#you don’t need to be an expert on any of the topics you write about to have a successful blog. For example

[withlovelunette]

How to construct character psychology!

– Introduction

Hello hello! :D I’ve been very slow with my writing lately due to uni work (and some unforeseen health issues), but I’d like to still be able to make content and be interactive in the writing community, so I’m here again to share some advice based on my own experiences! One of my favourite things about writing is writing characters, specifically constructing a character’s psychology. I’d like to preface this post by saying that while I’ve had formal classes in psychology, I’m by no means any sort of expert within the field, and I also don’t believe that every aspect of how a character is written needs to be rooted in realism. However, I do want to share some insights that I got from it, and also because I feel like “character psychology” has this very mystified weight to it that makes it seem a lot bigger and intimidating than it needs to be.

So! My goal is just to share some advice on how to break down a character’s psychology and work from there! If you like what you read and would like to read more, I’ve also written a post about creating “complex” characters, which you can find the link to here! Aaand yes I think that’s about all I have to say beforehand, I hope you enjoy :,)

What do I mean when I say psychology?

Before getting into the nitty-gritty, I’d like to start with the basics, just to make sure people are on the same page when reading this post. When I’m talking about psychology here, I’m specifically referring to a character’s cognition, as in how they process information and act on it/make judgments. I’m not necessarily referring to personality in this case (although personality is an aspect of psychology, but I’m more so referring to personality as a consequence of cognition here, rather than as a collage of traits and behaviour).

Another thing I want to clarify is that exactly how much of human behaviour is nurture vs nature is a hotly debated topic that I’m completely under-qualified to take a stance on, but for the sake of this post; I believe both are equally essential aspects of human behaviour, so just keep that in mind! (I’m looking at any behaviourists in the chat rn). That being said; I’m not really comfortable treating psychology as “nature” (as such rhetorics are often used in gender-essentialist and other bigoted ways of thinking), so my main focus will be nurture, since that’s what is most readily observable!

Determining character motivation

If you’re working with very little or bare minimum characterization, my recommendation is to consider; what motivates a person to act? And by this, I’m not referring to the external quest or goal behind the character, but rather, what’s the core of what motivates your character to act at all? Even in grand, epic adventures of good vs evil, where the external goal is as simple as “putting an end to whatever evil the bad guys are doing”, there needs to be a reason a character is specifically on the side that they’re on. Multiple characters can be on the same side, but they might find themselves on that side for vastly different reasons, even when their exterior goals are the same. From there, you’ll want to consider what informs this motivation in particular.

One technique I love to employ, when still figuring out my character, is to have them make some sort of bizarre decision, a decision I’d initially think to be improbable for this particular character, and then try to list off various justifications or variables that would allow for this character to make this particular decision. There’s a couple of reasons for why I do this.

1) It removes some of the pressure to have a perfectly cohesive, perfectly put together and neatly defined character from the get-go. The drafting process isn’t just for plot and story structure’s sake, it’s also there for you to experiment with characters! Having your characters make story altering decisions that possibly challenge or contradict themselves is a great way to make sure that you’re writing active characters as opposed to more passive ones, and I think the first couple of drafts should really be a playground for you to see just how far you can stretch your characters based on their characterisation.

2) It helps me clarify what is and isn’t important in my character’s decision making. I’m a firm believer that most decisions/actions aren’t inherently in or out of character; it just depends on whether or not the readers/viewers can understand the character’s thought process behind their decision, and this ultimately comes down to how well you, as the writer, conveys the character’s priorities when they make decisions. If you’re established that a character acts based on a code of honour, an exterior source to morality and conduct, then the justifications and reasonings they would use to justify murder would likely be very different than a character who acts based on their own convictions. This is also a great way to show character development; by showing how a character’s decisions gradually change as their cognition change as they develop.

3) It allows me to explore nuance and make note of potential contradictions within the character’s way of thinking—which is often the most interesting aspects of a character’s psychology, at least in what I enjoy to write and read. Most real people don’t have perfectly cohesive morals, and most people can’t always act congruently with their morals either, so allow for your characters to make some bizarre decisions! See how far you can stretch their cognition! These decisions don’t have to be canon to the story, but it’s a good way to actually solidify what line of thinking your character makes when faced with difficult and potentially morally indicative choices.

Work your way backwards!

If you already have the overall traits and behavior of your character pinned down, you can always work your way backwards! As a pantser, this is a very common occurrence for me. I have a character with a clear goal and defined characteristics, but they’re completely uninformed so far, as I usually discover the cause of their motivation and characteristics as I write the story. As such, most of my characters don’t have any sort of backstory established until I’m much further into the process, as I discover it as I go along. So here’s some things I look out for in my character writing when creating a backstory after I’ve already established a character.

1) What are some things the character is often drawn towards? Humans are typically very habitual, a lot of us enjoy some sense of familiarity (to varying degrees depending on the person), and taking note of what your character tends to gravitate towards can be a great stepping stone to fleshing out backstory. An example could be a somewhat cold, stoic character who’s incredibly picky with their relationships due to trust issues (pretty common characterization) has a tendency to let their guard down more when around elderly people. Why is that? Maybe they were raised by very old parents, or even grandparents. Maybe it’s a cultural thing to treat elderly with more respect. Maybe it’s a religious thing. Maybe it’s because elderly people have treated them with more kindness in the past, etc. Note that this can be flipped too! Maybe this character feels uneasy around people closer to their own age, or even people who are younger than them.

2) How does your character socialize? The way a character approached social settings can often be very indicative of how they were raised, as that tends to affect how people form attachments (according to attachment theory in psychoanalysis, at least). Are they very sociable? If so, why? Is it because they’re accustomed to being around a lot of people? Maybe they had a very large family, or maybe they had a family that took part in a very active social sphere. Maybe this character just comes off as sociable because they understand the value of social connections. Why’s that? Maybe their family have a political influence, or maybe they have a business they want to sell, etc. Or maybe it’s the complete opposite; maybe this character grew up with little to no family at all, and that’s why they want to make friends and connections. If so, then maybe that affects how they make decisions, leaving them incredibly loyal and somewhat co-dependent. Even the smallest character traits and behaviours can be expanded upon to inform you of how that character was possibly raised, it’s really just about digging into said behaviour!

3) How receptive are they to new experiences or other people’s perspective? This is also somewhat linked to attachment theory, but it doesn’t have to be approached that way! The reason I bring this point up is because I find that a character’s receptiveness is often a good way to gauge their relationship with their parent. For example, a character with very strict, traditionalist parents might adopt that outlook on life because it offers them a sense of stability and security. They weren’t raised to be adaptable or to adjust themselves to new experiences, and thus have a difficult time accepting things outside of their established paradigm. This would suggest that this character likely didn’t rebel much to their parents’ outlooks on things (or if they tried, they failed), since they adopted said outlook for themselves. Another way to write this character (with the same premise) is to have them react in the opposite way; maybe they are super open and receptive because the rigidness of their parents prevented them from ever experiencing anything. Maybe the status quo bored them, or maybe they see their parents as narrow minded. This characterisation suggests that there’s possibly more tension (not necessarily in a negative way) between the character and their parents.

Interplay between morals & behaviour

A character’s morals and behaviour don’t always have to align. Like I mentioned in an earlier point, humans hold a lot of contradictions, and how people cope with those contradictions can vary. However, how do you determine if a contradiction is purposeful rather than a case of out-of-character writing?

Let’s say you have a character who views all animals as sacred, and this is something they were raised with. Suddenly, this character is thrust into a situation in a different world/kingdom/region/etc. where eating animal meat is the only viable food option to survive. They decide to do it, despite their morals directly conflicting with this behaviour.

One way this character might justify this is by thinking “well, my intentions matter most, and my intention was never to hurt animals, so while I feel bad for killing an animal for food, my intentions of doing so respectfully makes this action more acceptable to me.”

But another character in the exact same situation might not be satisfied with such logic. Maybe they see intentions as irrelevant, and only care about the consequences of their actions. If it’s been established beforehand that a character is consequentialist, then this action, paired with the justification above, would feel incredibly out of character, because the logic behind the justification is not intuitive to the reader.

Whether a contradiction feels purposeful or out-of-character ultimately boils down to what information and how much of it you’ve given to the readers, so that they have the information necessary to break down the interplay between the character’s morals and behaviour. 

Using other tools (cognitive functions, socionics, enneagram, etc.)

As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, I’m very interested in various types of typology (mbti probably being the most popular and well known one), and while I consider all forms of typology to fall under pseudo psychology, I often use these tools to help me better understand my own characters better! I personally gravitate towards cognitive functions (which is not the same system as mbti, even though it uses the same letter system) as they help me put into words my character’s cognition, and enneagram, which describes behaviour and motivations that arise from a person’s upbringing and coping mechanisms. There’s other things you can take into consideration as well, like socionics, temperaments, attitudinal psyche, etc!

I’m not suggesting you use these as replacements for developing characters, but they can be great supplements when trying to dig deeper into your character’s psychology! I’d also argue that you get more out of putting these systems into use if you learn about typology and analyse your characters yourself instead of taking a test for them, but I’m also very biased in this regard, since I enjoy analysing my characters myself :,) And there are times where I’ll take a few tests to help solidify my breakdown if I’m having a difficult time labelling my character correctly. Honestly, just have fun with it!!

– Outro

Sorry for yet another lengthy post! And sorry it was a bit later than I’d anticipated, I had a much busier weekend than I thought I’d have, so I kept having to squeeze writing in anytime I had enough spare time to sit down, and then I stumbled across a series of health complications that I’m still trying to sort out. Which, speaking of, thank you so much to everyone who’s been wishing me good luck! I’m still working on figuring out what’s wrong, but I’m making progress!

As usual, my asks and messages are always open, so feel free to shoot me a message about anything! Even if I may be slower with my replies ^^; Thank you for reading! <3

#original post #writing advice #writing tips #psychology #characters

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Do you do “cuteness”/safety ratings?

I do not. I am not a fan of the concept of “ratings” blogs in general, honestly. There’s a couple of reasons for that.

Firstly, I am a Tumblr Old, and every ratings-type blog I’ve ever seen that existed to tell people if animal content was okay or not has imploded over time. Sometimes that has been related to their content/topic of choice, sometimes not. It happened when the first blogs like that showed up, and it’s still happening now. Either way, they seem to be a direct path to endless drama, and I want none of that, thanks.

Second, ratings blogs have to be really, really tightly curated to the expertise of the blogger in order to be trustworthy, accurate sources. And when you’re in a position of being seen as an expert on animal stuff by the internet, it’s incredibly tempting to step outside your area of expertise to pass judgement on things. People like your opinions and want to hear them! You’re respected for your knowledge! It is a seductive, seductive path to being far too comfortable speaking outside your wheelhouse.

This is actually part of why the blog slowed down a few years ago and eventually went on hiatus for a while: as it got more and more popular, people wanted me to cover more and more things, and I ended up kinda paralyzed by the need to do so much research in order to respond to those requests. I didn’t want to spread misinformation, but it was so hard to just say no and not try to answer questions. I’m much more comfortable now setting boundaries for myself about what I know enough to address and what I don’t have the appropriate credentials for.

Third, to do any successful science communication - which is what running a rating blog effectively is - you have to know what you don’t know! This is something that comes with time and professional experience in a field. You can’t speedrun it or skip it. And if you don’t know what you don’t know on a topic you want to write about, you’re at high risk of spreading misinformation. Guess what? I know this one from experience! There were times I overreached in the early days of WADTT, either because I didn’t know I was unaware of something, or because it just felt so good to have people want to know what I thought! (My goal is to find the time to go back and share those posts with updated, corrected content and commentary).

As mentioned above, I do a lot of work to be comfortable with not knowing things. I either do the research needed to find an answer when I run into an unknown, admit I don’t know and can’t answer, or simply don’t engage with the topic if I can’t contribute productively. This is where a lot of ratings blogs run into issues, as they generally reflect just the individual knowledge of the blogger(s) writing them. There’s a big difference between having an opinion that you discuss with your friends, and having an opinion that you share with thousands or tens of thousands of people. If you’ve shared an incorrect opinion about something in a way that’s amplified across tumblr, even if you fix your mistake publicly, there’s no way to stop the earlier misinformation from continuing to spread.

And fourth, there’s that word I keep using: authoritative. Content that provides a rating is very black-and-white. This is bad. This is good. Do support this, don’t support that. Unfortunately, there are so, so few situations involving animals are actually that clear cut. This is especially true when we’re talking about recorded animal media, like photos, videos, and even documentaries, because a lot of the context has been removed. So that authoritative perspective? It’s really just someone on the internet telling you what you should believe.

I’d rather teach people how to think about animal content and draw their own conclusion. People gain so much more knowledge from engaging with the concepts themselves. If you just give someone an answer about a video being ok or not, for instance, they don’t learn how to assess the next one themselves. But if you teach them what questions to ask, how to work through what they want to learn, how to assess context, and where to find the information they need, they’re able to do it themselves with content in the future. Teaching and encouraging independent analysis of animal media is a much better way to stop misinformation or unethical content from spreading compared to just telling people some stuff is bad and they should stop sharing it.

So nope, no ratings here. Sometimes I’ll comment on things that my professional background allows me to be comfortable having an authoritative opinion on (e.g. the danger of unmonitored interactions between dogs and babies) but most of the time, I’m going to tell you what I see, what I know, what I don’t know, and what my thoughts are and why. My goal in running this blog and teaching people is about the journey, not the destination.

#blog ethos #teach a man to fish etc

[artist-issues]

From one Christian to another, you seem like someone who stays true to your values, convenient or not, and that’s exactly what I need.

In short, what’s your stance on writing LGBTQ characters? Does including such characters normalize sin, or is it comparable to writing about any other flawed human? I’ve heard some say I could write such characters out of a sense of realism, but fiction is made up of a writer’s intentional choices, and I don’t think one can have those choices and not say something to the audience.

I’ve looked all over the internet for a definite answer to this, and most results are either vague or very permissive without any scriptural backing. Your thoughts?

I think your head is on good and straight!

I am not an expert on this but I'll give you my unprofessional opinion.

The truth is, sin is normal. I mean, it's normal in this world. We're living in a cursed, fallen world. So if you were going to write a story about wildlife in Africa, there'd be a place in the story for a zebra. Because zebras are normal... in Africa. You wouldn't have to be making a comment about zebras to include them in a story about Africa; they just naturally are in that setting.

When you're writing a story about this world, and humans, that same sense applies. There's a possibility for any and all sin to be mentioned in the story. Because that's normal in this world.

Now, I guess that wasn't always the case. Even ten years ago having a homosexual couple in your story would've been surprising, and you could've run the risk of "normalizing it," because of the low percentage of people identifying as homosexual. But now? With the social contagion and overwhelming popularity, especially in adolescents, of the very idea of gender-fluidity and open-ended attraction? You're not so much "normalizing it" anymore.

Everybody's talking about being LGBTQ+. Everybody's making a statement. The question is no longer "are you going to say something about it?" The question is kind of "WHAT are you going to say about it?" Even by leaving the topic out, if it's a story about modern day life in the West on Planet Earth, you're saying something by leaving it out.

(Note: if your story isn't on Planet Earth in the Modern ((and RECENT)) time period, and even if it isn't in the West, then I wouldn't put homosexuality in your story. I can elaborate on why if you'd like in a different ask.)

So I'm basically saying it's comparable to writing about any other flawed human. 😅

As for Scriptural basis, there's no verse that says "don't talk about homosexuality," --and talking about it is all that "telling a story which includes the topic" is.

For storytelling principles found in the Bible: Jesus put one guy choking another guy out over a debt into one of His stories. That was to illustrate the depravity of the guy who was forgiven of much, but wouldn't forgive his fellow man of a little.

So now I have two very important questions for you!

If you are going to put a homosexual couple in your story, why are they there?

You have to answer this question for every decision you make in a story...but with this, because you are putting a sin in your story, the important thing to note is that the culture we're in doesn't actually consider it a sin. So by putting the sin in the story at all, you're right, you have to say something about it. You have to say that it's good or it's bad.

Doesn't have to be super in-your-face. I mean, Kuzco's "sin" is that he's selfish. So in the first scene he insults a bunch of women. And they all react like he's a monster; one of them's crying, the other one's lunging at him, but it's all just in the background. The point of the scene is that he's funny but he's a jerk and he's selfish; and those traits, "jerk" and "selfish" are treated like they're bad things, not good things, about Kuzco. A good rule of thumb is "call what is good 'good,' and call what is bad ''bad."

2. And this is the really important one, from one Christian to another: why are you considering adding a homosexual couple to your story?

You don't have to answer me, but ask yourself that question super honestly and examine every possible reason. Of course it doesn't really apply if you're not writing a story, you're just wondering about it on principle.

More on the point: I think sometimes, Christians cover up some sins by not talking about them, and it's not out of a desire be self-controlled and careful with their words. It's out of a warped desire to appease the culture.

C.S. Lewis says something like this in Surprised By Joy. My understanding of him was, Christians in the 40s didn't want to ever talk about homosexuality because, to them, it seemed the worst of sins...but when you examined how they came to that conclusion, you realized that the only things that made homosexuality different from other sins was that, if you were discovered to be engaging in homosexual sin, you'd lose your job and your fame. So Christians were choosing not to talk about it, even if all they were planning on saying was "homosexuality is wrong and God's definition of sexuality is right," because to address it at all was taboo to your public appearance.

That's a really bad reason for Christians not to talk about something. Christians know that all sin has been defeated and conquered by Christ. So why are we acting like mentioning it gives it power? Mention the sin (not the people sinning, but the sin) like it's a monster that WAS terrible and scary, but once Jesus gets ahold of it it's actually powerless and slain.

Christians have done the same thing with sex. It's supposed to be this awesome act of worship that God created to point to the cosmic idea of oneness with Him. It's supposed to be a wonderful thing, like singing beautiful songs or eating good food; all in the right way, in the right time. But Christians saw people using it sometimes in the wrong way, at the wrong time, so they threw the whole freakin baby out with the bath water and now the Church in the West is just starting to turn the corner and talk about sex again. But young people really needed to hear about it, the right way, from the Church, generations ago.

Anyway. Soapbox. The point is, if you know that homosexuality is a sin that is only destructive when it isn't submitted to Christ, and you're going to call it THAT, then what's to fear? Why does the corrupt culture get to hog the mic? So what if it wasn't a widely-accepted sin again until recently? Acting like it wasn't worth addressing, or like calling attention to it would've made the sin expand, didn't do anything to actually stop the culture from treating it like a good thing.

If Christians don't remind everybody of truth, the culture will twist it.

It's like being at a kid's birthday party, and you notice a tiger slinking over the backyard fence. Only instead of warning everybody you just sit there and try not to look directly at it. Try not to draw attention to the tiger. Because if you do, the kids might run over and try to pet it. So it's best to just sit there and hush everybody who points the tiger out up? No! The tiger's in the yard! It's too late to ignore it! Point it out, and point it out for what it is: not a big kitty you can pet, but a big dangerous beast that will hurt you if you don't treat it like that's what it is.

Rrrrg.

Thank you for asking me this question.

P.S. VERY IMPORTANT:

If you ARE writing a story, and you DO feel convicted about putting homosexual couples in the story—don't do it. Why? After everything J just said?

Because the one scripture that trumps everything I said is the one about your personal convictions: Romans 14:23. It's talking about meat sacrifices to idols, but the principle is, if you make a decision that is not based in faith, it's sin. So if you read everything I just said and still feel convicted about writing in a homosexual couple, it's not a good idea to force yourself to do it anyway. Because if you're forcing yourself to ignore conviction, it means you're making a decision based on...what? Peer pressure? A sound argument? Neither of which are agreed with by your redeemed-conscience? Can't be a decision based on faith, then, right?

We can talk more about that if you want!

Pray about it. Have you done that? Sometimes I get so spun into my own reasoning and puzzling something out, and then I'm like, "God is literally watching the inside of my brain spin itself out, He's standing right there with the answers and I don't even bother to ask 😅" Don't do that!

Thanks again for the hard question.

#I love it when people make me think about stuff like this #thank you #asked #answered #Christianity #writing #Storytelling

[hyuckswoman]

can i ask for gymnast reader x mark 😞 anything that comes to your mind when having those topics LOL

gymnast!reader x mark imagine

genre: fluff

“fucking hell” you sigh out of frustration, you’ve been at it for forty minutes and still can’t get it right

“you good?” your boyfriend mark asks, he’s only joined you in the past 5 minutes but judging from how much your brows are furrowed and the amount of huffs and sighs coming out of you, anyone could tell something was wrong

“yea, sorry it’s just- coach asked us to practice our arches but I don't know each time I remember to point my toes I lose balance and fall, I'm sorry I’m just frustrated” you vent, you were sure if you tried once more only to fail you’ll start ripping your hair out

“lemme see” mark says to which you quickly reply no, yes he had been here for five minutes but he wasn’t paying attention to what you were doing and if anything you don’t want to show your boyfriend moments of ‘weakness’

“i get that you don’t want to show me and i won’t look if you insist but maybe i can help y’know? i don’t know much about gymnastics but maybe an outside perspective can make things better” mark says looking at you full of hope, if it were anybody else you would’ve cussed them out but how could you when he was looking at you smiling brightly hoping that you’ll take him up on his offer and show him

“fine” you grumble

you start off your handstand, waiting until that perfect moment where you feel balance- there it is. you slowly bend your body, point your toes and

fall. again.

“you did it tho? I don’t understand” mark says

again, if it were anyone else you would’ve cussed them out cause no dumbass I did not do it I fell

“my toes weren’t pointed and the second they were I fell. again” you say, you can feel your frustration piling up and need to remind yourself to calm down before you snap at your boyfriend (who doesn’t mean any harm)

“oh right, the toes. I still think you did pretty good but let’s leave for a second yea? take a breather then you can go back to practicing maybe that might help” your boyfriend says only now recalling your initial problem

you hesitated on taking a break but after all, mark did go out of his way to come see you at practice, you should spend a bit of time (especially knowing that you might be in an even more sour mood after) with him

“you know i think you’re being hard on yourself, gymnastics ain’t easy and the progress you’ve made is already really impressive, i don’t know anyone else that could’ve pulled it off but you did. so what you can’t do a stupid arch right away, you’ll learn how to do it in not long and it’ll be the best arch ever. you can trust me by the way, i’m an old gymnast so basically an expert in these things” mark says

you can see how hard he’s trying to cheer you up and you hate how much it’s working, his little goofy joke making you chuckle

“now cmon let’s beat that arch up baby you can do it i feel it in my gymnastic bones” he says getting up to head back to your practice area again while you follow behind hoping that you can pull it off to not disappoint your boyfriend

so you breathe in, breathe out go into a handstand, slowly lower your legs, point your toes and next thing you know-

you’re doing a perfect arch.

notes: ayooo, not sure if this was what you were looking for also not proofread but hopefully this is good enough? (sorry I don't know much abt gymnastics and I don't usually write but I tried lol hope you enjoyed it nonetheless!)

#mark lee #nct imagines #nct dream #nct 127 #mark x y/n #mark x reader #mark imagines #nct #nct u

[notyourprof]

F1 Explains – 9 November 2023 – Notes/Summary

When Em @powerful-owl first put out her call for primers (what feels like a hundred years ago now), I swore I had just recently listened to a description of what a race weekend was like for drivers on one of my podcasts, almost certainly F1 Explains. I listened back to the two episodes I thought it might be on, and figured I’d go ahead and take and share some notes on everything, in case there is some useful info in there for others. It turns out I had mis-remembered, because the discussion was about what a race weekend is like for media folks, not drivers, but I think it’s still useful because it does give information about what the drivers’ media obligations are.

In general, I highly recommend the F1 Explains podcast (previously called Formula Why), especially to new F1 fans who want to learn more details about the sport. Katie Osborne and Christian Hewgill co-host it, and on most episodes they pick a single topic (e.g. racing in the rain, street circuits, driver training regimens, etc.) and do a deep dive with a few different experts. But they also do semi-regular “quick-fire” episodes where they cover a bunch of questions that maybe don’t need a full episode to answer. Former Aston Martin strategist and current F1 + Sky Sports strategy analyst Bernie (Bernadette) Collins is a regular guest expert on the quick-fire episodes. (She’s also a regular in MY HEART, because she is amazing and wonderful and has the best Irish accent.) There are a few other rotating experts as well, usually from the F1/Sky Sports family.

Anyways, here is my write-up of the answer to the question about what a race weekend is like for media, which was on the episode from 9 November 2023:

Q: What are race weekends like for media and broadcasters? Are there dedicated times the media can speak to drivers? A: F1 is one of the sports where media actually get the most availability of drivers for the media. Thursday is Media Day. Each team puts out a list of times, usually a 5-20 minute window, where TV or print media can come along and ask questions. For TV it’s called a “scrum” where the media are in a sort of arc around the driver with all of their cameras pointed at the driver and they take turns asking questions. Written media is similar. If the driver misses that time for whatever reason, there usually aren’t any backup times. Media can also request one-to-one interviews at a separate time, but that is negotiated and set weeks and weeks in advance. Each team puts aside one hour for media time on a Thursday that includes the TV and written media scrums as well as any one-to-one interviews. Additionally, every weekend there are two press conferences held by the FIA on Media Day. Ten drivers do the press conference with written media where the drivers are all sat together at a desk or on couches answering questions. The other ten drivers do the TV pen, which is a U-shape with all of the TV crews standing around the outside and each driver works their way around the U talking to each TV crew. Each crew gets a maximum of two questions per driver. After each practice session, qualifying, and the race itself, the drivers will do the TV pen again and speak to written media. The top three finishers also do the post-race press conference.

So feel free to use this information when writing fic, but also remember that you don’t have to have all of your facts absolutely perfectly correct! It’s called fiction for a reason!

There were a lot of other interesting questions and answers in the episode, which I also took notes on, and I will put those below the cut. (Read on to find out which driver has Strong Feelings about the roundabouts near Milton Keynes, and which world champions have accidentally pulled into the wrong pit boxes before, LOL.)

Is this the kind of thing that is interesting and useful? I have a summary written up already for the 2 November 2023 episode, because I thought the "what is race weekend like" question might be in that one, but this is already super long. Should I post the notes on that episode in a different post? I can do notes/summaries for other episodes if that's something people are interested in, but I have a bad history of spending a lot of time documenting things in fandom that no one else ever uses or looks at, so I'm trying to...better allocate my limited spare time.

F1 Explains – 9 November 2023 Quick-fire questions with Bernie Collins & Lawrence Barretto

First, a sidenote: Daniel Ricciardo once did a shoey from one of Lawrence Baretto’s shoes. Daniel signed it and Lawrence has it on desk now.

Q: What construction and logistics have to go into a new street circuit, and how to teams prepare for a brand new track?

A: The streets used for the race track have to be re-laid with new tarmac, there has to be coordination with street opening and closing, hotels and other businesses around the circuit, etc. There is a full episode on racetrack design. To prepare for a new track, teams look closely at historical weather data (including temperatures and wind). They’ll load 2D and sometimes 3D scans of the track into their simulators, although often there isn’t full information yet because the final track hasn’t been finished. Lots of simulations and calculations in an attempt to get as much data as they can in advance. There’s also a full episode about how simulators work.

Q: How important is the engine manufacturer? Are they a glorified sponsor that provides an F1-approved generic engine or are there real technical differences between the engines from different suppliers?

A: There are differences between power units from different manufacturers. It also gives them a chance to really stretch themselves and bring in expertise from all around the company (e.g. if they also manufacture jet engines) and to hopefully get some good PR that will lead to more people buying their street cars. In 2023 for the first time, each engine manufacturer showed their engine off to the press to show the differences between each unit. 2023 engine manufacturers were Ferrari, Renault, Mercedes, and Honda. In 2026, Ford and Audi will join as new manufacturers.

Q: Why do drivers and engineers do track walks? Do all teams and drivers do this?

A: Not all drivers do it, some of them will do a run or go out on a scooter. Reasons to do it include looking for changes from last year (new bumps, changes to gravel or curbs (kerbs), etc.) as well as having a bit of uninterrupted time for drivers and their race engineers to talk to each other. Also can be helpful to the commentators/presenters. Helps everyone build/remember their muscle memory of the track if they’ve been there before.

Q: Is F1 using AI? Could it be used for race strategy?

A: Yes, most teams are already doing machine learning in calculations and simulations, but for now human input is still required (and probably always will be).

(Repeating this here because this is where it was in the episode) Q: What are race weekends like for media and broadcasters? Are there dedicated times the media can speak to drivers?

A: F1 is one of the sports where media actually get the most availability of drivers for the media. Thursday is Media Day. Each team puts out a list of times, usually a 5-20 minute window, where TV or print media can come along and ask questions. For TV it’s called a “scrum” where the media are in a sort of arc around the driver with all of their cameras pointed at the driver and they take turns asking questions. Written media is similar. If the driver misses that time for whatever reason, there usually aren’t any backup times. Media can also request one-to-one interviews at a separate time, but that is negotiated and set weeks and weeks in advance. Each team puts aside one hour for media time on a Thursday that includes the TV and written media scrums as well as any one-to-one interviews. Additionally, every weekend there are two press conferences held by the FIA on Media Day. Ten drivers do the press conference with written media where the drivers are all sat together at a desk or on couches answering questions. The other ten drivers do the TV pen, which is a U-shape with all of the TV crews standing around the outside and each driver works their way around the U talking to each TV crew. Each crew gets a maximum of two questions per driver. After each practice session, qualifying, and the race itself, the drivers will do the TV pen again and speak to written media. The top three finishers also do the post-race press conference.

Q: How much interaction is there between broadcasting teams from different countries?

A: A lot. They all see each other regularly so they get to know each other, and they often chat amongst themselves to communicate about what drivers have said to their home broadcasters, because they usually give longer/more detailed answers when they’re speaking in their native language.

Q: How does breaking news get shared with everyone?

A: Press releases used to be printed out on paper and handed out in the Media Center. Now each F1 team has a WhatsApp group specifically for media so they send info that way (e.g. about driver availability for interviews or problems with the cars) in addition to email and social media.

Q: Is there a dedicated space for journalists to write up their race reports?

A: Yes, it’s called the Media Center, there are desks, TV screens, food, and drinks (especially coffee!). The press conference room is in the Media Center as well, adjacent to the work area where journalists can sit and write.

Q: Has Bernie ever had a debrief delayed [when she was a team strategist] due to media interviews running long?

A: Many of the debriefs have been delayed by drivers, and blaming it on the media is an easy out when maybe it was actually the driver who stopped to get a coffee or whatever. Each F1 driver has their own press officer who helps them meet all of their press responsibilities. Often the drivers will talk longer than they are supposed to; Alex Albon and Oscar Piastri are specifically named as drivers who are very good at going off on tangents and talking to the media for too long. One time, Alex spent a good amount of time ranting about the roundabouts in Milton Keynes near the Red Bull factory is based.

Q: How is the order of the garages in the pit lane decided? Are there advantages to being in certain positions and does it play into race strategy?

A: At most tracks, the garages are in order based on how the teams finished in the constructor’s championship the previous year, so over a given season, the garages on either side of your teams don’t change. Sometimes the previous champions are right at the pit lane entry, sometimes near the exit, that depends on the track. If you’re right at the entry, it’s easier to come in and pit (i.e. there aren’t any other team’s mechanics in your way), but more difficult to get back out on track. Near the pit exit, the opposite is true (harder to get in, easier to get out). Depending on the track, it can be helpful to be right near the pit exit (e.g. if you want to get right out on track with clear air in front of you, Bernie mentions Monaco) or further back (e.g. if it’s better to have some other cars go first in qualifying, Bernie mentions Monza). The only exception to the rule of “garages are in order of last year’s championship standings” is Silverstone, where the pit lane is at about the same height as the track in the middle but at either end the pit lane is lower than the track so visibility is impaired. Because of this, the garages in the center (with a good view of the track) are considered most desirable and are thus taken by the top teams.

Christian Hewgill points out how surprising/impressive it is that drivers don’t pull into the wrong pit box more often. For example, at the 2011 Chinese Grand Prix, Jenson Button accidentally parked in the wrong garage and it cost him the lead in the race to Sebastian Vettel. Bernie points out that teams have done a lot of things to help drivers get to the correct pit lanes. It often happens when drivers switch teams (e.g. Lewis Hamilton once went into the McLaren pit when he had just moved to Mercedes, Sebastian Vettel went to the Ferrari pit once after he had switched to Aston Martin).

Q: What is parc fermé? What are the restrictions? How are they enforced?

A: Parc fermé is a period of time in which teams are not allowed to touch their cars or make any changes related to performance, however they can make changes related to safety. It promotes sustainability and rewards teams that do well in practice figuring out what works best for that track. During sprint weekends, teams only have one practice before the cars go into parc fermé, which makes it particularly difficult to adjust the cars to the track. Cars do often get taken apart and reassembled while in parc fermé to check components, clean things, etc., but the F1/FIA scrutineers will put stickers on the car parts to make sure the same parts are used when reassembling the car.

Q: What is an anti-stall? How is it different from a regular stall?

A: (Note that I am basically quoting Bernie verbatim here because I’ve never driven a manual/stick-shift car and don’t understand the details of how they work!) An anti-stall is very similar to a normal stall, but F1 have come up with clever ways to make sure the car engines don’t actually stall. In a regular manual car, if you were to let the clutch out too much or not give it enough throttle and the car stalled, the engine would cut out. At the starting grid, the driver might do the same thing (e.g. not give it enough throttle) and the car might stall, but the engine doesn’t actually cut out. (Another note: it’s not explicitly stated, but I think this is a safety thing so that even if the car stalls and doesn’t get a super fast start, the driver will be able to accelerate pretty quickly after, instead of sitting on the grid unable to move while the cars behind start crashing into the stalled car.)

Q: Why do F1 teams change names?

A: OK I started writing this in a way that makes sense beyond the short answers given on the podcast, but it really needs to be a separate post. The short answer to “why do teams change names?” is money. (Shocker!) 

Sometimes a team that also makes something else wants to promote one of their brands, e.g. Renault rebranding to Alpine, which is Renault’s sports car brand, or Toro Rosso rebranding to AlphaTauri, which is Red Bull’s clothing line. 

Sometimes a team will have a sponsor who pays enough money to be a title sponsor, e.g. Oracle Red Bull Racing or the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, where Oracle and Petronas are completely separate companies that pay a lot of money in addition to providing relevant expertise to their teams. 

(In the other post, I’ll get into Sauber/Alfa Romeo/Stake/Kick, don’t worry. 😂)

Q: How is the number of laps in a Grand Prix determined?

A: The number of laps for a given circuit is however many laps are needed to get to a 305 km (~190 mi) race distance. The exception is Monaco where the distance is 260 km (~162 mi).

#f1 primer #f1 fandom primer #f1blr

[luulapants]

Stop Being Weird About Indians

Let’s talk about virtue signalling when talking about American Indians and how it’s doing more harm than good. I saw a take that writing about Kaia, an indigenous character in Supernatural, in fanfiction is a cancel-able offense because the way she’s depicted in the show is problematic. I’ve heard similar things about the skinwalkers in Teen Wolf - I’ve also heard that you shouldn’t even type the word “skinwalkers” because it’s offensive, which... I’m not gonna go into all the details, but that’s a gross misunderstanding of the belief around the word, and also the actual word the belief is about - you won’t believe this - isn’t an English word.

Anyway.

The topic of indigenous oppression in the US is complicated, but one of the fundamental issues, which actual indigenous activists (not just keyboard warriors) constantly talk about, is the way indigenous people are ignored and erased from the story. It’s called “The Terminal Narrative.” Text books talk about indigenous people like they’re a relic of the past, like they’re all dead and gone. (Do you know how weird it is for Indian children on reservations to read a US history book that implies they don’t exist?) Human rights abuses and social issues on reservations are left out of the conversation or skimmed over as if they’re too obscure to be fully understood, or like they impact so few people, it doesn’t really matter.

Policing wording is not activism. Sharing call-out posts isn’t activism. You are not doing anything to help anyone. You’re not funding, volunteering, calling politicians, or doing any actual work to better the lives of indigenous Americans. (Before anyone calls hypocrite, I do work with an indigenous rights group IRL.) When someone scolds another person online over using a word that isn’t PC, 99% of the time it’s clear they don’t actually care - they derive a sense of moral superiority from knowing the “correct” way to speak. And they don’t care about the chilling effect it has on speech overall. This naturally leads to one of the most toxic elements of liberal conversations about race: that you must have the conversation perfectly or not at all. And that’s the impact it has. People just stop talking about it for fear of being wrong.

Can you see how, in a society where indigenous oppression is actively facilitated by silence and erasure, making people afraid to speak about Indians is one of the worst things you could possibly do?

It’s become standard fare for Indian Studies books to start with a disclaimer explaining that “Indian” actually isn’t an offensive word and is the word that most indigenous people use for themselves. The disclaimer isn’t because it’s new or radical information. It’s because white Americans are so goddamn weird about virtual signaling about ~The Native Americans~ that they would condemn a much-needed book of scholarship on native issues just for using a word that they thought was offensive.

Native people aren’t a monolith. You’ll find Indians that insist you need to spell it NDN or that XYZ is offensive. Production companies can pay a native person to come tell them they’re allowed to write about something most people from their tribe would find offensive. Fact of the matter is, a lot of Indians are not experts on like... heritage culture. If they grew up on a rez, they can tell you about rez culture, but they’re not all Indian Studies scholars, the same way not all Irish people are experts on Celtic paganism. Not all Indians are experts on indigenous politics, the same way not all Americans are experts on American politics. And it goes without saying that a GODAWFUL amount of the people lecturing on acceptable ways to interact with indigenous characters are not only uninformed about indigenous issues (I saw one post where someone clearly linked the first thing that came up when they googled “Native American drug addiction”) but are also not indigenous themselves.

And, yes, the vast majority of depictions of Indians in American media are problematic in one way or another, but saying that the solution is to erase indigenous characters from fandom entirely (because they’re all problematic) is the absolute WORST conclusion to reach. Fix the characters if you care that much! Give the Teen Wolf skinwalkers names! And an iPad! Let Kaia be the master of her own destiny! Let her bitch Dean out for pointing that gun in her face! Let her live happily ever after with her girlfriend! What the hell is fandom for if not fixing the issues we see in canon? Why are we allowed to reclaim and rewrite problematic queer characters but not problematic native characters? Who is that serving? Because it sure as hell isn’t serving Indians.

Anyone that tells you it’s better to ignore Indians than say the wrong thing about them is, knowingly or not, actively promoting a terminal narrative and the continuation of indigenous genocide.

#kaia nieves #skinwalkers #fandom meta #indigenous #supernatural #virtue signaling

[doyou000me]

Part II: Historical Context and Hyung's Background

So… this is not what I was going to write for Part II. I was going to write about shame and the way we perceive/react to how society sees us. I was going to loop it back to Part I; “An excess of self-awareness was a disease in itself.” I was going to compare how the narrator, his mother and his boyfriend are all affected by it in similar and/or different ways. 

And then I got to thinking about the boyfriend, mainly referred to as Hyung. 

About two thirds into part II, we get Hyung's backstory and, without spoiling anything, it’s basically a chunk where the narrator name-drops a bunch of movements and incidents that are part of recent history in Korea. Most of it meant next to nothing to me, and I felt like I was missing out on a whole lot of context. So I did some preliminary google searching, realised I needed more historical context, and went to the library to borrow a book on Korean history. Then I started making a timeline. Then I went online and started googling specific movements and incidents. Then I got a headache. 

[This is long, so I’m putting the rest of it under the cut. Also, this is about Hyung's backstory so, you know, spoilers about that.] 

The chunk of a paragraph that started all this is this one:

“He had been part of the leftover student activist generation of the mid-nineties and after graduation had dipped his toes in the labor movement. The Misun-Hyosun incident demonstrations had also been during his time, as well as protests against the abolishment of the National Security Act and the anti-Chosun Daily movement…” 

Student Activism in the mid nineties

Labour Movement

Misun-Hyosun Incident

The National Security Act

Anti-Chosun Daily Movement

That’s 5 historical events, all named in one paragraph without further explanation - likely because a Korean reader is expected to know what this all means. I am not a Korean reader and I have no idea what most of it means. It’s a lot. When I started reading about it, I realised it’s even more. As is often the case with history, a whole lot of things are connected, and many of these things connect all the way back to the Japanese occupation. 

There are academic papers written on these things. There are books. I am a pyjama-clad person curled up on my couch with a book and an internet connection. Of course I decided to attempt to summarise and explain it all. What could possibly go wrong? 

Disclaimer time: I am not a historian or, in any way, an expert on the subject. I’ve spent about a day and a half on this, and it’s not nearly enough. Also, I am paraphrasing to the extreme to make sure I don’t end up writing half a book. I hope it’ll serve as context for anyone reading part II who feels as context-less as I did, but if you actually want to know about any of these topics, I’d recommend doing some reading of your own. I’ll leave references at the bottom. 

Also: content warning. This is really dark and really heavy history. Be warned, and take care of yourselves. Now:

Some massively paraphrased Korean history 

Japanese Protectorate and Occupation (1907-1945)

Starting out as a protectorate treaty to challenge China’s power on the Korean peninsula and give Japan access to Korean ports, Japan took control of Korea in 1910. What followed was 35 years of repression and Koreans living under systemic racism as second class citizens in their own country. This included institutionalised erasure of the Korean identity. 85% of the Korean population lost their Korean names and were forced to take Japanese names. Many never learnt to write in Korean, only Japanese. Hundreds of thousands of Koreans were killed for protesting against the occupation. All higher positions within the country were given to the Japanese, and the Korean workers were paid half of what Japanese workers got. Towards the end (1931-1945) when Japan went to war with China and needed resources, 3,5 million Koreans were displaced, both within Korea and abroad to Japan and China. Many were forced into slave labour in mines where unsafe working conditions and 17-hour work days killed many. Women, many just teenagers, were made “comfort women” and forced into filthy, violent brothels to serve the Japanese soldiers. 

Then WWII ended. Japan surrendered to the allied forces in 1945, packed up and left Korea. Korea was suddenly free. 

Just as suddenly, there was no government and no regime. There was no leadership, and not just on the government level. Industries ground to a halt. Production stood still. Displaced Koreans moved back, leading to sudden overpopulation of urban areas. Nationwide unemployment was at 50% and criminal activity, homelessness and alcoholism rose. 

American Occupation (1945-1949)

The US stepped in. Due to global tensions after WWII, they did not want Korea to fall into the wrong hands, and made a deal with the Soviet Union: they split Korea in two along the 38th parallel, and the US would get the south part while the Soviet would get the north part. The plan was for Korea to eventually regain independence. The split along the 38th parallel was not grounded in any social or geographical conditions. Farmland and manufacturing in the south was divided from fertiliser production, natural resources and energy production in the north. Families living on different sides of the border were divided. 

The American leadership that was put in place had next to no time to prepare, barely any prior knowledge of the Korean history, culture or people and very limited interest in learning. The US leader, General Hodge, had little political or administrative experience, and initially tried to cooperate with the Japanese to help with the occupation (this, as you can imagine, did not go over well). Labour demonstrations born from the terrible conditions Korean workers had lived with were brutally repressed and seen as pro-communist. Racism led to the assumptions that the Koreans were incapable of organising and governing themselves. The National Security Law was established in 1948 with the purpose of arresting North Korean sympathisers and infiltrators. 

In 1949, the US withdrew from South Korea, and South Korea was declared the independent nation of the Republic of Korea. The Soviet Union (officially) withdrew from the North - while also helping North Korea, along with China, to build up their military. In June, 1950, the North Korean army marched over the border on the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea. 

The Korean War (1950-1953) 

On one level, the Korean war was about North Korea invading and trying to take over South Korea, turning all of the Korean peninsula into one Korea. On another, global level, it was a cold war power play between the US and the Soviet Union with South Korea, the US and the UN on one side and North Korea, the Soviet Union and China on the other. Both sides tried to take all of the Korean peninsula. Both sides failed. After three years of war, where foreign soldiers fought in a foreign land and Koreans fought Koreans, nothing was gained. In 1953, the border on the 38th parallel was reestablished. The entirety of the Korean peninsula had been bombarded and razed to the ground. Everything needed to be rebuilt. North and South Korea were among the poorest countries in the world and millions were still separated from their families by the border. 

34 000 American soldiers were killed. 140 000 South Korean soldiers were killed. More than 640 000 North Korean soldiers were killed.  Over one million Chinese soldiers were killed.  Some 3 million Korean civilians were killed.  And nothing was gained. 

South Korea Under Military Dictatorship (1953-1960, 1961-1987)

So, with hunger, spreading disease and homelessness, with cities in ruin, orphaned children on the streets and widows left to fend for themselves in a country where women were not seen as independent citizens at the time, President Rhee and the Liberal Party won the elections in May 1954, making Rhee the first Korean president. They worked to turn the economy around through the use of five year plans as well as grants and loans from the US and secured national safety with an agreement with the US to place troops in Korea indefinitely - troops that are still present today. 

They also turned the democracy into a dictatorship when Rhee risked being voted out of office. Elections were rigged and political opponents silenced. The National Security Law (according to which anti-state groups and those who disturb the national order can be imprisoned) was used to silence and root out opponents. Student protests were regularly held against the violations on democracy and corruption in the Rhee administration. After Rhee’s fourth presidential reelection in 1960, the opposing party rejected the results and student-led protests erupted in Masan, quickly spreading to the rest of the country. This became the April 19 Revolution, which led to Rhee going into exile. 

An election was held and a new president was chosen. 

The next year, in 1961, General Park led a military coup and took power, claiming that South Korea - amidst strikes, protests and student and left-wing groups discussing immediate reunification with North Korea - was not yet ready for democracy. They focused on economic growth, successfully turning South Korea’s economy around and, on the way, making the chaebol into some of the wealthy conglomerates we know from kdramas. They also focused on improving the relationship with Japan, leading to major protests. 

They also cracked down on all opposition. Less than a month after the coup, the KCIA was established - for decades, the KCIA investigated, arrested, tortured and assassinated South Koreans who were accused of being North Korean sympathisers, suspected of supporting communism or seen as a threat to the regime. Gradually, the dictatorship became more and more repressive, with crackdowns on freedom of speech, increased power for the KCIA and martial law being imposed. Student activist protested, demanding a return to democracy, and workers protested with them, demanding better wages and working conditions. 

In 1979, Park was assassinated. 

General Chun took over, appointing himself director of the KCIA and continuing the military dictatorship, but by this point the people had had enough. Starting with university students in Gwangju, thousands of people in the city gathered to demand a return to democracy. The protest lasted from May 18 to May 27 of 1980, and became known as the Gwangju Uprising. It ended in violence, when the Chun regime isolated the city and went in with tanks and paratroopers. 150 were killed, over 4 000 wounded, thousands arrested - both protesters and citizens simply living their lives in the city. After that the relationship between the regime and the people was strained, to say the least, and anti-American sentiment sky-rocketed as people associated the US forces with the violent crackdown in Gwangju. 

It was during this time that “Hyung” was born, in 1979, because yes, this post is still about LitBC Part II, and this all started because I wanted to understand his background better.  Hyung lived his first years under a military dictatorship, where the people were under constant threat from the KCIA, student activist groups continuously struggled to regain democracy and anti-American sentiment was on the rise. 

In 1987, as the next presidential election approached and with the Gwangju Uprising still fresh in memory, people doubled down on their protests. Led by students and workers, the June Democratic Struggle broke out on June 10 with people demonstrating across the country. It lasted until June 29 - in success, as the new president pledged that South Korea would have free, direct presidential elections. Democracy, for the first time in about 20 years. 

Many changes were still needed in the country, but now the population could take to the streets and protest without fear of violent repercussions - and the regime listened. Wages doubled over a span of five years. 

In 1997, the Asian Financial Crisis hit South Korea. Several Chaebols went bankrupt and 1988 became the worst year in the history of South Korean economy since the Korean War. (Go watch Reborn Ritch if you’re interested) Today, this is spoken of as the IMF crisis. Fortunately,  South Korea recovered relatively quickly. To balance the country’s over-reliance on manufacturing, the government launched a campaign to support the entertainment industry, thus laying the ground for the Hallyu wave that would spread globally in the 2000s.  

The 2000s

“Hyung” entered university in 1995, and would have graduated somewhere around the shift of the millennia, right as South Korea was recovering from the IMF crisis. Shortly after his graduation, the Misun-Hyosun Incident, Anti-Chosun Daily Movement and Protests against the abolishment of the National Security Act all happened within quick succession. 

The Misun-Hyosun Incident, also known as the Yangju Highway Incident, occurred on June 13, 2002, in Yangju. Two South Korean schoolgirls, 14 year old Shim Misun and Shin Hyosun, were struck and killed by a US army vehicle on the way to a training exercise. Apologies were issued, but the drivers of the army vehicle were ultimately found not guilty by the US MIlitary court, sparking demonstrations across the country and fuelling the anti-American sentiment in South Korea. 

The Anti-Chosun Daily Movement can be traced back to the early 1990s. The Chosun Daily, or Chosun Ilbo, is one of the main newspapers in Korea. It is a conservative newspaper and has historically had a very close relationship with the ruling regime, military dictatorships included, which brings into question its role in a democratic country of free speech. With the rise of more progressive online journalism, the criticism against the Chosun Ilbo has increased and people have gathered online to raise their voices, leading to boycotts and an anti-Chosun manifesto being written. In 2002 the movement became an important part in Korea’s development as a progressive country and was a contributing factor to the media reform that followed. 

Protests against the abolishment of the National Security Act broke out in 2004, when the then leading political party called for its repeal. This National Security Act/Law is the same one that was established in 1948 to catch communists and North Korean sympathisers, and was then used by the Rhee regime to silence political opponents (are you still with me?). When the law was about to be repealed, a newspaper poll found that 66% wanted the law revised but not repealed, while a majority would rather keep the law as was than have it abolished on grounds that it helps keep the country’s economic stability. The constant threat of North Korea is a very real factor to why people see the law as necessary. Amnesty International has called for the law to be fundamentally reformed or abolished, as it challenges freedom of speech. 

Ok. Deep breath.

If you’re still reading, I applaud you. If I lost you somewhere along the way, you won’t see this but I do understand you. As I hope you understand, this is all very condensed. The history of Korea is very complex and much of what I have written about are still sensitive issues today. I’ve tried to keep close to my sources to avoid getting anything wrong, but I am sure there are many, many more movements and issues that would need to be covered to present anything close to the full picture. Still, I hope this has given some insight into the background of “Hyung” and the past that has shaped him into the character that he is. 

When I read part II, I did not understand his character. I dismissed him as some conspiracy-reading guy living in a basement keeping a tinfoil hat somewhere, and when our narrator dismisses and downplays his story, I was fully onboard. Now, after a full day of reading up on the historical context and political climate that “Hyung” must have grown up in, I understand his paranoia and reluctance to interact with anything American far more. It leaves marks, having lived in a time when the KCIA could drag you off the street for speaking up against the government, never to be seen again.

Times have changed in South Korea and they’ve come a long way, but the recent past is still very recent and they still have a long way to go before old wounds can be healed and damage done can be cleared up. All it takes is watching a few kdramas, and it’s clear that general distrust in politicians and the legal system is still around. Apart from a better understanding of a character in a book, it’s shed some light on my own naive ignorance and lack of understanding when it comes to some Korean attitudes and reactions I’ve encountered in the past. Some things I frowned at then, I now understand. 

Apart from Reborn Rich, which plays out between 1987 and today with its main focus on the financial crisis, I have not watched dramas depicting this part of Korean history (I have avoided them, because the subject matter was very heavy simply to read about. I do not think I could handle watching it dramatised). Neither have I found any good documentaries covering it. If you have recommendations that you’d like to share, please do. 

Now, as promised: sources!

Historical background and context: Korea; A New History of South and North by Victor D. Cha and Ramon Pacheco Pardo (2023)

Most of this post is based on this book, and if you’re interested in 20th century Korean history, I’d really recommend it. It’s a surprisingly easy read. 

Misun-Hyosun Incident/Yangju Highway Incident: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yangju_highway_incident

National Security Act: https://wilj.law.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1270/2012/02/kraft.pdf 

Anti-American Sentiment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-American_sentiment_in_Korea 

Anti-Chosun Movement: https://www.academia.edu/86931794/The_Anti_Chosun_Movement_Journalism_Activism_Politics_and_Historical_Memory_in_Post_Authoritarian_South_Korea_1998_2002 

Student movements in Korea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_movements_in_Korea 

Internet activism in South Korea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_activism_in_South_Korea 

National Intelligence Service: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Intelligence_Service_(South_Korea) 

@lurkingshan I'm not sure if this counts as meta or goes as a context-post, so I hope it's okay I'm tagging you

#litbc book club #love in the big city part II #when my interest in everything Korean overcomes my general disinterest in history

[treethankyou]

greendale seven supporting a friend on their period!

this came to me while i was suffering so i had to turn that pain into this! this is not meant to be gender specific but it is specific to those of us who have periods. also i’m sorry for not including Pierce but i honestly just couldn’t be bothered to write for him 🤷‍♀️ i apologize for my poor grammar, writing has never been my strong suit. well anyways, i hope this is alright and ya enjoy!

pairing: gn (period having) reader & greendale 7

warnings: mentions of periods, poor grammar (sorry i have no excuse!)

word count: a lot (~1600)

—————

Jeff

now don’t get me wrong Jeff is a mature, grown man

…who is also a bit of a weenie LMAO

upon finding out you’re on your period he’s a little uncomfortable but represses any visual tell of that fact

regardless of the fact that he has a similar mindset about periods to that of a teenage boy, he still cares…discreetly

he’s got a reputation to protect here!

he makes sure to go easy on you when it’s clear you’re not feeling well

lowkey scolds anyone who doesn’t get the memo

suggests to get froyo so you’re able to get some sugar to make ya feel better

he knows that light exercise helps with cramping and him being the health nut he is he offers to go on walks with you

never acknowledges that he does any of this to help you feel better but it’s more obvious than he thinks it is

aloof big brother x100

“Hey Jeff…” you say after taking a bite of froyo. “I just wanted to say thank you for taking me here for…thinking of me. It means a lot.”

He spares you a small smile across the table. “Oh, it’s nothing. I just wanted froyo.” You know him well enough to know that’s not the truth but you also know that if you say something about he will feel embarrassed and deny it. So you say nothing, making a mental note to discreetly pay back the favor sometime.

Britta

she is totally big on no period shame

never makes you feel weird about being on your period, in fact she encourages you to talk plainly about it

you know, defeat the stigma!

has loose pain pills in her purse she’ll offer you when the pain gets bad

may accidentally offer you a…recreational pill LMAO

has tampons only sorry to the pad supremacists

if anyone is going too rough on you when you’re feeling crappy she absolutely will step in and tell them to lay off

keeps a travel heating pad in her car and has lend it to you on multiple occasions

she’s overall a great friend and never fails to prove it <3

“Oh sweetie…” Britta starts as she looks at your slumped over figure, head parked face down on the table. “My everything hurts.” You mumble against the wood.

Without another word Britta turns on her heel to grab her portable heating pad. Soon she returns and hands you the heating pad, patting your head as you sit back up. “You’re the best Britta.” You gratefully smile up at her, leaning your weight into her side. She smiles and squeezes you in a side hug. “Anytime buddy, anytime.”

Abed

remember in season 2 when it’s revealed that Abed charted the girls’ periods?

…yeah me too.

sorry babes but you’re also totally on that chart

this man carries both pads and chocolate in his bag (designated pockets for each!) just in case any of his lady friends and period having pals need either

there was a point in time where he was curious about what periods were like and absolutely researched the hell out of the topic

is now a certified period expert

because of that he doesn’t use euphemisms to refer to periods, absolutely uses the medical terms

invites you over for movie night in which y’all watch all your faves and sappy comfort movies

Tears slip down your face as “A Simple Life” plays in the background, Carl and Ellies life together flashing on the screen. Abed silently observes you from his position on the couch, handing you a box of tissues as soon as he notices the tears.

You nod gratefully, taking the box in your hands and wiping away the remaining tears. “Abed?” you ask. He looks back to you quizzically, waiting for you to continue. “You really don’t have to do this, I know only watching my favorite movies is a bit boring so…Thank you.” He comfortingly pats your knee before saying, “”You and me, we are in a club now”. We’re friends and if that means being here with you, I’ll do it anytime.” Let’s just say you cried a little more at that.

Shirley

quite coy when it comes to talking about periods not too big a deal though

but when she sees you’re suffering—

mother hen mode: activated

asking all of the questions to see how you’re doing

see Shirley knows you’re grown and can handle yourself but that doesn’t stop her from paying a little more attention to you when you’re on your period

bakes all the chocolate goods

and they are amazing you honestly could cry

has pain killers and tampons in case of emergency

she is actually so sweet to you (which is nothing new but it’s more noticeable during this time)

if the symptoms are really intense she absolutely prays for you (lowkey worried that you are being tormented by the devil LMAO)

This week has been booty and today sealed the deal. The abdominal pain has been astronomical and you honestly felt like you were going to keel over at any moment.

Sluggishly you made your way out of the library, getting barely a few steps out the door before you heard Shirley call out to you. “Hey Shirley what’s u—“ before you could finish your sentence you’re cut off by Shirley shoving a box in your hands. A box full of brownies, cookies, and chocolate covered strawberries. You look back up to her face shocked and touched beyond belief.

“I noticed this week has been tough for you and I wanted to remind you that someone’s in your corner. I hope this helps you feel better sweetie.” She smiles sweetly and you can’t help but tear up. Thanking her profusely you give her a tight hug before making your way home, excited to devour your delicious gift.

Annie

absolutely made a code word to notify each other when either of you get your period

it’s something absolutely ridiculous like “i’m hungry for blueberry muffins”

very much embarrassed when talking about periods, hushed whispers and euphemisms out the wazoo

carries literally everything that one could need for a period emergency

pain killers, portable heating pad, pads and tampons of every kind

if you ever need any of the aforementioned items she will literally sprint across campus to get them to you if need be

low key treats you like the younger sibling she never got (being the youngest in her family and in the study group she is trilled) it only intensifies when you’re on your period

“Ok so! I have ibuprofen, tylenol, advil, tums—“ you cut her off with a small laugh and shake of your head. “Annie I’m fine! It’s barely a headache. Worst comes to worst I’ll just sit in a dark and quite room for a while.”

As soon as the words left your mouth another sharp pain shoots through your head, you visibly cringe at the sensation. She eyes you nervously, clearly still concerned about your well-being. “Ok dark room, I can do that!” She exclaimed, the volume causing you to wince a little. She quickly hops up out of her seat and shuts off the lights to the study room. She then shrugs off her sweater and folds it into a small pillow, placing it on the table in front of you. “You should sleep for a bit, use this. Don’t worry I won’t let anyone disturb you.”

Before you can protest she runs out of the room and closes the doors. You smile and shake your head at her antics, reminding yourself to thank her later. You silently take her advice, falling into a nice sleep in the silence of the study room guarded by your beloved neurotic chosen sister.

Troy

we all know this man is a himbo

clueless to the max

all he knows is that periods suck and cause a lot of pain and bleeding (that’s actually so scary to him LMAO)

after finding this out Britta gives him the run down with Abed chiming in now and then…he’s mortified LOL

has totally used Abeds chart before

knowing about when it occurs, he is a total sweetheart when you’re on your period

compliments you more (albeit a bit clumsily) to make sure you feel good about yourself during this time

carries an extra water bottle around to make sure you are hydrated to avoid headaches

You’re making popcorn in the kitchen for the movie night you’re spending with Abed, Annie, and Troy when negativity creeps up on you. You feel like crap, physically and mentally. You’re irritable, sad, and tired all at the same time and this shift in behavior does not go unnoticed. You had been snippy all day due to how terrible you felt and you even snapped at your friends. And now you felt worse with the guilt of that encounter eating at you.

As you ruminate on those thoughts you feel a presence behind you. You don’t get the chance to turn around before you feel arms wrap around you, pulling you into a hug. You look to the hands of who is holding you and realize it’s Troy, though you could have guessed that based on the action alone. You relax, leaning your weight into his front and letting his warmth wash over you. His presence alone sweeps away the cloud of negativity previously plaguing you.

After a while he releases his hold on you and moves to deal with the popcorn, shooting you a caring smile as he does so. Before he can exit the kitchen you place a hand on his shoulder and whisper a small thank you. “That’s what friends are for. Besides, I like hugs.” He grins and you can’t help but return it. You follow him back to the tv room, settling down to continue your marathon surrounded by your loved ones.

#community nbc #community #jeff winger #britta perry #abed nadir #shirley bennett #annie edison #troy barnes #community x reader #forgive my grammar #first post #can you tell i’m in love with troy barnes

[school-of-roses]

☆･✧Introduction to Writing a Professional Email✧･☆

"Every professor secretly wants to be Ms. Frizzle." -@myshoeisonthewrongfoot

Introduction to Writing a Professional Email

Writing an email is one skill that you will most likely need in your professional life either as a student or in your time in the workforce. However, you can also use these skills to write emails to experts in any given field when you have questions among other things. The applications are endless.

Rule One: Don’t Panic

If you are writing to someone for information there is a very solid chance that the response you are going to get is going to be something like “yeah sure -sent from my iphone 11:35:18 PM” if it isn’t closer to an automatic message informing you that the person is out of the office until a specific date.Those who care don’t matter and those who matter don’t care. If your grammar is coherent enough to be understandable and cohesive, they are going to care more about the content of your email than the structure and soundness of the message. So fear not, internet denizen, you are probably gonna kill it. Being professional, polite, and persistent will get you very far in most things, and this is no exception.

Subject Line

Whatever anyone tells you, your job here is to NOT get caught by someone’s spam filter. Summarize what you’re looking for in about 3 to 5 words, and you should be good. I generally like to start with [What is it?] [Specific topic it pertains to.] Want to ask a professional about how many different kinds of tigers there are? 

Subject: Question about Tiger Species Statistics.

The [What is it?] helps give them an idea of what the email is about, and the specificity helps both keep you out of the spam filter and makes you sound purposeful.

Template

Writing an email isn’t particularly difficult once you get the hang of it, but when you’re first starting out, don’t be scared to use a template. Taking some of the thinking out of the process can do wonders for making you both comfortable as well as getting you most of the way there without having to struggle.  No one is going to judge you if your email doesn’t look particularly original in structure because this is about the content. You don’t have to worry here about looking like you copied someone else’s homework, rather, it’s encouraged. If you were writing a haiku you wouldn’t worry about having the same number of syllables as everyone else. In the same vein do not worry about having the same professional email structure as everyone else. Emails are a means to an end, and there is no harm in viewing them that way.

I’ve written one out below for your convenience.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Good morning,/ Good afternoon,/ Good evening,] ---> Header

[This is where you introduce yourself and provide relevant details about who you are. Are you a student with a question? Are you a professional in the field? Include that here. You may also want to include a thesis here about what you want in this introduction.  That is likely going to resemble something like “I have a question about {topic} and would like to hear your advice/ input/ knowledge on the subject, if possible.” It may seem redundant to introduce yourself here when your name is also going at the bottom, but redundancy isn’t always a bad thing.  This first paragraph is introducing yourself, the bottom is handing someone your business card.] ---> Introduction paragraph 

[This is your substantive content. You can indent this if you like, but some software gets a little finicky with this process, and most people prefer a space between the paragraphs in an email anyway because it genuinely makes it easier for people to read. Keep the paragraphs concise, clear, and don’t sweat the small stuff.] ---> First body of the email.

[I usually use much shorter paragraphs in an email that you would in an essay. You’re generally not arguing a point or giving an in depth analysis in an email, so they shouldn’t be too beefy in the first place, but generally separating them by question or by thought process is a good idea.]  ---> Second body of the email.

[And so on and so forth.] ---> Etc. body of the email.

[Best,/ Best wishes,/ Thank you,/ Thanks in advance, Kind regards] ---- Signature message

[Name O. Person] ---- Signature here

Stylistic Options

Some people insist there should be a colon at the end of the header portion, but in personal experience no one cares besides this one writing professor I had. However, if you wanna feel fancy with it, go for it. There are barely any rules to writing a professional email, but if it makes you a little less panicked to think you are performing a well guarded secret of professional email technique by using it, be the super spy you were born to be. 

Bonus Sign Off Sentence

Additionally, no one thinks for more than five seconds about the signature message. Whether you use “Regards”, or “Thank you” this is linguistic furniture. You notice when it isn’t there, but you don’t think very hard about it when it is there. I use the exact same one every single time, and so does everyone else. Pick one that sparks joy for you. If you want, you can even throw a sentence right before it to tailor it to your specific desires a la: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Body ends here.]

I genuinely appreciate everything you’ve done for me. Regards, Name O. Person

Email Signature

One way to elevate your professional email game is to create a signature in your email program. In gmail, it’s under general settings.  You click add signature, pick a name for it, and it should open a formatting box. This allows you to create essentially a business card that will automatically be affixed to the bottom of your emails. It will go in place of putting your name at the bottom every time. You can get a little more fancy with the fonts and information in this section by including things like job title or graduating class. This can elevate your professional email game tenfold and make you look like you really know what you’re doing. Nearly every program for email management has some variation of this in the settings somewhere.

#witchcraft #school of roses #witchblr #academic research #academic essay #professional email #professional #jobs #student #university #student life #studyblr #college #studying

[oftlunarialmoon]

But I’m WEIRD! (3 Ways to Work on Accepting Yourself)

Ciao lovelies! Have you ever felt “weird”? What about “out-of-place,” or maybe unaccepted for who you are? Do you ever hide your true self or feel the need to be “Someone else”? Do you have lower self-esteem and trouble accepting who you are? If any of these are true for you, I’m writing to you today.

I have lots of issues with self-esteem and self-acceptance. Often, I label my actions as weird or “Not normal.” I feel like an outsider with every group, except my closest friends. In many interactions with others I hide who I really am or I try to “act normal.” Key aspects of my personality get hidden so I can seem more “cool” or “normal.” But this just becomes a vicious cycle. Have an interaction and “act normal,” then I end up over-analyzing and thinking that I’m not “normal” enough, then I criticize myself for what I did, then in the next interaction, I’m trying harder to “act normal”…. And the cycle repeats.

Does this cycle seem familiar to you?

Many people worldwide suffer from low self-esteem, and lack of self-acceptance. Accepting yourself for who you are can be hard. It requires a lot of self-reflection, and even therapy. It’s a bumpy road and it’s not easy to travel.

Today I want to talk about some ways you can start your self-acceptance journey. The ways I’ll be talking about today are affirmations, recognizing and correcting negative ruminations, and, lastly, recognizing the difference between constructive critique and harmful insults.

DISCLAIMER

** DISCLAIMER:  I am not a mental health professional and all things mentioned in this post come from personal experience or things I learned in classes. Please note that I am not the expert on these topics and cannot “Fix” what you are experiencing personally. **

AFFIRMATIONS

First, let’s talk affirmations. How often do you self-affirm? Answer this honestly. How many times per day do you praise yourself, for things you’ve done well, or maybe just think something kind about yourself (that’s NOT reactionary, meaning you think these kind things about yourself without being forced to).

If I’m answering honestly, I do not self-affirm very often. I can’t even say that I do it more than once a day, if that. This is a big issue and contributor to my lack of self-esteem. How can I have self-esteem if I’m not even cheering myself on?

When I say that you should self-affirm, I’m not saying that you have to constantly think that you’re the best thing ever. I’m not saying that you should think that you can “do-no-wrong” sort of thing.

When I refer to “Affirmations,” it’s easiest to start fairly small. A very good way to start is to find at least one thing about your physicality that you like. This can be anything from your eye color, to the way your nose is shaped, to the way your teeth look when you smile. Anything at all, just find one thing that you like about your physical self.

Then, bump it up. You may want to take this one day at a time, if this is uncomfortable for you. Here is the plan I want to accomplish this week, you may like this, or you may want to change it for you.

My Affirmations Plan for this Week:

Monday: Affirm one aspect of my physical appearance.

Tuesday: Affirm one aspect of my physical appearance and one aspect of my personality.

Wednesday: Work on criticizing myself less today. If I catch myself criticizing, replace with a statement reflecting what I did right along with what I can work on.

Thursday: Affirm two aspects of my personality.

Friday: Reflect, at the end of the day, on two or three things I did well that day.

Saturday: Affirm one aspect of my personality, one aspect of my physical appearance and recognize one thing I did right today.

Sunday: Affirm one aspect of my personality, one aspect of my physical appearance and recognize 4 things I did right this week.

These don’t sound too bad to me and I feel that this is a good place to start.

RECOGNIZING AND CORRECTING NEGATIVE RUMINATIONS

Now let’s talk about recognizing and correcting negative ruminations.  Let’s start by defining Ruminations.

What does it mean to “Ruminate?” According to Merriam-Webster, to ruminate is to “go over in the mind repeatedly.” Not all ruminations (things that you constantly run through your head) are negative. But in the case of low self-esteem, negative ruminations attribute to keeping your self-perception negative.

Why is it important to recognize negative ruminations? Let’s say you have an interaction, which should have been a fairly casual one. Say you said hello to a friend, but they didn’t say hello back. A higher self-esteemed person would think “maybe they didn’t see me,” but a lower self-esteemed person would run through the situation in their head over and over, overthinking it, thinking of everything they did wrong, or every reason why the friend might’ve “ignored” them- even if none of those reasons were accurate. 

If you could recognize that you were in the midst of a negative rumination cycle, you could work to stop it.  Something you could try is correcting the negative mindset. Take the example given above. If you were negatively ruminating about that interaction, and thinking “I bet they hate me now,” how could you correct that thought? I would remind myself that “maybe they didn’t see me,” or provide context “they have been busy lately, maybe they weren’t able to stop and chat.” By correcting the negative rumination cycle, I prevent myself from constantly staying in a negative mindset, and hopefully provide a positive baseline for any future interactions like that one.

CONSTRUCTIVE vs HATEFUL

Lastly, let’s talk about how to recognize the difference between constructive critique and purposeful insults. If you’re wondering why this topic is in this post, I think it’s very relevant to how self-esteem works. Those with lower self-esteem seem to be more likely to take even helpful critique as insult, because they feel that nobody likes them. Therefore, I felt it was good to have this reminder in this post.

The ways I separate constructive criticism and insult in general are on 2 baselines: was it intended to hurt me, and does it help me to gain this knowledge? What I mean by this is going to be highlighted in the example below.

Let’s say a friend has noticed me saying something that is inappropriate, but I don’t know that it is inappropriate. That friend then brings me aside and informs me that what I said is inappropriate. They are not intending to hurt my feelings, and it’s helpful for me to learn this. This would be constructive criticism/critique.

Here is another example. Let’s say a troll online comments anonymously that “WOW ur face is soo ugly” or something like that. Was it intended to hurt me? Yes. Does it help me in any way to gain this “knowledge”? No. Therefore, that is an insult.

Knowing how to determine between the two is great because if you know it’s an insult, you can sort of…what’s the phrase I’m looking for…. Let it roll off your back. This can be hard to do if you have low self-esteem, but now you know that insults are intended to hurt you, which means usually they’re untrue and intended only to hurt, and are based in the speaker’s own bias/feelings. Knowing the untrue nature of insults can help them ease off your shoulders.

OVERALL

Overall, the point I want to make in this post is that it’s okay to be who you are, and I know that journey can be really hard. But you’re not alone in making it. 

#agere #age regression #sfw littlespace #sfw agere #sfw age regression #age regressor #agereg #age dreaming #sfw little blog

[winryofresembool]

Jily one-shot: Sex Education

A Jily Valentine Gift Exchange fic for @athenasparrow!

@jilymicrofics

Summary: A trainee ob/gyn Lily Evans isn't very impressed when she's invited to teach sex ed at a local sixth form college and she finds out that the students' knowledge of the topic is rather lacking. Enter James Potter, a fellow doctor, who manages to make teaching sex ed more interesting.

A/N: This fic is very different from the stuff I usually write but I ended up having a lot of fun writing it! I am by no means an expert on sex education nor UK school system in general so please be kind if some term isn't 100% correct.

A lot of inspiration for this fic were taken from Grey's Anatomy S19E03 aka the episode Athena mentioned in her wish list, and from Mama Doctor Jones' youtube vids. Also, shout out to @wearingaberetinparis​ from whom I borrowed the kitty name Merlin.

If you have read this far, you are probably aware there will be smut in this fic, but if you want to avoid that and read the rest of the fic, the smut part is in the last quarter. Also, while this Jily is English, there is a brief reference to the Roe v. Wade overturn in one part of this fic, just to warn you in case that’s something that may trigger you. The James and Lily of this fic are very much pro choice and if you don't agree with that, this fic is not for you.

All that being said, I hope you enjoy!! And don't forget to let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: I do not agree with any of the author-who-shall-not-be-named's views.

Words: 10667

Rated: E

AO3

...

Lily Evans sighed as she threw herself down on a sofa, lifting her feet up in the air. As a part of her training to become an ob/gyn, she had been invited to teach sex ed to Year 13:s at a school located a few hours from her workplace, but she was already regretting agreeing to do it with only half of the lectures behind her so far. It was unbelievable to her how little even those who were about to apply for universities knew about basic human anatomy; many had confused terms like vagina, uterus and ovaries with each other and someone had even claimed that the human egg cells were the size of a chicken egg. She hadn’t been sure whether to cry or laugh at that comment. Biting her lip, she had tried to explain the facts but she wasn’t sure how effective her lecture had really been.

Now she had an hour-long break, which she was planning to embrace fully. 15-30 minutes of resting in the empty staff room (most of the teachers were already at the school cafeteria or still teaching), after which she’d head back down for lunch. As she leaned her head against the backrest, her mind went back to a specific moment during her latest lecture. While she had been talking, she had noticed a – rather attractive, she had to admit – man of presumably her age, also wearing a doctor’s coat, watching and listening to her intently. There had been something familiar about him but she wasn’t sure what. However, she hadn’t had a chance to ask before he had already left.

Secretly hoping that she would eventually find out who the man was, she finally snapped out of her daydreams when she realized she’d have to rush if she still wanted to get her lunch. She got up, straightened her doctor’s coat, and also fixed her ponytail quickly before leaving the room.

Her lunch plans came to a halt when she walked past the classroom where she was supposed to lecture next, overhearing a student asking his teacher:

“So, basically, you’re saying don’t have sex or you’ll die, like those videos our parents were shown when they were kids?”

The teacher sounded really awkward when he tried to respond: “Uh, that’s not… I just… You gotta be careful! STI:s are no joke!”

Lily sort of felt pity for the man who clearly wasn’t made to teach about sex, and she decided to step in, even if it meant she would probably miss her lunch altogether. At least she had some snacks in her bag she could resort to if need be.

“You’re right in one thing,” she said loudly enough that everyone could hear her. “It never hurts to be careful when it comes to sex. However…” She addressed the students now. “Don’t be afraid of it. There’s such stigma around STI:s even though they are way more common than you’d think. Medicine develops and we learn more about treatments and the way certain viruses are transmitted all the time; for example HIV is very much manageable these days and with only a few simple precautions you can avoid it and other infections altogether.”

“I’m sorry, but who are you? And why are you interrupting my class?” the teacher stopped her rambling.

“I’m Lily Evans, a trainee ob/gyn and here to lecture about these exact things. As a matter of fact,” she checked her schedule from her phone, “does this happen to be the class 13 B?””

“Yes, that’s us,” the teacher confirmed, still a bit flabbergasted.

“In that case, I’m supposed to teach this group in a bit anyway, so I can take over if you’d like.”

The man didn’t protest but his mouth still hung open as if he would have liked to say something. Lily decided to ignore it and asked: “So, what are those precautions you can take, one might ask. I’ll tell you. You may consider some of these obvious but I don’t think repeating them can hurt: 1) use condoms. It doesn’t only prevent pregnancy - when you’re having sex with someone who can get you pregnant - with a fairly high accuracy but it also protects you from so many infections. Boys, don’t come complaining to me ‘they are so uncomfortable!’ Trust me, it’s a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things. 2) talk with your partner, or partners. A good relationship is one where you can talk about these things openly. Really, it never hurts to ask. And 3) have regular checkups at a doctor, especially if you are unsure about whether you or someone you have sex with might have an STI. Don’t be ashamed of it. Trust me, we’ve seen it all, and we don’t shame anyone. It’s life, sometimes things happen and that’s fine. Now, these are just some basics; there’s more you can do but that’s a lecture for another time.”

At this point everyone was staring at her with rather similar expressions on their faces as their teacher had had a moment earlier. She realized that her open way to talk about this topic surprised many; it really was a shame how little pupils were taught about sex at school.

To break the silence, she reached for her backpack and said: “Alright then. Who wants some free condoms?” She started throwing the small foil packages at the students, some of whom caught them rather eagerly, some a bit bashfully.

“So, are there any questions?” she asked once all the packages had disappeared. A silence filled the room again. “Alright, since there are no questions… unless your teacher has something to add… “ she glanced at the teacher who just shook his head, “feel free to go and have a 10 minute break while I get prepared for the next lesson; we’ll continue with other topics after the break.”

The group left, and after exchanging a couple of words with the teacher, Lily was left alone to check if she had everything she needed in her bag. Only, there was still someone watching her.

“That was quite an impressive way you just shut that teacher’s mouth,” a man with messy, black hair, glasses, and a long, white coat told her. It didn’t take her long to register it was the same man she had already seen earlier that day. He was leaning against the wall casually and the grin on his face made her feel like he was up to no good, but maybe it was just the way he smiled. “Really, though, that’s exactly why they should let the professionals do the sex ed part; those poor kids won’t learn anything otherwise.”

“And who are you?”

“Oh, sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Potter, James Potter.”

Lily rolled her eyes but took his extended hand and shook it. The grip was firm and warm. “What is it with blokes called James and wanting to introduce yourself that way?”

“Just admit it, Mr. Bond is the coolest guy in the UK.”

“If you say so, Potter. I’m Evans, Lily Evans, by the way. And I’m curious about why I’ve caught you watching my lectures not once but twice today.”

“Who doesn’t want to listen to a beautiful woman talk about sex?” Lily couldn’t help herself, she blushed at the compliment. “From a scientific point of view, of course. I’m a trainee surgeon and I’m here to help my colleague record some of his lectures so they can be used at later dates when needed. I just happened to walk past this classroom when I was heading to the staff room and got curious when I saw you lecturing. My friends always say one day my curiosity will get me in trouble.”

“Alright. I suppose your explanation makes sense,” Lily nodded. “I mean, the same sort of happened to me.”

“Guess we’re both curious natures then,” James stated. “So, um, we literally just started talking and this is probably going to sound like a crazy or weird suggestion to you, but… since I’m having the next hour free, can I join your lecture? My colleague is off to who knows where so it’s not like I have better things to do. I could even help you if you wanted to.”

“And why would you do that?” Lily questioned, narrowing her eyes. “Didn’t you just say you were impressed by how I handled that class?”

“I really was, and I would never underestimate your skills to teach those kids everything they need to know about sex. But it can never hurt to bring some male perspective with you, right?” He gave her a lopsided smile that somehow managed to make her heart beat a bit faster.

“Err…” she mumbled, “I suppose you have a point there.”

“I promise I won’t step on your toes.” He made what Lily could only describe as ‘deer eyes’ and she couldn’t help but smile back.

“Good.”

Lily took a moment to inspect the other doctor more closely, and the feeling that she somehow knew him got stronger.

“Excuse me, but I can’t shake the feeling that we might have met before.”

“That’s because we have,” James noted. “Truth to be told, that was the real reason why I stopped to listen to you.”

“We have?”

“Yeah. Hogwarts university med school. We were there at the same time, even though for whatever reason our paths never crossed properly. But I would never forget that red hair on the other side of the hall.” He stepped closer and seemed like he wanted to touch her hair, but finally decided against it. A part of her definitely wanted to tell him it was OK for him to touch it, but she stopped herself, instead thinking back to her Hogwarts university days.

“Potter… Potter… Hey! Were you a part of that group that called themselves the Marauders? You sometimes sabotaged the lectures on purpose… and I also heard some rumors about some pretty interesting campus parties... There was also that Black guy… and two others…”

“So you remembered Sirius’ name but not mine,” James huffed. “Typical. And for your information, we only sabotaged lectures when it was necessary; some professors were just straight out nasty or gave us misinformation on purpose.”

“That’s what you say but now I’m starting to suspect you’re here to ruin my lecture.” Lily accused, but not seriously.

“I would never. Marauders’ honor.” James put a hand over his heart. “Besides, that was literally like 8 years ago; I’d like to think that I’ve grown out of those habits by now.”

“Well, I’ll give you a chance. But if you try to pull off something weird, I will find out who your supervisor is and ask them to reconsider making you a surgeon.” Her index finger poked his chest playfully. A pretty solid chest, she realized.

James raised his hands in mock surrender. “Geeze, Evans, playing with the big guns already? As I said, I would never overstep my boundaries; you’re the one who gets paid to do that lecture. I’ll just add some things if I see an opportunity.”

“Alright.” Lily accepted. “Sorry, I simply remembered that one time we got living rats in our lab class – which I now suspect was your doing – and I don’t want a repeat of that today.”

“Yeah, we may have gotten a bit overboard with that prank,” James smiled sheepishly. “You’re free to check my bag for rats if you feel the need for that.”

“No need for that, I trust your word – this time. Anyway, if you’re going to do this, maybe we should quickly go through the topics I was planning to cover during this lecture so you’ll have an idea what we’re supposed to talk about.”

As they did that, Lily started to feel like maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to bring James along. He had surprisingly good ideas to add into her ‘script’ and he also seemed to be a natural performer; at least he wasn’t a single bit ashamed to talk about sex in front of strangers. … “Alright,” Lily clapped her hands to get the class’s attention. “I know you’ve already covered STI:s and various contraceptives earlier today with other people, but now we get to the truly exciting part: what you should know about sex itself. Laugh ahead; I bet you will learn something during this lecture. First, I’d like to ask you a question: how big a percentage of women or people with internal reproductive organs do you think can get an orgasm simply from penetration, no foreplay involved?”

The students yelled their guesses:

“90 per cent?”

“85?”

“80?”

“That’s not right.” Lily shook her head. “I’ve seen some articles claim that it’s roughly 60%. However, as a woman and someone with plenty of female friends, I would say it’s actually even lower than that. This is a topic that is difficult to research so the sample is small.”

“You can laugh now, boys.” James was glaring at a couple of boys who had been chuckling at Lily’s commentary, as if they didn’t believe her. “But I bet your partners aren’t laughing if you just completely choose to ignore the foreplay. They might make you think that they enjoy what you’re doing but in reality a lot of the moans and other reactions are fake. Just repeating what you see in porn movies and stuff like that does not make you adept in sex, am I right, Evans?”

“Yep, you’re correct. Saying that real sex is like porn is like saying books and their movie adaptations are the same. Some people may believe in that, but…” Lily left the rest for the listeners’ imagination. James continued: “I’m not ashamed to admit that as a teenager I may have had that kind of mind set too, but thank – apologies, I just can’t not use the next word in this context - fuck I went to the med school and learned a thing or two about the secrets of human anatomy. I mean, I may have known some basics earlier than that but my exes would probably tell you that there was some room for development.”

That made the group of students laugh out loud.

“Oh, I’m curious now, Potter,” Lily told him, unable to stop her mouth from twitching. “What exactly did you learn at med school?”

“I learned that real men - cis, trans, whatever label you yourself want to use - give their partners orgasms. Real orgasms. So, if you want to be a real man… you better learn how to please your partner. And doctor Evans, I believe you are the better person to answer questions on how to achieve that.”

“Hmmm, thanks Potter. For one, it’s extremely important to remember that different things work for different people. Sometimes a bit of experimentation is needed to find what works for you, both in regards to how you personally like to be touched, and who you want to be intimate with. Maybe you’re still on your journey to discover your sexuality, maybe you only want to have sex with a very specific person, maybe with several people, or maybe you don’t want to have sex at all. All of those are completely normal, valid situations. If sex is not something you want, there’s absolutely no need to rush it, nor do you need to feel ashamed if you enjoy it a lot. That is everyone’s personal choice and no one else’s business.”

Lily took a quick swig from her water bottle and glanced at James from the corner of her eye; he gave her an encouraging nod.

“Anyway, you guys are around 18 now, right? That means some of you have already had sex and some of you haven’t. The media often makes it seem like the first time is such a huge deal, but my personal view is that it should be treated similarly to any other experience you have during your life. You gained something. Great. Now let’s move onto the next experience. ‘Losing virginity’ is a horrible phrase that you will not hear me use in other contexts except this. I mean, too many people still think that sex is all about penetration and 'virginity' is something you 'lose' when a cock breaks the hymen. But here's the thing: not only are there many ways to have sex that do not involve penetration, but there's a lot of misinformation regarding hymens too. It’s a small piece of tissue surrounding the opening of the vagina that can come in many shapes and sizes and can break for a large variety of reasons. It does not tell you whether someone has had sex or not. So, if someone tries to tell you otherwise… Please know they’re wrong.”

She waited for a moment to see if someone wanted to comment or ask something before continuing.

“What else should you know about first times? Well, it’s often messy and awkward and nothing like books or movies make it sound, but the good news is: it gets better. And the best part is that you can practice on your own and learn to know your own body.”

James took over: “By masturbating. Which, by the way, is also totally normal and shouldn’t be something to be ashamed of. What happens in your bedroom, stays in your bedroom.”

“That’s right.” Lily agreed. “And when it comes to mutual pleasure, as I already said, there are other ways to reach it besides penetration. It’s good to learn what other erogenous zones you personally find enjoyable besides the obvious ones, and let me tell you, there are many, and some of them might be rather surprising. Some of the better known ones are for example ears and neck and inner thighs… But, how many of you knew that for example the backs of the knees or armpits are erogenous zones? Or hands? Or feet? Yep, you heard that right. Having your partner rub your feet can really help you get off.”

“Ah, yes. My personal favorite, armpits,” James joked.

“Don’t make fun of armpits, Potter. This is serious business.”

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t. Well, does anyone have questions at this point?”

Surprisingly many students had (Lily had a feeling that James had a big role in breaking the ice between them and the students), and once those questions had been answered and the students had been given pamphlets about the previous topics, she took 3D models of internal reproductive organs and external genitals from her bag and wanted to know if the students could name the various parts. Turned out, their knowledge was quite lacking; many didn’t for example know where the clitoris was located and a couple were even surprised to find out that urine and period blood come from different holes.

A bit later Lily stopped the discussion: “So, now that you know the names and locations of the spots that can give you pleasure, it’s time to move on. What else is important in good sex aside from knowing where to touch?”

“May I answer this question, Doctor Evans?” James winked at her.

“Aha, I see what you did there, Doctor Potter. What he just demonstrated here was asking for my consent. And indeed that is something that should never, ever be ignored when discussing sex.”

Lily cleared her throat and continued: “So, you all should at least in theory know what consent means. But how does it show in practice during a sexual encounter? Well, here’s one red flag you should pay attention to: if you, or your partner, need verbal persuasion or convincing it is not consent. You are not supposed to feel uncomfortable in that situation. Tell your partner how you feel, and ask them how they feel.”

“Trust me, everyone. Spoken consent is hot,” James chimed in. “A simple question like ‘what do you want to do?’ or ‘is this OK?’ can make a big difference.”

Lily’s mind went to an entirely wrong place for a moment as she pictured him saying exactly those things at her, in private. It took her a moment to collect herself and continue talking.

“Ahem. Anyway. Some people have higher tolerance than others, but regardless, sex is something that should be enjoyable to all involved, so you have every right to stop your partner if you’re not feeling comfortable.”

“And if your partner doesn’t respect your boundaries, it’s a sexual assault. Your partner is committing a crime against you and it should be immediately reported and you should also get medical treatment if needed. The sad fact is that many victims of sexual assault are too afraid to do that because sometimes it can be hard to prove it happened and they might feel guilty, ashamed or humiliated. But, if it does happen to you, please seek help. You’re not alone in that situation and there are people out there who want to help and protect you.”

At this point Lily absolutely hated herself for finding James so attractive when he was talking about something so serious. Withdrawing her eyes from him, she added:

“Exactly. That's what we healthcare workers are for. Also, something that I as a future gynecologist want you to know is that sometimes our body and mind don’t cooperate during a sexual encounter. Sometimes your body might be turned on even though your mind knows what’s happening is wrong and doesn’t know how to stop it. A rapist can claim the other party was willing simply because their body reacted in a way a body usually does when being touched. That doesn’t give them a right to do what they do.”

“Any questions? Our pamphlets have some useful phone numbers and websites that you can use if you’re ever in a questionable sexual situation.”

Once the pamphlets had been shared, they kept discussing consent with the students till the lesson was about to end.

“Let’s finish this with a happier note: done right, sex is a wonderful thing, and we hope that you got something out of this lecture,” Lily addressed the class once the discussion died down.

Apparently James couldn’t resist an opportunity to crack a joke: “Yep, even if it was simply that armpits can give you sexual pleasure.”

This made the students laugh again, and Lily glanced at her ‘partner in crime’ to see how he was doing. He seemed so at ease in front of the curious students and she couldn’t help but admire James a bit for handling a topic that too many people liked to avoid so calmly, with a glint of humor in his eye.

“Well, that went pretty well, don’t you think?” she asked when the students had left the room and she had started collecting her papers from the desk in front of her.

“Yep, I think so. Although I believe their teacher would have been scandalized had he been listening to our lecture.”

Lily couldn’t help but snort. “I probably shouldn’t say this but I was happy he chose to let us handle it on our own. I think the students were more at ease too.”

“Well, you’re not wrong there. It was honestly great to see this group so active.”

“Yeah, I rarely get this many questions when it’s just me lecturing,” Lily noted.

“Hey, don’t sell yourself short,” James bumped her arm with his elbow. “You did most of the work there and I think they really enjoyed the way you presented things. I was just the goofy comic relief person.”

“No, I think they loved you,” Lily protested. “I swear to God that those two girls that were constantly whispering in the back of the room had a crush on you, they kept staring and giggling at your jokes…”

“You seem to have paid a lot of attention to what the others thought of me,” James pointed out and Lily felt her face heat.

“Yeah, well… Of course I needed to see how they’d react so I’d know if you’re worth having as my assistant in the future.”

She turned to close her bag, mainly to hide her blushing, but before she managed to move far from the desk, she felt his fingers catch her wrist.

“Well? Was I?” he asked with an earnest expression on his face.

“Were you what?”

“Worth keeping as your assistant?”

“Hmmm… I might need a bit more convincing,” she grinned at him, hoping he'd get the hint.

“Oh.”

James froze for a moment, and Lily was almost out of the door when he practically exclaimed:

“Hey, Lily?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I try to do more convincing over dinner tonight?”

Lily could feel her smile widening.

“I thought you’d never ask.”

…

“… And then my cat managed to climb on top of the fridge and didn’t know how to get down from there so my roommate Mary and her date spent like an hour trying to help him while he sang the song of his people. He’s not very trusting of other people besides me. You can probably imagine that Mary wasn’t very happy with me or Merlin the next day,” Lily finished the story of how her cat had once escaped her room and climbed on the top of the fridge while her poor friend Mary had been trying to have a nice date in the kitchen of their old flat.

“Your cat’s name is Merlin?” James asked once he managed to suppress his laughter. “Like the wizard. I like that.”

“Yep, he was named after him,” Lily confirmed.

“Do you have photos of him? I’d like to see what this culprit looks like,” James inquired.

“Cat person, are you?” Lily asked, happy that she had immediately found something to bond over with James.

He shrugged. “Alright, I am, but don’t tell that to my roommate. I’d love to have a cat but unfortunately Sirius has a dog – and he claims he’s allergic to cats – so no can do. Maybe I should kick him out of my place; the guy definitely earns enough these days to be able to live on his own if he wanted to.”

“Maybe he’s just living with you to piss you off,” Lily suggested.

“You know, I wouldn’t be surprised. Anyway, here’s Padfoot.” James showed a picture of a big, black dog from his phone. “I tried to make him respond to the name ‘Elvendork’ when he was still a puppy but sadly that attempt failed.”

“Elvendork?” Lily repeated, unsure if she had heard the name right. “Why would you want to call a puppy that?”

“Why does everyone keep asking that? It’s a nice, unisex name!” James exclaimed with fake annoyance.

Lily put a hand on his arm as a peace offering of sorts. She wondered briefly how touches like this already felt so natural with this man. “Hey, you do you. But please don’t name your future child that, if you’re ever planning to have any.”

“Watch me try,” James declared, something about his mischievous grin only making him more endearing in Lily’s eyes.

“Poor future spouse of yours…” Lily tutted, shaking her head. James only chuckled at her. “Anyway, Padfoot looks adorable! “

“The looks can be deceiving,” James assured her. “I swear he’s capable of just as much mischief as Sirius when he’s feeling like it. Sometimes I’m not entirely sure they’re not one and the same…” Lily laughed. “I’d love to meet this Padfoot one day.”

“Maybe you will,” James noted, and Lily’s mind went to picture him playing with the black dog during a future date of theirs. She found herself wishing that it would happen. “Here, this is Merlin”, she showed James a photo of a handsome ginger cat lounging in front of a fireplace lazily.

“Seems pretty harmless to me,” James observed, referring to Lily’s earlier story. “But I guess it’s the same as with Padfoot. You never know what they are up to. I have to admit, I have a soft spot for gingers.”

He looked up from the photo, his eyes messaging her that he may not be talking about cats anymore.

“Oh,” she said, biting her lower lip shyly. “Yeah, they are pretty great, ginger cats.”

“Not just cats,” James confirmed her suspicion, taking a strand of her hair between his fingers and twirling it there. She hated how he somehow managed to make her feel like she was back in secondary school. She definitely hadn’t been prepared for the butterflies that were currently flying restlessly in her stomach.

When Lily’s brain started functioning enough for her to realize he was probably expecting some kind of response, she eventually asked: “Are you always such a flirt, Potter?”

“No,” he said firmly, looking into her eyes. “Only when I genuinely think the other person is interesting.”

She wasn’t sure what would have happened next if the bartender hadn’t picked that moment to come to ask them if they wanted something more to eat or drink. James lifted the hand he had momentarily set on her knee and ordered simply a glass of water (they had already had a couple of glasses of wine), saying he wasn’t fancying having to work the next day with a hangover. Lily decided to follow suit. “So,” James continued their conversation while he was chewing a nacho he had ordered earlier. “This isn’t exactly the most original question out there, but was there some specific reason why you chose to become an ob/gyn?”

“I think I’ve always considered this branch of medicine as really important. Periods, pregnancy, labor, those are things that about half of the people in the world have to deal with at some point in their life yet somehow I feel they are still horribly overlooked when we are talking about the bigger picture. I mean, you only need to look at what’s happening in the States; politicians make horrible decisions that restrict women’s rights to control their own body, and I personally believe that the lack of information is a huge factor on why that’s happening. There are too many examples where those politicians fail to answer even the simplest questions about for example how periods work. It is fucking maddening and I want to do my part that the people here, like the students we just taught, DO have some information. Well," her tone softened a bit, "obviously as an obstetrician I also get to help babies arrive into this world and that’s something that never ceases to amaze me… But I do consider the info spreading almost equally important because if we don’t do it, who will?!”

“My mother would probably have jumped onto that bar counter over there and yelled ‘you listen to that girl!’ if she had just heard your talk,” James said with amusement. “Her name is Euphemia Potter, she used to be a women’s rights activist when she was younger. Of course she’s still passionate about women’s rights still, just a bit old to participate in the marches and stuff anymore. Anyway, you’re of course right in everything you just said, and to be honest, I feel like I should be the one to jump onto that bar counter right now.”

Lily guessed her expression must have been horrified because James was quick to add: “Don’t worry, I won’t! But I just wanted to let you know my mother didn’t raise me to be a so-called ‘pro life’. My view is: you’re allowed to have your own personal beliefs but what someone else chooses to do with their body should be their and their choice only.”

“Yeah, it’s… there are no words for it,” Lily sighed. Even though she was getting upset thinking about the women’s situation on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, James’ speech had convinced her that she had made the right decision when she had agreed to join him for that dinner. “I’m sorry, this got a bit heavy. I don’t want to ruin this date so maybe we should move on to something lighter. So, why did you choose to be a surgeon?”

“Do you really want to know?” James asked, frowning for some reason.

“Of course I do.” Lily felt a bit confused about James’ reluctance to talk about it.

“Alright, then, but I have to warn you that this isn’t going to be the uplifting story you’re looking for. Nor something heroic like ‘I’ve always wanted to save people’s lives’. I mean, I do, but it started from more selfish reasons.”

“That’s fine. You can still tell me if you want to,” she encouraged.

James exhaled deeply and his hand went to muss his already rather messy hair. “Okay, so. My dad, who was my big idol growing up, died in a surgery when I was 18. It was just before I was supposed to start applying for unis. He had a cancerous tumor in his brain and when they tried to remove it… well, there were complications, and he didn’t make it. I got so mad. Back then I still had a child’s faith; I thought that once the operation was done, everything would be fine and dandy. I knew the doctors had talked to my parents about the possible risks, but I refused to accept such a possibility. So, afterwards, I desperately wanted to understand how something like that could happen. I kept reading book after book, article after article, about surgeries, and cancer, and somehow I wound up in Hogwarts med school. Yep, it was my pettiness and bitterness that got me there.”

“I’m sorry, James.” Lily covered his wrist with her hand. “I shouldn’t have made…”

“No, it’s fine.” He shook his head. “I mean, I’ve had time to come to terms with all this. Maybe… as horrible as it may sound, it may have been the push I needed. Up till then, I had always gotten everything I ever wanted, and just breezed through my life while many around me were struggling. I’m not going to deny that I could even be downright nasty when I felt like it. But that incident was a big wake up call to me, and these days I obviously have nothing but huge respect for the people in my field. It’s tough… really, really tough at times, but when you succeed… it’s worth it.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. It’s the same in my field." Not feeling like dwelling on her personal work issues, she chose to change the topic: "If you don't want to talk about this, I understand, but seeing as you said that your father was your idol, I'd like to know more about him. What did he do for a living?”

“He was a chemist. He loved inventing new things.”

“Really?” Lily got excited. “I used to think that if I hadn’t decided to become a doctor I may have become a chemist instead. What sort of things did he invent?”

At this point James scratched his neck, as if he was a little embarrassed to admit something.

“You may or may not be familiar with Sleekeazy’s hair products….”

“No way! I love their conditioner!” Lily exclaimed. “You have no idea how difficult it would be to get the knots out of this mane without it.” She pointed at her hair needlessly.

“I honestly doubt your hair could look anything but nice, Evans.”

“Thanks, Potter, even though you’re wrong there.” She smiled at him shyly.

“Am not. My hair, on the other hand, can’t be tamed with any amount of Sleekeazy’s. Trust me, my mum has tried.” He combed his hair with his fingers and it stuck in all the possible directions.

Lily snorted. “Hey. I like it the way it is.”

James’ eyes widened slightly. “Really?”

“Believe it or not, yes. I do.” She leaned in to ruffle the dark locks, and was happy to find out they felt surprisingly soft. James closed his eyes at the touch, and Lily wondered if his cheeks had just gotten some extra color.

“Well… I’m glad you like it?”

Once Lily sat back down on her chair, she felt the need to say: “Thanks, James. For telling me all those things. I feel a bit silly now, to be honest, because I may have expected you to have a pretty different kind of answer to my original question.”

Even though she hadn’t elaborated on what kind of answer she was talking about, James seemed to understand: “Such as: ‘the money is good’? At some point I might have said ‘well, it’s a nice bonus’, but years have taught me that money doesn’t bring you happiness. Lame, I know, but it’s true. My dad wasn’t happy because he had money, he was happy despite it. He worked hard, and loved a lot and I suppose he’d want the same for me.”

The guy was attractive, smart, good with his hands, he spoke lovingly about his parents, and so on. Lily couldn’t help but wonder if she was dreaming this whole scenario in her head. “Um, this can be a horribly intrusive question, but how does a guy like you not have a girlfriend? Or a boyfriend?”

James chuckled awkwardly. “I suppose I could ask you the same question.”

That was yet another response Lily hadn’t quite anticipated. “What? Why?”

“Have you seen yourself?” he gestured at her. “Obviously I consider you really pretty, but that's simply the surface. Based on what I’ve heard today I’d say you’re…” he rested his chin on top of his fingers, pretending to thinking hard, “caring, very passionate about things that matter to you, sharp-witted – I only needed to listen to you lecturing today and I can say that – the type who doesn’t give up easily… or have I gotten that all wrong?”

“Oh… I guess I don’t really think of myself that way,” Lily muttered. “I’ve had a few people in my life tell me I’m a freak and way too ‘liberal’… presumably for advocating basic human rights. The worst part is that they were people I cared about deeply.” She thought about her sister and her childhood friend whom she had thought she could trust, but who had shown his true colors when she had started talking about her world views and found out that his were almost the exact opposite. “Maybe on some level I’ve started believing them… I tend to withdraw easily when I sense a potential relationship, because I don’t think I’m worthy enough.”

James covered her hand with his. “I do think you’re worthy enough. Those people were bloody idiots who don’t understand what’s good. As for your question, I'm single because work is keeping me busy and because I’ve had some… bizarre relationship experiences in the past. One only saw me as some magazine cover boy, one cared about my money a bit too much, one was seeing someone else behind my back, one told me we were better off as friends just when I thought it was getting serious… That was when I decided, ‘fuck it, better be single than whatever the hell that was’. Sirius has tried to get me out every once in a while but that’s usually been a waste of time.”

“That’s… too bad,” Lily said sympathetically. “Maybe the right person just hasn’t showed up yet.”

James brushed some strands of hair off his face, his eyes on his glass as he said quietly: “Or maybe the right person shows up when you don’t expect it… Like, at a random school?” Lily’s face was positively burning now.

“Are you saying…?”

“You look adorable when you’re flustered.” James’ face lit up when his eyes met hers again. “Hey, would you like to dance?” he asked before Lily could react to his statement. “This song is great.”

“Oh, sure,” she managed to stammer before he already took her hand and dragged her onto the dance floor.

The song was a fast one and Lily couldn’t help but giggle as James kept twirling her around. He wasn’t the best dancer she had ever met, but she found she didn’t mind one bit; the laughing was worth the risk of getting her toes stomped on in the process.

When the song changed, James pulled her closer and muttered into her ear: “I have a confession to make.”

“What kind of confession?” Lily asked curiously, not quite sure why her heart kept beating that hard only after one dance.

“When we were at med school… I may have wanted to ask you out.”

Lily’s eyes widened at that piece of information. “Why didn’t you, then?”

“Hell, you were way too good for an idiot like me. Top grades, the professors' favorite, always a lot of people around you… I didn’t want to know how I’d feel if you had said no to me. Besides, I was quite sure you must be seeing someone anyway.”

“You seem to have paid more attention to me than I did to you,” Lily observed, her voice apologetic.

“It was honestly quite hard to not to notice you,” James responded, his eyes finding hers. Again Lily felt her heart skip a beat. How was this guy so smooth? “I also don’t blame you for ignoring me; I was obnoxious as hell and I’m not even gonna deny that. Um. That is not to say that I’m some perfect prince these days because that’s far from the truth but you know. I try to learn. Keyword: try.”

“I think you are doing better than you think you do,” she gave him a smile that she hoped was reassuring.

“You know, when you look at me like that…” James started, but didn’t seem to know how to finish his thought.

“Yeah? Go on, you can tell me,” she encouraged.

“Well, I think it will make having to listen to Sirius whine about me ditching him for another doctor tonight worth it,” he settled on even though Lily had a feeling he had probably wanted to say more.

“So Sirius Black dragged you to film his lectures,” Lily chuckled. “I feel like I should have guessed that.”

“Er, yeah. I was supposed to have a couple of days off this week but I may have owed him this for ruining our chances at winning the pub quiz the other week,” he grinned sheepishly.

“Do I want to know how exactly you ruined that?” Lily raised her eyebrow, but her mouth was twitching.

“I’m not so sure you do,” James laughed, shaking his head.

Lily bit her lip to keep herself from laughing as well. She couldn’t help but notice that James noticed the gesture… and her eyes involuntarily went to his lips as well.

“Anyway…” he continued more quietly. “If he somehow knew that I’m thinking about kissing this lovely girl I met thanks to him… he would say that I owe him even more.”

“Yeah?” Lily said expectantly.

“… But I would argue it’s a risk worth taking,” he finished. His eyes were definitely on her lips now and Lily had absolutely no plans to stop him. “Since I may have told a whole class today that spoken consent is hot, I’m going to ask: may I?”

“You most definitely may,” she answered and before she had even properly finished her sentence, his hands had already found her cheeks and she was tiptoeing to give him easier access to her lips. Finally, their lips met. It started almost tentatively, but soon Lily felt her entire body tingling when he sucked and gently nipped her lower lip, a small sigh escaping her mouth. He took advantage of that and slipped his tongue in, and she happily followed suit.

Lily barely even registered them leaving the dance floor. The next thing she knew, they were making out in an empty hallway of the hotel where she was staying, their hands and mouths exploring all the available skin, and Lily could feel the heat build up inside her as he propped her against the wall, the increasing hardness in his pants telling her that he wanted this just as much as she did.

Somehow, they managed to stumble to the entrance of Lily’s hotel room. They both were panting when they stopped the snogging for a moment, and James leaned his forehead against hers.

“I want to let you know that I don’t usually drag the first doctor who happens to stop to watch my lecture into my hotel room during one of these events… But… I may be willing to make an exception this time,” Lily whispered. “That is, if you want to.”

James had an almost mischievous twinkle in his eye when he said: “Hmm… I really need to consider this for a moment…” Lily rolled her eyes. “This lovely woman whom I happened to have a crush on years ago asks me to come into her hotel room…”

“Oh, shut up…” Lily said but her eyes and mouth probably betrayed her.

“Good luck shutting me up. I’ll have you know that I can be rather talkative in the bedroom… or hotel room…” he whispered into her ear, hot air from his mouth tickling it.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” she muttered and claimed his mouth with hers again while one of her hands was fumbling in her pockets, trying to find the card key to the room.

“Yes, it’s definitely a yes.” He smiled against her mouth. She managed to find the card and pulled him into her room. …

Some minutes later, they were laying on the hotel bed with notably less clothes on, facing each other as their hands wandered on each other’s bodies.

“I know we already did our fair share of warming up but… what would you say if we took that to the next level?” James asked, pushing a strand of her hair that was threatening to fall on her face behind her ear.

“What do you mean?” Lily raised her eyebrow. One side of her might have been happy just lying there staring into his hazel eyes, which she could see more clearly now that he had taken his glasses off. The other side of her, however, was burning and demanding his touches, and it became harder to ignore it.

He seemed almost bashful when he said: “I would be interested in seeing if those erogenous zones you kept talking about today are worth the hype.”

“Oh, were you one of those guys who just go straight below the belly after all? I must say, I’m disappointed,” Lily teased.

“Oh, no, no. I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just like you said, different things work for different people, and I must admit I’m kind of keen on finding out what works for you.”

Lily felt like fanning her face with her hand like one of those girls she had seen in the Regency era films. When had she last slept with someone who had actually cared about what she liked? She didn’t remember.

“Mmmh. Go ahead, show me what you got, then,” she encouraged, instead of saying her thoughts aloud. … And did he ever do what he had promised.

He planted a couple of kisses on her temple – a gesture which Lily found surprisingly and adorably soft – before he moved his focus to her ears. She could feel him puffing a bit of hot air into one of them before he gently nipped her earlobe. Then he tentatively nudged the back of her ear with his nose and after finding a spot that made Lily bend her head to give him better access he kissed her there. She had to stop herself from moaning immediately.

Even though Lily had enjoyed the kisses behind her ear, James made sure that he didn’t focus on one spot too long. The nape of her neck had always been one of Lily’s favorite places to receive kisses on and when she felt James’ soft lips there she couldn’t stop herself anymore. Her fingers dug into his hair and her hips thrust against him on their own accord.

“Oh,” James smirked against her neck. “I think I’m starting to get a hang of it. But this is just the beginning.”

His words made something hot pool straight to her core and she had to close her eyes to keep herself together.

“Big promises, mister,” she muttered as her hands slowly moved from his hair to his nicely shaped shoulders.

“Well, I never do things by halves, that’s for sure.” He was now hovering above her, carrying his weight with his arms, and she got a chance to admire him from close. Lily made a mental note to ask him about what kind of working out he did whenever she had a chance, because the guy was /fit/. She herself did also try to make sure she was in pretty good shape because working the long hospital shifts was no joke and exercising did help her keep her mind clear, but James looked like he was a professional athlete. She had to resist the urge to squeeze his biceps and run her hand on his abs right then and there, although given the situation they were in, he probably wouldn’t have minded.

Her ogling did not go unnoticed by James whose grin bordered on cocky, but somehow he managed to make even that look attractive.

“Like what you see?” he asked while his lips brushed her collarbone.

“Hmm. The evaluation is still underway.” She let her fingers lightly trace those exact places she had thought about a moment earlier, and felt his breath hitch on his throat.

“I can make your evaluation a bit easier… or harder, depending on how you see it,” he murmured and bowed down to give one of her breasts a teasing kiss over the fabric that was still covering them.

“Just take it off, will you?” Her frustrated tone made James laugh.

“You are impatient, Evans,” he teased but reached for her back when she arched it slightly so he could untie the clasp more easily. His fingers found it fast and once he had stripped her free from the bra, it was his turn to stop to admire her. The way he lightly bit his lip while his eyes traveled up and down on her body was quite adorable, she had to admit.

“Like what you see?” Lily mocked his voice, but in reality she was trying to hide how flustered she was feeling. It had been a moment since someone had last watched her that way, and something about those hazel eyes that looked almost golden when the light hit them made her even more conscious about herself than she usually was.

“I’m not even going to try to deny that yes, I do,” he said firmly, his cheeks also gathering some color. “You are bloody beautiful, Evans. I’m gonna have to buy Sirius chocolate or something as a thank you for dragging me to that school.”

“Wow,” was all Lily could respond because when James lowered his lip onto her breast, she nearly forgot how to form words.

“I’ve heard that it’s possible for a woman to get an orgasm from touching breasts,” James mumbled as his hands and mouth were working to rile her up even further. Lily buried her head into a pillow to muffle the sounds she was making; he was way too good at what he was doing. “However…” he lifted his head and his hand stopped kneading her other breast, his eyes glinting mischievously when she dared to take a quick look, “tempted as I may be to try, I think we are gonna want to get further than that.”

“Mmm-h” Lily hummed against the pillow, not having anything against his plans.

James took her hand into his and lifted it to meet his lips. Lily hadn’t known before that feeling someone suck her fingers that way could send such sensations down her spine; maybe the researchers who had written those articles about erogenous zones were onto something. And it wasn’t just with the fingers, but also the palms of her hands and that sensitive spot on her wrist…

From there James moved to press open mouthed kisses down her belly and over her knickers, but just when Lily thought he might finally be ready to finish the slow (but wonderful) torture he was doing, he sat up on the bed and Lily shot him a disappointed look.

“Why did you stop?” she asked.

He cocked his eyebrow. “Patience. I believe I said I want to explore as many different erogenous zones as possible and I’m a man of my word.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“One second. I’m going to pick up a couple of things that should be useful in a bit.”

He got up from the bed and disappeared into the bathroom of her hotel room. Soon he reappeared with a damp looking small towel in his hands, stopping to search for a condom from Lily’s work bag, where he knew she still had a few left from her lectures. Lily watched him with mild confusion when he threw those things to the bedside table.

“Umm… I can understand why you see the condom as useful – I appreciate you listening to that part of my lecture, by the way – but what do you plan to do with a wet towel?”

“You’ll see in a moment,” James said. Then he looked at her with a soft expression. “Now, I know I’ve made my intentions pretty clear, but I still want to emphasize that if at any point you want to stop, please just tell me. I want you to feel comfortable.”

“Thanks, James.” She nodded at him. “That’s… good to hear.” She briefly wondered if she should confess a thing that had been in her mind quite a bit that day and finally decided to go for it. “I’ve been in a couple of situations in the past where my ex didn’t…“ She noticed James’ worried expression and rushed to continue: “he didn’t really care about what I wanted or how I felt… That did leave a mark on me. But you’ve already proved today that you do care about how you make me feel…So know that I do want this.”

He pecked her cheek reassuringly.

“I’m really sorry about that bloke. Guess some of us can be bloody idiots. I feel like a hypocrite when I say this but to me sex is something that both parties involved should enjoy and I intend to stick to that mind set.”

“But… we’ve been focusing on me so far…” Lily frowned.

James just grinned. “Trust me, I get a huge kick out of getting off someone as gorgeous as you. And, if that’s what you want, you’ll get your turn with me soon enough.”

“Looking forward to it,” she chuckled before resting her head on the pillow again.

James sat back down on the bed again, near her feet. When he put her feet on his lap, Lily looked up at him with mild confusion.

“You’re really going to stick to your word, huh?”

“Yep,” James popped the ‘p’ with his mouth. Without further exchange of words, he took one of her feet into his hands and began slowly massaging it. Lily was almost going to protest, wishing he’d massage a different part of her body already, but then he found a spot in her foot that felt really damn good and an involuntary moan escaped her mouth.

“That good, huh?”

“I… really wasn’t expecting that. But keep on doing what you’re doing.”

“I will.”

By the time James switched to her other foot, Lily was imagining what else he could do with that magic touch. At that point she couldn’t even make herself care that she was probably making ridiculous sounds. After a rather loud whimper James seemed to decide it was time to move forward and he laid down on his stomach between her legs while his fingers and lips kept traveling up her thighs, eventually stopping to squeeze them. Lily’s hips kept trying to go upwards to find some friction, which James noticed, because he rose and climbed back on top of her. Only the thin underwear was separating them when their hips met over and over again while James was snogging her, her hands clinging to his back like her life depended on it.

“Lily, fuck… we need to slow down a bit or I’ll…”

She, able to feel the hardness against her thigh, understood. James attempted to calm himself down for a moment before he returned back to the space between her thighs. He sucked the skin of her inner thighs, his nose almost nudging the spot where Lily wanted his mouth the most, but again he stopped just when she thought he’d go for it.

“James!” Lily groaned impatiently and she could basically feel him smirk against her thigh. He pressed one final kiss there and got up.

“You’re a real pain, I hope you know that,” Lily muttered, disappointed by the lack of his skin on hers.

“And you’re still impatient. I was just planning to show you what the towel is for.”

“Oh.”

James picked up the towel from the bedside table and returned to her, sitting between her legs again before leaning down to kiss her on the mouth. She hummed happily into it, but soon James’s mouth left hers as he continued his path down her body. The towel was following his mouth, the wetness feeling nice on her heated skin.

At very last James returned to the spot where he had been earlier, looking up once more to ask her permission to remove the knickers, and she nodded greedily. Once James had removed the last piece of clothing she was wearing, he set the towel over her lower abdomen and Lily started to understand what it was good for. That part of her had always been sensitive to touch, and the warm water made the sensation even stronger.

Before fully going for it, James snuck his index finger inside her and tested what kind of movement elicited the strongest reaction from her. Lily thought she shouldn’t be surprised he found it so fast when she started riding his hand before she could stop herself.

“Looks like the lesson didn’t go to waste,” he muttered, his finger glistening with her wetness when he removed it from inside her, only to replace it with his mouth. Kissing, licking, sucking and helping with his hand, he drove her positively crazy, and she wished it would never end.

“Is that good?” He asked against her.

“Fuck, James, what do you think… please don’t stop!”

James responded by deepening his movements.

It didn’t take long to get her over the edge after that. When she could feel the waves of orgasm coming, she opened her eyes just a bit to see the raven mop of hair between her legs, her fingers reaching to comb it, and for a moment she thought she had never seen anything hotter. But soon even that thought vanished from her mind because he reached a particularly good spot and she finally let go, her whole body trembling in pleasure as she came against his mouth.

“Fuck,” she finally managed to say when her breathing slowed down and a satisfied bliss took over. James had crawled next to her and covered them both with the sheets. “I will always ask for a foot rub from now on. And that towel thing? Where did you learn that from?”

“It was mentioned in an article I saw on the internet… I may or may not have gotten curious and looked up more info on erogenous zones after you talked about them during the lecture… Turns out even I still have some things to learn.” He had a mischievous glint in his eye as he said that.

“Well, I’m glad you did your research,” Lily chuckled. “And if you learned something else you want to share… You know I’m always up for some new ideas.”

“Does that mean you want to do it again?” James asked, a mixture of awe and amusement.

“Don’t sound so surprised.” She pulled him closer. “After what you just did… You’re not gonna get rid of me so easily.”

“Oh, I’m scared now,” he teased.

“Besides… I think we need to do something about this…” Her hand wandered down to his boxers, “… situation here.”

For once he went speechless, and Lily took advantage of that and kissed him on the mouth before sneaking her hand inside his boxers.

…

“Good morning, beautiful.” Lily woke up to the feeling of someone brushing some strands of hair from her face. It took her a moment to remember where she was and with whom she was and what exactly had happened. Her first reaction was: ‘Did I really do that? 3 times? With someone I met yesterday?’ Lily usually preferred to know the person she was dating well enough before jumping into bed with them, but she found that in this particular case she couldn’t really care less about that now. She also wasn’t one to believe in love at first sight but she had a weird feeling that this may be the beginning of something much more than just a work acquaintance.

“Good morning, you. What’s the time?”

“Just 6:45. You don’t have to be teaching before 9, do you?”

Lily sighed; the reality of her having to work in only a couple of hours setting in. But she would definitely try to get the best of the time she had before that.

“You’re right, I don’t. Although a shower and a breakfast before that would be quite lovely… Someone had me up doing some exercising till like midnight so I’m feeling a little sweaty… and hungry…”

“Someone had, eh?” James grinned. “Sounds like a lucky bloke.”

“Hmmm… I suppose he did get kinda lucky.” She let her hand wander on his bare chest before resting it on his shoulder. He rose partially on top of her so he’d have an easier access to her lips.

“Real talk, though, Lily.” Something about the way he said her name so softly made her heart melt. “I had a really, really good time with you last night. And I do consider myself very lucky that I happened to run into you here.”

Lily had been hoping she was already past the blushing phase with him, but turned out that wasn’t the case.

“I… feel the same way,” she replied bashfully. Her hand was stroking his neck and jaw now. “Can you imagine? We could have learned to know each other better back in med school… But looks like some force decided that no, now is the time.”

“And I still curse that med school me for not being braver and approaching you. Back when I was a kid everyone always used to say I was brave… Lies. But… you know, I would like to make up for the lost time.” “Oh? How would you do that?”

“I would start by kissing you…” He kissed her. “... and taking a shower with you… and having breakfast with you, preferably here in the bed… after that I’m afraid I’ll have to go find Sirius because otherwise he’ll murder me… I only sent him a really quick text last night saying that I'll see him tomorrow… But before anything else, there’s something I’d like to ask you…”

“Yeah? What is it?” Lily asked, hoping she knew what was coming.

“I’d like to know if you’d like to meet up again next weekend?”

“I already promised Mary we’d hang out on Saturday…”

Disappointment flashed on James’ face for a moment.

“... But… on Sunday I should have time.”

His smile couldn’t have been wider when he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead.

“It’s a date then.”

#jily #james potter #lily evans #jple #marauders #jily fic #jilymicrofics #my fic

[a-student-out-of-time]

Despair Time: The Meaning of “Thematic Significance”

//Hey everyone, Mod Bubbles here again.

//Now, I’m not going to pretend like you haven’t heard me talk about Despair Time over and over at this point, as people often ask me my thoughts or challenge me on my personal theories. I still stand by much of what I’ve said, as I don’t feel the counter-arguments people have presented, while sound in many ways, are particularly strong and also rely on plenty of assumptions.

//I’m not here to talk about any of that.

//Instead, I want to talk about something else. I recently got another ask about DT, and this one wasn’t a theory question, but an entirely different one. One that actually got me thinking as soon as I read it:

//I’ll be the first to say, no, I didn’t write DT. I’m not part of the writing team and I don’t know any of the people involved. If I was, I doubt I’d be pushing any of my theories as hard as I have. Instead, this ask got me thinking about a recurring exception people have taken to my theories and I think I know exactly why.

//I don’t think I’ve properly explained what exactly I mean when I talk about themes and messages. Which is a pretty big oversight, given how much I’ve brought it up.

//I don’t blame anyone for that. After all, as impassioned as fans of any work can be, not everyone is a writer, nor are they as intimately familiar with the mechanics of writing as someone who’s spent well over a decade working toward becoming one.

//But as with many fields with multiple sub-topics to cover, and no one right way to do them all, I also don’t claim to be an expert. I’m just someone who has a passion for this stuff, and it’s what forms the cruxes of my theories. That’s what I want to share with you now, and to hopefully clear up some misunderstandings.

(Just so you know, this has been in the works for a while and I’ve already covered the points I’ve made here at some points before, but I’m sticking with what I’ve written so far.)

//There is a very common stance on writing that anything can happen. That you, as a creator, have infinite freedom to create. This is true in many aspects when it comes to creating a fictional setting and populating it with characters, but you also need to understand another important thing about writing: its limitations.

//Now, I don’t mean limitations on creativity. I mean things like themes, narratives, plot structure, the very bones of a story. These can often be changed and distorted in different and creative ways depending on the work, but you can only bend them so far before they break, and the story breaks with them.

//For example, why is it that when a protagonist dies, it’s often either very early on in the story, or at the climax? You could potentially have it work if they died at the halfway point and another took over, sure. But would it make sense for them to die 23% of the way into the story? 62%? No, because these simply don’t work.

//Take the classic Three-Act Structure. You can see the points at which the story rises and falls between different events, steadily building before arriving at a major moment and then diving back down into another. Of course, this doesn’t apply well to Danganronpa.

//DR has more in line with the five-act structure (technically six, but same logic), which takes all of this and moves it across a wider series of events. Now, you’d be forgiven for looking at this graph and thinking that Act 3′s need to be the climax or turning point, when it can really happen at any point between 3, 4 and 5. As I said, things can be bent in new ways.

//This is where I feel much of the logic for the counter-arguments to my theories comes from, how the story is building up to a turning point in Chapter 3, which means she’s more likely to double down in Chapter 2 in regards to not trusting people.

//if I were looking it purely objectively on a graph like this, I’d understand. But I have to disagree for the reasons I keep bringing up: themes.

___________________________________________________

//In its most basic form, a theme can be thought of as the underlying meaning of a story. What exactly is this piece of art trying to tell us and why? Some are much more overt than others, and DR is definitely in that category regarding its continuous and very unsubtle themes of hope and despair.

//DT, on the other hand, takes the approach and discusses the themes of trust and distrust. These are evident as early as the prologue, where Teruko asks Xander a simple question:

//Now, this is already a huge departure from the canon games, and this moment sets Teruko apart from people like Makoto, Kaede, Shuichi, Komaru, and even Hajime. Whereas most protags would be the ones keeping everyone together or directing their anger at the mastermind, Teruko already feels a sense of doubt against everyone else.

//And as we later learn, this is not for no reason. Yet at the same time, she reels back on that comment when Xander seems uncomfortable.

//Yet he actually agrees with her, up to a point:

//The prologue cements the core theme in here, and Chapter 1 goes a step further and shows us how that sense of trust can go wrong.

//Teruko, who’d spent the chapter hanging out with people she considered friends- especially Xander and Min- gets betrayed hardcore by both of them. Xander is pushed into stabbing Teruko thanks to a mysterious note he received, and his own belief that it was the right call, and Min’s decision to try and frame her for Xander’s accidental death.

//All of this, combined with the group’s unwillingness to even hear her out at first and instead forcing her to defend herself on her own, drives Teruko to give up on trusting people entirely. Come Chapter 2, we see her sticking to that.

//Chapter 1 of DT is very much an exploration of how having too much trust in others can backfire significantly. Does that mean that Chapter 2 would see more doubling down on that? Not necessarily.

//A common mistake made by both amateur writers and some readers is the idea that, because a viewpoint is held by the protagonist, that means it’s the correct one. This is called Protagonist-Centered Morality, and it’s why you get a lot of bad stories where the protag gets away with doing hypocritical things because they’re the hero.

//Now, it can be easy to fall into that with Teruko, who I’ve seen many describe as the most realistic and grounded protag because she understand the situation. Of course, we as the audience know that no amount of trusting and hoping is going to just make the killing game stop two chapters in, but the characters don’t know that.

//There’s also a common view held by many in the DR fandom that characters can be preemptively judged based entirely on their behavior; in particular how people like Eden in DT or Shion in Heartless Deceit are often slapped with the villain card. That being kind and optimistic makes them naive at best or secretly evil at worse.

//I don’t like these sorts of theories because they aren’t based on actual in-universe foreshadowing or hinting. Instead, it feels more like metagaming; using previous experiences with these archetypes and basing your expectations on that, rather than what’s actually in the text. 

//When you focus so much on the meta aspects of these fangans, especially ones that aren’t adhering to the regular DR formula, it can really undermine the experiences. With this sort of narrative metagaming, you’re not engaged with the work itself, but the tropes of the series you’re more familiar with.

//Not to mention it feels a bit disrespectful to assume all DR writers are drawing from the exact same idea book.

//We are, but we can explore those ideas in new ways, and that doesn’t always equate to “optimistic character dies/is evil.” I bring all of this up because Chapter 2 is a good source of another important piece of writing: contrast.

_______________________________________________________

//You may have heard a bit of writing advice that says you need to raise the stakes to keep an audience engaged. This is wrong for many reasons, and instead it’s more accurate to say that a story shouldn’t repeat itself too often to keep people engaged. Indeed, many people find grounded stories about characters overcoming emotional issues more compelling than plots about saving the world.

//One of the best ways to avoid repetition is to provide different challenges to your characters. Bigger threats are one option, but there’s also new and unfamiliar situations, which is where I think we’re going with this chapter.

//DT’s first chapter showed us the story of Teruko waking up, meeting a group of her peers, getting to know them, and despite the danger of their situation, offering them a sense of trust...right before all of it is shattered by Xander’s and Min’s actions. That leaves her in a very different position from when she began, now deciding not to trust anyone.

//I don’t believe Chapter 2 is doubling down because so much of it has been devoted to the exact opposite. Many of the characters have been tearing into Teruko for her unwillingness to trust, particularly how she pulls a knife on Charles and J, and how she isolates herself to the point of playing with cacti to stave off boredom.

//To put it another way that might make a bit more sense, have you ever noticed that plans, like heists or military operations, are more likely to succeed when we see less of them? When you get the full details of a plan, it seems more likely to fail in some ways when they put it into action. When you don’t, you get big dramatic reveals of how the plan actually works.

//The reason for that is simple: if you have the plan shown in full once, and it plays out exactly as described, you may as well have either not shown one of them or have them happening concurrently. Otherwise, you’re just repeating yourself unnecessarily.

//Likewise, the more a point is brought up, discussed or challenged in a story or storyline, and the more the protagonist adheres to it, the more likely it is that they’re going to either dismiss that thought by the end or see it in a new perspective. This is especially true if the point is being directly challenged at first, then seemingly not.

//I talk about Eden a lot in this regard as well, because her scene is really the big one that seals this for me. I’ve seen people talk about her optimistic attitude as being naive at best or a sign of villainy at worse, and that’s a take that actually appears in the story with Arei.

//And then she immediately turns that around and admits that, no, she doesn’t believe any of that. In fact, she wants to be like Eden.

//It still hurts to see her like this, just fyi ^^;

//But continuing on, a similar sort of situation occurs earlier with Teruko and Eden in the kitchen, where they talk about why Eden wants to be friends with her so much. Teruko admits that Eden’s the last person she wants to be friends with. Not because she doesn’t like her, but rather that it would hurt too much to lose her.

//Teruko appreciates her kindness, but she also views Eden as naive. She’s under the impression that optimism could only come from a place of ignorance or childishness. The idea that these are things you’re supposed to grow out of, and that being a pessimistic cynic is the rational response to betrayal.

//And of course, Eden tells her how it REALLY is.

//Now, it might be easy to look at this and say “Okay, but you’re still in a killing game and people are gonna die, so why does it matter?”

//It matters because she gets through to Teruko with this speech, if only for a moment.

//Teruko has spent the first three episodes of this chapter pushing people away, threatening them, telling them they’re going to die and that trust is stupid. Yet when Eden tells her this, it makes her heart stir. To the point that she has to deny it to herself that she’s actually moved by her words.

//This is how I can pretty confidently say that Teruko doubling down on her cynicism is very unlikely. She’s also unlikely to dive right back into friendship, but this might be the first taste of compassion she’s had in a long time.

//And this is also why I say DT is not this grimdark edgefest that so many theorists seem to portray it as. The metagaming with character archetypes combined with a lot of assumptions and circumstantial evidence has already lead a lot of people to conclude Eden is the killer and that’s why Teruko will double down.

//None of that is substantiated by the actual character interactions and themes. If that were true, scenes like this would either not exist or they’d exist just to prove Eden wrong. Or, as I’ve seen much more frequently in grimdark stories, Eden would have been the first victim to cement that theme home right from the start.

//And more importantly, there are always the hidden quotes with these characters, whom I refer to many times for these sorts of theories. What’s Teruko’s?

//Chapter 1 demonstrated how far her trust issues go, where two of her friends betrayed her in different ways, and she responded by trying to disconnect herself from the lives of everyone in the game. Yet Teruko cannot, and will never, be able to do that so long as this Killing Game is ongoing.

//In a killing game, either one person wins or one person loses, and Teruko needs to be on the winning side if she wants to live. She’s already made it clear she’d rather not kill or leave the site of the killing game, so that means she has to participate whether she wants to or not.

//And to participate, even from a purely self-interested perspective, she needs to be willing to trust people at their word in some respects. That, I think, can be the setup for a very interesting situation for this chapter.

//Now, you might say “Well, Bubbles, have you considered how many characters in DR aren’t who they say they are? Why are you so certain that Eden or even Teruko is being honest? What if there’s a twist reveal with them?”

//To which I say, yes, I have actually thought of that. In fact, we’ve already seen that with the fandom’s favorite motivational speaker, who is also a perfect example of what I’m talking about.

________________________________________________

//People really like David. A lot. To the point that it actually surprised the creator, who was convinced everyone would hate his guts after this chapter. And I will admit, I am one of those who do.

//I really hate David. A lot. I will, however, be as unbiased as I can in my examination of him, as he’s a perfect example of what I’m talking about. 

//The thing about twist reveal characters is that their true nature is always hinted at and foreshadowed in some manner, either in the story or their FTEs (I’d prefer if it was in the story, but maybe that’s just me).

//You see it with characters like Toko, Mukuro, the whole of Class 77-B sans Chiaki, and Korekiyo. They’re not always satisfying, admittedly, but the signs are at least there.

//Super Danganronpa Another 2 is full of these for characters like the Voids and Kanade, who all have little moments here and there, be it in the main story or their FTEs, where they let their true personalities leak through before it’s revealed what they really are.

//Any good twist reveal benefits from foreshadowing, and David is no exception. In fact, seeing DT for the first time, I was already unwilling to trust him right from the get go.

//He puts on this facade of an inspiring, upstanding dude. But as soon as he thinks he’s alone?

//Now, you’d be forgiven for seeing this as a sign that David doesn’t like his title but still wants to help people. That maybe he doesn’t like dealing with people, but nevertheless has good intentions. After all, don’t his interactions with people like Xander and Arei show that?

//I’m sorry, but it’s quite the opposite.

//As we’ve since learned, David Chiem is a manipulative bastard. He not only doesn’t give a damn about other people, he’s an raging misanthrope who looks down on everyone else.

//Not only that, he is actively cruel and malicious toward everyone in the game for no damn reason. Nobody ever actively bullied him, mocked him or did anything to make his life miserable. Yet he lashes out, calling people names, deliberately saying hateful and cruel remarks for no reason other than to hurt them.

//I’ve seen some people try to suggest that David actually does have good intentions, or that he’s doing this for a good cause.

//Pardon my French, but that’s complete bullshit. Here’s why:

//If David had good intentions, he wouldn’t have done any of what he did. He spent the better part of this chapter lying and making things up, from his supposed secret about a family history of depression to the idea that he got Xander’s secret in the trial.

//Unlike Eden, who wears her heart on her sleeve and has never shown a malicious bone in her body, David very clearly hates the people around him. Even before Episode 11, the cracks in his facade were always visible.

//This is also not brushed away with the notion that he’s only like this because Xander died. That may have exacerbated things, but this is David. This is how he really is, fully exposed. He is filled with unmitigated anger and bitterness, and Xander would probably hate his guts if he saw him like this.

//The big reason why I see no good in his actions is because he doesn’t have anyone’s best interest in mind.

//Take Nico, for example. I’m not going to get into the discourse over it, but Nico’s secret is that they’re nonbinary and received absolutely no support for it their whole life. It’s clearly not something they want to talk about, yet David keeps trying to drag it out of them until they relent.

//Likewise, Hu doesn’t want to talk about her secret, yet David keeps trying to press her on it, but then gives up when she doesn’t seem receptive. Instead, they talk about some other secrets, like how Hu used to go by the name “Julia.”

//And what happens later in the trial?

//This is evil. This is unquestionably malicious evil. David couldn’t get her to spill her secrets, so he goes out of his way to harm her with what he does know. How anyone can see this as anything less than evil is beyond me.

//But it also illustrates my point: if Eden is kind by choice, David is kind by motive. He doesn’t care about people, he care about what those people can do for him, and to him, kindness and inspiration is the best way to achieve that goal.

//The thing about manipulators is that they’re as superficial as they come. Their facade is only there to take advantage of trust, yet even when any sort of good graces are lost, they will still use what they know to try and turn things around. When they can’t do that, they just get aggressive and threaten people.

//If you want more proof, here are some lists to look up if you want:

//I’ve looked over David’s actions and attitudes many times, and he dolls out love-bombing pretty frequently, especially with Xander. Everything on these lists, he’s done at some point.

//This isn’t about whether or not I think he’s the killer, but instead reinforces my point about the themes of DT. If Eden represents kindness through choice, and Charles and Arei represent the willingness to change for the better, David represents everything Teruko fears.

//It’s very interesting to look back and see that, when David reveals himself, Teruko isn’t nearly as shocked or appalled as the others. She’d already seen he was putting on a mask, so to her, thus must’ve just felt like a “told ya so” moment. She already expects the worst out of the others, so seeing this already reaffirms what she believes.

//What sense is there in having her double down from that point on?

_________________________________________________

//So, I hope that clears up some of the misunderstandings that may have come from my previous posts. When I talk about thematic significance, this is what I’m referring to. The actual driving ideas and intentions behind a story.

//This isn’t me complaining about elements of the story I don’t like, this isn’t me trying to rewrite it because I think I know better and this isn’t meant to be an insult to anyone who’s ever made a theory I’ve disagreed with. None of that is ever my intention.

//I admit I do find it a little hypocritical that people will accuse me of wanting to rewrite the entire story to fit my desires for it, when I’ve seen theories that do everything from frame characters like Eden and Hu as the villains for incredibly petty reasons, giving them motivations that make no sense for them as characters, to trying to suggest David is the real hero of this story. He’s not. He’s a villain, you guys.

//Putting that aside, all of this is just me hardcore analyzing the story based on the evidence that we’ve been given, and from careful contemplating of the story thus far. What’s my conclusion?

//Teruko is our protagonist, and she’s in a unique position as someone who has to be the one to learn the importance of trust and friendship. This story is her character journey, and while I do think it’s possible for her to double down at some point, I have my doubts that this entire story will be about her getting worse before she gets better.

//Likewise, Eden is our support, and she’s the one who embodies a genuinely optimistic hope, meant to invoke the same sort of role as Makoto or Chiaki, but in a bit more of a side role. If she weren’t meant to serve that role, she would either have died first in this game, and she’s either poised to face a similar fate as Chiaki or she’ll be a survivor. That’s my prediction, at least.

//I think this is what makes this a part of the Danganronpa fangan universe. The overarching nature of this series is about the better angels of our nature overcoming adversity, even in the face of overwhelming despair. If you have a fangan that doesn’t really do that, I greatly hesitate to even call it “Danganronpa.”

//That journey of overcoming adversity doesn’t always equate to perpetual upward momentum, and sometimes people will stumble or not survive the journey, but that doesn’t mean any of it was pointless. It becomes pointless when the story doesn’t offer any sort of character growth or any resolution beyond “Everything is awful, we should just lay down and die.”

//That’s not what Despair Time is, and this is why I emphasize that constantly. Teruko is not our typical protagonist and this isn’t our typical story, but even through a darker and more adversarial group, that doesn’t equate to a story that’s reinforcing those points, but is instead challenging them and showing why going too far in either direction will only lead to failure.

//I have a lot to say about Teruko in particular, but I’ll save those for a proper character analysis. For now, I hope this has cleared up my points about thematic relevance and made my theories make a bit more sense.

//And if you made it this far, thanks for reading!

#mod talks #a student out of time #essay #drdt #danganronpa despair time #writing advice #themes

[dearwriters]

Do you have any tips or advice for people with ADHD that struggle with writing?

ADHD writing advice?

I have been asked this before and the last time I said this:

I am NOT the person to ask about advice when it comes to ADHD management. That's something very individual and different things work for different people and I'm in no way qualified to speak on that.

Now, I am currently myself in talks with my therapist about me having some form of ADHD/ADD (which, you know... makes sense of a lot of things in retrospect). This being said: I am still no expert on the topic and especially not on your specific brain. We all work a bit different. I too struggle with writing a lot and I found that for me it's all about figuring out how my brain likes things. And isn't that the universal ADHD struggle?

I hyperfixate on stuff and then I burn out, so I need to account for that by

a) always having my phone with me so I can write down ideas, sentences, whole scenes whenever they hit me, because unless I am so obsessed with them that I can't stop thinking about them, I will simply not remember them and I will KNOW that I had something great I can't remember now and it will drive me bonkers.

b) figuring out how much planning I need to do. I personally need an outline (I call it "The Murder Board Method") to stay focused, but it can't be too detailed or I will loose interest. That's something very specific to the individual, I've seen people talk about instantly loosing interest the second they finished an outline, so lots of ADHD writers seem to be discovery writers.

c) allowing myself to write what I am excited about. Sometimes writing may seem like a bit of a chore when you are not motivated to write the scene you are currently working on. So I allow myself to jump around and write the scenes I am currently obsessed with. Sometimes that means only writing bits and pieces and later glueing them together. It can get disorganized but it's way more fun for me that way.

d) accepting that I will never have a routine, because my brain struggles with routines. So, while I often recommend people to build a writing routine, because it helps a lot of people, I myself just can't do it. Like, seriously, after 10 years of having to take medication every day, I still need a reminder on my phone! I actually also have reminders on my phone to remind me of going to the bathroom or drink water once in a while...

So yeah, bonus tip: set yourself reminders to take breaks while writing in case you are hyperfocusing and can't register that your bladder is actually in distress.

e) figuring out how to get in the zone. Something that helps me a lot with that is finding the right music. I spend a lot of time looking for songs with the right "vibe" I want to emulate, and sometimes I spend like... hours, listening to the same song on repeat. I also, when I struggle really bad, try to just sit down and write whatever comes to mind. Zero filter, zero censoring, stream of consciousness. Just write down your whole thought process. Even if you write ten times “I don’t know what to write”. Sometimes it feels like uncorking a bottle of champagne that build up a lot of pressure and suddenly it just all spills out. Furthermore I found that engaging with writing content (like here on tumblr for example) gets me back into my excitement about the writing itself!

f) making a game out of it. I like checking things off a to do list. So by making little goals for myself and being able to chek them off, it kinda gives me a feeling of accomplishment and I can get myself a treat :)

So yeah, this might be very unhelpful for you, but maybe it will help someone out there.

Have fun writing!

#dearwriters #writing advice #writing help #writblr #novel writing #adhd stuff

[wortcunningwitch]

wanting to expand on something that was talked about in this post and its notes, and that is the overwhelming majority of witchcraft books being just. Meh. not super useful for a witch past a certain stage in their practice, under-researched, too much fluff, you name it. and by that first part of the sentence, i’m speaking from personal experience: me — a witch of about 4 years, give or take — i have a lot of trouble finding books that give any kind of depth to my practice or that aren’t just regurgitating info within the witchcraft sphere. i have to almost exclusively look at historical and academic texts if i want to grow in my practice, and it’s a pain in the ass sometimes.

to be clear, i don’t think looking at historical/academic texts (especially if you’re a folk practitioner, like me) is bad! i just would appreciate more specifically witchcraft books that clearly reflect study and knowledge of magical and mundane topics. in terms of stuff i’ve personally read, Wild Witchcraft (Rebecca Beyer) is a good example; it’s about green witchcraft, but it has one hell of a bibliography and provides in-depth info that’s appropriate for just about anyone, beginner or expert.

and i do think wicca plays a part in this. i think there’s a very wiccanized view of both history and witchcraft that one finds in a lot of mainstream witchy books — stuff like forcing the wheel of the year & other wiccan practices on what’s intended to be a secular book, and suggesting/saying shit like “(modern) witchcraft is what our ancestors practiced” (which, no the fuck it’s not, unless you’re talking about folk magic). ultimately, i think it sets up a certain mindset — especially in beginners — of taking things at face value and never quite reaching beyond that surface-level information. and i’m also of the opinion that if we want to tackle these issues in witchy books, then we need to begin to leave wicca behind. there’s better posts on this out there, but to provide a short explanation, wicca involves a lot of appropriation and pseudohistory; and yet, it makes up the framework from which so many modern witchcraft authors write. sue me for insulting wicca, who cares, but i think it’s doing more harm than good to the world of witchy literature.

i’m not gonna lie, i didn’t expect this post to end up being this long and yappy. i think there’s still points to be made with regard to how capitalism plays a part in all this, but i don’t feel like writing it all out, and i think there’s people & authors who can dissect that more eloquently than i. let me know your thoughts? :)

#my stuff #witchblr #anti wicca #<- just in case lmao #witchcraft #witchcraft books

[peppertaemint]

Dear Peppertaemint,

I sort of think of you as an expert when it comes to K-Pop, media literacy and topics that deal with queer themes, given your writings on Taemin's work for example. I hope my inquiry won't be considered a waste of time because I know you don't deal with silliness in your inbox, but I will try my luck.

I will admit that I keep up a bit with the BTS members, albeit scarcely. I happened to read on twitter (known as X now) that through his artistic expression, Taehyung is either indicating he is queer or perhaps a suporter (an ally just like Valentina) of the community. All that is supposedly apparent in his first solo music video, with references to queer cinema or the clothes he's wearing for a photoshoot. Of course, this is not the first time this has been speculated in online circles. I'll post a link at the end of this message so you could get an idea of what I'm trying to explain.

What I would wish for is a more unbiased opinion from someone with vast knowledge and a cultural background and who doesn't feel the need to prove anything about their bias. At least I think he's not your bias. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm looking forward to your response. As always 🩷

Sincerely

Lady A. Assante

https://twitter.com/polyatannies/status/1689591513032900608?t=Kp20X2STVljKh0RDs7MNVg&s=19

Hello Lady A. Assante,

Despite there being a high probability that this ask is a put-on, I’m going to take it at face value and reply in earnest.

I looked at the link you sent, which was a tweet of a Russian video purporting to tie the films Velvet Goldmine (1998) and Jubilee (1978) to Taehyung’s recent MV and, seemingly, his identity. I can’t read the Russian blocks of text in the video, but I can see the split-screen shots comparing Tae to characters in Velvet Goldmine. I can also see that Taehyung appears to wear a shirt of the film Jubilee in a promotional photo.

Now, I’m old enough to have been around when Velvet Goldmine came out; it’s a film about sexuality and aesthetics in the glam rock era, and it not-so-subtlety tells, at least in part, a take on the long time rumour of David Bowie and Mick Jagger’s liaison as lovers during glam rock days. In all honesty, I cannot see how this film in any way, shape, or form, has any relation to Taehyung’s “Love Me Again” MV beyond perhaps they both involve sequinned outfits.

“Love Me Again” is a slightly moody, barebones MV of Taehyung singing in a Spanish cave surrounded by retro items. His hair is a golden mess, while his clothes are cheap sequin getups with golden chains around his neck. Tae is moody in his MV, but he’s no glam rocker. He’s a crooner lost in time and confused. He ends the MV practically disgruntled. For me, the through line of the exotic setting, the props and the styling doesn’t quite come through. So, there wasn’t a lot for me to take away from Taehyung’s MV, but when all his MVs are released, I will watch them in order and share my thoughts. Again, I don’t see any meaningful relation between these two works. And certainly I don’t see anything overtly queer about Taehyung’s MV. If someone wants to come with concrete examples of “he said X” or “he did X” or “he wore X,” then I can consider such things.

And about his clothes: Derek Jarman was an important gay rights activist in the UK. But his activism was, more generally, in the 1980s onward, and focused on certain laws that effected education in the UK as well as raising awareness of the AIDS epidemic. These are very important works, especially to me living in Britain as a queer person. However, the film Jubilee is not about that work. It’s a punk film in response to the Queen’s Jubilee in 1977, and it presents a dystopian future of monarchical Britain and features some of the best punk bands of the time, including The Slits and Adam and the Ants. That shirt is about the punk movement - an important movement in Britain to be sure, but it isn’t centred on queerness.

My advice to Kpop fans looking for queerness in Kpop is to start with those who are doing concrete things in the genre: Holland and OnlyOneOf are a great place to start. Then you can look at Taemin, Key and SHINee as a whole, and reach out from there. SHINee’s “My Identity” from the album Hard (2023) was played at Seoul pride this year. I’d really recommend having a listen. And before a critical interloper writes in to say that everything queer must be cryptically coded because SK isn’t safe for LGBT+; I’m very aware of the rights people are lacking in SK. However, there are levels to meanings in art, and every artist has their own comfort zone when it comes to what they wish to share, and what they wish to be “unlock-able,” and what they wish to keep firmly for themselves. What I don’t think is helpful is conspiracy-level theories about art being queer-coded. That’s because art is already meant to interact with its audience; what a piece of art means to you is what is the most important. If you find something that speaks to your queer side in Taehyung’s work, than for you, that’s what his work is. That doesn’t mean his identity matches yours. There’s no need for that. That’s the beauty of art.

As a postscript, this shot here is exactly what reminds me of Key’s solo work: spooky retro style. That’s Key’s signature, which has been a personal extension of certain works in SHINee’s oeuvre (like “Married to the Music”). What remains unclear for me is what this union of elements signifies for Taehyung.

#Taehyung Ask #I won’t tag it beyond that #ask #kpop ask #kpop and queerness #art theory

[zombolouge]

Hellooooo! You may recognize my username from ao3, I’ve been very normal about the not perfect but loved series 😅 I somehow found myself with a fully written Ace Attorney fic this morning and was thinking of posting it on ao3 but I don’t know which AA fandom tags tend to be popular. Would you mind giving me some advice?

I hope you have a good day!

HELLO HELLO FRIEND!

lolol I'm so glad you're still enjoying my insanity <3

And omg CONGRATS ON THE WRITING. That's an accomplishment all on it's own and you did a good job finishing something!

lol I'm happy to encourage posting, although I don't think I'm the best expert on what's a "popular" tag since half the time I tag like a feral racoon trying to catalogue different genres of garbage I'm gnawing on. Ultimately, though, tagging shouldn't be about what's popular anyways - you should always aim to tag accurately as opposed to what will get attention, since the tags are there to warn/advertise what's in the fic itself. Especially important for any sensitive topics that you might cover. (I also usually include content warnings in my fic notes, too, just to be sure, but I'm overly cautious lol). Aiming to tag as much of what's actually in your fic as possible is usually a good rule of thumb.

If you're not sure what tags would apply or what to call them, then you can usually just glance through the tags on other fics to see what people use and check that against what's in your fic. That usually gives me some ideas!

The only other tagging advice I have is: don't worry about "spoiling" things that happen. The tags are kinda supposed to do that, and people that don't want spoilers won't read them, but people who want or NEED the spoilers need those tags to be accurate so they can take care of themselves in what they read. Again, this is more important with sensitive topics, but even if it's just fluff or smut, some people don't like that, and tagging it correctly helps them curate their experience.

Sorry if this isn't all that helpful or is too obvious lol like I said, tagging is...not my expertise XD But good luck with your fic!!!!! May you find all the tags you need and receive many kudos, my friend. <3

#asks #thoughts on tags