#I was just trying to understand the college system in france

[xxxcertifiednerdxxx]

Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

[luminouslywriting]

Hii wanted to request a Bob headcannon, them with a French risistant

Ahh this is a super fun idea! Admittedly, I don't know a ton about the French resistance, but I'll give it my best go! Reminder that my requests are open for BoB, MOTA, and the Pacific!

More under the cut, cut for length:

Dick Winters:

-Really impressed with your work and works with you well.

-The relationship is born from a mutual respect and friendship—combined with shared goals, it makes it easy for the two of you to connect and fall in love.

-You promise to take him to Paris one day and you are the one who accompanies him on his leave :)

-Admittedly, he does worry about you because your job puts you in the line of fire, but he trusts you and your ability to handle yourself above all else.

-Does his best to learn some French and it's very very American sounding still, but hey, he's trying haha

-Waits until the end of the war to make a move because he doesn't want to mess things up with you

Lewis Nixon:

-Enjoys getting to know you during intelligence reports and other espionage acts. Is very impressed by you. -Loves talking French culture and appreciated your music and art a ton….he’s an educated man, after all haha. -Thinks you need to let loose every now and then with a drink and definitely offers it more than once haha. -Comes to talk to you about the most random things; from strategy to drinking to his marriage problems to your life story. -Always expresses gratitude and appreciation for the sacrifices you make to help Easy Co along. -Probably hooks up with you at least once and then admits he’s fallen for you shortly before the war ends lol

Ronald Speirs:

-Pretends not to listen to any of the stories about you and mostly succeeds. He just figures out the truth and has mad respect for you and your job. -Scary girlfriend with scary dog boyfriend privileges?? Sign me up. -Loves getting to work with you in any capacity and will swap tips and tricks for taking people down haha

-Please just have a hot spar session with him. It’s life changing, I promise. -Learns French quietly and on his own to better communicate with you. -Probably comes back to Europe after the war to sweep you off your feet and admit his love.

Buck Compton:

-In awe??? You’re very cool and he’s very aware of that haha. -Compliments you very sincerely and probably tries to get into whatever sports teams that you have in France. -Also a college boy who is considering doing college in Europe solely so he can see you after haha

-Learns all of your body language so he can better understand how you’re feeling about things without having to ask you plainly. -Is a great support system so please be a great support to him as well. -Invite him to come recover in France, he’ll love that!

Carwood Lipton:

-Painfully shy about being impressed by you and your skillset. But he’s also paying close attention and praising your work. -A great friend and ally to have wherever you travel. He’ll always have your back. -He’s quietly harboring a crush that he would be mortified if anyone found out. Easy Company does find out and ships you two quite a bit. -Is not going to make a move until Austria though because he knows that the war is a messy situation and relations between countries are already stressed. -Very sweet about supporting you and always checks in on your emotions and how your family is doing. He CARES okay??? -Everyone is convinced you two are going to be married one day haha.

Joe Liebgott:

-Love at first sight?? Like DAYUM he is impressed and starry eyed and immediately flirting with you the first chance he gets. -It does not go well and he needs a whole redemption friend arc where he proves himself to be a good friend first. -Has cute German pet names for you that he will never speak aloud lol. -Probably invites you to his foxhole for warmth (there’s only some slight innuendos in that instance)

-Makes a move shortly after Bastogne because that was sobering to realize mortality was so frail and it all just works out. -You are the only person he will share his chocolate with haha.

Donald Malarkey:

-Meets you on D-Day and is just ???? Shook??? Bc who are you and where did you come from and how are you so cool? -He’s super easy to talk to and connect with. He loves talking to you and hearing about your life. -Also just wants to introduce you to American food and sports haha. -Writes home to his family about you in passing and they are sus as hell about that haha

-Really gets to know you after his friends die and leave after Bastogne and relies on you a lot. You’re a great strength to him. -Probably asks you if you’d like to come home to the US with him :)

Eugene Roe:

-HE SPEAKS FRENCH, YOU SPEAK FRENCH, instant besties, if only because he understands exACTLY what you’re saying haha 🤣

-You two gravitate easily towards each other for this reason but also, it’s really nice to have someone with actual medical training on your side. -He loves hearing French folktales and legends and he’ll share some American and Cajun ones with you

-Always is the first to check on you after espionage missions or after you’ve been on the line. He wants to make sure you’re doing okay. -Honestly very devoted to you but knows that the timing isn’t right and you both have jobs to do. -But a hand hold here or there wouldn’t hurt…and neither would inviting him to France and to meet your family after the war haha

Bill Guarnere:

-An Italian American and his French S/O walk into a bar….truly the start to an iconic joke….except you two are great together?? -He falls for your devotion and the way in which you are so passionate about things. And he definitely lets you know that. -He starts planning things out pretty early on and if you don’t have any family left, he’d be happy to make an honest Italian American out of you lol. -Consistently had your back in battle and watches out for you. -Go home with him to the US after he gets injured and he’ll take care of him. You’ll get a home and a family and someone who will love you forever. -Honestly?? Too cute.

Joe Toye:

-Not about to admit that he thinks you’re badass but he certainly tells everyone else that haha

-Likes to see you relax and have fun with the guys and prioritizes making sure you feel included

-Is a great listener if you ever want to talk about how you’re feeling or what’s been going on lately

-Trains with you on shooting and hand to hand combat and is eager to learn from you as much as he wants to teach you too

-Definitely wrote back home to his family about you and admitted his feelings before Bastogne.

-Go home with him please :) he’ll love you forever

George Luz:

-This man probably has so many nicknames for you (a la Tony Stark style) and it’s a witty banter filled friendship. -He’s not afraid of telling you how he feels and is very good at watching your six in the field. -Is the type of guy to attempt horrible flirting in broken French. It’s painful for everyone haha. -Everyone is aware that you two like each other and they’re coming to with increasingly deranged ways to get you two together. -Loved hearing you talk about history and your culture and hobbies. It’s one of the few times he’s completely quiet and attentive. -Comes back to Europe in a romantic grand gesture after the war to sweep you off of your feet.

[akookminsupporter]

Namjoon gave an interview to El Pais in Spain and I wanted to share the translation of the interview for those who may not understand Spanish.

Question. The track opens with the lines: "Fuck the trendsetter / I'm going back to the age of 9 / when I was more human". Does the stratospheric success of K-pop dehumanise the artist? Answer. You start your career very early and as part of a group. There's not a lot of time to be an individual, but that's what makes K-pop shine: very young people, trying very hard at the same time…. You generate energy that you only have in your twenties. You fight day and night to perfect the choreography, the videos, the music, and there's an explosion, a big bang. From 20 to 30, we put all the energy and time we had into BTS. You get success, love, influence, power, and after that? The root of it all remains: the music… What was the question?

Q. Does the system dehumanise? A. My company doesn't like the way I answer this question, because I partly admit it and then the journalists throw their hands on their heads, "it's a horrible system, it destroys the young people! But it's partly what makes this such a special industry. And things have improved a lot, in terms of contracts, money, education, there are now teachers, psychologists...

Q. Korean record companies train their artists for years, you lived with your peers from 16 to 19 before your debut as BTS in 2013. What did your parents say? A. My mother spent two years, "Go back to school, you were so good at it, go your way, go to university, make music a hobby!"…. But there was no going back.

Q. The biggest lesson from your time as an apprentice? A. Dancing. I was incapable.

Q. And what did you miss out on by being one? A. College life.

Q. The cult of youth, the cult of perfection, the cult of K-pop overexertion? Are these Korean cultural traits? A. In the West, people just don't get it. Korea is a country that has been invaded, razed to the ground, torn in two. Just seventy years ago there was nothing. We were getting aid from the IMF and the UN. But now, the whole world is looking at Korea. How is that possible, how did that happen? Because people are working fucking hard to improve themselves. You're in France or the UK, countries that have been colonising other countries for centuries, and you come to me and say "oh God, you put so much pressure on yourselves, life in Korea is so stressful". well, yes. That's how you get things done. And it's part of what makes K-pop so appealing. Of course, there are shadows, everything that happens too fast and too intensely has side effects.

Q. What is the biggest prejudice about K-pop? A. That it's prefabricated.

Q. What would your career have been like if you had developed it on the alternative circuit or in another country? A. I think about the multiverse a lot, and the lesson of Doctor Strange is always the same: your version of the universe is the best possible one, don't think of others. There is nothing better than being a member of BTS.

Q. Did you imagine this version? A. Not at all. My dream was not to be a K-pop idol. I wanted to be a rapper, and before that, a poet.

Q. Your influences include rappers like Nas and Eminem, groups like Radiohead and Portishead, but you never mention boy bands. A. The Beatles were also called boy band... I'm not comparing us, they were the creators of everything. But I guess you mean NSYNC or New Kids on the Block: bands whose pop music I actually liked, although I wasn't a super fan… What got me was rap: rhythm plus poetry.

Q. You say you get jealous of who you admire, for example? A. Kendrick Lamar, always. And Pharrell Williams. He's living history, I'd like to be one too, maybe in the future. That's why I don't paint, to be jealous of Picasso or Monet would be too much.

Q. You do collect, how do you choose the pieces? A. I've only been collecting for four years and I've been changing. My focus is 20th-century Korean art. But I'm not Getty or Rockefeller…

Q. You don't do it to invest. A. I guarantee it. If I wanted to invest, I would buy black artists, women artists, emerging Indonesian artists… My goal is to open a small exhibition space in about 10 years because I think Seoul needs a place with a young taste, but respectful of the Korean legacy, to which I would also like to bring artists like Roni Horn, Antony Gormley or Morandi.

Q. Have you always had the collector's bug? A. I've collected toys, little cars or Takashi Murakami figures, then vintage clothes, then furniture, I love Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret [both collaborators with Le Corbusier], but my favourite is George Nakashima.

Q. On your album there are songs from very different genres, some critics say it's inconsistency, others say versatility… A. I think the word genre will disappear in a few decades. R&B, Hyperpop, Jersey Club, UK Drill, Chicago Drill, K-pop! They don't mean anything. Music is an accumulation of frequencies that makes people get into a certain mood.

Q. Are you fed up with the "K-" label? A. You could get sick of Spotify calling us all K-pop, but it works. It's a premium label. The guarantee of quality that our grandparents fought for.

Q. Your album features Anderson Paak, Youjeen and the elusive Erykah Badu, how did he convince you? A. She knew BTS because her daughter is a fan, but that's not enough. I had to persuade her, I sent her a text with Yun's story explaining why I needed her wise queen voice for those verses.

Q. You mix English and Korean sometimes in the middle of a line, how do you decide? A. Words in different languages have different textures; the same message, with a different brushstroke. It comes naturally to me. I don't play instruments, I compose and create melodies with my voice, which is my instrument and most of my songs start with words.

Q. You have also gone through several identities, as a teenage rapper you were Runch Randa, then in BTS Rap Monster and then RM (for Real Me). Have you thought about using your real name? A. [laughs] We all have a past, a dark history, we say in Korea. Runch Randa was my nickname in a role-playing game, then I wanted to be, you know, "a rap monster!″, then I matured… I prefer my name to be known by as few people as possible, I'm not John Lennon, Paul McCartney, I can check into a hotel quietly and I like that.

Q. You've also changed a lot in the way you dress. A. I went through XXL T-shirts and baseball caps. Then I got into high-end brands… Like Rap Monster, I started wearing only black and white [rolls his eyes and shrugs]. Now I'm interested in timelessness, I don't go for trends, I look for vintage jeans, cotton t-shirts, natural things, that don't scream "hey, I'm here".

Q. Rumour has it that you are going to collaborate with Bottega Veneta, whose fashion show you have just been invited to in Milan. A. I would love to. Although I've lost interest in brands, in fashion weeks and that constant change of Pantone… Bottega is different, they don't use logos, they have a history with fabrics and leather, they don't even have Instagram, they are beyond fads and fashions.

Q. How heavy is it to have an army of fans? A. You can't walk around in the middle of nowhere without being recognised and the standards to which you are subject weigh heavily. But you have to grow up and deal with it, not be pitiful like "oh, I just want to be normal". Look, if you want to think fame is a rock, it's a fucking rock, but for me, it's given me what I was looking for: to get influence and financial freedom as quickly as possible to make the music I want to make without worrying about the charts… I'm not there 100%, but I try to focus on the noise inside, not the noise outside.

Q. And how are you facing your thirties? A. I've never experienced such a confusing time. For a decade I was the leader of BTS, and it was very stable and fun, always going up. In 2023 a lot of things have changed, professionally and personally, although I can't tell. As I'm about to turn 30, I like myself more than I did when I was 20. Now I will spend a year and a half in military service, which is very important in every Korean man's life. And after that, I am sure I will be a different human being, hopefully, a better and wiser one.

[shiny-jr]

Praise be the seven, I guess. Finally, I got Beans Day Azul. He was one of the first SSRs I was missing, mostly because I never wished on his banner when he first came out because I had no idea how twst’s gacha system worked. I was worried I was going to have to save and do every achievement I could to collect more gems to wish for him, but he came home on the last key I had. It was a little over 20, no more than 30, I think that’s a win. 

Anyways, I’m a little bored, gonna try to write for Scarabia (damnation) again and probably post the sneak-peek after I check it. But for now, here are some random twst thoughts I have. Enjoy?

- Do y’all think Twisted Wonderland might be a little more peaceful say, compared to Yuu’s world, if they’re from Earth? Think about it. There’s a lot of issues with this world like climate change, wars, pollution, etc. But I imagine in a world filled with magic, some of those issues may not be as big of a deal. Like, I imagine that there’s magic or some magical machine that acts as a resource and energy source and is much cleaner than using gas or oil. 

- Kinda related to the last point, but do you think the reason the “wand” happens to actually be a pen is due to the fact that because magic creates the hazardous blot, the pen uses up that blot when they write? 

- Not gonna get into this one too much, but I wonder if some people will obsess over a certain species or kinds of people and commit cultural appropriation. Example: A regular human wearing fake ears and a tail then claiming they’re a real beastmen.

- Thinking about the existence of Noble Bell College and the whole City of Flowers. The interior of the school was decorated a lot like a church, so that makes me wonder if it was like a religious school because of the movie’s close association with religion. Does that mean there’s a religion akin to Christianity in Twisted Wonderland? What about other religions? How would that even work? 

- I wonder how languages work in twst, since it doesn’t appear like there’s a ton of countries (makes sense if I was right about the war thing, so there wouldn’t be a lot of countries with conflict). Also, if there normally is a language barrier, how is everyone able to communicate perfectly fine on campus? Is there like a commonly used language, or is it some magic that allows everyone to understand each other?

- Obviously the Queendom of Roses would probably be the equivalent of the U.K. and Island of Woe being Greece with it’s connection to Idia and Hercules, but what about other places? Would Briar Valley be like France then, because it’s connection to Sleeping Beauty being set in France? But it’s mostly fae, does that matter? What about the Country of Pyroxene (Shaftlands)? That’s the home of Vil, Cater, Jack, Epel, Trein, and Vargas. But Snow White is supposed to be German, and Cinderella with Beauty and the Beast were supposed to be French. So is Pyroxene French, German, or just a land based off Europe? Is the City of Flowers somewhere here? Don’t forget the Land of Scalding Sands where Kalim and Jamil are, it’s obviously supposed to be inspired by someplace in the Middle East, is it just based off the region and not a single nation? Similar to the Afterglow Savanna, is it just based off the continent of Africa and not a single nation? Many many questions. 

- Kinda back to the language thing, I wonder how accents would be like. Riddle? Definitely British, there’s not a doubt in my mind about that. Maybe Trey too, I can see him going either way. Everyone else in Heartslabyul though? I cannot imagine them with a British accent. Deuce? Upper US east coast kinda guy, definitely used to reply with “ya mutha” in his delinquent days. Ace? Southern US west coast, along with Cater too. Cater definitely has the valley accent, says “like” all the time. Others I like to imagine are Azul, Jade, and Floyd. They’re from the Coral Sea, but they mention it gets really really cold so of course I’m gonna imagine it as the Nordic Sea and they have this subtle Scandinavian accent, but since they probably practiced a lot to cover it. Another one is Vil, obviously I imagine him with a German accent because his last name is Schoenheit. A while ago I was unsure about Epel because he says the most out of pocket stuff in the weirdest ways sometimes, but because of the Harveston outfit I’ve seen on him, I’m gonna say he has like this Russian accent. Rook... starting to think Rook isn’t even French since apparently he’s from the Afterglow Savanna. 

- Something that I personally wonder a lot, are there Latinos in this world?? Like, c’mon. I saw the tacos in the cooking event, I know they’re hiding them somewhere. You can’t hide them forever. At least I know there’s Mexicans. But who knows? Maybe if they add more villains like they did with Rollo, they’ll add a character that’s probably Mexican like Ernesto De La Cruz (Coco) or Peruvian like Yzma and Kronk (Emperor’s New Groove). 

- Sometimes I wonder, they say that everyone knows about the seven. Like apparently in Twisted Wonderland they learn about them when they’re young, and they’re not seen as bad guys. So if that’s the case, do some people learn about the good guys? Do their beliefs kinda conflict and clash or does it conveniently not clash? That’s something I wondered when thinking if RSA has statues like NRC does. 

- RSA would treat Yuu right, just saying. It might not be fun all the time, but it’s probably better than some aspects of NRC.

[cipherwrites]

Sugar & Spice, Chapter 1: Luck & Misfortune

Next Chapter ->

Marinette Dupain-Cheng is a normal girl with a normal life! She’s clumsy, a romantic at heart, and she has a true passion for fashion design. The 16-year-old is moving into her second year of Lycee, but as this new school year begins, so too does chaos from an ancient magic unveiled, a responsibility to protect her city, and quite literally falling head-over-heels in love with the boy just one year elder that’s been kind to her…

That’s right. Both of them.

A few things you should know about this fic before we get into it:

-A personal pet peeve of mine is putting kids in dangerous situations! Even when it comes to magic, I would much prefer that adults held that kinda power. However, since a good deal of the series revolves around school drama, I’ve decided to put our main cast in Lycee and make them all young adults.

-According to my research (which could be wrong or outdated so please don’t judge me I am not from france), age of adulthood is 18 and full legal capacity comes at 16. I also found reference that the age of consent is 15, but that won’t really come into play in this fic.

-I will try to refer to French things as well as I can, such as “Lycee” instead of “High School.” For those that don’t know, Lycee is the three-year education system that comes after College (which isn’t University).

-Our main cast is in their second year of Lycee! Lycees are typically ages 15-18, so our main cast is ages 16-17 when the series begins. Specifically, Marinette and Adrien are 16, and Adrien will of course turn 17 during ‘Bubbler’

-I will be making new Miraculous lore! I will be both ignoring old lore and building off existing lore at intervals I deem appropriate.

-I’ll be changing a few Miraculous abilities, including giving them all a significant nerf/upgrade that comes from another fic series I wrote.

-I will also be changing character designs slightly, including costumes, but I have no talent in art so when I describe them simply use your imagination.

-I’ll be writing this like it’s a proper reboot, so I’ll be alluding to things that we all already know and pretend Hawkmoth’s identity is a secret until “Season 2”

-Felix and Adrien are sentimonsters. They are the only “human” sentimonsters that will be in this fic series. I have nothing against Sentimonster Kagami, but it’s just not for me in this story.

-On that note, this series will have Lukadrigaminette (gosh that’s hard to type)! Again, nothing against Feligami, but the story I’m building needs him to be a lonely boy for now.

With all of that said, please enjoy!

===

In the millennia before humans could even fathom recording their history, a powerful Mage made contact with an ephemeral being. The being was lonely, for it was everything that ever was and would ever be. It was all, yet it was nothing. A cosmic confusion that it could never understand. Its attempts to help humanity only brought fear and terror, and the being grew to loathe humans. However, the Mage pleaded with the eternal being that humanity just needed a new perspective. The cosmic nothing came to see reason, and split itself into two halves: Creation and Destruction. The embodiments of these concepts came to be bound by jewels the Mage forged, and he went onward to bind the aspects of humanity, the very concepts of the universe themselves, into these many jewels. In due time, these nineteen pieces of jewelry would be known as the Miraculous.

The first two Miraculous remained more powerful than the others: the Ladybug of Creation and the Black Cat of Destruction. The Ladybug could create anything and restore order and balance. The Black Cat could destroy anything and bring disorder to the world around it. The legend says that uniting these two will allow them to reconverge into the original Cosmic Nothing, and they will do as they always have: consider the wish of their wielder, and grant it in the only way they know how: destroy the very universe, and recreate it in a way where the wish is granted. The Cosmic Nothing cannot comprehend the horrors of its own actions, and so it was declared that these Miraculous could never be united…

---

“I want that wish, Nooroo.” a malicious man says in the shadows, three long months after a woman’s disappearance. The boy is kept calm and complacent by means he could never understand, but the man has no such freedom of ignorance. “I must have those Miraculous!”

“But Master, I was separated long ago!” the tiny purple kwami exclaims, “I don’t know where the Miraculous are anymore. No one does!”

“I found you though, my little Nooroo.” the man grins. “Your Miraculous…remind me of its powers again.”

“The Miraculous of the Butterfly allows you to swath someone in need in comforting shadow and give them the power to achieve victory with their inner potential.” Nooroo recites.

“Throughout history, the Miraculous have been used by those that have gone down in history as heroes. When it comes to luring in heroes, what could be better than creating villains?” the man suggests with glee.

“But…but you can’t! Master, the Miraculous cannot be used for evil purposes!” Nooroo warns in fear.

“I must have that cosmic wish!” the man orders, pointing at the helpless kwami. “Your Miraculous is in my control! I am your master, and you must obey me.”

“Yes…master.” Nooroo obeys sadly.

“Nooroo,” the man affixes the brooch to his attire, “Dark Wings Rise!” He orders, transforming through the power of the Miraculous. “From now on, I shall be known as…Hawkmoth.” he laughs maliciously.

---

“Marinette!” a voice calls, and Marinette Dupain-Cheng gasps awake to the sound of her alarm going off. “Your alarm’s been going off for fifteen minutes! You’re going to be late!”

“Oh, no, no, no!” the sixteen-year-old Marinette Dupain-Cheng panics. “Coming, Maman!” she calls down, swiftly changing clothes and getting everything together.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng is a petite girl with black hair that she dyes into a light shade of blue. She wears her hair in a pair of pigtails and a nice mix of colors in her homemade clothes, primarily her favorite color pink. However, the main thing people notice about Marinette is the bandages. Marinette is immensely clumsy, so she often wears a large number of bandages to cover the bruises and cuts she gets from merely existing day after day. Rushing to get her school bag together, she packs a box of bandaids with cute designs, because chances are she’s gonna have a new mark on her face by the end of the day.

As Marinette rushes out of her room, she takes one last look to make sure she isn’t forgetting anything, scanning her room in half a second. Marinette’s room is chaotic in some portions but also ridiculously organized in others. Marinette has several crafts projects beyond her personal clothing designs, plenty of empty binders and books for when she inevitably takes an extracurricular, and walls that have been bare of photos for four long years…well, that ends today! She’s gonna make friends, take pictures, and fill this room with life again!

Marinette barrels into her Family’s kitchen, practically running into the table to try and hurriedly stuff her face.

“Remember to chew, dear,” Sabine says calmly to her daughter. “And please sit down.”

Marinette mumbles a bit between her bites as she sits at the table, swallowing a handful of food at once. “Sorry, Maman.” she sighs. “I’m a little nervous, I gotta admit…Chloe’s probably gonna be in most of my classes again.”

“Four years in a row of this, is that even possible?” Sabine asks.

“You know me, the picture of luck!” Marinette chuckles nervously.

“Oh, don’t say that!” Sabine scolds, frowning at her daughter’s self-deprecation. “It’s the start of a new school year! Everything will be fine.”

As Marinette considers her Mother’s words, it’s as though on cue she drops the spoon in her hand, hitting another object and hitting many others like a Rube Goldberg machine of chaos and misfortune. Marinette just groans, tempted to just fall to the ground and let the earth take her. Before Marinette can spiral any further into her doubts, her Dad walks in, humming to himself as he places a Boulangerie Patisserie box full of macarons down in front of his beloved daughter. Marinette sees the treats in the box she has requested her Dad make for her new class, and her eyes light up in renewed triumph.

“Papa, these are so awesome!” Marinette hugs her Dad.

“Glad you like them,” Tom smiles warmly.

“My class will love them, Papa. You’re the best!” Marinette hugs him, and after Tom catches the dropped box and hands it to her, she kisses her parents on the cheek before rushing out. “See you tonight!” she calls back, aiming to get to school quickly.

Marinette rushes out of her home clutching the box of sweets as she slings her backpack onto her back. She manages to avoid tripping over herself as she reaches the intersection, but as she breathes a sigh of relief, her eyes widen as she sees a little old man crossing the street slowly, struggling with his cane…as a car is fast approaching! Everyone around her is on their phones- only she can see him! Gasping in fear, she rushes forward, using every ounce of strength in her tiny body to tackle the old man on the other side of the street! The two of them groan, and Marinette feels her heart fall as she sees her box dropped in front of her, the macarons spilling out and in pieces. Marinette just hangs her head as the old man gets up.

“Oh, my! Young lady, thank you…young lady?” he seems concerned, but she pulls herself together.

“Oh! No, it’s fine, it’s…” She watches helplessly as someone on their phone walks by, stepping on one of the dropped macarons. She just hangs her head, her gaze blurring with frustrated tears before she wipes them away. “It’s fine!” she wipes the tears away. “I’m no stranger to disaster. There are even a few left! I might be able to dust some dirt off of these ones…”

The old man picks up one of the broken pieces from the ground, dusting it off and trying it.

“Well, they still taste delicious to me.” the old man smiles kindly, and Marinette smiles.

“Thank you, sir.” Marinette shuts the box and suddenly, she hears the school bell in the distance! “Oh, no, I’m gonna be late! Ah, have a nice day sir! Be careful of traffic!” she shouts as she rushes off.

---

As the old man walks into an alleyway, he takes a deep breath and slumps against a wall.

“Reality,” he mutters, dispelling the illusion of the speeding car that has since pulled into an alleyway and the illusion around himself. “Trixx, Orikko, divide.” He says, the two kwamis emerging from the Miraculous.

“Master, this was incredibly dangerous!” the fox kwami warns.

“I have to agree! You shouldn’t be wielding a Miraculous at your age, much less unifying them!” the rooster agrees.

“It’s just for today.” the old man explains as he feeds the kwamis some macaron crumbs he picked up. “I need to be sure the people are worthy. I need the Fox to set up the situations, and the Rooster to give me the power of empathic reading. That way, I’ll be able to tell if those I choose are right.”

“Was she right, Master?” the Fox asks.

“I believe so, Trixx.” the old man smiles and slips on some glasses. “Now, for the final part before moving forward. Kaalki, Full Gallop!”

---

Barreling through the doors of Mme. Bustier’s classroom at top speed is Marinette Dupain-Cheng, barely able to catch herself as she stumbles into the room with what many classmates would refer to as “three left feet” with how fast and bumbling she is. Marinette can see many familiar faces and a few new ones. 

Mme. Bustier was the primary teacher this year…again. Caline Bustier is a decent teacher, and through her own skills and the positive enforcement of her students and their families, she went from a Junior Secondary teacher to a Senior Secondary teacher in just a few years!

Maybe she advanced a bit too quickly, that quiet, rude corner of Marinette’s mind said.

I just need some faith. She wouldn’t have gotten the position if she didn’t deserve it! The rest of Marinette reasoned.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” a shrill voice says her name like it’s an accusation, interrupting her train of thought. Marinette takes a deep breath, having only just sat down.

Here we go again…

“That’s my seat.” Chloe Bourgeois herself, self-appointed Queen Bee of the school, almost universally despised, and daughter of Mayor Andre Bourgeois.

“Chloe, it’s the first day of school! Seats are being assigned right now, and you came in after me for once!” Marinette complains.

“Not anymore!” Sabrina proclaims. “New year, new seats!”

“You refuse to know your place, so I have to put you in your place.” Chloe grins, looming over the sitting and diminutive form of Marinette. “Why don’t you go sit by the new girl?” she gestures to the Creole girl a row away reading a comic book, whose attention has been caught by the situation. “Adrien’s arriving today, and since he’s going to sit there, I’m going to sit here.”

“Adrien…Agreste?” Marinette blinks. “But- the Agrestes are shut-ins!”

“Not anymore!” Chloe smirks. “Oh, does the little fashion wannabe actually wanna meet an Agreste?”

“I- you- but-” Marinette stammers as Chloe grins cruelly over her.

“Maybe if you finally put yourself in your proper place, I’ll consider letting you meet him. The only place you belong is-” Chloe begins, but suddenly, they’re interrupted.

“Hey! Who elected you Queen of Seats?” the Creole girl accuses, having stood up and coming up with her comic book rolled up.

“Oh, look, Sabrina! We’ve got a little do-gooder in our class this year.” Chloe chortles. “What, another superhero nerd? What are you gonna do, shoot beams at me with your glasses?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Alya scowls and leads Marinette by the hand, “Come on, you can sit with me and away from those two.”

As she leads Marinette, the shorter girl gasps as she trips, once more spilling her macarons until only one remains in the box.

“Sorry! Sorry. I’m sorry…” Marinette whimpers.

“Hey, it’s okay, girl!” Marinette’s new seat neighbor gathers the dropped sweets and tosses them into the trash. “No biggie.”

“I wish I could handle Chloe the way you do…” Marinette mutters.

“You mean the way Majestia does it,” the girl explains, rolling out the comic again. “She says that ‘all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing’.” She then points at Chloe. “Well, that girl over there is evil, and we are the good people. We can’t let her get away with it,” she explains like it’s a simple fact.

Chloe isn’t evil…she’s not perfect, but she’s not EVIL. I hope.

“Well, that’s easier said than done,” Marinette says instead. “She likes to make my life miserable…”

“That’s cause you let her, girl! Get some confidence!” the girl grins, and Marinette can’t help but smile at the sentiment.

“I’m Marinette,” Marinette says, handing Alya the last macaron.

“Alya.” the girl smiles, taking and eating it with a smile on her face.

“Alright, class, let’s get started!” Mme. Bustier smiles.

“Where is he…?” Marinette can barely hear Chloe mutter.

---

Adrien has just helped an old man from tripping and falling into the street, turning back with a sight to see the two people he knew would drag him away from the steps of Francoise Dupont Lycee. Nathalie Sanceour, archaeologist-turned-assistant, and Placide I.T., a gorilla-like American bodyguard that hardly understands a word of French, much less speak it.

“I just want to go to school like anyone else. What’s so wrong with that?” Adrien protests.

“Let’s go home, Adrien,” Nathalie says, and the Bodyguard opens the door of the car.

“... please don’t tell my Father about this,” Adrien mutters as he steps into the car.

---

The Butterfly Miraculous allows one to tap into truly empathic abilities, allowing one to read emotions and surface thoughts for many miles while in a meditative state. There is negativity all across the so-called “City of Love,” but it is one emotion picked up on. Anger, Sadness, Resentment, and Regret all together at once! A shy boy hiding his anger, pent up with rage with a want to express his love, but how could he ever?

“This is perfect.” Hawkmoth grins. He holds his cane up, and the head opens. A butterfly lands on it, and the head closes. Dark energy pulses through the head of the cane, corrupting the harmless butterfly into something more potent. “Burn a hole into his heart, my horrible akuma!” the head of the cane opens, and the cracking purple-black butterfly emerges, fluttering out of the window with a target in mind. “Fly now, and akumatize him!”

When the akuma closes in, he can feel the anger spike. Scorned by the Principal, who should be protecting these youths. The akuma finds its way into the object with the most emotional attachment: a crumpled-up piece of paper, a failed confession.

“Stoneheart, I am Hawkmoth.” Hawkmoth declares, his influence driven into the boy’s mind like a knife. Proclaiming his new name, so that he has no chance to deny that Stoneheart is his identity. “The world hurts, doesn’t it? I can give you the power to shut out all pain. However, in return, there is something you need to do for me…”

“Whatever it is, you’ve got a deal, Hawkmoth.” the weak-willed young man agrees, and the horrible shadow covers him, mutating him into something so much more.

“Make some noise, Stoneheart.” Hawkmoth orders. “Grab Paris’ attention.”

---

Marinette and Alya were in the library, when the ground suddenly shook. Marinette fell to the ground- not actually her fault, this time!- and plastered across every news screen was that of a monstrous golem-like creature tearing through the school.

“KIM!” the monster roars in anger, and Marinette can see the monster’s fist tighten around something in his hand.

Something…breaks.

“Ivan?” Marinette mutters, blinking in surprise.

“Hello? This is the police?” Damocles exclaims, talking on his phone as he rushes through the library, trying to hide. “Get me the army!”

“Whoa, a real-life supervillain!” Alya rushes to her bag, swiping through her phone. “GPS, synced. Battery, charged. I am so ready for this!” she starts to rush out the door…towards the danger?!

“Hey! Where are you going?!” Marinette exclaims.

“Supervillains mean Superheroes, and Paris hasn’t had either in years!” Alya grins. “There’s no way I’m missing this!”

Marinette sees the news on another student’s phone and just how…destructive this monster Ivan has become is. She winces, and she thinks hard.

My new friend has a death wish! I have to help her!

What can I even do? I’d just get in the way…or worse, my clumsiness could get her hurt!

I can’t just do NOTHING, can I?

There’s another boom from outside.

I should…leave this to the Police.

---

Adrien, ever-bored, waits patiently as he answers each of Nathalie’s questions easily. Suddenly, the door to Adrien’s room opens.

“Give us a moment, would you, Nathalie?” Gabriel Agreste himself requests, and Nathalie steps out. He then turns to Adrien, holding his hands behind his back. “You are not going to school. I already told you.”

“But, Father-” Adrien protests.

“Quiet.” Gabriel orders, and Adrien promptly shuts up. “Everything you need is right here where I can keep an eye on you. I will not have you outside in that dangerous world.”

It’s not dangerous, Adrien thinks to himself. Why can’t I just go to school like everyone else…?

Gabriel walks to the door, opening it for Nathalie. “Continue,” he orders, and Adrien walks to the door as he walks away, and Nathalie looks into the room.

“We can leave it there for today if you-” Nathalie begins, and Adrien promptly shuts the door in her face.

Adrien groans, laying on his bed. He hears thumping and…explosions? He rushes to the TV and turns it on, seeing a monster literally absorbing gunfire into its body, growing bigger!

---

“As incredible as it seems,” Nadja Chamack reports, “it’s been confirmed that Paris is indeed being attacked by a supervillain! The Police have been struggling to keep the situation under control.”

“First day back at school…and a supervillain attacks.” Marinette faceplants into her chaise. “This is a new low.”

Marinette looks up at the monitor, her eyes squinting as she sees a small box she doesn’t recognize next to it. “Huh…?”

---

Adrien stares at the screen in disbelief, then notices something on one of his darker shelves he hasn’t noticed until now…something that definitely wasn’t there before.

“What’s this doing here?” Adrien picks up the box with the intricate design and opens it up, and a bright glow emanates from within!

---

“AAGH!” Marinette falls back, seeing the creature that emerged from the box. “Help! Giant bug- mouse- bug-mouse!”

“Everything’s okay, don’t be scared!” the creature tries to comfort her.

“AAGH IT TALKS!” Marinette panics.

---

“I’m Plagg, nice to meetchya.” the creature grins in front of Adrien before promptly starting to destroy his room, looking at anything shiny and possibly edible.

“Hey, hold on-!” Adrien protests.

---

Marinette slams a jar over the creature.

“Okay, if that makes you feel safer, Marinette…” the creature says.

“What are you and how do you know my name?!” Marinette exclaims.

“I am a kwami, and my name is Tikki. Now, just let me explain-” she begins.

---

“-I grant powers,” Plagg explains simply from the grip of Adrien’s hands. “Yours is the power of destruction, got it?”

“Not even a little,” Adrien says honestly, prompting Plagg to roll his eyes.

“Good enough for me!” he phases out from the hands, causing Adrien to shudder as both his hands feel like they’ve fallen asleep. “You got anything to eat? I’m starving.”

“This can’t be real,” Adrien says, shaking his hands. “I’d assume someone was pranking me, but I’m the only one in this house with a sense of humor…”

“No one must know I exist!” Plagg suddenly gets in Adrien’s face.

---

“I’m your friend, please trust me! You’re the only one who can stop Stoneheart!” Tikki pleads, having phased out of the jar to stop Marinette from getting her parents.

“This has to be a mistake! The only superpower I could have is how abysmal I am at literally everything I do…I know!” Marinette looks up at the kwami. “Alya would know! That’s my friend! Well, I think she is…and I think she would…she loves superheroes, and knows way more than me about being a hero! You should totally go see her, instead!”

“Marinette, you were chosen!” Tikki insists.

---

“I’m a pretty crummy choice,” Adrien admits. “I’m stuck here! I’m not even allowed to go to school! What good is a superhero stuck in his own house?”

“No good at all.” Plagg grins mischievously. “That’s why that’s all going to change soon. If you’re willing to use my power to break the chains that keep you here.” Plagg lounges on the open box, gesturing to the black ring tantalizingly. 

---

“Okay, break the object, capture the thing! What’s the…charm thing again?” Marinette asks.

“I can’t say it, but part of the transformation involves knowledge. You’ll know it when you transform!” Tikki explains. “It will create an object that will help you deal with one threat! Once the threat is neutralized, you can release the energy of the object back into the universe, restoring the balance and fixing any damage the threat has done!”

“This is going…very fast, Tikki, I…I can’t do this!” Marinette whimpers.

“Trust yourself, Marinette! You have the potential inside of you!” Tikki smiles. “The transformation phrase is ‘Spots On’.”

“Spots on?” Marinette questions, and her eyes widen as Tikki is drawn into the earrings, and the transformation curls across her body!

Her eyes become a deeper blue and segmented like compound eyes, her hair becomes longer, the ribbons curling off her back. A shoulder-length cape with a Ladybug pattern around her neck is worn, and beautiful reds and blacks make up the Ladybug pattern of her attire, including a yoyo at her waist! There is a pitch-black pattern on her suit that makes a pair of gloves, with the black going along the underside of her forearms, and her boots have a similar pattern.

---

“Plagg, Claws Out!” Adrien declares, more ready for this than anything else in his life.

“No, wait! I haven't finished explaining-!” Plagg shrieks as he’s pulled into the ring, and Adrien transforms.

Adrien’s heroic form is fashionable leather, catlike eyes, and his hair has become wild and longer. A tail-like belt and a golden bell completes the look, and his clawed gloves are a wonderful touch, and he grins with a toothy, somewhat fanged grin. At his waist sports a collapsible staff that can become as compact as a palm-sized disc.

“This is gonna be so cool!” Adrien laughs excitedly.

---

Marinette looks down at her hands, gazing at her transformed visage.

I feel…weird. Out of my element.

“Tikki, can I get my old clothes back? Tikki…? You there…?” Marinette mutters to herself, and she feels the earth shake again, and she looks at the monitor worriedly.

“The monster, which calls itself ‘Stoneheart’, is heading toward the Montparnasse tower! The monster seems to be unstoppable!” Nadja reports.

Marinette sees Alya rushing toward the scene from the news feed, and her eyes widen in fear for the safety of her only friend.

I have to help her, no matter how weird this magic stuff feels!

“Marinette!” Sabine calls from downstairs, and Marinette’s eyes widen in fear. Tikki was very clear about keeping her identity a secret. “Marinette, sweetie, are you home? Are you okay?!”

Marinette knows that if she responds, she’d have to confront her Mere, and they’d want her to hide with her and Papa. Climbing up to her balcony quickly and silently, she feels guilt spike into her as she hears her Mere worried about the lack of her daughter in the house.

Okay, I have powers or something! And a magic yoyo.

Marinette feels the magic of the suit gives her the instincts to use the yoyo to swing. Her reflexes have been improved, but her hand-eye coordination is still pretty bad. The powers seem to enhance her existing abilities, not replace them.

The wind in my face, this new strength, I feel better than ever!

I still feel a bit weird.

…no, not weird. I feel powerful.

---

Adrien can’t help but laugh and whoop as he launches himself throughout the city he’s never had a chance to see! Every building, a new opportunity at vaulting himself onward! Adrien was already pretty skilled and physically fit, but the Miraculous has increased all of that tenfold (well, maybe not tenfold, but it still feels great!)!

He’s walking across a gap between two buildings using his staff at a tightrope- his model poise and the Black Cat’s instincts making it practically impossible for him to fall- when he hears a shriek from above. Looking up, he sees a blur of red slam into him, yoyo strings tying them together as they hang upside-down.

“Well, hey there.” Adrien smiles, happy that he was able to find his apparent partner so easily. “Nice of you to drop in!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” the blue-eyed bug girl proclaims nervously. “I didn’t mean to- this wasn’t on purpose!” she stammers slightly, and in a few moments, the two of them are able to free themselves and reclaim their weapons.

“So, you’re the partner my kwami told me about?” Adrien asks, and the girl nervously nods. “Well, you can call me…” Adrien taps his chin, grinning. He’d been thinking about this all the while he was vaulting across Paris. Something short and sweet, rolls off the tongue, but makes sense and tells people everything they need to know about him. “Chat Noir. Yeah, Chat Noir!” the new hero grins. “And you?”

“I’m Ma- er, uh-” the girl scrambles with her yoyo wildly, and winds up tossing it up and it hits her on the head before she catches it. “...Madly clumsy. I am so clumsy.”

“No sweat, Clumsybug!” Chat Noir sidles up to her, putting his arm around his maybe-sidekick’s shoulder. “I’m still learning the ropes, too!”

The ground shakes again- another indicator of the Stoneheart fight! Chat Noir grins and starts sprinting towards the fight, seeing where the dust is kicked up!

“H-hey! Where are you going?!” Clumsybug exclaims.

“To save Paris!” Chat laughs heartily as he takes his staff, vaulting upward once more!

---

The students of Lycee Francoise Dupont have the unique privilege of using the Parc des Princes as their school’s P.E. grounds. The students are packing up early, unaware the mysterious quakes are anything more than just that…until the monstrous and massive form of Stoneheart bursts through the entrance and walls!

“KIM!” Stoneheart roars, looming over the student. “Who’s the wuss now?” he is about to slam his fist down upon Kim, who’s tripped over, but suddenly a black blur gets Kim out of the way before brandishing his staff as though it were a blade, pointing it at Stoneheart!

“Hey, maybe you should pick on someone your own size!” the wielder of the Black Cat proclaims.

“Just as expected,” Hawkmoth smirks, looking through his Akuma’s eyes. “The Miraculous of the Ladybug and the Black Cat have been activated! Here they come to save the day, only to be destroyed by my machinations.”

---

“Where are you, partner?” Chat mutters as he is thrown back by an even bigger Stoneheart- every hit of his staff makes the villain grow! Chat tries to throw one of the football nets at Stoneheart, hoping to tangle him and render him immobile, but instead, Stoneheart just throws it away- and is about to hit a girl recording everything! Chat Noir is able to save her, but she pays no mind to him, looking up at Clumsybug, who seems to be frozen with fear from atop the stadium’s bowl.

“What are you waiting for, Super Redbug? The world is watching you!” the recorder eggs on.

---

I can’t do this. I’m not a superhero! Look at the size of that thing! How can I fight that?

Marinette can hear Alya, and she sees Chat Noir fighting alone, against all odds.

He’s fighting. I could try and be like him.

What if I get in his way? What if I tie us together again? What if I-

What if nothing, I can’t just stand by and do nothing!

Marinette resolves herself, leaping down and brandishing her yoyo.

Never again.

She throws her yoyo forward, doing the best thing she can- let it go wild! It ties around Stoneheart’s torso, and she yanks, pulling herself towards him! She lands on his head and kicks off, snapping her fingers to make the yoyo’s strings loosen, allowing her to pull it back to her side, pulling the string together like a mechanical tape measure’s retraction.

“Animal cruelty, Stoneheart? How shameful.” Marinette quips, trying to emulate Chat Noir’s boldness. “Sorry it took so long, Chat Noir.”

“It’s cool, Wonderbug.” Chat Noir says, coming to her side. “Let’s kick his rocky rear!”

“We can’t just rush in brazenly when our attacks will only make him bigger and stronger!” Marinette reasons. “We have to do something different…”

“Alright, I’ll bite. Different how?” Chat Noir asks.

“I…don’t know.” Marinette hangs her head.

“Well, I do. What do you say we test out our powers?” Chat Noir smiles, and Marinette nods a little bit.

“Cataclysm!” Chat Noir holds his hand forward, but…nothing happens. “Huh, what the heck?”

“Tikki said they use our weapons. Like, mine is the Lucky Charm-” Marinette says, holding her yoyo in her hand, and the yoyo glows and thrums with power! She shrieks a little as the light pours out of it, conjuring a spandex suit that resembles her own. “Ugh…” she falls back from the disorientation. “I should probably throw that away from me whenever I do that from now on…”

“Oh! So it’d be like this…?” Chat Noir compacts his staff into a palm-sized disc, palming it into his ring hand. “Cataclysm!” he declares again, and this time, the dark power thrums through his hand and the disc! “Alright! Apparently, I destroy whatever I though. What’s yours do?”

“It’s supposed to help us win, somehow. We only have 5 minutes now until we turn back…” Marinette mumbles.

“Ah…probably should have listened to my kwami.” Chat Noir chuckles. “Any other tips?” he asks, leaning against a goal that starts to disintegrate.

“...our powers are only single use,” Marinette says softly, and Chat Noir looks back at the destroyed goal.

“...oops.” Chat Noir says, embarrassed.

They hear a roar from Stoneheart, who is starting to charge towards them!

“His right hand is always closed…it must be where that whatchamacallit is hiding, the…the akuma!” Marinette reasons.

“So, uh, what’s the plan?” Chat Noir asks nervously, seeing the monstrous villain charging.

“The plan, it’s…it’s…” Marinette looks around wildly, soon locating precisely what she needs. “I’ve got it!” she swiftly ties a nearby hose to the suit, then ties Chat Noir with her yoyo. “Okay, uh, don’t resist, I need you to trust me.”

“Oh god, she’s crazy.” Chat Noir says as she picks him up! “How are you so strong?!” he exclaims,

“Why are you so light?!” Marinette exclaims, genuinely thinking she was gonna have a harder time with his plan (and honestly a little concerned with how little he weighs). Regardless, she throws him like a shotput.

The plan goes pretty well. Chat Noir is captured, then so is Ladybug, then the Lucky Charm’s use goes well and they’re able to destroy the object!

“Wow…that was awesome.” Chat Noir declares, laughing as he lies in the grass, looking at the sky. “She’s awesome.”

“What’s going on? Why am I here?” Ivan exclaims, worried, and Marinette’s heart bleeds. He doesn’t even remember what happened to him.

“Well, you did it Super…Clumsy…Bug Lady.” Chat Noir laughs, still clearly unsure of what to call her. “You were great!”

“We got there in the end, didn’t we?” Marinette smiles and holds up her fist. “Partner.”

The look of elation on Chat Noir’s face was perhaps the purest joy Marinette had ever seen.

“Pound it!” Chat Noir says as they fist bump, and Marinette laughs.

“What was that?” she smiles.

“What? It’s fun!” he grins goofily, and notices his beeping ring. “Ah, we should probably get going.”

“Right! Identities gotta be secret.” Marinette nods.

“Farewell, M’lady bug!” Chat Noir winks with one last nickname and vaults away on his staff. “Let’s do this again soon, okay?”

Not too soon, I hope… Marinette thinks to herself as the adrenaline starts to wear off. She walks over to look at the paper the object was in, and she reads it, and she frowns as she realizes what Kim has done.

What he always does, with those twisted attempts at jokes.

“There’s no shame in telling someone you love them,” Marinette says to Ivan, and he looks away, ashamed as the paramedics come in to try and get the scope of the situation.

“Uncanny, amazing, spectacular!” Alya suddenly interrupts. “Are you gonna be protecting Paris from now on? How did you get your powers? Did you get stung by a radioactive Ladybug? Oh, I've got a ton of questions to ask you, uh, miss... uhh…” She trails off, as though trying to decide which of Chat Noir’s many names could be her moniker.

And honestly, while it was a bit plain and simple, Marinette liked his last one the most.

“Ladybug. You can call me Ladybug.” She smiles wide.

“Ladybug! Super awesome!” Alya exclaims, recording the scene as ‘Ladybug’ swings away.

[elfboyeros]

Bridgehid Characters

All of them, This long ass post, is full of Character Information :) *I listed them the way they show up in the story for the most part that's way I'll the kiddos aren't together @jj-pines @lerenee @meowthefluffy **Ask me questions if you want, and if you want an extensive list of likes, dislikes, and hobbies, you'll have to ask, I'm just trying to get the basics in the post. ***Will be making a more in-depth post later about the world, Although for right now I have just listed a few details.

Bridgehid Details:

Bridgehid College of Magic and Alchemy is an institution located on Marquis Island, in the middle of the North Sea, which is why most of the characters are European.

The class is labeled by gemstones instead of years, and well-to-do families are also symbolized with the same system, although a class name and family gemstone will never be the same.

Alchemists and Mages don't hate one another, per se, but often don't get along

Rowan King

16, Origins: Marquis Island, Pronouns: Them/they, nonbinary, human, 5'4 1/2", Queer, Birthday: January 22nd

Rowan once lived at Oceanside Orphanage, with no memory of life beyond age 7, now with a melancholy appearance they are being forced to enroll in the mystical Bridgehid college, for whatever reason, leaving their life at Oceanside to live with new foster parents Indigo and Calvin, a mage professor and blacksmith-healer at Bridgehid college. Despite the apprehension of the adults around them, they want to enroll in college, desperately hoping to find the answers to their questions about their childhood, lost memories, and their deceased mother, Esma.

Facts

Their hair is cut in a style that resembles a jellyfish

They are quick to make friends when enrolling at the college, although they don't understand why

They enjoy gardening

They have yet to think about what they want to study, secretly wanting to learn it all.

They are quite smart, graduating from primary school a few years early, and as valedictorian.

They had known of Indigo and Calvin for many years and met them many times before being placed in their care.

They disliked living in the orphanage because of all the people

Indigo Bookstone-Corals

25, Origins: France, Pronouns: She/her, Cisgender female, nonhuman, 5'2", Bisexual, Birthday: November 25th

Indigo is not only the best friend of Rown's mother but an archmage and Magical fundamentals and history professor. She is the head of the magics department of the college but a reckless French woman who is not to mess with. Asked by Esma to take care of her children if anything happened to her, Indigo now feels inadequate to do so. Although having the help of her loving husband Calvin assists her at her darkest moments. Although the talented woman secretly dreams of a reality where nothing bad can ever happen and she is never bothered, only with her husband, just the two of them all alone.

Facts

Where Indigo enjoys her life as a professor she hates the dean of the college.

She has a familiar, a black cat named Hecate

She was injured in an exam right before graduation which caused scars on her face.

she has "paper thin" skin

She attended college from the age of 10 to the age of 14, although was not meant to graduate at 14, although did give her intelligence and skill in the mage craft.

She has several degrees in English, History, and the magical arts

She was not a normal student while attending the college, only attending classes taught by an older Professor named Neon as she was his appetence while she was in school.

Neon and Indigo have a strand relationship

Calvin is the only man she has ever loved

She also knows witchcraft like her father and aunt.

Indigo has never taken an appetence because she has reserved that place for Rowan

Duke and Her do not get along and she never wished to work under him

She has the goal of "Dethroning" Duke

Calvin Bookstone-Corals

27, Origin: Luxemburg, Pronouns: He/him, Cisgender Male, human, 6'0", pansexual, Birthday: April 30th

Calvin is the college's resident blacksmith and one of the few healers. He's Indigo's husband and acts almost like a big brother or father to the students that he meets. Where he seems like he would be violent and aggressive, he is gentle and kind-hearted. He has had issues with his mother, older sister, and an ex-fiance, which is why he left Luxemburg and chose to travel and live in Marquis. His true concerns lay with Indigo, and where she may not always be in the right he will always be on her side.

Facts

He was attacked the same night Rowan's mother was killed, and he has a large chest scar from the attack

He was in fencing classes when he was younger and enjoys using a fencing sword as a weapon

He is not a mage, although he does know healing magic

He and Indigo got married after knowing each other for 3 months

He also had no intention to get into a relationship when arriving at Marquis Island although his heart had other plans.

He is a pacifist for the most part although if something were to happen to Indigo he would obviously lose his shit.

He made his and Indigo's wedding rings, as well as "promise" rings that register the other's heartbeat

He and Indigo are symbolized by Oynx

He will only take up apprentices for healing magic because he believes that the college needs more healers

Esma King

Deceased, Origin: Ireland, Pronouns: She/her, Cisgender Female, human, 5'6", bisexual, Birthday: October 31st

Before death, Esma was a friend to all, but also an incredible fighter. Studying in natural studies. She was proficient in using magic and alchemy weapons and enlisted to capture and/or kill all of the curse and corrupted creatures on Marquis Island. The night of her death is covered in mystery, all that anyone knows is that she was attack and left behind her child Rowan after asking Indigo a few weeks prior to take care of the child if anything happened.

Facts

The exam Indigo got injured in Esma also took but came out basically unharmed.

Esma had Rowan at a young age

Rowan's father passed away from an unknown illness when they were little, which left Esma devastated as the two of them had dreams of getting married

Esma suspected Duke of something before her death, yet told no one what it could be and believed if she did it would cause her death.

She found alchemy and magic interesting but never wanted to be strictly a mage or an alchemist

She loved Rowan deeply and did everything she could to give them the best childhood. She never had

Duke

???, Origin: ???, Pronouns: he/him, Cisgender Male, ???, 6'1, Gay, Birthday: ???

He is a mysterious man who doesn't get out of his office much and has been the Dean of Bridgehid for years. He seems to but up a happy front, often lying through his teeth and dodging questions. He is hated by both Indigo and Sloan, given the fact that Esma died on his watch.

Facts

He chose Sloan, Percy, and Indigo to become professors at young ages because he admired their skill and intelligence.

He spends most of his time in his office, with Neon

He chooses to make this difficult for others because he finds joy in it

He is symbolized by Moldavite

He and Maverick are related.

Sloan Night

28, Origin: Jamaica, Pronouns: He/him, Cisgender male, human, 6'2", Gay, Birthday: July 7th

Sloan is an alchemy chemist with a gun and the head of the alchemy studies department. He has very few friends and is disliked by his alchemist peers because of course, he's not like the other alchemist. He has his mind on teaching great generations of talented alchemists and keeping an eye on Duke, as an act of revenge for Esma's death as he (and Indigo) deeply believe that Duke had something to do with it He worries about the future a lot and hopes that his friends won't leave him anytime soon.

Facts

Despite, seemingly acting as if he doesn't care about others, he is a big softy

Rather than fight with Duke on everything they disagree on he chooses to hate Duke in silence.

He calls in Indigo love, to show he cares (it's not romantic, he's very gay)

He has only ever had one apprentice, Nemo because those in the past that have tried to be his apprentice have not been fond of Casper being around.

He smokes a pipe (and shares it with Casper)

He got injured in the same exam Indigo did, in which he lost his left eye and gained a large facial scar.

Indigo, Esma, and himself were in the same graduating class the Parisite Class.

Casper Night

35, Origin: Scotland, Pronouns: He/him, Genderfluid, Brownie, 5'11", Gay, Birthday: March 20th

Casper is often simply just Sloan's husband, although is an honorary staff member at the college as he works in the greenhouse, cafeteria, and/or infirmary given his connection to plant and healing magic. He is quiet, choosing to use sign language instead of speaking, although on rare occasions he speaks, although only to Sloan. He is most likely on the arm of his husband as his husband is his safe place.

Facts

He is a household spirit, making him have an extreme want to keep things neat and clean.

He is disliked by most of Sloan's alchemist peers

He gets along with Indigo and Calvin, also much so that they besides his own husband are his favorite people.

He enjoys playing pranks on his friends

His favorite place to sit is by a fireplace, in Sloan's lap, with a cup of cream in his hand.

Georgia Nozadze

16, Origin: Georiga, Pronouns: She/her, Transgender Female, human/Seer, 5'1", Asexual/Aromantic, Birthday: May 7th

Georiga seems to be as golden as the sun, being very cheerful, creative, friendly, and extroverted. She will talk to anyone and everyone about anything! She is from a large and long family line of seers. Although her powers are different from a normal seer's as she can see the past of those she touches and not the future. She wants to become a mage that is on the same level as Indigo but desperately wants to travel the world, wishing to take her grandmother back home to Georgia.

Facts:

She has many older and younger siblings, she has 12 siblings and at home, she has seventeen family members in total.

She doesn't touch people without asking first so as to not see their past, but sometimes it can be helped.

She wanted to become friends with Rowan because she taught they looked cool.

She enjoys painting and is in the art club with Maverick

Georgia and Maverick went to the same primary school and became quick friends

She wants to be Indigo's apprentice but always gets told no

her golden eye pendant was given to her by her grandmother

Elias Hoedemaker

17, Origin: Marquis Island, Pronouns: He/him, Cisgender male, human, 5'10", Omnisexual, Birthday: August 24th

Elias is an inspiring magus clothing seamstress, following in the family's footsteps of making magical equipment. Favored over his twin brother Geronimo, Elias is seen as the golden child, the firstborn son after two daughters, and is actively continuing the family legacy of making magical equipment. Although he is choosing to do what he was, picking fashion, instead of making bullets.

Facts:

He is aware of Nemo's reservations about their relationship with each other given how their parents are and makes an attempt to keep his distance while also always being there for Nemo.

He enjoys photography, always has his camera, and is on the Bridgehid yearbook committee.

He overthinks always, and worries about everyone he cares about.

He is in the Natural studies pathway

He and Nemo's family is symbolism by pearls, which is why everyone in the family has pearl necklaces

He may or may not develop a crush on Rowan right after getting to know them for the first time.

he is seeming very popular but keeps to his small friend group of Georiga, Nemo, Maverick, and now Rowan

Geronimo "Nemo" Hoedemaker

17, Origin: Marquis Island, Pronouns: He/him, Cisgender male, human, 5'10", Gay, Birthday: August 24th

Call him Nemo, never call him Geronimo! The youngest Hoedemaker twin, he is angry, not at the world, but at his family. His birth was a shock, his mother had no clue she would have twins. So his parents have cast him aside, and yet he is expected to hold up the family name. His overarching goals is to run as far way from his family legacy and become one of the best alchemist he can be to be a positive rolemodel for his baby sister.

Facts:

Despite resenting his brother, he deeply cares for him

He wears the pearl (which symbolizes his family as stated earlier) as more of a fuck you to his parents, it's his way of saying I'm here and part of this whether you like it or not

He is Sloan's appearance

He taught himself how to play piano

He started going by Nemo when he told Maverick one day that he hated his name, so Maverick, out of respect started calling him Nemo. (That's also when he realized he was in love with Maverick)

He is not in any clubs but is a ghost member of the music club, and is often found in the music and art room playing the piano when he is not training.

Maverick Hansen

18, Origin: Marquis Island, Pronouns: He/they, Transgender male, 5'6" Fae, Gay, Birthday: September 3rd

Maverick is a troubled soul. Coming from a long line of excellent mages, although he doesn't want to be a mage. Maverick wishes to be a healer and help others. Although the fact that he doesn't want o to follow in the family's footsteps has caused extreme tension within his family. Lucky for him, he is living in the dorms giving him an easier way to not associate with a large name of his family members.

Facts:

He is Calvin's apprentice.

His family is symbolized by an Opal, yet he does not associate with the opal

He is in the new semester graduating class, the Emerald Class

He is enrolled in the natural studies pathway

He is in the art club and enjoys using pencils and chorocals

Georgia was his first friend and is now his best friend.

Maverick met Nemo when Nemo kept getting sent to the infirmary

Percy Kowalski

27, Origin: Poland, Pronoun: She/they, Agender, human, but corrupted but alchemy and magic, 5'7", Demisexual, Birthday: May 3rd

Percy is the head of the Natural Studies department of the college. Often seen as rude, and said to be very no-nonsense, Percy is just tired. Used as a human experience when she was young permanently cursed her with octopus tentacles instead of legs. Which one is extremely close to them, Percy does care about those around them, especially their students, and will get involved when something is not right.

Facts:

Percy and Indigo have a love-hate relationship with each other that is based on concern and intrigue.

They teach Biology and Chemistry.

They see no point in taking on apprentices

She is a talented alchemist

She does think of Calvin, Casper, Sloan, and even Indigo as good friends.

Neon

Immortal, Origins: England, Pronouns: Any and All, Masculine/Male presenting, nonhuman, 5'9", Gay, Birthday: February 29th.

Neon is a man that chooses to stay hidden. Once a magics professor that had all of his students wanting to be his apprentice during the semester is now a distant legend. Although he shows up every once and a while either entering the dean's office or at social events, oddly enough beside Duke.

Facts:

Indigo was his last apprentice, and he considers her one of his most talented students.

He only really cares about himself and is on the side that best serves him, he is not evil but not good either.

He's a bottom

He knows both Alchemy and Magic but enjoys being a mage over an alchemist.

He is a necromancer

He is symbolized by a black diamond

Amethea, Antoinette, and Finnian Corals

Amethea: 45, Origins: Korea, Pronouns: She/Her, Cisgender Female, nonhuman, 5'3", Bisexual, Birthday: June 27th Antoinette: 47, Origins: France, Pronouns: She/her, Cisgender female, nonhuman, 5'11", Lesbian, Birthday: March 18th Finnian: 47, Origins: France, Pronouns: he/him, Cisgender male, nonhuman, 5'11", Omnisexual, Birthday: March 18th

When it comes to these three there is no reason not to have them together. Indigo's parents and aunt are incredibly minor characters within the story of Bridgehid. Amethea and Finnian always help out around the College, and Antoinette is the resident librarian.

Amethea often works within the college's greenhouse and infirmary as a botanist and herbalist, often keeping herself away from danger do to her delicacy. She is a woman who acts to keep herself from harm, acting as if she is oblivious and a bit of an airhead, which makes her seem unintelligent. Yet, Amethea is a smart and observant woman and often hears a ton of gossip within the college walls.

Antoinette is an extremely playful and sassy Frenchwoman, who not only has a talent for witchcraft but a talent for clothes-making. She of course is the college's librarian and causes mischief not only on her brother, niece, and sister-in-law but on some of the students as well.

Finnian is a man in love with architecture and talent witch, often assists the college with building projects and repairs. He is the smiling face in a room full of frowns and is a loving and caring romantic. His true concerns will always lay on the side of his family as center rumors paint the whole of the Corals family in a horrible light.

Facts:

Amethea curse herself (and made herself extremely sick) when she was younger when using magic and then witchcraft for the first time, which caused her hands to turn a purple death color which is why she always wears gloves, in public.

Antoinette is in love with Amethea, although is perfectly fine with her being with Finnian because if Amethea was not with Finnian, Indigo would not exist.

Finnian and Antoinette are hotheaded.

Finnian hates being lied to, and the person that has lied to him has been Amethea

The Corals family is presented by the Ruby gemstone

Amethea dislikes most alchemists because "they smell like industry" although she adores Sloan and moreover Casper.

[hzltryingtowrite]

The persistence of memory (inconsistency, subsistence)

This line often floats into my head with a sense of profundity. I know it’s the name of a Dali painting- the famous one with the melting clocks. People wrote that it referred to Einsteins theory of special relativity. When asked, Dali said it was inspired by melted Camembert. 

I think I’m more in the Camembert camp- i find it easier to access and understand than space and time. That was something I found a bit exhausting about art college- on our first day in the sculpture department we were told that sculpture is about ‘space, place and time’, which was all very hefty. Would it have lent more weight to my work if the plaque on the wall referenced Einstein, rather than being upfront about the fact that I was tripping balls and eating cheese? (This is purely hypothetical).

 Speaking of cheese, when we were in France and eating pastries, Molly asked me what the nicest cake I ever had was. I couldn’t just remember the nicest- I could barely remember any of the cakes I’ve eaten. Later, we went into a museum and looked at some paintings. I tried to remember feeling excited about paintings and remembered when I was a teenager and had seen a Dali for the first time. I can’t remember where that was though. And when I thought harder, I wasn’t sure if it was even my memory or the memory of a friend I had at the time. I couldn’t even tell you the name of the painting.

I’ve gone off on tangents before reading about the inconsistency of memory- stories of false witness testimonies and memory experiments. Asides from the practical implications it has in terms of the judicial system, I think there is a certain fascination with the subject that feeds into the cult of the individual- latching onto our memories as an integral part of our identities. I’ll quote Mishima in Kinkaku-Ji second-hand (because I first came across him in a Sylvain Tesson book) - ‘...What gives meaning to our life’s actions is fidelity to a certain moment, and our effort to make that moment last forever...’.

This resonated with me in the sense that I think a lot of the choices I make and the things I care about are silently governed by a sense of nostalgia- things that influenced me in my formative years. The Pinterests I save, the aesthetic choices I make. Some of these choices and interests can be clearly traced back- my most enduring interests have been those I’ve had since I was a child- like anime, art and nature. But this theory is complicated when you consider the fluidity of memory. Some of the ‘moments’ I’m attempting to replicate might not be my own moments at all but something I saw in a film, or something I told myself so many times that it coalesced into something more concrete. With the influence of media and the fact we’re exposed to so much information in a day, it could be considered a tragedy that increasingly, our memories are not our own. Additionally, we outsource our memories- into digital photo albums and archives, and Google means we don’t need to be able to recall specific facts and information. This circumvents the need to process memories, to integrate them into our schema. They become less a part of our inner world and more of a marketable identity- a series of experiences and sensations that can be encapsulated into a pretty photograph. Maybe I’m being cynical here but I’ve felt myself in the last few years, that I am experiencing the world in a more superficial way and I think this comes from the fact that I am bombarded with so much information every day and have less and less time to process it. People advocate for a mindfulness approach in allowing us to be more present, but I think an essential component we’re neglecting is also time to parse this information. 

I try to allay any anxieties I have about this state of affairs with embracing the idea of the ‘hive mind’. I’m coming at this from a relatively uninformed angle- I haven’t read a whole lot about collective thought and how it might be integrated into the digital Information Age. Putting aside for a moment the unsavoury inequity inevitably wrought by capitalism, we can see social media and shared memories as a modern iteration of the fact that humans are ultimately social creatures. Social media is and can be a wellspring of creativity and, at the risk of sounding way too grandiose, acts as a placeholder for religion in secular society- that is the sense of connectedness and being part of something bigger. AI provides the potential to generate entirely new material from our collective efforts and creations (again, if you can put aside the economic implications this has for artists). All our individual thoughts and experiences are delineated into a scrollable consumable, which, via our engagement, feeds into algorithms which aid the creation of further content and clickables, a digital Ouroboros (again, with the grandiosity).

But now, away from the Borg and back to my own individual experience (because that’s why I’m keeping this blog?). A few years ago, I worked for a while on a vineyard in New Zealand. Initially I was working on the harvest- it was fairly monotonous, physical labour, but I enjoyed it. I think I once read in a museum some historic piece of anti-Irish propaganda- efforts to Google it yielded nothing, only some funny and kind of pertinent results- I’ll share them here. Anyway, this piece was of course written from a colonialist perspective and painted the Irish as dull-witted and suited to monotonous, laborious tasks. It crossed my mind in my enjoyment of the harvest work, that maybe there was substance to that theory. In general, I was living at the time in a way that might be more similar to agrarian communities from long ago- we went to sleep every night when the sun went down, rose when it came up and because there was no phone reception our access to technology was very limited. It was a social job and the harvest workers spent a lot of time chatting amongst ourselves but equally there were periods of silence while we worked. It was in these silent periods that I became aware of the fact that my thoughts were operating differently and I found myself often accessing my memories as a means of entertainment. I was recalling specific memories and information I’d forgotten I even had- like I suddenly remembered how to count to 10 in Slovene. These memories didn’t just exist as objective facts or stories or pictures in my mind- they brought with them feelings and sensations which coloured and enhanced my present experience of the world. I remember thinking about Wordsworth, and how when he found himself ‘in vacant or in pensive mood’, he remembered his daffodils and I realised what a source of consolation memories could be. I felt, I think for the first time, an appreciation of a sentiment often espoused by older people, that no matter what happens or who comes or goes in your life, you will always have your memories and now I’m kind of afraid that this is increasingly not the case.

[remakethestars]

Being Damian Wayne's Twin Sister Would Include:

Headcanons.

❝Exactly. I don't ask my dog to drive, and I don't ask the Justice League to solve my problems.❞

— Damian Wayne, Adventures of the Super Sons #9: Showdown on Hexworld

TRIGGER WARNING: Cursing, (Damian’s) death. Mentions of toxic masculinity and internalized misogyny, nightmares, blood, knives.

Headcanon masterlist.

When people ask you, “So, which one of you is the evil twin?” Damian always glowers, and you always motion to him.

You look disturbingly alike when only your eyes are showing; Damian’s got long lashes. Talia taught you a good tactic for tag-teaming in combat as kids was to pull up your hinged balaclavas and make the enemy think there was only one of you, that they’re seeing double.

Or for one of you to hang back while the other attacks as a distraction before the other knocks them out from behind.

Obviously, this won’t work when the two of you start filling out, but it works when you’re kids. It’s the reason why, even off the field, the two of you usually wear a matching outfits with hoods.

You utilize the same methods when she sends you to live with Bruce.

You don the Robin costume just like he does, much to the rest of the Batfam’s confusion (both because they weren’t expecting it and because they can’t tell you apart either), but sticking with the “red” theme, you go by Redstart.

There’s a rumor on the street that Robin V. is a meta that can teleport.

The two of you are freakishly good at mimicking the other’s voice and mannerisms, which makes it even harder for your family.

Jason tells you two about April Fools Day, and you make the most of it. Of course, Damian’s a pain in the a$$ and decides to go around pretending to be you and getting into trouble. You’re banned from the mall, and you still have no idea why. 

The two of you can communicate with just an impassive expression (Dick says it looks like a prime example of twin telepathy to anyone else), but anyone close to you knows sh¡t’s about to hit the fan when the two of you look at each other and smirk.

If it’s something you can’t communicate nonverbally, you use your cryptophasia. 

Cryptophasia is a language developed by twins when they’re learning to talk. Most of them grow out of it, you and Damian decided to keep developing it so it became more of a conlang. No one else has been taught to speak it, and they never will be. It’s for emergencies only.

Sun Tzu’s The Art of War was your Bible growing up, and the two of you call out verses when you fight together and need the other to understand a tactic (you both inherited Bruce’s eidetic memory, so you’ve got it memorized).

When you get too big to pull off the which-is-which game, you make your own costume and become the true Redstart. 

It’s basically Damian’s Robin uniform (the Super Sons’s version is the only one I’ll accept), but the boots and gloves are black, the biceps have a white stripe, the lining of the cape is white (the lining of the hood is black), the gold accents become white, it has a zipper down the front instead of clasps, and the mask becomes black (including the eyes). The waterline of the eyes is white. Like a painted redstart.

If Damian’s into animals, you’re into plants. The two of you find common ground on the fact that pollution sucks, so when you walk Titus, you take a trash bag and gloves with you to pick up litter as you go.

You did not want to go to Jon’s school. 

Not because you don’t like Jon (because you do), but because you know you could run intellectual circles around every one of those snot-nosed brats. 

School is stupid. Especially because the American education system is subpar; everything about it is.

You hardly pay attention in class. You do all of the homework a week ahead of time incase something comes up. Usually you’re doing next week’s homework in class. You’ve written entire papers on your phone in Google Docs in the middle of class to be printed out later.

If you’ve already done everything, Damian’s usually drawing and you’re daydreaming or you’re working on a case on your phone.

The teachers are always trying to catch you not paying attention, but you little sh¡ts can always answer their questions. 

Damian’s closest with Dick, but you’re closest with Tim. You admire his ability to plan ahead (see the entirety of the Red Robin comics), and you know that he’s better than both your father and your grandfather; you want to be as good as him when you grow up.

It takes a long time to wash the toxic masculinity and internalized misogyny our of your head, to learn that your grandfather’s ideas of “strength” were wrong, that it’s okay to lean on someone besides Damian, that you can be just as strong as your brother and still be feminine, that there are acceptable emotions besides anger.

Actually, your father teaches you that anger is more likely to get you killed. He won’t let you go into the field when he knows your angry.

It’s harder to drill out of you than your instinct to kill.

There’s a Lebanese restaurant called Tarbooshes (Teen Titans Special #1) the two of you go to when you’re feeling homesick. They make ox blood soup the same way your mother did, and it’s the only non-vegetarian thing Damian will eat for that very reason.

It’s nice to have a place to go where they know you by name and know what you want when you tell them “the usual.” It’s nice to have a place where you’re not a Wayne or an Al Ghul, where you’re just [Y/N] and Damian.

You disappear for an hour on your birthday to eat there. Bruce has asked you were you go, but you kept that between the two of you. 

Speaking of birthdays, you’re eleven minutes older than him. He was six pounds and ten ounces (Batman & Robin #0?), and you were a solid seven.

After Damian died, you go to Tarbooshes to feel close to him.

You were doing all right with the no-killing thing until the night Damian died.

Heretic never stood a chance.

He looked so much like Damian it gave you nightmares, though. Nightmares where you killed your twin brother and woke up sobbing.

Damian didn’t give you a speech in his last moments. He just looked over at you and said in your cryptophasia, “I’m sorry.” 

Not “I love you.” Not “Take care of them for me.” You knew that; you’d do that. He didn’t have to tell you, and he didn’t have to ask.

Just “I’m sorry.” Sorry that you were the one that was left behind.

It’s one thing to lose a family member, to lose a friend, or to lose a lover. It’s another to lose half of your soul.

The two of you had always feared you would die apart. It had always been a possibility; you weren’t stupid enough to think, “It’ll never happen to me.” Because it definitely could. 

And it had.

You wanted to run away from everything. Even just for a while. Go to one of your safe houses in London or France or whatever and just — you didn’t know — stare at the wall until you felt better? But you’d made that unspoken promise to Damian — “I’ll take care of them for you; don’t worry.” — to take care of Titus and Catfred and Jerry and Batcow and Goliath, to take care of Alfred and Bruce and Dick and Jason and Cassandra and Tim, to take care of Jon and Colin and Maps.

You avoided the cave. And if you had to go down there for some reason, you refused to look at the Robin suits.

Dick noticed. He asked if you wanted them taken down, even just for a while. You gave him a look like he was nuts and said, “No.”

Jon was a mess. More of a mess than you were, somehow. 

You’d shown up at the Kents’s. Jon was out doing Superboy things with Clark and Conner. Lois was the only one home.

You nearly scared her out of her skin when you materialized behind her and asked, “Is Jon home? It’s important.” 

He had to know first. He deserved to.

For all he put up with from you two, he deserved to be the first to know when one of you was f*cking dead.

Lois, of course, bless her heart, had the mom instincts to know that you were in no way, shape, or form okay even when you were trying so hard to hold yourself together. She asked you what’s wrong, and it’s what made you break. 

Your lip trembled. “He’s gone.”

“Who’s gone?”

“Damian,” your voice broke. “He’s dead.” 

Jon came home to find you in his living room in your Robin uniform, covered in Damian’s and Heretic’s blood, snot running down your lip, sobbing in his mothers arms and knew what happened without having to ask. He did anyway.

When you and Jon both finally passed out, your Uncle Clark flew you back to the Batcave. No one was in any condition — not even Alfred — so he carried you up to your room; took your boots, mask, cape, and gloves off; and tucked you in. Then he went to find Bruce because there was no doubt he was losing it too.

Bruce doesn’t tell you anything about trying to find a way to bring him back without the Lazarus pit because he doesn’t want to get your hopes up. 

You walk into your room one day to find Damian sitting there reading the dissertation (the requirement was three pages, not 120, but your teacher would just have to deal with your coping mechanisms) you had been working on for your World History class and left up on your laptop while on patrol. 

He said with the utmost indifference, “You’ve made some good points, Sister,” and, of course, you pulled out a knife and attacked him because this was — was — was some shapeshifting alien or hologram tech or a cruel joke — your twin was dead, this wasn’t funny, whoever did this was going to pay.

He met you blow-for-blow and flipped away from you before saying, “And here I was expecting a warm welcome,” in your cryptophasia. 

“Brother?” 

“Tt. Obviously.” 

Yeah, a college level thesis. You’re smart. You inherited Bruce’s eidetic memory and were raised by assassins.

You learned seven languages and wrote five doctoral theses by the time your teeth came in, wrote your first letter to a newspaper editor when you were two, could’ve had a geology doctorate when you were seven (Super Sons #1), and it only took you a week to learn the language on Takron-Galtos. You’re smart.

You’re also incredibly skilled. You learned to drive when you were five (Super Sons #1), your mother trained you to go for weeks without eating (Adventures of the Super Sons #6), you can micro-sleep for days and converse with half your brain asleep, can use a muscular contraction to move your liver out of the way of a blade (Nightwing #20), and can place yourself in a deep trance to heal damages caused by a hematoma (also #20).

(My dumba$$ didn’t note what Super Sons/Adventure of the Super Sons comic I was reading when I took notes, so I don’t have all of them noted in the two above bullet points. But that’s where they’re from. If I end up rereading them, I’ll edit this and add the comic numbers.)

The first time on patrol you thought Bruce was gonna die, you called him Baba. 

The next evening, when Dick came to visit the cave, he turned to you and Damian and asked, “So, which one of you called him Dad?” 

“How’d you know?” you asked. 

“He’s smiling the way he did the day I called him Tati.”

“He’s not smiling,” Damian pointed out.

“He is on the inside.”

Can we talk about how royally the Arkham Knights game screwed up Tim Drake? (Though, everything seems to screw up Tim one way or another, I guess.) Why does he look like a quidditch player in the gif above the cut?

Visit my headcanon masterlist.

DISCLAIMER ━━━ I’m a dumb white American, and I don’t know much about Arab or Romani culture other than what I’ve learned online. I hope I got it right?? If I didn’t, please drop a comment or P.M. me or something to let me know!

[nevermindirah]

I've been drafting and redrafting this meta post for weeks now. It's about to be 5781 and my country that was founded on settler colonial genocide and slavery and a deeply flawed but fierce attachment to democracy might go full dictatorship in about 6 weeks and it's time for me to post this thing.

All our immortals are warriors, all have been traumatized by war. But only three of them died their first deaths as soldiers in imperial armies. This fandom has already produced gallons of meta on Nicky dealing with his shit, because Joe would not fuck with an unapologetic Crusader. But there's very rich stuff in Booker and Nile's experiences and the parallels and distinctions between them.

Nile was 11 when her dad was killed in action - that was 2005, meaning she and her dad both died in the same war that George W Bush started in very tenuous response to 9/11. Sure, Nile's dad could have died in either Iraq or Afghanistan, or in a training accident or in an off-the-books mission we won't know about for a hundred more years, but he died in the War on Terror all the same. I had to look it up to be sure because Obama "drew down" the Afghanistan war in his second term, but nope, we're still in this fucking thing that never should've happened in the first place. The US war in Afghanistan just turned 19 years old. A lot of real-life Americans have experiences like the Freemans, parents and children both dying in the same war we shouldn't be in.

I know a lot of people like Nile who join the US military not just because it's the only realistic way for them to pay for college or afford decent healthcare, but also because they have a family history of military service that's a genuine source of pride. Military service has been a way for Americans of color to be accepted by white Americans as "true Americans" - from today's Dreamers who Obama promised would earn protection from deportation by enlisting, to Filipino veterans of WW2 earning US citizenship that Congress then denied them for several decades, to slaves "earning" their freedom through service in the Union Army and in the Continental Army before it. As if freedom is a thing one should have to earn. Lots of Black Americans have the last name Freeman for lots of different escaping-slavery reasons, but it's possible that this specific reason is how Nile got her last name.

Dying in a war you know your country chose to instigate unnecessarily and that maybe you believe it shouldn't be waging is a very particular kind of trauma. It is a much deeper trauma when your military service, and your father's, and maybe generations of your ancestors', is a source of pride and access to resources for you but your sacrifice is nearly meaningless to the white supremacist system that deploys you. That kind of cognitive dissonance encourages a person to ignore their own feelings just so they can function. How do you wake up in the morning, how do you risk your life every day, how do you *kill other people* in a war that shouldn't be happening and that you shouldn't have to serve in just so that your country sees you as human?

We see Nile do her best to be a kind and well-mannered invader. Depending on your experience with US imperialism, Nile giving candy to kids and reminding her squad to be respectful is either heartwarming or very disturbing propaganda. We also see Nile clutching her cross necklace and praying. From the second Christianity arrived on this land it's been a tool of white supremacist assimilation and control, but like military service, it's a fucked-up but genuine source of pride and access to resources for many Americans whose pre-Columbian ancestors were not Christian, and it's a powerful source of comfort and resilience. This Jew who's had a lot of Spanish Inquisition nightmares would like to say for the record that it's not Jesus's fault that his big name fans are such shitty people.

Nile is a good person trying to do her best in a fucked-up world. "Her best" just radically changed. Her access to information on just how fucked up the world is has also just radically changed, because everything's so fucked up a person needs a lot of time to learn about it all and not only does she have centuries but she won't have to spend that time worrying about rent and healthcare and taxes, and because she now has Joe and Nicky and Andy's stories, and because she now has Copley's inside scoop on just what the fuck the CIA has been up to. Like, I want a fic where Copley tells Nile what was really behind the brass's decisions that led to her experiences on the ground in Afghanistan, that led to her father's death, but also I Do Not Want That.

Nile was 19 when Alicia Garza posted on Facebook that Black Lives Matter. She grew up in Chicago well before white people on Twitter were saying maybe police violence against Black people is a problem. She knows this is a deeply fucked up country, and she put on her Marine uniform and deployed with her team of mostly fellow women of color, and maybe she and Dizzy and Jay marched in the streets between deployments, maybe they texted each other when a white manarchist at a protest sneered at one of them for being a Marine. Nile's been busy surviving, and she knows some shit and she's seen some shit but she hasn't had much time to think about what it all means. Now she's got time. And Joe, Nicky, and Andy are willing to listen. (Is Copley willing to listen? I could see that going either way.)

Booker might also be willing to listen. The brilliant idea of cleaning up the rat Frenchman so that Nile can have millennia of emotional support and orgasms sent me down a Wikipedia rabbit hole, and holy shit do Booker and Nile have a lot of shared life experience as pawns of imperial wars. Obviously Booker is white and a man and that makes a very big difference. (Though G-d help me, Booker could be Jewish and France was knocking its Jews around like ping-pong balls in the 18th-19th centuries. Jewish Booker wouldn't make him any less white but it does add a shit ton of depth of common experience: military service as a way for your country to see you as a full member of society who matters, because who you are means that's not guaranteed.)

Booker was hanged for desertion from the army Napoleon sent to invade Russia as part of his quest to control all of Europe. We learn in the comics / this YouTube video that Booker was on his way to prison for forgery when he was offered military service instead of jail time. While we don't know how he felt about the choice beyond that he did choose soldier over inmate, it's unlikely he thought invading Russia was a great idea, given he tried to desert because Napoleon like a true imperialist dumbass didn't plan for how he was going to feed his army or keep them from freezing to death in fucking Russian winter.

I find it very interesting that the French Empire was at its largest right before invading Russia and fell apart completely within a few years. My country has been falling the fuck apart for a while now - see aforementioned War on Terror, growing extremes of economic stratification in the richest country in the world, abject refusal to meaningfully deal with climate change that US-based corporations hold the lion's share of blame for - but between Trump's abject refusal to meaningfully deal with the coronavirus and strong likelihood that he'll refuse to leave office even if a certain pathetic moderate I will hold my nose and vote for does manage to earn a majority of votes, ~y~i~k~e~s.

Our only immortals who have never known a world before modernity and nationalism happen to have been born of wars that were the beginning of the end for the imperialist democracies that raised them, and I think in the centuries to come that's going to give them some very interesting shit to talk about.

Nile's a Young Millennial, a digital native born in the United States after the collapse of the USSR left her country as the world's only superpower. She's used to a pace of technological change that human brains are not evolved to handle.

Napoleon trying to make all of Europe into the French Empire was a leading cause of the growth of European nationalism and the establishment of liberal democracies both in Europe and in many places that Europeans had colonized. Booker's first war produced the only geopolitical world order Nile has ever known and I just have so many feelings ok. Nile the art history nerd is probably not aware of this, and why would she be? This humble meta author is, like Nile, a product of US public schools, and all they taught me about world history was Ancient Greece/Rome/Egypt/Mesopotamia and then World War 2. Being raised in The World's Only Superpower is WEIRD.

Nile the Young Millennial is used to the devastating volume of bad news the internet makes possible. But she has absolutely no concept of a world where the United States of America is not The World's Only Superpower. In order to get up in the morning and put on her gear and point guns at civilians in Afghanistan, she can only let herself think so much about whether that American exceptionalism thing is a good idea.

She's about to spend many, many years where the only people who she can truly trust are people who are older than not only her country but the IDEA of countries.

She's got time, and she's got a lot of new information at her disposal. But there comes a point where my obsession with her friendship and eventual very hot sex life with Booker just isn't about sex at all. Nile needs someone to talk to about the United States who Gets It. Booker the rat Frenchman coerced into Napoleon's army, and Copley the Black dual citizen of the US and UK who's retired from a CIA career that he half understands as deeply problematic but half still believes in hence his mind-bogglingly stupid partnership with Merrick, are the only people on the planet Nile can talk to honestly about, and really be understood in, all the thoughts and feelings and fears and hopes of her experience as a US Marine.

And one more thing before I go get ready for Rosh Hashanah: Orientalism was a defining element of the Crusades and that legacy is painfully clear in current US-led Western military activity in Afghanistan, Syria, Israel/Palestine, you name it. Turns out memoirs by French veterans of the Napoleonic Wars are full of Orientalist language about Russia as well. I am maybe/definitely writing a fic where Booker spends his exile reading critical race theory and decolonial feminism and trauma studies monographs because he can't be honest with a therapist but maybe he can heal this way and become the team therapist his own damn self. I just really need him to read Edward Said and Gloria Anzaldúa and then go down on Nile, ok?

[frenchy-wino-jerkface]

I wish I lived in a world where culture and arts weren't the victims of a propaganda, meant to keep the general public away from them, and drive people to mass-produced best-sellers and blockbusters instead.

You love pop music and hiphop ? Guess what, you'll probably love classical music as well. Most music halls make prices for people under twenty-five or thirty. In France, it costs 10 euros to go to a classical concert if you're my age, while it costs at least 50 to go see a pop artist live. Classical musicians are more talented, work their asses off and are mostly underpaid. They're looking to move you with the most well-written music in History. If you don't like it the first time you go, try again, and again, like you did with books. Every concert is different, you just "not having the codes needed to understand" is a load of crap. If you'd like to sing, play, or compose, you could even join a music school. You can rent an instrument at your local instrument maker, and the conservatory is mostly free in a lot of countries.

You're a fan of graphic novels, manga, graff, comics? Good news, your museums are also largely free almost everywhere in the world, and collect the most influential pieces of each era. Art schools are waiting for you, or tiny fine arts workshops ran by your neihborhood that barely cost a dime. Love reading and writing? You've been lied to, it's not either you're talented and you don't have to force yourself, or you're not talented and should give up: go to college, get into a Writing Major. Libraries also have ridiculously low fees, go borrow or buy every damn book you want, and throw away your Kindle. Don't even look at Amazon.

Wanna know what it feels like to be an artist? Work on it. Be interested, invested. Artists are trying so hard to help specialise young artists and share their crafts, but the only artists selling their products have rigged the system and made it more profitable to be less educated, make loops and call them "prods" to sing or rap on, change art schools into design schools. Classical arts are either a hobby or not profitable, and that's just unbearable. The art world is struggling all around the globe, because we are slowly making it obsolete.

Getting cultured is an act of resistance. Don't bite into the bullshit calling it elitist or unnecessary, true classical arts fanatics are just a bunch of nerds who are looking to make you love their shit. Love art, gobble art up, work on your craft, become talented artists with all the techniques you can get your hands on. And if you don't want to do that, at least properly support artists by not taking the easy road, and going out of you comfort zone.

[alotsgonnachange]

Mystic Messenger Saeran’s AE Thoughts (.......And Prayers..) #Spoilerz

Hello, I just finished Saeran’s after ending and I have a lot of things to say and I am going to write it down while I'm still all keyed up about it.

First of all… Please DO NOT ask me how much money I spent to finish this as fast as I did…. I’m grown but my bank account is certainly going to have a good ole fashioned CHUCKLE at this….. It’s been a long quarantine I deserve a lil happiness as a treat methinks!

I have been playing this absolutely insane game since I think 2016? When I first started playing the deep routes had JUST come out I think? And I was just finishing up high school and am now a college grad...lmao

I’ve played all routes at least once except Jaehee but i’ve seen walkthroughs of her route (I’ve heard it makes you hate Jumin and he’s my favorite so um. hehe). V’s and Saeran’s routes I found to be so emotionally intense and just….a lot and I've been waiting a long ass god damn time for this after ending okay…. I would theorize and make up an ending in my head but i’m no writer so it was hard to figure out lol. I’m a Jumin stan mostly but I love everybody and yeah I should probably play that jumin dlc too but I need like a DAY to recover from Saeran’s AE. Enough about me HERE are my thoughts on it overall

Major Saeran AE Spoilers under da cut!

Can we please discuss V showing up to the C+R conference room with basically chloroform and made everybody Pass Out like??? I was alone in my room at like midnight just SCREAMING at my phone???? And the creepy ass CG ???? It’s like that gif of sarah paulson from ahs being like “I put arsenic in the wine….and the pasta”

Anyway I screamed at V a lot during this process!!

Loved RFA being sweet and kind to saeran (before V fucking drugged them…)

This is such common V behavior “I have to do it all myself...there’s no other way..” GIRL SHUT UPPP You do this every route....

SO many CG’s and I enjoy them a lot

Saeran’s sprite looks a little TOO crisp compared to everyone else but maybe its a glitch??? V next to him is in 480p while saeran is like 1080p

Hearing both Saeran and Saeyoung missing the other brother the whole time??? PAIN. All my homies know is PAIN

BOSS and his V for Vendetta ass guy fawkes mask??? I literally yelled “this game is TERRIBLE!!” several times at my phone

Their dad is so>??????? When he was sitting on the couch with saeyoung in that one CG while simultaneously telling him to kill himself?????????? Maybe chairman han is actually the best dad in this game somehow

When V and Rika were like we’re back together teehee teehee okay pack it up bonnie and clyde ..

When chairman han calls u and says hes jealous of u and saeran…..HUH????? I’m calling HR

When they go to the apartment and see boss and vanderwood and poor saeyoung is sitting there seeing his brother for the first time in years i wanted to D word sooooo bad like PAIN...PAIN….

Can we HAVE A DISCUSSION ABOUT JUMIN HAN BEING THE BEST CHARACTER IN THE GAME AND HE LOST EVERYTHING IN THIS AE……. he just took the blame and moved on jumin what the hell….. I love him so much r we serious? He watched his 2 closest friends betray him in the worst way and found out abt how Rika abused Saeyoung and Saeran???? I felt just AWFUL. Terrible ...Terrible….

Rika’s change in demeanor from Saeran's actual route is certainly a Choice. I find her much more bearable this time around and unfortunately i think I was too nice to her and ended up with a bad end LMFAO

I was happy to see Saeran stand up for himself and become stronger and confident. You go king!

The CG of Yoosung laying in Zen’s lap is everything to me…

HOWEVER YUP I sure did get a bad ending and I was so mad fdsafdskfdhsf ! (I would be happy to clarify how I got the good one the second time.) MAKE SURE To SAVE EARLY in days 2 and 3 bc the branches on day 4 is where the bad end will show up. For me it was the first day 4 chat and then a story mode titled “SAVIOR”.... If you see that RUN FOR THE HILLS!!

I was so mad! But I had saved in day 2 and replayed and MANAGED to get good end

I’m obsessed with everyone calling V and Rika “that psychotic couple” like…..its true its true…

No those two are so toxic… V’s route was torture watching them go on and on about the sun like yo can yall just call each other babe like normal people.

I respect straight people but not V and RIka that shit was just wrong… Straight marriage was a mistake

Oh lord i also FULLY Forgot Rika killed the twins’ mother…. Yeah that scene was um Certainly a lot but it needed to happen eventually

Like it’s good they know but damn that storyline is just so bleak

I think it was satisfying TO A DEGREE….To see Rika understand where she was wrong, why she was wrong, fess up and even APOLOGIZE! I was very surprised.

Saeran and Saeyoung are Certainly twins with the amount that those two self sacrifice in every route MY GOD…..

The scene with Jumin talking to his father and the other scene of him praying oh my god I cannot tell you how happy I was to see him begin to understand and address his own feelings in a route that was not his own. My main problem with Jumin’s route has always been the trapping MC in his penthouse aspect.. This way Jumin understands love and emotions without being overly possessive !!! YAY also loved seeing him be on good terms with his dad who was surprisingly profound

That last Story mode was Really a Lot…. and Strange things occurred which I will get into in just a minute

Jumin becoming a politician is so funny but ngl … i see it.

Yoosung going to france to study pastries ok king I see u! (it made more sense to me than the vet thing anyway)

Lastly Zen FURRY ERA

MY BEEF With the AE

I was happy with how they handled it for the most part. I think Cheritz heard our feedback about V’s after ending and was like okay….let’s try something different

HOWEVER

Saeran…. Sweet kind saeran… IS SO AFFECTIONATE HAHA….

He must have said I love you like 300 times…..very mushy gushy flowery language...and maybe that’s just his personality but for me it was like eating cake with buttercream cake. It means well, but god damn is it sugary and going to cause a stomach ache later.

He was just… SO MUCH! SO forward and ON all the time in his affections. I honestly felt kind of smothered and by day 3 and 4 I was sooooo over all the compliments… King you’ve come a very long way, but ur still putting MC on a pedestal and probably need to see a therapist.

Nextly….Rika and V….. Naw that knock out gas really ...that hurt lol. Coming from “I would do anything to protect RFA” V? Idk like…. EYE felt betrayed reading that. It was just hurtful. I can’t even imagine how the members would have felt as they were passing out. It was just so cruel. I suppose I understand why but like?? Just TERRIBLE

Them being in cahoots with the agency and the prime minister..HUH??? Also too much

V just felt so irresponsible like I do understand that he ended up in a weird web of secrets that’s hard to untangle but he’s so fucking stubborn he’s SO stubborn it makes me insane. Like sir… It seems like in other routes he wanted to try to protect Rika and the RFA.. But in this AE it seems more to me that he was like yeah i’m protecting Rika and That’s It… so fucking hurtful to me. Both of y’all apologize ESPECIALLY to the twins and Jumin..

The forgiveness thing…… Okay so I think some people will not like that Saeran decided to “forgive” the people who hurt him (Rika, V, Saejoong, his mother). I would point out that I actually think this was approached somewhat well. He says at one point that he doesn’t think they’re good or bad, just people. I think he sounded mature and like this was the way for him personally to accomplish his healing process. Would I have loved for Saeran to flip V and Rika off and kick Saejoong off a cliff? Yea I really would. But like…. If that’s what HE needs to do to heal then who am I to judge?

HOWEVER…. Everything Eye just said goes out the window when the scenes at the end with Saejoong come up… I was PERPLEXED. Like why did he HUG his deranged father who just kicked the shit out of him??? Also all the chat options that MC has with him r like blah blah you’re like this because no one loves you were so corny to me LMFAOOOO?

AND WHEN HE WAS IN THE ROOM LATER WITH SAERAN… i’m sorry but if that were me I would have called a nurse to deck his ass. Cool he turned himself in YOU SUCK SOOOO BAD AND I NEVER WANT YOU TO COME NEAR SAEYOUNG AND SAERAN AGAIN THANKS.

*scratches ass* I wish I got to see saeyoung and saeran finally sit down and have that first conversation after a long time and hug CG but the ending was fine I GUESS….. I dont care about ROMANCE I want those boys to be happy brothers together

Anyway that was really emotionally exhausting but I fr think I got it out of my system after literal years… And I can rest in peace knowing the choi twins are happy. THATS ALL I WANTED TO KNOW!!!!

[sparkledfirecracker]

Hiii my love! So I'm like super nosy and curious how you came to be interested/learned so many languages? I have 3 1/2 under my belt but like one and a half of the 3 I'm iffy on. Hahaha hope you don't mind my question🙈

Hello lovely!!! I love this question, so I don’t mind at all.

Just a little side note, before I give you a FULL breakdown. I’m fine talking about anything you can find on my blog, even the lesser fun stuff. I’d rather be honest than lie and if I wasn’t comfortable with answering these types of questions I wouldn’t have put the information out there on display 😘.

This might be a long one, so I’ll put it under a cut.

If we put neuroscience towards that question: I absolutely hate math, despise it and I have dyscalculia < explains a lot why I hate math. Languages come easier than numbers do. And they say if you’re good with languages you suck at numbers, well in my case absolutely true.

You must have seen the post with all the languages named, so I’ll break them down and even put them in order of learning them, haha. It also comes with trying to explain the Dutch educational system, which can be hella confusing, so apologies in advance.

Language one: my native tongue is Dutch. Born and raised here and mums a native Dutchie.

Language two: my dad is Polish, I rarely speak/read the language though, I’m just not comfortable with it, plus the grammar is an absolute nightmare. But dump me for a week with my dads family, I’m forced to speak it (none of them speak English) and the understanding and talking comes back with some ease.

Language three: I had an obsession with the English language at the age of 8 and taught myself most of it, by watching weekend morning shows on the BBC. Also when I got older 11/12 I started reading fan fiction and absolutely DESTROYED the English dictionary in our house, like pages coming out and literally falling apart (it’s still at my parents house somewhere for entertainment purposes). Plus we get started with English basics when we’re about 9/10 years old and continue this into our education at least until we finish high school.

Language four: German is one language they add when you start high school, I was 11 going on 12. I say high school, but our educational system is not really comparable to the American or British system, because we have different levels of education within high school, same counts for college. It depends on what learning level you are and how many languages are added.

Language five: I started college at 15 going on 16, because of the lower educational entry I had. French was added here. I did my first 7 month internship in France when i was 17 and my second 7 month internship when I was 19. For both I worked with many French and English people. Which boosted the speaking abilities even more. Some French are stubborn and even refuse to speak English if you don’t even try.

Language six: went to university at 20 going on 21, Spanish was added into the mix. I could choose between French and Spanish, since I already knew how to speak and write in French, I went with Spanish. Both languages are also very similar to one another, yet I find French easier. Spanish is the other language I don’t often use, but dump me in a small village in Spain and I’ll be able to manage myself there.

Language seven: I’m midst learning Norwegian, because my sister moved there 3/4 years ago for a job. When I’m there I go exploring a lot. Norwegians are just like the fucking Dutch. They see you struggle in their language and they switch to English, which is tragic for learning purposes, but also a relieve at the same time.

Language eight: as said I’m considering to pick up Italian, I went there for my holidays (vacation, depending on where you are) and I just fell in love with the pure passion the language is spoken with. Plus I was joking around with words for certain animals and objects and I turned out to be right. But I must say there’s a lot of similarities with French and Spanish, so that’s probably why it came so easy.

Playing with languages, especially unknown languages, is something I tend to do naturally. I make a game out of it. I’m just on the go and guessing words for things and looking them up if I’m right. I find that if you find the fun in learning that the language will stick with you.

You have to maintain the languages in order to keep speaking or writing them. I don’t really do that with Spanish and Polish, I still understand it, but a mild panic attack rises when I have to speak it. But once I’m in either country and comfortable again it becomes easier.

So now I’m turning this one on you, love, because I’m intrigued. 3,5? Is it that you understand 4? And speak only 3? Or are you midst learning? Also what languages? TELL ME ALLLLLLLL

[theuniversitychallengereview]

UC 51.03 - London Business School vs Hertford, Oxford

Since it was introduced at the 1988 Olympics, every single Gold Medal in the Women’s Team event in the Archery has gone to South Korea. Including yesterday’s win that’s nine straight victories, and their period of unparalleled dominance continues. The men’s team have also won six of the nine they have contested, and a mixed team won the first staging of that event in Tokyo too. Adding their success in the individual events, South Korea have won 26 gold medals, and 42 in total, in the 43 archery events which have been thus far staged at the Olympic Games. 

As Twitter’s own @tarequelaskar pointed out in the brilliant article which alerted me to this story, this is a perfect example of specialisation, an economic concept whereby countries or companies focus intensely on one particular aspect of a given industry and come to serve that niche in such a specialised fashion that they become the ultimate experts and nigh-on irreplaceable. This is done in government and business by providing companies with incentives to specialise, and supporting those who succeed at it. 

With respect to Korean archery, similar forces are at play. There are a bunch of professional teams and leagues in the country, giving archers financial stability while they focus on their training, something not as common across the world. Said training involves such things as practicing in live baseball stadiums and replicas of the Olympic venues, to mimic first the atmosphere and then the conditions that will be present on the day of the actual tournament. 

This philosophy of marginal gains - the same system used by Team Sky and Chris Froome to win multiple Tour De Frances on the trot - puts their preparation miles ahead of the competition, which goes some way to explaining their dominance. It is not the only reason. Before the fine-tuning of the elite shooters comes the discovery of the promising young ones, and the inspiring nature of past success (along with a historic national love of the sport) helps to create a virtuous cycle which give Korea a far larger number of archers to choose from than any other country. This greater choice means that there is a greater chance of finding the next Gold medallists.

Making the argument that professional footballers are at a higher level than other elite sportspeople, Michael Cox used this same argument in a recent article for The Athletic. To summarise, he stated that because there are a far higher number of people who wish to become professional footballers, that must mean that the ones who do make it are at a higher standard than those who make it in other sports. Initially, I was drawn in by the pure maths of this point, but having thought about it some more I’m no longer sure to what extent I agree. 

Now, the fact that hundreds of millions more people play football than rugby, or basketball, will certainly confer some level of “eliteness”, but only up to a certain point. Because football has been so popular for so long, the general standard of the play, relative to what it used to be, has had longer to improve. In the same way that if you transplanted a 100m runner from the Olympic final in the early 20th century to now they probably wouldn’t even qualify for the games, a footballer from the 80s would stand less of a chance of making it were they playing today. Many other sports don’t have that level of natural progression, afforded by decades of technical and tactical advancement - at least not globally. 

But the numbers argument only goes so far, as can be demonstrated by the Korean archers. Yes, there are more archers in Korea than anywhere else, relatively, giving them a higher chance of uncovering those with a natural aptitude, but the reason behind their bow and arrow dynasty is the specialisation. The hyper-detailed level of training and focus which allows them to be the best they can possible be. 

Now, archery is unique in that there is a theoretical maximum score (I understand that this is to some extent arbitrary, and related to the rules of the game as defined by some human being, semi-randomly, but it works in terms of this argument, because it gives a percentage score of how good the archers are based on the agreed-upon parameters of the sport), which, at the Olympics, is 720. The Olympic record is 700 (held by Korean Kim Woo-jin, giving an implied “eliteness level” of 97.2%. 

The best player in the history of football (don’t @ me) is Lionel Messi, and few would doubt that he operates at or above that level of perfection in his sport. But I also don’t think you could doubt that Novak Djokovic, or Serena Williams in her pomp, were similarly magnificent at tennis. Cyclists on the Tour De France put their bodies through more in three weeks than most people endure in a decade, and have every aspect of their training and diet strictly controlled so as to bring them as close to perfection as possible. There will certainly be a higher number of these elite performers in football, because there are a higher number of paying jobs for said elite performers, and because more people attempt to become elite performers, but I don’t think that it follows on from that that they are better at their sport than other elite athletes, all of whom have undergone years and years of specialised training to get them where they are.

Does any of this matter, in terms of how each sport should be enjoyed? Probably not, but its interesting to think about, and kind of awe-inspiring to try and appreciate just how good those at the top of their respective games are. And if there is some discrepancy in the level of eliteness between the different sports it doesn’t detract from the fact that they would handily dispatch any civilian challengers without breaking a sweat. The joy comes from watching people who are good at stuff doing that stuff - and, as evidenced by the crowds which gather for non-league football, it doesn’t matter whether or not they are at the absolute pinnacle of said stuff. They’re still going to be much better than the rest of us. 

Competitive quizzing is different from the activities previously mentioned in that any normal person can have a guess at pretty much any question, with a chance that they’ll get it right. What sets the contestants apart on shows like University Challenge is the speed of their recall under pressure - the quickness of their knowledge as well as the knowledge itself. But there are plenty of armchair quizzers who think they could wipe the floor on the show, so just how good are the actual contestants? (Compared to an elite footballer or archer on an imaginary scale that accounts for relative skill in all disciplines?). I don’t know (and in case you hadn’t noticed by now I’m just fascinated by people who are really good at anything, and wanted to share some of that fascination with you all), but I’ll try and have a go at answering it anyway. 

So, the World Quizzing Championships have been dominated by British and Irish quizzers since its inception in 2003, with 16 of the 18 winners coming from either Britain or the Republic of Ireland (who have four wins courtesy of The Egghead Pat Gibson). This, in my mind, makes this neck of the woods comparable to South Korean archery. It is a hotbed of talent, and the infrastructure is in place to encourage and aid talent maximalisation. Indeed, if you scroll down the list of highest ranking players at the WQC in any given year you can see a significant cohort of UC alums, so clearly there are a number of elite quizzers who have passed through the show. 

This specialisation can be seen in microcosm with the preponderance of top-level quizzers produced by Oxford and Cambridge, who both have a long-standing culture of competitive quizzing far beyond other Universities. The debate is there to be had on the fairness of each institution having so many teams, but clearly they produce enough elite players to compete with far bigger Unis when entering as (sometimes tiny) colleges. 

In conclusion, I think it is pretty obvious that UC is a breeding ground for world-class quizzers, and though no one has won a World title straight off the bat after appearing on the show, there are top-50 and top 100 finishes abound, which is still greatly impressive, and helps to give an idea of just how good these students really are. 

Hoping to justify the 1000 words I’ve just written about their exceptional talents are two teams from the London Business School and Hertford College, Oxford. The Oxford side have never made it beyond the second round, but LBS reached the semi-finals in 2006, their only previous appearance on the show. Anyway, there is quite literally no time for me to recite the rules; here’s your first starter for ten... 

Paxman mentions that LBS were in the show in 2006, but doesn’t mention that they reached the semi final, which is lazy imo. A bunch of them are studying for MBAs, which makes sense. He doesn’t mention Hertford’s previous appearances either, but that’s more understandable.

Hertford’s Hitchens takes the first starter with Kennedy, and the Oxonians added a full set of bonuses on words made up by authors - including a couple of educated guesses. LBS hit back with the next question, but can only manage one bonus on famous scientists. One of the two they miss is Rosalind Franklin, and Paxman teases them for not spotting an apparently obvious clue within the question.

The first picture round is on national emblems, and LBS are first to recognise that of Vietnam for the starter. They don’t know Laos or Belarus, but do know that Mozambique has a machine gun on its one. Butterworth then jumps the gun with argon on the next starter, giving his answer just as Paxman says it in the question. Butterworth makes up for it with the music starter, recognising Fat Boy Slim before anyone else, and LBS know Primal Scream and Wu Tang Clan too. They’re still fifty points behind though, and will need a big second half to turn things around.

This task gets more difficult for them, as Hitchens takes another starter. Lloyd adds a second in a row for Oxford and they are nearly one hundred points clear. LBS really need to get some points on the board, and Ruess duly obliges, knowing that there is a massive sculpture of a spider called Maman, which sounds needlessly scary, to the extent that I’m not even going to google it.

The comeback is ended before its even begun as Oswald takes a starter for Hertford, which gives them the picture bonuses - the starter having been dropped by both teams. Lloyd produces another excellent guess of Reuben, demonstrating how useful it is to have vague knowledge as well as specific knowledge. This is one of probably five questions he has answered in a throwaway manner, but which turned out to be correct. 

By this point LBS seem to have accepted defeat. Ruess takes another starter, but there is little to no urgency on the bonus questions. They’re right, granted, to have none, they have no chance of winning, but if they gave it a go they might scrape a high scoring loser spot. Ruess is the only one who seems bothered, and bags himself ten more points. They have an amusing discussion about methods of poisoning in Agatha Christie novels (’it was used as a curry ingredient?’, Ruess wondered aloud, trying to figure out which spices could be poisonous, before Butterworth pointed out that it wasn’t something commonly used as a curry ingredient, prompting respectful mirth from the audience) on the bonuses, but still languish miles behind. 

Lloyd grabs the last starter of the night for Hertford, who win by eighty at the gong.

Final Score: London Business School 100 - 180 Hertford, Oxford

At the end, Paxman mentions Hertford’s stellar guesswork, which means I wasn’t chatting nonsense (at least on that front, the jury is out on the rest of it), and says that they’ve done a really good job. Incredibly effusive praise for a score of 180. He really is going soft in his old age.

Phew, that was a long one. If you made it through the intro you deserve a prize. And that prize is that you get to come back next week for the next episode of this blog!! Woop woop! 

And if this wasn’t quite enough UC content for you then you can subscribe for extra blogs on my Patreon, which features Retro Reviews from the 2015/16 series of the show. Ta x

[randomnameless]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Purchase Due to America’s history introversion we only learn about french to get to the meme version of Napoleon that sold us like a third of the country. He is very sanitized. But yeah colleges seem to teach the pope was the true ruler of europe for some reason.

Well,

History here is very euro (france) - centered so that's why this kind of stuff is immediately noticed as "wtf" but to be fair, I think that if someone is trying to write a meta post citing real life parallels, that someone should make some research, or just hit Wikipedia, to make sure they're not writing something enormous.

I mean, we're in an era where you don't need to rush to your nearest library to read an article about what is feudalism, you can just browse Wikipedia and have a summary rundown - so when some started to parrot the "Fodlan is a feudal state" without even understanding what is a feudal state nor what is feudalism, it grows irritating.

i think the worst offender is the "caste system" like wow way to use a word you don't understand, but as someone on redshit said, definitions are useless and "you are just arguing about semantics".

I think someone made a post earlier about the US and catholicism - given how prevalent protestantism is in the US, it is not surprising how "deformed" catholicism ends up in mainstream media or in everyday talk.

If it makes you feel better, apparently here some people who finished compulsory education completely ignore that the US-Japan side of WWII so...

[xhusu]

So I wanted to talk about Yukine and how he ended up with his father, his mom leaving him behind and Yuka.

I just watched a video of a french youtuber, Louis-san, a hafu (french/japanese) talking about Japan’s bad sides. And a big part of his video is about child kidnapping.

It is not just a stranger taking a child but really a parent taking the child from the other one. There is no custody arrangement when parents divorce in Japan. If the child “decide” to live with one parents, it’s forever. Today, some parents are still fighting in the country to change the law, some parents never saw their child again, it’s the law and they can’t do much. 20% of the children in Japan go throught this kind of kidnapping, it’s not something that’s rare.

The deal of Yukine’s parents was a child per parent. Yuka and him played rock-paper-scissor and the winner had to stay with the father. Yukine won. I think that if Yuka won, she would have died way before him. It was because of her that the two parents divorced. Plus, the father said “Yuka or Haru”, he’s using Yukine’s nickame, not his name. I do think that the bastad prefered him in a way.

Anyway, what we have to understand is that once the divorce is stated, once the child is with one parent, it’s over. The mom can’t do much. Plus, we know that we are around the 70s/80s, things weren’t the same for women and I’m pretty sure that Yukine’s father wouldn’t have had a real punishment for his behavior if they called the police (he wasn’t killing them, “””just””” beating them, which is awful but I’m pretty sure there wouldn’t have been a real thing if not a threat).

The mother now. So, always smiling, a little off, a little lost. She did what Yuka asked her to do without any question, she laughed when her husband got angry and asked if she shouldn’t have signed this paper. Something’s wrong. Maybe she was mentally ill and if so she is NOT in the wrong. If she can’t think for HERSELF and do what she is ASKED to do by her DAUGHTER, without asking questions, she is NOT the one at fault. Let me explain. If she really was ill, psychologicaly speaking, then she was also victim. Some mentally ill person can’t take care of themself and they don’t even understand what’s going on. If she is not ill, she’s a bitch. But if she is, then we can’t say much. She married someone who took advantage of her condition. Plus they seemed poor, to get her son back, she would have had to pay a lawyer, etc. Maybe she couldn’t afford that. And if even today, some parents doesn’t manage to win the fight and take back their child, I’m pretty sure it was worse in the 70s. The mother did what she was asked to do. I don’t think Yuka forced her to do more since they already lost their home, their stuff and had to start a new life. The divorce was enough.

Now let’s talk about Yuka because damn this poor girl went through so much. I think that Yuka was 3 years older than her brother. Why? When you look at their heights on the wall, we see when they started to do it: Haru 3yo and Yuka 6yo. So, when Yukine died, she was probably 17yo. But when their parents divorced? Yukine wasn’t 14yo or 13yo, he was way too small. I’d guess maybe 9yo? Then, Yuka was around 12yo. She asked her mom to divorce the bastard around 12yo, maybe a little more. Do you really think that after everything, a 12yo would force her mother to do more to get her brother back? Even if it costs money for a lawyer and that they now have nothing? Even if she had no evidences of the abuse since the neighbours thought that their father was an okay guy? Even if her mom was mentally ill? It seems horrible but what could she do? She still was a child. She was the one that was comforted by her little brother, she was suicidal, she was broken. 

I always thought that they sent each other letters because of the anime. But when you see her reaction about Yukine’s last letter, when Nora gave her, what did she said? “Haru wrote me a letter...?” They didn’t send each other letters. If she did, the father was probably recepting them to throw them away. And Yukine couldn’t. One letter caused his death. One last and only letter is what led to his death. Yuka was 17yo when he died, and she didn’t know. In France, you’re an “adult” at 18, you’re not a minor anymore. But in Japan? It’s 20yo. If Yuka searched for her brother, it was probably at this moment, 20yo. But guess what? If she did, she couldn’t find him. Maybe even today, she is searching for him. But she can’t find him. Haruki Tajima never went to highschool or college. Haruki Tajima never bought a house or a car. Haruki Tajima never got a job. Haruki Tajima never bought a phone, had no mobile phone plan. Haruki Tajima can’t be found anywhere since he’s dead. Even if she knows that he ran away, WHERE could she find any information? Her father that scarred her face and made her reach the point of trying to kill herself? Fear wouldn’t really let her see him. Or maybe she did but he just answered that he didn’t know.

So. What do we have? Yukine that can’t see his mother and sister anymore because of Japan’s law system about divorce. A mother that can’t do much since she’s (probably) ill and poor. And a sister that had to wait to start searching for her brother, when it was too late.

A family torn apart with an abusive and alcoholic father, a disabled mother completly lost and not understanding how grave the situation is, a sister too young and broken to do anything and a brother that just wants to live.

Ffs what a combo

[musicfeedsmysoul12]

Plague Rat Chapter 3

Three months later…

 “Hello and welcome to Channel Eight! I’m Erica, bringing you the news!”

 “Today we are speaking of what is now called ‘the Plague of Truth’, brought upon us by the Akuma Plague Rat.

 Due to the Akuma’s powers of infecting people with a deadly virus resembling the Black Plague but targeting liars, many secrets came about. And many consequences have occurred. The most high profile ones are the former mayor, his wife and a dozen city officials who are now closing ranks and trying to-“ Marinette turned off the TV and closed her eyes.

 After she had been purified, the girl had been horrified at her actions, feeling ill and disgusted. She had done that? She had attacked people? She had nearly…

 Luckily there was a therapist employed by the hospital that sat with her and spoke with her. He was open and honest and she had a lot off issues she usually kept locked up. 

 He helped her speak of them and confront them. Helped her understand her issues. Helped her realize how many were people putting things on her and expecting things if her when they shouldn’t. 

 She still didn’t feel okay. Knowing what she did made her feel sick, but her classmates where there. Alix spoke with her softly, the girl knowing she had killed one. Kim spoke of rewatching his actions and feeling horrified. Rose shuddered at what she had done.

 It helped. 

 More so, honestly, it helped knowing that her actions had exposed Lila and a lot of corruption. Not only had she hit the mayor, she’d hit the commissioner, Audrey, Nadja and a bunch of others. 

 Andre had been removed from office and was now facing trial for his crimes. The commissioner had been removed from office along with Roger being fired and were also facing charges. Rumors said they would probably get ten years at least.

Audrey was going away for child abuse, corruption and the abuse of her staff. She had admitted everything and Chloe had been removed from their care in a second, being placed with an aunt on the other side of Paris who hadn’t spoken to her sister in years and had never cared to. The aunt had agreed to take Chloe in but had warned the girl she would not put up with any of her actions.

 Marinette hadn’t heard anything since as Chloe had been expelled by the new principal that had replaced Damocles when the fact he was being bribed came out. Bustier had also been replaced. Marinette wasn’t sad to see them go- even if it was only recently she could go back to school after the shock to her system becoming an Akuma had been. It wrecked her metabolism again and she’d been stuck in a bed for months.

 Luckily, there was a friendly nurse around who was happy to take over for Akumas. Marinette has the best time hearing her rant about magic and how stupid it was she couldn’t tell who Ladybug was when she was in the hosptial. Often right in front of her door.

 Tikki found it hilarious to.

 But she had finally left the hospital and Tikki said she could go back to fighting, something she was glad about. She missed it, not that she’d admit it.

 But before that, there was a trial to be had.

 -0-

 “So you willingly did it-“

 “I did.” Alya interrupted the lawyer. “I willingly exposed her to sick children but that was at the urging of Lila who said she had to be lying. I believe the videos I’ve given show that.” Alya felt like a bug as everyone in the courtroom stared at her. She kept her chin up though. She would not be cowed by this lawyer Lila’s father got her. Apparently Lila’s nasty habits came from someone and that was her father. Her mother had been furious to know she was in contact with him and was not pleased by the lawyer but agreed to it.

 She didn’t want her baby in jail either.

 He was a good lawyer, knew how to come at things from all angles.

 But Alya had been Rena Rouge. The Fox Miraculous left marks deep in her soul, which made her slippery and sly. She had forgotten and gotten caught in lies herself, but she remembered now.

 And she would not yield. 

 “I wonder, if anyone actually knows that the reason she wants Marinette dead is because she called her out on her lies in college.” Snapped Alya, suddenly latching onto the thought. The lawyer blinked. “Didn’t know that? Lila is just angry that Marinette didn’t follow her around. That Marinette called her out.” The lawyer actually stepped back and turned to look at Lila who couldn’t hide her furious face fast enough. Alya smiled at her while the lawyer said he had to dismiss himself from the case now, his clients had been lying to him.

 Alya hadn’t been a good person for a while. She had followed a liar and had blinded herself to truth for a long time. But she had once been a hero, once been a good person. 

 She was going to start again.

-0-

 “So you thought it was like tabloids?” Dr. Shaw asked Adrien who sighed. 

 “Yeah I mean…” Adrien shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe if I hadn’t known the truth I’d have believed hem but when I did I saw how stupid they were and they reminded me of the tabloids. I thought they’d figure it out themselves. I didn’t think she was hurting anyone.”

 “But she did. Her actions almost caused many of them to miss out on incredibly important opportunities for their futures. It was lucky your friend Marientte managed to convince them it was a good way to show case their skills to the supposed contacts Lila had.” The doctor said and Adrien winced.

 “I… I didn’t want her Akumatized again.”

 “And yet Marientte was.” Adrien looked down. “Adrien, if I can be very blunt- you despise conflict and prefer a passive approach to it. While disliking conflict is fine, and I encourage you not to seek it out, not confronting people who you know are in the wrong isn’t always the best idea.”

 “...” Adrien didn’t want to think about it anymore. But he had to. His father had made him go to therapy and Plagg had told him it was a good idea for him to do so. He needed to get over this. “It’s easier when it’s not me.” Adrien blurted our. “Online I mean.” He quickly covered. It was easy to confront people as Chat Noir. 

 “Then pretend you’re not Adrien when you confront people.” The therapist offered and…

 That was really good advice.

Two months later…

 “Hello and welcome to the new Ladyblog!” Alya grinned on the screen Marientte was watching. “As you know due to certain circumstances I left this blog for the last few months. This is due to Lila and her actions towards my classmate and my own actions. However, this is a new start. First and foremost- this blog will now only contain facts. I have three people to check over anything I post that’s an article and needed to be researched who will do so. I spoke with Ladybug and she’s agreed to an interview with all heroes providing they agree-“ that was the only small crack, a shadow of sadness. After Miracle Queen everyone know she’d been a hero, and seeing a new fox must hurt.

 Marientte though was just amused that Alya was such a good actor. Sure she no longer used the fox but she fit the Turtle very well. And Nino was a fine Dragon, while Luka was a great Fox and Kagami was an amazing Bee.

 It hadn’t been to hard to manage to have an interview with them- though all separate. It was enough to show Paris they were human to.

 Marinette smiled,  watching as Alya continued her speech. 

 Things had changed since she’d become Plague Rat. Lila was now in jail back in Italy. Youth jail but still. She would spend two years there before being released on parole for either ten years or for the rest of her life depending on her actions. While she had lost her first lawyer they had been assigned a second one who had managed to get a psychiatrist in to look at her. 

 The man said she was either a psychopath or a sociopath. They had tried to say that meant she was allowed to be free but that was ended when the doctor pointed out she knew what she was doing was wrong. She just didn’t care. 

 She wasn’t allowed back in France and apparently other countries had also banned her. She was forever stuck in Italy.

 The former mayor was also in jail. Five years, chance of parole in two and a half, maybe less depending on behaviour. Nadja had lost custody of Manon after it got out she routinely used the girl to gather info and had put her in risk multiple times. Audrey was in jail, Roger had lost his job and was on probation. 

 Paris had experienced a revolution after Plague Rat. The new mayor was a woman who took no shit and was a hardass who was happily funding the police to find Hawkmoth, and bring him down. The new commissioner had fired all corrupt cops- Roger had been part of this sweep- and now Paris was thriving.

 Adrien as well seemed to have changed. He had formally apologized to her for his inaction and he was taking steps to be able to confront people. He’d already had a fight with his father about being a model and had leaked to the press how Gabriel treated him. Gabriel was in therapy now and Adrien had a social worker doing random checks on him. 

 “I guess even Akumatized I’m a hero.” She remarked to Tikki who chuckled. 

 “Perhaps. But I like you as you.”

 “Same.” She still has nightmares about what she’d done. She still freaked out about the hospital. Hell she was still recovering months later from the stress of being Akumatized while suffering from sickness and a horrible immune system. 

 But she was doing better. She was moving forward.

 And that was all she could do.

Tagged: @anastasian-dreamer @magicalfirebird @kibastray @thesunanditsangel @virgil-is-a-cutie @marinettepotterandplagg @heaven428 @sofmimis @so-freaking-done-with-people @moonystars14 @slytherinhquinn @spartanxhunterx