#and the one academic thing i could always do confidently was write :P | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

chaesparklez · 16 days

Text

victory (pt.1) | taerae x reader

wc: 2.7k

reader: femme afab

warnings: 18+ SMUT MINORS DNI

teasing, lap dancing, oral m!receiving, sloppy oral sex, tension, slightly bratty reader, subby taerae

synopsis: game rules

- whichever player makes the opponent cum in the shortest amount of time wins. the opponent only has to cum once for the player to win.

- the game is timed. the timer starts upon first contact with the opponent's center.

- acts of foreplay like kissing or heavy petting excluding the genitals do not count.

a thrilling game of control and domination. whose victory will it be?

a/n: i am so so happy to have written this story! the idea and writing process for this piece flowed out so naturally and i had so much fun writing it. as a kkultarae i feel like a taerae fic was long overdue. enjoy the story and stay seated for pt 2 :)

cross-posted on wattpad and ao3. available through user @/chaesparkle

“let's play a game."

taerae looks up from his computer, slipping his headphones off one ear.

"what was that, jagi?" he replies.

you smile mischievously and take a couple steps towards him where he sits at his gaming desk. you ruffle his hair and rest your hand on the nape of his neck.

"i said, let's play a game. a really fun one." you smile, massaging his neck with your hand.

he looks up into your eyes, his gaze a mix of curiosity and amusement.

"what game is it?" he asks.

you grin deviously.

you and taerae had been dating for a year and a half now. initially shy, he had opened up wonderfully with you, appreciating how you were always ready to lead him and teach him something new. whether it was explaining some cool academic concept, a technique on how to fold a fitted sheet... or how to eat pussy.

with his lack of experience, you guys started off pretty slow so he could learn the basics. but once he got going... well.

the thing about taerae was that he was incredibly hardworking. he knew what he lacked in and worked tirelessly till he perfected it. and he did so with this quiet confidence that you'd always found insanely sexy. not overly cocky, never too critical of himself, just aware of his good points and always ready to improve.

you can imagine how that translated into the bedroom. over the course of the past year you had basically given him a 101 on how to drive a woman crazy, and needless to say you couldn't keep your hands off eachother once he had grown comfortable exploring.

and today, you decided you wanted to give a surprise test to spice things up a bit.

"let's see who can make the other cum the fastest."

his eyebrows raise in surprise, caught a little off guard at the unexpected proposal. but shock is taken over by amusement, then competitiveness as his eyes glint with determination.

"what are the stakes?" he asks.

"winner doesn't have to do the dishes for a week."

he laughs and ruffles his hair. "can't pass up that," he takes his headset off and swivels around in his chair to face you fully.

'okay, any rules?' he asks.

you purse your lips in thought for a second, deciding how you wanted to do this. "hmmm."

you set out the following rules:

- whichever player makes the opponent cum in the shortest amount of time wins. the opponent only has to cum once for the player to win.

- the game is timed. the timer starts upon first contact with the opponent's center.

- acts of foreplay like kissing or heavy petting excluding the genitals do not count.

taerae loved this organisation. he smirks and nods his head, loving the prospect of both winning a competition and getting to see you crumble before him.

"sounds good to me. get ready to have the fastest orgasm you've ever had." he grins.

"unfortunately that'll be you." you smile.

"guess we'll just have to see about that. who should go first?'

"i will. come to the sitting room in 10 minutes." you reply, already having decided what you'd do with a smirk.

"okay then," he replies, gazing at you with darkened eyes. 'i’m anticipating it.’

you smile and plant a kiss on his neck. "may the best player win." you whisper.

"oh, he will." he breathes.

"honey, you can come out now!" you call.

taerae enters the sitting room to find the lights dimmed and a chair placed in the middle of the room. you are nowhere to be seen.

"jagi, where are you?" he calls back, mildly puzzled.

"you'll see plenty of me in a second," you chirp with a grin from the adjoining room. 'sit in the chair and wait in the meanwhile.'

he takes his place and laughs quietly to himself, anticipating to see what you've prepared. you had a habit of surprising him but he was sure he wouldn't fall for it this time being determined to win the game.

well, he was sure in for a ride.

all of a sudden, he hears music filling the room. the speakers were playing a song from all corners of the space. he looks around bemused.

"jagi?" he calls out.

showtime.

"yes?" you reply innocently, stepping into the doorway.

taerae's eyes widen with shock for a second, then he bites his lip with a smile, throwing his head back with a chuckle knowing that he's already in danger of losing by how his cock is twitching in his pants just at the sight of you.

you stand before him dressed in a baby tee and plaid micro mini skirt, white thigh high socks and platform heels. the only accessories you wore were a kitty headband and a white garter with a bow around your thigh. much of you was on show not leaving a lot to the imagination; although taerae's imagination right now was running wild. you smile, knowing this outfit would drive him crazy.

you knew that your gamer boyfriend was secretly into the stereotypical sexy female twitch streamer getup despite him insisting he was different. after all, he was still a man. and you were going to play this to your advantage to win the game. you were going to give him an agonizing lap dance.

you strut slowly towards him and circle around his chair while caressing his shoulder. he places his hand on top of yours as you brush it across his hoodie, to which you remove your hand immediately.

"no touching yet." you whisper, waggling a finger at him mischievously.

taerae bites his lip and covers his face with his hands, knowing that having to sit still while you give him a lap dance barely clothed might actually make him cum in his pants if he doesn't control himself. his cock was already throbbing like crazy.

all he could think about right now was how fucking sexy you looked in that outfit. like a present wrapped up for him with that bow around your thigh. he wanted nothing more than to fuck you in this getup, removing your garter with his teeth. bending you over and sliding your panties aside before thrusting his throbbing erection into your core, watching you teeter in those stilettos...

but here he stayed sat on the chair as you tortured him with your wily charms. he sits on his hands purely because he wasn't sure he could refrain from touching you if he didn't.

now slowly, more deliberately, you strut to the back of his chair and run your hand along his chest where you can momentarily feel his heart pounding, tracing your fingertips up along his neck then pulling his head back with a tug to his hair. you exhale warm breath onto his exposed neck before gently kissing him below the lobe then nibbling on his ear.

"fuck." taerae breathes, fighting not to let out a moan.

he was struggling to keep his resolve as you knew exactly how to make him crumble- by targeting his erogenous zone. the tingling sensation of your breath on his neck and your gentle nibbles on his earlobe drives him insane, exhaling shakily with his eyes closed. he swallows nervously and purses his lips together.

you release him with a smile, continuing to circle round with your hand tracing his other shoulder, down to his chest, then his thigh, till you stand before him. you place your leg between his thighs, stiletto resting on the polished oak of the chair. then grazing his inner thigh with your foot. he clenches his teeth in desperation, using all the power in him to not forfeit the game and fuck you right in this chair.

you draw your hand up your thigh beginning at the knee, brushing past the lacy garter. taerae's gaze follows your touch; your panties were visible as your skirt hiked up past your thighs. he stared with longing at your parted thighs, wanting nothing more than to grab them and bury his head between them..

you lift his chin with a finger forcing him to look away from your leg and at your face.

"look at me, baby." you whisper.

he nods in submission, prompting a tingle to spread through your center at the yearning look in his eyes. you step back and begin to dance for him, letting the music wash over you as you sway your hips, flip your hair and draw out every movement so his eyes linger on the arch of your back and your tantalising ass peeking out from under that micro mini skirt. taerae watches you intently, entranced and still struggling to ignore the aching bulge in his pants.

"you're determined to win this, huh?" he rasps.

"of course." you reply, cocking your head to the side and grinning.

running a hand through your hair, you amble slowly towards your tortured lover. then straddle him in the chair, legs either side of him with your chest in his face. he swallows nervously at your proximity, gazing up at you with longing.

“you can touch me if you want,” you whisper.

he runs his fingers up the side of your exposed waist, making you shiver gently. you begin to move your hips, grinding against his clothed cock and feeling it graze your center. you bite your lip to stifle a moan, the both of you engaging in a torturous battle of restraint; you weren’t sure who’d lose.

you continue to undulate against him and lean down to plant kisses on his neck. you suck and nibble at the smooth skin, peppering his neck with splotchy red love bites. he lets out a shaky breath and you feel his cock twitch. gingerly, he palms your breast, long fingers running across your nipple and squeezing gently. you let out a soft moan against his neck and retract, gazing into his eyes as your chests rise and fall against eachother. you feel yourself start to lose focus and remember suddenly to maintain your resolve, breaking the moment of catharsis by planting a kiss on his full lips and leaving his lap.

knowing your ass looked great in this skirt, you decided to tease him further by facing away and bending over slightly, tracing your fingertips down the back of your thighs, shaking it a little with a giggle. you can practically hear him stop breathing trying to control himself.

placing your hands on the arms of the chair, you flick your hair while swaying your ass side to side before sitting in his lap, this time pushing your clouded thoughts aside determined to win the game. you hook your arm around his neck and begin to grind again, slower but more firmly this time. rolling your hips and feeling his erection poking your ass as you move against it. you brush your other hand across your chest as you lose yourself in the movements.

"jagi... please.." he rasps in your ear.

pretending not to hear his plea, you give yourself a sly smile and rise from his lap.

then you sink down to your knees in front of him looking up at him with pseudo innocence.

"please what, baby? are you asking for something?" you ask, batting your lashes.

"touch me. let me touch you. please... so hard." he groans, clenching his jaw and throwing his head back in agitation.

"someone looks bothered. let's see if we can get rid of some of that tension." you reply wily.

you rub his thighs with your hands, deliberately avoiding his cock to avoid breaking the rules. he exhales shakily. you smile, finally deciding to reward him for holding out this long.

"you've done so well, baby. let me make you feel good." you whisper.

you pull down his pants enough so his erection springs out, tip leaking a bead of precum. even though you were trying to assert dominance right now, the sight of him this hard made you suddenly aware of the wetness building between your thighs.

you reach under the chair for the stopwatch you had placed there and hold it facing towards him.

"let's start." you say, and press the 'go' button.

taking a moment to push your hair back, you take his cock into your hand and spit on it before stroking it gently. you gaze up into his eyes and slowly lick along the dorsal vein at a painstaking pace. his cock twitches in your hand as if it calls out for more. starting at the shaft, you plant sloppy kisses all the way up his length till you reach his angry pink tip, then deepthroat him. taerae lets out a deep moan, the feeling of his cock all the way down your warm throat sending tingles down his spine.

you swirl your tongue around his tip to lick up the leaking precum before slowly sucking him off, your mouth travelling halfway down before coming up again. he looks down at you with a dark gaze, pupils focused on you intently.

you begin to suck him off more intensely, starting off slow then progressively getting faster, sloppily spitting all over his cock making a warm sticky mess all over the both of you. you watch as the saliva runs down his length; it momentarily remains a string suspended in air between your lips and his cock, and as you jerk him off it makes a delectable sound.

he tucks a strand of hair behind your ear. "doing so well, baby. you look so hot right now drooling all over my dick."

you smile in satisfaction and carry on. you pick up the pace, head bobbing up and down rapidly as you suck him off with your ass jiggling in time with your movements. you deepthroat him again and stay there for a couple seconds, moaning so the vibrations from your throat send him into a new plane of ecstasy. your eyes water slightly from the pressure but you continue at a slowly increasing speed, feeling him get closer to climax as his groans of pleasure grow louder.

then your final weapon. you enclose your lips around his tip while your hand remains wrapped around his length, and suck.

"f-fuck. oh my god. fuck." he breathes, stuttering from the sheer stimulation. your lips targeting the most sensitive part of his cock while you jerk him off sloppily drives him insane. he screws his eyes shut and moans.

"i'm close," he pants. you maintain the pace and carry on sucking and licking the smooth head of his cock, making eye contact with him once again.

and he shatters.

with a deep grunt, he cums, hot fluid spurting all over your tongue. you slow down the movements of your hand and suck his tip clean of every last drop of cum, then swallow, releasing his cock from your mouth with a pop. you move the hair out of your eyes, slightly out of breath and panting.

he looks down at the scene before him: his cock covered in a mix of spit and precum, your chin covered in saliva, cheeks red and lipstick smudged. he holds your chin and wipes a smear of pink away with his thumb.

"have to give this one to you, baby. you never fail to surprise me." he laughs wearily as you gaze at eachother.

taerae's face is flushed and his pupils waver from side to side as you kneel before him a mess. hair tangled, makeup smudged...

you hold up the stopwatch.

"five minutes twelve seconds. think you can beat it?"

he takes a moment to regard you, then smiles, leaning forward in his chair with a knowing expression.

what you didn't know was that taerae was just as competitive as you- if not more. and while you had gone above and beyond his expectations right now, he still had something in store for you that would have you folding immediately.

planning, organising, calculating like a true 'T' on how to give you the fastest orgasm of your life. you didn't stand a chance. he smirks at you with an air of utmost confidence, caressing your cheek.

"i think you'll be surprised at what i have in store for you, jagi," he breathes in a deep voice.

and you find yourself a little thrown off by his sudden resolve, thinking you hadn't crumbled him to dust as finely as you thought you had. but overwhelmingly what you felt right now was... lust.

his dimples appearing as he flashes that sly smirk, eyes filled with competitiveness and that quiet confidence that made you very aware of how your core was soaking wet and throbbing.

noticing your expression, taerae chuckles again and leans forward so your faces are only inches apart.

"let's see what you have to say to my plan." he whispers in your ear.

*and the game continues…*

#zb1 #zerobaseone #zb1 fanfiction #zb1 imagines #zb1 fics #zb1 smut #taerae imagines #kpop smut #kim taerae #taerae smut #taerae x reader #zb1 x reader #zb1 scenarios #zb1 taerae #zerobaseone taerae #taerae scenarios #kim taerae smut #zb1 x you #zb1 hard hours

117 notes · View notes

merinelsa · 2 years

Text

Just my mind and life doing things to me again , so just ignore, gonna vent again because I'm jobless

There were two things in life that made me really happy , really proud of myself . One was dance . I'm a fat kid , to convince people that I'm good at dance , that I can really move my body , that I can captivate people with my expressions was really hard. I've been training since I was 2yrs old . And I've been trying to outperform my fellow dance mates who are way slimmer and ' fit ' according to society's standards , for even just half of the recognition they get . And though it was hard at first , it's been kind of satisfying to see people's first impression on me change as they see me dance . You could ask the 5 teachers I've had for the past 16 yrs , I was always their favourite , I was always asked to teach my juniors or to demonstrate to me peers how to do it right . Once , even my dad's friends told me that seeing me dance for one programme inspired them to join classes and form groups to learn dance , cause I was as fat as them and still could move well . I remember once I had this group dance competition and our theme was indian folk dance and I was doing the puppet dance , a dance form i'd never seen or performed , but the teacher saw me do it and said that they never had to look for a puppet cause I was a perfect one . That took so much of control over my body and movements to do it right and I worked hard and we bagged the first position . I was good , I was proud of myself , my mom always used to say how dance was a form of courage and self confidence for me when i had to go through so much comments over my body shape and anything people could find fault in me .

And the second , my academics . I was good lol . Not extraordinary by any means , but I could do well in school. I'd participate in scholarship exams and do good in it , got quite a few merit certificates over it . I was never studious per say , I'd spend much less time on studies and more on being active in school , though even that took so much work on my side cause I've terrible social anxiety . But I did good in school enough for my teachers to be happy with me and even encourage me to become a peer for students who needed help . Enough for me to want to be a doctor and my parents to trust me on being able to achieve it

So that's where my issues starts . I was capable enough to do med coaching ( to write an exam to get into a med college ) along with my last two years of school which is a hard task . But I did work hard , and it led me to ignore dance and in turn my body . I stopped practicing 2.5 yrs back to just focus on my studies and get into a good college . I thought I would come back after I'd achieved my goal . And here I am 2.5 yrs later feeling just shit . Though I did better academic wise, I'm one of the only ones to not yet get an admission ( though I've been trying to tell my brain that it's because I'm looking to get one over my own hard work and on pure academic basis in order to study at a good institute on scholarship rather than my friends who got by spending money , but it just feels so lonely over here ) . And secondly , bc of not practicing , my body is refusing to be flexible enough to dance well . I've been trying to exercise everyday and trying to do at least half the things I did easily back then , but it's been so hard . I know that being away from dance for so long can really affect your skills and it can be really hard to get back into my earlier state , but God just everything is weighing down on me so hard . The two things I had that made me happy and proud and courageous, I don't have them anymore to give me comfort . I feel weak and my self confidence have hit a real low point . And I've been trying to cheer me up and it has been successful quite a few times , but days like today where nothing specific has happened but I still feel that deep pain of loss and feeling just so down , has me over here writing out paragraphs . I just want to feel good about myself , I just want to feel like I can do it , that I can get through it , that I'm capable and talented and this is just a small phase that I have to just push through. I just want to go back to those days were people liked me and I felt worthy. I know I shouldn't put my worth on such trivial stuff but it's hard when there's nothing making you feel good about yourself now . I just need to get through this. I just need to ignore those stares and those constant fake concerned asks . I just want to feel good , lord .

0 notes

yoshkeii · 3 years

Text

"𝙰 𝚜𝚑𝚢 𝚌𝚛𝚞𝚜𝚑"

࿐ character(s): Ushijima Wakatoshi, Daichi Sawamura, Kuroo Tetsurou

࿐ genre: sfw, soft/fluff, comfort, tiny angst if you squint

࿐ type: headcanons (hcs)? / imagine

࿐ requested by: @dumpsterfireinc

⌦ shymale!reader (he/him)

⌦ ‘if I can request comfort hcs for Ushijima, Daichi, Kuroo, and Oikawa who have a crush on as shy male!reader who thinks the boys should be with a girl and not him.’

A/N: i had to drop oikawa on this one since i cant seem to get his personality out?? i- uh-. i apologize- also my way of writing hcs is weird? idk why i like writing like that, but eventually they’ll shift- somehow- (i’ll probably make a proper hcs post if you want-)

1-16-2021: sorry in advanced if this took waaay to long. im doubting my writings. kinda shit but im just burnt out.

𝚄𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚓𝚒𝚖𝚊:

❀ Ushijima had a crush on you. of course he would, someone so soft, gentle, and shy. he actually found it cute you having those aspects. even though not a lot of people would enjoy such an introverted person at times.

❀ being shy would fit well together with his own personality generally. like being stoic and quiet himself. at some points he genuinely thought you and him were perfect. just two puzzle pieces that could fit together.

❀ he doesn’t know when he had a crush on you till Tendou or someone would bring it up. cause he always somehow had his eyes on you in the halls, classes, etc.

❀ adding on to his personality, he is very blunt and straightforward with his words. and when you heard those three words from the intimidating captain. made your heart skip a beat, muscles tense, and mind race.

❀ “..y-you.. like me??” the softened tone in your voice echoed within the empty afterschool halls.

❀ “Yes. I just stated that.”

❀ “..I heard you.. you dummy..” you muttered the last words softly. fiddling with your fingers nervously, he always found you fidgeting with something whenever you were nervous or put on the spot. your gaze kept low.

❀ the silence only just settled. making Ushijima await another word from your smaller figure.

❀ but he didn’t expect those words to slip out of your mouth. he never did.

❀ “Why.. Why would you want to be with me.. instead.” your voice still kept your softened tone, but it had a faint hint of sadness. the slight wavering of your voice gave way.

❀ “..isn’t it better to be.. with a girl instead? t-they’re better options. pretty. talented. i-i don’t.. have any of those.”

❀ Ushijima just stared, unsure on what to do. no one told him this would be a scenario or a possibility. thought it was simply just a yes or no to a confession, something quick.

❀ “You also won’t l-look.. weird.. o-odd.. with-” your voice cracked, tears gathered in your eyes. quickly wiping them away with a sniff.

❀ “F-fuck I’m sorry.. for c-crying..” softly cursing as you nervously laughed.

❀ “y/n,” Ushijima lifted your head gently with his hand making sure your eyes looked up at him, “..I don’t care, if people will look at us weirdly. I don’t care if they all knew or not.”

❀ he wiped the tears dripping from your eyes as you stared at him with disbelief.

❀ “I like you. No- I love you. That’s that. I love y/n, and nothing will stop that.”

❀ shortly, tears poured from your eyes from his words. softly murmuring apologizes for crying over this accompanied w/ a smile on your face. Ushijima just wiping your tears away for you, seeing how your face just melts in his hand in comfort. regaining composure after a couple of reassurances from him.

❀ “I-I.. I love you.. t-too.. Wakatoshi..”

𝙳𝚊𝚒𝚌𝚑𝚒:

❀ mans had a big crush on you ever since you both had multiple shared classes. especially same homeroom.

❀ Daichi and you had an decent relationship, it wasn’t as close like he has with Sugawara or Asahi. having the same homeroom, he always found you alone and minding your own business a desk or two behind him in the back.

❀ sometimes exchanging the simple hellos and small talk whenever Suga and/or Asahi dared him to. knowing how his eyes occasionally drifts towards your direction of the room.

❀ for someone so quiet.. he didn’t know it could be a cute feature. an adorable one if he would say so himself. just seems too s o f t .

❀ your gentle voice always made his heart skip a beat, it was so calming. a remedy to his ears. after a few small talks and interactions, you both managed to hang out a little more often. being invited on study dates sessions since you were also pretty smart in the academics (brownie points!)

❀ as of right now, his eyes were simply glued on you. just watching you talk about whatever subject. he really wasn’t paying attention... or at all. admiring your features from across the small table on the floor that was littered with notebooks, textbooks, papers and pens.

❀ he knew you were shy so he often kept things low and safe for you whenever you both hung out once in awhile. sometimes exchanging little sticky notes with each other to limit talking.

❀ once he confessed to you, through the last sticky note of his. not a manly way to really confess but he couldn’t figure anything else out for you. didnt want to scare you away.

❀ you stared up at the captain in slight doubt, going back to the note to reread the words written. ‘would you like to go out with me?’ tiny hearts here and there on the note.

❀ looking back up at him, you noticed the slight blush across his face. you realized he was serious.

❀ “..why would you want to go out with me?” your grip on the note slightly tightened, as thoughts began to flood your mind. “wouldn’t it be better- be better with a girl?? a-and.. not me.” you began to slip on your words, gaze slipping down to avoid his eyes as you noticed him looking up at you now.

❀ “..with.. a girl?” Daichi mustered out.

❀ “or.. anyone but... me. I’m not.. popular. I’m not.. p-pretty, c-cute.. handsome.. s-smart either...” you began to ramble, negative thoughts after another.

❀ “H-hey y/n. y/n..!” Daichi was closer to you now, his hands on your shoulders hoping to get you out of your negative trance.

❀ it successfully worked, making you stop but your gaze still remain low. hearing a sigh from Daichi made you tensed, you liked him too. you loved him. but you don’t know if it was best for him to date you. or be in a relationship in that matter.

❀ Daichi wrapped his arms around you, “Don’t be so harsh to yourself. I denied most of the confessions... j-just.. to ask you out one day you know. I’m confident I want you more than any girl.” he muttered.

❀ noticing you relaxing in his arms made him slightly smile, feeling you hug back. your hands grasping the back of his gakuran, mustering the urge to cry you hid your face on his shoulders. eventually muffling out your soft sobs and various ‘i love you too’

𝙺𝚞𝚛𝚘𝚘:

𝚊/𝚗: 𝚐𝚘𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚐𝚒𝚏 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚖𝚎 𝚚𝚞𝚊𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐.

❀ it was obvious Kuroo was crushing on someone. and that someone was you. being one of the assistances, or at this point the team would’ve eventually called you their manager. often there to aid and help whenever needed so you stumbled by the gym many times to either drop something off for one of the members or coaches.

❀ always teasing and flirting with you, which wasn’t such an out-of-character of him. knowing him to be the master of provocation. but often when you weren’t there, he would start talking about you. unconsciously sometimes.

❀ which gave a big sign of his feelings, especially through Kenma. it wasn’t so hard to see, but you were dense and oblivious over it.

❀ he knew you liked him back eventually, seeing how you haven’t turned him down with any of his teases accompanied with the slight blush on your face each time. you were just too shy to say anything about it.

❀ he was aware that you were very shy and introverted. always seeing you staying back or infront of crowds in the hallway and avoided them at all costs. being observant he took note of it.

❀ always managing to catch you away from people or just a little people in the area, he used that time to talk to you more privately.

❀ you both began to get to know each other pretty well each time.

❀ exchanging interests and moments you’ve had in your life. often making you giggle at his silly retorts and remarks, funny moments of his teams and others. he was genuinely seeing a new side of you.

❀ never really seeing you smile brightly and laugh without holding back. it felt surreal and a literal dream.

❀ “Hey, y/n, have you dated anyone yet?” Kuroo looked over at you, eyes staring in curiosity with his common sly smirk.

❀ “I-.. uhh.. n-not yet?” you nervously laughed, messing with the sleeve of your nekoma track jacket.

❀ “Well then.. do you have a crush?” he continued on.

❀ “O-oh.. Ye-yeah! He probably won’t like me b-back though..” you murmured.

❀ “Wait- He!?”

❀ “H-hey,, Kuroo! Keep y-your voice down please..!!” you playfully punched his shoulder in return he faked an ‘ow’ “..b-but.. yes.. i like a guy.. h-he’s popular so i doubt he would like me b-back.” you looked up at him with a weak smile, hoping to not seemed phased by it.

❀ “Ahhh.. why’s that then.” his curious tone turned stern, tilting his head into his palm so it rested comfortably. “hmmm~?”

❀ “Oh.. w-well.. he’s popular with the girls.. a lot of them a-actually. I bet he l-likes them more than me.. girls are b-better for him anyways...”

❀ “What if they weren’t? He could be gay.. or bisexual... or pan and all that jazz y’know y/n?”

❀ “Thats true.. what about you kuroo-san?” you took a sip of water from your bottle aside of your thigh.

❀ “I have a crush too of course. And its actually you.”

❀ you choked on the water, coughing out a reply, “w-wait you.. you like me.. me- back?!” you only looked at him with disbelief, coughing slightly still.

❀ Kuroo only laughed at your off-guard reaction, “K-kuroo!! I-it’s not funnyyy..!” you whined, covering your face with your jacket. “hhhh.. g-god damnit..”

❀ after a few moments it went silently, peeking your eyes out from your hidden position Kuroo pecked your forehead. Suddenly aside of you, entwining his hand with yours.

❀ “Of course I like you back~ I want you to be my boyfriend you softie.”

#at-dusk;- 🌆#folder 📁;- 𝙷𝚊𝚒𝚔𝚢𝚞𝚞 #haikyuu x male reader #haikyuu x reader #x reader #kuroo tetsuro x male reader #daichi sawamura x male reader #ushijima wakatoshi x male reader #kuroo tetsuro x reader #daichi sawamura x reader #ushijima wakatoshi x reader #Ushijima Wakatoshi #Daichi Sawamura #Kuroo Tetsurou

440 notes · View notes

clair-void-ance · 3 years

Text

Richard Hayden Fluff Alphabet

Pairing: Richard Hayden x Reader

Word Count: Roughly 3,180 words

Author’s note: Hey! This is definitely something I didn’t expect to write lmao. I haven’t been in a writing mood lately, but after getting into David Spade again I knew I had to throw something together. Good news though! That means that I’m finally motivated to work on my other WIP’s! So expect those requests to be finished soon :)) Your girl threw this together pretty fast ngl, so hopefully it doesn’t suck lmaoo

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

If there is anything that Richard loves to do, it’s activities that leans more on the physical side. As much as he loves academic pursuits, he can get tired of trying to maintain the persona of ‘the bookworm/nerd.’ When it comes to activities he enjoys doing with you, it really just depends on what type of person you are. If it’s physical, his go to activities include fixing up vintage cars, dancing, cycling, painting, and whatever else you enjoy doing. If it’s more mental, then he enjoys laying back, reading, doing crafts, or learning something new with you.

B eauty - What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

If their is one thing that Richard admires about you physically, it’s your hair and eyes. Being a person interested in astrology, Richard knows that the eyes and hair can tell a lot about a person’s personality and self. And your’s show a person with a breathtaking personality.

And something that he really loves about you is your ability to be accepting, creative, passionate, and unabashedly yourself. You never failed to accept all parts of him, whether they were good or bad. And when you figured out the situation with this hair, you never once faltered on your love and acceptance for him. Which he appreciates more than you know.

C omfort - How would they help their s/o when they feel down/have a panic attack etc.?

Richard has definitely been at some low points in his life. Whether it be with his career, personality, or looks, he's been through it all. So if there's something be knows well, it's definitely a person in dire need of love and support.

When you're feeling down Richard focuses on the main thing you need at the moment. As much as he wants to listen and be supportive, he first has to deal with your body's needs. Having an anxiety attack? Do some breathing exercises, ground yourself, and take a bite of a lemon. Chest pain and irritable stomach from holding in all your negative emotions? Take a second to dance, cry, and release the negative thoughts. Then, when all that is said and done, he'll sit down with you and figure out the best way to solve your problems.

D reams - How do they picture their future with their s/o?

Being a small town, settle down type, Richard has always seen you two having a small wedding with all your loved ones followed by having a few children. Although he never really planned to find 'the one,' you turned his life around and showed him that he is good and secure enough to finally start living the life he always wanted. And now that he knows you'll love him forever (hair or no hair), he's confident in the quiet life you'll soon live.

E qual - Are they the dominant one in the relationship, or are they rather passive?

As much as he wants to be dominant and feel in control in the relationship, we all know his scrawny ass could never 😔. And we all know he would love to have someone dominate him. That being said, he loves the challenge that comes with both of you fighting for dominance. But he’s more than willing to calm down and allow you to take control more often than not.

F ight - Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How is their fighting?

Being the prick he is, especially with his mars in aries, it will definitely take Richard a while to calm down and discuss arguments with your. While fighting, he is vicious and acts like a wounded animal. None of it is really intentional, he just gets too heated too fast and gets caught up in his emotions. That, added to an inability to express his emotions properly at the moment he feels them, makes him a bit difficult in fights.

That being said, once he calms down and feels the guilt of his actions he immediately comes back to you and spews out an apology. If your fight was especially bad, he’ll end up setting up a nice dinner for both of you and let out a heartfelt apology. He loves you with everything he has in him, but he’s still dealing with processing and expressing a variety of feelings (plus he’s a man lmao).

G ratitude - How grateful are they they in general? Are they aware of what there s/o is doing for them?

With his string of luck and life choices, Richard is very grateful for all of the good things he has in his life; especially you. He understands first hand how fast life can turn sour, so he doesn’t take a second of his life for granted once he meets you.

He knows how much effort you’ve put into y’alls relationship and is aware of how much of impact you’ve had on his life and personality. And for everything that you do, he is deeply appreciative. And he tries to return that energy back to you 100% every day you two are together.

H onesty - Do they have secrets they hide from their s/o? Or do they share everything?

After you figured out his secret about his hair, he knew that he could trust you with everything else. The only thing that he keeps to himself really are secrets that deal with surprises for you. Besides that, he shares relatively everything that concerns him.

I nspiration - Did their s/o change them somehow, or the other way around? Like trying out new things or helped them overcome personal problems?

In a way, you both change different aspects of each other; while Richard makes you more sarcastic and ambitious, you make Richard more laid back and wholesome. But when you mix, there seems to be a harmonious balance of the perfect personality.

Furthermore, you help each other work through personal trauma and make sure that the other isn’t falling into a bought of negative emotions. That strengthens your relationship while also making you both better versions of yourself.

J ealousy - Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

Being the sarcastic prick and insecure person he is, Richard is definitely someone who gets jealous easily. To him, you could have anyone you wanted; someone with hair, a better build, and definitely with a better personality. And when he sees you with a man that possess all of those things, he tends to get pretty jealous.

But he never takes that out on you. He knows that you would never cheat on him or avoid communicating your intentions. When a situation like this comes up, he usually takes a moment to contemplate his insecurities, stews in it for while, then brings it up to you. When that’s all said and done though, you both usually curl up and remind each other how much you both love and appreciate each other.

K iss - Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like? +

L ove Confession - How would they confess to their s/o?

Overall, Richard is actually a pretty decent kisser. He moves in just the right ways and knows how to avoid being excessive. Additionally, with the love that he puts behind every kiss, he makes you feel loved and appreciated with every languid motion.

The first kiss you two shared was after a company party when you took him home to watch a movie. You both got bored of waiting around and doing nothing at the party, so you left to do something more fun together. After sitting on the opposite ends of your couch, you both started to slowly inch closer and closer to each other. By the time you both started cuddling together, he felt as though the time was perfect to lean in and risk it all.

And when he gripped your chin, pulled you in, and placed a slow kiss to your lips, you both knew that you wanted to turn this official.

That being said, he still wanted your consent on if things would truly turn official or not. After letting out a whispered confession of love to you, you both thought it wise to discuss your newly developed relationship.

M arriage - Do they want to get married? How do they propose?

Getting married is a definite for Richard. He doesn’t care what kind of wedding it is or when it happens, he just wants everybody to know that you’re his and that he’s yours.

Not one to be overly dramatic or public about an important moment, Richard proposes to you while you two are on a camping trip together in the mountains. You had both just woken up and began drinking your coffee on a log by one of the lookouts. With the rising sun hitting your eyes an hair in all the right points, he knew that he had to propose; it was the perfect moment. Not even his nerves could prevent him from doing it.

N icknames - What do they call their s/o?

With this man’s wit and sarcasm, he never fails to have new and creative nicknames for you. Usually though, your nicknames depend on the type of mood he’s feelilng.

Sarcastic? My sweet turtle dove. Affectionate? Sweetheart. Playful? Sugar/Angel Face.

It just depends :)

O n Cloud Nine - What are they like when they are in love? Is it obvious for others? How do they express their feelings?

When in love, Richard can act like a wistful and love-struck romantic. From afar, Richard can be seen sending you longing and affectionate looks. Furthermore, when you two are near each other, people pick up the way he always drifts really close to you and continuously reaches towards your hand.

While he has a tendency to act aloof and uncaring, Richard does make it a priority to tell you how much he loves you (as well as how radiant you look to him) at least twice a day. He never wants you to feel as though he doesn’t think you are anything less than deserving of all the love you can handle. Even if you two fight, he always puts aside his pride and remembers to tell you that he loves you.

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

When it comes to PDA at the beginning of you two’s relationship, Richard wasn’t too much of a fan. He was still stuck in the mindset that he had a reputation to uphold; he couldn’t be seen being soft and mushy, he had to be suave and respectable. But as you guys’ relationship progresses he begins to appreciate showing you love no matter the situation.

If you were to ask one of his coworkers on how he’s changed since being with you, they would definitely point out the fact that he has softened up considerably. He doesn’t care too much about his ‘reputation’ as much since he only focuses on showing you affection during the moments where it fits. By the time you two create a well-rounded relationship, he begins to casually brag about you and how you are the most fantastic significant other anyone could meet. It gets a little annoying, but people find it endearing do a certain extent. (it’s still Richard we’re talking about here lmao)

Q uirk - Some random ability they have that's beneficial in a relationship

He understands astrology and a few other personalty based aspects of people, so he acknowledges all of your quirks down to a ‘T.’ He knows your communication style, love language, argument method, preferences, etc. just by a birth date and a few other factors.

That being said, he also knows what things are particularly difficult to you, which helps when you aren’t able to communicate how you’re feeling on most occasions. (He has yet to learn how to solve his own problems with this quirk though)

R omance - How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?

Once Richard knows that you love and support him unconditionally, he becomes the sappiest, most romantic person you’ve ever met. Although he has his cliché moments, Richard is usually creative with his methods on making you happy or keeping your relationship interesting. Most of which have to do with the office where you two work *wink* *wink*

S upport - Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?

Being a man of high ambition and deep respect, Richard would love to help you reach your goals; no matter how big they seem. Especially if you are the same way with him.

He knows how much success and respect can mean to a person, so he will do anything to help you achieve the things you want. One aspect that he likes most about you guys’ relationship, is that you both constantly work towards bettering each other. He believes that you were both meant for great things. And if you associate great things with living off-grid and become self-sustainable, then he’ll help you achieve that.

T hrill - Do they need to try out new things to spice up your relationship? Or do they prefer a certain routine?

Richard appreciates a sense of routine in his life and relationship- especially when it comes to his well-being. But this is mainly linked to his underlying trauma from childhood and career. Not that he’ll ever admit this though, he’s got a reputation to maintain.

He’s never really been given the opportunity to feel free enough to be himself and act childish. It was always, ‘act too mature and professional’ or ‘be cold, distant, and ambitious.’ When you came along though, he finally felt secure enough to open up and be himself. Which, of course, led to trying new things in your relationship. He’s down to try anything if it makes you happy; cause when you’re happy, he’s happy.

U nderstanding - How good do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?

Deep down, Richard is not the most empathetic person. He’s had to rely on himself for almost his entire life, so being able to read and cater to another person isn’t the easiest for him. Reading social cues on the other hand, is. That being said, his love for you runs deep and he’s willing to just about anything to make you happy. He’ll take notice of the little things you like and the gestures you’ve come to appreciate, and repeats those.

Additionally, he understands that you aren’t responsible for his healing. He knows that he is responsible for a huge majority of it, so he takes note of your empathetic nature and uses it to heal not only himself, but you as well.

When that’s all said and done, Richard comes to learn a lot about both of you and shocks all of his associates with how close you two have become over the years.

V alue - How important is the relationship to them? What is it’s worth in comparison to other things in their life?

Richard values your relationship as much as he values air. Which definitely says something. The man doesn’t care that much about anything when it comes down to it (publicly that is), but he does care for you. And his is willing to quit his job, move across the globe, or do anything you wish just so that he can make you happy for even a second.

After he met you, nothing really mattered as much as you guys’ relationship. To him, those things were put on the back burner and wait. As Charles Aznavour sang, “Me, I'll take her laughter and her tears; And make them all my souvenirs; For where she goes I've got to be. The meaning of my life is she.”

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon

Richard has actually always wanted to have a child. Since he never had a father present in his life and repressed his inner child, he has always wanted to prove that he was better than his parents. That being said, he’d love to have a little girl over a son. Mainly because he knows she will bring out the softer side in him.

All in all, he just wants to nurture and care for a child that he knows will grow up to have a stunning personality and life.

X OXO - Are they very affectionate? Do they love to kiss and cuddle?

At heart, Richard is a man with a deep, passionate, and affectionate nature. He loves being close to you and enjoys laying back and spending some personal time together. He loves all sorts of kisses he receives from you. Whether they be short and sweet or long and languid, he loves them all.

When it comes to the long and languid ones though, he loves to do them while you’re cuddling together.

Is it because he knows it’ll lead to something more? Maybe....but he’ll never admit that.

Plus, sometimes he just like being held so he knows he’s cared for.

Y earning - How do they cope when they're missing their partner?

Let's be honest, Richard can become a bit of a prick when you're not around. Since you both work together, everyone notices the day's where you’re absent; cause his toxic energy goes through the roof. Although he isn't insufferable, he definitely reverts back to his sarcastic and aggressive method of communicating and acting. But he can't really help it; (his mars is in scorpio 🙄 jk jk lmao) he doesn't have someone around to treat him right y'know? When he's alone though, he tends to get a bit melancholic and revert to sitting around and waiting for you. It isn't his proudest moment in life, but he’s trying to get used to the fact that you might not always be there. With that in mind, he copes the best way he knows how: by occupying his mind. Which is usually by working on his cars or cycling.

Z eal - Are they willing to go to great lengths for the relationship? If so, what kind?

Similar to his career and the things he aspires to do in life, you are something that Richard will go great lengths for. Although Richard knows when to quit, committing to a task is something that isn’t unfamiliar to him. He will work night and day to please you and keep you happy.

Need him to take the day off to help you with a task or take care of you? Done with no hesitation. Need more emotional support because of recent events? He’ll drop everything in seconds. To him, nothing is worth ruining the relationship you two have worked so hard for.

#x reader #tommy boy #richard hayden x reader #david spade #david spade x reader #richard hayden #richard tommy boy #richard hayden imagine #tommy boy x reader #tommy boy 1995 #tommy boy imagine #fanfic

69 notes · View notes

asheelnair · 3 years

Text

PERSONAL BLOG :-)

Asheel Nair (Me18b101)

Course - MS4100 ( Soft skills)

First of all thanks Viji Ma'am to teach this wonderful course and making me understand and help me to grow and realize my skills that will help me personally as well as in professional growth.

1) Meaning and Purpose

It was a very great session to attend as it gave a lot of insights about life and insisted us to find our true worth and value of life in this world.

There is a statement which touched me very much- “Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.”

We are all hungry for meaning, for purpose, for the feeling that our life is worth more than the sum of its parts. We can find meaning in the sublime, in the absurd, in the dull and dreary, and in the perfectly wretched in life. That's when Viji came up with the word 'ikigai'- Combining the Japanese words iki, meaning life and gai, meaning value or worth, ikigai is essentially about finding your purpose in life. for exampe- Ikigai means “the reason you wake up for in the morning”

Then Viji told us to write our purpose of life in our book :-

What i love most- Video Games, family, friends, dogs

What i am good at - Maintaining relations, consulting

What can i get paid for - Consulting job or maybe some unexplored fields(who knows xD)

what the world needs- world is selfish and everyone wants profit in each and everything they do, the current world needs humanity and needs to develop a sense of empathy and helping nature.

Always know your true worth and realize it because it is only you know your true worth and value and always be grateful for who you are.

2) The '5S' principle

:- It was the first time i came across this principle and trust me it was worth it :)

What are the 5 principles of 5S?

5S stands for the 5 steps of this methodology: Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize, Sustain.

5S is designed to decrease waste while optimizing productivity through maintaining an orderly workplace which will help you bring positive thinking and productive solution.

Application - I applied this principle in my room which was dirty and messes up. I cleaned everything and kept everything in a proper way. After implying this principle it felt very comforting and nice.

3) Time-Management

It is one of the crucial factors to live a peaceful life without any tension and stress. The person who has time management skills are very calm and comforting and always live a peaceful life. Everyone has the same 24 hours, however, some make better use of their time than others. This is one of the reasons why we have people who excel at the things they do. In other words, people may become busy; but that necessarily does not mean they are effective at their task. Hence, time management plays a crucial role in personal and professional life.

Time management may be a conscious effort to spend a selected amount of your time to perform a task efficiently . Furthermore, productivity is the key focus here. The more productive the work, the higher are the results. Moreover, time management requires a careful balancing between business life , social life, the other hobbies or activities. From an academic perspective, time management is a necessity. Students have many subjects to hide , therefore, efficiently managing time is a crucial skill.

The main problem we all face is the lack of time. Having so many things to do and yet not enough time to do them all. Through my conversations with many, I realized that I was not the only one facing this issue. This was when I realized sharpening my activity management skills becomes important. Though many people may call it ‘time management, I believe activity management is a better term because we can’t manage time but we can manage our activities each day. The reality is many people drift through life and allow themselves to be carried by the waves. We all have a choice to take control of our activities and reach our fullest potential.

so use your time wisely by sorting important things first by realizing the importance of time in your life and seeing the benefits of time management.

As it is said " Time and Tide wait for none" , make sure you make each and every second count and create a change for a greater tomorrow.

I even talked with few people who I believe is very efficient in time management and asked them their secret mantra :P , example - My friend :-

– All good things take time and so does your goal, some achieve goals faster while some take their time. You need to be vocal and loud about your goal, aim and thoughts. Always have a positive mindset and be ready to face any challenges thrown at your goals. You should always be open minded and appreciate every small thing that makes you reach your goal. She thinks that the importance of setting goals comes with maturity and responsibility and you need to figure out what things comes first in your life.

4) Strength based Learning - All the above factors can be included while finding about our personal strength based learning. sit down for few minutes and think about your strengths and weaknesses. For me-Strengths-based learning involves a process of assessing which helps us to identify our greatest talents, and to then develop and apply strengths based on those talents in the process of learning, intellectual development, and academic achievement to levels of personal and professional excellence.

As it is said " champions are not born they are trained and nourished with care to become a champion", Skills do not naturally exist within us; they must be acquired through training and practice. The concept of strengths is based in each individual’s unique nature and building upon what he or she naturally does best. Takeaway-After this session I realized I have strengths with which I can create a change for better tomorrow and life is too long to explore, learn and develop. I would always like to explore my strengths and work on it and inspire others to play on their strengths. Thanks Viji for this wonderful session :)

5) Communication

It is something because of which I faced conflicts in past, For me -signaling benevolence in communication seems vital than harsh-naked truth as it can sometimes product in fright, strain or spite in developing long-lasting relationships with family or at workplace. Blunt honesty can sometimes be rebellious whereas benevolence aids in handling difficult situations ethically by breeding trust and in boosting one’s morale. It enables one to be mindful of consequences and frame things in a way that is different from complete unvarnished truth- which in turn fosters relationships and other developments.

Thanks to Abha ma'am and Viji ma'am to take up this session and making it a wonderful experience. Salute to both of you for your professionalism and are dedicated to your work, was truly amazed to see this.

Presentation- The three 's' -structure, style and substance were covered in this. There were many other factors that were taught which helped me to learn, incorporate those and make my skills even stronger. Learned a lot on how to communicate, make a presentation and how to present yourself in front of people, all thanks to Abha ma'am.

Assertive Communication - Assertiveness means expressing your point of view in a way that is clear and direct, while still respecting others. Communicating in an assertive manner can help you to: minimize conflict. The 3 C's Of Assertive Communication are Confidence – you believe in your ability to handle a situation. Clear – the message you have is clear and easy to understand. Controlled – you deliver information in a calm and controlled manner. Passive communication and behavior involves allowing your own rights to be violated by failing to express honest feelings, thoughts, and beliefs, or by expressing your thoughts and feelings in an apologetic manner that others can easily disregard.

Few steps for assertive communication :

1.Tell the person what you think about their behavior without accusing them.

2. Tell them how you feel when they behave a certain way.

3. Tell them how their behavior affects you and your relationship with them.

4. Tell them what you would prefer them to do instead.

6) Self Realization

This was a very good session and topic. During the first 5 min we were told to take out a mirror or front camera and look yourself in it for few minutes and write down whatever comes into your mind. when i saw myself i could see that there is a fire burning within myself that want's to achieve each and every goal, I realized i will soon conquer each and every challenges in my way and make my parents and myself proud.

Then we came on the topic of

Body shaming :

It is something that i feel is cheap and very immature. Without knowing what the other person is going through people criticize them and laugh at them. Individuals with a history of trauma, depression, self-harm, low self-esteem, or borderline personality disorder are more likely to be affected by body shaming and potentially develop an eating disorder or engage in self-harm behavior.

Empowerment doesn’t just refer to professional success and financial stability but also the overall personality development of an individual. Empowering yourself requires you to confront your problems but not bow down to them. It involves you being open to changing your views based on your own personal experience. Hence, if you’re not changing and sticking to what you’ve been told by society, you’re keeping yourself away from empowerment.

When it comes to our views, we have plenty of them pertaining to our own selves. A majority of them are concerned with how we look. From television to magazine, most women have grown up being told that the perfect girl is slim, fair, humble, docile and quiet.

But, what about those women who are plus-sized, have a deformity, have too many tattoos or are too outspoken? The society might not find them palatable enough to call them perfect but who gave society that right, anyway? The only person who gets to decide is you. You need to shed societal expectations and accept every bit of yourself.

Takeaway - Don't live by fearing of someone's judgement, Everyone has a beautiful body on this planet, all are different that is the beauty of this world. "Embrace it don't hide it"

Snake and Ladder in our life :-

Ladder here refers to all the supports in your life who encourage you to achieve something great in your life while snake refers to all the challenges that is stopping you to achieve your goals.

Ladder and goals -

Family, friends and dear ones

Get into a dream company that recognizes my talent and reach a good position where one day i can become a leader

Want to buy a luxurious home to my parents and want to give them everything whatever they ask for

Buy a dream car

Building shelter homes for animals

Do something for orphans and rural people

Reach at a height where i become a role model for few

Build a dream PC gaming set-up, xD

Want to travel the world (each and every corner)

Want to learn calisthenics

And many more............. :P

Snakes -

Negative people

Procrastination. “I will do it later” is often equivalent to “I will never do it,” though that is never the real intention behind procrastinating something

Fear of Failure

Ignorance

Lack of Purpose

Lack of Courage

Fault Finding

Lack of Self-belief Takeaway -

1 note · View note

ivy-stjames · 4 years

Text

{ODEYA RUSH, CISFEMALE, SHE/HER} - {hey look it’s IVY ST.JAMES!!} i heard they are {SEVENTEEN} and in {JUNIOR YEAR} at { MCKINLEY HIGH }!! someone also told me that they are {+CHARISMATIC, +FUNLOVING} and { -ARROGANT, -COMPETITIVE } but it could be just a rumor! { syd, 19, she/her, mst/gmt-6 }

BASICS

Full Name: Ivy Marilyn St.James

Birthday: July 30th

Age: 17

Place of Birth: New York, New York

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Education: High School Junior

Voice Claim: Laura Osnes

ASTROLOGY

Sun: Leo

Moon: Cancer

Rising: Aries

LIKES/DISLIKES

Likes: flirting, praise, saved by the bell reruns, cats, attention, performing.

Dislikes: school, coffee that isn’t loaded with sugar, responsibility, rory slade.

BIO

IT WAS ONLY NATURAL THAT IVY ST.JAMES WOULD GROW TO HAVE A PENCHANT FOR PERFORMING despite being only seven when her parents packed up her and her sister and left new york forever to settle down in, lima the big apple left quite an impression on the little girl. that being said, she’s clueless where her athletic streak came from. she grew up attending performing arts camps and apart of a gymnastics team, seeing as her parents saw it to be similar enough to dance.

ivy has a deep love and appreciation for her sister and parents alike, but at times she can’t help but rebel at times. though at heart, she is secretly the biggest people pleaser. the unintentional but undeniable pressure put on each of the st.james children is enough reason for ivy to act out mostly harmlessly sometimes.

ivy tries to consider herself as a ‘ cool kid ‘ or a ‘ popular kid ‘. upon hearing all the horror stories her mother had about losing friendships or being generally disliked and lonely, ivy took them to heart. from a young age, she saw a lot of her mother in herself and vowed that she would never feel that hatred from other people nor the loneliness that accompanied ambition. other than being athletic, that was her sole motivation in joining cheerios. when she put that uniform on freshman year, people seemed to like her. and ivy likes people! she likes partying with them, flirting with them, being around them, but she doesn’t like taking responsibility for herself or others for that matter.

the youngest st.james might have a tendency to not try her hardest academically, but her confidence arrogance is to blame. it’s also to blame for her bit of an over-achieving streak, as a member of new directions, cheerios, drama club, and most theatrical productions, she has a lot on her plate. ivy doesn’t really see it that way, to her, she’s capable enough to handle it all without batting an eyelash. ( which is why she tends to fall short on her responsibilities, in her mind, most of the time she’s already going above and beyond. )

it may have to do with the fact that her athleticism and prowess for performance always came easily to her, or that her family never really struggled with money, or that being the younger sister of the family disappointment allows her to get away with a little more, but still her parents always go a little harder than necessary when it comes to primping and preening her as the family performer ( hence the dancing and vocal lessons and acting camp in addition to the gymnastics she talked them into letting her do up until middle school. ) , but ivy sticks to what she knows and what she’s good at. as she calls them, her four p’s are things that she’s good at doing “people, partying, pompoms, and performing.”

all of these things combined have garnered her quite the reputation, well that and semi-famous parents. some of the rumors and impressions outsiders are equally good and bad. yes, she can be a mean girl, but only when she feels threatened (which is way more often than one might think for such a confident girl) deep down, ivy really is a sensitive soul who constantly over compensates. no, she doesn’t always sleep around (only sometimes), and does she really own thirty-two pairs of earrings? well, she’ll never tell.

THINGS TO NOTE * TWs: CHEATING, ABORTION, TEEN PREGNANCY*

ivy was “the other woman” in julien schuester and emory puckerman’s relationship the second half of her freshman year.

ivy made both new directions and cheerios her freshman year, often also scoring leads in the musicals.

though she hasn’t fully realized it yet, ivy only really likes performing because she’s good at it and gets praise. her real passion and talent remain with writing, which she keeps close to her heart.

she grew up spending holidays with the schuesters and hummel-andersons, making those children a large part of her childhood.

ivy didn’t audition for RENT to get back at her parents for grounding her, she ended up having to participate which is where she met her first official boyfriend, leo mccarthy.

they dated through the end of his senior year and ultimately broke up because she got pregnant and he pushed her in the direction of getting an abortion.

#lima:intro

5 notes · View notes

unspokenfaith · 5 years

Text

A Not So Surprising Romantic Gesture

Pairings: Peter Parker/Michelle Jones Rating: T Word Count: 2943 Genre: Fluff/Humor Summary: 5 times Peter tries to ask MJ to prom and 1 time he doesn’t have to.

So I originally had this planned for Spideychelle Month, but only recently had the inspiration to finish writing it. I just love the thought of Peter and MJ still being awkward idiots even after dating for a while :’) Also really enjoyed writing all the side characters in; it definitely added to all the fun.

AO3

Asking your long-term girlfriend to senior prom seemed like the logical thing to do. But then again, so did skipping over all the hassle and taking her anyway, because why wouldn’t they go together?

Peter knew how much MJ resented traditions, particularly gendered ones, but he also knew the smile on her face and the gleam in her eyes whenever he surprised her with a romantic gesture, and it was safe to say that alone outweighed anything else.

Under any other circumstances, he would’ve asked her opinion on the matter—some things he just couldn’t get a read on—but Peter wanted this to be a surprising romantic gesture. The surprising romantic gesture. MJ more than deserved that.

And perhaps there was a tiny, selfish part of him that always hoped he could ask the girl of his dreams to prom, even if he couldn’t dance to save his life.

Peter felt confident one sunny, April morning when he stepped off the bus, bouquet of flowers in hand. Black dahlias, of course.

He rehearsed what he was going to say at least thirty times in his head from the moment he woke up, but he couldn’t settle on the right words. What else was he supposed to say besides ‘MJ, will you go to prom with me?’ Even though we’ve been dating for nine months, so it’s not like we would go with anyone else anyway, right? It seemed so easy, yet it also didn’t feel like enough. At least the flowers would add a little something extra.

By the entrance, Peter spotted MJ with her back to him, talking to Ned and Betty. Inexplicably, the four of them made a habit of meeting outside every morning before walking in together. Cheesy and predictable as it was, it always put a smile on Peter’s face no matter how he was feeling that day.

Ned caught his eye, flashing him a smile. Peter shook his head furiously before he could say anything. He didn’t want MJ to see him yet.

“Hey, Penis Parker!”

Peter skidded to a stop, his heart jumping to his throat and the flowers dropping into a puddle. Flash’s shiny new car nearly ran Peter over, but that seemed to be the least of his concerns.

“Watch where you’re going! You could’ve hit my car!” Flash slowed down as he passed him, and his eyes widened at the drenched dahlias. “Aww! Did you get those for me, Parker? That’s so thoughtful, but I’m not interested.”

He couldn’t so much as lift his head and entertain a response before Flash drove away to find a parking spot.

He couldn’t even find himself to appreciate the irony of black dahlias wilting in dirty water. His only consolation was that MJ sure would’ve.

II.

Despite yesterday’s disappointment, Peter quickly contrived a new and hopefully Flash-proof idea. Unfortunately, this one required a lot more patience.

He never realized how little MJ went to her locker until he sped down the hallway and peeked around the corner after every period waiting for her to show up. Then again, she didn’t really have any reason to when she used one notebook for all of her classes—and every line of every page at that. And when she couldn’t fill a page, she would draw random sketches, mostly of Peter’s face in physics.

“What? It’s funny,” she would say. “You’re always so focused.”

And the way she said “funny,” like she really meant “adorable,” never failed to make Peter blush.

“Dude, what are you doing?”

Peter jumped at the sound of Ned’s voice.

“Hey, shh! I’m waiting for MJ,” he said.

Ned blinked. “You know she’s your girlfriend, right? Why are you hiding?”

“Ned, please!” Peter whispered loudly. “It’s a surprise, okay? I don’t want her to see me yet.”

“Oh! This is the prom thing!” he practically screamed.

“Dude, seriously!”

Their back-and-forth picked up a few glances from passing students. Peter laughed nervously before turning back to Ned.

“Try to be quiet about it, okay? Please.”

“Right, right, right,” Ned said. “Sorry. Should I—Hey, there’s MJ and Betty.”

Peter turned around, and sure enough, there was MJ, fiddling with the combination on her locker—Betty rambling behind her.

“Please! Pretty please!” Betty put her hands together, pouting. “You said you would.”

MJ sighed. “I know, but...I can’t this weekend. I’ve got…you know, stuff.”

Betty placed her hands on her hips. “I know you really want to go. You just don’t want to be excited.”

“I do want to. I just...we haven’t really talked about what we’re doing yet.”

Peter felt his stomach twist into a knot once he realized what she was talking about. Was she expecting him to have asked her already? Or was she not expecting him to ask at all? Was she mad they haven’t talked about prom at all?

Was he doing something wrong?

“Peter, she’s opening the locker.” Ned tapped his shoulder to get his attention.

As soon as the door swung open, Betty screamed, causing both Peter and Ned to jump.

“Jesus, Betty, don’t do that!” MJ said.

“Move!” But Betty shifted so she stood in front of MJ, then proceeded to toss everything out of her locker. Used papers and pens flew everywhere. Peter’s heart sank when he saw a particularly important one slide under a neighboring locker.

“Betty, what the—”

Betty stomped her foot, pushing it hard into the floor. “Sorry, there was a spider!”

“Was it really necessary to tear my locker apart?”

Their voices faded as Peter turned away, leaning on the wall and staring at the ceiling.

“Man, I’m sorry, Peter,” Ned said. “You can always try again tomorrow.”

III.

Peter did not try again tomorrow, or the day after, or the day after that.

Four days was ample time for him to recover from another failed prom ask. He didn’t want to waste too much time, especially after overhearing MJ’s conversation with Betty.

Baking was all science. At least that’s what Peter told himself after spilling bags of flour and nearly setting the kitchen on fire. May insisted on stepping in, but he was determined to do this all by himself, even if it took him all night.

He might’ve lost valuable study time, and a lot of sleep, but it was worth it in the end to have five chocolate frosted red velvet cupcakes. While Peter’s original plan was to bake the whole batch, only half were worth saving. Luckily, he only needed four letters and a question mark’s worth.

MJ liked them because, supposedly, “no one else does.” Everyone always goes for the vanilla frosted. How she ever determined that, he had no idea. But the information made itself useful.

Rather than approaching her before school, he thought it best to keep them covered in his locker until the end of the day. Less people around. Less of a chance that everything will go wrong. Hopefully less spiders.

As soon as the final bell rang, Peter sprinted to his locker and carefully removed the tray. MJ was always the first one to arrive to Academic Decathlon, and he would make sure to be there before anyone else.

He checked his watch—2:18. Decathlon practice started at 2:30. Plenty of time.

Peter’s skin prickled as he approached the door of the classroom. He had no reason to be nervous. It’s not as though she would say “no.” But what she said to Betty still lingered in the back of his mind, feeding into his nerves, planting his feet to the floor.

After talking himself in and out of it several times, he took a deep breath and opened the door.

Much to his disappointment, MJ wasn’t in her usual spot at the front of the room. In fact, she wasn’t in the room at all.

Cursing himself for being too early, Peter set the cupcakes down on a desk. He looked from the clock on the wall to his watch, then back to the clock again, as though the little, red second hand would bring MJ here faster.

“Woah, Peter! Did you bring those for the team?”

Peter turned around to find Winston standing in the doorway. Before he had time to react, Winston rushed over to his desk and grabbed a cupcake.

“No, no, no! Wait!”

But Winston was already devouring the chocolate “P.”

“Winston, those were for—”

MJ walked in a few seconds too late. “Hey, dorks. What’s up? You guys are early.” She went to the front of the classroom to set her bag down.

Winston looked from MJ to Peter, eyes widening with the realization of what he just did.

“Peter, I’m so sorry...”

Peter forced a smile. “It’s fine, Winston. They’re all yours.”

There was no sense in asking MJ if she would like to go to “Rom.”

IV.

With everything that happened over the past week, Peter began to see the error of his ways. All of his promposals were private. There was too much risk in privacy. He needed to ask MJ to prom in a way that was unavoidable. Foolproof. But not too public.

Peter stuck with the decathlon room. It was never used until the team met after school. So early one morning, he got his robot spider to unlock the door. He wrote the question bold and large on the whiteboard then slid the chalkboard back to cover it.

Mr. Harrington always used the white board. The sound of the chalk on the board made him sweat. And then he would get so flustered that he’d continue. It wasn’t a good experience for anyone in the room.

Drumming his fingers on the desk, Peter stared at the empty chalkboard. MJ flashed him a confused glance.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Me? Yeah, totally. Just ready to get started.” Peter’s voice was at least two octaves higher than normal, and he knew it. He just hoped MJ didn’t notice.

Mr. Harrington walked up to the board. Peter hadn’t noticed how loud his foot was tapping under the desk until a couple of the team members gave him looks.

“Okay, guys, I want to go over a few of the logistics for the competition,” Mr. Harrington said, reaching for the markers, but paused. “Oh, where did they go?”

“Where did what go, Mr. Harrington?” Peter asked. But then it hit him. He was in such a rush earlier that he never put the markers back. He must’ve shoved them into his locker without thinking.

“My markers,” he said. “I don’t see them anywhere.” Mr. Harrington lowered his glasses slightly, scanning his desk. “Huh, well, I guess we’re using the chalkboard today.”

A chorus of groans sounded throughout the room.

“I know, I know, guys. It sounds like the lonely cries of a single man in his bed at night,” he said, followed by silence. “Well, anyway…”

Peter’s foot started tapping on the floor again. Sure, he could just walk up there and pull the chalkboard aside. But that completely defeated the point. It was supposed to be a surprise. It was supposed to happen naturally.

“Wait! Mr. Harrington, uh...doesn’t anyone have a marker?” Peter asked.

Not a single response. MJ eyed him curiously. By now, she knew something was going on with him.

“That’s very thoughtful of you, Peter, but I think we’re all going to have to suffer together today,” Mr. Harrington said, turning back to the board and hesitantly picking up a piece of chalk.

“Man, he’s not having a good day, is he?” Ned whispered.

Peter knew the feeling.

Standing in the school library, card in hand, Peter was persistent in making this work. After a week of almosts, he was going to make sure that—no matter what—today would be the day. He was going to ask his girlfriend to prom, and no one or nothing was going to stop him.

He spent the previous night putting together a card specifically for MJ. Peter was by no means artistically inclined, so he did it all on the computer—cutting and pasting images of some of her favorite things. On the front of the card, he placed her favorite picture of them. Betty took it at her Christmas party. She had pointed out the mistletoe above their heads. Peter blushed as MJ kissed his cheek. Everyone cheered.

It might’ve been his favorite picture, too.

Peter slid the card into MJ’s favorite poetry book, Milk and Honey. She picked it up as a study break every time the two of them came to the library to do homework. Sometimes he asked her to read the poems aloud just so he could watch the soft, thoughtful expression on her face as she spoke the words.

So he knew when he asked her to meet him here after class, that’s exactly what she would do. Only this time she would have something new to read.

As soon as he heard footsteps, Peter scrambled to sit down and lay his books out. He started writing out random notes as she approached the table.

MJ squeezed his hand as she sat down across from him. “Hi.”

“Hi.” Peter smiled brightly.

“What’s up?” MJ squinted at him.

“What do you mean? Just studying is all,” he laughed.

“No, not right now. I mean in general. You’ve been acting weird all week.”

“N-nothing. Nothing’s up. Just nervous, I guess.”

“For what?”

“Oh, you know…” Peter said. “The test next week.” He wanted to kick himself for saying the first thing that came to his mind.

“Oh, yeah, I guess.”

Through all his prom planning, Peter somehow managed to forget they had a physics test next week. He’d have to worry about that later.

The two were mostly quiet while they studied, Peter too afraid he’d give something away by talking, and MJ too busy actually focusing on the material. He flipped through the pages of the textbook, pretending to read while he occasionally glanced at her. Waiting for her to take a break.

Suddenly, Brad walked into the library, passing by their table on his way to one of the shelves. The poetry section.

Peter fought every urge to start squirming in his seat, which only resulted in him starting to squirming in his seat.

MJ put her book down. “Okay, seriously, Peter, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing! I just…”

She followed his gaze behind her to where Brad was browsing dangerously close to MJ’s book.

“Brad? Is that what’s bothering you?”

Peter shook his head furiously, watching as Brad picked up Milk and Honey, about to open the cover.

He pushed himself up from his chair. “Brad! What are you doing?”

Brad shot him a look of annoyance. “Trying to find a book for my English project. Sorry if that’s a crime, Parker,” he said. “Although you’re one to judge.”

MJ rolled her eyes. “You’re really not going to let that one go, are you? No one believes that Peter’s a prostitute, so drop it already.”

“That’s my book!” Peter exclaimed. “I was just going to rent it out!”

“Wait, what?” MJ said.

Brad flipped through the book, and Peter’s chest tightened. “Don’t see your name on it anywhere. You don’t look in a hurry to take it.”

Without thinking, Peter went over and grabbed the book from Brad’s hand. “I said I’m borrowing it, okay?”

“Okay, chill.” Brad held his arms up in defeat. “It’s just a book.” He shook his head as he wandered over to the next section.

Peter sighed in relief. When he turned around, he found MJ staring at something on the floor next to him.

VI.

“What?” Peter followed her gaze to a small, familiar piece of paper folded on the ground. He scanned the pages of the book, even though he already knew the card was missing.

MJ rose from her seat and bent down to pick it up. Peter was about to stop her before he realized this was what he was waiting for to happen. Even if it wasn’t happening in the way he planned.

“It’s stupid. I’m sorry,” he said, scratching the back of his neck.

She said nothing. Just stared at the front of the card, her lips slowly curving into a smile. Peter remained silent as she opened it, studying every letter, every image. He wasn’t sure if he should be troubled by the fact that she still wasn’t saying anything in response.

MJ refolded the card, placing it on the desk.

“I know what you’re thinking. It’s really cheesy, and we’re already dating, so why am I asking, right?” Peter laughed nervously, unable to meet her eyes.

“Stop talking, loser,” she said.

Peter cleared his throat and nodded.

“You’re right. This is incredibly cheesy.”

His shoulders sank. God, why did you do it, Peter? So stupid.

“But,” MJ continued. “This is easily the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

Peter looked up, beaming. “Really?”

“Really.” She smiled back.

“I’m really sorry I didn’t ask you sooner, or we didn’t talk about it and make plans, or….I’m just really sorry.”

MJ put a finger over his mouth. “My answer is ‘yes,’ okay?”

Peter kissed her right there, in the middle of the school library, catching a few glances and whispers. The librarian didn’t look too thrilled about it, but she buried her nose in a book as though she hadn’t noticed.

MJ gently pushed him away. “You haven’t been worrying about this all week, have you?”

“Of course not,” Peter laughed.

He was the worst liar imaginable, but at least he was taking his girlfriend to prom.

#spideychelle #spideychelle fic #petermj #peter x mj #marvel fic #my writing #mine

58 notes · View notes

archiefm · 4 years

Text

... claws my way up from hell once more and vomits onto the dash.... hello. its nora. i used to write rory bergstrom, but if u were here before that u might remember me as greta or alma putnam or..... som1 else.... an endless carousel of trash children..... this is finn, who i actually wrote for an early version of this rp abt 5yrs back now...... grits teeth..... so forgive me if im rusty i havent written him in a long time but seein honey boy gave me a lotta finn muse n im keen to get Back On The Horse yeehaww...

DYLAN O’BRIEN / CIS-MALE — don’t look now, but is that finn o’callaghan i see? the 25 year old criminology and forensic studies student is in their graduate year of study year and he is a rochester alum. i hear they can be judicious, adroit, morose and cynical, so maybe keep that in mind. i bet he will make a name for themselves living off-campus. ( nora. 24. gmt. she/her )

shakes my tin can a humble pinterest, ma’am....

finn has a bio pasted at the bottom (n written in like.... 2015.... gross) but it’s long so if u don’t wanna read it here’s the sparknotes summary..... anyway this was written years ago n a lot of it seems really cliche and lame now but..... we accept the trash we think we deserve

grumpy, ugly sweater wearing, tech-savvy grandpa

very dry sense of humour and embraces nihilism.

if ron swanson and april ludgate had a baby it would be finn

he was raised in derry, just south of dublin.

from a big family. elder sister called sinead. he also has a younger sister (aoife), a younger brother (colm), and a collie named lassie because his father lovs cliches (finn hates cliches but loves his dog).

his father was a pub landlord and his mother worked at the market sellin fruit n veg when they met but got a job as a medical receptionist when she had kids cos it meant she cld be there with them in the day and work nights.

his parents met when they were p young and fiesty and rushed into marriage cos they were catholic n just wanted to have sex. his family were literally dirt-poor, but they had a lot of love i guess

hmmmmm his relationship w his father wasn’t the best cos i can’t write character who have healthy relationships w their parents throws up a peace sign. yh, had a pretty emotionally distant, alcoholic violent father n so gets a lot of his bad habits i.e. drinking as a coping mechanism and poor anger management from him BUT anyway

as a kid he was never very motivated in class, he always had a nervous itch to be off somewhere doing something else. struggled under government austerity bcso there just wasn’t the resources to support low income families where the kids had learning difficulties n needed support. fuck the tories am i right

his mum suggested he try sports to help w his restless energy but he was never any good at football so he took up boxing and tap dance instead. he took to tap dancing like a fish to fuckin water. as adhd n found this as a really good way to use his excess energy in a creative way

had a few run ins with the police in his early teens for spray painting and graffiti, but he straightened himself out n now actually considering becoming a detective inspector??? cops are pigs.

he had a youtube channel where he posted videos of him tapdancing and breakdancing as a kid, basically would be a tiktok boy nowadays, n had like... a small fanbase in his early teens. attended several open auditions unsuccessfully, until he was finally cast in billy eliot when he was fifteen.

during billy eliot he began dating an italian dancer called nina. they became dance partners soon after and toured across the republic with various different shows (inc riverdance lol the classic irish stereotype). their relationship was p toxic tbh, they were both very hot tempered people and just used to argue and fight all the time.

he went semi-pro at tap dancing, and nina couldn’t stand being second best so she moved back to italy with her family. ignored his texts, phone calls, etc, eventually he was driven to the point where he used his savings to buy a plane ticket, showed up at her house and she was like wtf?? freaked out and filed a restraining order accusing him of stalking.

he was fined for harassment and then returned home to derry, but after the incident with nina he quit dancing for good and finished his leaving cert before heading to university in the US to get as far away from nina and his past life as poss. and basically since he quit dancing to study forensics (death kink. finn cant get enough of that morgue. just walks around sayin beat u) he’s become a massive grump and jsut doesn’t see the good in people any more.

u’ll find finn in an old man bar drinking whiskey bc he is in fact an old man at heart or sat on his roof smoking a joint, drawing wolves and lions and skeletons and shit, playing call of duty or getting blazed or at the corner of the room in a house party ignoring everyone and scrolling through twitter. is a massive e-boy. always up-to-date on memes and internet slang. has reddit as an app on his phone

not very good at communication. rather than solve his issues by talking, he’d prefer to just solve them through fighting or running away from his problems hence why he has come halfway across the world to get away from an issue which probs cld have been solved w a few apology emails.

takes a lot to phase him, but when his beserk button gets pressed he can become a bit pugnacious like an angry lil rottweiler. in his undergrad he was in a few fist fights but doesn’t really do tht any more as he doesn’t condone violence.

in the previous version of this rp he was hospitalised like 5 times. pls, give my son a break. stop tryin to kill him. he literaly got a bottle smashed over his head and bled out all over his favourite angora rug that was the only light of his life

works at the campus coffee shop n always whines about how he’s a slave to capitalism. always smells of coffee

lives off campus with an elderly woman named Marianne, and basically gets reduced rent bcos he makes her dinner / keeps her company. they have a great bond

fan of karl marx. v big on socialism

insomniac with chronic nosebleeds

cynical about everything. too much of a fight club character 4 his own good n has his head up tyler durden’s sphincter

always confused or annoyed

statistics

basic information

full name: finnegan seamus o'callaghan nickname(s): finn age: 25 astrological sign: aries hometown: derry, ireland occupation: phd student / former street entertainer fatal flaw: cynicism positives: self-reliant, street smart, relaxed, intelligent, spontaneous, brave, independent, reliable, trustworthy, loyal. negatives: hostile, impulsive, stubborn, brooding, pugnacious, untrusting, cynical, enigmatic, reserved.

physical

colouring: medium hair colour: dark brown, almost black eye colour: brown height: 5’9” weight: 69kg build: tall, athletic voice: subtle irish accent, low, smooth. dominant hand: left scar(s): one on the left side of his ribs from a knife wound that he doesn’t remember getting cos he was drunk distinguishing marks: freckles, tattoo of a wolf howling at a moon allergies: pollen and the full spectrum of human emotion alcohol tolerance: high drunken behaviour: he becomes friendlier, far more conversational than when sober, flirtier, and generally more self-confident.

psychological

dreams/goals: self-fulfilment, travel the globe, experience life in its most alive and technicoloured version, make documentary films, help the vulnerable in society, grow as a human being.

skills: jack-of-all-trades, very fast runner, good at thieving things, talented tap dancer, good in crisis situations, dab-hand at mechanics, musically-intelligent, can throw a mean right hook and very capable of defending himself, can roll a cigarette, memorises quotes and passages of literature with ease, can light a match with his teeth.

likes: the smell of the earth after rain, poetry, cigarettes, shakespeare, whiskey, tattoos, travelling, ac/dc, deep conversations, leather jackets, open spaces, the smell of petrol, early noughties ‘emo phase’ anthems.

dislikes: the government, parties, rules, donald trump, children, apple products, weddings, people in general, small talk, dependency, loneliness, pop music, public transport, justin timberlake, uncertainty.fears: fear itself, drowning alignment: true neutral mbti: istp – “while their mechanical tendencies can make them appear simple at a glance, istps are actually quite enigmatic. friendly but very private, calm but suddenly spontaneous, extremely curious but unable to stay focused on formal studies, istp personalities can be a challenge to predict, even by their friends and loved ones. istps can seem very loyal and steady for a while, but they tend to build up a store of impulsive energy that explodes without warning, taking their interests in bold new directions.” (via 16personalities.com)

full bio (lame as fuck written years ago..... pleathe...)

tw homophobia

born in quigley’s pub on the backstreets of sunny dublin, young finnegan o'callaghan was thrown kicking and screaming into the rowdy suburbs of irish drinking culture. the son of a landlord and a fishwife, he never had much in the way of earnings, but there was never a dull moment in his lively estate, where asbo’s thrived, but community spirit conquered. at school, finn was pegged as lazy and unmotivated, though truly his dyslexia made it hard for the boy to learn in the same environment of his peers and only made him more closed-off in class. struggling with anger management, finn moved from school to school, unable to fit the cookie-cutter mould that school enforced on him, though whilst academic studies were of little interest to the boy, he soon found his true passions lay in recreational activities. immersed into the joys of sport from as young as four, finn was an ardent munster fan and anticipated nothing more than the day he could finally fit into his brother’s old pair of rugby boots.

his calling finally came unexpectedly, not in the form of rugger, but through dance. to learn to express himself in a non-academic way, he began tap dancing, finding therapy in the beat of his soles against the cracked kitchen tiles (much to his mother’s disgrace). it wasn’t a conscious choice, finn just realised one day that dance was something that made him feel. a king of the streets, finn made his fortune on those cobbled pavements – dancing and drawing to earn his keep. by default, finn became a street artist, each penny he earned from his chalk drawings saved in a jam jar towards buying his first pair of tap shoes. though many of his less-than-amiable neighbours called him a nancy and a gaybo, finn refused to quit at his somewhat ‘unconventional’ hobby, for the young scrapper found energy, life, and released anger through the rhythm of tap. soon he branched out into street dance, hip hop, break dancing, lyrical, his days spent smacking his scuffed feet against the broken patio into the night.

when he was thirteen he took up boxing, and as expected, his newfound ‘macho’ pastime conflicted with his dancing. the boxers called him ‘soft’; the dancers called him ‘inelegant’. he felt like two different people; having to choose between interests was like being handed a knife and asked to which half of himself he wished to cut away. he couldn’t afford professional training in dance, with most schools based in england and limited scholarships available. instead, he made the street his studio, racking up a small fanbase on youtube. when he was fifteen he made his debut in billy eliot at the olympia theatre in dublin. enter nina de souza, talented, beautiful and italian; ballet dancer, operatic singer, genius whiz kid, and spoiled brat. she was selfish, conceited, hell bent on getting her own way, and every director’s nightmare. finn fell for her like a house of cards. he’d always had a soft spot for girls who meant trouble. and so their hellish courtship began.

by the time they were seventeen, the two young swans had danced in every playhouse across the republic. they were known in theatres across the country for their tempestuous personalities, their raging arguments with one another, their tendency to drop out of shows altogether without any notice, yet the money kept rolling in and the audiences continued to grow. for three years, their families continued to put up with their hysterical fights followed by passionate reconciliations. he was too possessive, and she was too wild. their carcrash of a relationship finally came to a catastrophic halt when nina broke off the whole affair and returned to italy with her family. for months finn tried to contact her, yet his phone calls, texts, facebook messages were always ignored, until finally he was driven to drastic measures and used his savings to get a plane to her home town. when finn turned up uninvited at nina’s house she freaked out – and rightly so – she contacted her agent, accused him of stalking her, and had a restraining order placed against him. finn was arrested, held in a station overnight, and charged with harassment before he was allowed to return to dublin.

after the incident with nina, finn lost the fight in his eyes. he became far more hostile, far less likely to retaliate with his own fists, and picked fights not for the thrill of feeling his own fists pummel another into a wall, but for the sensation of his own brittle bones cracking. he dropped his tap shoes in a dumpster, stopped talking to his friends, followed his father’s advice and went back to school to complete his leaving certificate. a few short months later, and finn was packing his bags, saying his bittersweet goodbyes, and travelling half-way across the globe to be as far away as possible from his past self, his mess of a life, and most of all nina. it seemed somehow ironic that the boy who had been cautioned by the garda so much during his youth for spray painting, busking without a liscence, and raucous parties would become the grumpy, aloof overseas student studying a degree in criminology; that his once reckless spirit could be crushed so easily.

of all things that finn could be called, straightforward would never be one of them. ever since his first days in atticus, the boy was pegged as hostile, hot-headed, cynical, rude. he seemed to spend more time in his thoughts than engaging in conversation. like a ticking time-bomb, finn’s anger was of the calm kind, liable to explode without a moment’s noticed. his unpredictable personality make him something of an enigma to those who aren’t amiable with the lad, though hostile as he may appear, he harvests a good heart. loyalty lies at the centre of his affections, and whilst his friends are few in number, he makes a lifelong partner. somewhere within finn, there’s still some fight left, but mostly he has recognised that his hedonistic lifestyle did little to leave him fulfilled – mostly, it just emptied him out – and over his three years at university has resigned himself to a nihilistic predicament.

if u wanna plot with me pls pls pls im me or like this post!! i am always game for plots i love em so excited to write with you all here r some ideas

study buddies. finn is now a phd student so has to start takin shit seriously. he gon be in the library every day doing that independent study. if he had ppl who were also regular library goers n they get each other coffees to save time.... tht wld be sweet

ppl who love techno dj sets and going super hard on the weekends!!! fuck yea

friends with benefits. exes on bad terms. ppl he tried to date but couldnt because he’s always emotionally hung up on someone else. spicy hook up plots

ppl he met touring?? maybe ppl who were also in the entertainment industry..... anyone got a character who is ex circus hit me up

does anyone else study criminology / forensics / criminal psych / law? phd students sometimes lecture so he cld be an assistant lecturer / tutor if ur character is in a younger year

gamers !!! social recluses !!! hermits !!

finn goes to the skatepark and all the young boys there think he’s a gradnpa which he is!

#huntingtonintro #is tht the tag....... idk..... msg me xo

8 notes · View notes

unproduciblesmackdown · 4 years

Note

40, 47, 59, 62, 76

lmao hell yeah thanks for All this support i love it!! quastions

40. weirdest thing to ever happen at your school?

really idk i feel like even our schools’s Antics were pretty par for the course and i was just sitting in the corner reading the whole time basically......trying to think if anything wild happened in college but even then it was p similar. well you know what, whatever donors covered the majority of the cost of the school’s black box theater being renovated apparently Stipulated that every other year a rodgers and hammerstein production be put on. absolute freaks. my roommate/friend and their then-boyfriend, the one mormon i have Knowingly Known in my life, were in pirates of penzance (sic?) together. hilarious

47. favorite type of cheese?

i like cheddar and like, parmesan, smoked gouda.....let’s get that shit Sharp!!! and hard lmao

59. if you were a video game character, what would your catchphrase be?

idk i’d be like an npc just doing their weird thing on their own. i’ve never played pokemons unless you count pokemons Go but i think about the famed “i like shorts they’re comfy and easy to wear” npc kid. like, yeah. i feel the same. and would say similar bullshit nobody asked about

62. seven characters you relate to?

oh god.........recognizing the self through the relatable characters :|

well let’s just talk about the wrol roles right off b/c the characters that Most occupy my gay thoughts (which is to say: my general thoughts) will inevitably get priority when it comes to Remembering things

1) whom among us doesn’t relate to jared kleinman........will roland emerging from relative obscurity and coming for our entire fucking lives like the goddamn legend he is. it’s tough b/c it’s like, oh well alana is relatable too, so is evan unfortunately sorry evan, and in ways i might ~usually act~ like one of those two more than jared but. no. it is Jared who wins the relatability contest, and we all get to be beautifully haunted by it forever

2) leaning hard into winston even with the few glimpses of him b/c somehow will Cannot play an allistic cishet. and this is even More of a case where maybe i don’t much have winston’s demeanor.......even without winston being a beacon of confidence, he has more confidence lmao. and he has that ability to just Be Himself in a situation which, i wish i had that moxie lmao. i am a lot more [usually trying to be accommodating wayyyy harder than i should], booo......even though he’s clearly not great at conflict considering how it doesn’t take Too much to put him out, it’d be pretty impossible for me to be all “called them hacks and lame” or carry out a very irritated monologue in front of four people in the first place lmao. but who knows. and it’s more in the details of like, oh no winston’s the odd one out even though he hasn’t really Done Anything, but we all ~understand~ why he Deserves it.........his expectation / treating it basically as Fact that he will disappoint people.......the [weird] [offputting] behaviors and his way of speaking in What he Says and How He Says It seeming wrong to people.......like it’s only 15-ish min of content that we have here and we don’t have the least info about will’s own thoughts on the character but it’s like. how is this such an iconic Gay Autistic Quant b/c these vibes are so rare. and i appreciate that he can be ~difficult~ lmao. same with jared though i didn’t mention it. i can be difficult!! love it for us...

3) briony atkins from murder of bindy mackenzie as a character who Does act more like how i Usually Act Like lmao.....god we’re only on three i forgot there was seven of these. and yet i know there’s probably at least 2 dozen characters who could make this list and i just won’t think of most of them unless directly reminded......but anyways yeah i mean in person i mostly do Not want attention unless i feel comfortable enough / in my element or whatever. especially if it’d be some situation like “sitting in a group of randos” lol. i mean it depends b/c i also can sometimes be ~on~ in terms of Masking and trying to be like Haha I’m Social I’m Regular and i def engage in Nervous Chatter sometimes, but like, very often it’s like god don’t talk to me and i don’t want to talk either.....and then yeah people Will be surprised that like, idk, i’m opinionated as shit and idk that i Enjoy Things / Have Thoughts And Feelings coz the assumption i guess is that you must simply have nothing to say. so the dismissal of this person who seemingly has nothing to contribute and must be Boring rings true lmfao.....but then of course it’s also important that her personality Under that is the one getting mistaken for emily’s lol cuz yeah At Heart i am sure of that dramatic / intense / excitable type Sometimes. but it takes some excavation before i am like “oh i can engage in my actual self” and like weeks and months to get comfortable w/ people and i’m always suspicious that anyone actually would enjoy it and i’m not too much......i am a motormouth actually and have something to say about any and everything and like to Have Fun Here but like. idk i come off as boring and can be Notably Quiet lmao

4) oscar martinez from the office is weirdly [Haha Same] sometimes lmfao. sort of keeps to himself but also has to pipe up with Opinions and Pedantry and the kind of Drama of a restrained theatre gay. some deleted scene from an episode where during an interview clip of Jimothy in a theater lobby and you have oscar call from across the group in that [wearied Ugh God] way of ‘jim, they’re remaking ___’ while jim just kind of gives a cursory “wow gosh” or whatever and like, i sure don’t have lots of Theatre Opinions but that “oh jeez i have a Take on this and have to share it with someone” vibe is like hahaha yeah.....it’s funny in the “the gang goes to the ice rink for a third of the ep” bit where you just catch oscar doing [ice skating turn] with some solemn intensity.......the “here’s a question nobody’s asking: is this worth it” quote.........way at the end where there’s a whole deal with one of the indoor plants and he’s like “why is it a He” @ the collective gendering of the houseplant lmfao.......i love the one thing where he and pam and uhh toby right? have the Finer Things book club or whatever and jim wants to join just like ~ironically~ and pam has to tell him that oscar doesn’t want him to join b/c he’s not going to take it seriously and use it as a Jokes Vehicle. and then you get the scene at the end where jim Is basically doing that and they’re just like taking it out of him and oscar’s all very seriously like “did you get it all out of your system” lmfao like yeah, earnest members only lmao.....the thing where he gets mad at angela’s like Jazz Musician Posed Babies posters all “it’s kitsch it Destroys art” lmaoooo and in a totally different season all “this is the problem with debate” over the completely inconsequential “is [whichever actress, i forget] Hot” “”””debate””””.......the whole tendency to get involved and always have a take to get across.....opinionated-sometimes-to-the-point-of-petty central. also that he’s the canon gay, are there even any others? anyways and as the us office’s spiritual successor i’ll add on to this by uh what’s the name of billy eichner’s character on parks and rec? it’s craig right. that Self-Powered Intensity is very #me as well.

5) augh god........im like lmfao shit who represents my Hater Club side. hmmm. oh no wait you know what. totally different but i love Prof Beatrice Hotchkiss in the trt nancy drew pc game. she’s holed up in her room writing all the time and just is weird when you try to talk to her all like no i won’t open the door, bring me food, do this Research, bring me my Ski Boots i guess......and then when you do meet her it’s all at like post-midnight in the lounge and she’s all like, encouraging you as a Night Owl and your investigative curiosity and all and i’m like oh word yeah being up in the dead of night is the shit. she’s just weird and passionate and this is another character i might not Act hardly at all like but who i vibe with lmfao. hotchkiss was the supportive adult in my life

6) remembering how hotchkiss is a historian made me think of academia which made me think of like, once again with “these vibes are So So Rare” i really ought to put the wrol role of Nato on the list cuz like. that essential representation of “gets gr8 grades but isn’t really ~academic~ / doesn’t care about that and really just cares about Hanging W Friends and [real specific interests]” is like wow damn that’s the Mood. coz like to an extent i can always Relate to the ~overachiever~ types a la the [nerd character gets all-A’s and other nerd shit] deal, but there’s eventually the issue of like.....those characters like bindy mackenzies and alana becks Care about their achievements (not exclusively as some ppl would have it 9_9) and are Studious whereas i always hated school and was a godawful student in terms of Habits and always got good grades b/c the devil was with me or something and like people will think i must have tried real hard and dedicated myself to Academics and stuff and it’s like.........no................not at all hardly, sure i did my hw every night but at like 11:29 pm or studied for a midterm at lunch right before the class lol or flipped through a lil bit of the sat study guide the night prior.........the “low-effort dumbass who Academically Excels Anyhow” representation is so crucial like!! i run into a wall when it’s the Good Grades nerd character who is real studious and focused and stuff like. couldn’t be me. meanwhile the “naturally weird + probably some ‘deliberate’ weirdness” and “likes animals” and “most likely to just wanna Roll With It” and “shitty focus lol” and “non sequiturs” and “without [activity] i do nothing” is all like....ahahahohoho..........nato rly got to make this list. and honorable mention for Wrol Jeremy. again: whom doesn’t relate!!!!!!!!

7) damnit i know there’s So many answers to [characters i relate to] and whom cover like, more particular Facets here but i’m struggling lmao. Uh. like i’m like, who’s the Hot Mess / continually evolving disaster characters i vibe with......who’s the peak despresso detached Haters rep......who embodies the solo production lifestyle........dammit you know what lol i tend to Feel for like, the background ~nobodies~ who might just get like totally destroyed in some movie with life or death stakes just to like, show how much danger our heroes / Important Complex Protags are. same w/ jeremy not feeling like the Hero / the one who the story’s about / the cool guy / player 1 / etc etc etc i’m like oo i’d be the npc who doesn’t really do anything, i’d be the rando getting blown away in the background of someone else’s story. on a totally different note another shoutout / honorable mention to wybie from the coraline lmfao one of the best characters invented from thin air for an adaptation......tangentially relevant b/c he’s entirely here to support the protag / not his story at all, just here to help and prompt interactions / exposition really.......but love that [weird loner kid who’s best friend is a cat and annoys the other kid and doesn’t Get it and has specific interests and entertains himself and just is doing weird shit around here tf dude lmao killing it] like, #mood. #lifestyle. less dismal to relate to than the bg person who dies......his counterpart who totally dies is somewhat fleshed out / given Investment so it doesnt Really count as [background Nobody who’s really just fodder for “defining the stakes / threat level”] Character Concept

76. what’s your favorite potato food (i.e. tater tots, baked potatoes, fries, chips, etc.)?

latkes maybe......Yummy

#i expect to now just think of like ten dozen Other Characters who would've been great to mention #c'est la vie!!! c'est comme ca!!!! speaking of. thinking of the hc that winston jsut. drops french phrases into his speech sometimes #building on the moi....tbt ur benston fic w quelle horreur.....#nothingunrealistic1

1 note · View note

soulesslittleboy · 5 years

Text

I’ve always wanted to put a bit more emphasis on what Kayler’s childhood was actually like. He’s never one to open up about this so it’s never really come up in roleplays with him yet.

So I’m going to write a drabble once in a while that has to do with pieces of his childhood that have helped shape him into an unstable man.

Considering it involves abuse as a central theme it’ll be under a read more.

TW: child abuse, self harm, suicidal thoughts, and mentions of animal abuse

The First “New Mother”

Kayler didn’t only grow up with his father raising him. Of course he was bound to get married again after his wife left him and Kayler behind.

He recalls his first “new mother” appearing when he was around six years old.

She was tall and beautiful, radiant blonde hair flowed down her shoulders and her bright green eyes could silence you with a single glance. She gave off the energy of a strong and confident woman. He was intimidated by her at first, but as the months went by Kayler found had himself growing accustomed to her presence.

She didn’t pay him too much attention, and when she did she acted with a seemingly gentle calm. It was a welcome change from his father’s constant berating. Maybe she felt sorry for him?

Kayler wasn’t sure. He didn’t feel too strongly about her either way. She was just a stand in for his old mother.

One day he was out in the backyard with the silver sharp garden trowel. He had made a little cut across his arm and welcomed the wave of relief and adrenaline that hit him. No animals had come around lately so he had resorted to injuring himself in an attempt to feel something other than an empty dullness.

What made him resort to these activities? He simply didn’t get along with other kids very well because he couldn’t enjoy what they were doing. How could he run around and have fun?

His father had made it perfectly clear he didn’t deserve that kind of enjoyment. He just had to focus on school activities and academics so he wouldn’t become a useless son. So that’s what he resolved to do.

But he needed some sort of release...some sort of rush. Injuring some animal or injuring himself provided just that. It wasn’t that he enjoyed the result of hurting something other than himself, he just needed the rush of the act. When it was finished he’d dispose of the body with no problem or regret.

He knew the animals didn’t deserve it but he needed this. He needed to feel something good. Anything.

Injuring himself was different though.

He knew he deserved the pain. He deserved nothing but suffering if he couldn’t live up to his father’s expectations. Not to mention it wasn’t like when his father would hurt him. At least he could control this.

As he made a cut across his arm he heard footsteps approaching and then the trowel was quickly snatched from his hand and thrown aside.

He looked up in shock to see his father’s girlfriend in a state of anger and of absolute disgust.

“What are you doing you little freak?!” She kicked Kayler in the side and sent him doubling over in pain. Tears brimmed his eyes as he fell to his knees and began to shake from the hard blow.

“God no wonder your dad hates you. You’re nothing but a disgusting little weirdo. What do you like pain Kayler?” She kicked him again a few times. He curled up into a ball to defend himself and after a minute she stopped.

It was a miracle nothing was broken. But it was only a small victory. Kayler had shuttered and sobbed in utter despair as the woman towered over him.

“Good to know I can let out my anger on you and not feel bad about it. You’re probably enjoying it deep down you sick little fuck.”

He heard her walking away and when he knew she was out of earshot he began to openly sob out in pain. He clutched roughly at his hair and began to rock back and forth.

Was it true? Was he sick? He didn’t feel sick...what did she mean by that? He was too young to know the true implication of her words.

That when he felt someone pull him up by his hair. He knew that strong grasp anywhere. “Ow! D-Daddy I’m sorry! I’m sorry daddy!” He got up in his son’s face and yelled without remorse. “You’re damn right you’re sorry! Just what the hell is wrong with you?!”

Tears poured down the young boy’s cheeks as his father screamed and berated him. “Quit crying! It’s pathetic! Do you want to scare her away from us?! You better knock this shit off!”

The little boy tried to speak between croaking sobs. “B-But daddy s-she...she w-wasn’t...a-a-afraid. She k-kicked me-” He then threw him to the ground with a considerable amount of force causing him to yelp out in pain. “Don’t lie to me you little shit! She was crying! She was terrified because of you!”

Poor little Kayler was a blubbering mess at this point. “I-I just...wanted...t-to feel good. T-To feel....h-happy...”

His father scoffed at him, “I thought I already told you that you don’t deserve those things Kayler. Maybe when you’re older...if you manage to amount to anything.”

The child nodded fervently, “I’ll m-make you...p-proud! I p-promise daddy!”

His father smirked and ruffled his son’s hair. The boy flinched at the touch, not expecting it to be gentle. “Good. Now go inside and clean up for dinner.”

He stood up on shaky feet, holding his bruised stomach as he made his way inside...and was met with that woman’s evil satisfied smile.

They got married a month later. He made himself appear happy at the wedding but inside he was screaming in pain. Now he was going to be forced to endure pain from two adults. It took him all he had not to cry at the ceremony.

Their marriage only lasted a year and a half much to Kayler’s relief. He wasn’t sure how much more kicking he could take from that woman’s heels.

On the day she had moved out he received a hell of a beating from his father. Of course he blamed his son for the falling out. He hit him so hard he broke one of his ribs. Of course he told a lie at the hospital and told them he fell down the stairs and Kayler was too scared to say otherwise.

That night when he went to bed he just stared blankly at the darkness that surrounded him.

“He’s right...I ruined it. I ruined everything. I always ruin everything. I’m so disgusting.” He traced the cuts he made the previous day across his arm that were scabbing over thoughtfully. “If I ever stop working...if I ever stop being useful..”

I should just die.

#drabble #tw: child abuse #tw: self harm #tw: animal abuse #tw: suicidal thoughts

2 notes · View notes

youth-work-and-other-things · 5 years

Text

I’ve Finished Uni

And I have some things to say about some hacks to keep note of as an undergrad (nerd style ;) ):

Intelligence is brilliant and all but if you can’t be bothered to set yourself x amount of readings per week, take note in your diary of when all assessments are due when, and plan ahead on when you will get on with assessments, you will struggle. It would mean the difference between a P and a HD.

Academic Journals...what can I say? They are an Aladdin’s trove of information that is only exclusive to you for a short period of time unless you plan to be a life-long academic. Use them wisely and if you got the time, use them even in periods of recreation. You never know what you can find and what that info could inspire in projects you do outside of university assessments.

Keep calm and TEEL! I found that when I am about to do a written assessment, if I plan what I am going to write with the TEEL system, I can write very fast and have the confidence and know-how to write for long periods of time without going “oh, too hard...let’s check Facebook for the umtempth time”. I used to groan at this system when I was in high school because it seems like a dry thing to deal with on the surface, but it is a serious procrastination killer. And the more you practice with using this, the less time you will be spending on editing and going “WTF was I on about!?”.

And while we are on the subject of writing, join a writting group. Writing groups are great for learning things in your own pace and set learning goals for yourself.

The first thing you should do once you are enrolled? Visit the Library. Familiarise yourself with the content it has, especially stuff that relates to your major. And you never know what things you might come across. I found a book on 1970′s South Australian Premier Don Dunstan (Don Dunstan: Intimacy & Liberty by Dino Hodge), never knew about him because I am born and bred in Victoria, but wow, what a cool figure who actually influenced Australia on their views on the gay, bisexual, and lesbian community for the better.

Find out about the seminars, talks, and conferences that are happening near you and relate to your studies. You never know what you might find out that could be considered gold for an assessment. I went to a talk about elite schools and how they shape their students. What I learnt was that elite schools like the posh Anglican ones, try to groom their students in their education to be the next executives and leaders in multinational companies. Next semester, I had to write an essay about young people and globalisation. That provided a great example that I was happy to write about.

Plus those seminars, talks, and conferences are fun nerdy ways to meet people if the party scene isn’t your jam. Great if you are a mature age student if you find yourself that you and your classmates don’t click well with one another.

Mature age students: don’t waste your energy with frustration on the student leavers. I know it seems demoralising when you walk into a classroom of 18-20 year olds and you can’t seem to get them, but gritting your teeth at their lack of maturity and enthusiasm for the learning means you will lose the focus on being composed and interest in your learning. Just remember this; we live in a system that you can’t get many jobs without a degree. Plenty of people are in uni for that reason, not because they actually are suited for the academic culture of uni. Just be polite, there is always the seats in the front row so you don’t even have to interact with them much.

Student leavers: Don’t roll your eyes at the mature age students just because they ask more questions to the Lecturer than the 20Q gizmo that so happened to be a 90′s past time. They are a valuable resource to your learning. Think this; they are most likely know how to get their shit together and can help organise a group assessment to be ahead of schedule. A good mature age student also can be somewhere part peer part mentor and good measure on how to deal with older coworkers when you get your grad job.

There is a saying that P’s get Degrees. But the thing is, you might be selling yourself short if you only aim to pass. You never know if you would need to do a Masters degree, and many post grad degrees require you to have above average marks in your undergrad. Even if you don’t intend to do a Masters, doing a mediocre job on your assessments means that you only skim through the valuable information that could help you with your critical thinking in work. For many that actually like similes, there’s another one for you: A stitch in time saves nine.

#uni life #nerd #nerd life #hack

1 note · View note

christoe · 3 years

Text

Reflection 7: Meta-Reflection

Podcasts

• What did you learn about your own teaching practice after creating and listening to your classmate’s podcasts? How did the content of the podcasts relate to or inform your teaching practice? How could you use SoTL literature to inform your teaching practice? How comfortable do you feel evaluating SoTL literature and understanding its relevance to your own teaching practice?

I learned that my teaching practice has a long way to go in order to be fully inclusive, engaging, and active. The more we learn about SoTL, the more we learn how much more we have to learn! And I’m excited for that journey. From the podcasts, Anna and Kim presented on Indigenous Pedagogy and I liked the term “Settler teachers.” Sometimes I forget my privilege and the land in which I’m seated, and I will work that brain muscle constantly to remember the incredibly important lands in which I safely reside, and those my ancestors stole it from. It’s so important to cherish and acknowledge, not only indigenous culture, but all cultures. We must embrace the uncomfortable process of decolonizing teaching. Anna said, “that process of not needing to be right feels like an important part of decolonizing oneself,” and I absolutely agree. Kim went on to explain that this decolonizing growth is created, and that space is made when we admit that we’re wrong, and also that there isn’t necessarily a right and wrong. There is always room for the otherwise and space for learning and growing. Anna and Kim expressed Indigenous Pedagogy by connecting the curriculum to the land; “what does this lesson teach you about your land and your culture?” Education must support access to culture and access to elders, which is typically stripped away from academic environments. “This makes us think we are so separate,” explains Anna. What I thought was so important was that during education admission cycles, we must be more cautious of our processing that determine the students who are selected to attend the institution, and especially honouring the indigenous.

From Madison and Todd’s podcast on Universal Design & Inclusive Practice, I liked the note on removing barriers to learning, regardless of ability. As a teacher, to support students by providing accommodation without them needing to ask for it, because it’s not traditionally built in to the learning experience. There should be multiple means of presentation efforts. I loved the note about mind-tap; that there should be different modes of textbook available (print, electronic, audio); this allows the students to choose how, when, and where they complete the course material. I love this! I do this anyways, cycle between different modes of reading, and it’s such a strenuous effort finding all 3 versions – if only they were all provided from the start! I also liked the note on close captioning the presentation; it should be an ON/OFF option for students so they’re not forced to see them and thus distracted in class. Giving the flexible choice to students if they want to see captions and having it ready and prepared for if they do.

From Felten’s “Principles of Good Practice in SoTL,” teachers must provide inquiry-focused efforts on student learning, conducted in partnership with students. This relates to my own field in theatre because there is this creative ensemble; encouraging random people to work together toward a final goal of collectively understanding.

Learning Goals

• Did you meet the goals you set out in your initial learning plan or any modifications you made to it? If so, how? If not, why not? How can you achieve these goals moving forward, if you feel your initial/modified plan is still applicable? If your plan no longer applicable, how has it changed and why did you change it?

As per Reflection 5 (Progress Towards Learning Goals) I have met my goals. Again, they are:

1. Build skills that encourage student motivation, specifically support student engagement.

2. How to create a safe learning environment and build positive teacher-student relationships.

3. Build transferable skills into the curriculum, specifically risk-taking, critical thinking, and reflection.

“My article on student motivation actually allowed me to meet all of my goals listed above. In the article, The Rehearsal Room Practice (RRP) encourages transferable skills of risk-taking, critical thinking, and reflection through reading and embodying Shakespeare in a group setting. The collaboration and sense of community encourage students to be brave and honest and analytical.”

Previously I said, “It’s important to bring ‘yourself’ to the students, to dismantle the power hierarchy between teacher student, but you must also not trend on being OVERLY friendly or personal.” From feedback, Jessie made a great point on identifying those exact strategies that will continue my growth of authentic self while also ensuring that I’m not overly friendly. There can absolutely be a level of mutual respect between students and professors without a power dynamic; I’ve experienced those instances first hand and I’m excited to exhibit similar mannerisms. These include being personable and fun and friendly, without relaying your personal life stresses. Of course, support and empathy are vital traits for teachers, but oversharing personal issues with students treads on unprofessionalism.

Additionally, in regard to my micro-teaching, said “It was hard to allow volunteer readings because that always adds more time than you just reading the slide yourself, as an instructor.” In regard to Jessie’s feedback, I decided to incorporate class reading because I realized the importance of participation and active learning. Students absorb so much more if they are involved, rather than just being read to. The engagement of audience in both the classroom and the theatre is incredibly important in my teaching methods, so I will always strive to be the most participatory as the lesson will allow me to be!

Micro-Teaching Lesson

• What changes, if any, did you notice in your teaching between your first session and second micro-teaching session? What steps will you take to ensure you will you continue to improve your teaching practice? What lessons have your learned in this course that you will take into your future teaching practice?

I definitely learned the importance of class participation. Unless I am giving a lecture (or even if I am) I shouldn’t just speedily list off facts and information – it’s too much to process for most learners, unless they’re able to take notes as fast as I speak, but what’s the point in that when I could just submit my lecture notes without actually giving it. My point is, it’s so important in the process of absorbing new information to give your students time to digest; time to participate; time to collaborate with each other; time to reflect. My first teaching session was heavily lecture based, which was okay, but definitely a tad stale for my audience. So, the next round I boosted the participation efforts of my class to encourage active participation, confidence, and collaboration. There’s a fine line in participation where we, as teachers, don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable by sharing out loud to the class (because public speaking is scary) but it’s an extremely important life lesson to build those skills, especially at a young age. Not necessarily to be outspoken, but to have the confidence to share your own opinions. This is the difference between creating a safe learning space (which was one of my original learning goals), and a BRAVE learning space. We must push each other, our peers and our students, to be active and participatory, even if a bit uncomfortable, it’s important to build comfort, respect, independent, and collaboration in the classroom.

The biggest takeaway from this class, especially in terms of my 3rd learning goal, Arao & Clemens write in “From Safe to Brave Spaces” to not take things personally! “The affected people are in this way doubly affected—first by the event that triggered their emotions and then again by the responsibility for managing them.” (p. 145)

I absolutely love...

“own your intentions and your impact […] the impact of our actions is not always congruent with our intentions and that positive or neutral intentions do not trump negative impact." (145-6)

In any classroom, teachers are unable to remove risk so we must encourage bravery over safety. “We propose revising our language, shifting away from the concept of safety and emphasizing the importance of bravery instead, to help students better understand—and rise to—the challenges of genuine dialogue on diversity and social justice issues.” (136)

0 notes

giancarlonicoli · 3 years

Link

My Resignation From The InterceptThe same trends of repression, censorship and ideological homogeneity plaguing the national press generally have engulfed the media outlet I co-founded, culminating in censorship of my own articles.

Today I sent my intention to resign from The Intercept, the news outlet I co-founded in 2013 with Jeremy Scahill and Laura Poitras, as well as from its parent company First Look Media.

The final, precipitating cause is that The Intercept’s editors, in violation of my contractual right of editorial freedom, censored an article I wrote this week, refusing to publish it unless I remove all sections critical of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, the candidate vehemently supported by all New-York-based Intercept editors involved in this effort at suppression.

The censored article, based on recently revealed emails and witness testimony, raised critical questions about Biden’s conduct. Not content to simply prevent publication of this article at the media outlet I co-founded, these Intercept editors also demanded that I refrain from exercising a separate contractual right to publish this article with any other publication.

I had no objection to their disagreement with my views of what this Biden evidence shows: as a last-ditch attempt to avoid being censored, I encouraged them to air their disagreements with me by writing their own articles that critique my perspectives and letting readers decide who is right, the way any confident and healthy media outlet would. But modern media outlets do not air dissent; they quash it. So censorship of my article, rather than engagement with it, was the path these Biden-supporting editors chose.

The censored article will be published on this page shortly. My letter of intent to resign, which I sent this morning to First Look Media’s President Michael Bloom, is published below.

As of now, I will be publishing my journalism here on Substack, where numerous other journalists, including my good friend, the great intrepid reporter Matt Taibbi, have come in order to practice journalism free of the increasingly repressive climate that is engulfing national mainstream media outlets across the country.

This was not an easy choice: I am voluntarily sacrificing the support of a large institution and guaranteed salary in exchange for nothing other than a belief that there are enough people who believe in the virtues of independent journalism and the need for free discourse who will be willing to support my work by subscribing.

Like anyone with young children, a family and numerous obligations, I do this with some trepidation, but also with the conviction that there is no other choice. I could not sleep at night knowing that I allowed any institution to censor what I want to say and believe — least of all a media outlet I co-founded with the explicit goal of ensuring this never happens to other journalists, let alone to me, let alone because I have written an article critical of a powerful Democratic politician vehemently supported by the editors in the imminent national election.

But the pathologies, illiberalism, and repressive mentality that led to the bizarre spectacle of my being censored by my own media outlet are ones that are by no means unique to The Intercept. These are the viruses that have contaminated virtually every mainstream center-left political organization, academic institution, and newsroom. I began writing about politics fifteen years ago with the goal of combatting media propaganda and repression, and — regardless of the risks involved — simply cannot accept any situation, no matter how secure or lucrative, that forces me to submit my journalism and right of free expression to its suffocating constraints and dogmatic dictates.

From the time I began writing about politics in 2005, journalistic freedom and editorial independence have been sacrosanct to me. Fifteen years ago, I created a blog on the free Blogspot software when I was still working as a lawyer: not with any hopes or plans of starting a new career as a journalist, but just as a citizen concerned about what I was seeing with the War on Terror and civil liberties, and wanting to express what I believed needed to be heard. It was a labor of love, based in an ethos of cause and conviction, dependent upon a guarantee of complete editorial freedom.

It thrived because the readership I built knew that, even when they disagreed with particular views I was expressing, I was a free and independent voice, unwedded to any faction, controlled by nobody, endeavoring to be as honest as possible about what I was seeing, and always curious about the wisdom of seeing things differently. The title I chose for that blog, “Unclaimed Territory,” reflected that spirit of liberation from captivity to any fixed political or intellectual dogma or institutional constraints.

When Salon offered me a job as a columnist in 2007, and then again when the Guardian did the same in 2012, I accepted their offers on the condition that I would have the right, except in narrowly defined situations (such as articles that could create legal liability for the news outlet), to publish my articles and columns directly to the internet without censorship, advanced editorial interference, or any other intervention permitted or approval needed. Both outlets revamped their publication system to accommodate this condition, and over the many years I worked with them, they always honored those commitments.

When I left the Guardian at the height of the Snowden reporting in 2013 in order to create a new media outlet, I did not do so, needless to say, in order to impose upon myself more constraints and restrictions on my journalistic independence. The exact opposite was true: the intended core innovation of The Intercept, above all else, was to create a new media outlets where all talented, responsible journalists would enjoy the same right of editorial freedom I had always insisted upon for myself. As I told former New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller in a 2013 exchange we had in The New York Times about my critiques of mainstream journalism and the idea behind The Intercept: “editors should be there to empower and enable strong, highly factual, aggressive adversarial journalism, not to serve as roadblocks to neuter or suppress the journalism.”

When the three of us as co-founders made the decision early on that we would not attempt to manage the day-to-day operations of the new outlet, so that we could instead focus on our journalism, we negotiated the right of approval for senior editors and, especially the editor-in-chief. The central responsibility of the person holding that title was to implement, in close consultation with us, the unique journalistic vision and journalistic values on which we founded this new media outlet.

Chief among those values was editorial freedom, the protection of a journalist’s right to speak in an honest voice, and the airing rather than suppression of dissent from mainstream orthodoxies and even collegial disagreements with one another. That would be accomplished, above all else, by ensuring that journalists, once they fulfilled the first duty of factual accuracy and journalistic ethics, would be not just permitted but encouraged to express political and ideological views that deviated from mainstream orthodoxy and those of their own editors; to express themselves in their own voice of passion and conviction rather stuffed into the corporatized, contrived tone of artificial objectivity, above-it-all omnipotence; and to be completely free of anyone else’s dogmatic beliefs or ideological agenda — including those of the three co-founders.

The current iteration of The Intercept is completely unrecognizable when compared to that original vision. Rather than offering a venue for airing dissent, marginalized voices and unheard perspectives, it is rapidly becoming just another media outlet with mandated ideological and partisan loyalties, a rigid and narrow range of permitted viewpoints (ranging from establishment liberalism to soft leftism, but always anchored in ultimate support for the Democratic Party), a deep fear of offending hegemonic cultural liberalism and center-left Twitter luminaries, and an overarching need to secure the approval and admiration of the very mainstream media outlets we created The Intercept to oppose, critique and subvert.

As a result, it is a rare event indeed when a radical freelance voice unwelcome in mainstream precincts is published in The Intercept. Outisde reporters or writers with no claim to mainstream acceptability — exactly the people we set out to amplify — have almost no chance of being published. It is even rarer for The Intercept to publish content that would not fit very comfortably in at least a dozen or more center-left publications of similar size which pre-dated its founding, from Mother Jones to Vox and even MSNBC.

Courage is required to step out of line, to question and poke at those pieties most sacred in one’s own milieu, but fear of alienating the guardians of liberal orthodoxy, especially on Twitter, is the predominant attribute of The Intercept’s New-York based editorial leadership team. As a result, The Intercept has all but abandoned its core mission of challenging and poking at, rather than appeasing and comforting, the institutions and guardians most powerful in its cultural and political circles.

Making all of this worse, The Intercept — while gradually excluding the co-founders from any role in its editorial mission or direction, and making one choice after the next to which I vocally objected as a betrayal of our core mission — continued publicly to trade on my name in order to raise funds for journalism it knew I did not support. It purposely allowed the perception to fester that I was the person responsible for its journalistic mistakes in order to ensure that blame for those mistakes was heaped on me rather than the editors who were consolidating control and were responsible for them.

The most egregious, but by no means only, example of exploiting my name to evade responsibility was the Reality Winner debacle. As The New York Times recently reported, that was a story in which I had no involvement whatsoever. While based in Brazil, I was never asked to work on the documents which Winner sent to our New York newsroom with no request that any specific journalist work on them. I did not even learn of the existence of that document until very shortly prior to its publication. The person who oversaw, edited and controlled that story was Betsy Reed, which was how it should be given the magnitude and complexity of that reporting and her position as editor-in-chief.

It was Intercept editors who pressured the story’s reporters to quickly send those documents for authentication to the government — because they was eager to prove to mainstream media outlets and prominent liberals that The Intercept was willing to get on board the Russiagate train. They wanted to counter-act the perception, created by my articles expressing skepticism about the central claims of that scandal, that The Intercept had stepped out of line on a story of high importance to U.S. liberalism and even the left. That craving — to secure the approval of the very mainstream media outlets we set out to counteract — was the root cause for the speed and recklessness with which that document from Winner was handled.

But The Intercept, to this very day, has refused to provide any public accounting of what happened in the Reality Winner story: to explain who the editors were who made mistakes and why any of it happened. As the New York Times article makes clear, that refusal persists to this very day notwithstanding vocal demands from myself, Scahill, Laura Poitras and others that The Intercept, as an institution that demands transparency from others, has the obligation to provide it for itself.

The reason for this silence and this cover-up is obvious: accounting to the public about what happened with the Reality Winner story would reveal who the actual editors are who are responsible for that deeply embarrassing newsroom failure, and that would negate their ability to continue to hide behind me and let the public continue to assume that I was the person at fault for a reporting process from which I was completely excluded from the start. That is just one example illustrating the frustrating dilemma of having a newsroom exploit my name, work and credibility when it is convenient to do so, while increasingly denying me any opportunity to influence its journalistic mission and editorial direction, all while pursuing an editorial mission completely anathema to what I believe.

Despite all of this, I did not want to leave The Intercept. As it deteriorated and abandoned its original mission, I reasoned to myself — perhaps rationalized — that as long as The Intercept at least continued to provide me the resources to personally do the journalism I believe in, and never to interfere in or impede my editorial freedom, I could swallow everything else.

But the brute censorship this week of my article — about the Hunter Biden materials and Joe Biden’s conduct regarding Ukraine and China, as well my critique of the media’s rank-closing attempt, in a deeply unholy union with Silicon Valley and the “intelligence community,” to suppress its revelations — eroded the last justification I could cling to for staying. It meant that not only does this media outlet not provide the editorial freedom to other journalists, as I had so hopefully envisioned seven years ago, but now no longer even provides it to me. In the days heading into a presidential election, I am somehow silenced from expressing any views that random editors in New York find disagreeable, and now somehow have to conform my writing and reporting to cater to their partisan desires and eagerness to elect specific candidates.

To say that such censorship is a red line for me, a situation I would never accept no matter the cost, is an understatement. It is astonishing to me, but also a reflection of our current discourse and illiberal media environment, that I have been silenced about Joe Biden by my own media outlet.

Numerous other episodes were also contributing causes to my decision to leave: the Reality Winner cover-up; the decision to hang Lee Fang out to dry and even force him to apologize when a colleague tried to destroy his reputation by publicly, baselessly and repeatedly branding him a racist; its refusal to report on the daily proceedings of the Assange extradition hearing because the freelance reporter doing an outstanding job was politically distasteful; its utter lack of editorial standards when it comes to viewpoints or reporting that flatter the beliefs of its liberal base (The Intercept published some of the most credulous and false affirmations of maximalist Russiagate madness, and, horrifyingly, took the lead in falsely branding the Hunter Biden archive as “Russian disinformation” by mindlessly and uncritically citing — of all things — a letter by former CIA officials that contained this baseless insinuation).

I know it sounds banal to say, but — even with all of these frustrations and failures — I am leaving, and writing this, with genuine sadness, not fury. That news outlet is something I and numerous close friends and colleagues poured an enormous amount of our time, energy, passion and love into building.

The Intercept has done great work. Its editorial leaders and First Look’s managers steadfastly supported the difficult and dangerous reporting I did last year with my brave young colleagues at The Intercept Brasil to expose corruption at the highest levels of the Bolsonaro government, and stood behind us as we endured threats of death and imprisonment.

It continues to employ some of my closest friends, outstanding journalists whose work — when it overcomes editorial resistance — produces nothing but the highest admiration from me: Jeremy Scahill, Lee Fang, Murtaza Hussain, Naomi Klein, Ryan Grim and others. And I have no personal animus for anyone there, nor any desire to hurt it as an institution. Betsy Reed is an exceptionally smart editor and a very good human being with whom I developed a close and valuable friendship. And Pierre Omidyar, the original funder and publisher of First Look, always honored his personal commitment never to interfere in our editorial process even when I was publishing articles directly at odds with his strongly held views and even when I was attacking other institutions he was funding. I’m not leaving out of vengeance or personal conflict but out of conviction and cause.

And none of the critiques I have voiced about The Intercept are unique to it. To the contrary: these are the raging battles over free expression and the right of dissent raging within every major cultural, political and journalistic institution. That’s the crisis that journalism, and more broadly values of liberalism, faces. Our discourse is becoming increasingly intolerant of dissenting views, and our culture is demanding more and more submission to prevailing orthodoxies imposed by self-anointed monopolists of Truth and Righteousness, backed up by armies of online enforcement mobs.

And nothing is crippled by that trend more severely than journalism, which, above all else, requires the ability of journalists to offend and anger power centers, question or reject sacred pieties, unearth facts that reflect negatively even on (especially on) the most beloved and powerful figures, and highlight corruption no matter where it is found and regardless of who is benefited or injured by its exposure.

Prior to the extraordinary experience of being censored this week by my own news outlet, I had already been exploring the possibility of creating a new media outlet. I have spent a couple of months in active discussions with some of the most interesting, independent and vibrant journalists, writers and commentators across the political spectrum about the feasibility of securing financing for a new outlet that would be designed to combat these trends. The first two paragraphs of our working document reads as follows:

American media is gripped in a polarized culture war that is forcing journalism to conform to tribal, groupthink narratives that are often divorced from the truth and cater to perspectives that are not reflective of the broader public but instead a minority of hyper-partisan elites. The need to conform to highly restrictive, artificial cultural narratives and partisan identities has created a repressive and illiberal environment in which vast swaths of news and reporting either do not happen or are presented through the most skewed and reality-detached lens.

With nearly all major media institutions captured to some degree by this dynamic, a deep need exists for media that is untethered and free to transgress the boundaries of this polarized culture war and address a demand from a public that is starved for media that doesn’t play for a side but instead pursues lines of reporting, thought, and inquiry wherever they lead, without fear of violating cultural pieties or elite orthodoxies.

I have definitely not relinquished hope that this ambitious project can be accomplished. And I theoretically could have stayed at The Intercept until then, guaranteeing a stable and secure income for my family by swallowing the dictates of my new censors.

But I would be deeply ashamed if I did that, and believe I would be betraying my own principles and convictions that I urge others to follow. So in the meantime, I have decided to follow in the footsteps of numerous other writers and journalists who have been expelled from increasingly repressive journalistic precincts for various forms of heresy and dissent and who have sought refuge here.

I hope to exploit the freedom this new platform offers not only to continue to publish the independent and hard-hitting investigative journalism and candid analysis and opinion writing that my readers have come to expect, but also to develop a podcast, and continue the YouTube program, “System Update,” I launched earlier this year in partnership with The Intercept.

To do that, to make this viable, I will need your support: people who are able to subscribe and sign up for the newsletter attached to this platform will enable my work to thrive and still be heard, perhaps even more so than before. I began my journalism career by depending on my readers’ willingness to support independent journalism which they believe is necessary to sustain. It is somewhat daunting at this point in my life, but also very exciting, to return to that model where one answers only to the public a journalist should be serving.

* * * * * * * *

LETTER OF INTENT TO RESIGN

-------- Forwarded Message --------

Subject: ResignationDate: Thu, 29 Oct 2020 10:20:54 -0300From: Glenn Greenwald <[email protected]>To: Michael Bloom <[email protected]>, Betsy Reed <[email protected]>

Michael -

I am writing to advise you that I have decided that I will be resigning from First Look Media (FLM) and The Intercept.

The precipitating (but by no means only) cause is that The Intercept is attempting to censor my articles in violation of both my contract and fundamental principles of editorial freedom. The latest and perhaps most egregious example is an opinion column I wrote this week which, five days before the presidential election, is critical of Joe Biden, the candidate who happens to be vigorously supported by all of the Intercept editors in New York who are imposing the censorship and refusing to publish the article unless I agree to remove all of the sections critical of the candidate they want to win. All of that violates the right in my contract with FLM to publish articles without editorial interference except in very narrow circumstances that plainly do not apply here.

Worse, The Intercept editors in New York, not content to censor publication of my article at the Intercept, are also demanding that I not exercise my separate contractual right with FLM regarding articles I have written but which FLM does not want to publish itself. Under my contract, I have the right to publish any articles FLM rejects with another publication. But Intercept editors in New York are demanding I not only accept their censorship of my article at The Intercept, but also refrain from publishing it with any other journalistic outlet, and are using thinly disguised lawyer-crafted threats to coerce me not to do so (proclaiming it would be “detrimental” to The Intercept if I published it elsewhere).

I have been extremely disenchanted and saddened by the editorial direction of The Intercept under its New York leadership for quite some time. The publication we founded without those editors back in 2014 now bears absolutely no resemblance to what we set out to build -- not in content, structure, editorial mission or purpose. I have grown embarrassed to have my name used as a fund-raising tool to support what it is doing and for editors to use me as a shield to hide behind to avoid taking responsibility for their mistakes (including, but not only, with the Reality Winner debacle, for which I was publicly blamed despite having no role in it, while the editors who actually were responsible for those mistakes stood by silently, allowing me to be blamed for their errors and then covering-up any public accounting of what happened, knowing that such transparency would expose their own culpability).

But all this time, as things worsened, I reasoned that as long as The Intercept remained a place where my own right of journalistic independence was not being infringed, I could live with all of its other flaws. But now, not even that minimal but foundational right is being honored for my own journalism, suppressed by an increasingly authoritarian, fear-driven, repressive editorial team in New York bent on imposing their own ideological and partisan preferences on all writers while ensuring that nothing is published at The Intercept that contradicts their own narrow, homogenous ideological and partisan views: exactly what The Intercept, more than any other goal, was created to prevent.

I have asked my lawyer to get in touch with FLM to discuss how best to terminate my contract. Thank you -

Glenn Greenwald

0 notes