#its a 300 level class i think we can figure it out

[dustedandsocial]

Sloppy off-the-cuff Marxism 101 rebuke of even sloppier forms of Marxism, forgive me

Base/superstructure would be fine as a simple formula or reminder for analyzing a social situation, one you ultimately still have to work through D I A L E C T I C A L L Y (sorry). It's just taken much more often to create false distinctions between real and illusory.

*Base: one group of humans work means of production to create a social surplus. A smaller group of humans control the surplus. In this scenario, you have humans, their means of production, and a surplus.

*Superstructure: all the different methods of reproducing a social story out of the base configuration. This involves stories that are in fact materially reproduced realities or reifications.

It's just that the truth of the "base" means other configurations are possible beyond how humans imagine and in fact reify their situation. We tend to take the surface-level appearance as our only reality.

Still, an element being superstructural doesn't mean it isn't happening. Ideology has a material basis. Social reality will still be incredibly difficult to upend. It makes clarification about reality more necessary, not less, but this also goes hand-in-hand with agitation and concrete attempts to interrupt social reproduction. It also entails counter-attempts at social organization having a logic that speaks its principles in its activity.

If you do not change that base in a way that meaningful alters the class divide, and in fact strive towards making that divide materially non-existent, we are stuck with the "superstructure" distracting the world from the "base" conditions. A qualitative shift begins when mass consciousness of social conditions does, and this can't be instructed from above. We have technical abundance now but it doesn't trigger a qualitative shift in the subjective understanding of the world because, in fact, we are not machines. That shift can't be made to happen as if flicking a light switch, so we are left to figure out how humans must relate to one another.

I think we have to agitate and attempt to interrupt social reproduction, but also speak to others as equals and potential partners. We have to speak to what others value and desire, even if we sometimes think those things are repressed. You just have to hold to communist principles. You can't tell people who they are is worthless, and that their only worthwhile self is the one that exists 300 years in the future. Everyone now exists with elements of that future. We want to draw those elements out, even if they are latent or repressed. You have to give people room to claim their own desire. You can't shove a ready-made image of a future communist man in their face and tell them to conform to what you've already drawn up for them.

Then, the logic of class organization in fighting capitalism has to be precise. Power has to consciously be made to flow from a mass body to its instruments of self-governance. Any other configuration cedes the means of production by default to whoever gives orders, allowing them to refuse accountability. This does not work at the snap of anyone's finegrs, but those who understand the task have to remain faithful to it. You are "leading" people into leading themselves, and none of this has to be lied about or represented in dishonest language. You, the communist, have a right to take charge over conditions that affect your well-being, even when others cede responsibility. You can then demand the same of others.

Making base/superstructure more than a basic formula and reminder risks turning it into an empty dogma that gets in the way of social interrogation. Basically, any time someone claims there is one fake reality on top of a real reality, they are full of shit. It's fine to acknowledge two dimensions at play, but they are both real, both reinforce each other. They are not isolated layers stacked on top of each other, but rather one reality that can be seen from various angles, though ones that may differ in scale of importance at any given time. To think them through dialectically (sorry) means we can get to what humans have the capacity to change.

This is all the case whether we are talking about a unified global proletariat that has come into existence through conscious political struggle, or a divided international mass body of human beings with no political organization and only potentially unified interests. If one country's citizens are isolated and choose to make socialist revolution on their own, they still have to reverse the flow of power internally before anything resembling socialism can take root. It's an incredibly hard thing to do! It isn't shaming past movements to say they failed. It is the most difficult thing we've ever attempted as a species. Of course they failed!

Anyway, here's the famous 1890 Engels correspondence that takes on the sloppy Marxism of base/superstructure distinctions:

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #199

Today on Fate and Phantasms we're making the Jotaro Kujo of FGO, Semiramis! (Seriously, how does that cape/hair... thing work? It's wild.) The queen of poisons is a Graviturgy Wizard to make building a floating castle slightly less difficult to make and cooler to live in, plus a Witherbloom Druid for some dove friends and extra poisons. If you've seen our builds for Waver and Edison, you might know already that building things with magic is costly and time-consuming, and for once that is 100% accurate to the character. Get ready, this is gonna be a weird one.

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next up: I'm 40% appendicitis!

Race and Background

Semiramis is technically an aasimar, but she doesn't fly around or heal people, so we can just focus on her human side. .... Oooor we can focus on those ears, because we need to nick some stuff from being an Elf. Specifically, we're going with the Vahadar Elf from Plane Shift Kaladesh, since they've got the ears, the proficiencies we'll need later, and their backstory's still about living in general society, unlike wood elves and other Kaladeshian elves. Thanks to Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, this gives her +2 Intelligence and +1 Wisdom, as well as Darkvision, Fey Ancestry against being charmed, a Trance instead of sleep so she can't be put to sleep, Keen Senses for proficiency in Perception, the Mending cantrip to piece together the castle later, and most importantly Elf Weapon Training. Normally this would give her proficiency with four weapons, but thanks to Tasha's we can swap this out with four tools instead. Carpenter's, Glassblower's, Mason's, and Smith's Tools proficiency should give us everything we need to build a castle later- we'll go into the why when we get there.

Semiramis is also a Noble- grab History, but swap out Persuasion for Deception. Yeah, not even her background can escape how weird this build is.

Ability Scores

Poisoning skills come from Intelligence (I think. WotC are really nonspecific about how to actually fucking make poison), and it's also your main casting modifier: put that first. Second should be your Charisma, nobody drinks poison on purpose, so you'd better get good at lying. After that is Wisdom. If your poisons aren't made with Intelligence it'll definitely be wisdom. That means your Dexterity isn't great- yeah, you fight in a dress, but if you're fighting and not your lackeys, something's gone wrong. We're not dumping Constitution because we're not stupid, so dump Strength instead. You've got minions to carry rocks around for you.

Class Levels

Wizard 1: Starting as a wizard nets you the weakest hit die in the game, but it also gets you proficiency in Intelligence and Wisdom saves, plus the Arcana and Medicine skills. You're half caster, and if you want to ruin someone's bodily functions you have to know what those are first. Starting as a wizard also gets you Spells that you can cast and prepare using your Intelligence. You get six at first level and two each level after. That's a lot, so we're just going to over spells that are important for the build here, though there's a full list of what we'd get in the character sheet. For cantrips, grab Infestation and Poison Spray for poison damage. For once infestation is completely kosher as is, since Semiramis can summon any creature as long as its poisonous. Also, grab Message. Castle halls are big and echo-y, and it's probably not a good idea to shout at people to find out which glass they put the poison in. Aside from that, grab Mage Armor so you die less, Magic Missile for Assassin balls, and Tenser's Floating Disk to carry all the raw materials you'll be using later. Finally, you get an Arcane Recovery once per long rest, letting you recover a couple spell slots on a short rest. The total level you recover is equal to half your wizard level, rounded up.

Wizard 2: Going into second level of wizard gives you a school of magic, and it's hard to lift several tons of stone into the air if you're not into Graviturgy. When you take the subclass, you can Adjust Density as an action, doubling or halving a large or smaller creature/object's weight for up to a minute with concentration. If you reduce a creature's weight it'll increase their speed by 10', double their jump distance, and have disadvantage on strength saves and checks, and vice versa if you increase it. I checked, and stone is roughly 1,000 times denser than air, not 2, so we'll have to do some brewing later to make this work out. Make your strong minions stronger, your fast minions faster, or do the opposite for your enemies.

Wizard 3: Third level wizards get second level spells. You won't get any dragons in this build, sad to say, but you can use Dragon's Breath to turn just about anything into a dragon. They can even spit poison breath, which is really good with the poisoner's feat. Speaking of..

Wizard 4: First Ability Score Improvement of the build, so grab the Poisoner's Feat for more poisony goodness. All poison-based damage rolls you make ignore resistance, you can coat weapons as a bonus action, and you get proficiency in the poisoner's kit. You also learn a special poison that'll force a dc 14 constitution save on the creature you use it on, dealing 2d8 poison damage and poisoning them for a round.

Wizard 5: Fifth level wizards get third level spells. Animate Dead will help you make dragontooth warriors, a.k.a. skeletons. You can make one per casting right now, but you can recast the spell to retain control over up to three skeletons at once. Otherwise they'll be uncontrollable monsters, which is probably less of a goal.

Druid 1: Semiramis might be known for her poisons, but she's really a multifaceted person. Well, not really, but if you want poisons, you're going to get them from animals. If you want animals, you're going to get them from druids. First level druids learn Druidic- it's a language! They also get another set of Spellcasting using their Wisdom to cast and prepare spells. Check the multiclassing table to figure out your spell slots. Grab Guidance and Resistance to be a bit better than everyone else. For first level spells, look for Entangle and Snare to summon chains to slow down enemies, and Speak with Animals to make sure your dovey-woveys know their work is appreciated. We haven't gotten dovey-woveys yet? Don't worry, they're coming.

Druid 2: Second level druids join their circle, and you're so goddamn smart you just joined another school. At the college of Witherbloom, you'll learn how to turn the vitality of nature into deadly poisons. Right off the bat you get circle spells, which are always prepared for you and don't count against how many spells you can prepare. Right now you get the Spare the Dying cantrip as well as Cure and Inflict Wounds. Now you don't literally have to summon a whip every time you want to hit someone. You can also tap in creatures' essences with your Essence Tap. As a bonus action, you empower yourself for 1 minute, gaining one of two options. Overgrowth lets you heal yourself with a hit die each turn as a bonus action, adding your wisdom modifier to the amount healed. Withering Strike lets you change your damage to necrotic when you hit someone with any sort of damage, ignoring resistances to make your poisons even deadlier. You can use this proficiency times per long rest. Most importantly, you gain a Wild Shape / Wild Companion. Both features use the same two charges per short rest. You're limited to what you can turn into based on its CR and movement options, but those limits and how long you can transform/summon a creature for grows as you level up. Currently I'd stick with Wild Companion for dove familiars, but some versions of Semiramis' story include her turning into a dove herself at the end, so Wild Shape isn't out of the question. As long as we sink eight levels into druid, at least.

Druid 3: Third level druids get second level spells, like your freebies Lesser Restoration and Ray of Enfeeblement. Look, if you're going to make poisons it only makes sense that you'd have antidotes on hand. You can also grab spells like Animal Messenger to send your doves out for ingredients, and Locate Animals or Plants to find them yourself.

Wizard 6: Sixth level graviturgists can make a Gravity Well when you cast a spell, moving the target 5 feet in any direction if it is willing or you successfully hit it with the spell. Speaking of spells that push people, Pulse Wave does just that, stepping in for the big stompy dragon animation. Creatures in a 30' cone make a constitution save, and if they fail they'll take force damage and get pushed back 15', or 20' with Gravity Well. You can also pull them, but that's not really stompy at that point. You can also Summon Undead to create a stronger skeleton to lead the others.

Druid 4: At fourth level, druids can transform into swimming creatures, and you also get another ASI. Bump up your Intelligence for stronger spells. Also, grab the Control Fire cantrip, it'll be cold in your castle without it.

Druid 5: Fifth level druids get third level spells, like Revivify and Vampiric Touch. Neither of those are in character, but you can also Conjure Animals (as long as they're poisonous) and Dispel Magic to keep your throne room free of nonsense.

Wizard 7: Seventh level wizard get fourth level spells, including the one we've been working our way up to, Fabricate! As long as you have the raw materials, you can turn them into products of the same material. Since you're working with stone, you're limited to creating Medium objects this way. Just line the outside of the medium objects you make with halves of smaller objects, then mend them together, and eventually you'll have a castle. This will take a while. For a decent-sized castle of 300'x400', you'll be looking at roughly 480 medium-sized blocks per floor. At level 20 you'll have 12 spell slots of fourth level or higher, so you can knock out a floor in roughly 40 days, not including things like doors or other furniture. Also worth noting, you can't make fancy things like glass without proficiency in the tools required to make them normally, hence all the tool proficiencies from your racial bonuses.

Wizard 8: Use your next ASI to bump up your Wisdom for better healing and stronger druid spells. You also learn Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum, so you can prevent creatures from spying into your hanging gardens. Especially useful is the ability to block creatures from teleporting or plane shifting onto your grounds, as that's probably the only way to approach your gardens safely. Or at least it is after you learn Ice Storm, a long range spell that pelts enemies with ice and turns the area into difficult terrain. Of note, it doesn't say the ground, so the entire cylinder will be difficult to fly through. If you want to build giant arcane cannons instead for authenticity, I salute you. Just remember that'll have to come out of your budget.

Wizard 9: Ninth level wizards get fifth level spells, and Wall of Stone will help you speed up construction by making ten 10'x10' panels or ten 10'x20' panels. You can also use this spell to create bridges or the like, and if you hold concentration for 10 minutes the stone remains permanently. If you want to skimp on materials so you can just get this fucking thing in the air already, this'll help with that. You're also learning Geas. If you can't summon a dragon, forcibly controlling a dragon is the next best thing.

Druid 6: Did you think we were done with druid? I said we were stuck here for 8 levels, didn't I? Sixth level witherbloom druids can make a Witherbloom Brew thanks to their new proficiency with Herbalism kits. At the end of a long rest, you can use that kit to make Proficiency brews, which last for 24 hours. A Fortifying brew gives a creature resistance to a damage type chosen at brewing (cold, fire, necrotic, poison, or radiant) for an hour. A Quickening brew heals its drinker, and ends one disease or an effect of charming, frightening, paralyzation, poisoning, or stunning. Again, antidotes might be useful to have on hand, but the real reason we're here is for the Toxifying brew. You can apply the brew to a weapon, and the next time within an hour that weapon hits a creature, they take 2d6 poison damage and have to make a constituiton saving throw (DC 8 + your wisdom modifier + proficiency) or be poisoned for a minute. This is literally so much better than the poisoner feat what the hell.

Druid 7: Seventh level druids get fourth level spells, like Blight and Greater Restoration for stronger poisons and antidotes respectively. You can also Dominate Beast to hold any poisonous critters still while you milk them, or summon Giant Insects instead. They obey you and stay giant until they drop to 0 HP, dismiss the effect, the spell ends.

Druid 8: Our last level of druid finally lets you turn into a dove with a second Wild Shape Improvement. You also get another ASI, so bump up that Wisdom for stronger spells and poisons.

Wizard 10: Tenth level graviturgists can create a Violent Attraction between a creature's face and a weapon, causing a nearby weapon attack to deal an extra 1d10 damage. Alternatively, you can increase the attraction between a creature and the ground, adding 2d10. I doubt your hanging gardens need help making the fall more deadly, but now you can help out of need be. You can do this Intelligence modifier per long rest.

Wizard 11: Eleventh level wizards get sixth level spells, like Guards and Wards. This will make it so much harder for enemies to breach your castle it isn't even funny, if the "hanging out in the stratosphere" thing didn't tip them off already.

Wizard 12: By twentieth level you should have a castle set up, so grab the Lucky feat. Basically, everything that can go right for you does while you're in your castle, so now you get 3 luck points per long rest to make sure that happens, letting you re-roll your attacks, saves, and checks, as well as attacks aimed at you.

So how the fuck do I get a flying castle?

So, admittedly this is up to DM fiat, but let's be real, a flying castle sounds sick as hell and gathering resources is a great reason to go adventuring. If I was your DM, it'd go something like this; After x months of research, you find a way to prepare materials so Adjust Density is permanent on them if you concentrate for the duration. Then you make and fuse together castle chunks as described in level twelve, and eventually you lighten the load on the special rocks so much they're lighter than air. Boom, liftoff, you're fucking awesome now. If you want to go down, just make the float rocks heavier again.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Even if you don't build a giant floating castle in your adventure, that doesn't mean all this prepwork went to waste. You are a master at protecting areas from invasion, so no matter where you lay your head you know it's going to be safe. Not as safe as a floating castle, but still, safe.

By mixing together all your tool proficiencies with Fabricate, you can make pretty much whatever you need from raw materials. No more paying a smithy for fancier armor!

If you do get your castle in the air or you're near a cliff, you are incredibly deadly, with plenty of ways to shove opponents around or otherwise control movement. Slow them down, trip them up, or shove them off a cliff it's so good. Pulse people off the edge of your garden and laugh at them as they fall.

Cons:

There's literally no rules about building your own castles & poisons, so most of this build is entirely dependent on your DM. If you get a cool one, cool! If you don't, this build is pretty much a writeoff.

You need to hide away in your castle and send out minions because you're kind of pathetic in person. With only 14 AC and less than 100 HP, you'll go down faster than Medb if you don't use your Wild Shapes well.

A lot of that can be chalked up to mixing caster classes, meaning we have to spend more ASIs to make both spell modifiers good, and we miss out on higher level spells. Also, spending 8 levels in druid just to turn into a dove isn't that great unless you really want the flavor. I highly recommend skipping out after 6, the last graviturgy effect is great both to knock people out of the sky and make them bow if they get to your throne room.

But, getting to your throne room is 90% of the fight. This build is one that emphasizes patience, and that's what puts you above the common folk. Hang out in the stratosphere, attend social events in style, and let your poisons and skeleton warriors do the fighting for you. Just be glad there aren't any wacky knights riding hippogryphs around.

[gingerbreadart1]

Really loving the latest artwork and lore! You are so creative! Can't wait to see what's next! No rush though, I know the good stuff takes time.

Oh my gosh thank you!!!!! I'm having a bit of a writer's block when it comes to the actual story, so I've been kinda messing around and doing research about different things. Idk if it's obvious yet, but I'm a huge nerd. I especially love science and sci-fi(duh) as well as biology! I actually wanted to be a doctor with some kind of focus on congenital disorders when I was a kid. Weird kid, I know. Anyway, I love thinking about lore and nerdy shit, so I'm gonna take this opportunity to do just that! Beware under the cut is a very long essay about space, civilizations, rambles, and math. Lots of math.

So, I have no idea where I want to start, but I know what I want to talk about so I'm gonna pick something and roll with it. First thing's first, the Kardashev scale.

Because this isn't an English class and I don't have to re-word shit, I'm gonna copy and paste from wikipedia for this one: "The Kardashev scale is a method of measuring a civilization's level of technological advancement based on the amount of energy it is able to use. The measure was proposed by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev in 1964." Cool? Cool.

So yeah, basically it's an easy way to say how advanced a civilization is, and it's broken up into three types.

A Type I civilization, also called a planetary civilization—can use and store all of the energy available on its planet.

A Type II civilization, also called a stellar civilization—can use and control energy at the scale of its planetary system.

A Type III civilization, also called a galactic civilization—can control energy at the scale of its entire host galaxy.

Just to give you a grasp of what that means relative to us, humans are estimated to be a type 0.73 civilization. We're expected to get to type 1 in a few hundred years or so. Here's where math comes in. Note: I hate, and am not good at math. So, take all of this with a grain of salt.

So, a Type 1 civ. is usually defined as one that can harness all the energy that falls on a planet from its parent star (for Earth–Sun system, this value is close to 1.74×10^17 watts), which is about four orders of magnitude higher than the amount presently attained on Earth, with energy consumption at ≈2×10^13 watts.

Before I go any further, I want to ramble a bit about their star

For my own personal headcanon that the Irken planet is slightly dimmer than earth, I'm gonna make the Irken star a K0 type star. For reference, the sun is a G2V star, meaning it's a yellow dwarf. A K0 star is kind of inbetween red dwarfs and yellow dwarfs. Quick explanation on the letter-number thing, (as best as I understand it, disclaimer I am not an expert) The letter is the classification of a star based on heat and luminosity, going O, B, A, F, G, K, M, L. O being the brightest and hottest (and largest typically) and L being the opposite. The number is size. A higer positive number means a smaller star. A G2 yellow dwarf is smaller than a G-3 yellow dwarf.

Make sense? God I hope so. Anyway, I picked a K0 star for a couple reasons.

They live longer. Our sun has a lifespan of about 10 billion years, but a K type star has a lifespan of 18-34 billion years. Because of this some scientists think they're a prime place to look for life because of their long stability.

They emit less ultraviolet radiation, which can damage DNA, making the developement of life less likely to be hindered by this star

They're 3-4 times more common that G type stars, so it's literally more likely that the irken sun is a K type anyway

They're dimmer and cooler (but not by much) than G type, which fits into my own personal HC about a dimmer sun.

ANYWAY now to get back into the first topic, the Kardashev scale. The irken sun has a temperature of 5,240° Kelvin (8,900° F/4970° C), a radius of .85 (367,445 m/591,345km), a mass of .78 (3.42^30lbs/1.551^30kg), and a luminosity of .40 or 1.531^26 watts.

Compare all this to our sun (Temp of 5,780°K, radius 1, mass 1, and luminosity of 1, being 3.827^26 watts), basically the Irken sun is smaller and less powerful.

Back to the Kardashev scale. Modern day earth is .73, right? I imagine that Irkens are somewhere in the high 1's, like 1.7. The reason I'm not placing them in two is because I don't headcanon that they've built a dyson sphere or a matrioshka brain.

For those who don't know, a Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure that completely encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its power output. These bad boys are imagined to look kindof like this

Cool as hell right? Also not something I think Irkens would be focused on. they're more about outward and conquering expansion rather than efficiant energy consumption and useage.

With that in mind, I'm going to say on the civilization range Kardashev scale Irkens are 2.000279. The reason for that tiny decimal amount is because a level 2 civ is one that has full control over their solar system, and a level 3 is one that has full control over their galaxy.

Galaxies are huge. Really huge. The Milky Way galaxy (In W&C Irkens are in the Milky Way as well) is on the smaller side, but it still has 100 billion stars, and 100-400 billion planets. Of those planets, an estimated 300 million to 50 billion may contain life, but most people stick it down at the low end of 300 million. So I'm going to use that number as well.

To figure out where they are on the scale, I have to figure out how large the Irken Empire actually is, so I looked at some other fictional empires.

In Star Wars, there are 1.5 million planets under the galactic empire, and an additional 60 million colonies (which can be as small as a space station or something idk)

But in Star Trek, there are only 150 planets in the federation.

In Dune, it's the whole Universe.

So there's a lot of variation here. Personally, I think under a thousand planets is a good number for a rapidly growing Empire that has unrealistic visions of grandeur, so I placed the amount of planets under their control to be 837 and called it a day.

Thus, 2.000279 on the scale.

Now with that number I'm gonna assign Irk a year. Physicist Michio Kaku suggested that it will take a few thousand years for humans to reach type two status, so I'm going to use that as a starting point to work on.

One might tack on a few thousand years to 2021 and call it a day, but I can't do that because the Gregorian calendar is religion based, and irkens probably don't have Jesus so it would be weird to base make a year for them based off of the Gregorian calendar. So instead I'm going to use the Holocene calendar. If you haven't heard of it, you're missing out! It's a very cool calendar that respresents and encompasses all of human history, and it's a very simple change: It adds 10,000 years to the current calendar, so for example, it is the year 12,021 on the holocene calendar. Cool right? The reason for this 10,000 year addition is 12,000 years ago is right around the time humans actually started settiling and building structures and beginning to farm. Thus, the birth of human civilization.

So I'm gonna be unrealistic and apply that 12,000 year first farm -> cell phone period to Irkens, and then tack on... idk let's say 2700 years. Cool beans, now we have a 15,700 year old Irken calendar. Except, 15,700 human years isn't equal to 15,700 Irken years. They're different planets, with different rotations, so they have different years. I have a previous post where I mention some basic statistics about the planet, go check it out! But for here, know that an irken year is 1.3 times longer than an earth year, so their calendar is actually going to be in the year 20,410 in the same amount of time. Let's say it's 20,417 just for funsies.

Hip hip hooray, Irk has a calendar! A year! Woohoo!

And with that, this post is long enough so I'm gonna end it here, but I plan on making a subsequent post that deals with evolution, speciation, and whatnot so stay tuned!

[goth-girlfriend]

Endeavor’s Intern

(4/?)

Pairing: Endeavor/Enji Todoroki x Student Reader

Rating: Fluff

Warnings: none?

Notes: Spelling errors? I was going to finish it with this part but decided I’d like to add a bit more before I finish.

💙❤️🖤❤️💙🖤💙❤️🖤❤️💙🖤💙❤️🖤❤️💙

“SHOTO!” I jumped onto his back and clung to him. His hands grabbed my thighs to keep me from falling off his back.

Deku looking shocked, his eyes wide.

“ARE YOU TWO DATING?!” Denki stepped into ask.

I laughed as Shoto seemed unamused, I wrapped my arms around his neck and rested my chin on his shoulder.

“What do you think?” I asked and tilted my head.

“Yes?” Denki asked instead of answering.

“...........ok.” I shrugged and moved upwards and tried to get higher.

“So, let’s get to class.” I said still cling to Shoto.

He sighed and started to walk, Deku fell into step on our left, Denki to our right. He was curious that’s for sure.

“Also no, it’s not Shoto I’m dating. He’s just the bestest friend in the whole world!” I squeezed him.

He sighed and bounced to get me higher. Denki didn’t seem impressed or like he believe it.

“So winter break comes up next week. What are you going to be doing?” I asked.

“Spending it with my step mom.” He said keeping a straight face.

“Awe, that’s sweet. I like her, she’s sweet and pretty.” I smiled at him.

“Yeah, Dad never stops talking about her.” He looked back at me.

“Anyways, what about you guys?” I asked the other two.

“I’ll be him with my mom.” Deku answered.

“I’ll be with the fam, you know how it is.” Denki said and sighed with a smile.

“That’s sweet.” I said, we finally stopped at the class door.

“Oof, such a short walk.” I mumbled.

“Because you weren’t walking.” Shoto said rolled his eyes.

“Hehe,” I smield and opened the door, “What are we waiting for?”

We entered the class only three of four people were here. I made my wya to my seat and took a deep breath and sighed. Deku and Denki went to their seats and I was lucky to be beside Shoto.

“So where are we going?” I asked and tilted my head.

“I don’t know, he said it was a surprise. My brother and sister don’t know. I think they would freak out if they figure out his second girlfriend is the same age as his last child.” Shoto whispered back.

“Yeah, So it’s just you me and the big guy?” I asked, I paused and thought, “and Deku?” I I nodded in his direction.

“I was going to ask him until Kaminari showed up. I was just lucky you showed up to break the silence.” He was so serious.

“Oh, well, tomorrow is Friday. Do it then or you never will.” I sighed and pat his shoulder.

“Now I’m cold soooooo,” I slid closer to Shoto and hugged his left arm.

“You’re so warm.” I pressed my cheek into his shoulder, “So warm.”

A lot of people rushed in started to take seats just as the bell rang.

“Everyone shut up and sit down.” I smield At Aizawa as I moved to my desk.

It’s gotta be a struggle being a pro hero and a teacher. Especially with this class.

“Alright, as a reward for how good most of you have been doing and have grown. We’re going to be having a party.” Cheers erupted.

“SHUT UP BEFORE I CANCEL IT.” Everyone stopped.

“It’s nothing fancy, just our class. Today is our last day before break starts. We’re going to run a quick test like on the first day of school to see how much your control over your quirk and skills have improved. So get out of here and go get dressed.” He sighed and pulled out a juice pouch.

“Atleast it’s not a test.” I mumbled and stood up lingering at the back of class avoiding the big group. The day went by, just like the first day, long and sweaty. Luckily it wasn’t as hot as the beginning of the school year.

Bakugo still reminded number one, followed by Midoriya who tied with Todoroki then Shoji, Tokoyami, Kirishima, me, the rest followed, and the most important part, Mineta was last. I smiled, he’d progressed but not enough to move up. He was lucky the first time Midoriya didn’t have a quirk exactly but this time he lucked out.

Every sat down taking deep breaths and trying to relax on the drying field. Todorki sat his legs ages did him and leaning back on his open palms. I dropped beside him a threw my myself back over his lap.

“It’s hot.” I whined taking his right hand putting it on my forehead, “You’re such a good friend.”

The rest of the Deku squad came around and started to chatter, I was staring up at the sky as it started to turn from its pale blue to a darker blue. The sun was moving over making room for the moon. I sighed and sat up.

“Deku, I need to talk to you and Todoroki.” They both looked at me. “Privately.”

After they followed me to a more secluded part of the field I turned to Shoto and gave him a look. “So, this isn’t my business so I’m leaving.”

I turned and walked not waiting. I made it back and plopped down beside Tokoyami who was sitting in the shade of a tree. Just a calm and nice person to sit silently with while the time passed. He opened his right eye and looked at me. I gave a small smile and he nodded before closing it again. This is what a friendship is made of, no words, just a peace full silence.

Time passed and I found myself staring at the sun through the leaves thinking about times I’ve spent in secret at the Todoroki Estate. My parents didn’t know, they lived in a different city, I had been staying in a student apartment until the school opened dorms. Whenever unexpected breaks came up I’d just tell them I was staying with Deku and his mom and they approved. In reality I’d go and stay with Shoto and stay in his house in the guest room. I might be infatuated with his dad but I’m not a loose woman. I arched my chest popped my back and stretched my legs out. My mind drifting to memories, of shopping with Shoto using his dads card, spending time with Endeavor, stuck under his heavy arm pressed against his side as we watched movies. Lingering in his office when he was busy with hero stuff. Hanging out with Shoto more and getting to know more about Endeavor then I would’ve expected. Soft touches and forehead kisses. Helping mend his and Shoto’s relationship, they might not be lovey dovey but now they can hold a simple conversation without cold stares and loud Soba slurping. I thought of every picture in my camera roll and Snapchat, picture with Enji, pictures with my future step son Shoto, pictures with both of them. Pictures of just them together. The day came to an end, and everyone finally started to head back in. I walked beside Tokoyami, just casually. When everyone was hot and back in the classroom Aizawa told us to dress nice for tomorrow for a photo. Everyone mumbled an okay and then left.

“So, Shoto....” I started as I dropped onto his bed, “How’d it go?”

“He said yes.” His simple answer as he looked through his closet.

“Great.” I chirped and stretched across his bed.

“He now also knows you’re going to be my step mother.” I chocked.

“what....” I faced him.

“A family vacation and you would be there, I can’t lie and say I invited you. It would make no sense for you to just show up. So I told him you were dating my dad.” He found a white button up shirt and grabbed closet hanger.

“Oh, so I can call him son in law now....” I grinned up at him as he tensed.

“Sure.” He mumbled and didn’t face me.

“NOW TELL ME.” I shoved myself up, “Where are we going?”

“Ask Endeavor when you see him today, now get up we have to get to class. I won’t be late for this photo because you’re interested in my dad and vacation.”

The party passed quickly, Momo tried to make a move on Todoroki which was stopped by Deku accidentally bumping into Iida who bumped into Uraraka who bumped Momo out of the way and away from Shoto. It was a calm first period, we took photo’s with Aizawa Separately and then together as a large group. He seemed happy as he looked at his phone until Kaminari screamed.

“IM GOING TO MISS YOU DADZAWA.” and then hugged his shoulders which led to a group hug.

The rest of the day was spent watching movies, when the day finally ended class 1-A spent all night singing Karaoke and playing games. Everyone heard Bakugo genuinely laugh after Kirishima tackles him and started to tickle his sides. He’s the only one brave enough and the only one who would’ve survived. Bakugo was nice the rest of the night, small ‘heh’s coming out of him every now thin. Leaning on each other and smiling talking about things that happened until Mina brought up the game of secret Santa we had all decided to play. So everyone traded gifts and decided to not open them until Christmas the only thing being you have to send a video to the person who sent it to you. I thanked Todoroki as he gave me a box. I gave one to Kirishima, who gave one to Bakugo, who gave one to Deku, who gave one to Tokoyami, then Mina, then Shoji, then Ochako, then Mineta, then Sero, then Ojiro, then Jirou, the rest followed until everyone had one gift.

“Group chat! Everyone has to send a picture of what they get!” Kirishima said and made a chat before anyone could deny.

I smield down at my phone as people sent messages with names and pictures. The night ended and we all went our separate way in the morning with goodbyes, take care, hugs and platonic cheek kisses.

I was the last one, everyone had left. I head back up and grabbed my bag, and a bag with the things I needed. I walked home, looking up at the sky. It was starting to pepper itself with stars. I made my way up an apartment building to the third level. Room 300, I opened it. It looked exactly how I last remembered it. Navy walls, white counter tops. Black glass Kotatsu, navy cushions with stars and constellations. I sighed the cold air filled my lungs. I stepped in, and turned on the bright white lights. I locked the door behind me. The kitchen was still small, white walls, black stove and sink, black refrigerator, wood knife block with gold knives I bought for the esthetic. I saw a bowl of mangos and picked a note that was laying on it.

‘(Y/n),

Were sorry we couldn’t bring you home. We sent a grocery order, If you’re reading this note it means the order made it to your apartment. Your dad and I sent you gifts we bought for Christmas. We love you, and stay safe.

Also, I sent a few extra hundred to your bank account buy yourself something nice while your off for break.

We love you, Merry Christmas. Well call you soon.’

I nodded at the note and just sighed. I made my way to my room, the walls here mimicked the living room with gold trim. I had placed metallic vinyl stars along the crown and down wards. I stepped over to my desk and it’s chair. I looked at my bed, king size leaving almost no room for anything else. Two standing lamps on either side of the head of the bed. The windows beside it were letting the moons light shine in through.

I sighed and laid in my bed and took in the feeling of the cold heavy blankets. I felt my eyes stinging, Why was I crying? I’d get to spend a week with Enji and Shoto and Deku. But I guess after that I’ll be alone for four weeks. Being alone that’s why, I sighed and rolled onto my stomach burying my face into a pillow. I pulled the blanket over myself and fell asleep in the moonlight.

I woke up heart racing to tapping on my window. I looked at the window ready to face whatever it could be. All I came to face were large slow raindrops pelting themselves against the window. I watched the skies, bright blue and purple lightening bolts lights up the dark. I wish it could rain forever sometimes, but I guess that’s just not the case. I sighed and pushed the blankets back feeling the heat build up. The rumbling of my ac started up, I yawned and stretched. At some point last night I ditched my pants and bra. I pushed myself up and took a shower and got ready to do nothing. It’ll be this week and next week before I get to see Shoto and Enji. What should I do?

I looked around my living room and huffed, “I probably should’ve stocked up on entertainment. I guess I can go to that large art store down the street. Or binge watch some Netflix.” I grabbed my phone to check my bank account. I’d been saving up and rarely spending to be able to splurge on myself on Christmas. I’d saved up $800, and let me see what my mom sent. “600?!”

“I have $1,400.00 to spend on myself! I could do so much... but I should probably save it for vacation in case I want to buy something.” I closed my phone and just decided to binge watch Avatar The Last Airbender. I got antsy and started to practice baking. I wasn’t bad but I wasn’t a pro.

I sighed leaning on the counter staring at the screen, Zuko’s back story played and I spoke to myself. “He’s definitely the reason I’ve had so many explosive crushes.”

The rest of the day went by slow, I recited the deliveries of present, I made cupcakes and a cake, an egg pudding, and I tried my hand in mochi. I sighed and started to make the icing to actually finish the cupcakes. I looked up smiling at a funny scene from Avatar. I started to pipe on the icing, and smiled at the black and white swirls.

The first week passed slowly, I used every tube of paint I had and still cut them open, I wore down every crayon, used every pot and pan at least five times. I started watching naruto with fillers, and took up sculpting with ten pounds of air dry clay I got on sale for four dollars. I smiled at the little frog I had finally finished, I put it in the sun to let it dry with the other frogs and turtles.

‘Hey you wanna come over?’ ❄️🔥

‘Yes please😢’ ☀️🖤

‘Alright, you should know what to bring by now. We’ll be there to pick you up in 30.’ ❄️🔥

‘Your such a life saver 😭 do you like sweets by the way?’ ☀️🖤

‘Sure, what’s your address? Natsuo will eat it if I dont so what do you have?’ ❄️🔥

‘A bakery, I just sent you my location’ ☀️🖤

‘You live in a bakery? 🤔’ ❄️🔥

‘Nope, just been bored. I’ll pack so see you when you get here.💙💙💙’ ☀️🖤

‘Food?’ ❄️🔥

‘Bread???’❄️🔥

‘🍩🍩🍩??? 👀 👀’ ❄️🔥

I finished packing and grabbed my favorite pillow and went to the kitchen and packed two cakes and about two dozen different muffins, and a tin of all my cookies.

‘I’m ready.’☀️🖤

‘You live here? 🤭🤭’ ❄️🔥

‘Yeah why?’ ☀️🖤

‘Your husband doesn’t seemed to pleased....👀’ ❄️🔥

‘HE LIVES IN A MANSION MY APARTMENT IS LIKE HALF THE SIZE OF ONE OF YOUR SMALL CLOSETS. 😭😭😭😭💔💔💔💔’ ☀️🖤

‘Sorry 😅 just come out.’ ❄️🔥

‘I need help to bring boxes down. 😐’ ☀️🖤

‘He’s going.’ ❄️🔥

I opened the door and came face to face with Enjis chest before he knocked.

‘Enji!’ I cheered.

“Shoto said you needed help.” He said and stood there looking down at me.

“Yeah, I uh....work for a baked and I have a lot of sweets that I’m not going to eat so I asked Todoroki and he said I could take them so he and Natsuo could eat.” I smiled up at him.

“I see.” He looked past me at boxes.

“Well let’s get these down then.” He picked up the boxes with ease and took my bag still after I denied.

I followed him, my phone and wallet in hand, I looked at the building one last time before getting into the car. I sat in the back Shoto passenger and Enji driving. I smiled and scooted to the middle and watched the scenery from the middle of the windshield.

We made it to the estate and I learned Natsuo and Fuyumi wouldn’t be home till Wednesday, considering it’s Saturday I can love on my boo. I settled in the lavish guest room and then made a bee live for Enji’s office. I burst in not knocking and found him standing over his desk. I moved behind him and hugged his waist pushing my right cheek into his back.

“I missed you.” I smield and squeezed him, it had no physical effect considering the man was rock hard.

He pulled my off and turned around, I hugged him again and he took me into his chest. He was so warm, and broad. I smiled into his warmth and enjoyed the physical affection. I felt tears pricking at my eyes, I’m not alone anymore.

The next two hours I spent talking to Enji and kissing his cheeks at random times and hugging his neck and shoulders and arms. I left once he got a phone call and it sounded important. I found Todorki staring at one of the boxes I brought.

“Let’s eat!” I said and popped the box of cake open.

His aurora darkened and he held up a knife, ‘I’ve been waiting for this.’

He cut into the cake and we started to feat, we finished the cake laughing on a sugar high at the sound of Shoto’s chair making a funny sound.

I smield at Shoto and he smield back.

“I’m glad it’s you and not just some random lady who doesn’t care about anyone else but herself.” His words were weird.

“I don’t know what you mean but okay.”

“You make us happy, my dad, you spend time with me and see me as a person and friend when no one else did.”

“Stop Sho, I’ll cry.” I said now understanding.

“He’s lucky, and if he messes up he’ll lose the both of us.” He threatened before stuffing himself with more cake.

His belly now round as he slouched.

“I love you both, really, as much as I can. I really honestly do.” I smield down at the empty messy box.

“I’ll clean up, go clena your face.” I handed him a napkin and patted his head.

I cleaned up thinking about what the future could hold and wondering what it does hold for the future.

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

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@daedaep69

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[def-initely-soul]

Can I get some Jaebum, in a creepy setting with the prompt “I’m calling it. We are lost in the woods.”? If I can't..well...we both know I can. ☺️❤️ Oh and make it 80s themed.

damn right you can! (i mean come on, really, did you think I was gonna say no?)

pairing: jaebum from got7 x reader (f.)

prompts: “I’m calling it. We are lost in the woods.”

genre: supernatural au; witch au; 80s au; horrorish

warnings: mention of pregnancy gone wrong

words:  5.7k (what is wrong with me, these are supposed to be drabbles...)

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“I’m calling it. We are lost in the woods.”

Jaebum sighs out loud, already regretting having Jinyoung tag along with him in the first place. He knew his more logic-driven friend wouldn’t have supported this outing and yet he couldn’t leave him out of this. Not when Jackson himself had tagged along as well.

“We’re not lost in the woods okay? I know where we’re going...” Jaebum repeats for what feels like the hundredth time tonight as his flashlight flickers for a second. With a curse, he shakes the thing before the light flickers back on. He can swear he just replaced the batteries in this thing.

“Are you sure? Because all I’m seeing are trees, not some bitchin’ witchin’ house in the woods,” Jinyoung retorts and Jaebum rolls his eyes even if he keeps moving forward.

The reason the three of them are out tonight and not on Mark’s rad Halloween party is that they’re out on a search for their town’s own resident witch. It’s rumoured that once upon a time a witch lived in those woods, granting wishes to children that were brave enough to befriend her. Jaebum supposes it’s more of a cautionary tale about judging someone before you meet them than an actual event.

Still he has to try.

“Oh that sounds gnarly, try saying it quick. Bitchin’ witchin’, bitchin’ witchin’, bitchin’ witchin’...” Jackson interrupts from next to Jaebum, repeating the mantra with a level of concentration Jaebum hasn’t seen him use ever. Not even for math class.

“Yeah, Jackson that’s great but it would be even greater if we weren’t lost in the middle of the woods, searching for a witch that might not be even real! I mean she was here, what? 300 years ago or so?” Jinyoung is relentless in trying to get them to return back home. Jaebum doesn’t answer him and keeps moving forward, his boot crunching the dead leaves on the ground as the sun finally disappears behind the mountains.

Jackson chuckles nervously. “Ugh, take a chill pill dude, Jae said he had a reason to look for her, so we’re here to support him,” he replies calmly and that seems to shut Jinyoung up. The three friends keep walking in silence, Jaebum a few steps ahead as he clutches on the book that has any information regarding the witch.

She first started granting wishes around the 1600s, the then-village having a small period of tranquillity as everyone had their wishes fulfilled and the witch got almost everything she needed for free in return. But then a kid disappeared. A young girl at the age of 18, like Jaebum’s age now, leaving no trace of her behind. No letter, no nothing. They couldn’t find anything and everyone immediately suspected the witch.

They burned her at the stake and she, feeling wronged, threatened the town with her upcoming return to steal all their children until the town went down in ruins.

Of course, that never happened and the only thing that’s left of that bedtime story is this book, reciting the legend and a small poem that’s supposed to help someone find their way to her lair.

Beneath the barren willow tree Eternal maiden of the light shall be The ticking clock appoints to three Three of service and so would be But beware the fickle call of darkness Its binds are full of lies and harshness Black and green won't lie to you Protect that which appeals for you

Most of it doesn’t make any sense but Jaebum at least can tell that he’s supposed to find a barren willow tree.

“Can you at least tell us why we’re going there? What are you gonna ask for if we find her?” Jinyoung tries again, this time much calmer and understanding. And yet Jaebum doesn’t respond.

Jackson sensing Jaebum’s hesitation jumps in to answer the question himself. “Well, I don’t know about you dinguses, but I’m gonna wish for Ana saying yes to one date!” he says, eyes staring ahead dazedly with a lovesick smile and Jaebum drowns a chuckle.

“Isn’t this like, kinda forcing her to go out with you though?” Jinyoung claims and Jackson groans.

“No, I mean I sure hope it’s not! I won’t ask for her to date me, I’m just asking for an opportunity to show her what an amazing boyfriend I’ll be!” Jackson claims and Jinyoung rolls his eyes even though a smile is etched on his features.

“I really doubt you need that man...” he admits and Jaebum agrees. It’s been really fun watching Jackson make a fool out of himself trying to impress her (he even tried moonwalking), but it would be even more fun if he actually didn’t impress her.

The girl is hella mad about him and the only person who can’t tell is Jackson.

Jackson smiles at Jinyoung’s words. “You really think so? I can’t wait to meet her tonight at the party! Wait till she sees my Luke Skywalker costume,” he says, taking out his fake lightsaber to swoosh in the air.

“Hm, but if she’s dressed like last year you won’t match...” Jaebum observes and Jackson lets out a heavy, dreamy sigh.

“Ah, yeah... The Madonna costume...” he says in a lovesick daze and Jinyoung rolls his eyes. Last year Ana went as Madonna for Halloween giving both Jackson and her mother a heart attack. Although it’s safe to say those reactions differed significantly.

Jaebum laughs but at least he’s glad for the distraction. He doesn’t have to answer Jinyoung’s question for now and he’s sure if Jinyoung knew Jaebum was actually searching for his dad like this, he’d be against it.

Jaebum’s dad left them when he was a kid. One day he was there and one day he wasn’t. No one knew where he went and Jaebum’s mother was inconsolable at first. Jaebum was barely 7 and his sister was barely 3. She didn’t remember him but Jaebum knew him long enough to miss him every day. And to wonder why.

“Anywho, what are you gonna wish for, Jinyoung?” Jackson asks as they keep walking deeper into the woods, the last lights of civilization far behind them as the air turns crisp and sharp.

Jinyoung shrugs before turning his head away as if embarrassed. “Nothing. I’m just here cause Jaebum asked us...” he admits and Jaebum finally turns to look at him. It’s not normal for Jinyoung to say such a thing. Normally he’d cringe, shoving anyone that even attempted a hug, not the type to admit to such feelings. Jaebum knows it’s a big deal so he smiles thankfully at his best friend.

Jackson whistles in mockery before playfully jabbing Jinyoung with his elbow. “Oh, is the ice king finally admitting he’s soft for his besties?” he says, well-intended and as Jinyoung shoves him away and tells him to piss off, he can’t help but smile as well.

The three of them have been best friends since diapers. Jaebum figures it’d be a cold day in hell if they ever got separated.

But as Jaebum ponders on that, his eyes catch what he’s been trying to locate on these woods. A barren willow tree.

His feet stop as a sudden stillness fills the air. The trees stand still, air no longer breezing in between the leaves, whatever woodland creatures that might have wandered around these parts long gone as the three friends stand beneath the tree.

It’s enormous, its branches spreading through the forest like veins, empty and dwindled, as the last few leaves fall to join the rest of their brothers on the ground. The silence unfurls, the only sound the sound of their breathing, as their chests heave with something. Something that makes the skin on their necks crawl and goosebumps to cover their hands.

Jaebum swallows the nerves crawling up his throat as he takes a step forward. His eyes, unwilling at first, follow down the trunk of the tree to see what lies beneath it. Just like the poem said.

But all he sees is a massive rock, empty and hollow on the inside as vines and moss cover the cold exterior.

His eyebrows furrow before diving back into the book. It’s supposed to be here.

Jinyoung lets out a shaky breath before shaking the feeling of uneasiness out of his head. “See, there’s nothing here. It’s just a hollow cave with barely enough space to fit a bear. We should go,” he comments carefully. But Jaebum ignores him in favour of the book. 

“It’s supposed to be here, why isn’t it here?” Jaebum says frantically, as Jinyoung and Jackson exchange a look. Jackson moves forward, carefully placing a hand on Jaebum’s shoulder. “We can try next year, dude...”

Jaebum huffs in confusion. He can’t spend another year wondering. He can’t.

“Come on, let’s get to the party...” Jinyoung adds on and Jaebum can’t find any more strength to fight back, so he turns his back on the cave.

Until a sound emerges from its depths.

Jaebum turns to look back immediately, eyes traveling inside the cave in search for whatever made that sound. The darkness inside of it doesn’t help him much. Instead, it’s humid, eerie and somewhat enchanting. As if calling him to dive in. As if drawing him into that pure black that seems to have no way out.

Jinyoung heard the sound too. “What in the hell was that?” his eyes are wide in fear as Jackson takes a step back.

“Man, this is totally not tubular...” Jackson exclaims, diving into his fanny pack to get out his own flashlight as well. Both him and Jaebum redirect the light to lighten the inside of the cave but it seems to not work. 

Then the sound reappears. But it’s more distinct. It’s high, yet soft and it sounds a lot like...

Meowing.

Wait. Meowing?

And just as Jaebum has that thought, a little black creature emerges from the cave, the culprit behind the sound and it stands before the three boys, staring at them curiously with it’s big, green eyes.

A cat.

Jinyoung sighs in relief and Jackson begins chuckling as soon as he sees the tiny animal staring at the three of them. “Jesus, man, I thought you were a bear or something...’

“Yeah, that’s what we all thought...” Jinyoung agrees quickly as Jaebum kneels down to look at the cat. For an animal living in the woods and having to fend for itself, it doesn’t look very wary of humans. The cat tilts its head as it looks back at Jaebum and he’s not crazy but he can swear the cat seems to look at him as if expecting him to talk.

So he does.

“We’re here for the witch...?” he begins confidently but the statement comes out more as a question as he realizes what he’s doing. He’s talking to a cat. He’s never gonna live this down.

But as he’s ready to get up and urge his friends to leave, the cat nods. It nods as if understanding Jaebum and then it nudges his hand. There’s a name tag around its neck but before Jaebum gets to read it the cat turns to look inside the cave. As if motioning for him to follow it.

Jaebum sucks in a breath. He was right. She was here. And as he stares more into the animal’s eyes he swears they glint with something else, something more aware.

Something more human.

“I’m dreaming. I’m definitely dreaming,” Jinyoung says with wide eyes as Jaebum waves at them to follow him. Jackson simply stares in awe as the inside of the cave illuminates by a warm, orange light. It reveals a much bigger space than before, the formation elongates into a corridor and as the three friends follow the cat inside the cave, they slowly notice the walls transforming. They grow tall, the humidity in the air dissipating as the vines and moss disappear from the walls and the rock turns to woods. The ground bellow them softly gives way for wood and floor and just as suddenly as they were in the cave, they’re now inside a small wooden cottage.

They turn to look behind them but the corridor has disappeared. There are only walls and a door behind them and the friends turn to look at each other in awe. 

The house they’re into is small. Wooden floors creak at their steps and the smell of incense and sage fills their nostrils. There’s a table in front of them, big and high like an examining table but it’s full with small trinkets, branches of several plants and every kind of things Jaebum would expect to see on that movie his mother keeps watching, The Witches of Eastwick.

There’s also a fireplace behind the table, small enough to fit a cauldron that’s currently bubbling with something inside. If Jaebum is honest, he doesn’t want to know what’s in it.

The cat meows again, drawing the three boys’ attention to it. It sits on its rear legs next to the only armchair of the house, staring at them in wait. Jaebum can’t figure out what the cat is waiting from them, but for some reason, he can’t shake the feeling that the feline wants to tell him something. But cats can’t talk.

“Oh, I see my darling cat brought in some visitors!” comes a wrinkly but soft voice hiding in the shadows and at once all three of them turn towards the sound of the voice. They see an old woman walk forward. She’s small in size, Jaebum thinks, almost like a child, a shawl is spread around her shoulders like a blanket and her white hair graces her head like a cotton cloud. She seems to be limping, carefully walking forward with a cane in one hand as the other hides beneath her clothes. 

Jaebum thinks she doesn’t look at all like a witch. At least not like what he imagined a witch would look like. She looks like someone’s grandma.

She smiles at the three men before a cracking sound comes from her bones. “Oh, would anyone of you boys be a dear and help an old woman to her armchair?” she calls calmly. Sweetly as if talking to her grandson and Jackson is immediately moving.

“Yes, ma’am, of course...” he replies, lending her his hand to support herself and she smiles thankfully at him.

“Oh my, what a young gentleman you are...” she keens as Jackson safely helps her to her armchair and as she sits down, Jaebum observes as the cat slowly walks away to stand in front of the warmth of the fireplace.

The woman, seeing Jaebum wondering stare rushes to explain. “She never was a particularly loving cat that one. I’m just happy she’s safe and warm here...” she comments gently, waving her hand dismissively in the air. At once a cup of liquid appears in the air and the woman reaches her hand a bit forward to catch it. The three boys look at her in astonishment, not quite sure if what they’ve witnessed is real but none seems to know what to say.

The woman (or, Jaebum thinks, the witch) notices their stares just as she takes a sip. “Oh, I’m awfully sorry, do you want some tea as well?” she asks with a welcoming smile and that seems to wake everyone up. 

“Uhm, no, madam, thank you,” Jinyoung replies before he gulps, still too awed to say anything else. He’s still trying to process everything.

The woman shrugs before taking another sip. “Sit,” she says, almost commanding and suddenly all three of them found themselves being seated on three wooden chairs. “I assume you three fine young gentlemen are here for the wishes?” she asks ingeniously, looking at the friends from above her tea. The steam of the beverage rises above the cup, towards her hair, giving her an otherworldly aura as if her white hair keeps moving along with the wind.

“How do you know that madam?” Jaebum questions suspiciously but the woman only chuckles at his naivety. 

“Oh, please, why else would you be here?” she observes cleverly and Jaebum swallows his words because, well, she’s right.

He doesn’t know what else to say though. This is something he’s been thinking for the past few months, finding the witch and using the wish to find out about his father. But now the words won’t come out. They get stuck in his throat, suddenly this all expedition feels wrong and he can’t shake the feeling of uneasiness prickling at his bones.

“So which one of you will go first?” the woman asks sweetly.

When none of them answers, Jackson decides to speak up. “I guess that’s me,” he chuckles before dragging his chair forward to get closer to the woman. “There’s this girl from my high school and I was wondering...”

But Jaebum misses the rest of the conversation when he feels something against his leg. He looks down curiously to see the cat rubbing softly against his leg. Once again her eyes meet his and he’s certain that those aren’t just normal cat eyes. There’s something off about that cat, something telling him it isn’t just a simple cat. 

Then with a graceful jump, she ends up on his lap, paws pressing against his legs as if preparing her bed. Then she curls upon him, her big, green eyes staring back at him, through him and he can’t tell if he’s losing his mind or not but it seems like the cat is trying to tell him something.

The woman’s shrill chuckle shakes Jaebum out of his thoughts as he finds the woman staring at the cat on his lap with an indecipherable look in her eyes. 

“Seems she likes you...” she comments mysteriously, eyes boring holes through the cat that shifts uncomfortably on Jaebum’s legs. Jaebum senses an air of animosity towards the animal and when his eyes find the woman’s, he’s sure it’s not just his imagination.

“Seems like it, yeah,” he responds with a steady voice and a level gaze at the witch. She seems to be taken aback at his reply but she’s quick to replace her shocked expression with a calm, saccharine one.

Then she returns her attention back to Jackson’s wish and the cat seems to relax once more. Jaebum’s gaze falls to the animal on his lap once more, and once again she looks back. He can’t shake the feeling that...

That her eyes are human.

The cat nudges her head against his palm as if wanting to be petted and Jaebum would have done exactly that if he didn’t take notice of the name tag on the cat’s neck. His fingers reach for the metallic pendant, eyes wary, for some reason not wanting the witch to realise what he’s doing. But she seems too engrossed in Jackson’s story as he drags it out. 

So with a bated breath, Jaebum turns around the pendant. 

Y/N, it reads.

Confusion engulfs him. Where has he seen that name before?

After a few seconds, it hits him. 

It’s the name of the girl that disappeared all these years ago.

His eyes widen and he gasps.

The sound gathers the witch’s attention on him again. “What’s wrong, dear?” she asks carefully but Jaebum can see the calculating glint in her eyes. The cat meows softly on his lap, in a warning.

“I, uh, nothing, nothing, I just...” he gulps, struggling to find something to appease the witch without raising her suspicions. “Ah, the cat, she accidentally scratched me...” he responds swiftly, hoping that’ll be enough.

The witch looks at him suspiciously but doesn’t say anything else on the matter. “And you?”

Jaebum’s eyebrows scrunch in confusion. “I’m sorry?”

The witch smiles. “What’s your wish?”

Jaebum freezes. He knows what his wish is. He knows what he came here for and yet his eyes fall back into the cat. Or rather, you. The girl that disappeared all those years ago at the age of 18, at his age and suddenly none of it feels right. 

He doesn’t know what to wish for.

“I, uhm...” he begins unsure, but then his eyes rest on the space above the fireplace. Where a brown, leather book stands and immediately he remembers a passage from the book currently hiding in his bag.

There’s a book rumoured to exist. A book that contains numerous spells the witch uses but also the spell to rid the witch of her powers so she can no longer hurt anyone. A book bound in leather and spells, containing such evil and darkness within but also the salvation for anyone under the witch’s influence. The book’s never been found.

Jaebum bets his walkman that’s said book.

He quickly returns his stare at the cat, for if he wants to be successful he must show no sign of interest in the book.

“I want the cat,” he finally replies, raising his proud stare to look at the witch. Jackson and Jinyoung look at Jaebum as if he’s gone mad and yet the witch’s expression hasn’t changed. She stares stoically at Jaebum, face not at all revealing any of her thoughts and yet there’s a storm brewing in her grey eyes that glint almost silver.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” she finally replies. But her voice is different. It’s low, grave and threatening almost like a growl and Jaebum can feel prickles of fear on his skin.

Yet he perseveres.

“Why not?” he raises his chin up defiantly and he can see the old woman fuming. Good, that means it’s working.

“Because!” she yells suddenly, losing her composure for a second. But then she schools her face back into that sweet expression, that one that now seems to Jaebum sickeningly sweet.

“Because she’s my only companion here. It can be very, very lonely being alone in the woods. I’m sure you wouldn’t wish that for anyone, now would you?” she stares intensely at him and Jaebum can understand that it’s a threat.

So he sighs heavily as if he’s disappointed. “I guess you’re right madam. But I really liked this one...” he complains, waiting for the witch’s reaction.

The woman sighs. “I can’t give you the cat, but I can give you anything else you ask for...” she makes a promise, hoping the promise of something grander will draw him away from the cat but what she doesn’t know is that Jaebum wants exactly that.

“Anything...?” he asks innocently and once it seems like he got the bait the witch smiles victoriously. 

“Anything! A witch’s promise is a deal! I will give you anything you ask of me, this I swear!” she proclaims and at once a slight breeze flies through the room even if all the windows and doors are sealed. It’s her magic, taking effect once her promise was out in the wind and now she really has to do anything he asks of her.

And that’s exactly what he wants.

He points to the book. “I want that.”

Once her gaze falls to the item, her face pales. The once sweet smile is wiped off her face, instead a scowl appearing in its place. Her hair begins moving once again as if enchanted and she stands up from her armchair, not needing anyone’s help anymore. 

The three boys look at her in horror as her figure elongates and her skin darkens, bones and limbs growing longer and slimmer, resembling branches of a tree. Her fingernails grow, darkening as her fingers crack and turn in weird angles and her feet drag across the floor, the sound like nails on a chalkboard. Her shawl falls off to the floor forgotten, and the white in her eyes disappears completely, now being an electric silver as if seeing lightning. Her face pulls down as if someone is dragging the skin down but her movements don’t stop.

The boys hiss, covering their ears as the cat begins yowling at the witch, ears drown back as her back hunches in alarm but the witch pays them no mind. Her long, bony fingers wrap around the book and she slowly turns around towards Jaebum. Then she moves again forwards as if she’s floating on the air and with heavy movements, she passes Jaebum the book.

Jaebum watches the exchange in alarm, a wicked grin covering the witch’s face from ear to ear, abnormally stretched and revealing the insides of her rotten mouth. 

“I’m only giving this to you boy because I have to. You can use it for only one spell and if I find out that you tried to steal it from me, or use it to harm me and my way of living, there won’t be any of you left to tell the story...” her voice is low and deadly, like a whisper as it makes the fine hair on Jaebum arms rise. He swallows nervously, accepting the book with a nod of his head. 

“Thank you, madam, I promise I’ll return the book as soon as I use my spell, this I promise!” he repeats the incantation the witch have said before, not because it will take effect, after all, there’s no magic in him, but because he hopes it shows a level of respect towards the witch in front of him.

The witch looks at him for a second, still looming over him in all her wickedness and then she’s back to how she was before; a charming old lady needing some company.

The three boys blink in surprise at the sudden transition but before they get to say anything else, the air around them feels like it’s shrinking and them with it. Like someone is sucking away the contents of the room at the other end, from where they came from. The cat jumps off him, staring at him one last time as Jaebum feels something pulling him backwards and the last thing they see before being dropped out of the cave is the witch’s evil smile.

Suddenly the three of them are outside in the woods again, in front of the cave that now seems normal once more. Jaebum shakes off the leaves from him before he opens up the book and begins searching frantically.

“Jaebum what in the world are you doing?!” Jinyoung yells once he’s up again, approaching him with enraged steps as Jaebum reads quickly page after page.

Jackson is quick to agree with Jinyoung. “Yeah, man what the hell was that? Did you really want a cat from the witch? We could get you one from the mall!”

“Can you just stop talking for a second, I need to find the spell...” he mumbles, irritated by his friends’ interference but they don’t seem too keen on listening to him.

“No, we can’t until you explain to us what in the fudge was that!” Jinyoung insists, voice strict and commanding and Jaebum takes a breath.

“The cat was not a cat, she’s a girl that disappeared when the witch was still alive and this book contains the spell that strips the witch of her magic and I have to find it before she realizes what I’m about to do!” Jaebum grits through his teeth as he turns page after page, searching for the correct spell.

Jinyoung’s left staring at him speechless and at least he’s not bothering anymore as he searches for the spell.

Jackson is the first to react. “Wait, Jaebum, are you sure? How could you tell, I mean, come on, that cat couldn’t be a human-”

“Yeah and at the beginning of this trip you didn’t believe we’d find the witch but look at us now,” he replies swiftly as his eyes run down the pages until-.

He found it.

I seek to rid someone of power I seek to find the truth behind I seek to burn the evil cower The undeserving to unbind

And he begins chanting it out loud. From what he knows he must certainly recount it at least three times before it takes effect.

Jinyoung and Jackson stare at him in shock, not quite sure what to do but as Jaebum begins chanting for the third time, the cave starts to shake.

He stops only for a second before he begins chanting again. A wind picks up between the trees, howling and whistling in anger as the branches dive down to search for the one recounting the spell. But Jaebum doesn’t deter, he chants louder and louder, the wind now almost taking the book out of his hands but he knows the spell by heart by now.

He chants and chants and the cave doesn’t stop shaking and then a shrill screams echoes through its depths, sharp and horrifying and blood curdling before a black shadow comes rushing through from inside the cave. The scream gets louder as the shadow approaches and once it’s out it dissipates with a loud bang, finally disappearing through the air and the scream fades away. 

The cave stops shaking and the wind stops.

And then as Jaebum stares at his hands the book turns to dust and disappears as well.

His two friends are left staring at him in shock. They don’t know what to do or say and honestly Jaebum doesn’t either.

But then a cough sounds from inside the cave. A female one.

Jaebum turns his head towards the hollow only to see a young girl, you, walking out. You cough into your hand as the smoke around you dissipates, your long hair unruly and messy, dressed in a white blouse, a black-laced vest and a brown peasant skirt.

You are the girl that disappeared hundreds of years ago and yet you’re still alive.

Jaebum is frozen in his spot, staring at you and too afraid to move. For some reason, fearing that if he’d move you’d disappear.

Only when you stumble on a tree root, he jolts back to awareness and rushes to help you.

He grabs you by the arm to stabilize you as you seem to not have found your footing just yet.

“Are you okay?” he asks quickly, not knowing you one bit but wanting to make sure you’re alright.

You turn to look at him and once your eyes meet, he knows it was you. That it wasn’t all just in his head.

You nod your head, tears prickling at your eyes from the smoke. “Yes, I think I am...” comes out your rough voice, probably from not speaking for 300 years. Then you turn to look at Jinyoung and Jackson, admittedly a bit bewildered by their clothing but you’re well aware that it’s been hundreds of years since your time and things were bound to change.

You swallow nervously, your throat closing up. “Thank you...” you say softly, “for saving me...” you add as you turn to look at the man holding you up. Truth is he’s quite handsome, sending a reddening blush to your cheeks but you chastise yourself. You shouldn’t feel that way for a strange man. Maybe he’s betrothed and that would be improper.

Jaebum swallows the nervousness that arises in him when he meets your eyes. “No problem... Y/N, right?” he asks just to make sure.

You nod at him as you softly remove your hand from his, now that you feel like you can walk again. “And you are?”

Jaebum face falls just a bit but he’s quick to hide it. “I’m Jaebum, and this is Jinyoung and Jackson,” he responds instead, pointing at his friends.

You turn around to greet them when the one called Jinyoung steps in front of you with wide eyes. You gasp, taking you by surprise and you take a step back, suddenly too overwhelmed with the man’s proximity.

“Are you really the girl that disappeared?” he asks in wonderment and you realize that he doesn’t seem hostile. Only curious.

“Yes. I realized that around the time the witch started granting people’s wishes, a lot of women from my village started losing their unborn children. Once I realized it was the witch’s fault, she turned me into a cat and I could never leave her sight,” you reply softly, eyes downcast as you barely remember pieces of your previous life.

“Until we came along...” says the other boy named Jackson with a boyish grin in an attempt to cheer you up and, indeed, it draws a smile on your lips as you agree with him.

The other boy, Jaebum, coughs into his hands and you turn to look at him curiously. “So, uhm... Do you have a place to stay?” he says but he quickly slaps himself in the forehead.

Of course she doesn’t you airhead!

Your eyes widen with the realization, that no, you do not. How are you supposed to survive in a place that you don’t know anyone and in a time that’s not your own?

“You can stay with one of us! I’m sure our parents won’t mind!” Jackson rushes to say, a helpful smile on his lips and you look at him bewildered.

“Oh, no, I couldn’t ask that of you, you already did so much...” you reply, feeling overwhelmed by their offer.

“It’s no problem, really! And we can teach you all you need to know about this time so you’ll adjust!” Jinyoung adds on and the truth is it doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.

“Of course we understand if you feel uncomfortable with that...” Jaebum is quick to say, obviously the only one that realized you might be wary of the idea because they’re all men.

The other two guys exclaim in realization as they agree. 

“Well, in that case, I think you’d be better off living with Jaebum. He has a little sister and his mother would probably beat up anyone that tried to hurt you...”Jinyoung chuckles at his joke but Jaebum only seems to fluster with the attention.

“It’s true...” he admits nervously, “My mother is kind of a tough cookie...”

But when he sees your face of confusion he rushes to explain. “It means she’s strong. And she always takes care of us,” he admits out loud and seeing your eyes twinkle in wonderment he realizes it was the right thing to say.

You ponder on it for a second before you turn to them again. Ready for your answer.

“It would be lovely if I could stay for a few nights until I get my bearings. If your mother agrees of course...” you conclude with a shy smile and Jaebum feels himself smile as well.

“I’m sure she won’t mind,” he replies, for once certain he made the right choice.

[leonenolee]

Ryuka Clan. The Ryuka Clan is a legendary and noble clan who crafted several forbidden techniques which are exclusively for the use of the family. Their clan is feared among the men and women in Seireitei. Due to the destructive nature of their spells, they entered an agreement with Central 46 and Gotei 13 that they will only be summoned for battles during times of emergencies. With this, they built their barracks underground to prevent any casualties during spell practices.

"A wide range spell was casted here," she said as she entered the area where the massacre scene happened. The place is now surrounded by woods erected from the ground casted with a seal to prevent anyone from entering it.

Kneeling with one knee, she analyzed the ashes scattered around the area as a byproduct of the spell. She brushed her fingers against the floor to carefully feel its texture.

"It is still fresh. I can still feel the reiatsu in it. If I have to accurately calculate, this spell was only casted today."

To begin her investigation, she brought out the round wooden tablet from her shihakushou and placed it on the ground. 

"Kuchiki-taichou, please leave the area for a while. My detection spell might absorb your reiatsu and might mess up my readings," she requested from the man who was standing beside her. 

With his suspicion, Byakuya reluctantly left the place. He stands by outside the area where he can observe her from afar.

Assuring that the area is cleared with any foreign reiatsu from above and beneath the ground, she began to slightly unsheath her zanpakuto with her left hand to cut her index finger. With her blood, she drew a crossed-shaped pattern on the tablet. 

"Oh vast great skies, gather the reishi around me. Light of the world that grants power, call the ancestors who are in peace. Ryuka Bakudou 14: Kenshutsu."

With this chant, the cross pattern emitted a light that extends to each side of the perimeter of the area. The reishi around the place were absorbed by the light and were sealed inside the tablet turning it violet.  The hazardous reiatsu was now wiped out in the site.  

As she stood up, she placed the tablet in between her palms and closed her eyes. She now started sensing each spirit ribbon in Soul Society to know who the reiatsu belongs to. However, after a wide range search, the caster of the spell was nowhere to be found. 

With frustrations penting up inside her, she temporarily concluded that the culprit may have already gone to another world. Ending her analysis, she stopped her spell and placed the tablet inside her shihakushou. With flash steps, she went to Byakuya to report her findings. 

"Kuchiki-taichou, we need to call for a captains' meeting," she said while gently landing beside him. 

Wanting to know what happened, he inquired for the results. 

"Did you find out the culprit?"

She looked at him with a pensive expression.

"It is not here in Soul Society."

"..."

Brushing the dirt off from her haori, she felt the weight of his piercing glare. 

With confidence, she assuringly replied, "Relax! Together, we will find out who caused this."

Looking at the obliterated area, she thought of a way to ease the captain's worries. 

"Do you want me to rebuild this?"

"You don't have to concern yourself with that."

"Nah, I know this is your turf, but I'll save you the hassle of rebuilding this."

"Don't make me repeat my---," his response was cut off as he saw her lift her hand pointing at the direction of the area. 

Light came flowing from the female captain's hand going to the ground. Each barracks, establishment, and even trees began to be erected. 

Gazing with amazement, Byakuya was glad to see the place completely reconstructed. 

"See? You don't have to worry about it. This place now has a quarter of my reiatsu mixed with the reishi I collected from the air."

Turning his gaze back at her, he has observed a strike of exhaustion from the captain's eyes. 

"I am out of practice. That's what I get from doing solely paperworks and documenting spells crafted by my squad." 

Disturbing her thoughts, she noticed Byakuya's intense fixed stare at her. 

"Brush off your suspicion. I am not an enemy of Sereitei. Our squad is your ally in protecting Soul Society."

"..."

"I will personally take care of anyone misusing the Ryuka clan spells even if he or she is my subordinate," she said with a bit of uneasiness in her heart. 

___

At the Captains' Assembly Hall, the noise of chitchats can be heard. All of the captains were already present except the Captain Commander, Kuchiki-taichou, and two other captains. 

"Why did the Captain Commander called for an emergency meeting?" inquired a tall man with short white haired wearing a sleeveless shihakushou and a captain's haori with the kanji of nine imprinted on its back. 

"I am not quite sure, Muguruma-taichou. I am guessing it will be about the attack near the Kuchiki manor," replied by another captain who looks like a male teenager. He has a white spiky hair and mint green eyes. He wears a captain haori with the kanji of ten written on its back. 

"If it comes to this, then it is something serious. The nobles don't usually contact us unless they need more military power. What do you think, Hitsugaya-taichou."

Their conversation was interrupted when the council room's doors were opened. Outside it stands two figures one belonging to a male and the other belongs to a female. 

"It's the 14th squad captain! What is Kuchiki-taichou doing with her?" Hitsugaya thought to himself. 

As they entered the hall, another two figures were walking behind them. 

"My, my, Riyon-chan. What made you finally get out of the dark?" a tall man with long wavy hair tied into a pony said while gently tilting his kasa as if covering his eyes. On top of his captain's haori hangs a pink kimono with floral patterns.

Knowing who that familiar voice belongs to, Riyon suddenly stopped walking and greeted the man. 

"Easy going as always, Kyouraku-kun," she said in a meek tone. 

"After you have been inaugurated as a captain, we never saw you anymore. We miss you," said another familiar voice who belonged to a tall man with long white hair. He wears a captain haori with long sleeves and the kanji of thirteen imprinted on its back. 

"Ukitake-kun, glad to see you strong. I hope you get well soon."

The other captain replied with a smile while placing his hand on his head. 

Disrupting their lovely reunion, the sound of a loud thump was heard silencing the room. It came from a cane owned by Yamamoto Genryuusai. With the presence of the Captain Commander, the captains went to their designated post and lined up with the exemption of Byakuya and Riyon. They were instead, called to the front along with the old man. 

"Why would you call an urgent captains' meeting, Ryuka-taichou?" the Captain Commander asked to get the business done while he sat on his chair.  

Removing the hood enveloping her head, she then replied, "before I answer that, permission to use our clan's technique first?"

Raising  one of his eyebrows, the captain commander said in response to her question, "for what purpose will you use it for?"

"I'll have to show you what I have gathered in this," she said as she brings out the round wooden tablet from her shihakushou. 

"As long as it is not a destructive one, you may do so."

Facing the captains who are eager to hear what she has to say, she knelt down and put the tablet on the floor. 

"My fellow captains, please take at least two to three steps back."

Knowing that everyone has already cleared the center aisle, she closes her eyes and whispers some words. Violet smoke came out from the tablet and crawled on the floor. It began forming each barracks, establishments, and trees that were destroyed in the area.

Everyone felt a menacing chill when the reiatsu was released from the tablet. 

"What is this feeling? It's like a blade is placed on my neck," Hitsugaya thought to himself showing a rather disturbed expression. 

"The fear that you are feeling right now, shake it off with your own spiritual pressure. Don't let it consume you. This is the very nature of a Ryuka clan spell," Riyon instructed them as she stood up and proceeded to one side of the now established ruined area formed by the violet smoke. 

Facing Yamamoto, she began her explanation, "Yamamoto-taichou, based on my readings, I can confidently predict where the spell was casted. If we will take the exposure to the flames into consideration, we can say that they casted it here…"

Producing two small balls of light with her reiatsu, she marked two places above the area. Then she placed another one in front of the ruins. 

"There were three casters in total according to my calculations. As you can see, the ruined area consisted of five barracks and a training ground in the middle of it."

She paused for a while and gave Byakuya a worried look. 

"With a Class S level of destruction, I accurately presume that it was Hado Number 248 Death Inferno Flame spell."

"That is absurd! We only have until number 99 for our spells," reacted by a short haired woman with two long strands of hair wrapped in a bandage with gold circles on its end. She was wearing a captain's haori with the kanji of two imprinted on its back. 

Turning to the lady, Riyon gave her a sharp look. 

"Soi Fon taichou, our clan spells go way higher than 300 as what have stated in our history books."

Slowly returning her eyes to Byakuya, she continued explaining her findings. 

"I hate to say this, but Kuchiki-taichou, you've lost some elite men, women, and some children. To my calculations, around 71."

Knitting his eyebrows with this fresh devastating news, Byakuya clenched his fists. 

Uproars can be also heard from the lips of the other captains. 

"Silence!" 

The noise died down with a word from the Captain Commander.

Looking at her with a stern expression, he firmly asked, "Did you find the caster?"

"I went through a wide range sensing of spirit ribbons combing through every corner of Seireitei and Rukongai. However," she paused for a while while placing her hands on her chest. 

"It seems that it doesn't belong here."

"You know you will have to find them as soon as possible, am I right, Ryuka-taichou?" 

"I will see to it that I will find them. I will clear the name of my clan and," she paused again midway her sentence and gave Byakuya a glance, "I will help Kuchiki-taichou in finding justice for his people. That's why…"

With conviction, she looked at each captain one by one before finally fixing her eyes on the Captain Commander. 

"I will be needing your strength as the Gotei 13 to help me in finding the culprit."

There was a brief dead air before the Captain Commander gave his reply, "Gotei 13 will aid you, but you will be the one solely responsible resolving this issue."

"I take full responsibility. To begin with," she walked towards the captain wearing black and white stripes face paint and gold headdress,  "I will be needing your help, Kurotsuchi-taichou."

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #142: Ishtar

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re making Best Goddess and, according to @hasishtardoneanythingwrong, a servant who has done absolutely nothing very little wrong, Ishtar! 

In this build, Ishtar is a Divine Soul Sorcerer to balance her blasting abilities with her divine nature and a Zeal Cleric to push her explosive capabilities and godhood to the max.

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next up: The second part of the oldest bromance in human history.

Race and Background

Unfortunately WotC hasn’t figured out how to balance literal god PCs yet, but since Ishtar is a demiservant we can still technically call her a Protector Aasimar, giving her +1 Wisdom, +2 Charisma, Darkvision, Celestial Resistance to radiant and necrotic damage, Healing Hands to heal some hands, and the Light cantrip.

Since she protects Uruk in her own special way, we’ll call her a Goddess Alliance Anarch. This gives you Animal Handling and Religion proficiencies, as well as some bonus spells as you level up!

Ability Scores

As the goddess of love and also blowing up mountains, your Charisma needs to be as high as possible. Follow that up with Dexterity, you can literally fly, that’s pretty fast. After that will be Constitution, you can take a lot of abuse, especially if it’s coming from the writers. Your Wisdom has to be next so we can multiclass, keep that in mind if you’re rolling. Your Strength isn’t amazing, but it’s not like you’re using it anyway. Finally, dump Intelligence. Not gonna dwell on that one, let’s just move on.

Class Levels

1. Sorcerer 1: Honestly I think “Divine Soul” is kinda selling yourself short, but we’ll work in the framework we’re given. You can cast Spells now, including your Divine Magic from the cleric spell list, using your Charisma. You’re also Favored by the Gods, giving you the option of adding 2d4 to a failed save or attack roll once per short rest.

For cantrips you get Thunderclap and True Strike for offensive options (I mean you do aim. Even if your target’s a mountain, aiming is important.) You also get Minor Illusion and Friends to manipulate people into doing what you want.  Finally, your stand against the Three Goddess Alliance grants you the cantrips Fire Bolt and Produce Flame to make the battlefield a little bit spicier.

For first level spells, you get Bless from being a divine soul, as well as Compelled Duel, Speak with Animals, and Thunderwave from being an Anarch. For your actually chosen spells, Mage Armor makes your outfit feasible, and Feather Fall will be very helpful once you start flying.

2. Sorcerer 2: Second level sorcerers become a Font of Magic, giving you sorcerer points equal to your sorcerer level. Right now you can turn points into spell slots or vice versa, but it’ll get more interesting later. 

You can also cast Disguise Self, in case you have to, I don’t know, organize a servant-based wacky races kind of event? Idk, whatever.

3. Sorcerer 3: Third level sorcerers get Metamagic, letting you alter your spells to suit your mood by using sorcery points. A Transmuted spell lets you swap out its acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, or thunder damage for another option on that list. Meanwhile, you can use a Distant spell to double a spell’s range, making your archery much more effective.

You also become a Radiant Soul, spending an action to transform yourself and gaining a flying speed for up to a minute. You can also deal extra radiant damage to a creature you hit with an attack or spell once per turn. You can do this once per long rest. It’s not a long trip, but it’s free.

On top of that, you get second level spells this turn. Distort Value lets you halve or double an object’s apparent value for the duration, perfect for haggling with a certain someone. You also get Beast Sense and Shatter from your Anarch spell list. The former isn’t that in-character, but the latter is a good start to taking down that mountain.

4. Sorcerer 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to round up your Constitution and Charisma, giving you more health, better concentration, and stronger spells. What a glow up!

You can also cast the cantrip Resistance to add 1d4 to a creature’s next save, or use Find Traps to make sneaking into Gilgamesh’s many treasure vaults slightly easier. If it works.

5. Sorcerer 5: You’re a god, so you probably shouldn’t be messing up that often. To help with that, Magical Guidance lets you spend a sorcery point to re-roll a failed skill check. Maybe it’ll help.

You can also cast Fly this level, giving you more frequent flying miles at the cost of your concentration. You can also Conjure Animals if you want to show up that gazelle-loving sister of yours. More on-target, however, is your other Anarch spell, Conjure Barrage. Gosh, it’s almost like you’re an archer or something.

6. Cleric 1: This whole flying around exploding things is great, but I think we can put more pizazz on it. Or, as they say down in Amonkhet, let’s add some Zeal. That’s right, we’re stealing from two MTG planes this build! As a Priest of Zeal, you can attack as a bonus action if you attack as an action a number of times per long rest equal to your wisdom modifier. That sounds kind of useless, but as a Zeal Cleric you also get proficiency with martial weapons, meaning that yes, you can use a bow and arrow. The archer class really is made up of archers!

You can also cast and prepare Spells using your Wisdom, but we got the really good ones in your sorcerer list, so don’t worry too much here. You do get some more cantrips, though! Thaumaturgy lets you throw your godly weight around, Light lets you cast light again using a worse casting modifier, and Guidance gives a creature some helpful advice from their favorite goddess, adding 1d4 to their next check.

You also get some domain spells, but they’re both smites and you’re an archer, so...

7. Cleric 2: The real reason we’re dipping is for your Channel Divinity option, which you can use once per short rest. You could  use it for Turn Undead, forcing a wisdom save against all undead near you (with a dc of 8 + proficiency + wisdom modifier), but the much more fun option is Consuming Fervor. This turns one fire or thunder damage roll into its maximum instead of rolling. That will be very scary later.

8. Sorcerer 6: Sixth level divine souls get Empowered Healing. You might not have any healing spells, but just being around people makes them feel a bit better. This lets you spend a sorcery point to re-roll any dice being used in a healing roll near you once per turn.

Speaking of healing, we’re still not doing that! You can now Bestow Curses onto people. Serves them right, calling you a “useless goddess”. This is one of those creative spells, so have fun with it!

9. Sorcerer 7: Seventh level sorcerers get fourth level spells! Anarchs get Dominate Beast and Stoneskin, and while neither are technically in character the latter could be very useful given your less than stellar AC. Also, literally turning yourself into gemstones is a real power move.

Your spell of choice this level is Ice Storm, letting you pummel a 20′ radius area with plenty of hail (or fiery debris, or just pure force), enough to turn the area into difficult terrain for a round.

10. Sorcerer 8: Use this ASI to grab the Spell Sniper feat, letting your spells ignore most cover, and spells you cast that require an attack roll have two times their normal range. You also learn Eldritch Blast to further flex on those dumb warlocks. They have to sell their soul and waste an invocation to get 300′ range blasts, and here you are with 480′ range and your soul’s intact! Hah!

You can also exude an Aura of Purity now, preventing disease, weakening poison damage, and granting advantage on a ton of status effect saves. 

11. Sorcerer 9: Ninth level sorcerers get fifth level spells, including your final Anarch spell, Destructive Wave. It’s only got a range of thirty feet, but it never hurts to prepare for an ambush. For longer range attacks, Flame Strike will do nicely. We’re still not quite at “blasting a mountain to smithereens” level power, but we’re getting there.

12. Sorcerer 10: Tenth level sorcerers can get the most out of their spells by making them Empowered, letting them re-roll a number of dice on their damage roll, up to their charisma modifier.

You can also cast Dancing Lights for a bit of a dramatic flair, or Creation to make gemstones out of thin air. Heck, you could even make a proper Boat of Heaven with this!

13. Sorcerer 11: Another two levels have passed, that means you get another spell level. Sunbeam gives you a reusable sunlight blast, dealing radiant damage and blinding creatures that fail their constitution save. You can use this attack again as your action each turn for up to a minute. Sadly this isn’t affected by either of your range enhancements, but you’ve still got plenty of airspace to work with.

14. Sorcerer 12: If we’re going to blast a mountain apart we’ve got to get serious. Use this ASI to get the Elemental Adept feat, focusing on Thunder damage. Once you take this feat, all dice on thunder damage rolls coming from spells always count as at least a 2, and they ignore thunder resistances.

15. Sorcerer 13: The first step to launching the literal planet Venus at somebody is actually getting the damn thing, and that means we need to leave the atmosphere at a moment’s notice. The closest we can come to that here is Plane Shift. You can also use this on enemy creatures as a melee attack

16. Sorcerer 14: Fourteenth level Divine Souls get an Angelic Form you can transform into as a bonus action. This gives you a flying speed of 30′ that is basically permanent until you’re incapacitated or you just get rid of them on your own. Have fun with those orbital bombardments!

17. Sorcerer 15: Sunburst sounds like a good pick for your eighth level spell. This one actually does get a range boost, which is good because it deals damage in a 60′ radius. Creatures within that radius get a constitution save, and failing that means a lot of radiant damage and being blind until it makes the save on the end of its turn. Sadly, it’s stuck on radiant damage, but it’s still an effective blasting spell.

18. Sorcerer 16: Use your last ASI to max out your Charisma so that whole “making the save” thing from last level never happens.

19. Sorcerer 17: To make those saves even less likely, our final metamagic option is Heightened Spell, causing one creature’s first save of the spell in question to be made at disadvantage. Basically you’re saying “like you had a choice in the matter”.

Speaking of spells though, we can finally pull Venus through for a charged shot, thanks to the ninth level spell Meteor Swarm. With a max range of 1-2 miles this truly is nuking the planet from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

Here’s a step by step guide for removing a mountain. 1. Hang out in the Troposphere. 2. Cast Meteor Swarm, swapping out Fire for Thunder damage. 3. Channel Divinity, maxing out the thunder damage for extra fun. 4. Deal 120 Thunder damage that ignores resistances, on top of 20d6 bludgeoning damage. 5. Enjoy your new crater.

20. Sorcerer 18: Your capstone level of sorcerer gives you an Unearthly Recovery. When you’re bloodied, you can spend a bonus action to heal yourself for half your HP, once per long rest. You had enough trouble in the underworld as it is, no point in going back again.

Pros:

As I just mentioned in level 19, you can deal a lot of damage. Like, Sanson level damage, without all the nonsense attached to it. You’ve got big booms, and multiple ways to make those booms hurt even more than they should.

Flying on a spellcaster is just. Really, really good. Especially on one built for range. There’s almost literally nothing they can do to you up here. Like, arrows, maybe, but you can just retaliate with the literal wrath of god. Plus, you’re probably out of counterspell range, so there’s nothing the DM can do to you!

A lot of your spells are focused on damage, but you do still have plenty of variety in your spell list, just in case. And on the off chance you’re fighting someone in a silence bubble, you can just change your thunder spells to acid or something.

Cons:

For most of this build we’re relying on the Flight spell to get off the ground, which eats up your Concentration and has a chance of failure when you take damage. It’s not ideal.

Those Cleric Levels are very useful, but they still push back your spell progression by 2 levels, which means you’ll have even less time with your An Gal Ta Ki Gal Se than you would normally.

You can’t fly everywhere. Caves exist. Buildings exist. I mean you totally can blast holes to get where you need to, just don’t expect to be that popular with whoever owns the building. Also, fighting in cramped areas plays to your biggest weakness: squishiness. Your AC is only 15, and you’ve got barely over 120 HP, which as we just discussed, someone built like you can take out very easily.

[atsushishelteredinmoonlitjasmine]

Fire Emblem: Awakening Thoughts

As of the date May 20th, 2020, I finished my playthrough of Fire Emblem: Awakening on its one year anniversary of when I got it. It is now June 5th of writing this. This post will be my thoughts and feelings on Awakening, much like the KH3 Grievances and Blessings post last year. Let's get into some history between me and Fire Emblem before I go into Awakening.

As I've said before, Awakening was both my first Fire Emblem game and my first Tactical RPG. Smash Bros. was where I had heard of Fire Emblem but it wouldn't be until Ultimate came out that I would start to get interested. It was because of my friend's preference for Lucina that got me into playing as her in Smash and that's pretty much how she became both one of my mains and a favorite. It honestly wasn't till I listened to the Smash remixes of Id, Conquest, and Lost in Thoughts All Alone that I decided to play Awakening and then Fates. So thanks go out to both Smash and my friend Eric for converting me to Fire Emblem trash!

Much like the KH3 Grievances and Blessings post, I'll be going over every aspect of Awakening I can think of, from the graphics to the gameplay to the story. I'll even include a Best/Worst Girl and Boy of both generations because that kind of thing seems to matter to some people, along with my reasons for why X is Y. Keep in mind that whoever I choose as those categories, it is just my opinion and you're free to disagree with me. I say this because I know that, no matter what I say, some diehard fans will get pissed at me and come at me for daring to shit on their favorite character. I already know some people are gonna get mad because they think X should be Best/Worst and that'll be fun to see (You can interpret that as sarcasm if you want).

Listed below are Awakening spoilers, so if you want to play the game and don't want to be spoiled, now's your chance to stop reading. I know Awakening came out in 2013, meaning 6 or 7 years ago, but there may be some people who haven't gotten around to playing it yet so I want to be courteous to them. Here are my thoughts on Fire Emblem: Awakening!

First off, the graphics. I think they looked really nice for a 3DS game that came out in the early 2010's and I believe this was Fire Emblem's first fully 3D game as well so that's really impressive. The in-game models were nicely detailed, the in-game sprites were nice looking, and the prerendered cutscenes were beautiful. This doesn't mean they're not without their faults, though. I wish the in-game cutscenes were more animated because it's easy to tell when an animation's been used over and over again, I feel as if the in-game sprites have some dissonance with official art, and there are times where expressions or animations for the prerendered cutscenes have looked pretty awkward. In terms of the first and last point, I'm giving IntSys some slack because, as I stated earlier, they were developing a game for the 3DS, a powerful handheld device but it's still a handheld, and this was FE's first 3D game so there may have been issues transitioning from 2D sprites to 3D models. I'll explain what I mean by my second point. I've looked at Cynthia's official art and when I see her face, I tend to see what I'd call a baby face, pudgy cheeks and all. Her in-game sprite, however, her face is sharper, more mature, if that makes sense. Maybe it's the pigtails throwing me off or it's just a difference between two art styles, I don't know. I'm not an artist so there's not much weight behind this but I'm just saying there's somewhat a dissonance between official art and in-game sprites.

Secondly, gameplay. I loved how easy it was and how I could switch between a simple and complex UI if I wanted to see which attacks could hit or what the enemy's stats were. This may sound stupid but I honestly thought it'd be way more difficult due to this being a Tactical RPG. I know strategy's a big part of Fire Emblem but strategy's not a big problem if you're like me and you grind to hell and back. Speaking of which, I played on Easy Casual mode so that might be why it seemed so simple from the get-go. Just to give you an idea of how much I grinded, I put in 200+ hours and that mostly consisted of buying a shitton of Reeking Boxes, spawning Risen on some of my favorite grind spots, and fighting them over and over again. I went through the 3 basic classes each character could have, maxed out their default class one last time, promoted them to their advanced class, and maxed out those classes 2-3 times over. I have a video on my Twitter that shows the stats of these characters and most of them are over 220 (The shapeshifters 300). Needless to say, I loved each and every fucking crit I got. Cordelia even got what I call a miracle crit, which means she got 2 crits in one round and after the enemy attacked, she got another 2 crits. Level grind ain't a joke in this game.

Thirdly, the music. Considering it's part of why I got into this game in the first place, I loved it. As I'm writing this, I'm listening to the OST and it sounds so much better when you don't have the ambient sounds and you're not listening to it through the 3DS speakers. The song that hit me the most and just gave me the overwhelming feels was Id~Sorrow as it played in Chapter 21. It fit so well with the tone of the scene and I just sat there for a few minutes, letting it play in the background as I did shit. Other notable mentions are Id~Purpose, Destiny, Conquest, and the song that is just ellipses. If the music is this good in Awakening, I can't wait to see what's in store for Fates!

Fourthly, the voice acting. For a game where most of the voices come in forms of clips, I thought they were good. Each of the actors tried their best to convey their characters in the clips they were allowed to have and I think it shows. The only critique I have, and it's not the actors' fault, is that some of the characters' voices don't fit them. I'm not saying they miscast these characters, it's more like the direction was off, if that makes sense. Let me bring up Cynthia, Kjelle, and M!Morgan as examples. I don't think it's a stretch to say that, sometimes when you look at a character, you kinda imagine what they'd sound like before you hear their actual voice, right? I already brought up Cynthia's looks so I imagined her voice to sound very high-pitched and maybe a little childlike. I hear her voice and, while she's high-pitched and some of her voice clips do go into that childlike territory, she's nasally sounding and more mature. Kjelle is a complicated case in that, her voice fits her appearance (minus the armor) but not her personality. Her personality is similar to Sully's so I figured her voice would sound gruffer and not...cute, if that's the right word. M!Morgan's, I think, everyone can see the problem with. He's supposed to be the youngest of the kids, right? Since he's the only third generation character and all that? I think he just sounds a little too old for the supposed baby of the kids. Again, I'm not saying the voices are bad or that the delivery/emotion was bad, I just think the direction in which they were voiced don't fit some of the characters. Maybe I'm just thinking in terms of archetypes or something.

Now we move on to the story. I can't say as to whether it was good or not, mainly because I spoiled myself on it way before I decided on playing Awakening, so I don't think I can say much to the quality. The least I'll say is it's serviceable. I'll admit, the one thing I was shocked by was the appearance of the Grima Avatar because I thought Grima was inside Robin the whole time and I didn't think he'd have a separate vessel. I straight up thought Grima!Robin was either my mother or a twin I wasn't aware of so I'm giving credit to the writers for surprising me. Anyway, I think the only flaw I have with the story is with the pacing. I thought the first half was fine, it wasn't too fast or too slow. It was the second half that the pacing couldn't find a middle ground. Now I'm going to say that this half was stretched out over months of my playtime so whatever I say next might be exaggerated because of my procrastinating ass so... I feel like the Valm arc was way too slow and the Grimleal arc had so much trouble finding a middle ground. The beginning of the Grimleal arc was quick but Grima himself decided that I had to finish 2 and a half chapters before I finally got to beat him and you have to deal with constant reinforcements before you kill off the target. I think if it weren't for my overleveled as fuck units, I wouldn't have finished Awakening in time for my birthday.

Just for shits and giggles, I'm gonna say what I picked for my choice with both Luce's judgement and Grima's fate. I picked the self-sacrificial choices, which means I accepted Luce's judgement and allowed her to kill me and I dealt the final blow to Grima so Chrom didn't have to. While I knew the outcomes of both choices and them ultimately not meaning anything, I wanted my Robin to reflect what I would've done and I'm a very self-sacrificial person. Because I made Chrobin happen in my playthrough, which meant Luce was my daughter, I believe that, if my child who came from an apocalyptic world told me I was the reason for that happening and that she came back through time to stop that future from happening so she and the others wouldn't suffer, I would've let her kill me. Parents would and should do anything for their kids and if my death possibly gave my daughter the chance for a better life, I'd take it in stride. As for me dealing the final blow to Grima, if it was to save everyone I loved, I would've done it. Although there's some feelings of wanting to give a big "Fuck you" to Grima and to permanently end the problem so any future descendants wouldn't have to deal with it. This section may sound more philosophical and personal than I usually write but I think it deserved it.

Now we're on to Supports and who I chose to be together. I don't think it's wrong to say that this is where the characters really get to shine and it's because of the Supports I love these kids and how much I'm going to miss them when I move on to other FE games. As for the "canon" couples, I mainly went with characters that I thought would complement each other and this was one of the few things I tried to choose for myself. I tried my best to go for pairings that weren't fan favorites but I'm also not very connected with the fandom as of writing this so I may be completely wrong in which ships were favorites or not. So here are the pairings I got for my playthrough!

Chrom-Robin

Frederick-Sumia

Virion-Miriel

Vaike-Nowi

Stahl-Sully

Lon'qu-Cordelia

Ricken-Lissa

Gaius-Maribelle

Gregor-Cherche

Libra-Panne

Henry-Olivia

Lucina-Inigo

Owain-Cynthia

Brady-Nah

Kjelle-Laurent

Severa-Yarne

Obviously, there are some characters missing from this list and I can explain why. I didn't recruit Kellam and Tharja and it's because your girl is a dumbass. Kellam, I thought, was already on my team, he was just labelled as an ally so I didn't need to recruit him. They really should've made that clear. Tharja, on the other hand, was an even bigger dumbass than me because she decided to charge after Robin, who happened to be in front and was way overleveled, and got her ass promptly beaten with a crit. I regret not getting Kellam but after hearing how awful of a person Tharja is and how many fans are willing to put aside emotional abuse and stalker-like tendencies to have a chance to fuck her, she can stay buried in the sand where I electrocuted her ass. Unfortunately, this does means Noire didn't pop up in my recruitment list and that fucking sucks. The only characters left I didn't have a pairing were Gerome and Morgan. I think Gerome wouldn't really care for a romantic partner because he's all about not wanting to create ties in this time and shit and, since I see Morgan as the baby of the kids, I figured he'd be a little too young to be in a relationship. Despite that, I wish I got him and Nah together because I found out after she was shipped with Brady that Morgan's the only S-Support she'll say "I love you" to and I was immediately filled with regret.

Before I move on to the Best/Worst contest, there's something I need to bring up because I can see what sensible fans have shown now. This game is HELLA gay. Like, holy fuck, how many instances are there where you have two characters of the same sex and they have dialogue that seems to have been written with romantic intent but the writers decide it's meant to be platonic? Maybe I just have this weird line of thought on how straights are because there's no fucking way some of these gay moments would be a thing with even the most accepting straights. Maribelle calling Lissa darling and other pet names, Robin blushing from some of the girls and even mistaking Flavia's proposition for a marriage proposal, Severa looking at Kjelle's abs, the list goes on. I'm not straight because I'd be doing some of this shit with a potential girlfriend if I could! Why did it take IntSys until 3 Houses to implement LGBT+ pairings when this game is right here?! At least this game doesn't have the weird student/teacher relationships 3H has and believe me when I say that, if it weren't for the fact I could give less of a fuck for 3H, I wouldn't play that game for that reason! Anyway, Awakening is hella gay and it should've been the first LGBT+ FE game instead of 3H.

The Best/Worst contest... As I said in the beginning, there'll be a Best/Worst Boy and Girl for both generations because that's fun and it seems to matter a lot to some people. Repeating what I said, this is just my opinion and you're free to agree or disagree with me. One rule I'm putting in is I will try my best to not pick fan favorites. Don't get me wrong when some of the crowd pleasers are good but there are other characters that deserve just as much love as the fan favorites so this is why I'm putting in this rule. Without further ado, here are the rulings!

1st Gen

Best Boy-Lon'qu

Best Girl-Panne

Worst Boy-Virion

Worst Girl-Miriel

2nd Gen

Best Boy-Owain

Best Girl-Cynthia

Worst Boy-Inigo

Worst Girl-Severa

Let's see how many people I piss off with these judgements. So, my reasoning: Best Boy for 1st gen was a big toss-up. I kept wanting to choose between Chrom, Frederick, Stahl, and Lon'qu because they really endeared themselves to me but I chose Lon'qu in the end because he's honestly such a dork (I mean, all of them are) and I gotta admire how he tries to overcome his fear of women and try being there for his wife and daughter if he happens to have one. There's also the fact he has to literally psyche himself up to talk to women if you check in with him in the Barracks and I'm just like "Fucking hell, that's adorable and I GET it". Best girl is Panne because believe me when I say that the moment I see this woman and hear her voice, I'm immediately gay for her. Then she transforms into a giant rabbit, kicks so much ass, and I'm in love. Funny story, I'd talk to my friend about my progress in Awakening on Discord and the moment he asks me who best girl was and I answered Panne, he called me out for being a furry. Granted, I would've automatically said Luce but I'm trying not to pick fan favorites so I get his criticism. If a woman like Panne existed in real life, bunny ears and tail and all, I'd probably become a furry for her, no questions asked. As for worst boy and girl, Virion and Miriel are characters I honestly don't give much of a fuck about. Not that they're bad, I just don't care about their archetypes, if that makes sense. Miriel I found to be boring and Virion's of the Casanova archetype and I've always kinda hated that archetype so that's why they're on the ranking.

Oh boy, 2nd gen. So, best boy being Owain. This boy is going to kill me. He's so adorable and sweet and he's just a good boy. There are literally Tweets on my Twitter where I just gush about him and he deserves so much love. He's just a sweet boy who loves his parents so much and is so proud to be their son and how he manages to rope his cousins (Luce and Morgan) into going with his fantasies and how they just go along with it! Owain is a cinnabun and I want to protect him and love him. Anyway, best girl being Cynthia is sorta the same reason as Owain. She's just so bubbly and happy and just adorable. Yeah, she may get carried away with showboating but I just love her earnest desire to be a hero. I think everyone can see why I paired Owain and Cynthia up. Now for the worst. Inigo and Severa are probably the only characters in this whole game that straight up got on my fucking nerves and for different reasons. Outside of his supports with Olivia and Henry, Inigo's constant flirting with the girls and Robin and inability to take no for an answer just rubbed me the wrong way. I actually put out a Tweet saying how Inigo's like an r/niceguy and I still think he is one. Course, this doesn't mean I didn't have my fair share of laughs from him. I fucking died at his and Gerome's A-Support where he ends up pathetically crying after the emo loner got more game than him and Gerome has to comfort his ass, that was hilarious. It also helped the fact that Liam O'Brien, who I've only heard him as the brooding emo loner role, voiced Inigo as the complete opposite of that and I had a blast. Severa, on the other hand, was...really unpleasant. There's a reason I hate Tsunderes with a passion and it's because they're unnecessarily bitchy towards everyone they know, even if they have no reason to be. Severa, however, was somehow worse because she went out of her way to be horrible to people. My dislike for her was cemented the moment I saw her and Cynthia's C-Support and she chose to make fun of her, despite Cynthia minding her own business and Severa just going "fuck it". However, I should express that I understand why Inigo and Severa are the way they are and that's why I'm not being as harsh on them as I could be. They still have their good moments and I can appreciate them while also raking them over the coals.

So that concludes my review/experience of Fire Emblem: Awakening! Despite some moments of frustration and annoyance, I had fun playing this! I mean it when I say I'm gonna miss these kids but I had plenty of time to spend with them so it's time to move on to newer lands. Next up on the list is Fates and I think I'm siding with Hoshido first. It's funny how, despite me spoiling the story for myself 3 separate times, I still can't remember much, if any, of it so that may say something about the quality. I also know Fates is pretty divisive among the fandom but the thing I know it for is the weird pseudo-incestuous ships it has so that's going to be fun! Hopefully, I'll get around to playing as one of my other mains in Smash, my water horse dragon Corrin, sometime soon and I'll be sure to let everyone know when my journey will start!

[bokunoheroanalysisforthefuture]

Chapter three! I already skimmed through it and just. Holy fuck I’m falling in love with this series all over again, and this is just the opening arc, how the hell is this so good??? I’m genuinely just in awe and fuck is it making it hard to decide where to have a cut-off point for this chapter. I suppose we’ll just have to see what fate decides.

(Also, the temptation to just paste in all of the last three pages of the chapter is so incredibly strong, you don’t understand.)

[No. 3 - Entrance Exam]

We start off with some exposition: UA’s hero course is designed to give students all they need to go pro, and is the toughest and most popular hero course in the country, with only a 1 in 300 acceptance rate. Discounting the four slots that are recommendation students, that’s 36 slots a year, which is about…

Yeah. That’s a lotta applications, and that’s just for the hero course! 

Several alumni are mentioned: All Might, who declined the people’s choice award; Endeavor, who’s stopped more crimes than anyone else in recorded history; and Best Jeanist, who’s won the Best Jeanist award eight years running. (One of these things is not like the other~ One of these things just doesn’t belong~) The exposition suggests that graduating from UA is basically a requirement for becoming a great hero - something which we’ll learn soon enough isn’t quite true.

But yeah, Endeavor with the record for crime handling, even above All Might. Quite the impressive hero, though that face…

Not precisely reassuring.

So yeah, Izuku here mentions the date of the exam - February 26th. I figure that this has to be a Sunday, for the simple fact that Japan has a slightly different school schedule than us. Most notably: Japanese schools (some of them, anyways) have 5.5 day school weeks. Yes, that means the first half of Saturday can still be a school day. 

While I couldn’t confirm for sure whether this is more common among the higher end schools, I feel like a school like UA, with its ‘Plus Ultra’ motto, would definitely be a school to have a half-day (or even a full day) on Saturdays, and since they also have to accomodate for middle schools that have Saturday morning classes, I figure that it would make the most sense for UA to schedule this exam on a Sunday. 

The benefits of this, as we’ve already seen, is that we can then narrow down the timeline for the rest of the series, just based on that single, confirmed date. We know from the last chapter that the Sludge Villain had to happen on a Thursday or Friday of the first week of school (April 14th/15th), with the first training session two days later (the 16th/17th). But what this also gives us is when Izuku’s first year of UA starts, AND the possible years it could start on. 

Since we see the glowing baby is in a modern hospital, we can assume that’s correlated to about our times. Give it a few generations, and we can guess that we’re in the 2200s or 2300s for the current era. Based on that assumption, we get the following years that have February 26th on a Sunday:

23rd century potential years: 2204, 2209, 2215, 2226, 2232, 2237, 2243, 2254, 2260, 2265, 2271, 2282, 2288, 2293, 2299

24th century potential years: 2310, 2316, 2321, 2327, 2338, 2344, 2349, 2355, 2366, 2372, 2377, 2383, 2394, 2400

As a side note, when I got into the series, my brain weirdly latched onto the idea that this had to all be happening in the year 2317. I don’t know why I decided on that number, but that’s what I rolled with, and hilariously I could be RIGHT about the year the current manga arc is happening in, provided Izuku’s first year is in 2316. Sometimes you just know, ya know? I know at least one other friend made these calcs independently of me and chose to run with 2237, which is totally valid! Probably makes more sense to be in the 2200s, but there’s room depending on how much time one thinks has passed.

As for when Izuku’s high school school year starts, we know that Japanese schools start on the second Monday of April. Since we don’t know if this is a leap year or not, we’ll end up with two dates, but that’s fine!

Feb 26 (Sun) -> Feb 27 (Mon) -> March (6/5, 13/12, 20/19, 27/26) -> April (3/2, 10/9)

Therefore, Izuku’s first day of classes (not counting the orientation, which I’ve seen a few other timelines assume is on the Sunday before classes start) is April 10th (or the 9th if a leap year)! I know this is all in the future from this chapter, but still, I wanted to share this at some point and figured now was as good a time as always.

Math!

Sorry, I’ve just wanted to share this math I did for a while now, I put a lot of work into it and I am very proud of it. Let’s get back to the chapter.

So Izuku lives a 40 minute train ride away from UA, and has made it just in time for the exam. Apparently, this is only the practical portion? Or well, that’s the part that gets focused on in this chapter, with no mention of the paper exam. I would imagine they’d be the same day, though? But I suppose one can do whatever they like with it.

He’s standing there looking at the school, thinking about how he didn’t have a chance to test the power, while the other students head in-

Excuse me, Toga?? I know that hairstyle is just a bit off, but… ???

...right, anyways. Izuku is wondering whether the hair really did anything (also, it was apparently sour, which, ew.) Katsuki comes up behind him and tells him to move aside.

Truly a flattering image. Izuku panics a bit and greets him, but Katsuki just walks by without another word or gesture, leaving Izuku confused as he watches him head on into the building. The narrative notes that since the villain incident, Katsuki hadn’t bothered Izuku, while the unnamed characters in the background apparently recognize Katsuki from the ‘sludge’ incident (well, not shocked how the fandom held onto that name). 

Izuku notes that he’s gotta stop flinching instinctively, and then tries to hype himself up, noting that it’s not like before, and think about the past ten months while taking a wobbly step forward- and then tripping over himself.

I’m sorry Izuku just has so many fantastic faces in this chapter I am crying trying to limit myself to just a few. But yeah, that little derp as he realizes what’s happening is adorable, especially while Ochako gently sets him back on his feet. She mentions that it’s her quirk, and apologizes for using it, but that it’s a bad omen to trip and fall. (I wonder if that gets played with again during later parts of the series… will have to check to see.)

While Izuku freaks out over talking to a girl, Ochako notes that the exam is nerve-wracking, and then heads off while wishing both of them luck as Izuku stares after. 

This fucking kid. I love him so much. His flustered excitement gets him some weird looks from the others still outside.

We transition to a new character (Present Mic) who immediately shows off his performative side by calling for a ‘hey!’ which… is met with silence from the crowd. He doesn’t let this throw him off, instead letting them know that he’ll present the guidelines for the practical, followed with a ‘YEAH!’ that gets met with an even heavier silence.

Izuku and Katsuki are seated next to each other, with Izuku descending right into excited muttering over Present Mic and how he listens to his radio show every week. Also with the assumption that all the UA teachers are pro heroes, which I mean, true, but still. Katsuki tells Izuku to shut up.

Present Mic explains the test: ten minute long ‘mock cityscape maneuvers’, with the applicants split among seven arenas, labelled ‘A’ through ‘G’. With more than 10k applicants total, that’s about…

Yeah, more than 1500 per arena. Fucking hell, no wonder the robots deplete so quickly in only a few minutes. Also of interest:

“Bring along whatever you want.” So technically, if Izuku were able to procure the tech and training to handle the robots, there would be nothing keeping him from getting into UA quirkless… though I imagine any kid who gets in mostly on tech probably gets side-eyed… though if said kid made their OWN tech, they might also get an offer from the Support department.

(AU where Mei accidentally took the heroics exam and got a shitload of points, but she ended up taking the offer for Support instead despite setting the record for most points in said exam. Katsuki forever wants to fight her. Izuku and her are good friends.)

Also, another thing I love is how Katsuki just told Izuku to shut up a moment ago, and then:

He’s the one to initiate conversation on the details of the test, basically agreeing on the reasoning behind dividing up the students between arenas. Katsuki is annoyed at not being able to crush Izuku, which has Izuku awkwardly silent. 

Also mini-Mic.

Poor, poor Mic. He just wants audience participation. Anyways, he continues on to explain the points system, with the help of cute little Mario-themed silhouettes. There are three kinds of faux villains, with different points awarded for defeating each based on their difficulty levels. Also, attacking other examinees is prohibited!

A student (cough Tenya) raises their hand to ask a question, going on to note that the handout sheet appears to have four varieties of villain, and that such a blatant error (if it is one) reflects poorly on Japan’s top academy. He then spins around and points at Izuku, calling him out for his muttering and how distracting he’s been, and that ‘if this is some sort of game to you, then please leave immediately!’ 

Is that… Mineta seated behind Izuku? I can’t find another panel that disproves that theory, so. Whelp. If you ever for some reason want to have Izuku accidentally deal with the grape early, he’s right there. 

Anyways, Present Mic brings the convo back to the initial question/comment, noting that the fourth villain is worth zero points, and is more of an obstacle. He then brings up Super Mario Brothers, the old retro game, and compares the Zero Pointer to a thwomp. There’s one per site, serving as a gimmick that’ll rampage in close quarters. Tenya thanks Mic and apologizes for the interruption. 

And so we get our final words from Present Mic:

??? either he's referencing the original guy (which I think would be a misquote because I doubt OG Nap ever noted anything like that) or some French hero or the like who took on the name.

Discord offered this to me while putting together the post:

So there you have it. Tentatively confirmed.

Those EYES man, dude’s got the Rinnegan going on.

Honestly, I have to end on this panel just because of that last line from Present Mic. Like, look me in the eyes and tell me this isn’t the exact point to end on. 

The discord’s takeaway from this:

[theculturedmarxist]

       5 February 2020  

The day-long delay in the reporting of voting results from Monday night’s Iowa Democratic caucuses is an unprecedented event, even by the sordid standards of American capitalist politics.

For some 20 hours after an estimated 175,000 people had participated in caucus meetings, the Iowa Democratic Party refused to report a single vote, claiming technical difficulties in the app used to report the precinct caucus totals to party headquarters.

When partial vote totals were finally released at 4 p.m. Tuesday, local time in Des Moines, it was for only 62 percent of the nearly 1,800 precinct caucuses. State party chairman Troy Price refused to explain how the 62 percent had been selected, or what distinguished these from the 38 percent not yet reported. He brushed aside repeated questions about when a final count would be ready.

Whatever the specific intentions of the Iowa state party leaders, every action they have taken in the caucus crisis has been to the detriment of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and to the benefit of former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg. The former naval intelligence officer has been declared the winner of the caucuses by the media because, in the results tabulated for 62 percent of precincts, he placed first in the obscure category of “state delegate equivalents,” the metric highlighted by the state party.

In the same tabulation, Sanders won the most votes, both in the initial count and in the second round after “unviable” candidates—those with less than 15 percent support—had been eliminated. Moreover, much of the unreported vote is from college and factory towns where the Vermont senator posted his best results. It is quite possible that Sanders will also lead in delegate equivalents once a final count is reported.

In previous Iowa caucuses, results were tabulated and made public within two hours of voters arriving at the precinct. The candidates proclaimed the winner in the last four contested Iowa caucuses all went on to win the party’s nomination: Al Gore in 2000, John Kerry in 2004, Barack Obama in 2008 and Hillary Clinton in 2016. But there were no media headlines Monday night and Tuesday morning about Bernie Sanders winning the most votes in Iowa in 2020.

Nor were there blaring headlines about the debacle for former Vice President Joe Biden, once the presumed frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, who finished a poor fourth in the tally reported Tuesday afternoon. Biden may actually finish as low as fifth in the final count, since Senator Amy Klobuchar trailed him by only a small margin.

It is impossible to say at this point exactly what is behind the delay in reporting from Iowa. However, the claim that all that is involved is a “glitch” in a reporting app—produced by a highly-connected Democratic Party technology company—raises more questions than it answers. The media, which readily swallows incredible tales about Russian “meddling” in American politics, was quick to denounce any questioning of the motives for the delay as a “conspiracy theory.”

The whole process is highly suspect and suspicious, ripe for political manipulation. The delay in the Iowa results, moreover, followed by only a couple of days the cancellation of a final poll by the Des Moines Register, after the Buttigieg campaign complained that at least one caller for the telephone survey had omitted their candidate’s name. The highly influential poll was expected to show a sizeable Sanders lead across the state.

It would be naive to separate the alleged “technical glitches” in the Iowa vote reporting from the broader political context. The weeks leading up to the Iowa caucuses were dominated by a concerted campaign against Sanders, which included the intervention of Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and other figures in the party establishment, as well as the corporate media, all claiming that the nomination of a self-proclaimed “democratic socialist” would have disastrous consequences.

This anti-Sanders campaign demonstrates that the Democratic Party establishment is just as hostile as Donald Trump to the rising militancy in the working class and the growing support for socialism among both working people and youth. It is not Sanders himself, but this shift to the left among the broad masses that is a nightmare for all factions of the capitalist ruling elite.

The Democratic primary campaign has seen the formation of two groups of candidates—a left wing headed by Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren, and a right wing comprised of Biden, Buttigieg and Klobuchar. Each has drawn the support of about half the party’s prospective voters.

The US ruling class makes use of the two groups of candidates for different purposes. The Sanders-Warren wing is to contain the leftward movement among workers and youth and divert it back within the confines of the two-party system. The Biden-Buttigieg-Klobuchar wing is to wield the real power within the party, take the nomination, and serve as the replacement for Trump if the ruling class determines that such a change is necessary.

The evident crisis of the Biden campaign has led to increasingly heavy-handed efforts to develop some other alternative for the right-wing faction: the huge fundraising for Buttigieg, the media boomlet for Klobuchar, and, most importantly, the entry into the race of billionaire Michael Bloomberg, whose entire campaign is aimed at supplanting Biden and blocking the nomination of Sanders or Warren.

Significantly, after the scale of the Biden debacle in Iowa became clear, Bloomberg, who has already spent more than $300 million on campaign ads, announced that he would double his ad buys and double his paid staff in the run-up to the “Super Tuesday” primaries and caucuses on March 3. Bloomberg could well spend $1 billion of his $58 billion fortune to secure for himself enough delegates to play a major role in the Democratic nominating convention.

The events surrounding the Iowa caucuses demonstrate the bankruptcy of Sanders’ claim that it is possible to reform the Democratic Party and even turn it into a vehicle for social reform and a weapon to combat the political influence of the billionaires. The truth is that, no less than the Republican Party, the Democratic Party is a political institution of the capitalist class. There is no more chance of “reforming” the Democratic Party than of “reforming” the CIA, the Pentagon or Wall Street itself.

The role of Sanders in 2020 is not fundamentally different from the part he played in 2016, when his “insurgent” campaign ended in his endorsement of Hillary Clinton, the chosen candidate of the bankers and the CIA.

His response to the attempt of the Iowa Democratic Party to rig the caucus result was notably low key. He told reporters that it was “not fair” to suggest that the procedure followed by the state party might be suspect.

His closest campaign aide, Jeff Weaver, denounced the Biden campaign for questioning the conduct of the state party. “I do want to urge people in the interest of not discrediting the party, that folks who are just trying to delay the return of this because of their relative positioning in the results, last night, I think that’s a bit disingenuous,” Weaver said. “Those results should be rolled out as we get them.”

The complacency being promoted by the Sanders campaign is staggering. The fact is that on February 4, no one knew the results of the first contest for the Democratic presidential nomination. One can easily envision a situation where on November 4, only nine months from now, the results of the US presidential election as a whole were unknown, or under challenge, or being openly defied by a president who has repeatedly declared his intention to stay in office well beyond the constitutional two-term limit.

What is most significant about the crisis over the Iowa caucuses is what it says about the level of crisis within the state apparatus. The United States seems incapable of running an election. As the Democratic Party primaries begin, the Trump impeachment is about to end, a process that has revealed extraordinary conflicts within the ruling class over foreign policy.

Underlying everything is a level of social antagonism that cannot be adjudicated electorally. Social tensions are so extreme that the traditional mechanisms of democracy are breaking down.

Whatever the outcome, whoever is selected as the Democratic Party nominee, it will resolve nothing. Every effort of the working class to advance its interests within this process is futile.

There is only one campaign in the 2020 elections that seeks to alert the American people to these dangers and mobilize the working class and youth in a political struggle against the capitalist class in defense of jobs, living standards and democratic rights, and in opposition to imperialist war. That is the campaign of the Socialist Equality Party and its candidates Joseph Kishore for president and Norissa Santa Cruz for vice president.

Patrick Martin

[buttsonthebeach]

For the director’s commentary thing: The entire Ch 15 of Reckoning. The juxtaposition during Solas’ lead up to having to go back to the roll of Fen’Harel got me so emotional. The contrast between hating/loving the power and detachment that comes with what much be done. I’d love to know more about what you feel his thought process would be after the events, the temptation of just existing neutrally after unleashing so much hell on these asshats. It’s awesome, please give me more!

AHH yes this is a good one!! Thank you for this ask! Commentary below the cut!

I do have to start with Ellana, because rereading this opening had me laughing:

Ellana was certain that war was mostly paperwork.

Paperwork, and a worry that gnawed its way into her bones. A burrowing insect like the kind that destroyed aravels and trees. Tiny and unstoppable and devastating.

If her time as Inquisitor started to convince her of these things, her time as High Commander of Enasan only solidified it.

(High Commander was a stupid title, and she hated it, but she also understood its political necessity. She outranked all of the field commanders, but while her role was primarily political, she was not royalty. Enasan was a republic. She'd lobbied to be called regent, but was overruled.

"Regent makes it sound like you are waiting for something," Arlanal pointed out. "Like you are waiting to step aside."

I am , Ellana thought.)

But while her time as Inquisitor had at least featured long stretches in the field, where she could loose her frustration and fear through her arrows, this war had been nothing but talk for her. Aside from that initial foray to the mountain pass where the first true battle of the war took place, she had not been in the field for more than an hour or so at a time. And even those forays were spent at a distance from the fighting, watching through a spyglass. And they were blisteringly quick visits. Ellana never thought she would dislike the Crossroads, but she hated how quickly she would go from her office in the capital to some outpost or fortification or battlefield. At least when she was Inquisitor she had the leisure of those long rides, or hikes, just her and her companions, where she could shed as many of the layers of her title as she dared.

Now there was no reprieve.

This whole fic was an exercise in “how far can I push my characters out of their element” in a lot of ways, and I think this is probably one of the clearest moments where you see that for poor Ellana. I also have to say that her internal commentary on the title High Commander is a direct nod to me figuring out what her title would be, since President sounds far too modern, but it still couldn’t be a title associated with royalty. I started with “Commander in Chief” and then worked back to something that sounded more fantastical.

(Also, poor Ellana, trying to wriggle her way out of every title she has ever been given. That’s why I bring it back in the epilogue, and say that the titles Mamae, vhenan, Hahren Ellana, and Mamaela are the only ones she truly accepts)

Once I established the idea of paperwork, of how different this war was from the other wars Ellana fought in, how helpless she feels, I could keep coming back to that idea to build up the sense of tension within her, as I did right before she blows up at Solas: 

She’d flung the paper but it was not an arrow. It did not fly straight and true. It did not give her the physical release of her bow. The physical release that had been lost to her for two decades and more. The sense that she could fight. That she could pick up a weapon and do something about the dangers that surrounded good people, people who did not deserve it. That she could protect people.

Now all she had was another stupid title, and paperwork.

Then I had to make sure that she was so tunnel-visioned on all of those issues that she wasn’t paying attention to any of Solas’s more subtle cues that he is also suffering under their personal helplessness. Ellana is usually very attuned to the emotions of other people, and Solas by this point is usually far more open with her, so it was interesting to write those short little exchanges where she comes in, vents, and he only has two or three words for her, and she isn’t thinking straight enough to understand why that is. It was so important to me to show that even a good marriage, even one that has lasted a long time, still has failures in communication.

I’m also following a very typical writer’s trick that I learned in my upper level fiction class in college, which is to do things in threes to get maximum impact, which is why we get three snippets of Ellana venting and frustrated and Solas seemingly unaffected before we hit the scene where she finally loses her temper:

Solas snorted. “Would you be served by my anger?”

She wanted to strangle him.

“At least I would not feel alone in my anger if you seemed to feel - something!”

But as she said the words, she turned, and saw his face, and it was the face of the man she loved. And it was raw with pain and rage.

“I would think that you, of all people, would know not to accuse me of having no feelings just because I am hiding them.” His words had an edge she hadn’t heard in - gods, in years.

She was a fool. A temperamental fool, no better than the squabbling youth who’d been hauled before her Keeper for picking fights with other youths who picked on her for the darkness of her skin.

Ellana’s temper is something we see less and less of as she gets older in the series, and it was also important to me to point out that as she is subjected to this immense pressure and helplessness, she’s going to start resorting to behaviors she used in the past, even as far back as her childhood.

I also did my best to show that Solas is cracking here through how I wrote his dialogue - he ordinarily speaks very smoothly, in long, well-thought out sentences, but here I broke up his thoughts frequently, showing his agitation:

“You hand me papers like the one you handed me tonight,” he did not look at her as he said it, but she winced at his choice of words. As she always was, she was embarrassed by her loss of temper already. “And I see the number of the People we lost, and I think of how many I could have saved with a single spell. I am not all that I once was, but I am not helpless, and yet this war has made me feel only that. And yet none of this is your problem, and so I should bear it, and see this through - but - vhenan - if we lose this war - if we lose our daughter - while I sat by and did nothing -”

He’d turned back to face her as he said the last of those words, and there was no mask at all anymore. There was only her bondmate, as sad and lost and angry as she was. Her frustration with him loosened more. She was not as alone as she thought. Solas did not have the paperwork (the fucking paperwork ) or the responsibilities she did. But he carried the same helplessness. They were together in that. She stepped close to him, and pulled him down, and kissed him hard.

"Let's go," she said when they parted. "And let's stop being helpless."

And at the end of the section we get one more repetition of paperwork as the symbol of everything Ellana hates - I didn’t count, but I think that is also the third one, tying back in to that rule of threes - and oh my god I just realized that I themed this entire chapter around the word helpless as well which ties directly back to The World Turned Upside Down and Ellana’s role as Eliza. Wow. I didn’t even realize I was doing that.

As far as the next scene goes, where we switch to Solas’s POV, I was drawing on two main things - the idea of Solas as a weapon, which it seems like he was to Mythal, and which Ellana is now seeing him as, and the scene from 300 where Gorgo sends Leonidas to Thermopylae with the words “come back with your shield, or on it.” I always loved that scene because you can see the love in their eyes, but neither of them can acknowledge it physically or verbally, because they are political leaders, and because it’s not actually what Leonidas needs in that moment. He needs to be treated like another Spartan.

That’s how we got to this line:

“Come back to me,” she said, her voice quiet but her tone firm as steel. “That’s an order, Dread Wolf.”

And Solas, smart cookie that he is, does not miss what she really means here:

For more than twenty years now he had been the peacemaker, the partner, the father, the scholar. But Ellana had not called him vhenan, or even Solas , as he left. Ashara was not there to call him Papae . No. Ellana had called him Dread Wolf. And that was who he would be today. He would again where the mask of Fen’Harel, He Who Hunts Alone, the Bringer of Nightmares. Because that was what his people needed of him once again.

It felt better than he wanted to admit.

In terms of tension building, we get several more instances of the rule of three here - first with three times that the altar to Mythal has mattered in this series: Flemeth showing up in DA:I, shattering the last of Ellana’s faith in the gods, Solas and Flemeth meeting at the end of DA:I, and then Solas and Ellana meeting there during Body of Knowledge when she has considered leaving him. Then we get another repetition of three with one of my favorite headcanons/pieces of Solas meta, which is that Solas’s life is shaped by three women in this series: Mythal, Ellana, and Ashara.

Then we get three repetitions of the phrase “Go. Hunt. It is time for justice,” with the final repetition catching even Solas off guard, as he says he thinks the last word might actually have been vengeance. That ties into a great piece of meta we’ve heard about Mythal - that while she did once represent justice, she may have been corrupted over the millennia into vengeance.

I relied on all three of those repetitions, each of which is also somehow related to three, to build and then release the tension of Solas finally arriving at Shalasan and unleashing hell. Of course, we’re also relying on several things I’ve set up throughout the fic and even back into the previous fic - like how Solas knows it is not really Mythal within him, just as it is not really Falon’Din within Ashara - but on a sentence level, those were the tools I relied on to make that scene happen.

I also have to shout out my two deliberate Hamilton references here, for fun: “You cannot be everywhere at once, Dread Wolf” and “Why are you telling me this?”. I am a sucker for sneaking them in everywhere :)

Oh man, I missed the second part of what you asked! In terms of his thought process after, I think Ashara is the thing that immediately grounds him and reminds him he can’t give into this side of himself totally. That’s why it was important to me that she is the first person who goes and sees him, that he leans on her just as much as she leans on him in that moment. He can risk the rest of the world seeing him as a monster, but he can’t risk his daughter seeing him that way, so he always has to come back.

Thank you for the ask!!! it was such fun to go back through that chapter.

[aelinbitch-archive]

unpopular opinion: i don’t like rowan/rowaelin. i’m not here to convince u to unstan lol ppl are allowed to like/dislike things w/o feeling bad about it omg but i hate that some rowan stans are so insensitive when it comes to those who don’t like him! they’re so thirsty for him that they condemn anyone who doesn’t stan him & then excuse his problematic/lowkey triggering actions bc he’s hot and it’s gross. AGAIN not saying ppl can’t like rowan it’s ok lol but it’s more about some stan’s behavior

That’s totally fair my angel. I dislike the vibe that some people are locked out of the fandom for not being a cheerleader for every aspect of the series, and I hope that my followers/mutuals know that if they dislike stuff I like, or like stuff I dislike, expressing their opinions regarding that won’t ever cause me to cut them off (unless it’s like, some truly gross shit, which disliking rowaelin isn’t). 

Also I have to say, even tho I do like rowaelin, I understand where you’re coming from about people excusing his actions because he’s hot. I’ve toooooootally seen that. And I’ll just be 100% honest - no shade to anyone, but some of the rowaelin content on this website disturbs me a little bit, in terms what’s considered hot/romantic/acceptable when writing or depicting them in art. I’ve seen some weird stuff defended as hot or even just “not that bad.” Which isn’t necessarily a problem with canon, but your ask was more about stans anyway, so yeah. 

A while ago I actually wrote rowaelin meta in response to some other peeps (which was more about Aelin in relation to Rowaelin and how she’s included or not included in discussions of the ship, but it has some thoughts relevant to this ask) so I’m gonna just copy and paste what I wrote below and feel free to read if u want. (It’s like very overdramatic and fiery lmao but anyway). 

I agree with a lot of this, but (at risk of derailing ms aelinapologist’s amazing post) I do have a few things to say, which are

1. OP took two whole paragraphs at the beginning of her post to say that the point wasn’t to discourse about rowaelin being abuse or not abuse, it was to talk about how the conversations centering around said abuse consistently display a disturbing lack of empathy for the character who should be the main concern of the debate. So I just find it a bit funny/odd that the replies (including a portion of the one I’m about to make, I admit that) have been like “Yeah great post! And now to discourse about Rowaelin-” but I digress.

2. I have consistently loved reading about Rowan and Aelin and they’re one of my favorite fictional couples. So nothing I’m about to say is intended to be like “GOTCHA they suck and you suck for liking them!!!” Because I like them as well. A lot. And in addition, nothing about this reblog is intended to be shady or confrontational in any way shape or form. I just think this is a great and very needed discussion I’d like to contribute to, so here goes.

3. Even if we look at HoF alone and ignore how things play out later: yes, they are both mean to one another, yes, they are both in a dark place and end up having a mutually positive effect on one another (so I definitely agree that, at least for HoF alone, it’s not a “douchey guy changes for the heroine story”) but. There IS still a power imbalance. I don’t think it’s entirely accurate to say “they were both bad The End” without also bringing up the fact that Rowan is 300 years old and Aelin is 18, and that Rowan is training Aelin and is in a position that gives him a massive amount of control over her, and that he is stronger and more powerful than her physically, magically, and socially (he is a prince and legendary warrior, she is a AWOL teenage princess currently working as a scullery maid).

Maybe I’m reading into it too much, but I really just don’t think that Aelin, a 17 y/o girl going through an unimaginably shitty time, being like “fuck you!!” to this 300 y/o jerk who doesn’t know shit about her is on the same level as aforementioned 300 y/o jerk hitting her, biting her, and telling her she would have been of more use to the world if she’d died when she was eight.

And in addition to that, we see that his behavior effects her a lot more than it effects him. When he verbally tears her down, we see her experience genuine and devastating despair and shame, whereas everything she does and says to him, no matter how snarky or outright cruel, is not having that same effect on him. People always seem to think they’re giving Aelin credit for being a Strong Woman™ by saying “she’s tough! she can handle it!” when in reality… we have evidence for the fact that she kinda can’t handle it. That the way he treats her in the beginning is slowly wearing her down and sending her deeper into a depressive state. And I don’t understand how it somehow reflects poorly on Aelin (or is even misogynist) to acknowledge this. Women, especially literal teenage girls, should not be measured by their tolerance for mistreatment.

All I really wish is that somewhere along the line we’d gotten a genuine apology from Rowan for this besides a throwaway line in KoA about regretting their “brawling.” And again, none of this is to say “see!! it IS abuse!!” it’s just to suggest that, even as an enemies to friends to lovers story, the “enemies” part was not exactly on a level playing field.

4. But with that being said, I could probably forgive the imbalance in their early relationship, mostly because their later relationship, as both friends and lovers, is so amazing and supportive in pretty much every way. And the great thing about enemies to FRIENDS to lovers, like you said, is that 1) none of the assholery occurred during any kind of romantic or sexual relationship or a transition into one, so it was sort of “fair and square” in that way, and 2) they had the opportunity form a solid, platonic foundation of trust and caring before they crossed into the lover territory.

Aaaaaaaaaand then Sarah did a retcon job on HoF which negated… pretty much all of that. I can totally be down with “good old fashioned mutual hatred thaws into caring which grows into love” but once we start hearing shit like “‘Sometimes, you’d be sleeping beside me at Mistward, and it’d take all my concentration not to lean over and bite them. Bite you all over’” and “‘That was the first time I really lost control around you, you know. I wanted to chuck you off a cliff, yet I bit you before I knew what I was doing. I think my body knew, my magic knew. And you tasted… So good. I hated you for it’”……. hhhhhhhhhhh.

I can’t think of many arguments for this NOT contributing at least a little to the “he’s mean because he loves you (and stick it out because someday he’ll figure it out)” trope. And while it might be a bit different because Aelin was quite mean as well, her behavior was just… meanness. Not some sort of weird outlet for repressed sexual attraction/love. I guess I just get flashbacks of “No sweetie, that boy in your class kicks your desk, pulls your hair, and calls you names because he likes you and doesn’t know how to express it.”

And I think this decision on Sarah’s part to go back and say he was into her all along is 1) a result of the mating bond thing she’s so fond of and 2) kind of a panicked backpedalling to the backlash she might have gotten over Rowan’s behavior in HoF? Which is…. so ironic because she made it SO much worse. In my humble opinion, she should have just doubled down on what she originally wrote as enemies-friends-lovers (and had Rowan bring up his early behavior and apologize in some way), and the problem would have been solved. And while I personally feel that I can recognize this for what it is - a shitty retcon - and enjoy the relationship despite it, I don’t think we should talk over people for whom this is a deal-breaker for the ship.

5. I don’t think about all of this and have the reaction that so many “anti tog” people seem to have of “FUCK Rowan he’s ABUSIVE and PREDATORY and I wish he was DEAD!!!” I think there are things to criticize about his behavior and about the way Sarah decided to spin their relationship, but they have had many great moments, especially in the later books, and I don’t think I or anyone else is “shipping abuse” by enjoying that. All of this is just to emphasize how, in OP’s very succinct words, “your inalienable right to enjoy two characters’ dynamic does not outweigh the right to criticise it.” Because there ARE valid things to criticize, and we as Rowaelin shippers (lol.) need to be careful not to conflate ugly hatred with valid criticism when we speak over it.

And because there IS so much ugly hatred for Aelin and her relationship with Rowan on this website, I completely understand why there’s a kind of knee-jerk reaction of jumping to defense of this ship we love. But that impulse, quite frankly, means nothing to me if defense of Rowaelin includes the erasure of Aelin’s canonical experiences. And maybe this is wacky and controversial, but I’m pretty sure we can express our enjoyment of Rowaelin AND keep Aelin as an individual from being swept under the rug.  

6. More than saying any of that what I really really want to do (and have been trying to do in the previous paragraphs, but maybe unsuccessfully) is bring the conversation back to OP’s original point which was not “abuse!” or “not abuse!” but about how the ways in which we discuss “abuse or not abuse” often includes a stomach-turning lack of concern for Aelin and some frustratingly reductive arguments. And somehow I have the sneaking suspicion that Rowaelin shippers are reading this post and missing the point, which that this is happening on BOTH sides of the argument.

Everyone is perfectly entitled to ship Rowaelin and argue their opinion about its merits or lack thereof, but when we cover our ears and say “she was mean too she was mean too she was mean too she was mean too la la la la la la la” that’s completely ignoring the genuine pain that she did experience in HoF and the power imbalance that she was subjected to, no matter whether or not we personally feel that it was sufficiently rectified in later books.

And I see this ALL THE TIME, in both the fandom and “anti-fandom”, and I’m honest to god quite sick of it. I’m sick of the willful ignorance of a teenage girl’s pain in order to further an agenda. Yes, it’s more stomach-turning when the agenda is to prove what an evil bitch she is or whatever, but it’s not excusable if your agenda is to prove Rowaelin is great, either! And I don’t understand why we have to throw all nuance out the window and ignore how Dorian hurt her, ignore how Chaol hurt her, ignore how Rowan hurt her, fucking hell, ignore how SAM hurt her, just so we can make our arguments! Because as much as the antis love to scream about “WHAT MESSAGE IS THIS TERRIBLE SHIP SENDING THE TINY GIRL-CHILDREN WHO READ THE BOOKS???” it’s also like, what kind of message is our ongoing discussion of it sending by sweeping a teenage girl’s experiences under the rug when we argue about her relationships?

And like OP said, what have we even got to show for it? No conclusion has been reached, nothing has been achieved besides valuing a romance (or the hatred of that romance and preference for a different romance) over individual characters, namely an individual character who happens to be a teenage girl that has suffered an ungoldy amount - suffered, sometimes, at the hands of male characters we like.

In conclusion, the mass allergy everyone seems to have to giving a shit about Aelin unless its to further their agenda is sickening. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve had to hear about how poor Manon’s character was “ruined” by Manorian (although not directly by DORIAN, of course, because apparently Saint Haviliard can do no wrong) I’d have enough money to buy a lamborghini and drive it off a cliff like I wish I could every time I hear someone’s terrible hot take about how Aelin is complicit in her own alleged abuse. Yet somehow I’ve never heard anyone complain about the damage done to Aelin’s character by any of the male characters, including Rowan. It’s never “Rowan ruined Aelin’s character!!” it’s “Rowaelin sucks and so does Aelin.” In fact, one of the REASONS Aelin sucks in the first place IS Rowan/Rowaelin! What a great implicit message to send to people reading your “critiques”: if you are annoying and #problematic enough, your suffering will be used against you and you will receive no sympathy for it. Cool!

And for other ships, too: it’s never “Chaol and Dorian, while at points a very good for Aelin, also caused her a lot of pain” it’s either “Chaol was right about Aelin in QoS and both he and Dorian are ruined because of her #chaorian” OR, from the fans, who, again, are not off the hook, “Chaol and Dorian and Aelin are BFFs forever #originaltrio.” And as a teenage girl myself, who loves and identifies with Aelin, who is more invested in her story than anyone else’s… I’m just tired. And more than a little appalled. And I wish we could do better.

[lingthusiasm]

Transcript Episode 28: How languages influence each other - Interview with Hannah Gibson on Swahili, Rangi, and Bantu languages

This is a transcript for Lingthusiasm Episode 28: How languages influence each other - Interview with Hannah Gibson on Swahili, Rangi, and Bantu languages. It’s been lightly edited for readability. Listen to the episode here or wherever you get your podcasts. Links to studies mentioned and further reading can be found on the Episode 28 show notes page.

Lauren: Welcome to Lingthusiasm, a podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics! I’m Lauren Gawne, and today I’m talking to Hannah Gibson about Swahili, Bantu languages, and nouns!

[Music]

Lauren: Hannah, welcome to Lingthusiasm! We’re very happy to have another fellow enthusiastic linguist on the show today. I was wondering if you could introduce yourself and what your current role is.

Hannah: Yeah, my name’s Hannah Gibson. And I’m currently a lecturer at the University of Essex in the UK.

Lauren: Excellent. How did you get into linguistics?

Hannah: Ah. Reluctantly, perhaps. I’ve always loved languages, loved learning languages. I had friends who spoke different languages at school, and I loved learning the odd word here or there, or phrases and things. At school I learned a bit of German and a bit of Spanish. Then I went to university. I went to SOAS, School of Oriental and African Studies, in London. I got there, and I was supposed to be studying law.

Lauren: Okay.

Hannah: I got there, and I found out that you could study – I think the list was, like, 43 different languages from around the world.

Lauren: Yeah.

Hannah: I was amazed. And I thought, “I can’t be here and not study one of these languages.” So I changed my studies a little bit to study Swahili and law. I had this list of languages and thought, “Oh, which language do I want to study?” And so I studied Swahili and law really thinking, “Oh, I’m interested in languages, learning languages, but I’m not interested in linguistics,” because I didn’t really know, perhaps, what linguistics was.

Lauren: It is one of the biggest problems that people don’t actually know what linguistics is.

Hannah: I thought, “Oh, I like learning languages and I like talking to people, but this linguistics thing, not so sure about that.” Anyway, the more I studied Swahili in that case and the more I learnt about languages, I did an Introduction to Linguistics course, and I thought, “Oh, okay, this is absolutely fantastic.” Then I moved to linguistics –

Lauren: Yay!

Hannah: – and I’ve never looked back.

Lauren: We’re very happy to have you. I’m not going to ask you any questions about law.

Hannah: Thank you.

Lauren: But for those who aren’t familiar with the Swahili language, can you tell us a bit about where it’s generally spoken and other fun Swahili facts?

Hannah: Oh, absolutely. Swahili is a language spoken across east Africa. The homeland or traditional area where Swahili was spoken was along the coast of present-day Tanzania and Kenya and also onto some of the islands. You might have heard of places like Zanzibar. That’s, again, off the Tanzanian coast. But Swahili is also now, and has been for a long time, used as a lingua franca throughout east Africa. You’ll find it spoken in, like, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, parts of northern Mozambique, and southern Somalia, Burundi. So it’s got a huge geographic coverage, but that east Africa area…

Lauren: Cool. We’ll make sure we link at least to the Wikipedia article and a good map.

Hannah: Absolutely.

Lauren: And the domain of it.

Hannah: And across the global diaspora as well. But that’s sort of its heart.

Lauren: So you studied that all the way through your undergraduate career?

Hannah: Yes, and I spent a year in east Africa studying at a university in Zanzibar, in that case, in Tanzania. So one semester in Kenya and one semester in Tanzania just focusing on Swahili. That was where I really – my eyes were opened to language and linguistics. And I just thought, “Yeah, I want to do this for as long as I possibly can.”

Lauren: Awesome.

Hannah: I just then took more and more linguistics classes after that.

Lauren: So you took more linguistics after that. And then you ended up going into a masters?

Hannah: A Masters in Linguistics at SOAS as well.

Lauren: Okay. And then a PhD?

Hannah: In linguistics. Also at SOAS.

Lauren: I mean, if you’re on to a good thing.

Hannah: Absolutely. I think for me I’m interested in languages from east Africa, African languages. SOAS was a great place to do that. Expertise was all around me. And I think, because I’d studied law as an undergraduate, it actually felt like quite a change because it was completely different teachers. It was a different department. It wasn’t like, “Oh, I’m still here.” By the time I got to a PhD, it was a little bit like that. But, yes, it was a great place to do that.

Lauren: I don’t think it’s as common in North America, but I did my undergrad and postgraduate studies at the same university.

Hannah: There you go. If you want to study Swahili and law, actually SOAS is the only place I know in the UK that you can do it. So beyond that.

Lauren: Yeah, there’s not a lot of places. So there’s obviously a bit of a transition there from learning about – I think you obviously got into linguistics because you were interested in Swahili. What was the difference between learning Swahili as a language learner and studying – like, is your work focused on Swahili, or do you look at other languages?

Hannah: Yeah, it’s a really good question. I suppose it was quite a transition. The last few years, most of my work – my PhD was on a different language, not on Swahili. It was on a language called Rangi, or Langi, spoken in Tanzania. We can talk more about that. But that was when I first sort of came with more of a linguistic approach because, rather than – although I did learn a bit of the language, I was thinking of it as a, “How do I learn about this, and do research, and things?” I think it’s about, perhaps, building short cuts. If you’re learning a language, you’re just thinking of it in isolation. What are these words and how do I make a sentence?

Lauren: Yeah.

Hannah: And then with linguistics you’re looking for short cuts and common patterns because you’re like, “Oh, well, I know what grammatical gender is.” Like, “Oh, I can now work that across whatever language you put in front of me.” It’s making those connections, some of which are language-specific. And that’s really interesting. But I’m also interested in then – obviously, as linguists we’re interested in what is common across languages. What you can do. What you can’t do. Maybe bigger questions.

Lauren: I always think of it as the difference between learning to play football and learning to be a good football coach. The difference between you being able to kick the ball really well – and, like, I’m a terrible sports player, so I feel like this analogy works for me because –

Hannah: You don’t know what it involves?

Lauren: It works as an analogy for me because I’m very unrealistic about it. You can invest a lot of effort in learning, yourself, how to play the game really well, but you can only ever really learn a couple of codes of football, right? But, if you learn how to read a group of people and how they move and what the rules are, there’s more chance that you could potentially become really observant about how rugby works. And, again, this is a terrible analogy because I’m not interested in rugby or football but…

Hannah: I feel like you’ve thought this analogy through.

Lauren: This is my go-to analogy. So, moving from being a player of Swahili to figuring out the rules of the Bantu language family, Swahili is part of the Bantu family?

Hannah: Yeah, exactly. The Bantu languages are a group of something like 350 to 600 languages, depending on how you define a language or where you draw a boundary.

Lauren: That’s a pretty good-sized family of languages. About the size of Indo-European, I guess, which is the family English is in. It’s about 400 or 500.

Hannah: There you go. It’s a massive language family. That group of languages are spoken – I generally just say in sub-Saharan Africa – but, basically, from Cameroon eastwards and southwards with pockets of other languages that aren’t Bantu languages in those regions as well. But in lots of sub-Saharan Africa you’ll find Bantu languages.

Lauren: Just to zoom out a little bit for people who aren’t familiar with the incredible linguistic diversity of Africa, because I think – you know, in Australia we have between 150 and 300 languages, depending on how you count. But they’re all either part of one big Pama-Nyungan family, or not. And so we don’t often – and, you know, all of Europe is pretty much Indo-European, except for a few languages. It’s hard to comprehend just how much diversity there is in the African continent.

Hannah: Absolutely. I think estimates put the number of languages in Africa somewhere around 2000.

Lauren: Okay.

Hannah: I don’t know what your numbers for the number of languages in the world are, but I think –

Lauren: What do you say?

Hannah: I’ve heard 7000.

Lauren: Yeah.

Hannah: So, if you take 2000 of those being in Africa, that’s a massive proportion. It’s not quite a quarter, but it’s a lot. Say you have something like 2000 or more languages in Africa. Those are then broken down into four language families, broadly. That’s been the tradition anyway. You have four language families. And then the Bantu languages are part of one of those families, the Niger-Congo group. But, even if you put the higher end of the numbers of Bantu languages at 600, as you can see, of those 2000, you’ve still got lots of other languages. So, yeah, really high levels of linguistic diversity. Quite high levels of bilingualism and multilingualism across the African continent as well. In Tanzania, where I do much of my research, that’s one country and it has 120 languages recognised, you know, identified languages. So, yeah, it’s, like, a lot of linguistic diversity.

Lauren: And Rangi is also part of the Bantu language family?

Hannah: Absolutely. Rangi is a Bantu language spoken in central Tanzania. I started working on Rangi because I’m interested in, amongst other things, language contact.

Lauren: Right.

Hannah: So Rangi is a Bantu language. It’s spoken in this area of central Tanzania, basically the bottom of the Rift Valley, if people have some kind of idea of the Rift Valley.

Lauren: That sounds very – what is the Rift Valley?

Hannah: Oh, gosh. It is a valley that goes from, I suppose, that part of Tanzania northwards. That’s how I think of it. It’s, like, physically a rift. I suppose to do with tectonic plates and things. But I’m definitely out of my depth if I’m talking about those kinds of things.

Lauren: We’re not a podcast that’s enthusiastic about geology. That’s fine.

Hannah: There you go. But Rangi’s interesting because – for lots of reasons – but it is completely surrounded by speakers of non-Bantu languages.

Lauren: Okay.

Hannah: I was interested in whether some of the grammar of Rangi, the features that you’d find in Rangi, would be the result of contact with non-Bantu languages.

Lauren: Right.

Hannah: We can talk more about that. But one of the things is whether languages that are similar to each other have different influences when they’re in contact than languages that are very different. In the case of Rangi, it’s like, I don’t know, Spanish being in contact with Japanese or something like that. It’s really unrelated, completely different language families in one geographic area. And what happens then?

Lauren: One thing I’m really interested in with language contact is sometimes it makes languages move more similar because they’re all hanging out as like, “Well, I do this in this language and it’s handy, so I’m going to do it in the other language too.” And then sometimes they pull apart because it’s like, “Well, I want to be different.”

Hannah: Absolutely. I mean, one of the nice things about working on – just to step back – the Bantu languages is that you have a large language family with some really quite big, broad similarities, typological similarities. There are common things in lots of them, but then really small microvariations. You could say, “Oh, well, this is the general word order, but look at this tiny change between the languages.”

Lauren: These guys over here have to be different.

Hannah: They do. They do it different. One of the things that’s interesting about the area of central Tanzania where I work is you have the four language families that I mentioned in the beginning that are found in Africa – Tanzania is the only place where you find all four. It’s almost like the meeting point of those really different languages.

Lauren: Yeah.

Hannah: The question there is, if you’re a Rangi speaker and you’re surrounded by different types of languages, whether the language has changed to reflect that. And then the sociolinguistic stuff. When you talk about the nature of the contact, there are families where the people speak different languages. Their parents speak two different languages. Their children perhaps speak one of them or two of them. There’s a long, sustained history of what we would call “language contact,” people moving around, trading with each other, living next door in the same village, or whatever. Quite often, there are slightly imbalanced power relations. They tend to learn one of the languages, but those people don’t also learn the other one. You have some people who speak several of those languages, but not – you know, if you speak the dominant language you don’t learn the other ones as well.

Lauren: I guess it’s worth stressing that the situation is incredibly interesting and there’s such diversity in Tanzania, but sustained contact between very diverse languages and long-term, small-community multilingualism is kind of – globally, we see it again and again, and it’s totally sustainable.

Hannah: Absolutely.

Lauren: I think sometimes, especially if you’re an English speaker who grew up in the UK or Australia, you’re so used to this stable monolingualism with a few people speaking their own languages at home. It’s really worth stressing that we’re the weird ones.

Hannah: Absolutely. And, you know, we’re talking about linguistic diversity of Africa but, I mean, around the world people speak different languages. They shift to other languages when they move, if they need work. There’s all sorts of, really, just practical considerations. You move to a new area, you need to talk to people, and feed yourself, and those kinds of things.

Lauren: Do you work across all the grammar, or are you interested in particular grammatical phenomena?

Hannah: Oh, that’s an excellent question. For the research that I did on Rangi for my PhD, there were a couple of descriptions before that other people had done. Well, one woman had done a PhD – two people had done PhDs before, but I essentially also did a description, which meant that I had to know a little bit about everything because I went in not knowing anything. But I was looking at a particular feature, which is what led me to think it had something to do with language contact, which is a particular word order which is unusual in Rangi. There is a construction in which you find the verb before the auxiliary.

Lauren: Okay.

Hannah: It is a language which has the same kind of word order as English: the subject, the verb, and the object. The Bantu languages in general, you would expect to say, you know, “I eat apples.”

Lauren: “Eat” is my go-to transitive verb.

Hannah: There you go. I prefer it to “hit,” which is the one that linguists tend to use.

Lauren: I think I’m just hungrier and less violent.

Hannah: There you go. Exactly. So, you know, “I eat apples,” or, for example, “I will eat apples.” And essentially, in Rangi, if you’re ever talking about things in the future, so the future tense, you say, “to eat, I will.” That is cross-linguistically very unusual because the prediction is that, if you have a language with subject-verb-object order, “I eat apples,” or, “I will eat apples,” or something like that, you would always expect that “will” to come before “eat.” In English, but also cross-linguistically, it’s a very strong generalisation based on a pattern based on the prediction that you will find that order. In Rangi, it’s the other way around, but only in the future tense.

Lauren: Right.

Hannah: So that was my starting point. And, because it was in contact with languages with different word orders, really different structures, I thought, “Oh, well, this is obviously something to do with language contact. How interesting!” I had to do lots of descriptive work and documentation work to start with, but that was what I started looking at. I think in the PhD I didn’t really end up talking about language contact because I really got very excited about this auxiliary verb order and the context in which you could have it and couldn’t have it.

Lauren: That shows that, once you eventually got to linguistics, you were definitely not reluctant anymore.

Hannah: No.

Lauren: When you say, “I spent four years getting really excited about auxiliary order,” that’s when you’re like –

Hannah: And several years later I’m still excited about auxiliaries, can’t you tell?

Lauren: Excellent.

Hannah: So that was my focus. And then, actually, I found – we thought Rangi was one of the very few Bantu languages that had this order, and then I found another language that’s spoken about 60 kilometres away – so to talk about high levels of linguistic diversity in a small area – that also has that order. I’ve since found four languages, which are spoken up near Lake Victoria. That’s now much, much further away. But, if you say there are – even if you put the estimate at the low end, say 350 Bantu languages, there seem to be six that allow verb-auxiliary order.

Lauren: Okay.

Hannah: I’m still interested in why. Why those languages and what’s different about them? It still may be that this contact angle plays a role in that. If you speak two languages and they have different word orders, allow different word orders, then that doesn’t seem so strange to you to say, “to eat, I will,” right? Because perhaps your first language or the other languages you speak allow that, and then it becomes a natural part of the standard way of speaking.

Lauren: Nepali, which I use for day-to-day in Nepal, and the Tibetan languages that I work with, those languages have subject-object-verb, so, “I apples eat.” And now when I learn a new language, even if it’s subject-verb-object like English – and I know that’s weird, my brain is comfortable with a word order that I really struggled with to begin with.

Hannah: Verb-final is now your, you know…

Lauren: Verb-final is great. It’s the best.

Hannah: Absolutely. You know, imagine that over generations or your whole community also speaking Yolmo as well as English and any other languages you learned along the way.

Lauren: Yeah, awesome. Like, the only thing I know about Bantu languages, and it’s from the fact – so we worked at SOAS at the same time. That’s how we know each other. One thing that I know about Bantu languages is that they do cool stuff with nouns.

Hannah: Yes, they do.

Lauren: And I love nouns.

Hannah: Ah!

Lauren: So can we talk about nouns?

Hannah: Yes, please! They do lots of cool things with nouns. But the most striking thing, I suppose, and the thing that I always give as an example when people say, like, “Oh, what’s unusual” or “What’s the striking thing about the Bantu languages, about Swahili,” is that they have a system of what have traditionally, in linguistics, been called noun classes. They are like grammatical gender, if you’re familiar with French with masculine/feminine, or German masculine/feminine/neuter, you have two genders, three genders. Swahili, for example, has 16.

Lauren: Okay, that is – like, I’m not good at math – but slightly more than three.

Hannah: Yes, yeah. Actually, the gender system doesn’t make any sex-based distinctions. There’s no, you know, man and woman, or boy and girl, like, grammatically. The nouns are categorised in other ways.

Lauren: Okay.

Hannah: One of the really prominent features across the grammar of Bantu languages, actually, is the distinction between things that are alive and that are not alive, so animate and inanimate, or sometimes, more specifically, human and not human, let me just use the terminology, like noun classes. And then they tend to be numbered because you can’t get away with masculine/feminine once you get up to – and, in fact, Luganda, a Bantu language spoken in Uganda, has, I think, 21 noun classes. When you get up to that, you’re just like, “Well, let’s just number them because we can’t” – you know, masculine/feminine/neuter, you’ve sort of run out. You would find, for example, Class 1 would be humans, but singular.

Lauren: That’s a very humanist approach.

Hannah: Exactly. We think that the most important are, like, humans, or “person,” the word for person, the word “teacher,” the word for “child.” And then what’s conventionally numbered Class 2 is the plural of that.

Lauren: Okay.

Hannah: So “teacher” and then “teachers.” “Child – children.” “Farmer – farmers.” You can almost, to start with, think that, “Well, actually, I can cut those in half because most things in the lower numbers have singular and plural counterparts.” That’s probably true up until about class ten because after that you end up with things that don’t make a singular/plural distinction. But, to start with, for example, on the basis of Swahili, you have humans. Class 3 and 4 are things like, I don’t know, “mountain,” “river,” “moon,” maybe natural phenomena.

Lauren: Okay.

Hannah: “Tree,” “plant.”

Lauren: Yeah.

Hannah: Things like that. If you’re learning this language, these are the things you learn sort of like, “Oh, okay, well, those are broad categories.” And then, of course, you find something that doesn’t seem, to you at least, to make any sense to be in that category.

Lauren: But, I mean, people often talk about this with the French/German gender-based stuff. They’re like, “Well, why are these inanimate objects arbitrarily gendered? And why is” – like, the “uterus” is masculine in French.

Hannah: Oh, interesting.

Lauren: I don’t speak French.

Hannah: Yeah, me neither.

Lauren: It’s just my random fact.

Hannah: It’s a good go-to example.

Lauren: You know, these things are mostly semantically coherent, but actually language is a fun system and does all kinds of wacky hacks.

Hannah: Those are quite systematic, so you could think “Oh, a natural phenomenon” or whatever. And then the next ones are things that often go in pairs or part-whole relations like fruits, and trees, and things like that. But then you get to things that are, what we would say, “phonologically determined.” They have a particular sound. One class is things that begin with “ki-”, and then its plural is “vi-”.

Lauren: We’re really scrambling for sense here.

Hannah: It’s like, “Okay, so, ki-things and vi-things.” But, again, those things are most commonly inanimate because your human and animal things are going to be in a different class. Things that begin with “ki-” and “vi-”, nouns that begin with nasals, /n/, and /ɲ/, and /ŋ/ go in another class as well. And then you end up with a class which doesn’t have singular/plural distinction for abstract nouns, so, “happiness,” “love,” “freedom,” things like that. 

And then another, I think, really nice feature of Bantu languages is that many of them have different noun classes for locations. You have a general location, often a specific location, and an internal location. Those are also different noun classes, like different grammatical genders if you want to look at it like that. That’s the nouns. But then, if you think about how a language works, that then spreads across everything. “My book,” you know, the word for “my” is going to be affected by which class “book” is in.

Lauren: Right.

Hannah: In this case, “book” is one of the “ki-” examples.

Lauren: Excellent. My favourite category.

Hannah: It’s “kitabu.” And then you say “changu,” so, “kitabu changu,” “book my” literally, “my book.” Whereas, if you’re talking about your teacher, “teacher” is human/animate so it’s “mwalimu,” and then it’s “mwangu,” not just the noun changes, has a different prefix, but then the thing that agrees, the possessive, the “my,” also changes. It would be the same for numbers, so for counting, any adjectives “big/small,” possession, “of,” and on verbs too.

Lauren: A lot for a new learner to get their head around.

Hannah: Absolutely.

Lauren: But the kids do it completely fine, I’m sure.

Hannah: Absolutely. You can also use it in fun and sort of – you know, there’s layers. You can put things in different noun classes for pejorative meanings, or to change meanings, and things. I think you’d like this example. The word for “bird” is “ndege.” If you think a bird is alive, you would make the appropriate agreement for Class 1, let’s say, because it’s something that’s alive. But an aeroplane is also the same word, “ndege,” but it’s not alive, right? So its agreement would be in Class 9 because it’s not alive. It’s the same word. You can sort of move things around.

Lauren: And so I guess this is how you can create new words. Like, when aeroplanes were invented, instead of doing what we did and cobbling together some existing English and French and whatever, you can take an existing word and put it in another noun class?

Hannah: Absolutely. You can shift things into different classes. They can then mean different things or have subtle different social meanings. You can cobble together two words and make a new word for something, like “telescope” or something because it’s something that “sees far away,” or things like “telescope.” But, yeah, absolutely. You have a different set of things at your disposal.

Lauren: Fabulous. You were talking about the noun classes for Swahili?

Hannah: Yes.

Lauren: Are they similar across all the languages? “All the languages.” You’ve looked at all 600. Right. Yeah. Obviously.

Hannah: That’s a really interesting question. People have made a distinction between Bantu languages which have what would be described as a “canonical” noun class system, which means that they usually have six noun classes or upwards. Swahili, let’s say, has 16 and Luganda, at the higher level, has 21. You tend to find similar patterns, animate things, sometimes a specific class for humans, tools, objects, long things, you know, trees, things that are not human but are natural phenomena, or alive, or whatever. 

But then at the other end of spectrum, you end up with languages, often in the northwest of the Bantu area, sort of around Cameroon, Gabon, with a really, what we would think of as a “reduced” system of noun classes, many less than six, maybe, you know, a handful. The reason that people would describe those as “reduced” is that the idea that, historically, the Bantu languages – like, the predecessor of Bantu languages or what they all came from – did have this high number of noun classes. That was one of the unifying features of the Bantu languages. The ones that are in Cameroon or that area, which is where the Bantu languages are supposed to have originated, then, those systems have sort of eroded over time and fallen away. We would describe that as a “reduced” system, not in any sense that it’s, you know…

Lauren: We’re not picking on those.

Hannah: Yeah, but that the suggestion is that at some point they had more, and they’ve lost them. You can see why you may lose them. But, interestingly, even languages that have lost them, that animate and inanimate distinction is often one of the ones that remains.

Lauren: Okay. It’s really strong.

Hannah: It’s really important whether something’s human or if it’s a chair.

Lauren: Languages do this with all kinds – we see this all the time with different parts of the grammar that languages will have something in this very elaborate system, and then it will fall away. Like, English used to have this gendered case marking the way that German does. And we don’t have it anymore because the language changed. We moved away from that. This cycle of things reducing, or growing, or whatever, is a completely normal part of language.

Hannah: Absolutely. Yeah.

Lauren: It makes it fun to see how languages change in different contexts.

Hannah: Yeah, one of the things that’s nice about working on the Bantu language family is that lots of – there are written descriptions of some of these languages from, I don’t know, over a hundred years ago or things, but there’s often not long written records. You don’t find examples of writing, with the exception, actually, of Swahili and then maybe Kikongo and a few other languages. But we can basically trace a lot of the history of movements of those people in these parts of Africa through looking at the languages. You can see what languages are similar in terms of similar vocabulary and words, and then reconstruct where these people may have moved from, and what time they moved, and things like that. Language really can help us piece together parts of history that we may otherwise – yeah, they can be a part of the story, basically.

Lauren: Yeah. So Rangi is a smaller language, but Swahili is one of the largest languages in Africa?

Hannah: Yeah, I think in terms of – people say it’s one of the most widely-spoken languages because of it having this massive geographic coverage across eastern Africa. I think speaker numbers, really, the estimates vary. I’ve heard up to 120 million, which sounds massive – 60 million.

Lauren: But is that in the way that I, like, speak, you know, I speak Italian in that I can navigate an Italian menu. Is that the kind of – because it’s a lingua franca, the quality, not to put a label on it, but the…

Hannah: I mean, I think probably – I don’t really know. But let’s say, like, 60 or 90 million or something. I think actually lots of those people are really very competent speakers who use it regularly for important purposes in their life. Tanzania, interestingly, was the only country in Africa that declared an African language its official language at independence, rather than a former colonial language. Tanzania’s primary education is in Swahili. Parliament speaks in Swahili. Radio stations speak in Swahili. But then, when you get to those other countries, the official status of Swahili perhaps would be slightly different or is different. But I think that there are languages across the African continent which have higher numbers of speakers because, for example, Nigeria, for example, is so popular, and those west African areas, so that you have higher numbers of speakers. People usually say that Swahili’s the most widespread, but you can have a widespread spoken language that’s the sort of – you know, because it’s lingua franca status.

Lauren: That’s their positive spin.

Hannah: Exactly. They want something.

Lauren: So there’re people being educated in Swahili and using it for business. Are there many Swahili-speaking linguists in Tanzania or other countries?

Hannah: Yeah, absolutely. There’s a sort of, not a divide, but there are people studying Swahili as a subject, and linguists working on Swahili and other, let’s say, the main colleagues I have are in east Africa, so other east African languages. I’ve done lots of work with people at the University of Dar es Salaam. They have a department of linguistics, foreign languages and linguistics. And then also in Zanzibar, and also in Kenya. There are universities where people are doing research on Swahili, and there’s linguistic journals written in Swahili, published in Swahili. And then the other big cohort of people would be people in America or Europe who are learning Swahili. In America quite a lot of them are also of African origin. They’re from Africa and may have grown up speaking Swahili and then have gone to American universities to teach Swahili or do research and things like that. 

But, as a whole, there is an ongoing range of challenges that people are facing. Lots of colleagues in African universities or east Africa have real shortages of funding, access to funding, for external conferences, to travel, to do research. There are really high numbers of students, so, you know, again, universities – which it’s great to see so many students interested in these topics and wanting to look at languages and stuff. But, obviously, you know, with limited resources. 

And then the other thing you find is that in many cases people are, rather than studying Swahili, perhaps, or Bantu languages from a linguistic perspective, people are interested more in the practical applications. Like, if you’re in Tanzania, and there are 120 languages and, yes, primary education is in Swahili, most of those children, when they arrive at school, don’t speak Swahili. So what can we do about that? What are the practical implications of that? How can we make transitions more smooth? How can we ensure that people who have or have not been to school have access to services, and information, and things like that? More, perhaps, linguistics and language relating to education, relating to access to resources, and stuff like that. 

Whereas, I think some of the more theoretical linguistics and looking at that for its own sake is – people are doing that as well, but there’s this constant tension between, “Well, you know, we also have these issues that are right in front of our face and the government wants us to solve them.” And they say, “Well, you’re a linguist at the University of Dar e Salaam. You can solve this or do this.” That’s something that you see quite a lot as well in departments that I know.

Lauren: Yeah, being super interested in noun classes is great, but it’s such a privilege. And, yeah, there’s much more pressing – I imagine people feel that there’s much more pressing things that need to be done.

Hannah: Absolutely. I suppose there are – it’s great. And there’s more and more students who are also thinking that, “Oh, well, I speak a language that is not written down, that there’s no descriptive grammar on, that no one’s written an article on. I can contribute to that.” So there are increasingly younger linguists coming through and doing that and seeing that that is really important as well. And that’s important for identity, and self-determination, and things like that. But, at the same time, yeah, as, actually, all of us deal with, you know, “Well, if you want to get a job, how are you going to navigate your interest in that into employment, or stability, or the kind of opportunities that face you?” I’ve been really lucky to be able to work with fantastic colleagues. Most of my research is in Tanzania so those are the ones I have the strongest links with, but going to conferences is always a great opportunity to meet with people from across the continent, or based at universities in other countries, and things like that.

Lauren: Awesome. If you could leave people knowing one thing about linguistics, what would it be?

Hannah: It’s awesome. Don’t be like me and think that languages are the only thing that’s interesting. Also linguistics is interesting! That’s also something that you can study. Ah, yes, being monolingual is not the norm in the world.

Lauren: Right. It’s true.

Hannah: Yeah, yeah, I don’t know how much that’s about linguistics. But I think we can, as you were saying earlier on, think that it’s normal just to speak a language and actually, globally, it’s not.

Lauren: Yeah, and I think there are linguistics departments and there’s linguistics training that leaves you with that lesson a lot stronger than other departments.

Hannah: True.

Lauren: I feel privileged to have been at a university that made that very clear to me.

Hannah: Me too.

Lauren: It seems like we had the same experience at SOAS.

Hannah: Absolutely.

Lauren: Fabulous.

[Music]

Lauren: For more Lingthusiasm, and links to all the things mentioned in this episode, go to lingthusiasm.com. You can listen to us on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Google Play Music, Google Podcasts, SoundCloud, or wherever else you get your podcasts. And you can follow @Lingthusiasm on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr. 

You can get your IPA scarves and other Lingthusiasm merch at lingthusiasm.com/merch. I tweet and blog as Superlinguo. And Gretchen can be found at @GretchenAMcC on Twitter and her blog is AllThingsLingusitic.com. 

 To listen to bonus episodes, ask us your linguistics questions, and help keep the show ad-free, go to patreon.com/lingthusiasm or follow the links from our website. If you can’t afford to pledge, that’s okay too. We also really appreciate it if you could rate us on iTunes or recommend Lingthusiasm to anyone who needs a little more linguistics in their life. 

 Lingthusiasm is created and produced by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne, our audio producer is Claire Gawne, our editorial producers are Emily Gref and A. E. Prevost, and our production assistants are Fabianne Anderberg and Celine Yoon, our music is by The Triangles. We’ll leave you with Hannah.

Hannah: Stay lingthusiastic!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

[bevioletskies]

if i could fly

summary: Scott’s freshman year in college is going like pretty much any other - his roommate is a little eccentric, he has a huge crush on the girl sitting next to him in his bioengineering lecture, and he absolutely can’t stand their professor. Meanwhile, Hope is just wondering when she can have a moment for herself, when to tell Scott that she knows and she feels the same way, and when he’s going to realize that she’s Dr. Pym’s daughter.

a/n: Fic title is from the song If I Could Fly by One Direction because I need to stop picking songs from before 1988. Also, this fic is slightly more of a Hope character study than a Scott/Hope fic, but they're still a very central part of the plot!

word count: 8.1k | ao3

The moment that Scott and Hope met was...memorable, to say the least - Scott practically fell right through the doors of the lecture hall, stumbled over his own feet, and stubbed his toe on the back row of seats. Every last person turned to look at him, because on top of everything else, he was ten minutes late (he blamed Luis for convincing him that he “didn’t need an alarm, man!”).

He sheepishly made his way down the stairs, scanning every row for an empty seat, his heart sinking when he realized the entire hall was at full capacity, save for one seat at the very front. He felt decidedly more optimistic once he laid eyes on the girl who would be sitting next to him. “Sorry,” he whispered, sliding past her to sit down. She merely huffed and waved him off. Good start, Scott, he internally berated himself, and cracked open his textbook, quietly wondering if she already thought he was a completely hopeless case. Everyone went back to their own books and laptops, but he could still feel the professor’s eyes trained on him, judging him in stone-faced silence.

It wasn’t until they took a short break between lecture slides that Scott decided to try for a second first impression; if nothing else, he knew it would help to find an accountability partner for each of his classes (and not one who told him he didn’t need to set an alarm, Luis). “Hey, I’m Scott,” he offered.

The girl turned to look at him, allowing for a far better look at her face - mid-length dark hair, inquisitive brows, and a piercing gaze, her eyes similar in their shade of hazel-green to his. “Hope,” she said shortly, turning back to her screen. “Dr. Pym hates latecomers.”

“Yeah, I figured,” he chuckled sheepishly. “You’ve taken a class with him before?”

An odd smirk formed on her face, a quirk in the corner of her mouth that only intrigued him further. “Sure.”

“I read some pretty bad reviews of him, but he’s the only one who teaches some of the 300-level stuff I need. Wanted to get onto his good side early, but now it might be outta the question,” he continued, undeterred. “Any suggestions?”

“I know it’s bioengineering, but it’s not rocket science. Show up on time, do the readings, study for thirty hours a day. You just might scrape by,” she drawled.

“Well, when you put it like that,” Scott said, leaning back in his seat with a grin. “And while you’re giving advice, where’s the best place to study on campus?”

Hope finally looked at him again, her eyes flickering briefly across his face; he felt like he was being evaluated for something, but what, he couldn’t be quite sure. “Main library, third floor, by the windows. I’m usually there on Sunday mornings by ten, since everyone else is still sleeping.”

He met her gaze, his smile spreading. “Good to know.”

Once class was over, Hope remained in her seat until the entire room was empty, save for Dr. Pym at the front, packing up his things. “Any potential takers, or were you too busy batting your eyelashes at the boy sitting beside you?”

Hope rolled her eyes, shutting her laptop with a snap. “Don’t patronize me, Dad, I can have a life outside of your recruitment program. Why don’t you offer internships like every other CEO-slash-professor?”

“Because I’m not like other CEOs-slash-professors,” Hank insisted; Hope had to choke back her laugh at how absurd he sounded. “What, you think I’m going to stick just any random intern in the Ant-Man suit? No!”

She clicked her tongue dismissively, hoisting her bag onto her shoulder, and began making her way up the stairs to the exit. “If you ask me, Scott seems like the best choice.”

“For me, or for you?” he called. All he got in response was the loud clunk of the doors swinging shut.

Hope was not one to be told what to do, and never had been. She’d been a stubborn child, a stubborn teenager, and despite her parents’ best efforts, became a stubborn young adult. Despite Hope’s best efforts, however, she ended up following in their footsteps anyway, contrary to her bouts of teenage rebellion. She’d gone through her phases of wanting to be a veterinarian, a writer, a martial arts instructor, but ultimately found herself right back in the sciences under the loving tutelage of her genius parents. Still, now that she was in college, or more specifically, the college her parents taught at, she refused to tell people they were related. She had no intention of letting people immediately form opinions of her that she didn’t have control of. It didn’t help that Hank was constantly hovering over her shoulder like he didn’t already keep tabs on her phone’s GPS or put sensors in her car (which he didn’t know that she knew about).

“Can you not let our daughter be a normal student without dragging her into another one of your schemes?” Janet had protested when Hank first brought up his recruitment plans. “Just get an intern, Henry!”

Now, Hope sat at her favorite table in the library, drumming her pencil against its surface, considering all the things her father had told her to look for. Someone clever, hardworking, focused, adaptive. She couldn’t help but scoff at the last attribute he’d asked for - in other words, someone who will listen to you no matter what, Hope had wanted to say. Typical. She wasn’t even sure why Hank was looking for a successor, given that he and Janet had retired from their other lives by the time she was sixteen, but she knew questioning him about it would only lead to another eventual shouting match. Nothing made him happier than finding something to be angry about.

“Hey.” She looked up, both startled and pleased to see Scott smiling back at her. “Fancy seeing you here. Mind if I join you?”

She gestured for him to take the chair across from hers. “Please,” she said, finding his grin infectious and returning it with a small one of her own. “Don’t tell me you’re already having trouble with the material.”

“Dr. Pym sure has some different ideas about what a ‘first week’ looks like,” he sighed, unloading what seemed like the entire contents of his book bag onto the table. “The guy’s smart, but someone’s gotta tell him to relax.” Hope’s brow shot up at the offhand comment - maybe it was a strike against Scott for Hank’s purposes, that he wasn’t capable of meeting his demands. For her purposes, however, anyone who was willing to call out her dad’s...quirks was a person worth getting to know.

She reached across the table for his workbook. “May I?” At his nod, she pulled it towards her, scanning across the pages. “For someone who’s complaining, you seem to know what you’re doing.”

“I like learning about this kind of stuff, it’s just his teaching style. Dude’s gotta lighten up,” Scott shrugged, though his cheeks warmed at her sort-of compliment. “Hey, I never asked, what’re you majoring in?”

“Biochem, minor in commerce,” she replied. “You?”

“Engineering,” he said, taking his workbook back from her. “So I guess we won’t see much of each other outside of some general sciences stuff.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” she hummed. They exchanged somewhat shy smiles over the top of her laptop before resuming their work in comfortable, amiable silence.

Later that afternoon, she returned to the family townhouse - situated close to campus, where Hank and Janet (and now Hope) lived while they taught during the fall and spring semesters - with a slight spring in her step, feeling oddly optimistic. Hope had never put too much stock into relationships of any kind, preferring to focus more on herself, but she found Scott charming in a way she wanted to explore further. As for Hank’s intentions -

“Where have you been?”

“Really, Dad? What am I, seven years old?” Hope kicked off her shoes and hung up her jacket in the hall closet, deliberately keeping her back to him. “I was studying at the library, okay? Nothing scandalous.”

“Don’t give me attitude, Hope, it was just a question,” Hank grouched. “You got some time to join me in the lab? I have something to show you.”

“Fine,” she sighed, following him down into the basement suite, which Hank had transformed into a condensed version of his far more advanced laboratory at Pym Technologies. “What’s this about?”

Naturally, he didn’t answer, instead leading her to the back of the room where he kept all of his ant specimens. Hope tapped gently on the glass in greeting, and some of them wriggled their antennae back at her; she smiled, knowing it was really Hank who’d told them to. He then moved to knock on the back wall, a hollow metallic echo resonating back to them. Slowly, it slid open, revealing a glass display case behind it, illuminated so brightly that she could barely make out what was inside.

“Of course you have a secret door - wait, is that...is that a new suit?”

Hope moved closer, all the dry wit in her tone gone, now replaced with wonderment in her eyes as she stared at the unfamiliar suit before her. She could tell by the shape of its chestplate and the width of its hips that it was for a feminine figure, but it didn’t look anything like her mother’s suit. It was a silver-gold unlike Janet’s red; it was sleeker, a little more modern in comparison. She turned to look at her father in disbelief.

Hank smiled. “Congratulations on getting into college, honey.”

Hope let out a quiet gasp, then flung her arms around him, burying her face in his neck. “Dad,” she breathed, tears forming in her eyes. “How long have you been working on this?”

“Long enough,” he said, sounding both world-weary and proud, and he wrapped his arms around her in return. “Hope, that’s why I wanted you to help find my successor. They’re going to be your partner.”

She let go of him and stepped back. “What?”

“I know better than to pick for you,” Hank chuckled, rocking back on his heels. “Made the mistake of trying to tell you which extracurriculars to take when you were younger, and we all know how that turned out. But this is important, Hope. For me, sure, but really, for you.”

She walked back up to the case, splaying her palm open against the glass, still starry-eyed. “Partner,” she repeated.

“So, did you find anyone yet?”

Hope thought back to half an hour ago when she’d left Scott in the library, how easy it had been to work and chat and laugh with him, how she wasn’t quite ready to leave when she did. Then she tried to picture him standing in her father’s lab, the two of them arguing over the schematics of the suit, or the formulas they used, or just anything, really. She internally blanched.

“No, not yet.”

Sunday mornings at the library very quickly became a thing for Hope and Scott, where she stopped being surprised by his arrival (he made a point of promptly being there by ten) and he stopped needing to ask whether he could join her. He soon learned what her coffee order was, too, making a habit of bringing her a drink and a danish or donut, somehow always knowing which one she wanted every single time.

“Good memory,” he had shrugged when she asked him one time how he remembered she’d been craving something cherry-flavored, watching in astonishment as he deposited a small paper bag of a sugar-coated cherry strudel beside her laptop. Her first bite was more satisfying than she expected, trying not to make a show of it while he watched her with a sort of half-smile and a soft twinkle in his eyes.

Even stranger was the first time Hope ever saw Scott outside of the classroom or the library: at the on-campus gym, of all places, circling a punching bag. She took a moment to admire his arms (and silently criticize his footwork) before approaching him. “You really need to work on your form.”

He startled slightly at the sound of her voice, then laughed once he realized it was her. “Yeah, I’m not - I’m more of a runner type of guy, not a boxer. Didn’t know you were here, too.”

“I was over at the weight machines and I thought I saw a familiar face, though more sweaty than I’m used to,” she teased, walking around the bag so they were face-to-face. “I think you could use some advice.”

“You know this stuff?” he asked.

“I’ve been doing martial arts since I was eight,” she replied, shrugging easily.

“Didn’t know that.” He briefly bent to pick up his water bottle and take a long, generous swig; Hope briefly averted her eyes, not wanting to become too fixated on the way his throat moved while he did.

“There are a lot of things you don’t know about me,” she said instead, gesturing for him to follow her over to the mats. She then came to a standstill in the middle, holding up both of her hands so her palms were facing him. “Gloves off. Show me how to punch.”

“I was in - I mean, I know how to punch,” Scott hedged. She narrowed her eyes at his hesitation. Finally, with a sigh, he got into position, then threw a couple of punches, striking her hands half-heartedly.

“Terrible,” she said, lowering her arms, though she kept her tone light.

“You wanna show me how to - ” Scott let out a noise he wasn’t proud of as Hope knocked him right in the chest. He fell head over heels quite literally, stumbling backward over his own feet. “Oh - ”

“You asked.” Hope put her hands on her hips, smirking at Scott’s half-impressed, half-terrified expression. “Come on, back to work.”

After an hour-long impromptu bootcamp, they were both drenched in sweat and sore to the bone, him far more so than her. On their way to their respective locker rooms, Scott decided to strip off his T-shirt entirely, causing several heads to turn their way. He grinned when he noticed Hope keeping her chin a little too high in the air, her eyes practically glued to the ceiling. “What’s up?”

“No one likes a show-off,” she huffed, disappearing into the women’s showers.

The two of them ended up going to a hole-in-the-wall dive that was about a five-minute drive outside of the university campus, the kind of place that Hope admittedly would have never tried herself, having spent her life going to restaurants with more than one crystal chandelier and waiters that had been calling her “ma’am” since she was five. She remembered sitting between her parents, tugging uncomfortably at the runs in her tights, barely able to follow the conversation happening with the executive or researcher or whoever happened to be their plus one for the night who sat across the table from her, occasionally cooing at her like she was a newborn baby. Scott, meanwhile, looked right at home sitting across from her on a scratched-up booth bench that had certainly seen better days, his arm thrown over the back, his other hand drumming out an offbeat rhythm on the table’s surface. There was a quiet confidence to him that she very much envied, the ease in the slump of his shoulders painting a stark contrast to the tightness in hers.

“So what don’t I know about you?”

Hope was taken aback. “What?”

“You said there’s a lot I don’t know about you, and I can’t not ask after you say something like that,” he chuckled. “Like, what made you do martial arts as a kid? Why’re you majoring in science and minoring in business? What classes have you taken with Dr. Pym?”

She winced a little at the last one. “Why do you want to know?” she asked. “Is it because - ”

“Just curious,” he said, holding up his hands defensively. “But if you don’t wanna tell me, it’s cool. I’ve got my secrets, too.”

“Really, because you seem almost too transparent,” she said dryly. She leaned forward to rest her elbows on the table, then regretted it instantly when she realized how sticky it was. “Martial arts is something my parents thought would be important for me to learn, I want to - ” destined to, more like, she thought “ - work at a scientific research company, and Dr. Pym used to do summer workshops for high school students.”

He nodded slowly, absorbing her words, the words that she knew were half-truths at best, lies of omission at worst. Then: “I’ve been learning how to do close-up magic.”

“What,” she repeated, though flatly this time. He leaned in, his face startlingly close to hers, and she felt his fingers briefly brush against her earlobe before he triumphantly brandished a quarter in her face, his grin impossibly wide.

“I guess it’s not really a secret, but I’m getting pretty good at it,” he said, taking her hand and unfurling her fingers so he could press the coin into her palm. His hands were warm, his fingers unusually calloused for someone who supposedly didn’t work with much more than a keyboard. Hope wanted to ask, but she wasn’t even sure what to ask. She hadn’t exactly forgotten his comment earlier, either, whatever he was going to say before failing spectacularly at punching. Maybe his secrets were like hers - not shameful, exactly, just not something he wanted to talk about yet.

“I’m impressed.” She half-closed her hand around his, then leaned back so she felt like she could breathe again. “So is that just for fun, or...”

“You could say that.” He averted his eyes a little too quickly, finally sliding his hand away, back to his side of the table. “I’m still trying to figure out what kinda stuff I’m into, what I wanna do in like, life. I know, I know, it’s the most...typical college student stuff. But that’s what it’s all about, right? Figuring out who we are?”

“Going to the gym on a regular basis is definitely a good place to start,” she mused. “What else have you been doing?”

“Haven’t really had the chance to do much in the last three or so years,” he said mysteriously, resuming his drumming against the table. “And hey, I could use a personal trainer.”

Before Hope could reply, her phone went off. She glanced at Scott apologetically before looking down at her screen, groaning when she realized who it was. “Dad, I’m - no, I’m out right now, I can’t - I’ll be home - Dad, seriously - ”

While she talked, keeping her voice low and her mouth covered, Scott’s gaze wandered off around at the gaudy posters and neon signs, the leaky ceiling and the rusty window panes, before his eyes went back to her. Her hair was still somewhat damp, her brows were knitted together in clear frustration, and he could see the slight chipping of her fingernails, probably from the rough-and-tumble they’d had earlier. Scott wanted to take her hand again, to find some other magic trick or silly excuse that would allow him to do so without weirding her out. That is, he hoped she wasn’t put off by what he knew was his sometimes strangeness, little things and moments of “immaturity”, as his ex had so nicely called it (and it was nice of her, considering some of the things her current boyfriend had to say about him). He turned away when she started to hang up, certain that his face felt just the slightest bit warmer than it had a moment ago.

“Is he expecting you home right now?” Scott asked once she pocketed her phone. “If you have to go - ”

“I’m just fine where I am,” Hope said shortly, though her expression softened once their eyes met again. “What were you saying about a personal trainer?”

“Well, if you’re up to spending more time with me…” He trailed off, looking at her expectantly.

“I guess it couldn’t hurt,” she teased, grinning. Once more, they found themselves exchanging promising glances, barely breaking eye contact, even when their waiter came around with a plastic basket of oily nachos.

“So, I’ve been meaning to tell you something.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“It’s not - well.”

They were about two months into the semester, with the weather gradually getting colder and crisper, and classes getting progressively harder and deceptively longer. Scott and Hope were bundled in their thickest coats and walking across campus together, coffee and buttery pastries in hand, on their way to Hank’s class. It had become routine for them, to the point where Scott’s roommate teased them every time she dropped by their dorm.

“Hey, Hope,” Luis would say with a knowing grin. Then he’d turn into the room and call, “Scotty, your girl’s here to walk you to class!”, much to Scott’s embarrassment. Ruddy-cheeked, he would always push past Luis and mutter unintelligibly under his breath, then gesture for Hope to follow him far, far away.

“Luis and I actually knew each other before coming here,” Scott said. Strangely enough, he seemed to be avoiding her eyes. “We, uh, we met in jail?”

Hope stopped in her tracks. “Is that a question?” she said shortly, her breath stuck in her throat, fearing the absolute worst. “What were you in for?”

“Theft,” he admitted. She internally exhaled, though she remained wary. “Few months after graduating high school, my girlfriend got pregnant. I was doing an internship at a security company to save up for college, and then, y’know, the baby. All I saw were these guys in nice suits, bragging about vacation homes, golf scores, the usual. But then I heard ‘em talking about screwing over their customers, skimming money from their accounts. Figured it wouldn’t hurt to steal it back. Got caught, dumped, thrown into prison - in that order. I was let out early on good behavior, but if I wanna meet my daughter, my ex says I gotta prove that I’ve changed.”

Hope fiddled with the sleeve of her coffee cup, wearing away at the thin cardboard until the edges began to fray. “...oh.”

“I just didn’t want you to hear about it from someone else,” Scott continued, shooting her a strained smile. “I wanna be there for my daughter, I wanna be a good person. Honest, reliable...all that.”

She cleared her throat, giving him a small smile of her own. “What’s her name?”

“Cassie,” he said quietly.

“That’s a pretty name.” Her eyes dropped to the lid of her coffee cup for a moment, contemplating. “From what I can tell, Scott, you’re already honest. You just need more focus. Once your ex sees that, how badly you want to see Cassie...it’ll happen.”

“I sure hope so,” he said, his eyes softening. “Thanks for, uh, for hearing me out.”

She nodded. “Of course.”

Hank’s class was the usual long-winded lecture, filled with convoluted definitions and complex equations. Near the end, he handed back one of their reports before dismissing them. Hope immediately had to stash hers in her bag the moment she laid eyes on it, realizing he’d written excellent work, proud of you at the top of the front page, right next to her A-grade. Hank had never been one to express sentiment through writing (Janet had once shown Hope the love letters he’d written to her when they were young; they both had a good laugh at his earnest, but ultimately poor attempts), and it made her tear up a little at the last three words. Still, she didn’t want Scott to see. Scott looked confused at her erratic behavior, but merely grinned his easygoing grin and said his goodbyes, once again leaving her alone in the lecture hall with Hank.

“You’re getting pretty close to Lang, aren’t you?” he commented, eyeing her knowingly.

“We’re friends,” she replied tightly. “You don’t have to punish him for whatever imaginary rivalry you’ve got going in your head, by the way. I’ve seen the marks you’ve given him. He’s smarter than you literally give him credit for.”

“You know, I just can’t tell if you want him to be your partner or not,” Hank scoffed. “You’ve told me about his many supposed good qualities - his intelligence, memory, agility - and yet you also tell me you haven’t found anyone - ”

“I just haven’t, okay?” Hope interrupted. “Just - Dad, can you please just let me live my life, separate from yours?”

“Then why did you enroll in the very school that your mother and I work at? Why didn’t you go clear across the country like every other teenager?” Hank retorted, folding his arms across his chest.

“Sometimes, I really don’t know.” With that, Hope turned and stormed out of the lecture hall in a huff, some of her residual childish temper still lingering inside. Hank stood there, staring after her with the same fire in his eyes, simultaneously loving and hating the fact that she’d turned out to be a little too much like him.

Hope found herself spending more time in the gym or Scott’s dorm room than her family’s townhouse as the semester dragged on, avoiding her father’s stern looks and her mother’s placating smiles. She knew she was being immature about the whole ordeal, but it was hard not to feel stifled and cornered into bursts of anger when it seemed like they were constantly sitting on her shoulders. Something about seeing all the other college students going around campus, getting to truly be themselves for the first time, made her burn with a quiet envy she didn’t realize she had.

“I know it sounds like the dumbest thing to complain about, but I’m so sick of my parents always...being there,” Hope admitted one afternoon while she and Scott were sprawled across his tiny bedroom floor, lazily making their way through their homework. After he’d opened up about his time in jail, she wanted to return the favor and tell him more about herself, though she still tried to keep it as vague as possible. “It’s not like I want them gone or anything, but sometimes I wish it was like when I was little, and they’d go on business trips out of the blue. I’d be at home with a sitter for weeks at a time, wondering if they’d ever come back. Now, I...almost want that distance again. Just enough so I don’t feel like I have to live up to something.”

Scott hummed thoughtfully, his head tilted in a way she somehow found more charming than cloying. “Have you told them how you feel? I’m sure they’d wanna know if they were pressuring you, they sound like good parents.”

“If you knew them, you’d know it isn’t that simple,” she sighed.

“Can I? Meet them, I mean,” he added.

She quirked an eyebrow. “And...why do you want to meet my parents, exactly?” Scott could only look at her dumbfoundedly, as if he’d just realized the weight of what he was asking for. Hope smiled, shuffling closer to rest her elbows on top of his knees, her bright-eyed gaze meeting his. “Is it because - ”

Scott kissed her before she could finish her sentence. She let out a startled noise before returning the kiss, pleased that she hadn’t been imagining things, that it wasn’t just her wishful thinking that he’d been offhandedly flirting with her for the past few months.

Knock knock. “Hey, Scotty - ” before either of them had time to react, the door swung open to reveal Luis standing there with a plastic bag overloaded with takeout containers “ - whoa, what’s going on?”

Scott broke the kiss first, shooting her a faux-stern look. “Really, Hope? I thought we were here to study and then you go around kissing me like that, honestly - ”

“You are so full of shit, Scott,” she retorted without missing a beat, half-sighing and half-laughing in exasperation. She moved to gather up her things from around the room, pointedly keeping her back to Luis, who was snickering behind his hand. “I should get going, I promised my mom I’d hang out with her tonight.”

“Wait, I’ll walk you out,” Scott called as she swept past him. He got to his feet and grabbed his room key, then turned to fix Luis with a pointed stare. “Dude.” Luis merely shrugged, chuckling, and sat down at his desk like nothing had happened.

“I mean it, I have to get going,” Hope said, though she was still waiting for Scott while he closed the door behind him. “Mom’s probably waiting for me.”

“Sorry about, y’know, him,” Scott said, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder. The two of them quickly fell into step like they always did, walking down the hall to the building doors. “I meant it, though. I haven’t really had a relationship with my parents since I got sent to jail, so...it’d be cool to meet yours. And…‘cos of the other thing.”

“Someday,” she hummed noncommittally. “And the ‘other thing’? I’m not sure what you mean. I thought we were here to study.”

“Now who’s full of it?” he grinned, coming to a stop right in front of the exit. He leaned in, his nose brushing against hers; she was the one to close the gap this time. “Have a good time with your mom.”

“Have a good time with your...Luis,” Hope said, smirking in the way he adored, and she disappeared through the doors. Scott stood there for a moment longer just to chuckle to himself, shaking his head in awe, before returning to his room.

Once Hope returned home, she quickly changed into her workout clothes and went down into the other half of the basement suite - the makeshift gym - to find Janet already there, working with the speed bag. It was one of their rare nights alone together since Hank was doing a talk at a conference two towns over. According to a string of text messages he’d sent them both, it was ‘one of the most inane things’ he’d ever done and reportedly made him miss the days of endless bureaucratic SHIELD meetings. “Sorry I’m late,” Hope said by way of greeting.

“That’s alright. You have a good time with Scott?” Janet asked, stopping to grin at her daughter.

“Don’t,” Hope sighed. “I already get enough of that from Dad, I don’t need to hear it from you.”

“Speaking of your father...I told him to stop asking you about that whole partner thing, and...he agreed.” Janet nodded at Hope’s surprised expression. “You don’t need that going on during your very first semester of college. You’ve already got plenty to worry about.”

Hope smiled gratefully. “Thanks, Mom. I don’t want you guys to think I don’t want this, you know I’ve been wanting my own suit my entire life. But...this isn’t just something I can ask of someone out of nowhere. And I need someone who can be my partner, not his. I need time.”

“I know, jellybean,” Janet said, her voice soft. “Even then...you just focus on yourself, alright?”

“Easier said than done,” Hope sighed. “Maybe Dad’s right. Maybe I should’ve just gone to school somewhere else. Make my life my own for a little while instead of getting angry at you both for...well, for being good parents.”

“Oh, Hope…” Janet removed her gloves entirely so she could properly wrap her arms around her daughter, bringing her in for a tight hug. “We are so proud of you already, you have to know that. We don’t need you to be perfect, we just need you to be yourself. And if you need some space so you can do that, take it, okay? No matter what your father says.”

“You know he wouldn’t like it if I left,” Hope chuckled, burrowing her face into Janet’s shoulder. “Both of you would be calling me every single day.”

“We would, wouldn’t we?” Janet chuckled. “But seriously, jellybean, promise me you won’t be worrying about what we think. Let it be about you.”

Hope’s smile broadened, and she stepped back to meet her mother’s gaze, bright and wise and warm. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “I will.”

Another week went by, then two, then a few more, and suddenly, it was the day before Scott and Hope’s last final, which happened to be for Hank’s class. They were studying in the library, occasionally looking up to exchange warm smiles before returning to their notes, Scott playfully nudging Hope’s foot underneath the table every now and then, basking in the comfortable silence.

Then: “So, my ex called today.”

Once again, Hope found herself caught by surprise. “Oh?”

“We made a deal,” Scott continued, flipping the page of his textbook, making a point of not lifting his head to meet Hope’s steely-eyed gaze. “If I get at least Bs in all my classes and get a job or an internship or something in the next six months, I can see Cassie as often as I want.”

“That sounds reasonable. You’re getting As in all of your classes, Scott,” she pointed out.

“Yeah, but it’s the job thing I’m worried about. You know how hard it is for ex-cons to find work? Especially for a guy who got jail time for messing with his last workplace?” He sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “I wanna be responsible, I wanna be there for her, but...I’m basically screwed.”

Hope chewed her bottom lip in deep thought, guilt beginning to settle a little too comfortably in the pit of her stomach. The solution was right there, right in front of her face, while Scott was completely unaware there even was a solution to be had. Part of her wanted to be selfish, to keep Scott to herself, to not let her parents take over yet another aspect of her life. All she could think about was Scott’s irritation with Hank’s personality and Hank’s vitriol for Scott’s...existence. At the same time, considering how things were going, the tip-toeing progression of their relationship that was moving (in her opinion) at just the right pace, he was going to find out eventually, wasn’t he?

“I can get you a position at Pym Technologies,” she finally said, closing her laptop so she could look him straight in the eye. “When can you start?”

“Wait, what? How? Dr. Pym didn’t say anything about internships - ”

“Neither did I. And he’s been looking for a while now, he just didn’t want people to know.”

Scott’s brow furrowed further. “Then...how did you find out about it?”

Hope sucked her breath in between her teeth. “I’m his daughter.”

Scott’s mouth almost comically dropped open, gaping at her like a fish. Just as quickly, his jaw then clicked shut, clenching tight. Hope had never seen his eyes grow so cold; she shivered. “Hope.”

“Scott, I - ”

“Hope,” he repeated. “Come on, why didn’t you tell me? All semester, I’ve been talking so much crap about Dr. Pym, and this whole time you’ve been listening to me, and, and...and lying to me?” She glanced briefly over his shoulder to see students at the other tables beginning to turn and stare at them, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“I know it was wrong, okay, and for that, I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “But...you have to know why I did it, Scott. I’ve spent my whole life being told that my parents are geniuses, and that I have to live up to those expectations and be one myself. I have to be well-rounded but focused, social but disciplined, all these...things that eventually became too much for me. I’m better at balancing all those things now, but I still wanted just one thing to be my own, and...I wanted it to be you. I didn’t want you to think anything of me because of them, but...I guess I was the only one who didn’t think this through. It was selfish. I was selfish.”

“No, it’s not - ” Scott inhaled sharply, then reached across the table to take her hand and give it a brief squeeze. “ - it’s not selfish, I mean, I get it. I didn’t want you to know about my criminal past for sort of the same reason. First impressions, right? Having all these ideas about a person before you actually get to know them.” He smiled in the sort of crooked way that made her let go of the breath she didn’t realize she was still holding. “So uh, were you serious about that Pym Tech internship thing?”

Hope chuckled, simultaneously burnt out from worry and relieved by Scott’s easygoing acceptance. “Just like that, huh?”

“Sure,” he shrugged. “And at least it explains why Dr. Pym seems to side-eye me more than anyone else. I didn’t think I was doing that bad.”

She smiled, her shoulders finally relaxing, and glanced down briefly to their still-intertwined fingers. “It might be a little more...involved than you might expect, but I think you can handle it. Also, I never said it was an internship.”

Hank’s final went about as smoothly as expected, which was to say it didn’t go smoothly at all. The problem wasn’t the test itself; both Hope and Scott were diligent students with a good understanding of the material, but there was a tension in the lecture hall that hadn’t existed before. Scott took one look at Hank, now having mentally labelled him as Hope’s father, and it made him more nervous than the essay questions ever would.

“Something wrong, Lang? Your eye is twitching,” Hank observed while he distributed the test papers.

Scott gave him an awkward double thumbs-up. “All good here.” His voice was at least an octave higher than its usual pitch. Hope held back her usual eye-roll.

After their exam was over, Scott went back to his dorm room to sleep off his post-finals week exhaustion, but not before giving Hope a brief kiss while Hank was packing up his bag. “Hey, good luck,” he murmured. “You got this.”

Hope squeezed his arm in return, enjoying the fact that she didn’t even have to turn her head to know what Hank’s expression looked like. “I know I do,” she replied quietly, smirking.

The car ride back to their townhouse was silent - for once, Hope had allowed Hank to drive her to and from class instead of taking her own car - save for the college radio station, where the monotonous host droned on about the last stretch of the semester. It was only when they arrived that Hank wordlessly gestured for her to follow him into the basement laboratory. She winced in anticipation of what was to come.

Hank opened the secret wall once more, calling the display case forward, and Hope went to stand by his side. It took her a moment to realize there was another mannequin on the other side of the glass, this one donning a masculine suit with similar design lines and detailing to match hers, but rendered in her father’s preferred red-and-black color scheme. Goosebumps went up her arms as she stepped closer, the glass sliding open so she could gently run the tips of her fingers across the material of her own suit. It was then that she could truly feel how solid it was, how real her childhood fantasy had become. “So...what do you think?”

She turned to look at him. “They look amazing, Dad. But I really need to talk to you about something.”

“So do I,” Hank sighed, sinking down into his chair. “Hope, I...realize that I may have been pushy about you finding someone to work with. I know we’re not exactly on the same page about the progress of your...let’s call it your career, shall we?”

Hope smiled. “Let’s. And I know that you and Mom mean well, and I don’t want you thinking I’m not grateful for everything you guys have done for me. But...I don’t want to end up resenting you both for making my life fit into yours.”

“We just want what’s best for you, Hope,” Hank protested. “And you’ve proven yourself over and over again. It’s why I made the suit.”

“I get that.” She sat down in the chair opposite him, reaching across to rest her hand on his knee. “I’d just like it if my life was my own sometimes, or else I’m going to be left wanting. Wondering what it could be like.”

He went silent for a moment, contemplating. Then, he placed his hand over hers. “You know I’m no good at this kind of thing,” he said gruffly. “But tell me what we can do.”

“Trust me?” It came out more of a question than a statement. She cleared her throat. “And I mean really trust me to make my own choices.”

“I do,” Hank said automatically. When Hope fixed him with a look, he also coughed, leaning back into his seat. “More than you think. And if this is about your taste in partners - ”

“ - I don’t need to explain myself to you,” she interrupted, her voice hard. “I’m not a child anymore, Dad. If I bring him here to put on the suit and train with me, I need you to respect him and our relationship.”

He held up his hands in defeat. “Alright, alright, I hear you. But I’m glad to hear you’ve made your decision.”

“I wanted to keep him away from you,” she admitted, finally withdrawing her hand. “I wanted my college experience to be just like anyone else’s, and I didn’t want to pull him into our world when he’s been one of the most normal things about my world that I’ve ever had. But I would’ve just been delaying the inevitable, and...I really want to put on that suit.”

Hank laughed, getting to his feet and gesturing for her to follow. “I know you do. Why do you think I’ve been working on it for so long?” Hope smiled, standing as well and moving to wrap her arms around him. He hugged her in return, pressing a kiss into her forehead. “You’re really running things around here these days, aren’t you? Just like your mother. Too damn clever and stubborn for your own good.”

“Always,” Hope replied, grinning.

“Is the blindfold really necessary? I feel like I’m gonna trip.” As if on cue, Scott’s foot slipped out from under him; Hope caught him by the waist before he could fall any further.

“Dad’s the kind of paranoid who thinks the neighbors steal our mail, do you really think he’d be okay with you entering his lab without one?” she drawled, straightening him up. “Just a few more steps.”

Once they reached the bottom, Hope briefly let go to type in the code on the door’s keypad, her heart thumping wildly against her ribcage with anticipation. The door slid open to reveal Hank and Janet sitting by one of the worktables, poring over blueprints for a new model of the quantum tunnel. They both looked up at the sound of Scott and Hope’s footsteps.

Hope helped Scott remove his blindfold, watching him blink blearily into the light, squinting, before his eyes landed on her parents. He blanched slightly. “Dr. Pym...Miss Van Dyne, it’s so nice to meet you.” He held out his hand to shake, though he nearly tripped over his own feet in doing so. Hope nudged him upright with her shoulder. “Hope talks about you all the time.”

“All good things, I assume,” Janet beamed, getting to her feet so she could return the gesture. “She’s briefed you on what’s going on around here, right?”

“NDA and all,” Scott said, laughing awkwardly. “I also read up about you guys after she told me. Really impressive stuff.”

“I hope it wasn’t just my reviews on that professor rating website,” Hank grouched, though he motioned for them to join him at the display case, which had remained in full view since his conversation with Hope from a few days ago. It was the weekend after exam week was over, and the Pym-Van Dynes had spent the last couple of days mulling over Hope’s decision, weighing the pros and cons of bringing, in Hank’s words, an “inexperienced civilian” into their fold, eventually agreeing that a quick background check, typical of any normal employer, would do the job (Hope drew the line at trying to contact his family as references, though; she got the impression that his parents would have nothing but thinly-veiled insults to offer). Scott had spent the last couple of days sleeping.

“Oh, wow…” Scott was speechless as he approached the glass, his starry-eyed expression reminiscent of Hope’s. “This is so cool. It’s like a, a motorcycle suit or something.”

“It’s not - ” Hank cut himself off with a huff. “It’s for you, Scott.”

“Really?” Scott turned to look at Hank. “Can I try it on?”

“Not yet, we have to measure you and make some adjustments,” Janet piped up, pointing toward a small platform for him to stand on. “Do you mind?”

“Not at all,” Scott grinned, hopping up with all the enthusiasm of a child getting to try on their Halloween costume for the first time. Janet went to grab her measuring tape and tablet, while Hope smiled up at Scott, the discomfort in her stomach slowly ebbing away. Hank still looked as sour as ever, but Hope spotted a twitch in the corner of his mouth that suggested maybe, just maybe, this was going to work.

A few hours later, after Hank and Janet had rattled through what Hank called the introductory course to, among other things, Pym Particles and the Ant-Man suit, Scott and Hope sat on the living room couch together, watching a movie, while they waited for her parents to finish preparing dinner for the four of them.

Hope soon noticed Scott seemed to be sending off a series of texts, though she bit her tongue before her curiosity could get the best of her. “Thank you,” she murmured instead, gently prodding his leg with her toe.

“Of course,” he said, immediately pocketing his phone. He turned to fully face her and propped his elbow up on the back of the couch, tilting his head down somewhat so their foreheads brushed. “Hey, this is the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me. This is gonna be awesome.”

“I’m glad it’s that simple for you,” she replied, mirroring his movements; their elbows met in the middle. “It’s going to be a lot of work, Scott.”

“I know,” he shrugged. “But it feels like the right thing to do. I really needed this, after all the crap that’s gone wrong in my life. A chance to prove myself.”

“You’ll have plenty,” she promised. Then, she couldn’t help herself, finding her gaze flickering to his phone; she could see its screen lighting up over and over again, silently chiming in with more notifications. “What’s going on there?”

“Maggie, my ex,” Scott said, sitting up so he could pull it out of his pocket. “I told her I got a job, she’s been bugging me with questions ever since. Told her I’d tell her more later, once your dad gets me up to speed on what I can and can’t tell people.” His grin broadened. “She did send me a couple pictures of Cassie, though. Wanna see?”

Hope nodded almost shyly, her heart melting when Scott turned the screen in her direction. “Oh, Scott, she’s adorable.” It was a series of photos of a little three-year-old girl in a high chair with the biggest, roundest brown eyes Hope had ever seen, grinning toothily at the camera, the majority of her face covered in chocolate cake. “It’s a good reminder - you’re doing this for her.”

“And for me,” he added, tucking his phone away. “And...a little bit for you.”

“Is that so?” she teased, leaning in closer once more. “Just a little bit?”

“Teeny...tiny...ant-sized bit,” Scott whispered, bringing his mouth to hers. Hope groaned, though both of them shook a little with silent laughter as she pulled him in closer, winding her arms around him until their legs were fully intertwined, him pressing her into the couch. Much to Hank’s chagrin, she barely moved to break the kiss when he entered the room and cleared his throat.

“When you two are finished, dinner’s ready,” he said tightly, then turned on his heel and walked right back into the dining room. Hope finally pulled away so she could laugh into Scott’s shoulder, delighting in how pink his face had gotten (though he didn’t look too ashamed of himself, either). Yes, it was more than a maybe; things were going to be just fine.

a/n: I love a good ol' college AU, and getting to do some character exploration of what Hope would be like if her parents were around for her entire adolesence was pretty interesting! And, of course, writing overly-confident, kinda-awkward flirting between these two is one of my favorite things about the Scott/Hope dynamic. I think I'm starting to get the hang of the Ant-fam's characterization?

Thanks so much for reading, likes and reblogs would be much appreciated, and I hope you enjoyed :)

[chessrushcheats-blog]

Chess Rush Guide

Chess Rush Guide

Chess Rush Guide is a guide for a popular new game. Auto Chess is the newest trend for mobile gaming at the moment. Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon, from Drodo Games, creator of the original Auto Chess, to Valve, and now, Tencent with Chess Rush. Chess Rush basically popped up out of the blue, without any major announcement or tease leading up to its release. It provides a fairly customary Auto Chess expertise with 2 notable exceptions: a Turbo Mode that can condense the normal long battles into 10-minute affairs and co-op for people who prefer to play with their partners. It doesn't require some investment and now you can appreciate playing Chess Rush on PC easily and serenely. Each auto-chess game offers a comparable ongoing interaction component. The accompanying instructional exercise will kick you off rapidly and it covers the essential of how to play Chess Rush. Ideally this will give you enough information to bounce in. Chess Rush is a methodology autobattler game where players fabricate a development by picking among more than 50 legends and go up against 7 others. The fight happens on a chess leading group of eight squares by eight squares. With this, the tanks or if nothing else the tankier saints should be deliberately situated at the cutting edges. Run legends, regardless of whether toxophilite or mages are commonly great harm sellers yet come up short on the barrier esteems to endure a ton of harm. Thusly they ought to commonly be arranged at the back however not excessively a long ways behind the front liners so they can add to arrangement harm to the foe's cutting edge legends. With various saints that can cause AoE harm just as monstrous status impacts, you ought to likewise avoid lumping each one so near one another. Much the same as the Chinese precept which generally meant "Know thy foe, know thyself, and in each fight you will be triumphant", it is very pivotal to find out about the qualities and shortcomings of the considerable number of pieces. Chess Rush as of now sports an enormous list of more than 50 saints, you can find out about their capacities, class and race cooperative energies by essentially tapping the legends symbol at the lower left half of the principle menu, and you will have the whole library for you to process. He is Gurru and he is exceptionally adorable and "peaceful". All in all, what use would he be able to be to players? Well, he is exceptionally valuable as he acts like a trump card. You can utilize him to redesign legends. In the event that you have two indistinguishable legends and you can't locate the third one, yet you have Gurru, at that point you can utilize him as the third saint to update that character. Continuously recruit Gurru whenever you see him on the enlistment screen. Alongside developments, Chess Rush likewise prescribes different lineups. There're 8 Elf pieces altogether. The "blend" in this technique alludes to the way that it's anything but difficult to branch into different Combos. It's anything but difficult to the point that two of the Elf pieces would already be able to actuate Druid. Two others would already be able to give you 2 out of 3 pieces required for the Assassin Combo. The Moonlight Dragon can be your begin for having the Dragon Combo. The Unicorn Cavalier can be your begin for having the Rider Combo. The Stinger and Sword Dancer pieces are 2 out of 3 to pick up the Assassin Combo. The summoner's strategy is particularly viable on the off chance that you confronting adversaries with relatively few AOE units. To exceed expectations in this system, beside social event the proper pieces is that do you have Spellbane Staffs? The gear quickens the gathering as it adds extra mana to the summoners dependent on the harm they do. What's more, you need to organize equiping units like Werewolf and Nightowl. In case you're meaning to be the ace Summoner, you ought to likewise work in the 4-piece Beast reward, so as to amplify harm yield for all partners (counting your request). (Trolls) or Hunters is by all accounts an extraordinary thought at this moment. Chess Rush appears to have cleaned looks and great creation quality generally speaking, which isn't amazing thinking about the assets of Tencent. It is put intensely into the anime/manga-motivated cartoony visual style run of the mill of Asian titles. The primary disadvantage is that some unit plans begin to mix together particularly on high star levels. Basically each of the three-star units have bright sparkling molecule impacts. Joined with conspicuous spells, this makes the front line somewhat jumbled and difficult to understand: Above you can see the visual mess - spells, sparkling units, and stars. It's four groups of two all duking it out in exceptional, vital fight to be pronounced the best of the pack. There are more than 50 legends accessible at dispatch for you to pick and look over. Figuring a definitive group is the genuine test here, however you'll additionally need to choose when precisely to utilize every legend. On the off chance that you need to get strategic, consolidating three of a similar legend will trigger fondness rewards that enable them to take amazing, detail boosting things into the combat zone. Try not to stress, Chess Rush's Goblins are something very similar. There are a couple of new thoughts to a great extent. Enthusiasts of Dota Auto Chess' Beast units may appreciate a comparable class in Chess Rush. It can gather token Pet units and is called... Brute. There is additionally a Furry unit class. That is all I am going to state about that. Things are a thing in this game as well, and they work in a manner like things in Teamfight Tactics. Units can prepare various things each, and joining duplicates of a similar one makes a more grounded thing. With the Auto Chess showcase rapidly going to a point of sarutation, a game needs to do its best so as to stick out, and truly, what Chess Rush has is about on a par with it can get. Toward the day's end, how much time you spend on this game will rely upon the amount you like the Auto Chess classification all in all. Chess Rush doesn't do anything momentous, however it offers a fair option with its cleaned visuals and new game modes. The outcome is an a lot quicker paced experience that doesn't really settle on the ongoing interaction. It's precisely the same experience, simply quicker. So the majority of the procedures you've grown so far will at present work. At that point there's the center mode, Tencent's other commitment to the class. Once more, this is a flash of brilliance as Tencent comprehends that portable is a social stage. Portable gamers love playing with others - just take a look at any of the top diagrams and you'll see multiplayer titles like Clash Royale, PUBG Mobile, and Brawl Stars sitting at the top. It is frequently successful to have a semi-tanky unit to be put at the far back, this is to counter contradicting professional killers where they can hop over your cutting edge and go directly to the throat of your squishy DPS units. When confronting adversaries with AOE strat, it is likewise savvy to spread out your development. Along these lines, make sure to consistently focus on rivals' sheets, realize what they're up to and adjust appropriately. That is it for the time being yet make certain to return later, as we will be refreshing this guide with future Chess Rush updates and fixes. Created by the Chinese gaming mammoth, Tencent Games, Chess Rush versatile game effectively accumulated a monstrous number of players. On Google Play, it currently outperformed 14 thousand votes and stands at 3.8 stars. On the iTunes App Store, the game likewise has 3.8 stars and is #33 in Card sort, however being in a card type isn't exactly a precise method to retire this title. On the off chance that this is the first occasion when you are catching wind of it, Auto Chess kind jumped up in mid 2019 from a mod players made in DOTA 2. Fundamentally, the decision is to either spend it on a saint or spare it for later as better ones may end up accessible on the following round. It might appear as though the decision would rely upon the underlying arrangements of decisions spread out for you, yet then there are general principles to pursue to raise your odds of improving at some point or another inside the match. First of all, put your focus on a restricted assortment of legends that has combos because of their classes or races. Managing 400/550/700 enchantment harm to close-by adversaries inside 3 matrix and dazzling them for 1.4 second. Void Doom is astonishing warlock. Since When you send various voids, 2 voids abatements arbitrary's foes wellbeing by half. Additionally Deal genuine harm equivalent to 5-7-9 percent of their maximum wellbeing consistently. General Puffer Fires planes of water a 2 arbitrary foes and managing 150/225/300 harm and lessening objective's protective layer by 75/150/225 for 20 sec. Sword is helpful hero.If you have Level 1 sword artist then it work DECENT.

[lovelyblossomcherry]

Holland podcast - part 1

For those who aren’t able to listen to the podcast.

Tom: Here we are in Atlanta Georgia…

Dominic: Surprise… we come out to surprise Tom

Sam: We’re supposed to be here early so we had a 10 hour flight for game and go

(Everyone laughing)

Dom: I was most definitely coming, it was always the plan…

Tom: I knew Harry was coming and you did it really well actually, i’m glad you didn’t do it in a restaurant

Dom: cause Tom offend goes like oh hi guys..

Tom: Hi guys how you doing.. it took people a minute to figure out what was going on though, I was tired from working and I’m so homesick, but uhhm..

Dom: That’s why we came by the way, just so you know..

Tom: uhhm .. but yeah it took me a minute to figure out what was going on (to sam) cause i saw your face first, and the i saw dad’s face and i genuinely thought i was hallucinating.. I’m so tired, or i had too many beers. Cause i was surprise dad’s not in Edinburg…

Dom: I was massive because..

Tom: i have a video of that which we’ve never shown, but maybe at the end of this video I’ll show you…

Dom: (to tom) do you remember the glory year, you had to leave..

Tom: oh is the video that did play at the show..

Dom: No i didn’t play that, but i spoke about it… i told a story about how excited i was and that i was wearing pajamas that come for Cathay Pacific first-class flight, they’re obviously your pajamas (to Tom)…

Tom: Which i still want back by the way..

(Laughing)

Dom: what about the other surprise.. in uhhm .. Thailand…

Sam and harry: Oh yeah...

Tom: oh yeah, that was a good one..

Dom: Remember when we..

Tom: (to Dom) you’re good at surprises…

Dom: (pointing at Harry and Sam) your birthday and (looking at Tom) and your end of filming,..

Tom .. and mum

Dom: and mum told me up in London that come out to Thailand and uhh.. so i went and i flew on a thursday, i flew back on sunday..

Tom: I think now that i was scuba diving that day..

Dom that’s right you came..

Tom: .. You came up from a pillar and..

Dom: .. and the you tell everyone you thought what you saw..

Sam: you were on the ripstick… you were going around the fence ..

Tom: right, right.. wasn’t as good as Harry’s.. we surprised mum for her birthday..

Harry: we were coming from canada

Tom: .. (looks at sam) .. Sam ruined that one..

Sam: lets not talk about that shit..

(laughning)

Dom: no, but I’ve deliberately kept this one quiet…

Tom: i had no idea..

Sam: thing is i was so on whim… i think it was Wednesday, we kind of thought about..

Dom: no it wasn’t .. cause you know thursday..

Sam: cause i remember i was like.. are we doing this then and you said its all booked..

Dom: But here we are in Atlanta, we played golf today and uhh Harry and i played Sam and uhh..

Sam: . Tom…

Dom: .. Tom

Tom: .. Yeah I’m Tom..

Dom; yeah and we .. uhhm .. what was the score boys?..

Tom: it was all square.. we were one down going up the 18th.. and then dad cracked under the pressure …

Dom: and then we got whole in..

Tom.. yeah cause i was exhausted..

Dom: Sam you did really well..

Sam: i was really pleased..

Dom: yeah it was all square.. he’s very equitable and yeah

Harry: .. we should’ve won..

Tom: .. (to harry) You shoul’ve finished about one hole on the front line… i lost a lot of balls

Dom: .. You threw one in the lake..

Tom: .. well it was a stupid ball … i missed .. i missed that ..

Sam: .. cause the ball was the problem..

Harry: .. cause in golf you have expensive golf balls and they’re like 8 pounds each ball..

Tom: .. no they’re like 5 pounds..

Harry: okay 5 pounds.. and i took Paddy to play golf.. maybe a week ago and he out of his bag .. and he’s obviously gone into your drawer (looking at Dom), taken like six pro ones .. so i said Paddy you can’t be here in pro ones..so i took all of them out his bag and put’em in my own and put the crappy ones in his bag and i lost all six.. (Tom and sam laughing) .. lost all in six holes …

Dom: it’s really expensive being a dad of four kids.. but talking about expense, we’re very excited because the brothers trust just launched this new event..

Harry: .. mmmhm

Dom: We’ve raised over .. 90 thousand dollars …. so far its been .. we lost the the level .. during screening Tom..

Tom: what screening..

Dom: The Avengers..

Tom: oh alright yeah..

Dom: we were watching the Avengers and mum was like had her phone..

Sam: oh was that why she left..

Dom: she left to make sure she got all the Wi-Fi .. how many likes on intstagram.. mum’s good on her phone ..

Tom: 93.000 is mazing already…

Harry: we could use those 93.000 to replace all the golf balls..

Dom:.. none of the money is used for luxury help Holland days out .. all the money goes ..

Tom: it’s entirely nonprofit yeah..

Dom: yeah .. and no one gets paid in the brothers trust ..

Tom: do you wanna talk about one of the charities.. we .. should we each talk about a charity .. (looks at Harry) why don’t you tell us about.. your trip to Kabira.. Harry’s..

Dom:.. let’s just tell people what they can win if ..

Tom: .. alright ..

Dom: (to tom) why dont you do that?.. cause ..

Harry: .. well you can see me (everyone laughs) …

Tom: Harry.. Harry will be there ..

Dom: .. is the premiere in Los Angeles ..

Tom: .. LA premiere for Spiderman far from home ..

Dom: un huh .. we just watched the trailer for..

Tom: .. which we just watched the trailer for ..

Dom.. which looks fantastic..

Tom: which we don’t know when it comes out .. an i can’t discuss any further..

Sam: .. when is the premiere? ..

Tom: i think the premiere is ..

Harry:… let’s put the trailer in..

Dom: .. is it around the 15th june ..

Tom: .. mid-june but.. if you go online, if you go online on instragram and the link in my bio, you can see all the details about when the event is and when it will be taking place, but whats really exciting is the opportunity to go to the spiderman far from home premiere and we’ll give you a 1000 dollars spending money, we will put you up in a swanky hotel .. fancier than this room.. the winner will basically get the opportunity to fly with a friend from anywhere around the world to Los Angeles to attend the spiderman far from home premiere with me, Harry will be there.. sam and dad will probably be there..

Dom: .. on the carpet..

Tom: .. on the carpet.. we’ll take pictures, there’s an amazing afterparty which we’ll go to, obviously we’ll get to see the film, which is the most exciting part of the process, i haven’t even seen the film yet so you’ll be watching the film for the first time with me watching it for the first time which will be pretty awesome and uhh yeah its gonna be pretty..

Dom: it’s gonna be a great night and thats what people who are entering the raffle for and the money we raise guys.. we are pleased to be able to..

(Tom gets up and jumps over harry)

Tom: Auw..

…

Harry: i really hope i get credit for being your hand double in spiderman..

Dom: oh yeah..

Tom: oh yeah .. Harry’s actually in the first trailer..

Sam: You’re in the bit in.. you’re the one that un-zips the suitcase .. isn’t that you yeah ..

Harry: yeah it was the first time i did it.. terrifying..

Sam: were you nervous?

Harry .. oh my god .. no no no it was the first day of filming high wages..

(Music playing because of spoilers)

Tom: so again.. we’re on set

Harry: yeah i had to uhhm..

(Music playing because of spoilers)

Dom: good now that thats resolved.. yeah the brothers trust.. when we founded it we sort of had the idea that we would shine a light on charities that perhaps dont get the publicity that big charities can generate and also we wanted to use charities that uhhmm are very sort of cost effective, that most of our money very muscular .. yeah most of the money goes to the recipients rather than the offices in London or the offices in New York the big sort of have main things that we didn’t want the money spent on and .. one of the charities is lunch bowl and (points at Harry) and you’ve just been to Kabira so ..

Tom: .. (to harry) you do all the cool trips …

Harry: i went to uhhm .. Kabila which is the second largest slum in sub-Saharan Africa and is the place of the charity that we support, lunch bowl.. and what lunch bowl does is .. that they have a nursery and now a primary school slash secondary school its about half and half .. and they basically take kids out of the slum .. everyday and then provide with school and the on Saturday’s i believe it is they have a feeding program within the slum where they have 300 kids come to the middle of Kabira and they feed 300 children yeah .. and they give them food and a sachet of milk and then on sunday they have rugby so ..

Tom.. they play rugby?..

Dom: yeah they've choaches ..

Harry: they have these coaches that come ..

Sam: we bought one of the buses ..

Harry; yeah one of the things that the brothers trust is .. we bought a bus which when i heard about that was like one.. they needed a bus .. but really, the rugby ground is five kilometers from kabira … and what happens is .. the bus is completely full.. its completely full .. like its to the point where there’s too many kids on the bus all the seats got two kids and then what happens is .. when i was there i saw like 20 kids at the gate of the rugby.. and they’re just outside the gate waiting and then we went over with the head coach and he was like.. explains to me .. these kids have walked 2 hours.. like in bare foot, to come and play rugby and then they get a meal afterwards.. and then another thing that the bus does is take the kids from Kabira to the new secondary school and .. and i think the reason it’s so great is the.. uhhm the chance of a child making it to five years old is 50% so you’re talking about like the flip of a coin, so taking a child out of Kabira for a day, for eight hours, ten hours of the day, drastically improves the chances of ..

Tom: .. of Survival ..

Harry; .. of Survival ..

Dom: wauw ..

Sam: .. Cause mum was telling that during their holiday they get really upset cause they miss school ..

Harry: .. and they they say that the teachers can tell a massive change in behavior when they come back after holiday ..

Tom: really..

Harry: .. yes for these kids going to school is like ..it’s like heaven

Dom: and what they to do in Kabira is what we take for granted, we have school from say 4 to 18 mandatory free for us in Britain England and what we trying to do is to give these kids a chance to become educated ..

Harry: well .. they.. so they used to have this school, it went from i think, it was like 2 to 6 which is great but it’s not great because when their kid finishes at 6 years old where're they gonna go.. only go back to the slum, so now that it goes up to 15 they’ve only started out that last year .. is so massive for them because they can take a child from 2 years old to 15 and make a really shaped the personale ..

@hillsnholland