#this started as what i get the impression is a pretty ordinary kind of academic citation scandal

[portmanteaurian]

poking around in the receptiogate hashtag on twitter was a wild time these medievalists are not fucking around

[wonhaebunny]

From your fics, I'm sensing that Bakagou is your favorite character or at least a character that you find compelling, so what do you think about his character overall? Like what makes him compelling or a good character?

ooh, fun question! i have a lot to say about this :)

i think on a surface level, i've always gravitated towards characters who have big development arcs (typically starting from being kind of shit people or majorly lacking in some regard) as opposed to characters that start out as figuratively perfect. it just makes the plot all the more impactful for me--i tend to get bored watching the straight-cut sunshine white bread characters be constantly amazing. i find them endearing, of course, but in terms of plot they lack any significant appeal to me. this, of course, means i've essentially perpetually doomed myself to like the side character/second lead more than the protagonist in any given piece of media (lol).

beyond this, bakugou seems to subvert a lot of basic tropes, which i find somewhat refreshing. he channels the delinquent vibe while managing to be a total nerd. he acts like an asshole, while being an inherently pure-hearted individual at his core. he sucks at socialising and projects a lone wolf image, but he's loyal as hell to the friends he has. he has this strange obsession with victory, but never enough to override his moral compass. he gives off "spoiled kid who got everything handed to him" energy, but you watch him for longer than two minutes and realise that he works himself into the ground for just about everything he has.

then again on a deeper level, i find that bakugou specifically resonates with me (and, seemingly, a lot of other people) for this exact reason: he's a perfect mix of relatable and impressive. of course, you want to root for a character who's strong and alluring, but they instantly become ten times as alluring when they share your insecurities or troubles. bakugou manages to be this larger-than-life standout character who you can admire on the screen, while still emitting major "formerly-gifted kid facing the academic/otherwise pressures of their own ambition and expectations" vibe that most weebs can empathise with.

on a side note, i've been talking to my friends about this recently in passing, but i find it refreshing to see a character undergo huge and overwhelming character development without the need for, like, a tragic backstory. bkg's childhood was objectively pretty shitty, and most people who know me know my stance on it. but that being said, it wasn't, like, "constantly abused by my parents" or "my entire family was killed by a cult" level shitty. it was just... ordinary "high achiever to anxious wreck with unrealistic expectations pipeline" shitty. his parents weren't great, but they visibly love and provide for him. but despite all this, this little asshole of a middle school bully just. woke up and decided to be better. you don't see a lot of it, but the authenticity just makes his character growth more gratifying to me.

anyways. i actually have way more thoughts on this but i'm gonna get off my soapbox now since i've already dumped like. five paragraphs here. hope this shed some light on my (probably fucked-up) psyche anon! :^)

[qqueenofhades]

Whew!

Darklina + academia AU? (Professors, students, whatever dynamic you find most interesting)

Alina Starkov has always loved maps.

There’s just something about them: the deeply human struggle to understand the world, to sketch it out, to imagine fantastic beasts and lands and people on the margins, here be dragons. It’s half illusion and half reality, a guidebook both to what lies out there and what is dreamed of. She is fascinated by the relative accuracy of maps drawn long before satellites and space photographs – that, say, the sixteenth-century Europa recens descripta à Guileilmo Blaeuw does look pretty much like the modern continent. Well, mostly. She wrote her undergraduate senior thesis on the fictional island of Frisland, long believed to exist in the North Atlantic Ocean just south of Iceland, and its role in premodern cartographic and geographic imagination. Rereading it now gives her a twitch, as it always does with academics trying to revisit their past work, but it’s not all bad. It won her a prize and it impressed Professor Baghra Morozova, the fearsome head of the Department of Medieval Studies at Central European University, Vienna. (Best method to survive her class: Pray.) And it’s why Alina, still feeling very, very much like a terrible fraud – though she’s been assured this is likewise common to academics, so yay? – is working late in the main library on Quellenstraße, stifling yawns. She has a supervision meeting tomorrow, and if she half-asses this, Baghra will eat her alive.

Alina has been working for a while, pausing only to slug lukewarm coffee from her travel mug and answer texts from her flatmate Genya, when she becomes aware that there’s some other late-night diehard skulking in the stacks. This isn’t uncommon, but this guy doesn’t look like your usual desperate slacker. He’s tall, lean, and elegant, wearing a black shirt and crisp slacks, and – Alina has eyes, sue her – he’s extremely good-looking. Thick dark hair with a bit of a curl, a sharp dark gaze, and although he has his own stack of books, he doesn’t seem to be paying attention to any of them. In fact, he is looking – a little unsettlingly – directly at her.

Oh, hell. Alina hasn’t spoken to him before, but she knows who this is. Aleksander Morozov is an urban legend at CEU, for rather ominous reasons. He is rumored to be in some indeterminate year of his own PhD, but disappears at long stretches for “research trips,” and nobody is any the wiser about what he’s actually doing on them. Noting the similarity of surname, Alina once asked Baghra if they were related, and got a face that looked like someone had died. “Unfortunately,” her supervisor said, lips pursed, “he is my son. But I assure you, his presence on this campus has nothing whatever to do with me.”

Understanding that familial relations were, to say the least, chilly, Alina hasn’t pushed it. She’s also not sure what to make of her professor’s estranged (and disturbingly attractive) offspring sitting here and watching her study, as if he has nothing better to do than haunt first-year PhD students like the Ghost of Bad Decisions Yet To Come. At last, she gets up and marches over. Keeping her voice at librarian-approved levels, she hisses, “Excuse me, can I help you?”

She speaks in English, the lingua franca of CEU, though the Morozovas are political exiles from the Putin regime, like White Russians fleeing the Bolsheviks once upon a time. Alina herself is ancestrally Russian – born in Moscow, adopted by a nice British couple out of an orphanage and raised in suburban Sussex – and as Aleksander Morozov flicks those onyx eyes up at her, she can sense him weighing how to respond. As if he wants to test her, examine her bona fides, and Alina’s Russian is limited to “da,” “privyet,” and “dosvidaniya.” Not that he should know that. Not that he should know anything about her.

“Good evening,” he answers, also in English. His Received Pronunciation is even more posh than hers. “I wasn’t aware that I was disturbing you.”

“You’re – ” Alina wrestles with herself, tells herself not to be rude. It’s not a crime to sit and watch someone study, even in a mildly creepy fashion. “You’ve just been watching me for, like, an hour now.”

“Ah.” He doesn’t apologize or explain why that might be. He sits back in his chair, studying her like a piece of rare porcelain. “My apologies, Miss Starkov.”

Alina glances at him again, despite herself. There’s an undeniable thrill at actually talking to the campus heartthrob, even if the reason for it leaves something to be desired. She should say something else, when she becomes aware that he’s addressed her by name, and she doesn’t remember introducing herself. That doesn’t exactly do anything to convince her that he’s not a stalker. A little uneasily, she says, “How do you know my name?”

“You’re my mother’s student, aren’t you?” He cocks his head. “Alina?”

“I – yes.” That does explain it, although she didn’t realize the two of them were on speaking terms, or that they discussed her. Her name sounds unusual in his mouth, deliberate in a way nobody has spoken it before, and all at once, he gets to his feet. He stands several inches taller than her, and he starts piling his books into his bag, as if to discreetly absent himself now that she’s noticed him. “You don’t – ” she starts. “I didn’t mean to – ”

He looks at her again, sidelong. Then he says, “I should go home and get some sleep. I’m returning to Oxford tomorrow morning anyway.”

“Oxford?”

“I went to school there.” He utters a short, dry laugh. “All the good Russians do. And they live in Londongrad.”

That explains the accent, at least, and he seems to have some other business there, whether it’s another of the “research trips” or a guest lecture or whatever else. (Alina hasn’t seen his CV, but she has a sneaking feeling it’s the kind of thing to make her throw her drafts in the trash and never do anything in academia again.) Despite herself, she’s curious, and even though she has just told him to get lost, kind of, she wants to know. “Will you be back?”

Aleksander Morozov studies her with utter, unblinking intensity, as if he sees past flesh and bone, blood and sinew, to the very core of her, something that even she does not fully comprehend. Then he shrugs, his eyes never leaving her face, until Alina feels a shiver travel down her from head to toe, cold and powerful, twisting in her stomach. “Perhaps I will. Good night, Miss Starkov.”

With that, he nods to her, then turns on his heel, vanishing into the shadows as effortlessly as if he is made from them. No sound, no breath. Simply there one moment, and gone the next. Alina rubs her eyes, but she is alone in the library. Just as she wanted. Wasn’t it?

She can’t help her eyes from searching for him, or rather the vanished impression of him, the flutter of a curtain after someone has left the room. Before she can stop it, she has the thought that he very much is a map of his own, a path that leads into a strange dark land beyond the boundaries of the known world, a dragon or a doorway, a dream of what could be. Maybe something entirely ordinary. Maybe something not.

Alina shivers again, and returns to her carrel. She sits down and pulls the next book toward her, forcing her tired eyes to focus. Just because Aleksander Morozov – Aleksander Morosov – is a map, albeit the strangest one she has ever seen, it does not mean she needs to follow where he leads. She knows damn well the danger.

(And yet, despite herself, she wants to.)

[dontmindmyshadowhunting]

Welcome to Faerieland - Fan Fic (last chapters)

Here we go! Last chapters of Welcome to Faerieland.

Link to full story on AO3 here.

*****

Dru and Ash landed a mile or so away from their destination, in order to avoid drawing attention to the location. As soon as their feet touched the ground, the two rocs turned around and disappeared above the treetops.

“I can walk,” Dru said and Ash offered his arm to steady her while she limped toward the general direction of the cottage. She knew it pretty well, it had sort of become a Blackthorns’ country home.

“So how do you know this place?”

“My eldest brother is dating the King of the Unseelie Court, and that’s where they meet sometimes.”

Ash whistled.

“One of your brothers is King Kieran’s lover? I think I heard about him.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty serious, although they won’t ever be able to be official about it. I guess you know what the rules are about faerie royalty’s consorts?”

“I do,” he averted his gaze and brushed a hand through his hair, in what seemed to be a nervous gesture. Dru realized it was the first time Ash had looked uncomfortable about a subject.

“A lot of rules need to be changed,” he said abruptly. “Don’t you agree?” His green eyes bore into her as he said it, as if he was desperate for her approval.

“Well, King Kieran has already been carrying out a lot of changes since he came to power. It’s just that… sometimes, it takes time. You can’t change the world overnight.”

Ash kicked a pebble. “You could, if you didn’t insist on everything being consensual. Maybe King Kieran cares too much about what people think of him... or, you know, in general.” He shrugged but there was a predatory glint in his eyes that she hadn’t seen before, and it almost made her cringe.

“You know, Ash, if what you are looking for in a sovereign is arbitrary decisions and a bitchy attitude, we have the Seelie Queen for that.”

She had expected Ash to laugh, his free, careless laugh - God, she loved it when he did that - but he seemed lost in thought.

She had to admit she had been a bit harsh. She knew the Seelie and Unseelie Courts were in much better terms now that King Arawn was dead. The Queen had appointed the Unseelie Prince Adaon as her most trusted advisor and the two of them and King Kieran met regularly to reinforce the bonds and cooperation between both realms.

Dru started humming a song and Ash paused, his green eyes widening. “Are you singing… Royals ?”

“Yeah, I love that song. Do you know it?”

“I do,” he answered, suppressing a smile.

As they walked, she sang louder - she knew the lyrics by heart - and he watched her with glittering eyes, clearly entertained.

“And we'll never be royals It don't run in our blood That kind of luxe just ain't for us We crave a different kind of buzz Let me be your ruler You can call me queen bee”

“Maybe I will,” he whispered in her ear as he tickled her, and she elbowed him playfully.

He sang along with her then - he had a beautiful tenor voice - both of them throwing their heads back at the same time to howl at the sky “And baby, I'll rule - I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule” , like a pair of wolves. They roared with laughter, Dru holding her ribs and leaning against Ash for support. Watching him from the corner of her eye, she marvelled at the fact that she had found a new friend in such a short time.

At the Academy, people either feared her because she was a Blackthorn or wanted to be friends with her simply for that same reason. Or both. She was almost a celebrity, despite herself. Only because of her last name and her eldest brothers’ hand in ending the Cold Peace in the most spectacular way. And of course, there were always the loud-mouthed bigots and moralists who were baffled by the Blackthorns’ ties with the Fair Folk and their so-called “sexual and moral depravity”. The Rosales, of course, suffered the same criticism, and Jaime had always been a comforting shoulder and reliable friend to Dru in those moments where she felt she had had too much to deal with.

She didn’t want to worry Julian, Emma, Mark or even Helen with her troubles making friends at the Academy.

She couldn’t confide in Ty, because he didn’t care at all what people thought, and was content with sticking to his close friends, Livvy and Anush. His teachers, especially Ragnor Fell and Catarina Loss were absolute fans - even if Fell would never admit it - and everyone at the Scholomance was too impressed by his obvious academic superiority - and maybe, the Carpathian lynx tailing him - to dare bother him anyway.

Ash seemed to be far away from all of this, as if he had been living as a hermit in a remote tower, which was probably close to the truth.

He was the only one outside her siblings, with the exception of Jaime of course, to treat her like an ordinary girl.

And maybe, maybe someday Ash could become more than a friend. He was nice, definitely fun, absolutely gorgeous and he had kissed her after all, even though she knew it could be meaningless where faeries were concerned. She had been waiting for Jaime to figure things out for so long, and Ash had appeared out of nowhere and had shown interest without a moment’s hesitation.

She was interrupted in her thoughts as a broad-shouldered silhouette falling from the sky dropped on the ground before them. Dru released Ash’s arm to clap both her hands on her mouth, relief washing over her. Kit, looking as angelic as ever with his bright blue eyes and tousled blond hair, fluttered his white wings tipped with gold as he advanced gleefully to greet Dru.

The reunion was cut short as he was suddenly thrown back by a figure shooting straight into him like a cannonball and from one moment to the next, Kit disappeared into a ball of black and white feathers, rolling on the grass.

It took Dru a moment to realize that Ash had disappeared from her side and that he was actually the one who had attacked Kit. She ran to separate them but soon they were shooting up, caught in a wrestling match a few feet above ground, moving so swiftly they were a blur.

Dru let out a heavy sigh before she put two fingers between her lips and whistled as loud as she could. The two figures froze - they were still grappling each other - and looked down.

“ASH! KIT! Both of you. Get down here! NOW.”

They both looked at each other.

“ASH! What the hell is wrong with you, this is my brother’s boyfriend !” Dru continued, gesturing frantically toward Kit.

Ash released Kit first, grudgingly, and they both landed softly on the floor. There was a long gash across Ash’s cheek but he was grinning like the Cheshire cat, his eyes glittering in excitement. He winked at Dru as he wiped blood from his mouth. Kit was rearranging his hair, looking pissed, and Dru realized that his knuckles were bloody and that there was a small cut on his eyebrow. Both of them seemed otherwise unharmed.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Batman ?” Kit said, glaring at Ash.

“Sorry,” Ash replied, wiping dirt from his shirt. “I took you for a psychopathic jerk who nearly killed me a few years ago. He literally kicked me and my uncle out of the place we used to live in. You look exactly like him.”

“Well, it can’t have been me since last night was the first time I ever saw you,” Kit replied sharply, wiping his bloody knuckles over his shirt.

“Yeah, don’t worry, I figured that out pretty fast. You fight like a pussy compared to him.”

“Want to say that again?” Kit lifted an eyebrow at him.

“Boys, could you please stop comparing the sizes of your dicks, so we can move on?”

Ash and Kit complied, arguing over which Batman movie was best the entire way, until the cottage came into view, a few feet away. The door opened and Jaime came out of it, running toward them.

“Dru,” he cried out. He caught up to her, and threw his arms around her, burying his face in her hair. She lost herself in his familiar and comforting scent and pressed her cheek against his torso. “Mi corazón,” he whispered softly. "We were worried sick. Cómo estás?”

Jaime brushed his hands through Dru’s hair and planted a kiss on her forehead.

She swiftly pulled back, her eyes darting to where Ash was leaning against a tree, talking to Kit, his arms crossed. He was smiling indulgently at her, as if he didn’t mind.

“I am fine, thanks to Ash,” she said, and pulled Jaime over to where Ash and Kit were standing. “Jaime, this is Ash. Ash, this is Jaime,” she introduced, waving her hand awkwardly between the two of them.

“Thank you for taking care of our precious Dru,” Jaime said, extending his hand. “We owe you one.”

“No hay de qué!” Ash replied, shaking his hand.

“Hablas español?” Jaime asked, looking pleasantly surprised.

“Solo a hombres con un excelente gusto en mujeres.” He gave Jaime a wicked grin and looked pointedly at Dru. Jaime’s face fell.

A high-pitched shriek had them whip their heads up in time to see a majestic roc land on the ground, a few feet away. Ty hopped gracefully from the giant bird and walked immediately to Dru. He was pale - even more so than usual - with deep dark circles under his gray eyes, and Dru marvelled at how gorgeous her brother was anyway, whatever state he was in. She sometimes wished she had inherited the same stunningly sharp features. Without a word, Ty knelt in front of Dru and started inspecting her wound.

“Ash, this is my brother Ty,” Dru announced proudly.

Ash started to extend his hand but Dru shook her head at him. He let it fall by his side.

“Ty, this is Ash.”

Tiberius nodded without lifting his gaze.

“Who tended to the wound?”

“I did,” Ash answered.

Ty finally stood - and Dru realized Ash was almost as tall as Ty, which was saying something, since Ty was very tall - and glanced at Ash for the first time, his gray eyes looking down under his long eyelashes and not lifting up from a spot on Ash’s shoulder. “Thanks,” he said curtly.

Hesitantly, Ty put his arms around Dru in one of the rare hugs he had ever granted her. It was awkward and short, but Dru knew it meant Ty had been truly terrified of losing her.

After they released each other, Ty whirled and started walking toward the cottage. He paused after a few steps and glanced over his shoulder. The four of them had just been standing there, staring at him. “Are you coming?”

They all hurried after Ty, Dru having one arm around Ash’s, and the other around Jaime’s.

“So, tell me. Are all your brothers this handsome?” Ash asked her, as he looked Ty up and down appreciatively.

“EXCUSE ME? “ Kit interjected. His whole face had gone bright red in an instant and he started cracking his bloody knuckles. He looked poised for a second round.

“What? Did I say something wrong?” Ash did not seem in the least bit concerned by Kit’s reaction.

“It’s my boyfriend you are talking about.”

“And I just said I found him attractive. Is that in any way offensive?”

Dru laughed. “No,” she said. “I am sure you were simply stating your opinion and not trying to steal Kit’s boyfriend.”

“I am not trying to steal anyone’s lover,” Ash concurred, gazing wistfully at Dru. ”I just admire beauty when I see it”.

“But he would definitely be up for sex if Ty wanted to,” Jaime muttered sarcastically under his breath.

Ash shot him a puzzled look. “Of course, I would. Why not? Kit would be welcome as well, the more the merrier.”

Kit opened his mouth but seemed too much in a shock for a witty comeback. That was a first.

Oddly enough, Dru realized she didn’t feel jealous or baffled by Ash’s statement. He was like an untamed bird breaking out of a cage, unwilling to bend to any rules of propriety. She guessed part of it was due to his fey heritage.

“Mark is the Unseelie King’s lover, the Seelie Queen keeps trying to get into Julian’s pants and now you two,” Jaime said eventually, looking over at Ty and Dru. “What is it with the Blackthorns and the Fair Folk anyway?”

“Probably the exact same thing there is with Blackthorns and any other species,” Ash said evenly.

Everyone turned a questioning look at him.

“They are hot,” he said simply, and shrugged.

Everyone laughed at that.

*****

They were all starving so they decided to have breakfast in the cottage before heading back home.

Kit, wearing an apron that had "Doughnut sandwiches are a proper meal” printed on it (and that probably belonged to Mark Blackthorn), was in the kitchen, scrambling a huge portion of eggs in a large pan with a wooden spoon. He somehow managed to make it look totally hot.

“Eggs?” Ty asked Kit as he came to stand next to him and put a hand on the small of Kit’s back.

“Yeah, I would have cooked pancakes, but we are missing a few ingredients to do that. So it will be eggs. Eggs and fruits. God knows there are plenty of fruits here.”

“You know how to cook pancakes?” Ty asked, his gray eyes widening in surprise.

Kit shot him a shy glance.

“Yeah, I… I asked Julian for his recipe. You know, in case one day I needed to cook for you…r family.”

Kit and Ty both exchanged a look that was so intimate, Jaime had to glance away. He found Ash leaning casually against the fridge, his arms crossed, and gazing at him with a smirk on his face. He looked like he owned the place and hadn’t just popped uninvited into the home of strangers. When Jaime raised a questioning eyebrow at him, Ash unfolded his arms to draw the shape of a heart in the air in front of him. Jaime rolled his eyes. He definitely didn’t like this guy.

They set the table, while Dru was in the bedroom looking for clothes.

Kit and Ty sat next to each other, their fingers intertwined under the table and their backs to the kitchen counter, which left Ash to sit across from Ty and Jaime to sit across from Kit. They had left a spot at the head of the table for Drusilla, who would have Ash on her left and Ty on her right when she came back.

Ty only had fruits on his plate, and he was eyeing Kit gulping his eggs down, as if he was reconsidering having some himself.

“Want to try?” Ash brought his fork to Ty, who flinched as if he had been stabbed.

Kit grabbed Ash’s wrist and pushed the fork away from Ty.

“Ty can use my fork if he wants to try it. He is my boyfriend, after all.”

Ash shrugged. “Yeah, no worries, I think I got that. You can tattoo it on your forehead, it will spare you from having to repeat it to every living soul you encounter on Earth.”

Ash glanced at Jaime, and said in a lower voice, directed only at him. “And it will keep other people from pining for someone they can’t have.”

“Excuse me?” Jaime turned to whisper in Ash’s ear. “What does it have to do with Dru and me?”

“I was not talking about Dru,” Ash whispered back.

They both jerked their heads up, as Dru swooped in from the bedroom then, wearing a beautiful red dress that Jaime remembered having seen on Cristina. It was much tighter on Dru, clinging to her curves and emphasizing her cleavage. Jaime swallowed. He couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on in his head.

Ash immediately stood to draw Dru’s chair and she nodded by way of thanking him. She sat on it as if it was a throne, her chin up.

Jaime glanced over at Ash, who seemed so free about his sexuality, and felt a pang of envy.

“So, what’s your deal, Ash?” Jaime blurted. Ash raised a questioning eyebrow at him. “Are you…” Jaime cleared his throat. “Bixesual?”

A slow grin spread across Ash’s face. “We’ve just met and you’re already trying to fill your fact sheet about me and tick one of your little boxes?”

“I didn’t mean to be rude,” Jaime said, feeling uncomfortable.

“I know you didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I am not offended by your question,” Ash continued in a gentler voice. “It’s just that… not everyone can fit into little boxes.” He swiftly glanced at Ty when he said it. It was a flicker movement, but lynx-eyed Ty caught it immediately.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Tiberius said. “I am definitely gay.” He slipped half a banana inside his mouth then, totally oblivious of the gesture. Kit and Ash weren’t though. Kit made a noise between a snort and a chuckle and spilled the water he was drinking through his nose and all over his shirt, while Ash almost fell off his chair roaring with laughter. Dru looked at the boys with motherly affection.

Jaime stood and hurried to the kitchen to get a towel to clean the mess. When he turned, Kit was already there, leaning against the kitchen counter, extending his hand and looking at Jaime with a genuine smile that lit up his gorgeous face.

“Thanks, Jaime,” he said, as he grabbed the towel and started padding his shirt with it. The planes of his muscles stood out and could be seen right through the wet fabric.

“No problem,” Jaime mumbled, feeling his heartbeat increasing inside his chest.

He averted his gaze, past Kit, to the table, where Ty and Dru had their heads bent together, caught in a deep conversation.

Ash was peering around Ty, watching Jaime with amusement. When he caught Jaime gazing back, he stuck his tongue inside his cheek, and started moving his fist back and forth in front of his mouth, miming a blowjob.

Jaime resisted the urge to flip him the finger.

****

When breakfast was over, Dru lay sprawled on a sofa, her leg propped on Jaime’s lap, and Ash was examining the sound system, so he could put music on.

Kit and Ty had disappeared. God only knew where.

“So, what was that demon attack in the middle of Faerie about?” Jaime asked.

“Ty has a theory. And you won’t like it,” Dru replied. “He believes the Unseelie prince who held us hostage has made an alliance with a Greater Demon… probably a Prince of Hell.”

Jaime tensed. If Ty believed this, it was very bad news indeed. “So why send an army of demons to attack an ally?”

Dru twirled a lock of her dark brown hair as she replied. “Two options. Either the Prince of Hell discovered that his ally had been exposed and wanted to silence him. Or… or we will soon be caught in the middle of an internal war between the Princes of Hell.”

“You mean… there might be more than one involved?”

“To quote Ty, evidence makes it more likely than not,” Dru replied, imitating her brother’s voice. Jaime felt dread wash over him.

He gently put Dru’s leg on an armrest and excused himself.

Sometimes, he felt so anxious it was all he could do not to curl up in a corner and wait for his chest pain and dizziness to fade. The mission he had carried out a few years back, where he had to stay hidden all the time, never staying in one place, had made him jumpy, poised for any threat. He didn’t want Dru to see that side of him. For her, he could only be the calm and reliable friend she was used to.

He decided to scout the rest of the cottage for an empty room. There was a corridor - leading to a bathroom? more bedrooms maybe? - on the left side of the main suite’s door.

He went through and just as he turned around a corner... stopped short.

Halfway down the corridor, Ty was leaning with his back against the wall and Kit had his hands propped on either side of him, trapping Ty in a cage of his arms… and they were kissing.

Jaime had never seen two men kissing before and he was surprised to see how tender and sweet it looked. Ty was running his long pale fingers in Kit’s blond hair while the other hand rested on the small of Kit’s back, half of it concealed under Kit’s waistband.

Kit was naked from the waist up and Jaime could see all the tanned muscles in his back contract as he deepened the kiss, eliciting soft moans from the Blackthorn boy.

They were beautiful together, two opposites inevitably drawn to each other, their bodies fitting perfectly like yin and yang.

Jaime felt his whole body react, with a familiar flutter around his stomach and heat rushing up his cheeks. He knew he should not be watching, but he couldn’t get himself to tear his gaze away.

Kit broke the kiss to trace the dark Marks swirling up Ty’s neck with the tip of his tongue. Ty’s gray eyes fluttered open and he caught sight of Jaime. His intense gaze didn’t waver. He didn’t even seem surprised or angry. He simply raised an eyebrow at Jaime as if to say Can I help you with something ?

Jaime hastily retreated to the living room.

He found Ash’s lean figure perched on the wide low table at the center of the room, dancing to the blasting sound of Beyoncé’s Single Ladies and singing along. “If you like it, you should have put a ring on it,” actually sounded very good in his velvety voice. He was twisting, hands on his hips, and throwing his legs up like a professional, while making dramatic faces at Dru, who was sprawled on the sofa, howling with laughter. As he brushed his lips with his finger, licking it and started caressing his torso while throwing his head back, shaking his beautiful silvery hair, he managed to make it look erotic and not ridiculous at all. Jaime had to admit… His moves were perfect, fluid, coordinated and he totally… pulled it off. Annoying jerk.

“Having fun without me?” Kit burst into the room - he was, fortunately, wearing a shirt this time - and immediately hopped on the table to join Ash and one could not imagine they had been wrestling less than an hour before.

When Dru caught Jaime watching them, she patted the spot on the sofa next to her and he moved to drop beside her, throwing his arm around her shoulders.

The music had changed to Rihanna’s S&M and Ash and Kit were dancing together as if they had rehearsed for hours, their dance steps coordinated and smooth. They looked like two lifelong best buddies who could guess each other’s moves. They were pulsing with energy, although obviously neither of them had slept the previous night. Ash made a show of licking Kit’s cheek, and Kit pushed him away, grimacing. When Ash arched his back to rub his buttocks against Kit’s crotch and Kit spanked him, Dru wiped tears from her eyes. Jaime imagined what it would be like to go to a nightclub with the both of them. They would most likely steal the show.

As if on cue, the next song was… Stole the show, by Kygo. As they danced close together in perfect synchrony, Jaime noticed for the first time the similarities between Ash and Kit. Though Ash was all pale, white blond hair and alabaster skin, and Kit was all golden hair and tanned muscles, there was something about their facial features, the planes of their cheeks, the lines of their jaws… They did not look like brothers, but they could easily pass for cousins.

Jaime grabbed a Hot Shadowhunters calendar that had been left on the side table and started flipping through the pages. Looking at the January page featuring Jace Herondale, he wondered why everyone said Kit was like a mini Jace when Jaime could clearly see there was a difference, now that Kit had grown into more adult features. At least to Jaime, Kit’s fey heritage was plain.

When the music changed to Charlie Puth’s Marvin Gaye, Jaime turned his head to find Ty leaning against the kitchen counter and watching the two dancers with a bemused expression, his arms crossed over his chest.

He eventually caught Kit’s eye, lifted a questioning eyebrow, and jerked his head toward the bedroom door. Kit stumbled from the table in his hurry to join Ty and followed him out of the living room and through the main bedroom door, which shut behind them.

*****

Kit jumped on the huge threesome bed as soon as they were inside the bedroom. He felt exhilarated, full of adrenaline and restless energy, and he wanted Ty so much that he was certain he would spontaneously combust if they didn’t share their bodies within the next minute.

He shot Ty a smoldering look as he lounged on the thick mattress, twisting his shoulders seductively while singing along to Charlie Puth’s Marvin Gaye, which was blasting through the thin walls.

“We got this king-size to ourselves Don't have to share with no one else Don't keep your secrets to yourself It's Kama Sutra show and tell, yeah”

Ty had folded his arms against his chest and was shaking his head, as if he didn’t know what to make of this misbehaving boy.

“Kit, you interrupted me earlier when I was trying to have a serious conversation. Will you please let me finish this time?”

"I'm in trouble." Kit continued, clapping a hand over his mouth in a dramatic oops gesture. "But I'd love to be in trouble with you."

Ty rolled his eyes. He didn’t seem ready to play along with Kit, so Kit finally stood and grabbed Ty's upper arms, forcing him to back up until he had him pinned against the wall. He started wiggling his hips, rubbing against Ty, his body swaying to the music.

“You've got to give it up to me I'm screaming, "Mercy, mercy, please!" Just like they say it in the song Until the dawn, let's Marvin Gaye and get it on.”

Kit slipped a hand under Ty’s waistband, straight into his boxer shorts, and whispered “Hello there” as he brushed his lips against Ty’s ear.

“Kit…” Ty said sharply, as a warning, though Kit could hear his breathing was uneven.

“Ty,” Kit replied with all the seriousness he could muster. “When I saw you riding that Shinigami demon carrying a crossbow, I was so turned on it was all I could do not to jump your bones there and then.”

Ty laughed softly. “It appears you have a kink involving me wielding dangerous weapons. Maybe I should bring a claymore to bed next time and threaten you with it.”

“Honey, you know that, as far as I am concerned, you carry the deadliest weapon around with you at all times,” Kit started stroking Ty’s length as if to illustrate his point. It hardened under his touch. Good, we’re heading somewhere. "I was talking about your brain of course," Kit added.

“Kit, listen to me.” Ty grabbed Kit’s wrist and pulled it out of his pants. Kit groaned. “Haven’t you noticed anything strange about Ash?”

That caught Kit’s attention. He had not expected Ash to be the subject of their conversation. He had actually hoped to avoid any kind of conversation altogether. For a little while at least.

“Well, I noticed he is an amazing fighter and dancer. I am totally up for challenging him again, either in a training room or on a dancefloor.” There was something about Ash and him fighting and dancing together, a raw yet steady energy, not like the restlessness and all consuming love he felt around Ty, but something grounding him, making him even more focused. As if he had found a kindred warrior spirit.

“He probably has no effect on you, but… I think spells have been worked on him to render him… likeable. People are inevitably drawn to him, want to protect and follow him.”

Kit swallowed, suddenly deadly serious. “Does this… work on you?”

“No. And I have several theories about that. First… Well, I am a bit different. My brain doesn’t work the same way others’ do. Second, the Blackthorns have a bit of Greater Demon blood, even if it is quite diluted. I do believe Dru genuinely likes him.”

“You mean from your ancestor Lucie Herondale?”

Ty nodded. “And the third and most important explanation is… you. You have my full loyalty.” He rested his forehead against Kit’s. “There is no way in hell I am following him, when I could follow you. ”

Kit brushed his lips over Ty’s.

“What about Jaime? He seems to dislike Ash.”

“I am still trying to figure this out. But it may be one of the reasons I am immune to it, myself.”

“What? You think the Rosales have Greater Demon blood as well?”

“Maybe. But that’s not what I was referring to.”

They were both interrupted when they heard voices raising in the living room. Jaime’s voice was the loudest. And he sounded totally pissed.

Ty hurried toward the door, and Kit followed.

****

As soon as Kit and Ty had disappeared behind the bedroom door, Ash jumped over Dru and Jaime’s heads to land behind the sofa and stole the Hot Shadowhunters calendar from Jaime’s hands. “Hey!” Jaime cried out.

Ash circled back and dropped himself next to Dru, which left her crammed between him and Jaime. As he flipped to the first page, the January page, Ash froze. He was gaping at the picture of Jace Herondale, as if he could not quite believe his eyes.

Falling for Jace Herondale, already? What a surprise.

But oddly, Ash didn’t smile or make a sarcastic comment, as Jaime would have expected. He had a sorrowful expression and a faraway look.

“This is Jace Herondale,” Dru said softly. “Surely, even you have heard of him ?”

Ash swallowed. “Yeah,” he said absently. “Yeah, I have. He looks… happy.”

“Well, of course, he is happy. He has it all, hasn’t he?” Jaime said. “War hero. Married to the love of his life. The Consul as faithful parabatai.” Ash flinched, as if each word was a needle to his skin.

“Ash, is everything okay?”

Ash shook his head as if to clear it.

“Yeah, yeah, I was just thinking about… the butterfly effect. How a single human being’s existence… or absence, can change the course of things… can change the whole world.”

Where the hell did that come from? Jaime wondered.

Ash lifted his gaze to stare at the door where Kit and Ty had disappeared. “Take Kit for instance. Who knew it would only take a hot boyfriend to turn a ruthless, bloodthirsty ruler into a harmless kitten.”

“Er- Ash, I am not sure I am following you,” Dru said gently. “What do you mean?”

Ash let out a heavy sigh and slumped back, crossing his long arms behind his head, the Hot Shadowhunters calendar left at the January page on his lap.

“Nothing, I am rambling.” It looked like he was lost in his thoughts again.

Jaime seized the opportunity to whisper in Dru’s ear. “Dru, can we find some place private to… talk?”

Dru gazed at him with a puzzled look on her face. “Sure. What do you want to talk about?”

Jaime didn’t get a chance to answer as the entrance door rattled at that moment and they both whipped their heads in the direction of the noise.

The door opened and Mark Blackthorn, all tousled blond hair, pointy ears and flushed cheeks, erupted inside the cottage, wearing ragged jeans and a white shirt with a message that stated, “All good things come in threes”. He paused, as if he didn’t really expect to see so many people in his living room.

Jaime immediately withdrew his arm from Dru’s shoulders and stood, but soon registered that Mark was not looking at him… He was staring at Ash who had, from one moment to the next, leapt on the table in front of them and was crouched on top of it, ready to pounce, a dangerous glint in his ice green eyes. He had moved to protect Dru from a potential threat, Jaime realized. And there was no trace of the Ash that had been goofing around with Kit a moment before. The feeling that he had been played like a fool until then hit Jaime like a freight train. They had all fallen for Ash’s laid-back, good guy act. In one instant, Ash had revealed his true, predatory nature…

“Mark!” Dru waved from the sofa, unfazed. “You already know Jaime of course and this is Ash,” she introduced. “Ash… this is my brother Mark.”

Ash relaxed from his stance and leapt off the table, flashing a bright smile and wearing his cool guy mask back on. As if he hadn’t been ready to rip Mark’s throat a second before. The abrupt change in Ash's behaviour almost gave Jaime a whiplash.

“Have we… met before?” Mark asked, looking at Ash with his brows furrowed as he closed the door.

“In any event, I wish to be properly introduced,” Ash said, evading the question. “I am Dru’s boyfriend.”

“Excuse me?” Dru interjected at the same time Jaime exclaimed “WHAT?”

Ash shrugged. “I thought our make out session had settled it.”

Jaime felt heat rush up his face. He whirled on Dru. “We’ve known each other for three years and you’ve known this guy for what? Less than twelve hours? And you’ve already kissed him?”

“To be fair, I am the one who kissed her ,” Ash said in a calm voice. “She didn’t tell me to stop, though.” He paused, his long fingers stroking his delicate chin as he pondered. “Then again, how could she have, what with my tongue being down her throat and all?”

“Ash, don’t intervene,” Dru said, her already white complexion growing paler by the second. “This is not between us.”

“Really?” Ash answered in a fake shocked expression. “I could have sworn it was my tongue down your throat.”

“What’s going on here?” Ty asked as he came out of the bedroom, followed by Kit.

“GREAT!” Jaime said. “That’s just my luck! We’re just missing Julian and…”

“And?” Julian asked, his tall broad-shouldered figure appearing in the entrance. He froze in the doorway, hand on the doorknob, his face a mask of shock as his blue-green eyes swept across the room.

“... And all my worst nightmares are reunited in the same room. OK, let’s be done with it.”

Jaime took a deep breath and caught each of the Blackthorn brothers’ gaze, one after the other.

“I. FANCY. DRU. OKAY? I like her. I know she’s sixteen, but we are good together and I want her to be my girlfriend.”

*Cough* “ Too late.” *Cough* That was Ash. Dru turned to glare at him.

“Well, that’s not even relevant anymore, is it? Since apparently… She prefers Legolas, here.” Jaime continued, waving his hand toward Ash.

“Why does everyone keep saying that? I don’t even look like him.”

“Lego-who?” Ty asked, puzzled.

“He’s talking about Ash. Don’t worry honey, I’ll explain,” Kit said, speaking for the first time.

“And what the hell are you doing here?” Julian asked, turning toward Kit, a flicker of panic crossing his features.

“He just came out of the bedroom with Ty,” Mark said.

Kit lifted both his hands in surrender. “I wasn’t having sex with him,” he blurted. “I mean… not this time.” His face went red. “I mean- I am out of here. If anyone’s looking for me, I’m in the bedroom.” He whirled and paused in front of the bedroom door, his hand on the knob. “Not having sex with anyone...” he specified before he disappeared behind it.

Julian heaved a sigh and turned his gaze back to Ash.

Ash gulped. He looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights, his green eyes wide.

“This is not the end of it. But first things first. Can anyone tell me what the hell Ash Morgenstern is doing here?”

They had barely registered the question, when a sharp cry from behind Julian had them all jump. A slender figure peered around him, red hair like flames flowing over a green velvet dress embroidered with gold. Jaime had seen enough drawings and pictures of her to recognize her instantly. The Seelie Queen.

She pushed Julian aside and ran to Ash, throwing her thin pale arms around him and burying her face in his chest, the golden circlet around her head tipping to the side as she did. “Where were you last night? I came to the house, and it was empty . I have been looking for you everywhere since!”

Dru was staring at Ash open-mouthed. He shot her an apologetic look.

“Mom, let me introduce you to Dru. Dru…” Ash cleared his throat. “Meet my mom.”

*****

Tagging @gabtapia ❤️ Hope you'll enjoy it and, of course, don't hesitate to correct my spanish ;)

[minerstatus]

Teyvat’s School for the Gifted

Summary: He's cruel, mean, and sadistic. Lumine cannot fathom why he has the  followers he does, but she won't fall into his hands like the rest of  them.  It was unknown to her at that time how such a stance would cause the biggest uproar the schools ever seen.

This is the silly drama filled high school/college parody AU nobody  asked for filled with Lumine not giving a shit and Childe trying to buy  his way out of problems.

Ship: Lumine/Childe

Tags: Highschool AU, Enemies to lovers, Slow burn, Jealousy, lots of side ships.

Status: 10/? on Ao3

Chapter 2

She had two options to think about after that ‘encounter’ or whatever you want to call it. Get in line like the rest of the students and eventually ‘hopefully’ her new toy status wears off and she fades into the sea of students. But that would depend on how HE acts after the dinner encounter. And something told Lumine from the way Amber and Barbara reacted to even speaking of the red headed devil he was a force to be reckoned with.

She tossed and turned in the night thinking of different scenarios for the morning.

There were boys like him back home. Maybe not filthy rich, sons of local shop owners, that acted like him. None of them possessed the same air as he did. Being able to part a sea of students just by walking has to be a superpower in itself.

Come to think of it she didn’t even find out where he was from, perhaps she should ask. The more info the better when it comes to defending herself.

She was never one to sit down and take abuse. When she was just in grade school the local boys knew not to mess with her after a few unfortunate incidents. Her mother always told her it was her blonde hair and honey eyes that made her stand out.

It always starts with them testing you. Small things to annoy you, just to see how you react. She would not be able to keep her temper down if that happened. She already had an issue with her mouth as it is.

She turned one final time in the plush bed she had been provided with. The school had made sure even the scholarship students were treated above average. It was impressive, but did little to dampen her jitters.

-

First day, which means new people and new teachers. Lumine was walked by Amber and Barbara to the faculty building. Razor was found sitting on a bench halfway there. It brought a smile to her face.

Razor had never left Amber’s side the entire night they sat talking. It was girl gossip that Lumine was never into, but enjoyed now that she had some people to actually talk to. Not many people are willing to come to a run-down farm for a sleepover back home. Razor himself didn’t talk much, but Lumine was observant. He sat on her bed and watched her, every action, smile, glance. Lumine was quite interested in understanding what Ambers reservations about him were. She seemed to like him from her perspective.

More questions for later.

A plump woman greeted her at the front desk. She was cheerful, but not like Mrs. Lee was, instead giving off warm motherly tones. Lumine could imagine her doting on all the students she came in contact with.

“Here you are dear.” She handed her a slip of paper with her classes.

“Thanks,” Lumine said quietly as she read the sheet. Alchemy, ancient runes, adventuring 101, history, then finally vision training. She internally laughed at the last class, perhaps they were going to rename it. She pulled on the collar of her school issued cardigan as it threatened to slide off one shoulder.

“Just head out to the academics building Mrs. Lee showed you yesterday and a student will be waiting to guide you to your classes,” The woman told her. Lumine nodded and gave back a genuine smile before turning to leave.

It was easy to pick out the student waiting for her in front of the buildings doors despite the crowds entering and exiting. It was a green haired girl nervously fisting her skirt between fidgeting with her glasses. Two small animal ears poked out from under her main of messy hair. She wore her skirt long, unlike the rest of the student body (and Lumine herself), and covered up with a baggy school issued cardigan like Lumine’s.

“Are you the one waiting for the new girl?” Lumine asked. The girl snapped out of a nervous trance and a blush covered her features.

“Ah! Y-yes,” She stuttered before taking a breath, “Sorry I get nervous easily, my names Sucrose,” she extended a hand.

“Thats a pretty name, I like it,” Lumine said as she returned the handshake. She hoped it might calm her down but Sucrose turned scarlet instead.

“I-I'll walk you to your class,” She mumbled and walked inside. Lumine followed silently, deciding the best course of action was to not embarrass her further.

She led her to a decently sized class of students with a portly teacher standing in the front. He wore robes and a ridiculously oversized wizards' hat. The site was an oddity in Lumines eyes, having only ever had exceptionally plain teachers back home. Sucrose left Lumine at the front of the class as she shuffled over to the teacher, managing to get his attention with a simple clearing of her throat. Lumine decided to inspect the chalk board instead of the students. She didn’t want to know if the red headed asshole was in here yet.

“Ah yes Lumine!” The teacher bellowed and waved her over. She stepped lightly up onto his raised platform as sucrose scurried to her seat in the front row. “My name is professor Rasmodius, take a seat next to Zhongli back there,” He pointed off into the right of the room. Lumines stomach sank at the mention of a familiar name. She dragged herself to the back of the class and slid into the empty stool next to him.

They made eye contact and she swore she could see the gears turning in his mind before he spoke.

“He’s not in this class,” He said in monotone.

Lumine choked on her own spit, “w-what?” she asked him.

“He’s not here, if that is what you are worried about,” He smiled down at her sweetly. Lumine felt her face heat up.

“I don’t care if he's here or not,” She quickly recovered and crossed her arms.

“Hm,” He put a hand on his chin, “You had the same gaze as most other new females.”

“Yes, well sorry for being nervous.”

“Perhaps I have made a wrong assumption, I apologize,” He turned his body to her, “Zhongli of the Wangsheng funeral parlor.”

Lumine fumbled a bit at his words. Was it normal to greet someone with your name and what company you hail from? She eyed him wearily for a moment then decided to screw it. Not like they wouldn’t find out if she lies.

“Lumine of a very poor farm outside of Mondstadt.”

He chuckled in a low deep tone. Lumine felt her façade falling as her heart sped up.

“Sorry, perhaps too formal?” He asked.

“You talk like you are speaking to a business partner,” she told him honestly.

“Ive been told that before, even by my friends,” He admitted. For the first time Lumine’s lips quirked into a teasing smile.

“Alright class today we will be looking into the mythical potions of Esteria! page 103!” The teacher commanded. The room filled with the sounds of turning pages.

“I didn’t get a book?” Lumine questioned.

“You will more than likely get them at some point today,” Zhongli told her as he slid his book over between them, “here share mine.”

“Thanks,” She mumbled, dipping behind her hair to hide her blush. Perhaps her friends were right, most of the group wasn’t that bad.

-

Okay maybe they were wrong, at least two out of the four were very very bad. She had not seen the infamous Childe today, but after alchemy Zhongli was very kind to walk her to the next class. Relieving a very thankful, yet worried, sucrose from her job.

They talked about small things, mostly how the school was going, what she thought of it, what kind of things she did back in Mondstadt. To her surprise Zhongli seemed genuinely interested in the day to day life of a poor person. He was awkwardly polite with everything, but had a sincerity to him that he wore on his sleeve.

There was just one sneaking suspicion she had regarding the man. How on earth does a funeral parlor have enough money to send their son to this school AND be the top of the food chain. Surely these boys were flooded with money otherwise the attention wouldn’t be as drastic. There were even glares tossed her way as they walked to the next class.

It was nice to have the attention, he had a smooth deep voice that sent her insides into a flurry. That was until they came upon Xiao. The boy was shorter than his tall geo counterpart and crossed his arms at their arrival. He glared at her as Zhongli added another sentence to their conversation. The words fell on deaf ears as Lumine tried to fight back a snarky remark. She had done nothing to earn this glare from him and it was irking her.

“Keep glaring like that and your face will freeze that way,” She blurted out.

“What?” He hissed at her.

“Ah,” Lumine back tracked, she didn’t mean to speak her thoughts like that, “you just look awfully peeved is all,” she decided on. He narrowed his eyes at her.

Day one, mouth already got her in trouble, nice.

They had a standoff for a few moments before Xiao conceded with a huff and turned into the room.

“Don't worry about him, he's weary of newcomers,” Zhongli said from besides her. She looked up to him for reassurance and was once again met with an honest gaze and smile.

“I-” She began to say and stopped to think about it, “I trust you.”

Even if he was lieing, what harm would come of it? She loses a friend she never even had?

Ancient runes was a snooze fest as expected. She sat next to an incredibly ordinary looking girl who should have hissed like a cat when Lumine sat down. It would have made the look she gave her less comical.

But things perked up in Adventuring 101. The class was useless to someone like her. It was basically preaching about basic safety the entire time. Don’t touch pryo slimes, they hurt. Don’t go off fighting electro monsters in the rain, that also hurts. Always have food rations and medical potions on you!

Blah.

She didn’t need this info, but it was a required class. Get a taste of everything before heading off to the college and decide what classifications you want. Stupid rules some adult made to torture the youngins.

It was fifteen minutes into the class. There was a saving grace, she had a seat next to Zhongli. He shared his book with her again and was polite and overly cordial as always. She assumed the class was full with everyone in attendance. There were a few empty desks but students could be sick or the class could have fewer students than desks.

Then HE walked in, opening the door without a care in the world, loudly. There was this beaming, disgustingly fake, smile plastered to him. A girl followed him inside, checking her makeup on a small compact mirror. They seated themselves in the empty spots adjacent to herself and Zhongli.

The teacher scolded him as he walked, but he ignored it with a shrug. His entire demeanor made her want to mop the floor with his pretty face. Just like the boys back home. She made a point to keep her eyes forwards or at the text in front of her. Not wanting to give him any ideas. There was a cold chill crawling up her spine again, he was staring.

The class continued onwards. The teacher quickly dropped the subject of publicly shaming Childe for walking in to class late. They were moving on to something at least slightly interesting she didn’t know too much about. How to read the stars and sun for location and time. It was something she never needed as she stayed close to home.

It was useful to her so she took out her notepad and began to scribble down some text out of the book as she teacher lectured. She made it a few words in before the girl next to Childe giggled in that high pitch way girls do when they are trying to impress a man.

She dared a side glance over to the table and noticed the girl enamored by him. Getting a full view of the back of her head as Childe whispered sweet nothings to her. He sensed her gaze and looked up, making eye contact. She went back to her work before the girl could turn, clearing her throat.

He was testing her; she could feel it. Between yesterday's stare down and this there was no mistaking it.

“Something wrong?” Zhongli asked her in a low whisper.

“Just a little difficult to get work done with so many distractions,” She growled.

“You will grow accustom soon,” He told her. She laughed quietly at his choice of words. Someone needed to remind him he was still a teenager.

The entire period passed with flirtatious whispers and laughs flying.

And not, one. God. Damn. Time, did the teacher say anything to the two culprits. Although something told her Childe was the true mastermind behind the distraction. She tried her best, she really did, but Lumine was never great at keeping her temper in control. Not when it came to completely asinine males making a side show out of a class.

Her pencil lead snapped on her paper.

“Shit,” she whispered.

“It seems you have snapped your lead,” Zhongli murmured. She refrained from calling him captain obvious. There was a chuckle to her right, this time clearly mocking and directed at her, she herself snapped. She turned and with pin point accuracy threw the pencil at her tormentor. The eraser bounced off his forehead, sending the object into an unknown destination in the room.

The smile fell from his features and they traded deadly glares. The girl sitting with him was busying herself cooing over him asking what's wrong. Oblivious to the events that just unfolded. Zhongli of all people fucking laughed.

She turned her glare into a smug grin reading ‘what are you gunna do about it? now shut the hell up’ and turned back to her work. She leaned back and crossed her arms.

“Well played young lady,” Zhongli whispered to her.

The option of fading into the background had vanished.

[mysticthot]

RFA Highschool AU!

lol this was requested then i accidentally deleted the request my b, but here it is!

dude let me tell u i love highschool au’s thats some good shit right there!!

wasn’t sure if u wanted just general headcanons or specific ones for each charcacter or an x mc kinda thing so i did kinda a mix of all of that lol

So the rfa is basically like the student council

They plan dances and do fundraisers and what not

Everyone knows who they are, the rfa is like an elite little club that does everything for the school

And you’re a new kid

You had gotten directions for your next class from a teacher, but you’d gotten turned around a lost at some point

Class had already started, and there was nobody in the halls to ask other than some boy standing by the windows on his phone

Ignoring the fact that he was a bit intimidating and also supposed to be in class, you walked up to the pink haired boy to ask directions

His turquoise eyes did not look amused, but nevertheless, he pointed towards the door at the end of the hall

“It’s that one.”

“...Oh, ok uh thanks.”

He was gone with no response

Speed walking to the door, you mentally prepared yourself for the embarrassment of having to tell the teacher in front of the whole class you had gotten lost

But when you opened the door, only 5 people were in the room on the other side

Ok...this was definitely not the right class

After you talked to the group and figured out the confusion (turns out the brother of the red headed one had been messing with you) they offered to show you the right way

While you were in there you figured out with was the student council and you noticed some unanswered details for and upcoming dance

Before you left, you gave them a few suggestions for the dance that caught their attention

They invited you back for the end of the day meeting to discuss some more and before you knew it, you were the newest member of the rfa student council

Yoosung-

He’s a lil freshman

Cousin to last years student body president Rika, but her and V had graduated last year and had been the ones that encouraged him to join

He’s like the new kid who really wants to impress all his older friends

But at the same time, he’s already friends with some of the most popular kids in school so he’s definitely not a huge loser or anything (at least that’s what he tells himself)

He was hella excited when you showed up cause then he wasn’t the only one who didn’t know anything lol

You become besties before anything else

He shows you around and you have a lot of classes with him

Its a classic friends to lovers story

Its like one day you and him are just chillin like you always do, then suddenly, you’re seeing things differently

Things you did together all the time as friends now seems like it could be something more

And it was all because of Seven

Boi had all but forced Yoosung to ask you to dance, despite the fact that Yoosung was supposed to be helping Zen with the tickets, and while the dancing itself wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, Seven had decided that exact moment to put on a slow song

Now our boy Yoosung had always thought you were pretty

But you looked gorgeous in this moment

Despite the fact that his hands were on your waist, him holding you arms length away like you were middle schoolers, it was a very sweet moment

And the dynamic completely changed between you guys

He was nervous talking to you now??? Where did that come from???

And you?? Caught yourself checking him out?? The fuck?

You’re both confused and want to go back to the way things were before, but also you just wanna grab each other and make out in a closet somewhere

When you finally get together, you’re such a cute couple

Everyone already thought you were dating anyways, but now you held hands in the halls and it’s like everyone one in the school ships you guys

You weren’t the kind of couple that made out against the lockers between every class, just the kind that people could tell actually liked each other it was cute

You’re eachother first everything lol

You’re always helping each other with homework

And he teaches you how to play lolol

And you meet his mom, who absolutely loves you

Just so cute

Cute lil high school sweethearts type of couple

Zen

Drama student of fucking course

He’s a junior, and most people will agree, the prettiest person in the entire school

Half the school is crushing on him ngl

He went thru a phase his freshman and sophmore year where he was part of the bad crews in school, before he started acting

So he literally knows and is friends with like everyone in the school

Instantly flirty when you show up

Shows you around the school with his arm over your shoulder, and you have never gotten so many glares in your life

He’s so extra like this drama boi is explaining the school as though it were a movie

Pointing out who was who, and telling you all the gossip

Despite the warnings from Jaehee that a lot of girls would prolly actually kill to be in your possition, you continue to hang with Zen

And his flirting goes from playful to more real as you hang out more

Doesn’t take long for you guys to kiss and go on a few dates, but you havent made anything official yet, and it seems the whole school knows that and is on edge over it

Being around Zen is basically like being with Regina George from mean girls, like everyones talking about you and him, nothing is a secret

His ex’s (and a crazy girl who had a crush on him who everyone called echo girl) all hated you

And when he officially asked you out, it was like the whole school knew by the next day

But hey, what are you gonna do when you’re dating the school celebrity?

He loves when you come to his plays

His parents don’t support him doing drama, so often you and the other rfa members are the only ones there to cheer for him

Always getting that boi flowers

And he is your biggest fan in what ever you’re doing

Sports? He’s out there no matter what the weather cheering louder than all the parents

Choir? Helps you with your voice and sings duets with you. Always gives you standing ovations even if no one else is standing

Y’all are just so supportive of each other

A lot of people thought you and him wouldn’t last for long, but your prove them wrong by being a straight up power couple in that bitch

Jaehee

My girl hella smart

She’s also a junior, and in line to be the valedictorian when she graduates

Very academically focused, the rfa being the only club she really has time to participate in

She’s hesitant when you first show up

Home girl’s a stickler for the rules, and she wasn’t sure if it was technically allowed for you to be there??

But you help her out and take a lot of her work load off her hands just by being there

She’s so stressed all the time so when she gets to the meetings and find out you already did the thing she was worried about not having time to do??

Girl loves you

Takes you and her quite a long time to get past being gal pals

Cause she’s just so busy

Literally the last thing she has time to think about it getting a significant other, especially when she’s not even sure of her own sexuality

It was during a fundraiser that she really realized her feelings for you

You and her were handing out snacks to the people that donated while the rest of the group was busy else where when your (mom/dad/aunt/whoever) showed up

They immediately hugged Jaehee and started telling her about how you always talk about how much you admire and like being around her

And you’re blushing hella hard and pushing your guardian away from the table

The incident is not brought up for a while, but its all Jaehee can think about

She’s never been so distracted doing her homework before

Girls confused

Repeats the words “MC is just a friend” over and over

Then she’s just like...fuck it

She goes over to your house and knocks on your door and you answer and she kisses you before she has the chance to change her mind

Y’all are such a good couple

You help her balance her school life so she has more time for fun things

Encourage her to join the coffee club cause she had told you how she wanted to, but was too busy

You guys go on dates to see Zens plays and she’s just so happy

Girl never had someone like you before, and she just loves you so much

ugh let me save this girl

Jumin

Trust Fund Boi

He’s a senior and the richest kid in school

Everyone knows him cause him and his dad are literally famous

But he’s just... not interested

Basically the same lol he thinks all the highschool drama and rumors are a waste of time so he just doesn’t care

Other than the rfa, he doesn’t really have friends

Mostly cause he knows they all just want to use him for something

He’s the type of person that knows highschool is not really that important, he just does his work and goes home

(other than the rfa, which he joined cause v asked him to lol)

Honestly, he’s not really that interested when you show up

You have interesting ideas and can be useful to the council, but other than that he doesn’t really pay much mind to you

Until you basically latch yourself to him like a baby duck

Always following him around cause you have a lot of classes together and he’s the only one you know

You claim you’re hanging with him because you don’t like seeing him sitting alone in class, but he thinks its the other way around

Eventually he realizes he’s not upset just by your presence

You’ve become a tolerable person to be around (how romantic) and slowly but surely, he actually enjoys being with you

In some ways, he’s kinda like Zen cause everyone knows him and everyone’s talking about him

But rather than it coming from a place of admiration, they’re jealous and interested by the rich mysterious kid who only ever talks to you

You get a lot of girls trying to ask you for advice on how to get to his heart

You’re just like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It be like that

His feelings take forever to develop just cause he’s so out of touch with his emotions

But when they do, it just hits him like a train like boi’s just chilling in his house then suddenly...”I’m in love with MC”

Doesn’t even bother trying to hide his feelings

The next time you and him are alone, he confesses and kisses you and the rest is history

Y’all are such a power couple honestly

Ruling that school

He loves being around you

He met your parents, and you met his dad

You always help him when he gets angry or frustrated towards his dad’s new girlfriends

Always pay attention when he shows blurry pictures of his new kitten Elizabeth

He buys you such nice shit and your just like jumin no high schooler needs multiple diamond bracelets

And he’s just like, oh would you rather have necklaces?

707/ Saeyoung

Class clown oBVI

Known for his pranks and his jokes and getting kicked out of class and his weirdly quiet brother who’s never actually in class but is frequently seen around the school Saeran is bigfoot confirmed

He’s also hella smart

He’s in multiple foreign language classes and head of the tech club and really good at sports despite only ever eating chips and soda for lunch

He’s a sophomore and you’re a freshman, so he takes it upon himself to show you around

Acts like he’s a lot older than he is, and if you didn’t know he was a sophomore, you’d think he was a senior cause he knows everything and everyone knows him

He’s not shy about how he thinks you’re cute

He’ll hug you and kiss your cheeks and ask you to the dances despite the fact that you’ll both be working at them

But he never really goes much further than the playful flirting, so you think he’s just messing with you

But one week he’s missing from school, and despite the rfa saying this happens, often, you’re worried

You search out his brother, who is unbelievable hard to find, and eventually see him out on the bleachers

He does not look happy to have some girl who’s basically a stranger asking about his brother and his home life

Wont tell you anything so that just makes you more suspicious

Seven comes back the next day but he’s all cold and distant towards you

You’re triggered, but not having that shit

It takes a few days, but you’re able to get the truth out of him, and he had found out about how you’d been pestering Saeran about his home life and his absence

He warns you not to get involved with him, and does the whole thing where he says he never liked you in the first place and you don’t really like him and blah blah blah

You stopped listening halfway thru his rant

And then you kiss him

Boi is stunned, glasses askew

“Did you hear anything I just said MC??”

You tell you like him for him, and you would respect if he couldn’t talk about somethings, but you wanted to be part of his life

He slowly opens up to you bit by bit

It takes him a long long time for him to tell you about him mother and what’s going on at his home tho

You help him and Saeran get out of there as soon as they can, helping him with his job or with school work when he gets hella busy

You guys go fucking hard on spirit days, dressin up in matching costumes for homecoming

You guys definitely get cutest couple in the year book

And probably prom king and queen cause literally everyone loves you two

You’re the couple then even the teacher would see and just be like “yep they’re gonna be together forever”

lol guys so I’m in a hotel rn cause I flew down from my home to Boise to tour the college campus and I brought my lap top but not the charger so it’s really a race against time to hope and pray this Bitch posts before my laptop dies lmao

also my b if there’s any mistakes I had to speed edit hope u like it!!

[purplesurveys]

815

At what time of day do you normally feel the best? I love the evening the most. I get to have my coffee, it’s quieter around the house, and it also gets a little bit colder so it’s more fun to hang around by then. Do you normally have to hem pants? I’ve never had to do that before. If I need my pants fixed, I usually ask my lola to do it since she’s good at that kind of stuff. Name one reason why someone should not commit suicide. I can’t speak for other people, but I personally stay because I don’t want to leave Kimi behind and because I’ve seen countless mini-documentaries of parents who were left devastated by their kids taking their own lives. What would you do if you had no one to love and support you? That sounds so fucking bleak. I imagine bringing myself to therapy so I can learn how to deal with such a situation, and so that I at least have one person to talk to. If you didn't have love and support, would you feel life was worth living? No. But that’s why I imagine I’d be going to therapy, so my mind can be changed.

If you had no family nor friends nor money, would you feel life's worth living? These questions are so stressful to mull over and a tad bit triggering lmao, can I pass at this point? If you're unhappy, what would it take to make you fulfilled? Depends on what I need, which differs every time. Sometimes I’d wanna be alone, other times I’d want to be with other people, other times I’d need to drive and take longer routes than usual, or to binge YouTube videos, or a good nap...it’s always different. What was the last thing that upset your stomach? The meds I had to take for my UTI. Feeling poopy was one of its side effects, so even though it didn’t upset my stomach per se I did have to have several trips to the bathroom then. Do you have to go the pharmacy a lot? No, only when something’s wrong with me which doesn’t happen too often. Are you sunburned? I haven’t been sunburned since I was like 10. The tendency just suddenly stopped at some point. Do you wish someone loved you? I have a lot of people who already do, fortunately. Do you call yourself stupid often? Like every other hour lmao. What's a song you love? From Eden - Hozier. Do you miss anyone who was mean to you? Not to my knowledge. I’m glad they aren’t in my life today. Name someone you know who is a cancer survivor. One of my former Filipino teachers in high school. Are you friends with any cancer survivors? I don’t think that I am. Does God often answer your prayers? How was your day today (or yesterday, if it's morning)? It was average. Nothing out of the ordinary happened today but I did like the fact that my parents still left the living room aircon on for most of the day even though summer’s over and the weather’s already begun to be a little colder. Do you wish the sunrise and sunset lasted longer? Not really? I’m fine with the ones we’ve got lol. Would you want to relive your childhood again? Fuck no. It had some nostalgic bits, like the shows I used to watch or me playing outside, but it was far too traumatic for me to miss it as a whole. I’m happy being a grownup.

Were your college years the best years of your life? Not fully. My time in college only peaked by the second half, so it wasn’t all that great. Junior and senior year were very fun and eye-opening, though. Would you rather re-live high school or college? Ooh that’s quite a pickle...both periods had their highs. High school was a lot easier (academically), it was a time when I could fuck up and it was okay, and I found my first group of friends. College was a time of independence, a lot of growing up to do, and I also found my second group of friends. As miserable as I was during my freshman year, I ultimately have to go with college because I hated most of the people in my high school anyway and because I really loved the independence I gained in college, from being able to drive on my own and managing stuff on my own time to being free to choose my class schedule. And also, duh, I passed my dream school? I’d relive my years in UP in a heartbeat. What is the dumbest sports-team mascot you've heard of? Not really familiar with sports mascots to begin with. Are you a sports fan? Err, not really. I’m a pro wrestling fan, but it’s not 100% a sport. Where do you feel like you fit in the most? In my college and in my org. I’m sad that I only get four years with them – three when it comes to my org. Do you hate social classes? Yes. Do you think talent should have anything to do with social class? What? I have no clue what this question is insinuating but lmao of course not. I know some crazy talented people who wouldn’t be considered rich, and I know some bland-ass wealthy people who can’t do anything impressive at all. Name a country who's history you know nothing about. Australia. Name a religion you know nothing or very little about. Zoroastrianism. I only remember the founder. Don't you hate know-it-alls? I hate when they start getting conceited. What is your favorite store at the mall? I love visiting Fully Booked every chance I get. When was the last time you went to the mall? That would be when I had my eye checked last early March, because the clinic I visited was inside the mall. Aside from doing that, I also had late lunch at Marugame Udon which apparently would be the last time I’d have their food for a while, unbeknownst to me :( Do you have a bed or do you sleep on a mattress on the floor? I have a bed. When was the last time you went for a run? LOL never. Have you ever tried hard drugs? No. Which school subject did you hate the most? Back in high school I really hated the advanced math and science classes e.g. chemistry, physics, calculus, trig. In college, I found myself hating philosophy and economics the most. What was the last thing you wore from Aeropostale? I don’t think I ever wore anything from them. Which devotional do you read? I don’t read those. Do you appreciate classic literature? I appreciate and recognize their impact, but I don’t like reading them.

What is something you find strange? People who keep pushing for the All Lives Matter narrative. Cringe. Do you like your natural hair color? Sure. I’ve never actively complained about it, that’s for sure. Would you rather get a pixie cut or get dreadlocks? Pixie cut, because I’m pretty sure getting dreadlocks as a Filipino is a form of cultural appropriation? Would you rather dye your hair or get a perm? Dye it.

Do you keep Christmas lights up year-round? No, we don’t. Have you ever started a new trend? Just me? Lmao no. Do you have any artwork of yours from high school? I definitely don’t. Whenever a teacher would give our artworks back, I crumpled it up as soon as I got it and would throw it away. I just simply rejected all of my attempts to be creative lol. What did you win a scholarship for? I’ve never gotten one. But my university did start implementing free tuition for all undergrads starting in 2017 when I was a sophomore, so it’s kinda like the same thing. Did your college meet your expectations? Yes, and more. UP taught me far more than classroom lessons as it opened my eyes to the more important societal issues happening outside of school. It made me recognize our farmers who never earn the income they deserve; the factory workers stuck in poor working conditions; the jeepney drivers whose work is never respected; the millions of working class Filipinos who simply deserve better;  and the government that is more corrupt than I thought. My college on the other hand taught me to be fearless and to never hesitate to search for, report, and defend the truth, and to disseminate just that to the masses. Bottomline is that words can’t even begin to describe how grateful I am to have studied there and I will always be very much in love with my school. What was the best thing about college? The best thing about mine, at least, was the throng of life lessons and eye-opening realizations it gave me. Each of them has been more valuable than any lesson I learned in the classroom. UP taught me that there were a thousand other issues far more important than problems I face in my own privileged bubble, but that I can help facilitate change if I wanted to. How old were you ten years ago? 12. Easily the worst age I’ve been in. What's the best piece of advice you can give someone ten years younger? Stay. It’ll get better. Not instantly, but it does get better. Do you feel like you are old enough and experienced enough to give advice? I think anyone’s fit to give advice no matter how old they are. Even kids can be quite insightful. The differences just lie on the topics people give advice on. How old were you when you started to feel mature and experienced? 17, after I had a series of shitty stuff happen to me at one point in 2015. When I got past those, I could tell I wasn’t the same person that I was, like, two months back. Were your 20's hell? I’m only in my second year lmao, can you get back to me in eight years? What type of bug do you see the most often in your home? We don’t get a lot of bugs at home, fortunately. We have tons of ants though. Do you put off things until the last minute? If I’m not passionate about the task, yes. Do you have the air conditioning on right now? Nope, just the fan. Is your mom the same size as you? She’s slim but she’s still ever so slightly a bit larger. We can technically share clothes but some of them would still look loose on me.

Does camping appeal to you? I have moods where it does and moods where it doesn’t lol. What color is your sleeping bag? I don’t have one. How often do you pray? Do you surrender to Christ daily? When was the last time you went to church? Do you know any Christians who aren't judgmental? Only a handful, and it’s usually people in my age group. Most of the others suck, and I can say this because I’ve had coooooooountless personal experiences with rude, hypocritical, sexist, homophobic, and transphobic Christians and Catholics. Do you believe there are any good people in the world? Of course. What's one thing you are scared of? Flying cockroaches.

[worddevdealswithml]

The Pressure Rises (Sequel to ‘French Vanilla’) Chapter 2: ’Fog’ Words: 7471 Available on AO3 Here

Summary: Following the defeat of Chat Blanc, they believed they finally shown Hawkmoth a defeat to make him stop.  They believed that they’d be able to enjoy their newfound knowledge of each other’s identity in peace.  They were wrong.  Hawkmoth is still working to obtain their Miraculous, and the pressure is only going to rise as he hones his skills with villains, and begins to decode the Grimoire.

[S]he was going to the peaceful haven of the library, where…

Where…

Where Kim and Alix were screaming review questions at each other.

Marinette shuffled her way into the room, past Nathaniel who was shaking his head as he walked out with a book entitled ‘Paris: The Grandest Sights.’  She slipped into a seat across from Alya, next to Nino.  Both of them seemed enraptured by what appeared to be some kind of academic sparring match.

“Should I be concerned?” she whispered.

“So,” she’d whispered when they’d seen each other just before school started, “I asked about that question you wanted answered.”

“Oh?” He’d said.

“It’s… I’ll explain later,” she’d said.

He’d waited.

…

At lunch, Ivan and Mylene hadn’t been able to find a seat, not even mentioning that Alya and Nino were of course sticking around.  Between the four of them, Marinette hadn’t even been able to raise the topic.

…

True, they had done an experiment in science (Much quieter than the last one- Make that louder?  Less action-packed), but they’d been in different groups; he’d actually been teamed up with Alya, which was interesting, since Marinette, no, make that ‘Ladybug’ had given him the go ahead to… Oh how did it go?  Tell her that he knew who she really was.  He was of the opinion that Ms. Mendeleev had split him and Marinette apart because she thought they distracted each other.  She wasn’t exactly wrong, but he and Alya hadn’t exactly gotten much done that day either.

…

So now, hours later, when Marinette had finally gotten twenty seconds alone with him, he was almost surprised when she said, “Like I was saying, I asked about...” and she looked around, conspiratorially.  He almost wanted to roll his eyes at the gesture, even if the secrecy she treated the topic with was one of the most adorable things he’d ever seen.  They were practically alone, and even if they hadn’t been, a display like that would only draw more attention.  “...your question,” she finished.  “According to… Our friend in the business, it’s way harder than it should be to find out that particular secret, and it’s even harder if you… If you’re not keeping the same secret.”

He nudged her, gently.  “C’mon Marinette, you’re making it sound like something illegal.  It’s more suspicious than just saying it normally.”

She shook her head.  “It’s just… It’s just… I’m, really happy that you know, but I’m still supposed to keep it a secret.”

“Of course,” he said, “I understand completely.  You don’t want people knowing our secrets.  But it wouldn’t help anybody for you to get accused of selling drugs, or something.”

She blushed.  “Well, when you put it like that…”

“So…” he said, “let me make sure I’ve got this right.  Master Fu told you that it’s just hard to find out someone’s a superhero, and it’s even harder if you aren’t one.”

“Yeah.”

“Did he say why?”

She shook her head.  “I would assume it’s some kind of Kwami thing.”

Adrien shrugged.  “Sounds about right.” He paused.  “Huh.”

“What?”

“Now that you say that, I could probably have just asked Plagg.”  They kept walking a bit longer, and then, suddenly, he shook his head.  “I still could!” he looked down.  “Hey Plagg?” he asked, “did you already know all that?”

He could feel the shift under the fabric of his shirt as Plagg slipped to the edge of it, still just out of sight.  “Well, yeah,” came the grating voice, somewhat muffled.  “I mean, if I were you, I’d have been surprised that nobody figured it out yet.”

“Real nice, Plagg.”

“Hey! I’m just being honest.  You’re pretty bad at keeping secrets.”

“Leave him alone!” came another voice from Marinette’s direction.  “It’s not like you’re any better at spotting secrets.”

“Spotting secrets?  Really?”

“That wasn’t a pun,” said Tikki, seemingly the slightest bit annoyed. “and besides, you’re one to talk.  You only figured out who Ladybug really was when she changed back right in front of you.”

Plagg went silent at that, and after a second, Adrien felt him slip back into the inside pocket of the shirt.  He felt, more than heard, the faint grumbling.

“Wow,” he said, “I’ve never seen him just stop talking like that before.”

“We’ve known each other a long time,” said Tikki, as if that was a proper explanation.

“Yeah, and I was just getting used to having her not do that every time I talk.”

“I wouldn’t do it if you didn’t keep needlessly insulting people.”

Their purposeful snail’s pace of a walk had finally lead them to their destination.

The library.  Finally, weeks after her… Ill-fated confession?  Well-fated confession?

 Fated confession.

 Anyway, she was back, and with a problem to solve simultaneously far less urgent than a crush, and yet somehow still just as tricky.

It was the end of a semester, which meant semester exams.  More to the point, it meant dealing with the frankly ridiculous matter of science.  Theoretically, it was supposed to be an ordinary, high-school level class, but Ms. Mendeleev had a reputation.  Namely, a reputation for giving out 7-page study guides where all of the listed material was on the test.  Tiny font, preparing for a test where worse than having to remember all the concepts was trying to write them all in before you ran out of time.

It was, in short, an infamous challenge, to the point that Marinette was almost worried someone would get Evilized just trying to study for it.  She should probably do something to keep people’s spirits up once the test ended.  But for now, she had to make sure that she survived.

To that end, she was going to the peaceful haven of the library, where…

Where…

Where Kim and Alix were screaming review questions at each other.

Marinette shuffled her way into the room, past Nathaniel who was shaking his head as he walked out with a book entitled ‘Paris: The Grandest Sights.’  She slipped into a seat across from Alya, next to Nino.  Both of them seemed enraptured by what appeared to be some kind of academic sparring match.

“Should I be concerned?” she whispered.

Alya looked up, surprised, “What!?  Oh, hey Marinette.  There was an incident with a textbook.  They both wanted the last copy, and somehow they’ve just ended up…” She gestured at the two of them, just as Alix shouted, “Sigma bonds!  Who figured out the periodic table!?”

“Well, like that.”

“Mendeleev! Why is water called the universal solvent!?”

“Oh.  How long have they been doing this?”

Alya shrugged.  “A while.”

“Gotta be like 2 minutes by now,” said Nino, “pretty impressive, honestly.”

“Yeah,” said Alya, “I’m pretty sure they’re remembering things purely out of spite at this point.”  After a second’s intent watching, she added, “I’d break it up, but honestly, I think this is probably better studying than I’d be doing anyway.  Plus, it’s more fun to watch.”

“Yup,” said Nino, nodding.

Marinette looked back up at Adrien, who still hadn’t sat down.  He seemed half-confused, half-pleased.

Nino followed her gaze, and chuckled.  “Guess you probably never saw them do this before,” he said.  When Adrien looked down at him, he continued, “They’ve been stuck in the same class for years now, and I’ve lost track of all the stuff that’s happened.” He looked back at the pair, and shrugged, “Not including the stuff I wasn’t there for.”

“It’s always a competition,” said Alya, “You remember how Kim kept making dares earlier in the year?”

Adrien nodded, eyes once more fixed on pair.

“Well, he’s been doing basically that for years, and nobody’s had to deal with more of it than Alix.”

“It doesn’t help that Alix gets really into it,” added Nino.

“Because the carbon atoms form a network!” shouted Alix.

“Seriously,” said Nino, as Alix cut back with her next question “I’m pretty sure they didn’t know any of this stuff five minutes ago.”  He laughed.  “I wonder what happens if you ask them something weird.”

“Did you have something in mind?” asked Alya.

Nino didn’t hesitate. “You could try asking who Ladybug really is.”

Alya snorted.  “Oh no, you’ve made it relevant to my interests, how can I resist,” she said.

“You can’t,” responded Nino.

“Because parts of it are polar, while other parts are nonpolar!” shouted back Kim.

In the bare pause of him trying to find a new question, Alya called out “What’s Ladybug’s real identity!?”

Alix swung around, and, not even seeming to see Alya, stared directly into Marinette’s eyes. Marinette couldn’t keep the eye contact, gaze flicking around the room.  Nobody else seemed to be looking at her, but it was still uniquely terrifying. “Secretly, Ladybug is-” her voice cut off, even though she seemed to be trying to say something.  “...is-” She shuddered as if about to throw up.  Then, she blinked a few times in rapid succession, and looked up at Alya.

“Nobody knows who Ladybug really is,” she said, shaking her head as if trying to rid her head of the thought, “that’s the whole point of a secret identity.”

“I win!”

“Oh, come on!” shouted Alix, “that’s not how-

“You said first person to get a question wrong or not know the answer!”

“Science questions, Kim!  That’s not a science question, and you didn’t ask it anyway!”

“Yeah, well…  Do you smell that?”

“I swear, you’re like some kind of dog; in the middle of talking and then suddenly, ‘Did you smell…’  Actually, yeah, what is that?”

Kim sniffed.  “Smells like alcohol.”

A beep, and then, “Ethanol, to be precise.”  That was Markov’s voice.  “Which is to say, drinking alcohol.”

They looked over.  “Max outfitted me with certain sensors.”

For a second every stood still, hesitantly smelling the air.  “You’re not supposed to drink in school,” said Nino.

“The quantities suggest a much larger source than would be plausibly carried by one person,” said Markov, “considering the concentration and spread.  However, it seems likely that this is not coming from a drink, but from some new villain, considering the oncoming wave of fog outside.”

The looked out the window, and stopped dead.

“Looks like studying’s gonna have to wait,” muttered Adrien.

“As usual,” said Alya.

--

Okay.  So.  Clearly, she had to get out of here.  Rena Rouge hadn’t been around for the last villain, but she was going to be there this time.

She had to get out of the room, obviously, but how was she supposed to justify it?  Maybe she could just sort of… Sort of… Edge herself back from the group, who were, to… Well, okay, Adrien seemed to be following her lead, which made sense.  Marinette seemed resolutely fixated on the cloud.

“So,” Marinette said quietly to Nino, “looks like a bad day to go driving, I guess.”

Nino laughed, the soft laugh of someone trying to ignore a bad situation.  “Yeah, guess so.”

Just a little more, and… Out.

She closed the door, taking care to avoid it making a sound.

For a second, she was going to say something about covering him while he went and transformed elsewhere, and then she remembered earlier today.  Well.  That would make things simpler.

“Alright,” she said, to Adrien, “time to transform?”

He glanced around.  “Looks clear enough.”

“You ready, Trixx?”

Trixx flitted out, with a wide grin.  “I’ve been ready for weeks!”

“Of course you have,” came a grating voice from Adrien’s direction, just as Adrien himself said, “Plagg, claws out!”

“Let’s pounce!”

…

“Time to get moving,” said Chat Noir.

“We should really figure out a synchronized transformation,” said Rena Rouge, as they jumped an inhuman distance, making for the exit.

“We’ll have to talk about that some other time,” said Chat Noir, “for now, we’ve got a villain to catch.”

--

Marinette was still making the resolute face of someone pretending not to hear something.  She’d been mid-conversation with Nino, and she could absolutely hear them talking through the door.  Nino didn’t seem to have heard them though, so she supposed the door worked well enough.

The worst part was that that was actually one of the more secure transformations she’d been around for, too, so she didn’t even want to think about all the times she’d transformed with only the hope that people weren’t looking at her.  In the park, behind a bench, for example.  Of course, it helped that even if they saw her, they wouldn’t know they needed to pay attention to her until she was already transformed, but still…

On the upside, though, now that they’d left, she had the perfect reason to leave.

“Hey,” she said, “Did Adrien tell you where he was going?”

“Nah,” said Nino.

“I’d better go find him, then,” she said.

He nodded.  “Cool.”

She walked out the door, and, head full of her own misgivings about obvious places to transform, left to find somewhere better to do it.

--

Kinda weird that all three of his best friends had pretty much immediately left.  Well, he supposed Marinette had just been following the other two, but still.

Chat Noir and Rena Rouge suddenly flew into sight, leaping across the rooftops towards the fog, which was now quite close to the school.  Then, with almost no warning, they hit the impossibly thick surface, and vanished into it without a trace.

Nino had the distinct impression Ladybug would be after them in just a moment.  He blinked.

…

Well… Presumably Marinette would find Alya and Adrien soon enough.  Hopefully they’d be back to the library soon.  In the meantime, though, it wasn’t like he’d be able to fight a villain, and he wasn’t going to do much by watching a massive cloud of fog.

He shrugged and pulled out his textbook.

He was probably going to be stuck here until the fog dispersed, so he might as well fight his way through the increasing smell of alcohol and get studying.

--

The fog was even more unnatural than she’d thought; it seemed to be shoving its way through the cracks in the door, thick billows of the stuff quickly obscuring the entry to the school.  Even as she hesitantly stepped up to open the door, she was quickly engulfed in it.  She turned to look back, but even as she looked, the view grew hazier.

She took a deep breath, trying not to choke on the now pervasive taste in the air, and opened the door.

 The fog, which seemed to have been pressing at the door, rushed in all at once, and she stepped through quickly and closed the door behind her.  It made no sense to let it spread that easily, whatever it did.

Was the school engulfed yet?  She didn’t know.  She couldn’t see all of it.  She could barely see to the rooftop.

Now, where were her friends?

--

Chat Noir was quietly regretting not waiting up for Ladybug.  It would have been easy; just get to a nearby rooftop to talk strategy, and make sure Rena Rouge was faced away from the school.  Ladybug would show up, and they’d be able to take on the villain together.

This?  This was a bad idea.

He kept almost losing track of the one hero who had come with him, and if he lost her for longer, there wouldn’t be much he could do to find her.

Right now, though, they were back to back, simply staring out into the void.  There had been nothing to suggest the villain; no appearance, no telltale marks to suggest a source.  The fog simply was.

He supposed the villain could be the fog?  Maybe they were standing inside of it.

That was an unpleasant thought, and besides, Hawkmoth wouldn’t make a villain who couldn’t…

He swatted away the…   Strange.  He could’ve sworn he’d felt something tugging on his ring, but when he’d looked down, nothing.

“Hey,” he said.

“Yeah?”

“Stay sharp.  Something weird’s going on.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” “I mean something tried to steal my ring.”

He felt her head jerk as she looked over at him. “What?”

“I don’t know.”

--

She was about to ask him what he meant, when something was there in the corner of her eye, long, almost snakelike.  Without thinking, she reached out and snagged it in her left hand.

It was… A hand?  A hand of mist, with a foggy arm stretching away behind it, but perfectly solid.  Even as she processed that she could touch it, it crushed in her hand, turning into nothing but a loose cloud.  The arm, too, dispersed into the mist.

Eerie.

“What?”  Right.  He must have felt her do something, side-effects of being back to back…

Back to back.  If someone had told her a year ago that in a year she’d be back to back with a superhero named Chat Noir, as another superhero, and that Chat Noir would be the famous model Adrien Agreste, who would also be her classmate, and practically her high-school brother-in-law...  Well, she wouldn’t have believed them.  She would have thought they were crazy.

But he’d asked a question.  “There are hands in the fog.”

“What!?”

“One hand, anyway.”

“Just floating?”

“There was an arm.”

“No body?”

“Not in sight.  It was a long arm.”

Her eyes twitched side to side, trying to catch the next one before it caught her.

“When you say long arm, you mean, what, tube of fog?”

“Yeah?”

“Figured,” she felt him move, as if he’d just caught one of his own.  “Turns to mist if you grab it?”

“Yup.”

“Yeah…  How much would you bet that if we follow the arms we find the villain?”

She felt a faint pressure on the back of her neck, and the soft shift of the pendant in her necklace.  She spun and caught the hand that had managed to sneak itself into the gap between her head and Chat Noir’s.

Sure enough, as her eyes followed the disintegration, she saw that the arm snaked off in the same general direction as the first one.

“Alright,” she said, “be ready, then.”

“Ready for…?”

“Hand!” she called, and started after the arm.

--

“Wait, you can’t-“ he began, but she was already too far away to hear.

He brought down a hand and chopped the arm out of existence.  Great.  Now, none of them were in the same place.  Rena Rouge, running off by herself, and he couldn’t follow, because…  What?  He was waiting for Ladybug, but what made it so certain that she’d come here?

He needed to…  Oh.  He rubbed his eyes.  He would’ve sworn he wasn’t tired, but his eyes were burning in this miasma, and the smell wasn’t helping either.  Still, if nothing else, he could at least arrange some kind of meeting.

He pulled out his baton and flicked it open.

For a long second, she didn’t respond, and then, her face appeared, surrounded by fog.

“Hey, we need to meet up,” he said, looking up at the street signs, “I’m at the corner of-

“I think we’ve got that just about covered,” she said, and he heard the same voice coming from behind him.

He spun around.  She was already there.

He blinked at her.

She smirked at him, and turned the compact around.  “Tracking, remember?” she said.

He stared blankly for an instant, and then said, “Of course!  Of course, I just thought… It would be more fun to try meeting up with conventional directions.  Call me a traditionalist, I guess.”

“You’re a terrible liar, Kitty,” she said, and then blinked. “Where’s Rena?”

“You tell me,” he said, nodding at her hand.

“You got split up?”

“She ran off.”

“Why?” “Chasing an arm,” he said, and then, at her confused look, “I should probably just take it from the top.”

--

Man, Marinette really was taking a long time to come back with Alya and Adrien.

Of course, the villain could have kidnapped them or something, but he was forcing himself not to dwell on that option.  Maybe they’d just gotten turned around in the mist that had finally filled up the school. However much he wanted to go looking for them, what would he be able to do that they hadn’t?  It was just like the time with Banshee; all he could do was hold out and try to stay out of trouble.

Except, muttered a bit of his mind, with Banshee, Alya had stayed behind, and saved Marinette and Adrien, and he’d run.

And what would have changed if he’d stayed behind?  It had been his idea to take everyone to the library, and they’d listened.  If he’d stayed, would they have stayed safe?

He blinked away the tears that were only mostly from the burn in the air.  And what was he supposed to do now?  His friends were out there, potentially in danger, and he was stuck in here, unable to move, and useless even if he could.

He put down the pencil he’d had out and sat up.  There was no use dwelling on it.  Never was.

He looked around the room.  Alix and Kim, (he assumed they were, by their silhouettes) for all they’d been yelling at each other earlier, had sat down at the same table.  Neither was talking, and both seemed unnerved.

Well.  If he couldn’t go looking for his other friends, he could at least look out for the ones here.

He picked up his textbook and walked over to the table.

They looked up as he approached.

He gave them his best reassuring smile and sat down.

“There’s still enough light to study by,” he said.

Alix gave him a funny look.  “You really want to study now?”

He shrugged.  “What else are we supposed to do?  It’s not like we can go fight whatever villain’s out there…  Besides, Miss Mendeleev’s never gonna move the test back for a villain.”

Kim snorted.  “Yeah.”

“Hey, Max, Markov,” he called, “you want in on this?”

--

Halfway sharing the senses of a villain as strange and nebulous as this one was a new experience for him.  He could see practically the whole city, and, at first, he’d thought that would mean he’d be guaranteed to see Ladybug and Chat Noir transform, uncovering their secret identities once and for all, but no such luck.  He’d only managed to spot them after they’d already been up and away over the rooftops.  Still, they’d have quite a time fighting when they could barely see, and, judging by the stench of the fog, were slowly growing intoxicated.

Better still, their newest member, Rena Rouge, had split off by herself, heading straight for the most dangerous place in Paris.  Right into the waiting arms of Fog.  With any luck, the Fox Miraculous at least would be his, crippling his enemies.

Hmm.  He might actually know just the person to wield it.  But first…

--

She’d realized after Chat Noir was far behind her that he wasn’t following her.  She wanted to stop then and there, but the way the arm had curled and twisted across the rooftops, she didn’t think she’d be able to trace her path back.  So the only paths available were to stay where she was, and keep pushing on.  Well.  Foxes were supposed to be hunters, right, and she was going to follow this rabbit of a villain back to its burrow.

Not, she continued as she kept following, that this was as harmless as a rabbit.  Plus, the metaphors, inside her own head, seemed a little over the top.  Call that an aesthetic failure, but it didn’t change the fact that she wasn’t about to sit around and wait for it to eventually succeed at its persistent attempts at theft.

And so, she went on, barely able to keep up with the hand that seemed always one rooftop further, until finally, the winding path led her to… An alley?  Well, she’d come this far.  It was just one, two, three jumps to the bottom.

She straightened up, and immediately knew that she was in the right place.  The air was thick, even choking, and the cloud was so thick here that she could see 20 feet, maybe.  No villain in sight, but she knew it had to be here somewhere.  She carefully looked around.  It could be outside the alley, somewhere, or it could be tiny.  Camouflaged?  Probably not invisible, or else why go to the trouble of covering things in fog.

Something in her head clicked.  A flicker in the fog.  Not a shape; a wisp of the same, but even thicker, almost solid.

She stepped lightly towards the source, and finally came close enough that she could make out a shape on the ground, small enough to hold in a hand.  It was a metallic grey, with an opening on one end, that was billowing, surprise, more fog.

This had to be the thing they had to destroy, right? 

Oh, who was she kidding? This was obviously the source of the whole cloud, for all it was tiny.  Well, for all it was a poor choice to run off alone, if she could get this back to Ladybug, it would be game over, no problem.

She reached down and… Hesitated.  It was strange that no villain had shown up, yet.  Would something happen if she touched this?  Maybe she should wait for Ladybug and Chat Noir to… But then, how would they find her with no directions?

Maybe, though, she could set up a meeting.  That would be perfect.

She pulled her flute out.

She knew that Ladybug and Chat Noir could both communicate through their respective weapons, but it took her a second to figure out how hers did it.

Eventually, she hesitantly blew a note, and saw a flicker in the air.  A few notes more, and then a few more, and one decisive tweet, and an image of the same phone her phone used to say ‘call this number?’ was floating in the air, buzzing slightly.  Holographic screen?  Well, probably, it was more of a mirage, technically, but she had to admit, she’d found something she had up on the two of them, albeit with a terrible interface.

After a second, an oddly three-dimensional image of the two appeared in the air, on eye-level with her, and yet looking down, as if at the screen.  It was disconcerting, but she rallied quickly and said, “Where are you two?”

“We’re on our way,” said Ladybug.

She wanted to ask how, but the important point to make was, “I’m not seeing a villain, but I’ve got the Akumatized item.”

“What?” said Chat Noir.

“How?” asked Ladybug.

Rena grins.  “It’s right here,” she said, unthinkingly stepping towards it, “just lying on the ground!” Her hand wrapped around it, and-

--

-there was a loud hiss, and her image went white, and then cut out entirely.

They looked at each other, back at the screen, and then back in the direction they’d been heading.  Then, without a word, they began sprinting forward, Ladybug trying to switch back to the tracker as she ran.

The same fog they’d been cutting through easily before suddenly seemed much more difficult to navigate as they tried to hurry their progress to the small blip on Ladybug’s compact that was supposed to represent their friend.  Rooftops loomed out of nowhere, and more than once they stumbled as one suddenly rose up beneath them at an unexpected angle.

But they were close, close enough that by the time she had the map back up, they’d almost passed their stop.

“Here!” she called, and Chat Noir almost fell again as he tried to negate his momentum.

As he brought himself back up, he looked back up at her.  She nodded at the gap between the two buildings.

She brought up a hand.  3 fingers.  2.  1.

They jumped down.

--

“I guess you’re right,” he said, trying to get the cord of the necklace out from under her hair, “but you’d have to take it up with… With.  What was his name, again?”

He didn’t have a chance to complete the thought, as his body exploded, with a sudden impact of something in his back.

He clenched his hand around the flask, and he was back, again, on the ground.  He looked up, and saw two figures standing over the other one; one red, one black.

‘Like checkers’ he thought vaguely, before recalling what the purple guy had said.  These were the two he had to beat, right?  Didn’t sound like fun.  The red one was kneeling down over her friend, and the black one was charging him.

“CATACLYSM!”

He forced himself to focus.  He pushed up to his knees as fast as he could, but by then the… Chat Noir.  That was the name of the one who said ‘Cataclysm’ and then destroyed things.  Chat Noir was already almost on him, reaching for the flask.  He couldn’t let him take it.  He knew that much.

A snap-toss between his legs, and his last image was Chat Noir’s confused expression, and then he was gone.

And back, hand clenched on the metal surface of the flask.  Chat Noir was behind him, and probably was going to-

--

They spun at the same moment, and Chat Noir had the barest instant to see the open end of what he had to assume was a can of some kind pointed at him before his vision went white, and everything burned.  He slammed his eyes shut and covered his mouth, trying not to breathe.

Then, as quickly as it had come, it was gone, and he forced his eyes open in time to see that same indistinct, grey figure rushing for him.  He put up an arm and blocked its clumsy strike, but still staggered.

It didn’t hurt, but it pushed, as if his own blocks weren’t as effective.

Well, it could push, so could he.

His vision was beginning to blur, now, as if his eyes had forgotten how to focus.  He made a weak grab for the thing it was holding and earned a punch to the gut for his trouble.  He grinned despite himself, even as he took a knee to the gut and fell back.

“I don’t need to win,” he slurred, “I just need to buy her time.”

And then the blinding white returned, and he realized an instant before he passed out that he’d forgotten to close his mouth.

--

As the energy jolted into her abdomen, Rena Rouge sat bolt upright, eyes wide.

“I didn’t know you could do that!” she said, quickly pulling her necklace back down where it belonged.

“Well, the time’s up,” came the faint voice from behind Ladybug, and chuckled.  It didn’t even sound evil, just a bit amused.

She spun around.  “Oh not again,” she muttered, a hard edge in her voice.  Rena leaned to the side.  The Fog-man had managed to bring down Chat Noir, and more to the point, had taken hold of his hand and was, using the hand that wasn’t holding the item, twisting at the ring.

The yo-yo had to be second nature by now, and this strike was particularly savage, causing Fog to jolt upright, even as it passed through him.  He spun, hand still working at the ring, and she thought the twists in the mutable face look almost scared.

“Now’d be a good time for a Lucky Charm,” said Rena.

“I think I just used up all of my power,” she said, shaking her head and sending another strike out, this one aimed at the villain’s hand.

“Don’t let him level the flask at you!” Rena called at her retreating back.

“Got it!” she called, and then, “Cover me!”

Well, with her mind recovered from what she could only assume was a forcible intoxication, she might just be able to make a proper illusion.

But what kind?  This was a halfway intelligent enemy, which limited her scope.  No grand illusions for this.  Surely there was something, though.

--

She was faster than him, and probably stronger, too, but her real advantage was knowing to never let it level that flask at her.  She’d bet, easily, that that was what had done in Chat Noir.  Well, he wasn’t going to get her.

One, two, knock the hand, a clip of the ankle with her foot, just enough to throw him off balance, and he was in perfect position for her to-

A twitch, and she was back ten feet, her mouth in her elbow, carefully exhaling through her nose, eyes squinted to avoid the burn.

As the choking stream finally died, she forced her eyes open again, and pushed forward again, trying not to wonder why Rena hadn’t used her Mirage yet.

There was a timing on that attack, or else he’d always be using it.  That meant she’d have to move fast or she’d get pushed back again.  Which meant…

She pushed onwards.  A feint towards his face, a slide in, hip check, hand darting out toward the flask, but he pulled back, his whole body turning away.  An awkward kick, slipping past his ghostly body, and knocking it into the air.

She leaped for the flask, only barely noticing Fog’s body disintegrate.  What she did notice was when his body formed, hand first, around the flask, back to her.

Her jump was abruptly halted by the surprisingly solid form of the villain going downwards.  She managed to extricate herself from underneath him, and barely managed to cover her face as another choking blast whited out her vision.

No, it was worse.  Her vision was unnaturally blurred, and she felt only somewhat steadier on her feet than Marinette, not that she wasn’t always Marinette, but right now, she was supposed to-  she shook off the tangent, just in time to hear a familiar melody.  She grinned.  Rena had figured out what she was doing.

--

Once or twice, before he’d been a villain, (which, he supposed, he was, now) he’d experienced the tricky sensation of seeing double, but he’d never seen triple?  Quadruple?  The point was he was suddenly dealing with a lot more Ladybug than usual, and he wasn’t sure why.

“Rena Rouge has used her Mirage,” came an echo from the fog.  It was the same voice he’d heard when he’d first transformed.  ‘If you can incapacitate her again, the fakes will vanish.’

“Well, that’s cool, man, but I don’t know exactly-“ he quickly formed again, and barely managed to slide the flask away across the pavement, “how you expect me-“ he reformed again, and began running, “to do anything with that when I’d have to get past an invisible girl with a vendetta first.”

“Invisible,” repeated the voice, clearly not understanding him.

“Y’know,” he said, his torso bursting into mist as the yo-yo around it suddenly tightened into nothing, “I can’t tell which one she is, so… invisible.”

“Then take the ring, if nothing else!”

He rolled the eyes he didn’t really have, due to being made of fog, and turned.

“Alright, man, you’re the boss,” he said, and flicked the flask underhand under what he had to assume was the real Ladybug diving at him.

He never found out if she was real, as he was already running back towards Chat Noir.

“Oh yeah ‘Take the ring,’ like that’s so easy,” he muttered.  “Almost enough to make me feel an emotion.”  He knelt down by Chat Noir, right hand poised like before, carefully avoiding touching the palm where the Cataclysm was still crackling.  The ring was past the first knuckle now, but the leather of- leather?  Material, let’s say, of the suit, gripped unnaturally hard.  One good wrench, though, would probably-

He just barely had time to register the pressure of the yo-yo’s cord at his left shoulder, and even less to register the contact it made with the hand holding the flask.

--

At this distance, she could just make out the flask bounce, and only knew that she’d managed to hit Chat Noir’s still burning hand when, in midair, the flask crumbled to dust

“Sick shot,” came the trailing voice of Fog, as his body disintegrated.

And then, didn’t disintegrate, reforming, stronger, stronger, a vicious wind whipping as the fog twisted back to him.

She could see the Akuma at this distance, struggling against the current.

A flip of the compact, and- a miss.

Another flip.

And another.

It was on the fourth try she finally caught it.

“Not too bad, all things considered,” she muttered. Considering the size of the target, the wind, the intoxication, and the fact that she was trying to do something precise immediately after a literal fight.

This wind would probably keep going and start a tornado or something similarly destructive if she didn’t do something.  Thankfully, she could…

Well, she didn’t have a lucky charm, but hopefully, she’d still be able to…

“Miraculous Ladybug!” she called out, and felt the power surge out, blinding.

When it was gone, everything was quiet again.  The day was warm and sunny, and above all, felt impossibly real.  Maybe it was the contrast with the fog, maybe it was the fact that she wasn’t half-drunk anymore.  Did it even count as being drunk if she hadn’t drunk anything?

Her earrings beeped, and she remembered what she was doing.

She reached down a hand, and pulled up Chat Noir, who seemed to be shaking off the intoxication, but not immediately.

He pushed up to his feet and nodded silently at her.

Now, she was low on time, and she couldn’t let Rena Rouge see her entering the school without raising too many questions

--

“Did you know she has healing powers?” was his first reminder that Rena existed.

“I,” he said, blinking at the suddenness.  He looked up at her.  “No, I didn’t. Shouldn’t be surprised, though, creation’s her whole thing.”

“Well, yeah, but I never realized you had more than one power!”

“Well, I suppose the upside to rushing off like that is that you find out.”

She cringed back, slightly.  “Yeah, guess I did a bit, didn’t I.”

He shrugged.  “You’re still pretty new to this.”  He looked away, “Not to mention that I’ve gotten taken down more times than I want to remember because I did something stupid.  Anyway, I need to get back to school, and you’re low on time too.  Make sure he’s okay, and then keep following, alright?”

“Make sure…” she began, and then seemed to register the civilian who’d been left behind.  “Yeah,” she said, and he set off, back towards the school.

--

Rena Rouge, left on civilian maintenance.  She wondered if it was because everyone else was out of time, or because she was the newest, or because... Well, if nothing else, she had experience talking to people she didn’t know, being halfway a reporter already.

“Hey,” she said, kneeling down beside the stubbled, blinking man.

“Hey,” he said, looking around.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.  Yeah, I just…  It was a hell of a night.  Said a few things… A lot of things I’m gonna regret.” He paused, and sighed deeply.  “That I do regret.  I’ve got a lot of people to apologize to.” He looked down at the flask in his hand, and shook his head.  “And this, I think,” he said, standing up, “is going in the garbage.”

He started walking away, seeming almost steady on his feet now.  “Don’t worry,” he said, “I’ll be fine, just got some stuff to do.”

And that was it.  That was making sure the civilian was alright.

Well, good that it was done, because by now, she really was running low on time, and she was a significant distance from the school.

Time to get gone.

--

“No, it’s all about ratios,” said Kim, “you don’t even have to calculate the whole thing, if you just compare the percentages of what changed, and you divide the one by the other, and boom, you’re done!”

“You realize that was entirely incomprehensible, right?” said Alix

“Assuming I understand him, though, he is entirely correct,” said Max.

Nino leaned back in his chair, a gentle smile on his face.  All things considered, that had been the most productive villain attack he’d ever had, and, if he had to guess, his other friends would probably be returning sooner rather-

“Oh, hey Marinette!” he called, as she awkwardly shuffled through the door, “did you manage to find Adrien and Alya?”

“Ah, no,” she called back, “I just, um, got caught up in the fog, and figured I’d be better off getting out of the halls.  Never know if a villain’s going to come to the school.”

“Y’know, normally, I’d call you paranoid,” said Alix, “but there have been a lot of villains that targeted the school.”

“Correct,” said Max.  “I had Markov check the numbers.  By area, this school has the highest density of Akuma attacks, just barely outpacing the Agreste Manor.  Le Grand Paris, in terms of horizontal area, is a close contender, simply because it’s so much taller than it is wide, but it falls flat when you consider how many floors it has.”

“You seriously go around calculating this stuff?”

He shrugged.  “It’s proven to be relaxing.”

“It doesn’t worry you that you’re constantly in the Akuma hotbed?”

“At least I know about it.”

“Adrien!” called Nino, “You had us worried there, man!  Now we’re just waiting on Alya.”

“I think she’s on her way,” he said, with a friendly wave as he walked over.

“Sweet.  Too bad you guys missed the study session.”

“Missed it?”

“Yeah, we did it while you guys were out.”

“During the attack?”

“I mean… Yeah, what else were we supposed to do?”

Adrien stopped.  “Yeah, I guess you’re right.  I just hope you can split me off some of that hard-earned study knowledge.”

Nino grinned.  “Can do.”

And there, finally, was Alya, rushing in, almost out of breath.

“Easy, babe, we’re all fine!”

She looked up, hair a gorgeous mess, and smiled.  He never got tired of that smile.

“Good to hear,” she said.

“Alright,” he said to the three he’d been sitting with.  “Attack’s over, everyone’s accounted for, great work team, right?”

“Right!” said Kim.

“Now,” he continued, “I’ve just got to teach these three academic layabouts some science.”

Alya had her lips pursed as she looked at him, trying her best to look annoyed, but he could still see the smile peeking through.

--

They sat in their rooms.

This certainly qualified as a ‘Kwami Thing,’ which he could probably ask Plagg about.

“I have some questions,” he said, pulling out a wedge of cheese.

“I’m listening.”

 “How did I do that,” she asked. “I know that when Switch attacked, we were in the wrong bodies, with the wrong tools, so having our powers changed made sense, but this was just, me, normal me- not normal, I mean, but normal Ladybug.”

Tikki laughed.  “Marinette, you’ve only just begun to find out what you’re capable of!  Your Lucky Charm is powerful, but it’s not even the most common ability I’ve seen people learn!  There are so many others!”

 “But you’re the one who told me how to use Cataclysm!” he said, “did Cataclysm do something different when other Chat Noir’s used it? Like it did when Silencer attacked?”

“What? No, that’d be stupid,” said Plagg, through a mouthful of cheese.  “It’s just a feeling you get.  Cataclysm’s easy enough for someone as young as you are, if you’re careful with it.  You didn’t seem like you were going to go around blowing stuff up for no reason.  Now, if I’d thought you were too unstable for it, I might have told you about Frenzy, or something a bit less lethal.”

 “Renewal?  Is that what it’s called?”

“Of course!  I’d have told you sooner, but it can be very difficult for the wielder of a Miraculous to keep more than one ability in their mind at once, so I wanted to wait until you’d discovered it by yourself.”

 “Does Master Fu know about these?”

“Eh, probably.  He knows about a lot of stuff, but I think he likes leaving this side of things up to us.  Honestly, that’s good, since he’s only ever used the Turtle Miraculous.  Not easy to train someone with a Miraculous you haven’t used, believe me.  Whole different feeling, and I’ve seen people forget about that way too often.”

 “Then, it’s not just me.  Chat Noir has them too, and Rena Rouge?”

“There are variations on every Miraculous, but some are more versatile than others.  The Ladybug and Cat Miraculous’ are among the most versatile.  Rena Rouge has a few options, but nothing quite like the two of you.”

“Marinette?  Are you talking to someone up there?”

“Just myself!” she called back, lying almost more smoothly than she felt comfortable with.

“Alright, honey.  Dinner’s almost ready, okay?”

 “And what do you want to bet Gabey isn’t going to be there tonight.”

“He might be,” Adrien responded, giving Plagg a sidelong look for the vitriol with which he’d said the nickname.

“Alright, Mister Optimism,” cut back Plagg, and sighed.  “One of these days, you’re going to figure out how he operates.”

[qqueenofhades]

i am a youngin and I have LOTS of questions for you. I became aware of you through your political posts so question number one would be how did you become so articulate? sometimes when I want for respond to arguments, I get so frustrated that i look a fool and nothing gets done. question two, how do you inform yourself and stay critical of what you watch and read? question three, how does one balance their desire to learn and their need to live their life? sometimes I want to spend days (1/?)

 youngin anon (2/?) Sometimes I want to spend days absorbing all the knowledge I can get my hands on, but I also have to go to school, I wanna spend time with my friends, i want to watch my overdramatic rom coms, so and so forth so the desires are constantly battling out in me. question four, how realistic is to want to be a professional historian? when I saw you mention you’re a professional historian, I almost screamed bc so cool! If I want to be a historian, could I succeed in the field?thanks

(3/3) youngin once more w/ her final question! how do you educate yourself on the government and what it’s doing? finding and reading through government reports is confusing and I barely understand how it works because I barely understand civics. I want to learn and be a helpful citizen in the future, but I’m only 15, and I don’t even know what I don’t know. It all feels a bit overwhelming.

Okay, first of all, you must know that telling me that you think being a historian is “so cool” means that you’re now my favourite person and I will 101% die for you, right? Right.

Second of all, I’m very impressed that you’re 15 years old and thinking about all this, which also increases my desire to invite you in for a virtual hot chocolate and chat while scrambling to look like I in any part know what I’m doing and shout at you to stay in school and get enough sleep. I will do my best to go through your questions in order.

One, I’m flattered to hear that you think I’m articulate, and there is definitely an advantage to being able to write and rewrite arguments, rather than being put on the spot and having to do it orally. It comes with practice and educating yourself on what makes a good argument and reading arguments that you find convincing, taking note of what they do well, and the kind of evidence that they marshal to support their positions. It’s similar to writing a good essay or other thesis-driven piece, where you have a position in mind and have to put together reasons for your listener to believe you or at least take your stance seriously (the noble old arts of rhetoric and logic, which were central parts of the classical liberal arts education). I am not sure that there is any easy shortcut for this, alas. Your critical sensibility will get refined with use and age and the volume of things that you read and think about. This also goes into the question of how you stay informed, aware, and critical about things that you read. Basically, the rule of thumb is the delightfully named CRAAP test:

C(urrency)/R(elevance)/A(uthority)/A(ccuracy)/P(urpose). 

Is the source recent? Is it relevant? Is it published or has it gone through peer review? Is it being used in conversations in its field? Who would have an interest in presenting this information one way or another? (I.e. a big manufacturing company concluding for itself that it is not polluting the environment with its operations would be… suspect to say the least). The corporate media in America is very often not all that reliable and/or will certainly not report everything going on, because their central interest is money and upholding the status quo. If you want a left-leaning and reputable news source, you could try The Guardian. It’s a UK-based newspaper, but focuses a lot on American and international issues. Almost nothing that you read from a tabloid or from a random Facebook or Reddit source is likely to be all that legit. Don’t agree with an opinion just because you like it, without doing research. Don’t listen just to what people on the internet would like you to think, including me (I mean, by all means, go out and research and decide for yourself if whatever the hell I’m saying has any merit to it). You don’t need to do this all the time, and you do need to prioritize your mental health and your desire to live an ordinary life. There are bad things happening in the world, but humans are not built to take in a 24/7 bombard of bad news, and it doesn’t make you a bad person if you have “empathy exhaustion.” You literally cannot care about everything everywhere, though you can do your best to stay informed and sympathetically engaged. 

Next, I really recommend you read A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn. It is a classic, it is a pretty clear and straightforward read and doesn’t have confusing footnotes or too much academic jargon, and it sets out and explains the way in which American history has often been framed and the many problems with that approach. (There is also A Young People’s History of the United States, also by Zinn, and Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, by James W. Loewen.) All of these will offer some corrective and perspective on what passes for historical education in America (answer, pretty much bupkis) and hopefully give you some sense of the ways in which this narrative has systematically discouraged critical thinking or anything besides “America’s the best!!!1″ in generations of America First flag-waving masses. If you do want to be a historian, it’s important to familiarize yourself with what the academic practice of history looks like, decide what you’re interested in and what you might like to specialize in, what area/place/time, and other such things, as well as developing an appreciation for the subject and the work that goes into putting together a historical argument. It will also help if you like reading a large variety of things about many topics, as you will become informed and engaged that way. 

As for whether you could succeed in the field: god, I hope so. I’m in the very-not-fun post-PhD job hunt phase, and I have to warn you that it’s pretty soul crushing, and comes after the exhausting, time-intensive, and nitty-gritty process of getting all the way through the MA and PhD themselves in the first place. That’s almost ten years of school on top of an undergraduate degree, and you really do have to be committed to your subject and want to remain in it if you are going to get through all that with your will to live (barely) intact. Academia is also a weird and cliquey and sometimes depressing place with its own set of bizarre rules. None of this is meant to discourage you – I think we need historians very badly and more than ever – but to warn you that if you think you could be happy being anything other than an academic historian (not to mention make more money) you should seriously consider doing it. You still have most of high school to go before you enter college, and I honestly can’t say what the humanities job market might look like in another 10-15 years, when it’s pretty nonexistent right now. There are jobs, and you can make a career out of it, but they’re all extremely competitive, because there just are not enough of them for all the newly minted humanities PhDs with hopeful dreams of making it in the academy. You have to be fairly lucky, know the right people, network a lot, and apply for pretty much everything you can think of. And as noted, nobody gets into this because they want to be rich. It just is not happening.

I am really flattered, again, that you want to hear my advice on all this, and I would love to help you in any way that I can. You’re welcome to return if you want to chat through things. I also really do recommend Wikipedia. It gets a lot of flack for not being an “academic” source, but as a starting point, you can just go in there, look up whatever you’re interested in, and read the basics (such as civics, the American political system, and so forth). Well-written articles will also be well cited and have lists of links and references at the bottom, which you can use as a jumping-off point for more research. If you’re interested in learning, there are definitely ways to do that. I think you’re already well on the way to being a helpful and productive citizen, just by virtue of WANTING to learn and be informed and critical and compassionate. Tons of people, including lots of them who are much older and in much more important positions than you, don’t do that at all. So you’re already doing better. The information, the ability to work with it, and to form your own opinions will come with time. So don’t go too crazy about feeling like you have to learn it all immediately. You will continue to learn and you already sound like you’re going in the right direction.

I have faith in you. If you want a hug from a random stranger on the internet, consider yourself hugged. Or if that’s too creepy, here’s a high five.

[fly-pow-bye]

Powerpuff Girls 2016 - Home, Sweet Homesick

Written by: Haley Mancini, Jake Goldman

Written and Storyboarded by: Alicia Chan

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

I'd make a joke about how I'm sick of something here, but I don't think it would fit.

This episode starts with a bad guy committing a crime, and the Powerpuff Girls coming in to save the day. Seems like an ordinary Powerpuff Girls episode if such a beginning wasn't so rare in this reboot. In this case, it's Reboot Jojo robbing the bank on his hover-scooter, causing some property damage along the way.

Of course, the Powerpuff Girls come in and beat him up. Surprisingly, not only does this scene exist, not only does it not have any hit flashes, but he's lying in a bruised state in the end of it! Sure, some of the hits look like Jojo is selling it too early, but baby steps.

The Professor smoothly drives his car where this carnage is taking place, and tells the girls it’s almost time for a two week stay at Camp Big Dipper. Buttercup shrugs, calling it a nerd camp. The nerdy little red smart person that apparently isn't as good at coding or math than her sisters, on the other hand, is super excited! To her, it's going to be a huge academic institution, with all of the greatest minds of tomorrow! Maybe there's even going to be some pop quizzes!

They do this entire conversation while they’re still punching Reboot Jojo to the ground, his body a lightly bruised mess. Reboot Jojo doesn’t seem to mind too much; it's just a normal day for him. He even takes the time to call the camp a "super nerd camp" after Blossom explains what it is. This doesn’t end well for him, as I'm sure she'll call him a bad monkey.

Or she could break his hand, complete with a bone cracking sound! This whole scene seems to exist only to show that, indeed, this is a show about kindergarten first grader school-without-grader superheroines who fight crime. The rest of the episode doesn't really do that, and with all the Monster Punch Girls Down and Superheroine In Distress situations, that's not necessary bad.

After Blossom makes Rorschach proud, and a terrible impression of an opera singer singing "SPACE CAMP", the Professor and the Puffs arrive at Camp Big Dipper. The Professor won't be going with them, much to the chagrin of Bubbles, who practically turns into a demon demanding he'd come with them. They throw away this joke pretty much immediately, for this episode’s benefit, as Buttercup carries Bubbles out of the scene. The Professor tells the girls that they can call or text him any time.

While Bubbles is still sad from the previous scene and has to be carried by a bored Buttercup who thinks this is all "lame", Blossom can’t wait to check out everything in this space camp! She hopes it's going to be full of learning and advanced rocket science, inspired by her idol of the week, Dr. Wendy Q. Dallen. Last name and a middle initial. I don't know if she's supposed to be a reference to anything.

Unfortunately for Blossom, and only Blossom, the attractions are all fun fare for the kiddies: a jumpy house with a moon theme, a bumper car ride where the cars are shaped like Mars rovers, and a petting zoo with animals that are made to look like aliens. There's even an attraction that just involves a guy in a spacesuit with a sign that says "kick the moon man". The show itself takes it time to point out how rediculous this is.

Bubbles and Buttercup immediately start liking camp now that it's not as much of a nerd camp as Blossom made it out to be. Blossom isn't liking it, and wants to talk to the camp director about how everyone is goofing off.

Camp Director Joey: Did someone say GOOFING OFF?!

Because the show hasn't established enough that this space camp is lame to Blossom, we get Joey, a jokey camp director voiced by Robbie "Cousin Oliver" Rist. At least, I think; the credits only credit him as an additional voice, but they don't say who voiced him. He looks like a cross between David Bowie and Donny the Hell-Horn. More like the latter than the former. Outside of one scene in particular, when this guy is on screen, you want him off. Even Bubbles and Buttercup realizes this eventually, so it's probably intentional.

Blossom literally gets thrown into the audience of a laser light show with this guy talking about how everyone is ready to have lots of moon fun! The reboot goes out of its way to do the most predictable joke they can do with that, though sparing us the actual butt. Blossom booes him asking for real science, and Joey outright asks who's booing him. Bubbles and Buttercup try to save face by saying she meant boo-yah. Yeah, I'm sure that's what I mean when I boo this show.

At night, we see Blossom sitting on the porch of the cabin they're going to stay in, sad that everyone is having fun but she'd rather not have fun. She decides to text the Professor about how everyone is having fun but she'd rather not have fun. Unfortunately, there's no good cell phone reception at the camp, ruining both of Professor Utonium's suggestions.

A week passes by, and Blossom has done nothing but read her Dr. Wendy Q. Dallen book. They really put a lot of importance on that name, because she's the reason why Blossom looked forward to this place. It's not another co-worker insert as far as I can tell, which is a shock. Bubbles and Buttercup show up with glitter crafts and garbage crafts, respectively, and Buttercup tells Blossom that she should just have fun.

Camp Director Joey: Did someone say FUN?!

Did someone say running gag? He talks about a big carnival, but Blossom is not interested. That sounds like too much fun. She wonders why Dr. Wendy Q. Dallen would even want to be associated with this place with its fun and games.

Blossom wanders around to find a locked road to an abandoned rocket museum. She opens the doors, and she finally finds things that she's interested in: models of rockets! She even finds a life-size scale Apollo rocket model. She can go inside it like a real rocket! It even has all the buttons like a real rocket! It's just like a real rocket!

Blossom decides, in this lifelike simulation, to press the buttons to launch a rocket. Blossom even outright talks to herself about how she read about Apollo rockets, so people don't need to ask how a 6 year old knows how to launch one.

It turns out, this isn't a fake rocket, it's an actual rocket donated by NASA. She is instantly strapped in, and gets to experience 3gs of force as the rocket escapes the Earth's atmosphere. I guess nobody was really interested in that rocket museum. One would think someone would say "what does this button dooo?" and cause the camp to get sued for launching someone's kid into space.

The other kids see this rocket launch, and just see it as something cool. They even get the parts of the rocket that fall off raining on them later in the episode, and nobody wanted to investigate.

Blossom initally loves seeing the sights of space, until seconds later, when she realizes it's just so lonely out there.

She looks out the window of the rocket, and she starts hallucinating a Space Joey. Just like in that classic movie, RocketMan, Blossom is clearly going nuts from the isolation. Soon, she'll be making paintings using the ketchup and mustard on the ceiling. Nah, I'm just kidding.

Being the David Bowie-like person that he is, Space Joey starts to sing a song. Of course, it's a parody of the David Bowie's Space Oddity, right down to starting with "can you hear me, Captain Bloss?" To be honest...it's really good. I am not kidding, this is one of the few legitimately good moments this show has brought me.

We have scenes of Blossom slowly flying around in the lonely rocket. We have some good singing from Space Joey; it helps that Robbie Rist is also a musician. We even have Space Bubbles and Space Buttercup show up to tell her the fun they're having back on Earth. Hopefully this reboot can give us more of this in the future.

The screen shows an old video, not triggered by anything but plot convienence, showing Dr. Wendy Q. Dallen at the same space camp in her younger years. Blossom sees that it's always been a fun camp, and that it inspired her to further her advancements in astronomy. This reinterates the message of this episode: there's a time for learning, and a time for fun. This is actually the same lesson Painbow had, and this episode can't be further in both content and quality.

With the song and video, Blossom finally realizes the lesson of the episodes, and decides to go home. She flies the rocket back to Earth.

Blossom is reunited, who reveal that they missed her so much, they read her Dr. Wendy Q. Dallen book. Joey shows up again, apparently not worried at all that a kid just wandered into an abandoned place and went into a rocket that just flew into space. It's a good thing she was able to survive in a vaccuum, even if she never needed that ability! Buttercup tells him not to ruin the moment.

The episode ends with a pan to the stars, with some shooting stars. Hopefully they're wishing there's no monster attacks while they're at camp. Considering how rare that seems to be, it's likely they don't need to make those wishes. Maybe they should wish for more episodes like this.

Does the title fit?

Not really. Bubbles is initially homesick because the Professor isn’t coming with her, but that’s as close as that title gets. Blossom is more sick of the camp not being as “scientifically accurate” as she thought it was. There was a moment where Blossom looked at a picture of the Professor and her with sad eyes, but that’s as close as we get.

The TV Guide description is a flat out lie, too; Blossom never worries about her schoolwork in this episode.

How does it stack up?

This episode has an actual good song number, and a good use of a lesson that was done extremely poorly before.

The only issue is that it's not really a episode that requires superheroes. As said before, it's not a big issue. A lot of the worst aspects about this reboot revolves around the show's premise. The one scene that does follow that premise is practically unneeded in the episode, but may have been needed when it comes to the reboot as a whole.

I was originally going to give up on this series after the Season 1 finale, but I decided to keep going. I decided to keep going because, well, it wasn’t right to stop at People Pleaser. There’s two kinds of episodes that don’t make me regret that decision: awesomely bad episodes like Snow Month that give me lots of material to work with, and episodes that are surprisingly decent. Yes, they exist, and this is one of them.

Next week, the show will take a look back to the past...and probably not learn anything.

← Buttercup vs. Math ☆ Memory Lane of Pain →

[gettingagriponthings]

Reading Through the Second Half of 2018

Every year brings its own set of unique challenges and unpredictable changes. 2018 was no different. But one reliable constant was my reading. I read more last year than ever before, completing my personal reading challenge of finishing 40 books. Some were big, some were small. Some were extremely memorable. Some I will likely re-read in the future and have already recommended to friends. And others were slightly less remarkable. But I can confidently say that I didn’t waste my time on a single bad book. I’ve gotten pretty good at casting an unreadable book (could be my mood or the timing, not necessarily a criticism on quality) to the side and moving on to something I really want to read.

Maybe one day I’ll get to a place where I don’t need to worry about meticulously tracking my reading and can be more like Naval Ravikant, not worrying so much about a number of books to complete, but rather keeping the habit and consuming just as much content, but in a more organic way. Below is a quote from Naval’s interview on the Farnam Street podcast (an absolute must listen, or read for anyone who likes to think):

“all of these societal and personal rules that we’ve put up, like you must finish a book and you must read books that are good for you, and you can’t read junk food books. This is a hot book right now and so on. The reality is I don’t actually read that much compared to what people think. I probably read one to two hours a day. That puts me in the top .00001%. I think that alone accounts for any material success that I’ve had in my life and any intelligence that I might have. Real people don’t read an hour a day. Real people, I think, read a minute a day or less. Making it an actual habit is the most important thing.”

-Naval Ravikant

But until I’ve ascended to a higher plane of reading enlightenment, I’ll continue to blissfully quantify my habit. Here’s what I read in the second half of last year:

Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates, by Brian Kilmeade - Pop-history at its page turning best. I saw Kilmeade at the 2018 National Book Festival, and was less than impressed with him in person, but would recommend this book to anyone, especially those who are interested in learning the more interesting, human stories of American history, but find it hard to slog through a dry, more traditional academic book.

Life on the Run, by BIll Bradley - I grabbed this book by Bill Bradley about his days as a nomadic professional basketball player shortly after I read a book about his days as a great college player. Bradley is an incredibly intelligent person, and a good, but not great, writer. But his impressive level of introspection and nuanced view of the world shines through in this.

Worthy Fights, by Leon Panetta

The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama

Time Present, Time Past, by Bill Bradley

Chief of Staff: Twenty-Five Years of Managing the Presidency, by Samuel Kernell

Profiles in Courage, by John F. Kennedy - I first read this book describing some of history’s greatest moments of political courage in the United States Senate maybe a decade ago. It held up wonderfully. I brought my own experience as a staffer in the Senate with me to this reading and it helped me to understand the sacrifices made by these individuals that much better. The book also helped me to properly weight the significance of the moments, large and small, that I’ve witnessed during this most recent 115th Congress.

The Making of the President, 1972, by Theodore H. White - As we quickly head toward the 2020 presidential campaign season I began looking to some historical contests to give me some perspective and start imagining what kinds of things could happen. ‘72 stuck out as particularly interesting to me because it was the first presidential election after the momentous primary reforms that were instituted in the wake of the raucous 1968 election. I see some parallels between 1968 and 2016.

A Reason to Believe, by Deval Patrick

Jack Reacher: Night School, by Lee Child - The Jack Reacher series is incredibly entertaining. They are not literary masterpieces, but each book (Child begins writing a new book on the same day each year!) is undeniably readable and provides the perfect change of pace from whatever else you’ve been reading. I may never end up reading all of the Reacher books, but I will certainly end up reading a whole lot more before it’s all said and done.

Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets, by Sudhir Venkatesh - In the conversation for my best read of the year, this sociological epic detailing the lives of the hustlers, criminals, and ordinary denizens of one of Chicago’s most infamous housing projects informs and entertains in equal measure. I knew the basic ideas of Venkatesh’s studies from their appearance in Freakanomics, but this book was worth the time.

The Making of the President, 1968, by Theodore H. White

Deliverance, by James Dickey

All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid, by Matt Bai - This extremely comprehensive journalistic telling of the story behind Gary Hart and the scandal that ended his career and changed American politics forever was on my list for a long time, and I finally got to it before I saw the 2018 movie based on it, The Front Runner. I worked on the presidential campaign for Martin O’Malley, who worked on both of Gary Hart’s campaigns (1984, 1988) and this book, as much as anything else, actually helped me to understand who O’Malley is - as a politician - from the inspiration he got from Hart, but also from the unspoken disappointment and confusion he undoubtedly experienced during that race.

Bright, Precious Days, by Jay McInerney

The Fixer: My Adventures Saving Startups from Death by Politics, by Bradley Tusk

Soul on Ice, by Eldridge Cleaver - A 1968 stunner that will absolutely knock you on your ass. Cleaver, who wrote the letters contained in this book from within the walls of Folsom State Prison in 1965, found himself in jail for a series of violent crimes, and largely educated himself in the mode of Malcolm X. The ideas contained within are controversial, provocative, logically presented, and beautifully written.

Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life, by Alice Schroeder - I started this book in June, read two-thirds of it, abandoned it, and picked it back up in December. It’s a long and detailed history of Buffett, showing the personal moments, detailing many of his business deals, and analyzing what makes him tick.

A Hologram for the King, by Dave Eggers

[douchebagbrainwaves]

VIAWEB, TO MAKE YOUR SOFTWARE COMPATIBLE WITH SOME OTHER PIECE OF SOFTWARE, AND WITH THEIR BRAND NAME, CAPITAL, AND DISTRIBUTION CLOUT, THEY'LL TAKE AWAY YOUR MARKET OVERNIGHT

It's a tossup whether Castro Street or University Ave should be considered experiments, and those that have a market show promising results extremely quickly. And the reason you can't equal Michelangelo by going out and buying a blank canvas is that the way to do great work is to find something you like so much that you don't have to know physics to be a good founder. I can remember believing, as a species, is that it has more immediate appeal. For example, any work of art is dominated by these extraneous factors; they're like someone trying to judge the taste of apples, I'd agree that taste is just a matter of working harder than an ordinary employee and getting paid for it, without having a lottery mixed in, we would have been the beneficiary of one of the liars. Artix. At best you can see how great a hold taste is subjective has even in the art world by how nervous it makes people to talk about art simply being good or bad. People aren't what some admissions officer decides about them at seventeen. Instead of doing a small number of large deals like a traditional venture capital fund, we do a large number of other kinds of companies that don't make anything, there's nothing they can be sued for. You're lucky if your productivity is a third of what it was before.1 Except in a few unusual kinds of work equally, but one is more prestigious, you should probably choose the other. There's another sense of not everyone can do work they love—that someone has to do the unpleasant jobs. The defense of mosquitos, as a child, that if a few rich people had private armies.

We did the first thing we thought of; we were ambivalent about being in business at all; and we deliberately chose an impoverished market to avoid competition. I wouldn't try to defend the actual numbers. I'm not too worried about it.2 It would not merely be bad for you. If your first version is so impressive that trolls don't make fun of it, they'll make their own. Wealth is what people want and what you deliver is multiplied. One has to make something people want in the same area, they had a different goal. The current high cost of fundraising means there is room for low-cost investors to undercut the rest.

There might be 10x or even 50x more good founders out there. The most common was some combination of a blog, a calendar, a dating site, and Friendster. It would be pretty straightforward to make a million dollars each to move, a lot of papers! Big companies are safe from being sued by other big companies because they can threaten a counter-suit. Startups, like mosquitos, tend to be an all-or-nothing aspect of startups was not something we wanted. Most of them had never seen the Web before we came to tell them why they should be on it. Someone riding a Segway you're just standing there. This doesn't just affect what they claim to like; they actually make themselves like things they're supposed to. But if wealth is the important thing, why does everyone talk about making money? Are there walkable neighborhoods? I'm surprised by how well that worked for him: There is an irrational fear: it really is hard to predict, I've found I can predict quite well what sort of people will make them more inclined to take it. But this isn't true.3

Venture capital is a business where occasional big successes generate hundredfold returns. This talk was written for an audience of investors. You don't have any money, you don't need to write it again. In 1998, advertisers were overpaying enormously for ads on web sites. But this is certainly not so with work. There are really two variants of that question, and people can never have a fruitful discussion about the relative merits of programming languages, which doesn't pay at all, if you're starting a company. That averaging gets to be a VC by convincing asset managers to trust you with hundreds of millions of dollars from them. If you had a thousand startups in town, the less likely it would be more likely to succeed than not.

The one example I've found is, embarrassingly enough, Yahoo, which runs it on all their servers. The real problem is that humans weren't meant to work in such large groups. They are like the corporate boss that you can't do better than to piggyback on their expertise, and use investment by recognized startup investors as the test of whether people love what they do is whether they'd do it even if they weren't paid for it. They've known each other since second grade.4 How do we fix that? If we were talking about the limit case: the case where you not only have zero leisure time but indeed work so hard that you endanger your health. They do something people want. In 1995, the e-commerce business was very competitive as measured in press releases, but not rules that matter. Both publishers and investors are down on advertising at the moment, when in fact you'd worked it out the day before. A string of rich neighborhoods runs along the foothills to the west of 280: Woodside, Portola Valley, Los Altos Hills, Saratoga, Los Gatos.

Notes

This point is that it's up to two of the ingredients in our common culture. This is not the primary cause.

I don't like to invest more. Articles of this model was that the big acquisition offers most successful investment, Uber, from hour to hour that the overall prior ratio seemed worthless as a definition of property. At any given time I did when I said by definition if the quality of production is not such a large pizza and found an open source project, but as impoverished outcasts, which in startups. Seeming like they will come at an academic talk might appreciate a joke, they tend to be low.

Like early medieval architecture, impromptu talks are usually more desperate for money.

For example, the more qualifiers there are signs now that VCs miss. Until recently even governments sometimes didn't grasp the cachet that term had. These horrible stickers are much like the increase in economic inequality.

[succeedly]

Shattering Perfect Teacher Myths

Aaron Hogan on episode 181 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Aaron Hogan shatters myths about teaching. Empower yourself as a teacher with the knowledge you do not have to be perfect. Learn how to build collegiality and support other teachers.

Today’s Sponsor: WriQ from Texthelp is a new FREE Add-on for Google Docs that helps teachers easily assess student writing and track progress over time by automatically scoring students’ spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors. It also incorporates rubrics so teachers can provide meaningful, qualitative feedback to encourage the writing journey.

This handy free Google Docs add-on tracks things like: time spent writing, spelling-grammar-and punctuation error rates and pulls it into a clear graphical view in your teacher dashboard. To learn more about Wriq go to http://ift.tt/2y91EpU

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

Below is an enhanced transcript, modified for your reading pleasure.  For guests and hyperlinks to resources, scroll down.

***

Enhanced Transcript

Shattering Perfect Teacher Myths

Vicki: Today we’re talking to Aaron Hogan @aaron_hogan about shattering the “Perfect Teacher Myth.” He has a book of the same name that we’ll be sharing in the show notes.

So Aaron, you know, as a teacher… You know, sometimes I feel like I have to apologize. People will walk in my room, and everybody’s going crazy. We’re learning! But it doesn’t look like what we think we’re supposed to look like. Why are we as teachers so uptight? Why do we feel like we have to be perfect?

Aaron: Right. So I think that first — you’re not alone. I’ve run across several people who’ve had that feeling. I think teaching is is one of those professions that is unique in a lot of ways. One of those unique qualities about teaching is that you’re the only adult in that room, making the magic happen while you’re in there. So it’s hard to know what’s going on on the other side of those walls. I worked in a building with brick walls, and those brick walls are pretty thick.

It’s hard to know what’s going on on the other side and so when something happens that maybe has been explained to you as kind of a quick fix, “Hey, just do these things, and the kids will do this in response.” When it doesn’t work, then you feel like, “I must be the variable in the room, right? It must be me that’s leading to this not going the way that I would hope.”

And I think that’s not true but I think that almost every educator has had that feeling, that, ”You know, some things aren’t going right. It must be that I’m the problem in this situation.”

And wouldn’t you agree — I mean I’ve been teaching six years — and every year has its own unique problems.

Aaron: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Vicki: I mean, we don’t arrive at perfection, do we?

Aaron: No. No. Never. I think it’s one of the things that keeps it really fun — that there’s always something new there for in the classroom.

Even though those things worked great last year, you get to figure out, “OK. It’s going to work great for these kids this year, but maybe not for for this group.”

And then you’ve got that new challenge of, “How am I going to reach that next group? What am I going to do to take care of them and to meet their needs? How is that going to build that arsenal of ways to really reach kids the way that we want our own kids to be reached in their classrooms?”

Vicki: So, how do we shatter the “perfect teacher myth”?

Tip to Shatter the Teacher Myth #1: Know the Myths

Aaron: OK, so the first thing, I think we’ve got to know what the myths are before we get out there to shatter them. And I think even before that, know that there are these myths that are taking over.

When these myths start to creep in, they make teachers feel like it’s time to lose all their self confidence. It makes teachers feel like a failure, when really it’s a measurement that no one could actually stand up to.

Myth: Do this and then kids behave

It’s things like, you know, that feeling of, “If I do these sorts of things, then all the kids will behave.”

Myth: Buckle Down, I can do it alone

Or, “if I just just buckle down, then I can do all these things on my own.” Then that’s some level of perfection.

But those things aren’t true.

The reality is that when we go in and we realize that maybe those behavior expectations need to be taught. And they’re going to be forgotten, just like other things — the academic content that people might forget.

We realize that, and then we have a different sort of standard to live up to. It’s just that we need to be responsible and teach those expectations.

It’s the same thing with that isolation. When we realize, “I can’t do all of these things on my own. I’m so much better when I lean on the other people who need me just as much as I need them.”

When we work in collaboration with other people, we can reject that isolation that makes us feel like we are the only one who’s going through these sorts of circumstances.

Vicki: We are not alone. I think it’s important to learn that.

Aaron: Ah, but it can feel that way.

Vicki: Goodness knows it can. Because you know that when you close the door, it’s you and them, you know?

Aaron: Right.

Vicki: So what other myths — you’ve talked about two or three now — what other myths do you think can paralyze us as teachers or even make us want to quit?

Aaron: Sure. I think there’s a couple that I want to hit on here.

Myth: You have to be perfect.

One is this idea of value in vulnerability. That, for me for a long time, and even now I have to fight against valuing that that idea of looking like it I have it all together.

And really, when I can get past that, when I get to that point where I can say, “You know what? I don’t have it all together. I’ve worked on some things. I know some things, but I have a lot to learn. What can I learn?”

It opens you up to the space where you can learn from someone else. And they feel like they can learn from you — because you’re not the person who just has it all together. It’s a “We’re in this together learning from one another.”

Let’s be kind to beginning teachers

Vicki: I know somebody who is coming in from the business world who is teaching. And you know, some people can be very impatient with beginners. It’s I don’t know why we expect people who are beginning teachers to have it all together and have all their classroom management. But I kind of think that sometimes those of us who are a little more veteran might not be fair to beginners.

Myth: We have to learn how to teach on our own – we don’t learn from other teachers

Aaron: I think so. Some of that, it may be a sense of, “f I had to work through it on my own, then other people might need to also.” But I think that’s flawed thinking.

If we are people who’ve had to work through those things on our own, we need to pay it forward to those teachers who are working through through now. Say, “Hey, when I was a first year teacher, these are all the ways that I blew it. Or I felt like I blew it, at least, in front of my students.”

Realize that others struggle too

Any time we can open up ourselves to that powerful response of “Me, too,” where somebody else can realize that, “Hey, this other person from down the hall, during the passing period, it looked like she has it all together. But really, she’s been through the same sorts of struggles I have.”

We want that community of learners for our kids. That brings us together. We can extend empathy to others. That brings us together as a staff in a way that’s just really powerful.

That’s when we can see some transformation, moving forward, and people believing the right things about themselves.

Vicki: So What’s another myth?

Myth: You have to be monumental to change lives

Aaron: One of the other myths is that it takes a huge, monumental-like, life-changing act to be one of those memorable teachers for kids. What I really believe is that it’s those everyday things that make a kid remember teacher for a lifetime.

All it takes is being that person who’s consistently there, giving somebody a high five, giving somebody a fist bump, even just at that smile every day in the hallway. Those are the things that end up making a really big impact for a long time. We can still have those big impressive things that people will remember, “Oh, that one day…”

But students, I think, are much more likely to remember the impact that you made over 180 days, rather than over one or two really impactful days.

Vicki: Well, I’m thinking back on Tuesday. We showed this movie. We kind of have them Chapel time at my school on Tuesdays, and I had a student who kind of sits behind the screen.

I said, “don’t you need to need to come in front of the screen?

And he said, “No, I watch your laptop.”

Well, I took the laptop and just pointed it at him and just kind of nodded.

He nodded back at me.

But the look on his face was, “You didn’t get on to me for sitting behind the screen. You noticed that this is kind of where I want to sit because I kind of want to be by myself and be over here. and you just turned your laptop so I can see it better. And that was thoughtful.”

Because you’re right. Sometimes, it’s the little bitty, ordinary things and noticing somebody that makes all the difference.

Aaron: Right. I had a student once — I came back from being out. I was just out doing some district training, and I came back to school the next day.

She said, “Mr. Hogan, I was having a bad day yesterday, and you weren’t here, and you always notice, and it made me sad that you weren’t here.” a

And I still don’t know what I did on the front end, but that’s the outcome that we want. I like it that I don’t even know what I did it’s just, “Be there in those everyday moments to really engage with kids. That leaves a lasting impact.”

Vicki: If you have to pick one big myth that you haven’t mentioned yet that you think could be life-changing if we busted, what would it be?

Myth: That someone can tell us what to do to make us a great teacher

Aaron: This idea that we can imagine better for our kids. I think the myth, sometimes, is that the best teachers excel at by meeting those existing expectations. “Just tell me what I need to do and I’ll do it well. I’ll do better than everybody else, and that will make me successful.”

But I love this idea that JK Rowling shared. She says, “We don’t need magic to change the world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better.”

And that idea of looking past what we’ve always done, looking past what the status quo has been, looking past what maybe even expected of us… and trying to figure out how we can do the best for our kids — not in like an “I’m going to work my myself for 80 hours a week and exhaust myself,” way, but, “Just with what I have to give, how can I do the absolute best for those that I serve?”

That’s really important to me that we’re not thinking through change for change sake, but just thinking about what is the best experience that we can provide for students if you’re a classroom teacher, or for your staff if you’re that campus leader. What’s what can we do to imagine better for those who we serve.

Vicki: Teachers, as we finish up — I’ll we will link to Aaron’s book in the show notes — but I just wanted to give you a, “Me, too.”

You know, I have bad days. “Me, too.”

You know we all struggle.”Me, too.”

We all sometimes feel like, “Why are we doing this, and are we even important?” That’s a ”Me, too.”

These are things that we feel as teachers. We struggle. We have hard days. We mess up. But I will tell you this — there are those moments where you realize that we’re doing something that is really, I would say, one of the most special impactful professions on the entire planet and I would say, ”Me, too.”

Aaron: Absolutely.

Vicki: I’m making a difference too, just like you, Aaron.

Aaron: There you go. That’s what it’s all about, finding those ways to connect with kids and do what’s best for them.

Bio as submitted

Aaron is a husband, dad, educator, blogger, speaker, and author. His recently published book, Shattering the Perfect Teacher Myth: 6 Truths That Will Help You THRIVE as an Educator, highlights a few myths that many teachers don’t even realize are there and replaces each myth with a truth that will help teachers get out of survival mode at school.

Blog: Aaron Hogan

Twitter: @aaron_hogan

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.) This company has no impact on the editorial content of the show.

The post Shattering Perfect Teacher Myths appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Shattering Perfect Teacher Myths published first on http://ift.tt/2jn9f0m

[strivesy]

Shattering Perfect Teacher Myths

Aaron Hogan on episode 181 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Aaron Hogan shatters myths about teaching. Empower yourself as a teacher with the knowledge you do not have to be perfect. Learn how to build collegiality and support other teachers.

Today’s Sponsor: WriQ from Texthelp is a new FREE Add-on for Google Docs that helps teachers easily assess student writing and track progress over time by automatically scoring students’ spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors. It also incorporates rubrics so teachers can provide meaningful, qualitative feedback to encourage the writing journey.

This handy free Google Docs add-on tracks things like: time spent writing, spelling-grammar-and punctuation error rates and pulls it into a clear graphical view in your teacher dashboard. To learn more about Wriq go to http://ift.tt/2y91EpU

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

Below is an enhanced transcript, modified for your reading pleasure.  For guests and hyperlinks to resources, scroll down.

***

Enhanced Transcript

Shattering Perfect Teacher Myths

Vicki: Today we’re talking to Aaron Hogan @aaron_hogan about shattering the “Perfect Teacher Myth.” He has a book of the same name that we’ll be sharing in the show notes.

So Aaron, you know, as a teacher… You know, sometimes I feel like I have to apologize. People will walk in my room, and everybody’s going crazy. We’re learning! But it doesn’t look like what we think we’re supposed to look like. Why are we as teachers so uptight? Why do we feel like we have to be perfect?

Aaron: Right. So I think that first — you’re not alone. I’ve run across several people who’ve had that feeling. I think teaching is is one of those professions that is unique in a lot of ways. One of those unique qualities about teaching is that you’re the only adult in that room, making the magic happen while you’re in there. So it’s hard to know what’s going on on the other side of those walls. I worked in a building with brick walls, and those brick walls are pretty thick.

It’s hard to know what’s going on on the other side and so when something happens that maybe has been explained to you as kind of a quick fix, “Hey, just do these things, and the kids will do this in response.” When it doesn’t work, then you feel like, “I must be the variable in the room, right? It must be me that’s leading to this not going the way that I would hope.”

And I think that’s not true but I think that almost every educator has had that feeling, that, ”You know, some things aren’t going right. It must be that I’m the problem in this situation.”

And wouldn’t you agree — I mean I’ve been teaching six years — and every year has its own unique problems.

Aaron: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Vicki: I mean, we don’t arrive at perfection, do we?

Aaron: No. No. Never. I think it’s one of the things that keeps it really fun — that there’s always something new there for in the classroom.

Even though those things worked great last year, you get to figure out, “OK. It’s going to work great for these kids this year, but maybe not for for this group.”

And then you’ve got that new challenge of, “How am I going to reach that next group? What am I going to do to take care of them and to meet their needs? How is that going to build that arsenal of ways to really reach kids the way that we want our own kids to be reached in their classrooms?”

Vicki: So, how do we shatter the “perfect teacher myth”?

Tip to Shatter the Teacher Myth #1: Know the Myths

Aaron: OK, so the first thing, I think we’ve got to know what the myths are before we get out there to shatter them. And I think even before that, know that there are these myths that are taking over.

When these myths start to creep in, they make teachers feel like it’s time to lose all their self confidence. It makes teachers feel like a failure, when really it’s a measurement that no one could actually stand up to.

Myth: Do this and then kids behave

It’s things like, you know, that feeling of, “If I do these sorts of things, then all the kids will behave.”

Myth: Buckle Down, I can do it alone

Or, “if I just just buckle down, then I can do all these things on my own.” Then that’s some level of perfection.

But those things aren’t true.

The reality is that when we go in and we realize that maybe those behavior expectations need to be taught. And they’re going to be forgotten, just like other things — the academic content that people might forget.

We realize that, and then we have a different sort of standard to live up to. It’s just that we need to be responsible and teach those expectations.

It’s the same thing with that isolation. When we realize, “I can’t do all of these things on my own. I’m so much better when I lean on the other people who need me just as much as I need them.”

When we work in collaboration with other people, we can reject that isolation that makes us feel like we are the only one who’s going through these sorts of circumstances.

Vicki: We are not alone. I think it’s important to learn that.

Aaron: Ah, but it can feel that way.

Vicki: Goodness knows it can. Because you know that when you close the door, it’s you and them, you know?

Aaron: Right.

Vicki: So what other myths — you’ve talked about two or three now — what other myths do you think can paralyze us as teachers or even make us want to quit?

Aaron: Sure. I think there’s a couple that I want to hit on here.

Myth: You have to be perfect.

One is this idea of value in vulnerability. That, for me for a long time, and even now I have to fight against valuing that that idea of looking like it I have it all together.

And really, when I can get past that, when I get to that point where I can say, “You know what? I don’t have it all together. I’ve worked on some things. I know some things, but I have a lot to learn. What can I learn?”

It opens you up to the space where you can learn from someone else. And they feel like they can learn from you — because you’re not the person who just has it all together. It’s a “We’re in this together learning from one another.”

Let’s be kind to beginning teachers

Vicki: I know somebody who is coming in from the business world who is teaching. And you know, some people can be very impatient with beginners. It’s I don’t know why we expect people who are beginning teachers to have it all together and have all their classroom management. But I kind of think that sometimes those of us who are a little more veteran might not be fair to beginners.

Myth: We have to learn how to teach on our own – we don’t learn from other teachers

Aaron: I think so. Some of that, it may be a sense of, “f I had to work through it on my own, then other people might need to also.” But I think that’s flawed thinking.

If we are people who’ve had to work through those things on our own, we need to pay it forward to those teachers who are working through through now. Say, “Hey, when I was a first year teacher, these are all the ways that I blew it. Or I felt like I blew it, at least, in front of my students.”

Realize that others struggle too

Any time we can open up ourselves to that powerful response of “Me, too,” where somebody else can realize that, “Hey, this other person from down the hall, during the passing period, it looked like she has it all together. But really, she’s been through the same sorts of struggles I have.”

We want that community of learners for our kids. That brings us together. We can extend empathy to others. That brings us together as a staff in a way that’s just really powerful.

That’s when we can see some transformation, moving forward, and people believing the right things about themselves.

Vicki: So What’s another myth?

Myth: You have to be monumental to change lives

Aaron: One of the other myths is that it takes a huge, monumental-like, life-changing act to be one of those memorable teachers for kids. What I really believe is that it’s those everyday things that make a kid remember teacher for a lifetime.

All it takes is being that person who’s consistently there, giving somebody a high five, giving somebody a fist bump, even just at that smile every day in the hallway. Those are the things that end up making a really big impact for a long time. We can still have those big impressive things that people will remember, “Oh, that one day…”

But students, I think, are much more likely to remember the impact that you made over 180 days, rather than over one or two really impactful days.

Vicki: Well, I’m thinking back on Tuesday. We showed this movie. We kind of have them Chapel time at my school on Tuesdays, and I had a student who kind of sits behind the screen.

I said, “don’t you need to need to come in front of the screen?

And he said, “No, I watch your laptop.”

Well, I took the laptop and just pointed it at him and just kind of nodded.

He nodded back at me.

But the look on his face was, “You didn’t get on to me for sitting behind the screen. You noticed that this is kind of where I want to sit because I kind of want to be by myself and be over here. and you just turned your laptop so I can see it better. And that was thoughtful.”

Because you’re right. Sometimes, it’s the little bitty, ordinary things and noticing somebody that makes all the difference.

Aaron: Right. I had a student once — I came back from being out. I was just out doing some district training, and I came back to school the next day.

She said, “Mr. Hogan, I was having a bad day yesterday, and you weren’t here, and you always notice, and it made me sad that you weren’t here.” a

And I still don’t know what I did on the front end, but that’s the outcome that we want. I like it that I don’t even know what I did it’s just, “Be there in those everyday moments to really engage with kids. That leaves a lasting impact.”

Vicki: If you have to pick one big myth that you haven’t mentioned yet that you think could be life-changing if we busted, what would it be?

Myth: That someone can tell us what to do to make us a great teacher

Aaron: This idea that we can imagine better for our kids. I think the myth, sometimes, is that the best teachers excel at by meeting those existing expectations. “Just tell me what I need to do and I’ll do it well. I’ll do better than everybody else, and that will make me successful.”

But I love this idea that JK Rowling shared. She says, “We don’t need magic to change the world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better.”

And that idea of looking past what we’ve always done, looking past what the status quo has been, looking past what maybe even expected of us… and trying to figure out how we can do the best for our kids — not in like an “I’m going to work my myself for 80 hours a week and exhaust myself,” way, but, “Just with what I have to give, how can I do the absolute best for those that I serve?”

That’s really important to me that we’re not thinking through change for change sake, but just thinking about what is the best experience that we can provide for students if you’re a classroom teacher, or for your staff if you’re that campus leader. What’s what can we do to imagine better for those who we serve.

Vicki: Teachers, as we finish up — I’ll we will link to Aaron’s book in the show notes — but I just wanted to give you a, “Me, too.”

You know, I have bad days. “Me, too.”

You know we all struggle.”Me, too.”

We all sometimes feel like, “Why are we doing this, and are we even important?” That’s a ”Me, too.”

These are things that we feel as teachers. We struggle. We have hard days. We mess up. But I will tell you this — there are those moments where you realize that we’re doing something that is really, I would say, one of the most special impactful professions on the entire planet and I would say, ”Me, too.”

Aaron: Absolutely.

Vicki: I’m making a difference too, just like you, Aaron.

Aaron: There you go. That’s what it’s all about, finding those ways to connect with kids and do what’s best for them.

Bio as submitted

Aaron is a husband, dad, educator, blogger, speaker, and author. His recently published book, Shattering the Perfect Teacher Myth: 6 Truths That Will Help You THRIVE as an Educator, highlights a few myths that many teachers don’t even realize are there and replaces each myth with a truth that will help teachers get out of survival mode at school.

Blog: Aaron Hogan

Twitter: @aaron_hogan

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.) This company has no impact on the editorial content of the show.

The post Shattering Perfect Teacher Myths appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Shattering Perfect Teacher Myths published first on http://ift.tt/2yTzsdq

[athena29stone]

Shattering Perfect Teacher Myths

Aaron Hogan on episode 181 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Aaron Hogan shatters myths about teaching. Empower yourself as a teacher with the knowledge you do not have to be perfect. Learn how to build collegiality and support other teachers.

Today’s Sponsor: WriQ from Texthelp is a new FREE Add-on for Google Docs that helps teachers easily assess student writing and track progress over time by automatically scoring students’ spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors. It also incorporates rubrics so teachers can provide meaningful, qualitative feedback to encourage the writing journey.

This handy free Google Docs add-on tracks things like: time spent writing, spelling-grammar-and punctuation error rates and pulls it into a clear graphical view in your teacher dashboard. To learn more about Wriq go to www.texthelp.com/wriq

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

Below is an enhanced transcript, modified for your reading pleasure.  For guests and hyperlinks to resources, scroll down.

***

Enhanced Transcript

Shattering Perfect Teacher Myths

Vicki: Today we’re talking to Aaron Hogan @aaron_hogan about shattering the “Perfect Teacher Myth.” He has a book of the same name that we’ll be sharing in the show notes.

So Aaron, you know, as a teacher… You know, sometimes I feel like I have to apologize. People will walk in my room, and everybody’s going crazy. We’re learning! But it doesn’t look like what we think we’re supposed to look like. Why are we as teachers so uptight? Why do we feel like we have to be perfect?

Aaron: Right. So I think that first — you’re not alone. I’ve run across several people who’ve had that feeling. I think teaching is is one of those professions that is unique in a lot of ways. One of those unique qualities about teaching is that you’re the only adult in that room, making the magic happen while you’re in there. So it’s hard to know what’s going on on the other side of those walls. I worked in a building with brick walls, and those brick walls are pretty thick.

It’s hard to know what’s going on on the other side and so when something happens that maybe has been explained to you as kind of a quick fix, “Hey, just do these things, and the kids will do this in response.” When it doesn’t work, then you feel like, “I must be the variable in the room, right? It must be me that’s leading to this not going the way that I would hope.”

And I think that’s not true but I think that almost every educator has had that feeling, that, ”You know, some things aren’t going right. It must be that I’m the problem in this situation.”

And wouldn’t you agree — I mean I’ve been teaching six years — and every year has its own unique problems.

Aaron: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Vicki: I mean, we don’t arrive at perfection, do we?

Aaron: No. No. Never. I think it’s one of the things that keeps it really fun — that there’s always something new there for in the classroom.

Even though those things worked great last year, you get to figure out, “OK. It’s going to work great for these kids this year, but maybe not for for this group.”

And then you’ve got that new challenge of, “How am I going to reach that next group? What am I going to do to take care of them and to meet their needs? How is that going to build that arsenal of ways to really reach kids the way that we want our own kids to be reached in their classrooms?”

Vicki: So, how do we shatter the “perfect teacher myth”?

Tip to Shatter the Teacher Myth #1: Know the Myths

Aaron: OK, so the first thing, I think we’ve got to know what the myths are before we get out there to shatter them. And I think even before that, know that there are these myths that are taking over.

When these myths start to creep in, they make teachers feel like it’s time to lose all their self confidence. It makes teachers feel like a failure, when really it’s a measurement that no one could actually stand up to.

Myth: Do this and then kids behave

It’s things like, you know, that feeling of, “If I do these sorts of things, then all the kids will behave.”

Myth: Buckle Down, I can do it alone

Or, “if I just just buckle down, then I can do all these things on my own.” Then that’s some level of perfection.

But those things aren’t true.

The reality is that when we go in and we realize that maybe those behavior expectations need to be taught. And they’re going to be forgotten, just like other things — the academic content that people might forget.

We realize that, and then we have a different sort of standard to live up to. It’s just that we need to be responsible and teach those expectations.

It’s the same thing with that isolation. When we realize, “I can’t do all of these things on my own. I’m so much better when I lean on the other people who need me just as much as I need them.”

When we work in collaboration with other people, we can reject that isolation that makes us feel like we are the only one who’s going through these sorts of circumstances.

Vicki: We are not alone. I think it’s important to learn that.

Aaron: Ah, but it can feel that way.

Vicki: Goodness knows it can. Because you know that when you close the door, it’s you and them, you know?

Aaron: Right.

Vicki: So what other myths — you’ve talked about two or three now — what other myths do you think can paralyze us as teachers or even make us want to quit?

Aaron: Sure. I think there’s a couple that I want to hit on here.

Myth: You have to be perfect.

One is this idea of value in vulnerability. That, for me for a long time, and even now I have to fight against valuing that that idea of looking like it I have it all together.

And really, when I can get past that, when I get to that point where I can say, “You know what? I don’t have it all together. I’ve worked on some things. I know some things, but I have a lot to learn. What can I learn?”

It opens you up to the space where you can learn from someone else. And they feel like they can learn from you — because you’re not the person who just has it all together. It’s a “We’re in this together learning from one another.”

Let’s be kind to beginning teachers

Vicki: I know somebody who is coming in from the business world who is teaching. And you know, some people can be very impatient with beginners. It’s I don’t know why we expect people who are beginning teachers to have it all together and have all their classroom management. But I kind of think that sometimes those of us who are a little more veteran might not be fair to beginners.

Myth: We have to learn how to teach on our own – we don’t learn from other teachers

Aaron: I think so. Some of that, it may be a sense of, “f I had to work through it on my own, then other people might need to also.” But I think that’s flawed thinking.

If we are people who’ve had to work through those things on our own, we need to pay it forward to those teachers who are working through through now. Say, “Hey, when I was a first year teacher, these are all the ways that I blew it. Or I felt like I blew it, at least, in front of my students.”

Realize that others struggle too

Any time we can open up ourselves to that powerful response of “Me, too,” where somebody else can realize that, “Hey, this other person from down the hall, during the passing period, it looked like she has it all together. But really, she’s been through the same sorts of struggles I have.”

We want that community of learners for our kids. That brings us together. We can extend empathy to others. That brings us together as a staff in a way that’s just really powerful.

That’s when we can see some transformation, moving forward, and people believing the right things about themselves.

Vicki: So What’s another myth?

Myth: You have to be monumental to change lives

Aaron: One of the other myths is that it takes a huge, monumental-like, life-changing act to be one of those memorable teachers for kids. What I really believe is that it’s those everyday things that make a kid remember teacher for a lifetime.

All it takes is being that person who’s consistently there, giving somebody a high five, giving somebody a fist bump, even just at that smile every day in the hallway. Those are the things that end up making a really big impact for a long time. We can still have those big impressive things that people will remember, “Oh, that one day…”

But students, I think, are much more likely to remember the impact that you made over 180 days, rather than over one or two really impactful days.

Vicki: Well, I’m thinking back on Tuesday. We showed this movie. We kind of have them Chapel time at my school on Tuesdays, and I had a student who kind of sits behind the screen.

I said, “don’t you need to need to come in front of the screen?

And he said, “No, I watch your laptop.”

Well, I took the laptop and just pointed it at him and just kind of nodded.

He nodded back at me.

But the look on his face was, “You didn’t get on to me for sitting behind the screen. You noticed that this is kind of where I want to sit because I kind of want to be by myself and be over here. and you just turned your laptop so I can see it better. And that was thoughtful.”

Because you’re right. Sometimes, it’s the little bitty, ordinary things and noticing somebody that makes all the difference.

Aaron: Right. I had a student once — I came back from being out. I was just out doing some district training, and I came back to school the next day.

She said, “Mr. Hogan, I was having a bad day yesterday, and you weren’t here, and you always notice, and it made me sad that you weren’t here.” a

And I still don’t know what I did on the front end, but that’s the outcome that we want. I like it that I don’t even know what I did it’s just, “Be there in those everyday moments to really engage with kids. That leaves a lasting impact.”

Vicki: If you have to pick one big myth that you haven’t mentioned yet that you think could be life-changing if we busted, what would it be?

Myth: That someone can tell us what to do to make us a great teacher

Aaron: This idea that we can imagine better for our kids. I think the myth, sometimes, is that the best teachers excel at by meeting those existing expectations. “Just tell me what I need to do and I’ll do it well. I’ll do better than everybody else, and that will make me successful.”

But I love this idea that JK Rowling shared. She says, “We don’t need magic to change the world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better.”

And that idea of looking past what we’ve always done, looking past what the status quo has been, looking past what maybe even expected of us… and trying to figure out how we can do the best for our kids — not in like an “I’m going to work my myself for 80 hours a week and exhaust myself,” way, but, “Just with what I have to give, how can I do the absolute best for those that I serve?”

That’s really important to me that we’re not thinking through change for change sake, but just thinking about what is the best experience that we can provide for students if you’re a classroom teacher, or for your staff if you’re that campus leader. What’s what can we do to imagine better for those who we serve.

Vicki: Teachers, as we finish up — I’ll we will link to Aaron’s book in the show notes — but I just wanted to give you a, “Me, too.”

You know, I have bad days. “Me, too.”

You know we all struggle.”Me, too.”

We all sometimes feel like, “Why are we doing this, and are we even important?” That’s a ”Me, too.”

These are things that we feel as teachers. We struggle. We have hard days. We mess up. But I will tell you this — there are those moments where you realize that we’re doing something that is really, I would say, one of the most special impactful professions on the entire planet and I would say, ”Me, too.”

Aaron: Absolutely.

Vicki: I’m making a difference too, just like you, Aaron.

Aaron: There you go. That’s what it’s all about, finding those ways to connect with kids and do what’s best for them.

Bio as submitted

Aaron is a husband, dad, educator, blogger, speaker, and author. His recently published book, Shattering the Perfect Teacher Myth: 6 Truths That Will Help You THRIVE as an Educator, highlights a few myths that many teachers don’t even realize are there and replaces each myth with a truth that will help teachers get out of survival mode at school.

Blog: Aaron Hogan

Twitter: @aaron_hogan

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.) This company has no impact on the editorial content of the show.

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