#i was reading something aloud in english and then switched languages too fast for my brain to keep up

[trajektoria]

do you sometimes accidentally say a word in your native language with american accent and feel like a moron

[anime-academix]

Dating Mexican Reader

Headcanon

Characters: Midoriya, Bakugo, Todoroki, Kirishima, Aizawa, Shigaraki, Dabi

Warnings: minor swearing, minor nsfw (it’s extremely brief, you’ll see it if you squint)

Requested by: @peachyhonxeey​ Thank you for your request! :)

A/N: I’m so sorry, I took so long to post this! 😭 But I hope you all like it! I will admit, my knowledge on Mexican culture is limited...so I asked a few friends more knowledgeable in that area for some help! So, if there are any spelling/pronunciation/translation errors, I apologise in advance! But, I hope you guys enjoy reading this! I will definitely be going back in and doing some much needed revising though lol and then maybe a part 2!

Midoriya

Shy when it comes to dating outside of his race, but claims he’s the luckiest person in the world once he’s with you.

ALWAYS asking questions about your family, culture, and even the language.

Writes down all of your answers.

Actually enrolled himself in a Spanish class so he could surprise you with what he’s been learning.

If Japanese isn't your first language, he will offer to help you with your Japanese.

The two of you end up spending hours just teaching each other phrase in your native languages.

During times like these, this boy is so madly in love with you, just observing the way you are, the way you’re just existing.

Wants to meet your family and will even ask how he can please your family members.

Listens to you in awe when you converse with your family in your native language.

Will try and repeat some of the words/phrases he hears you use to himself.

Once you’re done talking to your family, he’ll ask you how to pronounce a word he heard you say or what a phrase means.

Will ask you about how Japanese culture is different from your own culture.

When it comes to PDA, Izuku is EXTREMELY shy and gets flustered so easily.

He’s shock when he finds out that you’re culture is significantly different than Japanese culture.

Especially when it comes to PDA.

In public, as far as the two of you go are hugs, hand holding and cheek kisses.

Most times you initiate it, but after a while, he begins initiating it on his own.

He’s always sending you recipes he comes across and asks if you two could make it together on the weekend.

You’ll have conversations concerning your own experiences with racial discrimination.

Will almost always start crying.

Hugs you tight and reassures you that you and everything about you is beautiful.

Bakugo

He is so fascinated by you and your culture, but he won’t ever say it aloud.

You’ll see his fascination through little things:

Started eating Mexican food, even when the two of you were just friends to understand you a bit more.

Even learning words, phrases, and slang words in Spanish when he could.

He absolutely loves it when you switch to speaking your native tongue.

Especially when you guys get into an argument, he’s left speechless because you’ll curse at him in Spanish but he has NO idea all of what you’re saying.

“Excuse me? ¡Siempre haces esto! Te voy a romper la cara con mis puñetazos. No me jodas. Ugh! Vete a la mierda, pendejo. Eres tan jodidamente molesto.”

“W-what...what the hell did you just say to me?!”

You can honestly out argue him.

Will almost always lose the argument because he wouldn’t know how to reply.

Honestly would think it’s really hot and badass that you switch languages when you’re upset.

Usually won’t be the first to apologise directly, but after giving you space to calm down, he usually starts by calling you ‘Mi Amor’ or ‘Princesa’.

His pronunciation is actually so on point.

He’ll act as though he’s indifferent but he LOVES Mexican food.

On RARE occasions, he will even attempt to make a simple Mexican recipe to impress you.

He’s actually so good at cooking and when you praise him, he’ll say:

“Tch. Don’t make a big deal about it; it wasn’t that hard.”

Was actually hella nervous that he would do it wrong and you wouldn't like it.

Blushes HARD, but will pretend like its nothing when you praise his cooking.

During late night talks, usually with you laying on top of him, his arms wrapped around you and he’ll ask you if you feel comfortable in Japan.

Then will eventually ask if you’re comfortable with him.

Todoroki

Is 100% nervous to date outside of his race, or anyone for that matter.

So, once the two of you start dating, he is very attentive and takes the relationship seriously.

Very traditional when it comes to dating, but at the same time extremely shy.

Especially when it comes to PDA.

If we’re being honest, he’s really awkward when it comes to being around you, so it’s hard for him to express affection and his emotions directly.

So majority of the time, you’re instigating hand holding, hugs, and eventually kissing a lot of the time.

Expresses his love and affection for you through other ways.

He will take so much of his time reading about Mexican culture, the languages, and will even learn your native language to converse with you at times.

Constantly asking you random and unexpected questions about yourself and background.

Most of the time, he won’t give an explanation or context for the question.

Over time, he becomes more comfortable with affection and will start making the first move, such as: cheek and hand kissing and hugs.

When he’s around his friends, he usually sticks to hugging because this boy is honestly so awkward.

Whenever the two of you are in public, he prefers to always be holding your hand.

Some times he’ll have two of his fingers wrapped around yours.

He finds it so interesting when you speak in your native language whether you’re talking to family/friends or talking to yourself.

When you guys have an argument, it definitely would be over something serious.

Todoroki tries to remain calm whenever the two of you do fight, which usually resolves the argument as quick as it started.

But on rare occasions, during an argument he’s caught off guard when you switch to your native language when you’re upset/frustrated.

He’ll understand even more that when you switch to your native tongue, you’re extremely upset about whatever the two of you are arguing about.

Even then, he usually doesn’t argue back and will let you get out all of your feelings until you’ve calmed down.

If he thinks the two of you need some space, he’ll leave for an hour or so and then come back so the two of you can talk.

Regardless of whoever started the argument, he’s almost always the first to apologize, which usually results in the both of you apologizing at the same time.

Kirishima

In all honesty, the two of you just clicked instantly.

Picks up on your native language incredibly fast.

The two of you can hold entire conversations in Spanish.

Confuses the others because they have no idea what you’re talking about.

As if Kirishima wasn’t already romantic enough, once he starts learning more about your culture, his art in the romantics sky rocket.

Like this boy will tell you pick up lines in Spanish with a smirk on his face in front of your friends.

Will even ask if you can teach him any Mexican dances that you know.

When/if you do, he won’t stop practicing that dance(s) and he gets INTO it, emotions and all.

But honestly, the two of you are always dancing, especially when you’re alone together.

Kirishima doesn’t care about what others think, so therefore, he has no problem showing you off in public.

He will almost always initiate PDA and it doesn’t even bother him if other people think it’s weird.

Your family absolutely loves him, he honestly fits right in quite well when he meets your family.

Has at least a question every day about your culture and/or family.

Aizawa (slight NSFW towards the end)

Same with Kirishima, he has no problem showing you off.

LOVES listening to you speak in your native tongue.

But also loves hearing you talk about your culture and family.

Though he’s very educated on Mexican culture, he also learns alot from you--more intimate and personal details.

Aizawa knows a good amount of Spanish, but is kind of shy when it comes to responding back in Spanish because he’s self conscious when it comes to pronunciation.

His pronunciation is actually really good, but he doesn’t seem to think so.

You lowkey love when he speaks in your native language.

At times, when you ask him a question in Spanish, he will answer in Japanese and/or English.

Whenever you guys argue, you tend to switch back to your native tongue especially when you’re angry/upset.

He actually knows exactly what you’re saying, but usually won’t say anything.

Wants to let you scream out your anger/frustration as effectively as you can.

BUT NOW HEAR ME OUT, Aizawa WILL speak Spanish but only on rare occasions, like really rare.

Happens mostly on late nights when the two of you are cuddling that he’ll call you Mi Amor while holding you in his arms.

The other times he speaks Spanish to you are the nights when you two are doing the deed, he will whisper dirty things in your ear because he knows that it will turn you on instantly.

His deep voice + Spanish = ⚰️

He’s extremely protective of you.

Whenever the two of you are out in public, tends to hold you close to him by your waist.

Shigaraki

He may act like he’s all big and bad, but he becomes so shy whenever the two of you are alone.

Though you’re immune to his quirk, he’s always scared that one day he’ll touch you and you’re going to decay in his hands.

Because he’s always thinking that, you’re the one to take his hand and remind him that you’re not going anywhere

When you’re around the other League members and he’s acting out, you’ll put that boy back in line.

You’re honestly the only person that can keep him calm the most effectively.

Kurogiri is so lucky to have you, because he knows Shigaraki will listen to you.

Becomes a huge softie when you speak in your native tongue around him

Very interested in your culture and background.

He’s extremely shy when it comes to him asking you questions about your culture.

If he feels too embarrassed to ask you a question, he’ll spend a good amount of time researching the topic and he will inform you in hopes of impressing you.

Loves to see the happy look on your face when he tells you what he’s learned.

He may be a soft, pouty baby when it comes to you, but if anyone even dares to disrespect you, he will dust them in a second.

Will occasionally ask if you’re comfortable being with him or if you’d rather be at home.

He’d become flustered asf when you tell him that he is your home.

Spends hours cuddling and talking about everything and nothing.

Okay okay okay, one night he will ask you if you can give him a nickname in Spanish.

When he asks you that, he’s blushing like CRAZY.

Dabi (slight NSFW)

Okay, if we’re being honest, he honestly was the one to make the first move when he saw you.

Jokingly says dating you was a bad idea, but doesn’t regret meeting you at all .

Dabi won’t ever admit it, but he is SO in love with you, even if he tells you you’re a pain in the ass.

Whenever he gets an attitude, you have no problem reminding him of his place.

“What are you gonna do? Kick my ass? Doll, I’m not scared of you.”

“I don’t know who the fuck you think you talking to, but it ain’t me. So, you better watch yourself before I knock you out into next week.”

He’s almost always caught off guard with how fast you snap back.

When the two of you argue, he tends to lose the argument because at some point when your anger/annoyance heightens, you’ll start swearing at him in Spanish.

He’ll just stand there smirking at you while you’re just full of frustration.

Finds it so hot when you switch back to your native language.

Asks you so many times to speak in Spanish to him.

Knows a generous amount of phrases and words native to your culture.

Okay, I will tell you, it turns him on so much if you talk dirty to him in Spanish--it’s definitely one of his weaknesses.

Has no problem asking you questions about your culture.

Loves hearing you talk about your stories about your home, background and even family.

Though he’s a little rough around the edges, Dabi is EXTREMELY protective and especially observant when it comes to you.

Whenever the two of you are in public, he always has his arm around your shoulders or waist.

Dabi doesn’t care too much for PDA, but if he notices someone staring at you, he’ll glare at the person before kissing your lips then your down your neck.

[rigelmejo]

Unrelated completely, regarding listening reading method:

I am genuinely so excited to test the listening reading method out wholeheartedly. When I looked up the method, few people were trying it with Chinese, and of the people I saw a lot were beginners with less vocabulary than I have which I think both made the task harder for them and made their progress look different than I imagine mine will.

For example, in my first attempts using listening reading method, I noticed I picked up a TON of words I could already read, and a TON of phrases I could already read but didn’t properly “chunk” until I heard them aloud. Whereas the beginners tended to document picking up entirely new words, and not understanding much of any paragraph for the first several chapters. Whereas again, because I had more vocabulary, my first chapters I listening reading method did I heard a TON of individual words/followed the main gist, and it took several chapters for me to start finally understanding full phrase chunks and sentence chunks together. I 100% think the listening reading method can work with mandarin, I just think since few people have tried it and shared the experience, I’m going to find out how much it can improve someone’s mandarin myself...

I saw people who did listening reading method with german, and Dutch, who like the creator of the method ended up going from 0 to B1-B2 listening and sometimes-reading* skill in 3-5 months (reading skill tended to depend on how much they focused on the actual text during target language audio/target language text portion). The people with the most success usually already had a foundation of several hundred or a couple thousand common words, and had seen some grammar summarized beforehand (both of which I have already done with mandarin). I’m extremely curious how far the listening reading method can take my reading skills specifically - since the method mainly improves listening, and reading is simply affected a bit as a consequence of picking up new words/reading target language text along with the audio during one of the steps. With Chinese I suspect I’ll have to do more Hanzi learning, and reading-only work like intensive reading, to supplement my reading skills. However I already do a lot of intensive reading, so maybe that will keep the skills relatively even.

I do know that only couple dozen hours of listening reading method already boosted my listening skills a TON. So listening reading method definitely improves listening skills, as it is intended to. The actual method suggests learners listen read through an entire novel in a week or two, then do another novel etc, at least 3 novels though potentially more - and redoing some novels again from the start if desired. For my kind of novels - like Guardian by Priest, that means 106+ chapters, 800+ pages, 30 minutes audio a chapter (53 hours for the English text-chinese audio portion, another 53 hours for the Chinese text-chinese audio portion, and lets say half as many hours to read it in English 26.5 hours). So that is 132.5+ hours to listen read to Guardian. The listening reading method assumes you do a few books, so let’s say around 3 books, 396 hours (roughly 400 hours). Well... no wonder people saw such improvements! 400 hours of listening to comprehensible input in a European language will get an English speaker quite far into learning. Most European languages according to FSI take around 600-750 hours for an English native speaker to learn. Listening reading method would fill a huge chunk of those hours, and if you focus on the reading portion too, then that should definitely at least be a solid foundation into B1 I can imagine.

Listening reading methods creator also tends to do these in 6-12 hour reading bursts per day - which I absolutely never do because I’m lazy and unable to focus on things for too long usually without switching things up. But like I’ve mentioned, even me just doing maybe 12 hours of listening reading method so far, in small 30 minute to 2 hour chunks, has been enough to make noticeable improvement in my listening comprehension. If someone is already intermediate and just wants to improve their listening skill, I think they’d see fast results like I have regarding their listening skill dragging up closer to their reading skill level.

When I read the listening reading method creators website, they sounded like 10 hours was about how long it took (for beginners in a language) to start parsing individual words and recognizing them, 30 hours to start hearing word chunks and phrases they could understand, and 60-100 hours to start comprehending a majority of the words.

I am therefore very curious what my rate of improvement will be. I do feel chinese study using the listening reading method at least for listening skills will see similar levels of improvement. I’m wondering if my listening skills will improve a bit faster, since I’m already past the “progress at 30 hours” mark expectations wise - I can hear many individual words, can hear many sentence chunks/phrases, and just struggle to follow some full sentences and catch brand new words until I’ve heard them several times. I do very much want to completely go through Guardian with this method - for many reasons lol. 1. Because I’ve been wanting to read it in english and I’ll have a chance to use that for study which is cool, 2. Because I’ve been wanting to read it in chinese and this makes it doable/more comprehensible for my current skill level (aka following along to the audiobook I will read at a less slow pace/comprehend more since the English will be fresh in my mind, compared to if I just read it extensively on its own), 3. Avenuex made a beautiful audiobook I adore and I’ll have an excuse to listen to it while actually comprehending everything since I’ll have the English and Chinese novel to look at while o read! So... once I’m through Guardian, I’ll be able to answer for myself what over 100 hours of progress doing the listening reading method produce, how well it works when using a book with a more complicated/high vocab style - which is sort of priest, reading challenge wise, and the kind of novel the listening reading method creator recommends using. Also, I’ll have read Guardian! ovo)/ and I will have read a full priest novel, so I’ll have picked up words by my favorite author that will hopefully make other priest novels easier to read (the same reason Tian Ya Ke may be helpful).

—��—-

Another thing people who have tried the listening reading method suggest doing first (particularly if studying a language much different than your native language, but for any language tbh). The creator of the method suggested: knowing a few hundred to a few thousand common words, and having looked at a grammar guide or overview prior. That’s something anyone who’s already a bit of a beginner, to low intermediate, probably has done or is doing. In addition, some people who have done this method suggested using something like sentence audio flashcards (in English and target language audio) and listening to them a few times, repeating them, until one felt comfortable with them. Generally common word/grammar ones, and you could do “listening reading” with those sentences too (reading them while listening to the audio). This would serve as a primer to learn the basics comfortably before going into listening reading novels. They suggested doing yjis would make the method work better - they got to B2 in Dutch in a handful of months of intensive listening reading by doing this beforehand and they think it helped a lot. While I think it’s not necessary, I do think of listening reading is hard, then getting a basis beforehand as a beginner and/or covering a easier basics common language material first will help. I use the Chinese SpoonFed Audio files which basically amounts to the same thing but no reading (if I used the flashcards still, it would include reading). So I do have some sentences/phrases/words I have a good listening foundation for already. Also, as mentioned, I do read, so for many common words and Hanzi I already can read them. I do think this advice is very good for beginners though, if they want to see noticable results sooner (versus 30-50 hours into listening reading before they start learning significant amounts - basically it just means they’d do 30-50 hours prestudy instead of basic common words/grammar, to make the listening reading initially less difficult). A total beginner could dive right into listening reading (just like my chaotic self first started to try to read Chinese knowing 500 words and brute forcing mdzs and guardian a few paragraphs at a time), it just means it’ll feel more difficult at first for a while, and they’ll be mostly learning basics for a while first before they build enough of a basis to comprehend more. Which is fine. It all just comes down to how much incompréhensibilty can you personally tolerate without giving up. The creator of the method? Can tolerate a TON. Me? I can tolerate a brutally large amount, surprisingly, but usually I need to comprehend had least the main idea and that’s a minimum of like 40-60% depending on which parts I’m comprehending. Most people will feel it’s unbearable until they can comprehend at least 80-90% (and I certainly PREFER material I comprehend that much of). And most people ideally are comfortable once they understand 95-98% (think reading a book in your native language with some unknown words you can figure out easily from context, or graded readers made to feel this easy with around this many unknown words for you to figure out in context, or maybe manhua/manga/comics once you’re a pretty decent intemediate level in a language etc).

[hero-philia]

One out of Twenty

This is my present for @new-noveltea​, who was assigned to me as part of the BNHA Spring Time Event (@bnhaclaimedmysoul​) - Because she doesn’t ship herself with someone, I decided to go for a platonic story! I hope that you like it, Ash (^o^)

Summary: First days are hard, especially if you don't understand a word of what’s going on around you. But the enterity of class A is here to help you out! (English dialogue is written normally, Japanese dialogue in italic)

Words: 2856

On this particular morning you found yourself following a man that you had only heard of before. Completely dressed in black he didn’t seem like the most heroic guy, but people throughout the country called him such. Admittedly, it hadn’t been too easy for you to follow the news reports on TV, which featured a pretty fast spoken Japanese - A language that wasn’t yours in the first place.

The steps echoed through the empty hallway, where normally dozens of students were gathering. But the bell had sent them into their classrooms a few minutes ago when you had been waiting in the teachers’ lounge to make a fool of yourself in front of everyone. 

You gulped in order to suppress the memory how you had forgotten half of your introduction speech and had switched to English instead, even if you had known that most of your audience wasn’t able to understand you that way. At least you had earned quite some chuckles as you had changed the language in the middle of saying that your Japanese basically sucked, but that you were capable of speaking English.

For now you didn’t have to talk to anyone since the man in black didn’t seem to be interested in a conversation with you. He had simply advised you to follow him after the glorious embarrassment that many high ranked heroes had witnessed. What a good start.

Wherever the two of you were headed, you could just assume that it was your classroom. A room filled with strangers was waiting for you, maybe expecting you to come. Who knew what they had been told in advance. You didn’t know anything for sure at that point.

Nevertheless you hoped that you would be able to sit down again soon as sleep-deprivation was getting the best of you. The adrenaline in your body kept you awake and functioning, but your eyes started to feel heavy. Probably it hadn’t been the best idea to send you to school two days after your arrival in a completely different country with a new time zone. Last night the jet lag had robbed you of many hours of sleep, leaving you running on three - not consecutive - hours of rest. 

On a Monday. At eight in the morning. Definitely not the ideal combination.

Your teacher didn’t leave a lot of space for thinking when he stopped next to a gigantic door. For a second you fought the huge to look up in shock until it opened with ease. Once it had swung open, you caught the first glimpse of your new classmates. 

With the backpack on your shoulders you straightened your back and put on a smile before stepping in. Nineteen pairs of eyes followed the movements of their teacher, though many scanned you as soon as they had noticed your figure. Except for a pretty grumpy looking blonde in the second row and a another boy, whose red and white hair got your attention, with absolutely no expression on his face, everyone seemed like they wanted to ask questions about your presence.

Without caring about the reaction your teacher walked to his desk only to sigh loudly. He went on with a monologue that you didn’t understand at all. The words he mumbled didn’t match any of the vocabulary you had learnt as preparation for your stay. Your thumbs started to twist around each other while you tried to translate at least one sentence.

To absolutely no avail you listened to the short speech, focused to not show your struggles openly. Finally a word came up that you had heard before - ryuugakusei. You celebrated the achievement with a growing smile, which wanted to disappeared when it hit you what that meant. Ryuugakusei happened to be translated as exchange student. It was your turn to speak again.

„Introduction, please,“ the man in the front announced in English with a look in your direction. 

For some reason a boy with curly green hair gasped aloud to hurriedly open his notebook and stare at you with curious eyes. His hand practically ready to write in the speed of light. As no one said something about it, you tried to refocus on the task.

The words of your Japanese introduction, that you had carefully constructed with the help of four online translators last night, deleted themselves for the second time today. Failing at the teachers’ lounge was one thing, but not being able to introduce yourself in front of your own class was something you didn’t want to risk.

So screw the rules!

You pulled out your phone from the pocket in your skirt - god bless whoever made that decision - and opened the notes with your sentences. Before anyone would even have the time to stop you, you began to read them out loud. Saying your name, your age, where you were from and many details more.

„I will stay for the entirety of your second year. Let’s do our best together!“ You concluded in the end. 

Of course you took a short bow while your classmate gave you a round of applause for whatever motivation. Probably to praise your bravery, because your grammar and pronunciation must have been off completely. Then your teacher allowed you to sit down at the empty seat behind the green-haired boy. 

The following lesson progressed pretty much as you had expected it to. Not that you understood what it was about, though you could finally switch off your brain for a few minutes and silently take a breath. 

Shortly after, the bell sent you back into attention mode. You watched how everyone got up, went to the wall to your left, grabbed a box with a number and aimed for the door. While you were pretty much busy with trying to figure out what was going on, someone placed their hand on your shoulder. A girl with dark hair in a ponytail stepped into your sight.

„My name is Yaoyorozu Momo and I’m one of two class presidents. Our next lesson is quirk training at the gym, so just follow me. Your costume is waiting there as well,“ she said in a soft voice. 

„Your English is really good,“ you blurted out in surprise. „Thanks for telling me! I’ll be in your care, then.“

On your way to the gym the hallways were filled with students that were also changing their rooms right now. Even though the floor had looked kind of pretty in its empty state, seeing it being crowded gave it the impression of actually being in a school. No matter how many people you passed, most of them still stared at you. 

„They are excited to see a foreigner here. In Japan we aren’t used to being around people from Europe or America, that makes you really special,“ Momo explained with a giggle.

Her explanation made sense, yet you wondered why they were more excited to be faced with a foreigner than your classmates with quirks that affected their appearance. You literally had a boy with tentacles and a person with a bird head in your class. Having such a quirk was seemingly more common than being a foreigner, you thought. 

This whole center of attention thing went on in the locker room where you got reunited with your hero costume. A while ago you had handed it to an official of the exchange program at your home school and never saw it again. Until now. 

„You look really cool! I’m Ashido Mina. Call me Mina,“ a girl with pink skin commented. Her English pronunciation wasn’t the greatest, but it was easy to understand her name. Finally someone that you could actually call by name. 

Thanks to her a huge round of introductions started with the girls. At the end you knew like three names for sure, half of them to a certain extent and the rest was forgotten. 

Unfortunately the lesson itself asked even more of your brain since every student was asked to demonstrate his or her quirk. From what you could tell, some of them had arranged complete shows to present their abilities. Only you were attending without a certain plan, but the teacher hadn’t chosen the water area of the USJ for nothing. 

The blonde boy set off various explosions while yelling like crazy, a red-head didn’t even flinch when his hardened skin collided with the fire, another boy with black hair escaped the water last minute before a second blonde electrified the whole artificial lake. Last but not least Mina improvised a dance with elements of her acid simply consuming the ice that the boy with the scar and the resting bitch face had created.

„Okay, you are next,“ Momo made sure to let you know. 

When you stepped out of the group of students, you swore that the boy, who had been called ‚Deku‘ by the angry fire guy multiple times, intently wanted to pull out his notebook that obviously wasn’t there because he was wearing his hero costume. 

You bowed a little in front of your classmates to get their attention, „Please watch me!“

These very few Japanese words were certainly enough to do so, which made you feel their glances while you were walking up to the water. Your movements made the skirt part of your dress jump a little, but you didn’t have to worry about showing too much skin thanks to the pair of black shorts underneath.

„Our little exchange student knows what a lake is, doesn’t she? Can’t wait to see her face when she finds out that the water is not carrying her,“ Bakugou joked with crossed arms. For him and all the others it looked like you were headed for a dive. 

Instead of stopping at the sandy area, you continued to walk even after your shoes had touched the water. Like walking on normal ground you went on as if nothing had changed, causing the first mumbles of your classmates. 

In the middle of the lake you stood still, not moving at all. Everything you did was to focus on the water and the energy inside of your body as you took deep, yet calm breaths through your nose. Even your eyes were closed. From their perspective it looked like you had no idea what to do now that you had made it there. But then you opened your eyes, unknown to them.

Out of nowhere a huge wave surrounded you while it pushed itself towards the coast into all directions with your position being the center. Your classmates only gasped at the growing wall of water that was making its way into their direction. They lost sight of you when you disappeared behind the water. 

Preparing themselves to go into defensive mode, they didn’t know what was going on or what your intentions were. Soon enough you broke through the surface from behind, again using the water like normal ground and simply touching the monstrous wave with your index finger. 

As it had never existed, the wave got smaller within seconds. In the blink of an eye the lake returned to its not harmful state. 

„SHE DIDN’T EVEN GET WET!“ Mina cheered at the realisation that you had bursted through water, stopped a gigantic tsunami and walked on water without the tiniest sign of a water stain on your clothes or hair. 

An absolutely strange battle broke out when half of your class gathered around you during a heated conversation with each other. At some point you were sure that you understood the word quirk, but that was as much as you were able to translate again. So you tried to not look too confused once your mind wanted to convince you that you had heard ‚lunch‘ somewhere in between. Too many voices to keep track of asked you things that you didn’t even understand.

„Everyone! Back in line! This behaviour is inappropriate for future heroes. Just imagine how our new classmate must feel in a situation like this!“ The main class president interrupted the chaos, at least that was what you remembered from Momo. 

„But we want to talk to her!“ A third blonde boy exclaimed directly next to you, shooting a wink of glitter at you.

„Right, we need to talk to her!“ This time it was Mina that spoke, or rather yelled.

„You just want to have her all for yourself!“ Somehow this statement from the electricity dude shut up everyone, except for the class president that suddenly sounded like he was defending himself from accusations. 

Even after a few minutes had passed nothing really changed. You were still standing in the middle of people that were arguing with each other, especially since the teacher had ended the lesson. And you hadn’t gotten closer to finding out what the whole issue was about until Momo finally decided to help you out.

„They are fighting because all of them want you to join them at lunch. Welcome to the chaos that is called class 2-A.“

So they did what every aspiring hero with pride would do to solve such a problem - A representative of each squad had to participate in a battle of rock, paper, scissors. 

Several disappointed grumbles and screams of victory later Mina pointed her hand towards the ceiling: „I WON! SHE WILL EAT WITH US! THE ONE AND ONLY BAKUSQUAD!“

Everyone went back to their own squads, which made you realise that your translator wouldn’t be around during lunch. She had offered to come along, but Mina and three boys had told her that they would be fine. In the meantime you questioned at least Mina’s English skills when you got changed again.

In her excitement the pink girl practically dragged you back to the classroom where you grabbed your lunch and were then pulled to a place outside the building. Early in the morning it had been too cold to go out without a jacket, but now the warm sun of spring warmed your skin. 

It didn’t need any words to express your awe once you got to see the meeting place of the BakuSquad: A gigantic tree that blossomed in a corner of the yard. 

Wherever you looked at the ground, it was covered in white to pinkish petals from the tree and this way it wasn’t a big surprise that you had some of them on your head only a few moments after your arrival. The boys were already waving at the two of you arriving, except for the explosion boy as you had named him for now.

You sat down on one of the wooden benches that were standing around the tree, allowing you to sit close to the others but not too close to feel cramped. The first thing you did was to explain your quirk without words because your Japanese wasn’t good enough. 

Four of them widened their eyes at the sight of the water from your bottle hovering in the air above the ground. There you parted them into to two floating bubbles with only the movements of a finger to show what you could do. One bubble froze to ice, the other began to boil from the increasing heat you were providing, yet again with nothing more than a gesture. 

„But I can’t undo it, if I change their form. Now I’ll have to wait for the water to cool to drink it and I’ll use the frozen part as ice cubes to fasten the process,“ you admitted. 

You were met with questioning eyes that were exchanging glimpses with each other like they were trying to communicate. Just like that your smile turned into a rather insecure smirk.

„Idiots, she said she can’t undo it,“ a different voice grumbled. „And you definitely need to learn more Japanese to not fall behind in the future!“

It caught you quite off-guard that the explosion boy out of all people was able to speak English on such a high level. His scolding left you speechless for a moment and it stayed like this long enough for the others to regain their voice.

„Ooooh, Bakubro, what would we do without you?“ The boy with black hair said dramatically with the back of his hand touching his forehead as he leaned back a little. Not to be forgotten should be his very broken English and heavy accent, which he maybe did on purpose.

„We really love youuuuuuuu,“ the red-head followed suit.

All four of them launched themselves at the grumpy blonde at the same time, making him fall over in the process as he cussed words that no one would voluntarily translate. His friends didn’t get demotivated from his reaction and continued to hug him until he was about to use his quirk out of mere revolution purposes.

But they all turned around to look at you when you bent over laughing at the sight of them. Soon enough they giggled along, except for the explosion boy of course. Though even he had to admit that he had to suppress a chuckle. 

Welcome to the chaos that is called class 2-A!

-----

Posted: April 28th 2020 | Requests: Open | Match-ups: Closed

[matcha-chocolate]

looee tooshay

@samwichwilson - sambucky headcanon: him touch penis Honestly, you’re the worst person i’ve ever met -------------- Sam didn’t care what Steve said about Bucky having been a suave ladykiller* in the past; the man was terrible at flirting.  *considering recent events, perhaps that word ought not be used to describe an ex-assassin He didn’t even have the ‘sullen, scowling bad boy with a sad past’ thing going any more. No, he’d found himself in the modern world, all right. He was a fucking dork. “Sam, what happened to the Spice Girls?” Sam concentrated really hard on his Cinnamon Toast Crunch. He had a few choice words for whoever it was that introduced Steve to sugary breakfast cereals, because it was all the man ever bought now.  “Sam.” Sam was deeply engrossed in how loudly he could chew until Barnes’ voice was drowned out. So far, no such luck. “Sam.”

“What what what what, Barnes, what?” Sam grit out, finally looking up. He was sleep-rumpled, his face still creased from his pillow and his mouth twisted into an unhappy sort of semi-pout. It was 4am (too early), it was overcast (pressure headache), and most importantly, it was Saturday (Sam’s day off.) “What happened to the Spice Girls?” Bucky repeated, reaching over Sam to grab the tub of cream cheese instead of asking like a polite, well-mannered human being. “Uuuuggggh,” Sam replied, his groggy irritability taking over for a second. Then he heaved a sigh. Barnes had stayed up all night because of... well, who knows, the guy was clearly wired in that ‘48 hours without sleep and I feel great!’ kind of way. He was just trying to make conversation with Sam. “They broke up? I think? Or-- wait, there was some kinda reunion thing? My sister lost her damn mind over it.” “Aww, hell, did they really break up?” Bucky asked, looking despondent as he slathered an upsetting amount of cream cheese onto his bagel. “Think so, man. Sorry.” “Damn.” Bucky paused, and then perked up again. “Wanna watch their videos on YouToo?” “Youwhat?” “Y’know. YouToo! Videos, and ... well, just videos.” “YouTube, Barnes. Tube.” “What th’ hell’s it called that? YouToo makes sense, like... I’m watchin’ a video, and you too.” “Barnes, shut the...” Sam trailed off, idly sucking the last of the overly sweet cereal milk off his spoon. (He didn’t notice Bucky ardently watching him.) “You know, I don’t know why it’s called YouTube? Maybe something to do with TV or...” And that’s how they spent 10 minutes Googling the history of YouTube, and almost 2 hours watching Spice Girls videos (Bucky fell asleep about 40 minutes in, slumped heavily against Sam. Sam allowed it; the guy seemed exhausted.)

“What, like a learning exchange?” Sam asked, his eyebrows raised. It was the next Saturday, this time 5am, and he’d found Bucky wide awake again. “Well, I dunno. I guess. I ask you bout lotsa stuff, and I thought... I could tell ya stuff.” “Stuff.” “I know stuff!” Bucky said, slightly defensive. Sam hid a huge yawn behind his hand, waving the other dismissively. “Yeah, I know you know stuff. What kinda stuff you wanna teach me?” “Dunno. What you wanna know about?” Sam thought for a moment. 50 Ways To Garrote Your Man-- While Keeping Your Hair Perfect! Perfecting Your Thousand-Yard Stare and Other Makeup Tips How Punching Nazis Can Help YOU Get the Ridiculously Hot Body of Your Dreams!! Sam blinked. That last one had come out of nowhere. He cleared his throat. “Uhhh. I dunno, always wanted to learn French...” “Languages?” Bucky asked, furrowing his brow. Sam felt a stab of worry; he wasn’t sure how Barnes felt about his multi-lingual ability, considering how he’d gotten it. But Bucky’s face was lighting up now. “Yeah, I could do that. You uh... if you got Saturdays free, we could do an hour? I’m. I c’n teach. I used to tutor my little sister.” The man was quieter now, getting the far-off look that he and Steve got sometimes. “That’d be pretty cool, Barnes,” Sam said, feeling a little hot in the face for some reason. Bucky nodded, seeming to come back to himself. “Okay! So. Got another culture question for ya. Then we can do some a’ the French basics. Yeah?” “Oui.” “Wilson, it’s one word. How’d you get the accent so janky? Jesus, I’m gonna have my work cut out for me.” “Fuck you, Barnes.” “You wish. Okay-- Backstreet Boys vs. N’Sync. What was up with that?” Sam and Bucky smoothly ignored the You wish, even though there was just the faintest hint of pink in Bucky’s cheeks for a few minutes.

2:08 am. Saturday. 4 months later. Sam pressed the heels of his hands hard against his eyelids, seeing spots when he finally eased off. He’d been given more ‘homework’ by freakin’ Barnes; translating a long list of phrases without the help of a dictionary or Google Translate, which Barnes would check over in the morning. Sam was exhausted. He’d actually picked up the basics blazingly fast -- not that he was paying attention to the praise that Barnes heaped on him, shut up -- and had come to look forward to his Saturday mornings. (Steve had been banned from the language lessons for interrupting every few minutes with a ‘Well, actually, in this particular dialect--’ comments.) A message flashed on his screen; his sister, 4 hours ahead of him, was awake. He opened his camera and waved to his younger sister, who saluted him with her cup of coffee. Since it was early, they typed instead of using audio: Sarah W. 💗: Sammy sammy sam sam S. Wilson: jfc sis ur hyper today Sarah W: 💗: I have a long weekend!! Going 2 the spa S. Wilson: u fancy Sarah W 💗: do u have your HON HON HON FRONSH LESSON today S. Wilson: lol u know i do Sarah W 💗: R U GONNA TELL LE PROFESSOR YOU WANNA SMASH S. Wilson: obv not jfc Sarah W 💗: if you don’t I WILL S. Wilson: Sarah NO Sarah W. 💗: SARAH YES S. Wilson: how do u make bold?? S. Wilson: o nvm i figured it out Sarah W. 💗: tell him LUI TOUCHER LE PÉNIS Sam couldn’t help it; he let out an ungainly wheeze, shaking with laughter at his desk. “L...lui... toucher... le pénis,” Sam read aloud, actual tears starting in his eyes. His sister was ridiculous. “Christ, Wilson. ‘Him touch the penis? That’s pretty bad grammar,” Bucky said from the doorway. Sam just barely refrained from yelping, instead whipping around to stare at the source of the voice. “What the hell, Barnes!” “Your door was kinda open,” Bucky shrugged. “And your light was on. Figured you’d want some company.” As he spoke, he moved further into the room-- much like he had many times over the last few months. Sam and Bucky had become late-night companions (not like that, Sarah, oh my god), since they both had trouble staying asleep all night. Maybe they’d fallen asleep tangled together more than a few times on Sam or Bucky’s bed. No big. “I was just talking to Sarah,” Sam said, still laughing a little. It was only when Bucky smiled and said “How is she?” that Sam remembered that Bucky and Sarah occasionally exchanged pleasantries. Bucky’s eyes widened slightly as he read the conversation. Sarah, watching with wide eyes, waved and gave Bucky a thumbs up. Bucky grinned at her. “Listen, Sarah is wild, Barnes. I don’t--” Sam started. “If you wanted to ask something like that, you’d say...” Barnes leaned forward and murmured it into Sam’s ear, afterwards huffing out an almost shy laugh. Sam, feeling distinctly feverish as he had with increasing frequency around Barnes lately, repeated the phrase. “Pretty good, Wilson,” Banres murmured. He paused. “If you were serious, the answer is yes,” he continued in French. Sam frowned for a few moments, mentally translating. When it clicked, he sort of-- twitched. “Really?” “Yeah.” Bucky bit his lower lip briefly before switching back to English. “I’ve been sleeping fine the last couple months. Just been gettin’ up early to see you.” “Jesus, Barnes. We’re a couple of idiots,” Sam said, laughing slightly. “So have I. We coulda been sleeping in all this time, man.” “Dunno. I don’t mind.” Bucky’s eyes were on him, intense and searching. If you were serious, the answer is yes. Slowly, tentatively, the two men edged towards each other and found that the answer was an emphatic oui. Sarah W. 💗: OMG SAM UR MAKING OUT WITH HIM Sarah W. 💗: Sam do u know u still have your camera on Sarah W. 💗: EW EW EW OK BYE

[castletonseries]

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

Alexandria 

            Bashir described how his captivity had begun. The boys had already learned some of the story from Decius and the bandits. The slave dealer who had bought Bashir had taken him to Lugdunum, where the time traveler was sold again. The second dealer had sold him to Constans, the factory owner. “Constans bought me to be a household slave,” he explained. “He thought I was too small to work in his factory. He was delighted to discover I understood machinery, and could run his business for him. He would have paid a lot more to buy a slave with my skills. He thought he had gotten a real good deal in me. He never knew he had bought a Time Institute engineer.

           “I became so valuable to him he let me sleep at his home. Constans loves money, and I made a lot of it for him. So, he treated me very well. I had good food, clean clothes, and a nice bed. He was not so kind to his less valuable slaves. I have seen them beaten for making mistakes.

           “I had to speak Latin every day, so I learned it quickly. I studied all the Roman books I could find, and learned about their technology. I was getting along pretty well until the last festival, when everyone in the city had to sacrifice to the emperor. I guess you know the story from there.”

           “All that machinery we saw in Constans’ factory, did you build it?” Nick asked.

           “I didn’t do the work. I just acted as the boss and told the workers what to do,” Bashir answered.

           “Did you violate ethics by doing that?” Nick asked. “Did you give them any technology that was not from their time?”

           “Absolutely not!” Bashir insisted. “I was very careful. The Romans had trip hammers before I arrived. I designed the factory around ideas I read in their books. I was able to make some parts balance better. My hammers worked more smoothly, and things broke less often. I was able to repair the machines faster because I understood them, but I gave the Romans nothing new.

           “I advised Constans on the best ways to sell his tools. I knew that the city of Rome gets most of its grain from Egypt. I recommended he find ways to sell farm tools to that country. Soon, he was selling his wares by the shipload. We couldn’t make them fast enough. If I had stayed, he was going to enlarge his factory and add more water wheels, drive shafts, and trip hammers. He would have become fabulously wealthy. That’s why he was so upset during my trial.”

           “Egypt,” Mike said. “We have to go there next. One of the girls was sold to a slave dealer from Alexandria, although we don’t know whether it was Jen or Allie. Tell us about Egypt. The more we know, the better our chances.”

           “Egypt is not the land of the Pharaohs anymore,” Bashir said. “It’s an important Roman province. The city of Rome lives on Egyptian grain, so the country is very wealthy. After Rome, Alexandria is the second largest and wealthiest city in the empire. It is also a center of learning and the people are well educated. They value education for their children. Many of the most famous scholars in the empire live and work there. The biggest library in the world is in Alexandria.

           “The city is not like Lugdunum… eh, Lyon. Most of the Gauls in Lugdunum know little about the world beyond their city. They are what the Romans call provincials. The people of Alexandria are in contact with the whole Roman world. The Romans call them cosmopolitan. I would love to see Alexandria,” Bashir said. “I know I have to wait here, but I envy you this trip.”

           “By the way,” Bashir added. “Did you know everyone speaks Greek in Alexandria? That is the common language of the eastern empire.”

           “Yes,” Patrick answered. “We do know that. We’ll have to program our helmets when we get there.” He looked at Nick, “Number One, meet me in my ready room.”

           “Huh?” Nick asked.

           “Never mind,” Patrick said, shaking his head. “Will we have any problems with the helmets learning a second language? I don’t want to find us speaking Greek and hearing Latin.”

           “I fixed that,” Nick said. “The helmets will always translate into English, but they will answer in the language they hear. I think they could learn dozens of languages. It all depends on how much memory those mental interface switches have.”

           “I could use some rest before we take off,” Mike suggested. Everyone agreed it would be best to get a good night’s sleep and leave in the morning. Mike and Patrick were soon asleep, but Nick and Bashir stayed up to talk. Bashir was interested in Nick’s helmets and how they worked. Nick also showed him the TCF and explained how he had used it to find the Auckland.

           The next morning the boys prepared to leave for Alexandria. “Stay in the Auckland,” Patrick advised Bashir. “I don’t want to lose you again. We’ll return to this frame. So for you, we won’t be gone long.”

           “No problem finding Alexandria,” Mike said as he held the map open on his lap. “Just follow the coast and it will bring us right there. Take your time, Patrick, the view from up here is nice. I’m sure we’re going to have plenty of problems finding the next crew member. I won’t mind enjoying some sightseeing before we go to work again.”

           They arrived at Alexandria after a long, pleasant flight. Patrick brought the craft in low over the city. “More flat roofs,” the pilot noted. “That’ll make life easy.”

           “I’m guessing they have flat roofs in countries where there is little rain,” Mike said. “They have lots of rain, and even snow in Lyon. That’s why they have sloped tile roofs.”

           “You think some weird thoughts,” Patrick said in mock annoyance. “Who else but an S/O would wonder about roofs?”

            Nick pointed out a busy market place with an outdoor restaurant nearby, just like in Carthage. “It worked before,” Patrick said as he settled down on a roof overlooking the market. “I guess we stay here until night and then hide the helmets.” The boys settled in to wait.

           “You guys notice we kill a lot of time?” Nick asked. “I should build DVD players into these helmets. At least we could watch movies.”

           Like Carthage, the streets of Alexandria stayed busy until late. It was about 3:00 in the morning before everyone had gone home. The boys left the CT 9225 and climbed down into the empty market place. Mike boosted Nick up on Patrick’s shoulders so he could hide the helmets on a ledge. Then, they returned to the craft to wait three days while the helmets programmed. From time to time one of the boys would look out a porthole window to make sure the helmets were okay.

           Late the third night the boys left the craft and climbed down to get the programmed helmets. Nick crawled up on Patrick’s shoulders and felt for the hidden equipment. He couldn’t find them. He checked the whole ledge. “They’re not there,” Nick said aloud, shock in his voice.

           “What?” Mike said in equal surprise. “Of course they are. Where could they have gone? Check again.” Nick checked again. “Get down and let me look,” Mike insisted. He climbed up on poor Patrick, whose shoulders were getting sore. Mike felt around on the ledge like Nick had done. Nope. The helmets were not there.

           “Do we have the wrong ledge?” Patrick asked with concern as the three stood in the empty square.

           Mike switched on his night vision goggles and scanned every possible surface in the marketplace. “No,” he said in a very worried voice. “They’re not here. We’ve lost them. Someone had to have taken them when we weren’t looking. They had to do it late this afternoon. That’s the last time I checked, and they were there then.”

           “Back to the craft,” Patrick said. “We don’t want to spend too much time down here in the market. We don’t want anyone hearing us speaking a strange language and checking to see what’s going on.” In the CT 9225 Patrick asked, “Okay. What happened to the helmets? How did anyone find them? What did they do with them? Ideas.”

           “I don’t think it matters who took them,” Mike thought aloud. “It only matters what they did with the helmets. That’s what we need to know if we’re going to find them.”

           “Do you think someone saw us put them there?” Patrick asked.

           “No one could have seen us,” Nick added. “We were cloaked and the helmets were wrapped in the craft’s cloak cover. Nothing was visible. Besides, if someone knew we had put something there, why would they wait almost three days to climb up and get it?”

           “That means someone found them by accident,” Mike said. Nick nodded in agreement.

           “Who would have been up there and why?” Patrick asked.

           “Someone working?” Nick suggested.

           “We would have seen anyone working out there,” Patrick said. “We didn’t watch all the time, but often enough. No. It had to have happened fast.”

           “Kids,” said Mike. “I’ll bet they were kids playing. They could have been climbing around and touched the helmets. They knew they had found something interesting and didn’t make any noise about it. They didn’t want any adults to take their discovery from them.”

           “Makes sense,” Patrick said. “Give me more ideas. What would kids do? Where would they go?”

           “They would want to play with them,” Nick guessed.

           “Right,” Mike added. “They would want to play with them, and they would worry that someone bigger would take them away. So, they couldn’t bring them home. They would hide them and go back and get them when they could play again. They can’t play until morning, and they can’t play where there are adults or bigger kids. They have to go somewhere they can be by themselves. ”

           “That place wouldn’t be too far from here,” Nick added. “They would probably stay in their own neighborhood.”

           “How old are they?” Patrick asked.

           “Thinking about the kids at Atlantic Academy, I’d guess seven to ten,” Mike said. “Younger than that and they couldn’t have gotten up to the ledge. They would have been too small. Older, and they wouldn’t have been crawling around in the marketplace. They would be hanging out with friends.”

           “So,” Patrick said summing up these thoughts. “We’re looking for kids seven to ten years old, and they’re playing somewhere away from bigger kids and adults. That means they need an open space. They won’t leave their neighborhood, so we don’t have to look far.” Mike and Nick nodded.

           “At dawn,” Patrick said. “We’ll fly low and slow over this area and look for open ground. This neighborhood is pretty tight. There can’t be too much open area around.”

             Patrick cruised low over the rooftops while Nick and Mike scanned the neighborhood out the porthole windows. The houses were all tightly packed and connected to each other. That left no open space near the market, other than the market square, and it was always full of adults. The boys ruled it out as a likely place to find a group of kids playing with their helmets.

           Alexandria is a port city and the neighborhood was close to the harbor. Patrick knew where to find the harbor, as in the distance he could see the masts of dozens of ships tied at the docks. He slowly circled in that direction. “This looks like a good place,” Mike said. “There’s an open, grassy space between the houses and the port. I’ll bet that soon lots of people are going to pass through here on their way to work. Workers will be too busy to pay attention to some kids playing on the grass.

           “Set down, Patrick,” Mike advised. “We should get out of the craft and wait for Alexandria to wake up. I bet those kids are eager to play with their new toys and they’ll leave their homes early. I’m hoping they come right to us.”

           Mike was right. As soon as the sun poked over the horizon a stream of people showed up going to work on the docks. Soon, the harbor was a busy and noisy place as men from the city began loading and unloading ships. They filled wagons that then clattered off the dock and into the city. More wagons arrived from the city, full of cargo for the boats.

           The boys didn’t pay attention when a young woman walked by leading a small group of children. The woman wore a head scarf, and like the children, she was neat and well dressed. The kids all carried paper and pens. The boys were looking for unsupervised street kids and the children with the young woman were not the sort that would play around the marketplace. The boys guessed the girl was a teacher and the children were her students. They kept watching the neighborhood to see if any kids came out to play in the open space.

           Meanwhile, the young woman and the children sat down near Patrick and his crew, unaware that three cloaked time travelers were close by. The teacher began to talk to the children, but without helmets, the boys had no idea what she was saying. She did seem to be giving instructions and asking questions. She and the children were pointing at the ships and talking. Watching the teacher’s gestures Mike knew she was focusing a young boy’s attention on a ship’s mast. To a girl, she seemed to be describing the ship’s length and width.

           Mike became curious and decided to see what was going on. He wandered behind the children and looked over the boy’s shoulder. It looked to Mike like the boy was doing math. Mike caught Patrick’s attention and gestured for him to come and see. Patrick walked silently behind the boy and looked at his work. Yes, he was using geometry to figure how high the mast was. He looked at the young girl’s work and determined she was figuring out the volume of a ship’s hull. Patrick silently shrugged at Mike and went back with Nick to watch the neighborhood.

           While examining the kids’ math projects Mike noticed Patrick and Nick start jogging toward the grassy area. He looked in the direction they were going, and sure enough, here came a group of four boys. Three were wearing the helmets and were pretending to sword fight with sticks. The fourth had wrapped himself in the cloak, so only his head was visible. He was laughing at being nothing more than a floating head.

           Mike walked around from behind the teacher and her students. His intention was to run to join up with Nick and Patrick. As he did, he looked at the teacher’s face. Jen! It was Jen Canfield! He hadn’t recognized her, as many of her features were covered or blocked by the head scarf. Mike hesitated, but realized he couldn’t stop to talk to her right now. He knew the helmets and the cloak were more important. They couldn’t rescue anyone without those helmets.

           The young street boys played on the grass, unaware the Fixer team was standing right next to them. They were unaware that the helmets’ invisible owners were trying to figure out a way to get their things back. “Ideas,” Patrick whispered to his crew.

           “We could just take them away from them,” Mike said. “We are bigger.”

           “Ever since we left the Institute we’ve been watching people hurting and bullying other people. I’m up to here with that,” Nick said, holding his hand to his neck. “I won’t do it. I won’t use force.”

           “Right,” Patrick agreed. “It would be unethical. I’ll only take the helmets if we have no other choice.”

           The street boys discovered that the helmets would translate. When they spoke in Greek they heard each other in English. This set them into fits of laughter. Meanwhile, the floating head kept running around the grassy area. He would pull the cloak over his face and then drop it so that his head disappeared and appeared again.

           “Guys,” Mike said. “I almost forgot. The teacher. It’s Jen. We’ve found her. Maybe we could get her to help.” Patrick and Nick looked back at the teacher and her students. They were still sitting on the grass doing geometry. The pilot and engineer were stunned by Mike’s discovery of the Auckland’s second crew member. They were also confused. They had come to get Jen, and there she was. Still, they needed to get those helmets before the kids ran off. What should they do? If they went to get Jen, they could lose the kids. If they stayed with the kids, they could lose Jen.

           “Keep an eye on these boys,” Mike said to Patrick and Nick. “I’ll go get Jen. She looks like she’s real good with kids. Perhaps she can help us.”

           Mike uncloaked as he jogged back toward Jen and her students and removed his gloves and head cover. He walked up to the teacher, who was busy with one of her students and did not notice him. “Jen Canfield,” Mike said. Jen looked up in surprise. “Jen, I’m Mike Castleton from the Time Institute. Do you remember me? We were in the same cadet class.”

           “Mike,” Jen said standing up and throwing her arms around his neck. “Of course I remember you.” Her students were all surprised as well. Their teacher was speaking a strange language and had just hugged a stranger.

           “We need your help, Jen, and we need it right now,” Mike said. “Patrick and Nick are over there cloaked. Those four boys are playing with helmets that are new Institute equipment. They have our craft cloak too. Can you get them back for us?”

           “I think so,” Jen said. She turned and spoke to the children she had brought with her. Mike didn’t understand, but figured she had told them to stay put. She would be back soon. Jen walked across the grass with Mike. When she spoke to the street boys in Greek her voice sounded very kind. She pointed at Mike, and spoke to the children some more. Mike knew she was telling the boys that the things they had found belonged to him, and that they should be returned to their owner. Reluctantly, the boys gave Mike the helmets. The floating head walked up to Mike, and suddenly became a complete boy as he handed Mike the cloak cover. Jen opened a bag and gave two dark brown objects to each boy. They each bit into one of their treats. One said something to Jen that may have been “Thank you,” and they all ran off together.

           “Dried figs,” Jen said to Mike. “They’re as close to candy as you can find in Roman Alexandria. I keep them to reward my students.

           “Nick, Patrick,” Jen said aloud. “Please do not uncloak here. It will frighten my students to see you suddenly appear. Step behind something, and then join us.” She led Mike back to the children while Patrick and Nick stepped behind the hull of an old ship and uncloaked. Then, they walked into view dressed the same as Mike.

           “Jen, we’ve come to rescue you,” Mike told the Auckland’s pilot as Patrick and Nick caught up with them.

           “I know why you’re here,” Jen said. “I’m responsible for these children and I have to get them back home. I’ll meet you here this afternoon.” She turned and spoke to the children who put away their papers and stood in a row. Jen walked off, with the line of children following her.

           “Did I miss something?” Patrick asked. “She didn’t seem very excited about us being here.”

           “Maybe she didn’t want to tip anyone off that she’s escaping,” Mike suggested. “Maybe she’s worried that the children will tell her master we’re here. Let’s wait ‘til she comes back.”

The Lost Crew, the second book in The Castleton Series continues next Saturday. This book and the other seven in the series are available at: castletonseries.com

[rigelmejo]

Re-reading hanshe with less word lookup is going well. I'm in section 10 already. I mean that's a long way to go with 209 sections. But if I'm doing 5 a day like rn that's 40 days to read instead of months like before, so with for increased reading speed. If I get up to 10 chapters a day that's 20 days to finish reading this fic which is under a month. Anyway we'll see.

Mostly I'm curious if when I hit 1/3 in, which is where I've read to before, if extensive reading no longer becomes possible because I don't have enough already-studied words for those parts afterward.

It’s interesting rereading because I can also start to tell which words/hanzi throw me off the most. There’s a number of new words I guess/remember quite easily, due to hanzi I remember easily. There’s also a number of 4-hanzi phrases I figure out easily because their hanzi are familiar and similar phrases I’ve already learned. however, STILL the words for suspicious, doubt, hesitate ALL trip me up! If I want to read fast I just guess which one the word means based on context! The hanzi for those 3 words just looks TOO similar to me especially with meanings that to me are also quite similar (if you doubt something you may be suspicious, if you doubt something or are suspicious you may hesitate, so the words are quite similar in meaning in my head). 

怀疑  Huáiyí - doubt, suspect, be skeptical

犹豫  yóuyù - to hesitate

犹疑  yóuyí - to hesitate

(you will notice the bottom word uses a hanzi from hesitate, then a second hanzi from doubt, and it makes me confused as all hell as a result whenever I see any of these 3 words because I see hanzi from another similar word and then get lost about which means which). 

Anyway, the hanzi I confuse for other hanzi/being part of other words, seem to be the ‘already learned’ words I am clicking the most. Because I’ve seen the word or hanzi many times but STILL the sound has not stuck in my mind so yet again I’m looking up the pronunciation. Like 绸缎 chouduan (silk) and chan (getting tangled/wrapped/involved with with someone/thing) 缠. I see the silk side radical and the enclosure on both (though the enclosures are different), and because they look pretty similar EVERY time I see chou as in silk I want to read it as ‘chan’. About 80% of the time I see that word I have to re-check the pronunciation. Reading extensively is actually helping slightly, in that I think my brain is making more of an effort to remember the pronunciation since I’m trying to be less likely to look something up again so its just got less chances to retain the info. This is the first time in like 6+ months of encountering the word chouduan that the pronunciation is FINALLY sticking in my brain.  

Words that have familiar hanzi are much less of a struggle, even when new, and I wonder if my comprehension really is close to 98%? I didn’t measure this fic hanshe, just some novels I had (zhenhun was 95%, dmbj 1 and saye were 98%). But I can tell that if I don’t care about sound, I’m not running into many ‘incomprehensible in context’ words at all, and usually a word or less per paragraph that I full on can’t pronounce or make a good guess for a pronunciation I remember (and those words aren’t necessarily the new ones - so fucking often that word is just youyi  huaiyi or youyu ToT lol). My point is... my ability to read aloud has improved, I can actually read quite a bit more hanzi aloud on sight than several months ago. I am practicing reading aloud a little since I have terrible ‘read aloud flow’ right now lol. 

Also? Realizing if I read aloud I am almost guaranteed to say every 了 as de by instinct first. I bet thats 1 part that pleco app always reads 的 as di, so I overcorrected in my head with ‘it actually sounds like de in many situations BE aware’ and then now when I see le I just automatically switch into ‘overcorrect di mode’ lol. Another part is I think it might reflect my speaking comfort level a little. Le is not terribly difficult to use for beginner appropriate conversation tasks (like saying “i went to the store” etc) but in conversations idk why I rarely use it or rarely make a mental note when i do use it, so like when I type i am well aware its something i write without then realize i skipped and put back in. So its interesting to me when reading and inner-vocalizing or speaking aloud, my brain is actually still doing the same thing as my writing pattern - skipping the word then only adding it back in if i realize i skipped it. 

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Hanshe getting easier over time also speaks to the difficulty of priest novels like? While i love them and will trudge through? The language in hanshe used to be peak too much for me it would take me 1.5 to 2 hours to finish a chapter. And priest wasn't even doable. Then eventually I could read tianyake in 1-2 hour chapters then eventually in 20-30 min. Eventually I could read hanshe again in 10-20 minute chapters. But like - however difficult hanshe is, priests writing is harder to read. Priest just has more unknown words per page for me.

I am wondering when priest’s writing will go from doable to a bit easier than just doable, the way hanshe did. Probably a long way off (and I’m aiming for zhenhun and modu, I suspect sha po lang and can ci pin will take much longer as they’re genres I don’t read).

On the topic of genres: I may read tangstory’s 2 novels that are sequels - one historical court, one republican era. Those are two genres I don’t read, but I do watch shows in those genres so learning some of the genre words would fall in line with things I would LIKE to eventually read. Tangstory’s stories are on the shorter side (much shorter than hanshe or zhenhun dang) and show as like 35 sections in my reader app (compared to 209 ToT). They have lovely english translations if I do need clarification or just want to read them later, and again those genres are ones I should get more familiar with.

Other options for reading for more genres: Qi Ye for more historical/court vibe language, and Tian Ya Ke when I’m ready again for its wuxia language - but both of these require me braving a full priest story which. I don’t want to start anything right now that will take more than 2 months to read. Upside is these both have nice translations to refer to, downside is I need to be able to read priest easier to tackle them. And if I’m reading priest easier I may go right for Zhenhun (both because its a goal novel of mine to read and because I know a lot more supernatural/modern words).

For detective novels, I’d like to branch out into maybe SCI Mystery (seems closer to my reading level except for the detective terms which I should learn), Ding Mo novels (like the one Love me if You Dare is based on) since Ding Mo has been recced to me and the reading level isn’t too high, PoYun (but the reading level IS around MoDu and I can TELL - but I think it opens with more vocabulary I should learn and am unfamiliar with as far as detective stories/police/action and weaponry words). 

I want to branch into something easier as a first sci fi novel, but I can’t think of any I want to read except C语言修仙 and 残次品. On a guess, I’d say the first novel is probably easier if ONLY because its 2 print books instead of 4 ToT. Also Can Ci Pin has gratuitous variety of names and I think as a cultivator novel maybe Cyuyanxiuxian will have more of a modern-like one country setting with less new terms to learn (versus Can Ci Pin with new planets, names, spaceships and tech, mech suits, mutant and disease terminology, govt terms, etc).