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the12thnightproject · 3 months

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Chapter 40: Alternate View: When it comes to time travel, it’s good to have a moderately awesome ninja in your corner.

Mitsuhide x OC; Hideyoshi x MC (Mai)

All Chapters Archived on Ao3

Logline - With Mai, Hideyoshi, and Aki missing, Mitsuhide and Katsuko reluctantly team up. Disguised as a merchant and his concubine, can they outsmart the man known as the God of Deceit?

As it turns out, it is not possible to grow penicillin in the kitchens of a feudal Japanese castle. Granted… I had no idea what I was doing, and as easily as things had molded over in my fridge in modern Japan, it is not as simple as leaving food in a warm place and hoping for the best.

“What are you trying to do, Kats… er, Kaya?” Yuki peered at the bowl of yuzu peel that … hadn’t developed any mold in the three days it had been sitting out.

“Ummm, hopefully something medicinal.” At Yuki’s expression of complete skepticism, I added, “It’s better than doing nothing.” By this point, Aki had been delirious for over a day, and prior to that had had little energy for much talking. The evening he and I had arrived, Katsuko had managed to claim his attention for one, long private meeting. As much as I knew she deserved her time to be with him, to rebuild whatever it was that made things awkward between them, I didn’t miss out on what might be his final days. I was the one who pulled him off that battlefield. I was his daughter too.

“I don’t know. When Shingen was still sick, some of the medicines he tried made him sicker.” He poked at the hardened peels. “Seems like a waste.”

“It’s not like anyone eats this part of them anyway.” Probably they just would have been tossed into the baths to make them smell pretty. “And don’t touch them. I’m trying to grow penicillin, not boy germs.”

“Peni… um, boy what?” He made a face. “You’re weird. You look like Katsu, but you don’t really act much like her.”

Well, we hadn’t been the same person for seven years. Or eleven, depending on which date we were using, and… “This whole situation is weird.”

He scraped his hands through his hair. “I’ll say. But you’re still weird.”

“Did you come in here just to poke at me, or was there an actual reason?” Although at least he was willing to talk to me, even if he was kind of rude. The way most people here at Tsutsujigasaki castle avoided me, I was beginning to feel like the Yokoi that my sort-of nephew had accused me of being. Even the servants, who thought I was Katsuko’s younger sister, did their best not to look at me.

“Oh. Yeah. I was right. Sasuke got here already.” And then, because I was already halfway across the kitchen, he yelled after me, “Does this mean I can throw these out?”

By the time I caught up with Sasuke, he was just about to enter Aki’s room. “Greetings and salutations, Alternate-Katsuko.” His face was as impassive as the Sasuke from my timeline, but I was just happy to connect with someone who didn’t treat me like I was a demi-demon. “Katsuko-prime and Shingen have filled me in on the situation.”

“Um, hi, Alternate-Sasuke… um… do you have any idea how to make penicillin?” If anyone could, it would be Sasuke. Well, or Toshiie, but he wasn’t due back from China apparently for several weeks. Aki could not wait that long.

“Er… no, it’s not something I’ve thought to attempt. I have considered making a battery out of a potato, but it’s going to be another fifteen years before potatoes are cultivated here… so… hashtag time travel goals.” He glanced through the doorway where Aki was fitfully sleeping. “On a more serious note, I am happy to meet another Katsuko, even though it’s not under the greatest of circumstances. Has there been any improvement?”

I shook my head. Two days before, Shingen had fetched another healer – one who hadn’t fainted at the sight of Aki’s shoulder. She had packed the wound with some sort of poultice, which stabilized him somewhat, and the other-me had proven skilled at getting him to swallow willow bark tea, explaining that she had had a great deal of practice with that.

But now, even the effects of the poultice were gone, and no matter how much tea we forced down his throat, Aki’s fever still raged. “It feels like we’re running out of options… here.”

“I can hear you.” Apparently having one of his moments of lucidity, Aki signaled us to enter. “Hello Mister Mikumo.”

Sasuke greeted Aki formally, which was all the conversation that my father had energy for. Immediately he dropped off into sleep again.

“Ah. I see the need for antibiotics.” The smell of Aki’s wound permeated the room. "Although I am a theoretical physicist, not a doctor." The joke was stated with just a slight quirk at the side of his mouth to indicate the humor. "Have I made that joke to you before – your timeline’s alternate version of me?"

"No." I was not in the mood for humor. "What about modern medicine? I mean, I’m not a doctor either, but doctors in our time can cure infections, right? You can help me get him home, can’t you?”

After all that had happened, I refused to let Aki die.

"I've already checked." Sasuke pulled out what looked like a hand sewn notebook and flipped through it. It was full of numbers and calculations. "Honno-ji won’t open until the winter solstice – Togakushi a month later." He didn’t mention that Aki couldn’t wait that long, but the unspoken words hung in the air.

"So Shingen and Katsu didn’t tell you about the device?" A device, that during Aki’s lucid moments, he explained was a prototype. Maybe they’d forgotten (unlikely) or decided to leave that story up to me. “It… I’m not sure how, but it opened the wormhole that dumped me onto that battlefield.”

"Device?” He slapped his forehead. “I didn’t even think to question how you ended up here. But of course, if there had been wormhole activity, I would have known.”

“There was a wormhole, but before that, it wasn’t.” Once again I explained how I had ended up in 1586, this time to an audience who had scientific questions that were far beyond my patchwork high school attendance. After my third ‘I don’t know,’ I gave up and turned the device over to him.

“Fascinating.” Sasuke pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. He cautiously flipped the thing over in his hands, but it still just looked like a somewhat advanced version of a cell phone. He glanced at Aki. “He said it’s a prototype? That suggests that it’s still a beta. Do you have any objections to me studying it?”

“As long as you don’t zap us all into prehistoric Japan. I don’t think my heart could take the Jurassic period.” I paused, waiting for Aki to interject whether or not he had problem with Sasuke taking control of the device, but if he did, he wasn't saying. “This” I waved my hand to indicate my alternate’s home, “is already unsettling enough.”

"You mean the rare experience of meeting another version of yourself?" Sasuke seemed almost envious. "Have you noticed any unusual physical phenomena? Do you find yourself fading, or do you feel like you are losing parts of your memory?"

"No. In fact it feels like I'm instead gaining memories I've never had." I wasn't sure how to explain it further, although it had been a relief to confirm my theory that those odd moments of deja-vu-esque images were not my memories, but some kind of multiverse effect.

"Yes." Katsuko entered the room carrying another pot of tea. "Me too. Like the memory of a spider crawling down the front of a pink kimono - and I don’t even own one."

"I've not had that one, and I do have a pink kimono." Well, I did have one. I'd left it behind with Mitsuhide. "But a spider never crawled down the front of it." Just a kitsune. "Aki yelling at me for jumping out of a tree."

That one had been pretty vivid. Katsuko tapped her chest. "Actually happened. And then he abandoned me there." She sent Aki a look that was half anger, half exasperation. "It turned out to have been a con, but of course he didn’t warn me first."

"How very Mitsuhide of him." That dang kitsune. We’d been apart for over a week (not counting that one hour at Genba), but he was still hacking my brain.

The ninth thing I hate about Mitsuhide, even when I’m four years and an unknown number of timelines away, I can’t stop thinking about him.

She looked at me. "I have questions about that but-" She sighed. "It feels so surreal to talk to you."

Ah. That's why it had been so easy to avoid her. She'd been avoiding me, too. "I know. We're not twins, or clones. I've been trying to think of you as an older sister." Since this Katsu would have to be four years older than I am. Or maybe just three? Yuki had told me she'd been stuck in the wormhole (or a wormhole) and missed a year.

"Could you guys not talk over me?" Aki muttered, in another moment of lucidity. "I haven't departed this Earth yet." His eyes flicked over to Sasuke and greeted him as if he had not done so just twenty minutes before. "Hello Mister Mikumo. Still climbing things?"

Ok, not as lucid as all that then.

Sasuke bowed to him again, as if he had not done so before. "Professor."

“Katsu. I told you. Don’t bother me unless the world is ending. Don’t bother me then either.” He closed his eyes again.

"Not yet old man," Katsuko set the teapot down with a clonk, and poured a cup of willow bark tea. "Time for your medication." With Sasuke's help, she propped him into a sitting position and got him to swallow the tea, before he slumped back on the bed with a moan.

Again, I swallowed that feeling of envy that she, my other-self, had managed to get Aki to obey her. It wasn’t important. The important thing that was he had drunk it. That everyone was doing whatever we could to keep him alive until Sasuke could figure out how to get the device to open the wormhole.

Stand back! He’s trying science.

“I wondered where you were hiding.” I looked up from my failed experiment (Yuki had not thrown out the yuzu peel as threatened), to see my other self, my older self, who had returned to the kitchen with the empty teapot.

“Well, I figured it would just be easier if I stayed out of everyone’s way.” I sat back and watched her bustling about with some kind of wooden contraption, before I realized that it was a pulley system that retrieved fresh snow from outside without anyone needing to trek out into the weather to get it themselves. “That’s pretty cool.” I’d never seen anything like it before.

She smiled. “Shingen built it. He’s really good with his hands. Er… in an engineering kind of way.” The blush on her face suggested he was good with his hands in all kinds of ways.

“Of course he is.” Oh shit. I said that out loud. My sarcasm turned our moment into something seriously awkward.

“I’m jealous of you too,” Katsuko eventually said.

“Me? Why?” This version of myself seemed to have it all figured out.

“Because Aki told you he was our father. He didn’t leave you on the side of the road, feeling like everyone had abandoned her.” She slammed the now full of snow kettle on the brazier. “I mean, I know he did it to fool Shingen into taking me. I learned pretty soon after that he didn’t mean it. But it was cruel, and … he’s said a lot of hurtful things to me that he apparently never said to you.”

“Oh.” I reached in my kimono and pulled out Aki’s letter. It was the one thing I had on me when Iekane pulled us into the wormhole. “He didn’t tell me. He disappeared, left me holed up in an Inn for weeks and when I finally went in search of him, I found this letter at Francisco’s. I imagine, that if you were to go to Sakai, you might have this same letter waiting.”

I sat back on my heels, and watched her read the letter, noticing when she smiled – she must have hit the ‘cloud city moment’ line. Finally she folded it up and gave it back to me. “Thanks. I don’t know why it helps… but it does.”

“Well, good. I’d hate it if I hated me. Er, well… you know.” Yup. Still surreal.

“Yeah. I do.” She paused…. Then. “Um I sort of don’t want to know, but I also do want to know. What is up with Mitsuhide and you?”

Ugh, I can’t even pass the Bechdel test with myself! “It’s a long story that probably doesn’t even matter, because he’s in love with Mai. Unrequitedly, but it’s still not something I want to hang around to watch.”

She nodded. “Yeah. I kind of thought he was in this timeline too. But, I only met him for like two hours, during which he threatened to kill me, beat me at shogi, then turned around and gave me some really good advice.”

Well…. That’s on brand at least.

It was another day before Sasuke emerged from the room where he was mad-sciencing it all.

Once again, we were gathered in Shingen’s private office, and again drinking tea that Yukimura had prepared and Katsuko had helped to distribute. Shingen also produced another basket of pastry that he claimed was from his private stash. Given that he always seemed to be able to produce a basket of pastry from somewhere, I suspected his ‘private stash’ was actually a sweatshop full of bakers kept prisoner somewhere on the castle grounds.

“First of all, some background on our wormholes. It isn't merely that the atmospheric conditions need to be correct, for the wormhole to actually form, there needs to be enough charged ions to, in layman's terms, shock it open." Sasuke took a moment to to gulp down some tea, and rubbed the corner of his eyes. "That’s what Iekane's device does, it concentrates a jolt that opens up a corridor to the closest wormhole."

It kind of sounded like something out of Back to the Future…

"A mini flux capacitor?" There went Katsuko, voicing aloud what was in my own brain. Aki aside, I needed to get out of this timeline for my sanity.

"Flock's capacity? You want to bring birds into this?" Yuki bypassed the pastry and glared a bit at the double serving on Shingen's tray. "What will that do?"

The others ignored him beyond giving him a fond smile.

Katsuko nodded to Sasuke. "Makes sense. Thunder-snow. Yuki, do you remember there was thunder and snow when we encountered Iekane at Togakushi? But our timeline’s Iekane didn’t have a device – or I suppose he didn’t need it. We were already expecting that wormhole to manifest."

"And unfortunately, we don’t have time to wait for the solstice. Therefore, I believe our best course of action would be to try to use the device to send Kaya and Aki to the future. Her timeline." Sasuke pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Theoretically, this timeline’s Iekane does not have the prototype, or one would think he would be using it often.”

Shingen looked at Sasuke and nodded. “I trust your best guess. That said, we don’t know where ended up after he and Katsu went into the wormhole, so my spies will keep searching for Iekane."

"As will mine." Katsuko grabbed a scroll and brush and jotted down a note.

“You have your own spies?" Not only does this timeline's Katsu have what appears to be a perfect partner, she gets her OWN spies?

"Birthday present," she murmured. Ok. That might blow Mitsuhide's gift of a lock pick set out of the water.

He also got you that pretty robe, and he played the flute for you when you were unconscious…

My inner voice was apparently feeling especially snarky today.

Sasuke brought out the device. "I've managed, theoretically, to override the device’s initial coding." Sasuke proceeded to go in to a technical explanation that was at its basis, a pretty sophisticated form of hacking. "So, Kaya, all that I need is your thumbprint and you can use it to take Aki into the future."

That’s all?

I was a bit nervous to have control over the device. "You don't want that honor for yourself?" After hearing about Katsuko’s terrifying experience, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be the pilot on this adventure.

"While I would, in fact be otherwise thrilled to do so," Sasuke exchanged glances with Katsu and Shingen. "I’m afraid I could set it off course."

Oh right. If Sasuke had control over it, we'd just end up going to his future - which would be fine for Aki, but would keep me in the wrong timeline. Although at least if that happened I would never have to run into the version of Mitsuhide who was in love with Mai (although apparently he loves her here too, so… I was kind of SOL no matter where I went).

The thought was brief, and somewhat selfish. Who knew what kind of chaos would come about if I continued to stay in the wrong timeline? And, I still needed to return to my timeline’s Sakai and follow up Aki's information on Toshiie.

“For a similar reason, I have come to the conclusion that I will be unable to accompany you on a journey to your own timeline.” With a slight attitude of reluctance, he set the device down on Shingen’s desk. "I would relish the opportunity to have a long discussion with another version of myself."

Was I imagining that everyone else seemed a bit scared of that idea?

He looked down at his paperwork. "However such a conversation could present a danger to the balance of the multiverse, and with no guarantee of returning to this particular timeline-" He gave a sideeye to Shingen, "although I am relatively certain between myself and I, I could figure it out- I have decided not to make the attempt."

Subtext: he had been planning to go anyway, and Shingen talked him out of it.

With Aki’s condition worsening by the hour, we decided not to waste any more time waiting. Shingen and Yuki helped carry Aki to a deserted area behind Tsutsujigasaki Castle. In the distance were some archery targets, so I figured that was what it was normally used for. Good plan to leave from here – the castle inhabitants would avoid this area when Katsuko was out here, to avoid getting hit by stray arrows.

Although, since she was me, there wouldn’t be any stray arrows. We’d both learned accuracy one stable wall repair at a time.

Sasuke handed me a packet containing his contact information and a letter I was to give to his other self. "I hope, that at some point, he will be able to figure out how to communicate with me – or however many versions of me there are."

Unlike me, Sasuke seemed not at all weirded out by the prospect of a multiplicity of selves.

While Katsuko took a private moment to say whatever she needed to say to our father, I gave my goodbyes and thanks to Lord Shingen and Yukimura. "It must have been strange for you two, thank you for putting up with me."

"Surrounded by another vision of my devil? Not strange at all." By now, I knew Shingen well enough to know that the flirting was second nature, as was a dry sense of humor, so I simply bowed to him again.

Yuki just grinned at me and punched me in the arm. "You’re not so bad, dummy." High praise from that one.

Katsuko left Aki’s side and I found myself in a long hug with my alternate… no this isn't weird at all. "Good luck. With everything." That was all she said. But maybe she figured I would know what she meant by 'everything,’ since she was me.

Then, per Sasuke's instructions, I put my arms around Aki, activated the device, and once again, hoped there wouldn’t be any dinosaurs.

There was that sharp buzzing noise, and the world dissolved into grey once again.

All sounds muffled, then faded out.

@selenacosmic

@lorei-writes @bestbryn @lyds323 @tele86 @akitsuneswife

#10things #10 things i hate about Mitsuhide #ikemen sengoku #fanfic #ikesen mitsuhide #mitsuhide monday #mitsuhide akechi #ikesen shingen #ikesen yukimura #ikesen sasuke #oc community #oc katsuko #katsuverse

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wreckitremy · 4 days

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Hurt to see a for-Israeli Zionism on your page. I urge you to go to Jewishcurrents (dot) org. Listen to genocide experts. Even the Israeli people of Tel Aviv are protesting whats going on. This is a war thats been going on over 70 years. I denounce Hamas, as they destroyed the democracy of the Palestinian people and for their attacks on the Israeli people. But I equally denounce Israel for the horrors they've been committing for 75 years. As a Jew, many of our celebrations are about surviving such evil. Who is Israel to be weaponizing the very trauma that we lived? I'm hurt because I thought this blog was a safe for Jews like me. just. fuck.

i know nothing i say will reach you. my friend. and that alone hurts more then anything

That's pretty vague, anon. Makes it kinda hard to figure out what caused you to say this, and without context, it doesnt make your anonymous message look like its in good faith.

And as far as I'm aware, I've only been reblogging stuff about the antisemitism that has resulted from this situation.

To be honest i wanted to ignore this whole thing bc I do not have the spoons to sort thru a very complicated history. I still have a lot of the hashtags blacklisted so I can choose when to use my spoons on it.

But I watched my jewish mutuals and the jewish people I follow and trust to have nuanced opinions on a wide variety of marginalizations we have in common, get increasingly hateful messages, for simply asking people to not derail their posts about war in a country they do not even live in.

I watch them get dragged into discussing the conflict bc no one was listening to them.

I watched people move/deactivate their blogs bc people wouldn't stop.

I watched leftists spread posts that had such obvious antisemitic rhetoric, even I noticed. I've only been actively paying attention and learning about antisemitism for about 4 years now, but it was apparently quite a headstart compared to the activists that only started learning and posting about this whole thing last year.

I dont claim to have an opinion on Israel or Palestine. My stance is the same as it is for everything. Nothing makes bigotry okay.

You don't get to misgender a trans person bc they are racist.

You don't get to be racist to a person of color bc they are transphobic.

You don't get to suicide bait people, period.

#antisemitism #remy replies

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arceespinkgun · 10 months

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I think, from my opinion at least, what differentiates Earthspark from other Transformers shows (more specifically recent installations is) that it took risks and even though its messages may not have been conveyed across to its fullest potential, the intention and direction are still fairly evident and less harmful in comparison to other Transformers media

Earthspark manages to balance darker themes fairly well, whilst not forgetting its primary audience are children. There are both subtle and blatant dark themes throughout the show, there is a lot of exploration regarding one's identity which is more notable (but not exclusive) to the Terran Nightshade

It makes an honest attempt to be inclusive and while it may feel a bit stunted and awkward at times, it achieved its purpose despite what may be awkward handling— I find it odd how beloved Knockout is, despite the fact that he is an offensive gay stereotype (and not really handled well as a character in general) but the scene of Nightshade, an explicit non-binary character, saving Sam in ‘Home’ is apparently too awkward and regarded viewed as good but not enough in terms of representation?

EarthSpark has Black Filipino protagonists! There is casual representation with Mo's hair bonnet and the Filipino cuisine they eat; Alex speaks tagalog at times (although I think I do recall someone on here pointing out that the dialect he used isn't accurate to his geographic hometown in the Philippines?) and there is a whole episode where he teaches Bumblebee his culture as they hunt for the WakWak! I love when Transformers and humans teach each other about their culture, it both humanizes the Transformers reiterating that they are not emotionless robots AND it gives minorities a platform to be represented in a popular franchise

Despite the fact that the Malto children seem to be almost forcibly matured by the narrative and struggling to cope with the fear and anxiety of having their family torn apart, something that BIPOC people are at a higher likelihood of experience in the real world, it doesn't forget that at the end of the day they're all children. I quite enjoy Mo as a character and her emotional maturity, she offers her older brother wisdom and emotional comfort constantly; and when her safety is at risk her younger Terran siblings ensure that they take on a protector role due to the ultimate difference that poses threat to that of a human child and a Transformer child— because the Terrans are CHILDREN!

PTSD and trauma are touched on in EarthSpark, Hashtag's autonomy is violated by Dr Meridian and uses her body to cause harm towards her siblings and damage her environment; he used her body to prove his point that Transformers are dangerous and cannot integrate with society and Hashtag suffers from flashbacks of the experience. Despite the fact that the situation between the two is not expanded on, it is clear that Megatron has hurt Starscream in the past— Hashtag (even though she has no reason to believe Starscream because Megatron IS her mom's friend and kind towards her, "therefore he can't possible have done that") immediately believes Starscream when she confronts the latter's poor treatment towards others. She opens up about her own traumatic experience with Dr Meridian and while the situation may not be the same, she was trying to establish a common ground in the fact that they're both victims

Grimlock from his time at the bot brawls and also from having been mind-controlled by Dr Meridian blatantly suffers PTSD and is triggered several times throughout the respective episode and ineffectively copes by pushing it down. It is a dangerous thing for a Transformer to be mind-controlled, let alone a fire-breathing dinobot; fortunately Jawbreaker realising that he pushed Grimlock too far steps in and manages to calm the panicked dinobot down, assuring him that he is more than just a rampaging dinobot and there is more to Grimlock than meets the eye

EarthSpark gives us a lot in terms of themes and season one was incredibly ambitious, frankly I don't think many of the other previous Transformers shows could've handled it better than EarthSpark. I don't think that EarthSpark is without fault, on the contrary I have a few grievances with it but my issue is that people (perhaps without even realising it) are showing clear bias when they critique EarthSpark. Honestly, I do think that if the protagonists were a white family that people wouldn't mind that they're so central to the story— to be honest, that aggravates me a lot because the point of EarthSpark is that the humans have a central part in the story, it's literally about Earth born Transformers who are created a pair of siblings and adopted into their family. Criticising it centering around family and the respective human family members goes against the entire point of the show...

One of the more common critiques I have seen and I do agree to an extent, is EarthSpark's pacing. However, I absolutely think that its pacing though rushed still manages to deliver a great story that went out of its way to include difficult topics to portray— as opposed to Transformers: Prime and Transformers: Cyberverse. There is no amount of analysis and meta posts that I could read that would convince me that the pacing of those two shows were better than EarthSpark thus far, OR effectively and satisfactorily wrapped up the themes, character arcs and plotlines

It just seems that EarthSpark is taking a lot more criticism at a way earlier stage compared to other previous Transformers shows and that makes me sad because people are treating it as though its shortcomings are genuinely harmful but dismiss the previous harmful depictions in the Transformers franchise... I admire the risks and narrative choices that EarthSpark has undertaken so far and I hope it only improves from here on out, to give it that opportunity the show must continue and be given a chance to fulfil its vision

Woah, woah, woah, I agree with many of the things you bring up here, but if you're going to send me a ginormous essay, could you post it on your own blog, please? Plenty of your points are well thought-out and could stand to be their own posts, and I know I've answered long asks before, but this is way too long for me to respond to everything easily. Two or three of these points would be enough for one ask, so that's all I'm going to comment on:

-The criticism about Alex Malto defining a word wrong is definitely something that should be brought up, and I'm glad people have. I think the issue isn't necessarily the language he speaks, but that he defines "lolo" as a Tagalog word when he'd probably say it's a Bisaya word since he grew up in Bohol? I do wonder if there could be something more to his history that may explain this, especially since given his background he's probably had to switch to Tagalog and English a lot, or if there's something about his family we don't know yet. I don't have the knowledge or background to speak on this though. Also, part of me is a little glad discussing the language politics is even on the table at all for this franchise after like... how TFA handled South Asian representation, which it sounds like you were thinking as well lol

-I'm not sure if you're quoting somebody, but Hashtag (and the rest of the Maltos) ABSOLUTELY had reason to believe Megatron was abusive! Did they not go to that war memorial and hear him talking about how he's done horrible things? Don't the Malto parents often mention how he's been trying to change—the kids all know he's done harm! And Starscream even pointed out how hypocritical it is to think Megatron wouldn't leave people behind when he's locking up his former followers—even kids could get that point! Plus, the show is almost certainly trying to make the point that people who say they've been hurt should be believed and the first impulse shouldn't be to try to convince them it's not true. That's a good message for kids!

#long post #transformers earthspark #earthspark spoilers #my analysis

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bizarrequazar · 8 months

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GJ and ZZH Updates — September 03-09

previous week || all posts || following week

This is part of a weekly series collecting updates from and relating to Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan.

This post is not wholly comprehensive and is intended as an overview, links provided lead to further details. Dates are in accordance with China Standard Time, the organization is chronological. My own biases on some things are reflected here. Anything I include that is not concretely known is indicated as such, and you’re welcome to do your own research and draw your own conclusions as you see fit. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or additions. :)

[Glossary of names and terms] [Masterlist of my posts about the situation with Zhang Zhehan]

09-03 → 361° posted five photos from a fansite of Gong Jun at an airport, highlighting their clothes.

09-04 → The watch brand Tissot posted a video teasing their endorsement with Gong Jun that would be announced two days later. Caption: "Neon lights in the dark night, super players enter the venue and wait for the excitement, wait and see[.] The new Tissot global brand spokesperson will be announced soon! He is a young actor with unlimited possibilities, an occasional soul singer, and a constant happy player. Who is he? See you on September 6th!"

→ The Instagram posted ten photos of "Zhang Zhehan" at a glacier.

→ A teaser for yet another song (this one with very uncharacteristically sexual lyrics) was posted by Ranyi.

09-05 → The Instagram posted nine photos of "Zhang Zhehan" doing a rockabilly-style photoshoot. #ZhangZhehan trended on Twitter.

→ The lyricist for the Zhang Sanjian song made a tweet promoting it. He used the #TheRealZhangZhehan hashtag, indicating that he was likely fed what to tweet considering people outside the fandom wouldn't know to use that. His social media history indicates that he previously had some decent success, but hit a rough patch last year that he's currently trying to recover from.

09-06 → 361° posted a photo ad of Gong Jun in collaboration with the Asian Games.

→ Gong Jun posted a commercial he did for Tissot, announcing his new endorsement with them. (1129 kadian) Caption: "With love, always have fun[.] I am very happy to become the global brand ambassador of Tissot[.] Put on #Tissot super player series with me# Right now, you and I are super player" This was reposted by Tissot. Fan Observation: Some Dilireba fans apparently think that the 88888888 written with his signature in the commercial is a reference to her. If any of those fans are reading this, I'm sorry to burst your bubble but 8 is just his favourite number.

→ Tissot posted the same commercial. (1129 kadian) Caption: "Super players, you've been waiting a long time[.] Welcome actor @ Gong Jun Simon in becoming the global brand ambassador of Tissot! Every moment, explore endless possibilities[,] have fun and unlock more excitement. Super player attitude, defined by you"

→ The limited edition watch released for the endorsement announcement sold out in five minutes, and the other endorsed models sold out at all physical stores in Chengdu. CPFs were enough of a majority in the sales to receive a shoutout online from one of the sales associates, and there was some drama on Weibo of solos trying to report down CPFs' posts about their purchases.

→ #GongJun trended on Twitter.

→ Gong Jun posted three photos of himself from his shoot with Tissot to his Instagram. Caption: "Cool!" (originally in English)

→ Gong Jun Outdoor Office posted two doodles Gong Jun did for the Tissot announcement. Caption: "Ah! Art! (The art has two wheels and the single door!)"

→ Tissot posted a photo ad featuring Gong Jun. Several more were also released on their website and Taobao. Fan Observations: - Tissot mentioned Word of Honor in the blurb about Gong Jun on their website! [screenshot] - Several of the photo ads includes Gong Jun sitting at a diner booth with "5" in neon. Combining this with the neon "November 29" used elsewhere in the ad campaign makes an easy 51129 kadian.

→ The Instagram posted ten photos of "Zhang Zhehan" in a forest.

→ Hogan tweeted a photo ad of Gong Jun.

09-07 → Zhenguoli posted a photo ad featuring Gong Jun.

→ Tissot posted a video (flashing lights cw) of behind the scenes footage from their photoshoot with Gong Jun. (1129 kadian)

→ Gong Jun's studio posted a video of behind the scenes footage from the Tissot commercial. Caption: "Explore the secrets of time and seal the eternal hour. Let's keep the beauty in the minutes with @ Gong Jun Simon~" BGM is Tama by Else.

→ Hogan tweeted a commercial and two photo ads of Gong Jun.

→ The Instagram posted ten photos of "Zhang Zhehan" and scenery.

→ Gong Jun attended another Jay Chou concert (purely as an audience member this time.)

09-08 → MYFM, a Malaysian radio station, announced that they had invited Zhang Zhehan to a music festival they are organizing around the topic of AI. (Ironic.) At the time of this post nothing has been said about "him" (read: the scam gang) agreeing to attend. [article] The radio station is the same one that put one of the Zhang Sanjian songs as #1 on their charts when it hadn't been released yet back in January.

→ #ZhangZhehan trended on Twitter.

→ Zhenguoli posted five photo ads of Gong Jun. They later posted another.

→ BEAST posted a commercial with a voice over done by Gong Jun. (1129 kadian)

→ Tissot posted four photos from their shoot with Gong Jun. (1129 kadian)

→ The Instagram posted more of the same.

→ Hogan tweeted two photo ads of Gong Jun.

09-09 → Tissot posted one of their photo ads of Gong Jun to their Instagram.

→ Gong Jun's studio posted a vlog of him at the Jay Chou concert. Caption: "Excited heart, trembling hands! The immersive concert experience is here~ @ Gong Jun Simon (no delay version) is a fan who works hard to sing along"

→ Zhenguoli posted a photo ad featuring Gong Jun.

→ 361° released a commercial for the Asian Games featuring Gong Jun.

→ The Instagram posted five photos of "Zhang Zhehan" in a field.

→ Hogan tweeted two photo ads of Gong Jun.

Additional Reading: → N/A

previous week || all posts || following week

#Zhang Zhehan #Gong Jun #Word of Honor #woh cast #lld timeline

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cyarsk52-20 · 9 months

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News

How this country star’s hit song unexpectedly catalyzed the Montgomery riverfront brawl

By Anna Beahm | [email protected]

Jason Aldean’s chart-topping, controversial country song, “Try That in a Small Town,” became the soundtrack to the racially-charged confrontation that went viral this week. (GettyImages) (Getty)

Sign up for Reckon’s latest weekly newsletter covering the three topics never to be discussed at the dinner table. Enter your email to subscribe to Matter of Faith.

Country star Jason Aldean’s latest song “Try that in a Small Town” was already criticized for promoting a “pro-lynching mentality,” but now it’s part of social media videos of a fight between a black worker and white boaters in Montgomery, Ala.

The song starts with a list of criminal behaviors including carjacking and harassing police officers as behaviors that would not be tolerated “in a small town,” as the chorus goes. The song also asks “if you’re lookin for a fight, try that in a small town.”

While catchy and clearly a hit, the tune has been criticized by political activists like Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, and country greats like Sheryl Crow, who said “even people in small towns are sick of violence.”

Violence is exactly what happened on Sunday when officials said a Black dock worker and white boaters got into a dispute that turned into a brawl between Black and white boaters at the dock in Montgomery, Ala. The worker had apparently asked the boater to move the boat to make room for the Harriet II Riverboat that usually docks in that location, the Montgomery Advertiser reported.

The song joined the Montgomery River Brawl when TikTok users put the song over videos of the fight. Some users said they were reclaiming the song for the Black community invested in Montgomery.

The Montgomery Police Dept. said the man was attacked “for simply doing his job.” Police have also issued arrest warrants for several people involved in the fight.

Dillon Nettles, a policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union, posted on X Monday morning about the fight.

“The significance of the riverfront where this fight took place shouldn’t be lost. This is where our ancestors were transported and marched in shackles up Commerce [Street] to be sold. Montgomery was once one of the most prominent slave trading markets in the country,” Nettles posted.

The story was trending on X Tuesday morningalong with the hashtags #Alabamaboatbrawl and #montgomerybrawl. TikTok users were also posting videos of the fight with an audio clip from Aldean’s song.

“Probably not how they anticipated this song being used,” TikTok user @dazzlingblu said in a comment.

Other users commented on the use of the song with the clips saying “the flip of the century for that song,” and “uno reverse.”

The song was originally a ballad for “small-town” folks who opposed “big city” ideas (and threatened them with violence). In the comments under one TikTok video, users were reclaiming the song, making it the 180-degree turn no one expected for the song.

TikTok user @abbysworldsastage posted a video about the incident between a white woman and a chair-weilding black man, saying that she thought people who were upset about a man hitting a woman with a chair were deflecting from the real issue at the root of the fight: racial violence.

“When I watched that vid, [sic] I saw a community coming together to protect each other, and an impressive use of available tools. I’m not about to say just swinging on women or anyone is okay, but I certainly don’t think that was the problem with the whole situation, and the focus on it feels like deflection to me,” she said in the video caption.

The fight happened over the weekend after former President Donald Trump visited Montgomery on Friday to attend and give remarks at a Republican Party dinner. However, it’s unclear if those involved in the fight attended Trump’s event.

Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to new charges related to the classified files discovered at his Florida mansion last year.

The controversy and boycott

The song, music video and resulting controversy around it has led some conservatives to call for a boycott of Country Music Television (CMT) for pulling the music video off its streaming platform.

Last month, CMT canceled Aldean’s music video after backlash related to the song’s suggestions of “looking for a fight.” Speaking of, the music video for the song featured shots of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tenn., where Henry Choate, an 18-year-old Black man, was hanged in 1927 after he was falsely accused of attacking a white girl.

Featuring the location in the shot led to calls for a boycott of the video, which some critics said represented a “pro-lynching” stance.

Earlier this year Bud Light and Chick-Fil-A were caught with similar backlash, as conservative fans call for a boycott of the entertainment group. Other musicians involved in the political culture wars including Lee Greenwood, have also issued statements criticizing CMT’s decision and offering support for Aldean.

Conservative politicians across the country have also extended their welcome to Aldean in the wake of the music video cancellation.

Sent from my iPhone

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rennyji · 3 months

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a rigged system, why, & how

I’m a first generation American from being the son of legal immigrants.

When I visit family in India, they see my knowledge on any topic as Gospel, simply because I was born in America. As a youth, I'd sometimes lie to my cousins about the rules behind sports - saying: "That's actually how its done and supposed to be, in America - so that I could claim victory, and my cousins would believe it. America is given the status of prestige and correctness. But is it still worthy of it, in the present day?

It’s like Thor being respected as an Asguardian, by people of Earth (Midguard) in Marvel movies. That's how people abroad "have been" seeing Americans and America. And yet now, the 3 branches of government are acting like idiots in not interpreting the law (like sophisticated intellectuals) while pondering what was meant by founders, and instead taking the time for more vacations than a doctor/essential worker is more worthy of…

America is now seen as idiots to take advantage of.

American leaders going on vacation instead of solving problems, making more and more word salads instead of interpreting what is already present in laws, is probably an indirect reason why Iran supplies missiles to Houthis against us, and China gains hacker level access to American power grids. They know we're too busy being philosophical vs. practical, and preoccupied with firing people and then going on repeat vacations vs. passing legislations for better roads or safer national security measures.

“Now”! Biden wants to pass an executive order for immigration, in an election year, where coincidentally they also cleared Biden and his son. Timing. It seems to be about timing and "what's in it for me", despite having the privilege and luxury of elected office. It's like Gavin Newsom cleaning San Francisco before the Chinese president arrives, instead of gathering his staff to seriously think into and produce long term solutions to the homeless situation, as well as the lack of cleanliness. Would anyone imagine America as a dirty or filthy kind of place? And yet there are cities that embodies this notion. So, apparently, politics does things only when the politicians have something to win or lose, whether office or pride...

When it comes to what the founders of the Constitution meant, when forging their words and lines, people need to remember that the meanings of words change over time. Something like "gay" in the 1950s meant "happy" and now, in 2024, is attributed to a person's sexual preference. What did the creator of the word "gay" think initially? Didn't the word evolve with changing times?

Shouldn't the meaning of the lines of the constitution change with times, while maintaining its core values?

Something like right to privacy shouldn't need to be stretched with amendments or various Acts, to mean not to allow involuntary romantic tapes or nudity posted on social media. Its implied. Private is private, and people have a right to it.

---

As the border crisis is a symbol of "ongoing issues" that last months and years in America, I think I’ve addressed future twitter hashtags (from COVID type consequences affecting number of current tv series/movies), and I've given perspectives that can be reused for future issues in debates. I’m finding myself saying and writing things I’ve said and written many times before, over these past several years. I’m writing about interpreting the law, and on 2/21/24-maybe 2 weeks after I gave my elaborated perspective on it in a Tumblr post - Congress still goes to recess for another two weeks, the chief of homeland security is impeached amidst the continual passing of Continuing Resolutions (CR's), and Biden feels he needs to send an executive order to clarify what it means to apply for asylum. You think maybe if I say something over and over, someone will finally get it...maybe I can make a dent or difference...but then my whole situation is delusional...how could anyone be seeing any of this, on a normal day?! Regarding the meaning implied by "asylum seekers", isn't that something dating back to World War II? It still needs to be clarified in 2024? You must have pages and pages to these bipartisan pills and executive orders and amendments and Proclamations and Acts. I don’t think anyone has the focus to read through more and more of this, or the time, amidst urgency, to wait for future executive orders just rewording something. Interpret the law! , based on changing times. Let the law adapt to the present and future, and learn from what it accomplished in the past, so that you're more adept to extending it and can extrapolate from it.

---

But it's not just elected officials or the government that's the problem. It's also people in America and their inclination to just worry about their immediate surroundings in only their present day. Immediacy is good, but when you it leads to you becoming an impulsive, mechanical routine type person, without a thought/perspective to life and your surroundings, its not conducive to painting a 1st generation country picture of America.

I heard someone on the news say:

“Take care of home instead of taking care of the world” in terms of taking care of America. Why is it that they don't see the big picture? Why don't they realize it's not so simple?! It's like the sayers of these lines are angry about something in their lives and they just want to have a rallying cry, without thinking into, or before/after, of what they're raging about. Let’s say you want to stop migrants. You then need to go to source of problem in Venezuela & other places to resolve political distress or stop taking in travelers TO Mexico, who decide to make a detour 2 The States. You need to make it clear to Mexico that if they take people from all over the world and are not allowed to transfer them to America, Mexico and its government has to make policy changes. Stop dumping and transferring their problem onto us. Maybe this can be a Segway into truly having them pay for a wall, since we're suffering from their poor regulations and border control.

Americans and politics and how they elect officials is why Trump has a majority. He uses one liners like “we had enough of her” or “crooked Hilary” or “send military for mass deportation” b/c he knows the typical American just harps on lines like pro life vs pro choice vs. no more illegals vs forget Ukraine/forget abroad,take care of home/forget non planet destroying energy sources/ and give us back our jobs.

My own parents, who emigrated here, thought by default, Democrat is the party to side with, because “it means "for" the people” or “for the "common person." ” I, their first generation American son, lean towards the Republicans because I believe they’re for God, family, & country- in that order. The Democrats, do, indeed seem more about extreme liberal emphasis on things like correct pronoun usage at threat of losing job/reputation, and abruptly pulling plug on 3000+ jobs for cleaner energy practices, like no coal or promotion of universal electric car usage.- the Democrats don’t get liberal associated ideas like that needs to come in stages. They don't seem to be interested in stabile lives or stabile family structures. They're too much of a dreamer for me.

People need to go deeper than the rallying cries. They need to ask the people they elect, "how" are they going to solve issues in the spirit of the Golden rule: in the spirit of helping America and their neighbors (neighboring countries in a shared world). People need to ask for "methodologies" (not high level one liners like "we'll close the border" <-instead HOW/what's ur idea) so that they can vote on the representer of the best answer to a problem and so that its a group/truly "American effort." Love your neighbor as urself, right? Instead of asking "when does life begin" for the abortion debate, They "need to go deeper" and ask "what is life?"(is it a soul or developing brain emitting brain waves…if by that definition, which coincides with when a baby first receives oxygen, or the Breath of Life, you might need to limit abortion to 6 weeks- make intelligent/maybe thought provoking answers<--that's America, not two warring groups waging a 50 yr ideological war against each other). This is what needs to be done before asking "when does life begin" or saying "high level terms" like pro-life and pro-choice. People abroad, hearing all these one liners, see a farce.

America, abroad, is seen as a futuristic place that's sophisticated in space and people.

But those of us living here, see each other shooting each other on a weekly basis=Conversely, indicating, we're more primal or primitive than how our overseas counterparts perceive us.

I heard in some shape or form, that the American Dream is money, power, & respect. In the current election cycle, while Trump rides on the praises of his affluence or the image of money, Nikki Haley clearly seeks the "respect," earning the eligibility for power (and consequently the money/perks) of the Presidency. She makes this clear by standing her ground and knowingly going against statistics. She toils away in an uphill battle, indicating how much more she wants it, than Trump, who seems to be using court cases to avoid campaigning. But present day America is such that you can make excuses like that, people will believe despite being told otherwise, and someone can coast by on a perception/image to the presidency.

America needs to be sophisticated, eloquent, seekers of respect, than people riding on the image of power or being obsessors of materialism like a place of iPhones and quick tickets to fame.

Respect makes us classy people. And money comes and goes. Power just makes us look like Putin and Russia in common public perception.

Let us, as Americans, be a more respectable and intelligent people.

We must ***interpret*** the law with changing times & circumstance. Do you need all these amendments and executive orders after more than two hundred years of words? Interpret based on modern times, rather than thinking what constitution founders were thinking.

---

other tweets from 2/22/24

I sympathize with Israel. But while so much attention goes to a music festival and the infamous Kibbutz Bei Rei, people don't realize that because of the actions of a few: Hamas, over 20,000 Palestinians have died. I think-don’t quote me- more Palestinians died than Israelis and the bulk of the coverage in Israel centers around those two events, where horrible things like rapes did occur. But North and South of Gaza has been decimated. In Gaza, Electricity has been cut, food is short, shelter is scarce, disease is spreading/people are dying. You’re also creating future enemies because of hardship.

Immigration Nationality Act Section 212f Limited 2 airliners, drug relatedIndividuals?Or any class of aliens thru any means of travel? “President must find that entry of such aliens or class of aliens in2 USA “would be detrimental 2 interests of USA” “ - myattorneyusa dot com. -

Regarding the Immigration Nationality Act (INA) Section 212f, it mentions "any class of aliens" "detrimental to interests of USA". Overcrowding/limited resources/non priority 4 US citizens: reallocation of budgets & finances constitutes “detrimental to interests of United States”

Regarding INA Section 212f, inConjunction w/last 2 tweets, itMentions "any class of aliens" "detrimental 2 USAinterests". Enveloping word 4 classOfAliens inPresently is “falseAsylumSeekers”/“over limit asylumSeekers” as25000weekly, orTemporarily “ASYLUM seekers” Full stop,Period.

is the immigration asylum crisis because no one is matching the definition of a word with asking someone “what is the circumstance behind ur asylum request?”:elaborate! & verifying/matching with current events in a country?

Interpret law vs. following literal wordMeaning…Y do U need an executive order 2 limit asylum seekers, when U just need 2 match some1’s circumstance description w/definition of asylum? It just cannot be! the case that some1 says “I need asylum”&ur letting people illegally enter.

There’s 2 Commandments secular sounding/somewhat obvious. Don’t murder/Don’t steal. What did God intend? Does He need to make a word salad by saying stealing's ok if it's a muffin 2satiate hunger 4 self survival/survival of ur child?**Shouldn’t we interpret law w/changing times?

The judicial and legislative branch are always trying to find the meaning intended by the writers of something as far back as the Constitution. What does it matter, when you can interpret and adapt laws/amendments/words in general with changing times?

Y can't U fingerprint asylum seekers @ border & match corresponding data coming up in a database like that of Interpol? If they bought air travel 2 Mexico, shouldn't there B some record of them in terms of /vocation/criminalHistory/political situation in their placesOfOrigin?

Be like flavored water, with potential of being something meaningful, like jello...every human being is a priest (server/follower), a prophet (teacher), or king (leader/ruler), simultaneously, by nature...I elaborate on this in Tumblr blog post below...click "Back to Table of Contents" in top/left of below web page for more...

There is a degradation of culture in western world: I’m not 1 to call himself religious, but I believe & have insight…I have respect for these practices. A Commandment: Don’t Use My Name in Vain- outta respect, should avoid rhetoric like [Jesus] F* [Christ] or [Holy] f* [God]-

-Y blame God 4 ur’s or other’s choices? God didn’t cause my decade long situation. People did,& their enablers. Nature of existence defined in literal/figurative Adam/Eve story. 4 a bad choice, toil on earth was the punishment.We have power to choose & responsibility of choices.-

- Fate is the framework of our existence. It’s what we are born into. The framework says where the floor and ceiling are. Destiny is how high or low we “choose” to go within the framework of fate.- some people work hard to go above the ceiling.

Theres a time 2 look up, look straight ahead, &inward. U look inward, when U need 2 think thru aProblem. U look straight 2 keep urEyesOpen 4 a solution, & u look up when its time 2 leave 2 God 2 handle the results after U do ur best-ur part. #SaturdayThought #SaturdayMotivation

Congress needs 2 stop these sneaky ways of partisan politics, by combining unrelated issues, in a what is then called a bipartisan package, 4 whatsAdvertised asAn immigration bill. When an issue is critical, don't mix it w/other things 2 get those passed under a state of urgency.

An 8 oz bag of Haribo regular gummy bears might just be my favorite snack, with Carvel ice cream cake: a close second. Did anyone else know the green gummy bear is actually strawberry flavor and the red gummy bear is raspberry flavor?-Blew my mind… See link for picture of front/back of gummy bear bag:

https://x.com/RennyJi/status/1760713646223597748?s=20

Did members of the 3 branches of government embark on years long trials against the Biden family, based on “raw information” that just snowballed and no one verified?!

Did no one really check to verify George Santos’ name, possibly gender, religion, family history (said had some connection to Holocaust and 9/11), education, even a basic resume?

House of reps have summer &Christmas vacation/periods of 2 week recesses…can see Y it attracts Santos’s looking 4 a job 2 cruise by w/…how many continuing resolutions on priority matters were passed while recesses taken & days spent ousting speakers & homeland security chiefs?

3 branches of govmt are officers of United States. They R civil servants 2 accept humility of office & serve people. If yrs long borderCrisis isUnresolved, Congress should “interpret” rightTime 4 privilege of recess & pull an all nighter 2 resolve or solve 50 yr! abortion debate.

Theme of last tweets: it’s like members of branches of American government are playing catch, where 1 guy makes a faint throw like “ehhh”, instead of passing w/ effort 2 other guy. Is effort not obvious? "Interpret law". No 1 wants everything spelled out in more pages of info.

Let your mind be the general guiding your body and life: Our souls(minds) R a chariotDriver, driving Horses that R our emotions/feelings/commitments, inFormOf thought/speech/action. On #SaturdayMorning , as #SaturdayVibes , #SaturdayMotivation , & #SaturdayThought, I extend perspective in Tumblr blog post below:

Another Tumblr blog post on the perspective of interpretation of the law: Interpret law vs. waiting 4 literalWording #JustAnnounced President (s) ( #Presidents )/regular people, need 2see laws asGuidelines 2extrapolate them in2 eachModernDay. #NoOneIsAboveTheLaw #tuesdayvibe #SCOTUSExtended thought onItIn Tumblr post below:

Is my situation happening b/c some1 can’t interpret law regarding right 2 freedom/privacy, slavery, emotionalDistress? Am I in this "situation" 4more than aDecade b/c of varying “definition” of words?! Is some idiot asking, philosophically, whatDoes privacy/freedom truly mean?

This is summing up my "situation." There R other tweets & other Tumblr links among those tweets, ordering what came prior, as U scroll down. Note embedded clips as U scroll.

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voxinvoid · 4 months

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So apparently there is Taylor Swift AI porn being posted on Twitter right now.

The irony is...the only reason I know that is because Taylor Swift fans in a incredibly misguided effort to protect their false god have only brought more attention to the situation.

The Swifities have been posting tweets with random stuff using the hashtag "Taylor Swift AI" in an effort to try to bury the AI porn. But, all they have done is make the term "Taylor Swift AI" trend. Which means now more people know about what is going on. They would've been better off saying nothing and letting this just sink in the algorithm so it wouldn't get as much attention, but no...the cult of Taylor Swift were not capable of thinking that far ahead, apparently.

#taylor swift #twitter #fandom stupidity

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batoutofmel · 1 year

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The world makes no sense to me

A ton of people I follow on Twitter have been like “come find me on Instagram!” and they’re like over there BLOGGING instead of posting photos. I just post photos! I’m an outlier apparently.

(I do know someone who posts photos and then about 25 hashtags, but they don’t tell a story, unless the story is “I’m lonely and awkward and desperate for love.” So am I! and it’s not healthy to try to be dignified EVERY minute, but sometimes, right?)

You know what it puts me in mind of is this new Black Friday Sale situation. Back In My Day(tm) Black Friday was an American sales event that transpired over the course of a single hellish, dystopian day. Then it came to Canada, and then the whole winter holiday season fucking METASTASIZED.

Black Friday in July! Okay..?

Black Friday Week! Friday doesn’t last a week, fuckos!

Now we’re seeing such as Early Black Friday Sale! in October, lasting for weeks. That, and barely any horror movies on TV in October, it’s Xmas already, shops used to wait till November 1st, but fuck MY drag, right?

I’m not trying to be a dink, okay, it’s just how I’m wired. I’m capable of flexibility when it MATTERS, but this is just ruditude.

#ruditude #blackfridayeveryday #iamnotinlove

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bucketdragon40 · 2 years

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adultjeff3 · 2 years

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kaijutegu · 2 years

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What can a picture of an angry snake really teach you?

When you see a picture of an angry snake on social media, it’s a very striking visual. The curved teeth, the tension in the coils and neck– it definitely catches the eye. But is it fair to the snake?

When you’re posting animal content, is it ever ok to post a picture of an animal in obvious distress? I personally think that there are times when it’s actually very valuable to post images of an upset animal, provided that:

It’s well explained and the condition that led to the animal’s distress was necessary.

The distress wasn’t prolonged any longer than it had to be for the animal’s overall health and well-being.

The human is in control of the situation at all times and isn’t putting themselves, the animal, or anyone else at risk while photography is happening.

One of the things that people like Jay Brewer/The Reptile Zoo/Prehistoric Pets likes to share on social media that gets me so upset is Jay provoking female constrictors for no apparent reason when they’re on their eggs. He claims that he does this to remove them so that he can properly incubate the eggs. That in and of itself isn’t a bad thing, but the way he does it is dangerous to both the snake and himself. Personally, I don’t care if he gets bitten, but this isn’t remotely the educational content he likes to think he promotes. I’m not going to link to his social media accounts because attention is a currency, and I don’t want to drive any traffic his way, but here’s some stills that show what I mean.

In this video, Brewer was talking about getting bit in the face while poking at a nest-guarding female by himself with a small snake hook. The responsible way to go about this is to have at least three handlers: two to move the female’s heavy body, while one uses a plexiglass shield to gently hold her face down. A hook is simply not enough to handle an animal this size, and nobody should be attempting to handle an animal this size alone. (Note: I’m not touching on his husbandry here. That’s bad for many other reasons. But what I want to focus on is why he’s showing off an angry snake.) At the start of the video, he’s not even using the snake hook correctly; when you’re working with a distressed snake, the point of the hook is to gently control the head to limit the animal’s ability to strike and ability to hurt itself by striking into something hard.

Anyways, what does he have to say about this video?

Do you learn anything from this? The video is just him talking about how it’s unpleasant to be bitten in the face. It’s all hashtags with no explanation of what he’s doing and why, and there’s none of that in the video either. You learn nothing from this content, despite him claiming to be an animal educator.

Just because you say you’re an educator does not make you one. If the content you’re posting isn’t educational, you’re not educating.

But I truly think that showing animal body language and talking about distress can be educational. Take this instance, posted in the Advancing Herpetological Husbandry group on Facebook:

I think this is a really good example of an educational post featuring a distressed animal. It explains why the animal is distressed: she was defensive over having been removed from her pond so that her enclosure could be cleaned– necessary for the continued well-being of the animal. The picture was taken in the enclosure before the removal process began in earnest, and the caretakers went in with a plan to ensure that neither snake nor humans were injured. And perhaps most importantly, it shows an important reality of keeping large constrictors. Normally when this person posts, his snakes are very chill and relaxed. But when you have an animal that’s potentially quite dangerous, it’s important for people to understand that even though he makes it look easy, caring for these animals isn’t a walk in the park.

#reptiblr #reptile husbandry #jay brewer #prehistoric pets #the reptile zoo #first in a series!#i honestly think jay is worse than brian at this point

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nobodyfamousposts · 4 years

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Miracle Queen Aftermath

Because there is a disappointing lack of focus or depth for the aftermath of Miracle Queen in canon, I have made my own.

Be warned of: Chloe salt. A lot of it. Chloe faces consequences for things.

Some Bustier salt. Some Adrien being called out on things (but he gets better).

Enjoy!

In the weeks following the Miracle Queen incident, a lot had happened.

Hawk Moth had increased his power, and was now able to summon akumas and amoks at the same time.

Master Fu was gone and now Ladybug found herself the official Guardian of the Miraculous—along with the Miracle Box, kwamis, and duties that entails.

Marinette had resolved to let go of her crush on Adrien, and to support him and Kagami in their new relationship together.

And Chloe had been arrested and would now be going on trial for assisting a terrorist.

It was that last bit of news that had caused the most commotion in Paris and the world at large. What people would have dismissed as simply another akuma attack turned into a much greater matter when accusations started to be made about Chloe helping the super villain intentionally. This was soon backed by multiple eyewitness accounts and further proven by leaked video evidence showing Chloe not only attempting to grab a butterfly for herself after she was de-akumatized but even negotiating with the terrorist before the incident in which she betrayed the heroes of Paris and revealed the identities of most of the team.

To say that the people of Paris were outraged was putting it mildly. People were akumatized over it. Chloe was in a secured facility where she had armed guards around to watch her just as much as they were there to protect her. New legislation was being considered to specifically address willingly aiding supervillains. The backlash was so severe that many were calling the mayor’s own position into question.

After all, if his daughter could do all of that, who was to say that he wasn’t also in Hawk Moth’s pocket?

For Mayor Andre, his hands were tied. While he had covered for his daughter and her selfishness in the past, this was one thing he couldn’t overlook. Not when it brought his position as mayor under scrutiny. And certainly not when it opened a probe into his own dealings.

None of this was helped either by the multitude of witnesses of Chloe‘s past behavior. In particular, her many victims over the years.

And there were a lot.

Now that Chloe was actually being held accountable for something, it seemed to have opened a floodgate of outcries as the many people she tormented finally felt able to air their grievances. They came out on TV, on social media, on radio. Stories littered the air and internet of the horrors of dealing with this single teenage girl.

“She tried to cheat during this designing competition. She apparently stole some other girl’s hat design and tried to pass it off as her own.”

“She was the reason the mayor tried to shut down my ice skating rink! To build another gym! Paris has enough gyms! Why couldn’t she just go to one of those?”

“She had her dad shut down Clara Nightingale’s music video and got her akumatized just because she didn’t get to play Ladybug. We waited in that line for HOURS and didn’t get chosen either, but no one else threw a fit over it.”

“She shoved a giant signed poster of Adrien Agreste professing his love to her in my friend’s face just to make her cry! I found out after the fact that he didn’t even know about it!”

“Our entire school was punished for someone pulling the fire alarm except for her because she threatened our principal. So while the rest of us were having to clean up the school, she spent the entire time insulting and making fun of us.“

“Knowing her, she probably pulled the fire alarm in the first place.”

“She tried to crash a train! I don’t think I can emphasize that enough: she tried to crash a train!“

“Chloe Bourgeois joined up with Hawk Moth? Can’t say it’s a shock.”

“Yeah, given how many akumas she caused, I’d been wondering if she hadn’t been working with him all along.”

It wasn’t that unbelievable to the populous. Nor did anyone feel particularly sympathetic towards her for her current situation. Some might have for lack of knowing her, but Chloe had carved herself a special place in the memories and hearts of nearly every Parisian. There was nobody who didn’t know of her or have some experience with her by this point. So when it came out that she was arrested and facing criminal charges, the response was…rather telling.

Practically everyone was calling loved ones as soon as they heard, resulting in high phone and internet traffic. The Ladyblog crashed after making the announcement. Several people threw parties. People over the internet started coming up with a list of “Things We Will Be Allowed To Do Once Chloe Is In Prison”, with a count that currently rested at 139 and was rising quickly. One guy bought 500 cupcakes and just started passing them out to people on the street singing a jaunty little tune from some late 1930’s cult classic American movie. The school had closed down for a couple of days due to several teachers calling out sick—possibly with hangovers from celebrating a bit too hard. Various Queen-related hashtags and memes were trending with each seeming to fight for the top spot of most used. #let her eat cake was currently in the lead. And Mr. Ramier somehow orchestrated a 21 pigeon salute. On Chloe’s rooftop.

As it was, nobody expressed surprise when it came out that she worked with a supervillain. Many were disappointed, shaking their heads and saying “if only something had been done sooner” or blaming the parents and teachers and other adults in her life. Most were angry, mainly that things had been allowed to get this far and that they hadn’t been acted on earlier—particularly after the train incident.

But no. Nobody was surprised.

Except, perhaps, Marinette herself.

Still reeling from the events of Miracle Queen and the aftermath of…well…everything involved, Marinette had been questioning herself. Constantly. Incessantly. Going over and over in her mind all the things she could have done differently. Blaming herself for all the major blows to their team.

She lost her mentor. Her allies have been compromised. Chloe, one of her former allies, chose to betray them all. Hawk Moth had the grimoire now. Marinette didn’t have a grimoire. Fu had no memories.

And it was all because of her mistakes.

Last time, the prospect of never having to deal with Chloe again had been a relief.

Now…it was background static to her.

She could barely hear the announcements and cheers over the endless cycle of her own thoughts.

I should have tried harder. I should have been more aware. I failed them all. This is because of me.

So while everyone else in Paris was celebrating, de-stressing, or just outright reveling in the news, Marinette was grieving. With the help of the kwamis and Chat Noir, she had been trying to come to terms with what happened and figure out the next plan of action.

Hawk Moth had changed the game, so she needed to step up hers.

The days seemed to have passed in a blur. Between working with the kwamis, trying to recreate and retranslate the grimoire, and simply trying to deal with the remnants of Fu’s life that he had left to her, Marinette had barely even kept up with the current state of things in Paris. Or in particular, Chloe.

Not until the day came when Bustier made an announcement.

Chloe‘s trial date was finally decided. And though she didn’t say as such, it was clear that the case against her was pretty solid. There was video evidence. Eye witness accounts. And Chloe’s own words and actions working against her.

The odds were not in her favor on this. Even if her parents did try to help her, she wasn’t going to get off this time. Aside from getting the best lawyers money by, there really wasn’t much they could do.

Maybe that was why Bustier had tried to step in?

“Now class, I have received word that they are moving to the next step with Chloe’s hearing. Right now, they are looking for character witnesses for Chloe’s defense.” The kind teacher explained, causing Marinette to snap to awareness and realize just what was going on. Partly because of the mention of Chloe and her court case.

But mostly because of the sudden dead silence in the class…

To be fair, she wasn’t sure she could say anything either. Marinette felt her throat go dry and her muscles tense. There was a sudden tightness in her lungs that while she could breathe, it felt like she was suffocating. Why was Bustier bringing this up now?

The teacher smiled, seemingly unaware of the sudden tension and Marinette’s slow drowning. “I know this has been a difficult experience knowing that one of your classmates is facing such a trial. And Chloe will certainly need support. So I thought it would be kind if everyone wrote a letter supporting her for the hearing coming up, so the courts can hear about Chloe and understand more about who she is.”

Silence. Dead silence.

Maybe Bustier herself picked up on the growing tension, as she proceeded to move to passing out papers to the class. “I thought it would make for a nice project, so I will give you all the forms explaining the requirements. Take some time to think over what positive things you want to say about Chloe. If you have any questions, please feel free to come talk to me.”

After that, she quickly left the room, citing the desire to let them have this free time to work on the letters.

The class remained silent for a good minute after she left. Almost as if they were questioning if she would return. Or perhaps if she was listening.

Then—

“‘Think about what positive things we want to say about Chloe?’ Well that’s easy!” Alix spoke blithely, curling the paper she received into a ball. “Nothing!” She shouted and tossed it over her shoulder. “Assignment done!”

Murmurs filled the classroom. Some sounded uncertain, but most seemed to be in agreement. Or at least expressing distaste for the assignment.

“Is she serious?”

“Does she really expect us to?”

“Of all the worst ideas...”

Marinette could hear them, but couldn’t seem to acknowledge anything around her. And furthermore, she couldn’t make herself respond.

Chloe‘s trial was set for a point in the next few weeks, and at this point there was no denying just what type of person she was. If anything, this was probably the first time that anyone was allowed to actually speak their mind about the girl, and they were all reveling in it. Her classmates in particular.

Marinette couldn’t quite bring herself to.

Sure, Chloe has tried to blackmail her more than once.

And damaged her gift to their teacher.

And attempted to frame her a few times.

And stolen her hat design.

And her diary.

And a Miraculous.

And all of the other Miraculous.

But...she had been doing better for a while there, hadn’t she?

Didn’t she only betray them all in the end because Marinette had chosen Kagami over her for her own selfish reasons? Didn’t Hawk Moth only capture Fu because of her own mistake? Hadn’t Chloe only revealed everyone else because she felt betrayed? Couldn’t Marinette have done more to prevent Chloe turning?

Wasn’t a simple letter on Chloe’s virtues the least she could do?

So why...

Why couldn’t she seem to bring herself to?

Kim frowned, looking at his paper in worry. “We’re not going to get graded on this, are we?”

Nathaniel huffed. “I’ll willingly take the failing grade any day.”

“Hear hear!”

“But if it’s a grade…” Max murmured to himself. Out of everyone in the class, he took his grades the most seriously, so this was no doubt a difficult choice for him. He looked at his paper with a rather conflicted expression for a minute before sighing and turning it face-down on the desk. “No. It’s an impossible task in the first place.”

Kim rested a hand on Max’s shoulder in sympathy. It wasn’t that he cared as much about grades as Max did, but it was clear that the fallout of refusing could be more troubling for the genius who took his academic performance so seriously. If Bustier did make it a mandatory assignment with a grade, it’d be horribly unfair of her.

“What was it Chloe said before?” Ivan asked, looking over his page with a glare. “Once a monster, always a monster? I guess she’d know more than anyone.”

Mylene hugged him. “You’re not a monster. You never chose to be.”

“None of us did.” Nino agreed.

“Nobody did except her.” Alix bit out.

Mumbles of agreement came from the rest of the class. It was clear that none of them were on board with having anything to do with Chloe, much less try to help her with her current legal woes.

There was a large part of Marinette that agreed with them. But even so, there was also a large part of her that insisted she had to do the right thing and help.

She knew she should say something. She was supposed to say something here. Because it was her fault, after all. She was Ladybug. She had to be the better person. Shouldn’t she?

“Marinette? Girl, are you okay?” Alya asked, drawing her attention. “You look a bit pale.”

It was too much. It was suffocating.

“I think I need some air. Excuse me.”

She didn’t know if anyone watched her leave the classroom. She hadn’t even noticed if anyone had chosen to follow her.

Not until…

“Marinette, are you all right?”

She spun around in surprise.

“Oh! Adrien! Hey! Hi! Hello!” She blabbered. Why was he here? Did he come out after her? Why? She didn’t need this right now! She struggled enough with him under normal circumstances, she wasn’t sure she could handle being alone with him now. Her stress over everything was bad enough, but having him approach her set her anxiety skyrocketing.

“Hey,” he replied, smiling at her—and oh, what a beautiful smile. On any other day, it would ease her worries and make her want to swoon, but right now, it just made her more nervous.

“Are you all right?” He asked again. “You didn’t look so well in class.”

“Y-yeah. Just…” she sighed. “I just have a lot on my mind. With…you know…everything.”

He nodded in understanding. “I know what you mean.”

She smiled. She could always count on Adrien to be a calming supportive friend. He was always so sweet and reliable. If anyone could understand or relate to the chaotic mix of emotions she was feeling, he could.

He sighed in sympathy. “Poor Chloe.”

She froze.

“Chloe?”

“Well, yeah.” He replied, like it was obvious. “I mean, she did a bad thing, but now she’s going through the worst experience of her life. One that could ruin her future. And people are glad about it!” He shook his head. “It’s just too cruel.”

Marinette just stared.

He wasn’t wrong. But…that was what he was worried about?

She couldn’t fault him of course, because Adrien was always so kind and considerate and of course he’d feel for Chloe but…something about this just…pulled at something inside of her and was choking it.

“Chloe is already suffering enough and it feels like no one wants to help her. You heard them.” He gestured back to the classroom. “We’re being given an opportunity to make a difference for her and they’re all just saying she deserves it. Chloe is alone and hurting and they want her to hurt more.”

She felt a denial on her lips but couldn’t give voice to it.

“Everyone is so great with each other. It’s always just Chloe who is kind of on the outside. I know you’ve seen it.”

She hadn’t, actually. Because it was never Chloe on the outside looking in, it was Chloe looking down on them. Whether it was because she genuinely thought she was better or because it made her feel better to do so.

He hesitated for a moment before looking at her. And there was something in his expression that told her he was about to ask something. A gut feeling told her that it was going to be something she wouldn’t like.

“Do you think you could talk to them?” He asked her, looking so sad and despondent that she just wanted to hug him and agree to anything to make that look go away.

“M-me?”

He wanted her to convince her classmates to help Chloe?

“I know you and Chloe have had your differences, but you’ve been able to see past her front. And you’ve done a lot to help her before.” He smiled. “Like the party you threw for her after she became Queen Bee.”

A traitorous voice asked if giving her a second chance with the Miraculous she had previously stolen wasn’t enough? Why did she have to feel bad for her leaving and throw her a party to make her feel special?

“Chloe really needs the help right now. And you’re always so good about that sort of thing.” He looked to her imploringly. “Do you think you could try to get them to at least give Chloe a hand? I don’t know what impact it’ll have in her hearing, but any little bit helps, right?”

Go back in there? With the tension and the suffocation to try and convince her classmates to help when she was questioning whether to herself?

But she had to, right? After all, couldn’t she have prevented this if she had acted sooner? Couldn’t she have helped sooner instead of being focused on her own petty problems? Isn’t that what Ladybug should do?

“Please, Marinette? They listen to you. If you asked them to, I’m sure they’d be willing to at least try.”

Her vision started to dim, seeming to tunnel in on Adrien and his sad and hopeful expression. Her thoughts crying about CHLOE and poor CHLOE and how hurt CHLOE was and how it was her fault for CHLOE—

“I—”

“Oh no! No, you do NOT.”

Marinette suddenly found herself torn away from Adrien by a sudden grab of her arm and pulling sensation. She felt as if she was pushed out of the way by a fierce gale. Like a raging whirlwind had spun her around and behind it.

That whirlwind’s name was Alya.

“How dare you? How dare you try to make my girl be responsible for this!”

Marinette floundered because she had not expected this and oh no now her best friend looked ready to tear her crush’s head off!

“Alya, we don’t have to do this!” She pleaded, trying to calm the other girl down.

“Oh, we most certainly do.” Came another voice. And sure enough, the rest of the class had stepped out as well. All of them looked in varying ranges of frustrated and that frustration was clearly directed at her and Adrien.

Or rather just Adrien, as Marinette discovered when Rose and Juleka pulled her aside and out of their direct line of sight. They were all looking at Adrien, and those were not nice or understanding expressions.

Oh no! This was a disaster! Now everyone was upset and she should have just agreed or said something sooner!

Completely unaware of Marinette’s inner turmoil, Alya stepped forward and jabbed at Adrien in the chest. “You are not going to make my girl feel bad and try to help someone who has never done a single nice thing for her or anyone.” She spat out, forcing him to back away.

Adrien held his hands up in a placating gesture. “Come on, Chloe is not that bad.“

“Not that bad?” Nino exclaimed, shaking his head in disbelief at his friend’s words. “Adrien, Chloe betrayed us!“

“She took over Paris!”

“She turned us into her servants!“

“Not to mention the other things…”

“Do we really have to name each time?” Alya started to count on her fingers. “Chloe CHOSE to take the Miraculous for herself instead of returning it. She CHOSE to transform in front of everyone and reveal her identity to the world. She CHOSE to try and crash a train, risking the lives of EVERYONE on board just to show off. She CHOSE to run off with it when Ladybug tried to take it back.”

“She also chose to continue being horrible to everyone even after Ladybug gave her a second chance.” Nathaniel added, bitterly. “She didn’t get better after becoming Queen Bee. It just became another thing for her to lord over people.”

Alya nodded. “And when Ladybug made it clear to her that she wasn’t going to be Queen Bee again, she felt ENTITLED to something that was never hers in the first place. And because of that, she made the active, knowing, and willful choice to work with Hawk Moth.”

“And out all of us while she was at it.” Kim added. “Turning us into her personal ‘guard’. Making us fight our heroes against our will.” He shuddered. “I don’t know if you were hit by those things, Adrien, but it was NOT a pleasant experience having your body turned into a puppet.”

Adrien wanted to argue that he understood full well, but that was only as Chat. He couldn’t say that here.

Unaware of his inner turmoil, Alya continued. “So no, we are not going to forgive Chloe. We are not going to try and ‘get along’ with her because her own poor choices have led her to have a ‘rough time’.”

Adrien grew nervous at the way the others drew closer to Alya as she spoke, clearly backing her statements as she continued.

“We are not going to defend her or speak up on her behalf to the entirety of Paris she ALSO betrayed. Whatever consequences Chloe has to face—quite possibly the first ones she will EVER have faced in her LIFE—are nothing less than what she deserves.”

“Yeah!” Came the exclamations from the rest of the crowd.

“She didn’t know what she was doing!” Adrien argued.

“Not know what she was doing?! Adrien, she willingly accepted an akuma! She used it to take control of us and revealed us to Hawk Moth!” Alya exclaimed. “That’s just—how can you even justify that?”

With as angry as Alya was, any lesser or wiser man would have backed off.

Adrien…well, she certainly would never call him unwise, so it had to be because he was more strong-willed than that to be willing to stand his ground here.

“Hawk Moth was the one who manipulated Chloe!” He insisted. “And he’s the one who got away scott free and left Chloe to take the fall.”

“And whose fault was that?” Alya countered. “Chloe HELPED him. He only got as far as he did because of her and he only got away because she helped him!”

“Don’t you think this is cruel?” He argued back. “Yes, Chloe was wrong, but she was already called out for what she did by Ladybug and Chat Noir. The entire city hates her. Isn’t that enough?”

“NO!” Alya shouted. “No, it isn’t! Because Chloe has always gotten away with her antics in the past but you’re actually trying to get us to let Chloe off for a legitimate crime here! If Chloe is going to prison, it’s only because she deserves it!”

Around them, several of the others in the class nodded in agreement.

“How can you say that?” Adrien demanded. “Chloe made a mistake and she’s suffering for it! All this time, she’s felt left out and cut off and this only further emphasizes that for her! She’s been alone all this time and now she’s alone and miserable!”

“Then why should that be OUR problem?” Alya questioned, raising her hands in exasperation. “Why are you trying to MAKE it our problem?!”

Adrien drew back, looking genuinely hurt.

"But treating someone badly never made them become a good person."

"Yeah, because letting Chloe have her way all this time has totally made strides in her path to becoming a good person." Alix called out sarcastically.

"If anything, it's made her worse." Max added. "She's gone from simply causing akumas to intentionally becoming one."

“But—”

Alya cut him off. “But nothing, Adrien! You have to have some gall to be trying to get us to make nice with Chloe after she betrayed us all! And here I thought your little lecture to Marinette to make her feel bad for being relieved that Chloe was leaving Paris was pretty hard to beat.”

Nino blanched at that. “You did what?” He turned on Adrien. “Dude! You know that happened after Chloe tried to crash that train!”

“She was just trying to prove herself.” Adrien weakly argued.

“PEOPLE were on there!” Nino bit out. “They could have DIED because Chloe was showing off! And you got on to MARINETTE? Where was this attitude with Chloe?”

“I’ve called her out!”

“Yeah, one time.” Alya groused. “AFTER the rest of us had spent the better part of the day cleaning up after HER mess. Which she never apologized for or admitted to doing, by the way.”

“And in response, she threw a party.” Juleka muttered.

“It was a nice party, sure.” Rose added quickly.

Alya though shook her head. “But being a good hostess is nowhere near the same thing as being a good person. And before the night was over, you rolled over for her and she went RIGHT back to acting as she always had.”

“She made Mylene cry.” Ivan glared. “She made Mylene cry and you just laughed.”

“I didn’t mean—”

“You said it yourself: ‘she’ll never change’. Except you said that like it was a good thing.”

Marinette looked back and forth between the two, everything inside her screaming at her to help. But she was completely lost on which one she was supposed to help. Because Adrien had a point about what Chloe’s going through but Alya was right about what Chloe did and she needed to do the “right thing” and help Chloe but why did everything Alya say resonate so strongly with her and bring such a feeling of vindication—

No. She was getting distracted. She needed to help. And right now, it was Adrien against the rest of the class.

But Alya was worked up. And Adrien was looking past her to Marinette, eyes begging for help and still so hopeful that she would step in. And Chloe was still in prison and Marinette could fix everything if she just tried so why can’t she try?

“Alya,” Marinette tried. “You told me to give Chloe a chance before after the fire alarm incident, remember? You said we were a lot alike.”

“That was to get you to go to a party!” Alya shouted, making Marinette step back in surprise. “I never meant it like this!”

She stepped forward and took Marinette by the shoulders, holding her sternly.

“Marinette, you are nothing like Chloe! Not where it counts! Yeah, you both can be short sighted when it comes to trying for what you want, but you at least notice and CARE how other people feel! And when you make a mistake, you at least TRY to make it right!”

She shook her head.

“Chloe…doesn’t.”

“She doesn’t try to.” Alix cut in. “If Chloe was feeling sad and lonely, that was pretty much her own fault.”

Adrien looked like he wanted to argue, but Alix didn’t even give him a chance.

“It wasn’t like we left her out. We went well out of our way to try and befriend her. We invited her to things. We tried to help her. Hell, you said it yourself—Marinette has tried to help her more than anybody! And each and every time, Chloe only took what we offered like it was something we owed her but that she was also too good for. I mean, I certainly can’t recall a time she ever thanked me. Can you?” She asked, turning to the other classmates.

All around them, there were murmurs of agreement. Maybe a couple hesitated as they tried to recall a time—one single moment of kindness on Chloe’s part only to come up empty.

“Chloe’s had a hard time.” Adrien insisted. “You know how her parents are—”

“Oh yes, her ‘Daddy the Mayor’.” Alix rolled her eyes. “Like we don’t hear enough about him every time it comes to something Chloe wants. She only threatens us or anyone with him every other day.”

Adrien shook his head and tried to explain. “It’s only because her parents aren’t there for her emotionally.”

“Again, not seeing how this is our problem? Or justification for anything she’s done to us? Or how this excuses her willingly helping a supervillain?”

“Because we’re her classmates!” He argued back, gesturing to all of them. “Out of everyone, we’ve all had the most interactions with her.”

“All of which were negative.” Came a cutting remark, followed by grumbling.

“There were good times, too!” Adrien insisted with a frown. His eyes spanned over the assembled classmates before they came to rest on one in particular. “Kim, you have to have seen Chloe’s good side. You liked her before.”

“Before.” Kim replied, emphasizing the word and the timeframe it referred to. “But being humiliated and her sending out that pic to everyone in school kind of crushed that crush.”

“How did she even have our numbers?” Ivan asked.

“But there had to be something that made you like her in the first place.” Adrien encouraged.

The taller boy shrugged, uncertain and uncaring. “Maybe so, but was it something that was really there? Or something I just wanted to see? Because I’m looking back and quite frankly, I don’t know what past me was thinking.”

“Wow, that’s deep, man.” Nathaniel whispered.

“Thanks!”

Seeing Nathaniel gave Adrien an idea. “Wait, Nathaniel! Didn’t Chloe let you put her in your comic?”

“Forced us to, more like.” The artist bit back. “And even when we tried to fit her, we got nothing but complaints from her. It was no wonder we never got past the initial concept art for her character.”

Adrien winced. “It was an attempt, at least?”

Nathaniel wasn’t buying it. “A poor one.”

“She’s been trying to be better.” Adrien was getting increasingly frustrated. This was not how he was expecting this argument to go. “Rose? What about you? You’ve seen it, haven’t you?”

After all, Rose was sweet and caring, always willing to see the good in anyone. Surely she would have something nice about Chloe!

Juleka frowned at him over his focus on her girlfriend and moved to stand beside her. “Don’t push her.”

Still he tried.

“Rose?”

“I’m sorry, Adrien.” Rose said, hugging herself. “But Chloe has done nothing but hurt people. And going out of our way to protect her has only ended up biting us.”

That wasn’t true. Not...all the time at least. There had to have been at least one instance where she did the right thing!

Adrien brightened in realization. “Didn’t she catch you when you fell after being deakumatized during Heroes Day?”

The blonde girl frowned. “Well, yes…but she wasn’t very nice about it. Even though I did the same for her before.”

“Rose, come on…”

She shook her head. “I put myself at risk to help Chloe when she was being chased by zombies, and only got turned into one for my efforts. Chloe never appreciated it. She never thanked me. She didn’t even do anything to help when we were trying to keep her safe!”

“We all ended up kissing zombies because of her.” Alix accused, crossing her arms and looking particularly annoyed. “And not just because she caused the akuma in the first place.”

“Why are you pushing this?” Mylene asked. “We’ve been asked. We said no. Isn’t that enough?”

“But—”

“Adrien, you’ve got a good heart.” Ivan started.

“Easy for him when he’s not the one who has to be on the receiving end of Chloe’s tantrums.” Alix cut in, clearly sounding bitter.

“You’ve got a good heart.” Ivan repeated, sending Alix a look that asked her to back off. “But Chloe…doesn’t.”

Adrien shook his head, remaining insistent. “That’s why she needs help.”

“If she needs help,” Mylene spoke, “It should come from her parents. Her teachers. Any of the adults in her life. She has plenty of adults who are fully capable of helping her. It should not be expected to come from the kids she’s spent years tormenting.”

She gestured to herself and the others around her. “And that’s what she’s been doing: tormenting us.”

“To great joy, might I add.” Max droned.

“She hasn’t been cruel to everyone.” Adrien muttered.

That brought out a backlash of outrage.

“She outted my crush!”

“She insulted Mylene’s cooking and made her cry!”

“She got Aurore akumatized and nearly caused Paris to be incinerated in a volcano!”

“She tried to push Mylene out of the lead role of our movie!”

“She locked Juleka in the restroom!”

Wait...

But that hadn’t been Chloe. She had stayed with the class at the time. The one who did do it was...

He glanced around until he saw her—a redhead in the background behind the rest of the class. She looked anxious and uncomfortable, and almost seemed to be trying to edge around the class to get to the stairs.

Adrien did seem aware. Or rather, he was focused on the fact she was there.

“Sabrina? What about you? Chloe was your friend!”

Of course she would help! Because who better than her own best friend to speak on her behalf?

The rest of the class broke into mutters as they realized the same.

But Sabrina...bit her lip and looked away. Refusing to even meet Adrien’s gaze.

“Sabrina?” Marinette tried, concerned about this reaction. Sabrina had been Chloe’s best friend—or at least the closest thing she could have to a friend. “Minion” or “Servant” would be more accurate. “Slave” would be more honest.

The girl had been Chloe’s only real fan and follower, and had assisted Chloe in some of her worst plots.

Marinette had briefly seen another side to her. A girl who was so desperate for friendship that she latched onto even the slightest bit of kindness and went to the greatest of extremes to appease the “friend” so they wouldn’t leave her. It was no wonder she had fallen in with Chloe—someone like that was perfect for the spoiled girl. Compared to her, Marinette’s anxieties and need to please were nothing.

And Chloe had pretty much been her world for years.

What must she be feeling now?

“Should we really be getting her opinion?” Ivan whispered. “You know how she and Chloe were…”

“Well, if anyone would have anything positive to tell the courts about Chloe, it would be her.” Mylene whispered back.

Sabrina took a breath and spoke quickly—almost shouting in her rush.

“I’m sorry but my therapist said I shouldn’t!”

That got a surprise. The rest of the classmates glanced to each other before looking back to the girl. Adrien in particular looked shell-shocked. Marinette couldn’t blame him. She felt the same.

Sabrina for her part seemed to tense up, as if ready to defend herself from the rest of the class.

Marinette stepped forward. “Sabrina? Are…you okay?”

The other girl shook her head, looking close to tears.

“After word got out what Chloe did, the police had to question me about Chloe. They were able to see that I wasn’t involved, but they…didn’t like what I told them about our relationship. Afterwards, my dad decided to have me see a counselor and she…has been telling me things that I hadn’t really considered.” She curled in on herself. “They all think I should stay away from Chloe and anything directly related to her…for my own health.”

Adrien frowned at that. “But don’t you want to help Chloe?”

Sabrina jumped. “Of course, I do!”

“Hold up, Adrien!” Nino stepped in. “She just said police took her in because of Chloe!”

“But they let her go…”

“It still happened!” Mylene argued. “It doesn’t matter how nice they are, how innocent you know you are, or if you’re released in the end, it’s still terrifying when it happens!”

"And it only happened to her because of Chloe." Alya added.

Rose, in her infinite sweetness, reached out to take Sabrina’s hand in support. “I’m sorry that happened to you.”

Sabrina sobbed and covered her face. Aside from Rose, no one else really attempted to comfort her. Most of them simply watched her, pitying her current state. But they also remembered how complicit she had been in Chloe’s schemes, so they were conflicted. While they did feel bad for her current situation, there was a part of most of them that noted how she had brought it upon herself by being Chloe‘s lackey for so long, so their sympathy was limited.

Perhaps it was out of awkwardness, or maybe an attempt to give some respect for Sabrina’s privacy that the classmates turned away from her and instead focused on the heart of the argument.

“Man...” Nino tried. “Maybe you should let it go?” Though it was clear from his tone that he knew it wasn’t likely.

Because Adrien had still not given up, it seemed.

He looked around between of the classmates, growing more desperate. But those that remained either looked at him straight on as if daring him to call on them or looked away. A few of them even closed ranks as if to block his view of certain others. It was clear none of them were willing to help him on this.

None of them except…

“Marinette.” He called out, drawing her gaze to him instantly. “You understand, don’t you?”

She bit her lip. “I…”

“Back off, Adrien.” Kim said, giving the other boy an angry frown as he stood in front of her to shield her from his gaze. “It’s not on Marinette to help Chloe.”

“Yeah! She suffered more than any of us!“ Ivan shouted.

“She has been Chloe’s main target for years.” Nathaniel agreed. “She is the last person who is obligated to help Chloe now.“

Adrien winced at the harshness of their words and in their tone. “I just thought that Marinette could help. Like before.”

“Just because she could doesn’t mean she should have had to.” Alya countered. “She’s a teenager. Dealing with Chloe should have been the job of adults. Her parents. Bustier. Damocles. Any one of them should have done something—and if they can’t, the courts will. It’s their job. Not ours.”

“And getting her to help you wouldn’t make a difference anyway even if you had convinced us.” Max said, shifting his glasses. “Chloe helped Hawk Moth. There is nothing we could say that could undo that. And even if we did try, we would either be guilty of committing perjury or aiding in a conspiracy.”

“What?” Adrien jerked in surprise.

“The best we can do is be character witnesses.” Mylene explained. “But this is a court and we can’t claim something that isn’t true! We can’t say anything nice about Chloe when she hasn’t done anything nice!”

Max nodded and shifted his glasses. “Furthermore, our testimonies—even if they were positive—would only serve to create a narrative about Chloe and the type of person she is. They can’t explain away the current evidence against her.”

He rubbed the back of his head. He knew there were issues, but he also knew Chloe. He knew what she could be like. He knew she was a good person deep down. “I know she’s made some mistakes—”

“No.” Alya stated sharply. “Calling them ‘Mistakes’ implies that her actions were unintentional. ‘Mistakes’ implies that people were harmed by accident. ‘Mistakes’ implies that she would have any point learned from them. They weren’t mistakes, Adrien. They were willful acts of cruelty every single time.”

Ivan shook his head, pityingly. “We can’t save Chloe from this. We have nothing to say in her defense. The kindest thing we can do for her is stay silent.”

“She’s better than you think she is. She threw that party once for everyone, remember? You all went.” Adrien reminded them.

“That only proved that she could throw a party and be a good host, not that she could be a good person. There is a difference.” Nathaniel pointed out.

“Not that Chloe could tell.“ Alix sniped.

Adrien ignored the barb. He had given up on getting any of them to listen and now only had eyes for her. His last hope.

“Marinette….come on…please.”

She hesitated.

Everything in her that was Ladybug and her crush on Adrien and her desire to make people happy and take the high road and give second-third-fourth chances wanted nothing more than to give it to him.

Except...

There was a long pause. No one spoke.

The other classmates have had their say. They were letting Marinette have hers. And she knew in that moment that if she spoke up…if she did as Adrien wished and tried to help Chloe…she knew they would go along with her. It may be more out of respect for Marinette than it would be out of any sort of forgiveness for anything Chloe had done, but it would still help Chloe and it would still make Adrien happy.

…and hadn’t Marinette already done that enough?

“Did you know?” Marinette started, not looking at anyone. “I would have been well within my rights to press charges against Chloe?”

Adrien balked at that.

“She’s stolen from me at least three times now.” She shrugged. “I mean, sure, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything about my diary since she had Sabrina steal it for her, but she did steal my hat design for a competition and I had proof. I could have pressed charges against Chloe and let her face some consequences…but I didn’t.”

She looked up at Adrien. “I also could have pressed charges for what she did to my gift for Madame Bustier. Since she did break into my locker and vandalize my property while it was still technically mine…but I didn’t.

“Adrien.” She spoke almost in monotone, the only sign of her emotions being how she clenched her fists. “Did you know that after the fashion show, my parents and I took a train to get home?”

He furrowed his brows in confusion. What did that have to do with anything?

“It was the same train Chloe took control of and nearly caused to crash.”

Several gasps resounded around them. Apparently this had not been common knowledge.

“Even if Chloe could have bought her way out of any consequence for the other things, we all could certainly have had her face some major trouble for that one…” Marinette took a shuddering breath. “But we didn’t.”

Adrien frowned. “I…I see that—”

“No, I don’t think you do.” She cut him off. “Because instead of any of that…rather than hold Chloe accountable at any point, I catered to her. I tried to understand Chloe. I tried to make things nicer for Chloe. I tried to excuse Chloe. Time and again. Just like everyone else. Just like you wanted me to. Just like you’re asking me to now. And what did that get us?”

The more she talked, the more words filled out and she was unable to stop the torrent.

“I defended her from Alya after Madame Bustier was akumatized, and Chloe stole a Miraculous and nearly got my family killed. I helped Chloe bond with her Mom—costing myself any chance at a once in a lifetime opportunity in the process—and Chloe tried to get me banished from Paris just for saying she wasn’t a superhero. I threw Chloe a party to show her some appreciation, and she willingly worked with a supervillain to take over Paris. Just to fuel her ego and because she felt she was owed something that wasn’t hers.”

She tilted her head, considering.

“What is that American saying? Three strikes and you’re out?” Her eyes narrowed. “I have given Chloe more than three chances. I have done nothing BUT give her chances. And clean up after her. And just…try to help her. At no point has she been grateful. At no point did she ever apologize. Or show the slightest bit of remorse for anyone she hurt. Or just…try to do better.”

She stepped forward. Past her classmates. Past Alya, who looked ready to tear into Adrien herself.

“So tell me, Adrien. How much more am I supposed to do? What miracle am I supposed to achieve to help Chloe to be a better person that I haven’t already done?”

“You can just try.” Adrien begged. “Chloe’s alone. She has no one in her corner. You’ve given her chances before! Can’t you find it in your heart to give her another chance this time?”

“Why haven’t you?” Alya demanded.

Adrien drew back in surprise at that.

But the girl wasn’t letting him off. “If you’re so certain Chloe is the victim in all this, then why aren’t you stepping up to help her? Why are you pushing Marinette and the rest of us to do it?”

Alya wrapped an arm around Marinette in support. “If you truly believe Chloe has some sort of inner goodness that only needs the right person to bring it out, then it’s pretty clear Marinette is just not that person. She’s tried enough.”

Alix nodded. “I’m pretty sure she could’ve demolished a brick wall with how many time she’s banged her head against it by this point trying to drag a decent person out of Chloe.”

Others in the class also nodded and gave sounds of agreement to that.

Adrien frowned, lowering his head despondently. “I’m just one person. There’s only so much weight my word will have. I just...I just want to give her the best chance.”

“That’s nice for Chloe, I guess.” Kim muttered. “But not much for us.”

Adrien looked up in surprise. “What do you mean?”

Alya stepped forward, releasing Marinette in the process. “Adrien, why should we as Chloe’s victims have to help protect her? That’s the thing we’re not getting here. WE are the ones she hurt. WE are the ones she betrayed to Hawk Moth. So why are WE supposed to try and save her from her own consequences? Why are you wanting us to?”

Adrien hesitated.

“Can you even imagine what it was like? Being frozen in time. Unable to move or speak? Only able to hear her voice in your head? Feeling your body respond as she’s calling you and being unable to stop?” She clutched her arms, as if trying to hug herself. “Do you have any idea how terrified I was knowing what she was doing to us but being completely unable to stop it? How humiliating it was when she had us bowing to her and calling her our Queen? And then…” She took a breath. “She made us fight our heroes. Ladybug and Chat Noir trusted us to help them and we used the Miraculous they entrusted to us to try and kill them.”

“We were just lucky that they were able to turn the tables on us.” Kim muttered. “I don’t even want to know what would have happened if we had won.”

“Luka still has nightmares.” Juleka whispered. “He won’t talk about it, but he hasn’t had a good night’s sleep in weeks.”

Marinette winced. She hadn’t even considered that everyone else could be suffering ramifications of Miracle Queen as well.

“We could have killed them.” Max stated. “Given the nature of the Snake Miraculous’s power, we very well could have more than once for all we know.”

“Maybe you wouldn’t have killed them?” Rose suggested, trying to be positive. “I mean, Chloe wanted all of the Miraculous, right? She probably wanted them as her servants as well.”

Max glared. “I’m pretty sure I attempted to send Chat Noir into space. Even a Miraculous can’t protect someone from that.”

Adrien tried not to wince at the memory. How he managed to even move enough to activate the Miraculous, he still wasn’t sure.

“We fought against them. We never wanted to, but we did.” Alya bit out. “Not even because of Hawk Moth this time, but because of Chloe. And now you are wanting us to just…overlook the trauma of the whole thing to help Chloe after what she did. For something she hasn’t shown even the slightest remorse for.”

She shook her head.

“I know you’re nice, Adrien. But this level of kindness is a cruelty.”

He winced. And it looked like he wanted to argue. But he just…wilted.

“I just…it feels harsh. What’s happening to her. The amount of hate she’s getting. That her entire life could be over.”

That was true. While they felt her current status was well deserved, it was a harsh sentence for anyone. Especially a teenager.

Nathaniel sighed. “Adrien, it is harsh. Maybe cruel. But fact is that she still brought on herself.”

“Isn’t that just victim-blaming though?” Adrien countered, frustrated now. “I mean, Hawk Moth manipulated her! How was that her fault? He’s the one who did it. She was…” He clenched his fists in anger. “Chloe is a victim.”

“No, we are the victims.” Alya insisted, gesturing to herself and the other revealed former heroes. “We were the ones used to fight our heroes. We were the ones who had our identities revealed to the world against our will. And now we are the ones having to live with the results of Chloe‘s choices, just like we always are.“

Adrien looked ready to argue. And maybe he would have, except...

Nino rested a hand on Adrien’s shoulder.

“Adrien. Dude. Just stop. We have enough to deal with and this…this isn’t helping.”

Adrien frowned at that, concerned by his friend’s attitude. “Nino?”

Nino lowered his head. “I wasn’t going to say anything. Really, I was trying not to think about it. But my parents are currently talking with police about their options. Now that I’ve been exposed as one of the temporary heroes, they’re questioning if it’s not safe for us at home anymore. There is a chance of us having to go into protective custody.”

Alya winced at that, drawing attention to her. “My parents have been talking as well. My mom quit her job. She said she doesn’t want to work for someone who would let their daughter do such a thing and put me in danger. She’s looking at drawing me out of school since it was pretty much Chloe‘s base of operations. And since Chloe is the Mayor’s daughter…and Hawk Moth…and just…everything?” She looked away, clearly anxious.

“There’s a chance we may have to move out of Paris altogether.”

Marinette gasped.

Alya looked to the other girl, sad and guilty all in one. “I’m sorry, girl. I guess I’ve been hoping it wouldn’t be an issue. I’ve been trying to talk them out of it, but it’s hard given everything that happened. Currently, the only reason they’re willing to stay is to see through to the end of the trial. But after that…” She shrugged, shaking her head uncertainly. “Who can say?”

“No…” Adrien whispered in shock.

The others in class came closer around her, trying to offer some comfort and reassurances—what little they could give, at least. This was a situation that was clearly beyond them. Marinette herself hugged Alya tightly for all she was worth, and the other girl held her back just as much, neither wanting to be parted.

Adrien, however, remained on the outside looking in. Watching the people Chloe had tormented even before Miracle Queen and realizing just how badly they’ve been hurt by this. It hit him then—for what was perhaps the first time just how much pain Chloe had caused his friends. And how unfair he had been to expect them to simply deal with it.

He stayed the lone person outside of the circle. By this point, did he really deserve to join in the comfort? To try to be the one to give comfort? After what he had tried to push on them all?

After minutes passed, they were finally able to draw away from each other.

“I’m sorry for not saying anything sooner.” Alya told Marinette. “I guess I was just hoping…y’know…that it wasn’t real. Or that it would go away and things would work out on their own.”

Marinette smiled. “No, I understand.”

And she did. That’s exactly what she herself had been doing for the past few weeks as well. Trying to deal with things without really dealing with them. Working without acknowledging just what it all meant because she was scared she would break down and that would be just one more thing Hawk Moth would have won because of this whole mess.

“I was kind of the same way.” She admitted, and it felt like a slight relief to be able to say aloud to someone. “I’m sorry I couldn’t talk to you about it.”

She still couldn’t, unfortunately. Not about Ladybug and the kwamis and the Miracle Box.

But…she could talk about Fu. How she lost him. How she feels. She could help support Alya and her classmates and be there for them in the meantime.

She…hadn’t lost everything.

Not yet.

And that was the scary thing…

Adrien gaped at the group. He had thought the trauma was bad enough, and that at least could be worked through. But this...

“I’m sorry. I...I didn’t even realize...”

“Adrien, what Chloe did put a major target on our backs.” Alya explained. “Nobody knows how we became heroes, or that Ladybug was the one to specifically choose us and give us the miraculous to use. Nobody knows WHY we were chosen. It’s not just Hawk Moth, any regular criminal can come after us now in an attempt to get a hold of that power. And we can’t exactly protect ourselves.”

She shrugged helplessly.

“We kind of have enough to worry about with the fallout of Chloe‘s actions. And now you want us to try and protect Chloe on top of that?“

Seeing it now, in this light...it was cruel. It was cruel and unfair and hurtful, and Marinette felt horrible for considering letting herself be talked into it.

Adrien himself felt horrible for even suggesting it.

“We all have to live with the consequences of Chloe’s choices.” Alya stated. “So why shouldn’t she?”

Silence followed. It practically echoed throughout the entire hallway.

He said nothing in response. What could he possibly say? He’d known that Chloe was…difficult with other people, to say the least. He’d known the type of person she was. But she was his friend and friends forgive and support each other, right?

But they were right as well. It wasn’t fair to expect them to help Chloe after what she did. Especially once he knew of the level of harm she’d caused them. He felt the horror trickle in. The trauma everyone felt. The knowledge of what they’d been forced to do. The fact that…

He suddenly found it harder to breathe.

Nino could leave.

Adrien could lose his best friend because of this.

And who knew how many of the others would be forced to leave as well. Aside from Nino; Kim, Max, Alya, and Luka were other heroes as well. Juleka was Luka’s sister. And how many of the other classmates might be pulled out of this class and school because it’s unsafe? And Kagami—oh god, she was outted as well. He hadn’t heard from her in a while. Her mother is probably furious. She could move back to Japan because of this. And Marinette…she had been lucky to not be caught up in that fight since she was a hero only the one time, but that could have been just one more thing Chloe ruined for her…

…what about himself?

He paled.

He was longtime friends with Chloe. Went to school with Chloe. Was in class with Chloe. Chloe, who was currently getting a lot of heat from all of Paris. How was his Father going to react to that? The man was always focused on the company and appearances…what would he do now that Chloe had fallen from grace in such a way? Would he forbid Adrien from talking to Chloe again? Would he pull Adrien from school?

…would he ban Adrien from leaving the house altogether?

How was he only just now considering the impact? For himself or anyone else? Of course people would be hurt. Of course they would be upset. Of course people would respond. Somehow, he knew that, and yet he had only been focused on Chloe that it hadn’t actually hit home until now…

And in that light…

It had been selfish to ask. Honestly, he’d known that when he first tried to approach Marinette. But he felt he had to try. Honestly, part of him had known better than to ask in the first place. But at the same time…there was a part of him that still believed things could just go back to “normal”.

…how foolish. That was a “normal” that nobody else wanted. And even more, it was one that was now impossible…all because of Chloe herself.

“I just wanted to help.”

He deflated, losing all remaining fight.

“I’m sorry.”

The classmates glanced between each other. There was much they could have said, but really, anything they could have said already had been. And with him seeming resigned, it appeared there was no longer a need to defend themselves.

Marinette—ever the mediator, stepped up and hugged Adrien.

“Adrien, this isn’t something you can help with. None of us can. What happens in the trial is up to the courts. And what happens to Chloe is up to her.”

Slowly, he reached up and hugged her as well. The warmth and comfort brought some limited solace in this situation. He felt lost. Out of control. Like the world was moving around him and he didn’t know where he was standing much less where he was supposed to be.

They weren’t ready to forgive Chloe. And he couldn’t force them to be. Given the circumstances, he couldn’t blame them. And it was really unfair of him to try. Especially…

“I’m sorry, Marinette.” He whispered to her.

He had tried to use her. Looking back, he had a bit of a tendency to rely on Marinette to fix things when she shouldn’t have had to. Especially when it was for Chloe’s sake. He knew plenty of times Chloe had done things…but he always seemed to overlook how hurt Marinette was because of it, simply due to how well she always appeared afterwards. She was strong and confident, but also a good listener and willing to forgive. It was like nothing really brought her down.

It was due to this that Marinette was often the one he turned to whenever things happened. Because she would listen. She would understand. And she would always try to help, regardless of her position.

In this light…he may have over relied on her too much.

“I wasn’t fair to you.” He admitted. “I just saw Chloe hurting and only thought about how to fix things for her. I didn’t consider your feelings.” He hugged her more strongly. “I’m sorry.”

She didn’t speak. But she squeezed him back.

He felt another body press against him. A quick glance showed it to be Nino.

“I’m still super mad with her. And I don’t like how you tried to push us to defend her after what she did. But I get that she’s your friend and you care about her. I’d do the same if it were you in her place.” He gave a small laugh. “Not that I think you ever would, of course.”

Adrien smiled back. “Thanks.”

This…this felt much better.

Things weren’t okay right now. He still wanted to help Chloe. His classmates were still hurt. People were still angry. Hawk Moth was still out there.

But whatever happened...in this moment, he felt they could make it.

#ml fic #chloe salt #miracle queen #marinette dupain cheng #marinette defense squad #adrien agreste #alya cesaire #nino lahiffe #adrien salt

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