#which also. I'm a grad student so I'm like. an adult. but

[gaydryad]

vote now on your phones:

#from the writer's den #void talks #this is a very stupid and convoluted internal debate I'm having #keep in mind my FB is essentially Cis Me :tm: with a cute photo I took with a snapchat filter back in.....2017 #the last time I was in this kind of situation even remotely was like 4+ years ago so I truly CANNOT read the vibes #especially since the locals here are ... much more friendly than I'm used to #to add some further context #this was a Clean segue from talking about the sublease #like literally no break haven't talked about what we're like at all #except that he works at a local auto engineering firm and I'm a student #which also. I'm a grad student so I'm like. an adult. but #if I were an undergrad (which I could be for best he knows unless he eyed my profile) #that would be uhhh #no sir thanks #anyway.

[olderthannetfic]

As someone who's been wondering why there've been so many senseless, needless arguments online about a hypothetical derth of purity in fiction and how it affects people negatively (it doesn't), now learning from several friends who are teachers (with the oldest being a uni professor) that Gen Z (27-11 yo) and Gen Alpha can't read, have poor media literacy, and soley seek fiction to reaffirm their own worldviews without curiosity and with judgement (and a lot of it). I say this as someone who is Gen Z. I'm only 26 years old, but I'm also a TA right now while I'm in grad school. it's not just the middle school and high school students. College students who should be able to do simple literary analysis cannot. Sure these issues (puritanical thinking, absent/poor parenting, lackluster curriculum, etc) have always existed, but with this in mind, it absolutely makes sense why there's so much dumb discourse over things in media that anyone with sense could separate from reality. Even simple things that you learn in elementary school at 6 years old, like "just because the story is focalized through a specific character, doesn't mean they're correct/the protagonist≠morally righteous/you're not always supposed to agree with the POV character or main characters." Maybe it really is the case that, sure some people are being deliberately obtuse, but there are also others who probably don't know.

I've seen it explained to people in fandom and on tumblr with popular series people have read or seen. No, you're not supposed to think Light Yagami is a good guy or a hero. "L is the straightforward hero in Death Note the whole time" isn't clever. It's the main text. No, you're not supposed to agree with Eren Jaeger or military fascists. "SNK is pro military and pro genocide" is just inaccurate. All the characters exhibiting those traits are killed to signal the flaws in their rhetoric. It's actually really unambiguous in that regard, not at all subtle. No, x shoujo/YA fantasy/Ya romance isn't advocating for middle school or high school girls to date men in their mid-20s. Teen girls have always fantasized about adults they find attractive, and these stories (made for and marketed to teen girls) fulfills that desire while protecting them from the possibility of that reality (an adult returning their feelings). No, it's not weird that mythological gods (but I see people mostly complaining about Greek and Egyptian ones) are related. It's purposeful. They're all related concepts and personifications of nature, which is all connected. Get over yourselves. No, it's not weird that gothic stories have incest in them. It was a common practice among aristocracy and nobility all around them world (so, not just a "white people thing"), and it typically symbolizes the decay as social norms. If you feel discomfort, then the story was successful.

On the one hand, sure. It's purity culture, ignorance, misogyny, etc. On the other hand, do the people who harp on about these actually know how to interpret stories? I'm often told "They can't read" as an explanation by others. I'm starting to think it's true, and I don't know how to combat that as someone who may be an educator down the road myself while also being involved in fandom.

--

I'd say it's about 50/50 the usual The Kids These Days scaremongering and a genuine shift.

Reading comprehension can be taught. I was taught to analyze passages in school. Students have to be open to learning, but it's not like some critical language thing you need to absorb before the age of two: a college student who's actually interested in getting better can perfectly well do so, possibly with some help or possibly just with experience.

Plenty of it is anxiety about being wrong and immoral and hurting people too. It's fundie thinking where listening and engaging means capitulating. Lots of people do slowly get over this. Many will calm down about it if they ever get the anxiety meds they so desperately need. Some would probably benefit from ceasing to self harm via social media doomscrolling or exclusively consuming attention span-destroying, FOMO-inducing garbage.

...I say as I answer tumblr asks instead of getting out of bed to start my New Year's resolutions.

[grison-in-space]

Part of the problem with trying to protect young people from exploitation and grooming by extremist elements of the manosphere is that our understanding of exploitation and how to tackle it is still hopelessly out of touch. Dr. Firmin explained that the very hallmarks of adolescence that most attract young men to these online communities are also the ones least understood by traditional support mechanisms. During adolescence, young people prioritize belonging, self-autonomy, and independence. This, she said, is a period in which young people are struggling with intense emotions: they are “more inclined to take risks” and are particularly unlikely to think about “long-term consequences.” As such, traditional support services are not well suited to this period, because they tend to be “targeted at individuals who don’t like to take risks and will think about the long-term consequences of their behavior and will be generally emotionally stable.”
While support structures struggle against these typical adolescent behaviors, Dr. Firmin explained, those who exploit young people “will tend to work with” them, offering children

a sense of risk or going against the grain, focus on short-term gains, what it means in the here and now, and push aside the potential negative long-term consequences… They will provide means by which you can be very emotionally driven and passionate…and also validate those emotions as authentic when other adults are saying, “Don’t get so worked up.”

All this resonates powerfully with the tactics of the manosphere. Young people are offered a highly emotive narrative and a sense of deep belonging and community. They are repeatedly encouraged, in incel forums, for example, to take violent action that would position them as countercultural disrupters without thinking too much about the consequences. “It’s very easy to sell those ideas,” Dr. Firmin added, in a community that boasts about “going against the norm.” In the case of the manosphere, she said, that manifests as “pushing against this idea of new masculinity…or men’s increased role in parenting… This narrative would push against all of that, push against #MeToo, so it’s very easy then to sell it as a risk and sell it into this idea of wanting a sense of self, a sense of personal identity.” In some respects, she said, given the current climate, the attractiveness of the manosphere to young men is “not very surprising at all.”

Men Who Hate Women, 2020, Laura Bates.

... Ohhhhh. Well, Bates is talking about young men getting sucked into the manosphere, but TERF tactics make a whole lot more sense now, don't they? There's all this uncertainty in our collective lives, and a simple but risky narrative that just requires brave, passionate folks to stand up for what they believe in to fix everything...

Ah.

For that matter, the same patterns totally resonated with me in my teens and twenties; I just had causes that I still feel good about to stand up for, like queer solidarity and ace community raising and allyship as an active choice.

I'm carrying some grief about that this morning—I have a lot of scars that came from being brave and open and riskily vulnerable and trusting my own resilience and hard work to catch me, and it's been a hard, hard ten years. But I also find myself thinking in the same breath: oh. That's the same romantic tendency that's kicking off the wistfulness about labor uprisings I was so critical of last night, and that association builds commitment to changing the critically unfair economic systems of inequality we live with. That's the same energy that makes so many teenagers so emphatic about climate change. That's the thing that makes my grad students stamp feet and snap "well, it shouldn't be like that then!" while I'm trying to do more with less to support them and keep them safe. And sometimes that makes me adjust my course, often for the better.

Stuff like this really renews my commitment to listening to folks who are significantly different in age to me. Sometimes I think they are missing big things in their politics, but sometimes I think that the uncompromising optimism of what could be is a powerful, heady current.

I've only been an adult for about a decade, is the thing, and I've already watched the activism of the generation of millennial activists I grew up alongside make real, profound changes in the status quo, often but not always informed by the support and lessons of generations that have broken the trails before ourselves. I think there can be a certain complacency about that, an idea that younger folks are going to either save us unassisted (lol no) or pick up largely arbitrary battles and waste the momentum of their energy and commitment. I don't think that complacency is a good idea, but it exists. It's worth opposing.

Just like any social construct, generations are both imaginary and profoundly real at the same time, both a wave and a particle at once. It's worth thinking about what people at different ages and life stages need, and it's always worth thinking about how to build coalitions to best channel and support one another.

[cuubism]

*puppy eyes* might we have a little more silly rabbit au? as a treat?

i'm rapidly running out of scenes to share 😂 i'll have to write more

---

Sage Advice

Beth was not usually a fiend for gossip. Usually, she kept her head down, did her work, focused on her own life instead of other people’s.

But, oh, did Professor Gadling’s class provide such excellent gossip.

“Do you think he’s a student?” whispered Dylan at her side. They were, ostensibly, at a lecture event on medieval warfare. In reality, they were watching the Professor Gadling and his goth boyfriend show.

Beth squinted in their direction. Their professor was leaning against the wall several meters away, talking animatedly with a drink in one hand. His boyfriend – a word which felt insufficient somehow, though Beth couldn’t think of anything better – stood close to his side, just in his space, and, as she watched, leaned in to whisper something in his ear. “I don’t think he’s young enough to be an undergrad.”

“Grad student, then? But also, there are older undergrads, too, returning student things and whatnot?”

“Do you really think Professor Gadling is that kind of person?” Beth asked.

“I mean I wouldn’t have thought but you know what they say,” Dylan affected a dark tone, “you can never really know another human being.”

Beth snorted.

“He’s definitely way younger, though,” Dylan continued. “It’s a problem.”

“Oh, undoubtedly younger—” unless the guy just had a really excellent skincare routine “—but why is that such a huge problem for you? They’re both adults.”

“I just wanna know,” Dylan insisted.

“You need more excitement in your life.”

“This is my excitement.”

Beth was about to give up and go do something that didn’t involve creepily staring at her professor from across the room, when Professor Gadling rested his hand on his boyfriend’s hip and his boyfriend leaned in and said, just loud enough for Beth to make out, “You always offer such sage advice, Professor.”

She met Dylan’s gaze, both of them equally horrified.

“Is he fucking one of his TAs?” Beth hissed.

“Is he that guy’s advisor?” Dylan squeaked in return.

God. This was just getting worse and worse by the moment.

But also so much more interesting.

-----

“Your students are gossiping about us again,” Dream murmured in Hob’s ear, voice rumbling so low Hob could swear his wine glass vibrated at the tenor.

“Only because you’re inciting them,” Hob grumbled back. “I know what you’re doing.”

“Contrary to what you believe, I am not manipulating their dreams. This is a game of the waking world only.”

“Why? Why limit yourself?”

“Because it is more of a challenge.” A sly smile cut across Dream’s face. “It has been a long time since I have worked with such raw material. Material that I cannot simply bend to my will. It is far more thrilling to succeed when the difficulty is greater.”

“Material? They’re my students, not clay.”

“That is where you are wrong.”

“So what exactly are you doing, then?” Hob demanded.

“I am crafting a story,” said Dream, and he lit up with such vibrancy at the words that Hob couldn’t bear to tell him to stop even if this all felt more like a mad science experiment than it did storytelling. “But I am not telling it, no. My materials are assumption and implication and I am letting the story tell itself.”

Hob was both impressed and frightened by the prospect of this. “How, exactly?”

Dream’s eyes glinted as if he had just been waiting for Hob to ask. “Like this.”

He leaned in next to Hob’s ear, and Hob caught him automatically by his hip. Dream said, louder than before, “You always offer such sage advice, Professor.”

Hob couldn’t stop his blush at the sultry tone of it. He watched out of the corner of his eye as the two students in the corner started whispering furiously at one another. Dream smirked, victorious.

“Before you say I am manipulating,” he said, back in his lower tone, “ask yourself, did I speak a false word?”

“Assuming you do in fact think I occasionally offer good advice, then no. What’s your point?”

“My point is this: blame me not for weaving lies in their heads. I speak no lies. Weak stories are built upon lies. Real stories grow from a seed of truth.”

“Like dreams,” Hob said, begrudgingly, and Dream nodded proudly. “God, your mind terrifies me sometimes,” Hob added, and knocked back the rest of his wine.  

#this au is chaotic as fuck #dream: hehehehe wow gossip is fun #hob: NOT FOR ME #not dream using hob's students to create a real life version of goncharov 1973 about him and hob #silly rabbit au #how many subplots does this au have #too many #magnusbae #my writing #ask #anonymous #dreamling #dreamling fic

[thepoisonroom]

hello sorry if you've been asked this recently but could you recommend some good adult trans books 👉👈 no worries if you don't!!

there are lots of good ones and i've fallen out of the loop since i left my bookstore job! there's sometimes this attitude that trans writers can only be successful in some genres but there are great trans writers in lots of genres! so have tried to include a mix of genres here to highlight some of that abundance, and because i don't know what you like so want to include many things that i think might spark your curiosity.

i'm leaving a lot of classics off that i'm sure you've heard of or have been told to read, as well as some stuff i read that i didn't love and don't feel i can vouch for. there's also lots of good stuff for younger readers (have esp heard good things about sisters of dorley hall and when the angels left the old country) which is really heartening when i remember furtively reading the one trans novel for teens at my library when i was little! and i like that there are trans characters for younger readers now who don't have tragic endings. but anyway:

i really like anything by casey plett, particularly her novel little fish! i loved ivan coyote's rebent sinner for kind of autobiographical vignettes as well as gender failure which they wrote with rae spoon. gretchen felker-martin and alison rumfitt are big faves if you like horror, they're both so smart and unsparing. your body is not your body if you want a good taste of lots of different trans horror authors. the seep by chana porter for meditative sci-fi. the fifth wound by aurora mattia which is hard to describe but v gorgeous. paul takes the form of a mortal girl if you want something kind of carefree and horny and fun and not devastating or upsetting. summer fun by jeanne thornton if you've ever been like what if velvet goldmine were based on the beach boys. i like confessions of the fox by jordy rosenberg but i think the ideal audience for this book is like transmasc grad students who are horny in a neurotic way so it's not for everyone. stone fruit by lee lai was my favorite graphic novel of 2022 and it's a really beautiful examination of breakups and caring for children as a queer person and also forgiving your family. gaylord phoenix if you like your graphic novels weird.

books from my own to-read list that i've heard good things about from people i trust (have included author names only where the title alone isn't specific enough to find the right book):

wrath goddess sing (if you like mythology remixes)

a natural history of transition (magical realist short stories)

manywhere: stories (unsettling also magical realist short stories)

chromatic fantasy (graphic novel, trans guy nun has sex with the devil and has a romance with a robin hood-type trans guy bandit)

finna (gay trans multiverse travel in an IKEA)

X by davey davis (bdsm psychological thriller)

idlewild (transmasc fujoshi tumblrinas have a toxic bestieship)

girlfriends by emily zhou (slice of life short stories)

boys weekend (graphic novel, bachelorx weekend turns into a cult murder mystery)

the boy with the bird in his chest (magical realist coming of age)

the call-out (gossipy novel in verse)

nettleblack (victorian transmasc hijinks)

the story of silence (medieval n magical french trans hijinks based on the historical poem)

unfortunate elements of my anatomy (horror short stories)

bad girls by camila sosa villada (magical realist coming of age epic)

apsara engine (south asian graphic vignettes)

future feeling (funny bizarre sci-fi)

everyone on the moon is essential personnel (cyberpunk body horror weirdness)

#anonymous #ask and receive

[qqueenofhades]

So I decided to go back to school this year and am now in grad school, which I am somewhat struggling with more than I would like; damn them ADHD brain gremlins. As a grad school veteran, do you have any tips for not drowning in grad school while being a semi-functioning employed adult? 💚

Aha, well. I haven't actually gone to grad school while also working full time (unless I really lose my mind and do another master's degree while also managing two and/or three academic programs, but let's not talk about that), so I don't have specific suggestions in that regard. However, I can offer my basic tips for surviving grad school, which include:

* Set a routine and make sure you block out time to do your reading and/or writing. If nothing else, prioritize this. A lot of your grade in the class will come from what is directly before the professor's eyeballs, i.e. whether you can prove that you actually have a clue what they're teaching you and whether you can write coherently as a result. You can skim-read (dirty secret: almost all academics do), but you have to know how to skim-read, so you'll still taking in the essential points of the content. Usually this means reading the abstract, the introduction and conclusion, and maybe the beginning and end of each chapter or article section. Take notes. If you think "oh no, I'll definitely remember that!" -- that is the devil talking. Read with a pen in your hand. Future You will thank you.

* Likewise: you will need to take at least a few days to write a decent grad school essay. Plan in advance. Some people are the kind who can frantically scramble to pull an entire undergrad essay out of the hat on the night before and submit it at 11:59pm, but a) this doesn't work in grad school, or at least not as much, and b) if that's how you're going through it, you're not getting value out of it for money, and grad school is FRIKIN EXPENSIVE. The most amount of outstanding student loan debt I have is from my master's degree, not my bachelor's or PhD. If you're skating through it and bullshitting everything, then it's just not worth what you're paying.

* COMMUNICATE! PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, COMMUNICATE!!!! This should be both to your professors in school and/or your bosses at your regular job. If you anticipate a schedule conflict, need an extension, have something that needs to be done in one front that will have to take priority over the other -- PLEASE COMMUNICATE! (Is this my Traumatized Faculty And/Or Administrator Voice talking? You can't prove it.) Don't drop in with a panicked email five hours before the deadline and beg for more time/a dispensation/extension/whatever. Most people will be willing to work with you, but that relies on giving them time and/or planning space to do so and make other arrangements; after all, they are also counting on you to be a team player and if you can't be, to give them the chance not to be screwed by your absence. It is a basic courtesy to promptly answer (and my god, READ!!!!) your emails and to communicate with other people BEFORE problems arise, rather than when you're right in the middle of them and it is already an emergency. Everyone will thank you for this.

* Likewise: work out which things need to be done as soon as they come up, and which ones are able to wait a little longer. My particular brand of neurodivergence often makes me think that I need to do new things RIGHT NOW GOD RIGHT NOW FIVE ALARM FIRE!! and I stress and get anxious until I do them, even if I'm already working on something else. Project-hopping can sometimes be helpful if you're feeling blocked on something else, but do also have a sense of what needs to be prioritized most.

* If you're not already on medication and/or have some way of managing your ADHD: I would strongly recommend that. Grad school is hard enough, and you don't need to make it artificially harder. There are always the usual bugaboos about obtaining any kind of care, but do what you have to do, medically or otherwise, to make sure you're putting your best foot forward and not artificially sabotaging yourself because the brain chemicals just won't play ball. Believe me, I also know something about that, so yeah.

Good luck!

#sonicenvy #ask #school stuff

[catboybiologist]

Hello, I've heard from a few trans women that their transition made higher education impossible I wasn't sure if they were talking about college or grad school, but since you're a woman in a PhD program I was wondering if you think transitioning would make getting a higher education harder.

Thanks

Someone who might be trans that wants to pursue a master's

Hm. This is weird to answer. Unfortunately I can't offer TOO much insight here. I'm very much a baby trans (~1.5 months HRT) and I present as a man day to day without issue (seriously, y'all have NO idea how masculine I look outside of my pictures). When I do finally socially transition, I'll probably have more thoughts.

With that out of the way, here's my personal experience so far:

I don't think I would have transitioned if I was NOT in academia/pursuing my PhD. I think most of the issues people run into can be divided into three categories:

1. Financial difficulty with acquiring HRT or other gender affirming care

2. Closer ties (financially and emotionally) to family and being seen less as an independent adult means greater pressure to not transition, and consequences if you do

3. Academic stress and pressure while you're undergoing emotional changes that may make things difficult short term.

Personally I was able to dodge most of those issues.

A huge part of this is because I spent a lot of time meticulously ensuring a lot of aspects of my life are in place before I started HRT. I waited until I was out of undergrad, which has weirder finances, I scoped out options at my student health center vs in the community, established queer community, waited a year to start in a good lab and establish there, scoped that lab out for queer acceptance before I joined, and in general became more financially and emotionally secure. Also, while I'm still in good terms with my parents, I'm not financially or emotionally reliant on them anymore- so if that changes when I come out, it won't affect me as much.

Looking back, it's hard to say whether I would recommend doing things this way. During the time that I was "figuring things out", I was dying. I was depressed and aimless, and I couldn't make happiness or contentment my baseline emotion. Starting an online femboy account was my only outlet for a while. Also, my results are going to be less drastic now that I've waited until I'm 25 to start.

Obviously, I still have the stress of a PhD to worry about while my emotions and body are changing. But to be honest.... My PhD has been kinder to me academically than my undergrad. All of my goals center around two or three long term, overarching projects instead of a million tiny assignment and study snippets from a million directions. I personally think this is easier to manage even if it's more work overall.

In return, the academia environment has been good to me about my queerness. There's a gender care specialist on campus via student health where I can get HRT, queer organizations and events are much easier to come by in a university environment, and people on average are far more educated and open minded towards LGBT issues than the general public. I have a role in the main queer graduate student group here, and it would have been hard for me to find explicitly supportive friends without that.

I'm gonna throw an additional paranoid note your way: a master's degree is hell for everyone. While the exact ways in which this is true vary from program to program, but in general, they feel like the worst of both worlds from undergrad and a PhD. You're locked out of or have less of a chance for the financial stability and employment positions of a PhD position, but you're also locked out of the financial aid and support of undergrads. I'm very biased from a miserable MS experience, though.

So yeah. I think my experience has been different than a lot of people, but I hope there was some small insight there!

#trans #transfemme #transitioning #academia #transgender

[valrvn]

Been thinking about kink and my body all week and have to get this down into words for my own sanity.

So like... I have a pregnancy kink and a weight gain kink. Getting the pregnancy stuff out of the way now, I'm not stupid enough to get pregnant just for the experience of getting pregnant, and the question of whether or not I want to be a parent some day is something that I've been going back and forth over for pretty much my entire adult life. If I do, it's not something that's going to happen anytime soon.

But like, weight gain is something that I am considering. Not a lot, mind you. I don't really have a goal weight, I don't even know how much I weigh now (somewhere around 170 or 180lbs? I think), but I do know how I'd like to look. I'm in this awkward spot right now where I'm not really thin, but I'm not chubby either. I think I look fatter than I actually am because I've always had a slight double chin, even when I was actually 100% skinny, so it feels like I'm already perceived as heavier than I am and I don't even get to enjoy having a belly. I do honestly think I'd look good fatter, and I think it'd help my dysphoria if I wasn't so small. I'm also asexual, so losing out on potential sexual partners because I'm heavier isn't really something I care about. And again, it's not like I want to get huge, depending on where you draw the line between chubby and fat, I don't even want to be fat. So basically, I do want to gain weight-

but

I have very little self control when it comes to food, which means several things. Firstly, it means that if I do gain weight and then decide I want to lose it, that will be hard. That's the most obvious issue, but just as important is the problem of changing my eating habits enough to gain weight. I don't eat healthy, at all, between the lack of self control and the ADHD induced sugar cravings, I eat pretty terribly, and it has led to some weight gain, but very slowly. And that's another problem, if I did get to a size I like, I'd probably end up surpassing it anyway, and I don't want that either.

**okay, as I'm typing this out, I'm realizing that what I should really do is learn to control my eating habits better. Like regardless of what I end up doing, it'd probably be a good skill no matter what. It won't happen in the next two years, because I have another two years of being a broke student, but I should really get on top of that shit when I'm out of school and have a. money, and b. time. Disregard the previous paragraph. I WILL learn to manage this. I will make myself manage this, no matter what I decide.**

I'm also really curious about trying to get a more temporary belly through bloat and stuffing, like, the prospect really does turn me on, but I'm an absolute baby about tummy aches. If I overeat even slightly, I will start acting pathetic (which may also be an obstacle for gaining weight). So idk if I can handle that sort of thing. Might try it once and go from there, but if anyone has any tips, I'm all ears.

Like, it's my body and I don't think I'm putting myself in harm's way by gaining a little extra fat, I also think the stress of grad school is the perfect cover to get fatter.

So yeah, I think I've actually talked myself into this, though there's still plenty of time for me to second guess my way out of it before this August when I'll have the privacy and opportunity to start.

#personal

[misswriteress]

[Begin Image Description: Two hands pressing against dark grey-green glass with faint smoke overlayed on top and the words Luna Paranormal Investigations.

End Image Description]

Title: Luna Paranormal Investigations

Genre: Adult Paranormal Horror

Setting: Calgary, Alberta and other various locations across Canada (and maybe outside of Canada as well?)

POV: Third Person, multiple

Themes/Tropes: Consequences of the past, forgiveness, healing, found family, fear of the unknown.

TWs: Gore, Abuse, Death

Status: Drafting

SUMMARY

In a world where psychics and supernatural entities are very real, yet not everyone believes, it's not easy for people to find help when one of those entities decides to stick around or when you suddenly start moving things around. That's where people like Luna Paranormal Investigations, founded by Dr. Javier Luna, come in: they'll come out and investigate to determine if what you're dealing with is really a ghost (or just a structural issue) and if it is the former, will help you and the spirit. But it's not always as simple as helping a ghost with unfinished business: sometimes the ghosts aren't so kind and they won't go without a fight, and sometimes it's not the ghosts you need to worry about...

Cast of Characters

Maren Holovko: A psychic who inherited her mediumship and clairvoyance powers from her father, she works as the receptionist for Luna Paranormal Investigations and is also Javier's wife. Her abilities have often been crucial to providing context for investigations, but they also can put a great strain on her especially since it makes her a magnet for not so nice entities.

Javier Luna: The founder of Luna Paranormal Investigations and holds a doctorate in Parapsychology. Has always been interested in the paranormal and more importantly wanted to help people who wouldn't have anyone else to turn to. While he can get very eager when it comes to paranormal phenomenon, he is very protective of his team and will not hesitate to protect them at the expense of himself (which exasperates Maren).

Beatriz Aguilar: Childhood friend of Luna and Felix, she's more of a skeptic when it comes to the paranormal (though she's certainly seen some things that have shaken her skepticism). Her background in historical research make her perfect for looking through archives to find information about the places and people they're investigating.

Felix Estrada: The third member of the trio, Felix is more like Luna when it comes to the paranormal though he also tends to get more freaked out when actually witnessing the events. Is the guy in charge of the tech, including both the cameras and the gadgets and despairs whenever his "babies" get broken because of a ghost. Is also happily married to his childhood sweetheart Leticia.

Phoebe Winters: One of Luna's grad students he chose to work as an intern for LPI, she is very enthusiastic when it comes to the position (sometimes too enthusiastic) and is eager to help. She comes from an old money family she's estranged from due to their disapproval about her chosen line of work along with other reasons.

Victor Baptiste: Luna's other grad student he chose as an intern, he's more of a skeptic than Phoebe who prefers to rely on the scientific evidence rather than merely gut feeling. Has no idea what he's gotten himself into.

Noel Martin: Not officially a part of LPI, but rather a freelancer the team calls on when required, they are a powerful pyrokinetic who can use their ability for protection and cleansing.

Callan Turner: A former exorcist who left the church after an event left him disillusioned and works freelance. He's known Noel for a long time and is the last resort for the team when a case gets lethally dangerous.

luna paranormal investigations playlist

More Info

So I'm not dead (well, that might be debatable-), real life just sucks but I've been working on another WIP as you can see, this one was actually planned to be a spin-off of my With a Spark of Magic WIP but I liked the characters and idea so much I re-worked it to make it into its own world.

#writeblr #wtwcommunity #wip: luna paranormal investigations #wip introduction #very much inspired by Ghost Hunt #And also maybe a bit of Buzzfeed Unsolved/Ghost Files #I just really wanted to write a paranormal investigation story okay

[therenlover]

✨TheRenLovers (Updated) Fanfic Glossary✨

Updated 9/7/23

A glossary of my past works and ongoing projects. Also comes with a handy dandy list for request guidelines! I mostly post x Reader fics, but I'm looking to branch out into established ships soon. To join my fresh, new taglist for any character, just shoot me a message. I also crosspost all my works to my Ao3, which you can find Here!.

This post is a beefy boy, so for the sake of your dash the rest is below the cut.

Red = Abandoned Project (I may eventually complete these, but I have no current plans to)

A Note About Requests

As long as my ask box is open, I am taking requests or questions! I can't promise every request will be completed, or that the ones that are requested will be finished in a timely manner. I'm an adult with a full time job, so sometimes writing takes a backseat. That being said, I will do my best to complete any requests that come my way, so feel free to ask if you're hoping to see something! The worst I could do is direct you to someone who might be able to make what you're looking for.

I am pretty open about what I write, but if a request makes me uncomfortable/isn't something I'm interested in writing, I, again, will try my best to reach out and guide you in the right direction to get that type of content. If you're worried your message got buried/forgotten, don't hesitate to message again. My brain is soup and I can be the worst person on earth at responding.

⚔️Baldur's Gate 3⚔️

Put Me Back In It (I Would Do It Again)

Synopsis: When Tav sold her soul to Raphael for Astarion's, she only hoped it would be worth the price. If only she remembered anything from before she entered the House of Hope...

Rating: E (+18)

Word Count: 40,000~ (Ongoing)

❤️Marvel❤️

Helmut Zemo 💜

One Last Night In Madripoor

Synopsis: Baron Helmut Zemo is a lonely, wanted man looking for some fun, you’re a piss-poor bounty hunter in search of a connection before leaving your life of crime behind, and fate has brought you together at a party the likes of which has never been seen before. You only have one night left in Madripoor, so why not take a chance?

Rating: E (+18)

Word Count: 4200~

Still Some Catching Up To Do

Synopsis: As a member of the criminal underworld, people walk out of your life all the time. Some are killed, others kill themselves, most get caught and only a couple get out of the life unscathed, disappearing into the world never to be seen again. Very few walk back in. So when your supposedly incarcerated ex-lover, the Winter Soldier, and the Falcon waltzed through your door and made you murder your boss, needless to say, you were surprised and more than a little bit pissed.

Rating: M (+16)

Word Count: 6800~

Nine Years Starved

Synopsis: It had been a little over nine years since Helmut Zemo lost his family, his country, and his sanity. Nine years since his last kiss. Nine years since he felt like a human man. Finally, he was ready to start over again, but first, he had to pay his penance back where it all began; Novi Grad. That’s when, by the grace of the fates, he met you.

Rating: G

Word Count: 7000~

Daddy Dearest

Synopsis: Not everyone gets lucky enough to go from being a broke college student in New York to being the sugar baby to literal royalty, but not everyone is you. Most people would be worried about messing things up or losing him to someone else, but you knew he would never find another baby just like you. Besides, you knew exactly what to do to keep him wrapped around your little finger. He may have been the daddy, but you pulled the reins.

Rating: E (18+)

Word Count: 8000~

In Fleeting Touches and Airy Sighs

Synopsis: As a wanted man, Helmut Zemo spends most of his time jumping from place to place in the hopes of avoiding a trip back to prison. Unfortunately, that means he can’t always be home in your arms. When he is, though, in the rare moments of calm, you’re reminded of just how worth it it’s been to wait, even if that wait was only shortened by the arrival of your enemies.

Rating: E (18+)

Word Count: 35,700~

Two Bodies In The Rain

Synopsis: It was raining the day you finally had to admit your feelings to Helmut. You hated to tell him the way you did, under the grey skies as your blood pooled below you, but at least you knew, in the end, he had seen the real you, even just once. That was enough.

Rating: T

Word Count: 5600~

Rest

Synopsis: Living life on the lam with your escaped super-villain lover means things rarely slow down enough for a real rest. When the exhaustion starts to take its toll on you, though, he knows exactly what to do to ease the pain. He may not be a good man, but he’s a good husband when it counts.

Rating: T

Word Count: 3200~

The Boy With The Easel

Synopsis: About a month into your first semester at Novi Grad’s top university, you finally meet the strange young man that you’ve taken to calling “easel boy” in the back of a bookshop. From a distance, he always seemed cold and aloof. As you get to know him, though, you realize things aren’t always what they seem.

Rating: T

Word Count: 7000~

Orestes Fasting and Pylades Drunk

Synopsis: Helmut recalls the story of how he came to be the ruthless man he is and, more specifically, how he came into possession of his strange purple mask.

Rating: M (+16)

Word Count: 10,200~

Balm

Synopsis: Your forbidden dalliance with Baron Zemo, the lord of the house, has finally landed you in the dungeons, subject to the whims of the guards and the endless passage of time. As your sanity slips away, you wonder what will come first, your execution or the Baron's return?

Rating: M (+18)

Word Count: 5,800~

Always For A Second (Usually At The Start)

Synopsis: Leaving Helmut for good had been the biggest, most final choice you'd ever had to make. Two years later, he's in your living room again. This time, though, things are different.

Rating: E (+18)

Word Count: 8,600~

🖤American Horror Story🖤

James Patrick March 🔪

Heartsick

Synopsis: When you fall ill, James is given a forceful awakening about how he’s been neglecting your needs and what he must do to prevent harm from befalling you again.

Rating: M (16+)

Word Count: 3700~

In Sickness And In Health

Synopsis: Normally people don’t have their wedding and funeral on the same day, but you and James don’t quite have a normal relationship, do you? Besides, you wouldn’t wanna go any other way.

Rating: E (18+)

Word Count: 5500~

Jimmy Darling 🦞

Red Nights In Jupiter

Synopsis: At the end of another long day, you fall into bed with Jimmy Darling. The men you served throughout the day don’t matter then, nor do the coins in the mason jar by the door, or the women scheduled to attend Jimmy’s next Tupperware party. No, in that quiet darkness it’s just you and the man you love, bone-tired and happy to be home. Who could ask for more?

Rating: M (16+)

Word Count: 3000~

#jac rambles #fanfiction

[trivalentlinks]

#part of the reason i already had N95 masks when covid hit was that i used to use them for vent exploration #(the university i went to for grad school (which was also adjacent to my undergrad uni) had an avid bunch of building explorers #roofs and tunnels and building shafts and yes vents) #(the vents were unusually spacious i think in some of the older academic buildings but wow they were DUSTY!) #(i'm not allergic but i didn't like the idea of all that dust in my lungs) #(i also had a set of clothes i didn't mind getting permanently grimey for this reason) #(vent exploration can be pretty loud (rattling the vents) but the buildings were so old the vents were loud anyway :-) ) #(also there were enough students who enjoyed roof/tunnel/shaft/vent exploration that people turned a deaf ear to it i guess)

okay this is super cool and I was under the sad impression that vents big enough to crawl through weren't really a thing IRL, so please consider me delighted. did you find anything interesting that way? did you ever go exploring with others or run into them while you were? free space to talk about vents if you want (I can't believe I just typed those words) <3

[either private or public is fine!]

<3 <3 <3

Haha, yeah I was also under the impression that vents are not big enough for adults to crawl through, and I think this is true for most modern buildings, which was why the first time someone brought me somewhere and was like "now we're gonna go through these vents", I thought they were pranking me--I was like "that's not a thing", but I guess in older buildings this is a thing!

I never really found anything new, though there were little notes and signatures people had left in all sorts of odd places, mostly maintenance shafts, and it was kind of awesome to see how many years back the tradition went

Also I should be clear, when I say "exploring" I mean in the sense of exploring places that are new to me; I never went places that other people I knew hadn't already gone to before--it may not be clear to people who only know me online, but I'm a very high-strung and risk-averse person

-- did you ever go exploring with others...

always, yeah; it was considered a group activity; I only ever went with people who had more experience than I did, but my understanding is that even the most experienced people never went alone;

it was believed to be dangerous to go alone, because you could get stuck somewhere (no-one I knew ever actually got stuck, and the campus was pretty safe about not having spaces that were easier to get in than out, but in theory), and if you're deep in a basement, there might be no reception (also the culture predates mobile phones, so the tradition of it being a group activity could also be from that)

the group i went with met on Saturday nights at midnight (i think? i don't remember exactly) in front of a cafe and would only go if there were at least 3 or 4 people

-- ...or run into them while you were?

i remember running into another group once; I think it happens more towards the beginning of the semester before people start getting really busy;

the university also had a huge event during prospective students' visiting weekend where some undergrads would show the kids around, and then the tunnels, shafts and roofs would be absolutely overrun, haha (the school was widely known for having one of the best prospective students' visiting weekends)

-- free space to talk about vents if you want

Not vents exactly, but there's one roof-and-tunnel hacking story i'm kinda proud of:

there was this one maintenance shaft in one of the buildings that had a very tall space that you had to climb up to get to a specific space, and the group i was with had a tradition of letting new people try to figure out a way up themselves (in the sense of coming up with the ideas themselves, solutions that involved someone giving you a boost and you pulling them up are, of course, valid) before telling them the standard solutions, just to see if they could come up with something new

anyway, off to one side, there was this metal pipe that went all the way up, so I rolled my jeans up (for more friction between the legs), grabbed the pipe and vertically climbed it pole-dancing style, (because i'd been taking pole dancing classes for a few months at that point)

the others were pretty surprised and said they hadn't actually seen a new solution in a while

Anyway thank you so much for asking <3 <3

#vents #building exploration #roof and tunnel hacking #urban exploration

[hylianengineer]

Goddamn it, I have either triggered the Dairy-Allergy-Induced-Anxiety, or I am simply incapable of calming down after this chaotic day. Maybe both.

Also I keep hearing noises I really hope are fireworks... but who sets off fireworks on Halloween? Isn't that illegal? Which isn't to say people don't do it...

I'm really Not Over the sulfuric acid incident at work today. I'm physically completely unharmed but emotionally very shaken up. I've never had a real lab accident before that required reporting or medical advice or anything. This one might not have technically required it either, but the MSDS (material safety data sheet - records we keep on every chemical we use that hold safety and first aid information) said to get medical attention. So I called Poison Control. I'm not even sure why I decided that was the correct people to call - it was very much not an emergency situation since there were no visible injurjes, and who else knows about chemical exposure? Maybe the University EHS department, whose phone number is on the lab door, but really, I don't know who they are or what they do beyond picking up our haz waste. I'm told I made the right call but I feel really self concious about it - why did I call Poison Control, aren't they supposed to deal with small children putting weird things in their mouths, not lab techs with chemical spills? They seemed totally unphased though. And it worked out, they knew what to do, I didn't actually get hurt, I took all the precautions.

After I got off the phone with Poison Control - but before I knew for sure everything was ok, because apparently acid burns don't always develop immediately and they said they'd call me back in an hour - I went upstairs to the grad students' office hoping against hope my favorite PhD student would be there. For emotional support and to have someone around slightly more experienced in Lab Stuff than me. She was not there. However, the PI and a couple other people were having a meeting in the conference room across the hall, and noticed me, and asked if I needed something - I do not generally come to that part of the building. I told her the whole story, and she looked at my not-burn (it seemed completely normal) and told me I did all the right things and it seemed like everything would be fine and asked if I needed anything. Then I went back to the lab, panicked some more, and waited for the Poison Control people to call me back. Which they did 45 minutes late, but I guess they're busy and this was low priority. Fair.

I feel so... ugh. That I was never taught who you call about stuff like this. I know to run acid-affected skin under running water for fifteen minutes. (I even know WHY you're not supposed to neutralize an acid burn with a base: acid+base=water+HEAT.) I know - in theory - how safety showers and chemical spill kits work (I'm so glad I didn't have to test THOSE!). But as for who to call afterwards? It was always assumed someone who knew more than me would be around to handle it. I was the only person in the lab today, and I didn't even know there were other lab members in the building. If I needed help but it wasn't 911 levels of bad, what the hell was I supposed to do? Fucking improvise? If I could've left the lab I could've gone to the office where I know some people - but I was kinda trapped at the sink running my arm under water for a minimum of fifteen minutes. And what the hell do the office folks know about chemical spills anyways?

Is this what being an adult is always like? Constantly figuring things out alone even though you feel like there should be someone older and more experienced and more Trained For This Shit around to handle it?

We used to have a lab manager who I assumed would be around to help if anything like this ever happened. She left six months ago and I've been doing half her job ever since. I'm not trained for this. And on Friday I have to go back to work and keep doing shit I wasn't trained for - this time attempting to repair the ion chromatograph.

Part of me feels like I freaked out over nothing. One drop of acid on one inch of exposed skin. Part of me feels angry that I feel like that. It was fine. It WAS fine. But how was I supposed to know that? I just did what the best information I had at the time - the MSDS - told me to do. Kind of. In the only way I could figure out how to do it. I'm kind of starting to think the MSDS writers need to take a chill pill - I swear every time I end up really needing one, it says something really scary, I act accordingly, and then I feel like an idiot afterwards. (Long story.)

#if i was at the parents house i would not bat an eye because people there do target shooting in their backyards #but i am in the city and you can't do that here #if it was gunshots surely there would be sirens by now. no sirens. #god i feel like this post needs content warnings but i don't know which ones #vent post #probably not osha compliant #like yes i was wearing ALL the PPE as is standard for handling acid and yet. still got it on my skin right between my glove and my labcoat. #the lack of me being trained for where to get reliable safety info is probably not osha compliant #i DO know how to use an msds. just... they really don't tell you much. and they say it in jargon too. #long post #content warning not otherwise specified #gun violence mention

[mermaidsirennikita]

https://twitter.com/Zulo_Ren/status/1770256561388101881?t=66YKLffNnA-VEcUhjybfLQ&s=19

My bad I probably should have just sent it to you in the first place!

Thank you, no worries! And...

Dude, I'm sorry, how the fuck does this individual think some professor is gonna walk up to HR and go "don't fire me, I thought it was okay because of this romance novel". Lmao be fr. I hate the phrase "touch grass" but touch fuckin' grass because what kind of separation from reality do you have to have to think that adults are going to abuse their power.... because of a book.

I actually think the relationship between Adam and Olive is really debatably dicey because they don't have professional interactions from what I recall? But it's been a while since I read the book, and again, the professors out there who are fucking grad students are already doing it regardless of how unethical it is, and regardless of whether or not that book is out. Like, I'm picturing a prof, probably in their 30s at least, going "you know, I though fucking my advisee would be a bad move... but I've been led on a different path by The Love Hypothesis".

And I do wanna make another thing clear here: I do not care if fictional advisors fuck their fictional adult students. I don't care! I don't care. Because fiction is not prescriptive, and I would also add that it is RECKLESS to compare two adults in a situation wherein there is a potential abuse of power but for all intents and purposes, both are consenting... to a teacher/student relationship, in which a minor is involved and CANNOT CONSENT.

I think that from a fictional perspective, an adult student fucking their prof is more akin to boss/employee romances, which I also think are fine. Advisable in real life? Probably not, though also not SET IN STONE disasters/crimes, the way an adult assaulting a minor is. Ethical? Probably not. But on a similar level in fiction, ESPECIALLY in Ali's settings imo because these students are really very much grown academics on their own research paths. There is a big difference between an undergrad and someone doing postgrad research. Jesus. Olive is learning, as an example, but she is also literally doing her work. She is working to cure a disease. She's not sitting there taking class after class, she is DOING WORK. Learning from people, but it's HER JOB, also. As is often the case in academia.

Which is why I compare her situation more to boss/employee, except ADAM IS NOT HER BOSS.

So yeah, idk, media literacy is dead goodbye lmao

#romance novel blogging #it's been a good while since i read that book so forgive me if i've confused some details but ffs #and pls i'm not telling anyone that fucking their boss or their prof is a good idea #don't do those things is my perspective #but let's not act like the fallout from those situations (which can occur! but is not guaranteed to occur) #is the same as a teacher preying on a child

[angria]

Busy week because of meetings for school, so I guess that kept my mind busy as well. Mood has been a little better....don't know if that is just compartmentalization. Although, I know I shouldn't judge it....

T was back in the office this week, which was a huge relief since I'm going to my home-state next week and growing increasingly anxious over it.

Just really thankful I'm at my current university and its social work program. They are so on top of everything and so organized, actually looking out for their students. Plus, the amount of social justice incorporated into the class material is still stunning (in a good way) compared to my previous grad school that prides itself on being social justice oriented (which is laughable now).

Discovered a pair of grey jeans I have, but never wear and actually really like them? Not sure why they were buried in my dresser.

Finally finished an adult book that was decently written. I always stick with YA because adult fiction has such shitty writing most of the time. And random, useless sex plots that I don't want to read. It's called A Flicker In The Dark by Stacy Willingham...crime thriller that was semi-predictable, but kept my attention. Just loaned her second book. Also took out We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver...I read such happy books....

Got some of my favorite cookies on a whim. I still struggle with getting food I was never allowed to have (my parents were incredibly controlling when it came to food intake) and T has been emphasizing lately that I buy these foods as part of self-care.

Weather has been really nice this week! Finally consistently cold!

#the weekly positives #angriadm

[silent-silver-slip]

Fires please please please write Charlie Weasley + his dragon tamer friends going to pick up Norbert through the lens of them as an exhausted, over-caffeinated grad school cohort trying to avoid working on their dragon tamer's equivalent of a thesis.

Knits, I love you and I ADORED This prompt and it went in a direction i did not expect, but I did enjoy writing some fun OCs. My apologies for any mistakes - I had work until 2am, am going off 5 hours of sleep, and it's almost bed time.

Needless to say, I'm a little tired lol. Story is below the line along with some fun little notes I made along the way!

Charlie feels like no one warmed him that studying dragons involved reports.

Which, look, sure it probably could have been explained in the whole ‘studying’ thing, and it’s not like Charlie minds reading or writing about dragons. He can do physical reports and description reports and health reports (and even incident reports)—but! He didn’t sign up for writing a Merlin damn thesis.

Except for, y’know, how he kind of did.

“Does anyone want to swap thesis topics?” Taylor asks, from where they’re on their bed—though, perhaps, it would be more accurate to say that they’re hanging off their bed, hair touching the ground. “I don’t think I understand anything about the keratin growth and how the production changes from an adult dragon to a hatchling dragon. I didn’t sign up to learn chemistry!”

Jessie kicks zir legs out. “I’ll trade,” ze says. “Do you know how little research exists on how sunlight effects the properties of dragon scales while the dragons themselves are still alive? The answer, in case you were wondering, is very little!”

“Would our supervisors kill us if we swapped topics a week before our three-minute presentations?” Charlie muses.

“Yes,” is the resounding answer he receives from the two other parties in the room. Charlie accepts this with a groan, and rolls over so that he’s face-first in the carpet. If he’s lucky, he might suffocate and die and not have to present his thesis at all.

One can always have hope.

There’s a moment of silence before Sunny says, “I suppose it’s a good time to mention I’m back?”

Charlie rolls over, and makes grabby hands at one of the mugs that Sunny has levitating beside her. “I love you,” he says. “What would I do without you?”

“That would be almost romantic if I didn’t know you were talking to your coffee,” Sunny says, “and also maybe if I was straight. Anyway, I caught the ends of the conversation—and I think our problems can all be blamed on one source.”

“Oh?” Taylor—no longer upside-down—says, before taking a long slurp of their coffee. Charlie pulls a face at the sound. At least he remembers his manners, for the most part.

Sunny hums as she hands Jessie zir drink. “Indeed. It’s Charlie’s fault.”

Charlie splutters, coughs, and almost dies by coffee. “I’m sorry, how?”

“Well,” Sunny says, as she begins to levitate herself, legs crossed, “consider our thesis topics themselves—do you know how often it is that there’s a focus on dragon health and safety to a standard above and beyond the Ministry standards? It’s not that often at all, you know.” The carpet rises until Sunny is sitting on it, and Charlie doesn’t know whether to frown at it—it never works for him—or at Sunny for her slander.

“She’s got a point,” Jessie says. Ze taps zir fingers against zir mug. “I mean, the sanctuary is a sanctuary, but usually research tends to be a little less ethical.”

By now, Charlie is well and truly frowning. “Just say cruel,” he says, anger growling in his chest like a dragon. “I mean, we’ve heard the rumours about how the goblins treat their dragons! But if I want to launch a rescue, it’s wrong and going to start a goblin war. I’m sure they wouldn’t notice if I figured out a way to create a spell that did the same thing without the whole sentient problem.”

“You,” Taylor says, with all the dramatics an over-caffeinated thesis student can contain, “are going to be trying to create this spell for years.”

Charlie sniffs. “That’s better than your first opinion of it taking decades,” he says, like he isn’t aware of the fact it will, likely, take decades. “Anyway, I fail to see how my caring for dragons wellbeing has anything to do with the struggles we face with our thesis?”

“I mean, it makes sense,” Taylor says. “The lack of research we run into is partially a result of our methods, really. I only look at shed scales, as does Jessie. You’re just insane, and Sunny is trying to start a new branch of research all on their own based on records from the dragon riders’ action in the war.”

“Well, when you put it that way,” Charlie says, and they all laugh at that.

Silence falls over the group as they let the warmth—and caffeine—of their drinks sink into their bloodstreams. Charlie glances at the letter off to the side, which he’d been using as a bookmark in a four-hundred-page book on how dragons have motivated spell development.

Pressing his lips together, Charlie considers it, and then surveys his friends and fellow students. Technically, they’re not formally recognised as students as they work on the sanctuary and get paid for it, but the research they do is a requirement to be recognised as having the academic requirements to work with dragons and, considering their workload on the sanctuary, Charlie bets that they’ll all get the title dragon tamer/worker or something too.

“You staring at the note like it hurt you personally for a reason, Char?”

Jessie’s voice has Charlie blinking and shaking his head. He really did drift away in his thoughts for a second. “I was wondering whether we would all like a break,” he says, “complete with a dragon hatchling and some adrenaline and maybe some minor illegal activities. Y’know, just for some fun.”

“Count me in,” Taylor says, with approximately zero hesitation—and it’s times like this that Taylor’s criminal record makes sense.

Somewhat more reasonable, Jessie says, “Can I ask for a bit more information?”

Charlie tosses the note in zir direction, only for the note to drift aimlessly down to the ground because—unsurprisingly—paper isn’t that good to throw when it’s not crumbled up into a ball. Pulling a face at it, Charlie says, “Well, one of my old teachers might have gotten a dragon illegally, and it might be a very dangerous breed, and he’s maybe keeping it in a wooden hut. Not fireproof, mind you. My youngest brother—Ron—found out and he and his friends think it would be best if the dragon was no longer where the dragon currently is.”

Jessie blinks once at his explanation, and then says, “Yeah, sure I’m in. Sunny?”

“Hm?” Sunny looks up at the call of her name. “Oh, I’m down. Sorry, didn’t think I needed to verbalise it. Tomorrow night, then?”

“Sure,” Charlie says with a shrug, rather nonplussed at how quickly it’s all coming together. His friends, after all, are insanely intelligent for all that they grumble over their thesis topics and research and the number of hours they spend on crying as opposed to actual writing.

So, really, there’s nothing else Charlie can say except, “I’ll bring the coffee.”

Additional notes:

Love how this kinda became crack

Sunny is trans (amab) and goes by Sunil, technically, but prefers Sunny by all

All of them are queer to varying degrees, which is just on point

Please don't ask me how any of the thesis work or how the whole academic requirements work because I will either not remember any thoughts I had while writing this or I will go off on a tangent (this is a joke, feel free to ask)

Yes I am scared of the fact I have to write a thesis for my degree, next question

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed! I will likely upload this to AO3 when I locate a brain cell to edit and I'm not yawning so much lol.

#ask #wip #harry potter

[pens-swords-stuff]

Hello friend :) always happy to see you on my dash. Just wanted to pop in and ask, how have you been doing lately? Do you have any new goals you’ve set out for this new year? (I hesitate to say New Year’s resolution bc I feel like not many really make those or keep up with them but instead I like the idea of making overall goals for myself to improve my mental health, personal/social well being etc etc)

Hi Chichi! I've also been seeing you on my dash more often and it's been absolutely lovely seeing you around again.

I totally get what you mean abotu New Year's resolutions. It's such a loaded concept, so I've also reframed it as goals for the new year.

My intentions for 2023 is to be curious, explore more and be kind to myself.

For me, 2022 was very much a year of survival. I was a full time grad student, which wasn't easy. Then I graduated, and had to hardcore study for my licensing exam. Then I started my career and got my first real adult full-time job that is very mentally taxing. On top of that, my grandmother died, my other grandmother got dementia, a close family relative is in the late stages of cancer, and my mother (who I live with) went back to Japan for several months and I had to become more self-sufficient.

A lot of good things happened in 2022, but a lot of really hard things happened too, and all of my energy was dedicated to surviving and being able to function. I didn't have any room to do anything else.

So for 2023, I want to give myself the ability to be curious and explore any and all interests I have. Now that things have calmed down and I'm getting used to being a full time adult, I want to be able to do things that I wasn't able to in 2022.

I have a lot of interests, and I've historically dabbled in a ton of stuff, but never really kept at it for very long. So instead of talking myself out of things, I want to just pursue any whim that I have while being kind and gentle with myself since I'm a beginner.

The first whim that I'm following is drawing! I want to get really good at sketching. I've somehow convinced the people around me that I'm a good artist despite being absolutely horrible at art, because I'm pretty decent at copying. So I decided to embrace it and just start practicing and copyhing things! I pulled out some old art books, and honestly I was pretty surprised at how good I was at drawing now, compared to when I was really into it when I was younger.

So hoping that I can carry this energy and experience into the rest of 2023!

It’s Sleepover Sunday: Come chat with me!

#undine answers stuff #sleepover sunday