#They know enough to not disappoint Vils dad but Vil really doesn’t care enough to try and make them learn

[poisoned-pearls]

Are Viv & Emil fluent in french/german(??) I imagine they would be because Rook would be such a doting dad making sure they understand it-- but I also imagine during Rooks lessons Vil often needs to remind them to stay on task because in my mind Rook isn't necessarily easily distracted but he does get carried away easily lol also I've seen Vil knowing german but I dont know if thats canon in the game but I do know schoenheit is a german name lol

Viv and Emil are fluent in French, English (as the default universal language bc it is my first language) and Swahili actually! They’re conversational in German

I ADORE the idea that rook is half beastmen, just with dormant/non visible beast parts (fennec fox mother-) , and since he’s from the savanna, they know Swahili from the summers they’d spend with their grandparents.

Rook has spoken to them in French since they were born (like full blown French-French since they were babies. Not just like random French addins full sentences and paragraphs) so it’s just kinda apart of their lives. Emil uses a bit more random French sentences but it’s much more like mumbling under his breath. His way of coping

they both don’t normally have an accent tho. They DO however say all of the borrowed words correctly. Like lowkey pretentious dude saying “croissant” way to correct in the middle of English sentence. Rook would yell at them for saying ANY French word with an english accent. They’re HIS kids and he will be DAMNED if they ever say char-cute-er-E or cro-sant. (Those are the only example words I can think of rn)

It did take Viv and Faraja two years of knowing each other to figure out they both speak Swahili, BUT Faraja has been aware of Viv being 1/4th beastmen since their first month of school.

(Also the bang incident happened their second month of their second year. Someone had cut the front pieces of her hair shorter than the others accidentally, so in a late night haze fueled by the older ignihyde dorm leaders positive renforcement and too much class work, she cut her own bangs. She does vaguely understand how to trim her own hair, but not a big chop. Her bags end up barely being longer than an inch. So now she is HEAVILY panicking bc she was abt to get her ass chewed out by Vil bc she Had an Interview for her new album the next day. One very panicked call ever Faraja is coming over with a silk handkerchief. She folds it and uses it as a headband to pull the bangs back and hidden away. She wears a headband for the rest of the year bc her hair grows excruciatingly slowly)

[nxttheendxfthestxryarch2]

Flashback Solo Para: Fault (Ben)

“This isn’t their fault!” “No, son. It’s yours.”

It’s always his fault.

Ben knows his parents won’t approve of his decision for his first proclamation, looking out the window at the Isle during his fitting. But he thinks back to his dream, to that girl with the purple hair and... and he knows it’s the right move when he turns and addresses them.

“Mom, dad--”

“Ah, mm,” and Ben’s stopped from stepping down off the platform.

He steps back. “I’ve chosen my first official proclamation.” And I already know how you’re going to feel about it... spit it out.

“I’ve decided that the children on the Isle of the Lost be given a chance... to live here in Auradon.” And he braces himself as they all freeze, but continues, taking the opportunity of the panic to step down and motion to the window. “Every time I look out to the island, I feel like they’ve been abandoned.”

And his father pauses, slowly pointing to the Isle himself. “The children of our sworn enemies? Living among us?” The doubt written in his face is almost painful, and clearly barely masking what his father really feels-- rage. Betrayal.

Backpedaling, Ben explains, “We’d start out with... a few, at first. Only the ones who need our help the most.” He can see his mother coming around to it, which is a major relief and there’s a small smile on his face from his relief. “I’ve already chosen them.”

But then his father looks offended as he turns to him more, “Have you?”

He feels his face fall a bit as his father’s tone. That barely-masked anger is growing. But his mother reaches out and grabs his father’s arm. “I gave you a second chance.” His father does back down when Belle turns to him and asks, “Who are their parents?”

Ease them into it. “Cruella de Vil,” he takes a moment to see their faces at each one. “Jafar, Evil Queen...”

His father cocks his head. He can tell Ben’s holding it back. He straightens his shoulders, stands up for himself... “And Maleficent.”

He hardly notices the small scream, too preoccupied by his father’s snapped, “MALEFICENT?! SHE IS THE WORST VILLAIN IN THE LAND--!”

“Dad, just hear me out here--” De-escalate, bring it down, backpedal, don’t let him get upset, don’t make him doubt--

“I won’t hear of it,” Adam interrupts. “They are guilty of unspeakable crimes--”

“Dad, their children are innocent!” Ben feels himself choking up, forces back the tears rising to his face at his father’s tone, his anger... “Don’t you think they deserve a shot at a normal life?!”

He barely hears the door closing. The servants had left the room, like they always do. No one sees how they are when those doors close. “Dad...”

The silence hangs as Adam looks between his wife and son, the silent pleas for him to remain calm, to try something new evident in both of their faces. He’s outnumbered and he can clearly see it. He slowly nods. “...I suppose the children are innocent.”

But he walks away without anything else. It’s Belle who walks over, straightens his coat and squeezes his hands with a small smile, a so-soft, “Well done,” before walking out with Adam.

Ben finds himself looking back out to the Isle again, wondering what would come of this.

The proclamation is taken with... mixed reactions, he notes of the crowd. But he has some supporters. Audrey... she doesn’t say it, but he can tell she’s unsure of what to think and a little nervous. And he can say she has the right-- after all, he’d chosen the daughter of Maleficent, of everyone he could have, to be one of the first four to come. Chad follows their lead so he’s quiet about it. Doug backs him up completely, the way he always has.

Then the museum unveils a new exhibit, calling attention to the history of four particular villains, showing them at their true worst, forcing him and the citizens of Auradon to face that part of history again.

And he’s sick to his stomach when he sees the posters alone. He knows what four villains were chosen without having to go in, so he doesn’t going to a bench outside the museum and dropping into it. He’s dizzy. The heat, maybe?

Through the blur in his head, he just thinks about how the final vote on what goes into a new museum exhibit comes from the king. Adam had the final say on what was to be seen in there.

It couldn’t have been... could it?

Surely his father hadn’t...

When he splashes into the Enchanted Lake, there’s frozen moment of time where Ben registers everything that’s happened. The enchantment ebbs away and he realizes exactly what’s been done to him.

He pulls to the surface, choosing to disappear behind some rocks and process it. And for a moment, he swears he can hear his father, yelling about the crimes committed by the parents, can hear how so sure of himself his father would be about this.

And Ben loses himself in thought for a minute, picking up a crystal from the water, turning it in his hands. Was his father right all along? Had it been a mistake? Maybe he should have stayed in line, been the king his father expected--

“BEN?!”

He hears Mal’s scream and looks up, startled from his thoughts, swimming back out and seeing her struggling in the water. He swims out quickly and scoops her up, helping her back up onto the ground, sitting her down gently.

He shakes his head and hair out, and she hits his arm. “YOU SCARED ME!”

But it’s different, somehow, her screaming at him, than it ever has been when his father yells. He’s just worried about her in all of this. “Y-you can’t swim?!”

“NO!”

He’s taken aback. “You live on an island!”

“Yeah, with a barrier around it, remember?!”

...she has a point. He watches her shaking off the water with a groan, cocking his head slightly, softening up. “And you still tried to save me.”

Because... she’d spelled him, hadn’t she? He wasn’t anything to her. She shouldn’t have even cared enough to bother. And yet... she did.

Maybe he was more on-track than his father gave him credit for.

She laughs sarcastically. “Yeah. And do you thank me? No! All I get is soaking wet!”

He jumps a bit, remembering he’s still holding the crystal. “And, uh... this... fancy rock?” As she snatches it, still looking highly offended, he decides to make up a reason to give it to her on the spot. “It’s yours. Make a wish and throw it back in the lake.” He offers her an awkward smile that he prays she doesn’t see through.

She throws it back in the lake right beside him and gets up. He climbs up with her and follows after her, pulling his jacket around her shoulders to help warm her up and dry her off a bit.

When she sits down at their picnic again, he dries his face and hair a bit before dropping down his towel and sitting with her, playing softly with her hair, looking at her, trying to look into her eyes a bit. Trying to see what’s really going on there, not sure if he can discern any of it.

She’s upset, but... her anger isn’t a familiar one, not to him. There’s something else to it, something sweeter, and he wonders...

“Uh, Mal?” He summons all his courage, somehow feeling stranger about this than he ever did about telling his father anything. He was terrified, but... not in a bad way. Not this time. “I told you that I loved you...” He holds her gaze softly for a moment, “But what about you?” Spit it out. “Do you love me?”

And she doesn’t break eye contact, not completely, as she holds his gaze for a long minute. And he knows. Even as she looks down, looks away and answers with that shrug, “I don’t know what love feels like.”

So he gently reaches out, resting a finger softly under her chin, rubbing her cheek with his thumb as he turns her back to him. “Maybe I can teach you.”

And he’s never felt more certain of anything until this, this moment, no matter what his father has to say.

When the fight breaks out, Ben freezes. So much yelling, so much is happening all at once and-- and then his father says it.

“I knew something like this would happen,” Adam’s saying, his disappointment, his disapproval painfully evident.

“Dad, this isn’t their fault!”

“No, son. It’s yours,” his father answers, pulling Belle along away from the courtyard.

“Mom,” Ben says, but she leaves with him, and Ben’s crushed by his doubts again. Nobody in Auradon wanted the four of them here, nobody saw them the way he did anymore.

Even Doug backed down from supporting them. And... he doesn’t blame the other. He’s known Doug all their lives, knows how painful it’s been for him to not be accepted by the others. What hurts him is Chad, and Audrey. The bond they’d had as kids was long severed.

He didn’t know if it could be fixed, or if he wanted it to be fixed.

He tries his best to talk to them, but they don’t want to hear it from him, and he knows it. All his fault.

Always all his fault.

It’s not Mal who grabs the wand at his coronation.

It’s all he can think about in the moment, with everything happening. It’s not Mal, it’s Jane, and he doesn’t even know what’s going through her head but it’s not Mal--

Mal wrestles it away from Jane, though... and freezes. He looks at her and he can read the look on her face. He gets between her and his parents. “Mal... give me the wand.”

“Stand back,” she says, but he can tell how hard she’s trying to convince herself of what she’s saying.

He pays attention to nothing else, not hearing the doors open or seeing the other three running to join her. “It’s okay--”

“Ben, I said stand back!” She interrupts him.

Audrey says something. He barely even registers who’s speaking. His attention is focused entirely on Mal. Carlos and Jay speak, too, but he doesn’t acknowledge them either.

“You really wanna do this?” He keeps himself set, braces himself against his own fear, trusting his instincts. She doesn’t sound sold on it and he knows it.

“WE HAVE NO CHOICE, BEN,” Mal answers, and there it is. He knew it. She didn’t say yes. She didn’t answer his question directly. That was his in. He was right. He’d been right all along. “Our parents--”

“Your parents made their choice,” he interrupts, standing up for her, for what he knows is there in her, shaking his head and lowering his arms, straightening his shoulders. “Now you make yours.”

He holds her gaze, in spite of her obvious fears, in spite of everything in the room. Watches her glance around them, behind him. She barely answers him, but while the rest of the coronation doesn’t hear it... he does. And he relaxes at the words, “I think I wanna be good.”

“You are good,” he meets, maybe the wrong move.

“How do you know that?!”

“Because...” And his father’s not going to like this answer but he does not care, “Because I’m listening to my heart.”

His undivided attention stays on Mal, watching her breathe, calm down. “I wanna listen to my heart, too.” She meets his eyes again and he smiles, taking deep breaths himself, watching her. She lowers the wand as she turns back to her friends and addresses them instead. He looks up when she says, “I wanna go to school... and be with Ben.”

His heart freezes for a moment, as she turns back to him, holding up her hand with his ring on her finger still and continues, “Because Ben makes me really happy.”

He manages to breathe, watching her turn back to her friends again, but smiling to himself.

He’d been right. He knew it, deep down, in spite of what his father had put him through. And... somehow, he gets the feeling Adam sees it too.

Maybe he had a lot to learn, but maybe, just maybe, Adam could figure it out.

The one thing Ben knew was... Mal made him less afraid to stand up to his father.

He had to trust that.