#literally whose idea was it to let sophomores take AP classes

[fool-of-a-triceratops]

One day I'll finally get into digital art enough to be okay at it and I'll post my first digital drawing of a person online and someone will have the nerve to be like "That's not real art!!! Look at how fucked up the hands are!! Wow I can't believe people are trying to fake artistic talent online," and they simply will not believe that I just suck at hands and I'll be dragged online. And that will be the day that I actually do my homework for AP Bio.

[ask-purpled-and-blued]

Vigilante

Not once has Purpled ever called himself a hero.

He wants that on record, wants to say it up front. He’s never had any delusions about what he is and what he’s doing.

He doesn’t have the license for it, doesn’t have the morals for it. He’s not even saving that many people.

He’s just some kid running around in pro hero cosplay with his shoddy homemade support gear.

So riddle him this: why the fuck is his vigilante name trending on Twitter under #Swag_forHeroCon?

(—This one’s got a high-stress moment and the briefest panic attack known to man somewhere in the middle. Mind the post’s tags and reply if it needs more.—)

—

It started about a year ago. It’s sophomore year and he’s looking at his options for next year’s classes.

Of course he’s taking AP Calc and everything he thinks colleges wanna see. That’s a given and a no-brainer and he’s not gonna go into detail about that.

No, what matters is that his junior and senior year let him take career classes.

Hero-related career classes.

Because not only is this a private nerd school that he needs his scholarship to afford. It’s a private nerd school that has a dual-enrollment type thing with a nearby heroics school.

And one with a pretty good support course that is now available to him.

He’s always been interested in math and engineering. Support courses are just using both of those to make cool shit for heroes and make hella money while doing so.

He’s done his research. Support gear can cost anywhere from a couple thousand dollars to an arm and a leg and both your kidneys.

And it’s his dream to make that kinda money.

So he talks to his counselor about it, fills out the applications and waivers, takes the program’s entrance exam. And within a week he’s got his new schedule that’s got an extra two hours slapped onto the end of the day.

It’s gonna be so worth it.

—

And it really was.

The beginning of the year was covering what they should make support gear for, how to take the quirks and ideas of the heroes they’re working for and make them actually work.

But also the design process, how to research stuff, lab safety. How to make something look nice while not compromising its utility, costume design, branding. Different materials and their uses, different materials and how to work with them. How to deal with mistakes and set-backs. Avoiding burnout and getting literally burn.

The class was amazing. But his favorite part came later in the year.

The final project.

They were given a made up hero student’s profile and were told to create a support item for them. The file came with their name, measurements, hero name, quirk description, and several sketches of what the fake person looked like and of them using their quirk.

They were given a few deadlines and some profiles came with design requests, but for the most part they were allowed to go ham.

And go ham he did.

His assignment was a kid whose quirk was being able to float just himself. He got a couple sketches of what the kid’s costume already had and it looked like there was a bee theme going on.

So, naturally, he decided to give this kid a pneumatic nail gun.

...

Alright so maybe that wasn’t as intuitive as he thought it was. But the kid didn’t have any sort of weapon on him in any of the sketches!

And there wasn’t any sort of close combat abilities listed in the biography like some of his classmates’s people had, so the further this kid could be from the action while still packing a punch the better.

Hence the nail gun he was designing to look like a stinger.

He did his research. Looked up where the body’s vital organs are and read up on acupuncture. Looked up the damage that stab wounds can do and how fast a thing had to be going to go right through you.

Printed out some human outlines and wrote up a couple sheets that pointed out the “no-no spots.” And basically wrote a manual on how to use the thing and half an essay on why certain safety features were implemented to keep him and the fake kid from being sued.

And then halfway through actually building the thing he got the idea to add a paralytic substance.

And then he hated himself a little bit because he had to find a substance that would be non-lethal and would have the desired affect. And then he had to go to his teacher during his office hours to sit down and explain that yes he had this idea but he’s not entirely sure if it’s a good one.

And he wrote another almost-essay about what he chose as the paralytic substance and why he chose it and what the max amount the average person could take was so that he wouldn’t be liable if it was used improperly.

And then he recorded himself reading all of his paperwork both for extra credit and because apparently the kid’s bio said he was dyslexic and the teacher wanted them to do this as realistically as possible.

Probably would’ve been easier to just change the font but he’s come this far, might as well go the extra mile.

He paints the thing. Gathers up all his research and his concept sketches and his blueprints and his explanations and his recordings.

And he dumps them on the teacher’s desk and enjoys the lull in the class as the final projects get reviewed and graded.

They get to watch movies and Netflix with the TA while the teacher sits in the other room grading them.

He loved this class.

—

He still loves the class but it loses points for the fucking heart attack it just gave him.

Apparently the hero students they made shit for we’re real hero students. Actual, physical people who applied to the heroics department and got in. And may possibly one day be heroes if they didn’t fail.

And were going to come in and see the shit they made that passed inspections. And would be given said shit to use as part of their hero costumes.

In hindsight it should’ve been obvious, but Purpled cut himself some slack there.

At least his guy was nice. A little too excited at 4pm on a Thursday, but given the fact that Purpled just handed him a gun and said he could shoot people, it was understandable.

Purpled felt really good as he walked this Tubbo guy through the instructions again. Apparently he’d already been sent the paperwork and the audio before this. So all that was left to do was remind him about it the important stuff and then taking five wide steps back and letting him shoot at a practice dummy.

...

Well, Tubbo’s aim wasn’t his problem.

F to any villains and civilians in his way.

—

At this point, there’s probably some confusion.

“Purpled, why did you become a vigilante if your support gear inventing future looked bright?”

He’s getting to that!

He needs to talk about his junior year to give context for his senior year.

Which sucked absolute ass.

—

For one, Purpled’s quirk came in.

Now, normally that would be a pretty good thing. Somewhere around 80% of America’s population had quirks.

Four out of every five people had some sort of ability or abnormality that ranged from being able to detach your ear to having super strength. Getting one that wasn’t detrimental to your health, even at his age, was generally a positive thing.

Except Purpled’s actually sucked. Sucked so fucking bad.

Yeah, he was lucky in that he didn’t suddenly grow gills and need to live underwater for the rest of his life or something. But he honestly wished he could go back to a week ago when he didn’t have this quirk.

When he wasn’t constantly being forgotten by the people in his life because of a quirk he couldn’t turn off.

If it wasn’t for the fact that the quirk counselor’s quirk let them detect the use of quirks, he would’ve thought he’d lost it.

People forgetting his face, his name, his existence over the span of a week was hell. He had to show his mother his birth certificate and social security card and his baby pictures so that she’s remember she had another son. Let alone everyone else in his life that he only saw at school.

Oh god his fucking school.

The lengths he had to go to to keep his fucking scholarship was fucking nuts.

Classes were a nightmare with the teachers forgetting about him by the end of the period.

Things eventually got easier when he realized it was an area of effect thing and that he could shorten it to affect people within a few feet of him.

From that point on he just had to social distance from people like his life depended on it. Because his social and academic lives did depend on it.

He didn’t experiment with his quirk beyond that though. He hated it. He did everything in his power to keep it as tightly controlled as he could.

Until the one time he didn’t.

—

He was out to get another notebook because he’d severely underestimated how many notes he’d need to take for one of his classes. It was just supposed to be a quick stop on his way home.

He’d sat on the bus home with his quirk pulled in tightly around him, the force of it a buzzing weight on his skin that he refused to let go of.

He got off at a stop that wasn’t his but was closer to the dollar store he had in mind. He honestly didn’t expect to take more than ten minutes.

Then a guy walked in and loudly told the cashiers to hand over the money.

Purpled wasn’t that close to the front, but he peeked around the aisle and watched the robbery unfold.

The dude had what looked like leaves for hair and was holding the cashiers at gunpoint. There were two of them at adjacent checkouts, neither of them with any visible mutations. They actually might not have quirks.

Purpled has no idea what to do with this information.

His best bet was to wait for the heroes to arrive and stay quiet-

One of the cashiers was looking right at him. Robber guy noticed.

Turned around and pointed his gun at Purpled. Told him to get out from where he was hiding and to kneel on the ground in the open.

And Purpled was scared. He couldn’t move, he’d frozen.

The guy got loud and mad and he still had the gun pointed at him.

Purpled was panicking. His chest felt too tight and his quirk was freaking out. Buzzing harder than it ever has.

He couldn’t hold it. He let go.

...

For a moment, everything was still and everything was quiet.

Purpled felt light, he felt more at ease than he had in months.

Because his quirk was free and loose and everyone else in the room looked so fucking confused. Like they had no idea what was going on.

Like they just forgot what was going on.

And then the heroes arrived. How they knew to be here was anyone’s guess.

Purpled should probably give his statement.

Purpled was probably in shock though. So he forgave himself for shoplifting and not pulling his quirk back in. For just walking right out of the store and down the street.

Nobody shouted at him or called him back, so he assumed they forgot he was there.

He wished he could forget he was in the store for that moment too.

—

There’s a lot of other little things that lead up to Purpled being a vigilante, but those things don’t matter as much.

He drops out. It’s not hard to make people forget he even went to school.

He regularly breaks back into school to steal tools and materials for his projects and just wipes the people who walk in on him doing that shit.

Makes a costume but scraps it and decides to make several replicas of the top twenty’s costumes.

Because he’s realized that the wider he makes his range the less of an effect his quirk has on all those in range. Vice versa.

So the pro gamer move here is to make people forget what they saw the person in the pro hero costume doing instead of trying to make them forget they saw an unfamiliar figure doing shit.

Memory is reconstructive after all. Easily manipulated even without a quirk like his.

And he’s good at making his costumes and altering his appearance.

He probably won’t always do a good job wiping people’s memories though, so he lets it stick that there’s a vigilante that impersonates pro heroes. One that constantly shifts their appearance.

He even gets bold and makes a name for himself.

Swag_.

...

Listen he didn’t say it was a good name-

—

He doesn’t stop a lot of crime. And the people he does save often think they were saved by someone else.

But there’s always that one moment after he managed to save someone where they look at him. And they see him.

And that’s worth everything.

It’s not a selfless motive. It’s not a heroic motive.

But it’s enough of a motive for Purpled.

—

He doesn’t know how he got a following. Doesn’t know how he never noticed.

But he likes it. After the initial shock of seeing himself trending fades, he lets himself soak up all the positive attention.

And then he gets back to work.

[smileytiger28]

the suicide squad high school AU

Thank you @psychicmewhealer for making this w/ me, also neither of us are gonna write this so feel free to steal all these ideas

Prologue: Robert DuBois (sophomore) narrowly passes his classes, but his real passion lies in sports. He looks up to Christopher Smith (senior), captain of the basketball team. Chris catches on and offers to mentor Robert. The two develop a close relationship; when the two become romantically involved, Robert thinks it’s genuine, but Chris actually just wants to use Robert’s prowess to maintain his legacy of best athlete at the school once he graduates. Robert basically worships Chris so he tells himself all the toxic stuff Chris does is justified. Chris attributes all Robert’s athletic prowess to himself and all his flaws to Robert’s inadequacy. For some reason (still working this out), Chris dumps him and tells him he was never worthy of this mentorship.

The fic starts a few weeks after the breakup. Robert’s toxic relationship with Chris leaves him feeling unworthy, inadequate, and depressed. Outside of Robert he never had any social life, so he’s lonely too. His sports performance is suffering, and his grades are edging into failing territory. That last point leads to the intervention of one Principal Amanda Waller. She sets him up with Richard Flag, the overachieving straight-A student that heads the student mentorship program.

Over the course of the fic Rick and Robert sort through their issues, fall in love, set up a whole-ass friend group (the Suicide Squad, duh) and everybody in that friend group has to sort out their issues.

Harley Quinn just broke up with Mister J (her name for a student whose name starts with a J, class clown, high on the social ladder. maybe the drama teacher, and that’s why she calls him Mr. J?) She broke up with him after a fight, but he basically gaslit her into believing she’s the worst, all good parts of her come from him, all bad parts come from herself, she’s best when she plays down how smart she is, ‘cause dumb girls are sexier, etc. (Robert has to come to terms with the parallels between Mr. J’s treatment of Harley and Chris’s treatment of him, and Rick has to affirm that he is worthy of love.) Harley has to learn how to come into her own, not be afraid to be her AP-Psych-nerdy self, and finally ask out that girl she’s always wanted to talk to.

That girl being the lonely Pamela “Ivy” Isley. She doesn’t think she clicks with people, instead spending her time in the school’s biology classroom, where she can take care of the plants and talk about biochemistry and environmental science with her teachers. She thinks Harley is way too pretty and cool for her, an impostor, to even approach, and she’s extremely flustered when Harley finally talks to her. So she has to get over her social anxiety & realize she can Be Herself yay (also poison ivy is harley’s pet name for her)

Abner Krill is the emo kid who sits in the corner with earbuds and a dark grey hoodie. His parents are divorced, and he lives with his anti-vaxx helicopter mom. He’s accepted that his body isn’t his own. His journey is about building the courage to get vaccinated, and by proxy, forging his own path, identity, and fortitude. Because the needle from each vaccine leaves a dot in his arm, he makes a code with his friends where he calls vaccines “polka-dots” in text messages, and takes a break from his grey/black monochrome T-shirts to wear a polka-dotted polo on the days he sneaks to the health clinic to get vaccinated. (or maybe the day after, like as a victory shirt for his friends to understand?)

Milton lives near a health clinic, so Abner convinces Milton to drive him to get his vaccines. Having just immigrated from Corto Maltese with his family, Milton is rather shy and self-conscious about his fish-out-of-water status, but quickly develops a rapport with Abner; he respects his courage and falls in love with his dorky weirdness and sweetness, So Milton and Abner obviously fall in love and have to get past their shyness and lack of self-confidence to Get A Room™

Nanaue is a surfer dude who is genuinely just a really caring guy but the other jocks don’t extend their empathy to him? so he doesn’t have any friends on the sports side of things, and he’s definitely struggling academically. he has to accept friendship from others and find out that he is loved (ik this one is bad please help)

Cleo Cazo has rejected humanity as a species. Recently, her father died, and her grief-stricken mother can’t provide adequate emotional support. She processes her grief sitting in the corner of the cafeteria with the rats, her father’s favorite animal. She has developed a rapport with one rat in particular, called Sebastian. She must develop nourishing relationships with humans (not to the exclusion of rats ofc), process her grief, understand that she is not alone, and make everybody best friends with Sebastian.

Once the friend group has warmed up to one another (so, lots of character development later), Rick invites everyone to a sleepover at his house. His parents are out on business trips, and even the kids whose home lives aren’t abysmal are eager, if nervous, to spend time together in a youthful, carefree setting. This allows for lots of cutesy fluff (they make cookies in the kitchen, Harley and Ivy feed each other cookies like the gay people they are, couples cuddling @ night, etc) but also angst. Because Rick has been silent about his home life, and literally being at his house forces the friend group to be more open about himself. His parents tell him off sternly when he gets bad grades and otherwise emotionally neglect him. He’s really an academic overachiever because of his parents’ expectations. He feels like his problems aren’t worth talking about because “everyone else has it off worse.” With the help of his friends (especially Robert), he learns it’s okay to let himself be dissatisfied. He can set up boundaries; he doesn’t have to hold the weight of all his schoolwork and his friends’ problems on his shoulders to be worthy.

It probably ends with Harley throwing a party with lots of food and sloppy makeout sessions between the couples <3

[realtalk-tj]

Am a freshman and is my understanding correct that APES is a relatively easier AP to self study doing freshman year and apply to give the exam in spring 2021? Is it something you can prepare for in summer or need to go along with Biology teaching at TJ? My schedule is CS Acc, IBET, Rs1/Math3, Spanish. Is it manageable to do APES study during the year? TIA

Response from Rita:

It is manageable. You do not need to prepare this summer. Please make sure that your child wants this for themselves and that you are not forcing them to do what you want them to do. The unhappiest students at TJ are the students whose parents push them too far and put their child under immense academic pressure, whether they realize it or not. You will not be able to tiger parent them into the Ivy League if they are spending their time doing unwanted studying for you and not truly doing what they love. The most surefire way to ensure that they get the most out of TJ is to allow them to follow their own passions on their own terms.

Response from Aurora:

First of all, no AP is easy to study for. Additionally, there are several reasons for your child not to self study for an AP exam:

The college he/she attends may not even accept AP classes for credit

Your child’s time is much better spent focusing on school, their health, hobbies, etc.

He/she will likely take many APs during his/her time at TJ, so there’s really no point in self-studying for one just to have another AP exam score

AP exam scores have little weight in college admissions so it won’t significantly help your child’s application (unless he/she plans on majoring in the subject for which they’re taking the exam)

It is strongly discouraged to self study for an exam during the school year. TJ is extremely time consuming and rigorous. Adding an exam to self study for onto your child’s already heavy workload is a bad idea. Many people experience burnout as early as sophomore year because of how hard they push themselves during freshman year.

If your child truly WANTS to self study for the APES exam because he/she has an interest in ES and/or plans to major in it, then tell them to go ahead and study for the exam, while being careful not to overwork themselves. But if not, then there’s literally no point. Let your child focus on enjoying their summer and their freshman year at TJ.