#tsh was NOT abt studying at all

[worm-generator]

man. the secret history has become so synonymous with dark academia that when u look through the tag its just knit sweaters and latte art. like please show me a text post about how fucking unhinged richard was for staying in a room with a Literal hole in the wall during the dead of winter and almost dying of hypothermia.

[quidfree]

I'm converting everyone in my life to tsh fans and without fail everyone always tells me that how funny it is that richard tells on himself so badly by writing francis by far the most like an actual person, in contrast especially to how. not like a person camilla is written.

I guess I was just wondering what you find most endearing about the richard-francis dynamic/what aspect you like to write the most, because for me it's got to be the way richard's own narration betrays how close they are just in the details he manages to capture

spreading the good word…

but like yeah you & i share the same instinct when it comes to those two anon you’re so real. bc it really drives me crazy like… richard’s Whole Thing is that he is soo fucked up and he wants to desperately to be part of something Beautiful and Real and Not what he has come from, and so he lies to us and to himself and edits his memories and his interactions and puts a group of pretentious rich kids on a pedestal bc they have the aesthetic of something he wants. and there is some truth to it and to him and to the relationships they build, but as the story progresses it becomes harder and harder for him to hold on to the grand visions he had of them and his life with them bc in fact all of them are just kind of bad people in pretty banal ways. and so by the end he is disillusioned and alone and washes back up to californiaaa baby and all of his once friends are fallen idols and he never really knew them at all.

EXCEPT that’s not true! both bc there were some moments of Realness, but mostly because throughout the whole act two, the one person who is With us-as-richard as everything falls apart is francis! he’s there! he is annoying and everpresent and inspiring richard to have nightmare visions of them as old men still bitching at each other, but he’s There as an actual person! henry’s an absentee god and charles is a study in cruel self-destruction and camilla is a mystery of absence, but francis is an actual right there flesh and blood person! they have serious conversations abt the people they’re in love with! they drive each other up a wall! richard takes francis to get diagnosed w panic disorders! he absolutely Knows francis, and for all that he is constantly complaining abt him, they’re also just. friends. that doesn’t mean theyre Nice About It, but it’s like.. richard you did make an actual friend. somehow in the midst of this whole mess you two stumbled into friendship. it’s just crazy to me bc they’re both so judgmental and shallow in some ways but they know each other at their very worst and that doesn’t stop them being friends. and that’s not enough to keep them #besties after the end of the year (fair enough with two dead friends and three murder/suicides within the space of a year), but YEARS later when francis tries to kill himself he sends richard a goodbye letter! and richard drops everything to rush to him in a panic and when they see each other in the hospital they’re so happy abt it! bc they somehow fucked up and managed to care abt each other despite knowing what assholes they are!

it’s just too good / awful. also the whole ending is so perfect in that regard. squad reunion around the bestie’s suicide bed before his sham homophobia marriage! richard Immediately proposes to camilla bc he’s crazy!! she somehow does not tell him straight up that he’s insane bc they have almost no interaction throughout the whole book and also timing! richard literally tells her they should get married bc they both love(d) henry! etc

anyways i went off topic bc the above isn’t even a proper answer to your question. what i find most endearing is like, francis putting blankets over richard while he sleeps and richard remembering sooooo many of francis’ quips verbatim years later. and what i like writing the most is like… hm. yeah maybe richard self-reporting, and Also i really enjoy writing francis’ feelings from richard pov. maybe a hot take but i do not think theyre at all In Love in the book, so getting to decide what that would look like is really fun. but maybe that’s for another ask…

[1mlostnow]

Made it through day 2

Had morning rehearsal and then a ten minute break, then we went to english and I had some time to read in the library and there’s this new kid that is 100% gay I’m gonna try to talk to

Then I went to Spanish and we were working on a couple new phrases and pronunciation of the letters

Then in math we took a pretest and I left a note that said “ik how to do this, it just took a second to figure out. I’m way smarter than this I promise” bc I only got two pages of 5 done 😭 I forgot how to do everything so it took me a second to to figure out

Then I went to study hall and worked on a little get to know me worksheet from English, and I got to rant abt tsh and I FOUND OUT MY TEMPORARY 504 CAME THROUGH 😁😁😁 bc my Spanish teacher asked me if I needed a copy of the notes n stuff and I was like “wait did it go through??” And she said yes :)))

Then I went to lunch and it was pretty good, I just talked with my friends for a while, then I went to Spanish and we just went over the syllabus and the new cool kid is in that class too.

Then I went to painting and it was boring bc it was two periods and I lowkey don’t like what we’re working on rn it’s just to get us familiar with laying down paint and mixing colors, and one of the girls who made fun of me all of last year is in there. And she was doing that passive bullying thingy where she’s like “do you think my friend here is cute??” To some random quieter kid at our table it was soooo stupid 😭

Then my grandma picked me up so I’d don’t have to ride the bus when it was 96 degrees (35.5) and she got me a peach smoothie from the coffee shop in town :)

[aureatchi]

hello, reverie. i am truly sorry to bother you. i saw your reblog about your selfships, and i adore the concepts. if you would be so kind, i would like to ask if you have any recommendations for books or movies that would match the 'academia' vibe you provided, and of course, if you could give me some. thank you.

please forgive me if my english is unnatural and forced, for it is not my first language. 🐇

nonnie !! my lovely don’t ever apologize, you’re not bothering me at all !! :< i’m sorry i’ve let my asks pile up sm this week, i’ve seen a few others signed by you & i promise i will get to them soon (i’m honestly js cherishing them to myself rn hehe bcz i love getting fedya asks & you’ve indulged me sm 🥹; i promise i’ll release them soon !!)

but anyways THANK YOU SM FOR ASKING :’) i’m so in love w/ this ask omg. honestly i swear there’s something out there tht could fit our exact dynamic perfectly but i’ll have to do more searching (& reading; unfortunately school’s haven’t given me time to read things for fun these past couple of years :< but once i can balance out my classes this year i’ll def get into the habit again (˘ ˘ ˘) !!) js for you nonnie i’ll come back & reblog this post when i’ve found more in this genre i could relate to w/ updates ᰔ

& btw if anyone else thinks of anything tht could relate pls pls tell me, i’d totally check it out <3

but WHAT I HAVE SO FAR !! the secret history & if we were villains ofc; ik they’re so popular but the first is rly the blueprint for the ‘dark academia vibe’ imo 🥹. & let me talk abt the second…

if we were villains is abt a group of theatre kids who study about shakespeare. (LOL is this already typical of me?) they are all close friends (altho they acc all have complex feelings abt each other) but one tragic night results in a murder of one of them. the book is basically about how all of it came to be. there’s this one line that goes “do you blame shakespeare for any of it?” & the main character replies “i blame him for all of it.” i was rly inspired by how the theme of shakespeare was incorporated into the story & how it caused such tragedy (even though shakespeare wasn’t an actual character; even alive, etc.) therefore, i took inspiration from it to add to the fyozai academia universe, where our demise is ofc…the fyozai chess game tht asagiri also uses as a metaphor in bsd !! & it’s both literal & a theme — the three of us all literally play chess, & it’s also used as a metaphor for MY three-way manipulation mind game… 🙂‍↕️ hehe.

also i feel like fyodor is so henry winter from the secret history. but anyways ik these are only two, so i promise i’ll come back w/ more recs for you !! (esp since it’s almost autumn) they’re both supa similar — TSH is basically the same plot as IWWV except they study greek/latin instead of shakespeare, but i enjoyed both of them.

your english is perfect, btw. :)

[why-the-heck-not]

what is your favorite candy? why?

do you listen to music while studying/doing math? what music do you listen to. you seem like you would have interesting music choices.

do you wear glasses? what kind of glasses do you wear? interested in knowing what kind of glasses people i follow wear

books you like/have enjoyed? apart from tsh and a little life, i've alr read them.

I'm more of a chocolate person, especially hazelnut chocolate, orange chocolate and strawberry-yogurt filled milk chocolate. But for candy; definitely salty liquorice. Any kind is good, but the more intense the better.

Yees ofc, nothing happens without me listening to music. Depends on the day/mood what tho. If I rly need to like get to that focused "oops where did the time go" thing, it's classical. Loove the interstellar, the imitation game, the theory of everything, and the queen's gambit soundtracks. Recently been going to the unnnerving direction and listening to the dahmer series soundtrack?? Makes for a very creepy study session lol, but like that's cool sometimes idk and like halloween or something (it's weird ik). But if I'm being more chill abt studying, I'll just listen to what I normally listen to. Which according to ''stats for spotify'' is rock, pop, permanent wave, modern rock and melancholia (been listening to the "sad boi hours" playlist too much apparently for that last one lol)

I don't wear actual glasses, but I got computer glasses (they filter out bluelight) bc basically all my waking hours I'm in front of some screen and I get headaches often so that was a purchase out of desperation.

Been in a reading slump recently tbh, but The Goldfinch, Bad Blood by John Carreyrou. Haven't finished it yet, but The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky .

[mikeshanlon]

UGH OK RANGE! tbh I agree with everything u said except the like copying lines from Shakespeare over to iwwv part cause I've never studied/read Shakespeare At All and it was exhausting to try to understand the hidden messages and even the language, but it def gives little Easter eggs to people that have studied it and know what's going on so like I'm not angry abt it being there and as u said it does serve a purpose! and OOF ok def get u said abt tsh! 1/

while I personally enjoy donnas prose it does get a little old sometimes, ur like YO WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING? What does it mean? what does it all mean? and the dynamics r just...Not interesting enough for me, and I didnt root for anyone and I just cant read shit where I dont care abt a SINGLE character, what is the point! like I was liking charles in tsh cause he was being distrustful 2 Henry then we turn around with the incest! I was like wow this book has everything huh! 2/

(*clinks glasses cause iwwv doesn't have incest* let's celebrate that!) also! i absolutely rec reading dare me, like i love the ~dark side of girlhood~ type shit + Megan abbots writing (check out the fever if u want! Its very str8 so ugh but I love it) so I am biased but I definitely prefer it over tsh. I will say tho some aspects of the show r a little different, since dare me is first person addy pov. it is also VERY repressed so like be warned! 3/

btw just want to be clear I totally understand liking da as like a concept to explore the ~dark side~, repression etc etc in fiction but like the people that seriously honestly want to be like henry or richard or whatever and have this toxic group of friends is genuinely so.. incomprehensible 2 me like Why? WHY? I think they too suffer from a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs. 4/4

Oh yeah forsure, that makes sense abt Shakespeare, I just think like it’s probably easier to kind of guess whats going on with context and stuff with that compared to TSH but also im just used to doing that and like to do that as an English major so erglnerg. And again, it serves a greater purpose and enriches the story imo. I enjoy donnas writing, to a certain extent LMAO, but I totally agree, TGF is longer than TSH and can be really sad (and slow) at times but I was way more invested bc the characters were more compelling and we spent more time with them… like boris and theo did have a messed up relationship but u could tell they cared about each other and we got to see them actually bond versus TSH I just felt like it was like… okay they are friends now! (Altho TGF has it’s own problems as well but overall I enjoyed it a lot more and the characters were more impactful to me). I’m totally a character reader so if I don’t care about the characters than it’s just not gonna work for me. Also the bar is so low LKNGRLKRGK but yes go IWWV!!!

And yeah for sure like while I think the concept of DA is interesting and I would love a dead poets society type of  friendship I would not want to be a henry/Richard or anything….. “I think they too suffer from a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.” LKGNLKNRG scream yeah I mean its like I say omg the aesthetic and vibes of obsessive cruel academia is so iconic but like would I ever want that ? no.. .storytelling wise it’s compelling and fun but irl…

As for dare me I might pick it up especially bc the show got cancelled :/ but my friend also said that the coach/addy/coach’s army bf I forgot his name was like a bigger thing in the book like they hang out a lot and im like the vibes are rancid luhv but I do think those types of stories are interesting and I want to read more female driven books

[quidfree]

if in TSH universe (specifically ur canon) if julian died could u see him inviting the study group to his funeral? and can u see them all going? if so what do u think that dynamic would be like

lol in no universe does julian ever interact with the study group again. that man could not get away from them fast enough once murder-suicides got involved.

in my canon, if for some reason the survivors went to his funeral... it would be bunny funeral vibes but less personal trauma and more 'who was this guy even why are XYZ people here'. everyone is low-level drunk throughout the whole thing bc they cannot deal. richard is probably the most emotionally affected but his mood dips and then plateaus a lot throughout. francis hates funerals and didn't want to come but felt obliged. charles decided to rock up on a whim and regrets it. camilla zones out for most of the event. maybe afterwards they rally together enough to read some latin poetry in the graveyard and pour one out together before they dissolve. richard and francis probably have weird sex later.

the ironic thing is if julian had died at hampden they would have brought a totally different energy. everyone hardcore grieving. henry 10 page eulogy. charles crying. richard in shock. getting uproariously drunk afterwards. forever reminiscing abt their genius mentor, taken too soon.

[happyduckierevived]

The snail??? The cocaine in the Burger King parking lot??? We left the majority of the Plato musings in the beginning of the book and went on to get batshit crazy!

man. the secret history has become so synonymous with dark academia that when u look through the tag its just knit sweaters and latte art. like please show me a text post about how fucking unhinged richard was for staying in a room with a Literal hole in the wall during the dead of winter and almost dying of hypothermia.

[1mlostnow]

He was so so silly like wdym you don’t wanna ask your parents..ik they don’t like you but you’re literally about to die…….worst case scenario you have to call up Henry or Francis or someone…Yrah they were going through it but .. they would’ve helped 😭 BUT NOOOO this dumbass nearly died from all of the sicknesses attacking at one SND then hitting his head 😮‍💨 and then Henry saved him

man. the secret history has become so synonymous with dark academia that when u look through the tag its just knit sweaters and latte art. like please show me a text post about how fucking unhinged richard was for staying in a room with a Literal hole in the wall during the dead of winter and almost dying of hypothermia.