#this post is about academia but it's also about my whole entire life

[asinglesock]

the heart of the issue blocking my development is a fear of being wrong. under the fear of being wrong is a fear of hard work, the work of correcting myself. under the fear of work is a fear of futility, which is not so far removed from my fear of being wrong.

[megamindsecretlair]

WIP Tuesday

Buckle up babes, it's going to be a long post!

I come before you humble, hat in hand. I know I been wilding ya'll. I know there's a lot of fics I need to update and get back to. I haven't forgotten! And since there are...so many new people thanks to my Terry fics, what a great time to call myself out chuz ya'll too nice to do so! I saw @nerdieforpedro do this a few weeks ago? Forgive me for not tagging the person you got it from, but I am tiredt, chilleee.

Current focus: Terry got my whole heart, ya'll. Every fic I read of him, I just want to go hop in the booth myself and get to writing. Ya'll inspire me every damn day, it's magical. There is a filthy, disgusting, mean, despicable fic I wanna write with him. But alas, he is not the only one I write for.

Girl, there's how many series????? Listen, the muse wants what it wants. 11 series in total. Chillee, why I do dissssss. Some are closer to finishing than others. So let's count them out (click the links to learn more):

Be My Little Darling - Loki series | It Started With a Whisper - Sam Wilson series | Midnight Sin - Vampire Tyrone series | Blackbird - Mob Boss Fontaine | Camp Wanderlust - Franklin Saint series | What You Deserve - Homewrecker Stunna | Runaway Lover - Professor Stunna | If I Took You Home - Kevin Atwater | Kill Her Softly - Zyair Malloy | A Taste of the Divine - Yakuza Sukuna | We Are the Night - Qimir

Frenn, that's a lot, do you sleep? Are you okay? Blink twice if you need help. I'm promise I'm good ya'll, I just love writing and I love interacting with ya'll. You have NO idea how much each and every single one of ya'll mean to me. I love the support, I love the comments, I love the reblogs. I'm trying not to disappoint folks, I was on a schedule and well, life happened. I can course correct, I promise. Just gon' take me a little minute. Let me close the smaller series first!

Okay, surely that's it right, frenn? Ahh no, because there's also the asks that have been piling up. Per my pinned post, you know that I have a scatterbrain. Some asks I deleted because they're too similar to what I've done before. Some I'm still trying to picture before I start writing. But the ones I've kept? At last tally it is...33. Some are similar and I'm going to combine them, but yeahhhhh. This isn't a callout post, keep sending those requests in! Just know it's gonna take me a smoooooooth minute. Also, welcome new people, welcome! But not everything needs a part two, I promise. If I write "The End" at the bottom, that truly means the end. No part 2 planned, ain't trynna write a part two. I want to move on sometimes. I love you, but I'll be writing until I'm gray if everything got a part 2. And I wanna get paid for my writing. Which brings me tooo...

Umm, umm, what's this I hear about a book??? Yes! I am actually writing a book based on an ask I received. It was a sweet ask about what kind of story would go with "Handwritten Letter". I said it gave friends to lovers, she fell first, he fell harder type of vibes. It has morphed into dark academia about a shy girl just trying to come into her own. It's a combo of and a love letter about girls like me, girls like you, each and every person who identifies as a Soft Black Girl. And I already have *so* many ideas about other books I want to do. There will be one based on the Mr. Black series I wrote. There will also be a vampire one! I just can't decide yet which will be the second book I put out. I'm leaning towards vampire because Terry is HEAVY on the brain ya'll. And he'd make a sexy vamp. But anywhooo...

I say all this to say that I'm not a machine. I'm not that quick despite appearances. I may not seem like I have any chill, but I've been fantasizing and turning over these fics in my head for days or weeks before I sit down to write. And I'm not saying to stop. Your support is exactly why I feel good enough about my writing to sit and write an entire book! I want to be a full time author. I want to share my ideas with the world. I'm just slow lmfaoooooo.

In the mean time, I hope you're hitting up all these amazing writers on here. I hope you're commenting and reblogging and showing love on here. I will keep saying it. This site will DIE and these BLACK writers will LEAVE if people keep stealing, not commenting, not reblogging, asking for part 2s and never showing love. Fandom is a community, not a pillar. No one know it's you behind that avatar, go crazy! Go nuts. Show nuts. whatever.

Love, love, love you all. If you read this far, drop something funny in the comments. Or go unhinged in my asks about Terry. Don't get me started about that man, but go awff about him because that's my baby favaaa.

no pressure tags: @chaos-4baby @j0kers-light @umber-cinders @harmshake @planetblaque @babybratzmaraj @soft-persephone

[cayrola]

𝟏-𝐀 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐡𝐜𝐬

𓂃𑁍 ࣪˖ includes: bakugo, deku, shoto, ochako, momo, kirishima, & denki

𓂃𑁍 ࣪˖ note: this is kinda bad sorry. just wanted to post something and i was having mha brainrot ˃ᴗ˂

꒰ఎ ♡ ໒꒱ ⊹ ⋆ﾟ꒰ఎ ♡ ໒꒱꒰ఎ ♡ ໒꒱ ⊹ ⋆ﾟ꒰ఎ ♡ ໒꒱꒰ఎ ♡ ໒꒱ ⊹ ⋆ﾟ꒰

bakugo:

is in mostly ap and honors classes and gets all a’s and b’s

is in a study group with mina, kiri, denki, and sero

teachers have a love-hate relationship with him (who doesn’t)

the type to argue with the teacher if they’re ‘wrong’ or if they make a mistake about something

has snapchat but doesn’t use it bc he finds it stupid and doesn’t get why anyone would use it religiously

his snap score is so low—like 1k type low

follows his favorite celebrities on insta

has tiktok but doesn’t post a single thing; mina forces him to repost all of her vids tho

plays football and basketball but was kicked pff the basketball team for being to aggressive

gymrat

3.998 gpa and it pisses him off bc he wants a 4.0

lives in a gated community

deku:

band kid i fear

debate team too

has a 3.4 gpa and wishes it was higher but is okay with it

gets b’s on all of the tests but a’s on the hw

in only 2 ap classes and it’s ap art and apush

he got a 4 on his ap art portfolio and a 3 on apush

the sleepiest sleeper build anyone could ever have

only uses snapchat to ft his friends bc he doesn’t have an iphone and most of them do

deku with glasses and braces (canon)

def uses twitter religiously; tweets about EVERYTHING he possibly can. his entire life story is basically there

teacher’s pet but in a good way; all his teachers love him and how respectful he is but if they forget the hw, he will keep his mouth shut

would still love all might

shoto:

easy 4.0 gpa

all of his class are ap and honors

all a’s—gets a 95% or above

loves checking out books from the library

doesn’t have social media, thinks it’s stupid

is on debate team with deku, does tennis and does track and field (100m and 200m). probably does any club he can get into so he doesn’t have to go home so early

never has hw bc he does it all at school

so many people have a crush on him, but he doesn’t acknowledge it or he just doesn’t notice

also shoto with glasses (canon)

is into photography

carries around a camera when he goes to big cities for school trips

has all of the latest apple products

also lives in a gated community

has at least one airpod in constantly

ochako:

literally my pookie wookie dookie bear

neat, color-coded notes

3.0 gpa, she studies with deku and shoto when they’re not busy

isn’t in many clubs bc she works after school

i can see her working at coldstone or something

has a samsung

has a pink owala waterbottle—gifted to her by momo

wears the simplest outfits but they’re super cute (thx to momo)

def comforts girls that are crying in the bathroom

her fav teacher is her math teacher but her fav subjects are p.e. and english

likes peach rings, sour gummy worms, and strawberry pocky

gossips with mina, momo, jirou, and hagakure at football games

has the pink bow jansport backpack—her parents surprised her with it as one of her early bday gifts

i feel like she would have a fluffy white cat named snuggles or cupcake

momo:

also gated community

also has a 4.0 gpa

all ap classes

does ap art and got a 5 on her portfolio

i feel like she would be captain of the swim team

hates sodas

i saw a tiktok saying she would be a bop and wear ethikas to school and vape and omg. she would NOT.

she’s so loyal to whoever her s/o is

she would wear stuff from like that light academia aesthetic on pinterest

would never touch a vape in her life. she tries to encourage the people that vape in the bathrooms to not do it

mascara girly for lifeeee

has a whole lash routine

definitely helped ochako with her outfits and make much of what she has

smells so girlalala

only has an apple watch and iphone. she was gifted airpods from her aunt but doesn’t use them often unless she’s going for a run

spoils her friends cuz she feels like it

kiri:

one of the popular kids fssss

is on the football team with bakugo and does track with shoto (same events)

knows everyone and everything about them (not intentionally tho. he just ends up finding out)

likes the c4 energy drinks—blue raspberry sour patch kid flavor is his favorite

sprays axe like it’s body mist

washes his face only with water and hand soap and has such clear skin

3.0 gpa and is proud of it

is in culinary arts bc he wants to eat before lunch starts

no ap classes, just regular ones

everyone likes him, it’s so hard for someone to not like him

watches youtube with denki on the chrome books

actually pays attention to what bakugo says during their study sessions bc he doesn’t wanna fail his tests

gets c’s and above on his assignments

try hard in p.e.

uses snap but not like denki—snap score is like 100k-200k (all from streaks)

avg crumbl cookie enjoyer

bromance with all of his friends

“i love u bro. no homo”

“i wanna kiss u so bad rn, man. no homo tho”

denki:

sigh

2.5 gpa and is perfectly okay with it. anytime bakugo brings it up he says “it could always be worse”

plays fortnite and dti with the baddies instead of studying

chronically online

brainrot humor

wyll warrior

snap score is like 700k

wears pj pants to school

avg call of duty enjoyer

has one of those kiddy backpacks from walmart. he probably got minnie mouse or bubble guppies

finishes his tests first just so he can go on his chromebook

plays papa’s freezeria when he’s done with his tests

loves p.e.

i feel like he had one of those rolling backpacks in elementary school all the way til middle school

goes to summer school every single year

gets low b’s-high f’s on his assignments (usually get c’s and d’s tho)

films the fights in the hallways

skips classes to get food (crumbl mukbangs in the car w kirishima)

he hit a vape once and is addicted now

gets made fun of for it

calls himself a nonchalant dreadhead (the exact opposite)

says “im gonna touch u vro” as a comeback

⊹˚Ꮺ ᕱ⑅ᕱ ⊹˚Ꮺ ᕱ⑅ᕱ ⊹˚Ꮺ ᕱ⑅ᕱ ⊹˚Ꮺ ᕱ⑅ᕱ ⊹˚Ꮺ ᕱ⑅ᕱ ⊹˚Ꮺ

© cayrola on tumblr. 2024. all rights reserved. pls don’t translate, copy, or steal my work in any way.

hope u enjoyed this as much as i enjoyed writing it !! also, should i do pt2 with other characters or no ૮₍ ˃̵͈᷄ . ˂̵͈᷅ ₎ა

[totoanime52]

MY THOUGHTS ON THE FINALE OF MY HERO ACADEMIA (LONG, SO BE PREPARED)

So the manga has finally (unofficially) come to an end. With the release of 430's leaks we see how the young heroes have grown over eight years in a timeskip. I'll give my thoughts on the final chapter here before I give my overall thoughts on the series in another post.

First and foremost, I was actually quite happy to see that Horikoshi didn't push pairings into the mix and kept the focus on the characters doing their hero work. As I mentioned on a previous post, I don't like how frequent it is that a series makes the entire last chapter of their story basically dedicated to making sure certain pairings are canon (usually by introducing us to their kids in their own little stories) rather than devoting it to the themes or characters of the world they crafted for years. I often feel like they could have spent more time focusing on an issue or expanding characters more. An example is Naruto: I wanted the last chapter of Naruto to be about our boy's inauguration as Hokage, since that is what the series was pretty much building up to. I would have cried to see Naruto finally take up the mantle of Hokage after seeing how far he has come. Instead, we are pretty much preparing for Boruto's sequel story by being introduced to all the kids and setting up their stories (and you can't imagine my anger when I later found out Naruto canonically missed his inauguration for the sake of a damn joke). Here, we actually focus on how Midoriya is coping with being Quirkless again while still trying to encourage others to follow their own dreams, as well as how the other characters are working in this world. Seeing how Midoriya had originally taken the role of a teacher at UA in this chapter even though he did lose OFA eventually was kind of sweet, especially seeing how some students still admired him (including a now UA student Kota!!). I know that isn't where his story ends, but I'll get to that part in a bit.

We also see how Uraraka is focusing her efforts on changing Quirk counseling to focus more on helping those with different mental states rather than trying to make them conform to 'normality.' Even though I am still not happy with Toga's death, at least Uraraka is trying to make sure that at least one of the major sources of pain in Toga's life cannot harm another child like it did to her.

The fact that the ranking system is still around eight years later is maddening. When it mentioned how Dynamight yelling at a civilian for pushing a camera into his face will cause his rank to drop, I thought three things: 1. Who should give a shit about the rankings anymore?; 2. I wouldn't be happy if someone pushed a camera in my face while I'm working, especially if it involves something that requires focus and can be dangerous; 3. This is Dynamight, they should know his personailty by now so what did they expect to happen? I know Keigo is trying, but as long as that system is in place, it will still make the whole hero career in general more of a competitive popularity contest than a collaborative function.

Finally, we see how Izuku's story reaches it's end, at least on paper: All Might gives him his old hero costume case from school (with 18 right on the front) and tells him that Bakugou and the others from class A (note: it still feels weird not saying 1A anymore) have pooled money in over the past eight years to fund the creation of support items for Izuku so he can officially take up the mantle of the hero Deku again. This time, we see Bakugou hold his hand out to Izuku; turns out he really did mean it when he said he wanted them to keep competing with each other for the rest of their lives (*coughtsunderecough*). As Deku once again adorns his hero suit, he sees what looks like a ghost of Shigaraki Tomura watching him. The last panel of the manga shows the present day Class A students, now officially heroes.

I do like how Izuku remains Quirkless in the end. Despite him now having the means to pick his hero career back up, it doesn't change the fact that One For All is still gone forever. There was no miraculous reawakening of it or anything, but a work-around was found with the use of support items. Deku is now a Quirkless Hero, so perhaps this may help the rest of the 20% in the world that they can still chase their dreams. The fact that Class A dedicated eight years of funds to help Izuku keep his dream is also kind of heartwarming, especially when they were busy with their own lives and work, as well.

As for Shigaraki's ghost, I kind of have mixed feelings about that. I'm happy that Izuku still thinking about him after eight years. Maybe this is a way that Horikoshi is trying to say that his failure to save Shigaraki still haunts him and will continue to haunt him. Maybe it means that Shigaraki will keep watching Deku to see if he will be able to keep that spirit despite the failures behind him and the unknowns ahead of him (like a "Okay, Hero, let's see if you still have the ability to save others even after you couldn't save me" in that sarcastic way). I still wish there was a way that Tomura or any of the main villain trio could have been saved with how it was set up, so this little snippet of him still makes me sad to know that never happened.

Overall, the final chapter was better than I was expecting. While I still have issues with how Horikoshi chose to handle (or in the rankings case, NOT handle) some of the problems in the world of BNHA, I like how he kept the story on Izuku's dream of becoming a hero, something he was sure would never happen in the beginning and, near the end, would never happen again.

The fact that he kept their futures open to our interpretations in terms of where they will take their personal lives is quite nice to see, especially in regards to shipping. I feel like when official pairings are made, especially ones made last minute in stories like many shounen manga, most of the time it invites bragging, people putting others down, or just straight up fights in the fandom (it honestly scares me just how viscous some people can be over a fictional pairing). By keeping it open, at the very least it prevents some of the more extreme parts of the pairing fandom from claiming superiority over others. Anyway, sorry for the tangent at the end, but this is something that always irked me, especially in stories where romance wasn't a main theme.

Sidenote: seeing Eri growing up, smiling, and in a music club with her friends is the most beautiful thing. She's come so far and it's so cute how music became a passion for her after it was the catalyst for giving her back her smile.

[twistedwonderlandimaginesblog]

(Saw someone do this and decided it seemed fun~

link to my ao3 here)

How many works do you have on AO3?

85.

What's your total AO3 word count?

915,568 words~

 What fandoms do you write for?

Currently it’s for Helios Rising Heroes, Hypnosis Mic, Obey Me, Paradox Live, and Twisted Wonderland!

I’ve previously written for A3!, Ace Attorney, Ace of Diamond, Borderlands, Bungou Stray Dogs, Free!, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Fire Force, Gorillaz, Hero Academia, Kuroko no Basuke, Magi, Naruto, Red Dead Redemption, Run with the Wind, RWBY, Shokugeki no Souma, Stardew Valley, Tokyo Ghoul

Top five fics by kudos?

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes [Twisted Wonderland] – 6,298

We’d Be a Hit Together [Haikyuu!!] – 6,211

Super Powered Love [My Hero Academia] – 5,436

A Devil’s Bride [Obey Me!] – 3,583

I Need Love [Hypnosis Mic] – 1,928

Do you respond to comments?

I try to! I always read and appreciate comments made on my posts, on AO3 and Tumblr, I always check to see if someone has tagged it with commentary <3

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

To be fair I hurt Malleus with the whole ‘you’re likely someone with a shorter lifespan’ idea constantly, but The Brightest Star was definitely a sadder one from my KNB days.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of them because I truly hate unhappy endings. You can probably tell just from how I write that I try to put a positive spin on things, but I am trying to just let the angst happen or leave things off with ambiguity rather than specifying that a character only seems to feel a certain way when they’re actually feeling something else entirely.

Do you get hate on fics?

Occasionally. I remember getting this angry message about me being a feminist because I made the reader like dom Hanamiya from KNB and they were MAAAAD about it lmao I also remember being on fanfic dot net and getting argued with and I just sent the brady bunch theme song over and over until they stopped messaging me back

Do you write smut?

I do! Not the biggest fan of it honestly because I never feel like it’s half as sexy as the things I read other people write, but I do get in moods and with certain characters they just need to be manhandled a lil, you know?

Craziest crossover?

I have never written a crossover in my LIFE

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Awhile back I did but I was told about it and the story was quickly taken down, I think it was on Wattpad or something like that.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have! I’ve gotten a handful of requests for my more popular ones to get translated, I don’t mind at all!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I mean I’m co-writing a book with the other admin on this blog, so does that count?

All time favorite ship?

Me and all my lil husbands.

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I was writing this Criminal Minds fanfic that I had all plotted out, dramatic quotes at the beginning of episodes already picked, but I don’t think I’ll ever bother focusing on it.

What are your writing strengths?

I would say characterization is my strength! The characters are the best parts of fanfics after all and I always try to do research on the characters I write; if they’re ones I don’t know as well I’ll scan the wiki and read extra stories with them in it just to get a better handle on them! It’s why when there’s characters that haven’t been around long enough or don’t have a lot of content translated for them that I don’t like writing for them because I need at least something to go off of, I don’t want to have to make up their personality myself

What are your writing weaknesses?

Details. Which is a horrible thing to say as a writer, but I do feel like my writing lacks details here and there. Like with dialogue, I’ve been trying to write more in-between actions while the characters are talking since most people aren’t just standing still, especially if a character was doing something before another person entered the room. Descriptions of the world around the characters

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I don’t like using google translate but I do have characters I love who speak other languages. Those heinous Hetalia days where you’d randomly put a word into the middle of an otherwise english sentence… they haunt me. But what I try to do with Citron from A3 is write some of his dialogue in parentheses to show he’s speaking in a language that the reader might not understand, and I feel like that works a little better for someone who doesn’t speak anything but english to do for the sake of not butchering another language.

First fandom you wrote in?

I truly wish I knew. I know I wrote for Naruto back in the day, and The Outsiders was one of the first full length fics I did. But that was back on Quizilla which has since turned to dust. I was also on Lunaescence for a while, whose creators have also turned to dust apparently. What a world

Favourite fic you've written?

It’s hard to pic just one when most of my fics are like, stand-alone short little things. But I think one I’m very fond of (which was written for the other admin so it explains why I put so much effort into it) was Snowy Mountain Getaway, which was a FE3H Dimitri/Reader College AU fic.

[super-paper]

you don't have to respond to this if you don't want to, but--I saw you mentioning you felt stupid earlier and I'm going through the same feelings myself but I just wanted to say that your analysis of my hero academia was genuinely the best I'd ever seen after following the comic for almost an entire decade(I've been here since almost the beginning...). it's not your fault if the writing took a bizarre turn, you were correctly recognizing things about the story that was presented to you and I've really appreciated your presence ever since the first time I read one of your posts.

Thank you for your kind words, they really helped me feel better. I always enjoy reading your thoughts as well, so I hope you are able to feel better soon as well.

At any rate, I think I'm a bit calmer now-- At the risk of setting myself up for more heartbreak in two weeks, I really think there's no way for it not to be a fake out because Tenko dying sincerely is a failure on every level for so-so-so many characters and the story as a whole. Izuku wanted to redefine OFA as a power meant for saving not killing, yet OFA ends up killing Tenko anyway? We get a scene where the main villain literally mocks Tenko for having never been his own person and commands him to disappear, and he does?? Nana ultimately fails to save her family from AFO a third and final time??? The Yoichi expy is ultimately forced to die while tethered to his abuser and is never allowed to truly escape or live a life outside of AFO???? Spinner pushes himself to his absolute limit and Kurogiri sacrifices himself because they both want to save Tenko, and it ends up being all for nothing????? Toshinori never gets any resolution with his beloved mentor's sole remaining family and has to live with the pain of once again failing to save her legacy?????? Tenko wants to become a hero to the villains, to the LOV specifically, but dies while all of them are literally hanging on by a thread at this time???????? Gran Torino was right??????????? There's bittersweet endings and there's bleak endings, and this is absolutely bleak if true.

Like, I know death and rebirth are huge themes in MHA-- but this is a case where the overall build up and execution of the chapter has left much to be desired. Still, the fact that Tenko says the name "Shigaraki Tomura" in quotation marks in the raw text does lend to the idea that this is actually the death of his villain persona rather than the death of the individual-- my other big concern rn is how Tenko's rebirth will ultimately be executed, since he still asks Izuku to pass a message along to Spinner on his behalf. Like..... a resurrection that has him losing his memories of his life as Tomura, or reverting back to his young "untraumatized" self, obviously feels wrong for entirely different reasons-- but this is just speculation atp and I don't wanna get worked up over smthing that hasn't happened yet.

Tenko's ""death"" also shares explicit parallels to both Toshinori's and Katsuki's brushes with death, so I do think Hrkshi could make things come full circle in a satisfying way here-- if Tenko's death is the only one that actually sticks while the heroes are allowed to defy all odds and resurrect/be reborn as the best possible versions of themselves, then obviously there's no salvaging the story. But I wanna have faith.

(Side note: Tenko/Toshi/Katsuki's (and even Touya's) limbo scenes depict them as surrounded by light and "sharing" that infinite space with someone who sincerely wants them to live-- and these scenes are starkly contrasted with AFO's limbo scenes, where his moments before death all depict as him being surrounded by darkness while being mocked by the vestiges of his victims.)

Anyway!!! At my own peril, I'll be leaning hard into the "Tenko Shimura: Rising + quirk awakening + aura!might using his vestige and the remnants of OFA to fill in the gaps of the broken reconstruction quirk (thereby fulfilling Izuku's wish to turn OFA into a power that exists to save while also helping Tenko symbolically embrace that he has the power to do more than just destroy-- he can save the villains through creation, not destruction)" theories from this point forward.

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

Things that I know about A Stitch In Time prior to listening to it:

Garak goes to spy school, which is for spies (for some reason the idea of this is amusing to me. like I get it duh of course the Order must have some sort of training system but also. fanfic ass trope. Spy School! For Spies! it's even a boarding school and everything. DARKEST ACADEMIA)

Garak performs a classic bisexual rite of passage by falling in love with both members of an older(?) married couple (or well textually probably only the wife. I feel like I'd have heard about it if he were Betacanonically Queer (TM) in this book. but here's hoping I'll be astonished while listening!)

I can't remember if I read anything specific about it or not but just based on vibes alone I do not have high hopes for this couple's like. life expectancy.

Based on vibes alone I do not have high hopes for ANY character's life expectancy in this book tbh. If it involves Cardassians in general and Garak in specific I usually just assume everyone involved is doomed. This is going to be a FUN 12 hours and 28 minutes!

There was a post somewhere that mentioned that some supernatural magical stuff happens in this book and I'm SO FUCKING STOKED. HERE'S HOW GARAK ORB EXPERIENCE CAN STILL WIN!!!!

The entire concept of this book is so funny to me. Garak goes 7 years being ohhh so mysterious to Julian about himself or his past and then just spills his whole life story to him in a letter as soon as they're separated. Babygirl is going through Bashir Withdrawal Syndrome.

Most importantly KELAS MY BEST FRIEND KELAS FROM ONE (1) LINE OF CANON!!!!! I have no actual evidence that he ever shows up in this book but like he has to right. right. he's absolutely everywhere on ao3 y'all had to have gotten him from somewhere. I assume.

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

Ello good sir how do you do I humbly request a detailed description on shiggys squat prowess

OKAY IT'S FINALLY TIME!!!!

But first, some introduction at how Tomura ended up doing squats in the first place:

In my mind, Tomura is the type that gets boring with repetitive exercises. The most working out he does is related to life or death situations. The rest of the time? Videogames, hating everything, you know. He likes to fight, but not much doing the same movement 20 times in three sets, okay?

It all started with Spinner.

As we know, Spinner visibly works out. Knowing him, he'd ask Shigaraki to train with him at some point. Tomura would try to say no, an opportunity for the League to make fun of him, saying he's the type who wouldn't stand one round or that he's scared of physical exercise, etc.

That's how we got Shigaraki Tomura to do his first ever set of squats.

Hmmm, I don't know how familiar my readers are with working out jargon, so let me explain:

Repetitions means a single movement, like each individual squat.

A set is the number of determined repetitions, like each set has 5 repetitions = 5 squats.

A round is the number of determined sets, like each round has 3 sets. 1 round = 15 squats.

Here's the thing: squats need strength from your core (abs, sides of the body and lower back) to stabilize your body as it controls the movement up and down. Squats also draw strength from the glutes (muscles around your ass and hips) and from the entire length of the legs (especially the thighs!). The basic types target the lower muscles of the body, but some combinations aim to work the entire body!!

Tomura starts out with the classical body weight squat like most people do, setting the goal as a round of 2 sets with 10 repetitions each.

I think Tomura would complain the whole time over how tedious it is, but he completed the sets AND did a second round. Spinner is impressed because he thought Tomura looked too skinny to be able to complete it successfully without being truly tired. He was not even sweating!

Let's say he rarely accompanies Spinner when he works out. There's no time anyway. They're too busy running away or trying to survive.

When he does, Spinner manipulates Tomura (or he thinks so) through his competitiveness to do as many rounds as he can. They make it harder by talking while doing squats. Spinner knows when Tomura is close to the limit 'cause his legs start to shake, his voice becomes breathy and he frowns more, as if he needs to concentrate to keep his usual control over his body. Tomura tends to lay down almost lifeless after each session, chugging down energy drinks or eating whatever snack Kurogiri has placed there for their post-workout.

It's not 'til Tomura starts fighting Gigantomachia and after My Villain Academia that Tomura turns into the squad monster that he is.

All that jumping from rock to rock to fight Machia got Tomura's lower body muscles made of steel. He inherited the body type of the Shimuras, who are naturally fit and tend to gain lean muscle if they work out. Have you seen Nana Shimura and how absolutely fine she looked in her suit? Have you seen her arms? Kotaro looked squarely built in the lean sense too.

You know how I know that Tomura gained muscle fighting Machia? You can compare his neck from his first chapters to his neck after fighting Machia for weeks. You can also check how the surgery to get All for one affected his body. Look:

He's kinda cheating, but then again he underwent 4 months of pure hell to get the strength and the body. 4 months that looked like this:

He destroyed Spinner in their squat competition after the surgery. Totally obliterated him, to the point Tomura had to try more complex squats or it'd be too boring.

I'm talking freaking about back squats with a lot of weight, the type that highlight all his muscles and have the sweat running through the lines on his skin where the muscles cave in. Front squads that have his pants suffering because they're so close to bursting given the pressure on the thighs. One leg squads with weight that have him going down slowly and up like it's nothing to him, like he is not carrying the weight of his entire body and some more with just one leg. He can do air squats and play videogames at the same time. He once carried Spinner on his back to prove he could do the squads with his weight as practice. His sumo squats are accompanied by his usual self-satisfied smirk, because that's the perfect payback for all the comments about his skinny ass. The minute he starts doing jump squats to push ups WITH FREAKING WEIGHT, that's when Spinner is out.

He's a total asshole about it because he knows he is that good at squats and doesn't care to point out if Spinner is being "pathetic", right before he offers a hand for Spinner to stand up.

I think he goes to sit on a chair and all his muscles bulge naturally. They need to shop for new pants (they steal them of course lol). That man has an absurd tiny waist and it doesn't help that both his shoulders and legs gain definition over time.

Just look for the latest panels with him in it. It's absurd!!!!

The only one who could win a squat competition is Deku and maybe Iida, because their fight styles are kick-based. For the rest? Crushing defeat.

[paraliveimaginesblog]

(Saw someone do this and decided it seemed fun~ also posted to my TWST blog

link to my ao3 here)

How many works do you have on AO3?

85.

What's your total AO3 word count?

915,568 words~

 What fandoms do you write for?

Currently it’s for Helios Rising Heroes, Hypnosis Mic, Obey Me, Paradox Live, and Twisted Wonderland!

I’ve previously written for A3!, Ace Attorney, Ace of Diamond, Borderlands, Bungou Stray Dogs, Free!, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Fire Force, Gorillaz, Hero Academia, Kuroko no Basuke, Magi, Naruto, Red Dead Redemption, Run with the Wind, RWBY, Shokugeki no Souma, Stardew Valley, Tokyo Ghoul

Top five fics by kudos?

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes [Twisted Wonderland] – 6,298

We’d Be a Hit Together [Haikyuu!!] – 6,211

Super Powered Love [My Hero Academia] – 5,436

A Devil’s Bride [Obey Me!] – 3,583

I Need Love [Hypnosis Mic] – 1,928

Do you respond to comments?

I try to! I always read and appreciate comments made on my posts, on AO3 and Tumblr, I always check to see if someone has tagged it with commentary <3

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

To be fair I hurt Malleus with the whole ‘you’re likely someone with a shorter lifespan’ idea constantly, but The Brightest Star was definitely a sadder one from my KNB days.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of them because I truly hate unhappy endings. You can probably tell just from how I write that I try to put a positive spin on things, but I am trying to just let the angst happen or leave things off with ambiguity rather than specifying that a character only seems to feel a certain way when they’re actually feeling something else entirely.

Do you get hate on fics?

Occasionally. I remember getting this angry message about me being a feminist because I made the reader like dom Hanamiya from KNB and they were MAAAAD about it lmao I also remember being on fanfic dot net and getting argued with and I just sent the brady bunch theme song over and over until they stopped messaging me back

Do you write smut?

I do! Not the biggest fan of it honestly because I never feel like it’s half as sexy as the things I read other people write, but I do get in moods and with certain characters they just need to be manhandled a lil, you know?

Craziest crossover?

I have never written a crossover in my LIFE

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Awhile back I did but I was told about it and the story was quickly taken down, I think it was on Wattpad or something like that.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have! I’ve gotten a handful of requests for my more popular ones to get translated, I don’t mind at all!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I mean I’m co-writing a book with the other admin on this blog, so does that count?

All time favorite ship?

Me and all my lil husbands.

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I was writing this Criminal Minds fanfic that I had all plotted out, dramatic quotes at the beginning of episodes already picked, but I don’t think I’ll ever bother focusing on it.

What are your writing strengths?

I would say characterization is my strength! The characters are the best parts of fanfics after all and I always try to do research on the characters I write; if they’re ones I don’t know as well I’ll scan the wiki and read extra stories with them in it just to get a better handle on them! It’s why when there’s characters that haven’t been around long enough or don’t have a lot of content translated for them that I don’t like writing for them because I need at least something to go off of, I don’t want to have to make up their personality myself

What are your writing weaknesses?

Details. Which is a horrible thing to say as a writer, but I do feel like my writing lacks details here and there. Like with dialogue, I’ve been trying to write more in-between actions while the characters are talking since most people aren’t just standing still, especially if a character was doing something before another person entered the room. Descriptions of the world around the characters

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I don’t like using google translate but I do have characters I love who speak other languages. Those heinous Hetalia days where you’d randomly put a word into the middle of an otherwise english sentence… they haunt me. But what I try to do with Citron from A3 is write some of his dialogue in parentheses to show he’s speaking in a language that the reader might not understand, and I feel like that works a little better for someone who doesn’t speak anything but english to do for the sake of not butchering another language.

First fandom you wrote in?

I truly wish I knew. I know I wrote for Naruto back in the day, and The Outsiders was one of the first full length fics I did. But that was back on Quizilla which has since turned to dust. I was also on Lunaescence for a while, whose creators have also turned to dust apparently. What a world

Favourite fic you've written?

It’s hard to pic just one when most of my fics are like, stand-alone short little things. But I think one I’m very fond of (which was written for the other admin so it explains why I put so much effort into it) was Snowy Mountain Getaway, which was a FE3H Dimitri/Reader College AU fic.

[septemberzacademia]

About me

Warnings: TMI (Too much information-- about my life) and Cancer. Not exactly about academics.

Hello everyone, I am September. This is my blog; I made it intending to share my experiences while navigating my way through academics-- it is a difficult field for those candidates who do not have anyone from their family or neighbours in Academia. Basically, a community that can guide them through or can observe and inculcate specific attributes. My entire bachelor's and master's journey has been a series of trial-and-miss method-based navigation. I struggled a lot, ngl.

Adding to this struggle, academics is a lonely line of work, and having no community to rely on makes it even more lonely. This blog--- well, I created it to remind myself that I am doing what I love, reach out to people who are struggling with the same thing as I am, tell them that they are not alone, and maybe create a small community of my own.

Dearest Readers,

I hope you know you are not alone. Academia is sucking the hopes out of us, but hey! At least we are doing this together, haha. 

TMI time, my situation, my lore, my story-- a small part of my story.

Well, as for me I am 25 years old. I finished my master's in Philosophy back in 2022. After my defence, I thought I would take a year off to work on my research, strengthen my CV, and work on my Phd proposal; but the Universe had other plans. My mother was diagnosed with Breast cancer stage 3. My whole world drained down the pipe; all I could think of was how I could make my mother better again, and I moved back home. After an entire year of continuous treatment, she entered her recovery era. Things were going back to normal slowly; after about 2 months (into her recovery era), I moved back to my apartment (in a different city) (I missed being by myself). I started working on my application for Phd and looking for part-time jobs. It took me 3 months of utmost dedication and zero sleep to finish my phd application. I got my application approved and had my interview on 16th April (this year). I shared about my interview and excitement on this blog. But the Universe had other plans for my family and me; my mother's cancer resurrected. And her emergency surgery was on the 16th of April--- crazy, right? I gave my interview in the hospital. But I was not in my right mind. And I did not get selected. 

While working on my applications, I did not share my intentions with my parents. They were already so stressed that adding the burden of my lengthy application process would cause more stress to them. So it was my sister and I who knew everything about this. And I never felt so lonely and weak--- I couldn't put all my baggage on my sister; she was going through the same thing. Navigating her life and seeing everything she has to do and make up for. We'll have to do this again. Please, dear Universe, be kind to us. 

Anyway, as my mother's treatment is halfway done, I have started to slowly work on developing my Phd applications for the 2025 intake. (My sister plans to start after the treatment is done. I am a pile of anxiety. So I have to start already.) 

For now, you will see me uploading posts about studying literature for my major change (I plan to shift to sociology or women's studies), Korean language and Culture, East Asian and South Asian literature, my applications (ofc), etc.

If I am being honest, I am scared. I am afraid that I might have lost a major chunk of my skills during the gap year(s) I took since I did not study. However, I am dedicated to getting better and starting my academic journey. I want to be good at learning and researching, and I also want to be a good professor. 

I guess I am sharing something so personal on this worldwide platform to tell people who are struggling with life, understanding academics, studying, how to, what to, etc., that they are not alone; I am struggling, too. We all have our own pace and ways of approaching the journey or reaching the destination(s). I also want to remind myself that I am capable and talented.

Dear me, 

I will get into a phd program, get the degree, write a beautiful thesis, become a professor, and publish my research on a grand level. I will have a place of my own and create it. I will give back to this society through my research. And I will make my mother and sister proud. This one is for my mother, my sister, and myself.

Dear Readers,

I hope you find hope in this world of darkness and sadness. 

-September

PS: Sorry for the TMI and such a long post.:)

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Hi, fellow English major here! Sorry if this is personal - are there any career paths you’d recommend? I’ve thought either journalism or academia (might do a masters for either!) though I’ve heard college teaching is now super precarious.

Well tumblr just ate everything I wrote. Grr.

This is a bit of a hard question to answer and it's really complicated, without knowing why you're into journalism or why you're considering teaching. I don't know a whole lot about these fields, but what I do know is that they both involve research, collaboration, writing, the day-to-day is different, and you have to be kinda peopley. If that sounds like you, then some other options to look into would be research, analysis, or librarianship.

Higher ed/college academia is...going through some things right now. (I've got friends in that world.) It's largely down to two things - one, culture wars and two, the demographic cliff. I don't want to discourage you from that if that's where your heart is, but it's going to be a difficult ride. Tenure isn't a guarantee anymore, you might have to move around more than you've expected, budgets are getting tighter and they're coming with a million more strings, and hiring is a bit stagnant. The message I hear from my higher ed friends is that if you want to go into higher ed or academia, you better make sure you're doing it for the passion, not the tenure or the paycheck.

And grad school. Only go if you're absolutely entirely 100% certain you need that master's to get the career you want. The economy being what it is, the interest rates being what they are, costs and fees being what they are, how fast and quickly certain fields are changing because of tech, I don't know that the value is there anymore if you're on the fence or you're doing it because it's what you're supposed to do. Grad school will still be there in a few years so you can always go back to school.

If you're open to a more broader perspective of the English major's postgrad experience and advice, then

In this essay I will give you a nonanswer answer in three parts:

What do you like about studying English? Why did you choose English in the first place?

It's not about the English lit. It's about the soft skills.

In the end, it doesn't actually even matter.

Colleges, universities, career offices, and departments really struggle with career advice and career planning. They only know what they know, right, so they have a tendency to promote the obvious career paths because that's what their experience is -- English majors go into academia, history majors go into museums, pre-med majors go into medicine, etc. However, that's just one option. I think it's harder for these folks to know what's really out there because they're just not familiar with it, and that's why they rely so much on their alumni to fill in the gaps but it still leaves students in the dark having to find their own way out. (I do think it's changing, though. My friends in higher ed said that there's a lot more focus "beyond the classroom" to prepare students for the real post-college life and more diverse careers.)

So let's get into it.

What do you like about studying English? What made you choose English in the first place?

Is it the reading? Do you like the debate and discussion? Is it the creative process? Do you like writing? Do you like the analysis? The research? If you narrow down why you like English, it can be super helpful finding "non-traditional" career paths.

For example:

If you like reading, then look at publishing or editing.

If it's the creativity or the creative process, then consider marketing or advertising.

If you like the discussions and debating plot points, maybe you're a lawyer.

If you like the community of book world, then maybe you're a bookseller or a librarian.

If you like writing and the writing process, definitely look into journalism, but there's also content editing, communications, technical writing, ghostwriting, food recipe writing, etc.

If you like analyzing literature, look into being an analyst.

If it's the research, go into research or research librarianship

And remember, these are just super broad and high-level career paths. Within each career field, there's a million different options to narrow it even further. Like librarians or writers or advertising.

It's not about the literature. It's about the soft skills.

Colleges and college students often think that the only career options they have are the ones that deal specifically in the hard skills their coursework studies - English majors become writers or teachers, history majors become historians, geography majors become geographers and mapmakers. But the reality is that the people who do exactly the work that their major studied are few and far between. Most of us end up with careers that have nothing to do with what we studied. For instance, in my friend group (there's about 9 of us) only one actually does the specialty he studied for - he has a physics degree and he does physicsy stuff for a lab. The rest of us are all over the place, like

the Chemistry major now does IT sales.

the Geography major is the International Studies director for a midsized university.

the French major is an accounts manager for a higher education consulting firm.

And it's all about the soft skills. Those are what set us up for success. Off the top of my head, these are the soft skills you're practicing in your English major coursework:

Reading and reading comprehension

Writing

Writing for different audiences (eg. you know Professor X is really into symbolism so your papers for his class will focus on symbolism, which is different from Professor Y who wants you to talk about literary theory, which is different from Professor Z who's obsessed with victorian panopticism so you know you need to include Foucault and -- shoot, that's my PTSD escaping.)

Analyzing different kinds of information and knowing the methods/tools (for instance, analyzing poetry is very different from analyzing scientific research)

Doing research (knowing how and where to find information)

Vetting sources

Speaking about and defending your work

Taking, incorporating, and giving feedback

Working on deadlines

Collaborating with people

Attention to detail

Organizing information

And guess what? This is the day-to-day work that all of us do in our careers. These are the tools necessary for success in pretty much anything: project/program/product management, sales, consulting, contracting, IT, business, HR.

So if you're having trouble finding work in a classically English field like journalism or academia or you can't figure out if you're qualified for a position, use these soft skills. If they show up in the description of duties/responsibilities, you're qualified! Apply! Don't focus too much on the job title or the company.

Take Kate for an example. Her degree is in art history, but she's never worked in a classical art history field - i.e., she's never worked in an art museum and she isn't having conversations on Remembrandt vs Van Gogh. But she is using her degree anyway - her attention to detail and her research skills means she shows up prepared every day, her knowledge of color theory means the photos she gives us of her family and their appearances are pleasing to look at, she can communicate easily to different audiences (eg outdoorsy clothes and casual attitude for Scouts vs coatdresses and formality for Westminster Abbey).

In the end, it doesn't actually even matter.

It really doesn't. Particularly for a humanities major, the more you lean into your soft skills, the easier it'll be to find a career path that works for you. Some examples...

If you like working with people, you love organizing things, and your attention to detail is *chefs kiss*, you might be a project manager and project managers are everywhere.

If you like writing, talking to people, and you're a planner, maybe you're a communications specialist or a speechwriter.

Maybe you like writing and you like doing research, but you don't want to go to grad school, look at becoming an acquisitions specialist or a contracting officer.

If you're into language and linguistics, maybe you're a book translator or an interpreter. (Just don't work with Omid Scobie!)

This is where I think college advisors struggle. They tell students to be open to possibility, but they don't tell you what possibility is. I remember going in for career advising and the conversation went something like this:

Me: I don't want to teach but I like writing and research. What can I do? Dr. S: You can do anything you want! Me: What does that mean? Dr. S: You don't have to teach! You can do whatever you want! Me: BUT WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN.

(Dr. S was later fired for drunk driving with students in the car so...she probably wasn't the best person for the department to appoint as the career advisor. Or Department Chair.)

It took me until about two years ago to realize what Dr. S meant by "you can do anything you want." She (and a lot of the people at my university) just didn't know how to explain what they meant. I think part of that is because "soft skills" wasn't really a thing a lot of people were talking about 10, 15 years ago outside a corporate environment, and it does seem to be changing now, and universities have begun teaching and showing students how to connect coursework, sports, clubs and student activities, and volunteering to soft skills and "business"-minded concepts.

Just be open to considering career paths that aren't traditionally lit-focused, like business or IT. It'll be the soft skills that set you apart and help you be successful, not how well you can you can argue symbolism or read seventeenth-century poetry or recite Shakespeare. Leave it for your hobbies.

So here's an example of what I mean by being open to other career paths. As I mentioned before, I do have a B.A. in English and my focus was modern American fiction. I went into college thinking that I'd be a writer or do something in movies - I was going to be either the American JK Rowling, the millennial Meg Cabot, or the female Aaron Sorkin. (Reader, I was not and will never be.)

But in reality, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I looked into publishing, high school teaching, college professorship, creative writing, scriptwriting, but nothing was panning out. Eventually I signed up for a summer internship program with the federal government (my parents were feds) thinking "at least I'll get my internship credit and know what NOT to do". The internship ended up being with a research library, I absolutely loved it, decided "this is it, I'm going to get my MSLIS and be a librarian and do research and write research papers forever!" (MSLIS is Master of Science in Library and Information Science). They invited me to come back again the next summer, which I accepted, and my dear amazing supervisor (let's call her "Marian") somehow convinced the bosses to pull me on full-time when the internship ended and to support my grad school coursework.

Went directly from undergrad to grad and hated it. 15 years ago was an interesting time in the library world; it was right when the field transitioning from information to data so it was less about working with research and more about organizing and using data. In effect, it was moving away from the world of books/information ("Englishy" type stuff) and moving fully into the realms of data and computer science. Not what I expected and for someone who was on the research librarian track, having to take classes on data analysis, computer science, website management, and HTML coding, it was torture. But that was where the industry was going so get on board or drop out. Meanwhile, the research library I was working in was also changing. We were changing from being a library and doing research to being a repository of databases and facilitating access to research. The bosses got wind that I was looking to jump ship and said:

"She's got a really weird brain full of really random stuff but ask her a question about something she looked up 3 years ago and she can remember exactly what it was, where she found the information, how it applied to whatever you need, and the exact notebook she wrote it down in. She knows how to get information from people so let's make her a sub-project manager on this new database tool with Bob to see if she's as good as Marian says she is and maybe we can steal her from the librarians because they're all retiring soon anyway." (I'm paraphrasing here but yes, they specifically wanted me because I have a crazy attention to detail.)

So I abandoned the librarians (they were all retiring anyway and were like two resignations away from reorganizing the department), went over to the IT side to become a project manager and one month into the project with Bob, Bob was in a horrible car accident, had a severe TBI, and ended up taking medical retirement because his recovery was going to be years long. (Bob's okay now. I had dinner with him last month.)

I did not get a new PM to shadow or partner with. I was left to do the whole thing on my own with a senior devops team who didn't like that a no-nothing 24 year old kid was in charge of them. But it all worked out in the end. I earned devops' loyalty, we had fun, we impressed the client, the bosses were happy and I found that I really liked project management and even better, I was really good at it. I did that for ten years, until one of the bosses who'd left about four years prior (and with whom I still kept in touch, who knew I didn't like the techy database stuff they kept pushing me into) said "psst, hey, come work for me" and I said "can I start tomorrow."

So very long story short, being open to possibilities is how I ended up a) working for the federal government, b) falling into IT and project management, and c) now doing policy analysis and program evaluation. I didn't even know English majors could do this kind of stuff 15 years ago. I thought you had to have business degrees for all this.

What I mean is you don't need to abandon your interests in journalism and academia. If that's what you want to do, you go girl (or guy or they) - all the English majors are here rooting for you. But if you're not sure, don't close yourself off from the non-traditional English career paths.

And also don't worry too much about it. You'll find what you were meant to do, whether you figure it out right now or it takes you 4 years and grad school or it takes you 10 years.

Maybe you do go into journalism, and it's not for you. Dust off your list of soft skills and polish your resume and go find your next step. Or maybe you go into academia, realize you don't like teaching, but hey, that job in Student Affairs looks interesting -- go for it! What have you got to lose?

You probably weren't expecting another literal essay on this, so my apologies for that. But in my defense, I did say it was a complicated question to answer!

Please, feel free to ask more questions! I promise to try to be less long-winded. (No guarantees, though.)

Also a tip about resumes. I am horrible at writing resumes but I found this incredible tool called Jobscan.co. You upload your resume and the job listing you're applying to, and then it compares them and flags things in your resume based on the job listing and suggests tips to improve. It's based on the same ATS optimization technology that real hiring managers use to screen their applicants.

[communistkenobi]

this is maybe silly to tell you about but i'm very envious of how smart you seem and the level of grasp you have on theory that feels incredibly scary to me. i was in uni for sociology, and save for one text that i understood from start to finish, the rest of it always felt like it was deleting my brain cells slowly and made me feel stupid, even as smn who had grown up being a "literature" person. i think it's just a matter of getting started, but it all feels embarrassing >>

what I’m about to say is going to sound very masturbatory and self-aggrandising, but that can’t really helped on account of the fact that the topic is what a smart little boy I am

one, thank you! I’m always very flattered when people give me this compliment. I don’t think it’s silly at all. two, I’m pursuing a PhD in the social sciences with the intent to stay in the academy after I get my doctorate, and my particular field of study skews towards critical theory. on average only 1% of people in canada have a PhD, and a fraction of that percentile have my particular academic trajectory - all of which to say, I am an outlier amongst a peer group of outliers, so I’m an extremely bad measuring stick to use when judging your own critical capabilities. I’ve been in post-secondary school for roughly 7 years now and will be in it for at least four more, and for the past 4ish of those years my main source of employment has been teaching and research, so I am both paying for and being paid to read theory and teach it to undergraduate students in small classroom settings. By the standards of academia I’m very junior, but I have a lot of specialised training in talking and reading, which is to say, it’s taken me a very long time to be where I am now. My academic career depends on my ability to produce original thoughts and write them down in a way that both speaks to existing scholarship while contributing new things to said scholarship, so I’m in an environment that enforces a very particular kind of discipline that is not remotely common or normal. Being a graduate student isn’t a rich profession by any means, but you are paid to learn information and write it down - something I would not be able to do if I was working a full time job.

I also frequently don’t understand the shit I’m reading! It’s extremely difficult to read academic texts because they’re meant to be read in classroom settings where you’re forced to voice your confusion, speak with other people about what you’re reading, defend your positions, connect it to other work, synthesise it in essay format, and so on. My live-blogging of books I’m reading is an attempt to simulate that, because I tend to learn best when writing out why I have the opinions I hold. Being confused isn’t a sign of stupidity but rather a simple fact that you’re brushing up against concepts and theories that take people their whole careers to develop and publish.

My own background in academia is also very eclectic, so I know a little bit about many topics, but there are very little topics can I speak authoritatively on - I can’t speak about the state of knowledge on, say, international relations, or critical race legal scholarship, or employment disability policy, but I know vaguely of those things. I’m not even a well-read marxist lol

All of which is to say - I am a horrible metric to compare yourself to. I am one of the few sickos who genuinely wants to remain in the academy for the rest of my life because I sincerely believe in the pursuit and production of knowledge, and my chance to do so is largely dependant on my ability to explain myself to other people. Put another way, I have spent my entire adult life training to be a marginally popular communist tumblrina on a website primarily known for producing supernatural actor porn. So either way don’t feel bad about it

[valenteal]

Valentine Teal

Things to know about me:

19, afab, any pronouns (I don’t believe in gender and it isn’t part of my identity)

Dyslexia and ADHD (in layman’s terms but really I’m barely dyslexic anymore my biggest struggle that falls under that unintentional umbrella term is nonverbal learning disorder)

Aspiring author and voice actor and maybe regular actor too

Literature nerd and kind of a snobby bitch about it. I apologize if I offend you but also I’m not sorry because I took an advanced accelerated college English when I was 17 and had long covid and was struggling a lot with my mental health and I freaking passed anyway so yeah I know what the fuck I’m talking about when it comes to literature. And that’s not even scratching the surface of how much literature has been part of my life just a really good way of illustrating it.

Proud member of the LGBTQ+ community and supportive of any and all sexualities and gender identities

I will argue with people about the whole TERF thing though. Not because I hate TERFs or because I am a TERF but because the entire debate is a huge misunderstanding and I really wish people would stop hating each other online for stupid reasons when most people labeled as TERFs are just feminists and not trans exclusionary or radical, just willing to view gender and sex as 2 separate things! Which they are! We pretty much all agree on that so what is everyone fighting about?! This is a safe space for everyone regardless of gender or TERF status though I would encourage people not to use the term TERF since it’s a weapon against feminists meant to discredit. But I digress.

I’m an active member of the following fandoms: Star Wars, Harry Potter, DC, Bungo Stray Dogs, My Hero Academia (even though I hate it), Marvel (less so these days), Avatar: The Last Airbender, Merlin, Miraculous Ladybug and more I’m forgetting probably.

I’m a huge fan of Halsey. Like seriously their music is so important to me. Also Dove Cameron. Go listen to The Great Impersonator and Alchemical Vol. 1. You’ll get what I mean.

Anyway this is a mess but I figured a pinned introduction post was in order. I’ve been putting it off for a while because I fear being known but… if you’re reading this blog you’re going to get to know me anyway so might as well get it all in one place. Also I am desperate for any kind of interaction, covid ruined my social life and I’m going to move in a few months so there’s no point reviving it until then. Fuck that’s really pathetic.

[neonscandal]

Who are your favorite romantic relationship's couples in books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series (can be canon or non-canon)? Feel free if you want to write the reasons or not of why you love them...Thanks if you want to answer....

Contemplating my answer as I've come to the realization that ships are really just a way to self report on how you view relationships or how yours are in real life (is that just me?)...

Suffice it to say, I generally like ships that are a leetle antagonistic in jest, but are warm and fuzzy at the core.. generally. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the ships I love most are also featured on this list of recs. Thank you for asking, I'd love to hear about what ships you'd recommend as I'm always looking for something new to obsess over. In no particular order:

A Special Place In My Heart

Inclusion of the ship may not necessarily be a gold seal of recommendation for the source material so.. grain of salt.

Kyouko Hori & Izumi Miyamura, Horimiya - innocent and navigating the obstacles of coming of age. They each get a sense of redemption (just looks a bit different) but also they are silly and comfortable.

Shuumei Sasaki & Yoshikazu Miyano, Sasaki and Miyano - genuinely? Earnest Gentle x Considerate Gentle but also funny. Butterflies and second hand embarrassment, just what you'd expect from falling in love in high school.

Narumi Momose & Hirotaka Nifuji, Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku - because of course. Authentic acceptance of one's shameful quirks and hobbies even if it isn't readily apparent that one of them has been invested a whole lot longer than the other.

Ranma Saotome & Akane Tendou, Ranma 1/2 - don't judge me, I was young, immature even. Tsundere x tsundere will have you fighting for your life on that "will they, won't they" ledge. If you haven't seen it, think Inuyasha & Kagome (same mangaka and Ian Cox voices Ranma in later seasons and goes on to voice Inuyasha).

Miaka Yuuki & Tamahome, Fushigi Yugi: The Mysterious Play - she won.

Tatsu & Miku, The Way of the Househusband - not a ship but a fact of life.

Hayase Nagatoro & Naoto Hachiouji, Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro - ... another "don't judge me" inclusion. These two are "pause the show to recover from second hand embarrassment" but so am I.

Gugu & Rean Cropp, To Your Eternity - because first and foremost, I'm a sad bitch and their story accomplishes more in like.. a few episodes than some ships do in an entire series.

A Special Place in My Festering Lizard Brain

Generally, I post more about these ships because, in my head, their stories are incomplete or, more likely, tragic and deserving of remediation.

Kojiro Nanjo & Kaoru Sakurayashiki, SK8 the Infinity - if not ship, why ship shaped? It's the banter, baby.

Satoru Gojo & Suguru Geto, Jujutsu Kaisen - Gojo's last warm spring of youth was my last warm spring of youth.

Aslan Jade Callenreese & Eiji Okumura, Banana Fish - shhh, we can fix what canon broke.

Katsuki Bakugo & Izuku Midoriya, My Hero Academia - this ship is about to be canon as hell, so help me.

[the-coolest-pharaoh]

(This post is constantly being updated; headcanons are in no particular order.)

TW: Mental health conditions and trauma

My Headcanons for Ahkmenrah

——

He is short and likes to wear his crown (not just because he is a pharaoh) to make him look taller

He’s been claustrophobic ever since he got trapped in his sarcophagus

Refuses to take his cape off around other people (besides Bahiti) due to his scars

He hated being treated better than everyone else; if he had it his way he would have made it so that Egypt treated him like a normal person rather than above everyone else and deserving more respect

He loved his people so much; he was always so kind and generous to them

He spent his entire reign trying to create equality in Egypt (banning slavery, providing more care to the poor, etc.)

He LOVES duckies (King Tut reference the real ones know what I mean)

He pulled a Princess Jasmine a lot and snuck out of the palace dressed like a commoner so that he could just be a person

Does not like to discuss his brother, but will if asked about him because he does not want to be rude

Can walk really well in high heels

He doesn’t believe that fashion has gender—but because of the time period he is from he feels like has to refrain from wearing women’s clothes

His love language is physical touch

He is very ~skittish~ and ~jumpy~

He is pretty shy and likes to observe people before he introduces himself

He’s pretty quiet (kind of canon actually)—both in how much he talks, his volume, and his overall being

He likes to spend most of his time in his tomb where it’s quiet, especially if he had just recently spent time with all of the museum because socialization tires him out

Due to having been sheltered in the palace most of his life and kept as innocent as possible by his parents, Ahk has a hard time grasping real world events and does not have the best social skills

Going off the last point, Ahk also feels like he can fix anything and everything that is bad because he was taught that he can, and when he can’t fix something he gets very uncomfortable and upset

Hates confrontation beyond logic

When he is upset with someone he becomes pretty sassy (again having to do with hating confrontation and also not having great social skills)

He loves loves loves animals and always has; if you take him to a zoo he will refuse to ever leave

He is the only one that the lions do not try and murder; they actually really love him

He’s naturally super graceful

He can do his eyeliner perfectly on his first try

His ears are pierced but all his earrings are in other museums :((

He is physically unable to swear change my mind

He is such a mama’s boy :((

There has always been some tension between him and his dad because of their differing views on how Ahk should rule (aka he has daddy issues)

He has separation anxiety, social anxiety, and epilepsy, also suffers from weak bones, though this issue in particular didn’t start until after he died.

He has OCD from being controlled his whole childhood having high expectations put on him, and he and his brother being compared.

He fidgets with his clothing as a coping mechanism when he’s stressed, anxious or scared.

He has a lil overbite and it’s so cute <3 he has always been a little self-conscious about it though because it slightly affects how he speaks (again kind of canon because Rami has an overbite so)

This boi wouldn’t (more like couldn’t) hurt a fly unless they hurt someone he cares about

He is bisexual

He LOVES 70s music and fashion

Ahk thinks the museum is his kingdom because let’s be honest it is

His birthday is what would now be September 14, 1105 B.C.E. though the Egyptians didn’t celebrate birthdays so he doesn’t make a big deal of it

He is a skilled hunter

He is very curious and interested in academia—he loves to read books and poetry and learn

He loves listening to music, he could dance with his headphones on for hours

Being called ‘dead’ is offensive to him, and probably the rest of the exhibits tbh

He loves all the “mom shows;” reality tv, cooking shows, home improvement shows. His most favorite show is the Kardashians because he relates to the toxic family drama <3

He has daddy issues (confirmed, actually)

His best friend is Sacagawea :)

My version of him died at the age of 24 (long explanation as to why)

[futurecorps3]

hello darling!

many congratulations on the 800 followers milestone, im so so proud of you for getting so far; it's entirely well deserved and for you to put in the time and effort to organise an evident with so much thought is incredibly considerate of you, thank you so much for doing so (ɔˆ ³(ˆ⌣ˆc)

on that note, i'd love to participate in your celebration if that's alright with you, my love

i'd like to request a 🩸 Kir Royale please for the Harry Potter Fandom, Marauders era, if you can, but im not opposed to Lightening Era either

and just some info on me :

i love men <3 ; i am open to listening to all sorts of music genres so long as it fits the mood, however, i tend to lean more towards R&B/Soul/Hip-Hop, Indie and Alternative Lo-fi, my favourite movies are all studio ghibli or animated movies, my top love languages are acts of service, quality and physical touch. i love deep conversations and listening to people tell me their story - getting to know more about other people is one of my favourite things to do. i want to be a mother one day, im a hopeless romantic who is very much into self-care and self-pampering, i also love baking, especially cookies and apple pie. i love art but enjoy paper crafting and watercolours the best and my aesthetic would be soft girl/light academia. i love my friends and family and value them above anyone else to the point where, if they were threatened/hurt in anyway, i would get incredibly angry and overprotective, which is rare for me to be.

some bad traits now... TT^TT time to expose myself - i can get pretty lazy, i tend to get into planning my life a little too much, i have perfectionist tendencies, im horrible at replying to people and can't resist chocolate and donuts or dairy products even though im lactose intolerant...i also tend to ramble sometimes for example, this paragraph XD

p.s thank you so so much for the kind mention in your celebration event post, you really didn't have to since you did most of the work, nevertheless, that was still so incredibly kind of you so thank you c⌒っ╹v╹ )っ huggies for my lovie!

Honey this means the world! Thank you so much mwah mwah kisses

James! Like I can totally see him baking with you (while eating the ingredients as you do so hehe), spoiling you with art supplies under the condition you paint something for him, and that whole protectiveness of friends and family screams Prongs!! He also dreams of being a dad one day so yeah <333 I actually headcanon him being lactose intolerant too so dw, he’ll eat the things you shouldn’t with you shamelessly. ❤️

p.s Thats the least I can do to reciprocate how sweet and kind you’ve been! Huggies all the way back for u