before standing up just as san walks back into the living room.

“i have to go,” yeosang says. you stand up and follow him to the door. “my girlfriend said her mom wants to take us out for lunch,” he pauses, grimacing. “she's probably going to make us wear what her mom gave us a while back…”

you snort, leaning against the doorway as yeosang slips his shoes on, san standing behind you and resting his chin on your head, almost as if it was second nature to do so. yeosang quirks an eyebrow in amusement while you start speaking. “the ones you showed me a while back?” you ask. “you know, the ones that said she's with—”

“stop,” yeosang says, sighing as he holds up his hand. “don't remind me.”

yeosang opens the door, and you push yourself off the wall and head to hug him. “do something about your crush, okay?” yeosang whispers, pulling away and waving at san.

you hum. “i'll think about it. tell her i said hi, by the way.”

“will do.”

with that, yeosang leaves and you and san stay at the doorway before you shut the door.

“i, uh, didn't know he had a girlfriend,” says san all of a sudden. you look up at him as you walk past him and back to the dining table where you grab your laptop off the surface and head to your couch.

“yeosang and his girlfriend have been dating since we started college,” you hum, plopping down and opening your laptop. “she's amazing. they compliment each other well.”

“is that so?” san follows you, taking his laptop off the dining table and sitting down next to you.

“yeah,” you say. “should we… start working on the project?”

san nods, quietly opening his laptop. he doesn't know why, but he feels like his shoulders feel lighter and he can actually breathe now that he yeosang left and now that he knows yeosang has a girlfriend.

somehow, the sun has already disappeared and has been replaced by a sliver of the moon, both you and san also (somehow) find yourselves sitting on the ground. san has his legs splayed underneath the coffee table while you have your legs up to your knee, laptop propped on top of them.

“i say we approach this differently,” you say. “everyone's going to be applying the law on friends and whatnot, but we should apply it to each other.”

san raises his eyebrows, his fingers stopping their little dance across his keyboard as he looks at you. “apply it to each other?”

you nod. “yeah! think about it,” placing your laptop on the coffee table, you twist around to face and san does the same, knees bumping into each other. “since everybody basically has the same information and will have the same approach to the application, we should try approaching it differently so we can get a better grade than the rest.”

“and how do you want to go about it?” san yawns, groaning softly as he stretches his arms.

“that is an excellent question.” you grin, leaning forwards slightly. san quietly gasps, eyes widening. he hopes you didn't hear, and it seems like you didn't because you carry on with your thought. “honestly, since it's just basically manifestation, positive vibes only, like attracts like stuff,” you pause, huffing, “i guess we should take the easy approach with like attracts like, unfortunately.”

“how about we do that and the manifestation part?” he hums.

“that's not a bad idea,” you say. “we can honestly then weave in the positive vibes only rule since technically the manifestation and like attracts like are… the same.”

your eyebrows furrow as you think about the realization you just had, making san giggle. the noise grabs your attention, and san feels short of breath as you stare at him with stars in your eyes. as if in a trance, you both start leaning forwards until you're almost touching noses.

“like attracts like,” you whisper, almost as if you're afraid that if you speak any louder, whatever is going on right now would get ruined.

san nods, humming, not trusting his voice at the moment. his eyes flicker down to your lips before flickering back to your eyes, staring at you in surprise at your next words.

“i like you san.”

“you,” he breathes out, licking his lips nervously. “you like me?”

you slowly nod, watching his every movement. “i do… the question now here is: do you like me back?”

san grins, dimples appearing as he leans forwards, resting his forehead against yours as his breath fans your lips. “i like you,” he says. “i've liked you since our first year.”

you gasp, pulling back immediately and slapping his shoulder. “you… you're an idiot, choi san!”

he whines, rubbing the spot on his arm that you had slapped. “what did i do?”

“are you blind?” you huff with narrowed eyes, arms crossed over your chest. “i've been trying to get you to like me since then!”

“what?” san looks at you, genuinely surprised. “are you sure? because i swear i was the one that was trying to get you to like me.”

as you stare at each other, you both burst out into laughter.

“wow,” you say in between your giggles. “maybe like really does attract like.” implying that both of you are dumb.

san finds himself smiling so wide that his cheeks hurt as he cups your cheeks, running his thumb over the expanse of your cheek gently. “yeah,” he breathes out, his gaze flickering over your face until it falls on your lips. “maybe you're right.”

“you know i'm usually right,” you quietly reply, looking up at san through your eyelashes before closing your eyes just as san presses his lips against yours.

[first-only]

Saw the Earn it act was back and had to pour myself a Jack and Coke

It feels like everything is just getting worse, I'm not even American, but whatever effects them effects us all (especially when it comes to the internet), let's be honest.

You've been alive longer than me (I presume anyway) how do you deal with shit like this?

Back in college I had to do a pretty standard research paper on some personality characteristics, mostly to teach us the basics of statistics and gathering subjects and the like. What really surprised me back then was that on the Resilience scale, older people scored much higher than younger on average. I had to analyze my results for the prof so I actually turned to my parents for a clue how to interpret this – afterall all my life I had witnessed the absolute dramatic reaction to social change mostly from older people and the full acceptance from younger on average. What my parents accurately caught and I didn’t was that Resilience is not necessarily your reaction to /change/ but to /tragedy/. Younger people didn’t see queerness for example as a horrible social development so they had no trouble accepting it. While older people on average have lived through many more personal and societal Bad Times, so they had built up more Resilience and thus scored higher (while of course still keeping some moral outrage for *some* things lol).

Of course a key point here is that /correlation is not causation/. Not all older people are more resilient, not all younger people are less, resilience is not necessarily built through living through and witnessing tragedy. You can’t take these things as Law, more as likelihood.

My point here is that there will /always/ be some bad things happening around you, and some will actively affect you, some will even happen *to* you. Life is one thing after the other and sometimes they overlap as the tumblr post goes. At some point you just learn to live with it. This too shall pass, it won’t always be like that, etc. Key here is that.. life just. Goes on. Yes the internet has been changed drastically and it will change again. Politics, personal life, friends’ lives, family. It will always be something and life will always go on. Even if your mundane everyday life is marred by tragedy, you will still have to eat, and sit around, and see the sky, and have a moment to just look around. Those small mundane things make our everyday and carry us through any horrible background.

And I know, I *know* this sounds like a ‘you get used to it’ or desensitization, but it’s more of ‘we will live, and we will see’. If you give all of your mental energy to the current crisis, and the one after, and the one concurrent, you *will* burn out. I’m not saying ignore everything and bathe in apathy, activism is a noble cause and it actually helps a lot of people deal with the emotional crisis of tragedy. But even if you dedicate your life to helping, you still have to learn self-regulation and personal detachment skills. Throwing it all in one thing will you leave you empty for the next. Especially when it comes to grand and immaterial causes like net neutrality, that are fought less in the streets by common people and more in courtrooms by experts (that do need support still), emotional burnout will not let you deal with personal and smaller issuer where you can actually actively help and make yourself feel better.

Don’t forget the good things. Paying attention to everything means also seeing the good around you. Be it globally and internationally or personally, even the mundane everyday things, the building blocks of reality. Of course we can’t be unaffected, but the positive needs to counteract the negative or we’re headed straight for an emotional crisis. Have a jack and coke, complain and vent to friends, escape reality in creativity or games or media. But don’t drown the negative, just remember, *life goes on*. Even if the law passes, we will see tomorrow again. There’s a 12 feet ladder for every 11 feet wall. The ways might be different, might be more complicated, but there’s always a way. You will have another jack and coke some day, and then again. There will be a controversial law again someday, and then again. We will try our best to do what we can about it, and then we will sit down and have dinner with our families. Tragedies will always happen, but we need the good to feed our fight with the bad. We need the stepping ladder, the foundation, of the mundane to go on with the extra. Change is gradual and humans are adaptive. You get out of bed, and tomorrow comes, and you get food, and meet people, go to bed again. Day to day. Support this cause or the other, fight in what little way you can. Take care of yourself and don’t let fear paralyze you. Be aware and know where we’re headed but don’t let the road crumble beneath you even before you’ve stepped on it. One thing at a time but all happen all together in the great scheme of things. Step by step. It’s okay. We’ll be okay.

[lonelypond]

Rated R For Redhead, Part I

NicoMaki, Love Live, 1.1K, 1/2

Summary:

Maki and the gang are off to help Nozomi with her portfolio, a lumberjane weekend photoshoot. Nico can't go and Nico definitely doesn't approve.

Rated R For Redhead, Part I

Maki couldn't help being excited about this road trip to her family's camp. Even if it did involve posing for Nozomi's portfolio. She needed a break from campus, classes, and her parents. Too bad Nico was busy. The long drive would have been more fun with her teasing humor.

M: Umi gets carsick if anyone goes over the speed limit.

M: She'd better not throw up in my car

M: I mean there's solidarity and then there's …

N: Solidarity?

M: nvm

N: Okay.

N: Nico's paper is crushing Nico.

N: Why can't Nico cite Naver and Korean news article as sources?

M: What's the topic?

N: Pop stars breaking out into other forms of performance but Nico's prof refuses to scknowledge Kpop is peak culture

M: Poor Nico (｡ŏ_ŏ)

N: Nico's fine. Stupid prof just proving how last century they are. The future is international.

M: Umi's yelling at Honoka now.

N: That can't be fun.

M: No (〇_ｏ)

N: What's Kotori doing?

M: Fake sleeping on a yellow pillow.

N: Staying out of it.

M: Yep. I'm putting my headphones on.

N: Take snaps of your cabin. Nico wants to see.

M: (^^)b

N: And be careful around Nozomi, especially when she has a camera.

N: Menace.

M: It's a photoshoot, Nico. The entire point is for her to have a camera. Rin too.

N: Nico knows. But I also know Nozomi. She doesn't do boundaries around pretty girls.

M: It'll be fine. Eli will be there too. She can distract her.

N: Distract Nozomi from boudoir shots (;｀O´)o

M: You worry.

N: ¯(⌣̯̀ ⌣́)/¯

M: I'm fine. We're all adults. We can take care of ourselves.

N: You have no idea what curves like yours do to brains like Nozo's

M: What>

N: Probably no brains involved

N: just glands

N: And hormones

N: DO Nico a favor. Just wear a parka.

M: YOu're very silly (。ヘ°)

N: You're naive

M: I'm not

N: (-。-;

Nico to Nozomi

N: Keep your pervy camera lens away from Maki

Nz: Put a ring on it.

N: WOuld that stop you?

Nz: No.

N: (ﾉ｀□´)ﾉ⌒┻━┻

Noz: Snowball fights, chopping wood, lots of flannel and flexing.

N: …

N: Doesn't sound so bad.

Nz: And the post bubble bath pillow fight.

N: I hate you ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ

Nz: Have fun researching Lady Gaga (☆ω☆*)

N: at least Oscars are proof of "international mainstream acceptance."

#

Maki stretched. Too early. She pulled a sweatshirt over her tank top, straightened her snowflake pajama pants, and slid her feet into reindeer slippers. Bedrooms were on the second floor with the kitchen and open living area below. Maki yawned. What had Nico said last night? Be careful? Silly Nico.

"Good morning, Maki!" Nozomi's cheerful drawl greeted her as soon as Maki stepped out onto the landing. "Nice hair."

Grunting, Maki raised a hand to her head. Tousled, knotted, obviously no brush help at all. Maki had been too focused on her need for coffee..

"Your wardrobe needs…" Nozomi gestured at her own shirt, denim, half unbuttoned, "less. I was promised flannel and tank tops. And cleave. Major cleave." A smirk.

"Nozomi!" A shout came from the sectional.

"Don't worry, Eli. You don't have any competition. I've measured."

"You haven't." Eli was probably pouting. Maki shook her head.

"With my eyes."

A cough. Umi was standing, looking uncomfortable, in the kitchen entryway. "Kotori will have breakfast ready in five minutes. Juice and coffee are currently available."

A force whomped into Maki, pushing her too close to a dangerous fall down the stairs.

"Maki Maki Maki, this is so much fun. This place is the coolest."

"Let go." Maki struggled with Rin's grapple grasp.

"You're such a grumpy cat in the morning. Kayo-chin's the opposite, sweet and…"

Maki ran downstairs.

#

A waffle bacon apple butter sandwich and coffee mellowed Maki's mood enough that she was ready to deal with Nozomi's costuming request for the photoshoot. Strange to be a subject when she enjoyed framing shots herself so much. But she hoped this experience would help her understand the perspective of models. Taking headshots had often been awkward, stiff conversations making for sub optimal poses. Nozomi had such an easy confidence in her abilities and chatter that Maki hoped she might pick up a few suggestions. But right now, she needed to do something about her hair. Every time she caught a glimpse of herself in a reflective surface, different tangles stood up. Roving cowlicks, herds of them. Rin would giggle.

As she got into her room, her phone pinged. Nico. Extra frazzled. Video call. She wasn't even wearing makeup. Just a ball cap and a hoodie as she speed walked somewhere on campus.

"Nico needs the library. Have you been sexually harassed yet?

Maki flopped on the bed. "No. Just breakfast so far."

"Is that what you're wearing? Good."

Maki laughed, "Nozomi demanded more "cleave.""

"Nozomi can shut the fuck up. And you can leave. Just get in the car and flee."

"But I said I'd help."

"There's…" Nico threw up her other hand. "five other consenting adults there. Nozomi won't die if you're missing. But Nico might die right now."

"From what? FOMO?" Nico was being ridiculous.

"Stress, Maki, stress. Stupid paper, stupid prof who needs magazine citations from 3 year old international issues, stupid pervy photoshoot, everyone having hot girl party fun but Nico, and Nico deserves a weekend off the most. But no one cares. Nico is very stressed."

"Walking is good for stress."

"So is you leaving."

"So it'd be okay if you were here."

"It be great if you were here. then Nico wouldn't worry."

Maki was getting tired of this. Nico was getting more and more upset. "What are you worrying about?"

"You."

"Why?"

Nico looked shocked, eyebrows shooting up, mouth open. Ridiculous. "Why? Why? Because someone needs to care, because Nozomi will absolutely take pictures you don't want anyone to see and show them to everyone, because…"

"I don't care. I can take care of myself."

"You have no idea, Maki. You're so…"

"What?" Now Maki was getting angry.

"Naive." Nico spit out. "You're naive. You have no idea how…"

"Nico." Maki snapped.

"What?"

"I can take care of myself. I'm fine. I will be fine. Even if we were dating, you wouldn't…"

Nico stopped. Maki almost felt a shift in the universe.

"Even if…" Nico glared.

"Jealousy's a stupid emotion."

"This isn't jealousy." Nico stomped, "I don't know how to explain to you. Nozomi doesn't think like you."

"Neither do you."

Nico glared at the ground, muttering something that sounded like "even if." Then her voice whipped out a dismissal.

"Nico has to go. Have fun with your friends."

Call ended. Dark screen. Maki had no idea what she was feeling so angry at Nico about.

A/N:

Wrote half of this awhile ago. Finishing it to get me back into a writing zone. Two questions. Please answer one or both. 1. I'm considering another Christmas piece so I want to know what do you like best about NicoMaki? 2. Which of my ongoing fics would you most like to see a new chapter of? I need to avoid doomscrolling here in the USA. Help me distract myself. And stay safe.

[beazt]

hmm. something I’ve kinda noticed but never really brought into the processing part of my brain for any significant amount of time is this: (long post about education ahead)

as a tutor, and a first generation college student who generally interacts with a lot of other students… a Lot of students, maybe not the majority but Many, get really really hung up on things with preconceived notions that aren’t explained away

it’s impossible to explain this without some specific examples. the most frequent one I see is that of the “thesis statement” in written assignments. if you’re at all familiar with writing college-level essays, you probably know the thesis sentence is… not really a beast. it can have its challenges, and of course everyone is different. but if you know the topics addressed in your paper, you can create a sufficient thesis statement following some pretty simple formulas.

note that im using “sufficient” here because 1) for a lot of the students who this applies to, sufficient (or even just “completed”) is the end goal of the paper as a whole, not perfection; and 2) a sufficient thesis statement can be revised as needed, into a higher quality one

but… I have seen so many students hung up on thesis statements because of the name. Mainly first generation college students (my people!). I work with a lot of other tutors who are Not first gen graduates, and sometimes struggle to pick up on this: when the only time you’ve ever heard the word “thesis” is in reference to a large, many-month or years-long project, yeah, a “thesis” statement sounds incredibly daunting.

this mental block takes careful explanation and patience to overcome because the level of daunting it is triggers different responses, but common ones include fear, self-doubt, and a pre-emptive sense of defeat/failure— I have seen all of these multiple times and in different combinations.

and I watch as other tutors say things like “no no the thesis statement isn’t so bad! you just gotta believe me and work with me on this!” and it tugs at my heart a bit, because I know that a 5 minute conversation is usually enough to resolve the fear of thesis statements— and sometimes this “follow my lead” approach I see used leads to a mindset in the student of “I don’t understand what I just did, I still don’t know what a thesis statement really is, and I needed so much help to do it, I’ll never be able to do it on my own” (not always to this extreme but do you see where im going?)

and of course, many students struggle with it and never even interact with a tutor.

a simple solution would be in those lowest level college writing courses, having a segment on what thesis statements are, not just showing examples of them (and some instructors don’t even really do that) but also explaining why they’re called thesis statements. I had an amazing writing prof and she included this, but since everyone saw her as a harsh grader, people avoided her for the last few years before she retired.

I’m coming at this from a frame of reference dealing mainly with community colleges, but that’s where a lot of first gen students go, too. I feel that part is important to mention before I say the next controversial part:

this is often tied to the schism between arts and sciences, in my opinion. when people become fully dedicated to one and don’t strengthen the other, it leads to scientists without ethics or communication skills and scholars (in the sense of academics focused in humanities etc) who don’t value rigid, fundamental explanations of why things are the way they are.

MAJOR CAVEAT that this does not apply to Everyone in either field by any means, I wouldn’t even promise you that it applies to the majority. and this is not as much of a problem (though still present) in big universities because a lot of the faculty in them are involved in some form of research or data processing as part of their job description, which is inherently rather interdisciplinary

this is an unrevised rambling of this so give me some grace if I worded things a bit poorly. Honestly if I was given the time, energy, and resources, I would prepare a 3 hour training or workshop or Ted talk about the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to nearly any subject

[bella-studyblr]

Task Management:

Creating + Maintaining a Schoolwork Schedule

Key elements

Your schedule suits your individual time/task management preferences.

It is flexible enough to accommodate sudden changes, plus fluctuating energy levels, states of concentration, symptoms and moods.

Daily tasks are not over-whelming; they are small enough that they are achievable.

You do not get “burned out.”

It allows you to be consistent.

Steps to create your schedule

Decide if you want your planner to be paper or digital

Find an “order” that’s logical and achievable for you (more on this later)

Refer to your addendum/syllabus and write down all the assignments, tests and other events taking place that week/month (and their due-dates).

Then break these down, assigning tasks to each day of the week (more on this later).

Break down your tasks even further (more on this later).

Decide if you want to follow a simple daily to-do list or a timed schedule (more on this later).

Find your “order(s)”

Mandatory: Schedule assignments around other commitments (work, social, hobbies, etc.).

Do the hardest task first to get it out of the way (so that the rest of your tasks are less daunting, and because your smaller tasks require less energy therefore can be done even after completing the hard task).

Do the easiest task first to build momentum (give yourself a feeling of accomplishment which will motivate you to continue, and boost your self-confidence early in the day to establish a positive mindset for the rest of the day).

Do the task that’s due first to minimize deadline stress, and so your assignments don’t fall through the cracks (causing you to get discouraged and lose momentum).

Plan according to your energy level throughout the day and week: Do you have Pilates once a week? Maybe you can reserve that day for easier assignments. If you know you’re going to be tired for whatever reason, account for that in your planning.

Consider your state of concentration: If you know you’re too groggy or spaced out for the first hour of your day, you can either schedule easy tasks in that time, or none at all. If you take a medication in the afternoon/evening that makes you tired, schedule easier tasks or none, and get harder tasks done earlier/later in the day. If you have ADHD and crowded places mess with your concentration, but you like studying at a café, go when it’s not busy.

Be mindful of your emotions and symptoms: If you have depression, or are prone to depressive episodes, you’ll need to consider that when scheduling. You might have to rework your entire schedule when you get into a depressive episode (like adding lots of breaks). If suddenly you’re going through a big life event (like a breakup), you need to account for that when scheduling. For instance, if you can’t stand to be alone, maybe you can go out instead of staying in, and if your motivation is low, you may need to up your reward-system or break down your tasks even more.

Break down this week/month’s tasks

Refer to your addendum/syllabus and write down all your due dates for the time period you’re scheduling for.

Based on due dates, outside commitments, predictions of energy/mood/symptoms, assign assignments to the days of the week/month that make most sense for you.

Break down daily tasks into sub-tasks

You can do this (in advance) for your full week/month’s assignments, or do it every morning/evening.

Generally, your assignments will follow a variation of this formula: brainstorm, create an outline, research, write rough draft, edit and revise. Test/exam prep will look something like: check to see what the test is based on, pinpoint important sections, review to see how well you know the material, create a list of items to study, rewrite select notes, make flash cards, study topic 1, study topic 2, etc.

What are the individual components of these steps? Here are some examples. Brainstorm: what should my topic be, what should my thesis be, what points can support my thesis, what do I need to research, what questions do I need to ask my prof? Outline: topic, thesis, points, conclusion. Research: write down all the important parts from each source (separately), then sift through to sort into Supporting Point 1, Supporting Point 2, etc. Rough draft: opening statement(s), intro, point 1, point 2, etc., conclusion, closing statement(s). Edit/revise: read and check for grammar only, then read again and check for spelling only, read again and check for cohesiveness only, etc. Topic 1: Part A, Part B, etc.

Each of these small components can be individual items on your to-do list. Big tasks like, “write essay” are too big for most people. Even “write rough draft” is daunting. If you start with something specific and small like brainstorming, and work your way up, it’s a lot easier to approach. Plus, being able to check off tasks more often and more easily will boost your confidence and your sense of competence, thus building momentum.

Here is a sample to-do list: Research X for Point 1 of Literary Essay, create outline for History Essay, Edit/Revise Assignment 1, study Topic 1 and Topic 2 for Test 1.

To-do list or time-based schedule?

To do list: Write down all your assignments for the day. Put them in the order you want to do them, or go through them intuitively (based on what you feel like doing, or what’s most practical at the time/place you’re at).

Timed-based: Write down all your assignments, then write down the time you’re going to do each of them. You could set reminders or alarms if you want, or simply refer to the list. There’s an awesome app I recommend if this is your thing. It’s called Structured (iOS only).

Curate your study environment for maximum focus

Eliminate distractions such as uncomfortable clothing, sounds (or silence), phone and computer notifications, clutter in the room and on your desk, people who may try to talk to you (shut your door and/or inform them that you’re busy).

Designate a space to doing homework only and avoid spaces that you associate with other things (do not study in bed, as you will want to relax or sleep, and/or you will mess with your sleep by weakening the bed’s association with sleep).

Build associations: Incorporate other events and items into your study/homework routine that you only use while doing that, so that you associate those things with studying/homework (examples: specific playlists, pencils/pens, cups/bottles, scents, rituals, decor, etc.).

Ensure good lighting (preferably including daylight).

Get dressed in clothes that make you feel good about yourself. They don’t have to be “professional” and they should definitely be comfortable. Do not stay in your pyjamas. Believe me, I know this can be hard, and I love PJ’s. But they are not good for productivity.

Don’t “multi-task.” It may feel like you’re getting more done this way, but by splitting your focus, not only do tasks take longer, they also diminish in quality. Commit to the task you’re doing.

Meditate: You can even meditate for just 1-5 mins right before studying, homework and/or classes.

Practice self care (daily!)

Sleep (enough, well, and regularly).

Daylight: Get outside, work by windows, use a light therapy box. These can help regulate your sleep, improve and maintain mental health, and boost energy.

Fresh air: Getting outside even for a couple minutes can help you refresh and reset, and feel good about yourself and your life. Fresh oxygen can help you wake up and is great for your health. Even just opening your window can do a lot for your mood, energy and motivation.

Movement: Try to move at least once per day. The benefits of exercise are numerous and immense.

Healthy and consistent eating: Avoid spikes in insulin levels by eating regularly so you don’t have extreme dips in your energy level. Also, brain power uses calories too, so make sure you’re eating consistently, and try to eat healthy. There are so many other reasons eating consistently is good for your health (and by extension, your productivity).

Relaxation and leisure: Make time for fun and socializing, as well as intentional relaxation. Hobbies, movies/tv, time with friends/family, meditation, baths, progressive muscle relaxation, etc.

Therapy: Your therapy sessions are not daily, but you can do 5 minutes of inner-work per day based on what you and your therapist are currently working on. Working with a therapist is a great way to stay on track with your goals, and develop the skills and positive mindset required for success in school.

Reward yourself

Track progress: Reflect on all the assignments you’ve completed and your grades to remind yourself that you’re capable!

Completing to-do lists daily maintains a sense of accomplishment which keeps your momentum going. Check those items off! Or give yourself gold stars! ⭐️

Treat yourself with non-food rewards: Tie completed school work with fun tasks like video games, or take yourself out for coffee, or some other small (non-food) outing. What I’m trying to do right now is not do my leisure activities until my daily tasks are done.

Develop a positive mindset

Take promises you make to yourself seriously. The more you break promises to yourself, the easier it will get to continue breaking promises. You will lose respect for yourself which lowers motivation, and you will lose trust in yourself which can become debilitating as well. The more you keep promises, the easier it will get, the more motivated you’ll become, and the more you’ll trust and respect yourself. Your confidence will improve, and you’ll feel better about yourself. Productivity is choosing yourself. Discipline is choosing what’s best for you instead of what you feel like doing in the moment. Discipline is a muscle, and like any muscle, it can be strengthened, and it can atrophy.

Remember your “why.” What is the end goal of being in school? What’s your career path, and why did you choose it? What will your life be like when you have that career? What would your life be like if you gave up and didn’t make it to your goal? Aiming for your dream while running from your nightmare is a great strategy for maintaining motivation. Lighting a fire under your *** can be a huge motivator.

Remember how good you feel when you get schoolwork done, and let this motivate you to stay consistent. You can also remember how you feel when you don’t get work done, but definitely focus more on the positive!

Go to therapy and/or hire a coach. There are SO many benefits to therapy and I’d honestly need a whole other post to get into it. You don’t need to be depressed or mentally ill at all in order to benefit from talking to a therapist. They can even help you with time management, procrastination, motivation and more! If you can afford it, please do it. It’s such a worthwhile investment.

Be consistent

No “zero days.” Do at least a bit of homework or studying every day so you don’t slip into vacation mode. Make schoolwork a daily part of your life, so it just becomes the norm.

Build productivity momentum (track progress, check items off your to-do list daily, treat yourself, keep promises to yourself, remember your “why,” remember how success feels).

Stay on top of projects. Your assignments are made up of smaller tasks you assign yourself across time. “Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.” - Robert Collier

Avoid burnout (more on this later).

Keep it interesting (more on this later).

Avoid burnout

Self-care: shower and/or bathe regularly, maintain proper sleep habits, stay hydrated, take care of your skin, do relaxation activities like meditation and reading, do fun activities, pamper yourself every now and then with face masks or foot baths, take your meds as prescribed, eat well and regularly, get outside often, move daily, etc.

Break up study/homework sessions into small, manageable chunks of time, with constructive (refreshing) breaks in between.

Break assignments down into even smaller tasks so that you aren’t over-working yourself during the course of a day, and so that you don’t overwhelm yourself (the stress can lead to burnout).

School-life balance: Keep up with your social life as best as you can, make time for your hobbies, maintain self-care, say no to things that don’t serve you, etc. Try to follow through with scheduled schoolwork 100% of the time, but know that you won’t. Sometimes you’ll need to prioritize mental health over schoolwork (be careful though, this is a very fine line, and a slippery slope). Sometimes things will come up and it’ll be out of your control. But more than anything else, there will be times when you just decide to prioritize something else like fun and socializing over schoolwork. This is why your schedule needs to be flexible: to accommodate sudden invites to hang out and random decisions to skip a homework/study session, but more importantly, flexibility will reduce the odds that you’ll skip in the first place. If your schedule includes hobbies and socializing, and anything else that’s important to you, then you won’t feel deprived. If you have school-life balance, you’ll have more of yourself to devote to schoolwork when it’s time to.

Keep it interesting

Romanticize your life by putting effort into making all of your daily tasks a special occasion.

Make meals and drinks special by using your favourite dinnerware and cutlery. Perhaps even incorporate extra elements such as: a beautiful tablecloth, napkins, candles and/or dim lighting, music, wearing your favourite clothing, etc.

Pretend you’re the main character in a movie about a successful, productive student (because you are the main character in your life).

Make games out of studying if this is something that interests you (the Forest app comes to mind).

Use lots of colours in your notes and buy colourful stationary! 🌈

Vary your approach/methods if needed to avoid boredom.

Study with friends (online or in person).

Reward yourself often.

Remember your “why.”

[rhysintherain]

Sorry if this is a too random question but do you have any advice for how to choose a thesis topic when you feel like you don't have any real skill set or theoretical knowledge and none of the suggested topics really sound like anything you could reasonably write more than five pages about? And the mere thought of setting on a single topic to stick to for entire months is almost panic attack inducing

Okay, I'm going to treat this as a master's thesis, or maybe honours thesis, question. This sounds like a bigger thing than a class project, but correct me if I'm wrong, and I'll see what I can come up with for that.

First of all, you didn't get to the point of having to write a thesis without building up some skills and theoretical knowledge. You just aren't in the greatest position (inside your own head) to know what those are. I recommend asking someone who regularly interacts with your work (like a tutor or prof) to help you figure out what those are.

Second, do you have a thesis advisor? Are they assigned to you, or do you get a say in who? If so, focus more on picking an advisor you work well with before you settle into a topic. Ask the one you end up with about their study areas, and what gaps exist that you could build up with your work. You might not be particularly passionate about the topic they recommend, but knowing that your work has an important place in the literature could help you stay invested.

On a practical note, it never hurts to do some preliminary research into your potential topics. You want to make sure no one else has written the thing you want to write, but your life will be easier if there's a decent amount of source material in the field. You can't write a thesis with only 2 or 3 sources, but you also can't contribute to scientific knowledge by saying something that has already been said half a dozen times.

If you're working with some sort of primary source, there can be some wiggle room here. For example, if I wanted to write a meta-study type paper about bifacial blade cores in BC I wouldn't get very far, because only 2 people have written about that. However, if I wanted to write original research from my own hands-on analysis of those blade cores I could make that work, because the artefacts themselves are my primary source, and I know where to find a few in repositories.

If you have the time and access to go to geological formations, historical documents, interviews with Elders, '70s pop lyrics, etc, you can write about some pretty obscure things and make it work, because you're studying the things themselves. If you have limited time and resources, it might be better to stick closer to the well-trodden academic paths. You don't want to put yourself in a position where you need the primary sources but don't have the means to access them.

And as far as making a connection with recommended topics you're not that interested in, I recommend doing some preliminary digging here too. Is there a niche thing related to one of those topics you like better? Something related but a bit different? Really bad takes in the field you think need to be addressed? An epic academic debate you want to weigh in on? This part Is less about collecting useful data and more about finding where you want to be. This is the time to dig through the drama, follow the rabbit holes, and go off topic if you feel like.

And if none of that works? Talk to your advisor again. Tell them why this isn't working and what you're actually interested in, and maybe they can help you redirect your attention to a topic you'll connect with.

Your best resource for this sort of thing is your thesis advisor, which doesn't always work (sometimes an advisor is a bad fit), but if working with someone helpful who you respect is an option, that's the best way to set yourself up with something you can get invested in. If you don't have an advisor in this setting, see if you can reach out to another prof, colleague, or grad student who's willing to help. Doing things like this alone in your head is rarely the best option.

So some closing thoughts: lots of people have done this before and come out the other side. Most of them were also overwhelmed when they started, and you'll get to look back and go "well that wasn't so bad" eventually.

Your topic isn't on rails. You'll shape your goals and findings as you go along, and it will be a different story in the end than it looked like in the beginning. That's how it usually goes, and that's okay.

You don't need to know what you're talking about, just what you want to talk about.

Talk to people in your field. Ask questions. This is not a thing you need to do alone.

*just to be clear, I haven't actually written a master's thesis, although I've done training workshops on writing them, given advice to lots of people who were, and done a couple extended research projects. Lots of people who will probably see this are doing them, or have done them (you know who you are, I'm looking right at you) and hopefully will chime in with advice based on their experiences.

[earlgreydream]

professor barnes.

| professor!bucky barnes x reader | smut | fluff |

don’t mind me, I’m fantasizing about bucky being my hot professor ✨

cw: this is obviously a professor au, so there’s that (please don’t hook up with your profs irl) and also like, slight innocent kink? but not really, mild degradation (not meant)

You were tapping your pen against your lips.

You were deep in thought, hanging off of every word your professor spoke. You listened intently, taking in everything Professor Barnes had to say about World War II history.

History fascinated you, but not near as much as your sexy professor did. James Buchanan Barnes was nothing if not criminally gorgeous. It was distracting.

You really did try to focus on history, but it was so hard when you were watching his soft, full lips move. Occasionally, he would run his fingers through his dark hair, his muscles flexing under the white button downs he always wore.

“Miss Y/N!”

You were snapped out of your thoughts, your pen falling from your fingers and clattering against your desk. It seemed to echo as all of the other students looked at you. Silver eyes bore into you, and you swallowed thickly.

“Professor? I’m sorry, could you repeat the question?” You asked shyly. He looked at you for a moment before sighing.

“I asked who the leader of the Soviet Union was during World War II.”

“Joseph Stalin,” you answered, feeling sick to your stomach at his irritated tone.

“Thank you. Let’s try to pay attention for the rest of the lesson, yeah?”

Your face burned in shame, and a few of the girls smirked at his scolding.

“Yes, sir,” you nodded before he went back to his lecture.

You took notes and kept your head down the rest of the lecture, your penmanship a bit messy from your shaking hands. You closed your notebook and put it away as he ended the lecture, and students rushed out, eager to get to their lunch breaks.

You realized you were the last one left, and you stood, making your way through the empty desks.

“Y/N,” Professor Barnes said your name, and you stopped.

“I’m sorry-” both of you said at the same time, and you bit your lip, letting him continue.

“It wasn’t my intention to shame you.” He finished, and you looked into his silver eyes.

“I’m sorry that I got distracted. I’ll pay better attention next time... I usually do.”

“I know, you’re exceptionally intelligent, Y/N.”

You blushed at the praise, and he offered a small smile, putting you at ease. You thanked him before leaving, thoughts of him filling your mind the rest of the afternoon.

James couldn’t stop watching you. He was lecturing on the USSR, but part of his mind was on you. The way you listened to him, careful not to let yourself get called out again for being distracted. He noticed how you tapped your pen against your pink lips whenever you were in thought.

His mind wandered to your lips around him, though he caught himself and cleared his throat, letting a student speak about their research on Soviet Russia.

When you stood up, you smoothed our your miniskirt that drove him crazy. He imagined yanking it down your legs and bending you over his desk, teaching you to pay attention.

He was drawn back to reality by your sweet smile as you said goodbye as you headed out for the day. The image of your smile stuck in his head, and he couldn’t get you off his mind.

Professor Barnes was the subject of your dreams. You woke up in the middle of the night, after your subconscious had imagined him with his head between your legs, eating you out on top of your desk before class. Your cheeks heated furiously, and you took a cold shower, scrubbing your fantasies away.

You fidgeted in your seat, second guessing your choice of wearing a tight v-neck shirt. You felt silly. You had paired it with a short skirt, all in the hopes that your hot professor would notice you.

But why would he? You were just one of many students attempting to grab a few extra seconds of attention. You were running over your choice of outfit in your head as your professor passed papers back to all of the students.

He laid yours on your desk, and you noticed the lack of letter circled at the top. You were about to stop him when you realized there was a sticky note on the second page.

Please see me in my office after class. JBB

You looked up at him, but he didn’t glance at you as he handed other students their papers. You noticed nothing was marked on your paper, and you suddenly felt nervous.

Your heart was racing in your chest as you walked to his office, stopping by the bathroom to give yourself a pep talk in the mirror. You were sure it was fine, you would’ve gotten an email if you’d truly fucked up, alerting you ahead of time, you tried to convince yourself.

You knocked softly on the doorframe, leaning into his office. It was small and warm, filled with well-loved books and scattered notes of a chaotic mind. It smelled like coffee and books and leather, and everything about the small space seemed inviting.

“Y/N, come in.” Professor Barnes stood up, waving me inside. I stepped in anxiously, pushing the door shut behind me before taking a seat in the chair opposite his desk.

“I saw your note, in my paper. Is something wrong? There was no grade on it, and I’ve been worried...” you confessed, looking up into his silver gaze. He walked around and leaned against the desk in front of you, his hands gripping the edge.

“No, nothing is wrong. In fact, your paper is practically perfect. It’s incredibly written.” His words surprised you.

As he praised you, he looked down at your chest, shown off in your tight, low cut shirt. He wondered if you knew what you did to him, the effect you had. He acted as if he were deep in thought, covering up the fact he accidentally looked at your body a little too long.

“Thank you, sir. I don’t know what to say, I had no idea,” you spoke, and calling him sir made his cock twitch, and his breath catch in his throat.

“Of course. I wanted to talk to you to see if you were interested in publishing it in the school’s academic journal.”

“Oh? I mean, if that’s an option, then yes.”

“I can submit it for you, you’d just need to sign off saying that you grant permission for publication.” He explained to you, and you nodded, signing the form he placed in front of you.

You blushed, thinking about how he was directly in front of you, his body stretched out, muscles on display with his sleeves pushed up to his elbows. Your entire body grew hot with embarrassment when he caught you staring. 

“What’s on your mind, Y/N?” His voice was low and smooth, and you could’ve sworn he read your mind. 

“Nothing, I’m...” You stammered, unsure of what to say. 

“You’re what, fantasizing?”

Your eyes snapped up to him, and his confidence grew as he saw your thighs squeeze together, giving away your thoughts.

“Professor...” You must have misheard him, and he smirked at how flustered you were getting.

“Is that a yes?”

“I can’t stop thinking about you. Wearing these little outfits and teasing me.” 

He knew. 

James knew he won when he saw realization flood your face. 

“I wear them for you,” you admitted shyly, trying to ignore the throbbing ache between your legs as he gazed down at you.

“That’s what I thought, doll.” 

You bit your lip, looking down at your fingers.

“What do you imagine me doing to you, pretty girl? Do you think about me taking off these little skirts?” He asked you, trailing his fingers along the hem, brushing against your thigh. You inhaled sharply, your head spinning at the touch. You nodded, making him smile as he leaned over you. His lips brushed against your cheekbone, and you felt him smirk against your skin.

“Tell me what you dream about, doll,” he whispered, and by now you were practically shaking.

“Now you’re going to be shy?” James teased, amused by how easily he made you nervous.

He stood abruptly when a knock sounded on the door, and he leaned back on the desk. Your eyes were wide, and you sat frozen, in shock.

“I’m finishing up with a student!” He called through the door.

“I’ll see you soon, then?” He asked, and you nodded, your breath hitching as he gently touched your face. You stood, and he opened the door for the other student.

“I’m sorry, I was just hoping to talk about my grade?” A girl asked, in tears, and he looked like he wanted to harm her for interrupting.

“Yes, come in then.” His tone was impatient, and you lingered in the doorway. James said your name, holding eye contact with you for a moment before going back to work, and you walked down the hallway in a daze.

You couldn’t believe what had just happened. You felt like you were dreaming, your erotic fantasies coming true. You weren’t able to focus on your work, and you went home for the remainder of the day.

When it came time for his class again, you wore a short dress with little straps, wanting to show off as much as possible for him.

Your heart and mind raced as you entered his classroom, and you smiled innocently when his eyes fell on you. The silver darkened, and he watched you move to your seat, and you squirmed under the heavy gaze.

James watched as you uncrossed your legs, catching a flash of the lace beneath your dress. He sat down behind his desk, trying to collect himself and tear his focus off of you.

He was thankful that there was no lecture today, only a short quiz before he sent everybody home. You bit the top of your pen as you thought about the answers on the sheet below you, and Bucky studied your mouth. Your cheeks warmed, feeling the heat of his intense stare, adjusting slightly under the pressure.

Finally, you looked up at him, and leaned forward on your desk so more of your chest was visible. On purpose. He cleared his throat, making several students glance at him, and you had to make yourself bite back a smirk.

Everyone dropped their quizzes on his desk, leaving once they finished. You were the last one done, and you set yours on top of the pile.

“Would you like to finish our conversation from Monday in my office?” Professor Barnes asked you calmly, and you nodded.

He walked behind you, making you lead the way to his office. You knew he was staring at your ass, barely covered by the dress you wore, and you turned as you heard the office door close behind you.

You dropped your bag and hopped up to sit on top of his desk. He tossed his own bag aside and clicked the lock on his door, letting his eyes slowly move over your body.

“Y/N, what am I going to do to you? You wore this slutty little dress to distract me, didn’t you?” He teased, walking to stand in front of you.

“Yes, professor. Do you like it?” You looked up at him for approval, and his small laugh graced your ears.

His fingers went to the thin straps resting on top of your shoulders, grazing down over your breasts before tweaking your nipples through the thin fabric.

You squealed softly, feeling chills throughout your body as he lightly pinched you, toying with you through the dress.

“Are you sensitive, doll?” He asked, and you nodded, your cheeks rosy at your eagerness.

“I’ve been thinking about you, and not been able to do anything about it, and I’m all pent up.” You offered an explanation for your sensitivity, and his eyes nearly rolled back from the innocent way you spoke to him. He wanted to absolutely tear you up and ruin you, and make you fall apart at his touch.

“Let’s see if I can help then,” he slipped the straps off of your shoulders, the dress falling down around your waist.

At the sight of your bare chest in front of him, an audible noise of need left his throat. Your professor knelt down in front of you, wrapping his lips around your sensitive skin. Your chest rose and fell quickly with your heavy breathing, and his hand squeezed and fondled the side that wasn’t in his mouth.

“Please!” You were nearly desperate, feeling your arousal begin to drip down your thighs as you grew more and more needy.

“Tell me what you want, doll.”

“I need you to fuck me,” you didn’t care about the embarrassment anymore, and he smiled as he left heavy kisses down the column of your throat.

He couldn’t draw out the teasing anymore. He was painfully hard and the sight of you alone and your filthy words were driving him wild.

You had managed to undo the buttons of his shirt, revealing an incredibly toned chest, and he undid his belt, pulling it easily from the loops. He snapped it as he tossed it aside, and you jumped at the noise, making him smirk.

“Maybe we can try that another time,” he watched an anticipatory shudder ripple down your spine.

“Do I get an A for this?” You teased, undoing the button and zip on his pants, tugging them down along with his underwear.

“Very cute,” he smacked your thigh lightly in response, making you jerk at the touch.

He slipped the dress over your head, discarding it along with his own clothing, leaving you in just lace panties on his desk.

He traced his fingertips over the damp lace, making you squirm on the desktop. You rolled your hips forward, eager for stimulation. He hummed disapprovingly at the action, pulling his touch away.

His hands held your waist as he carefully laid you down on the cleared wooden desktop, and you looked up at the stunning man above you.

“Please don’t tease me anymore, professor. I want you to fuck my pussy, please,” you begged, and he removed the lace in one quick movement.

“Relax, doll, I’m going to take care of you,” James answered gently, kissing down your body.

He hands wrapped around your thighs and he pulled you so that you were at the edge of the desk, your feet on top of the surface so you were spread open for him.

He leaned down and connected your lips, consuming you in a deep kiss. You moaned into his mouth as his fingers lightly began to rub at your clit, making sure you were relaxed enough to take him in.

“I need you to be quiet beautiful, so all the students outside don’t hear those pretty screams for me.” He warned, kissing a line down your jaw.

“Yes, sir.”

“Fuck.”

You felt him brush his tip against your entrance before thrusting into you, and you struggled to adjust around him as he bottomed out. You held in a loud cry, arching your back, and pushing your chest up into his face as you did so.

Your breath hitched as he rocked into you, and he thrusted a bit faster, hitting all the deep places inside of you. He watched you struggle to ground yourself, your hands eventually holding his thick arms as he slammed into you repeatedly. You were smooth and tight around him, squeezing and contracting as he hit your g-spot.

“James, fuck,” the profanity tumbled from your pretty lips as his hips connected with yours. He wrapped a hand around your throat, keeping you down but not quite choking you.

The action caused you to spasm around him, and your hands wrapped around his wrist, keeping his hand around your neck.

“Do you like that? Do you like me holding you down by your throat? You dirty girl.”

“Yes,” you breathed softly under his grip, your thighs trembling weakly around his waist. You started to shake as waves of pleasure overwhelmed your body. 

“Are you close?” He knew the answer, but he enjoyed seeing you fight to try to form words through the fucked-out haze that had settled in your mind.

“Answer me doll, or I’m going to stop,” James threatened, and you nodded.

“Yes, I’m so close!” Your soft whine was like music to him, and he dropped his free hand between the two of you.

He kept up his thrusts while playing with your clit, trying to pull your orgasm from you. He could feel your muscles tighten and threaten to snap around him, and you just needed a little help letting go. You were begging him softly, your eyes bleary as you cried for release. James wanted to feel you come around him, and was more than happy to help, squeezing lightly around your throat and pinching your nerves, the combination causing the pressure to snap. Your vision sparkled with color, electricity shooting through every nerve ending in your body. You threw your head back from the pleasure, and a hard thrust into your g-spot sent you spiraling into euphoria.

You came around him with a silent scream, and he struggled not to follow suit, and fill up your warm pussy. He released you as he felt you ride out the end of your orgasm, and he pulled out, coming all over your torso in several white ribbons.

You watched him in a daze, and once he finished, he gave you another quick kiss. You sighed softly, exhaustion starting to set in. His gentle smile made warmth spread over your body, and for a moment you forgot that you were lying naked on top of his desk.

He cleaned himself before cleaning you up, being gentle with you.

“Y’alright?” James asked, smiling at your soft yawn. You nodded, pulling the lace back up your legs and reaching for your dress. He handed it to you once you sat up, and helped you fix it.

Your fingers slipped the buttons of his shirt back in their holes, despite the fact that your hands were still a bit shaky. You felt all worn out, feeling like you could sleep for days and ride the dreamy feeling that was left in your mind.

He couldn’t help the smirk that pulled at his lips as you held his arm when you stood up, trying to steady yourself. You looked up at him shyly, and he placed his hand on your lower back.

“For the next time.” Professor Barnes said, putting his number in your phone before giving you a kiss. 

[earnestly-endlessly]

I love your fic recs! Do you have any with Protective!Erik?

Protective! Erik is one of my favourite tropes so I have a TON of fics to share with you. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Protective! Erik fic recs

Erik Lehnsherr's Guide to Saving the Universe By Meeting Your Soul-Mate and Falling in Love in Less than 72 Hours – madneto, Pangea

Summary: Army Pilot Erik Lehnsherr is just trying to enjoy his day off when a mostly naked person crashes through the roof of his car. Even more alarming, the strange falling naked person—who goes by Charles Xavier when he's not speaking an ancient dead language—brings tidings of the apparent potential end of the world, and begs Erik to help him put a stop to it.

Well. His mother has been nagging at him to go out and meet new people.

In Sound and Silence – endingthemes

Summary: Erik is assigned to care for the special patient in room 301.

How Not To Meet Your Future Boyfriend – ikeracity

Summary: Erik punches Charles in the face the first time they meet. There isn't anywhere their relationship can go from there but up.

Forgotten – FuryRed

Summary: Charles is having a really bad day. Not only has he woken up in the middle of the afternoon with no idea where he is or how he got there, but when he returns home he’s confronted by a stranger with intense eyes, who insists that he knows Charles rather more intimately than Charles remembers…

Thou Shalt Not Eat Stones – valancysnaith

Summary: Two months after Washington, Raven found Erik in a skeevy motel off the Florida interstate.

“They have Charles, Erik,” she said.

The bedframe shrieked. In the bathroom, the showerhead snapped in half and clattered into the tub.

Demoted – JayPendragon

Summary: Erik Lehnsherr is a detective-specialist with the NYPD Mutant Tactical Unit, ready to help out where his skills are needed. Or he would be, if he and his partner hadn’t been demoted. For the next four months, he is patrolling the Lenox Hill precinct with Azazel – if he doesn’t die of boredom first. One night they are called in to investigate a potential case of domestic violence, yet the tenant assures them he is both alone and unharmed. However, there is something about this Charles Xavier that compels Erik to follow up.

Warning: Sensitive material, domestic abuse and dubious consent

Watch Your Back – swoopswoop

Summary: Bodyguard AU where Erik is overly protective and things aren't as simple as they seem.

If We Met Differently – swoopswoop

Summary: Erik wasn't the only mutant 'taken in' by Shaw, Erik learns this the hard way when a new mutant is dropped into his cell. They manage to escape together, but things aren't all roses after that. Erik has a score to settle and needs to make sure Charles is safe.

The Color of Love (Character Swap Remix) – BadLuckBlueEyes

Summary: Nobody sees in color until they meet their soulmates. When your soulmate dies, your vision returns to black and white. What happens when your soulmate only dies for a few minutes?

Omega Online – miss_aphelion

Summary: Newly imprinted Charles is having trouble dealing with his overly protective alpha—so in desperation he seeks advice in an omega chat room. Emma Frost is more than happy to help, Raven isn't helping at all, and Erik can't stand to be out of touch with Charles for more than five minutes at a time.

Cannot be Contained in Words – wallhaditcoming (uvcatastrophe) 

Summary: Crime syndicate head Erik Lehnsherr travels to London on business, where he meets oxford student Charles Xavier. Their liaison spawns into a years long transatlantic affair, kept apart by Erik's work and Charles' studies,which Erik chronicles in photographs. When distance ceases to be an issue after four long years, the overlap between Charles' past and Erik's work create a whole new set of complications.

A Pertinent Reminder – ikeracity, Pangea

Summary: Sometimes it's easy to forget that getting involved in Erik's mob business isn't all fine dining and sex on yachts. There's nothing like taking a couple of bullets to remind Charles of the reality.

Part 3 of the Associates series

A Dangerous Game – ikeracity, pangea

Summary: When a familiar enemy of Erik's returns to the city for some old-fashioned revenge, Charles is sucked deeper into the world of the mob than ever before.

Part 6 of the Associates series

You don’t choose the thug life (except when you do) – Anonymous

Summary: Charles is kidnapped and discovers that Erik, the Alpha he has been dating for the past few months and is head-over-heels for, is not just a wealthy businessman but actually the head of a syndicate.

He is rather unhappy about this discovery and Erik gets an earful for lying to him. Then Charles is kidnapped again and really, he hopes mating Erik won't result in weekly kidnapping because he has a thesis to finish and papers to grade.

Marrying a Mob – Ook

Summary: Charles is a teacher at a very exclusive school. When armed men burst in on the trail of two children, of course he stands up to them and gets hurt. The children are Erik Lehnsherr's children (of course); a "prominent businessman" or, less politely, "mobster".

Erik is grateful to Charles for saving his children's lives at the cost of his kneecap. So very grateful.

Naturally he tries to reward Charles for his actions. Equally naturally, Charles will be having none of that.

Azazel finds the whole thing unspeakably hilarious. Naturally.

Rumor Has It – blueink3

Summary: "Did I hear the doorbell earlier?"

"Yeah, but I'd steer clear if I were you. It seemed a little tense. I don't know what's going on, but there's a kid out there who looks freakily like the prof."

Nearly six months after Cuba, Charles' life is turned upside down for the second time. Though he's slowly learning to adapt to the first, he's not sure he can handle the second. Luckily for him, there are a few people out there more than willing to help.

Forward Momentum – AsYouWish

Summary: Six months after Cuba, Charles and Erik find themselves thrown fifty years into the future, where they meet their older selves, the Avengers, and a world that's very different from their own. Faced with the pieces of their broken relationship, an unparalleled adversary, and dealing with Tony Stark on a daily basis, Charles and Erik do their best to adapt while trying to find a way back home -- and to each other.

Runs in the Family – Anonysquirrel (chibirisuchan)

Summary: Alex knew his own reputation. Hell, he'd started some of his own reputation, because it kept some of the smarter thugs off his back. Everyone knew Alex's reputation. There was no way Hank didn't know his reputation, but he'd brought Alex into a house with some really expensive things and a lot of innocent little kids and his too-friendly, too-harmless dad.

But clearly Hank hadn't told his family anything about Alex, just like he hadn't told Alex anything about his family. At least, not about the brain-breaking parts of his family.

"I didn't know where to start," Hank said, for the dozenth time.

Featuring mpreg!Charles in a Kiss The Cook apron, overprotective!Erik in wet black leather, and baked goods. Lots and lots of baked goods.

Round the Corner Waiting – swoopswoop

Summary: When things go so spectacularly wrong during a relationship, Charles - now a single dad - almost makes a big mistake, only to be stopped by a mysterious man who just might turn his life back around.

Hide Your Fires – swoopswoop

Summary: As the sole heir, Prince Charles, had no problem with the roles and responsibility that would come with ruling a kingdom. Though he was the only one who did not see a problem. After years of being shuttled back and forth between kingdoms, his Regent hoping he would find a match more suitable to being King, he is finally sent to Genosha. Though the path has never been less clear than the one to a foreign kingdom with no ties to his native land.

Shaw’s Captive – swoopswoop

Summary: Magneto killed Shaw, it had to be done for the sake of mutant-kind but what he wasn't expecting to find hidden deep with Shaw's complex was a man held captive, obviously tortured, that somehow made Magneto turn into Erik.

Erik now has a potential human in his citadel as he continues the war with the human's.

Mind’s Eye Blind – Sperare 

Summary: As far as Erik is concerned, if you want to scare a person into talking, you have to present him with something more compelling than what he stands to lose...

And there is nothing in the world more compelling than Charles.

Chipped – Rosawyn 

Summary: Magneto's fledgling Brotherhood find Charles Xavier in a mutations research lab as an apparently willing subject for an experimental suppression device.

Okay, I Feel Better Now – Harleydoll

Summary: The AU in which Erik is sent to a mental health facility after being convicted for Shaw's murder and pleads insanity, and Charles is his paranoid schizophrenic of a roommate. Powers, Hellfire conspiracies, protective!Erik, and of course the inevitable angst.

Five Nights in Nuremberg – FuryRed

Summary: When Charles escapes from the mutant prison he has been held in for the last two years he knows that he’s going to need help to avoid being recaptured.

What he doesn’t expect is that help will come in the form of a mysterious German man who rescues Charles and takes him to his home; a handsome stranger who, frustratingly, doesn’t speak a single word of English…

Five Bullet Points – Sperare

Summary: It was supposed to be Erik locked away in a prison one hundred stories below the ground.

Charles was never supposed to be there with him.

Notes: Unfinished but an excellent read. Highly recommend it.

Stolen – ishipitsobad

Summary: Erik is a miserable, grumpy, cantankerous bastard, and he has every fucking right to be. He drew the short end of the stick when he got the Underworld as his domain, and there isn't very much fun to be had in judging and governing dead souls who would rather be anywhere else but with Erik in the depths of Hell.

So when he meets Charles, brilliant and lovely Charles who is more popularly known amongst the mortals as Persephone, and feels the promise of something wonderful that could make his eternally doomed existence infinitely more bearable... you can bet all your drachmas Erik's not going to let Charles go any fucking time soon.

My Barbaric Darling – baehj2915

Summary: Erik is revivified caveman. Charles is the anthropologist(?) taking care of him. This is as ridiculous as it sounds. Romcom misunderstandings and prehistoric wooing ensues.

Swimming with Sharks – Not_You

Summary: Erik used to be a shark. Now he's not, and has to figure out how to be a good human father to his twins. Charles is willing to help.

Eucalyptus leaf of my soul - kageillusionz, ourgirlfriday

Summary: Zookeeper Raven at Taronga Zoo keeps having ideas on how to capitalize on interest in the zoo mascots, Koala Charles and Drop Bear Erik (the only drop bear in captivity!), who have captured the hearts and minds of the public. First it was to introduce prospective mates (It’ll generate attention, Hank. People are perverts. They’d love to see koala porn.). This idea was not effective the first through fifth attempts, as Erik and Charles seemed to show at best polite interest in the newcomer before resuming whatever marsupial debate they had going. However, the resulting lesbian koala orgies did indeed generate interest. Then Raven unveiled the Hug-A-Koala program, which was successful, as the public showed great interest in hugging Charles, and Charles seemed to enjoy being hugged.

Then Raven unveiled the Hug-A-Drop Bear program, and Hank, not for the first time, wished he had a flask handy.

Notes: Yes, they’re Koalas, yes they’re adorable, and yes, Erik is super protective even as a Drop Bear.

[stanknotstark]

Research and Dating (No They Aren’t Connected)

“So, if you could kidnap me really publicly that would be great.”

“...why?”

“I kinda forgot about this research essay due tomorrow? And like, my prof knows I’m a hero- I even brought my laptop so I can write it in your cell. Is the wifi password still the same?”

It’s Thursday at 8 P.M. and your essay is due in 4 hours. It wasn’t that you had procrastinated it’s because-nope, ya, you procrastinated. Now you were freaking out about it when the glorious idea came to you. 

There were, of course, perks of being frenemies with Loki. You have visited his his base of operations before, his ‘evil lair’, been thrown into one of his cells and ‘suffered’ until he got bored of the Avengers searching for you like chickens with their heads cut off and made theatrics by showing up to them with you in his hands and ‘failing’ to keep you away from the Avengers saving you. 

In all actuality, you had sat in a golden cell but Loki had sat right outside the cell with a chair and read while eating an apple. You couldn’t read the title of the book so you asked him what it was about and Loki had been a little hesitant but fell into your pure curiosity and explained what he had been reading. You’re sure he liked your curious mind as you started asking more questions and challenged the ideas the book gave. It lead to a long discussion of morals, and death, and at one point whether apples or pears were better. It was fun is what you’re trying to say. 

That’s how your friendship blossomed.

So, you call up Loki, yes he has a cell phone, and ask him without explanation at first, “So could you, like, kidnap me but publicly?” 

You can hear the cogs turning in Loki’s head at your request. “Why?” He asks in a smooth voice, betraying no emotion.

“I kinda forgot about this research essay due tonight? And, like, my professor knows I’m a hero. I’ll even bring my laptop so I can write in your cell, the wifi password is still the same right?” You ask Loki. 

Loki sighs over the phone, you can imagine him pinching the bridge of his nose with closed eyes. 

“Yes. Fine. Be at Madison Square Garden in 15 minutes.” The god says and hangs up. 

You smile and pump a fist at your best friend’s save. 

You’re at Madison Square Garden in record time and Loki makes his entrance a show. 

You’re sitting down outside the stadium when Loki materializes from green clouds of magic that open a portal then float into the air as if they’re a sign that’s flashing the words ‘Loki is here!’ in the night sky of NYC. When he sees you he rolls his eyes but people start paying attention so you play along with his ruse.

“Loki! What mischief do you plan to get up to today? It doesn’t matter, I need to bring you in!” You yell at him, almost laughing at how stupid this all seems, and push civilians back behind you. 

Loki chuckles darkly, “You. You are my mischief today, your poor Avengers will never find you. You will become my slave.” Loki says with a voice that is dark but his eyes light up with amusement.

By now hundreds of people have stopped their night to watch you and Loki, phones out and recording everything. 

You smile sardonically at Loki, “Not if I-”

Loki grabs you and pulls you and teleports. When you’re at his base you sigh and pat him on the arm as he pulls from you. 

“Thanks, I owe you big time Lokes.” 

Loki frowns at the nick name you chose. “Please refrain from calling me that or I shall teleport you to your professor and have you face the repercussions of procrastination.” Loki threatens. 

You chuckle, roll your eyes, and head to the cell. It’s just in case someone actually does pop in to ‘save’ you. 

When you’ve settled in the cell Loki raises the golden barriers and magics a chair near to settle with you.

“What do they have you writing about now?” Loki asks. 

You had asked him for help writing other essays because Loki has an eloquent way of speaking. You felt it made you sound smarter and because you spent consistent time with the god you had fallen into talking like him sometimes.

“It’s for my disability class, the sociology class?” You ask Loki if he remembers you telling him about it, at his nod you smile, “Ya, so basically we’re to argue whether we feel prostitution should be legal or not in America considering how much it helps the disabled.” 

You laugh at Loki’s frown. 

“Which side do you argue for?” Loki asks with a small squint as if trying to determine the side before you tell him. 

“I believe it should be legal but have restrictions and rules. If in the wrong hands it could be really bad but at the same time if it’s in good hands it could be really good. It’s a risk but we won’t know how well it’ll work if we never try, you know?” You say with a pondering look. Loki purses his lips but nods at you. 

Loki magics a book into his hands and lets you start writing away. The whole thing is very comforting to you. Sound wise, you can hear Loki let out puffs of breath when he finds something amusing in his book, Then, there’s the rhythmic tapping of your keyboard as you write. Other than that you just enjoy being with the god, even if you aren’t interacting with each other. 

You’ve been harboring a crush on him for awhile but have always kept it hidden. You value his friendship too much to do anything that could jeopardize it. Not to mention, Loki hadn’t shown anything on if he likes you or not. He occasionally flirts with you in battle but that’s about it. So, you feel you know he isn’t attracted to you like that. 

“Loki what’s another word for great?” You mutter.

“Glorious, grand, impressive?” The god supplies you with choices. 

You hum but don’t say anything and continue typing. After you finish your paragraph you look at Loki who glances at you. 

“Thanks.” 

Loki smirks at his book, “Anything for you, darling.” Loki says in a low voice while reading his book. 

See, the nick names had started early on. At first they had confused you but when you had been in battle and helping Tony, Loki had called Tony ‘sweetheart’ so you reasoned Loki just had a thing for nicknames. That doesn’t stop the jolt in your stomach when he does call you sweet names like that though. 

You shake yourself out of your reverie and continue writing. You’re like one, maybe two, paragraphs from being done. You try your best to elongate time to hang out with Loki more but when you finish your essay you don’t have any other excuse. 

That’s why, when you finish and close your laptop with a small ‘click’ and Loki stands and asks if you would like to spend time at his apartment, you’re shocked. 

You stand looking at Loki with wide eyes. 

Loki takes this as an answer and coughs a little, bringing a hand up to rub at his face, he’s trying to hide his embarrassment. 

“I am sorry, I crossed a boundary, it won’t happen again.” 

“No!” You yell, nearly dropping your laptop as you reach towards Loki. You scramble to hold it to your chest again and look at him, shyly pushing a lock of hair behind your ear. 

“I would love to. I was shocked, I always figured I’d be the first to ask.”

Loki looks at you a little doubtfully but sees the truth in your answer and smirks. Instead of replying he waves a hand and the barriers disappear then he holds his hand out to you. You gladly take it and suddenly you’re both standing in a tidy apartment. 

It’s very modern and looks costly. The furniture is all contemporary and different shades of white, brown, and gray, with the occasional splash of emerald green in throw blankets and decorative pillows. You don’t really notice but Loki still holds your hand. 

Loki pulls you by his hand towards his kitchen and puts a kettle of water on on the heating stove top.

“Tea? Or are you more of a coffee person?” Loki asks you with a glance as he pulls out his tea. You finally realize Loki has yet to let go of your hand but you’re not going to complain.

“I love both, but tea will be good for now.” You say lightly, glancing down at your clasped hands when Loki isn’t looking. A small blush heats up your cheeks and you let a stupid smile cross your lips.

You and Loki settle against his bar, still holding hands, while you wait for the water to heat in the kettle. 

“I never had the chance to ask but why are you studying psychology and sociology? I figured a superhero’s salary would be quite enough to live comfortably? Don’t tell me they under pay you.” Loki asks, his tone laced with a threat when he says the last part.

You chuckle. “No, it pays well enough, enough to pay my way through school. I want to help people though, that’s what makes me truly happy. So, naturally, psychology and sociology were natural choices because they help me understand people, the way they think, how they tick, so I can better help them.” You explain.

You look up at Loki who looks at you with an unreadable emotion on his face. Loki then brings a hand up, tucks a rogue lock behind your ear and keeps his hand there. “You are too precious for this world.” He whispers as he looks at you. You feel you cheeks heat up and can’t keep eye contact with Loki. 

Loki clears his throat and drops his hand from your face, looking away from you as well. However, he doesn’t stop holding your hand. You feel your hand become clammy from nerves and hope this doesn’t gross out Loki. At the thought your hand twitches in his and Loki merely squeezes your hand. 

“What other hobbies do you favor, seeing as they obviously kept you preoccupied enough to procrastinate your paper?” Loki asks. 

You smile at the ground because you realize Loki is trying to better know you. 

You look up at Loki again, who is already looking at you. “Well, surprisingly enough research and reading are my main hobbies.” 

“Oh?” 

“I love learning so I read up on whatever subject pulls at my attention at the moment.” 

“And what draws at your attention right now?” Loki asks curious.

You flush and look at the ground, kicking it softly with the toe of your shoe. You mutter the answer.

Loki chuckles, brings his free hand up to tilt your face till you look at him. “Say that one more time, where I can hear it darling.”

“Norse mythology.” You say softly, embarrassed. 

Loki’s eyebrows lift in shock. The look on his face showing that he did not expect that answer at all.

Thankfully the kettle begins whistling and causes the moment to be broken and forgotten. 

Loki makes a cup of tea for the both of you and you both move to his living room, seated on his couch. You’re both sitting close enough to touch at the legs but don’t hold hands anymore. You set your mug on the coffee table in front of you, too hot to hold. Loki however basks in the heat of his cup, his hands wrapped around the mug as if he has just come in from a blizzard.

“I have plenty of texts you may borrow if you want to learn about the true mythology.” Loki offers, looking at you calculatingly.

You had hoped Loki would drop the subject seeing as your research was drawn from your want to learn more about Loki than actual Norse mythology. 

Whatever, shoot your shot, right?

“I’d much rather hear your tales than anyone else’s.” You say, your hands picking at your jeans with nerves. 

Loki hums with a small smile as he takes a sip of his tea. “Of course, darling. There is no better way to learn than from the source of such tales.” Loki says smugly. 

You feel a smile break over your lips as you look at Loki who basks in his arrogance.

“I better watch out, stroking your ego,” You say, Loki raising a brow at your mischievous smirk, “Otherwise you might start sounding like Thor.” You say to knock Loki down a peg. Loki scoffs with a roll of his eyes but you don’t miss the twitch of his lips.

“Do not compare me to my oaf of a brother.” Loki says, finally setting his mug of tea down, resting his hands in his lap. You also don’t miss the twitch of his hands, as if they want to reach out towards you. 

There are too many signs that Loki obviously likes you, it’s almost overwhelming, but you keep yourself pulled together before you ask him the question.

“You know, I’m just kind of going out on a limb here, but uh...You ever plan to ask me out, take me on some romantic dinner or something or do I need to give more incentive?” You say, the confidence in your voice a facade because inside you’re freaking out. 

Loki keeps a blank face as you look at him. Then, he lets a smirk break out over his lips, glances at his tea but his eyes come back to yours. 

“Is that such a good idea? Considering you are still my enemy?” Loki asks.

You grab your tea so you have something to do with your hands, sipping from the earthy, spicy liquid. You let yourself think, letting his question roll off your shoulders and shrug. “I could care less what the Avengers think but we can keep our relationship hidden if that would keep you happy?” 

Loki purses his lips, his eyes squinting at you. “They would cage you, would they not? If they knew you were fraternizing with the enemy?”

“Yes, but I have no doubt you’d let them keep me for long.” You smile at Loki who huffs out laughter. 

“You truly want me?” Loki asks. You don’t fail to hear the insecurity in his tone. 

You set your tea down, grab both of Loki’s hands in yours and look at him, baring all your emotions on your face. “More than you will ever know.” 

Loki squeezes your hands with a soft tilt of his lips.

“Then I suppose it is inevitable. Shall we partake in a date tomorrow night, say seven?” 

You smile at Loki. “I would love to, Lokes.” 

Loki rolls his eyes at the nickname but you know he doesn’t mind it, much. 

Needless to say, you were granted an extension of time to turn in your essay while also scoring a date with your crush.

[thefactsofthematter]

hi bestie <3 you said send in some requests, so i'm suggesting:

javid with, "it's not okay! you're not fine!"?

i hope you have a good day !!!

hi bestie <333 i had so much fun with this, i haven't done a short little fic in ages!! here's a 2.7k javid fic - a college au and a classic (emotional) hurt/comfort type deal, heavy on the comfort ;)

-

"Wanna come for dinner at my parents' house tonight?"

Davey is laying on Jack's couch after his last class of the day, since Jack's apartment is just off campus, and it's a ridiculously convenient place to go nap after a long day of school. He honestly spends more time here than at his own apartment that he shares with his sister, a short train ride away.

"I'd love to," Jack replies, his gaze still glued to his computer screen, "but I totally forgot I have an art history paper due at midnight, analyzing a painting, and I haven't started. It needs to be ten pages, and I don't even have an outline. I'm gonna sit here and write until my eyeballs fall out."

Davey laughs softly.

"That sucks. Do you at least have some research done?"

Jack turns to him with completely dead eyes.

"Not a single academic source."

Davey glances at the clock. Jack has seven hours to pull this off, which is doable, but... intense. It would've been a lot easier to spread it out over a few afternoons, and it'll be a painful squeeze to get ten comprehensible pages of writing done tonight. Jack can write decently fast, but his spelling and grammar are atrocious, so he'll have to factor in editing time too. Davey is not envious of these circumstances in the slightest.

"Shit. Good luck. That sounds awful, but I'm rooting for you. What's your prof's late assignment policy?"

Jack, entirely beaten down, leans forward to rest his forehead on his keyboard.

"He won't accept them past the due date without a good reason... which I don't have. I'm just an idiot and forgot to put it in my planner— thank god Romeo texted me today to ask if I was done."

Davey pushes himself up and walks over to where Jack is sitting at his little dining table, under the constantly-flickering fluorescent bulb. He wraps his arms around Jack's shoulders and kisses the back of his neck.

"You got this. I'll come back here after dinner and bring you leftovers, okay? My mom's gonna be sad you couldn't make it, so she'll totally pack up a plate for you."

"You don't have to come all the way here," Jack sighs. "Your place is closer to your parents, and this is out of your way— you have work in the morning anyways, so you should go home and go to bed. I'll be fine, I'll probably write faster alone anyways."

Davey kisses him again, this time leaning around to plant one on his cheek.

"If you're sure." Jack's plan is probably the smart move, since Davey's shifts at his stupid coffee shop job start ridiculously early, and coming here would mean staying up with Jack until he finishes, probably distracting him. "In that case, I'll see you tomorrow after work, and I'll bring the food then... keep me posted about the paper, text me when you finish. And make sure you eat something."

Jack turns back to look at him with a strained, stressed attempt at a smile.

"For sure. Go have a nice time with your family, and tell everyone I say hi."

-

"Aba, you're doing it wrong. You have to use your left arm."

It's getting late in the evening, dinner has been eaten, and Les is trying to coordinate the family to make a TikTok with him. It's not exactly going well.

"My left or your left?"

"It doesn't matter, we have the same left!"

Davey has thankfully been placed in the back row, both because he's tall and lanky, and because he's so uncoordinated that Mom used to make you wear one of those leash backpacks as a kid to keep you from wandering into traffic... which is true, but Davey isn't sure why Les even knows about that. He certainly wasn't around yet when that was the case, so he probably heard it from Sarah.

While Les tries once again to explain how this little dance is supposed to work, Davey's phone starts to buzz in his pocket. It's probably a spam call, but he's not particularly invested in the dance lesson so he pulls it out to check.

Incoming call: cowboy babyy 💖🤠

Davey frowns. Jack never calls him. It's always texts or voice memos, since he's got some kind of weird aversion to talking on the phone. If he's calling, it must be important.

"Hi babe," he says, pressing his phone to his ear and walking off to his old bedroom to get some quiet, while Les shouts at him in the background for not taking this seriously. "How's the homework going?"

Jack is quiet for a second too long as Davey toes the door shut.

"...Not great. I'm really frustrated." He pauses and sniffles a little, sounding almost like he's holding back tears. "I don't know why I called you while you're having a good time with your family, though. I shouldn't be bugging you."

"Hey," Davey breathes, "you're not bugging me at all, sweetheart. Is the paper not going well?"

"I just... I'm so bad at writing, and I don't know what I'm talking about, and I have no idea how I'm gonna get this done in time." His voice is shaking, and it's breaking Davey's heart a little. "I'm being dramatic, though. I just need to keep working on it."

Davey sits down on the edge of what's now a guest bed, his old outer space-themed comforter replaced with something more neutral.

"You're not dramatic, it's okay to be upset. Do you want me to come over and help?"

Jack's breath hitches softly, and it confirms that he's almost definitely crying.

"You don't have to, you're busy with your folks. I'm sorry for calling." He shudders a little as he must try to take a deep breath. "It's okay... I'm fine."

Davey sighs, almost exasperated with Jack's self-sacrificial sense of pride. He'll never ask for anything for himself, not wanting anyone to go out of their way for him, even when he seems to be having a panic attack of sorts.

"It's not okay; you're clearly not fine, Jackie," he replies. "We already ate, and I'm not busy. If you want me to come over, I'll be there... do you?"

Jack is quiet for a moment again, taking a deep, shaky breath.

"Yeah. I do."

Davey nods, though Jack can't see him.

"Okay. I want you to take a little break from writing until I get there, alright? Change into your pyjamas and have a glass of water. Try to relax a little."

"Okay... thanks Davey."

The call ends, and Davey rejoins his family while tucking his phone away in his pocket.

"I have to go." He kisses his mother on the head as he walks by. "Thanks for dinner, Ima."

"Is everything okay?" she asks, catching him gently by the elbow before he can get too far.

"Yeah..." he sighs. "Jack's just having a hard time with homework, I'm gonna go help him out."

His father ruffles his hair and gives him a quick hug.

"You're a good boy, David. Take him those leftovers— your mother's cooking can fix anything."

"For sure. I'll see you guys next weekend, and I'll try to bring Jack along then."

He waves goodbye to Sarah and Les, grabs the dish of food, and then sets off on a speed-walk to the nearest subway station.

-

Jack is sitting on the couch when he arrives, his knees pulled to his chest, looking very soft and cozy in pyjama pants and one of Davey's old hoodies from some baseball tournament. He's staring into space, and he hardly even moves to acknowledge Davey's presence when he walks in.

"Hey darling." Davey leaves the dish of food on the counter and crouches down in front of Jack to try and catch his eye-line. He carefully takes Jack's hands in his own. "Hanging in there?"

Jack finally looks at him and nods, but as he blinks, more tears slip out and roll down his cheeks.

"I'm only done two pages," he mumbles, practically whispering. "I don't know why it's so hard, but I just can't do it."

"Oh, Jackie..." Davey reaches up to wipe Jack's tears, cupping his face gently with both hands. "Hey, you still have three hours, right?" Jack nods. "That's lots of time. We're gonna figure this out... let's just sit here and calm down a little first. It's gonna be okay."

He climbs up onto the couch to pull Jack into a hug, and the moment he's settled, Jack wraps his arms around him and breaks, sobbing into his shoulder. Davey cards his fingers through his hair and rubs his back; he's never seen Jack this distraught, especially not over homework. There's a good chance the problem runs a lot deeper, and stressing over an assignment was simply the last straw.

"You're alright," Davey continues, since talking is what he does best, even in moments like this. Jack is shaking with the force of his tears, breathing so hard Davey worries he might hyperventilate. "Listen, it's just one assignment, my love... if you get a bad grade, or if we don't finish in time, we can deal with that. We'll hand in whatever we finish tonight, so at least you won't get a zero. Worst case scenario, you retake this class in the spring... even that doesn't sound so bad, does it? I know you could handle it, if that's what happens."

Jack nods a little, but his tears don't stop.

"I'm so tired of being stupid," he hiccups, after a long while. "I keep getting distracted, and I can't word things right, and I spell everything wrong, and- and maybe I should just drop out, because I'm clearly not meant to be doing this."

"Baby..." Davey sighs, giving him a gentle kiss on the temple. "You're so intelligent, Jack. You're almost done your degree— after this term, you've only got one year left, and it's not like you do poorly in your classes, is it? Even when it's something hard for you, like writing, you always do well when you put in the work. What did you get on your sociology paper a couple weeks ago?"

"Ninety percent," Jack mumbles, muffled by the way he's speaking into Davey's shoulder. "But I spent so long on it, and you edited it for me. I'm gonna fail this one. I can't do it in one night, and I can't write papers without your help."

"Well, I'm here to help now, aren't I?" He rests his hand midway through brushing it through Jack's hair and scratches his scalp gently, which makes Jack shiver and laugh quietly through his tears. "Right? And you can write, darling— all I do is fix up the spelling and grammar for you. The ideas and words are all you, just like when you give presentations and knock it out of the park every time. I sure can't do that."

Jack finally looks up at him.

"Yes you can. You get nervous beforehand, but when you do a presentation, it's always really good."

Davey smiles at him, now that they're actually looking at each other.

"It's hard for me, though. Just like writing is for you— but with lots of effort, you're really good at it. See my point?"

Slowly, a small smile spreads across Jack's teary-eyed face, and he nods. Davey feels rather accomplished with this development.

"I guess so." He wipes at his eyes and sighs. "Sorry about this. I'm such a mess."

"No apologies. I don't blame you for getting overwhelmed— you're in a tough spot here." He pulls Jack in for a quick kiss, which they both smile into. "I brought you dinner. Go heat it up when you're ready; I'll look over what you've written so far and see if I can come up with some more ideas to add on. We're gonna work together on it, okay? What painting did you choose?"

"The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew by Caravaggio," Jack sighs, looking almost forlornly at his computer on the table. "I have a lot to say about it, and lots of good stuff in my notes, but I just can't put it into paragraphs and sentences that make sense."

Davey nods, watching Jack as he stands up to go put the leftovers from Davey's family in the microwave.

"Well, I don't know anything about paintings, but if you talk me through it, I can help you put the actual paper together." He pauses as an idea dawns on him. "I'm gonna email your professor and ask about an extension— it might be a shot in the dark, but we should at least try. The worst he can do is say no."

"Sure," Jack replies from the kitchen, his voice still shaky. "He's a total hardass, though. Fingers crossed for a miracle."

Davey sits at the table, opens up Jack's email, and starts a draft.

Hi Professor Diaz,

Apologies for the short notice, but I'm wondering if it would be possible to have an extension on the analysis assignment, even if it's just by a few hours. I unfortunately mixed up some due dates in my planner, and I thought I had an extra week for this assignment; I only realized the mistake today, so I'm currently scrambling to get it done in time.

Would it be at all possible to turn it in a few hours late, just to have a bit more time to finish it up? I would really appreciate any amount of time you're willing to give me.

Thank you in advance for your understanding, Jack Kelly

He shrugs, sends it, and sincerely hopes a little professionalism and a decent (if slightly fabricated to make Jack look less forgetful) excuse will go a long way.

-

It's quarter to eleven, the paper is now five-and-a-half pages long, and Jack isn't crying anymore. He's in the zone, talking aloud about the painting while Davey helps him get his vague ideas into concrete sentences, and they're on track to have at least seven or eight pages by the time midnight rolls around— it might not get full marks, but it'll be better than nothing.

Jack's computer dings with the sound of a new email while they're taking a two-minute break— something they've interspersed every half hour, since Jack's focus is best in shorter bouts. He's in the middle of walking laps around the apartment to get his energy out and annoy his downstairs neighbours, but he scrambles back to the computer at the noise.

"We got a reply!" he shouts.

Davey is over on the couch, and he watches Jack's face closely as he opens the email. So far, so good... and then he slumps down in his chair in a show of what could either be defeat or relief. Davey can't quite tell, so he jumps up to go read it for himself.

Sure. Email it by 11:59pm tomorrow.

Sent from my iPhone

"Yes!" Davey shouts, grabbing Jack by the shoulders. "I told you it was worth a shot!"

Jack laughs, and then reaches up to pull Davey down for a kiss.

"You're the best, Jacobs. A fucking lifesaver." He rubs at his eyes, and then pushes his computer away, across the table. "I'll deal with this tomorrow. Let's just go to bed— you still have to be up early."

Right. Davey has a dreaded Saturday morning opening shift tomorrow— they open at five, and he has to be there well in advance to get set up, so he's got no chance at getting more than a few hours of sleep. He's going to be dead on his feet in the morning, probably fuck up a few coffee orders, but it'll be worth it to have helped Jack through tonight.

Poor Jack seems completely exhausted— as anyone would be after crying so hard earlier— so collapsing into bed after washing up quickly is an utter relief. Davey, despite being tall and long-limbed, greatly enjoys being the little spoon and Jack is happy to indulge him, so they curl into the familiar position.

"Thank you for everything tonight," Jack whispers, practically into Davey's ear. "I love you so much."

Davey smiles as his eyes fall shut, and he kisses Jack's knuckles softly, where his arm is wrapped around him.

"Any time, darling. I love you too."

[marie-curie]

how to write essays (for university)

last semester i was very scared about the essays i had to write. in spanish, after the first two semesters, all exams are more or less essays you have to write during semester break. i had never written an essay before, at least not at university and let me tell you: the first one was a mess. i had no guidance. nobody told me how the f*ck i should write an essay. it took me so long to finish, i had no structure, my citations were messed up, but it was also a learning process. i pulled through and the marks weren’t that bad. now i’m writing my fourth essay and i must say, it get’s so much easier after the first one. so here are some tips for your first essay or maybe even for people who have already written some university stuff.

the first step is always finding a topic. i would suggest a little research. go find some books in your library or even google scholar will do it (honestly, due to covid-19 i write all my essays with internet resources and it’s working perfectly fine!). 

google scholar even gives you citations (be careful though! always check twice) and shows articles related to that topics so you can build a strong bibliography.

read some general articles about the topic and find something that interests you. i love using notion for this step. they even have a thesis-template i adjust to my needs and use. i can copy the link to the source, write down author, year, title and form of publication and have everything in one place to quickly find it. 

i even use it for a small timetable.

now do a more focused research and narrow it down. at my first attempts i made the error to choose a wide and very unspecific topic. therefore it was quite difficult to write everything important on only 15 pages. so try to choose a small topic and put enough research into it to write your requested pages. after finding a topic try to phrase a hypothesis. ask yourself a question you want to answer after writing this essay. think about possible answers (this first hypothesis doesn’t have to be right! you will certainly find the answer while writing). a big tip is also talking with your prof! present them your research so far and talk about the question you want to answer in your text. they are going to tell you, if this sounds good to them or if you messed up. doing this at the beginning is so much easier than afterwards, i promise.

before you start writing you should organise your thoughts and resources. thanks to @honig-prinzessin​, who introduced me to citavi, i can now organise my citations in one programm. 

for most university students this should be free, just look it up at the website of your uni. i don’t want to go into too much detail but you can create an overview of the topics you want to talk about and arrange all relevant citations below that. i find this system very easy to use! 

what i like to do afterwards is organising my thoughts and arguments. i write a small plan of what i want to talk about exactly at what point in my essay. i used to simply start writing but this resulted in a big mess- in my head and on paper. 

citavi even has a word extension so you just have to click to transfer your citations plus bibliography into word. really useful!

now start writing(oh it sounds so simple...). it doesn’t matter how bad the first draft is, just get it out of your head. make sure you use all guidelines your uni has for essays: font, size, layout, how to quote, etc.

when you finished the essay ask someone to read over it. get a second opinion. check again if you did your quotations right (don’t want to get accused of plagiarism!). and then just send it off. honestly, i hate editing the most. i don’t want to read my bad wording. and be proud of yoursef! 

when you get your grade always ask for a detailed evaluation! a number won’t tell you what you can make better next time. and i’m pretty sure most profs will do this if you ask. at least it helped me with the essays that followed my first one, so highly recommend!

[byologee]

an actually practical guide to being premed and getting into med school by someone who did it successfully

Majors and Classes:

Personally I feel you should choose a major that will be complementary to your premed studies-- something STEM or social science based that overlaps with your premed classes and will allow you to take upper level science classes that relate to physiology, disease and illness, pharmacology, etc. HOWEVER do not let this deter you from majoring in a non-bio STEM area like biochem or from pursuing a different science or liberal arts major.

That being said, consider double majoring in Public Health because it is very relevant to premed and going into medicine.

Make sure you take the correct order of bio and chem classes. This is important so that you take classes at the appropriate time when you have the appropriate skill level and so that you do not have any gaps in your premed education or major classes.

Be aware of what upper level bio and chem classes require prereqs that are not a part of your major requirements or premed requirements; for example some upper level bio classes require microbio which is not a premed requirement at all schools NOR always a major requirement. Plan your underclassmen years accordingly to allow you to fit in certain prereqs for upper level classes.

If you plan on taking lower level lab intensive courses, take them as an underclassman-- they will prepare you with basic lab skills you can apply to upper level classes and to irl lab work, plus most of your classmates will be underclassmen. You do not want to take these lower level lab intensive courses as an upperclassman. You will be bored and probably annoyed.

Take an intro level public health class as an underclassmen to see if you are interested in public health; this will also be relevant to your med school apps.

Gen chem 1 and orgo 1 are weedout classes. Many people will switch from premed and/or bio to public health or prePA after taking gen chem 1 and orgo 1. This is normal; don’t be judgemental. If you’re the one switching to public health or prePA, don’t feel bad or ashamed.

Do not take orgo 1 or 2 with super hard progressors. It’s just not worth it. Many people say that harder orgo progressors prepare you better for the MCAT, but this is false as the MCAT does not have a lot of orgo on it. Many people will fail out of orgo even without super hard professors. Set yourself up for success by taking orgo profs with good reputations, not profs with reputations for failing everyone, being purposefully difficult, or just nasty.

If you take a (relatively) “easy” professor for orgo 1, under no circumstances should you take a hard prof for orgo 2. You will suffer.

The best way to study orgo 1 and 2 is to memorize all the reactions. Copy reactions until you have them memorized. Then you can simply apply what you’ve memorized to synthesis reactions. This works for NMR too, just memorize what NMR specs look like and apply.

Always go to TA office hours for gen chem 1, 2 lab and orgo 1, 2 lab. The lab reports are very difficult and the TAs can help you more than professors can. Professors will be mostly absent for labs. TAs will know what’s up.

You do not need to take biochem 2 for the MCAT, biochem 1 will suffice as it generally covers amino acids and proteins and not respiration and metabolism. Most of the biochem on the MCAT is about amino acids and proteins; all metabolism can be self-studied. (This is my opinion to save you time, if your advisors tell you otherwise LISTEN TO THEM and not me).

If you take AP psychology you do not need to take intro psych.

You need to take a sociology course for the MCAT and premed reqs. You should take The Sociology of Deviance if offered at your college as this is more relevant to the MCAT than intro socy.

If you have to take a professional writing class for Gen Eds, try to take a science writing or health professions writing course as these will be relevant to you.

Take stats even if you don’t have to as it is very relevant for understanding papers.

If you switch to another pre-health path like prePA or prepharm you will generally have to take different prereqs. Clear this with your advisors and come up with a plan.

Med schools like to see a diversity in courses and not just science courses, so you need to take at least 8 humanities credit hours. Diversify your college education and take interesting and relevant humanities courses; this will also help with CARS on the MCAT.

Research

Many medical schools want you to have research experience. You can do clinical research or bench research.

You should start research early, either 2nd semester freshman year or summer before sophomore year.

The best advice is to research professors and PIs in the BSCI and public health departments and email ones you are interested in about working in their lab. You can do this before 2nd semester freshman year or during that semester. Email example: Hi Dr. X, I am an undergraduate freshman at UMD and am looking for research opportunities in X field. I discovered your lab and read your paper, “X,” and am very interested in this subject! Elaborate on what interested you I was wondering if there are any open positions in your lab for an undergraduate researcher. I have taken X, X, X, courses. I would be interested in working in your lab for 2 years. Please let me know if you have any openings! Best, X

PIs generally look for undergrads to commit to 2 years of research, but you can quit earlier if you feel like it. This is also why you should do research earlier-- that way you are not cramming it in during your upperclassman years.

The goal is to get some abstracts, posters, presentations, and maybe a pub out of it, but these things aren’t absolutely necessary.

Clinical Experience

Med schools like to see 10 months of continuous clinical experience, which translates to about 200 hours. However, this number is too low and to be really competitive for med school apps you should aim for 1000 hours if not more.

The best way to gain clinical experience is to work part time as a scribe, CNA, MA, or tech. You can take CNA and MA courses the summer before sophomore or junior year and apply to positions online. CNA/MA gives you a lot of experience working with patients. Scribing gives you a lot of experience working with doctors and seeing what they do. It’s best to start clinical experience sophomore year or junior year so you can gain enough hours prior to applying.

You should also have clinical volunteering hours which you can get by volunteering at hospitals such as Children’s or Shady Grove or any other local hospital. Other clinics also accept volunteers, you just have to look around. Check your health professions advising office (hereon abbreviated as HPAO) for their recommendations and job listings if available.

You can also shadow doctors. Your HPAO may have a continuously updating list of physicians in your area who are available to shadow. You can also genuinely just email local providers. Note that you will need to shadow a DO if applying DO.

Check your HPAO listserv for job openings and clinical volunteering opportunities.

You can find jobs by googling “CNA job near me” or “scribe job near me” and browsing postings on Indeed and other job sites, or alternatively postings on hospital sites.

Community Service

Med schools like to see 10-12 months of continuous community service, or around 200 hours. This is too low, and you should aim for around 600 to be a competitive applicant.

Join school listservs and look for volunteer postings. Go to your school’s First Look Fair or college organization fair (usually held at the beginning of each semester) and sign up for emails from clubs that do volunteering or other various organizations. There are many organizations on campus that do volunteering and service.

Ideally you want to work with marginalized communities off campus. This sounds shitty but you want to work with communities who need it. You should also aim for a sustained service opportunity, not a once a month thing but a weekly, continuous experience. Volunteering through clubs and societies like the women’s premed organization are not valid experiences.

Google local homeless shelters, women’s shelters, STD testing clinics, and food banks-- these are all really good places to volunteer at. You can also volunteer at crisis hotlines.

You can also utilize clinical experience for community service, so volunteering at a hospital, clinic, urgent care, etc. But you also need non-clinical community service, so make sure to prioritize both.

Consistency is key. Doing an experience for a longer period of time (ex. 4 hours every week for 10 months- year) is very valuable. Even doing an hour of volunteering at the same place every week for two years is great. Building relationships, gaining experience, understanding consistency-- med schools value this. Long term experience is very important.

Extracurriculars

You should also be involved in extraneous, non-community service based organizations and extracurriculars. It’s ok if these organizations include some aspect of community service. This can also include paid-positions that are not clinical.

Examples include campus ministries, sports, dance, art clubs, music/choir, social, restorative, and environmental justice organizations, interest groups, tutoring, co-ed frats, etc.

Joining societies, like the American Women’s Medical Association or your college’s namesake Pre-Med Society is a great way to do extracurriculars, build your resume, and get leadership experience. You can also join major-specific societies.

Check with your HPAO for a list of pre-health societies you can join. Your college will also have a website or list of clubs and orgs you can investigate.

Med schools like to see that you are well-rounded, so having a variety of experiences is important.

Advising

It is extremely important that you build a relationship with your advisors. It is very important that you outline all the classes you want to take with them and when AND that you meet with them every semester. Discuss your plans with them, ask questions, ask for suggestions and tips. If you make any major or minor changes you need to speak with them too. They are a resource; use them.

You will also need to build a relationship with your pre-med advisors at your HPAO. You may need to do an intro workshop to be able to meet with an advisor at your HPAO.

Meet with an HPAO advisor every semester to outline your courseload, volunteering, clinical work, extracurriculars, and application plan. Your HPAO advisor will help you craft a narrative for med school apps and can help advise you with regards to coursework and what opportunities to pursue. They can help you decide when to take the MCAT, when to apply, devise a school list, etc. so it’s best to start meeting with them early. The better your relationship with your HPAO advisor, the stronger the recommendation letter you’ll get from them.

If your grades drop you NEED to speak with an HPAO advisor. You should be checking in with them every semester to go over your grades and course history and make sure you are on the right track to apply. This is really really crucial.

If your HPAO offers workshops for applying to med school, crafting a school list, financing med school, writing a personal statement, etc. then GO TO THEM. Utilize the resources that are available to you.

Make sure you are on your HPAO listserv.

If your HPAO offers peer to peer advising consider using this resource to speak with current college students who are going through the application process.

2 Areas Med Schools Look At: Leadership + Diversity and Inclusion

These are two hot topics med schools care about. Here is how to address them.

Leadership: there are numerous ways to gain leadership experience; getting elected to a leadership position in a club or organization, being a TA or UA, getting a management position at your job, or being any kind of team leader in a community service endeavor. The important thing is that you are able to express what you learned and how you grew or changed from that experience, plus how you will apply what you learned in the future.

Diversity and Inclusion: Hot topics in medicine right now, my advice is to read about diversity and inclusion in medicine and what it means-- read articles, op-eds, peer-reviewed papers, etc. There are a few ways to go about this issue; one is to find out what is unique about you that you can contribute to medicine, the second (and most important) is to work with underserved and marginalized communities. Being able to express in med school apps and interviews that you understand the difficulties faced by marginalized groups and are committed to better health and wellness outcomes is REALLY important. Being able to show awareness about diversity in medicine is so key. To do this, spend time working with the marginalized and underserved through community service and clinical work. Be able to show med schools that you understand and care about diversity and inclusion.

You should be thinking about leadership and diversity/inclusion throughout all four years of undergrad-- how will you incorporate these things into your app?

Letters of Rec

Getting letters of rec (you will need 5-6) is very important. To do this you will need to build relationships with the following…

Professors: You will need recommendations from 2 science professors and 1-2 non-science professors. To get recs you need to go to office hours, ask questions in class and outside of class, email profs questions, stay after class to ask questions, participate, show an interest in what they are teaching. Office hours are important unless the class is small. Build relationships with professors ALL THROUGHOUT undergrad. Go to office hours even if you don’t have questions, especially in junior and senior year. Go and ask them to review prior tests and papers. Ask if you can explain concepts to them to get clarification. Listen to other peoples’ questions, piggyback off them. A prof is not going to write a LOR unless they know you.

Physicians: You need to have clinical experience to get an MD LOR. And you NEED an MD or DO LOR. Get the clinical experience, then ask whatever physician you worked with the most for an LOR. Many will say you do not need a DO LOR to apply to DO schools; I cannot advocate for this as I was told by my premed advisor that I needed one. Be safe and get one if you plan to apply DO.

Other: If there is anyone else who knows you well and can write a strong LOR, ask them. Your boss, manager, volunteering organizer, team leader, club sponsor-- whomever.

Committee Letter (CL): Many med schools require these. Your college probably has a unique CL process. Go to workshops, research, and ask your advisors how this process works. Maintain a relationship with your premed advisors to obtain a good CL letter.

Building a Narrative

This is talked about a lot junior and senior year when you are applying, but it’s important to think about building your narrative all four years of undergrad.

What this means is that you want to center your application around a theme or common experiences. You want to build a cohesive resume of common volunteering, clinical, and extracurricular experiences that complement each other. You should be able to summarize all of your experiences and draw a narrative about you based on what you have done.

For example, my narrative centered around marginalized and underserved communities as well as social and restorative justice. I used my volunteering experience with marginalized, underserved kids and my experience working with traditionally underserved patients to explain why I want to be a physician, what my medical vision and mission is, and what I have learned about medicine. Because I am interested in family medicine I was able to tie my experience working with the underserved into my goal of improving community health and welfare among marginalized groups. I also discussed how my passion for social and restorative justice ties into my clinical experiences and how I plan to integrate this passion into my practice of medicine.

One of my friends centered her narrative around being a Spanish-speaking person of color AND the descendent of physicians and how this has shaped many of her experiences in medicine and healthcare.

You don’t have to plan out your experiences to conform to a pre-chosen narrative. You do have to be able to draw common themes and lessons from your experiences, however.

MCAT

Talk to your premed advisor about when to take the MCAT and what classes you need to take prior to taking the MCAT. Ideally you want to take biochem 1, physics 2, and sociology of deviance before taking the mcat along with all other prereqs.

You also want to take the MCAT before applying (ideally) so that you can craft an appropriate school list. Your MCAT will give you a boundary for which schools you can apply to. Think of the MCAT as a checkpoint you must pass to apply to certain med schools.

Many people start content review six months before their test. Some start 2-3 months prior. Do what you think is comfortable.

You can use books or purchase review courses (Kaplan, Princeton Review) or use free online review content (Khan Academy).

Practicing how to take the test is more important than content review. What that means is that doing practice tests will help you more than reviewing content. Take as many practice tests as you can (AAMC makes their own).

Do a practice test one day, review what you got wrong the next day. Repeat this enough times and you will do well on the MCAT (511+).

Don’t anticipate retaking the MCAT. But don’t exclude it as a possibility either, so plan when you take the MCAT accordingly.

General Advice:

ALWAYS listen to your premed advisors. Do not elevate advice given by random strangers (including me) on the internet above advice given by your advisors. They know you. They know your history, your transcript, your personality. Us internet people do not. Trust your advisors. They know what they are doing.

Take everything said on the internet by supposed med school app experts, med students, doctors, premeds, SDN mods and commenters, premed redditors, and other random internet people with a BIG grain of salt. We don’t always know what we are talking about.

Limit the amount of time spent on SDN and premed reddit as well as other premed online forums. It can get unhealthy real fast.

You don’t have to study all the time. It’s ok to take breaks and have fun.

Don’t be afraid to reach out and get help or ask questions. Everyone else is struggling too. Your professors want you to do well.

Do non-science related things. Give your mind a break and diversify your experience.

Failing a test is not the end of the world. Many people fail tests and classes. You won’t be alone. Always remember that the curve exists.

If you are having a problem, talk to your professors and TAs. They are there to help.

Study with people. Quiz each other. Make study guides and ask each other questions. Help each other out.

Utilize campus resources- tutoring, study groups, yoga classes, conferences and seminars, counseling, etc.

Buy the MSAR when you start building your school list. It will make comparing schools so much easier.

A B or even a C is not going to ruin your chance of getting into medical school. People get in to med schools with 3.1 GPAs. You will be ok if you fail one test, have a few Cs or Bs, withdraw from a class, etc.

Getting into med school is more about fit than anything else. It’s not about how smart you are or how good your GPA or MCAT is. Everyone has a 4.0 Everyone has a 528. What matters is fit-- who you are, what you believe, what your values are, what your aspirations are-- and how you can demonstrate these things through your application, interview, and overall experiences. Remember that top tier schools are research-oriented (Einstein, Baylor, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Stanford, NYU, Duke, Mayo, UChicago, Mt Sinai) whereas other lower tier will be more community focused.

ALL med schools (excluding caribbean med schools and a few DO schools, looking at you DMUCOM and LECOM) are valid. All med schools are good med schools. Med school is med school is med school. You will come out with an MD or DO and you will get into residency.

Always apply DO. Just do it. DO is great, DO is a viable option and good opportunity. Do it. Do not exclude it.

Links and other Resources:

AAMC: MD applicants, helpful resources in general https://students-residents.aamc.org/preparing-medical-school/preparing-medical-school

AACOM: DO applicants https://www.aacom.org/become-a-doctor/how-to-apply-to-osteopathic-medical-college

MSAR: handbook to med schools (MD) https://students-residents.aamc.org/medical-school-admission-requirements/medical-school-admission-requirements-applicants

AAMC’s how to apply to med school https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-medical-school/applying-medical-school

AAMC’s FAQ and tips to creating a good app: https://students-residents.aamc.org/ask-experts/ask-experts-create-winning-application

Why Diversity Matters in Healthcare https://explorehealthcareers.org/career-explorer/diversity-matters-health-care/

[mrpenguinpants]

Diluc and Aether: Reassurance HCs

Hey! Honestly, unpopular opinion. I like Aether a lot more than Lumine and I’m so upset that when I rerolled for fun I picked Lumine. Now I’m locked in hahh. But that’s so cute anon, I adore emotionally unavailable men attempting to express empathy just to comfort someone. Thank you!! I’m glad you like my work and no problem^^ This is an outlet for me to SIMP and others to simp with me. Take care of yourself anon if you’re still out there and reading this 💕💕

---

Today’s appreciation post goes to anon-iru. I’ve been seeing you pop up a lot recently so hi hehe. I see you’re a fellow human of the brain worms and honestly, if you actually pin the crackfic that I made for when you get cold. I have no words except for I feel both honoured and ashamed in myself haha.

---

Diluc: Comfort HCs [reader ver]

[Masterlist]

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[taglist]  <- if you want to be added, please read this first.

@hanniejji  @mikeysbike @unionwitch @musekala @twistedsunnshiii @stanzastic @akaasea @xoneaboveallx @adoring-ghost @asheseiler @childelover​ @dilucsz​

---

Diluc and Aether: Reassurance HCs

Since Aether started his journey to find his sister, he’s met so many different people and so many things have occurred that he never had the time to rest and be with his thoughts. But after helping Albedo with his experiment and obtaining the festering desire sword, things seemed to have calmed down. The land of Inazuma was still closed off until he could find a way inside the region but until then, it’s just been him, Paimon, and Diluc. Albedo and Sucrose had left to conduct more research in their lab back in Mondstadt leaving the three of them to camp out for the night. Aether was developing a very deep appreciation for the pyro user since they had no reliable way to light torches without freezing to death. 

But now that everything was settled and the world moved on, Aether was left at a bit of a standstill. He was grateful for the temporary break but it also let him think. How was Lumine doing? Was she safe? Where was she now and would they ever reunite? He hoped that, where she was, she was doing okay. 

He might make jokes about Paimon being his emergency food but he really was grateful she was here. It used to only be him and his twin, traveling throughout the universe until that Unknown God had separated them and he found himself here on Teyvat. Even now he can still feel the nightmares crawl behind his back, waiting for him to sleep before striking. 

Aether is snapped out of his thoughts when he feels a heavy coat rest on his shoulders, turning to see Diluc looking at him in concern. At least, that’s what Aether thinks is concern. Diluc’s range of emotions is limited to say the least but Aether smiles thankfully as he pulls the warm coat in further. He’s come to learn that Diluc isn’t one for talking and prefers to show his worry through actions. Diluc never pushes for Aether to talk, something he’s grateful for since Paimon can get a bit nosy, but he really needs an outlet right now.

It’s silent between the two before Aether let’s his emotions pour out, the nightmares of his sister walking away from him, that he’s unable to catch up to her no matter how fast he runs, being told by Lumine that he was too late. He wasn’t even sure what he was too late for. Diluc remains quiet as he listens along but Aether can’t help but feel that Diluc understands. That he’s been through the same situation and knows what Aether is going through. As sad as that seems, it’s comforting knowing he isn’t alone. Aether breathes heavily as he finishes his troubles, before bringing his knees up to his chest and cradles his head between his knees. He can hear Diluc shuffle a bit before he feels a warm hand being placed on his shoulder. Something to stabilize him and let him know he’s not alone. 

“I wonder how she’s doing right now...” Aether sighed as he stared down at his hands. It felt nice to get this off his chest but now that he did all he could feel was loneliness. No matter how many fights or pranks he had with her, he really really missed Lumine. He hoped that she was alright and that she was safe. Was she looking for him too? Once again, he’s snapped out of his sad thoughts when he feels Diluc reach over and pull his coat closer to Aether’s body and laying a hand on his head so he could place it on his shoulder. Aether hmms contently as he snuggles closer to Diluc’s warmth. It must be convenient to have a pyro vision, you can be your own personal heater.

“Aether, look at me,” Diluc whispered as Aether shifts his eyes to meet Diluc’s, “I’m sure she’s strong and capable if I have anything to base on her brother. Have faith in her like she would in you. Thoughts like those will only cripple you, instead use that frustration to your advantage and conquer your fears. I’m here with you. We will find her together.”

“Diluc...” Aether trails off. He never really took Diluc as one for comforting words but when Diluc offers a small but kind smile. He can’t help but smile back. He was right, there was no use in letting those fears get the best of him until he fulfilled his goal and reunited with Lumine. His eyes shine more determined as he nods to reassure himself, “Yeah...Yeah, you’re right. Thanks Diluc.”.

 “Of course,” Diluc nods as he observes Aether. He managed to pull him out of his loneliness, just for a bit, but Diluc knows perfectly well that it doesn’t last for long. “Tell me about your sister, was she as daring as you?” 

Aether laughs as he reminisces to Diluc about the weird antics he and his sister got up to. From doing rock-paper-scissors to decide who would run errands while the other would slack off. To when Lumine proclaimed she was the oldest and strongest between the two, trying to show him new techniques and tricks while he would pretend he hadn’t seen her and was distracted by a butterfly. Even to when they accidently pranked a high ranking official and almost started a war before quickly dipping out of sight once the situation was cleared up. 

“From the sound of things, you both seemed to be trouble makers,” Diluc chuckled along with Aether laugh before he gave a small yawn. It was getting pretty late, “Rest Aether, we can continue our search tomorrow.” 

“Mm, okay. Good night Diluc,” Aether smiles, after all this talking and finally getting the heavy burden off his chest he was getting pretty tired. He yawns once more as he leans more into Diluc’s side before slipping into sleep. This was nice, hearing the fire crackle, the comforting arm around him, the heavy coat that shielded him. It felt safe. That night, whenever he felt those same nightmares creep up, they are quickly chased away by red flames. 

---

Classes start today and I already want to commit sleep. I’m already getting emails from my profs about due dates and we haven’t even talked about the first project. Why do I have a graded discussion let me live a bit.

Istg HCs to me are just fics without dialogue. Because I suck at dialogue lol. Not sure if I’m up to write another full fic today since I kinda want to enjoy my break while it’s still here [cough unless you wanna commission imjustsaying].

Tomorrow is XIAO CONTENT! oh and diluc too. He’s there too. 

[sunkensubtext]

any director’s commentary on anthromance 101? or whatever you want to talk about most!

Oh HELL yes. I love this story, so this might get a little long, and I apologize in advance. There's so much that I know I won't be able to shove into this fic, so here are some miscellaneous snippets and thoughts that I've come up with while plotting it out!!!

My first thing I definitely wanted to include from the start is Shouta being this kind of disillusioned person who's just so over the idea of being a god. He's just mentally and emotionally exhausted, and despite his power, he's purposely crafted his image to the mortals in a way that ensures he won't be worshipped alongside the more popular deities. His lower ranking status is by design, and he's extremely powerful on his own--the gods use conduits (mostly humans) to get their power and status, but Shouta practically owns the forests. The life within them is enough for him to match the power of the upper ranking gods, all while allowing him to remain relatively unknown. It was a good system, until Hizashi came around.

Because of this, I really wanted their relationship to be strained at first--all anger and confusion. I don't know if it'll ever be added in, it depends on which way I go, but I at one point intended for their relationship to initially be strained in a different kind of way--Shouta is mourning the loss of the gods but keeping it under wraps, and feels isolated and like there's a huge weight on his shoulders because he knows it's up to him to solve the issue. Hizashi, though, is so starstruck by the idea of meeting a real deity that he treats Shouta like a novelty. Shouta responds by playing with Hizashi's thirst for knowledge; he constantly answers Hizashi's many questions with fake or exaggerated anecdotes, like Dionysus only being the god of wine because the other gods tacked it onto his descriptors after their intervention didn't work. Shouta also makes an exaggerated show of pointing out wood furniture or structures he finds hideous, deeming them a waste of his trees and reclaiming ownership of them just to get Hizashi fired up.

I have a couple snippets that won't be included, so I'll add them here too!

--

[["So, if you've rejected all the romantic advances of the other gods, does that mean you've, uh….?"

"I'm as old as time itself. I'm, in fact, older than the very concept of fucking. What do you think the answer to that question is? I want you to look me in the eyes and say it." Hizashi is dead silent. Shouta smirks, nudges him. "Think critically about everything, or this fight is already lost. That includes about me."

And Hizashi thinks critically about Shouta, then--about his soft smiles, his fierce devotion, his deadpan humor; and he aches.]]

--

[["You think us  gods are immune to adaptation?" Shouta's eyes narrow as he spits the words out, and the sound of it alone is enough to raise the hairs on Hizashi's arms. "All of us, humanity included, were scraped from the clay by Chaos. And you dare to think we're the only ones able to live on this earth without being touched by it?"]]

--

[["No, not now. I'm a god, but for the first time in my life, I get to decide what that means." He nods to himself, knocks his shoulder against Hizashi's, and shoots him a toothy grin. "What about you, Prof?"

"Ah, I plan to do some more research, put together some academic papers so they're easily found if something like this happens again in the future," he mutters, unsure. "After that, I imagine I'll go back to teaching."

Shouta frowns, silent for a long time. When he turns to face Hizashi, there's an intensity in his gaze that he's never seen before; a fire bubbling just under the surface.

"You've spent your whole life researching these legends and stories," he starts, voice charged with emotion. He leans forward, and for a moment, Hizashi thinks he's going to kiss him--instead, he just stares, makes sure Hizashi is listening as he continues. "With everything you know now, don't you think it's time you took a break to create some of your own?"]]

ANYWAY I gotta stop myself here or I'll go on forever. Thanks so much for the ask, and for giving me the chance to ramble about this!!!

[eunoiamaybe]

my “sort-of-complete” online classes and exams tips

This is a longer-than-usual post with tips for the 3 stages of online classes: focusing during an online class session, reviewing/studying for online classes, and preparing for online exams/ quizzes. So I decided to insert the “Read More” link to (a) not take up too much space on your dash, and (b) feel more confident in adding more tips as time goes on.

These are tips that I’ve compiled from my experience of taking online classes during my last 1.5 years at university. But having all of your courses moved online is so much more complicated. Since I’m currently doing an internship, I have tried my best to produce this post based on the comments of my friends IRL and on Tumblr (hence the “my”). However, I hope it can still be useful for you and many who were all abruptly put in this same situation.

So feel free to share your own tips and experience! I will probably go back to this once in a while to make some changes to it and add your tips. Good luck to everyone who is currently/ about to take online classes. You are almost there! 🍀 I believe in every single one of you!

~  Click away for them tips   ~

💻 DURING ONLINE CLASS SESSIONS:

- try to treat online classes the same as an in-person class, especially time-wise (set a specific time for each class and plan your own class schedule. even better, study for your classes at the same time they used to be held. this will create a sense of routine and trigger the brain's normal reactions to your usual class - which is to study)

- don’t be afraid to fix your plan/ schedule (aka don’t force yourself into one if it doesn’t work for you) (trials and errors, my friend. this applies to plans too. there’s no shame in not being able to keep up with the schedule you’ve made. if you’ve tried or if it hurts you mentally or physically, then that schedule is just not the one for you. everybody has their unique strengths and weaknesses. one’s perfect system might not suit another. finding a system that works for you takes time, patience, and courage. but it will be absolutely worth it)

- find a good spot with enough light and stable wifi (if you have multiple options, select the one that would make you most comfortable, most focused, and confident enough to take online tests/quizzes/exams at - create your “exam space” in advance to reduce the anxiety of tests and unfamiliarity)

- study at a desk, if possible (studying at a desk, with good posture, mimics the feeling of being in a classroom or the library. thus, it will create a sense of routine and help you focus better)  

- accommodate yourself (I’m all about making the best out of a bad situation, and this is one way to do it.  accommodate yourself, not just with comfort, but also with actual necessities that you cannot usually get in your usual classroom/library due to whatever reason. stress balls, stim toys, positivity cards, calming music/candles. comforting plushies. chewing gum. as long as it helps you focus better, it's on the table)

- get dressed (this will bring out that sense of structure and routine that you need. put on your normal outfits, uniforms and even perfume. trick your mind into being focused)

- minimize distractions (declutter your study space. put your phone out of reach. turn off notifications. close all other tabs on your browser. select non-distracting music/ sounds. don’t spam or pay attention to spams in your classes’ chatboxes. only bring along items that are absolutely vital to your focus)

- take notes, even if you can record your lessons and/or access the lessons later (it can either be digital notes or handwritten notes on paper - your call. this will force you to focus and prevent you from zoning out/ being distracted)

- be actively engaged in the lecture (if there are technical problems or if you have questions, chatbox away. this is also good practice for people with social anxiety too: the fact that you are in your home and behind the screen can make it easier for you to ask for help)

- if possible, put your teachers/profs on the big screen to create the illusion of being in a lecture (if your study spot has a TV/projector that can connect to your laptop and quality speakers, do it. it's more fun than you'd think. also super stimulating and kicks the boredom out of you too)

- if not, use headphones/ earphones (speakers can create a feeling of distance between the lecture and yourself. combined with unstable internet and/or monotonous voices of some instructors, this may result in your brain classifying your lecture as background noises and zone out. so use headphones or earphones with the appropriate volume for that optimal focus mode)

- give yourself breaks between classes (don't cram all your classes in one morning. but don't procrastinate either. time your breaks. look at something else besides a computer or phone screen while you’re on break too. maybe brew some tea/coffee for your next class or rearrange your notes from the previous one)

💻 REVIEWING FOR ONLINE CLASSES:

- make a schedule/ system - and be ready to change them (this is an elaboration of an earlier tip. your system doesn’t have to work perfectly right away. most of the time, you will have to make some kind of adjustments to it anyway. so take it easy. pay attention to how well you react/ adapt to the new schedule so that you can make necessary changes. and give yourself - especially your mind - some time to adapt to the schedule. don’t rush yourself or put too much pressure on being productive. remember to take care of your well-being too)

- it’s okay to give yourself some off-days (that’s the beauty of not having any physical or even abstract structure that forces you into an inescapable routine. Yes, I know this lack of structure sucks for a lot of us, especially for those who rely on external forces to keep themselves focused. But look on the bright side: now you don’t have to worry about missing classes or losing participation marks when you are unwell physically and mentally anymore)

- textbooks are your friends now (especially when your classes’ live-streams are just chaotic and hard to follow. or when the pre-recorded lectures aren’t loading properly and keeps lagging. practice speed reading. look for keywords and crucial information. take notes rather than highlighting everything. compare them to your lecture notes, your syllabus, or your friends’)

- take advantage of the online format’s availability + other resources (availability is here, baby! revisit lecture videos and podcasts as many times as you need to. check your email classes’ forums regularly for questions or announcements. re-listen to your lecture when you're cleaning or exercising. watch videos of Khan Academy or CrashCourse. look for online tutors. study at your own pace and in your own style. basically anything you wish you could do when your class was in-person)

- there’s no need to submit assignments early if it’s anxiety-inducing. but make a schedule/ tracking system/ set alarms to avoid forgetting to turn them in (take your time to double-check or edit your work - as long as the submission box is still open, of course. set aside about an hour or two before the deadline for submission to avoid any technical difficulties. and remember to start working on them early so that you don’t have to shorten that window of time and have more time for double-checking)

- don't be afraid to email the profs/teachers (if possible, compile your questions into a list. be as specific as you can about your concerns. put a subject for your email to reduces the chance of your email getting lost in your instructors' inbox.)

- reward yourself (don't stress yourself out by rewarding big accomplishments. reward small victories. reward baby steps. reward effort. you'll get things done eventually)

- take time to know your learning style (when are you most focused? do you like taking digital notes or do you prefer pen and paper? are you a visual or an auditory learner? do you like moving around while studying? what drinks or scents or sounds keep you going? you don't have to stick to your usual study methods or an online/paperless one now that you are studying in your own room)

- listen to your mind and body (it’s okay to feel a bit lost) (from my own experience, times that are without structure like nowadays is when most of us fall into this spiraling downfall of unhealthy sleep schedules, lethargy, and loss of purpose. so please take care of your mental and physical well-being during this very, very weird time. keep yourself active. re-ignite old interests/ hobbies. connect with people you love. give yourself some love)

- and more tips on productivity at home in my last post right here

💻 PREPARING FOR ONLINE EXAMS / QUIZZES:

- make a list of all the online exams and final assignment due dates (this will help you keep track of and stay on top of them due dates. from that list, trace backward to make a review or study plan to prepare for the tests and work on the assignments. if there are any time conflicts, especially for those who are now living in a different timezone from their schools or colleges, email the instructors to seek solutions or alternative options)

- again, find a good spot with good wifi, good lighting, and a desk (if possible, try to recreate your ideal exam environment as closely as you can while studying and reviewing for the exams. this can reduce the anxiety of tests and/or unfamiliarity)

- be prepared for technical difficulties (especially mentally, so that you don’t plan out a course of action to take if they ever arise. draft an email template. research in advance the contacts of people whom you can report to - IT personnel, your instructors, student office, etc.)

- bring everything you need to the exams - but no distractions (like mentioned earlier, if you need any special accommodations that are considered "unacceptable" in an in-person exam/quiz, now it's the time to bring them along - you’re in charge of your test space now, so make it as comfortable and accomodating as you want)

- plan your desk set-up prior to your exams (so many extra items. still so little desk space. therefore, plan ahead so your desk does not turn into a mess when you take your exams. plan where you want to put your notes, textbooks, calculators or scrap paper. think about how much use you’re gonna get out of each item and place them within or slightly-out-of reach accordingly. charge your laptop. sharpen your pencils. have your backup stationery handy. lay out everything you need onto your desk the night before your tests. this can create a feeling of preparedness and thus, reduce anxiety as well)

- make cheatsheets (the goals when making them are simple: (1) get you to rewrite your notes for that good memorization; (2) condense your information and find a connection between them for a thorough understanding of the materials; (3) reduce the time you use to flip through your notebooks or textbooks or google for information during the actual tests)

- time yourself with mock exams (if you are given mock exams to practice with, do them, with a timer. this will help you familiarize yourself with the stress of being timed, thus reducing your anxiety during the actual tests)

- get enough sleep and eat properly (even if the exams or quizzes are online, they are still, at their core, tests. and tests are always stressful and energy-consuming. so take care of both your physical and mental health, especially during the week leading up to your exams)