#the only person at my school who knows even a shred of my identity is a dude who asked me | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sophieinwonderland · 1 year

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Ngl as a chicano (Mexican-American) your "neutrality" on the transracial thing is disheartening. I don't think the conversation is about gatekeeping every culture ever.

Cultures are bound to overlap. No one (atleast that I know irl) is out here policing the all the exchanges of culture that happen in my city (Wether it be Black, Laos, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Latin American, Jamaican, Eastern European, etc.)

The conversation is about the notion of them changing their physical appearance such as their face (to match stereotypes) and skin color (that they can revert back any second if they wanted, me having a headmate that has a white skin tone does not give me white privilege! So I don't know why this transracial bs should be tolerated the other way around.)

It's incredibly uncomfortable and anxiety-inducing to hear someone FETISHIZE a RACIAL IDENTITY. And yes I know "race" can be ambiguous and is basically an outdated scientific term, but in this context it's just someone's outward appearance and culture they were born into. It means a damn lot. And people don't get to say "uwu I think this race is cool I'm literally them now no one say otherwise" Like NO. I don't care how respectful they are how much they've studied whatever, you don't get to just romanticize and appropriate how an entire population of people look. Trying to change your physical appearance to "fit in" with an ethnicity reinforces the wrong external perspective of "skin color/facial features = ethnicity/culture".

I was held back in school for not being able to speak english properly. Once I did I was still being ridiculed by adults and denied of multiple diagnosis' not only because of my skin color but because of the neighborhood I belonged too. I had been apprehended as a child multiple times for being at the wrong place at the wrong time... But if I was some white kid with golden retriever hair it DEFINITELY would not have happened. My high school had a 5% white student population, and those kinds of high schools are practically blacklisted from every college in my area that wasn't a community college. (nothing wrong with community college) but you needed to be a "prodigy" to not get yelled at from your parents to failing to reach a private institution... or outright go through the process of moving to another state. My teachers always told us how they've seen them shred our application papers instantly upon seeing the school name, and they used that was a way to perpetuate an already shitty education system to be even shittier for a population that is already facing so many other difficulties. You wanna tell me with a straight face that someone who "identifies" as a racial minority should unironically be given the same positive treatments that transgender people are struggling to grasp?

At first it seemed like your stance was that the majority of them are trolls. That you would basically never come across these people in real life. That's what I thought too before looking into it. But you seem to be outright defending people who treat other races like a pair of slippers you can side into is just... wow... Also "transracial" was originally a term for parents who adopted a child of a different race, so in that definition of the word, I know plenty transracial people! POC adopted by White people and White people whose legal guardians were POC! They are not out here darkening their skin or going through surgery! "Racial dysphoria" is probably... a real thing someone can experience. But "transitioning" into another race as you would another gender is simply not okay. That is treating psuedo-memories as objective personal history. Feeding into that is a recipe for disaster. You simply do not approach this as you would being transgender. It can even be dangerous for the transracial person in question.

For the record I do not care about headmates choosing whatever skin color they want internally, but the internal world (headspace, wonderland, etc.) and the external physical world are very different. They're both equal levels of real to me, and I don't mean to be super harsh to anyone exploring their identity wether they have their birthdate on a birth certificate or can only make a guess of when they became existent... but I'm not gonna sit here and say that unironically going into a transID direction is ever going to be a good thing. Going through surgery and making your skin tone different will always be inherently privileged and disturbing, because you never really have to carry the burden that racial minorities do, and moving to another country to live and assimilate there IS NOT that same thing as the misunderstanding and appropriation of people. You don't need to demand that you be on the equal level of those who were born into it. Saying you are indifferent to "transID" people is genuinely disappointing.

Thank you for sharing your experiences. And I'm sorry for disappointing.

I'm also sorry for all of the horrible things you experienced because of where you were born and how you looked. I realize there's nothing I can say to make that better. It's absolutely terrible, and I genuinely understand why it must hurt to see people who didn't have to grow up with this type of discrimination identifying as your race as if they had experienced the same suffering

But like I said in my post before, I need consistency in my internal moral compass. And I've seen this position before.

I will not call a male “she”; thirty-two years of suffering in this androcentric society, and of surviving, have earned me the title “woman”; one walk down the street by a male transvestite, five minutes of his being hassled (which he may enjoy), and then he dares, he dares to think he understands our pain? No, in our mothers’ names and in our own, we must not call him sister.

This is Robin Morgan in 1973.

And I can understand that perspective too.

I can understand that it must have felt incredibly invalidating to have been discriminated against for her entire life because of her gender. To have had your grandmother have to fight just for the right to vote. To yourself become an activist during the Women's Liberation Movement, and fight for equal treatment; something that women still haven't really gotten even 50 year later. To live in a world where you equate being a woman with having to suffer.

And then she sees what appears to be men "pretending" to be women. She sees only insincere motives, wondering if they're fetishizing being a woman, even thinking that they would enjoy being hassled on the street like it's just some type of game for them.

I can understand the type of life that would lead someone to adopt this perspective, with all the terrible things she endured due to being who she was.

And I think the hurt and the pain she experienced was valid.

But I don't agree with her position.

And I don't make this comparison as an insult. I'm not trying to insinuate that you're a TERF or anything of the sort.

What I am saying is that the arguments themselves are similar enough to Robin Morgan's and others that I've seen that I can't agree with your position while maintaining my own moral consistency.

I hear you. I am sorry for what you've suffered. I understand your pain. I understand why you have the position that you do.

But it's just not something I can agree with. Again, I'm sorry to disappoint.

As far as if it's healthy or not for someone who feels dysphoric with their skin to transition, I don't think there's we can really say that. People also say that those who transition into different genders would be feeding into "delusions" and that it would be harmful to them. I'm certainly not going to jump on any similar position regarding another group of people who may experience dysphoria in their own skin.

I maintain that people have a right to decide what's healthy for themselves, in any context. Especially in a situation where there just aren't any statistics.

And I also just strongly suspect you're wrong about this. In addition to transgender people being more comfortable after transitioning, VR and AR therapy where someone sees themselves without a limb have reduced symptoms of BIID in BIID patients following treatment. I suspect seeing yourself on the outside in a way that matches your internal identity would have a similar effect on people who were dysphoric about other aspects of themselves, including skin color.

Lastly, on the name, an anon recently mentioned that it seems that their community is moving towards the labels of Trace and Diaracial to avoid this issue because there is an awareness of how using the term transracial can be harmful.

#ask box #transid #trace #transrace #transx #trans x #diaracial #racial identity #discourse

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trans-advice · 2 years

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heyyy! sorry, i just wanted to ask... my friend from school has said that they 'want to be trans' (as in saying that they are trans, but strange wording), and saying that they are a boy. now, i'm trans myself, and this may come off as transphobic without the background, but this kid is a bit... weird? ik this sounds really mean but they are a pretty big attention seeker and a bit of a bully sometimes. so with the shit i know they've done, and knowing that they're most likely doing it for attention... what do you think i should do? should i call them by he/him pronouns even tho i am 99% sure they're saying it for attention, or should i call them she/her so if they realise they can't keep up the lie they'll feel like nothing is wrong (and also because i'm pretty sure they're lying), or they/them in case they're legitimately questioning? i don't want to make them feel like shit if they actuals are trans but i'm sure they're actually cis!!! sorry for the long ask :)

just treat them like they're trans!

centering you:

purity tests for accomodations, whether trans, disabled, poor, or non-white, always end horribly!!! like, all it does it get everyone pushed out. you would be setting up a precedent for transphobes to misgender you, even if you actually don't misgender them.

if you had to make a transphobic institution (and the cultures they set up through policy decisions such as bathrooms for only boys & girls in order to set up gender policing, and having neutral nurse's office toilets be only 1 size), actually support trans people, but you also gave those institutions & their cultures the power to define who's "trans enough", then those insitutions are going to erase y'all as much as possible so they don't have to change or have their power threatened. hostile institutions will deadbeat on reparations as much as possible.

you'd be screwing yourself & the trans people who come after you if you start purity testing respect for pronouns.

centering them:

firstly pronouns are part of gender expression & gender expression is separate from gender identity. even if they're cis, they might still like he/him pronouns. even if they're cis they might still be gender non-conforming.

if they want you to treat them like they're cis, then they'll tell you soon enough. if they end up being trans then you didn't hurt them. they're probably going to have enough transphobes bullying them & pushing them out anyways. they're at a point in their life where they think transitioning will help them. whether it's some undercover thing or some being honest thing is up to them. their body their choice.

just because you share a demographic with them doesn't mean you'll get along with them. likewise just because you don't get along with them doesn't mean they're not the same demographic as you. you don't have to be friends with everybody, and you don't have to be rude either.

centering me:

i'm saying this as someone who survived 15 years of the school to prison pipeline. those pipelines target: the tgnciq+ (trans/gender-nonconforming/intersex/queer), the students of color, poor students, and disabled students. when i wanted to be out at school but wanted some shred of privacy i basically juggled all the letters at once. i didn't trust the adults at all. like if i had some attention seeking i was trying to balance my disabilities & my dysphoria. i was kind of a mess. by the way, my experience was before 2014, and i still find institutions are trepidatious with me. (however, some institutions try to scapegoat my critiques of them as coming from me, a trans person, or from me, as disabled person, which is an interesting threat of its own. in my case, i worry about forced hospitalization, because of my disabilities. but whatever, not all trans people have disabilities.)

other thoughts:

I don't know, if they already know how drag performance is a separate context from being trans, but in your words, they're your friend then maybe looking at "rupaul's drag race" or "drag s.o.s." would be helpful. It might help establish the difference & still give them a good outlet, but remember that trans people can do drag performance as well. I don't know your relationship & I don't know either of you. It's your decision at the end of the day.

Good Luck, Peace & Love,

Eve

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thelordofshrimp · 1 year

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general history of werewolf vampire beef as is typical to this genre 👀? or if no general history then friend group history even though you've for sure talked about it before

okay so there is no established widespread vampire-werewolf beef in this au which is atypical of most paranormal worlds but i simply cannot be bothered.

HOWEVER

there is beef amongst the vampires and werewolves we know (and love) for mildly different and infinitely more complicated reasons which i will happily go into

(learning from my last post and putting it under a cut)

so will, being a couple of years older than nico (funky little vampire aging slowly), went to school with reyna and thalia and that general age range, a little ahead of jason and nico and the others. they all end up in a similar peer group because they're only a few years apart, but anyone who's been to american public high school can tell you there is a world of difference between a freshman and a junior, so the two groups did not interact a ton.

now, will and his paranormal peers weren't super close to begin with, just because of the way social circles work and the fact that reyna & thalia had been in the same paranormal after-school group (like the kid version of bingo night) for AGES, while will joined later on, but that isn't the reason they don't like him.

teenage will solace went through a pretty rough rebellious phase, but his rebellion had nothing to do with loud music and strange clothes and everything to do with his identity as a vampire. (ironically enough, going through a loud-music-strange-clothes phase would have probably made thalia like him more, and her friendship might have helped will get through what was to come. oh, well)

even though the paranormal folk are generally pretty hidden from the rest of society, there are humans who are aware of them and, by extension, humans who wish they weren't around, so anti-paranormal propaganda exists in very small amounts, most of it targeted towards vampires and werewolves (because those are the scary ones for people who don't know how powerful sirens can be). this wasn't the only reason will started resenting his supernatural side, but it certainly didn't help.

most of the issues will has with vampirism as a whole can be summed up in one word: octavian. will's cousin is, by all accounts, the perfect vampire: just dramatic enough to pull off a cloak and just greasy and conniving enough to not lose his ties to Nosferatu. he's bloodthirsty and mildly disdainful of humans while never going so far as to actually say that he thinks he's better for having fangs, and the older generations of vampires, many of whom wish the humans would show a little more fear "respect," eat it all up. octavian is everything they want him to be and will, unlucky enough to be born with a shred of empathy, is disappointing by comparison.

when will turns sixteen, he politely declines his first feed from a live donor and nearly throws up in his mouth watching octavian readily take that opportunity. sure, nothing octavian does is technically wrong, by human or vampire standards, but his personality is so repulsive that everything he does seems wrong by association.

very shortly thereafter, will starts voicing opinions he's held for a few years— that drinking blood from a live donor is gross, that drinking blood in general is gross and he wouldn't do it if he didn't have to, and, eventually, that being a vampire is gross, he wishes he weren't one, and he would be just fine living in a world where everyone was human, because "monsters don't add anything to the world, all we do is take and take and take, and we'd take until there was nothing left if that didn't mean we'd starve."

these are the words of a very upset teenager who hasn't figured out who he is, who he wants to be, and what to do with everyone else's opinions of him. they come from a lot of confusion and hurt and they're not directed at anyone else he knows (except for maybe octavian), they're directed at the part of Will that he doesn't know how to handle yet.

the only problem is that those words are said within earshot of a lot of people who are not Will. he rages against himself and in the process makes a lot of people, reyna and thalia especially, believe that he dislikes them for being paranormal, too. some of the sirens and witches and "less monstrous" paranormal folk are able to shrug it off, but werewolves and vampires hold a similar place on the monster scale, and hearing someone who is supposed to understand your situation better than other people say that he wishes none of you existed hurts.

reyna and thalia and the other werewolves in their teen paranormal group distance themselves from will, who is also doing his very best to "act human" as much as he can.

as he gets older, as he gets out of the mental hell that is high school and the wilderness of teenage hormones, will calms down. he learns to acknowledge his vampirism with grudging neutrality that eventually turns into acceptance. he starts engaging with the adult chapter meetings more instead of showing up, sitting in silence as far back as possible, and then leaving as soon as official business is over. he makes friends in the group, most of whom weren't in his grade during school and therefore didn't hear the things he said. he regrets some of the words he used and knows that his opinion of himself and the paranormal world has changed, but he won't just forget that there was an expectation put on him that he still resents.

baby steps add up, and will gets a job where he willingly discloses that he's a vampire to his employer. he shows his fangs to a non-vampire, a human, in a public place (admittedly after said human had already seen his fangs by accident). he spends time with other paranormal folk outside of chapter meetings and lets himself enjoy being around people who are also different instead of wallowing in self-hatred.

none of that does anything to change how reyna & thalia see him. his friends might not know, but they remember what he said, how he said it, and who he said it to. that kind of thing isn't so easily forgiven, especially since none of them have talked to him in years. they're not particularly interested in reaching out, and he hasn't made any efforts to mend bridges, either, especially since they weren't friends to begin with.

to their credit, reyna & thalia don't bring it up around anyone who wasn't there. they haven't forgotten, but they don't see the point in dwelling on the past, since he seems like he's grown out of it for the most part. they won't pretend to like him, and they'll explain when jason asks them why, but there's no point in keeping a high school feud alive. will, for his part, understands that he is not and probably never will be their favorite person, but a part of him still isn't okay with the thought that they want him to be more like octavian. if he had talked to them all those years ago, back when he first started feeling pressured to 'be a better vampire,' they would have told him he didn't need to be.

#and that's the beef #tl;dr there is no tl;dr how could you possibly explain this concisely #externalizing your insecurities ain't smart kids #red cross au #ask game #cj tag!! <3

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tekka-dan · 2 years

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So I’ve come to the realization that I’m the daughter of a narcissist and it’s been the reason I was lacking an identity and sense of self worth / esteem / image my entire damn life.

Today by a miracle I discovered I loved contemporary dancing. I awakened something within myself that made me feel like dancing was my truest expression. I’ve always been told by people around me I seem “expressionless” and while this hurt my feelings, it was true. I “mirror” peoples emotions but my entire life I’ve struggled to understand facial expressions / hints. This is likely due to my adolescent memories of my father being expressionless / emotionless and very often absent. My mothers only expressions were verbally and they were condescending.

Something I’ve realized is that I have been surrounded by people my whole life that only wants to “take” things from me. It makes total sense why I’ve always been “secretive” because the people closest to me my whole life once they finally learn something about me, it’s used against me and/or they’re condescending about it. It taught me early on to keep things I truly valued close to my heart. I never developed trust issues, I just knew the kind of people not to trust.

I wasn’t going to share with my mother that I discovered something I’m truly passionate about and want to continue learning. However I told her by accident due to my excitement and then she confirmed what I went through my whole life.

“Dancing? You can’t dance, you’ve never been able to dance!” Any time I ever ever ever expressed something to my mom of interest. She would ridicule me or completely shut me down. Can you imagine as a child how debilitating this was? On top of this, she used to become incredibly irate at me for not liking things she liked (example clothing, she used to make me wear clothes that made me look like some fucking 80s child when I was in middle to high school, and did my hairstyles resembling the 80s). I’ll never forget the day she embarrassed me in front of random people, cutting me down in line, telling me how “boyish” I looked from the clothes I would choose. This tore me to shreds my whole life.

Then my room, I wasn’t allowed to put up pictures or anything. Because it was “their house” and my room was apart of “their house”. This led me to never being able to express myself even within my “own” space.

So imagine what a child turns into who is told they can’t wear what they want, can’t design their room the way they want, can’t be interested in the things they like. Guess.

A narcissist themselves.

Discovering this about myself was heartbreaking but it was the truth I needed to face. It explained why I lived “in my own world” through high school. It explained the inflated ego I developed, to protect how fragile and vulnerable I felt when home. It explained why I was terrified of my mom when she was angry because it was me she took it out on. I was also the only one in the house to actually take her abuse, too. I became the scapegoat. Everything was always my fault and she would blame me for things she would say about my father (to me) by telling him I said those things. I was fucking 10 and barely knew how to read Harry Potter.

All that being said, sharing something personal with her today only made me happy knowing her condescending words no longer tear me down. Because I’m finally discovering who I am, what I want out of life and that I can certainly change to be a better person to myself and other people.

I cried for so many years wondering why do I constantly feel empty? Like a black hole? Why I struggled knowing who I was? I even thought I had other people were fake. I didn’t believe I truly existed. My feelings, emotions, interests, everything was so undermined and invalidated / ignored my whole childhood - I truly believed I wasn’t even a living person.

Until I met my ex and he brought me to life. At first. Then I discovered why I stayed with him. That aside, my mom hated him because he was “taking me from her” when the truth is that if not for my ex, I would’ve never moved out.

My parents were so angry that I actually saved up and successfully moved out. If i didn’t meet my ex, I would’ve continued living with them and being told every single day I “wasn’t going to make it on my own”. My ex was the only damn person to believe in me and encourage me. And my mother HATED when he complimented me.

She would tear me down in public and one time he casually said “you’re doing a great job, love.” My mom looked at him with such a sour face, I’ve never seen her so angry. After that she didn’t demean me in public or around him anymore but in private she would go very far to let me know that I “need to hear the disgusting truth about myself and people who really love me would tell me the disgusting truth.” Yeah but her truth was always brutal followed by gaslighting. I never even knew that as a kid how that wasn’t normal. My ex is who helped me realize this.

Anyway I’m only saying all this because I’ve discovered I love contemporary dancing and I WILL be continuing to do it despite my mothers obvious criticism towards it.

I’m happy for everyone to hear me say today is the day I discover who I really am and finding my identity from here on out. My mother and no one else will ever make me feel invalidated, less than or invisible again.

#personal

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subbylittlegaygirl · 2 days

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Little vent

1. i got into a silly little debate with someone about how because I dont have a depressing traumatic backstory and grew up relatively accepting household i “shouldn’t complain about gender dysphoria”i could probably write a college thesis length paper on how dumb this is but it mostly boils down to: just because your suffering or the suffering of someone else is worse than yours does NOT mean that you dont get the right to complain and open up. To get it through your thick skulls its like breaking a bone and losing a limb, sure one is worse than the other and has longer lasting impact, but a broken bone is still serious and both are deserving of care, someone else having a worse injury does not invalidate the broken bone persons need for medical attention

2. stop hating on gen alpha. By hating on gen alpha you are just continuing the cycle of hatred, even if you think it’s stupid is it more dumb than the shit you did when you were eight or nine? (the answer is no, its not stupid you just refuse to accept that culture is a growing entity) By remaining rooted in place on topics of modern culture you become the very people that you swore you wouldn’t be, the people that hate because they dont understand the nuances of a topic, you become like boomers who hate technology and long for “the good old days”

3. Not everyone falls under your narrative. Not every transfem wants to be called brave for just being themselves, not every psychotic person is a threat to yours or others safety, not every depressed person is always mopey and sad, not every woman in a primarily masculine field is a slay queen girlboss, identity is messy and trying to quantify anything about it into numbers or boxes is impossible

4. Sometimes there doesn’t need to be a “devils advocate” I recently had a situation where someone was arguing in favor of neo-nazi ideals under the banner of devils advocate. If you always play the role of devils advocate maybe take a step back and assess if youre devils advocate or just racist

5. If you want people to “be themselves” then quit fucking shaming them for being themselves. Someone opening up and not turning out to fit your expectations of being this cool sexy shy nerdy (but not in the bad way!!!!) softie is no excuse to shame them for being a nonstandard human being. Accepting everyone means everyone not just the ones that fit your story

6. Just because you intended something as a joke doesn’t mean it didn’t affect someone. Back in the good old days of middle school so many people made SA/Rape jokes and when one of my friends who had been a victim of sexual abuse had a breakdown because of all the reminders of her trauma and started telling people to please stop they all just said “its a joke” and continued. You dont know what someone else has been through and as a rule of thumb only joke about something if the person youre poking fun at has joked about it themselves

7. You dont owe anyone anything just because you had any kind of relationship with them. I hear way to often “but you were friends for so long” and “but hes your dad” If someone treated you poorly you have full rights to cut contact whenever, you have the right to hate them and not want anything to do with them, the only way you should love someone is because you love them, not because they did something for you or because anything besides YOUR decision

8. Please please please stop swooning over serial killers, narcissists, sex criminals, and abusers. Those people have RUINED LIVES, they deserve to be HATED with your whole soul. THEY ARE CALLED TOXIC RELATIONSHIPS BECAUSE THEY WILL FUCKING POISON YOU. STOP ROMANTICIZING ABUSE AND STOP FUCKING FEEDING THESE PIECES OF HUMAN FILTH WITH ANY FUCKING SHRED OF KINDNESS

9. Personal one but holy fuck stop shipping real people and children. Those are not writers constructs who dont exist those are people with hopes, dreams, memories, sadness, emotion, and story that you are treating as a fucking object to be paired with another object because “it would be so cute”. If you ship children i will find you and i will tear out your intestines to fucking string up like holiday garland

10. Specific one but stop treating trans people’s deadnames like just another name, at least to me everytime i hear it i get this bigass wave of dysphoria, if i poke fun at my brother and call him a name for, you know, existing as my sibling or doing something he will respond with “ok [deadname]” and it just hurts on a visceral level

vent over

#tw sa #tw trauma #tw transfobia #tw rap3 #tw abuse

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polefitnessdancing · 10 months

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#eatingforhealthandfatloss #goodeatinghabitsforfatloss #goodeatinghabitstobecomehealthy #goodfoodhabitsforfatloss #healthyeating #healthyeatinghabits #healthylifestyle

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foreverlogical · 2 years

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Growing up, I never kept a diary. There were no journals hidden beneath my twin mattress, no spiral-bound collection of ruffled notebooks stuffed with private confidences. I was a voracious reader who devoured books in secret, in defiance of my strict evangelical parents, but when it came to my personal feelings, I allowed nothing of myself to migrate onto the page. Writing felt treacherous; a way to accidentally reveal too much. The few times that I did manage to pen any of my feelings, I immediately shredded everything, crumpled papers stuffed at the bottom of the garbage can, hidden beneath scraps of the previous night’s dinner.

Those scribblings were too unruly, I thought at the time, unwilling to let any of it live outside the privacy of my head. Regardless, my hopes and fears sometimes erupted from the watched pot of my brain, boiling over to reveal truths I was desperate to hide. A swirl of images spit and hissed steam beneath the lid: friends changing out of wet bathing suits after a pool party, the heart-shaped sweat mark on a girl’s back during gym class on an especially sweltering Central Florida afternoon, the sun tracing shiny golden tinsel into a woman’s plaited hair. The memories flickered neon red at the edges, warning of danger. There was something unacceptable about them. Something scary.

I know now why I couldn’t write them down. My words were too gay.

As an adult, I can see that the smothering of the queerness that lived inside me led to long, tumultuous years of depression and misery. So much of that overwhelming despair could have been abated by the simple act of voicing the unsaid thing. All those times I cried myself sick and prayed for death, I needed the words. Whenever I sliced at my skin, or when I pulled the hair from my head in order to feel something other than the self-loathing of my secret burden, I needed that frustratingly inaccessible language. If only I were allowed a sentence. Even a word. If I could tell someone, anyone, without fear of repercussion, then I’d have found relief. I’m gay, I would have said. And the immediate follow-up: I’m gay and I’m scared.

It was fear that kept me silent. Because I knew that the things I felt were not acceptable. Not to my parents or my friends, and certainly not in Orlando. I found places online where I could hide, small hubs of support. But there was none of that relief in high school in the late ’90s. The few teens I knew who had the label “gay” attached to them suffered through continuous shame and abuse. Most of them fled after graduating, out of Central Florida to anywhere with an existing LGBTQ+ community. Young people, already faced with the stress and anxiety of coming out, knew that the additional obstacles placed in front of them by the edicts of our conservative state meant they wouldn’t be able to thrive. It took years of stewing in anguish for me to finally come out. It took finding the words. Those words led me to queer community, allowing me to understand that I wasn’t alone. Only then did the fear begin to dissipate.

It’s been more than 20 years since I graduated high school, yet the repression of LGBTQ+ youth in Florida remains much the same. With the passage of the Parental Rights in Education bill—more commonly (and accurately) called the “Don’t Say Gay” bill—which bans public schools from teaching kindergartners through third-graders about sexual orientation or gender identity or “in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students” and allows parents to sue the school districts for violations—the state is trapped in the same cycle of wordlessness, with queer and trans people unable to speak the truth of our lives. It is a blanket meant not to comfort, but to stifle and to smother. It wants to eradicate us by denying our voices. The young people affected by this are in the same position I was in as a teenager. They are left with nowhere to turn, denied the language necessary to their continued survival and growth.

Read More: Florida Just Passed The “Don’t Say Gay” Bill. Here’s What It Means for Kids

Though Central Florida is home to many queer people, there are only a handful of LGBTQ+-designated establishments. Last year the nonprofit Come Out with Pride in Orlando held one of its biggest festivals yet, but the community struggles to find space and funding and room to grow. We’re offered Gay Days, Pride-themed Mickey Mouse ears, a parade float. We’re told that the little we get has to be enough to last, because we won’t be given more. The new legislation tells educators not to say gay, not to acknowledge the lived experiences of our queer and trans children, but those people who work to silence us will offer up their thoughts and prayers after a mass shooting kills and injures dozens at one of our only gay nightclubs.

Disney CEO Bob Chapek initially refused to condemn the bill, claiming “our diverse stories are our corporate statements,” and yet the corporation has spoken in other ways about its priorities—donating to some of the bill’s backers, an action that would harm its own extensive pool of LGBTQ+ employees. Backlash from staff was immediate, and many went online to voice their anger at the decision. Chapek reached out to Governor Ron DeSantis to express “disappointment and concern” over the bill only after a significant amount of pressure was applied from the community. He later apologized for his failure to speak out and said Disney would pause political donations in Florida. Meanwhile, employees of Pixar, a subsidiary of Disney, have accused the company of censoring same-sex affection in its movies.

It is a disconnect of morality; a space where the people who most need assistance are shunted to the side, left voiceless. We have been provided conflicting stories—you are accepted and loved, but you cannot speak about it, ever—and are expected to believe that these narratives can exist simultaneously.

We know that they cannot.

There is no hope in trusting corporations who would take our money and give us rainbow-hued T-shirts instead of investing in our community. It is one thing to tweet the word gay in a measure of actionless solidarity; it is another thing entirely to put in the work of supporting queer communities. It’s those small spaces, the underfunded nonprofits in Orlando, that are doing the real, lasting labor. Zebra Coalition in Central Florida has worked tirelessly for years to help LGBTQ+ youth, working to combat teen homelessness and providing crucial access to mental-health care and education. They do this all on a shoestring budget, while Disney, with its billions, has made it abundantly clear that we’re supposed to take the facsimile of a possibly queer cartoon character and feel supported.

Read More: ‘It’s Creating a Witch Hunt.’ How Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Anti-Trans Directive Hurts LGBTQ Youth

What I do know: if there is no support for our queer and trans teens, then there is no hope for Florida’s future. Our community will suffer. Where there is no safety for our youth, there is no safety at all.

As a writer, I think about communication a lot. How we think and speak and act. I dig my fingers into the meat of text and massage it, poking at the gristle and fat, seeking to somehow tenderize it. To be tender, I think, means to be vulnerable. And there is wild vulnerability in speaking the truth, regardless of our fear; a blessing to open our mouths and speak the hard thing into existence. I think back on the closeted lesbian teenager I used to be, crying and frightened, alone with my silence, and I want tenderness for her. I want it for every queer and trans youth. I want it for Florida, my community; my home. To love a place that refuses to love you back is a heavy burden to bear. But this place is mine, which means it is queer too. How could it not be? I have helped make it. Our LGBTQ+ community has shaped it.

If I say the words aloud, I am doing the harder work. The tender, vulnerable work. The loving work. I’m gay, I say, but now I follow it with something that’s not fear. It’s outrage. It’s a call to action, one that means throwing out the disingenuous narratives that have made Florida complicit in denying our voices. We’re gay and we’re still here, Florida. Even if you choose not to hear us.

If you or someone you know is struggling with self-harm, text HOME to 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line. In emergencies, call 911, or seek care from a local hospital or mental health provider.

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lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks · 3 years

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Hi, me again. Back for another round of "How to ruin Danny's life in the Gray Ghost AU".

So, if you would recall my previous asks, I mentioned the possibility of there being a later made clone, who is meant to help Maddie model about the post Technus suit stuff she can do for Danny to make him a Halfa. So, this new clone, who I shall call Arno as short hand for Arnold, is going to be near identical to Technus suit Danny. He has the technology fused with his body, runs on ectoplasm generation in an engine, can integrate machine parts into himself, and is still forced to take care of the fleshy parts he still has. Which is mostly just skin and muscle, cause Maddie went all in on making this Cyborg, because A: it helped stabilise the delicate balance of man, machine, and ghost, and B: because this is when she is going full mad scientist so why wouldn't she. I picture him as basically just being a T-800 crossed with an Iron Man suit, mostly machine with just some flesh, who has no clue what he is doing but just really likes the birds.

So, my suggestion is that Maddie decides that she should run Arno through the hoops. See how well he functions under stress conditions and if she has succeeded in figuring out where the solution for Danny lies. This goes pretty well, until a ghost attack happens, and of course Arno got Danny's hero streak along with his screwed up DNA. He goes out, saves the day, and showboats a little because this is his first time meeting people and he's enjoying the attention. Everything is going well, the ghost is contained, the people are safe, Arno has gotten a lot of data, and he even got a gift (idk, something small from one of the civilians. A little bird keyring I guess). And then Danny shows up.

Now, Danny probably didn't have a great day at school. He's the school outcast, he struggles getting schoolwork done, and probably just hasn't been doing alright for a while. The only thing mildly fulfilling for him is his duty as the Phantom Hunter. So an imposter using ghost tech like his, that could only be gotten from a ghost? Well that'll grind some of his gears. When it comes to ghosts, I assume there is a "Shoot first ask questions never" policy, meaning Arno goes from casually flying away from the crowd with a wave to suddenly getting shot by the person his mother said is his brother.

They would definitely fight. The fight would escalate and the two would start hurting each other a lot. I picture Danny blasting Arno's face and shooting through the visor to shred some of the skin, exposing the metal endoskeleton (he is a Cyborg ghost, I feel like going all out with the violence is a must), and that leads to a turning point because having your face torn off and seeing your metal skull is a traumatic expression. The fight would inevitably end with Danny kicking Arno down, and tearing off his helmet to finish him off, and then freezing... because that is his face. Down to the most minute detail, minus the missing skin, that is his face. It is the embodiment of his worst fears, a Danny who has lost every trace of his humanity, nothing but ectoplasm and metal, and he just can't do anything but freeze.

I would imagine this being the moment where Maddie finally catches up in ghost form. Arno starts calling out for his mother, and she just shushes him because why does she care about this prototype when her true son is here? She starts explaining stuff, says this wasn’t how she planned to reveal things, and reveals things because she might as well make sure Danny gets the whole story. As mentioned before, Danny would take it badly, but this one is focusing on Arno. Who would run away to live with the birds now that he knows his mother doesn't love him and his brother just scarred him. Would make it a lot harder for the other clones to reach out to him later on, if this is how his first interaction with "siblings" went.

What are your thoughts of this idea? And would you mind if I were to write my own personal take on a Gray Ghost AU? Fully credited of course.

this is wild oh my god

I'm always up for more clone shenanigans, you are more than welcome to write it!!

and the idea of a damaged and scared clone running off and living feral until the other clones can find him is just *mwah*👌✨ we love a feral wild boy

#asks #danny phantom #cw violence #I guess? for the face shredding thing just in case #dp clones #gray ghost au

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zorua-adorable · 3 years

Text

At First Glance

Here is my Valentine’s Day gift to @rebecarojas07, as part of the Maribat Drabble Exchange set up by @eat0crow!

Also, thank you to @moonlitceleste for being my beta reader!

It was a not-so-typical day at Collège Françoise Dupont — there was a visiting class from Gotham Academy in, surprise surprise, Gotham City. They had entered an exchange program and won a month abroad to the Parisian middle school. Mlle. Bustier’s homeroom class had planned to enter the program; however, they were unable to do so as one of the students, Lila Rossi, had completely and intentionally shredded ‘accidentally tore up’ the application after she stole it from the class representative, Marinette ‘found it lying on the floor’ because she’s an evil, soulless bitch ‘her Parkinson’s acted up while she was holding it’.

From the first moment they met Lila, the Gotham students knew she was nothing but a liar and manipulator; they had practically been trained to recognize falsehood by scent. Doesn’t help that everything she said was absolutely absurd. Claiming that you’re best friends with — and know the identity of — the local superhero (which they apparently have here) is just stupid and, given how secretive she is about her identity, also false. Not to mention her tinnitus from saving Jagged Stone’s cat. Please, even if he had a cat before Fang, he’s had that crocodile longer than any of them have been alive! And all those promises of getting in touch with celebrities to help her classmates achieve their dreams… Man, those kids were gonna get a major reality check when those fell through.

However, probably the most dangerous and moronic thing Lila has claimed just today was that she is soulmates with Damian Wayne, who just so happens to also be a part of the visiting class from Gotham. While the Gothamites did not know who Damian’s soulmate was, given how everything she has said so far was a lie and how she was describing Damian as a total sweetheart all the time, it was safe to assume that she was also lying about them being soulmates. Luckily for everyone, no murder or maiming took place, as Damian was preoccupied; his attention was directed elsewhere, so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t even register what the Italian had been saying. His classmates noticed that he had metaphorical hearts in his eyes and was he blushing, meaning he’d spotted his actual soulmate. They were shocked — they never would have guessed that the Ice Prince of all people would have a soulmate. They followed his gaze to a girl in the back of the class with hair so dark it appeared blue in certain lighting. She was so focused on whatever she was working on that she hadn’t even noticed Damian.

Now, let’s take a moment to get into how soulmates work. Soulmates run on the principle of love at first sight. A person identifies their soulmate by falling in love with them the first time they lay eyes upon them. More often than not, this results in the two staring at each other, drowning in each other’s eyes; however, that is not always the case. People can only romantically love their soulmates, which makes dating and relationship stuff much easier. There are no one-sided soulmates, but there are the occasional cases of people having multiple soulmates, which leads to poly relationships.

Some people, though, do not have soulmates. Most people without soulmates still do have souls — they just don’t experience romantic or sexual attraction; they have come to be known as “soul-o’s.” For example, Alix Kubdel is a soul-o. The other kind of people without soulmates are the soulless; they are capable of only caring about themselves, viewing everyone else as a tool for them to get ahead in life. In case you couldn’t already tell, Lila Rossi is soulless.

Anyway, back to the narrative.

The visiting class collectively decided that someone with such flimsy lies was not worth their time or focus in comparison to Damian having a soulmate. That changed just later that day. One of the girls named Rebecca was in the bathroom when she heard two people enter; she got a bad feeling so she hid her presence in the stall and waited. She ended up overhearing Lila threatening Marinette (which was the name of Damian’s soulmate). After the bathroom had cleared, Rebecca texted for a meeting on their class group chat minus Damian. When they all met up, she explained what she had heard. Upon learning that Damian’s sunbeam of a soulmate was being threatened, they decided to expose that conniving little fox. Even though she had no connection to Gotham, that wouldn’t be the case for very long.

The class decided that Jon would keep Damian’s focus off of the rest of the class, so he could focus solely on getting his soulmate to notice him. As for the rest of them, they got to scheming. After all, that’s what Gothamites do best: scheme and protect their own.

~~~~~~~~~~

Word Count: 811

I might continue this one day with the class exposing Lila and Daminette getting together if I ever get the motivation to do so or ideas of how exactly I’ll go about that, but for now, this is where I’ll leave it.

#my posts #zorua’s writing #maribat #maribat drabble exchange #valentine's day #daminette #soulmate au

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blownbybakugou · 3 years

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balugo x reader idea idk, like the reader used to have a huge crush on bakugo and an uwu girl since middle school, when the reader confessed he cut her off and rejected her, now at ua he realizes the readers personality changed to a like jade kinda personality (jade from victorious u can search it up) and the readers going too harsh on him now and he kind of likes it somehow that the readers whole personality changed but he also wanted to discuss what made her change her personality and style?

hello! here is your request, you wonderful Anon. (and yes, i know jade from victorious. she was my favorite character when i watched the show)

genre: Angst To Fluff

word Count: 1,198

Chains that Change Us

The quiver in your body was barely noticeable, but still there as you smiled widely at your crush, handing him the envelope that contained all of the feelings you had suppressed over the years.

Your heart flew when he accepted the letter, but it soon fell and crushed when he blew the paper into a million shreds.

You stop smiling, unknown tears begins to trickle down the curves of your cheeks, and spilling past your jaw.

“You think I care that you have fucking feelings for me? You’re just a weak extra, you might as well be that damn Deku. So fuck off with your pathetic confession, and leave me the hell alone”

Your eyes drop to the ground, as your smile reconstructs. “Yeah. Okay. See you in hell, Kaachan”

You wipe the wetness off of your face, and walk down the hallway. But not before flipping off the asshole known as Katsuki Bakugou.

You strut down the hallway, brushing the dyed strands of hair from your face.

You had completely evolved since middle school, the things Bakugou said lighting something within you.

You were knocked out of your thoughts by a random person that walked into you, not even bothering to apologize.

Gritting your teeth, you grab ahold of his shirt collar and yank him back to face you.

“Hey! You fucking punk! You just walked straight into me, are you blind?!” The guy shivered in fear, muttering a faint ‘sorry’ under his breath.

“Speak up you damn bastard!” He finally shouts out a clear sorry, some fearful tears forcing out of his eyes and dripping onto his uniform.

You scoff and drop him on the ground and watch him scramble to his feet before deciding to head to class a bit early.

You plop down at a random desk and get out your notebook and pencil, staring at the door as the classroom filled itself with colorful students.

The only two you knew who walked through the entryway were Midoriya and Bakugou. Luckily, neither seemed to recognize you, most likely from the dyed hair and heavy makeup you had taken a custom to.

A dark haired man with very visible eye bags walks into the room steadily and introduces him self as Sensei Aizawa, and then begins to take attendance. He shouts out names, until he gets to yours.

“Y/n L/n” His dull voice calls out. You limply raise your arm and call yourself present, then look over to Bakugou, whose eyes are buldging out of their sockets.

You could take a guess that Midoriya was the same way, but you didn’t even bother looking over to him.

No, you just shot Bakugou the worst glare you could muster, and gave him the finger. “Remember this, Kaachan?” You mock.

His brows furrowed in confusion, eyeing your appearance with shock and interest. What the hell happened to you?

“You aren’t Y/n! You’re some fucking idiot stealing her identity!” He shouts, jumping to his feet.

The class murmurs in gossip, while Aizawa tells him to sit back down. “It’s me, you spiked cunt. The paperwork is there and everything. Now stop being a whiny bitch and deal with it”

You hurl back. His mouth gapes at your language as he suddenly feels at loss for words, the class still basking in your drama.

Aizawa scolds the both of you for interrupting and takes you out to put on your hero costumes.

While outside, you were approached by Izuku, who seemed concerned. “Y-Y/n-Chan? Are you okay?” He asks, observing your dark eye style.

“I’m fine, what the fuck made you think otherwise?” You snap, turning away from him. “I-Uhh, you j-just look different” He claims, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

“Yeah, and?” You query. “N-Nothing! You look n-nice?” You walk away from Midoriya and start stretching, ready to kick ass.

Bakugou caught you on your way out of last period, grabbing you arm harshly and pushing you into the nearest wall.

“What the fuck happened to you?” He growls, sparks flying from his hands, and slightly burning the supple flesh of your forearm.

“I don’t have to tell you shit! Get the fuck off of me you dicklord!” You shout, trying to shove him off of you. “Not until you tell me why you look like this!” He prods.

You wiggle one of your hands out of his grasp, using it to punch him in the nose. “You are why I look like this! You turned me into what I am, now leave me the hell alone!”

Bakugou was so shocked, he didn’t notice the blood that dripped onto his lips while he saw you tread away.

“Leave me the hell alone”

The words that made this all start. The words that made you into what you are, or more precisely, what he is.

He has said that sentence so many times to so many people.

But hearing it come from you didn’t make him feel the rage he normally would if anyone else had said that to him, all he felt was hurt.

It was late out. Way past curfew. The street lights around him lead a direct path to your driveway that he begrudgingly followed.

He wanted to make things right. No, he needed to make things right. He didn’t want you to be like this anymore, all because of him.

He knocks loudly on the door to your home as his thoughts swarm in his mind, and then backs up a few steps, in case you opened the door.

The door swings open, a decently sleepy and angry girl on the other side.

Bakugou takes in what’s left of the old you, without all the dark makeup and hair covering your face, you almost looked like you did before.

“Bakugou? What the fuck man, it’s like 12am” You groan, trying to shut the door.

He stops the closing process by wedging his arm in the way, looking down at you.

Your eyes were as wide as saucers at the vulnerability that was present in his expression, making you more intent to listen. “I wanna fucking talk first.” He mumbles.

You grumble, but open up the bulky wood that was pressed against his arm, and let him inside nonetheless.

He steps inside and turns towards you, enveloping you in a loose hug. “I’m sorry damnit” He grunts, holding you tighter as you try and squirm away.

“Stop moving for fucks sake” he commands, his voice muffled by his face being buried in your hair. “If I fucking forgive you will you let me go?” You ask with a whine.

Bakugou releases you from his embrace and shoves his hands in his pockets. “I didn’t mean to hurt you like that. I thought that working to be the number one hero meant I wouldn’t have time for any relationships, but... I was wrong”

You almost slap yourself to see if you were dreaming. The Katsuki Bakugou admitting he was wrong? This can’t be happening.

“Thanks for saying that, Bakugou. Can I go to sleep now?” You yawn, stretching up on the tips of your toes. He nods, and moves towards the door with a sigh.

“Wait... Bakugou.” He stops and looks over to you with a rare calm expression. “Wanna stay the night?”

The next morning, you awake to see Katsuki’s strong arms wrapped around your torso. And for the first time in awhile, you smiled.

Finished! Sorry if that sucked Anon TwT

#bnha x reader #bnha #mha #mha x reader #bnha bakugo katsuki #mha bakugō #bakugou katsuki #bakugou x reader #katsuki x reader #katsuki bakugo imagine #katsuki x y/n #katsuki bakugo x y/n

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realdealrealtalk · 3 years

Text

Grand Army

I am in love with this show. I’ve heard people say it’s a Netflix euphoria which I kind of agree to disagree with, GA is more muted and realistic in a way. Not to say Euphoria isn’t real but the show is very dramatic in a sense. GA would actually happen in everyday life. Nothing was insane except for the bomb threat but honestly I’ve had a shooting threat called into my school multiple times so this is just the NY version of that. Anyway onto the characters:

Dom- amazing, beautiful, talented, hardworking, absolutely flawless 10/10

Joey- in the beginning she was a performative activist and self absorbed. She labeled herself an ally of POC then hung out with George and Luke who call their only brown friend every variation of racial jokes. She had an active hand in Owen’s suspension, how can you claim your for POC then act oblivious to how your influence as a white woman could impact a black mans’ future. After the meeting with the principal, she had the nerve to turn to Dom saying how she felt “really bad” about what happened. Moving past this, what happened to Joey was evil. She was assaulted/betrayed by the people she trusted the most in the world. She is stronger than any character I’ve ever seen. I was so proud of her for standing up to her abusers and confronting them. I’m so proud she started dancing again and I hope she gets the healing/justice she deserves. 8.5/10

Leila- I think her storyline/character is very complex and deserves an in depth review. I could make a whole post about only her. She was trash for blaming Joey because she was getting attention from Geo and Leila wasn’t. You never blame the girl and Leila should know better. However, I’m not going to pretend that George’s abuse of Leila was her fault. He is two years older than her and using her for sexual favors, it’s disgusting. Her treatment of Rachel throughout this entire thing was absolutely so selfish. It was Rachel’s sister’s day and all she could talk about was “he’s not texting me back”. I understand she is a freshmen and this happens a lot because high school is new and exciting but she needs to understand that her actions have consequences. Her battle with her identity as an minority adopted by white parents is so strong and I hope she comes to understand who she truly is. She called out her mom for her treatment of Asian women *chefs kiss* and started to think about where she comes from. HOWEVER, when she told the Asian girl in her class to “speak f*cking english”? How on earth can you struggle with knowing yourself/place as a minority then tell other minorities a racist phrase that is used to belittle their struggles? The white writers in charge of the show really shone through there. 6/10

Jayson-he went through a very big change during these nine episodes and I am proud of his progression. He never saw how he and Owen were different until Owen was sent away and it shook his entire world, which I thought was kinda wild because did he really not see the class disadvantages between he and Owen just because they are both darkskin black men? He did the right thing in the end and I hope it works out for him. 8/10

Siddhatha- I think he is a decent person overall. He did put a FRESHMAN on the “bomb p*ssy” list just cause he didn’t want his sister to be on it but one wrong doesn’t cancel out another. He did associate with the d-bags on the swim team but I believe it’s just cause they were his relay. I, personally, have to be friendly with T*ump supporters on my team and it freaking sucks so I get what he’s going through. His struggle with his identity was definitely one we’ve seen before, with a beard girlfriend, a forceful coming out, and unsupportive parents but he had a happy ending and I really love that for him. Him and Victor are the cutest and I hope freaking Orolov gets what he deserves. 9/10

Luke- I am the biggest clown there is. I was walking around saying, “Aww, I love Luke, I want him and Joey to be together, I’m only on the first episode but I hope nothing bad happens!!!”, like a freaking idiot. But yeah, he disgusts me and I hope he and the other three rot. He really had the nerve to tell Joey SHE should be apologizing to THEM?! LIke, wtf? No, actually, what the f*ck? -1000000000000000000000000000000000000/10

George- He is absolutely disgusting for using Leila the way he did. He deserves the worst for what he did to Joey and I hope he gets what is coming to him. -1000000000000000000000000000000000000/10

Tim- He can suck d*ck and rot for all I care,I didn’t like him from the beginning. It’s always the “nice guys”, the “feminists” who turn out to be the worst slut-shamers in history. He really got mad at Joey for being touchy-feely with Geo and Luke like she hasn’t always been this way, that’s how she shows her love and he knows that so wtf is his problem?! Oh yeah, raging misogyny. He sat there and WATCHED as Joey was being r*ped and then SLUT-SHAMED HER to the police? Let’s not forget he had THE BALLS to tell Luke and Geo they did rape her AFTER Joey left, then did coke/ whatever off his phone and begged Joey to talk to him. Absolute trash -100000000000/10

Anna- How dare you not believe your friend whom you’ve known for however many years then call her a liar and turn your back on her when she needed you the most. She’s a feminist until it comes down to her compliant, misogynistic brother then she’s right back to slut-shaming with the boys. Joey borrowed HER UNDERWEAR becuase her’s were RIPPED with BLOOD STAINS and Anna said nothing? When she asked if she needed a tampon and Joey said no HOW DID HER “BESTFRIEND” NOT CARE ENOUGH TO EVEN ASK QUESTIONS?! Same as her brother, she disgusts me and I hope she rots -100000000000/10

Grace- how tf are you going to turn on the girl who literally fished a c*ndom out of you? Like wtf? Not only is she a slut-shamer (quite hypocritical looking back) she’s a racist!! She refused to call Leila by her name or even show her a shred of dignity just because Leila, a BABY FRESHMAN, was getting attention from George . Trash -1000000/10

Orlov- He released Meera’s nudes and outed SId, he can choke. -1000000000/10

Meera- I’m in love with this woman. Didn’t take bs from anyone and was only ever supportive. Called everyone out on their bs and stayed a true feminist icon while at it. 10000000000000000/10

Let me know if you want more!!

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snow-leopard-7772point0 · 4 years

Text

I'll Change My Crown, from Light to Dark

The akuma landed on Marinette's windowsill, the girl not even noticing as she sat in the tattered remnants of her designs. Luckily she had dropped off most of her completed works the day before to be delivered to the appropriate patrons, though everything she had yet to send off was ripped, cut, burned, there wasn't a scrap of cloth that was usable for anything but as a guide for buying more. Her sketchbook was in shreds on the floor, paper scattered like confetti over the remaining slivers of all her hard work.

The akuma danced in place. It's master was urging it to go forward, to possess the girl, but… there were so many objects to choose from! Should it just possess the entire room? The sewing machine? One little scrap of fabric? A piece of paper? What about her emotions? This butterfly had made some of the strongest akumas to date, though the strength behind her feelings was astromically larger than any other person they had targeted. The little insect itself was slightly afraid to act as a bridge for her. It finally flew forward, choosing the scraps of the dress the girl had been making herself for the Wayne gala.

Marinette froze when her emotions intensified, hearing Hawkmoth cooing in her ear. "Greetings, Mistress Hawthorne. They all accuse you of being the bully, of being a liar, never paying attention to the proof you give them. They destroyed your designs, your livelihood, and expect to get away scott free. I'm giving you the ability to turn all your ruined dreams into hawthorn bushes that force people to see the truth, whether they can accept it or not. No more hiding behind lies or masks, everyone will have to be honest and pay for their crimes. All I ask in return is for Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculous."

"I refuse, Hawkmoth "

The villain froze for a second. Only one other person had ever resisted him so easily, and that was due to her love for Ladybug. Nothing about Marinette Dupain-Cheng screamed that she truly cared for the heroes, so why would she resist? He was giving her the perfect way to get revenge! If he didn't fear that it would give the heroes a clue to his identity, he wouldn't have even asked for the Miraculous for this offence! "Why do you refuse? Imagine how great it will feel, trapping them in their castle with your thorns until the truth comes out!"

"Oh, make no mistake, revenge will be divine. But I'm already looking at little to no sleep for the foreseeable future so that I can press charges against them, email all my patrons whose clothes were destroyed about the delay, buy all the fabric to remake their outfits, and get my own dress together for the Wayne gala. Luckily I'm not starting completely over with it, their mindless destruction gave me an idea for my dress, but there is still much to do. I have no time to become an akuma, I have to get to work immediately, and it will be tomorrow before my classmates are all in the same place again."

"What… what if I didn't ask for the Miraculous in return, and you miss a few days of school to get everything completed?

"While missing school may become a necessity before everything is over and done with, I still have much to do. It would take far too long to force the truth out of Lila Rossi, and I am uncertain if Ladybug's Miracle Cure would erase any progress I made on designing as an akuma. You seem like a reasonable businessman, I'm sure you understand."

"Ah, yes, I do, actually. Cut me some slack here, I've been trying to akumatize you for over a year now! What kind of cloth are you cut from?"

"A different kind from my classmates. I refuse to stoop to their level. Besides, I have pride in the fact that I am not helpless, and the costumes I see akumatized people in are atrocious. Please have a nice day, but I do need to get to work."

"I-very well then. Good luck. Please at least make your classmates suffer."

Marinette's smirk alone was fuel to create a fear-based akuma. "They'll pay. But on my terms." The purple butterfly left her dress, and Marinette caught herself as she slumped to the floor. Resisting Hawkmoth had taken much more out of her than she had anticipated.

⏳

Gabriel rose from the underground room, surprising Nathalie. "Sir, surely she didn't-"

"No, Nathalie, she didn't loose. She didn't even accept my offer. I even offered to not require the Miraculous this time, but she still refused. Her mental strength is highly admirable, especially when her guard is at its lowest. She would be a great asset to us."

"In what manner?"

"Any way I can get her. She is one of the best designers I have seen in a long time, especially at her age. I caught a glimpse of her revenge plan when my akuma possessed her and it was astoundingly terrible, and she is kind and independent enough to make an amazing daughter."

"Sir, kidnapping is illegal."

"I don't have to kidnap her, I'll throw Adrien at her." Gabriel started to wave his hand in dismissal, then noticed the look on Nathalie's face.

"Sir, I think you should watch the rest of this." Nathalie walked forward, bringing up the video from earlier. Gabriel had only watched a second of it before rushing to his butterflies, it was easy to recognize the girl's room by her designs. He'd been gunning for her since she lied to him to help keep Adrien in school and made the feathered hat. Her spirit and dedication let him know that she could be a great ally or terrible enemy. She didn't (yet) have the money or power to come after Gabriel Agreste on her own, but he was certain that the girl was being considered for a Miraculous. He knew she didn't already have one, she hadn't responded to Miracle Queen, after all, but several of her classmates had used one. He actually paid attention to the video this time, watching all the way through. The first people seen on camera were the blogger girl and Lila Rossi, several other classmates cropping up through the video. He didn't notice Timebreaker, Evilillstrator, or the Bourgeois girl, though he did see his own son halfway through the recording, happily cutting at a gown that had been carefully beaded with a hawthorn pattern with a pair of scissors, cutting off the beads and chunks of fabric.

Gabriel's frown deepened. "Cut all ties to Lila Rossi immediately. We will be making a public apology, telling the public that we did not know of her abhorrent tendencies, nor did we expect her to pull Adrien into her schemes. Adrien will be appropriately punished, and we will offer Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng compensation for the destruction of her property, along with a small team of designers that will know to make every stitch to her preference, no matter their opinion on the piece."

"Of course, sir. How would you like to make your statement to the public?"

"Call that news anchor, Najda Chamack, and ask her to come here. I will speak to her in person as soon as she is available. I also want the apology posted to every social media outlet we use, including our official website."

"Sir, is this not overkill? This isn't Audrey Bourgeois."

Gabriel glared at Nathalie. "No, she is not. She designs for more famous people than Audrey does. She is the main designer for the Wayne gala this year. Jagged Stone, Clara Nightingale, Tsurugi Tomoe, even the Wayne's commissioned her work. All of her designs are paid for in a split payment plan, the money for the materials is required upfront while the rest of the payment can wait until after the person received their design to make sure it is what they want. That means there will very likely be several highly influential individuals and families gunning for us because of Rossi and my son."

Nathalie paled. She hadn't imagined that the small girl who stumbled and stuttered every time she saw her would have that kind of power backing her. Everyone knew that the girl had Jagged Stone backing her, MDC was his main designer for everything and anyone who personally met the girl and the rocker knew who MDC was, especially since they were supposed to have their identity reveal at the Wayne gala. Jagged Stone by himself would be bad and the company would take a hit, though she was positive Marinette would stop him before he went too far. But with so many others working with Jagged… Gabriel (the company) would not survive.

"I will get everything arranged." Nathalie quickly left the office.

⏳

Marinette's first order of business was to email all of the clients affected by her classmates's actions. She informed them that they did not need to worry, as she was suing all the students for the costs of what they destroyed- not just materials, but labor as well, and would be buying new material for their clothes out of her own pocket until she got retribution. She also informed them that their orders would come in slightly later than planned, though not by much. Clara, Jagged, Kagami and her mother, and the Wayne's all responded to her email with assurances that things happened and to take her time. Bruce Wayne offered to delay the gala so that she would have plenty of time to rectify the situation, though she was quick to assure him that it was not necessary.

Her next order of business was cleanup. She collected every scrap of fabric big enough to make so much as a small patch or strip and sat them in a small box next to where her personal dress was. Everything else was collected and thrown in the trash. She dug out her receipts for all the fabrics destroyed, including the fabrics for projects intended for her classmates. She quickly pulled up the video Alya had posted, writing down who destroyed what. She matched the fabrics to the people, then calculated the time she would have spent on each piece. She reviewed the video one more time, noticing that none of the art students, including Chloè, were in the video. Though it was to be expected. The whole class knew how important all art was to the art students; those students would have stopped them if they were in the know. Chloè was not only in the art club, but also still exiled from the class, though her relationship with Marinette had gone from bully to ally. They still weren't friends, but they stuck together against most of the class, only Nathaniel and Alix leaving them alone. The class may have had five braincells in the entire room, Chloè, Marinette, Alix, and Nathaniel each having one all to themselves while the rest of the class, including Madame Bustier, shared the other one, but they used that one braincell to know who could be brought in on a scheme like this.

Marinette had just finished calculating who she would she for what and was on her way to buy fabrics when her phone rang. She grabbed it as she opened her hatch, activating her recording app as she answered. "Hello?"

"Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng, it has come to my attention that Adrien Agreste and Lila Rossi have vandalized your property. Lila Rossi has already been terminated and Adrien will face suitable punishment for his actions. I wish for you to come by the manor at your earliest convenience for us to discuss payment."

"If you're free now, I was just about to head out."

"Of course. I'll send a car for you."

"Merci, Monsieur Agreste." Marinette pocketed her phone and made copies of the expenses each of her classmates would be charged. She had no way of knowing where, exactly, Gabriel Agreste stood, but she refused to leave anything to chance. The original, along with the receipts, was stored in her diary box while one copy was left on her desk and another found its home in her purse. She stopped by the kitchen to inform her parents that she was headed to the Agreste Manor and would explain later before walking out to wait on the car.

⏳

Adrien was smiling after school. He had never realized how freeing it was to tear clothes apart, especially clothes made by someone who refused to listen to him. Marinette deserved everything she got, plus some. He wondered what of hers he could destroy next.

He was surprised when he returned home to see his father glaring at him from in front of the stairwell. "We need to have a talk, son." The designer's voice promised pain. "About your friends and actions today."

Adrien stared at his father, confused. "Why? What happened?"

Gabriel growled. "Nathalie."

"Sir?"

"Show him the video, then leave us to our discussion."

"Yes sir." Nathalie quickly pulled up the video of the class destroying Marinette's designs and held the tablet out to Adrien before taking her leave.

Adrien watched the video, unable to understand what had angered his father. "Do you understand what you have done?" Gabriel demanded.

Adrien shrugged. "I got payback. She wouldn't listen to me when I told her to lay low, so I decided to help the class teach her a lesson."

Gabriel coldly glared at his son. "You have cost me over a thousand dollars just in the hours that girl put into her work. That does not include the cost of the materials, deformation of private property, or potential unlawful entry and vandalism charges. How do you know that Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng is not currently an akuma gunning for your head? Or that her clients aren't going to press charges? Her clientele could ruin your entire class, your entire school, with a single phone call."

Adrien scoffed. "She doesn't have that many big clients. Just Jagged Stone. And Marinette can't get akumatized. She's too stubborn to listen to anyone."

Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. "Adrien, I'll tell you this as your classmate is revealing it in less than a month. Marinette Dupain-Cheng has been taking the world of fashion by storm while using her initials, MDC. Only certain celebrities and rich people know who she is, mainly people she has worked or designed for. Jagged Stone is the first and main one, yes. But Clara Nightingale has been using her more and more. MDC is the main designer for the Wayne gala, not only Monsieur Stone and Mademoiselle Nightingale commissioning her, but the Tsurugi family and the Wayne family, along with several friends and supporters of the four families. Aubrey Bourgeois supports her, perhaps even more than she supports me, and I have admired several of her pieces done for contests."

Blood began to drain from Adrien's face, though Gabriel doubted that the boy fully understood anything yet. "Her mother's best friend is Najda Chamack, and Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng babysits her child. Her uncle is a famous chef who loves his family dearly, especially since his great niece learned Mandarin to be able to talk to him and help him with his French. Alix Kubdel is friends with Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng, and also comes from a respectable family- as well as Chloè Bourgeois becoming her ally after she helped with her mother. Not to mention that the Dupain-Cheng family is not hurting for money, as they are the best and most popular bakery in Paris. They get orders from all over the city, plus serve at almost every party that has edible food. You attacked the livelihood of one of the most powerful children in Paris. Not only that, but you destroyed the property of some of the most prolific people in the world." Adrien's face had lost all traces of blood, though Gabriel did not expect it to be from shame. No, his son was afraid because he had been caught. "You will not return to school until Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng has revealed herself as MDC to the world, nor will you have access to any of your social media, messages, or phone. You may return to being homeschooled. I shall have to reassess the situation at a later date. If I do allow you to return to school, it will not be François-DuPont. You will drop contact with your current classmates. You are dismissed." Gabriel turned from his son, pulling his phone out of his pocket.

⏳

Marinette was escorted straight to Gabriel's office upon arrival. The man shook her hand before gesturing for her to take a seat. "Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng, my assistant showed me the video of what your classmates did. My sincerest apologies. I assure you that my son is currently being punished and Mademoiselle Rossi's contract has been terminated. I also wanted to offer you compensation for your loss as well as a team of designers that will follow your instructions to the last stitch."

Marinette eyed the elder Agreste. "What do you want in return?"

Gabriel blinked at the girl. He knew she was smart, though he hadn't expected her to ask that. "For this? Nothing. My son deserves every lawsuit you draw up. I remember what it was like when I was first starting my company; something like this would have been devistating."

"Well, Monsieur, covering everything will not be necessary. I have already calculated the damages each student did and how much they owe for it. I am not holding you responsible for the actions of any of my classmates, not even Agreste or Rossi. I'm sure you have paid your son for working for you," Marinette felt viciously victorious when he nodded, "in which case he should be able to pay for damages himself. The same holds true for Rossi; she was a contract model for your company and was paid as such. They should both be able to afford my work- custom or not."

"Might I see what you've drawn up? I heard from Aubrey that you have a tendency to undercharge for your work, and, as you just said, my son and former employee should be able to afford your work. The beaded dress my son ruined, for example, should cost twenty-five hundred dollars, bare minimum. I would charge much more than that, especially with how much work is put behind hand-beading." Marinette could do nothing but gape at her childhood idol. She had been expecting a bribe, a threat, something to try to protect his son.

She pulled the paper out of her purse when he raised an eyebrow, pulling the video up on her phone. "Césaire was stupid enough to put her phone in the corner where I could track everyone's movements, and I can figure everything out if I can get Markov. I figured out who destroyed what and calculated what they owe from there. I don't know who picked the lock to the upper floors, or to my room, though my money's on either Césaire or Rossi. Césaire's obsessed with being a great reporter while Rossi is a liar and a thief. Harleprè, Lavaillant, Bruel, Couffaine, and Lahiffe owe the least, they didn't do much. They just ripped a few pages out of my sketchbook. Raincompx, le Chein, Césaire, Rossi, Agreste, and Kantè did the most damage, and so will face the bigger lawsuits. I have already contacted my clients and informed them of the slight delay. Your team of designers, while most appreciated, will not be necessary. It shouldn't take me more than a few days to recreate the Wayne's suits and send them off, I sent the dresses yesterday. Jagged and Clara will both be in Paris next week and can stop by my house to pick up their outfits and have a final fitting. I can easily deliver the Tsurugi chensogams to their home. That covered everyone that had their outfits for the gala destroyed. I had finished the majority of them yesterday and done the final checks before sending them off. I was supposed to send the Wayne suits off today, though that plan was foiled. I was lucky that I went ahead and finished my commissions rather than more personal projects. Most of what got destroyed were projects my classmates requested of me rather than important works."

"Are you positive you don't want help? At least on your beaded dress?"

Marinette pulled up pictures of what she had. "I have several different scraps of colors, most of them either on the darker end of the spectrum or metalic, from the works they destroyed. I'm going to use those scraps from my other works to make a pair of wings on the back of the dress, the colors getting darker the further down they go and metalic fabrics making the outline of the wings."

Gabriel considered the dress. "You'll look like a fallen angel. I hope you're still planning on charging my son the full amount for the dress."

"Most definitely. There will be some alterations I make besides the wings, putting some pieces back together, cutting or tearing others, partially rebeading sections, I have some work to put in. Your son added to my work load when it was already full, he personally destroyed not only my dress but Jagged and Penny's outfits as well. Might I know what punishment he is suffering?"

"So you can plan revenge accordingly?" Gabriel questioned. He sighed at her innocent expression. "He will no longer attend François-DuPont. He will basically be under house arrest for everything except shoots until after the gala. I am undecided as to whether he shall go to another school or be permanently homeschooled. He is not allowed any contact with his former classmates nor access to social media or his phone. So if you wish to strike, do it right after a photo shoot. You can do it before or during as long as you don't ruin the clothes on display."

Marinette's grin was pure evil. "Don't worry, Monsieur Agreste. I have too much respect for the work designers put into their work to be so crass. Will Agreste still practice fencing with Kagami?"

"I shall allow it on a trial basis."

"Very well. It was nice meeting with you, Monsieur Agreste, but I must take my leave. I have too much to do before I traumatize, I mean get payback, I mean revenge, wait, no, deal with my classmates after the gala. But before I go… You wouldn't happen to know anyone that would be able to teach me how to, how should I phrase this… I guess basically be an Ice Queen?"

Gabriel smirked. "Actually, my nephew, Felix Graham de Vanily, will be at the gala. He's a model from England, and many consider him an Ice King. He'd be a great teacher." And perhaps potential mate to bring you into the family. I wonder how many love akumas it would take to get you two together… perhaps Adrien needs a good influence his age around the Manor…

Marinette slightly felt as though she had signed her future away, though that was ridiculous so she simply thanked Gabriel before leaving.

⏳

The next few days flew by in a rush of designing and lawyers. The lawyers her parents got were more than willing to come to the bakery and talk to Marinette as she sewed, especially since she had eyeballed them and given them all scarves and beanies the next time they were there. Marinette didn't bother to pay attention in Bustier's class, electing to nap instead. She was awake for Mendeleiev's classes, though. She liked her dragon-like teacher as the woman actually taught her students. She managed to finish her clients' clothes with time to spare, having gotten so used to designing for Jagged, Penny, and Clara that very few adjustments needed to be made. A couple Wayne suits had come back with notes on where they needed to be adjusted and how, and those were shipped back out that same day. Her own dress took until the last minute, Marinette completely finishing it, including adjustments, the day before she was set to leave for the gala. She would be staying with Jagged and Penny in the Wayne Manor for the two weeks she was to be there, a week before the gala and a week after. Her classmates's parents were horrified to hear what their children had done, making sure the kids paid every penny of what Marinette was suing for without even going to court. Alix and Nathaniel had nearly gotten in trouble with their families, though Marinette was quick to personally visit and explain things. Apparently the other families had contacted the Kurtzburg's and Kubdel's about the scandal with the children, no one noticing that some of the children weren't involved.

She already had her traveling designing kit packed so that she could make sure the Wayne's outfits all fit properly. Chloè and Kagami were traveling with her, determined to make sure their former rival was well taken care of while their parents took care of the hotel. Jagged was fuming beside Marinette whole they rode through Gotham, the girl talking to her friends.

"So, Mari-hime, you told me that you would explain what was going on if Adrien refused to before we left."

Marinette gave Kagami a highly stressed smile. "I think watching the video would explain things better. I didn't want you to get akumatized because of me while we were in Paris."

"So you knew Adrien would refuse to tell me what crime he committed against you. What video?"

Marinette pulled it up on her tablet. "For the record, I simply suspected that he would keep his mouth shut. Though Monsieur Agreste is making sure that his interactions with anyone besides himself, Madame Sancouer, and his bodyguard are highly limited." She passed Kagami the tablet, Chloè leaning over to watch it with her.

The Japanese girl dropped the tablet in her lap as she watched, clenching her fists so hard that her palms bled. "How- how dare that baka! They all have no honor! They should meet my blade!"

"Kagami. Calm down. I have it handled. I want you and Chloè to teach me how to be a vengeful Ice Queen while we're here. Monsieur Agreste suggested talking to his nephew for lessons as well. By the time I'm back in Paris, I don't want our classmates to be able to recognize me. I already have some revenge planned, the wheels for those are already in motion. I messaged the Césaire and Lahiffe families to inform the entire family that I will be unable to babysit for them for the foreseeable future. Ambassador Rossi has a request in her inbox to visit the school while we are gone, as Rossi's classmates would love to hear about what it's like to be an ambassador. The le Chein family was sent a list of tutors for their son's failing grades, unfortunately all those tutors work at the same time as mandatory swim practice. I sent Luka a copy of the video, so Kitty Section is about to loose their lead guitarist so that he can learn under my dear uncle. Agreste will be facing a startling amount of bad luck for a good chunk of time whilst loosing all of his beloved friends. By the time I am finished, even Hawkmoth won't want to work with them."

Chloè stared at her friend. "Did you really just say 'whilst?' Who hurt you? I just want to talk."

Jagged continued to sulk. "She won't even let me send my rockin followers after those bloody rats. She's only letting me steal away a new guitarist!"

"Because I have everything planned out. And Agreste will become even more isolated once we return. No matter what I say, Kagami is going to duel him to the, figurative, death before informing him of her distaste for him and his actions."

Kagami mock glared at Marinette. "So what if I do? He deserves it. He deserves much worse. But how will he become more isolated? I will still be sparring with him twice a week."

"A person is more isolated surrounded by people that don't care about them than all on their own. Yes, you will physically be there. But your obvious emotional distance will leave him more isolated than him being stuck in his room all day."

Chloè stared at her new friend. "Where was all this evil cunningness when I was your bully?"

Marinette smirked. "I had a wake-up call. Césaire, ironically, taught me that it's okay to stand up for myself, and Hawkmoth helped release a part of me I had blocked out."

"What? Were you akumatized? How did I not know?" Chloè demanded.

Marinette waved her hand dismissively. "It was a few days before we actually became friends, and he didn't manage to akumatize me. He possessed my dress, but I refused to work with him. Apparently he's wanted to akumatize me for a while, but I'm good at forcing myself to calm down."

"What was he going to call you?" Chloè was highly excited to finally have someone who knew what it was like to fully resist Hawkmoth. Not calm down before the butterfly reached them, not resist for a second before giving in, but fully resist the man.

"Mistress Hawthorne." Marinette laughed. "I was going to have the ability to turn my ruined dreams into hawthorn bushes that would trap everyone in their castle and force them to see the truth." Marinette had to stop, she was laughing so hard. "I told him no, and he was so shocked that he only argued for a second before wishing me luck with revenge!"

Jagged continued to sulk through the teens laughter, refusing to give in. He wanted to crush those bloody teens. No one gets away with hurting his niece.

⏳

As soon as she arrived at the manor and had her bags unpacked, Marinette began tracking down the Wayne's, one by one, and dragging them back to her room with their suits or dresses, forcing them to put them on so that she could fully alter them to her preference. Dick was scared of the tiny Asian girl that slung him over her shoulder before grabbing his suit and forcing him to come with her when he hesitated and then worked silently, ignoring his attempts at friendship. He was so scared of her that he sprinted the other direction the first time he saw Kagami. Jason and Bruce both wanted to adopt the girl- she blended in perfectly with their family, and Jason had witnessed both, the girl's kidnapping of his brother and Dick running away from Kagami. He had to respect someone who could instill more fear than Demon Spawn himself, and Bruce wanted to cultivate that talent until he got a Nightingale. Damian and Cass both respected the girl for her professionalism and silence (and word of her traumatizing Dick had already spread through the manor). Tim instantly fell in love with the girl, as she asked him if he wanted coffee or tea while they were doing his fitting, as he looked dead on his feet (he did not choose both or cry tears of joy, and no one can prove to Alfred that he did). Selina purred at the amount of pure chaos she could feel pouring off of the girl, even with her suppressing it while she worked. She needed a kitten. Bruce already had his litter, it was her turn. Kor'i bounced in place the whole time, trying not to inturupt the girl as she adjusted her glorious creation.

Jagged disappeared with Bruce after his fitting, explaining to the billionaire what Marinette had been going through, even showing him the video of her work getting destroyed, before asking for his help to get revenge. He explained Marinette's known plans, and the rocker and vigilante began planning around hers, using their collective contacts and knowledge to open the class's wounds even deeper.

Dinner that night was chaos. Jason, Selina, Bruce, and Jagged were in a constant argument, with Penny occasionally interjecting, that abruptly cut off any time Marinette drew near, she was only able to catch the words adoption and revenge, Kagami and Cass spent their time in silence, eyeing each other. Chloè didn't breathe while swapping between berating Dick and Tim for their fashion choices and interigating them about Gotham and its foreign student transfer policies. Damian scowled at everyone the entire time from his seat next to Marinette. Marinette did her best to emulate him, not noticing Dick slowly sliding his chair further and further away from her.

Damian decided he liked tolerated Marinette five days into her stay. Dick had been complaining to him and Jason about how much Asian girls scared him and Kor'i wanting them to live with them. Marinette had somehow heard his complaints and came storming up to them, cussing Dick out in a mixture of French, Mandarin, Arabic, Italian, and English. Damian did not know why that caused a blush to creep up his face, though he admired the way her accent curled around the words, making everything seem like a language all of its own.

Jason chuckled when she walked off. "That. That was the art of cussing at its finest. I'm getting Alfed and we're going to go teach my new little sister how to shoot guns. Angel's my favorite, you can all suck it." Jason walked off in the same direction the girl had left in. It didn't take but forty-two minutes for the sound of gunfire to echo around the house.

⏳

The night before the gala, the women in Wayne Manor gathered in Marinette's room. The night was spent coaching her on how to act and reveal her identity, both on the carpet and during the gala.

"Don't fret so much, kit." Selina advised. "You are a queen, act as such. Keep you head up and keep your cool. They'll all be tripping over themselves to speak to you, and you don't give them the time of day." Chloè nodded her agreement, even as Kagami objected.

"You're approachable and professional at the same time. Just let people see both sides of you."

The women continued to argue, Marinette finally escaping to talk to Alfred. She spent the night under his tutelage, learning all she could about presentation. The man finally ushered her off to bed. "You have a long day tomorrow. You will need sleep to get through it."

⏳

Once arriving at the gala, Marinette kept her head high as she glided down the carpet, the press quickly stopping her to ask if she was a new Wayne and what happened to her dress. "No." She offered a small smile to them. "I'm the designer MDC. The Wayne's hired me to design their suits, and were kind enough to offer their home to me and my aunt and uncle, even letting two of my best friends, Tsurugi Kagami and Chloè Bourgeois, spend the majority of their time with me at the Manor. My parents live in France, where I will be returning to in a weeks time. My room was broken into a few weeks ago, and some of my classmates ruined the outfits I had in there, including my dress. I decided to take what they did to my dress and use it as proof that nothing will bring me down. Excuse me, I need to go. I do not wish to keep my companions waiting." Marinette offered them a small bow before leaving them, giving the press a good look at the drooping angel wings sewn on the back of her dress.

"Angel," One of the reporters breathed, leading to a frenzy. MDC was announced to the world that night as Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Angel of Gotham.

⌛

Finding her group was easy, and it was almost just as easy to spot Felix, Gabriel's nephew. She grabbed Damian by his forearm, the boy too startled by her random action to react, and drug him over to the boy she assumed was Felix.

She tapped.the boy on his shoulder. "Excuse me, are you Felix?"

The boy gave a hesitant nod. "Great! I want the two of you to teach me as much as you can about being a vengeful Ice Queen."

Felix raised one eyebrow, looking between the girl and the scowling boy. "What do we get out of it?"

"You get to live with the knowledge that I am going to use your teachings to traumatize idiotic classmates and I can keep the girls from making passes at you, as you are already occupied with entertaining a lady."

The boys both quickly gave their consent, refusing to let the girl leave their side for even a moment the entirety of the gala. They were appeased enough with the girl that her lessons continued throughout the following week, the boys enchanted enough with her to seriously consider following her to Paris and watching her strike like a coiled viper.

⌛

When Marinette returned to school, she had changed. Not just in personality, no, she changed everything. Her personality (at school), her hairstyle, her clothes, everything was redone to fit who she had become. Flowy black pants, a black sleeveless top held up by a ribbon that wrapped around her neck, a red leather jacket loosley hung on her frame, and black boots could be seen under the pants.. Her gaze was frozen as it swept over the class. She was unsurprised to see Adrien sitting in his usual seat, Gabriel had informed her of his decision to place Adrien back in Bustier's class for the time being so that Marinette could teach him a lesson. Alix and Nathaniel had transfered out of the class as soon as they had learned of what the students had done, moving to Madame Mendeleiev's class. Chloè was also leaving, though she was transferring to Gotham after the week was up. She wanted that week to be able to watch the havoc Marinette would wreck on the class. Kagami had already decided to join the class, and Marinette spotted her in Nathaniel's old seat. She was not expecting to see Felix frowning next to Kagami, nor Damian smirking at the back of the blond's head. Thanks to those very boys, though, it was amazingly easy to hide her surprise. A smirk crawled its way across her face, even as she stepped far enough into the room that everyone could see her. She had timed her entrance perfectly. As soon as the class went to explode with praises and questions, the bell rang, Madame Bustier walking in and asking them to all take their seats. Marinette made sure her steps were conscice enough to make it seem as though she was gliding up the rows, refusing to shoot her classmates so much as a glance.

Lila walked into the room moments later, late, her gaze zeroing in on Felix. "Felibear! It's so nice to see you again!" She squealed, rushing up the steps.

Felix stopped her with a cold glare. "Do I know you?"

Alya glared at the blond. "How could you ask your girlfriend if you know her? Especially since everyone knows you transfered to François-DuPont for her!"

Felix looked scandalized. "I did no such thing! I came here on request of my uncle. There are very few people here that I know from previous endeavors."

Lila burst out into tears. "H-how could you treat me like this? At least my Damiboo didn't do this!"

"Damiboo?" Marinette asked. Clearly Bustier wasn't going to stop the girl.

"Oh, I forgot you weren't here!" A sly grin crawled across Lila's face. "I suppose Damiboo didn't speak to you the whole time you were in Gotham, otherwise you would have known I used to date Damian Wayne!" The girl boasted.

Marinette looked at the horrified expression on her deskmate's face, and began her countdown. "I would never date a harlot like you!" He burst out, unable to stop himself. The class turned to stare at him, then realized that he had been just ahead of Marinette when the Wayne's and Jagged Stone arrived at the gala.

A slow smirk crawled across Marinette's lips, erasing the smile she had given her friends. "Do tell, Lila. I would love to hear all about your relationship with the Wayne's. Or about you dating Felix here. Oh! What about your relationship with my uncle? Save any of his cats lately? Let's not forget Clara Nightingale! Since she steals her music and dance moves from you, perhaps we could get a preview for her next video?"

Adrien frowned at Marinette. She seemed… different. "Mari, don't be so mean! Your supposed to be our everyday Ladybug, the better-"

"Agreste, if example is the next word to come out of your mouth I will steal Chloè's six inch stiletto right off of her foot and shove it down your throat while I laugh at your struggles." Adrien's mouth snapped shut as he paled, the class staring at Marinette in shock.

"Marinette! That was uncalled for!" Madame Bustier frowned at the girl. Perhaps letting her go to Gotham was a mistake.

"Really, Madame Bustier? From where I'm sitting, it was perfectly called for. Agreste is not going to use my emotions to manipulate me into being the perfect placemat anymore. You are not going to manipulate me into being the perfect victim. I will no longer tolerate this class's treatment of me. Four people in this room have the authority to call me by a nickname. They know who they are. Four people have the ability to ask something of me. None of them were the ones that destroyed my sketchbook or commissions. None of them told me that I always have to be the better person and set an example for my classmates. I refuse to allow myself to be used any longer."

Alya glared at her friend as the rest of the class stared at the noirette in shock or turned their head away from her in shame. "Girl, what are you talking about? First you want us to pay you a while bunch of money, and now you don't want to do anything for us?"

Damian started to retort himself, stopped by Marinette's hand on his arm. Her voice was frosted fire when she commanded the room. "Everyone in this room, excluding my four friends and our teacher, had a hand I destroying commissions for the Wayne gala, requests from all of you, and my sketchbook. That is why you were sued for damages. Some of you paid more than others because Alya was gracious enough to post a video she had taken of what you did on her blog that allowed me to see who destroyed what. That allowed me to see exactly who has hell to pay." The dangerous smirk several of her classmates had noticed danced across her face yet again, like a sword would dance in the hands of Robin.

Adrien scoffed. "you're just a baker's daughter. What could you possibly do?" He paled not long after the words flew out of his mouth, remembering what his father had told him.

"You look like you just remembered that I am not just a baker's daughter. Why don't you share with the class?" Marinette offered up one of her customary sunshine smiles, though Adrien was not fooled this time, quickly yelling the class exactly what his father had told him.

Lila blanched. Forget the Agreste's and that stupid reporter, she should have set her sights on Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Marinette smiled down at the class, her court sitting in the back two rows with her. Chloè had kicked Felix out of his seat next to Kagami, and Felix had nudged Marinette into the middle of the bench, sandwiching her between Damian and himself.

Her blue eyes were frigid as she glared down upon her kingdom. The time for the Queen of Light was over- Darkness had come for her, and she welcomed them with open arms. Her crown darkened, from gold and diamonds to silver and onyx, and her reign had only begun.

#I'll Change My Crown From Light to Dark #Daminette #Felinette #Felidaminette #Félix Graham de Vanily #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #Salt #Bashing #Miraculous Ladybug #MLB #mlb #MDC #Gotham #Wayne Gala #Clara Nightingale #Jagged Stone

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